In Dallas I worked for a furniture company that sold over a half a billion dollars worth of furniture a year. As it was growing and before I got there, the owner was influenced by a “new age” motivational speaker. The guy convinced him to put all of the sales people through a “life changing” 2 day seminar. The goal was to achieve a psychological paradigm shift in every person and in the company that would create a super sales person.
Even though it cost several hundred dollars per person he didn’t check out the guys references well enough and didn’t realize he was a crook. I guess he thought the “psychological science” he taught was cutting edge.
He put groups of people in a room with no chairs and after hours of lecturing he wouldn’t let then leave the room. The doors were chained and padlocked. He also had guys yelling at individuals, supposedly to humiliate & tear then down, so he could “rebuild their psyche” into powerful, influential sales people.
Needless to say many people wet themselves. That would humiliate anyone! One guy had a grand mall seizure. Some people had mental breakdowns and curled up into the fetal position on the floor. Everyone had a bad time to say the least.
After it was all over there were several law suits. Most of the sales people left and those who stayed couldn’t hardly function for months afterward. Some went from the highest paid sales positions to data entry and inventory control where they were paid a good salary for as long as they worked there.
WHY WAS THIS DONE? It was done TO MAKE MORE MONEY! The owner wanted to change people into his own design. Needless to say he had in my opinion a “god complex”. He didn’t realize it but he thought he could act like god.
THE ONLY PERSON WHO CAN CHANGE LIVES IS THE ONLY TRUE GOD! The natural downward spiral of sin always humiliates us and tears us down but Jesus Christ rescues us from the penalty of sin, hell.
He then builds us into His image in order to serve Him. No one can change people like the HS of God, it is His own “conversion”. There is no eternal future for the pursuit of money, power and pleasure. But, there is an eternal heaven for those who are re-born into Jesus.
What happens when a person is reborn? To be born again means there is a genuine paradigm shift.
Larry Thompson said ..
PARADIGM = an example that serves as a model or pattern. It is the way we "see" the world in terms of perceiving, understanding, and interpreting.
PARADIGM SHIFT = to discover a new model or pattern that helps us to see from a new understanding, thus shifting from the old to the new way of thinking and acting.
Steven Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People – "Our paradigms, correct or incorrect, are the sources of our attitudes and behaviors, and ultimately our relationships with others."
>>>>>> This morning I want to preach on The “Paradigm Shift” of the Church – READ ACTS 2:14-18
After the sacrifice was made on the cross, God changed the way He related to His people.
(Mat 5:22 KJV) But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.
(Mat 5:28 KJV) But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.
(Mat 5:32 KJV) But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.
(Mat 5:34 KJV) But I say unto you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s throne:
(Mat 5:39 KJV) But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.
(Mat 5:44 KJV) But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
Here is the Paradigm shift of the first church and the Paradigm shift needed of our church today!
I. A CHANGE OF CONTROL ---- A POURING OF GOD – v17 & 33
a. The HS was Sudden v2-4 Falling of the HS & Filling of the HS
Ill>>>
In many Christian circles the Holy Spirit is either neglected, forgotten, or misunderstood. The One given to unite the body of Christ is the center of controversy. This is a nettle which ought to be firmly grasped. So often Christian work is so rigidly programmed that it seems we need no longer depend on Him--yet Jesus said, "Without Me you can do nothing." ...
The late Dr. A. W. Tozer, author and pastor, said, "If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference."
b. The HS was Spoken (the good news of the gospel) v.4 & v 13
Ill>>> -- There are various kinds of drunkenness. Holy Scripture speaks of those who "are drunken, but not with wine." There is the drunkenness of pride, of anger, and of vengeance; and there is another kind altogether, of zeal and fervor. It was with this latter that the apostles were filled when they received the Holy Spirit.
II. A CHANGE OF COMMUNICATION THE PREACHING v 17 & 18-
a. A new language – The language of the lost! V5-13 DO you speak it? Does this church??
i. Are you speaking to sinners? >> “Jesus What a Friend of Sinners!”
ii. Are we a friend of sinners?? >>>> DO we speak a holier than thou language???
b. Sons & daughters – spreading the Word
i. The resurrection of Christ “loosing the pains of death for us all” v24
Ill>>>
When you look at our history, it is no wonder that spirituality is so often treated with suspicion, and not infrequently with outright hostility. For in actual practice spirituality very often develops into neurosis, degenerates into selfishness, becomes pretentious, and turns violent.
How does this happen? -- Eugene H. Peterson said >>it happens when we step outside the Gospel story and take ourselves as the basic and authoritative text for our spirituality; we begin exegeting ourselves as a sacred text ... True spirituality, Christian spirituality, takes attention off of ourselves and focuses it on another, on Jesus. WHAT DID JESUS DO?? HE SPENT HIS TIME WITH THE LOST!!
ii. The repentance of Sinners v37 & 38
c. Young & Old making plans for the future >>>>>> that’s what we are doing tonight!
i. Purpose statement
ii. Vision statement
Ill>>>>> See Book -- Rethinking the Church<< III. A CHANGE OF CHALLENGE PASSION a. Testified & Exhorted v.40 i. People to get saved from this perverse generation ii. Identified and contrasted this present world OTHER WORDS FOR Passion --fervor / excitement / enthusiasm / zeal / craze / delight / Ill>>>>of Spiritual Passion: John Wesley >>>>John Wesley was a small man. He weighed only one hundred and twenty pounds. Samuel Johnson said of him, “His conversation is good, but he is man who is never at leisure. He is always driven by God in an intense desire to obey him even if it means he must go at a certain hour. He had Spiritual Passion. He virtually lived to be in fellowship with Christ, obeying Him, daily in the saddle, on horseback far and near to tell others of his Savior. Barna Research Group in a nationwide survey conducted asked this question: “Please describe your goals in life.” The survey found that almost 9 out of 10 adults classified themselves as a “Christian,” by the following definition, “I am personally committed to Jesus Christ and have confessed my sins and I believe that I will go to heaven when I day because of God’s love and grace through Christ.” STRONG DEFINITION! Yet not one of those who said they were Christians declared that their life goal was to be a “fully committed follower of Jesus Christ and to participate in making Christian disciples.” b. Baptized those who received v41 c. Continued steadfastly – most passionate statement made of the whole church i. Doctrine ii. Fellowship iii. Prayers >>>>>>>>>>> a side effect of this paradigm shift is 1. Publicity v37 2. Possessions v44-45 where God guides He provides! – people gave! 3. Purpose v46 – Continuing daily – unity, fellowship, worshiping, ministering 4. People 46 the Lord added daily – open enrollment! 1. Have you repented of your sin and received the Word (v41) and received the POURING of the HS? 2. Do you participate in personal evangelism ie – PREACHING ? 3. DO you have personal PASSION? Maybe you will see the paradigm shift with this story. George Hunter, Distinguished Professor of Evangelism and Church Growth at the E. Stanley Jones School of World Mission, tell of his being on the subway in New York one evening, after rush hour was over, and the subway car was not too crowded. A young man in his thirties, accompanied by a small boy about six years old got on and sat down across from him. The little boy began to act up and misbehave in ways that were obviously annoying to the other people in the car. He was walking up and down in the aisle making irritating noises, occasionally and purposefully bumping into other people, sticking his tongue out at people when they frowned at him, and just generally acting in an ill-behaved and undisciplined fashion. George said that he and the others were getting fairly annoyed, especially because the father appeared to take no notice of his son’s behavior. He just stared in rather “Zenlike” fashion straight ahead of him and appeared to off in some other world of his own. George said that he even began to speculate that the young father might have been a bit stoned on drugs. Finally, one older gentleman, to the approval of everyone else in the subway car, got up and approached the father and said, “Young man, your son is being rude and obnoxious. Can’t you keep him under control?” The father looked up at the older man in a rather confused and vague manner, and then said, “Oh, yes, excuse me, I’m really sorry. You’re right. I really suppose I should do something with him. But I’m not quite sure what to do. You see, his mother died in the hospital a few hours ago, and we’re on our way home.” George said that he and everyone else on that subway car underwent an immediate paradigm shift. Suddenly that little boy’s bad behavior took on a completely different meaning. Irritation immediately gave way to sympathy, and people began moving toward the young man and his son to offer their sympathy and encouragement. If the news about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead does not have the power to create such paradigm shifts in us, and enable us to view other people as God sees them, then it’s not really good news for us or for anyone else. But if it can offer us a new map by which to navigate, if suddenly new faces and new categories and new insights begin to appear on our map where only the phrase “Here be dragons,” used to appear, if it can enlarge our understanding of God and God’s ways with the world, if it can enable us to reach out in love to others, which Jesus said would be the evidence that we are his disciples, then the Easter message is good news indeed. And we will be amazed at just how boundless is the mercy of God, and how broad the reach of God’s love. It will reach even to the Gentiles, even to us. Death and the knowledge of death shocked and changed the whole atmosphere of that bus! The love and concern instantly arrived at the knowledge of a recent death. DO we really believe and have knowledge of a soon coming death and hell to follow? Death is only a heart attack away from many of our friends and loved ones. So is a car accident, ect. God enables us too – with the HS & a holy speech & holy
