Now, community, let me say right off that God doesn’t want his people in a corner. A corner is not where we are supposed to be; a corner represents something or somebody being hidden; it is used to keep something from being known, to shut something off, something we don’t want anybody to know about. When something is no good to us, we normally throw it into a corner—out of sight, out of the way.
When our children were young and did something terribly wrong, some parents tell them to go and stand in the corner with their backs turned to everything and everybody else as a means of discipline. There’s nothing in the corner; you can’t communicate when you are in the corner—just you and the corner.
Personally, I’ve never stood there with my back turned, and I don’t want to. It would mess with my mind to have to stare at the arches of the wall and not be able to talk to anybody and nobody be able to talk to me. It would get my attention real quick. And friends, I’ve seen where a boy or girl whose behavior warranted them being in the corner was told to stand on one leg for a period of time. I think I’d rather take a whipping and be done with it than have to stand in a corner like that.
But the corner represents quietness, stillness, serenity, and isolation in the worst way. But some things don’t need to be in a corner. Some things don’t need to be hidden where nobody knows about them; they need to be spread abroad so everybody hears about them. They need to be out in the open. Some things are so important that everybody needs to be talking about them. They should spread like wildfire. Good news doesn’t need to be in a corner. When a newborn baby is born, the good news of birth needs to be shared.
The news of the principal of the school who tackled a would-be assassin of schoolchildren a few weeks ago—no doubt saving many lives—should be shared so the world can see that there are still true heroes left in the world. That could have been a disaster. And isn’t it strange, community, that some bad news that should stay in the corner comes out, but good news that needs to be shared stays in the corner? The word to you today is: come out of your corner.
Yes, we all have a corner. We had a Women’s Brunch at our church; it was not done in a corner. It was shared all over social media. Only God knows the women across this county and country who were blessed by that brunch because of social media—and those who will be blessed. It was a blessing, and I’m glad it was. Our women needed that. The women and friends of Union Grove came together as one to build each other up, lift one another, love on one another, pray over one another, and know they had one another’s back. For there is more that unites us than divides us. The ladies did not do their brunch in a corner.
The good news of the gospel needs to be shared, and that’s what we do when we conduct our street ministry. We don’t do it in a corner. We go out, knock on doors, and share the love of Jesus through the gospel message. That’s what our Savior told us to do (Mark 16:15). Everybody is not coming to church to be saved; we have to go to them. We have to come out of our corner. That’s why we’re holding our Community Outreach in May—we’re coming out of the corner and going into the community. That is where true ministry is: reaching people where they are with the good news of Jesus Christ.
Community, it’s time to come out of the corner. To those of you who have gifts and talents that God gave you—and every Christian has at least one gift—we need to ask ourselves, “What am I doing with the gift that God has given me?” Don’t waste your gift by putting it in a corner. The parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14–30 gives proof. God can’t use us when we’re in a corner. God doesn’t work in a corner—never has, never will. What he does, he does in the open, so the world can know about it.
The Apostle Paul, standing before King Agrippa and others, gave his testimony of Jesus Christ and how the Lord saved him on the Damascus Road (Acts 26:12–26). Festus the governor called Paul crazy (v. 24). But that is what the world thinks when Christians don’t go along with them or do what they do. When you don’t get drunk, don’t party, when you don’t think the way they think or act the way they act, they think something is wrong with you when you live by morals and live holy. When you don’t sleep around or live in sin outside of marriage and lift a standard. But Paul said to King Agrippa, “For this thing was not done in a corner” (v. 26).
Saints, it’s time to come out of the corner. Take your gifts and talents and come out. What God gave us does not need to be in a corner. It’s time for all Christians to come out of their corner.
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