““There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die... a time to kill and a time to heal... a time to weep and a time to laugh... a time to love and a time to hate.””
A Memorial Day Sunday message urging disciples to remember and worship God in every season of life. Using Ecclesiastes, Deuteronomy, Luke, and Psalm 103, the speaker contrasts wilderness seasons that draw us to God with seasons of prosperity that can produce spiritual amnesia. Practical application centers on gratitude, confessing sin, faithful dependence in hardship, generosity for missions, and pursuing God rather than merely his benefits. A personal testimony about mental-health struggles, temptation, repentance, and baptism illustrates the sermon’s call to rely on the cross as the true 'way out.'
““To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the sun” (paraphrase; includes the contrasting times like death and birth).”
A pastoral teaching on the spiritual and practical principles of 'starting over'—embracing new seasons from God by releasing the old, renewing identity, holding godly expectations, obeying the Holy Spirit, and committing to spiritual disciplines (repentance, fellowship, giving) as the church prepares to relaunch.
“For everything there is a season — a time for reflection and a time for action, a time for rejoicing and a time for tears, a time for endings and a time for new beginnings.”
A celebratory retirement and transition service for Rev. James T. Meeks after 38 years at Salem Baptist Church (Jan 8, 2023). Centered on Acts 20 and the theme "I Never Can Say Goodbye," the sermon reflected on the emotional bonds between pastor and congregation, the tensions of leadership change, key lessons from Paul's farewell (tears, tension, testimonies), and the formal passing of pastoral leadership to Rev. Charlie Dates. The program included civic recognition, a Baylor University archival gift, prayers, an altar call for salvation, and a stewardship appeal to bless the retiring pastor and first lady.
