"BEYOND THE LIMITS"
(Acts 1:8, 2:42-47)
Main Idea: God’s mission for the church is to go beyond the limits of our possibilities.
What I have in my hand, as all of you can see, is a box. It’s just a plain, ordinary box. We use boxes to store something, separate something from something else, send something and secure something. It may be for only a short time or it can be a long time. A box also represents limits. In other words, you can only put so much stuff in a certain size box. You can pack things better—at which my wife is an expert—but you are still faced with the limits of the size of the box or the restrictions of the box.
We use the term "box" also as a symbol for an idea or a concept or the way someone thinks. If a person is "inside the box" then it means that they are thinking in a limited way. They are confined to certain ideas, habits or traditions that may or may not be useful any longer. A person who changes his or her thinking from the norm or has a new perspective is someone who we say thinks "outside the box." They have stepped outside of the limits of conventional thinking, broken from security of tradition and are approaching the same task with a new approach. Then there is a third way of thinking and is not "inside the box" or "outside the box" but "beyond the box." These are people, as Bill Easum says, who believe, act, and live as though the box never existed. These folks look at the same idea or need as everyone else but have no concept for what the box—inside or outside—was, is or could be. They have forgotten the box and have gone beyond it.
A good example is the difference in IBM, Microsoft and Apple computers. When it comes to computers, IBM started it all but has since allowed "inside the box" thinking to reduce their effectiveness. Bill Gates, with Microsoft, adapted it and continues to be a somewhat stable force in new computer technology. Steve Jobs with Apple smashed it and started over with Macintosh and still is way beyond where most of the industry is currently. IBM was "inside the box." Microsoft was "outside the box" and Apple was beyond the box.
The same idea is true of a church. We have churches that are "inside the box," churches that are "outside the box" and churches that are "beyond the box." Now I believe that all three types of churches serve a purpose in God’s kingdom. One may be more healthy than the other but all three have a function. There are positives about each type as well as negatives. For instance, a church that is "inside the box" may fail to be receptive to new people or opportunities. A church that is "outside the box" can become so enamored with its innovations that they see themselves as superior to others. A church that is "beyond the box" can move so far from its core that they lose touch with the needs of people.
I confess to you that we as First Baptist are pretty much an "inside the box" church. Oh, we may step outside a bit here or there but we pretty much keep our eyes on the limits of the box rather than the possibilities that are available. What’s on the inside of our box? One thing is what I call "the way God works"—it’s the way we think God is supposed to do things. Another is "the way we work"—it’s how stuff gets done around here (our structure). A last one is "what we think about ourselves"—it’s our self-perception or how we see ourselves. So all of that is in our box. The question is: Is that where those things belong if we believe that God has called us to something more than the confinements of our thinking and possibilities? My answer is obvious: "No!" I believe that God’s mission for the church is to go beyond the limits of what we think is possible.
Why do I believe that? Where in the Bible is there a mandate or a directive that you and I as the church are to go beyond the limits of our possibilities to find ourselves fulfilling God’s mission? The life of Jesus alone is one example. He went beyond every limit that the box of his religious tradition provided in order to do what God asked him. The stories of Jesus are equally an example for us – his story about not putting new wine into old wineskins tells us that God will not be bound by the limits of conventional thinking or tradition (Matt. 9:17). But there is a phrase that Jesus uses in Acts 1:8 that I believe describes it best. It is the phrase, "to the ends of the earth."
Over the Christmas holidays I found this phrase coming up repeatedly in my devotional reading. It appears often in the Psalms and Isaiah. Isaiah 49:6 says, "I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." The word "ends" in Hebrew means "the extremity," "frontier," or "border". When Jesus uses it Acts 1:8 the word means something similar. It means the "last," "extreme," or "the remotest par". Jesus made it crystal clear that the mission that he was placing in the hands of his disciples was a mission that was always going to take them beyond the limits of their possibilities. That idea of "beyond the box" was not just confined to the direction of the church’s mission but also to the ways or method they accomplished that mission. He had told the disciples previously that both their mission and their method would be "beyond the box" or beyond the limits of their possibilities. He said, "Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you." (Matt. 28:19-20)
He told them to go to Jerusalem and that is exactly what they did (Acts 5:42, Acts 6:7). He told them to go to Judea and that is exactly what they did (Acts 8:1). He told them to go to Samaria and that is exactly what they did (Acts 8:4). He told them to go "to the ends of the earth" and that is exactly what they did! They went north to a city in Syria called Antioch (Acts 11:20). They went west into what we now know as Turkey (Acts 13:3ff). They went farther to Greece, crossing the Aegean Sea (Acts 16:10). They went to Rome (Acts 23:11). My favorite verse that demonstrates the "beyond the box" thinking is Romans 15:24 where Paul said, " I plan to do so when I go to Spain. I hope to visit you while passing through and to have you assist me on my journey there, after I have enjoyed your company for a while. " They took Jesus seriously when he said "the end" is your destination.
What did they do when they got there, wherever "there" was? Acts 2:42-47 tells us in clear terms the method they used in developing the community of those who were followers of Jesus Christ. What did they do? They demonstrated a growing passion for learning truth ("apostles teaching", Acts 2:42a). They had a deepening dependency on each other ("fellowship," Acts 2:42b). They experienced God’s presence through worship ("breaking of bread," prayer," Acts 2:42c). They shared their resources with each other ("they gave as anyone had need," Acts 2:45). They had a desire to find those who were lost to God’s purpose ("the Lord added daily," Acts 2:47). They learned, they worshiped, they built relationships, they became disciples, they served and they witnessed. They went beyond the limits of their understanding to be the community of believers God wanted them to be.
Was it easy? No, because when it came to reaching persons that weren’t Jewish they had to work that out. (Acts 10, Acts 15). When the churches were only a few years old they struggled with some of the same "inside the box" thinking that has slowed down the church for the last 2000 years. Every time they would begin to think "inside the box" God found a way to point them "beyond the box," beyond the limits of what they thought was possible. The "box" was always there. The "mission" was always there. The "box" gave them direction for fulfilling all that God called them to do. Yet their call was beyond the limits of what they thought possible.
So where does all this fit us? This year is a year that we have the opportunity to respond to God’s call to go beyond the limits of what we think is possible. I know that many of you automatically hear me say that and you think of the two-phase almost 7 million dollar building project over the next 6 years. The truth is, though, that that is only one place that I believe we are being called to go beyond the limits of what we think is possible. At the end of this service today you will be introduced to the "Building Tomorrow…Today" leadership team. Their job will be to follow the Holy Spirit directing us to go beyond the limits of what we think is possible with our financial capacity and respond to the vision of where God is leading us. Yet each one of them knows that what we are doing is about more than building a building. It is about following God into the future of our church, our community and His kingdom.
As I said in the beginning, we are a church that is pretty much "inside the box" of doing church. We have grown 17% in Sunday School the last four years. We have baptized almost twice as many people in the last two years than the previous three years. We have exceeded our budget in offerings for over six years and at the same time our giving to missions has increased by almost 50%. We are healthy and unified in so many ways. We began a contemporary worship service while still reflecting the traditional heritage of our church in another service. So what’s wrong with "inside the box"?
The question is not what is so good "inside the box," it is what is "beyond the box." What is out there in our community? Where are "the ends of the earth" for us? Where is the "beyond" for First Baptist Church? Well, the majority of the types of families that are within and outside the 63 By-Pass are made up of what is called "Middle American Families." Which means mostly middle income, college graduate type folks. That’s mostly who we are as a church so right now so we look just like our community. However, when you look at the ages of people beyond our box, the majority of our community is between 23-43 with the average age of 36. That is much younger than the median age of our congregation. There are over 17,000 youth and children within ten minutes of our church. A child who is between the ages of 5-12 has a 32% rate of response of accepting Christ. That drops to 4% for those between the ages of 13-18 and for those 19 and over it’s 6% for the rest of their life. There are 27% of the people who have never married.
The growth within the by-pass since 1990 has been 10%. Yet by 2009 it will only be 3%. The area outside the by-pass has grown 96% since 1990 to over 18,000 people. That area will grow 10% by 2009. We have approximately 27,000 people within a short drive of our church who are not active in church and have no relationship to Christ. When asked what they are most interested in, their answer was how to help them fulfill their dreams and how they can grow spiritually.
So what does all that mean for us? It means that we can’t be satisfied with what is "inside the box" when the mission to which God has called us is "beyond the box." You and I can identify our own "Jerusalem," "Judea," "Samaria" and "The ends of the earth" however we want. The truth is that wherever we think we have reached "the ends of the earth," there is still "beyond the box" waiting for us! It is still out there. If we are to make any kind of serious impact on our community staying in our downtown location we must go and think beyond the limits of what we think is possible. That will only happen by focused, intentional and creative action in programming, outreach and prayer. The "ends of the earth" doesn’t just mean the remotest people group in Africa or Asia. It means wherever God is saying, "I want you to see what is beyond the limits of what you think is possible.
Our mission is simple: We are to be witnesses for Christ beyond the limits of what we think is possible. How do we do that? We do that by fulfilling the mission statement of our church. We have said that our mission is to:
In the next two years we need to hear God’s call in revolutionary ways to mobilize the greatest number of discipled servants in the history of our church, equipping them for service and ministry. We need to see a network of small groups for spiritual transformation throughout our community. We need to see our Sunday School at its maximum capacity—I mean classes in places we didn’t think you could put classes. We need to be at a place where when the doors open to a new facility, it is like a dam being broken. We must go beyond the limits in developing disciples.
In the next two years we need to hear God’s call to go beyond the limits of what we think is possible in personal and public worship. We know that there is a generation of people who connect with God best through contemporary worship. Now that you have tried it--invite someone who needs Jesus to come with you. We know that there are people who connect with God best through traditional worship—invite someone who needs Jesus to come with you. I believe in this year we will be asking the question about a third service on Sunday morning because that is beyond the limits! I believe that God is calling us to choose to find ways to encourage people personally to become more like Jesus Christ through being transformed spiritually. We need to go beyond the limits of merely attending church but being transformed by the power of Christ that we encounter here!
I believe that it is here that the greatest shift in our thinking must occur. We must change our thinking from being boxed by the corner of Main and Jefferson and, instead, see this place as the outpost from which we fulfill our mission to share the unconditional love of God. The last several years we have made significant moves into communities that need a witness for Christ—through Celebrate Recovery, the Huntington Mission, First Hope Counseling Center and the Hispanic Ministry. Yet I say to you we have yet to begin to make any serious impact on our peers—those who are just like us but they do not know Christ as Savior. If most of Jonesboro is just like us, then why are we not impacting those just like us at a level that is beyond the limits of what we think is possible? We are called to go beyond the limits of what we think is possible in proclaiming Jesus Christ to the communities of our world!
This month John Young retired after 40 years of service with NASA. He has flown in space six times, walked on the moon and commanded the first flight of the space shuttle Colombia. He’s 74 years old. He was a test pilot in the 60’s when he heard John Kennedy say that we need to put a man on the moon and bring him safely back to earth in ten years. He decided that he wanted to be that man—he wasn’t the first but he’s one of the few who can say he’s been there. He’s decided that he’s going to spend his retirement working for a return to the moon and a human mission to Mars. I guess that once you have gone beyond the limits of what you think is possible, settling for anything less is just plain boring. Daniel Boorstin said, "The most promising words ever written on the maps of human knowledge are "terra incognita"—unknown territory." (The Discoverers, p. xvi)
Jesus said, " But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." Have you heard him? My friends, God’s mission for the church is to go "to the ends of the earth," beyond the limits of what we think is possible. Staying ‘inside the box" or "outside the box" won’t be adequate because it is "beyond the box" where God waits to meet us. That is where I am willing to go. The question is: Will you follow?
Sunday, January 9, 2005
Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor
First Baptist Church
Jonesboro, Arkansas