GO!

This February FSBC will begin "GO" events. We will strategically place ourselves outside the walls of our buildings for the purpose of being Jesus to our community. Dr. Brent Taylor, pastor of First Baptist Church of Carrolton, Texas, recently preached a sermon titled "Jesus was Outside." What he said describes well the reason we need to GO.

The following is an excerpt from Dr. Taylor’s message from January 13, 2013 and is a picture of how we can be more like Christ.

Jesus was an outside-kind-of-leader. In other words, He was always with people. Jesus didn’t come to hide, but came to be with people. Certainly, there were times He got away from the crowd.

But Jesus was out with people.

I wrote down some of the times the Bible mentions Jesus being outside. I hope it reminds you of the fact that helping people means being with people.

Jesus was outside when He was born in a manger.
Outside when tempted by the devil.
Outside when His enemies threatened to throw Him from a high cliff.
Outside when He called Peter, James, John, Matthew, and others.
Outside He healed a man with leprosy.
He was outside when He preached the Beatitudes.
Outside when He called followers to consider the lilies of the field and the birds of the air.
Outside when He cursed a fig tree.
Outside when He encountered a centurion with great faith.
Outside when He met a woman at a well, a woman with an issue of blood, and a woman caught in adultery.
Outside when a demon possessed man fell at His feet.
Outside when He fed 5,000.
Outside when He walked on water.
Outside when He calmed the storm.
Outside when heard Peter exclaim, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”
Outside when He was transfigured on the mountain.
Outside when a desperate father begged for his possessed son to be healed.
Outside when He explained the high cost of being His follower.
Often outside when He confronted religious leaders.
Outside when He met Zacchaeus.
Outside when He healed ten men with leprosy.
Outside when a blind beggar received his sight.
Outside when He raised His friend Lazarus from the dead.
Outside when He rode a borrowed donkey into the city.
Outside when He cleansed a temple that had become a marketplace.
Outside when He watched a widow place her mite in the offering box.
Outside when He wept over the city.
Outside when He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane while sweating drops of blood.
Outside when He was arrested.
Outside when He was mocked, beaten.
Outside He stood before Pontius Pilate and the crowd.
Outside He fell under the scourge of a whip.
Outside He was nailed to a wooden cross.
Outside He bled.
Outside He laid down His life for the salvation of mankind.
Outside He cried, “It is finished.”
Outside He was buried in a borrowed tomb.
Outside the Son of God died for the sins of mankind.
But outside on the third day, He rose again.
Outside He was seen by the masses.
Outside He ascended into Heaven.
And outside He will break through the clouds when He comes again!

Jesus’ ministry was not hidden or private.
He was not behind a desk, in an ivory tower, or hidden away in a heart.
His ministry was to people.
He was a public leader.
He was outside.
We cannot sit behind the safety of church walls and be like Jesus.
We must be outside with people.
Just like Jesus!