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 GrantParquay.org.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bible, please turn to Proverbs 3.
SPEAKER_01: And while you're turning to Proverbs 3, if you don't have a Bible, let me say this first.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't have a Bible, look to your left and your right on the pew.
SPEAKER_01: There is a black hardcover Bible.
SPEAKER_01: That is a translation I'll be teaching from this morning.
SPEAKER_01: If you do not own a Bible, please take that as our gift this morning.
SPEAKER_01: We would love for you to have one of those.
SPEAKER_01: We believe in its importance definitely.
SPEAKER_01: While you're turning to Proverbs 3, let me say a couple things by way of introduction.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Wade Collier, and I'm the missions and outreach pastor here at Grant Parkway.
SPEAKER_01: Normally, Neil McClendon, our lead pastor, would be preaching on a Sunday morning.
SPEAKER_01: He is out of town this weekend, and so I am honored and humbled to be up here.
SPEAKER_01: We are, as you've seen, if you looked at that worship folder you were handed when you walked in, or maybe the artwork of the tree behind me, we are in week two of a four-week season, our four-week sermon series rather, called Seasons of Faith.
SPEAKER_01: Last week, Neil started that sermon series with the season of winter.
SPEAKER_01: And this morning we will continue on.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to look at spring, summer, winter, and fall over these four weeks.
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, we've already done winter, and we'll discover the different disciplines that accompany each season, how they help to shape our thinking and around what we are feeling.
SPEAKER_01: We do believe that these seasons of life, because they are seasons of faith, rather, because they are intentional, because God is at work in those, that feelings, the feelings that we feel in the midst of those seasons, and if you weren't here last week, hopefully you'll begin to understand that a little bit better this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Those feelings that come on us, although substantial and also although very legitimate, as Neil preached and then followed up with an email this past week, those feelings are not it.
SPEAKER_01: They are not the foundation of how we process.
SPEAKER_01: Those feelings are not the foundation of how we operate.
SPEAKER_01: Those feelings are a byproduct of leaning into what the Lord is doing.
SPEAKER_01: Neil made just a few introductory statements last Sunday that I want to tag on to and I want to put before you again as far as these seasons of faith.
SPEAKER_01: The first one that I want to briefly reiterate is the Christian life is seasonal by design.
SPEAKER_01: The Christian life is seasonal by design.
SPEAKER_01: That God has different seasons of life.
SPEAKER_01: We read throughout Scripture that God is bringing us in and out of seasons.
SPEAKER_01: There are passages dedicated just to this.
SPEAKER_01: The second thing is that not every season is a fruit-bearing season.
SPEAKER_01: Not every season of our faith, not every season of our life is going to be a fruit-bearing season, which leads into the last one that all of the seasons are necessary to produce fruit.
SPEAKER_01: Because they're not all fruit-bearing, and they're all necessary, as Neil said last week, you have to go through winter to get to spring.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot enjoy the spoils of summer without first learning how to do the work of spring.
SPEAKER_01: And so Neil gave us a few map dots last week as to how to figure out if you are in that season of winter, how to identify it when that season comes on you.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're not in that now.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you have never in your Christian faith been able to acknowledge the fact that you've been in a spiritual winter.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you left here last week and said, that is exactly what I've been feeling.
SPEAKER_01: Everything that you said just landed on me, and it answers all these questions of why I feel the way that I do, why I'm responding to God the way that I am, why I'm responding to other people.
SPEAKER_01: It's because of this.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe spring is the same way.
SPEAKER_01: So in the same way that Neil pointed out a few ideas about winter, I want to do the same thing with spring.
SPEAKER_01: Just a few thoughts to wrap your head around spring as you ask the question, as the season of spring leads us to to ask questions.
SPEAKER_01: Am I in spring?
SPEAKER_01: Here's three points about spring: a thirst and an awareness for the things of God.
SPEAKER_01: A trademark of being in a season of faith that is spring is a thirst and awareness of things of God.
SPEAKER_01: Also, you're seeing hope replace hopelessness.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you have been in a season where you have felt hopeless.
SPEAKER_01: You feel like that is hovering around you, but you're beginning to see hope enter into your life.
SPEAKER_01: You're beginning to see things in a different filter through hope instead of hopelessness.
SPEAKER_01: And lastly, a new, a renewed desire to respond to God's call.
SPEAKER_01: God's voice seems to be falling fresh on you.
SPEAKER_01: You seem to find yourself convicted by things that you were never convicted for or convicted about before.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you find yourself excited when you hear things that He has made me glad.
SPEAKER_01: When we're going to talk about things this morning, that there is a wisdom that passes all understanding.
SPEAKER_01: You find yourself drawn to those.
SPEAKER_01: You find a desire to respond to God's call.
SPEAKER_01: Mark Perez says it this way Believers in this stage have come through the cold winter of doubt and disillusion, and have emerged with a simpler faith that is close to the heart.
SPEAKER_01: Love God, love your neighbor, seek first God's kingdom, and pursue whatever helps that end.
SPEAKER_01: Having weathered many seasons, they focus not on what is right versus wrong, but what is wise versus unwise.
SPEAKER_01: So this morning, as we examine spring, we're going to do that through Proverbs 3, beginning in verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Read with me.
SPEAKER_01: Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you.
SPEAKER_01: Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: So you will find favor and good success in the sight of God and man.
SPEAKER_01: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_01: In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your path straight.
SPEAKER_01: Be not wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
SPEAKER_01: It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
SPEAKER_01: Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of your produce.
SPEAKER_01: Then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.
SPEAKER_01: My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, or be weary of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him who he loves, as a father, the Son in whom he delights.
SPEAKER_01: This morning we're reading from Proverbs, and Proverbs is an interesting section of the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: If you spend any amount of time there, you've heard some Proverbs, some of those lines in there might sound a little bit familiar.
SPEAKER_01: You can read Proverbs and have a multitude of reactions to that.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you read Proverbs and you feel refreshed.
SPEAKER_01: You feel like your soul has come alive after you've read a Proverb.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you walk away going, this sounds a whole lot like the fortune cookie I got at lunch the other day.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe some of you land somewhere in between as you begin to understand Proverbs.
SPEAKER_01: And so as you read this, and this is our text for this morning, as we're talking about spring, you read it and you say, Man, is that just a text that is good for me to cling to?
SPEAKER_01: Is it a text that is enlightening and enriching?
SPEAKER_01: Or in that, is there also promises that I need to hold on to?
SPEAKER_01: What truth do I need to wrap my arms, my heart, my mind, my soul's affection around?
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean by promises?
SPEAKER_01: If you look at just those 12 verses, within those 12 verses, and there's a good chance I might have missed one, but just within those 12 verses, there are 10 promises.
SPEAKER_01: There are 10 promises.
SPEAKER_01: They're going to show up on the screen behind you.
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to write these down.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to point them out to you by way of illustration and what it means to look in these proverbs and find the truth, find the promise.
SPEAKER_01: In just verses 1 through 12, it promises peace.
SPEAKER_01: This proverb promises favor and success and respect, all in verse 4.
SPEAKER_01: It promises direction in verse 6, physical healing in verse 8, as well as physical rejuvenation or restoration in verse 8.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 10, it promises wealth.
SPEAKER_01: It also promises ample amounts of wine.
SPEAKER_01: We'll just go ahead and have our invitation now.
SPEAKER_01: You can all come forward.
SPEAKER_01: Easy.
SPEAKER_01: And also, we have God's love and delight.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of that, you have promises.
SPEAKER_01: And so, as I said before, we are we're faced with the question: is this a proverb, just a good read, or is this a promise of God in here?
SPEAKER_01: It's a promise that I need to understand and I need to cling to.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a thinking person and you've spent any amount of time studying your Bible, you think, well, wait, doesn't it say, doesn't the Bible say about itself that the Bible is good in all things?
SPEAKER_01: Yes, it says in 2 Timothy 3.16, the Bible is breathed out by God, profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: So with that being this absolute truth, how do we differentiate between a proverb that is profitable and a proverb that also includes a promise for followers of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I ask this question is Proverbs can be one of those books that we read, and we're like, yeah, that's that's that sounds good.
SPEAKER_01: That sounds wise.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know how much of that I need to apply.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a great example of how we view Proverbs.
SPEAKER_01: An apple a day keeps the doctor away.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And this isn't in my notes at all, but if you haven't, man, the honey crisp apples this time of year, my wife brought home one about the size of a bowling ball yesterday, and I did work on that thing.
SPEAKER_01: That is phenomenal.
SPEAKER_01: Go get a honey crisp apple.
SPEAKER_01: But that proverb is not saying that if you eat an apple every day, then you'll never get sick and you never have to go to the doctor.
SPEAKER_01: And we sometimes read Proverbs from the Bible in that way.
SPEAKER_01: We know that.
SPEAKER_01: We're thinking people.
SPEAKER_01: We understand, hey, an apple a day isn't going to do it all.
SPEAKER_01: I can just not elect, I cannot elect not to exercise, and I can eat whatever I want.
SPEAKER_01: Eat four sticks of butter just as long as I eat an apple every day.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't work that way.
SPEAKER_01: And we approach, oh, that does sound like a delicious lunch.
SPEAKER_01: But we approach the proverbs of God that way.
SPEAKER_01: And as we are understanding, um, understanding this proverb as it applies to spring, um, there are great truths that echo in this proverb that you see echoing throughout scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Don't turn there.
SPEAKER_01: I just want you to look at verse five and six as it comes on the screen, and then I just want to show you how this promise and this truth of God, as we are in and talking about and understanding the season of spring, what does it mean to lean on God's truth and his promises as we live through and prepare ourselves to walk through a season?
SPEAKER_01: It says in verse 5 and 6 of Proverbs 3, trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_01: In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight, or straight your paths.
SPEAKER_01: Here's how it echoes.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Timothy 2, 15, it says, Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
SPEAKER_01: If you looked in Psalm 37, 3, it echoes again, it says, Trust in the Lord and do good.
SPEAKER_01: Dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: If you look back in Proverbs 28, 26, it says, Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool, but he who walks in wisdom will be saved and will be delivered.
SPEAKER_01: James 1 5.
SPEAKER_01: If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.
SPEAKER_01: So as we read these, as we see this echoing through, as we talk about moving from winter to spring this morning, let's take a few moments together and read the truth.
SPEAKER_01: The promise of the life-giving words and preparedness for the spiritual season of spring.
SPEAKER_01: Not only these popular verses of five and six.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you heard, lean not on your own understanding, he'll make your path straight?
SPEAKER_01: We hear that.
SPEAKER_01: What is the implication?
SPEAKER_01: Well, let's go all the way back to the beginning of this proverb in verse one and understand the context and understand what it looks like to understand this spiritual season of spring.
SPEAKER_01: My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments.
SPEAKER_01: For length of days and years of life and peace they will add to you.
SPEAKER_01: Right there is our first point for this morning.
SPEAKER_01: If you're taking notes, embrace the right peace.
SPEAKER_01: Embrace the right peace.
SPEAKER_01: What do I mean by embracing the right peace?
SPEAKER_01: As spring comes on on the earth here in Sugarland or Richmond or Fort Bend County, I guess that's easier to say.
SPEAKER_01: Um there's a lot of euphoria that comes on people.
SPEAKER_01: We all have a favorite season.
SPEAKER_01: How many fall people here?
SPEAKER_01: Raise your hand.
SPEAKER_01: Winter?
SPEAKER_01: Spring?
SPEAKER_01: Summer?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you guys don't like yourselves very much here in Houston.
SPEAKER_01: Um my wife is a spring person, man.
SPEAKER_01: When spring comes along, she gets amped.
SPEAKER_01: She talks telling me there's a different green that comes when spring.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, it's just green.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what you're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, it's a spring green.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, whatever.
SPEAKER_01: But spring, there's there's certain seasons that bring about separate feelings and unique feelings.
SPEAKER_01: And with spring, there's this euphoria, and it's it's new, it's the greens of spring, and it's the return of songbirds, and it's puppy dogs, and ice cream and rainbows and baby laughter, and I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: But when we uh when we read into verse, when we read in verse 2, don't laugh.
SPEAKER_01: Uh when we read in verse 2, this is church, you're not supposed to have fun, remember?
SPEAKER_01: Peace that will be added to us, the peace that has an absolute source.
SPEAKER_01: And so we have these feelings we have, and Neil talked about this last week, and I mentioned this before, and even sent out an email reiterating the fact that it is not based on our feelings.
SPEAKER_01: There is an absolute truth that everything comes subject to.
SPEAKER_01: Our understanding of winter, and now our understanding of spring comes from an absolute peace.
SPEAKER_01: And it has an absolute source.
SPEAKER_01: Look there in verse 1 in your Bibles.
SPEAKER_01: My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments.
SPEAKER_01: For length of days and years of life, and peace they will add to you in this season of spring that is new life we hear about for the length of days and years of life.
SPEAKER_01: The source of this peace comes from three things.
SPEAKER_01: If you look at that text, there's a peace.
SPEAKER_01: And spring has to begin with peace, and there's a source, and you can break it down in those two verses in three ways.
SPEAKER_01: Look, God's character.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Do not forget my teaching.
SPEAKER_01: The peace that we long for comes from one person and one source, and it's God.
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget my teaching.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says, to remember.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, don't forget.
SPEAKER_01: Are we all on the same page?
SPEAKER_01: It don't forget and remember are the same thing?
SPEAKER_01: Yes?
SPEAKER_01: Don't forget my teaching.
SPEAKER_01: And then discipline.
SPEAKER_01: Where is the discipline?
SPEAKER_01: Do not forget my teaching.
SPEAKER_01: Let your heart keep my commandments.
SPEAKER_01: Why is this a big deal?
SPEAKER_01: Why the discipline of remembering God's character and his promises and living by his commandments?
SPEAKER_01: If you were here last week, or even if you weren't, uh, Neil, when Neil was talking about winter, he talked about spiritual disciplines, and I love the way that he described it.
SPEAKER_01: He said, These spiritual disciplines are holy habits that help me order my life around what I value.
SPEAKER_01: We cannot, church, order our lives around what matters and ensure our values without the discipline of remembering God's character.
SPEAKER_01: Because if it's not, if if if if if our peace is founded on what we believe or what we feel, it is not sustaining.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not true peace.
SPEAKER_01: As we'll talk about in a minute, spring can lend itself to a theme of busyness.
SPEAKER_01: But before we get down to the work of spring, we have to first start with peace.
SPEAKER_01: And why all the peace stuff?
SPEAKER_01: What am I spending so much time on peace?
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday I got a phone call from one of our members and asked if I could come and spend some time with her dad that was in the hospital.
SPEAKER_01: And um driving out to Kingwood, and you know, there's there's no rhyme or reason somehow to how we approach hospital visits and go and spend time with families.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes listen to music, and Clear Isabelle as I was uh driving out to Kingwood, and I had my own soul.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I got all this time in the car and I can listen to the Aggies beat up on Auburn, it'll be glorious.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Whoop, indeed.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, but Clear Isabelle, God said, Hey, turn your radio off, monkey, and I just want to talk with you.
SPEAKER_01: And just spend some time talking with God in the truck on the way over here, on the way over there, rather.
SPEAKER_01: And Clear Isabel, God said, Hey, when you go and you spend time with that family, I want you to talk about the peace that comes from me.
SPEAKER_01: And when you when you pray for that man, I want I want you to pray for peace.
SPEAKER_01: And when you're talking with the family and spending time with them, and they are um at their end and they are brokenhearted seeing their dad go in and out of hospital, and grandfather and husband, father-in-law, um, they're just tired of seeing that happen.
SPEAKER_01: You you pray and you talk to me about peace.
SPEAKER_01: And so that um changed the trajectory of my sermon.
SPEAKER_01: I got down, got back, and started working on my sermon, and my wife's like, Where are you?
SPEAKER_01: I was like, I'm back at ground zero now, because I feel like God has redirected me around this peace.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want us to understand in the season of spring, where do we find peace?
SPEAKER_01: And up on the screen, and the first server said I went through it too fast, so I will try to um slow down just a little bit.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a list of what the peace of God promises what it's promised as and what it promises.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing is it is given by God, and it's unlike any other peace the world has.
SPEAKER_01: It is given by God.
SPEAKER_01: The peace of God is given by God.
SPEAKER_01: And that might sound you like, wait, I get it, right?
SPEAKER_01: I'm not kindergarten.
SPEAKER_01: But do we?
SPEAKER_01: Because if we truly believe that it's given by God, then we would look to God for peace and nowhere else.
SPEAKER_01: It's given by God and unlike any other peace the world has.
SPEAKER_01: It surpasses all understanding and guards your heart.
SPEAKER_01: The peace of God surpasses all understanding.
SPEAKER_01: That means that it surpasses your desire for justice.
SPEAKER_01: I mean you're justice people and you're doubt yourselves.
SPEAKER_01: Come on.
SPEAKER_01: It surpasses our desire for justice, it surpasses our timing and our clock and what we think God should deliver and who he should withhold things from and who he should give things to, and where he should bring peace and where he shouldn't, because it surpasses all understanding and it guards your heart.
SPEAKER_01: You're called to submit to the peace.
SPEAKER_01: Colossians 3 15.
SPEAKER_01: You know the fruits of the Spirit song, you know the peace is near the front of the list.
SPEAKER_01: It's a fruit of the spirit.
SPEAKER_01: It leaps out of you when you spend time with God.
SPEAKER_01: That's why time and time again, as you read through scripture, you see that God is calling and directing the men and women of peace.
SPEAKER_01: And lastly, from Romans 5:1, it comes through Christ's sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: There is only one source of peace.
SPEAKER_01: There's only one source of spring, and it's the only one who can lay down his life as an ultimate sacrifice and deliver it.
SPEAKER_01: So whether you're transitioning from winter or spring or in the midst of a spiritual season of spring, God's promise of peace is the soil, it's the seed, it's the fertilizer, it's the shoot, and it's the fruit.
SPEAKER_01: If you remember at the beginning, we said the traits of spring were a thirst and awareness for things of God.
SPEAKER_01: You're seeing hope replace hopelessness, and you're seeing a new and renewed desire for response to God's call.
SPEAKER_01: And it comes from a discipline.
SPEAKER_01: A discipline to remember God and his character.
SPEAKER_01: And it should be the heart of spring.
SPEAKER_01: How do we know this?
SPEAKER_01: Look back in Proverbs.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: You still with me?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you.
SPEAKER_01: Bind them around your neck.
SPEAKER_01: Write them on the tablet of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: God is the only one capable of steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: You understand that, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because look at verse 3.
SPEAKER_01: Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you.
SPEAKER_01: Who is the only one capable of steadfast love and faithfulness?
SPEAKER_01: I already gave you the answer, people.
SPEAKER_01: Let's try that again.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna step back over here.
SPEAKER_01: Alright, and then I'll step out here and I'll ask again.
SPEAKER_01: Are you ready?
SPEAKER_01: Hold on.
SPEAKER_01: I got someone raising their hand over here.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, come on.
SPEAKER_01: Come on, grown-ups.
SPEAKER_01: Who's the only one possible?
SPEAKER_01: God.
SPEAKER_01: God said, I'm the source.
SPEAKER_01: I'm the only place you can find this.
SPEAKER_01: And he's so why so much time on peace?
SPEAKER_01: Because God is so serious about it.
SPEAKER_01: He's so serious about his character.
SPEAKER_01: He's so serious about his love.
SPEAKER_01: He says, bind them around your neck.
SPEAKER_01: Write them on the tablet of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: My parents are in town this weekend, and I don't know how it is at your house.
SPEAKER_01: Most families are this way.
SPEAKER_01: I know mine is, I know my wife's is.
SPEAKER_01: You get your family together, and you find yourself telling the same stories over and over and over again every visit, and then over again, and then four more times the next day, right?
SPEAKER_01: And we're telling some stories, and this is um a story that I've never said out loud with my parents in the room, and I outed myself in the first service, so I might as well out myself here.
SPEAKER_01: Um the second service, when I was um in junior high, there were a couple things I really wanted to be, and one of them was uh uh like a rodeo cowboy.
SPEAKER_01: I know that's funny, most of you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and so there were a couple things that uh that didn't that we weren't allowed to do in our house.
SPEAKER_01: There weren't many with a lot of freedom in our house, and one of the things um was riding motorcycles, and the other one was riding bulls, and and my and my dad was pretty adamant about us not doing either of those things.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and so I really wanted to do that, and um, and so I because I was it was forbidden, so of course I wanted to do it, right?
SPEAKER_01: I know I'm the only one.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so a couple other stories I haven't ever told before, so you only get one story with my dad staring at me in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Uh One is I had a couple buddies that were riding rodeo, and so they had put together a barrel bull.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't know what a barrel bull is, it's a moron contraption.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: You take an old oil barrel and you take a rope and you take a garage spring and you string it up between two trees, and then one moron gets on it, and the other one shake it.
SPEAKER_01: Alright?
SPEAKER_01: And so we had one rigged up, and uh we were all training to uh what we thought were gonna be cowboys, and we were all training to do that, and uh I took a bad fall off of that thing.
SPEAKER_01: Um I took a bad fall, and uh couldn't really turn my neck, couldn't really move my shoulder.
SPEAKER_01: Um, so I stayed out real late, came home late on a Friday night, and I think my dad probably knew what was going on and knew something was up and I wouldn't get out of bed and he messed with me like I would mess with my son if he did the same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Um and but I don't remember what story I told them, so I'm confessing now that I'm sure it wasn't the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Um But I know that I ended up going to the doctor and having to wear one of those collars.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_01: Like junior high isn't hard enough.
SPEAKER_01: Uh and had to wear that thing to school.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you ever had to wear one of those collars before?
SPEAKER_01: Or a halo or anything?
SPEAKER_01: It restricts your movement, right?
SPEAKER_01: You can only you have to turn your whole body to do things.
SPEAKER_01: Why do I share that?
SPEAKER_01: Because God tells us to bind love and faithfulness around our neck to where it controls us, to where the purpose of our life in spring and beyond is controlled by the love and the faithfulness and the peace of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: He then goes as far as to say, write them on the tablet of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't say take a big pen and scribble it on a piece of paper.
SPEAKER_01: It says, take a tablet and write them on a tablet.
SPEAKER_01: You ever seen how you write on a tablet?
SPEAKER_01: It involves a chisel and a hammer.
SPEAKER_01: That is a permanent marking that God is calling you to.
SPEAKER_01: It is not dependent on how you feel, it is not dependent on the season of life you are in, it is dependent on the fact that God says, bind it around your neck and and write it on the tablet of your heart.
SPEAKER_01: So we spent so much time on peace.
SPEAKER_01: Suede, move on.
SPEAKER_01: The cowboys kick off at noon in London.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, Texans fans, that's funny.
SPEAKER_01: How's that how's that how's that uh never mind.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: The first service got violent, by the way.
SPEAKER_01: You guys need to start cheering for the real Texas team.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Why so much peace?
SPEAKER_01: I said to make sure you're still with me.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, hey, I have a microphone.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Why so much time about peace?
SPEAKER_01: Um, because it leads right into our second point.
SPEAKER_01: The understanding of peace allows us to do number two well, and that is spring is a season of work.
SPEAKER_01: Spring is a season of work.
SPEAKER_01: It's a season of tilling soil, planting seed, and handling new growth.
SPEAKER_01: And in the midst of that work, there needs to be a right motivation for that work.
SPEAKER_01: There needs to be a right motivation for the fruit that we desire to see in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: There needs to be a right motivation as we enter into the season of spring, or if you are in the middle of spring as you lean into it.
SPEAKER_01: And that peace comes from the discipline of remembering God's character.
SPEAKER_01: And because of the work, we see growth.
SPEAKER_01: And it's sometimes our desire to take credit for the growth.
SPEAKER_01: We know in here, right?
SPEAKER_01: No one does that?
SPEAKER_01: No one takes credit for their own growth.
SPEAKER_01: God reminds us through his character that he is the one that brings growth.
SPEAKER_01: If we can remember in our spring that he is the planter, the harvester, we can find peace in him.
SPEAKER_01: It's this that allows us to do the work of spring.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse five there in Proverbs 3.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 5 says this: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_01: In all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.
SPEAKER_01: The right work is found in trust.
SPEAKER_01: It says, Trust in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: This morning, look at me, church, this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Starting with this morning, you have to ask yourself the question, do you trust in the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: Because here's the other alternative.
SPEAKER_01: You lean on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_01: Think about this for a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Do you trust in the Lord or do you lean on your own understanding in most cases?
SPEAKER_01: A little still in here.
SPEAKER_01: Because what we like to do, and I'm I'm I'm just as bad as anybody else, is God, you make me glad, your ways are good.
SPEAKER_01: I trust you, except when I don't understand it, and then I lean on my own understanding.
SPEAKER_01: But it doesn't say that we are capable of steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't remember reading that.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't see my name in there.
SPEAKER_01: I saw that God is capable of steadfast love and faithfulness.
SPEAKER_01: And so it tells us to trust in the Lord with all your heart.
SPEAKER_01: We want to say that we trust God, but we also want to lean on our own understanding.
SPEAKER_01: Um, as a kid, we we bumped around a lot, and one of the places we lived was in Midland for a little less than a year.
SPEAKER_01: We did the uh the oil family shuffle around uh Texas and Colorado.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and one of those stops was Midland.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember being in first grade and going to church, and they had a uh like a children's moment.
SPEAKER_01: You guys remember those where the kids would all come forward?
SPEAKER_01: And I think the pastor, actually, I know the pastor was teaching it, and I don't remember exactly what the sermon was on.
SPEAKER_01: I think it was childlike faith or something to that extent.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, uh, can I get a volunteer?
SPEAKER_01: And I was just as obnoxious then as I am now, so I was the first one to raise my hand and um came up on the stage and he brought me up and what's your name and all those things.
SPEAKER_01: And um he said, Well, I'm gonna put this blindfold on you.
SPEAKER_01: Now I had an older brother.
SPEAKER_01: How many of you have older brothers in here?
SPEAKER_01: So I I grew up with not a lot of comfortability and vulnerability.
SPEAKER_01: Um and so I was told to put a blindfold on.
SPEAKER_01: Um and then he said, Open your mouth.
SPEAKER_01: No, sir.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm immediately blowing up this poor guy's sermon because he's got this perfect illustration.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to get the goofy kid up, do this, get off the stage, move on, right?
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Well, you know, I'm your pastor.
SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I don't know, you man.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: And I think he wanted to give me the piece of candy, and you know, it's a good reward for having faith.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: And I was wouldn't do it, I don't know how long I was up there.
SPEAKER_01: It felt like an eternity to me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure it wasn't him.
SPEAKER_01: I could hear my brother laughing, I could blindfold it, but I could feel my mom's disapproval and embarrassment.
SPEAKER_01: And then um and then he just finally just had to give up and and move on.
SPEAKER_01: So I was known for weeks in the church as a kid who wouldn't be part of the sermon illustration.
SPEAKER_01: What's the moral of me sharing that story?
SPEAKER_01: Don't trust children.
SPEAKER_01: No, the moral of the story is that we want to say we trust God, but we also want to lean on our own understanding.
SPEAKER_01: As a first grader with an older brother, if I close my eyes and trusted, it was gonna end up in the dryer and he would turn it on.
SPEAKER_01: It was things like that that happened in my house.
SPEAKER_01: So when this man is saying, hey, close your eyes and trust, that's no way that is gonna happen.
SPEAKER_01: That's what we do to God, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's why he has to tell us, lean not on your own understanding.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, trust me.
SPEAKER_01: But for us, we've trusted people before and it's been broken.
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, give me everything, and we're saying, No, I already did that once.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not doing that again.
SPEAKER_01: I gave all of myself to that person and they broke me.
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm not doing it to you.
SPEAKER_01: And so that keeps us from leaning into this season of spring and this renewal and this new growth in this peace, because we want to rely on our own understanding.
SPEAKER_01: So, in this season of spring, I put the question out there: how do you know if you're trusting God or you're leaning on your own understanding?
SPEAKER_01: There's a picture that's gonna pop up behind me of some of a plowed field, of a freshly plowed field.
SPEAKER_01: You want to know how you know if you're leaning on your own understanding or you're trusting God?
SPEAKER_01: Turn around and look at the rows behind you.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, spring is a season of work.
SPEAKER_01: And so as you've done work and you have plowed the field like you would do in spring, turn around and see what it looks like.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't grow up on a farm, I don't really know how to do this too well.
SPEAKER_01: I did have a buddy in college who worked for the cotton research department, so I spent some mornings out there earning some extra money working for the university and watched how they did that, and it was just this phenomenal way of these, and this is actually one of Texas AM's fields right there.
SPEAKER_01: And they would just do these amazing rows, these amazing row after row after row, and it and it just looks like perfection, right?
SPEAKER_01: And when you look back, do you see the work of God or does it look a lot like you?
SPEAKER_01: And when you're graduating your kids out of your house and they're 18 and they're going on to college, and you're looking at the work of 18 years, you're looking back at the rows, does it look like God, or does it look like you?
SPEAKER_01: Take it one step further.
SPEAKER_01: Does it look like the spiritual maturity that comes from spring, or does it look like religious busyness?
SPEAKER_01: And you look back on the last 25 years of your career, or the last 35 years of your marriage, and friendships, and you look back and you look.
SPEAKER_01: There's a guy named Mark Buchanan, he's an author.
SPEAKER_01: Um, there's a really attractive woman who teaches a class on a Mark Buchanan book on Tuesday mornings out at the warehouse.
SPEAKER_01: She looks a lot like my wife.
SPEAKER_01: Um but he has another book called Spiritual Rhythm that I found myself reading over the last few weeks.
SPEAKER_01: There's a quote that's gonna come on the screen about this.
SPEAKER_01: It says this I had worked for many years with rickety logic, that religious busyness is the same thing as spiritual maturity.
SPEAKER_01: But I started to notice that religious busyness tends to make those of us caught up in it not deeper or wiser or kinder, but more shrill, more opinionated, more judgmental.
SPEAKER_01: I saw this great picture the other day.
SPEAKER_01: I wish I'd pulled it up in contrast to the rows of perfectly plowed soil.
SPEAKER_01: It was a picture of a parking lot where it had snowed.
SPEAKER_01: And it was one of those where you come in from different directions in the parking lot, and it looked like mass pure chaos.
SPEAKER_01: There are about 75 cars pinned in that were never getting out.
SPEAKER_01: People that seem to have no sense of direction and parked every which way in this parking lot.
SPEAKER_01: That's what religious busyness looks like.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll tell you who the worst is our pastors.
SPEAKER_01: And we go to conferences and we have lunches with people, and we're like, man, how are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: I'm so busy.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, you must love Jesus, right?
SPEAKER_01: And it's just, it's, it's so, it's so upside down.
SPEAKER_01: We've missed, we've missed peace and we've missed renewal.
SPEAKER_01: And so I was having coffee with a missionary, a local missionary in town, and he said, What's what's been what's been going on in your life lately?
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Man, just the last couple weeks, I've just been really convicted about how busy I am.
SPEAKER_01: And it's sometimes, if I'm gonna be honest with you, I was honest with him, I'll be honest with you, church.
SPEAKER_01: I take a lot of pride in how busy I can be sometimes.
SPEAKER_01: I know I'm the only one, right?
SPEAKER_01: Uh, yeah, I had a busy week, working hard for the lowed, right?
SPEAKER_01: And he knows this church and he loves this church, and don't take this personally because it wasn't meant personally at all.
SPEAKER_01: It just meant it as a joke.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Man, I'm just trying to eliminate some busyness in my life.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, Well, are you gonna find a new place to work?
SPEAKER_01: And that wasn't a shot at Grant Parkway, it was just it was just the reality of how we deal with life.
SPEAKER_01: Busyness is okay.
SPEAKER_01: And then we just baptize it in religion.
SPEAKER_01: And then we try to act like it's spiritual maturity.
SPEAKER_01: But all it is is we're just filling up our calendar.
SPEAKER_01: There's not a lot of intentionality, but yet we serve a God of intentionality who intentionally moves us in and out of seasons.
SPEAKER_01: Which moves us into our third point.
SPEAKER_01: There is fruit and commitment.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: And let's find out why there's fruit and commitment.
SPEAKER_01: Be not wise in your own eyes.
SPEAKER_01: Fear the Lord and turn away from evil.
SPEAKER_01: It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
SPEAKER_01: Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the first fruits of your produce.
SPEAKER_01: Then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine.
SPEAKER_01: You read that, and what do I mean by there is fruit and commitment?
SPEAKER_01: Preachers have a tendency to overcomplicate things.
SPEAKER_01: I am the chief sinner in that, and so I don't want to overcomplicate this.
SPEAKER_01: I think here's the best way to understand is that God makes a simple promise.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Fear me, which also is trust me and honor me, and it will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones.
SPEAKER_01: Take a minute and just put your pen down and just say, what is it what would be refreshment to your bones right now?
SPEAKER_01: Come on, you're gonna put the keep keep the cigarettes in the in the purse right now, all right?
SPEAKER_01: Refreshment to your bones.
SPEAKER_01: What is that is better than any spa treatment.
SPEAKER_01: The hot rock treatment, whatever that is.
SPEAKER_01: And then when you pay people to rub mud on you, you haven't figured that out yet.
SPEAKER_01: It's better than any spa treatment.
SPEAKER_01: The greatest meal you've ever had you had to push away from because it was so good, it was so rich, it was so filling.
SPEAKER_01: The best day you've ever had on the golf course.
SPEAKER_01: Even that day where you beat 100 and you didn't have to lie to do it, it knocks that one out of the park.
SPEAKER_01: The most peaceful, the most successful day you ever had in a deer stand.
SPEAKER_01: No comparison.
SPEAKER_01: Because there's only one.
SPEAKER_01: There's only one who is perfect in peace and love and fulfillment, and there's only one that can bring peace and fulfillment and healing to your bones and refreshment.
SPEAKER_01: God says then, as you acknowledge that in this spring, in this season of renewal and refreshment, take every good thing you have and just lay it out in front of you.
SPEAKER_01: You want to talk about a spiritual discipline?
SPEAKER_01: Take every good thing you have in your life.
SPEAKER_01: Take your family, take the fact that your kids aren't in jail, right?
SPEAKER_01: And lay that out.
SPEAKER_01: Because some of it, there's a different scale for different parents.
SPEAKER_01: You got the ones like, man, my kid got in the Ivy League school, and all those things he did were on his minor record and they're expunged, so we don't have to talk about those anymore, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so there's this different gauge of success, and lay that out there in your career and your marriage and your finances and your 401k and your and your and your nest egg, you got laid away and just go, it's all God's.
SPEAKER_01: Talk about leaning not on your own understanding and saying, Hey, God, all this and all that is to come is yours.
SPEAKER_01: And God gives a glorious, glorious promise.
SPEAKER_01: We talked about the promises found in the Proverbs.
SPEAKER_01: He gives this great promise, and he says, I'll give you more than you'll ever need if you do this.
SPEAKER_01: Your barns will be filled with plenty and your vats will be bursting with wine.
SPEAKER_01: But notice this, church, hear this, and I'm almost done.
SPEAKER_01: Because he doesn't say I'll give you more than you want.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'll give you more than you need.
SPEAKER_01: And we don't we don't like that in church too much, right?
SPEAKER_01: Because we want to cling to the promise and go, God, I've done everything right.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want more than I want.
SPEAKER_01: He never says that.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'll give you more than you need.
SPEAKER_01: Your barns will be full, your vats will be full of wine.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it says new wine in your Bible.
SPEAKER_01: There's fruit and commitment.
SPEAKER_01: And the last point, as we understand how to lean the spiritual season of spring, are you with me for this last point?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna tell a lie that liars.
SPEAKER_01: No, that's this isn't a lie, but it is a short point.
SPEAKER_01: Alright.
SPEAKER_01: And that is that sometimes spring feels like us.
SPEAKER_01: I loved that in the first server.
SPEAKER_01: See the way the heads popped up when I said us.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: Did he say us?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes spring feels like us.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11 through 12.
SPEAKER_01: My son, do not despise the Lord's discipline, or be weary of his reproof.
SPEAKER_01: For the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a father, the Son, in whom he delights.
SPEAKER_01: There's some theologians that are a whole lot smarter than me that say that these two verses are the most concise version of the book of Job.
SPEAKER_01: There is.
SPEAKER_01: Job is a book in the Bible, 42 chapters long in the Old Testament, and many people say that these two verses are a great reader's digest version of the entire of Job.
SPEAKER_01: Job chapter 1, verse 1 says, There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job.
SPEAKER_01: And that you thought it was North Pleque was bad, but he lives in Uz, whose name was Job, and that man was blameless and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are familiar with the story, some of you may not be.
SPEAKER_01: There's this man that we hear about, and then we go to heaven, and God is sitting there, and the devil comes and God says, Where have you been?
SPEAKER_01: He says, I've been roaming to and fro on the earth, and I haven't found anybody blameless.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Oh, you missed my boy Job down in Uz.
SPEAKER_01: He runs away from evil.
SPEAKER_01: He fears me, he respects me, he loves me.
SPEAKER_01: And the devil goes, Well, of course he does.
SPEAKER_01: He's the richest man in Uz.
SPEAKER_01: Take away his stuff, he's not gonna worship you anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, You can go do that.
SPEAKER_01: You can't harm him, but you can go do that.
SPEAKER_01: And the devil goes, and all the donkeys and camels and sheep and oxen and all those are taken away from Job, and he continues to worship God.
SPEAKER_01: The devil comes back and God says, Well, what's the story?
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, Well, he still worships you, but you know, his kids are alright, and he's still got all that, and so of course he's gonna worship you.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes, You can you can harm them, you can't touch him.
SPEAKER_01: And horrible things befall Job's family, and his family dies, and raiders come and kill, and a house collapses, and these horrible things, and Job still worships God.
SPEAKER_01: The devil goes back and he goes, Well, of course he still worships you, he's still got his health.
SPEAKER_01: And God goes, You can strike him, you can strike his health, you can't kill him.
SPEAKER_01: He gets so sick, he gets the Bible says he gets boils all over his body.
SPEAKER_01: He gets so bad that he's taking pieces of broken pottery and he's scraping the infection out of those.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, how about that?
SPEAKER_01: Have we got lunch plans after this?
SPEAKER_01: Scraping the infection out of his skin.
SPEAKER_01: It gets so bad that his wife, his sugar booger, right?
SPEAKER_01: says, Why don't you just curse God and die?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes springtime feels like us.
SPEAKER_01: Talked about spring being work.
SPEAKER_01: Some of that work is pruning, some of it's cutting back.
SPEAKER_01: Job loses everything.
SPEAKER_01: But hear this, look at me.
SPEAKER_01: God never leaves him.
SPEAKER_01: Do you believe that?
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of the work of spring, that God never leaves, in the pruning and the cutting back, and the working of the soil and the tilling and the taking out of old roots, and those old things that you used to hold on to, and those things of winter that are holding you there, that as those are pulled out to make way for new growth that God never leaves.
SPEAKER_01: Because the fact that you are a son and daughter of God and the fact that he does pruning and work in your life are not mutually exclusive.
SPEAKER_01: Do you hear that?
SPEAKER_01: He does those things because you are his son and because you are his daughter.
SPEAKER_01: And that is part of the work of spring.
SPEAKER_01: God is present throughout all seasons.
SPEAKER_01: He is present in our spring.
SPEAKER_01: He is present after the spring.
SPEAKER_01: And it can feel like us.
SPEAKER_01: If you go to chapter 42 of Job, it'll be on the screens behind me.
SPEAKER_01: It says this in verse 10 And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends, and he gave the Lord, and I'm sorry, and the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before.
SPEAKER_01: And he came to him and all his brothers and sisters, all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house.
SPEAKER_01: And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him, and each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord blessed the latter days of Job more than the beginning, and he had fourteen thousand sheep, and six thousand camels, one thousand yoke of oxen, one thousand female donkeys.
SPEAKER_01: He also had seven sons and three daughters.
SPEAKER_01: And he called the name of the first daughter Jememiah, and the second Kaziah, and the third Karenhapuch.
SPEAKER_01: And in the land in verse 15, in all the land there were no women so beautiful as Job's daughters, and their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers.
SPEAKER_01: And after this Job lived a hundred and forty years, and saw his sons and his sons' sons four generations, and Job died, an old man in full of days.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes spring feels like us.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not a gardener, don't have a green thumb by any means, any stretch of the imagination.
SPEAKER_01: But my wife told me one of the biggest lies ever to be told in the history of the world that if I built flower beds, that she would tend to those flower beds.
SPEAKER_01: So we have flower beds all over our yard.
SPEAKER_01: And so we we got to planting stuff and uh and have no idea what I'm doing or we're doing when we first started, and went and bought some begonias and planted those, and um they started to die.
SPEAKER_01: And I remember I was pulling them out.
SPEAKER_01: I think we had about 12 or 14 of them in the front yard the first time.
SPEAKER_01: And I was pulling them out, and I literally got to the last one right when my parents pulled up.
SPEAKER_01: They were coming in from out of town to see us, and my mom started hollering at me.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Don't pull those out.
SPEAKER_01: Let me talk like my mom.
SPEAKER_01: What are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: Don't pull those out.
SPEAKER_01: Um that's a special 10 o'clock impression, no one else will get that.
SPEAKER_01: Um and my mom began to explain to me that the begonias will shrink back underneath the soil, but the next year they're gonna come back.
SPEAKER_01: And we've had that begonia now for seven years, and it is the most beautiful thing in our flower bed.
SPEAKER_01: And there is work that happens in winter.
SPEAKER_01: And you begin to see this new life and this renewal in spring.
SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes spring feels like us.
SPEAKER_01: Do me a favor and stand to your feet.
SPEAKER_01: And if you would, if you'd put your hands out, I'd love to speak a blessing over you.
SPEAKER_01: A life beyond your understanding is so much sweeter and so much greater than a life you can understand.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.