Outside The Box Series

Lesson 3 of 8

Outside The Box – Evangelism

 

Mark 2:1-12 (KJV)

2 And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house.

2 And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.

3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.

4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.

5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

6 But there was certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,

7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?

8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?

9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?

10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)

11 I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.

12 And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.

 

 

“Whatever it takes to show people who Jesus is…”

 

Jesus was unconventional

 

An Outside the Box Church is a church that is willing to do whatever it needs to do to reach it’s communities with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

• There was nothing common…
• There was nothing usual…
• There was nothing traditional about Jesus.

 

• And there was nothing Common, Usual or traditional about the Church His ministry produced.
• His church was Outside The Box.
• The religious world thought they were nuts.
• They thought they were drunk.
• They were so different than the rest of the religious world that the religious leaders wanted them killed.

 

 

When you look at the life and ministry of Jesus Christ, you see very quickly that His ministry was definitely an “Outside the box” ministry.

 

• His very birth was completely unconventional.  – Virgin birth
• His Childhood was unusual. – 12 yrs. old Teaching in the synagogue
• His first known miracle was controversial even to this day. – Turning water into wine.
• The choosing of His disciples was completely off. – Fishermen, Tax collectors, Publicans.
• Many other miracles so strange, many never believed they happen.  Waited for Lazarus to die before he went to help him.
• The religious people of His day thought him so unorthodox and so eccentric in His ministry that they hated him – so much that they wanted to kill him.

 

For years I’ve heard churches asking: how do we get our church outside these 4 walls.

 

• If there ever was a generation that needed reached it’s this one.
• If there ever was a generation that was harder to reach with traditional means, it’s this one.
• But, I wonder if we really mean it when we talk about getting our church Outside The Box.
• It sounds visionary
• It sounds evangelistic
• It sounds like what we should be saying…
• But do we really know what things would look like around here if it happened?

 

How do we get outside the box?

 

Well, what is the box?  (We talked about it last week.)

• Traditional mindsets.
• Comfort zones
• History
• Generational boundaries
• We are controlled by our thinking.
• “It’s never been done that way before” mentality.

 

See if we are going to take this thing Out Of The Box, in order to evangelize our city, we are going to have to let go of some of the Traditional Mindsets that we have.

• Our last revival 20 years ago cannot define where we are going.
• We have to get a new mindset.
• “Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus.”
• We have to let go of our own thinking and get ahold of His thinking.

 

We’re going to have to get out of our comfort zone.

• We’re going to have to stretch ourselves and get involved at a level we’ve never been before.
• That’s us corporately and you as an individual.
• Hey, the individuals of this church make up the corporate church and if you or I am not willing to get out of our comfort zone, we never will reach this city.
  • We’re going to have to go to work.
  • We’re going to have to get busy.
  • We’re going to have to make something happen around here.

 

How many of you are ready for a new way of thinking?

• How many have grown tired of empty chairs and an empty altar?
• I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to go to work.
• I’m ready to do what I have to do to see some of my neighbors and my family saved.
• If we keep doing things the way we’ve been doing things, we’re going to get what we’ve been getting.
• I believe God wants more for this church and from this church.
• In order for that to happen, we are going to have to start thinking differently.

 

Ours cannot be a traditional church.

 

• We have a message to proclaim to the generation, the communities we live in, and that is that Jesus Christ loves them.

 

I get excited sometimes when I think about what it would be like to live in a community that has been evangelized with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Evangelism = Introduce People To Jesus

 

I am convinced that the help and encouragement that my friends, neighbors and family need today, can be found in having a relationship with Jesus Christ.

 

• Sharing Jesus with them is something that should come easy.
• Sharing Jesus with them is something that I should enjoy doing.
• Sharing my faith is something that should come naturally.
  • No effort.
  • No struggle
  • There might be something wrong with our faith if we’re ashamed to tell people about Jesus.
  • We might need to find an altar of repentance if we find it hard to tell them of His love.

 

If you were a scientist or a doctor who found a cure for cancer, would you share it with the rest of the world?

• Wouldn’t you start telling people about what you had found?
• Internet
• TV
• Radio
• Talk to your next-door neighbors
• Family?
• Friends?

 

When you heard that they had a loved one who was dying of that terrible disease, wouldn’t you speak up and say, “Hey, I have the cure for that!”?

 

• Sure you would!

 

You might even start going door to door in your neighborhood telling everyone you could that if they had a loved one who had cancer, you had the cure for it.

 

And it wouldn’t take long before some people started seeking you out to find out what you had that could do so much good.

 

This is our attitude here!

• We’ve got an answer!
• We’ve got a solution!
• We’ve found something that the world needs to know about!
• His name is Jesus and He can give them meaning and direction for their life.
• He can heal their marriage.
• He can deliver them from their addictions.
• He can set them free from the bondages in the despair and hopelessness that surrounds their life.
• And He can fill them with His Holy Spirit.

 

Outside the Box Evangelism.

• What’s it going to take to get the message of a Great God into our communities?

 

At our church, we’re going to take the roof off of this thing.

• There are no limits
• There are no boundaries
• There is no place we won’t go if the Spirit tells us to
• There is no method we won’t use to get this message out.
• We believe that God will use anybody and everybody who will allow God to use them.

 

In the scriptures, I find Jesus using just about every kind of person you can imagine to get His message across.

 

• He used everybody who wanted to be a part of His ministry.
• He used much-hated tax collectors.
• He used a man possessed with devils
• He used Children
• He used a 5 – time divorcee
• He used blind people
• He used deaf people
• He used sick people
• He used a dead man

 

Now first he had to heal them and deliver them and redeem them, but after when He did, they started telling everybody they knew about the wonderful man who met the tremendous need in their life.

 

You name it – He used it.

 

Jesus’s mission was clear to Him.

• He did not question what it was that He was going to do.
• He did it without wavering.

 

His mission was to minister to and bring into ministry as many people as he could in the short 3.5 years His ministry had on this Earth.

 

Understand something,

• God wants to use you.
• He wants to use what He’s blessed you with.
• He wants to use your time
• He wants to use your talents
• He has given you the breath that you have in your lungs right now to evangelize this world.

 

This church will never reach this community if we do what we see everybody else doing.

• We will not reach our world if we sit back and wait for someone else to tell them about Jesus.
• We’ve got something to get excited about
• We’ve got a message our community needs to hear.
• We’ve got something that is changing lives and who are we to sit on this miracle and not share it with someone else?

 

We’ve got a message:

• Jesus cares!
• Jesus loves you!
• Jesus wants to help you!
• Jesus can set you free!

 

An Outside The Box Church doesn’t sit on the best-kept secret in town.

• An Outside The Box Church want’s to share what it has with its communities.
• Like the woman at the well, they want to tell their city about the Man who spoke healing and hope into their life.

 

Have you ever told somebody about a good restaurant?

• How about a good place to get your car repaired?
• Why is it that some people will brag about the best restaurant to go eat at, but when it comes to telling people about the best church to go to, they clam up?

 

Hey, we’re taking this thing out of the box!

• We’re telling people that this church is the greatest thing on the planet.
• How many of you really believe that our community needs to hear this message?
• Let’s figure out what it’s going to take to tell people about this amazing God that we serve and this church that we all worship Him at!
• Let’s get it out of the box!