"Outed”
Pt. 1
Text: Deut. 32:11
"Like an eagle that stirs up its nest and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them and carries them on its pinions.” NIV
“He was like an eagle hovering over its nest, overshadowing its young, Then spreading its wings, lifting them into the air, teaching them to fly.” Message
I want to read to you a portion of Scripture that is oft quoted. It is part of Moses’ last song before he is taken by God. This one statement gives us a glimpse of how God deals with His people! How He deals with us! He rouses his young. He waketh up his nest.
Introduction:
It is a safe place. Warm. Cozy. Secure. Comfortable. The boundaries are marked - defined by the outside edges of their living quarters. It is their home. It is their world. It is all they know. It is all they care to know. It is their nest. Food is found here. Camaraderie is found here. Peace is found here. Every need is met. Every desire accommodated. It is their place!
And yet, the day comes that the mother hen or the momma eagle, as referenced in the text, does the unthinkable. She stirs up her nest. What was a comfortable place now becomes a prickly, sticky, sharp, pointed, untenable enclosure. She forces the maturing chicks to the edge. No longer safe. No longer cozy and secure. No longer comfortable. They want to stay there, but she won’t allow it to happen because she knows that for their own good she must push them to the edge. She knows that they are born to fly and soar. She knows they are destined to explore. If she doesn’t do her job and “out” them the nest will become a prison. The nest will no longer be an incubator, but will become a coffin! The day has come that they are pushed out for their own sake and for their own good!
We like things to be safe. We like things to be warm. Cozy is our compass. Security is our standard. Much like chicks in the barnyard we want to remain in our cocoon of comfort and we refuse to venture to the edge. Church is our nest. It is our defining boundary. We huddle together for warmth and protection. We fight venturing out to the world around us. We allow the nest to become a coffin!
According to Deuteronomy God stirs His nest! God must have a split personality or something because in one instance we are told that God wants to gather us under His wings like a mother hen gathers her chicks. He wants to protect us, love us, and comfort us. But then in Deuteronomy, we get another glimpse of God; we are told that He wants to force us to move beyond the enclosure! He wants to out us!
What does outed mean? If someone outs you they expose you for who you really are. They tell on you. They pull back the covers and let others get a glimpse of the real you. They pull off your mask. They force you to face the truth!
I probably need to warn you that I am going to out you today! But before I out you I need to out me!
I am comfortable in here! I know how to do this. I know how to do church. I feel safe here. The people I love are here so there is often no sense of urgency to go outside these walls. I often see outreach as a duty (what we are supposed to do to be considered a “real” church) rather than an incredible opportunity. Church, if I am honest, on many days has become about me! Did I get my needs met? Did I get my spiritual fix? Did I get my praise fix? Did I get my goose bumps? Did I get to use my gift and did I use it well? I am in the nest. I like the nest. I want to stay in the nest.
I have wrestled with the messages I am preaching during this series because they are some of the most uncomfortable I will ever preach. And because if I am not careful, I will employ every trick I have ever learned to listen, but not actually apply them to my own life! I am outed this morning!
As an eagle stirs up its nest! You must be outed too! We need to be awakened. I hope you become uncomfortable right now.
When I realize that 99.5% of you will never lead one person to Christ it tells me that you are too comfortable in the nest!
When I realize that the average church in the USA spends $250,000 a year and only wins one person to Christ then the nest has become a coffin!
And then we raise our brood to conduct business the same way! Less than 33% of teenagers shared their faith with another person in the last 12 months, and half of all the youth ministries in America did not win one new convert to Christ last year.
Every church should be full this morning. There ought to be people standing in line to get in. Let’s get personal with it this morning. Our church should be full today. Yet, most of you have no sense of urgency about the fact that there are empty seats which equates to lost souls remaining lost! Your needs are met. You’re comfortable. You’re safe. Your eternity is secured, but what about them?
I am convinced that most us attempt to rape the Bride of Christ and use her to fulfill our selfish, self centered desires!! My praise, my needs, my wants, my comfort, my nest!
Why doesn’t it bother you that the people you have lived next to for years, classmates that you spend hours a day with, co workers that know most of your life story, and family members that you have influence over are not here or in some church this morning? Why doesn’t it bother us that we can go decades without personally leading someone to Christ?
You are outed! I stir the nest the morning. Your hearts should be broken.
I can hear what some of you are thinking right now. You are thinking what we need is a revival that will draw people. Or you are thinking what we need are miracles to take place, signs and wonders, manifestations, that would cause people to come? Really? I am all for miracles, signs, wonders, manifestations. I pray for those to happen every week. But don’t we already have the most incredible miracle to show them? Haven’t we already witnessed the most incredible sign, wonder and manifestation? God came in the flesh and lived like us, died for us, and wants relationship with us? That is a miracle. That is a miracle that should drive us and should draw them (if I be lifted up – not if miracles are lifted up, manifestations although legitimate)! The key is that they have to be able to see Him! We have to make Him seen! If we won’t get out of the nest and talk about, live about, share about that miracle what difference would all the flopping on the ground, foaming at the mouth, bucking, hair standing up on the back of your neck miracles make?
The truth is most of us have enough God to make us comfortable, but not enough God to talk about Him or to be dangerous to someone else’s sins or sickness! We have as much of Him as we want!
I am praying that a divine discontent will take over our lives beginning this week. I am praying that what used to satisfy us will no longer satisfy us, but frustrate us. I am praying that we will no longer be able to live our life where we drive to church on Sunday and then drive home only to repeat the process week after week and it never impacts anyone around us. Padding the nest, shifting our position in the nest, but never getting out of the nest! I am praying that through the power of the Holy Spirit that by the time we finish this series you will be outed. Uncomfortable. In fact that is what Jesus came to do. We know He came to comfort the uncomfortable. But I want you to know that He also came to make the comfortable uncomfortable! We are too comfortable.
I know it is comfortable in here. No one is more comfortable in here than me. This is a nest that I built for myself! It looks, sounds, feels like this because this is what is comfortable to me! But I am declaring to you today that I have been outed. This isn’t about me! It is supposed to be about them!
I am glad you enjoy Passion. I am thankful (more than you will ever know) that you call this home. I sincerely do hope that all of your needs are met here. I genuinely do hope that you get your praise fix here. I do hope that you get your spiritual questions answered and I try to make sure that you leave every Sunday nourished and encouraged. But I also hope you know that once you have made a commitment to Christ that it is no longer about you! It is about them! Quit being disappointed when your wishes/demands aren’t met! You have Him, what more could you need? Passion is for you but not about you!
We’re NOT called to be consumers…but contributors! The question must change in this church from “What is in it for me?” or “What did I get out of it?” or “Is this my style” or “Does this push my buttons” to “How can I serve?” and “How can I reach out so others will have their needs met too?” and “How can my church invade the rest of my life so that others will invade my church?” For most of us church is what we do, it isn’t who we are. It is one hour of duty or thought each week. The only people who are really making a difference in the world are those who grasp the kingdom concept and understand that once we meet Jesus His kingdom should consume our every thought, our ever action, our every minute, and our every motive.
We are called to reach the world through serving it…not screaming at it, ignoring it, or hiding from it!
I am not the first to out disciples. Very quickly I want to point you to Matthew 10:5-16.
Jesus outs the 12. They hadn’t been with him very long and yet He outs them. Wouldn’t it have been more comfortable for them to stay with him? Wouldn’t it have been safer with Him? Wouldn’t they have enjoyed life more with Him? They didn’t have to worry about provision He could multiply. They didn’t have to worry about sickness, He could heal. Staying in the nest would have been better except for the fact that He stirs the nest! He refuses to allow them to stay in the nest forever.
He gives them simple instructions. You can read them for yourself in Matthew. I just want to quickly summarize His instructions. They out us as well.
1. Go to the lost.
Didn’t say wait on them to come to us. Go. That requires leaving the nest. That requires being uncomfortable. That requires rubbing shoulders. That requires more than just an hour of your time each week. That requires you to live your life differently! Gather. Grow. Go! The church gathered is actually a time of preparation for ‘being the church’ outside of its walls.” Told to go and then make disciples. Not commanded to stay and make disciples. If we stay in the nest it is really difficult to make new disciples.
We have to go to the lost!
2. Show them heaven.
Heal the sick. Raise the dead. Drive out demons. In other words, He is saying to the disciples, what you have seen done, do. The same power you operate with in the nest operate outside of the nest. I’m glad you can pray, prophecy, handle demons when you are in my presence, but are you operating with the same power out there? Do we ever show them heaven or just more of what they always see? Our time in here is a practice field for the real game! If all we are going to do is practice, but never play the game this is futile!
3. Produce peace.
Jesus says very clearly to enter a house and let your peace rest on it! He didn’t say let my peace rest on it. You should have peace on you! How many of us stir things up so badly that people dread us showing up? How many of our co-workers dread working with us because of the drama? Stir your nest today. If there is drama everywhere you go you may need to take a look at the common denominator! Where is your peace? If there was ever anything this society needs right now it is some folks who know how to bring peace to people’s lives!
4. Expect rejection and get over it.
Jesus tells them that everyone won’t listen. But he also says don’t sweat it either. Dust your shoes off and go on. It isn’t the end of the world. They aren’t rejecting you, they are rejecting Him! Why do we fear rejection so badly if it isn’t about us but about Him? Our worth and our legitimacy as a believer isn’t wrapped up in who we win, it is wrapped up in that we tried to win!
I mentioned earlier that it seems like God has a split personality. The truth is this morning both glimpses of God, the one where He is like the protecting, loving, and comforting and the one where He stirs us up and kicks us out of our comfort zones, are correct and true. They are not mutually exclusive. We have just become deceived to believe that we can only tap into His comforting, protecting, loving side inside the nest. I want you to realize this morning that as we go out we will see and tap into more of God’s love, comfort, and protection. There is nothing to keep you safe from in here! Out there is where we are meant to be!
III. Close
We are being outed this morning. I want you to think about why you are here! Is this about you? Or is it about Him and them? Are you a consumer or a contributor? I want you to think about who is not here? I want you to think about what you are going to do about that! Has this church invaded your entire life or is it just something you do on Sunday?
