LESSONS FROM WIFFLE BALL
(All my sermons use illustrations from sermon central and all scripture is NIV unless otherwise noted)
When I was a young child I loved to play wiffle ball. We would set up a small “ball park” in the back yard and pretend we were great base ball players. You can do things with a wiffle ball that you can not do with a regular base ball. The wiffle ball will curve better, you can catch it without a glove, it won’t break out windows (most of the time) and two people can have a fun game. When my boys were young I taught them to play wiffle ball, and this week as I pondered this sermon I see something that we as Christians can learn from the game of wiffle ball. Please indulge me and we can learn together from the word of God.
I. KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE BALL
The first lesson always taught when it comes to hitting a ball is that we must focus on the ball, we must keep our eye on the ball. If you take your eye off the ball there is little to no chance that you will hit it. Our goal is to connect with the ball and we can not achieve our goal if we take our eye off the ball.
The same applies with our walk with Christ. Our focus must be on Jesus. We can not take our eyes off of Him. Heb 12:2 Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
The author of Hebrews is not the only one that understands the importance of keeping our focus on God, David knew as well. Ps 141:8 But my eyes are fixed on you, O Sovereign LORD; in you I take refuge--do not give me over to death.
What is it that keeps us from keeping our eyes on the Lord? Why do people lose their focus? Well let’s go back to wiffle ball for just a moment, why do we take our eye off the ball? It seems like a simple enough instruction, so why is it that we take our eye off the ball?
I think it is because we are distracted very easily, in wiffle ball we are looking for the home run, we are seeing where the ball is going to go before we even get to hit it. We look out into the field, imagining how far we will hit it, BUT we take our eyes off the ball and that is when we strike.
I think we do the same thing with Jesus! 2 Cor 11:3-4 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.
Led away from where our focus should be! Keeping Christ first in our lives can be very difficult when we have so many distractions coming from so many different sources. The world is always telling us of short cuts, easier ways to lose weight, get rich and live longer, BUT the truth is that there is NO short cut.
Bob Harris, weatherman for NY TV station WPIX-TV and the nationally syndicated independent Network news, had to weather a public storm of his own making in 1979. Though he had studied math, physics and geology at three colleges, he left school without a degree but with a strong desire to be a media weatherman. He phoned WCBS-TV, introducing himself as a Ph.D. in geophysics from Columbia U. The phony degree got him in the door. After a two-month tryout, he was hired as an off-camera forecaster for WCBS. For the next decade his career flourished. He became widely known as "Dr. Bob." He was also hired by the New York Times as a consulting meteorologist. The same year both the Long Island Railroad and then Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn hired him. Forty years of age and living his childhood dream, he found himself in public disgrace and national humiliation when an anonymous letter prompted WCBS management to investigate his academic credentials. Both the station and the New York Times fired him. His story got attention across the land. He was on the Today Show, the Tomorrow Show, and in People Weekly, among others. He thought he’d lose his home and never work in the media again. Several days later the Long Island Railroad and Bowie Kuhn announced they would not fire him. Then WNEW-TV gave him a job. He admits it was a dreadful mistake on his part and doubtless played a role in his divorce. "I took a shortcut that turned out to be the long way around, and one day the bill came due. I will be sorry as long as I am alive."
There is NO short cut to having a personal relationship with Jesus either, we have to keep our eyes fixed on the author and perfecter of our faith.
II. GO AFTER THE BALL
In wiffle ball the ball never flies a straight path, what I mean is that it will change direction depending on circumstances. The wind, the way you throw the ball, the speed that you throw the ball, they all determine the way the ball will go. God’s will is the way that we need to go, it will not always meet with what we want to do. Sometimes we will have to swing high and sometimes we may have to swing low, but our goal is not accomplished by standing at the plate and hoping that the ball will hit the bat on its own.
I hate to say, but many Christians are trying to get their home run by waiting on God to conform to their will. Instead of moving to meet the will of God, they pray and ask God to meet their will. Listen to this verse from Romans 12, I want to read it to you from 2 different versions of the Bible, first from the Living version:
Rom 12:2 Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn from your own experience how his ways will really satisfy you.
Now listen to a little more of that from the version entitled “The Message”
“So here is what I want you to do, God helping you. Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for Him. Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. INSTEAD, FIX YOUR ATTENTION ON GOD. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what He wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity. God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”
You see how important it is that we move to fit the will of God. There is NO room for our desires, our wants, our selfish needs. We must fix our attention on God and do as He commands. We need to know what it is that He wants from us and quickly respond to that.
In the years before I became an ordained minister I had opportunities to preach and lead church camp. Actually I was asked to be the key-note speaker 5 years in a row for 5-6th grade camp. One year we were talking about how hard it is to hear God’s will in a world full of distractions and selfishness. One year I had one of my campers put on a blindfold and I put her at the back of the chapel. Her simple task was to get to the front of the chapel by listening to my voice and following my directions. HOWEVER, it was not a simple task at all. The other campers had turned the chapel into an obstacle course, and they were all shouting different directions while she tried to make it to the front.
This simple exercise showed the kids how hard it is to stay focused on what God is saying when the rest of the world is saying something completely different. I think that is what Paul was saying in this scripture, DON’T CONFORM but instead allow God’s Word, His voice, TRANSFORM you. Move to hit the ball, change to meet God’s will.
III. JUST MEET THE BALL
Ok dads, you all know what I mean here. Seems we live in a world where everything is about, “More power” (grunt) In wiffle ball this is displayed by the forceful swings we take at the ball. Sometimes swinging so hard that we spin around and fall to the ground. Acting as if we can force the ball to go where we want it to by sheer force, by strength that we have inside.
Last week, I preached on “Extreme Living” and I mentioned that when we allow the Holy Spirit to have control of our lives we display the fruit that ONLY God can make. JOY in spite of outside circumstances, PEACE that transcends understanding. NO matter how hard you try to force these things they will not happen unless you have the Holy Spirit. No matter how hard you swing you will not make the ball go anywhere unless you first meet it. To many people are trying to find the gifts of the Holy Spirit without having the Holy Spirit.
In many Christian circles the Holy Spirit is either neglected, forgotten, or misunderstood. The One given to unite the body of Christ is the center of controversy… So often Christian work is so rigidly programmed that it seems we need no longer depend on Him--yet Jesus said, "Without Me you can do nothing." ... The late Dr. A. W. Tozer, author and pastor, said, "If the Holy Spirit was withdrawn from the church today, 95 percent of what we do would go on and no one would know the difference. If the Holy spirit had been withdrawn from the New Testament church, 95 percent of what they did would stop, and everybody would know the difference." SOURCE: The Holy Spirit: Missing, Citation: Alan Redpath in "Christian Life" magazine. Christianity Today, Vol. 29, no. 18.
We must come to Jesus to meet Him, to be with Him, because without Him we can do nothing. In Wiffle ball you can swing all you want, you can use all your strength, BUT if you do not meet the ball you will never get it to go anywhere.
I spoke about these verses from John 15 last week, I spoke on how Jesus Himself speaks about the importance of remaining in Him. I think it is important enough to look at again. John 15:5-8 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
We must keep our eyes focused on Jesus, changing our lives to fit the will of God, meeting with Him and remaining in Him and we must:
IV. KEEP ON SWINGING
Did you realize that professional baseball players only get a hit one out of every three attempts at bat, and that’s the good ones! That means that two out of every three attempts ends up with them sitting right back down in the dug out. We as Christians fall at times, none of us is perfect, BUT we must keep on swinging.
James 1:2-4 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Now, I am not saying that it is easy when we face trials and tough times. None of us really like facing the tough times. But it is this testing of our faith that helps us to develop ourselves and grow in Christ.
PLEASURE COMES FROM PAIN The world’s best cyclist, Lance Armstrong, says this about pain: I become a happier man each time I suffer. Suffering is as essential to a good life, and as inextricable, as bliss. The old saying that you should live each day as if it’s your last is a nice sentiment, but it doesn’t work. Take it from me. I tried it once, and here’s what I learned: If I pursued only happiness, and lived just for the moment, I’d be a no-account with a perpetual three-day growth on my chin. Cancer taught me that. Before cancer, whatever I imagined happiness to be, pretty soon I wore it out, took it for granted, or threw it away. A portfolio, a Porsche, a coffee machine--these things were important to me. So was my hair. Then I lost them, including the hair. When I was 25, I was diagnosed with advanced testicular cancer, which had metastasized into my lungs and brain. I sold the car, gave up my career as a world-class cyclist, lost a good deal of money, and barely hung on to my life. When I went into remission, I thought happiness would mean being self-indulgent. Not knowing how much time I had left, I did not intend to ever suffer again. I had suffered months of fear, chemotherapy so strong it left burn marks under my skin, and surgery to remove two tumors. Happiness to me then was waking up. I ate Mexican food, played golf, and lay on the couch. The pursuit of happiness meant going to my favorite restaurant and pursuing a plate of enchiladas with tomatillo sauce. But one day my wife, Kristin, put down her fork and said, "You need to decide something: Are you going to be a golf-playing, beer-drinking, Mexican-food-eating slob for the rest of your life? If you are, I’ll still love you. But I need to know, because if so, I’ll go get a job. I’m not going to sit at home while you play golf." I stared at her. "I’m so bored," she said. Suddenly, I understood that I was bored, too. The idleness was forced; I was purposeless, with nothing to pursue. That conversation changed everything. I realized that responsibility, the routines and habits of shaving in the morning with a purpose, a job to do, a wife to love, and a child to raise--these were the things that tied my days together and gave them a pattern deserving of the term living. Within days I was back on my bicycle. For the first time in my life, I rode with real strength and stamina and purpose. Without cancer, I never would have won a single Tour de France. Cancer taught me a plan for more purposeful living, and that in turn taught me how to train and to win more purposefully. It taught me that pain has a reason, and that sometimes the experience of losing things--whether health or a car or an old sense of self--has its own value in the scheme of life. Pain and loss are great enhancers. People ask me why I ride my bike for six hours a day; what is the pleasure? The answer is that I don’t do it for the pleasure. I do it for the pain. In my most painful moments on the bike, I am at my most self-aware and self-defining. There is a point in every race when a rider encounters the real opponent and realizes that it’s...himself. You might say pain is my chosen way of exploring the human heart. That pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it subsides. And when it does, something else takes its place, and that thing might be called a greater space for happiness. We have unrealized capacities that only emerge in crisis--capacities for enduring, for living, for hoping, for caring, for enjoying. Each time we overcome pain, I believe that we grow. Cancer was the making of me: Through it I became a more compassionate, complete, and intelligent man, and therefore a more alive one. So that’s why I ride, and why I ride hard. Because it makes me hurt, and so it makes me happy. SOURCE: "Back in the Saddle" by Lance Armstrong, Forbes ASAP, 12.03.01
Like wiffle ball there are things we as Christians must do if we are to grow in Christ. This morning as the musicians come forward I challenge you to think, have you even stepped up to the plate. If you have not accepted Jesus as Lord of your life, you will never accomplish anything that God designed you to. Apart from Him you can do nothing, those are the words of the Lord Himself. Won’t you consider stepping to the plate, won’t you come forward this morning as we sing our invitation song?
INVITATION
