Main Idea: People are to be on our mind like they were on the mind of Jesus.

You can tell a lot about a person by what is always on their mind. I know you have had things that occurred in your life where suddenly something was always on your mind. I recently had one of those moments. For years I have spoken disparagingly about those who always had golf on their mind. I have said from this pulpit that the lower regions would freeze over before I would play golf. Some time this summer Richard Lusby, who has received my remarks about golf with much grace and kindness, invited me to join him for nine holes one Tuesday afternoon. I don’t know what I was thinking but I said, "Sure! With one condition: you can’t tell me what I’m doing wrong." Of course that didn’t last past the first ball on the driving range but that was fine.

We rode up to the first hole, a par 4. Understand I had not held a golf club in ten years before the few practice swings. The score on the first hole? We both shot a five! Richard has his head down on the steering wheel of the cart accusing me of being a liar from the pulpit! Of course the next hole was a reality check but we finished the round and I had a great time. The next morning I called Richard and when he picked up the phone all I said was, "I hate you!" Then he said, "You got the fever!" So for several days all I could think about was golf! Now that has faded but I will cease and desist from any further crass remarks about those of you who play golf.

As we begin this new church year it presents us with an opportunity to reexamine a basic core value that makes First Baptist Church of Jonesboro who we are and what we must be. A core value has the power to shape, compel and inspire our future. The value I want us to think about today is people. In August 2003 we made a commitment as a church to focus on people who have yet to know Jesus personally-praying for people, sharing the Good News with people, reaching people and including people. We called that emphasis, "Lighting the Journey Together". For this past 2003-2004 year people, particularly lost people have been on our mind as a church.

You can tell a lot about a person by what is always on their mind. A new Mom and Dad always have their new child on their mind. Students have their next assignment always on their mind-yeah right! When you first met your spouse and fell in love you always had them on your mind. Business people will have the next deal always on their mind. For a lot of people recently the Olympics has been on their mind. The list is endless of people who are so consumed with something who always have that one thing always on their mind. You can tell a lot about a person by what is always on their mind.

So the question is obvious: Who or what is always on your mind? While we might wonder about what is always on our minds we don’t have to wonder or guess about what was on Jesus’ mind. What was always on Jesus’ mind? People. People were always on his mind. All kinds of people were on his mind: lost people, saved people, stubborn people, obedient people, sick people, well people, poor people, rich people—people were always on his mind. There has never been another person like Jesus who always placed people at such a high level of priority as he did.

From the very start of his ministry Jesus let these know that to be one of his disciples, to follow him, was going to mean being in the people business. When Jesus saw Simon and Andrew fishing, he knew full well that they were commercial fishermen, he called out to them, "Come be my disciples and I will show you how to fish for people!" (Mark 1:18 NLT). There’s nothing wrong with fishing but people are a much more valuable priority.

Yet that priority was continually difficult to communicate to the disciples. Over and over he tried to correct their misconceptions about people. When parents brought their children the disciples stood in their way but Jesus said, "Let them come." When people were hungry and they wanted to send them away, Jesus fed them. When some tried to touch him they tried to keep them away but Jesus invited the contact. Over and over Jesus reminded them that people were always on his mind. Even on the cross he asked the Father to forgive those who crucified him, he provided care for his mother by giving her care to John and even the thief crucified beside him he assured him of a place in eternity. Never has anyone in all of human history displayed a greater preoccupation with people than Jesus. They were always on his mind. You can tell a lot about a person by knowing what is always on their mind.

Why do you imagine that people were always on the mind of Jesus? I believe Jesus lived with people on his mind because he knew the Father’s heart better than anyone had ever known. (John 10:30) Jesus would say to his disciples, "I and the Father are one." That means not only that to see and know him was to see and know God, but also that whatever were the passions, emotions, desires of the Father those were Jesus’ passions, emotions and desires. There was no loss of continuity or unity between the Father’s heart and Jesus’ heart.

The disciples didn’t get that. On one occasion when a Samaritan city rejected him from staying there the disciples wanted to call fire down from heaven. Yet Jesus knew that people were more valuable than their pride and rebuked them (Luke 9:51-56). The religious people didn’t get that, because when he placed value on sinful people by spending time with them, they reviled him for it. His response was to tell them in no uncertain terms that people were the Father’s unquestioned priority. He told them the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son to illustrate that God was always doing an all out search for people. When something that was lost is secured, then all heaven gets excited! He said, "In the same way, there is joy in the presence of God's angels when even one sinner repents." (Luke 15:10)

What was the result of his knowing the Father’s heart better than anyone else? It was that Jesus reflected an attitude of being radically inclusive. When you read the Gospels you see that Jesus was so radically inclusive that it disturbed the religious people deeply. Luke records a prostitute breaking perfume over Jesus’ feet, crying so deeply that she wet his feet with tears. Embarrassed, she tried to clean them with her long hair and she, instead, just kissed them over and over. While everyone else was revolted by her actions, Jesus just told her, "Your sins have been forgiven…Your faith has saved you; go in peace" (Luke 7:36-50). No one in human history has ever had arms as wide as his. He was radically inclusive because people were always on his mind.

I believe there is another reason for Jesus having people always on his mind. He had people always on his mind because he understood eternal realities better than anybody else ever did. (Mark 8:36) Jesus said, "How do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul?" Jesus taught and ministered against the backdrop of time. He was never apologetic about making it clear that every person’s days are numbered. He made it obvious that there is absolutely nothing that makes it from this life to the next but people. He was absolute in his teaching that at the end of time there will be an evaluation of all humanity as to where they will spend eternity—in heaven or in hell. Continually Jesus made it clear that the treasures we as people are to be consumed with are people not money. "Don't store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal" (Matthew 6:19, NLT). Jesus knew that humans are so foolish to believe that time was on their side so he sought to make it unmistakably obvious that time is not ours, but the Father’s.

What was the result of this understanding of eternal realities? The result was that Jesus had a calculated sense of urgency about his mission. It was not a frantic, panicked urgency, but a deliberate, reason-centered urgency. It was urgency that caused him to change his travel plans just to have more contact with people. It was urgency that caused him to be unimpressed with the wealth of an individual when he saw how poor he was inside. It was urgency that caused him to send out disciples like sheep among wolves, restricting their baggage because the urgency was so great. He told them to go because there were more out there who need the gospel. Never has anyone understood the eternal realities like Jesus. Because people were always on his mind he understood the reality of eternity!

There’s one more truth that I believe compelled Jesus to always have people on his mind and that is that Jesus saw the potential in people better than anyone ever did. (Luke 5:10) When Jesus called Simon in Luke’s Gospel he saw him as a fisherman but he saw more. For he said, "Don’t be afraid! From now on you’ll be fishing for people." I see in you someone far more valuable than what you are doing now. Jesus had the ability to see beyond who and what a person was to what they could become. When he saw Zacchaeus in the tree he saw through the years of abuse and greed for money and saw someone valuable to God’s Kingdom. Whoever and whatever Mary Magdalene had been we don’t really know. What we do know is that Jesus saw in her a person who would be devoted to him at a level that only a few would have. He just looked at people differently. Do you remember when the disciples couldn’t imagine how different people they considered objectionable could be redeemed? Jesus responded, "With God everything is possible!" (Mark 10:27). Jesus just saw people differently.

As a result of Jesus seeing such potential in people he displayed an irrepressible optimism toward people. He reaffirmed that there was hope for even the most desperate cases: The lost could be found, the blind could see, the sick could be healed and the dead could be raised to life. Where others saw the impossibility of a person ever changing, Jesus was filled with optimism that could not be restrained. Jesus had people always on his mind because he knew their potential unlike anyone else could ever know them. He believed the best for people was possible because people were always on his mind!

Why were people always on the mind of Jesus? He knew the Father’s heart, understood eternal realities and saw the potential in others unlike anyone else.

In Romans 8:29 Paul said that it is God’s determined purpose that we are to become like Jesus. "For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son…"(Rom. 8:29). This means that the things that are true of Jesus are to be true for us. We are to be like Him. Max Lucado says, "God loves you just the way you are, but he refuses to leave you that way. He wants you to be just like Jesus" (Just Like Jesus, p. 3). If that is true, then the reasons and results from Jesus always having people on his mind will be found in our lives.

It means that when I truly know the Father’s heart then my attitude toward people will be radically inclusive. Think for a moment about what would happen if this church—each individual member—decided we were in the people business! What would happen if the body language of our lives were not exclusive but inclusive with arms wide open? What if we said, "My arms are open to seek, serve, and pray for people?" We have taken some radical steps to show and demonstrate that we are in the people business. We are radically inclusive of persons who are under-resourced. We are radically inclusive of persons who are Latino. We are radically inclusive of those who are hurting from a variety of sources of pain. Yet we cannot restrict our willingness to be radically inclusive even when it makes us uncomfortable. Is that the condition of your heart? Is your heart increasingly inclusive?

Surveys show us that the longer a person walks with God the less we have any contact with the lost. Scripture teaches just the opposite! Our arms may reach out to those we know but they are to reach out to someone we have yet to know including them in God’s grace. It’s great for us to worship but the worship compels us to witness. The heart of our worship must be translated into being radically inclusive of people.

This means that the more I am like Jesus the clearer I will be about the urgency of eternal realities. We forget, my friends, that when it comes to life and death that the death rate is 100%. Jesus had such a clear grasp of time that compelled his urgency. We are all in danger of getting so absorbed in what we are doing that we forget that people around us are people who will spend eternity in heaven or eternity in hell.

Time is always short and it has never been on your side or mine. It is always running out! Real people, people you know will go to heaven or go to hell. There is a sense of urgency we should live with every single day of our lives. Who needs to decide, "I will act today in such a way that I realize the urgency of eternal realities"? For every one of us it is imperative that we never let the fire of urgency go out.

Finally, the more I am like Jesus the greater will be my ability to see the potential of people with irrepressible optimism. We see someone and say, "What might God do in their life? What does God have in store for that person?" What will it take for you and for me to see people as he sees them? My friends, it’s all about people! People for all eternity. You need to understand that nothing else compares to the stakes that are at risk with people.

In 1941 Boston Red Sox outfielder Ted Williams was batting .400 going into a double-header with the Philadelphia Athletics at Philadelphia. If he didn’t play those last two games he would finish the season with a career record of .400. Several players and coaches encouraged him to sit it out and not risk blowing his average. He and Johnny Orlando walked the streets the night before the final two games trying to decide. Yet Williams never wavered—he was going to risk it all because he was a baseball player not a statistician.

He came to bat in the second inning of the first game and after looking at two balls, he blasted a pitch over the wall into 20^th Street. He ended up 4 for 5 with the Red Sox winning 12-11. His average was .404. In the second game he went 2 for 3, one of which was a double that put a hole in a loudspeaker before it dropped to the ground. His average for the year was .406. (Sports Illustrated from Ted Williams by Leigh Montville). He could have played it safe but he took a risk.

Most of you who are a part of our church family know that on October 17 we are making a schedule change. We are changing our Sunday Celebration, which is our service with a worship team and band, from Sunday evening at 6 o’clock to Sunday morning at 8:30 while the 10:50 service will remain our service with a choir, organ and piano. I understand all of the feelings you may have may have about this change and care about each of them. Yet let me assure you of this one thing: If I didn’t believe that we were in the people business, then I would not lead us to take such a step simply to offer an alternative style of worship. The style of worship preference is not the driving factor of this change. The driving factor is that we are in the people business and there are some people who can be influenced to come to Christ and connect with His church through an alternative style of worship. We have said we want to light the journey for other people and this is one way we can. It would be easy for us to stay the same, to keep everything just as it is. Yet we are taking a risk of change because we are in the people business.

Because we are in the people business, that changes everything! It means we will both individually and as a church choose to be radically inclusive of people, understand the urgency to reach people, and see the unlimited possibilities in people. It’s all about people and it’s all about forever. May we become the people God can use.

Because people are always on His mind.

Sunday, August 29, 2004

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org