Making the Most of Winter

Well, hello once again. That's the lapel mic speaking. Well, thank you. Thank you, Barry Beth. Always a pleasure to hear. Very, very nice song. Very well done. Good meaning on all the songs we've been hearing lately in the special music. I hope we're listening closely to the words. The music is beautiful and the words are inspiring as well. You know, if you were here during the Bible study, we showed that one video clip of the universe.

And it's an amazing thing what God has done. And when we take the time to contemplate what He has done, and so many times in life we just don't have the time to contemplate, you know, what God has done or even be apart from our busy, busy lives. I was thinking about that this week and again this morning that, you know, there are so many benefits to the Sabbath day.

And when we keep the Sabbath day the way that God wants us to keep it, it's time for us to think about God, to contemplate what God did. People of old time didn't have all the things going on in their lives that we have going on today. It seems like life is busy from the time we wake up until the time we go to sleep at night.

And sometimes we make it busy because of the Internet and the TV and things that we have to do that we don't do. But on the Sabbath day we cut all that out. Everything else disappears. We should have time to just focus on God. And it's good to just think about who He is, what He's done, what His purpose is, and even the universe around us. You know, what He has created and the detail that's there and the magnitude of it. You know, when we do that we realize God had something so special in mind that we don't even know yet.

For eternity, He has, you know, for eternity He's already got the plans in mind of what is happening next. We happen to be, we happen to be as part of His plan right now. And that should never escape from any of us. You know, sometimes it can. We go through life and we just take things for granted. We get used to things being there. God is very faithful. He holds the universe together. He makes sure that we have our needs, that we have, and so many of the comforts of the life that we have today.

But we have to stop sometimes because when we realize or when we take things for granted, we can become callous. We can become complacent. We can take things for granted. We can even become a little proud and lackadaisical about things. That's kind of what happened to Job back in Job 38. He was a man that God said was blameless. When Satan approached his throne and said, you know, what about Job down there? And God said, he's blameless. I can't find any fault in him.

He's really living his life the way that I have asked him to live. Satan asked for him. Satan asked, you know, well, let me have him for a while. Let's see what goes on with him. And God said, fine, go ahead and do what you want with him.

Just don't hurt him and don't kill him. And Job went through some trials that none of us would want to go through. He lost literally everything. He lost his family, his children. He lost his wealth. And then when he didn't turn against God, Satan went back and said, well, give him—let me do more. Let me hurt him. Let's see what happens when he's in pain. And then we know the enormous pain that Job went through.

God said, you can do it. You can do it. Just don't kill him. But Job, there was something revealed in him that was a pride. You know, look what I've done. Look what I've done. I've been this perfect man. No one can fault me in anything. And we saw this self-righteousness that would develop in him. And sometimes God reveals things in us through other things that happen to us. And God had to deal with that as he watched Job position himself and argue back and forth with his friends. And at the end of the book of Job, God gets involved.

And he brings Job back to reality to remind him just who Job is and how little Job is and how great God is. So let's pick it up in Job 38. And just read through the first several verses here of this. Things that's good for us to remind ourselves of who God is and how little we are and how insignificant. And that doesn't need us. We need him in what we do. So Job 38 in verse 1, it says, The LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?

Prepare yourself like a man. I will question you, Job, and you will answer me. Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know, Job. Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone? When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? Where were you, Job? Or who shut in the sea with doors when it burst forth and issued from the womb? When I made the clouds its garment and thick darkness its swaddling band? When I fixed my limit for it and set bars and doors?

When I said, This far you may come, but no farther, and here your proud waves must stop. Have you, Job, commanded the morning since your days began? Have you caused the dawn to know its place that it might take hold of the ends of the earth and the wicked be shaken out of it?

Verse 16, Have you entered the springs of the sea? Have you walked in search of the depths? Have the gates of death been revealed to you? Or have you seen the doors of the shadow of death? Have you comprehended the breath of the earth? Tell me if you know all this. Where is the way to the dwelling of light and darkness? Where is its place that you may take it to its territory, that you may know the paths to its home?

Do you know it because you were born then, or because the number of your days is great? Have you, Job, entered the treasury of snow? Or have you seen the treasury of hail? Verse 23, Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? And you can read on through the rest of the chapter and see what God is saying and how He is working with Job that Job has to say, I am little and nothing and I can't even believe I ever, ever tried to stand up against you and make myself count as anything.

But here in verse 23, something to contemplate I'm not going to talk about. When God says, Have you entered the treasury of snow? Have you seen the treasury of hail? Which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war? Something to just think about. You know, everything that's written in the Bible has meaning to it.

Maybe sometime in the future we'll go back to that and talk about it. But today, as we're here on a weekend when many of us are away at the winter family weekend in Cincinnati and across America, many people are experiencing the effects of winter. I mean, even here in Florida, we've had our brand of winter over the last few days with wind and rain, which is mild compared to what most people have to experience during winter. They experience the snow, they experience the ice, they experience the difficulty of life during that time.

But we know this, God who created it. God who made the winter. You know, He created all the seasons. When we read back in Genesis 8 and verse 22, it tells us God created the spring, He created the summer, He created the fall, He created the winter, and as long as there is earth, those seasons will continue. He did them all, and He has a reason for every single season that we go through. We know well what the spring season is. I mean, we can look at the parallels between the physical earth and the spiritual lessons that we learned from it.

In the spring, we have the Passover, we talk about Jesus Christ, we talk about the beginning of life in our walk with God when we are repentant and we're baptized and there's newness of life in us. We talk about repentance, we talk about the things that have to do with the spring. During the summer, we grow. And in the fall, we have the harvests that are there, and in the fall, physically, there's harvests that are taken in at that time.

It's the plenches harvest. And we know as we come to the fall feast, we talk about the time of Jesus Christ's return to the harvest of all mankind. And God has coordinated all those things so that they work together so when we live our lives physically, we also see the spiritual effect of it. It's there all around us. If we just pay attention and look at it, we can compare the seasons of this year to our seasons in life.

In the spring, we're new and we're young and we're learning and we're growing. In the summer of our lives, we're growing. Our careers are growing. We're getting married. We're having people. In the fall of our lives, we're at the other end of our careers. And things are beginning to wind down, but we're beginning to reap the profits of what we've done all our lives, the hard work we've put into it, the character that we've developed, the families that have grown under us.

And in the winter of life, it's time to just kind of maybe sit back. We retire from our everyday work, but we are able to begin to enjoy the life that we've had and reap the benefits of it. Maybe it slows down in one end, but the work of God in us is never done, no matter what age we are, no matter what season of life, or no matter what season we find ourselves in physically. We know God's working in the spring, summer, fall.

We talk about the things that have to do with those seasons, but then there's winter. Then there's winter. And that's the season that we find ourselves in now. Between the time of the Feast of Tabernacles, Winterdends, and the time the Passover comes, the Days of Unleavened Bread, we have this six-month period. We might just suddenly think, well, what do we do during that period?

Why did God have that six-month period? Why didn't He space the Holy Days out from the first month all the way to the tenth month so that there was a more even time that they were there? But He didn't do it that way. He gave us this period of time. And for mankind, He gave winter when work just seems to stop. A few years ago, I talked and I gave a sermon on winter work. And in that sermon, I talked about some of the things that farmers do in the winter.

And we drew some analogies between some of the things that we can do during the winter based on those farmer's blogs at that time.

And as I was up in Cincinnati, and I've been thinking about winter, this sermon is going to be a supplement to that, because there's a lot of lessons that we learn from winter, just like we learn from spring and summer and fall. You know, the winter is a time when it seems like if you live up north, the world just goes dormant. It just may look dead. The trees lose their leaves, the grass turns brown. You know, when I was growing up in the Chicago area from November to March, we could just count on the fact we weren't going to see the grass at all until March, because almost every winter, it was just total snow cover. It was a totally different world in the winter than it was any of the other nine months of the year. And so winter can be one of those times that we think, is everything dead? Is that what it means? Not at all, because a lot of things happen in the winter. You know, if we were in an agrarian society, we would look at the winter as kind of a time that we could just relax a little bit, relax from the everyday life of sowing fields and harvesting fields and making sure that everything is going the way it should.

But it's a time for us to reflect on what has happened in the past, a time to go in, but to also a time of preparation. What happened? What do we need to do? How can things be better for the next year? You know, in the earth itself, things happen. While trees are dormant and grass turns brown, it doesn't mean that they're dead. When the spring comes, those trees are even more vibrant.

Those trees grow. The grass is green again. Some trees, like the apple tree and other fruit trees, they can't even produce their fruit if it wasn't for winter. They don't produce their fruit until they go through that winter season. And whatever happens in nature that God built into it, when the spring comes, all of a sudden there's a beautiful creation. There's flowers that show up in the spring that aren't there. And there are flowers that don't grow in Florida because they don't have that winter cold. Tulips are one of them. A few years ago, I bought something at one of the nurseries around here, and it was bulb-based. And it was a beautiful flower. It did it with multi-colored leaves, nice flowers on it. But it had a bulb. And the next summer, it didn't do so well at all. And I thought, well, that was kind of a waste of money. But then I got online and I read about bulbs, and it said, you know, with this flower, what you should do during the winter is you should just put it in the freezer. Take it out of the ground, put it in the freezer, and plant it again.

And I did that. I did that this past winter, and this year, the thing was better than it ever looked before. Without the cold in the winter, it was never going to be the vibrant flower that it could be.

So there are things that happen in winter that we can draw some comparisons for ourselves as well. You know, we know that in the winter, you know, we're in a time of year where the world thinks one thing's happened, but, you know, there were no shepherds out in the field during the time in Jerusalem. Jerusalem experiences winter just like the United States does. And so in the winter, the shepherds would come in. When David was gazing up at the skies, it wasn't in wintertime, it was too cold to be out there. He was doing something else during the winter season, and not the things that he would do the other times of the season. So we have things that happen in winter that are different to the times of the other times. And we know that winter can be a difficult season. You know, the spring can be—it's just—it's really nice. Everything grows, it's beautiful outside, the summer is nice and warm, the fall is nice, but winter can be a difficult season. We're in Job 38. Let's just go back one chapter to Job 37 and see what God says about the winter season here in that chapter. Chapter 37 and verse 5, God thunders marvelously with His voice.

He does great things which we cannot comprehend. For He says to the snow, fall on the earth, likewise to the gentle rain and the heavy rain of His strength. He seals the hand of every man, that all men may know His work. The beasts go into dens and remain in their lairs.

From the chamber of the south comes the whirlwind, and cold from the scattering winds of the north.

By the breath of God, ice is given, and the broad waters are frozen. Also with moisture, He saturates the thick clouds, He scatters His bright clouds, and they swirl about, being turned by His guidance, that they may do whatever He commands them on the face of the whole earth. He causes it to come, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy.

He knows the weather patterns. He knows when rains come. He knows what the earth needs.

He allows the snows to come. They're there, prescribed by Him. Whether for correction, whether for the land, because it needs it, and the land, when you study science, you do realize it does need, in the northern parts, away from Florida, it does need winter. It does need winter, whether for correction, or for His land, or for mercy.

Winter can be a difficult season, but it's there for a purpose. And we learn from it physically what to do. More importantly, there are spiritual lessons that we can learn as we are in a winter season now, in a time between fall holy days and spring holy days. You can be turning over to Matthew 24, but I'll mention that even when it talks about the Proverbs 31 woman, it mentions that she prepares her household. She doesn't worry about the snows in the winter because she's prepared. She's ready for that time. They have the clothes to keep them warm. She's aware of what's coming on, and it doesn't take her by surprise. It's just part of life and part of the planning and preparation that we do, and a part of the natural order of things that God has had us live through and that we learn from. Matthew 24, verse 20. As Christ is talking about the things that will come at the end of the age. Now, what will happen during that time? He gives the disciples these things. He says this in verse 20. He says, Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on the Sabbath. Winter can be a difficult time to travel, right? I mean, even with airplanes, it's a difficult time to travel. If you watch the news this week, you've seen how many flights have been cancelled, how many of the people's plans or how many people have had their plans disrupted because of the difficulties of winter. And you'll see more of that as January-February come around. And he says, on the Sabbath day, because for the Jews, they had all these regulations on the Sabbath day. You can't walk more than this many steps. You can't do this and you can't do that. So we didn't want to be labored by that. Pray that your flight's not in winter. It's a difficult time to travel. It's a difficult time if your flight comes in the winter or the time for you to flee or on the Sabbath day.

Over in 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 16, 1 Corinthians 16, Paul spent his life traveling the world, going from church to church, raising up various church areas. Never had a home to go to. Never had a time that he could just sit back and say, not going anywhere. But as the winter came and as he was going from one place to another, he learned in winter, it wasn't going to be easy sailing by ships. He was going to have to winter someplace. 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 6. Well, read verse 5. He says, I will come to you, Corinth, when I pass through Macedonia, for I am passing through Macedonia, and it may be that I will remain or even spend the winter with you, that you may send me on my journey wherever I go.

You know, when I get there, I probably, well, I'm going to have to spend the entire winter season there because travel just isn't going to be easy that time. Winter is a difficult time of year, a difficult time of year for many people. And it can be a difficult time of year for us spiritually as well. You know, it's very easy to get into the Word of God as we prepare for the Passover season. When we're thinking about Jesus Christ and that's forefront of our mind, to thinking about His sacrifice, what He's done for us, what we need to do, how we need to be ready for that time. When we're in the fall season, we're going through those Holy Days, and we think about Jesus Christ's return and the prophecies that will be fulfilled, that we see being fulfilled right before our very eyes. If our eyes are open and we watch what's going on in the world around us, we see that time getting ever and ever nearer. But there's that winter time. We don't have any specific things that we're studying. We don't have any specific Holy Day that we're preparing for. We've got this six-month period of time. Couldn't be difficult. We could find ourselves drifting a little bit. We could find ourselves thinking, what do I do during this time? What keeps me interested? What do I study? What do I do?

Well, I think from some of the things that we learn and see in winter, we can find some things that we can work on this winter, between now and the time of the Passover, that can make this winter season productive for us, just like the winter season is productive for the earth around us. Let's turn back to 1 John 1.

And I'll give you... I'm going to have three points I'm going to talk about.

Three points.

And we find the first one here on things that we can do to make this winter successful, so that when we come to the springtime, that we come out of the winter as a more vibrant, spiritual being, more alive spiritually. When we're at the Passover, we're not thinking, oh, it's six weeks to Passover, now I need to get to work. Now I need to have things happen. No, that we're preparing during this time for the springtime, because we use the time God has given us wisely. 1 John 1 and verse 3. That which we have heard, Apostle John, I'm breaking into the middle of his thought here, that which we have seen and heard, we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. So point number one is the wintertime can be a time that we can get to develop friendships and the fellowship with each other more than we might at other times of the year.

You know, I talked about the root systems that develop underground with many of the trees, so that when the spring comes and the warmth comes again, they grow. They get green.

They have new life in them. During the winter, well, during the winter they're developing their root system so they can do that. And we know that one of the things that God wants among His people, yes, we are close to Him. Yes, we work with Him. Yes, we yield to Him. Yes, we let His Holy Spirit guide us and lead us. Yes, we have fellowship with Him through prayer, Bible study, the meditation, the fasting, the things that we do. But He also, in concert with that, says, I want you to have fellowship with one another. I put you in a body for a reason.

I put you in a body that you will learn to work with one another because for eternity, we will be working with other spirit beings. There won't be something that we're sent off all by ourselves. For eternity, just do our things. I want to see how you grow in concert with me. And I want you to learn to work with one another because for eternity, you're going to be working as part of my family, learning to do what I say, learning how to follow the principles of God as you apply them in your lives and as you allow the character that's been developed in you in this lifetime to guide you through eternity. You know, there's things that we learn. We've talked about it from our fellowship with each other. We learn from each other. We learn as being part of a church body. And here in Orlando, we're a church body, and there's many things that we've talked about that go into making a church service successful. It's not just a matter of having a building and a podium and a sound system and a speaker. Everything works together. There's so much that goes on behind the scenes. When you take the time to contemplate it, you will understand that when you look and see, everything works together. And God has provided everything that every church needs. You know, one of the things I've learned in the years that I've been a pastor is sometimes you see that something isn't there and you think, well, what's going to happen? And every single time God fills the void. Every single time there's someone there with the talent that needs or the gift that they've given him to do. Every single time, you know, maybe someone that has just never that has risen to the occasion and all parts of the body fitly framed together, everything works in the order that God wants it to. But we have to have that fellowship and we have to learn from one another. We have to learn how to do that. We have to show God that, yes, we have fellowship with Him and, yes, we have fellowship with each other, as John is talking about here in verse 3. Verse 4, he says, and these things we write to you. I write this to you, disciples of Christ, members of the church, these things we write to you that your joy may be full.

God will fill our joy. He will satisfy our every need. It comes through our relationships with Him, our relationship with Him, but also the fellowship with each other, the root system that we have with each other, the getting to know one another, and not just surfacely, but also getting to know each other and loving one another and wanting for each other, the same thing that God wants for us that we will be in His kingdom, the encouragement that comes, but not getting upset if someone says something about us, you know, as is the norm with humans, but realizing, yeah, there's things. I'm a work-in process just like every single other person is a work-in process, and if I hear something, then I need to work on it, because God wants us to be perfect and He wants us to be in the kingdom. Sometimes that comes through the fellowship that we have with each other. Hebrews 10.24 is very clear. Encourage one another. When times are tough, exhort one another. That means help each other along the way. Pray for one another. Be there for one another. We can't do that if we haven't learned to work together and if we don't have fellowship with one another. These things we write to you that your joy may be full. Verse 6. If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and don't practice the truth. Words mean nothing. The words are good if they're backed up with the actions that we have. But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son cleanses us from all sin. Fellowship. We can take this wintertime to develop some of those roots that already exist between us, but every year they should grow and they should make us more vibrant spiritual creatures closer to one another.

You know, as a church, as I look at what we've done in the years, we use the winter for that, maybe unwittingly. But you know, here locally we have potlucks and socials in the winter that are different than what we have when the sunset is late in the summer. We do the Bible studies and whatever, but here in the wintertime we maybe do more social events, you know, more game nights, more other type of things that goes on. There are opportunities for us to be together because we grow together spiritually, but we have to work together and we have to kind of have fun with one another, too. And those opportunities are given. Later on in January through March, we'll have home Bible studies, an opportunity for us to be in each other's homes, get to know each other, and discuss the Word of God. Not just a sermon in that home, but a discussion is what we're looking for during that time, an opportunity for smaller groups to get together with their people in their area so they get to know each other. You know, this weekend we have the Winter Family Weekend that's up there in Cincinnati. It's 1,200 people or more they have expected up there. They go up there. They're going to hear. There's a lot of Bible studies and everything involved in that, but there's also fun activities. You know, the dances tonight, the sports activities that go on up there, and people flock to that. You can do that in the winter, where maybe people's schedules don't allow that so much in the spring, summer, or fall. There are things that we do. Later on, we'll have a camp out in this area. It's a time for us to be together, not just at a Sabbath service, but for two days. How often do we have that opportunity? You know, God builds it in for the Feast of Tabernacles, where He says, eight days I want you to see each other. Eight days I want you away from home. Eight days I want you working with one another, learning to love one another, learning to see what my purpose is. Use those times. Develop the fellowship. Be what God wants us to be. In Matthew 12, Matthew 12, and verse 46, Christ makes a statement here that I'm sure surprised many of the people that were standing there that day, but it's a spiritual principle we've talked about before, but one to keep in mind. And one I think that the longer we're in the church, we understand, you know, what exactly He's talking about. Here in chapter 12, verse 46, it says, while He, Christ, was still talking to the multitudes, behold, His mother, Mary, and His physical brother stood outside, seeking to speak with Him. And one said to Him, look, look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside seeking to speak with you.

Don't you want to go out and talk to them? But He answered and said to the one who told Him, who is my mother and who are my brothers? Sure, that gave the man pause, who He said that to. And He stretched out His hands toward the disciples and said, here are my mother and my brothers, for whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.

We are family. We are family. Our physical families were bond together by blood.

We're bond together by Christ's blood as part of His church. We're bond together by His Holy Spirit that lives in us, the same spirit that God puts in, that He put in Paul and the apostles. He puts in you and me. We are His children, He calls them. He calls us. We are family. And you know how it is with family. Sometimes we even put family, physical family, before God. Something we all need to be a guard of. But we are family. And as family, we need to know each other. We need to spend time with one another. We need to be there for one another. And we need to let that root system develop.

Now, you know with your brothers and sisters, even if they're not in the church. With some of them, and I know there are some strained relationships between siblings that aren't in the church and whatever. But oftentimes there's a bond there that's immediate. I have cousins that I didn't grow up with, and we see oftentimes during the time. And I haven't seen them in years, but I know if they came down and visited today, the bond would be instantaneous because we have common roots and because we have common blood. And there would be a good time. The bond between God's people should be even stronger. We share something that we don't share with those that aren't out in the church. We share purpose. We share God. We share His Holy Spirit. We share His plan. We share a future for eternity. For eternity. We need to take the time to let those root systems develop now that will last for eternity, to develop the opportunities to get to know each other and work with one another, and allow God to lead this church, His family here in Orlando, just like He does the other churches and congregations in the way He will in that area, and as He will with everyone that is in the church when Jesus Christ returns. And we are part of that family. And we are assigned to what we are going to do. Now, we've learned through the times in the church how that is and how we work with one another in total submission to Him.

So one of the things that we can do during this winter time is we can focus a little bit on developing that root system with one another. We can take the time and take advantage of the opportunities that the local church gives us and other opportunities we have to be with one another to kind of learn to love one another and appreciate one another. And as I gave a sermon back six months ago, understand one another because when we understand one another, we can begin to relate to one another better. You know, Stephen Covey's principle, seek first to understand, is something that is very biblical and something we need to do. And when we do that, it can solve so many of our problems that we might develop in our physical relationships.

Okay, so number one is let's develop the friendships with one another and the fellowship with one another. Number two is much like it. Take the time during the winter season to develop your spiritual roots. Develop your spiritual roots. And again, we go back to the analogy. Root systems develop during the cold weather. They are getting ready for the spring season and they come out with vibrant colors. Vibrant colors, new growth. It happens during the summer. The evidence of that growth and development comes in the spring. Let's turn over to Ephesians 5. You know, I mentioned that in the spring, when we get closer to Passover, you know that the sermons will focus on a time for us to get ready, focus on Christ, focus on the spring holy days and elements of it. Not just on that, just as Paul told Timothy, meet in due season and the fall. Often we turn to prophecy and more about what lies ahead of us. But here in the winter, we have some topics we can look at too. Here in Ephesians 5, verse 15, as we read through these verses and as we think of a winter season, a winter season where we might just kind of hibernate. You know, if we read in Job, the animals just hibernate for the winter. And we might hibernate, and if we lived up in Minnesota or Montana, we might just hibernate for the winter. I know when we lived up north, you know, I would come out for work and I would come out for church services, but I hibernated and I was just ready for spring to come. I just didn't enjoy being outside in it at all. Ephesians 5, verse 15, See them that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. And we know where wisdom comes from. Wisdom comes from the fear of God. Wisdom comes to those who obey God, as we read in Psalm 19 this morning, and God will provide that wisdom. See that you walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise. Redeeming the time. Not wasting the time. Not just existing through it. Not just thinking, you know what, I'll get through this month and that month. I'll get through this time until that time occurs, and then I'll move into action. Or then I'll do this. See that you walk circumspectly. Redeeming the time. Because the days are evil. Now let me read. Now let me go ahead and read it. I'm going to come back and read it from another translation of the Bible. See then that you walk circumspectly, redeeming the time because the days are evil. Therefore, don't be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. And don't be drunk with wine, which is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. Now let me stop there, and let me go back and read to you from the God's Word translation. The God's Word translation is a newer translation.

They've gone back. They've, you know, they're understanding continually increases on what the Greek words mean, the Hebrew words mean, and these newer translations, they may have some things wrong, but in some verses they show clear what the meaning is, and we can understand it better in our language. Let me read what they, how they translate verses 15 through 18. So then, be very careful how you live.

Don't live like foolish people, but like wise people. Make the most of your opportunities.

Make the most of your opportunities. The things that God puts before you. You know, one of the things that we can do in the title of this sermon is making the most of winter. Making the most of winter. It's an opportunity. It's not a dead time. It's an opportunity. Make the most of your opportunities because these are evil days, and if you don't think we live in evil days, you haven't been paying attention to what's going on. Make the most of your opportunities because these are evil days. So don't be foolish, but understand what the Lord wants. Don't get drunk on wine. Don't spend the time, as some may do, thinking, you know what, we'll eat, drink, and be merry. The winter time, we're in time, the sunset is, sunset is early, we're in late at night, you know what, I'll just drink my time away, or I'll waste my time. I'll watch TV, I'll get addicted to the internet, I'll get addicted to video games, I'll waste my time. In old days, it was drunk on wine. Today, we can get drunk on other things and just absolutely waste the time we have before us.

It's not just wine. It's many things that we can get drunk on and waste our time and lose the opportunity. Don't get drunk on wine or anything else which leads to wild living. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. And let me go back to verse 19. And he gives us some of the things that we can do during that time as we redeem the time. Speak to one another, verse 19, in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. I want to pause there for a minute. Now, it's interesting that Paul would say, in this time, don't waste your opportunities.

You know, be with one another, develop fellowships with one another, and take the time to know what's in some of these wisdom books of the Bible, Psalms and Proverbs, and the hymns that we sing that the words are so familiar to us. You know, as I contemplated this verse, it began to dawn on me that rarely do we have a sermon, or do we talk and focus on the Psalms or the Proverbs. We know they're there. We've all read through them probably multiple times.

I'm sure we've all read through the Proverbs many times, and the Proverbs can be a book that you just have to kind of pick out the pieces, and you have to write the script on, because God doesn't give it to us in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10. This is how to handle your finances. This is how to handle yourself if you're a young man. This is how to be whatever it is. But we go through, and as we read the Proverbs, we can pick out those pieces as we talked about last night. But the same thing with Psalms, as we talked about Psalm 19, there is so much truth in the Psalms. There is so much wisdom in the Psalms. There are so much light in the Psalms, and sometimes we just read through it, and we think, oh, our beautiful words. David was inspired when he wrote those words. They're so poetic. They just flow from our mouth. They are set to music, and they sound so great. But the words the words and what David and what God inspired David and the other Psalms that are in there to write have great meaning to us, and they can be a light, and they can be a guide to us. Just as I hope you began to see in Psalm 19, there's much more there than just declaring the glory of God. It's something that we can do and something that we can feel that's spurred us onto greater spiritual development. To looking at God's will more, looking at God's law more, seeing it in a different light, appreciating the time and effort He's put into our salvation and for you and me.

And as we do that, we should have the development. We want to yield ourselves to you more. So He says, you know, during the time, you know, we have our we have our topics that we'll talk about in the spring. We have our topics that we talk about in the fall. Maybe during the wintertime, we could spend some time in Psalms. And not just read through five or six or seven or eight a day, but actually take the time to think and contemplate about what God had revealed to David.

Because there's a lot of spiritual depth in those Psalms that we may just read over. And if we take the time and we don't have ourselves limited by, I only have 15 minutes or I only have 30 minutes, I might spend two or three days on this Psalm learning and asking God, what did you let David know that I need to know? There's 150 Psalms. There's plenty, plenty to keep us busy. During the winter, there's plenty in the Proverbs to keep us busy during the winter. There's plenty in Ecclesiastes, another one of the Wisdom Books, and the Song of Solomon, and even Job.

So much that God has put into those books if we took the time to look at them in detail and ask God, what is it I need to learn? How and will you renew my mind so that the mind that Jesus Christ had you will put in me as He says He wants us to have? You know, it's been a few years since we've done anything in any group kind of study projects as a church. For a couple years, we did a Bible reading program where we kind of tried to go through the Bible in a year, Genesis through Revelation, and another time we went through the commentaries, and we had those. And there were some hefty reading, I realize, in the commentaries. But I think here, beginning in January, and it's an optional thing, and we may just put together some study guides on some of the Psalms and some of the Proverbs that we can look at, that we're studying together in addition to your other studying. And maybe, just maybe, we can have some discussion groups after services, maybe led by someone else who would want to do that, where those things can be discussed so that we can share each other's insights and share what God has shown with us, so that we develop that fellowship with each other on a spiritual basis, but also share the thoughts that we have about the Bible and what God has revealed to us, and what we understand in those verses and deepen our understanding. You know, a part of fellowship is iron sharpens iron. Iron sharpens iron, and that may be part of what God would like us to do during this time. So we'll put that together, and when everyone gets back from their travels over the Christmas holidays, and I shouldn't even say that, from their winter holidays, yep, winter holidays, we'll do that, and we will do that. I think it'll help us in those areas. You know, there's many types of Psalms. If you go in and you look at the Psalms, you begin to see, I mean, we know there's seven books of Psalms that God divided there for a reason, and that's a study in itself. You know, some people say, and there's been sermons given in years, years, years past, as in decades past, about what those seven books are and how they apply when you read them through each of the seven holy days. There are Psalms of praise, as you know. There's Psalms of prophecy, as you know. There are Psalms of wisdom. There's a lot of Psalms of thanksgiving, and we can see what's in David's heart. The same thing that should be in our heart, because God said, the heart that was in him, that's a heart that I like. That's the heart I'm seeking in all of you. So, when we read David's heart in the Psalms, it helps us to see what God wants us to do. And, you know, as we look through the Bible, and as we study in that way, as we study together, or if we study individually those things, and we look at David, a man of God, and we have so much written about, and so much of his writings, where God has developed those things and preserved them for us to see, we can build a lot of things. That spiritual root system can very much develop.

It'll build. The root system of wisdom will develop as we understand what is in there, and as we begin to look at those things and apply them into our lives and see, am I thinking the same way David is? There's going to be a lot of root system of faith that's built during that time, because you can see David's faith through the good times of life and through the bad times of life. He always looked to God. Yes, he had the human elements when he said, you know, I wish you would do this with these people, but he always knew it was God's will, and he wasn't going to go against God's will, but he learned to have faith, and we could see the faith that's there.

We see the trust that's there. How many times in the Psalms does he say, trust in God? And there's a process he went through as he built the trust in God. Just like you and I build the trust in God, it's there. It begins at the day of baptism, but it continues to develop until the day we die.

To the time that we trust in him and trust in him only, and rely on him only, as David came to understand. And we look to him only for our healing and for our everything else that goes on in life, the benefits that he gives us that we know and appreciate and are humbled by the fact that he is paying attention to us and mindful of us. All those things that we can build as we see them in David's writings that God inspired and that God preserved for us. If we take the time, and this might be a good time to look at those things, as we look at a winter season where things are dormant and where we're inside a lot more, and a winter season is as we look at the things that are going on around us and wonder, what does God have in mind? What does God have in mind? When? When?

Well, the things that he prophesied come about. So we can take the time to do that and take the time during this time to build faith, build trust, build reliance, build our knowledge of him, build wisdom, build the things that God wants us to so that when the spring comes, we blossom forth before God. And when we come to Passover, it isn't that we've just started six weeks before saying, oh, I need to defend myself. Oh, I need to do this. But through the process of winter, as we develop the roots, we see God working and we spring forth before him like a flower that has grown. The fruits are evident. The faith is evident. The growth in every aspect of our life is evident as through the winter months and the times that we have been maybe apart from holy day seasons and everything, we take the time to develop that root system so that just like the tulips, when the spring comes, there's beautiful flowers that were there just waiting, just waiting to be revealed when the spring comes. Okay, so number one, we can develop our physical root system, our fellowship root system with one another. Second, we can develop our root system spiritually with God through the study that we do and maybe some of the focused study that we do as we look into some things and follow what Paul has given us here in Ephesians 5 verse 15. Let me continue with down through 21 here, Ephesians 5, before we turn from there. Let me recap. He says, speak to verse 19, speak to one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God. That's our mission. Give thanks, submit to God, submit to His way of doing things, submit to one another as God directs us in what He wants done in life. Okay, number three. Number three, let's first turn to Lamentations, and then I'll give you point number three.

It'll show up in the second verse we turn to here. Lamentations right after the book of Jeremiah.

For 40 years, God had the prophet Jeremiah warning the nation of Judah, turn back to me, turn back to me, and if you don't turn back to me, this is what's going to happen. Well, they heard it over and over again, and somehow Judah just didn't pay attention. It was kind of like their hearing got dull. They thought, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, we've heard this before Jeremiah, we're still here. Well, that day came just like the day is going to come when Jesus Christ returns, and the things that are prophesied in Matthew 24 and the Bible are going to come a pass. But Judah was too late. They didn't pay attention. They ignored the warning of Jeremiah, and the time came upon them. And the book of Lamentations is them kind of looking in their kind of winter season when their spring, summer, and fall that they were in Jerusalem and Judea were gone, and now they find themselves captives in Babylon. And Lamentations 3 in verse 37, says, Who is he? Who is he who speaks, and it comes to pass, when the Lord hasn't commanded it?

What man can make things happen if God doesn't want it to happen? Who is he who speaks, and it comes to pass, when the Lord hasn't commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that woe and well-being proceed? Why should a living man complain? A man for the punishment of his sins? If we've lived apart from God, if we've sinned and God punishes us, that's only right. That's only the way things should be. Why would we complain? Maybe what we do is seek God and find out what it is and ask Him where have we perhaps transgressed or learn something else from a trial that we're going through. Why should a living man complain? A man for the punishment of his sins? Let us search out and examine our ways and turn back to the eternal. Let us take the time to examine our ways and turn back to the eternal. Let us lift our hearts and hands to God in heaven. So during the winter season, we don't have to wait until six weeks before Passover. We don't have to wait until four weeks before Passover. It's something we should be doing all the time, but certainly now we can be looking at and examining our lives in light of the words of the Bible, in light of the words of Psalms, in the light of the words of Proverbs, in the light of the words of the law, which we read are perfect, which are the standard, which are what God wants us to become.

Haggai. Haggai 1. Haggai, third book from the end of the Old Testament right before Zechariah. Haggai. Haggai 1 and verse 5. And point three is right here in verse 5.

Now therefore, thus says the eternal of hosts, consider your ways. Consider your ways. Take the time to think of them. Think back to what happened in the last growing season between spring and fall. Think of the things that maybe the way you approached Passover, the way you had some interactions with people that may have been inappropriate, maybe some of the insights you learned into some of the things that you personally need to learn. Maybe the way we went to the Feast of Tabernacles and how we looked at it as a time to be together with God's people or morrows of vacation.

Maybe in some of the things that we've done, where we've realized later that we haven't kept God's law in exactly the way that we should. We've taken liberties in it. We've been a little bit lax in it. We've given ourselves permissions to do things that we shouldn't have given ourselves permissions to do. Consider your ways in the light of the Bible. Verse 6, You've sown much and you bring in little. And you know when I read these verses, I look at myself, I also look at us as a church and things that we can learn a worldwide church and God's church.

You have sown much and bring in little. You eat, but you don't have enough. You're never full.

You're always looking for more. You drink, but you're not filled with drink.

You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages earns wages to put into a bag with holes. It's like the money is there and it goes so quickly we don't even know where it went to.

Well, it can be, as we discussed last week, that we're not applying the principles of the Bible in regard to our finances. But you have a picture here of people who just aren't satisfied. They're not living up to what God has said. And his will for us is that we will be satisfied. We will be full. We will be joyous. Thus says the Lord of hosts, and it repeats in verse 7, consider your ways. Look and see what you're doing. Consider it. Look at it from the Bible. Ask God. Ask your mate. If you have good friends, ask them. Consider your ways. Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified, says the Eternal. That was the temple of old days, but today God is building the temple in us individually and in us as His church. Go up. Build that temple with the building materials that we're going to withstand time and stand for all time. You looked for much, but indeed it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. You expected much more. You kind of took matters into your own hands, and when you brought it home, it wasn't what you expected. You know what? I blew it away. Why? says the Lord of hosts, because of my house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. You know, one of the things that you can look at Solomon is that he spent seven years building God's house, and it was a beautiful temple built to the specifications that God said. But there in 1 Kings 11, I think it is, it says that Solomon said 14 years building his house, or 10 years or whatever it was, he spent more time on his house than he'd been building on God's house. And you know, we can find ourselves doing the same things. We're here to build God's temple, but if we don't watch it, we can spend our time building our own temple more. I mean, our own physical house more, paying more attention. I'm putting God's second and His way second so that we can enrich ourselves, do this better, have this more. God says, if you're wondering what's going on, consider your ways. Build your temple in the way that I asked you to, but instead, He says, you run to your own house. Therefore, the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit.

Consider your ways. So there's always a time for self-examination. The winter is a good time to do that. The farmers of old, you know, they would go back and they would do the accounting of what went on during the summer and they would, during the summer and the fall, and they would develop their plans for next year. We do the same thing. We consider our ways. Always. Not just during one time of year, but making sure that we feel the presence of God, and that we're doing things the way that He did. That we are measuring ourselves not against our neighbor, not against society, not against the person sitting next to Me in church, not against our husband. We're measuring ourselves against a perfection that is Jesus Christ. He's the standard. Just being better than the person next to you or your spouse or someone else in church that you may measure yourself, it isn't good enough. He is the standard. He's the perfection that God wants. Just as we discussed in the Bible study, God's universe is perfect and He expects us to be perfect if we want to be part of His plan. One of the things that happens in the winter.

One of the things that happens during the winter, and I hear it even in Florida, but one of the things I remember thinking about up north is that we get very, very, very cold and you'd have the subzero days and for some time it would go on for weeks that it would never hit freezing. I would always think, well, you know what? All the bugs are dying.

When the spring comes, it's going to be an easy and easy time. Even when it gets here in Florida, I think, oh good, maybe some of these things aren't going to live through the winter. It purifies the earth. 1 John 3, 3. It says something I mentioned in the Bible study.

Everyone who has the hope that God is given, what do we do? We purify ourselves.

The wintertime, and when we consider our ways, we should be looking to see, where is it? God, where do I have to go to become pure in your eyes? What do I need to weed out of my life?

Maybe it's relationships at home. Maybe it's relationships at church.

Maybe it's the way we handle our finances. Maybe it's the way we don't put God first in areas of our lives. Maybe it's the allowances that we make ourselves. Maybe our faith isn't as great as it should be when we read of the men and women in Hebrews 11. Do we have the faith that they had? When we put ourselves into those situations, would we allow ourselves to die before we would betray Christ?

And yet oftentimes in our lives, we betray Him all the time when we make decisions for ourselves.

How is that training ourselves? When we don't even deny ourselves the little things in life, and we just kind of do it because we think God will look the other way.

And yet at some point, any or all of us may be asked, or be in a situation where we would really literally have to give our lives. Would we do it? Are we doing it now that we would sacrifice to Him even the little things that don't matter? We can look at our faith and we can look at our trust. Do we really trust God? Or do we hedge our bets on things of the world as well? I trust God, but I'll look here as well. Or do we learn, put your faith first and foremost in Him?

Let's go back to Genesis 8. Genesis 8, verse 22. It references verse before. Genesis 8, verse 22. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night, shall not cease. Every year we'll have a winter. Every day we'll have day and night. Every year we'll have cold and heat. Why did God create winter? He didn't create it to be a dead time or a time that we take time off. He created it to be a time that we would develop what it is that He wants us to do. His spirit is always at work. You know, winter, so many times people will think it's dead. It's not dead. The earth continues to live, but in a different way than it does the other time. The winter is a time for us to focus on God, build those roots, allow His Holy Spirit to change us, to educate us, to deepen the roots we have with Him and with each other. It's a time to develop an action plan. I challenge all of us to develop an action plan for the winter. Don't just let it go by and then kind of wake up one morning in March and say, oh, Passover is only six weeks away. Now I need to get to work. No, God always works. Jesus Christ is always at work. We always are at work, and the winter is the time to work as well. Develop an action plan. We'll have this study thing that may, if you choose, may be part of what your action plan is. Develop it and stick to it. Develop it and stick to it and ask God to lead you in what you want to do so that when the spring comes, you will have studied the things that He leads you to study. You will develop the roots in very many areas that He wants you to develop. And when the spring comes and you come before God at Passover, He's going to see. And others will see the fruit that is developed in you as it begins to bloom. You know, there's a song that I'm sure everyone has heard by Bette Midler. Remember the song, The Rose? The Rose. And there's a beautiful line. There's a beautiful line in that song that I always have remembered. And the last line of the song goes like this. As she goes through the very many things of love, it says, Just remember, in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows lies the seed that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes the rose.

Let God develop that rose in you. Let God develop that time in you. Let's use the winter wisely and make the most of it.