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October 26, 2018

Beyond These Walls Studio


Christianity was never meant to be confined by the four walls of a church building. Yes, Jesus was often found in the synagogue. But He was more often found in peoples’ villages and homes. He ate with sinners. He encountered the blind, the broken hearted, and the demon possessed.

 

Jesus didn’t make people come to church to hear the Good News. He took the good news beyond the walls of the church straight to the people most in need.

 

Jesus said it Himself: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners,to repentance” (Mark 1:17).

 

Are we doing enough to take Jesus beyond the walls of our home, beyond the walls of our church, and beyond the walls of our comfort zone?

 

Just outside the walls of your church, there’s a teenage girl who is pregnant and thinking about aborting that baby. Within a mile or so of your home, there’s someone addicted to drugs who is thinking about taking enough to end it all. All around us are people who need what we have. But we’ve got to feel compassion, to stretch, and to reach the lost outside the walls.

 

“And this continued for two years, so that all who dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 10:19). 

 

How do you reach a whole continent in only two years? They didn’t have airplanes. They didn’t have television or the internet. But they had Jesus, they were fired up, and they said, “We’re going beyond these walls!”

 

You know, when I first started preaching, I wanted to be an inspirational evangelist. And then I wanted to be informational and inspirational. But now, beyond anything else, I want to be transformational. I want to see lives transformed. I want to throw the lifeline of Jesus Christ to somebody who really needs Him. I can’t keep Him to myself—I’ve got to share Him with the people in need beyond these walls.

 

It’s good inside these walls. We hear sermons, and sing songs, and shake hands. We think about Jesus and what He means to us. But does anyone outside the walls know? Do they hear us talking about Jesus? Do our lives change as we grow in Jesus? Do people outside the walls see a difference in us? Or do we just walk outside the walls, turn the same old music on, go back to the same old attitude, the same unforgiveness, the same lust, the same pride?

 

What happens inside the church walls must change the life we live outside the church walls. Our life is outside the walls. Our co-workers, our family, our neighbors all have lives outside the walls. Our belief in Jesus has to extend beyond the walls. 

 

We must be bold and unashamed.

 

If we’re not careful, the church can become more ingrown than outgrown. When we become ingrown, we become like an ingrown toenail—sore and touchy all the time! An ingrown toe isn’t any use to anyone.

 

The cure for being ingrown is to remember our mission:

 

“And He said to them, ‘Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature’” (Mark 16:15).

 

Our purpose is to find somebody who needs help, who needs love, who needs Jesus and minster to them. Maybe we’ve been through marriage problems. If so, we can minister to others in that position. Maybe we’ve been through a serious illness. Why not help someone else going through the same thing? Folks, we have the answer. And we need to share it with people in need outside of our four walls.

 

Jesus’s last words should be our first priority:

 

“…and you shall be witnesses to Me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).

 

As Jesus prepared to ascend to heaven, He gave us a mission to go, to reach, to stretch. He didn’t save us to sit in a pew and be entertained by a church service. He saved us to change the world.

 

We don’t have to be perfect. We don’t have to be educated or rich. We just have to be forgiven by the blood of Jesus and willing to reach out of our comfort zone and into the lives of people in need. 

 

Just reach out beyond the walls. He’ll do the rest.

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