Stepping OUT for Jesus / Message #2 / Part #2

October 14, 2012
Series: Hitting the Reset Button on God's Church
Message #2: Stepping Out for Jesus (Part #2)
Hebrews 13:11-14
Scott Howard

• Question #1:  Will we die in our Religion, or will we die in our Devotion?

Two options:

1. Retreat from the Mission
2. Risk everything for the Mission

• Question #2:  Will we embrace our Comfort, or will we embrace His Cross?

"The high priest carries the blood of animals into the Most Holy Place as a sin offering, but the bodies are burned outside the camp.  And so Jesus also suffered outside the city gate to make the people holy through his own blood.  Let us, then, go to him outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore.  For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come."  ---Hebrews 13:11-14

Remember, the "camp" is the comfort zone.  The place where the Jewish people lived.  They did not go outside the camp very much.  Once a year on the Day of Atonement for all the people, the sacrificed animals were taken outside the camp because the sins of the people were on them and they could not be burned inside the camp.  Outside the camp was also where those who were "unclean" lived.  They had diseases and could not live among the "clean" people.  And stonings and crucifixions happened outside the camp.  It was not pleasant outside the camp.

• Let us go with Jesus to the...
• Dirty Places ---> Leviticus 16:27-28
• Despised Places ---> Leviticus 13:45-46
• Dangerous Places ---> Leviticus 24:13-16

We must go outside the camp in order to minister to the hurting, the unclean, the ones in danger.  Jesus is already working in the lives of the people outside the camp, and we are called to be his witnesses unto all the earth.

Do we Really want to be where Jesus is?

• This mission without suffering, is Christianity without a Cross.
• When Jesus calls us to Himself, He calls us to suffering
• Suffering is not just a consequence of our Mission; suffering is the central strategy for achieving our Mission

If you think about it...people can relate to us because we have suffered similar trials in life.  But through it all we trust in Jesus and lean on Him for help and guidance.  This in itself is a testimony.  We should just talk with those outside the camp and let them know how Jesus has worked in our own lives.  Jesus will never fail you, or those you are witnessing to...step out in faith and trust that Jesus will do the work through us.

• Question #3:  Will we live for pleasures in this world, or for the Paradise in the world to come?

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverence the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the auther and perfector of our faith, who for the JOY set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow eary and lose heart."  --Hebrews 12:1-3

How encouraging that Jesus went through all this so that we would not lose heart, because He knows where we've been and how hard it is.  And because he will help us every step of the way!

1. The Greatest earthly security is ultimately insecure.  The worldly things will all pass away in the end.
2. The Bottom line:  It IS Worth it!!

• Jesus calls the church to live according to a radically different definition of success than the rest of the world.
• Jesus calls ME to live according to a different definition of success than the rest of the world. 

To fulfill the Great Commission is success.  Finding lost souls and bringing them to Christ is success and brings all Glory to God the Father.