GET OUT

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father,

and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and,

lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”

Matthew 28:19-20

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go!

That is the first word of the Great Commission spoken by Jesus to His disciples.

I have checked numerous translations and they all contain that same word: “Go!”

Somehow, we’ve mixed it up over the years and we’ve said: “Come!”

“Come into our buildings, come to our programs.”

We have turned the command around.

No longer are we ‘sent ones’ we have become ‘sit around ones’.

Ouch.

That hurt, I know.

But they are not beating a path to our door.

Jesus never said they would.

He told us to…Go into all the world.  

He never once told the world that they should visit our church.

Maybe this can help us – instead of thinking of the word “go” as a word think of it instead as an acronym –

 G.O.

standing for the words:

Get Out!

Get out of your comfortable sanctuaries and multi-million dollar buildings into all the world.

Get out of the comfortable places to the places where people are hurting, lonely and desperately seeking answers.

Read the Gospels.

Jesus got out.

Never once did he hold a conference, workshop or invite people over.

His invitation was to a person and not a place.

“Come unto me…”

When you get out – you can do the same:

You can invite them to a person and not merely to a place!