The Gospel for (computer) Geeks
Occasionally I preach a message that is best understood by a limited target audience, such as Nascar Sunday, Sports Sunday, etc. This is one of those. So if you don’t understand all the lingo don’t worry you will understand the spiritual application. I have one main point if you get it you will get it all. Your soul needs maintenance. Let me say it another way. Your walk with God needs maintenance. We now have cars that boast you don’t need a tune up for 100,00 miles. But if you do no maintenance at all it won’t make 20,000 miles. Things like oil changes, brakes, tires, windshield wipers, etc. Although the picture is different the point is the same your soul needs maintenance. God has not promised you don’t need a spiritual tune up for 100 years. My uncle told someone that they should have revivals once a month. He was acknowledging his need for maintenance on a ongoing regular basis.
Philippians 2:12 NKJV
1. Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling
Philippians 2:12
What I’m getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you’ve done from the beginning. When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience. Now that I’m separated from you, keep it up. Better yet, redouble your efforts. Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God. (Message)
2 Corinthians 13:11
And that’s about it, friends. Be cheerful. Keep things in good repair. Keep your spirits up. Think in harmony. Be agreeable. Do all that, and the God of love and peace will be with you for sure. (Message)
It is so exciting getting that brand new computer out of the box. It runs so fast and works every program without a hitch. It is amazing all it can do. However, if you only use it and do nothing to maintain it you will discover that it will slow down, slower, and slower. It freezes, files vanish, programs won’t run right, you see the blue screen of death, error messages become common place. If you keep it and don’t update it at all it will soon be obsolete and won’t run new programs at all. This is not meant to be a computer class. I just want to use your frustrating experience with computers to teach spiritual truth. You see God wants to speak spiritual truth to you in everyday life. Jesus spoke to fisherman about fishing to show spiritual truths, and to farmers about sowing seed and the harvest. Can’t he speak to us today though our computers.
I Normal Routine Maintenance
a. Computers
1. Disk Clean up –build up of temporary internet files, compress old files
2. Disk Defrag
3. Dust- busyness of , and cares of life
4. Updates- security patches etc. -Fresh encounter/experience with God
b. Spiritual Lives
1. Prayer- Prayer Path
In one region of Africa, the first converts to Christianity were very diligent about praying. In fact, the believers each had their own special place outside the village where they went to pray in solitude. The villagers reached these “prayer rooms” by using their own private footpaths through the brush. When grass began to grow over one of these trails, it was evident that the person to whom it belonged was not praying very much.
Because these new Christians were concerned for each other’s spiritual welfare, a unique custom sprang up. When ever anyone noticed an overgrown “Prayer path,” he or she would go to the person and lovingly warn, “Friend, there’s grass on your path!” - RWD
Our Daily Bread, November 18, 1996
2. Bible Reading- Study - Mediation
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, Eph 5:26
3. Church - Meeting with believers
Don’t forsake the assembling of yourselves together Heb 10:25
-Bible teaches by command, example, and experience
4. Obedience
5. Thought Life -Like a computer our mind can only do what we program it to do.
1. Control intake
2. Control inside
Laughter as Medicine
In The Anatomy of an Illness: As Perceived by the Patient, Norman Cousins tells of being hospitalized with a rare, crippling disease. When he was diagnosed as incurable, Cousins checked out of the hospital. Aware of the harmful effects that negative emotions can have on the body, Cousins reasoned the reverse was true. So he borrowed a movie projector and prescribed his own treatment, consisting of Marx Brothers films and old “Candid Camera” reruns. It didn’t take long for him to discover that 10 minutes of laughter provided two hours of painfree sleep.
Amazingly, his debilitating disease was eventually reversed. After the account of his victory appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, Cousins received more than 3000 letters from appreciative physicians throughout the world.
Today in the Word, MBI, 12-18-91
6. Worship -Thanksgiving
7. Love Neighbor
8. Witness -testify
II Specific Maintenance for Specific Problems
a. Computer problems
1. Viruses - Antivirus protection
virus A virus is a piece of programming code that is capable of attaching itself to disks or other computer files and then replicating itself repeatedly
Although not all viruses are particularly damaging, many of them were designed, deliberately and sometimes maliciously, to destroy data or halt operation on systems.
2. Spyware - Anti sypware
spyware -- A category of software that tracks user behavior without a user’s knowledge.
3. Adware - Ad- aware software protection
adware -- This slang term is used to describe software that is free to obtain but contains sponsored advertising that appears when the program is run
4. Pop-ups -Pop up blocker
5. Power surges - Surge protector
6. Too many things running - Uncheck things at start up
7. Spam-
spam As a noun, unsolicited bulk email on the Internet
b. Spiritual Problems -For specific problems you need specific solutions. Anti-virus won’t stop spyware, and going to church won’t help unforgiveness.
1. Unforgiveness
Many years ago, Pastor Stuart Briscoe visited a mission in a remote, primitive area. He spent the night in the hut of the local "witch" doctor. Overhead, Briscoe noticed a variety of small objects hanging from the ceiling. The missionary informed him t hat each object represented some offence the villagers had committed against the doctor or his family. If someone spoke unkindly of the doctor, he would hang up an object representing that person’s unkind words. Forgiveness was not an option. In fact, the doctor hung those objects from the ceiling so that as he lay in bed each night, he could count the objects and remind himself of each person’s offence. In this way, he was continually replaying his grievances.
[Jill Briscoe, Heart Strings (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., 1997).]
2. Sin
"Sin breaks fellowship with God. A little girl committed a certain offense, and when her mother discovered it she began to question her daughter. Immediately the child lost her smile and a cloud darkened her face as she said, "Mother, I do not feel like talking." So it is when our fellowship with God is broken by sin in our lives. We do not feel like talking to Him. If you do not feel like praying, it is probably a good indication that you should start praying immediately". (Billy Graham as quoted by Roy B. Zuck. The Speaker’s Quote Book. Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 1997, p. 356). As someone once said, "Sin will keep us from prayer or Prayer will keep us from sin".
3. Bitterness
’Bitterness is the poison we swallow, while hoping the other person dies’ Skip Gray, Navigators.
4. Addictions/ Habits
5. Temptation
Lust
John Piper says that sin (lust for example) “gets its power by persuading me to believe that I will be more happy if I follow it. The power of all temptation is the prospect that it will make me happier.”
Quoted in Putting Your Past Behind You, E. Lutzer, Here’s Life, 1990, p. 54
There are Two Lies Satan Wants Us to Believe
1. Just once won’t hurt.
2. Now that you have ruined your life, you are beyond God’s use, and might as well enjoy sinning.
Source unknown
6. Trials/ Suffering
Sprinkler Hose
While assembling their new water bed, my sister Betty and her husband, Everett, realized they would need a hose. Everett dashed to the hardware store and bought one. They attached it to the bed, ran it through the apartment to the kitchen tap and left to wait for the bed to fill. About an hour later they checked on its progress. That’s when they discovered Everett had bought a sprinkler hose.
Reader’s Digest, March, 1993, p. 123
It Is Well With My Soul
Having lost in a fire virtually everything they owned, the Spafford family made new plans, including a move from Chicago to France. Horatio Spafford planned the trip for his wife and four daughters to be as trouble-free as possible. To transport them from America to France, he booked passage on a huge ship, and made sure they had Christians with whom to fellowship in route. He planned to join them a few weeks later. In spite of much careful preparation, Mr. Spafford’s plans suddenly dissolved when the ship carrying his loved ones was rammed by another vessel and sank, carrying his four beloved daughters to the bottom. Anyone who has ever had their plans disrupted by the hand of God can understand Spafford’s plight. The next time you are in church, turn to the words of the great hymn, “It Is Well With My Soul”—words he penned as his ship passed over the watery grave of his four daughters!
Today in the Word, July, 1989, p. 27
7. Attitude
Perk Up
A sickly widow had two sons on whom she relied for financial support. One son sold umbrellas. The first thing the mother did every morning was to look out to see if the sun was shining or if it looked like it was going to rain. If it was cloudy, her spirits were good because there was a chance that it might rain and her son would sell some umbrellas. But if the sun was shining, she was miserable all day because no umbrellas would be sold.
The widow’s other son sold fans. Every morning that it looked like rain, she would get depressed because without the sun’s heat, no one was likely to buy fans.
No matter what the weather was, the widow had something to fret about.
While commiserating with a friend one day, the friend remarked, “Perk up. You’ve got it made. If the sun is shining, people will buy fans; if it rains, they’ll buy umbrellas. All you have to do is change your attitude. You can’t lose.”
When that simple thought sank in, the widow lived happily ever after.
Adapted from Sower of Seeds, FR. Brian Cavanaugh, Paulist Press, Bits & Pieces, June 22, 1995, pp. 2-3.
8. Worldliness - love of the world -Demas has forsaken having loved this present world 2 Timothy 4
III Spiritual Error Messages
a. How do we know if there are problems with our computer.
Slows down, error messages, Freezes
b. How do we know if there are problems with our spiritual lives.
1. Fruit of the Sinful natures start showing up Gal. 5:19-20
19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, 20 idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. (NLT)
19 It is obvious what kind of life develops out of trying to get your own way all the time: repetitive, loveless, cheap sex; a stinking accumulation of mental and emotional garbage; frenzied and joyless grabs for happiness; 20 trinket gods; magic-show religion; paranoid loneliness; cutthroat competition; all-consuming-yet-never-satisfied wants; a brutal temper; an impotence to love or be loved; divided homes and divided lives; small-minded and lopsided pursuits; 21 the vicious habit of depersonalizing everyone into a rival; uncontrolled and uncontrollable addictions; ugly parodies of community. I could go on. This isn’t the first time I have warned you, you know. If you use your freedom this way, you will not inherit God’s kingdom. (Message)
19 Now, the effects of the corrupt nature are obvious: illicit sex, perversion, promiscuity, 20 idolatry, drug use, hatred, rivalry, jealousy, angry outbursts, selfish ambition, conflict, factions, 21 envy, drunkenness, wild partying, and similar things. I’ve told you in the past and I’m telling you again that people who do these kinds of things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
(God’s Word version)
2. Holy Spirit Conviction/ God’s presence seems absent
3. Someone confronts us - Doesn’t happen often, if it does listen -
Conclusion:
It was five days before Christmas when a stranger approached ten-year-old Christopher Carrier, claiming to be a friend of his father. "I want to buy him a gift, and I need your help," said the stranger. Eager to do something good for his dad, Chris climbed aboard a motor home parked up the street.
The driver took Chris to a remote field, claiming to be lost, and asked Chris to look at a map. Suddenly Chris felt a sharp pain in his back. The stranger had stabbed him with an ice pick. The man drove the wounded boy down a dirt road, shot him in the left temple, and left him for dead in the alligator-infested Florida Everglades.
Chris lay lifeless for six days until a driver found him. Chris miraculously survived his injuries, though he was blind in his left eye. Because he was unable to identify his attacker, police could not make an arrest. For a long time young Chris remained frightened, despite police protection. Finally at an invitation given after a church hayride, Chris trusted Jesus Christ as his Saviour. He recalls, "I was overwhelmed with emotion…because I knew I had never really accepted and personally met the Saviour." This turning point in Chris’s life came three years after the attack. At age 15, Chris shared his story for the first time. He eventually decided to pursue full-time ministry, helping others find the peace he had discovered in Christ.
In 1996 a detective told Chris over the phone that a man had confessed to the crime that had cost him his left eye. The man’s name was David McAllister. Chris made plans to visit the feeble and now blind man, living in a nursing home. The strong young man Chris remembered was now a broken, humbled 77-year-old. Chris learned from the detective some of the background of what had happened years ago. McAllister had been hired by Chris’s father to work as a nurse for an ailing uncle. Chris’s dad had caught McAllister drinking on the job and had fired him. The senseless attack on Chris had been motivated by revenge.
As Chris now talked to the old man, at first McAllister denied knowing anything about the kidnapping. As Chris revealed more about himself, the old man softened and eventually apologized. Chris said, “I told him, ‘What you meant for evil, God has turned into a wonderful blessing.’” Chris told his attacker how God had allowed his wounds to become open doors to share the good news of Christ.
Chris went home and told his wife and kids about meeting the man who had tried to kill him. The entire family began almost daily visits to McAllister’s nursing home. During one Sunday afternoon visit, Chris popped the most important question he had yet asked McAllister: "Do you want to know the Lord?" McAllister said yes. Both men basked in forgiveness as McAllister gave his heart to Christ. A few days later McAllister died—peacefully—in his sleep.
Carrier says it is not a story of regret, but of redemption. “I saw the Lord give that man back his life, and so much more,” Chris said. “I can’t wait to see him again someday—in heaven.”
The Christian Walk requires daily maintenance to keep the victory.
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