This morning we continue our series "Spring Training: 7 Practices for a Winning Life." Today we are going to talk about our being a witness for Jesus Christ to the world. The title for our baseball analogy is: "Keep Your Eye On The Ball."

There’s a special reason that I have given this title to this message. Almost 11 years ago I was doing a children’s sermon and used a baseball as an object lesson. The lesson I wanted to illustrate was that sharing the good news about Jesus Christ was to be a priority with every Christian and that wouldn’t happen unless we kept our "eye on the ball." In other words, just as a batter or fielder in baseball must keep their eye on the ball in order to play successfully, so believers can’t get distracted and lose their focus of sharing Jesus with others.

One of those children who came forward that morning was Bryan Schmidt. Bryan was about 6 years old when I gave that brief talk that morning. One of the points I made was that I wanted the children to ask me when they saw me, "Do you have your eye on the ball?" It was a way of saying to them, "Help me be accountable to God and to our church by keeping my focus where it should be." For whatever reason, that stuck with Bryan Schmidt and for eleven years whenever we see each other the first question Bryan will ask me is, "You got your eye on the ball?"

Now, to be honest with you, I haven’t always had my "eye on the ball" when it comes to being a verbal witness for Jesus Christ to people who are far from God. There are times when I saw Bryan and I knew what was coming that I wanted to duck or avoid hearing a question that I knew I wasn’t ready to answer. There were times I would be able to answer in the most positive way and other times not so positive. Yet, inside, I knew that my response was a way of keeping me honest before God about the one area of my life that consistently needs improving.

So what about you? "Do you have your eye on the ball?" Is being a verbal witness to people that are far from God in your world a priority for you? Let me ask you to mentally respond on a scale of 1-5, one being the lowest and five being the highest, to these five questions from a Spiritual Growth Assessment Survey:

• I share my faith with non-believers.
• I regularly pray for non-believers I know.
• I make my faith known to my neighbors and/or fellow employees
• I intentionally maintain relationships with non-believers in order to share my testimony.
• My actions demonstrate a belief in and commitment to insuring that all people can hear the story of Jesus. (Adapted from "Spiritual Growth Assessment Tool")

So looking objectively at your response to those questions, I can ask again, "Do you have your eye on the ball?" If you are like most believers, then your answer is, "I have a lot of room for improvement."

It’s interesting that this very issue was the reason for the last recorded message of Jesus to his disciples. At the time of our text for today Jesus has been with his disciples for almost two months after his resurrection. We don’t know all that he did but we do know that the Gospels record him telling the disciples at least four times that the one thing they were to do was to tell other people about him. Over and over he made certain that they understood that as disciples they were sent to all kinds of people with a message empowered by the Spirit.

It is obvious that they were failing to keep their eye on the ball because in Acts 1, just moments before Jesus ascends back to heaven to be with God, they ask him about things that were not his priority. Their priority was knowing when Jesus was going to set up his kingdom, which implied that they wanted to know when they were going to be important. Jesus isn’t swayed by their question. He tells them that those questions and their answers are really none of their business, that they are up to God and God alone. However, the one thing that was their business was that they were to allow the Spirit to enable them to tell his story to people who are far from God. That’s exactly what I want us to see this morning. Being a witness to the world is the way we keep our lives in line with Jesus’ priority for disciples. It is the way we keep our "eye on the ball." What I want us to understand today is that a witness to the world allows the Spirit to enable them to tell the story of Jesus to people who are far from God.

Let’s spend some time unpacking this statement as we look closely at Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8. The first thing that Jesus makes clear is that a witness to the world allows the Spirit to enable them. (Acts 1:8a) Jesus told his disciples, "But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power…." Now, for these disciples the power of God’s Holy Spirit had not yet come upon them or was within them. That event would happen in just a few days from this event. Now however, every person who is a Christian the moment they were saved God’s Holy Spirit came into their life. He is within the life of every Christian to enable them to do everything Jesus desires or commands and that includes telling the story of Jesus to people who are far from God.

In Bill Hybel’s book on evangelism called Just walk across the Room, he wrote about a deal we all want to make with God about telling others about Jesus. He said that somewhere along our journey we realize how afraid and uncomfortable we are to tell other people about Jesus. It’s at that point that we say to God, "Here’s my deal, God. I will get all over spiritual development. I will be a Bible knowledge hound! If you want, I’ll throw myself into building Habitat for Humanity homes—every summer, in fact. I will climb all over volunteerism—I’ll show up at church five nights a week if you ask me to. You let me off the evangelism hook, and I’ll prove my love for you in half a dozen other ways if it kills me. That’s my deal."

When I read that, the only response I have is, "Guilty as charged." I can excuse the fact that I am not uniquely Spirit gifted in evangelism all I want but that doesn’t wash with what Jesus said. Jesus said that every believer has been given the power, the enabling, and the ability by God’s Holy Spirit to tell other people about him. There is no distinction that this promise is for ministerial types or super spiritual people or for missionaries. It is the word of Jesus to you and to me that we can’t back down from the truth that every one of us is enabled by the power of God’s Spirit to tell other people the story of Jesus.

If that is true, then why do we not do that? I believe it is because our lives have become so layered with our routines, activities, and excuses that we have lost contact with the Holy Spirit’s leading in our lives. Our lives are overcome with so many other demands and priorities that we have become deaf to the gentle leading of God’s Spirit to share the story of Jesus with someone far from God. We have become comfortable ignoring his stirring within us.

I believe that most sincere believers want to share the story of Jesus’ love and forgiveness. What has happened is that we have made it so complicated with the need for training or fear that we don’t have the right answers that we have forgotten the joy of just listening to the Spirit’s stirring in us to share what we know to be true about Jesus. Jesus said, "But I will send you the Counselor—the Spirit of truth. He will come to you from the Father and will tell you all about me. And you must also tell others about me because you have been with me from the beginning." (Jn. 15:26-27) God’s Spirit within us wants to lead us to tell others about Jesus.

How, though, do we reconnect with God’s Spirit so we can hear his voice leading us to tell others about Jesus? What does that look like? How do you consistently connect with the leading of God’s Spirit? I believe there are three things that are vital:

• Inspiration: I need to be inspired, or encouraged, to be a witness as I pray and read God’s word. God uses his Holy Spirit in both prayer and Scripture to cause me to hear his voice.
• Instruction: I need consistent instruction through some form of media that will stir my heart to hear the Spirit’s voice.
• Involvement: I need to be in situations where I am rubbing shoulders with people who are far from God and practice my obedience to his voice.

So are you allowing God’s Spirit to enable you to tell the story of Jesus to people who are from God? If not, then the reason may be that the contact, the connection between you and the Holy Spirit is so weak that His power can’t flow through you. If the connection is weak then what do you need to do to reconnect? A witness to the world allows the Spirit to enable them to do what they cannot do on their own.

A witness to the world allows the Spirit to enable them. The purpose of the Spirit’s enabling is to tell the story of Jesus to people. Jesus said, "But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me…" (Acts 1:8). It is interesting how Jesus makes a conclusion that to have the Holy Spirit’s enabling naturally results in verbally telling the story of Jesus. He says, "…you will receive power and will tell people about me…" The power of the Spirit and the telling of the story of Jesus go hand in hand. One naturally assumes the other.

Here is where our hearts start racing and we get shaky because we know that true "telling" doesn’t happen except verbally. Some of you may say, "Here is the problem I have with you and with Christians. Why do you think that everyone else is wrong and you are right? Why can’t we just leave people alone and if I want to believe in Jesus as the way to God, then fine but don’t tell me I have to tell anyone else that they need to change what they believe and follow Jesus!" O.K. here’s the problem with that assumption. A person who says that makes an assumption that all we are to do is change the way someone believes and that’s all there is to it. Yet it is really not about belief; it is about the reality of the truth that a person who calls himself or herself a Christian has experienced.

The story of Jesus is something that we say is objectively true. When Peter and John were told later by the Jewish leaders to stop telling about Jesus, their reply was, "We cannot stop telling about the wonderful things we have seen and heard" (Acts 4:20). They were saying that they couldn’t stop telling about the reality of the cross and resurrection of Jesus. They saw him die and they knew him to have risen from the dead. Your telling the story of Jesus is not so much about what you believe but what you have experienced as a result of the truth of Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. You are not in competition with the "beliefs" of other people; you are telling what you personally have experienced—what you have seen and heard. I believe that, for many others, and myself we have forgotten just how great the Good News has been for us and that is why we are reluctant to tell what we know to be true.

Another thing that this passage says to me is that Jesus knew what we forget and that is that the message of Jesus is not an intuitive message. By that I mean people are not going to know about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus unless we tell them. They will not come to this reality on their own. Andy Stanley, pastor of Northpoint Community Church in Atlanta, said that people can come to a conclusion on their own that there is a God, that there is a good God, that God likes people who do good and that I need to be good to be with God. Yet a person cannot come to know of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus unless someone tells them. That is why Jesus said that once we are enabled by God’s Spirit, the result will be that we will tell verbally the story of Jesus. All the other things that we do are good and wonderful but somehow the words have to be said that Jesus died for the weight of our sins and has risen from the dead.

The amazing thing is that when the historical truth about the death and resurrection of Jesus is told to a human being and the story is accepted as true, then there is a connection made that transforms a human heart. That does not mean that every time you tell the story that each person is going to accept it. It means that they will never know that the connection can occur unless someone tells them. Paul said, " But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them?" (Rm. 10:14) You and I are the tellers of the truth that connects with a human heart and lets them know they can be forgiven and live forever.

A witness to the world allows the Spirit to enable them to tell the story of Jesus. That says to us we have the ability and the message of what it means to be a witness; but to whom we are to be a witness? We are to be a witness to people who are far from God. That means that no person is to be excluded from hearing the story of Jesus. That’s what Jesus said, " But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere—in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."(Acts 1:8) Obviously, the word "everywhere" catches the thought of this but Jesus becomes very specific when he says that their telling was to be directed to ever expanding geographic areas.

For us, I don’t believe geographic borders communicate. We might say that we are to tell the story of Jesus to people who are like us, around us, unlike us and far from us. We are as well to tell the story in ever expanding circles of our own world. If I tell the story to people who are like me, live in my community and may be unlike me or live far away from me, it means that I can’t do that by myself. It means that to accomplish that I will need to partner with other believers who want to be tellers of the story. By doing this all people everywhere have the opportunity to hear the story of Jesus.

Can you imagine the scope of what Jesus says in this one small phrase? It means that someone you know needs to hear the story of Jesus told to them through your words and your life. It means that people you don’t know and will never know in our community need you to do all you can to make it possible for them to hear the story of Jesus. It means that people within the borders of our nation—every demographic, socio-economic, racial, ethnic group—need someone to tell them the story of Jesus. It means that persons whose location in the world may be remote to us is really the focal point of God’s GPS and he needs you and me to join hands with others so they can know. The story of Jesus is to be told to people in ever expanding circles of our lives and our world.

Recently a church member told of an experience of how God confronted them about their need to be a witness to someone in their world. Here is their story: "As you know I have had a friend who has been ill for quite some time. I have not only been concerned for their physical health but for their spiritual relationship with Christ. While praying for them in the last year both for physical and spiritual healing I was troubled about not being able to talk directly to them about where they would spend eternity.

The words of Claudia Brown, who spoke at First Women recently, really spoke to me. Claudia’s message was about time – being busy – putting things off – thinking we "have time," being too busy to hear God’s whisper in guiding and directing us daily. The power (Holy Spirit power, I’m sure) of these words pierced my conscience so deeply that even today, and now as I write them, the tears continue to flow. I believe this is partly due to the guilt I feel in not staying in touch with a friend who I fear was far from God.

A mutual friend in our church called some days later after hearing Claudia’s message to tell me of our friend’s death. I was devastated (the only word I can think of to describe the pain I felt—even this doesn’t come close). The last time I saw them was at a funeral so I am trusting that they heard words, along with past hospital visits and knowing they were always in our prayers, that brought them to a saving knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

My friend’s last days had been difficult and had probably contributed to their becoming ill. All of this is to say I just hope and pray that I will listen more closely to God’s whisper, as I believe part of this pain is knowing that I disappointed God and He hurts for me too. Thank you for asking me to do this, as I believe in the healing power of tears."

So the question is are we a witness to the world? A witness to the world allows the Spirit to enable them to tell the story of Jesus to people who are far from God. Have you made a deal with God and have told him that you are just not up for this but sign you up for anything else but just let you off the witnessing hook? Has our church made a subtle deal with God that has told him that we’ll be the serving church but not the witnessing church? That is just not our style. We really don’t get to pick which style is right for us because Jesus said that he has enabled us by his Spirit to tell his story to people who are far from God and either we are doing that or not. We can’t ignore serving and that is part of the DNA of this church. But we cannot forget that whatever a person has or doesn’t have in this life that without Jesus they still have Hell waiting for them when they die. They still have Hell waiting for them when they die. All we can do is tell. So to whom is the Spirit leading you to tell?

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org

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