In 1612, an Italian by the name of Santonio invented a device that radically changed our world. It made modern (real) science possible.

Steam technology and even modern engineering would not be possible. Medicine would still be in the dark ages.

Without this mall gadget, we in the Northern climates would have nothing to talk about in the winter. You may have guessed it, yes it is the simple thermometer.

But for all its great uses in our modern culture, it doesn’t really do anything. It just tells us the temperature but changes nothing.

Recently, God gave this word to encourage our local church. It is intended to encourage people to press into their call, make a difference, and change their environment.

Sometime after the thermometer was invented a greater, more useful item came along, the thermostat.

Now, when the house is too cold, the thermostat allows us to do something about it. While one invention simply tells us there is a problem, the second can change the environment.

Big difference!

Sometimes in churches, we get those ‘well-meaning’ souls that have the gift of thermometer. They can always tell if the spiritual temperature is too hot or especially too cold.

But not unlike the humble thermometer, they lack any ability to do anything about it.

In our home, we have an indoor thermostat and a thermometer outside our house on the deck. I don’t want to push this analogy too far, but we have too many ‘outside’ thermometers inside the church.

This will be quick to you the spiritual temperature of any house of worship, but from the outside only. Sorry, thermostats are for inside the house and thermometers are for outside.

We need an upgrade. We require thermostats that can not only detect spiritual coldness but also know how to increase the spiritual temperature from inside the house.

In Philippians 3:14, the Apostle Paul writes, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (NKJV).

Paul is not talking about our works saving us, but pressing toward our goal. Our call does require effort.

The word press in Greek means, ‘Follow after, pursue, press forward.’

If the spiritual temperature is too cold, I need to ‘press’ the thermostat and turn up the heat. To do that, I must be connected to the power company, or I’m just a lowly thermometer.