Forecasts
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 last week we began by looking at how Jesus dealt with climate before He dealt with weather. When dealing with the synagogue leader's daughter he walks into a climate that was not conducive to miracles. So He instantly and abruptly dealt with and took control of the climate. Some of you are asking for climate change but you 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 that is only asleep is dead. Until you dismiss them you will have no miracle.
So let's move forward. I want to you about forecasts. Some of us need to check the radar the climate we allow to go unchanged forecasts what is about to take place. Let's go to instances in Jesus' life that reveal this!
II. Forecasts
John 8:1-11
Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives, 2 but early the next morning he was back again at the Temple. A crowd soon gathered, and he sat down and taught them. 3 As he was speaking, the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery. They put her in front of the crowd. 4 “Teacher,” they said to Jesus, “this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 The law of Moses says to stone her. What do you say?” 6 They were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him, but Jesus stooped down and wrote in the dust with his finger. 7 They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” 8 Then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust. 9 When the accusers heard this, they slipped away one by one, beginning with the oldest, until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman. 10 Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?” 11 “No, Lord,” she said. And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.”
11 “No one, Master.” “Neither do I,” said Jesus. “Go on your way. From now on, don’t sin.”
Well, I do not condemn you either; all I ask is that you go and from now on avoid the sins that plague you.
Mark 4:35-40
35-38 Late that day he said to them, “Let’s go across to the other side.” They took him in the boat as he was. Other boats came along. A huge storm came up. Waves poured into the boat, threatening to sink it. And Jesus was in the stern, head on a pillow, sleeping! They roused him, saying, “Teacher, is it nothing to you that we’re going down?” 39-40 Awake now, he told the wind to pipe down and said to the sea, “Quiet! Settle down!” The wind ran out of breath; the sea became smooth as glass.
39 He got up, rebuked the wind and said to the waves, “Quiet! Be still!” Then the wind died down and it was completely calm.
In the first account we get sidetracked and focused on things like mercy, what did He write, where was the man, judgement, hypocrisy, and forgiveness. And the truth is this account does speak to all of this. However, we miss that this account also speaks to climate! It speaks to climate's ability to forecast!
In the second account our focus moves to the miracle and we miss the order in which Jesus works and it is the order that again speaks to forecast.
a. The climate you allow/operate in forecasts your future.
After the severe humiliation and shame of being called out in front of everyone and then having her accusers become red faced by Jesus' sharp and absolutely brilliant response we finally come to the lesson. We read the statement that Jesus makes to the lady "Neither do I condemn you" and stop to argue about judgement and miss His next and possibly even more important statement to this lady. He says, "go and sin no more!" I believe what is happening here is Jesus in 5 words is sharing a forecast. He is saying to this lady . . . "Listen, I was here to rescue you this time but if you don't deal with the climate of your life the sin that got you here will bring you right back here and although I was here to rescue you this time I may not be here to run these guys off the second time! Either change your climate or the forecast won't change. The climate you are living with and in forecasts that destruction will come back around."
Listen some of you if you were self aware enough would understand that we can forecast your future because you won't change what brings the issue back into your life again and again.
I can forecast that some of you will end up depressed again. Because you won't deal with the negative thoughts and you won't deal with the negative voices in your life.
I can forecast that some of you will end up in trouble in your marriage. You won't address the attitudes or actions that cause the strife and pain.
I can forecast that some of you will end up with the wrong person again. Cause you keep going back to the wrong climate to find someone. You keep going to club and can't figure out why he isn't the God-fearing, spiritually minded, priest of your home! The climate forecasted what he would be! You just don't like the forecast!
Want to quit fooling around but won't deal with climate. You keep spending huge amounts of time alone.
Woman go and sin no more. Why? Because if you are rescued and go back to sin you won't change climate you will repeat it.
I noticed something . . . Jesus tells the woman caught in adultery to go and sin no more. Why didn't He look at Lazarus after raising him from the dead and say go and sin no more? Why after healing the man at the pool didn't he say go and sin no more? He dealt with their storm but He didn't deal with climate because He knew that the climate of original sin meant that Lazarus was going to die again and the man at the pool would get sick again. But to the woman He said go and sin no more because He recognized that she had the opportunity to control the climate and therefore not end up in the same predicament.
Some of you are freaking out about today's weather. It probably could have been avoided and was probably forecasted.
b. Waves are dependent on wind.
Jesus focused on the forecast.
Notice the order. What was going to sink the boat? The waves. That would have seemed to be the most pressing issue. Right? Come on Jesus deal with my waves. Deal with debt. Deal with my spouse. Deal with my kids. Deal with my job. Deal with my car. But Jesus knew that waves are dependent on wind and so He speaks to the wind first because He knew that the climate of the wind forecasts waves.
Here is the forecast . . . waves of destruction will keep rolling in until you deal with the wind that is driving those waves! You might as well buckle up. You better man up and make the difficult decisions to speak to the climate. Address the climate. Get at the root of what is causing the wild ride and deal with it. Silence the climate and the waves will stop.
We want Jesus to deal with our waves but we won't let Him and we won't deal with the winds often times because we are comfortable with what is causing us to capsize!
If you don't address the wind the forecast will never change! Waves will come!
I want Jesus to stop the waves but what I really need Him to do is cut off the wind!
Who do you have that can step into your climate and not just speak to storms. . . not just the waves . . . but the wind? You may think you need a wave stopper but what would do us the most good and what we most need is a wind stopper. You need someone who can look at you and say go and stop this and you obey even if you like riding that wave because you know the forecast will change if you obey.
Here is the real truth Jesus is the wind stopper but we have been satisfied with and relegated Him to a wave stopper because we don't want him messing with our climate.
