Going Viral Series

1. HOW FAST CAN A VIRUS SPREAD? FASTER THAN YOU THINK! Researchers from the University of Arizona, Tucson, placed a tracer virus on commonly touched objects such as a doorknob or tabletop, and found that between 40 and 60 percent of the surfaces in the building were contaminated within two to four hours. That’s why virologists are so concerned about a world outbreak.

2. Spread of Coronavirus 19 – 90+ countries

3. Other Epidemics/Pandemics

a. HIV/AIDS killed more than 36 million since 1981; 2005-12 annual deaths dropped from 2.2 million to 1.6

b. “Hong Kong” Flu (1968) killed over 1 million

c. “Asian Flu” (1956-58) killed over 2 million

d. Flu (1918-20) killed between 20-50 million

4. Consider the good and bad spiritual “viruses” in Matthew 13:33; 1 Corinthians 5:6-8

I. Bad “Leaven” or Contagion

A. Adam Brought Sin into the World and it is Contagious

1. Sin and Death Passed from Person to Person Because of Adam

2. Parts of the Human Experience

3. Now We Have a New Representative with New Experiences – Romans 5:17

a. Resurrection

b. Living Eternally – SOMEWHERE

B. Bad Leaven/Contagions

1. Immorality – 1 Corinthians 5:6-8 6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7 Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8 Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

2. Improper Teaching – Matthew 16:5-12 Then they understood that he did not tell them to beware of the leaven of bread, but of the teaching of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

3. Hypocrisy – Luke 12:1b “Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

4. Materialism – (Mark 8:15)

5. Formalism/Legalism – (Galatians 5:7-9)

II. Good “Leaven” or Contagion – KOH – Matthew 13.33 33 He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.”

A. Spread of the Kingdom – Matthew 13:31-33

1. Starters for baking bread – generations from original

2. The Kingdom is Unseen but Powerful – We see its effects

a. Mustard Seed Grows (unseen; tree and fruit are proof)

b. Lump is Leavened (unseen but rising dough is proof)

c. Like “Those born of the HS” – John 3:8

d. Conditions are “Just Right” and the Kingdom Grows

B. Multiplication of Disciples

1. Effect of Jesus and Samaritan Woman – John 4

2. The Church in Acts – Addition then Multiplication

• 11-12-120-300 added daily – multiplied – Some estimated that as many as 100K disciples in Jerusalem in the first century

• [Would you choose to have $1000/day for 31 days or 1 cent doubled every day for 31 days? Starting with 1 and doubling each day for a 31 day month would produce $10,737,418.24 – what if contagious disciples doubled every year for 31 years? Year 1 – 1; Y2 – 2; Y3 – 4; Y4 -8; Y5 – 18 . . .Y31 – 1,073,741,824

• Rome saw early Christians as a Contagious Threat and persecuted note Colossians 1:23

C. It Means Taking Action and Risk

1. Jesus Touched the Unclean – Lepers; Issue of Blood; Illnesses; Spiritually Unclean; Immoral; etc.

2. THE DEVIL’S QUARANTINE. The things that prevent the diseases of the world will also prevent the spreading of the Gospel. One method widely practiced is Quarantine, to isolate the sick from the healthy.

If the devil can keep us away from sick folks (lost), he can prevent the spread of the infection of Jesus. Have we isolated ourselves from the lost? The Holy Spirit will insulate us not isolate us from the world.

“Contagious” is Latin for “to touch”. We’re not going to be contagious unless we’re touching people. Let’s be contagious Christians! Let’s reach out, share our faith!

3. Influence of ONE

Years ago a Johns Hopkins University professor asked his graduate students to locate 200 boys, ages 12-16, and then to research their family backgrounds. They were then to predict their future. The students were sent to the slum area of the city to find the boys. Their conclusion was that 90 percent of those boys would spend time in jail.

Twenty-five years later, John Hopkins sent the researchers into the slum area again to follow up on the original study. They were able to locate 180 of the original 200. What they found amazed them. Only four had ever been to jail (remember the prediction had been 90 percent of 200)!

Why was the number so low? When the researchers began to ask this question they found that they were getting the same answer, “Well, there was this teacher.” They found that the boys had all been influenced by the same teacher. The graduate students found the teacher, and inquired about her remarkable influence over a group of boys who were headed for a life of crime.