OPEN: Back in the 1960’s there was a young High School boy named John Baker who loved to run. In fact he loved running so much that his dream was to be on the High School track team. The only problem: the coach wasn’t interested. John was too short and too slight to be a runner. But John’s friend was built like a runner. In fact John’s friend was such a promising runner that the track coach heavily recruited him for the team. But THAT boy wasn’t interested. That was when John came up with his way to join the team: he promised the coach that if he’d let him run, he could convince his friend to join the team as well.
So John got on the team… and the team’s first race was a 1.7 mile cross country run through the hills of Alberquerque. Of course there were a number of other schools there for the meet, and so was the reigning state champion runner - Lloyd Goff. All eyes were on Goff as it seemed a foregone conclusion that Goff would win as he always had. So Lloyd led the pack as they disappeared over the hills. For the next few minutes, the spectators waited and watched ... and then, at last, they saw a lone figure running toward them.
They assumed it was Lloyd Goff. But it wasn’t. Guess who it was? That’s right, it was John Baker who led the pack. He not only won the meet that day, but he set a new meet record.
When asked how he was able to win, John said he asked himself a simple question “Am I doing my best?” Then he fixed his eyes on the runner ahead of him until he passed him, and then the next and the next until there was no one left.
Now HOW did John win that race? He won it by being focused. He focused on one runner at a time. He knew what he wanted to accomplish and he stayed on target until he crossed the finish line. (Dan Green “Finish Strong”)
In our text today Paul declared “I do not run aimlessly” (I Corinthians 9:26). In other words, Paul had his eyes focused on an objective. He had a goal. He had a purpose in mind.
So my question for you this morning is this: What is your goal as a Christian? What do you want to do for Jesus? What are you shooting for… for God?
Now for some folks, just getting to church on time on Sunday morning is a big priority. And I appreciate that! If you didn’t show up on Sunday mornings, I’d have no one to preach to - and that would be depressing. So I’m glad you’re here. But if that’s all we expect to do as Christians… we’ve missed the mark.
ILLUS: Too many Christians remind me of the London Bus Company several years ago. That Transit company was striving for efficiency. They made it their goal to always be on schedule. No other bus route in any other community seemed to even rival their efficiency.
So… how did they do it? How did they manage to keep such a tight schedule? Well, it seems that IF they were in danger of getting behind schedule, their drivers were instructed to simply to not stop at bus stops, even when there were people waiting there for the bus. As you can imagine, that made some customers fairly angry. But the London Transit Authority released this statement to explain why they didn’t always pick up waiting passengers at the bus stops: “It is impossible for us to maintain our schedules if we are always having to stop and pick up passengers.”
Now, what’s wrong with this picture? That’s right – a bus company does not exist in order to meet a schedule. The PURPOSE of the bus company is to pick people up and drop them off. In the same way our purpose – as Christians – is to pick people up and drop them off at the feet of Jesus.
Before Jesus left earth and returned to heaven -- gave the church our marching orders: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and MAKE DISCIPLES of all nations, BAPTIZING THEM in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, TEACHING THEM to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20
That’s our objective: win people, baptize them into Christ, and teach them to obey what Jesus wants of them. That is WHY we exist as a church. It’s just part of the deal. We gather together (at worship, in Sunday School classes, at in-home Bible studies, etc.) and our principle objective in doing this is so we can learn to make disciples, baptize them and then teach them about Jesus. If we’re not doing that, we’ve missed the point!
So, the question becomes – how do we do that? How do we go about making disciples and baptizing them and then teaching them?
In our text this morning Paul writes: “I do not box as one beating the air.” When I read that I got to thinking that Paul was referring to something called Shadowboxing. Shadowboxing is when a boxer is all by himself, beating the air. He’s throwing punches against an imaginary opponent. It’s a visualization thing: He pictures in his mind what he’s going to do in the ring. He knows his opponent’s weaknesses and strengths and he’s going through the series of jabs and left hooks that might penetrate the other guy’s defenses.
But now, once he gets in the ring he’s got to stop imagining how he’s going to fight and actually start throwing some punches. Because if all he does in that ring is beat the air (shadow box) they’re going to carry him out of that ring on a stretcher.
Church, Sunday School, Bible Studies and such - that’s all shadow boxing. We get together to imagine what we can say to someone who doesn’t know Jesus. We get together to visualize how we can get through people’s defenses. As PETER put it - THIS is where you should be imagining how you can “honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect” 1 Peter 3:15
THIS is where we train. Worship, Sunday School and Bible Study. But once we leave training… THEN we’re in the game. We’re in the RING. We’re on the TRACK (whatever you want to call it). We train here for the REAL STUFF out there – the making of disciples.
So FIRST – we train. Then we challenge. That’s why we’re having this “Personal Best invitational”. It’s a month long stress on inviting people to join you in church. It’s John Rigle’s brain-child (he’s a retired preacher) and he’s used it in the past with success. We’ve given you invitation cards, divided you into 3 teams and created an atmosphere of competition here for this month (complete with 3 colors of lanyards for their name cards, three tables in the fellowship hall for team leaders to keep track of their team-members, and a chart with 3 “runners” measuring each team’s success).
In essence, the purpose of this competition is to put you on the track and in the ring. We’ve created a “contest.” Because there’s something about being in a contest that makes us step-up our game.
ILLUS: This week I talked with a guy recently who never had any interest in running. The whole idea of getting into jogging clothes and taking a run just BORED him to tears. Then his wife tried talking to him into joining her in a 5K marathon. Did I mention he didn’t like running? He hates running. But he started running because it was important to her and he loved her.
What amazed him was what happened to him once he began to run alongside other people. When that other person passed him it bugged him. Even though it was a friendly competition he had no intention of letting ANYONE pass him and his competitive juices began to flow. He began to gauge himself against others and it made him strive to do better.
ILLUS: At the first church I served I was teaching an adult Sunday School class Max and Paul were there and we were talking about inviting people to church. Paul turned to Max and said “I’ll invite 10 people to church this week and I dare you to do the same.” Max smiled and said he could do anything Paul could do, and more. For the next month they made a contest out of which one of them could invite more people church.
Now, why would they do that? They didn’t do it for money or for trophies. They did it because there’s something about a friendly contest that makes people strive to do better. And that’s what this Personal Best Invitational is all about: Challenging Ourselves to do better in inviting people to church.
So, we train… we challenge… and then we DO something about it.
But HOW do we DO what we’re supposed to DO? How do we get people to come to church?
Well, we have a number of community outreaches at this church. We have free lunches once a month on Thursdays, we have a food pantry, a baby ministry, a reach out to families who’ve lost their possessions in fires, a Financial seminar we put on every year, our Trunk Or Treat party in the Fall, and then this year we’re going to put on a Marriage Retreat in October. That’s what we as a CHURCH do tell our community that we care about them and their families.
But what can YOU do as an individual? How can YOU get people interested?
ILLUS: I go to thinking about that and it occurred to me – when you all started coming to church what was it that made YOU decide that YOU were going to take Jesus seriously.
o How many of you started coming to church because your parents brought you?
o The SIGN out front?
o You heard we had a handsome preacher?
o Reputation of the church? (that sounds interesting)
o Bible Study?
o Someone simply invited you?
(we had people raise their hands for each of these - including the 2 or 3 people I paid to say they came because of the handsome preacher).
ILLUS: A couple years ago, a religious group surveyed NON-CHURCHED people about what kinds of invitations would get them to come to church (Lifeway Research; Christianity Today 9/16, p 18). These were the results:
• 18% - A Facebook ad
• 21% - Church member knocking on their door
• 23% - TV commercial
• 23% - Postcard
• 51% - Personal invitation from a friend or family member
Now notice, the INDIRECT methods would be useful … kind of. These unchurched folks said that IF they saw a Facebook ad, or received a postcard in the mail then MAYBE they’d come. And they even thought “cold calling” MIGHT be useful (knocking on people’s doors). I mean it seems to work sometimes for the Jehovah Witnesses. But over ½ those surveyed said a PERSONAL INVITATION from someone they knew would be most persuasive.
I even read one survey where a number of folks said they would consider going to church if someone they knew were to ask them… but nobody had ever asked them.
ILLUS: Back in 2001 a man named Larry Pierce came to church for the first time. It was in early January and there was a fairly bad snowstorm that day, but there stood Larry in a body cast and on crutches coming to church for the first time. Why was he there? Well, he’d been in a car wreck a month or so before that, and the rescue crew that cut him out of his vehicle said he had no business living through that crash. That day he made God a promise that the first day he could get on his feet he was going to church.
Now that explains how he started going to church… but why THIS church? Well, for years he had a friend here (Jim) who would repeatedly say “Hey Larry, you coming to church this Sunday?” And Larry would always make some lame excuse and never show. That is, until that January Sunday in a snow storm when he realized he needed Jesus more than anything else.
ILLUS: Now, what if you don’t know how to talk to folks? What if you’re socially inept? Well, I read the true story of a man in the 1800s who didn’t think he knew enough to talk to people about Christ… so he’d hire a hansom (that’s an old time taxi - a horse and buggy affair) to drive him to Revivals. Then he’d pay the driver to go inside to the Revival and he’d stay outside with the buggy and take care of the horse.
The whole point is to do whatever you have to do to introduce people to Jesus. To do whatever you have to do Church. To do it because you love Jesus so much that you’ll find some way to reach out to others.
ILLUS: Back in the 1940’s there was a 2nd baseman named Eddie Stanky. They say he battled his way through 11 seasons for National League teams including the champion Brooklyn Dodgers, Boston Braves and NY Giants. But apparently he wasn’t a natural baseball player. He didn’t have the talents you’d expect of a professional baseball player. One of his managers said “He can’t run, he can’t hit and he can’t throw, but if there’s a way to beat the other team, he’ll find it.” (Time magazine, 6/21/99)
That’s the kind of person Jesus is looking for. Jesus isn’t looking for a polished preacher or a talented teacher. He’s looking for someone who will find whatever way they can to win people for Jesus.
CLOSE: I want to close by telling you the story of Robert Reed. Robert Reed can’t run… he can’t box… he can’t take part in any physical contest. His hands are twisted and his feet are useless. He can’t bathe himself. He can’t feed himself. He can’t brush his teeth, comb his hair, or put on his underwear. His shirts are held together by strips of Velcro. And he has trouble speaking clearly.
Robert has cerebral palsy.
His disease keeps him from driving a car, riding a bike, and going for a walk. But it didn’t keep him from graduating from high school or attending Abilene Christian University. And cerebral palsy didn’t keep him from teaching at a St. Louis junior college or from venturing overseas on 5 missions trips.
And Robert’s disease didn’t keep him from becoming a missionary to Portugal. He moved to Lisbon, ALONE, in 1972. There he rented a hotel room and began studying Portuguese (he didn’t even know the language). He found a restaurant owner who would feed him after the rush hour and a tutor who would instruct him in the language. Then he stationed himself daily in a park, where he distributed brochures about Christ
Within six years he led seventy people to the Lord.
How’d he do that?
Well, Robert did that by keeping his eye on the prize. He wasn’t going to let what he couldn’t do stop him from doing what he could do for the Jesus he loved. (Max Lucado, "The Applause of Heaven")
INVITATION
SERMON SERIES: Personal Best Invitational
* Keeping Your Eyes On The Prize 1 Corinthians 9:24-27
* Finishing Pretty 2 Timothy 4:1-8
* Wings Of Eagles Isaiah 40:21-31
