Leading an Effective Church-
Heart for the Lost

Pastor Meyer’s Sermon

 Sunday, October 14, 2007

“What am I seeing? What’s wrong with me? Am I crazy? Am I crazy? Am I crazy?” shouted out Graham McNamee into his microphone as he was calling the 1929 Rose Bowl on the radio. 72,000 people were on hand to watch the University of California against Georgia Tech. It’s the first half. Georgia Tech has the ball and they just fumble and Roy Riegels, a defense man for the University of Cal, picks up the ball and starts running and he continues to run and he keeps running, 65 yards he is running in the wrong way. There was a sole Cal player on the sideline noted for his speed. He runs out on the field. He catches up with Roy. He grabs him and tackles him down at the 2 yard line preventing Roy from scoring a touchdown for the opposing team. Now after the play, Roy is just sitting on the ground. He is dejected beyond words as his teammates huddle around him to try to give him comfort and console him.

Most people when they hear this story, they think about Roy Riegels and him going the wrong way. In fact, Roy Riegels dealt with having a nickname, “Wrong Way Riegels,” for the rest of his life. And people would be thinking, “Why did he go the wrong way? Didn’t he know what he was doing? Couldn’t he hear people telling him he was going in the wrong direction?”

But what I’d like to do this morning is I’d like to focus on the guy who tackled Roy. That guy’s name is Benny Lom. He was a quarterback and kicker for the University of Cal. He was on the sidelines and he ran and tackled him. And what I would like to say is that I believe if we are going to be an effective church and be effective in having a heart for the lost, we need to be like Benny Lom. You see, there are things we can learn from him.

The first thing we can learn is we need to have the courage to recognize that someone is going in the wrong direction. It could be a person going in the wrong direction. It could be a community going the wrong way. That’s what Benny Lom did. He was out on the sidelines. He was part of the offense. He wasn’t out on the field but he was watching the play. He had taken to heart what the rules of the game were. He knew that his team was going this way and so immediately when he saw that Roy had picked up the ball and started running, he knew instantly that Roy was going in the wrong direction.

Peter in our reading from Acts, when he met Cornelius, he, too, knew immediately that Cornelius was going in the wrong direction. Now we learn a little bit about Cornelius in Acts 10, the chapter right before our reading for this morning. In here it tells us at Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a Centurion, and what was known as the Italian regiment. He and his family were devout and God-fearing. He gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly. Hum. It seems to me that Cornelius kind of thought that he knew the right way. It seems like he was going in the right direction. But when Peter ran into Cornelius and met with him, he knew immediately that there was something missing in Cornelius’ life. Cornelius, by all accounts, believed in God. He prayed continually. He gave to the poor. He was devout. Certainly, he was going the right way, wasn’t he?

But Peter knew he was going in the wrong direction and Peter comes to Cornelius and he says a little bit later in Chapter 10, “We are witnesses of everything Jesus did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed Him by hanging Him on a tree but God raised Him from the dead on the third day and caused Him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people but by witnesses whom God had already chosen, by us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that He is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about Him that everyone who believes in Him receives forgiveness of sins through His name.”

Peter recognized that Cornelius was missing something. He was missing Jesus and he needed to be turned in the right direction because he was going the wrong way. But before Peter could even recognize that someone else was going in the wrong way, the wrong direction, he needed to believe and understand the rules, the way things were, that Jesus was the way, that Jesus was the only way, that Jesus is the only way.

Before you can have a heart for the lost, you first need to have a heart for Jesus. The question is if we are going to be an effective church, if we are effectively going to have a heart for the lost, how are we as a church doing in saying that Jesus is the way, the only way? It’s hard for us, isn’t it? Because in our daily lives, when we’re out in society, we hear that Jesus is a way. Hear the difference? Jesus is a way. What does that mean? That means then that there are other ways for eternal life, doesn’t it? But we as a church, to be effective, we know what the bible says. We know Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” He also says in another place in scripture that it is God’s will that anyone who looks to the Son shall be saved. And in John 3:16, we all see it on banners at football games. “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that anyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”

To be effective, to have an effective heart for the lost, we as a church need to stand up and say that Jesus is the only way. Now for us to do that, it’s not simply just to go ahead and just thump our bibles at people and say, “Hey, Jesus is the only way. You’re going the wrong way.” Because, you see, they’re not going to hear you. That’s what we learn from Benny Lom. We learn from Benny Lom that we need to have the courage to not only get out on the field but also to go to where people are. Benny Lom didn’t just stand on the sidelines and cry out, “Hey, Roy, you’re going the wrong way.” No, he didn’t do that. He knew that Roy wasn’t going to hear him because there were 72,000 voices shouting out and all Roy knew was, “Hey, they’re cheering me on. I’m going the right way.” And so Benny ran out onto the field and he went to where he was.

That’s what Peter did. Peter was in Joppa, a day’s journey from Caesarea where Cornelius was. Three men had come to visit Peter and to encourage Peter to come and hang out with Cornelius. It could have been very easy for Peter just to say, “Oh, well, why don’t you just tell him that he needs to follow Jesus and go on back to Cornelius.” No, that’s not what he did. Because for him, it was important to go and meet where Cornelius was. And so he had the three men stay with him overnight and then all three of them and six other brothers went to Caesarea to hang out with Cornelius. And it was through getting to know Cornelius, it’s through conversations, it’s through just being where Cornelius was in life, that allowed Peter to be able to tell him that he was going the wrong way, that this is the right way, Jesus is the only way.

Jesus also did that in His ministry. When you look at the gospels, there are 132 different contacts that Jesus had with people throughout the gospel. Six of them were in the temple. Four of them were in synagogues. And 122, the vast majority of them, were where Jesus had contact with people as they were playing the game of life, as they were going about their lives dealing with issues. Jesus met them where they were. We, too, as a church, to be an effective church, to effectively have a heart for the lost, we need to go and meet people where they are, to build relationships, to be part of the community, to be able to look for opportunities, to let people know they’re going the wrong way. And we can’t just stay out on the sidelines. We can’t just shout out to the community and shout out to people that, “Hey, you guys are going the wrong way.” We can’t do that because there are 72,000 voices that not only we deal with but they deal with, too, whether it’s the paper, whether it’s the internet, whether it’s the radio or the television, friends, all these voices are shouting out and these people think they’re going the right way. Through relationships, through being part of community, we can then let people know that, “Hey, Jesus is the only way,” and they’d be able to hear us.

Now that brings our next issue that not only did Benny Lom jump onto the field and go to where Roy was but he also made the tackle. He grabbed him and threw him down on the ground. Now I’m not saying that when you go and see somebody who believes that Jesus is a way, to tackle him and throw him on the ground. No. No, that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying, though, is to tackle the opportunities, the opportunities that present themselves for you to be able to say, “Hey, you might be going the wrong way. You are going the wrong way. Jesus is the only way.”

That’s what Peter did. In fact, to Peter, it was more important for him to break the rules, just like Benny Lom. Benny Lom broke the rules. He’s supposed to stay on the sidelines. He wasn’t supposed to be part of the play. But he jumped out on the field and went after Roy to prevent Roy from doing something that he would regret for the rest of his life. It was more important for Benny to be with his friend, to help his friend than it was for him to follow the rules.

That’s what Peter did. You pick it up at the beginning of our reading for this morning. “Since he was circumcised, believers criticized Peter and said, ‘You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.’” To Peter, it was more important that Cornelius knew that he was going the wrong way and to point him in the right direction than it was for him to follow societal rules.

We, as a church, need to do the same thing to be effective. Because, my friends, when you’re out there, taking about Jesus is taboo. Talking about Jesus being the only way is not something accepted. But we learn from Benny Lom that we need to have the courage as a church to be able to make the tackle, to be able to tackle those opportunities that are out there that people know the right way.

Now, Roy Riegels was sitting on the ground dejected and got up and the first half was over with and so Roy and the rest of his teammates went off into the locker room for halftime. And Roy was sitting over in a corner. He had a towel over his head and he was crying. The rest of the teammates were over here kind of separated from Roy and they were all quiet. And if you’ve ever been in a locker room during halftime, the coaches usually have things to say. They’re talking about their strategy for the second half but not this time. The coaches were quiet. The timekeeper came in a little bit later and said, “Hey, halftime’s almost over. It’s time to hit the field.” So the coach said, “Those who started the first half will also start the second half.” And so the teammates all went out onto the field except for Roy. Roy is still over there in that corner with a towel over his head. And the coach said, “Didn’t you hear me, Roy? I said those who started the first half also start the second half.” He said, “Coach, I can’t go out there. I’ve embarrassed you. I’ve embarrassed myself. I can’t face these people.” And the coach said, “ Roy, the game is only half over.” So Roy went out there and the players who were playing with Roy said they had never seen a player play with such fire and vehemency as he did in that second half. Not only that, but Roy later on went to fight in World War II. Then he also coached high school and college football. He also went on to own his own chemical business. And in 1991, he was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame. And he has said that the reason he was able to make these accomplishments is because of Benny Lom making that tackle and because of his coach showing confidence in him.

We want to be known as an effective church who has a heart for the lost and when we look at people who are going the wrong way, we want to be known as people who believe that the game is only half over. Amen.

Copyright 2007 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church