When I arrived back from Myanmar on October 12 I was sick, really sick. I had picked up some sort of bacteria and had a miserable time coming back to the States. Unfortunately, at that point I was only back to NC! I still had the 12-hour drive home to Fort Myers. After coming back into Fort Myers on Friday, October 14, I was pretty weak and possibly even a little dehydrated. For those of you who were here on Sunday morning, October 16, you could tell I wasn’t feeling well.

However, I challenged us that morning from Hebrews 13. Particularly I challenged us from Hebrews 13:12-13, “So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. Therefore let us go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach He endured.” To be outside the gate, as Jesus was, was to be among the unclean and despised people. This was the place where the town didn’t hang out. Sure they may go through there, but they didn’t dwell there. Those who dwelt outside the gate were those not welcomed in the town or village. And Jesus went outside the gate, among them, in order to sanctify the people through His own blood. In other words, Jesus went there to die a sacrificial death for others.

Verse 13 calls for others to go to Him outside the camp and bear the reproach that He endured. I stated on that morning that Jesus still works among the poor, despised, and outcasts in our world. Jesus even states this about Himself when He reads from Isaiah in Luke 4:18-19, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Jesus came to save the sick and the suffering through His sacrificial death on the cross in our place.

Both the author of Hebrews and Jesus in the Great Commission invite us to be a part of His saving mission. I challenged us to go to those in SWFL that no one else will go to. I challenged us to think about what it would look like for you and me to engage the people whom everyone else looks down upon. I wonder, even as I write this, if we are serious about taking the good news of Jesus Christ to those who are so desperately in need of hearing about the only Savior of this world.

Let me be as clear as possible about this. Let me make this as simple as I possibly can in a newsletter article. Beloved, we must either decide to embrace this calling on our lives or we must reject this calling on our lives. We cannot have it both ways. I have talked a ton about missions and engaging SWFL with the gospel of Jesus Christ in my 14 months here. I have challenged us week after week to think through how we may reach our community with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I even stated on that Sunday morning that how we respond to that message will directly effect whether we are still a church in 5, 10, 15, or 50 years.

I am encouraged that we have taken some steps to get into our community and world with the gospel of Jesus. We have helped stuff backpacks for kids before school started. We have been on Edison State College’s campus a couple times handing out water and church brochures (which have the gospel message on them). We have raised funds this year for an orphanage in Haiti. We raised funds that enabled me to go to Myanmar with the gospel and to provide some food and clothing for those in need. All of these are reasons to rejoice. All of these make my heart really glad. But I still have a sense of urgency that there is more we can do. I still see the lost souls around us and I still hear the statistic that over 90% of Lee County is unchurched. And I wonder whether we are willing to go outside the camp to reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.      
    

My friends, this will not be easy. When Jesus sent His followers out in Luke 10 He told them in verse 3, “Go your way; behold I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves.” This still holds true for us today. The challenge is still real today. No one likes to hear that they are sinners and need a Savior. But we are the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. We have been commissioned by our Lord to go and make disciples of all nations. This is nothing new to our ears. We have heard this for years as a church. In many ways it may seem like we’ve heard this too much.

Let me say that I agree that we’ve heard this many times. And let me say that just hearing this is not the answer. Let me say, as humbly as possible, that we (myself certainly included) need to be more than hearers. James says in James 1:22, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” Brothers and sisters let us be doers of the word.   
 
I write this article under extreme conviction in my own life. I write this article with a desire to see the nations reached with the gospel of Jesus Christ. I write this article with a desire to see Cypress Lake Baptist Church impact our community with the gospel of Jesus. I write this article knowing that many of the things I think it will take for us to effectively reach Fort Myers, FL with the gospel of Jesus Christ may be controversial to some. It may even be controversial to some within our faith family. However, I cannot live my life without living it for the glory of God. I cannot live my life without being faithful to the calling of God on my life. I trust you can’t either. And so I say again, adapting what John Knox famously said, “Give us Fort Myers or I die.”

For the glory of God,
Pastor Randy

Pastor Randy & Family