What Used to Work Will Not Work in the New Season

Sermon outline

When what used to work stops working, God is moving you into a new season, and a new season carries requirements: a new level of worship and a new understanding, received God's way rather than ours.

1. The signs that you are in transition

   The new season will not come by education, technical ability or a new technique, but by knowing the mind and the divine strategy of God and flowing in His way. The time of manipulating God to fit our strategy has come to an end. When believers no longer identify with who they were and long for the good old days, it is because God cannot do something new while we hold on to something old. A rich man buys things, but a wealthy man invests, and God's design is generational wealth, not survival mode.

   Illustration: Paying the rent, then the bond, then the utilities, and the bank balance is still zero no matter how many hours you work.

   “The time of us manipulating God to meet our strategy has come to an end.”

   • Ecclesiastes 3:1

2. Productive, multiplying, conquering: problems do not define you

   God's design is that we be productive, multiply and conquer, in family, work, business, marriage and discipleship. In survival mode the only thing we produce is problems, by our decisions, actions and words, and then those problems conquer and govern us. A son of the Most High God cannot be ruled by problems. Who God says you are defines you, not who left, who fired you or what was done to you.

   “Problems do not define me.”

   • John 16:7

3. A new season carries new requirements

   You cannot hold on to the old self, even the old Christianity, while expecting the new. Solomon was a boy playing in the king's court when David told him he would be the next king, and Joshua was an assistant at the tent of meeting when God told him Moses was dead. God's ways are higher than ours, and being a Christian does not make blessing automatic. Salvation is free, but the walk of discipleship, becoming fishers of men, is expensive.

   “Life is not full of requests. Life is full of requirements.”

   • Joshua 1:2
   • Isaiah 55:8-9
   • Matthew 4:19

4. Key one: a new level of worship

   Before he was even established as king, Solomon went to the bronze altar and offered a thousand burnt offerings. When God promotes us, our first move is often the car dealership, the property site or the cruise, which is why many Christians circle the same season and never enter a new one. A new level of worship means coming on time, praying, reading the Bible, giving the whole tithe, and calling a ceasefire on strife at home and gossip at work. When the heart is right, God gives not only His omnipresence but His manifested presence, as He appeared to Solomon that night.

   Illustration: When he started working, still living at home, his father told him that if he would not tithe he could not live in the house, because he did not want any curses there.

   “A Christian life without intimacy with God is a waste of time.”

   • 2 Chronicles 1:6-7
   • Matthew 6:21
   • Joshua 24:15

5. Key two: a new understanding

   Offered anything he wanted, Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge to govern, not for money. He did not look for a wise man or enrol for a course; he went to God. Every rung from employee to director carries its own mindset, and bad managers exist because the mindset never caught up with the authority. Believers must do the self-development, using the resources the church provides, and let the spiritual anchor the natural. Because Solomon's focus was right, God added the riches, wealth and honour he never asked for, and that is favour.

   Illustration: Young people on Instagram dreaming of Ferraris and making millions on the beach while their mother still washes their clothes: the mindset does not match the reality.

   “How can we be asking God for a billion if our mindset is only in double digit and triple digit?”

   • 2 Chronicles 1:8-12
   • 1 Kings 3:16-28

6. Let the old go

   Being tired of the bickering, the distrust and having the last word is a sign that God is taking us out of the old season. He is not saying let bygones be bygones, but thank God for bringing you through. Salvation was free because Jesus paid the price, not to give a licence to do anything, but freedom in Him carries the requirement to seek Him wholly. He announces that the third key will follow the next week.

   “One wisdom, one understanding, one God-given assignment.”

   • Isaiah 43:19
   • 2 Corinthians 5:17

In this message