Off The Map

1. What is your favorite, go-to restaurant and why? What makes you keep going back to that place?
2. Read Joshua 14:9-15. What was Caleb rewarded for being one of the only ones who were willing to trust God and go outside of his comfort zone?
3. What are some boundaries you've placed in your life that you are unwilling to cross or some comfort zones you have trouble leaving?
4. Have you ever considered serving the homeless in Fort Worth at UGM or going on a short-term mission trip in another part of the world? If not, what has stopped you? If so, what was the experience like for you?

Practice: In your prayer time this week, ask God where he wants you to go "off the map" so to speak. We have all sorts of dreams and goals, but what is an area he wants you to grow and serve? Ask God where he wants you to go outside of your comfort zone and then take some time to sit and listen beyond what is comfortable. If that's 5 minutes of interrupted time, take it. If this is a normal habit in your life, consider taking 30 minutes or more, maybe even going on a retreat for half a day to listen for what God has next for you. However long you choose, set aside the time and stick with it. Bring a journal to write down your thoughts and prayers that you can give over to God as he reveals himself to you.

Off the map is an idiom for getting out of your comfort zone into unfamiliar territory. We all have boundaries we refuse to cross. Some are artificial. We create a lot of boundaries out of fear.

We get locked into patterns of familiarity. There are foods or restaurants you will not try. Places you will or will not go or even think about it. When you exercise it always looks the same. When you walk or bike it’s always the same route. Some experiences you refuse to participate in.

Some patterns are more significant than others, like your character and the willingness to say something other than “that’s just how I am.” Or you might want to feel close to God but don’t want to develop a consistent prayer life or read. Or you want God to use you, but you don’t ever want to feel uncomfortable. Those are hard edges in your life that make a difference.

I’m reading a book called Prisoners of Geography. The land in which we live shapes us. I’m learning things about Russia and Ukraine, or how the Arctic limits Russia’s ability to be more of a global power. Africa’s isolation and the impact on them. The speed of Europe because of their flat lands and easy to navigate rivers.

We’re talking today about all the limits we place on ourselves. We gravitate towards monotony and it frustrates your spiritual life. I read an article and the guy said he needed an adventure. He attached balloons to his lawn chair, armed with a pellet gun. Before he knew it, he was 16,000 feet high and it was hard to breathe. A pilot from Southwest Airlines radioed the tower. The guy started shooting the balloons and he landed in California. It catapulted his life and he became a motivational speaker. He said he had to do something because he got tired of sitting around.

From the very beginning of our calling, we as followers of Christ were called out of our comfort zones. We’re all called off the map. There’s a spiritual and physical calling to move beyond boundaries to uncharted territories. Think about Christ’s call to follow him. Or when we were called on mission in Acts to go to the ends of the earth. Or in Matthew 28 to go into all the world.

There’s a great picture of this with Israel roaming around the wilderness. They had an unwillingness to go anywhere God would lead them. God had so much more for them, but they died. Just beyond the boundary was a promised land for them and giants to kill. Joshua and Caleb were the only two remaining from there.

Notice the spiritual part in this text and the geographical part. God wanted them to go somewhere and do something. It was spiritual and geographical. In other words, your heart is attached to your foot.

The going in and coming out phrase is great. It’s saying I’m still alive and active and moving. When Moses was at the end of his life, here’s what he said.

It’s a real geographical marker. Caleb was saying, I’m not just going to sit here in my lawn chair.

God can’t do anything great with anyone with only half the equation. Maybe you love coming in and the safety of where you live. You want to stay put and have God bring it all to you. If you leave out the other half of the equation, the going out, there’s a whole part of your spiritual reality that can’t come to life.

Caleb got a piece of land that had the biggest giant. They renamed it because of him. What are you missing if you never cross these boundaries?

It’s a real discipline to figure out where it is that you’ve set a boundary. Wherever God leads you is usually off the map and out of your comfort zone. That’s where you learn things about God you could never know.

I can only talk to you about this because it’s the way I’ve set up my life. My wife and I got on the topic of self-discipline and predictability. I didn’t think I was that predictable. She said, I know where you are every hour of the day. She, on the other hand, has no boundaries. My friend Oscar has never heard the word boundary. And Kirk is one of the craziest people I know.

The scariest trip I ever went on was in Northern Iraq when ISIS overtook the area. I sat with 15 guys who were displaced and lost everything they had. I got to sit there and speak to them. That will do something to you.

I met a priest beaten multiple times for his faith and he was exuberant, enthusiastic, and undeterred.

I have held and prayed for and served lepers in a leper colony.

Kirk sent me to Ecuador one time to speak to people from Samaritans Purse. I got to meet some of the Indians there who killed one of my heroes. I met the man who killed him and was converted to Christ.

In Cuba, I met pastor Carlos who loves that country as much as anyone could. They stoned him and left him for dead in the street. They put him on house arrest for a year. They told him when the year was up that he could leave the country and he said he was staying because he wanted to reach the country for Christ.

That’s where I met the family who walked 17 miles to church and back every week.

These are people who live off the map.

Your grandkids are going to ask you if you can go off the map and if it’s really fulfilling to give your life to others.

Hebrews 11 is worth hearing.

Hebrews 11:32–38 (NASB95): 32 And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, 33 who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received back their dead by resurrection; and others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection; 36 and others experienced mockings and scourgings, yes, also chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword; they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated 38 (men of whom the world was not worthy), wandering in deserts and mountains and caves and holes in the ground.