This sermon is to get people in general to understand that there is a contagious spirit operating in the atmosphere. I did this particular sermon at a Youth Anniversary, but I feel this sermon is for all ages of living.
The word contagious is define this way; a widely spreaded epidemic.
I know many of you are thinking about; Mr. Biggs-Contagious. That’s exaclty where the Lord revealed to me the title of my message: "Contagious..."
In the world that we live in on today, I have found that there are so many contagious spirits operating in our churches of today. This sister do’t like this sister and this brother don’t like this brother. I have a problem with that. When God created you, he created something wrong with you because he knew that you would think that you are so beautiful that there isn’t anything wrong with you. Watch this! Look at your neighbor very closely. If you looked hard as I instructed you, you will find that you couldn’t see your neighbor’s eyes because her nose was blocking her eyes.
Brothers look closely at another brother. If you look closely as I instructed you, you don’t have to look. You know everytime John stands up, the sit moves. He has an overweight problem. I am being comical, but my point is, we all have a problem and your problem may not be my problem, but we all have problems.
The reason that a contagious spirit has entered the church is because church folk have brought it in with there garbage. Don’t misunderstand me, there are good contagious spirits and there are bad contagious spirits. Today, I would first like to deal with the bad contagious spirits.
You have a bad contagious spirit when you think God needs you. If is shameful for anyone to think that God needs them when he created them from the beginning. Genesis 1:26 "So God created man in his own image and in the likeness of him..." As a matter of fact, look at your neighbor and tell them: "YOU AIN’T NOTHING BUT DUST...! The bible says that God created us from the dust of the ground. Do you understand what dust is. Dust is what people have spat on and what our feet tread upon daily. The next time somebody comes and try to be a BIGSHOT, remind them of where they come from.
Every now and then, you got to remind people of where they come from. (MR. BIGSHOT, WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!) I am tired of folk forgetting where they have come from. People are something else! They grew up on Collard Greens and Fatback. They get a position on the job paying $75, 000.00 a year when they were only making $25, 000.00, they eat steaks every night and potatoes. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with that because I can eat up some T-Bone steaks and potatoes, salad, pecan pie, and some sweet tea on the side. I can eat that everyday and most of the time, I do, but I still don’t forget when grandma was in the kitchen cooking them collards greens and fatback.
As we look at our text for today, we find that we are dealing with contagious spirits. I am going to get back to talking about contagious spirits, I just need to interject foundation at this point of my sermon. In Genesis 3, we find that we are dealing with Adam and Eve. It is fascinating that God created woman from man, but the woman was the control and not the variable in this situation. I personally wouldn’t blame everything in the serpent because God had already told Adam what to do. Adam was told from the beginning while he and Jesus walked and talked not to eat of the tree of knowledge.
Don’t misunderstand this! God knew from the beginning of time that Adam would eat of that tree. Adam didn’t eat of the tree the first time because he didn’t have anything to persuade him. Adam had gotten over the fact that the serpent was cunning and that the serpent was evil. Imagine being with God all day and night and you stil do wrong, I couldn’t imagine it. I would be afraid that God would curse me and I would immediately die. I would even be afraid that something terrible may happen to me.
Here at this time, Mrs. Adam come along and the serpent comes to Mrs. Adam(Eve). In the midst of persuading Eve, the devil knew that he could get her attention quicker than he could get Adam’s attention. You have to understand and I am not talking about my ladies, even though there are several hundreds of you in here, LADIES ARE THE WEAKER VESSEL! I know letters and cards will be sent to my office because I have just said something that no woman agrees with. I look at my mother and grandmother, they are so friendly and nice. They are always saying, "I don’t care about people doing me wrong, I’ll just pray for them." Watch this, I brother will say, "My brother, do you have a problem with me?" The worst thing you could do to a brother is bother is wife or even look at her the wrong way. The wife and husband can be so far from being on one accord util it’s ridiculous, he still will get you about his wife.
The serpent come and cunn poor Eve. Eve persuades Adam to eat of the tree. They ate the apple and the bible says, through Adam and Eve, sinned entered the world. The terminology used here defines the fact that originally from the beginning we were not supposed to be people who sinned. I just believe this happened through the spirit of God to let man know that he cannot compare his ability to God’s availability. I believe it happened to allow man to see that his inventions, discoveries, and thoughts cannot convey to the knowledge God has.
Adam and Eve eats the fruit and this is when I and you have to constantly come to the altar and ask for forgiveness. Through Adam and Eve, a bad contagious spirit is exemplified.
Let’s talk now about a good contagious spirit. A spirit that should always dwell with believers. A spirit that when the drug dealer sees you, he can say, I want to be just like that man or woman of God. A identity of Christ that when he sees you, he’s respecting you with the upmost respect.
As we look in John 9 and even before then, we see Jesus had a contagious spirit. Jesus contagious spirit occurred from the fact that he healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, helped the lame to walk, the maimed made whole, and the mute began to talk. This is the spirit that all christians should have. It was fabulous to see how the bible records Jesus going into a town and they didn’t want him to leave. At a few occassions he asked not to be revealed. I can hear grandma in the kitchen singing, "Something got a hold of me and I couldn’t keep it to myself." That’s what that Blind Bartimaeus when Jesus spat on the ground and created balls(which were created into eyes) and put them on Bartimaues’ face and he began to see. That’s what the lady who had any issue of blood for twelve long years said.
Here, we are to develop Jesus’ contagious spirit. I just want to be right! I just want to be right! I just want to be right! That’s why it’s redudantly said, "Jesus is coming back!" Many people have taken that for a joke, but it’s real and Jesus really is coming back. Will you be ready?
I hope that this sermon has helped you. Invite me to come and share with your congregation. It would be a great experience for me.
God bless you and I love you!
