Spiritual Climate Change
The basic premise of global warming is that certain things done over an extended period of time will heat up the earth. Our message today is about improving the spiritual climate in our lives. There are things that we can do that effect our spiritual climate personally, in the church, in our families, and in our business lives.
Besides the environment all kinds of things have a climate or atmosphere about them:
We can talk about the Corporate Climate. Is your workplace a pressure cooker? A business in a growth and prosperity season? Is it down sizing? Is it hostile to workers? All these things affect and define the corporate climate.
Likewise the business climate reflects the overall mood of the economy.
Here is our scripture for today and in it notice the different atmosphere Jesus had about Him as contrasted with the Pharisee's.
Mt 9:10 And it happened that as He was reclining [at the table] in the house, behold many tax-gatherers and sinners came and were dining with Jesus and His disciples.
Mt 9:11 And when the Pharisees saw [this,] they said to His disciples, "Why is your Teacher eating with the tax-gatherers and sinners?"
Mt 9:12 But when He heard this, He said, "[It is] not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick.
There are two main climates I want to preach on today, the first is that we have an atmosphere in our church that is conducive for a move of the Spirit of God, and the second is that we have an atmosphere in our church and our personal lives that is attractive to the lost.
1. Creating an atmosphere/climate that is conducive for a move of the Holy Spirit.
Did you know there are professionals whose job it is, is to advise churches on how to make a church visually attractive and appealing? They will give advice on the arrangement of the facility, the deportment of ushers/greeters, the color scheme of the building etc. There stated goal is that there is a look and feel that a church can have that will be very appealing to visitors.
I believe the scriptures give us some keys that we can continually apply that will make our church very appealing and welcoming to the Spirit of God. Very simply they are:
1. Welcome Him
2. Worship Him
3. Work with Him
Welcome Him.
There is a spiritual truth that God is a gentleman, that He doesn't usually force His way into our lives. We read in Revelation of Jesus standing at a door and knocking, not of Him taking a sledge hammer and breaking it down.
Here is an old chorus that we used to sing, and would do well taking it back up again.
Holy Spirit thou are welcome in this place (2x)
Omnipotent Father of mercy and grace
Thou art welcome in this place
I have always sensed when I sang that song, that God was pleased when we express to Him that we want Him to be near us. How do you respond when a salesman comes to your door? How about your best friend. When we smile and say, "come on in God, you are welcome here." He feels and appreciates that. Everyone likes to go into a welcoming environment.
2. Worship Him.
I won't spend long on this one, but the scriptures teach that God inhabits the praises of His people. There is something about genuine worship that causes God to show up in a very powerful way.
3. Walk with Him.
John 3 describes the Holy Spirit as wind like. You can't see Him but you can sense the effect of His presence. I think we do that text no harm if we were to suggest that we should be like sailboats and flow with the wind, as opposed to fighting the wind. When we move in the same direction as the wind is moving it speaks of a much better relationship with God, than if we were moving in the opposite direction. Specifically we should be involved in evangelism, talking up our cross, submitting our will to His etc.
If we will continually work on these three areas we will have a church that God is pleased with. I thank God for all the bible believing churches in America, but isn't there something inside of you that wants our church to be God's favorite house? Somebody say Amen!
Let's shift gears just a little bit and talk about having an climate/atmosphere that is attractive to the lost. I am not talking about watering the gospel down so that the world likes us I am talking about having an air about us that is welcoming, loving, and redemptive.
All people have a climate or atmosphere about them. Some people are debauched. You can sense it when you are near them. Others are sports nuts, health nuts, gambling nuts, malicious gossips, some people have an atmosphere of kindness about them, others an atmosphere of friendliness. This atmosphere radiates from them in the same way that perfume does from a woman, or cologne from a man.
You get the point.
We want to have about us an climate/atmosphere that is attractive to the lost.
Mt 7:16 By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thorn bushes, or figs from thistles?
If we are thorny people, others will not reach for our fruit. We won't have a harvest of reaching lost people. If we come across as uppity, judgmental, hard hearted, and vindictive do you think others will want what we have? One of the big negatives of the gay marriage debate is that we have become the enemy of gay people. They hate us, and have closed their hearts to the message we have. I know what you are thinking. Has pastor gone soft on homosexuality? Absolutely not. But consider this, have Christians every protested medical benefits for heterosexual couples that are shacking up? For every sinning homosexual couple there may be 50 sinning heterosexual couples. The homosexual community views us as being in a war with them. There is an atmosphere of war between us and them and I don't think it is a good thing.
This subject is a minefield to navigate, with pitfalls on every side. But for sake of this message today, may I simply say that Jesus had an atmosphere around Him that was very welcoming to sinners, while at the same time, not excusing or accepting the sin in their lives. That is not always an easy thing to do, but Jesus was the best there ever was at it, and doesn't the bible teach we are to try our best to be like Him?
Think about Jesus and the woman caught in adultery? Where are your accusers? Neither do I accuse you. Whoa!, did Jesus really say that? How could He let it slide that she was an adulteress? He didn't, He went on to say, "go and sin no more." But that woman left that meeting with Jesus knowing that He was more about offering forgiveness than He was about offering condemnation.
In our scripture text from Mt. 9, the Pharisees were shocked that Jesus had dinner with, "tax gatherers and sinners"! They felt good about being around Jesus. He wasn't always in their face about the sin in their lives. His approach often was to be first known as their friend and then deal with them about the sin in their lives.
Let me quickly give 3 keys that are necessary if we are to have about us a climate that is attractive to the lost:
1. Be what they need when they are sick from sin.
It is difficult to be attractive to the lost as long as they are still fascinated by sin.
Jesus met and ministered to the Gadarene demoniac when sin was doing its worst to him.
This is reality. Before we can be attractive sin must become repulsive.
Heb. 11:25 speaks of the pleasures of sin for a season.
But Revelation 10:9, and 10 illustrates a different truth about it: (This passage is taken out of context, but it does illustrate what sin is like.)
Re 10:9 And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take [it], and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. Re 10:10 And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter.
Do you know what people with an upset stomach would most welcome? Tum, tum, tum tums!
People with sins indigestion will desperately reach for a cure.
If you want to be the friend of sinners, be what they need when they are sick from sin.
2ndly if we are going to have a climate that is attractive to the lost:
2. We should be known more for offering a cure than we are for hurling accusations.
The world often sees us as a prosecuting attorney, rather than EMS technicians. The church was made to be EMS workers not prosecuting attorneys.
You would agree those are two different climates wouldn't you?
What was Jesus response to the Gadarene demoniac, in Mark chapter 4?
Before I answer that I need to remind you he was demon possessed. Sometimes as Christians we focus on the reason a person has problems before we focus on fixing them. Jesus did it the other way around.
He didn't say:
Quit drinking and the devil will leave.
Its your fault, you are reaping what you have sown.
Repent and I will help you.
The first thing Jesus did when He met the man was fix what was ailing him. He cast out the demon without any demand that the man first repent. Touched by that loving example that man became a great witness for the Lord Jesus Christ.
Here is some good advice from the book of Jude:
Jude 1:23 save others, snatching them out of the fire; and on some have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.
On some have mercy.
mercy 1. Compassionate treatment, especially of those under one's power; clemency. 2. A disposition to be kind and forgiving. 3. Alleviation of distress; relief.
Mercy- an act of kindness that is in contradiction to what the normal circumstances demand, that is born of pity and intended to be redemptive.
Mt. 9:11 ...Why eateth your Master with publicans and sinners?
Mt 9:12 But when Jesus heard [that], he said unto them, They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.
I am a doctor not a prosecuting attorney.
If we want to be attractive to the lost we need to be like Jesus and have an air about us that speaks of mercy more that criticism.
Let me remind you also that the measuring stick by which we will be judged is the stick by which we have judged others. Matthew 5:7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
Jesus had an atmosphere about him that was attractive to the lost.
The woman at the well who had multiple marriages and was shacking up with someone.
Jesus enticed her with the offer of living water before He dealt with her about shacking up.
3rdly we need to learn to not give up on people.
When we give up on people then we usually give ourselves permission to be angry with them.
When we give up on them our attitude towards them changes significantly, and they can sense a change in the atmosphere.
Here is a verse vindictive people use to justify their hardness of heart:
"Don't cast your pearls before swine." (Mt. 7:6)
Let me tell you a secret about yourself. There is probably one or more people in this world that would consider you swine. Be careful how you label people. There was a time in your life, before Christ, that others may have considered you swine and yet someone showed you the love of Christ. Even Jesus sows seed on ground that is hard and barren, and that is almost always wasted because the birds eat it. Yet, every now and then, in the most unlikely of spaces one of those seeds take root.
It is no crime to sow seeds in unlikely hearts. The apostle Paul could strongly argue that case.
Consider the climate the father of the prodigal son had, and the one the prodigals' brother had. The dad never gave up on the son, the brother considered him swine. If you were a lost person who would you rather meet and be around?
If we are going to be attractive to the lost:
1. Be what they need when they are sick from sin.
2. We should be known more for offering a cure than we are for hurling accusations.
3. We need to not give up on people
Close: Are you here and are you sick from sin. Come let us reason together?
Have you been tough on people. God let me show more mercy.
