Sermon, In Christ and Out of the Box

There’s an idea going around today called “Thinking outside the box.” People who are able to do this are innovators, inventors, and pioneers who do not think as the masses do. They see an opportunity where others don’t.

Let me give you an example. I was at a horse sale when a young horse with a scraggly mane and tale full of cockle burrs came into the ring. His hair coat was faded and dull which is a sign of having a heavy infestation of worms. His ribs were showing indicating he had not been well fed, and his head hung low. To top it all off his lower lip extended out past his upper jaw and hung down.

Nobody wanted him. They were thinking inside the box. I looked past the circumstance of his present condition and saw him as if he were fat and healthy. I was stepping outside the box, and could see despite his circumstances he was structurally correct. I knew I could fix his problems with proper care. The only thing I couldn’t do anything about was that lower lip sticking out too far. Just for fun I named him Skoal Lip because he always looked like he had a big chew of tobacco in his lip.

The first thing I did when I got him home was to worm him, clean up his mane and tail and begin to feed him properly. It wasn’t long until he filled out, shed off all that dull hair, and became a very beautiful horse to look at - that is, with the exception of that tobacco lip! However, even that worked out for the best because we all had a lot of fun talking about it.

Do you think Jesus thought outside of the box? Obviously he did because he seemed almost always to be going contrary to the conventional thinking of his time. Let’s see an example in Luke 13:10 – 17.

“And he was teaching in one of the synagogues on the sabbath. And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.”

“And the ruler of the synagogue answered with indignation, because that Jesus had healed on the sabbath day, and said unto the people, There are six days in which men ought to work: in them therefore come and be healed, and not on the sabbath day.”

“The Lord then answered him, and said, Thou hypocrite, doth not each one of you on the sabbath loose his ox or his ass from the stall, and lead him away to watering? And ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan hath bound, lo, these eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? And when he had said these things, all his adversaries were ashamed: and all the people rejoiced for all the glorious things that were done by him.” Stepping out of the conventional wisdom requires separating ourselves from it.

In 2 Corinthians 6:17 we read: Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you. Jesus certainly did when he healed this lady on the Sabbath. The lady also stepped out of the box by receiving her healing on the Sabbath, but the detractors were stuck right where they always were – inside their boxes.

The beginning of getting out of our boxes (prisons) or staying in them always begins in the process of thought, then in speaking, and finally in action. We could say it another way: that life or death always starts with the thinking process. To start going the right way we need to start thinking “life” by letting this mind that was in Christ Jesus be in us also.

The day we got born again was a big step outside the box. Now to keep it up and grow more and more in Christ we need to begin renewing our mind. (Rom. 12-2) and taking more and more steps out of the box and away from the world’s thinking. It’s the energy in the world system that can easily draw us back into the box by thinking in a worldly manner.

Let’s say I get fired from my job despite the fact I’ve been doing good work. The world says, “Stay in the box. Look around for someone to blame, after all you weren’t treated fairly. Then comes the complaining and worry associated with not having an income and stress and strife for company.

However, if I’m truly “in Christ” and out of the box, I’m trusting him by standing on his word, and seeing it as an opportunity instead of a calamity as God works things out for the better.

A person who is not in Christ, but in the box will sleep at night but wake up tired. He had sleep but no rest because his mind was in a turmoil going in circles without ever coming to a solution. Our problems must be first whipped in our minds. Once that’s done we’ll be out of the box and into Christ where he can help us, and we’ll whip those problems in our job, our checkbook, relationships, health conditions, etc.

Death is after our minds and will try to wear us out as we continue going in round circles in a square box. But the word of God tells us: Thou wilt keep [him] in perfect peace, [whose] mind [is] stayed [on thee]: because he trusteth in thee. Isaiah 26:3

We can think ourselves into depression, defeat, and low self-esteem by believing our circumstances or what people inside the box think about us. “Oh he’s got a prison record, tattoos, a drug habit, he’s an alcoholic, he’ll die of aids for sure now, and he won’t make it on the outside anyway.”

Here’s something exciting to think about. When we start thinking, speaking and acting on God’s word we start moving out of the box. As we do that, our thinking now is in agreement with his! “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” Amos 3:3 Just think, nothing in that crippled lady’s world in the story of Luke was in agreement with Jesus until she stepped out of her world into his. We will get out of whatever kind of prison we’re in by thinking, then speaking, and finally acting outside of it – believe God!