Sermon Recap
Seasons of Hope
Amanda Leck · October 11, 2026
Scripture referenced
- Ecclesiastes 1:1-2
- Ecclesiastes 3:1-11
- Ecclesiastes 3:22
- Ecclesiastes 3:18
- John 10:10
- Genesis 50:20
- Proverbs 3:5-8
- John 16:33
- Revelation 21
- Hebrews 10:23
On a Sunday evening when pastor Brian was traveling, Amanda Leck brought the message. She took Ecclesiastes 3 as her anchor and walked through what it means to hold onto hope when life moves through seasons you did not choose and cannot control.
What was said
Amanda opened in Ecclesiastes 3, where Solomon lists the full sweep of human experience, birth and death, planting and uprooting, weeping and laughing, war and peace. She noted that Solomon was not being dramatic for its own sake. As the richest and wisest king who ever lived, someone who had experienced everything a person could experience, his observation that life moves through seasons carries real weight. The point, she said, is not that some seasons are good and others are bad, but simply that seasons come, and none of us are in charge of that.
She named two ditches on either side of a healthy response to that reality. One is the need for total control, where everything has to go your way or something has gone wrong. The other is fatalism, the attitude of “what’s the point” that drains a person of faith and the will to lean into God at all. Neither ditch serves you. Solomon gestures toward fatalism at moments in the book, and she acknowledged that, but the goal is the middle ground of trust.
The story of Joseph from Genesis came in as the central illustration. Sold by his brothers, falsely accused by Pharaoh’s wife, imprisoned, none of those seasons made sense while he was in them. Yet at the end, he said to his brothers that what they intended for harm, God intended for good. Amanda held that up not only as a picture of forgiveness but as a picture of what it looks like to trust God through seasons that have no explanation at the time, and to arrive somewhere you could not have reached any other way.
She moved to John 16:33, where Jesus tells his disciples that in this world they will have trouble, but to take heart because he has overcome the world. She pointed out that peace is offered in that verse while trouble is a promise. Jesus said it before the cross, speaking from a place of victory that was not yet visible, because God sees the end from the beginning. That victory, his life, his death, his resurrection, is the foundation of any peace a believer carries through hard seasons.
Amanda pushed back on the idea that the world can fill the longing eternity has placed in every human heart. Citing the line from verse 11, that God has set eternity in our hearts, and quoting Augustine that our hearts are restless until they rest in God, she said the world was never designed, after the fall, to satisfy that longing. Chasing it there, she said, is where the animalistic side of human appetite takes over, appetite that is not wrong in its proper place but that the world cannot permanently satisfy.
The practical anchor she kept returning to was listening to and obeying the voice of the Holy Spirit. She described it as the cheat code for navigating seasons, small promptings included. She told the story of walking her dog and being nudged three times to pick up a stick on the path, deciding that if she could not obey something that small, she was unlikely to hear anything bigger when it came. She also warned against isolating, telling the congregation that community is not optional, and that God is not surprised by any season a person walks through, which means no season is wasted.
Touch points
- Read Genesis 37-50 this week and notice the seasons Joseph moved through without knowing where they were leading.
- When you feel stuck in a hard season, go back to Proverbs 3:5-8 and let God’s character, not your circumstances, be the measure of whether He is faithful.
- Practice obeying the still small voice of the Holy Spirit in something small this week, even if it seems as trivial as picking up a stick on a walk.
- If you have been isolating, reach out to one person from the Tribe community this week, whether that is a Bible study, a friend, or just someone you sit near on Sunday.
- Spend a few quiet minutes this week doing what Amanda described: journaling, listening to worship, or just sitting in silence long enough to hear what the Holy Spirit might be saying to you.
Doing a Bible study?
- Solomon opens Ecclesiastes calling everything meaningless, yet Amanda said that passage gives her hope because it feels real. What is it about an honest look at life’s hard seasons that can actually strengthen faith rather than weaken it?
- Amanda described two ditches: needing to control everything on one side, and falling into fatalism on the other. Which of those two ditches do you tend to drift toward, and what does getting back to the middle actually look like for you?
- Joseph’s story shows seasons that made no sense at the time but came into focus later. Have you had a season like that, where you only understood it looking back? And how do you hold on when the ‘looking back’ moment hasn’t come yet?
- Amanda said we often judge God by our circumstances rather than by His character and nature. What habits or practices help you stay anchored to who God is when a season is making it hard to see Him clearly?
- The dormancy trigger in nature means some plants cannot flower or fruit without a cold winter rest period. Does that picture change how you think about a difficult season you are in right now, or one someone close to you is going through?
Resumen en español
Amanda Leck compartio un mensaje centrado en la esperanza que podemos tener en cada temporada de la vida. Partiendo del libro de Eclesiastes, explico que Salomon, el rey mas rico y sabio que haya existido, no estaba siendo dramatico cuando escribio sobre lo pasajero de la vida, sino que reconocia honestamente que hay tiempos y ciclos para todo dentro de la experiencia humana. Amanda senalo que tendemos a caer en uno de dos extremos peligrosos: querer controlar todo, o caer en el fatalismo donde nada importa. La Biblia nos invita a un equilibrio saludable en el que confiamos en un Dios que ve el principio y el fin, como alguien en un helicoptero que ve todo el desfile mientras nosotros solo vemos el trozo que pasa frente a nosotros.
Usando la historia de Jose en Genesis y las palabras de Jesus en Juan, Amanda hizo enfasis en que Dios nunca es sorprendido por nuestras circunstancias, aunque a nosotros nos parezcan inexplicables. Asi como Jose pudo decirle a sus hermanos “lo que ustedes pensaron para mal, Dios lo penso para bien”, nosotros tambien podemos confiar en que Dios tiene un proposito incluso en las temporadas mas duras y confusas. Jesus mismo les prometio a sus discipulos que en este mundo tendrian afliccion, pero que tuvieran animo porque El ya habia vencido al mundo.
Amanda cerro animando a la congregacion a no aislarse, a cultivar una relacion con el Espiritu Santo, a recordar la fidelidad de Dios en el pasado, y a dar un paso mas hacia la rendicion en cualquier temporada que esten viviendo. La esperanza no viene de las circunstancias sino del caracter inmutable de Dios, quien promete estar con nosotros en todo momento.
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Pasajes biblicos utilizados:
- Eclesiastes 1 (apertura del libro)
- Eclesiastes 3:1-11, 22
- Genesis 50:20 (Jose y sus hermanos)
- Juan 10:10
- Juan 16:33
- Proverbios 3:5-8
- Hebreos 10:23
- Apocalipsis 21 (mencionado como referencia)
Topics
Finding Purpose Holy Spirit Guidance Hope In Hard Times Seasons Of Life Trusting God