Going Outside The Camp
Heb 13:8 - 16
August 16, 2002
I. One evening a grandson was talking to his grandmother about current events. The grandson asked his grandmother what she thought about the shootings at schools, the computer age, and just things in general. The Grandma replied, "Well, let me think a minute. I was born before television, penicillin, polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, contact lenses, Frisbees and the pill.
A. There was no radar, credit cards, laser beams or ball-point pens. Man had not invented pantyhose, air conditioners, dishwashers, clothes dryers and clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air. Man hadn’t yet walked on the moon.
B. Your Grandfather and I got married first and then lived together. Every family had a father and a mother. Until I was 25 I called every man older than I, ’Sir’- and after I turned 25, I still called policemen and every man with a title, ’Sir.’
C. We were before gay-rights, computer-dating, dual careers, daycare centers, and group therapy. Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments, good judgment and common sense.
D. We were taught to know the difference between right and wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our actions.
E. Serving your country was a privilege; living in this country was a bigger privilege. We thought fast food was what people ate during Lent. Having a meaningful relationship meant getting along with your cousins. Draft dodgers were people who closed their front doors when the evening breeze started.
F. Time-sharing meant time the family spent together in the evenings and weekends -- not purchasing condominiums. We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CDs, electric typewriters, yogurt, or guys wearing earrings.
G. We listened to the Big Bands, Jack Benny, and the President’s speeches on our radios. And I don’t ever remember any kid blowing his brains out listening to Tommy Dorsey. If you saw anything with ’Made in Japan’ on it, it was junk.
H. The term ’making out’ referred to how you did on your school exam. Pizza Hut, McDonald’s, and instant coffee were unheard of. We had 5 &10-cent stores where you could actually buy things for 5 and 10 cents.
I. Ice-cream cones, phone calls, rides on a streetcar and a Pepsi were all a nickel. And if you didn’t want to splurge, you could spend your nickel on enough stamps to mail 1 letter and 2 postcards.
J. You could buy a new Chevy Coupe for $600 but who could afford one? Too bad because gas was 11 cents a gallon.
K. In my day, "grass" was mowed, "coke" was a cold drink, "pot" was something your mother cooked in, and "rock music" was your grandmother’s lullaby.""Aids" were helpers in the Principal’s office, "chip" meant a piece of wood, "hardware" was found in a hardware store, and "software" wasn’t even a word. We were the last generation to actually believe that a lady needed a husband to have a baby. No wonder people call us "old and confused".
L. How old do you think Grandma was? She was 58 years old!
II. In the last 58 years our country has changed a lot and, there is no doubt that it is going to change some more. Things in our world have changed and they are still changing at a mind blowing pace.
A. And, if those of you who have been at this church since the beginning think back there are a lot of things that have changed in this church.
1. There are more people.
2. There are some faces that are not here anymore and new ones that are here.
3. There is a new building, with a lot of new things in it, including a lot more space and capabilities to do things.
B. But there are also with these new things and new people some more new things.
1. There is a wider variety of backgrounds, ideas, opinions, likes and dislikes, and preferences.
2. There are more adjustments to be made, and new people to get to know and like the things that are changing in our world this is only the beginning.
3. There will be more changes, and more things to adjust to, but the most dangerous thing that can happen to a church is for it to get to the point that it can’t or won’t change to meet the needs of people and be able to minister to them.
4. But, there are some things that have not and will not change and that’s where our security has to lie.
5. Our savior has not changed
(Heb 13:8 - 16 NIV) Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings. It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, not by ceremonial foods, which are of no value to those who eat them. We have an altar from which those who minister at the tabernacle have no right to eat. 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. Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise--the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.
C. Our God and therefore our savior, because they are one in the same, do not change. Jesus is the same yesterday today and forever, and regardless of the things that change in our world the one thing that will not change is that God is in control and he is the power and sustainer of our universe.
D. Jesus was God’s last unchangeable message to his people, that message of Grace and salvation that can only come through accepting His sacrifice as the only way that we can be right with God is never to be changed or superceded
E. And therefore we are not to look at the things that are going on in our world and be afraid, but we are to look to our God and know that he is the one that holds the world, and he is the one that will forever be the power of the universe.
F. When we started this church I went to the people who had said they wanted to be a part of it and I told them all that I wanted to be up front about where God was leading.
1. I told them that I was sure that where God was leading was going to stretch their comfort zones about church, and I am also sure that they have felt that I was telling them the truth, because I know they have been stretched..
2. This church has never been the norm, and I know that as pastors go I have never been the norm, but I have known from the beginning that God was the one that supplied the vision for the future and the direction.
G. The one thing that usually paralyzes church and stagnates them is fear. When things change they become fearful of what it might mean to the future, and they slam the doors and try to lock out the things that they feel might threaten their norm.
1. Which usually means that they slam the doors on a lot of people that our savior wants them to love and accept.
2. Our trust and comfort has to be in the fact that our savior does not change and our vision has to stay on the fact that there are people around us that he wants us to reach with his love, and the message of salvation.
3. And, that we have to do what is necessary to see to it that the message of God’s love, grace, and salvation through faith gets to the people that need to hear it.
4. Change can be scary, but the fact that things change is the one thing that we can be assured will remain the same. We are at a point of major change in this church.
5. There will be more new faces and more new backgrounds and more new ideas and the thing that can kill the wonderful things that God is doing here is our fear, of what that can bring.
H. The same thing had happened when the writer of Hebrews was writing what we just read. The most radical changes that would ever take place in the way that people related to God, had just occurred.
1. The people were having to adjust to the fact that now God was not confined to a temple.
2. He was not restricted to a building, he was free to live in the hearts of his people.
3. And, there were some people that were starting to drift back toward the rules and regulations of worship that were in place in the old temple.
4. The writer of Hebrews in the verses that we read was trying to make it clear that the changes that had been made were made by God, and they were never to be wavered from.
I. He says do not be sidetracked by strange teachings. Another thing that does not change is God’s word, His teaching and direction for our lives.
1. We are not to never waver from the truth of God’s word, but the ways that we present that truth to people that need to hear it will have to change.
2. God’s word is and forever will be the constant that his church has to live by, and it can’t be changed and because it does not change.
3. But as we have seen in the life of this church the way people can understand it so they can apply it to their lives does change.
4. We are unfortunately not living in grandma’s world anymore, and we have to learn how to be affective ministers of God’s Word in the culture that we live in today.
5. Churches through our country are a part of training missionaries to learn the culture of the country that they are going to, so that they can effectively spread the gospel in that country, while at the same time they refuse to adapt to the changing culture that we live in so that they can effectively present God’s message of grace to the people around them.
J. The writer of Hebrews tells us that we are to hold fast to the teaching that we have received through God’s word, but at the same time, grace is the thing that is to strengthen our hearts, not dead ceremonies that no longer have any meaning.
1. We have a new connection to God that was not there in the time when priest made sacrifices in the old temple.
2. The Altar in the temple was the place where the sacrifice was made, and those who made those sacrifices in the old temple don’t even have access to the relationship with God that we do because they rejected it.
3. Our relationship with God is no longer secured by the blood of animals that have to be made over and over again, but by the blood of Jesus that once and for all makes right with God all who will accept by faith the gift of salvation that God offers us.
4. Our Hope and peace and security are not in what takes place in a building, but in what takes place in our hearts because God comes to live there.
5. Jesus did not suffer for God’s people in the Temple but outside the city to make it plain that things were changing and that through his own blood not the blood of animal sacrifices Jesus was making us forever right with God.
6. Our hope is not in what takes place in a building, but in what took place on Calvary.
7. Our hope is not in what takes place in the here and now but in what is to come, because we know that one day our savior is coming back and things are going to change again, in ways that are so far beyond our ability to understand that we can’t even get close.
8. And now the sacrifice that we are to offer is our praise to God, not to get him to forgive us because he already has, but because he has forgiven us.
III. But, I think there is something that we as a church need to remember more than anything at the time and place we are now, and it is found in verses 12-13
(Heb 13:12 - 13 NIV) 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.
A. It is outside the structure that we that we are to do our most important work.
B. The most important things that we are going to do as Christians are not going to take place in our new building.
C. The most important things that we are going to do will take place where we work, and where we meet other people, because that is where we can spread the message of the disgrace that he bore for us.
1. That is where we take the message of the gospel of grace to people who need to hear it.
2. That is where people’s lives are changed, and God’s message of love is spread.
D. We have to go outside the camp. We have to go outside our comfort zones, we have to go outside of our group of friends that think and act the same way we do, and make a difference.
E. We have to take the message of the Gospel of grace and peace to the people who most need to hear it.
F. God has given us a great place for people to worship, and it has taken a lot of our time and energy to be a part of his plan, but now it is time to make sure that message gets out so there are more in that place of worship to worship, and who have God living inside them so that they have some thing to worship him for too.
G. I want to challenge you all, even more, to go out and tell people about God’s message of salvation, to be his ambassadors that he says that we are suppose to be.
H. I want to challenge you to meet and share salvation with your neighbors, and be the witness that God wants you to be.
I. Now more than ever it is time to not only see that there is a building over there but that it is full of people that are there with reason to bring a sacrifice of praise to the one who made their salvation possible.
J. It is time for us to get outside the Camp!
