Behold, He Comes with a B-HAG
John 1:29-42 January 16, 2005
The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”
Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. I would not have known him, except that the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God.”
The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. When he saw Jesus passing by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!”
When the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. Turning around, Jesus saw them following and asked, “What do you want?”
They said, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?”
“Come,” he replied, “and you will see.”
So they went and saw where he was staying, and spent that day with him. It was about the tenth hour.
Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, was one of the two who heard what John had said and who had followed Jesus. The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, “We have found the Messiah” (that is, the Christ). And he brought him to Jesus.
Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which, when translated, is Peter).
CCI: God invites us to accept His love and His goals and God will with the goals also provide guidance and direction to achieve His goals.
Several months ago I was introduced to a creature that most of you have met at one time or another. It can be very frightening creature, or it can be something that gets your adrenaline flowing. This creature appears at very strange times. At times it shows up when we are in the thralls of success and other times arises out of the rubble of failure or disaster. This creature has a life expectancy that ranges from minutes to millennia. As soon as you think you have tamed it, it will grow even bigger and wilder. People who live closely with this creature are constantly growing and changing; life for them is an adventure that is filled with excitement and new discoveries. People who ignore it often plod through life without any direction. This creature, when God establishes it, will transform lives, and families, and institutions, and societies, and nations and even the entire world. This creature is known as a B-HAG. How many of you have ever encountered a B-HAG in your life? Have any of you ever tried to tame one? Have you ever lived with one? (Wives, be careful.)
I would suggest that a B-HAG is one of the most powerful forces in the world, if we are willing to welcome it in our lives. What is it? A B-HAG is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. And our Scripture texts this morning are full of B-HAG’s. Some of them are obvious, some hide behind simple statements and others are truly mind-boggling. I believe that the way we choose to respond to the B-HAG’s in scripture will determine the success or failure of our Christian lives. I want us to look at three B-HAG’s this morning. The scriptures commend these big hairy audacious goals to each of us, but even more, these are patterns that can give us a glimpse into God’s call for each of our lives.
John introduces us to the first big hairy audacious goal. As he was preaching and baptizing by the Jordan Jesus came by. Suddenly John looked up and declared, “Behold the Lamb of God!” To call Jesus the Lamb of God was to set a huge goal for Christ. The expression tells us that Jesus’ life was totally committed to God. As the Lamb of God, he followed the shepherd without question. That Jesus would be the Lamb of God was a huge goal for anyone to take up. But a B-HAG is not content to be a big goal, it is an audacious goal and the audacious goal that Jesus accepted was the goal of being the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Jesus accepted this goal and lived his life seeking to fulfill it.
And when Jesus chose to live with this goal, he entered a ministry and called others to join him. “Follow me,” Jesus said. First he extended the invitation to Andrew and a friend, “Come and see what this is about.” And these two dropped what they were doing and followed Jesus. To follow Jesus is to accept a big hairy goal. It means to change what you value, it means to change your direction, and it means to change your goals. When Andrew chose to follow Jesus, that is what he did, he made dramatic changes. But Jesus was not satisfied with his followers accepting a big goal, and so he invited them to reach out to others. And Andrew immediately went to his brother and brought him to Jesus. You see, to follow Jesus is a great goal, but to follow Jesus means we will accept the further goal of bringing others to him. “Come and see, we have found the Messiah.” To be a disciple of Jesus is a B-HAG, a big hairy audacious goal. Will you live with this goal?
Let’s look at one other B-HAG from this morning’s scripture. The servant of God in Isaiah 49 was given a big goal. He was “To raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel.” Israel had been sent into exile. They had been torn from their homes, they had been dropped in a new land, and they had reestablished their lives. Things were beginning to go well. But now they were being offered the chance to go home. The servant in this passage was given the goal of encouraging this people to leave their new homes and return to the land of their parents. He was to work to restore the nation. That is a big goal. The prophet accepted this goal and began working toward it. He was encouraging the exiles with words like “Your warfare has ended and your iniquity has been paid for.” He shouted on the streets, “All who are thirsty, come, if you do not have any money come and eat and drink what is good.” His job was enormous! This task was a big hairy goal. But God had even more in mind! Listen again to God’s words, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth." That is a B-HAG, Don’t just restore the nation, Let your light shine for the whole world.
The goals we set and the goals we strive for make all the difference in the world. Matt Emmons discovered that during the 2004 Olympics. Matt had the gold medal in sight. He was one shot away from claiming victory in the 50-meter three-position rifle event. He didn't even need a bull's-eye to win. His final shot merely needed to be on target.
So he aimed and fired. Normally, the shot he made would have received a score of 8.1, more than enough for a gold medal. But in what was described as "an extremely rare mistake in elite competition," Emmons fired at the wrong target. Standing in lane two, he fired at the target in lane three. His score for a good shot at the wrong target?—0. Instead of a medal, Emmons ended up in eighth place.
David Mordkoff, "American Emmons Misses Out. . .," www.Sports.Yahoo.com (8-22- 04)
It doesn’tmatter how big goal is, and it doesn't matter how accurate you are if you are aiming at the wrong goal. The only goals that will lead to victory are the goals that God establishes in our lives and those goals are always B-HAG’s.
CS Lewis said, “Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.” We settle for far too little.
She was born prematurely on June 23, 1940 in St. Bethlehem, Tenn. She weighed 4 1/2 pounds, the 20th of 22 children. The bulk of her childhood was spent in bed. She suffered from double pneumonia, scarlet fever and later she contacted polio. After losing the use of her left leg, she was fitted with metal leg braces when she as 6. Later in her life she said, “I spent most of my time trying to figure out how to get the braces off," but when you come from a large, wonderful family, there's always a way to achieve your goals."
And achieve she did. She was determined to be a "normal kid" and despite whooping cough, measles and chicken pox, she was out of her leg braces at age 9 and soon became a budding basketball star.
Then, at age 16 she won a bronze medal running the Olympic and in 1960 she won 3 gold medals. She had set a big hairy goal, but having achieved that, God was not finished with Wilma Rudolf.
Wilma believed that God had an audacious goal for her, a greater purpose than to simply win three gold medals. She said her greatest accomplishment was creating the Wilma Rudolph Foundation, a not-for-profit, community-based amateur sports program to help children learn about discipline and hard work. Though Wilma died of brain cancer at age 54 in Nashville, her passion for children has continued to touch the world. And her extraordinary calm and grace are what people remember most about her.
Wilma Rudolf, a premature, sick child, lived with a B-HAG that transformed her life and the lives of thousands of others.
What are the goals you have set in your life? Would God say concerning your goal, “It is too small a thing for you?” Have you considered the challenges that come through the scriptures? Jesus challenges us to “Come and see” what he has for us. We are challenged to make disciples, not just of our family or even of our neighbors, but we are challenged to make disciples of all nations. We are challenged to love one another as Christ has loved us. We are challenged to forgive as we have been forgiven. Jesus challenges us to be perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. The prophet challenges us to let justice pour out of our lives like floodwaters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream. These are Big hairy audacious goals. Will you choose today to live with a B-HAG? Will you say “Yes” when Jesus invites you to come and see what he has for you? If so, I will guarantee that your life will never again be the same. It is too small a thing for you to do what you can, it is time to accept a B-HAG from God and let God change your life and do more through you than you ever thought possible.
