What Season Are YOU In? | The Leader's Cut w/ Preston Morrison

[Music] He said, “To the extent I desire to move through you, you must allow me to cut on you, the leader’s cut.”

What’s up, everybody, and welcome to the leader’s cut. We’re gonna have some fun today talking about something that I like to talk about from time to time because I think it’s really important to understand the season you find yourself in. And as you saw in the thumbnail, the title of this conversation is, “What season are you in?” What we’re really going to do is we’re going to talk about the four seasons in life, and I’m going to use the four seasons of a calendar year to really kind of use it as a springboard.

Listen, I understand that all of the seasons—you can have all of the seasons at one time. In other words, I can be in a spring season of harvest in my marriage, but with my kids be in a fall season of plowing. And we’re going to talk through all that stuff, but just understand that I know that it’s not as cut and dry and not as straightforward as we’re always only in one season. I understand that that’s not true. What I’m really pointing at is if you look at the theme—in other words, if there are multiple areas of my life where I’m in the same season—that’s really what I’m talking about. And I also know that you’re a grown man, you’re a grown woman, and you can understand that you can apply any of these truths not just to the entirety of a season but even to a small moment in a season.

Ecclesiastes chapter 3, verse 1 says, “For everything there’s a season, a time for every activity under heaven.” So as we step into this conversation, I want to pray that God would open our eyes, open our ears, and open our hearts to whatever he wants to show us, whatever he wants to say—say to us—and whatever he wants to do in our hearts. Holy Spirit, would you help us right now? We yield ourselves; we hit the pause button, no matter what they—they were just doing before—they press play. God, I pray that each person that is listening to the sound of my voice right now and pressing in to hear your voice far more than mine, Holy Spirit, I pray that you would anoint them to hear your voice, to steward your words. We just want you to speak to us; we need you. I’m not the smart one; you’re the one with access to all wisdom because you’ve got it all. So Holy Spirit, would you speak powerfully, clearly, and sweetly to each of our hearts, cut on us, in Jesus’ name, amen.

Genesis chapter 8, verse 22 says, “As long as the Earth remains”—strong statement—“there will be planting and harvest.” This represents the seasons: cold and heat, summer and winter, the seasons, day and night. As long as the Earth remains—in other words, this is the way things will always be until the new Heaven and the new Earth. And when you think about the seasons and the season you’re in, one of my concerns for you is that you’d be ignorant of the season God has you in. And here’s why: if you don’t know what season you are in, you have very little chance of stewarding that season well. If every single day is the same to you as every other day, stewarding each day will never be how you spend your day. And it’s really important to me, and I believe it’s very important to God, that each of us as his children steward the seasons he has us in. And so in order to steward them well, of course we have to know what they are, but we also have to know what to do. So with each of the four seasons, I’m going to kind of give a word and a description of that season, and then I’m going to give you just one thing to think about if you find yourself—or when you find yourself—in that season.

Here’s the first season we’re going to start with, and some of you might have been wondering, “I wonder which season we’re going to start with.” I decided to start with the fall. And for me—my perspective, and I—I get it—I’m just sharing with you my perspective—but my perspective of the fall is it’s a season of growth. And for me, if you were to think about a utensil, a tool, synonymous with a growth season, here’s what I would say: that tool would be the plow. And I’ve learned a lot about plowing over this last decade of my life. It doesn’t mean I’ve learned everything there is to know; I most certainly haven’t. But the Lord has helped me understand some things about plowing in this last season in such a way that used to—plowing was probably my least favorite thing, and now fall seasons are probably my favorite seasons. And here’s why: you’re headed towards a harvest without the pressure of stewarding it yet. I mean, it’s like the greatest thing—you get to prepare for it, but it’s not here yet. And so you kind of get the fun of knowing it’s one day coming, but not the pressure of it being today you have to steward.

Hosea chapter 10, verse 12 has always been kind of a special verse for me as it relates to plowing, and I—I know—I understand the context of this passage; I’m using this verse as a principle, and it’s just always kind of served as a reminder for me: “Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.” The plowing comes before the rain. Plow up—Preston—the hard ground of your hearts. I think too many of us hate the plowing season, and I think that’s dangerous. If you have a problem with plowing, then you’re not going to get to experience the beauty of harvesting. The harvest which is in your future is directly connected to how much plowing you’ve done in your past. So take the plowing today seriously; don’t just let the time pass. Plow the hard ground of your hearts; plow in every area of your life. The more I plow today, the more I have a shot at harvesting tomorrow after God makes it rain for me. The fall is synonymous with plowing.

Now, one piece of advice for those of you—those of us—in the fall season, the growth season: don’t go anywhere. Don’t rush to leave a fall season, a growth season, a plowing season. I’m not saying don’t do anything; what I’m saying is don’t go anywhere. Never try to graduate before you’re done growing; it will only and always expose you.

Now, on the other side of that coin, I fully understand that Ecclesiastes 11, verse 4 says, “Farmers who wait for perfect weather never plant anything.” So I’m not saying just wait for everything to be perfect and don’t go anywhere until you know everything is just right. Please hear me: the conditions are never going to be perfect. But I’ve never lived through a season where the conditions were so perfect that I had the thought, “Oh well, since everything’s perfect, now’s the time.” In other words, in my marriage, things have never been so perfect that I thought, “Oh, now’s the time to take the next step.” Now, we walk by faith, so we don’t wait for perfect weather. I’m not saying don’t go anywhere until everything’s perfect; what I’m saying is just make sure you don’t try and run into something you’re not fully ready to step into.

I’ll give you kind of an example of what it would be like: my uh firstborn son, Tyler, is learning how to play golf, and he’s only been playing for about eight, twelve months seriously—a minute—in his whole life; he’s probably not even played two dozen rounds of golf. But he set a goal: he wants to play on his high school golf team next season—kind of an audacious goal for somebody who—who’s never really played that much before. And here’s what going before you’re ready would be like: it would be like if Tyler wanting to play tournament golf in the fall, and we’re presently in the spring. It would be like Tyler saying, “I’m going to enter into tournaments tomorrow because it’s time; that’s where I’m heading, and so I’m going to just start getting into these tournaments.” And here’s what Tyler would find: he doesn’t even know the rules yet. I mean, he legitimately—if you play golf—he doesn’t know the difference between a red line and a white line practically. Here’s why: because he’s so new to this field called golf, he needs to give himself some time to learn the rules of the game. But I cannot tell you how many times I have encountered a believer, either young or old, who thinks they are so good at the game in that field that they rush out into tournament play where all eyes are on them, and they don’t even fully understand the rule book yet. Another way to say it is: in the Kingdom, they don’t even understand the protocol of the palace God is leading them into because it’s not yet time. And so what does he do? God gives us seasons like the fall in our lives.

Three years ago, I felt like the Lord said to me, “Preston, you have three years to prepare; it’s coming, and you must be ready. And now is the end—this three years is the end of your plowing season—but you’re not ready today, and you have three years to make sure you are ready.” Okay? What’s the best way to steward a fall season, a growth season? Never be content with the measure of growth you’ve already had. Grow and grow and grow more. Appreciate your growth that you’ve experienced so far, but never get comfortable to the point that you get complacent. Always be growing. In the business world, this is really easy to understand because in the business world you know you have competition. But in the Kingdom, I think a lot of us kind of look at it as a competitionless race where it’s like, “Oh well, you know, I can kind of coast because it’s my race; it’s the race set before me.” Listen, I think sometimes we need to think a little bit more like the business world, and that is, “Hey, somebody somewhere is growing today, and I have—I have a little goal in my heart, a little chip on my shoulder: I want to grow more today than anybody else in the family.” Have I ever? Probably not. But it’s still my goal. I got some great family members who grow and grow and grow. That’s part of why I consistently make sure I am not content with the growth I’ve already experienced. Fall seasons are meant to—to be a season where we grow, and plowing—it’s one of the best ways I believe to prepare for supernatural Kingdom growth.

Second season, and some of us aren’t gonna like this season. Timmy and I talk about this a lot, and we’re not the only ones; many others do because of the one we follow, Jesus. He was the one who taught what I’m about to remind you of. Second season: what comes after the fall? The winter. And if the plow was the tool for a growth season in the fall, what’s the kind of the picture of the tool for the winter season? I’d say it’s the cross. It’s the cross. And if the plow is difficult, the cross is deadly. It’s meant to be; it’s a device of torture and death. But it’s not an ugly thing; this is actually one of the keys to the kingdom to me. Death is a word that describes a winter season when God is after something, when he’s trying to kill something in me.

Romans chapter 8, verses 12 and 13 say, “Therefore, dear brothers and sisters, you have no obligation to do what your sinful nature urges you to do; for if you live by its dictates you will die. But if through the power of the spirit you put to death the deeds of your sinful nature, you will live.” I’ll personalize it for me; I want you to personalize it for you, Preston. If you will kill what I am asking you to kill, what I am desiring to live in you and through you can come to life in a kingdom led by the one who died and came back to life. Something must always be dying in order for us to always be seeing things come to life. But remember, dying daily—while it makes you dangerous—it also makes everything more difficult. I’m so grateful that when I was growing up in ministry and my career—my calling, which was vocational ministry—and is that—had a phenomenal mentor in the area of death, of killing things, and that was Pastor Robert Morris. I saw him time and time again take the low road. I saw people take advantage of him, and him continuously—time and time again—take that low road, even though he probably could have taken the high road above them. You know, sometimes people say, “Take the high road.” Pastor Art was the one that helped me understand, “Take the low road, take the low road.” And when God wants to put you on the high road, he will, but you always choose to take the low road. When Jesus talks about forgiving 70 times seven, that’s the low road; that—that’s not the high road. Forgiving once, to me, is the high road. The low road is forgiving 489 more times.

Now, some of us, when we think about God asking us to kill something, we get frustrated; we get mad at him, probably because we don’t understand the way things work in this upside-down kingdom. When God is asking you, leading you, or making you kill something, get excited and take it as a compliment. He’s trying to tell you there’s something he’s wanting to birth in you and through you, but it can’t come to life until you kill what God is desiring would be done. He wants something in me to die today, and part of the fun—part about being a follower of Jesus and a son of God for me—is trying to figure out what is God asking me to kill today? Can you imagine if every day of your life you made sure some part of your flesh was killed? Can you imagine what your everyday life would look like? Can you imagine what might come to life if you and I were consistently putting to death the things that keep besetting us, the things that keep tripping us up? The key is death in winter seasons. While excruciating in this Kingdom of our God’s, winter seasons always precede seasons where something is birthed. And let me just say this: if you’re in a winter season, I want you to be encouraged. “Well, Preston, you don’t know how bad this is; you don’t know—I lost my marriage, I lost my business, I lost this, I lost this, I lost this. You talk about winter; nothing is living.” I get it, and I’m sorry, but I’m telling you, I’ve read that book—Job went through an ice-cold winter, and it led to one of the most memorable conversations with God recorded in Scripture. And in the end, God rendered him speechless at the work of his hand. So I’m telling you, just don’t tap out just because things have gotten cold and a little dark, and it doesn’t seem like there’s anything green growing right now. Just keep killing everything he’s asking you to put to death.

Now, what is a good piece of advice, in my opinion, for somebody in a winter season? Here’s what I’d say: use that season to dig—dig around in your heart. Here’s another way to say it: break down your game film. Break down your game film every day of your life. Now, I don’t know a ton of people who do this consistently, and I’m not saying I break down my game film every single day, but I try—I try to have some time with the Lord, and he’s the one who really helped me get this habit started, and he did it with questions. But before I give you the questions, I just want to remind you: players who don’t break down their game film are bound to repeat the same mistakes over and over and over again. If you don’t—and Timmy and I talked about this last week in our conversation on the leader’s cut—if we don’t dig around, we’ll just keep failing the same way.

Now, here are two questions that I feel like the Lord challenged me with that I just want to give to you as kind of a—in my opinion—a really great way to break down your game film each and every day. Kind of look at the bigger things and—and the things that uh, you know, you know the high points and the low points; that’s how I’ll say it. All right, and typically I usually start with my low points—probably not the best thing to do all the time—but I don’t spend too much time breaking down my highlight reels; I move on to the next play. You know, you got to keep putting up shots. But what I like to do is dig around and go over the game footage of my low points, the mistakes that I make. Here are two questions: first question, “What was I feeling when I made that choice, when I said those words? What was I feeling inside of me?” Did someone say something that made me feel some kind of way? Did something happen the night before that put me in a specific frame of mind that causes me to be defensive, and because I was feeling this type of way, I went into that conversation or that meeting that type of way? The more self-aware you are, the—the easier it is—and I’m not saying it will be easy; I’m just saying the easier it will be to live a healthy life. I found it’s a really, really difficult to be a healthy human when you are not self-aware. Of course, I—I love counselors and grateful for the counselors God’s given me in previous seasons and this season who—who helped me—help me dig around the soil of—of my heart. But I’m telling you, yes, they can help, but you know what really makes you dangerous? So when you don’t have to pick up the phone to call somebody, when you become so in tune and aware of where you are that you just have a conversation between you and the Lord: “What was I feeling?” Here’s the second question: “Why did I do it?” So I like to know what I was feeling, but then I like to process: “Why did I do that? Why did I think that was the best course of action? What made me think saying those words would lead to a specific outcome, especially if it didn’t lead to the outcome I was hoping for?” Why—why did I do it? Was I trying to posture? Was I trying to lead too strongly? There are all of these other subsequent questions, but one of the two big questions I try and use to break down my game film is, “Why did I do it?” Well, we can’t just go through every day of our lives assuming we’re always right.

I’ll use a real-time example: some of you saw um a clip, a real from last week on mentoring, and there’s a lot of discussion, and I loved the discussion; I’m not afraid of discussion. Here’s why: because the healthiest families have the healthiest discussions. And so I was excited there was a discussion. But as I watched the—the real, and I watched it multiple times—not to see what everyone else was saying, but to try and see what no one else could see—there were—there were some things—if I was shooting that over again, would I do it differently? Yeah, I would. It doesn’t mean that I—I wish I wouldn’t have; I’m—I’m glad we had that conversation; it was a 90-second clip of a larger conversation. But as I watched it, I could absolutely see that in those clips my tone uh could come across as being too strong and being overly confident. And I was reminded—but—so the question I asked, “What was I feeling?” Well, at that time I wasn’t feeling anything other than I was really trying to help. And usually when I get kind of strong when I’m teaching, oftentimes it’s because I’m thinking about something from my past that I don’t want you to experience in your present. And so I can get strong. But then the second question was, “Why did I do it?” And as I navigated through, “Why did I use those words? Why did I use that tone?” And—and here—here was the answer that I ranked at—I said what I said, and I—I said it the way I said it because I’m sure of what I’m talking about. And I don’t mean the specifics; I’m sure that mentoring is a very important thing, discipleship is a very important thing, that the family of God is huge, and that I—and you probably have had people come up to you and that you’ve never met before and say, “I—I feel like you’re supposed to mentor me.” And it’s a—it’s a huge responsibility, I think. When I answered the question, “Why did I do it?” My answer—the answer I arrived at—was, “I was trying, in too short of a period of time, to drive home a point that I actually probably need a whole hour to talk about.” So here’s the gut-level answer: I’m just—I’m just letting you in on this, and if you don’t even know what I’m talking about, go back and read through the comments because it was a lively discussion; it was awesome; it was fantastic. You’re not always going to bat a thousand; nobody is. And so it’s great to see the family of God talk about it. But here’s—here’s where I got to: “Why did I do what I did?” Well, I actually didn’t understand that that specific conversation—there’s a lot of hurt people have felt, a lot of rejection when someone older has said, “No, I’m not mentoring you.” And that’s not at all what I and Timmy were talking about. We’ll probably talk about it in a future episode. I’m just letting you in on a real time because I want you to see this—this is not just some smoke I’m blowing your direction; this is an exercise that I consistently try and do. And learning is a drug for me, and one of the things I like to learn about the most—my number one favorite subject—is the God of the universe. Now, this might sound a little weird, but my second favorite is me—not my wife, not my children. Here’s why: because the more I understand myself, the better I can be for my spouse, the better I can be for my children. So my—my first favorite thing to learn about is God, but my second favorite thing to learn about is me. So I hope this helps when you’re in a winter season and God’s asking you to kill things. Uh, don’t just put things to death; yes, that obedience is good, but dig around in that soil and figure out why God asks you to kill it. Figure out, “Lord, why—why did you need that to be dead before I step into what you want to birth through me?” It’s a fun exercise. Is it easy? No. Winter is never easy. But remember, in this Kingdom of our God’s, winter—when something dies—always precedes something coming to life.

That brings us to season number three: the spring. And if there was a tool in this season—the spring season—that kind of represented the season, I think it would be the sickle—maybe you’ve heard it said another way—a reaping hook. And you know the picture: it’s that staff with a hook on the end of it to harvest the wheat, for instance. A spring season is a season of reaping. Now, of course, everybody looks at the reaping season, and when you think about plowing and you think about sowing seed and then you think about the harvest, everybody wants to get in on the harvest; everybody wants to reap. And of course, I mean, Jesus expects fruit, so I’m not saying the spring season is bad; I’m just telling you, when I was younger, I thought the spring was the best season, and it’s an awesome season. But actually, all four of the seasons of life are awesome when God is in them. And that’s not something cliché. Holly and I, we had five straight months of one of the worst winter seasons we’ve ever had—years and years ago—where it seemed like everything that could go wrong went wrong. My appendix ruptured, and I lived with it for several days. Holly uh had a miscarriage that led to a tubal—an ectopic pregnancy—and—and they got stuck in her fallopian tube and ruptured and caused her to lose a ton of her blood. Our daughter broke her arm; it was one thing after another that just seemed like if it could go wrong, it was going wrong. And you know what we learned in that dark winter season? That even in winter, our God reigns, and he kept us warm, and he kept us safe, and he taught us…

Much. Well. Spring seasons—they're they are awesome. Not gonna lie. I mean, when we talked about on a hot streak, really, for me a hot streak is just a season of divine momentum, and that's that's kind of what a harvest is.

Second Corinthians chapter 9, verse 6 says, “Remember this, because I want to reverse engineer as we talk about the spring season. I don't want to just talk about reaping; I want to remind us how we get there.” Second Corinthians 9:6 says, “Remember this: a farmer who plants only a few seeds will get a small crop, but the one who plants generously will get a generous crop.” All of us want a generous, god-sized harvest. How do you experience such a harvest? You have to plow an inordinate amount, and you have to sow extravagant seed. Again, I I'm sure some of you may think, um, “I just I go back to Pastor Robert way too much,” but you have to understand, and he he was uh and is someone that God has extravagantly used in my life to learn so many incredible lessons. And this kind this part of the conversation in this verse makes me think about watching him steward one of the more blessed churches financially.

Now, I'm not implying that more money means more blessing; it does mean more responsibility. But it is pretty miraculous the amount of earthly resource that God has entrusted to Pastor Robert and the elders and the staff and the people of Gateway Church in Dallas. And I get asked from time to time by other pastors, “Why is Gateway so blessed financially?” And here's what I'd say: It's not just because Pastor Robert wrote *The Blessed Life*. Really and truly, it's not because he teaches on it every year. He doesn't teach *The Blessed Life* every year. I'll tell you my perspective, and this is the little boy's behind-the-scenes perspective: I think one of the reasons that Gateway Church is entrusted by God with so much earthly resource is because Pastor Robert and Debbie were personally plowing and sowing financially into the kingdom, into the local church, into the family of God, into reaching the lost, and into taking the gospel to the Jew first, long before anybody knew their name outside of the state of Texas. They were plowing and sowing. It doesn't surprise me at all that God would trust so much to him and them because in fall seasons in the past and winter seasons in the past, Robert and Debbie were faithfully—not trying to get any acclaim, not trying to be known, not telling anybody about it—but they were plowing financially, and they were sowing financially.

Please hear my heart. I know it's not all about money, and I know some people try and make it sound like, you know, create this narrative. Please don't twist my words and take it into all that stuff. I'm just telling you from this little boy's perspective: Whatever we sow, we reap, and to the extent we sow, that's the extent to which we reap. And I know for me, one of the things that taught me this lesson the most is Pastor Robert and Debbie, and I'm still learning it to this day. So just now, if you're in a spring season, I think in part a spring season only lasts as long as you're plowing prepared for that harvest and you're sowing prepared for that harvest. Now, what's the advice that I think is good advice for someone who's in a spring season? Here it is: You ready? Run, run, run, run, run, run, run! I've gotten to go through a few spring seasons as a senior pastor—not a ton, but a couple—and I will tell you, when you get into those seasons of divine momentum where God is breathing and he's pouring the oil of Heaven, go, go, go, go, go, go! When it's time to reap, you better be ready to reap, 'cause you don't know how long that spring season is going to last.

Galatians chapter 6, verse 9 says, “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” I threw this verse in there for those of you who right now are this close to just giving up because you're in a winter season and you're you're exhausted and you've tried to kill everything you could think to kill, but it doesn't seem to be working. And let me encourage you with the word of God: Don't give up. Don't give up, because at just the right time you'll reap a harvest. But I've seen people tap out just before a harvest was about to begin. If I were your enemy, I would try and take you out up until the very last second before you step into a harvest season. Don't do it. Don't quit. Just keep going. I know it's hard, and I know you want to quit, but don't, don't. He's not punishing you by by asking you to kill some things in a winter season; he's preparing you for that spring season of harvest. Don't give up. Don't find an excuse to quit. Telling you there are just not enough spring seasons in life to take them lightly. You need to be ready for them. Make sure you have what you need to steward whatever God wants to do, wants that switch flips. And remember, if it hasn't flipped yet, it doesn't mean it's because something's wrong with you; it just means it's not time yet. And I love you too much to lie to you; you're awesome. But if you were ready for that harvest, you'd be experiencing it now. So enjoy, appreciate, and leverage the grace and mercy of God not to sit you in that season if you're not fully ready to steward it, but prepare for me. Essentially, no matter what season I'm in, it's a fall season; I'm always getting ready for something. What are you getting ready for?

A harvest is coming. Jesus said, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few.” There is a kingdom-sized harvest out there that I don't believe we've seen yet. I'm not talking about a harvest in your business; I'm not talking about a harvest in your ministry; I'm talking about a worldwide harvest, a coming back to God, a revival. I believe it's coming, and I believe the Earth's gonna see it before the end of my grandchildren's lives. Are you ready? Of course, I want to talk to you about being ready for the spring season of your life, but what if a worldwide harvest happens on our watch? Are we ready, or will we, in exhaustion, tap out and not play our role, not do our part to steward everything God wants to do on the Earth in our day? I think spring is coming. I'm just telling you, spring is coming; you better be ready for it. I want to be ready, and I want you to be too.

That brings us to the fourth and final season: summer. And if there was a tool that, in my opinion, is synonymous with the summer season—if the fall is a plow, I would say the summer is a hammock. For many, summer is synonymous with summer vacation. And so, if there's a word to describe a summer season, here's what I would say: It's a season of rest. It's when God intentionally places you in a season to catch up on rest that is backlogged. The word “rest” means to stop doing in order to relax; literally, that means to stop doing. Now, watch how seriously God takes your rest and your restful seasons. Psalm 4:8 says, “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, O Lord, will keep me safe.” God takes your rest, God takes my rest, so seriously that he protects me, he protects you while you rest.

Some of us are convinced that if we take time off, it will all come crumbling down. As a business, Chick-fil-A is such a great reminder of this. If you actually believe that, look how God has blessed Chick-fil-A. Yes, those spicy chicken sandwiches would change your life, and so will the blackened chicken uh nuggets change your life. And if you really want a little hot take, get a large club soda with that much lemonade—change your life. Another discussion for another day. Chick-fil-A, though—what do they do? What's their business model? While all of their competitors are competing on Sunday, as a company, as a family, Chick-fil-A has said, “In this family, we do what God did; we do what God says. We rest on the Sabbath.” And what do you know? This business model, doing it God's way, has brought the blessing of God. Wow. They rest; they experience the blessing of God.

Now, really important question to answer: What happens when you don't stop? Well, unfortunately, I have the answer, and it came from experience. I remember in one season, back in the day, I um it was a it was a hot streak. I was experiencing some divine momentum as a senior pastor, and it may have even been at the time what I felt like was my first season of divine momentum, and is either the first or the second. And if it was the second, and I know why I was thinking the way I was thinking, because I learned from the first one: Spring seasons don't last forever; they're just that—a season. And so, in this particular season of divine momentum, I was going and going and going and going. Now, I'm fully aware that what I advise you to do during a spring season was run, run, run, run, run, run, but I'm not just saying run without stopping; I'm saying run hard, but also stop and rest.

Years ago, in a season of divine momentum, um, I was going and going and going and and I know for a fact I wasn't first; I wasn't observing the Sabbath; that wasn't prioritizing my time alone with the Lord. What I was prioritizing was ambitious, ambitious advancing, and probably a little bit out of fear. I was afraid that it was going to be over quickly, that hot streak, and so I wanted to maximize it, and I convinced myself it was good stewardship, but actually it was horrific stewardship because it was killing me, and that I was burning the candle at both ends. Um, it got bad; it got really bad, and I didn't even realize I was working while being completely and utterly exhausted, and we were going. It was the summer, a season of rest supposedly, and I wasn't resting. And back then, I wasn't taking time off for a family vacation—that's horrible. I look back on it, and it's such a fool now. Every summer, it's one of the things I look forward to most, prioritizing my time with my family. But back then, I wasn't, and I had said yes to some things the Lord probably didn't ask me to do that involved travel, and some of it was in Dallas. And so I flew to Dallas on the first day of family vacation. So my son had a baseball tournament, an All-Star tournament in Utah, and so we were gonna borrow a friend's trailer and drive up to Utah and just go to five or six national parks and root our son on playing on his first All-Star team. And um, at the time my father-in-law lived with us—uh, actually, for the sake of detail, I think this is before he lived with us—but he wanted to go to these national parks; he had never been to the ones we were going to, and so he came to go on this trip with us. And here's what my stupid self had my wife do: I had my wife take our kids along with her father and drive the trailer without me up to Utah and said, “Babe, I’ll finish up my responsibilities in Dallas at a board meeting,” and then I was I had said yes to speaking at the King's University, and I said, “I’ll take one of our sons with us—uh, our other son who wasn’t playing in the tournament—and after I’m done, we’ll catch a plane and we’ll meet you in Utah.” Three days in two or three days into our family vacation.

Now, here's the detail I haven't told you: Not only was my stupid self saying yes to things God wasn't asking me to do and starting family vacation having my family start it without me, I didn't realize it, but I had created an addiction to caffeine, and I didn't know it. So I wrap up my responsibilities; my oldest son and I fly to Utah a couple days into the family vacation, and I had not thought through being in the middle of nowhere for days and days and days and didn't have access consistently to coffee, and I crashed hard, and it was not pretty. It was physically ugly: intense headaches and feeling nauseous. My attitude was terrible because of how terrible I felt, and it was just awful. And I got there because I was running and running and running without ever stopping, and my cheat code was caffeine. Please hear me; I'm not saying caffeine is inherently wrong. I started every day with a mocha; I'm convinced that's God's favorite drink in the morning, at least it's mine when we're together. I'm not saying caffeine's wrong, but I am saying, like many other things, too much of it is a bad thing. And a couple days into our vacation without caffeine, I felt the Lord sweetly but firmly come and speak to me and set things right. And here's what I would tell you: My biggest takeaway in that season is that it's not enough just to rest; you have to replenish. This is my advice to anyone in a summer season. If you find yourself in a summer season of rest, and it's just a beautiful and wonderful—and I don't just mean vacations; it's just a restful season—remember, rest means to stop doing, but that's not enough. Not only must we stop doing, we must also replenish. Replenish means to bring back into original existence, use, function, or position. Psalm 23:2 and 3 says, “God lets me rest in green meadows, green pastures; he leads me beside peaceful waters; he restoreth, he renews my strength; he makes me lie down in green pastures, and he restores, he refreshes my soul.” God replenishes you every time you rest. When he says rest, rest to me is when you don't use your tank, but replenishing to me is when you refill your tank.

Now, here's a silly picture: Everybody has probably found a little something in their life that makes everything seem better—maybe it's a little trinket that you buy, maybe it's a little bit of food that you consume. For me, here's what I've learned about me: It's a brownie. It's a brownie. Like when my wife makes my favorite brownie, it just makes everything seem better. Like you put a little bit of Blue Bell homemade vanilla ice cream on top of that brownie. I have it for dinner, after for dessert after dinner; I'll wake up and have it for breakfast. I don't know why, but the brownie just makes everything seem better. Here would be my question to you: Have you found your brownie? Have you found things in your life that when you get a little bit of it, it just makes everything better? I can go down the list than you probably could too. When I get to watch my oldest son hit balls on the golf course right now, it fills my tank. When I get to sit at a private table with my wife and us ask questions and just hear our hearts talk to one another, it fills my tank; it makes everything seem better. Do you know what replenishes you? See, I think some of us just think, “If I’ll just stop doing, in other words, if I’ll rest, everything will be fine.” That's I’ve tried that; yes, it can work, but there’s something else that works far better: Replenishing myself, letting God restore me, me actively refilling my tank. You’ve heard me say this before, but if you don’t fill your tank before the next journey, you’re always going to run out of fuel before you make it to God’s intended destination for you. But but let me go further than that, because it’s not just about, “Well, you’re never going to get there if you don’t have what you need in your tank.” Yes, that’s important, and it’s wisdom, but let me give you a different perspective, another perspective: Life is zero fun when you force yourself to live it with an empty tank. I believe God gives us summer seasons to replenish, to refill our tank. Don’t just stop doing and binge Netflix. And listen, I get it; binging Netflix for a little bit, a couple episodes straight, can can replenish a tank. If I watch episodes of *Mandalorian* back to back to back, it it fills my tank. You probably have your show, but watching all three seasons consecutively during a season of rest—in a rest is actually just doing nothing—it’s not replenishing me. A couple episodes fills my tank; watching all the seasons all at once actually drains my tank, and here’s why: because there was something else I needed to be doing to fill my tank or to fill someone else’s in my life whom I love. And going too far, stepping into excess of a good thing and getting too much of it, goes from filling my tank to emptying my tank. If you’re in a summer season, don’t just rest; replenish. Fill yourself back up, because a fall season is coming, and you’re gonna have to plow your guts out, and you better have everything you need in your tank to pull it off.

As we wrap up, there was a passage that I just felt the Lord give me um a burden for to wrap up our time together. It’s First Chronicles chapter 12, verse 32, talking about the sons of Issachar, and it says, “From the tribe of Issachar there were 200 leaders of the tribe with their relatives. All these men understood the signs of the times and knew the best course for Israel to take.” I just I felt this this stirring in me to just pray over you, to pray over us. Whatever anointing God gave the children of Issachar, that God would give us. We must know the signs of the times; we must know the seasons we are in. And then I want us all to have an anointing that only God could give us to know the best course of action to take, no matter the season we find ourselves in. So let me pray over you, and we’ll wrap up our time together.

God, thank you so much. I just thank you for my family; thank you for my brothers and sisters. This is the greatest family ever. And Lord, I know my brothers and sisters are in various seasons and and experiencing varying degrees of seasonal intensity. Father, I just pray for my siblings. I pray that no matter what season they find themselves in, that you, by your Holy Spirit, would make them aware; they would be aware of the season they’re in. And then I pray you would anoint them to know, according to your wisdom and your leading Holy Spirit, the best course of action to take, no matter the situation, no matter the season. God, the day in which we live is a significant one. May we be like the sons of Issachar, knowing the signs of the times, knowing the seasons we are in, and being anointed to take the best course of action. Father, would you rip open the windows of Heaven and rain down upon my brothers and sisters the richest blessings they have ever experienced? And I don’t just mean more money, more possessions. God, I pray in this season, no matter which season they’re in, I pray that they would get more of you than any other season prior to this one. It’s a gift to get to walk through this life with you. May we celebrate the plowing of the fall; may we celebrate the dying, the death of the winter; may we celebrate the reaping of the spring; may we celebrate the replenishing of the summer. God, would you help us? Would you divinely enable each of us to steward the season we each find ourselves in? In Jesus’ lighting, it. Amen.

I love you so so much. I always enjoy our time together. Can’t wait till one day we get to do this live where we can talk back and forth just a little bit; that’ll be fun. But until then, I’m enjoying looking into a camera as though you and I were sitting at a closed coffee shop, the only two in the cafe, and the God of the universe pulls up a seat at our table. I enjoy getting to spend time with you, and I pray that our time together is always valuable, not just to you, but in the eyes of God. I love you so much. I’ll see you next week. [Music]