![\"\"](\"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/Fortress-or-Outpost-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Fortress or Outpost?<\/p>\n
Matthew 16:18\u00a0<\/span>The Message.\u00a0<\/span>This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n NIV<\/u><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/b>O<\/i><\/span>n this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n KJV\u00a0<\/u><\/span>I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n What comes to mind when you read these verses?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n For many years what came to my mind was a huge castle under attack but whose thick stone walls, huge gates firmly shut kept everyone inside in safety. It was a safe and protected place to be.<\/p>\n There are many parts of that that are true. But it leaves out an important part. The gates talked about in these verses are not the gates of the church. The gates are the gates of hell. It is not about the saints being safe in the fortress on defense against attacks of Satan. It is about the saints being outside the fortress taking the battle to the very gates of hell itself. Those are the gates that will not withstand the attack.<\/p>\n Rather than seeing the church as a safe fortress to retreat to, we may need to refocus and see it as an Outpost of the Kingdom in enemy territory.<\/p>\n Jesus didn\u2019t hide in heaven. He brought the battle to Satan\u2019s territory.\u00a0<\/span>Jesus said in<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>John 14:30<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/u>I don\u2019t have much more time to talk to you, because the ruler of this world approaches.<\/i><\/span>\u00a0<\/i><\/span>He came into<\/span>\u00a0<\/i><\/span>enemy territory to confront the \u201cruler of this world\u201d, Satan. Not a picture of a fortress mentality is it.\u00a0<\/span>Jesus was an outpost of the Kingdom.\u00a0<\/span>His purpose was to expand the Kingdom of God taking back what Satan had wrongfully appropriated.<\/span><\/p>\n Jesus came announcing the Kingdom. He brought it with him. It is a direct confrontation with the \u201cruler of this world\u201d. Not a fortress mentality but an outpost mentality.<\/p>\n A fortress is to defend and protect. An outpost is an extension into enemy territory to take the battle to the enemy and to expand the area under its control.<\/p>\n Followers of Jesus are to be an outpost. They are to bring the Kingdom into enemy territory and destroy its claims and control<\/span>.<\/span>\u00a0It is to take territory once claimed by the enemy as its own and bring it into its\u00a0<\/span>Kings<\/span>\u00a0control\u00a0<\/span>and \u201c<\/span>not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out.\u201d<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Fortress is a defensive mentality. Outpost thinking requires an attack expansion mentality That is an entirely different mindset from fortress mentality. Outpost mentality says to attack the enemy. Take people and territory under his control out of the enemies hands and bring it into the Kingdom. Liberate people who are in Satan\u2019s grip.<\/p>\n Outposts are to be wherever the enemy is in control. Outposts are often \u201cbehind enemy lines\u201d. That means followers of Jesus are to be in the worst places in society fighting over individuals, changing attitudes, helping the weak, the lost, the forgotten. Empowering the powerless. Not sitting in nice safe churches where everyone thinks like them, acts like them and behaves.<\/p>\n An Outpost is always far more dangerous than a fortress.<\/p>\n Does your church have a fortress or outpost mentality?\u00a0<\/span>How would this idea change your church? Change how you think about being a Follower of Jesus? Where would you be in your community? Your town? Your world? Where are the \u201cgates of Hell\u201d for you?<\/span><\/p>\n Outpost mentality is not safe. It is the front-line of the battle.\u00a0 Maybe that is why so few\u00a0 Jesus Followers adopt it.\u00a0 The question is, Are you really following Jesus in a Fortress? Jesus was always on the move bringing the Kingdom to new places and people.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fortress or Outpost? Matthew 16:18\u00a0The Message.\u00a0This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out. NIV\u00a0On this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. KJV\u00a0I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=174"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":176,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174\/revisions\/176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}