Main Idea: Answering the call to follow Jesus fully marks the beginning of a winning life.

Today we begin a new sermon series called, "Spring Training: 7 Practices for a Winning Life." While we are still wondering if we are going to get anymore winter weather, opening day for Major League Baseball is only 48 days away! College baseball is well into their schedule and the professional players are beginning to arrive for Spring Training. Spring Training for Major League Baseball is that time when every player goes through the same drills, routines and practices so often that they become second nature. It’s a real "back to basics" time for each club. Players and positions are evaluated, exhibition games are played in warmer climates and strategies are planned that hopefully will result in a World Series Champion! While the exhibition games played in Spring Training are meaningless to the season, the habits that are practiced over and over are essential to a winning season.

In the same way, there are essentials for a winning life as a Christian. Jesus said a lot about the quality of life. He called it "true life" (Luke 9:24), "real life" (Luke 12:15), and "life in all its fullness" (John 1:10). Baseball is a game that is played for a season. In baseball you may or may not have a winning season. As a Christian, Jesus is concerned about our lives and that our lives achieve their fullest potential.

In this series I want us to slow down and clear our minds of the clutter of what we imagine a Christian’s life to be. I want us to discover what is essential for effective Christian living, how we measure up to those essentials and find out how to improve. I want us to take the time to see life from God’s perspective. God is interested in all of our life, not just sections of it. He cares about our life being true, real and full. Our problem is that we allow our lives to become so filled with the useless that we don’t have room for the necessary. A "winning life" then is a life that is effectively pleasing to God and gives us joy.

To help us find what is necessary for a winning life we are going to look at seven practices or activities that will teach us to be with Jesus. These practices are things that we can do that will help us gain the power to live life as Jesus taught and modeled. These practices are not for "super Christians" but for ordinary people like us. That is the beauty of the personalities of the twelve disciples that Jesus called to follow him exclusively. They were so different and so very ordinary. Only a small percentage of players in the minor leagues can get called up to play in the majors. These seven practices are for everyone. Everyone has the opportunity to live a winning life, a life pleasing to God and gives us joy.

Every minor league baseball player dreams of being called up to play on the major league level. It doesn’t matter how long they get to play, it is just knowing you had the chance to say, "I played in the Majors." When that opportunity comes a player has to be ready to answer the call. For you to have a winning life as a Christian, it begins with your answering the call of Jesus Christ to follow him fully. It starts with a decision about your relationship with him. That decision is one that comes when we ask the hard question about ourselves and that is: Does my relationship with Him meet the standard Jesus set to be His follower?

Jesus clarifies for us in Luke 9:23 what that standard is. He begins by saying, "If any of you wants to be my follower…" then here are the requirements. It really doesn’t matter what you think the standard should be or what I think the standard should be. He is the one who sets the requirements and defines the criteria. So the question you must decide is, "Am I willing to answer his call to follow him fully based on his sandard? Am I willing to match my relationship with his criteria?"

Answering the call of Jesus to follow him fully will mean making a choice about myself. That choice is that I must say, "No," to my selfish ambitions. Jesus said if you want to be my follower, "you must put aside your selfish ambitions." The NASV says, "Let him deny himself." The way Jesus said this was a command that was to be done decisively or at once. He is saying that the one who follows him has a decision to make about their relationship to that which is their biggest obstacle to a life that pleases God and gives them joy and that is "self." Notice that Jesus doesn’t say to deny "things" but to deny "self." A person is capable of living without certain things but still be unchanged within. A criminal may be imprisoned for years, be deprived of a variety of things that we might think essential for life and still have the same criminal mind they have always had. Denying yourself is more than choosing to forbid yourself things. Denying yourself is changing your mind about who is at the center of your world—you or Jesus Christ.

I realize that this idea of self-denial has been twisted by some and has been taken to extremes but the plain truth is we don’t like it. We don’t like it because it takes our "self" out of the center and it is our "self" that gets in the way. Jesus’ call to follow him is a call to transformation. Transformation involves change and change involves saying "no" to our own selfish ambition. Saying "no" to our selfish ambition is called repentance. Repentance is turning away from our way of living with our "self" at the center and choosing to follow him.

One of the great hindrances in all professional sports and particularly baseball is the number of players who have little or no regard for the success of the team and only think of their income and their statistics. Because a certain player is capable of great accomplishments at their position, coaches, managers, owners and players are forced to tolerate a player’s ego and selfish interests. This isn’t new. It didn’t start with Barry Bonds. It’s been around since Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth. When we see the extravagant, astronomical salaries and then the selfish ambition that is displayed, it is repulsive. Yet at the same time we think nothing of telling the One who has given his life for us on the cross that we might have eternal life that we will control our life, not him!

Saying "no" to your selfish ambitions raises some questions for us. We need to ask, "What does a life of choosing against my own selfish ambitions look like?" "Are there things I am doing from which I can remove myself, things I need to stop doing?" "Are there things that I need to engage in, something I need to do, that will aid my transformation?" Those are questions that are to be answered between you and God. Answering his call to follow him fully means making a choice about my "self" – I must say "no."

Another decision we must make to answer his call to follow him fully is about the influence of my world. That choice is that I must say to the influence of my world, "I’m finished!" Jesus said that those who follow him must "shoulder your cross daily." The NASV says, "Take up his cross daily." Again, he gives this as a command that means it is to be a decisive choice. It was a picture word that described a criminal carrying their cross to the place of execution. It was not something the disciples needed a lot of explanation because they could see this happening regularly as a sign of Roman justice. Because Jesus has just spoken in Luke 9:22 of his own death, he is saying that these who follow him must be willing daily to face the same thing.

What does this concept of shouldering "your cross daily" mean for us? For us, following Jesus is not met with immediate rejection and physical persecution that these would face or is faced by others in the world. We do not suffer automatic rejection for being a follower of Jesus. So what does it mean? I believe the bridge for us is that choosing to "shoulder your cross daily" is an attitude of self-denial that regards your attachment and bond to this world’s influence and attraction as finished. In other words, you say that as far as the pull and draw of this world is concerned, "I’m through." Listen to how Paul phrased it, "As for me, God forbid that I should boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world died long ago, and the world's interest in me is also long dead." (Gal. 6:14)

In 1947 Jackie Robinson became the first African American to play major league baseball. He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers by owner Branch Rickey. On the day he signed, Jackie Robinson met with Rickey for over three hours. Rickey wanted to know if Robinson had the courage to play for him. Rickey took him through every scenario he would face in an all-white league. Robinson asked, "Mr. Rickey, are you looking for a Negro who is afraid to fight back?" Rickey answered, "I’m looking for a ballplayer with guts enough not to fight back." Rickey then took a book on the Life of Christ and read a passage, quoting the Sermon on the Mount: "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you,..whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn to him the other also." (Matt. 5:38-39) Then he said, "Only he who has conquered himself can conquer his enemies. Can you do it? For three years to turn the other cheek…It’s the only way it can be done." Robinson answered, "Mr. Rickey, I’ve got to do it." Because Jackie Robinson paid an unbelievable price in restraint, the color of baseball changed forever.

At the center of Jackie Robin’s soul he made a decision that he was dead to a world that rejected him because of his color. Have you claimed to be a follower of Jesus Christ and yet you still remain tied and chained to what your world thinks, says and does? I’m not talking about creating a fresh list of dos and don’ts that you can use to mark those you think are true followers. I’m talking about an understanding of who is the center of your soul. If the person of Jesus Christ is there at the center, then you can say to the influence of your world, "I’m finished!"

Yet we all must understand that this decision is one we make, as Jesus said, "daily." It is a continual, deliberate, costly choice we make to say that this world’s control over the center of my life is finished—"I’m through!" Even though we make this decision daily, we must make that decision initially. Your daily choice starts with a first choice. Answering his call to follow him fully means saying to the influence of my world, "I’m finished!"

Answering Jesus’ call to follow him fully means making a choice to say "no" to myself and say, "I’m through" to the influence of my world. Yet it also means making a decision about my future. That decision is one where we say to God concerning our future, "I surrender." Jesus said, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross daily, and follow me." (Luke 9:23) That last statement "and follow me" is as well as command but while the other two statements required decisive action immediately, this one means action that continues. He is saying that while a decision to say "no" to yourself and saying "I’m through" to the influence of your world is immediate, following him means constant surrender to his will and direction.

Every Major League Baseball player has signed a contract that surrenders his future to the owner of the team. Major League team owners own the future of that player. They can sell, trade, or move a player literally at will pending the contract that was agreed to at the start. While the meaning of ownership has changed through the years, still a player’s future is surrendered to the will of someone who owns them.

Following Jesus fully means making a choice about who owns you! The reality is that every person who has accepted Jesus as their Savior is owned by him. Paul said, "You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price" (I Cor. 6:19-20). What was that price? The price of his own blood on the cross. We may think that we are the ones calling the shots and we may imagine we are in control of our future but, ultimately, he owns us and is moving our life toward his purpose. The hard question is: Are we surrendered to him as the owner and leader of our lives? Darrell Bock says, "Discipleship means being a learner, a follower. It means that our attention is turned to how we can follow Jesus, not how we can make him follow us." For too many of us, we have the foolish idea that Christianity is trying to make God fit our desires instead of our surrendering our desires to him. The longer we refuse to follow him and try to make him follow us we will find our future in conflict with him continually.

What does surrendering my future to Jesus Christ look like? It means doing what Jesus does. What is that? More than anything else it means loving God and loving people. While the other two statements in verse 23 imply prohibitions, this action opens us up to a whole lifetime of possibilities. As you recognize his full control over your life and the future of your life, you recognize there are unlimited ways for you to show that you love God and love people.

How will I know I am following him fully? How will I know I am surrendering constantly my future to him? You will do it by applying the six practices we are going to talk about in the weeks ahead. Remember, we said that a practice is any activity that helps me gain the power to live life as Jesus taught and modeled. So there are six things that can help us do that and they are: staying connected to Jesus, living by His word, praying to him in faith, keeping close to other followers, sharing his love with the world and serving others as he did. Each one of these are basic habits that teach us to be with Jesus. They are actions that we cannot neglect and still claim to be following Jesus fully. Answering his call to follow him fully means saying about our future, "I surrender."

Dave Dravecky pitched for the San Diego Padres and the San Francisco Giants in the 1980’s. Dravecky’s Major League career was cut short by cancer that occurred in his pitching arm as the Giants were reaching the World Series in 1987. Dravecky’s career started out in the minor league system of the Padres. He recalled that he was on a road trip in Phoenix when he got the news that his wife Janice had delivered their first child at a hospital in Hawaii. He immediately got on a plane and arrived the next day. One day later he received a call from the manager of the Padres that he was being called up to the Major League team. He was thrilled because this was a chance of a lifetime. His wife, needless to say, was not thrilled. She cried and they were not tears of joy. She tried to understand but she couldn’t. He said, "I was going to the majors. All my hopes of a lifetime were wrapped up in that incredibly good word."

Why was it so urgent that he make such a choice? Because he remembered a fellow pitcher who, when he got the call, told the coach he was just too tired and he was never called again. He said, "You don’t say "no" when you get the call."

Jesus Christ is calling you today to follow him. The question is: "Will you answer his call? Will you answer by saying "no" to your self, saying, "I’m finished" to the influence of your world and saying, " I surrender," continually in order to be with him? How can you say "no" to this call? Answering his call to follow him fully marks your beginning of a truly winning life.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org