Climate Change - Pt. 3 - Kingdom Climate 1 Series

Kingdom Climate 1

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 last week 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?

So today we shift gears. I think it is essential if I am going to confront the climate of our lives, then I must also try to outline and call on a new climate to be a reality in our lives. I want to see our lives change for the good. I want to us blessed. I want to us successful. I want to us prosper. So it is my responsibility then to define and our responsibility to establish and work for the climate that will produce that weather!

The climate we are going to talk about absolutely flies in the face of and is absolutely opposite of our society's culture and unfortunately even most church cultures. I need to tell you that individually you have got to get this established as the climate of your life to see weather change. But I also want you as Passion to understand that if we can ever get this climate established and grow in it this climate will literally set us apart because it is seldom you see groups of people that live like this! It requires a climate change!

So we are going to a passage of Scripture and instantly you will see the first step to climate change which is to address the way you think. However, we stop at the end of that passage and never see how the climate of different thinking will play out practically in our lives. In other words, if we don't change how we think we won't see this climate change. Or if we learn to think different then our lives change!

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.

We have heard this before. We recognize that our climate is in large part dictated by how we think. But let's go forward and what we will discover is that Paul actually lists for us the climate that should be established in our lives to produce better weather. He begins to establish a Kingdom Climate. This isn't just about being nice. This is a entirely different climate! (I don't even have time because the truth is this climate actually keeps being outlined and detailed in Chapters 13-15. However, I think we will have enough to deal with and try to establish just from this chapter. If we can see this stuff set into motion, then maybe one day we can move further.) This isn't easy. This requires intentional effort. This will require a choice to refuse to think, act, and believe like the climate we have become so comfortable in up to this point. I am calling you to do that kind of hard work. I am asking you to purposely lay down society's climate and any church climate you were in prior.