Out of Our Comfort Zone

Acts 13:36 "For when David had served God's purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep: he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed.

Throughout David's life he served God's purpose. Though there were times when David swayed from God, sinned, he never made excuses nor did he blame others. He took personal responsibility for his own sin. Because David did not blame or make excuses, God did not do to David what David deserved. God did not give up on him, God did not leave him nor did He forsake him. The Holy Spirit worked on David and David repented. The scripture said that David was a man after God’s own heart. He did however pay the penalty for his sins.
Jeremiah 29:11 God said, "For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Just as David served God's purpose in his lifetime, you have been called to serve God's purpose in your lifetime. By doing so you may entail persecution of the most severe kind, but Jesus said that great is your reward, for so persecuted they the prophets who were before you (Matthew 5:12). What reward? In this lifetime knowing that you were persecuted for the sake of the gospel of Jesus Christ but even greater is the reward of eternal life.

One of the plans that God has for all of His children is the spreading of the gospel. There's opportunity everyday to share the gospel with someone. You should never use the excuse that you don't want to be too pushy because you might push them away. Your pushiness may be the last time that they will ever have to hear the gospel and the last opportunity to accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. There are other times when you are in a crowd and the people present start to defame the name of Christ. Perhaps they are talking about "those Christians." You should never allow that to happen. Not that you want to get into an argument but you are called to defend the name of the one who gave you eternal life. David did so when he went up against Goliath. Goliath spent forty days cursing the one true God and David said enough is enough.

Ministry is a huge word. Every person who walks behind the banner of Christian has been called to be a minister. I believe that when someone is baptized, instead of giving them a certificate of baptism, you should be giving them a certificate of ministry. It is important to pray to God before you go into any type of ministry. You must pray and then listen. When you are asking God for direction or when you are telling God that you are volunteering for service, be patient and God will give you the answer, and He will not wait long to do so. Once He answers your prayer, take action. There are so many ministries available that the list is in exhaustive. Never be guilty of prioritizing ministry. Never be guilty of saying that one ministry is more important than another. God places each and every one of you where he wants you.

We are all of equal importance when it comes to ministry. The foot can not say to the hand, “because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body.” We are all a part of the body serving the
body as called on by God to serve.

The question, "are you putting your talents and abilities to use for the sake of the gospel? Are you up and out of your recliner, your hammock, your church pew and working for the one who loves you, the one who paid the price for your sins? The easy thing to do is be a spectator. Being a spectator takes little or no effort. God wants you to be a participant.

All ministries must begin with our family. You have a responsibility to share our faith with those closest to you. Tell them who Jesus is, write them a letter, and invite them to church. Again, don't use the excuse of not wanting to be too pushy. When you stand before God Almighty, are you going to tell him the reason you didn't persist in sharing the gospel with your family is because you didn't want to be too pushy. I wonder what God will say to that? Jesus said that father will betray son to death, daughter will betray mother to death, but it won't happen if you are not a witness to them. Sure your family may tell you to not talk about it or they may even tell you to leave and not come back until you've reached your senses. If that happens, rejoice in the fact that you have been counted worthy to suffer disgrace for the Name (Acts 5:41).

Once you are out of your hammock, take a look out of your backyard. What do you see? Do you see just your yard or do you also see your neighbor's yard? Do you see neighbors who are struggling, hurting? Does your neighbor need help with their lawn, cleaning the house, bailing the hay? If you are physically able, you have that responsibility. Go and do a good work either for or with them and look for the opportunity to share Jesus. Does your neighbor have an emotional need? Do they have a rebellious child, a spouse that said they were leaving, or are they perhaps dealing with a terminal illness? They just need someone to talk to them, to listen to them. Maybe it’s the elderly or the shut in who needs a visit.

You may live where you can't see your neighbors, so you can legitimately ask, "Who is my neighbor?" (Story of the Good Samaritan, the priest, the Levite) When Jesus asked, “Which of the three was a neighbor to the one in need? This expert of the law answered and said, “The one who had mercy on him.” This legalist despised the Samaritans so much that he couldn’t or wouldn’t even bring himself around to acknowledging that it was the Samaritan. How about you? If a person of another culture, religion or race was in need, would you be there to serve or help? If you were in need would you accept help from someone of a different culture or race? Would you discriminate against any of the above? Is there an ounce of prejudice in you?
Billy Graham said: "The highest form of worship is the worship of unselfish Christian service. The greatest form of praise is the sound of consecrated feet seeking out the lost and the helpless."

There are two parts to Billy Graham's statement.

The first is unselfish Christian service. How are you doing at serving others? That's all ministry is; serving others, putting others needs before your own, sacrificing self for the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 10:24 says that nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. When you look beyond your backyard and see the needs of others, do you turn your back on them, do you say to yourself, "someone else will take care of that need," or, "I'll get to it just as soon as I can." And then what happens is; out of site-out of mind.

The second part of Rev. Graham's statement is the seeking out of the lost and the helpless. This is the Great Commission. Jesus said that he came to seek and to save those that were lost. In 1 Peter 2:12 we are called to live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. Too many churches are busy trying to fill up their church pews by "evangelizing" people from other churches. They say things like, "you should come to our church, we have a great youth ministry, the best around." "You should come to our church, our pastor preaches the Word, he/she is dynamic and you will never be bored." “You should come to our church; we have a great praise and worship team.” Brothers and sisters, there are enough unsaved people in the local communities that you don't need to go and steal from other churches. Go to the lost, wherever they are. The lost may resist coming to a church building but they would still like to meet Jesus.
Sometimes in order to get out of our backyard it is not as easy as opening the fence door and walking out. Sometimes even Christians have challenges. Sometimes it’s hard to get out of your comfort zone. There may be times where you will need to climb a tree and go out on a limb to get out of the backyard and into your community. You may have to cut down or uproot the hedges that separate you from your neighbor. It may not be an easy task but no one said it would be easy.

Many times people are unlovable and you are called to love them. Paul told Timothy that the servant of Jesus must be kind to everyone. Everyone means everyone, there are no exceptions. When you part company with the unlovable what do they say about you? Are you a good or bad representative of Jesus? You may be the only Jesus some may ever see.
One problem that churches have is that they are more inwardly focused and not outwardly focused. We as a church still have a passion for the truth, we still want to exalt Jesus Christ, and we still look forward to the day of his return. But in some ways we have lost the urgency to "go." We can not be like the movie "Field of Dreams" where the voice says, "If you build it they will come." That only works in the movies. The unsaved of today and the church of tomorrow will not be drawn to a building with four walls, one that is of beautiful architecture, but rather a church that is reaching out to the community, one that is feeding the poor, giving clothes to the naked, being involved in prison ministry, showing hospitality by giving shelter to the homeless, visiting the sick. By doing so unto others, you are doing so unto Jesus himself. We do these works not for self-glorification but rather for the glorification of Christ, to lift Him up. The only person we need to please is God. God’s opinion is the only one of importance. We are called to let our light shine before men, that they may see our good deeds and praise the one true God. We must make a personal connection with people. We must earn the right to share the gospel with them. Everyone has needs; the challenge is taking the time to find out what their need is, we need to connect with them. If we focus on filling their needs then we will earn that right of sharing the gospel. Before we can invite them to our house, we must go to theirs. We must meet them where they are.

Right before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave to His disciples what we have called the Great Commission. The Great Commission calls for us to go into the entire world and to make disciples of all nations and of all people. The world for some may be traveling down the road to Cumberland, Morgantown, or Uniontown. For others it may be going into the inner cities such as Baltimore, Washington, Los Angeles or New York. And yet for others, it may be leaving the security of the United Stated and going to places such as China, Bolivia, Mongolia, Mexico or Guatemala. Again, remember the parable of the Good Samaritan. Who is my neighbor and who am I a neighbor to? If God calls us to such a ministry as this, be obedient to the call. It may mean persecution or it may mean death, but great will be your reward for so persecuted they the prophet's that were before you.

God may be calling you to get out of your comfort zone. He may be telling you to be a witness to your family, in your community or to your neighbors around the world. When He calls, you have a decision to make. Are you going to be like Isaiah and say, “Here I am Lord, send me.” Or, are you going to reach into the bag of patented excuses such as, “I’m too old, I’m too young, I’m to ill, I’m too small, I’m too shy, I’m not worthy, I’m not equipped, I’m to dumb, I’m too smart” or any other excuse that might be in the bag. If you’ve been called and you’ve used any of these excuses in the past, it is not too late. It is never too late. All you need to do is to repent asking God to forgive you. He will then be faithful and cleanse you. He will then prepare you for service and when you enter heaven, He will say, “Well gone good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord.”