Herald Of Faith, Inc.   www.heraldoffaith.com
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Ya Gotta Wanna!

Ya Gotta Wanna!
Heb 11: 8-12

The sermon title comes from the principal of a small high school in Illinois. They finally got five guys big enough to play good basketball, and were working their way through the eliminations for the state tournament. Now the dream of every high school basketball player in Illinois is to go to Urbana for the playoffs. That tournament is important, like politics, in a small town. Anyway, the team was flagging, and the principal called a rally in the school gym. He spoke, not in that fusty language called educatorese. He warmed to the phrase, Ya Gotta Wanna. Well, the team rallied. They went to state. They came, they rebounded, they conquered, winning the state title that year.

Ya Gotta Wanna! The issue of passion, desire, sacrifice. The fire inside. The thing that moves you away from doing it because you have to to doing it because it burns in your bones.

I've lived here in Lake Wobegon for three years now. My ears perk up when I hear people say, "not too bad," and "pretty good," and "whatever." I mock the Minnesota language on occasion, having listened to Garrison Keillor and read the book "How to Talk Minnesotan." I just hope my kids are above average enough to survive.

But I notice that people are using words like "excellent" and "superb" now, though I sense a touch of mockery when they say it.

Ya Gotta Wanna. But the pressure to be just plain folks is there and has always been there. Don't stand out. Who does he think he is? The times call for people who are outstandingly holy, devoted beyond mere duty, dedicated because the vision burns inside. People who move out into victory.

I listened to a tape about Sarah, Abraham's wife. The neighbor lady came over.
"Whatcha doing, Sarah?"
"Packing."
"Packing? You're not moving, are you?"
"Yes, we're leaving Ur."
"Where ya going?"
"We don't know yet. God will show us."
"But Sarah, you're old. Why you moving now?"
"We think the new place will be better for raising the children."
"Children! Sarah, you're almost 90. You can't have babies. That's the funniest thing I ever heard."
"Yes, Abraham and I laughed when we heard it too."

Do you remember how Sarah reacted when the angels announced she would have a child? She said, "Will I now have this pleasure?" The word pleasure comes from the same word as Eden. Will I be restored to a situation like Eden, with the mandate to multiply and replenish the earth and raise up a people for God? Abe, it's been a long time, but you still make me laugh. I think this is a crazy idea, but it's a crazy world.

"By faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised."

There are watershed moments when the safe and secure way is too risky because it doesn't meet the need of the hour. Critical points when we risk all to rise to excellence, lest we slide back to mediocre. Decisive moments when we recreate ourselves. We metamorphose. Caterpillar becomes butterfly. Grub becomes dragonfly. It's not just change; it's a sea-change: it's radical revolution. Shall I now have this pleasure?

Emily Dickinson wrote,
To make a prairie it takes a clover and one bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery.
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.

You may not have all the prerequisites and all the items you need to be the burocratically qualified person. But revery is there. Desire is there. Ya Gotta Wanna. Where there's a will, there's a way. Remember general science in high school? They told you about inertia, the tendency of a stationary object to keep standing still, and a moving object to keep moving. We're like that. We have serving committees, God bless 'em, that are so permanent that we will have to find volunteers to do them in the Millennium. I bet we also have stupendous opportunities that we've ruled out without even thinking about it because we've never done it that way and we fear that things might change, and we would get out of our comfort zone. Fear, heaven forbid, that we might be forced to stand up or stand out.

My Dad preached often in the Smyrna Church in Gothenburg, Sweden. Its 2000 seats were filled when he was there. Some friends told me that he once said, "I think if there were an explosion that shot you all a mile up in the air, when you came down, you would land in exactly the same spots where you are sitting now." We do get settled in. don't we?

Change is in the air.

But Ya Gotta Wanna! You have to create an atmosphere and mind set that encourages faith with all its risk, and you need to recognize and control the mentality that chokes people with new ideas.

What do we need? Well, we need to be so attractive that people will want to be here all the time, instead of going home relieved that they have gotten church over with for the week. A church that creates and develops interest in Christian discipleship so effectively that it is constantly producing people for the ministry. That means holding greater interest that the football and baseball and even ice-fishing. Can church be like that? Acts 2 says they met daily from house to house. Church, my dear brothers and sisters, is where it should be at. Church should never tolerate, and certainly never applaud and reinforce, mediocrity in the design and implementation of God's program. 

Passion. Heart. Ya Gotta Wanna. You have to out-innovate the world if you are going to snatch people out of it. 

We didn't have enough "gotta wanna" to train our dog Sally to not jump over the fence and run away. Or may I should say that Sally had more gotta wanna than we did when it came to the free world outside our yard. Anyway, we brought her to a place that adopts out cocker spaniels, and we hope she has found a good home with lots of freedom and a good fence. But this dog training thing. I bet there are a lot more people like me who can train their dog to play dead than there are people who can train them to jump through flaming hoops. There's no risk in playing dead; any dog can do it. But jumping through the fire? That's scary. You don't start with a fiery hoop, and you don't start with a small one, I suppose. First you get the technique straight. Then you work the dog up to jump through the fire.

Don't misunderstand. I'm not accusing anyone of playing dead. God knows there are a lot of people around here who are not at all lazy or apathetic or ignorant. Most of us know how to be good dogs, to heel, and sit, and come when called, and some of us even shake hands with strangers in the lobby. Some of us are good at begging. And thank God we have people who know how to bark when it's needed. The faithfulness and hard work of a great number of our people are a testimony to the vision of those who planted the church many years ago, and we honor that vision. We're not interested in playing dead.

But we're a little afraid to jump through flaming hoops, because that seems flamboyant and un-Minnesotan. Yet the scriptures say that we are to snatch souls from the fire. It's true that our extension ministries, the camp work, the high school missions, the center for pregnant teens, our foreign missionaries, are all involved in directly winning people to Christ. I'm glad if I can win souls indirectly through them, but I'm in heaven when I'm praying with 10 or 20 or 30 people at the altar in Argentina or Honduras or Romania. Altars can be full in the United States too, and not only in Billy Graham crusades. There are soul-winning churches around us.

But Ya Gotta Wanna. And you don't get souls to the altar when they aren't in church in the first place. Unchurched people and unbelievers don't go to church on their own. They go because they are invited by someone who can help them feel at home in the place. The threshold of the church is one of the highest barriers in the world to cross. In fact, most of us aren't quick to invite friends to church unless our kids are performing in something.

I guess it's obvious that the meeting on Sunday morning (that's this meeting) is very important in a person's decision to identify with a church. But the thing that attracts them to try a Sunday is usually that someone invited them or their kids to some church sponsored activity during the week. The people who study this stuff say the distance from the parking lot to the door is important in their decision. Young families look at the nursery and care for young children. The sense of welcome and not feeling bewildered when they go inside the first time is important. We all need a little of what Dennis shows at the door. We have to make ourselves more attractive to people who need to come to faith. But of all the factors, the single most important one is the invitation by someone they know and trust, someone who cares about them.

You know that God created you with free will. He showed it by putting those two trees in the Garden of Eden. They were placed there so you would have choice, and so you would be distinct from the animals that only operate on instinct. To love, you have to be able to choose, and God wants us to share his loving nature. To allow for love, he took the biggest risk in all eternity. He put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, and gave the commandment that Adam and Eve should not eat of it. Was there any other way to establish love? Doesn't the wedding vow reflect this ability to choose when it says, "forsaking all others?" God appeals to your decision maker.

You have the power to determine what you will do. Of course, you don't have the power to determine the consequences of the action of your will. You can't eat the fruit of the bad tree and still live forever, for the commandment says, "in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." Neither can you choose for another person, but you can choose what you will do. What do you want? You have to face that crisis of decision.

I suppose I've made decisions on what I really want so many times that I've gotten a little cynical about it. I want to lose 10 pounds. But yesterday we stopped by our favorite blueberry woods and got about a quart. Last night it was blueberry pancakes. Some wonderful day this week, Ingrid will get some scratch and make some crust dough. She will lovingly roll it out until it's the right thickness, and will bed it down in a pie plate that her Mom used to make strawberry-rhubarb pie in back when she could see well. Then she will mix the blueberries with sugar and some flour and maybe some lemon juice and ladle it into the shell. She will cover it with another layer of pie crust dough, sprinkle some sugar on it, and put it in the oven at about 425 degrees for around 40 minutes. Then comes the hardest part. Leaving that pie to cool. When the magic moment arrives, we will put some Breyers Vanilla Bean ice cream with it, and make a pot of strong Swedish coffee. Rhapsody in blueberry! About 395 calories per slice, plus the ice cream. There! The decision is made. Eating that pie improves my relationship with Ingrid, and that's more important that a notch in my belt.

Decisions about diets are one thing. Decisions about Christian living are another. The one is temporal; the other eternal. 

Like a good number of you, I read through the Bible every year and through the Psalms and Proverbs every month. It's a daily habit that I try to keep up, even when I travel or am on vacation. But it's so easy to backslide. I have a datebook with chapters written for every day, and a box to check off. It helps keep me on track. I have a well developed habit, but I still need controls to keep me doing it.

You know why I do it? I want the relationship with God to dominate my life and to keep me from drifting. That basic decision makes me pay the price. I can't procrastinate on the daily devotion. The basic Wanna produces the discipline. Ya Gotta Wanna.

It's a yes that's strong enough to say no to other things. It's a yes that creates a plan that leads towards a goal, and finds a way to work that plan. In practical terms, it comes to 3 or 4 chapters a day.

Do I fail at it? Is it like New Year's Resolutions about diets? Will I ever be perfectly disciplined?

We fail at our most solemn determinations. Yet God makes provision. He remembers that we are but dust. 1 John 1:9 speaks to the believer about failure: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins." 

You see, I wanted to, but my energy flagged. I got tempted. I failed. I sinned. What's the hope? Nobody can live this Christian life right. None righteous; no, not one.

But when I am unfaithful and unrighteous, Christ is faithful and just. Faithful and just to forgive my sins when I confess them.

I get off track on my Bible reading and have to speed read 10 chapters, muttering, "Sorry to rush you, God, but I have to catch up." Especially the names in the genealogies of 2nd Chronicles.

Can you ever get back on track? Or are you despondent like a man I talked with in Texas. "Oh, I pray," he told me, "but God doesn't say anything to me." "Have you ever read his book?" I asked. Maybe I was unkind--it just came out. Truth will do that. If we want to hear him speak, we'd better read what He's already said.

You can get on track in your devotional life. A daily time of prayer, scripture reading, and memorization is normal. Regular Bible study is part of the normal Christian life. Speaking with others to encourage their faith in Christ is normal. Giving 10% of your income to God is normal. Even occasional fasting is normal.

But Ya Gotta Wanna. Your Wanna has to be stronger than your inertia.

Think about what you are doing today to improve your relationship with God.

When Ya Wanna, you give up Cheers reruns to make up for the devotions you missed. When Ya Wanna, you act on God's word and pay your tithes rather than using the money for payments on a new boat. When Ya Wanna, you find ways to bring up issues of faith with the people around you. When Ya Wanna, you act in accordance with the ideals and principles God created you with.

But Ya Gotta ....

...But this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark of the prize of the high calling in God in Christ Jesus. (Phil 3: 13-14)

God of my desires:
I want to, but at the same time I don’t want to. It costs something to be a serious disciple, and I present myself today to put forth the effort to be all that You intend for me to be. Help me to want to with all my heart, soul, mind, and body. Amen.




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