Climate Change - Pt. 4 - Kingdom Climate 2 Series

Kingdom Climate 2

I. Introduction

We confuse climate with weather. They are not the same thing. Climate is in fact defined as "a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years." So this is more than weather! Climate is in fact what sets weather into motion. Climate controls weather. Climate dictates what the weather will be like. Climate can be a great destabilizing force. So some of you are fighting storms, trouble, difficulties and you only seem to get temporary relief or respite. Then those same challenges show up on the horizon again! We expend all of our energy on fighting weather when if we would spend the same efforts on controlling the climate the storms, patterns, cycles would change! We have a tendency to react to the patterns and never do anything to address the climate that is causing those patterns. Some of you have been fighting the same fight new versions for 10 years, 20 years, 30 years and you rail against the weather but never deal with the root which is the climate that produces the weather.

So we began by saying that climate change must be preceded by climate control. Some of us are asking for climate change but we are unwilling to control the climate so the climate dictates no change. We talked about the fact that climate control dictates dismissal. There are folks in your life that have made a profession out of celebrating the death you are living through. They will try to talk you into believing that something is dead that is in reality only asleep. Until you dismiss them you will have no miracle. Then we said that the climate we allow/operate in will forecast our future. We talked about the fact that waves depends on wind. Who do you have in your life that can identify the wind and you make the changes so that the wave will stop?

If you don't think I am on something here regarding the power of climate go back and think about the Prodigal Son and you see it again. Here is a boy that has resources when he is at home. He leaves home and has the same resources but everything goes wrong. Why? What changed? It wasn't the money. It wasn't his name. It wasn't even his status. The only thing that changed was climate! Climate is paramount! When bad weather came to him how did he change the weather? He changed climate! Some of you want the safety and provision of one climate but you refuse to leave the climate that is producing pig pen storm clouds! It was when he attached himself to crazy people that he started having crazy desires!

So last time we shifted gears and I began to attempt to actually articulate from Paul's writings what a Kingdom Climate would look like in our individual life and in a church body. I am literally laying out for you line by line a climate that will produce a totally different weather pattern in every area of your life. Again you can't complain about the weather that the climate you refuse to change produces. The issue is the climate we are talking about absolutely flies in the face and is absolutely opposite of our society's culture and unfortunately even most church cultures.

So Paul starts Romans 12 by addressing the first step to climate change which is to address the way you think.

II. Text

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Then we dug into Romans 12:4-8 which declared that Kingdom Climate is marked by being connected and serving. In fact, joyful service is the litmus test that allows us to tell just how connected you really are! We are not called to be consumers but co-laborers. Without connection there is no protection.

Let's move forward. I must warn you that many of you struggle to even establish connection and service so as we move forward it is going to be even more difficult because this gets harder not easier. However, we are talking about climate change. Climate change never comes easy but the long term patterns it sets into motion is worth the effort and struggle.

Romans 12:9-10; 3 (as I said I would come back to verse 3):

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.