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Get 'On the Ball'
By Dr. Frank Page


    A golfer swung with all of his might, missed the ball, and hit the ground. But, in hitting the ground, he hit an ant hill, killing thousands of ants. He rared back, swung again, missed the ball again, hit the ground again, hit the ant hill again, and killed thousands of more innocent ants. There were two surviving ants. One looked at the other and said, “Come on, we’ve got to get out of here.” The other one said, ‘Where are we going to go?’ The first one said, “If we don’t get on the ball, we’re going to die.”
    There is powerful spiritual application there. That’s the message I’ve been sharing across the whole Southern Baptist Convention. We’d better get ‘on the ball’, or we’re going to die.
    In Luke 13:1-9, Jesus said something similar. The Bible says, At that time, some people came and reported to him about the Galilaeans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. And He responded to them, “Do you think that those Galilaeans were more sinful than all Galilaeans because they suffered these things? No, I tell you, but unless you ‘get on the ball’, you’re going to die. Unless you repent, you too shall all likewise perish. Or, what about those 18 that the Tower of Siloam fell upon and killed? Do you think that they were more sinful than all of the people who live in Jerusalem, because of this, because they suffered this way? No, I tell you, but, unless you ‘get on the ball’, unless you repent, you shall all likewise perish.” So, He told this parable. A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. He came looking for fruit on it and he found none. He told the vineyard worker, “Listen, for three years, I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down. Why should it waste the soil?” The King James says, Why cumbereth it the ground? But he replied to him, Sir, leave it alone again this year also, until I dig around it and fertilize it. Perhaps it will bear fruit next year, but, if not, you can cut it down.
    If you study the parables of Jesus, you’ll recognize that most have stories told to present a powerful biblical truth. We do not know of historical incidents that preceded most of them, but, in this example, Jesus gives two historical happenings, as a background for the parable which He spoke. In this instance, what He does is not only teach us something powerful we need to hear, but He also undoes a commonly held misconception. He debunks the myth that is present even to this day. So he began to say, “Some people have reported to me that some people were killed by Pilate. That was a terrible thing, because they were sacrificing unto the Lord, and Pilate killed them, mixed their blood with the blood of the sacrifices. “Let me ask you a question,” Jesus said. “Were they worse than anybody else, because that happened?” Why did Jesus ask that? Because there was a common philosophy – where there is much suffering, there must have been much sin; where there is much sin, there’s got to be much suffering.
    “Do you think those people were worse than anybody else in Jerusalem because they suffered thus? Let me ask you a second thing,” Jesus said. “What about those folks over there in Siloam? A tower fell on them, 18 of them, killed them. I ask you the question - Were they worse than everybody else that lived in Jerusalem?” Why would He ask that question? Because the people of God believed that, even as far back as Job. What happened to Job? You know that he suffered horribly, and his friends all came to him and said, “Job, we’re your friends. You can tell us. What did you do wrong? Job, we know you did something wrong, because no man suffers like you suffer, unless he did something wrong. We’re your friends. You can confide in us. We know you did something bad. What was it, Job?” Because where there is much suffering, there must have been much sin.
    Jesus’ own disciples believed that. Once, when He healed a man, they said to Jesus, “Master, who did sin, this man or his parents? Somebody must have sinned for him to suffer like that, because we know that, where there is much suffering, there must have been much sin.”
    Do you think people still believe that today? Oh, yes. How many times have I heard, “Pastor, what did I do to deserve this? What did I do to bring this on myself?” We know suffering sometimes does occur because of our sin. Are we not all dealing with the consequences of some sin? Yes, we know this. But is it not also true that there are times when we suffer not because of sin but because of righteousness? Did not Jesus say, “Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you for my name sake”? Did not Jesus suffer because of His righteousness? Suffering comes for many reasons. 
    Not once, but twice, Jesus answered the question and said, “No, they were not worse than anyone else.” So, let’s get rid of that bad thinking. Let’s get rid of that false theology. Let’s get rid of that philosophy that is simply not true. 
    Four months after I was elected President of the Southern Baptist Convention, I was in Charlotte, North Carolina. I’ll never forget it. I’m not good at remembering dates, but I remember October 13. My wife and I were in Charlotte. I had preached in a little church in eastern North Carolina in the town where I was born. We drove back, and I got a phone call from a physician in my church. Ron said, “Frank, I’ve got to talk to you. You know those tests that your daughter Melissa has been having?” I said, ‘Yes, what about those tests that my daughter Melissa has been having?’ He said, “Frank, I’m breaking some medical rules here, because I’m supposed to call her, but I can’t call her, Frank. She has cancer. Your daughter has Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer.” 
    That began six months that I will never forget. When that call came, time stood still, because it’s a daddy’s job to protect his daughters, but I couldn’t protect my daughter from that. But I thank God that I can tell you that she is cancer free, that she is doing well. In fact, she spoke to 800 women at a women’s retreat in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and she gave me the disk of it, and I wept as I heard it, because my little girl could say and did say, “God has done a great work in my life, and I now can thank God I had cancer.” She has come so far. But, not one time in that process did she say to me, “Daddy, why has God done this to me? What did I do, Daddy, to deserve this?” Not one time did she say that. But she could have, because it’s a common philosophy even today, isn’t it? 
    But Jesus said, “No. There’s something else you need to hear. Unless you ‘get on the ball’, you’re going to die.” And he told a parable of the fig tree. Jesus said, “I’ve got to tell you a story, because, not only do you need to get rid of false thinking, you need to understand that there is a sin that I will condemn more than any other.” And, if you study the parables of Jesus, you will find that the sin that He condemned the strongest was not when someone did something wrong, but when they did nothing at all. 
    He speaks about the parable of the fig tree. First of all, he tells us some things about the fig tree. It was a planted tree, not volunteer. It did not come up because a seed fell into the soil somewhere, and it came up. It was planted, meaning it was there for a reason. It was not a child of chance. It was there for a purpose. I believe translating that into our day, God is saying, “I have you where you are for a purpose.” You are not a child of chance. You are not an accident. God has you where you are for a reason. He has a plan for your life. Did the book of Jeremiah not say, “I know the plans I have for you, plans to give you hope and a future, to prosper you, not to harm you”? Did not Jesus say in John Chapter 17, “As the Father hath sent me, so send I you”? Yes, you are to live as a missionary wherever you are, because God has you where you are for a reason with a purpose. But He not only planted that tree. He planted it to bear forth fruit. This tree’s existence was in the producing of figs. It was there to bear forth fruit. Did not Jesus say in John North Dakota has more church buildings per capita than anywhere else in the United States. They’re trying to preserve them, not with churches but turning them into museums, all over the state. That’s not right. That’s not good. Where is the fruit? Many of those churches, over the years, began to substitute what they thought was important for what God said is important. They began to substitute evangelism and missions with other nice things to do. “Let’s just get together and have a good time in the Lord while the lost die and go to hell.”
    The tree was there to bear fruit.
    Examine the results of what happened in this fig tree’s existence.
    The first failure was it was simply useless. It had done nothing wrong. It had done no egregious kind of wrongdoing. It simply was an object of utter uselessness. It was a tragic loss. And I believe the most appalling waste is the complacency of our churches and of many of our members, where they simply don’t care anymore. Perhaps, through the years of sameness, they have developed a self-centeredness. Perhaps, through some tragedy that occurred, they said, “Why did God do this to me? I can’t serve Him anymore.” Perhaps it’s the direct work of the evil one, who steals and destroys the victory in our lives, and we move into a self-centered kind of uselessness. Remember what John Some of you are one tragedy away from being right to this place. Let me tell you how easily it can happen.
    I was in Fort Worth, pastoring for several years, right across the street from Southwestern Seminary, one of the most challenging places to pastor on the face of the earth. It was like pastoring a parade. Do you think it would be good if you got 420 new members in one year? We lost 390. People would come to seminary, and they would all want to go out and preach somewhere. So they would be there a week or two or three, then go find a place to serve, and they’d be gone. So it was not an easy place, but it was a blessed place. I made friends I have to this day. But we were having a revival meeting, and the preacher who was preaching the revival meeting was one of those spitting, slobbering, and hollering preachers. He was preaching on personal evangelism, and he said this: “If you are not verbally sharing your faith, you’re a backslidden Christian.” A female seminary student came to see me the next day. She was mad. She didn’t appreciate that at all. After she visited for awhile, she looked at me and said, “Pastor, you’re not defending me.” I said, ‘No, I’m not.’ She said, “Do you agree with him?” I said, ‘Yes, I do.’ The look was not a nice one that she gave me, but, praise God, the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart. I said, ‘Let me ask you a question. Has God asked you to witness to somebody, and you haven’t done it?’ Oh, the look changed, and she began to weep. After she finished weeping, she said, “Yes, Pastor, that’s exactly what it is. God told me to witness to somebody at work, and I haven’t done it.” 
    Do you see how easily she moved from uselessness to an object of positive hindrance? 
    If you want to find something wrong with the church, you don’t have to look far. We’re a bunch of sinners trying to serve a perfect Savior. If you want to find something wrong with the preacher, look at me. 
    The Bible says uselessness can quickly become a positive hindrance. That, to Jesus, is the crime of all crimes. 
    See with me judgment and grace. 
    The owner came one year, two years, three years, and said, “Where is the fruit upon this tree? I have come looking, and I haven’t found any. Cut it down.” What was the judgment upon that tree, to be cut down and cast out? What do you deserve? I deserve to be cut down and cast out. I know me, and I know what I deserve. The reality of judgment is that we all deserve to be cut down and cast out. We’re all sinners. We’ve all failed to live up to that which God wishes. We’ve all failed to bear the fruit that God wishes us to bear. We have failed so many times. The reality is we deserve to be cut down and cast out. 
    In my church, I have a wonderful staff. One of the staff members is our associate pastor who handles much of the pastoral ministry type work, particularly when I’m gone. He does a lot of funerals, hospitals, visitation. He’s just a wonderful quintessential southern gentleman. He dresses perfectly all of the time. He has a lot more hair than I do. He’s good looking, smooth talking, a southern gentleman. Women love him. He’s always telling them they’ve got a beautiful dress on. One day, a staff member, trying to ‘irritate’ me, said this to me, “Frank, does it bother you that some people in our church like Jimmie Harley better than they like you?” I said, ‘It doesn’t bother me at all, because I like Jimmie Harley better than I like me, too.’ How can I say that? Because I know me, and I know how terrible I am. Cut it down is what we deserve. 
    You need to hear one last thing. There is the reality of grace. There was a vineyard worker who said, “Master, let me give it one more chance. Let me do a little digging around the roots. Let me fertilize it. Just maybe, maybe next year, it will bear forth fruit.” 
    Friends, let me tell you something. That vineyard worker is our Lord Jesus. And He comes with the Father’s mercy, and He says, “I want to give you another opportunity. I want to see things turned around. I want to see churches on fire for Christ. I want to see churches get out of a maintenance mode and win people to Christ. I want to see churches that are plateaued and declining realize that they are not bearing the fruit that God wants them to bear forth, and, instead of just barely hanging on till Jesus comes back, they say, “We are going to take this land for Christ.” 
    The vineyard worker says, “I’m going to do a little working around the roots of their life, and may have to prove some stuff. I’m going to encourage those roots in the disciplining of the ministry of the Lord, and I’m going to fertilize with the precious Word of God. I’m going to give the precious fullness of God’s Holy Spirit, and then they’re going to be able to have another opportunity to do the work of God that I wanted them to do in the first place. Master, let’s give them another chance.” 
    Our Lord Jesus is the prophetically predicted, virgin-born, pure-living, vicariously dying, bodily resurrected, gloriously ascended, presently interceding Son of God, and He sits at the right hand of God the Father right now, saying, “I’m going to give that woman another chance. I’m going to give that man another chance. I’m going to give that church another opportunity. I’m going to give that Convention another chance. Master, let’s give them another opportunity. Don’t be through with them yet, Lord.” That’s the reality of grace. 
    A story is told of a sailing vessel coming across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1800’s. They had gone through some storms, and they had run out of fresh water. They didn’t realize they were approaching the eastern coast of South America. They could not see land yet. But they were almost to die. They had run out of water. They thought they were saved when they spotted another sailing vessel, so they pulled as close as they could, and they hollered out to that other vessel, “Please give us fresh water. We’ve lost our water. We’re out of water. We’re almost to die. Please give us water to drink.” 
    Back came the strangest of replies: ‘Let down your bucket.’ They thought, “There’s got to be a language problem here. We’re in the ocean. Water in the ocean is saltwater.” And they kept asking and begging for water, but they kept getting that strange reply: ‘Let down your bucket.’ This went on for quite some time, till, finally, in exasperation, one of the crew members dipped the bucket down into the water, pulled it up, and, guess what, fresh water. They didn’t realize they were off the coast of South America, where the Amazon River flows into the Atlantic Ocean. The power of the Amazon is so extreme, the volume is so massive, that, for almost 100 miles, the water stays fresh. This ship had been sailing for miles. They had all they needed and didn’t know it. They had water around them to satisfy every thirst, and they were dying. How many churches are dying? They’re surrounded by power, mercy, the forgiveness, and the victory that only God can give. It’s time to let down your buckets into the mercy and forgiveness and the grace and the second and third and fourth opportunity that God gives us. We need to ‘get on the ball’, or we’re going to die. 
    Praise God that Jesus is the vineyard worker. He said in 1 John 2:1, “If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, who is Jesus Christ our Lord. And He comes today to say, “I’m going to give you another chance. I’m going to give you another opportunity.” Let down your buckets into the mercy and the forgiveness of the Lord.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

At the time of this guest column, Dr. Frank Page was Pastor of Taylors First Baptist Church in Taylors, South Carolina and President of the Southern Baptist Convention.
He now serves as Vice President of Evangelization for the North American Mission Board.