Four Seasons Of Life Part 3 Series

Four Seasons of Life – Part 3

Spring and Summer

Scripture: Luke 15:11-24; Psalm 100:1-5; James 1:22-25

This is part three of my series the “Four Season of Life.” Last week I talked about our spiritual falls and this morning we will be examining our spiritual springs and summers. If you recall, the Holy Spirit told me that we experience spiritual seasons similar to the natural seasons we go through. When He was talking to me, He told me that “The further you are away from Christ the colder you are and the colder you become. Remember, love is warm.” To date I have shared with you how we experience spiritual winters represented by our feeling furthest away from God and how we experience spiritual falls or autumns – that season of transition when it’s not too late to return to spring or summer versus continuing into a winter season. This morning we are going to look at spring and summer together because they both deal with things coming back to life in the natural and in the spirit. And on next Sunday I will conclude the series with a look at what I will call equator living – a place of living that I mentioned last week where we do not go through seasonal changes like winter, fall, spring and summer, but simple variations of our hot season.

To set the stage this morning, I want us to read the parable Jesus told about the prodigal son. As we read it, I want you to think about the son representing each of us and the father representing God in our lives, which is the whole point of this parable. Turn with me to Luke chapter fifteen and we will begin reading at verse eleven. We will pause in places so I can point out the seasonal changes this son experienced. Luke 15:11 begins, “And He said, ‘A certain man had two sons, 12 and the younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the portion of goods that falls to me.’ And he divided unto them his living.’” Let’s consider the son’s request. Based on his request to his father, this son is in a fall season. The reason I am making this observation is that at the time of his request the son is in a relationship with his father and he is still “connected” to his father. However, the son wants something more. The son is thinking about himself and his desires. He is not thinking about staying in his father’s house any longer – he wants to be free to do his own thing. So he goes to his father and asks for his inheritance. Remember what I shared with you last week from the survey about American Christianity going through a post-Christian reformation. Instead of Christians changing the world, for many of them, the world is changing them. This son, at this particular time, was being drawn to the world’s way of thinking and shifting from his father’s way of thinking. He was in a fall season as he was being pulled away from his father by the ways of the world. New Light, the world cannot pull a person unless there is something inside that person that the world can latch on to and lure the person away from the things of God. That’s why it’s important for us to allow the Bible to be our standard for living. I’m reminded of what Jesus told the disciples in John 14:30 – “Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in Me.” Jesus said that Satan will come – and he will come New Light – and he will see if there is anything in us – any emotion he can inflame – that will cause us to choose the world’s way of thinking about things over God’s way of thinking about things. Let’s continue.

“13And not many days later the younger son gathered everything together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.” At the son’s request, the father gives the son what he asks. Do you know God does not restrict us from doing what we want to do? Sure He has made it clear what He desires from us – but our decision to obey Him is still our decision. This father gives his son his inheritance and immediately the son leaves his father’s presence. This is significant because the son leaves his father’s presence so that he could do the things that his father – now follow me closely – so he could do things that his father would not allow him to do while he was still living at home. Are you seeing what is happening here? The father had made provisions for the son to live comfortably for his lifetime but that was not enough. The son wanted what he considered was his! He did not work for it; it belonged to his father. However, because he was a beneficiary of his father’s wealth, he asked for what he would eventually get upon his father’s death so he could enjoy it immediately. Then the son takes his inheritance and wasted it partying in the world. When the son separates from his father, he is making a decision to walk into a winter season and doesn’t recognize it. He is no longer living under the safety and protection of his father’s house. He is in a deep winter season being totally separated from his father, unlike the winter seasons we mostly experience because a part of us still remains connected to the Father. This son was totally separated from his father. Spiritually, this would be represented by a backslidden state. Let’s continue.