YOUR MOVE
WIN SOME, LOSE SOME
DR. JIM DIXON
1 CORINTHIANS 9:19-27
SEPTEMBER 30, 2012
Las Vegas is the largest city in the state of Nevada. It is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world. Some years, Las Vegas actually has 40 to 50 million tourists who visit the city. The town of the Las Vegas was unofficially established in 1855. It was established by Mormons, by Brigham Young, who sent thirty Mormon missionaries to create a settlement there that they might win the Piute Indians to Mormonism. In 1855 there was a Mormon settlement right there in Las Vegas. It did not last. The settlement ultimately failed, and it was abandoned in 1858. The city of Las Vegas wasn’t reestablished until 1905, and then it was established as a railroad town. In 1911 it received its official city charter. The big year for Las Vegas was 1931. Two things happened that enabled the city to just boom. The first was that the state of Nevada declared casino gambling legal. The second thing was that construction began that year on the Hoover Dam, which brought water and power to that region of our country.
Today, Las Vegas is a large city. Two million people live in the greater metropolitan area. I know most of you, when you think of Las Vegas, most of you think of gambling. You think of winning and you think of losing. I think many people view life itself as a gamble. I think many people look at life and they think of winning and losing. Today we are going to focus on winning and losing, but we are going to focus on this subject Biblically. We are going to look first at winning.
There are some arenas in life where God wants us to win. There are some arenas in life where God wants us to experience victory. Let’s look at the subject of winning. The first area where God wants us to win has to do with souls. God wants us to win souls. This is the call of the Great Commission. This is why we go to the nations. This is why we are his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. The Bible tells us souls are lost and Christ has sent us forth with the gospel that souls might be won. This is an area where God wants us to win.
I know that you can understand that as a pastor, I rarely go to Las Vegas. Some years ago, Barb and I did go there. We actually had a great vacation. We went with Bo and Gari Mitchell and Bob and Alison Belz. We really went by Bo’s invitation. Bo and Bob were very much involved with me in starting this ministry, by God’s grace. Bo had gone on to become the head of the Garth Brooks Foundation, which seeks to minister to children across America. The Garth Brooks Foundation was called Touch ‘Em All. It involved many Major League Baseball players. They had all of their gatherings in Las Vegas, huge fundraising events. Because of this, and Bo’s leadership in this, he had connections in Las Vegas and he could get lots of freebies so he invited Barb and me. Wherever there are freebies, pastors tend to go. We said, “Sure.”
We arrived at the Las Vegas airport and Bo had arranged for a limousine to pick us up. It was free, so we get in the limo and almost immediately, as the six of us are in the limo, Bo starts kidding around with the chauffer and talking to the chauffer about Jesus and the Christian faith. He is so winsome that the chauffer was really responsive. It was really kind of cool to see, even in that situation. If you know Bo Mitchell, you are not surprised because you know that Bo has the gift of evangelism and he does it in a very winsome way.
We got to the hotel, which was the Venetian Hotel, where we had free rooms, which was awfully fun. Whether we are talking about the help that worked in the room, or the people behind the desk, or even the manager that we were introduced to, Bo talked to them all about Christ. He was winsome and funny and took a great interest in everybody, but he would always bring it around to talking about the Lord. It was fun to see the way he was able to do that. We went golfing for free at these golf courses, and again, Bo was talking to people about Christ. We went to an evening with Danny Gans, who had the number-one rated Las Vegas show. Tragically Danny Gans has died. He was a Christian man and had this amazing ability to imitate voices, whether it was speaking voices or singing voices. You could close your eyes and he could be anybody. He was so gifted and so talented. He could be Nat King Cole and a moment later he was Natalie Cole. You would believe they were there—he was that good.
That night, as we were with a bunch of people, Bo was talking to folks about Jesus, talking to people about his faith in Christ. We went into the casinos and to a blackjack table and Bo talked to the dealer about Christ. It was amazing to see he and the dealer start laughing and then developing a friendship and the dealer just kind of stopped and listened as Bo said some things about Christ. It was an amazing thing to see. I was thinking of this passage that we have for today in 1 Corinthians chapter nine. Bo kind of reminds me of Paul in that sense. Though I am free from all men, I have made myself a slave to all that by all means I might win the more. To the Jews I have become as a Jew that I might win the Jews. To those under the law I have become as one under the law – though not myself being under the law-that I might win those under the law. To those outside the law, I become as one outside the law – though not being without law towards God, but under the law of Christ- that I might win those outside the law. To the weak I have become weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men that by all means I might win some. I do all for the sake of the gospel.
How about you? Do you have that mindset? Do you have any of that passion in your heart? If you are a follower of Jesus Christ this is part of God’s call—that you might, wherever you go, be connecting with people, loving people, and telling people about our Lord Jesus Christ, that you might win in this area of the gospel, that you might find victories in this area of soul winning. This is certainly God’s will for us.
As I look back on my life, one of my best friends in elementary school, junior high and high school was named Steve Collins. I remember the day that Steve told me that, “Because of you I have accepted Christ and become a Christian.” I remember the joy that I felt, the gratitude to God that He would use me. Steve actually asked Jesus into his heart kneeling in his bedroom. He told me that he had done that right after we had a conversation, right after we talked about Christ. That was the first person that I had ever led to Christ, by the grace of God. Really, only Christ leads people to Christ, but that was my first experience in winning a soul. It was an amazing joy.
When I was a teenager, Billy Graham came to Los Angeles, putting on a Crusade in the L.A. Memorial Coliseum. Because I wanted to have some part in seeing people come to Christ, I decided to volunteer and to go through the training to be a counselor at the Billy Graham crusade. I did that. I remember that night in the L.A. Coliseum, when Billy Graham gave the invitation, and the Coliseum was packed. There were 100,000 people in the Coliseum and about 20,000 people outside the Coliseum where they had loud speakers broadcasting the message. When Billy Graham gave the invitation, it was like the Holy Spirit just descended upon the Coliseum. People rose by the thousands out of their seats and came down to the field to accept Jesus Christ and to ask Christ into their hearts.
I had gone through the training and what we were told to do is when people rose, we were to pick somebody, and follow them, and stand by them down on the field. That was the responsibility of the counselors. When you see a Billy Graham Crusade and you see the people on the field, half of them are accepting Christ and half of them are counselors. So you pick somebody, you follow them down, and you stand next to them. There comes a point when Billy Graham is talking to them and he says, “There is a counselor standing next to you who is going to give you some literature and help you understand the decision you have just made and pray with you.” I had followed a businessman down to the field, even though I was a teenager. I was nervous; I could feel my heart pounding in my chest as I followed this businessman down onto the field. When Billy Graham said, “There is a counselor standing next to you.” The businessman kind of turned around and looked and there I was, this teenager. I was so nervous I had forgotten the literature I was supposed to give him. I had in my heart a longing to see Christ served and to see this man love Christ. We talked and we prayed. He gave me his phone number so I could follow up. It was really exciting to know that this night this man was indeed saved. He gave his soul, he gave his life to Christ. He joined the church and began to walk with Christ. What a miracle. That is a great privilege.
Now, as a pastor of Cherry Hills Community Church, you know at the end of my sermons I give you a chance to accept Christ where you are sitting, and to ask Jesus to come into your heart and to be your Lord and Savior. Some of you have shared with me through the years that you have accepted Jesus into your heart at the end of a worship service. I can’t describe for you the joy that brings. In every Discovery Class, which our new members class, we give an invitation, and it is my privilege to do that. Usually, ten to fifteen percent of our new members accept Christ on that wonderful day. It is at the very heart of what Christ calls us to. He wants us to win in this area. I hope you know that. I hope you have a passion for winning souls.
Gene mentioned earlier the Institute at Cherry Hills with Lee Strobel and Mark Mittelberg. What a powerful ministry we have here through the Institute. We have a great Institute event coming up called “Unpacking Atheism.” Atheism is a huge, growing movement in the United States of America. Atheists are writing more and more books. They are becoming more and more bold, attacking religion in general, attacking the Bible, attacking the claims of Christ. We have reached a point now that one out of every four people under age thirty self-identify as either an Atheist, an Agnostic (someone who believes nothing.) The United States of America is becoming a huge mission field. Young people are dropping out of churches at five to six times the historic rate. There is a crisis in the Church of Jesus Christ in the Western Hemisphere. We are called by God to respond to this crisis.
The Institute is a big part of what God has raised up here for that purpose. “Unpacking Atheism” is October 14th, a Sunday night from 5 until 7. It is going to be broadcast nationally. We really want to encourage you to come out to be part of this. You should all be here. It will help you understand how to share Jesus. We are not wanting to win arguments with Atheists—we love them. We want to see them fall in love with Jesus Christ. We want to help you be a part of that. What an opportunity. Dr. Craig, a professor of philosophy at Talbot Theological Seminary, which is associated with Biola University, is a brilliant man, a man with a great sense of humor. It is going to be a great night. Come and join Lee and Mark and all of us. It should be a wonderful time. This is an area where God wants us to win; he wants us to win souls.
A second area where God wants us to win is with regard to friends. God wants us to win friends. God has made us relational beings. He has created us to be social. It is not good that man should be alone. God has called us to form friendships with our brothers and sisters in Christ. We are also called to form friendships with unbelievers. The evangelism we do is relational evangelism. We get to know and love people and befriend people and out of those friendships we share Jesus. We want to win when it comes to the joy of friendships and having those friendships that make us soul healthy. As we look at Your Move and we look at issues of body and soul, we know that souls are lost and we also know souls are sick. We all need friends. This is part of God’s gift to us that we would win, that we would find victory with regard to making friends. I know that when our kids were young, Barb and I as a mom and dad, would always be talking to Drew and Heather about friends and how you make friends and how you learn to serve other people and how you learn to love other people, and how important it is to get out of yourself and focus on them.
When I was very young, Dale Carnegie was this famous guy who wrote the book “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” I think we have a picture there of Dale Carnegie in his later years. That book was an international best-seller, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” It is not a Christian book, but it has a lot of Christian principles in it. I want to read a couple of quotes to you from Dale Carnegie. The first quote is this: “The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates, I swiped them from Chesterfield, I stole them from Jesus. I put them in a book. If you don’t like their rules, who would you choose?” Then another quote: “I am very fond of strawberries and cream, but I found for some strange reason fish prefer worms. So when I go fishing I don’t think about what I want. I think about what they want. I don’t bait the hook with strawberries and cream, I dangle a worm or a grasshopper.”
There is incredible wisdom in that simple statement. At the heart of it, it has to do both with evangelism and the formation of friendships. You have got to look at the other person and you have to look at their world, and you have to look at what they like, and you have to take an interest in it. You can’t just impose what you like on them. This is part of what Christ teaches us—we can focus on what someone else wants as long as what they want is ethical, and we can relate to them as friends and build friendships. It is the will of God that we win friends. In every Discovery Class, where usually we have 100 or more people joining the church, I always tell them that our prayer is that here at Cherry Hills Community Church they would find friends and that they would make friends that would last their whole lives, and that they would find great friends that would be soul mates, that would have their back in prayer, that they would laugh together and cry together, just true friends.
My prayer would be that not only would folks find those friendships here, but those friendships would be eternal friendships. That is the amazing thing about the community of Christ and being brothers and sisters in Christ. We form friendships in Christ, but these friendships aren’t just life long. They are eternal. When we have been there 10,000 years we will still laughing together, loving each other and being friends because of this great gift from Christ. He wants us to win in the area of friends.
He also wants us to win vocationally. But don’t confuse vocation with career or job. Vocation may or may not have to do with your job or your career. Vocation comes from the Latin vocatio and it means calling from God. Vocation means calling. The early church used this Roman word, this Latin word vocatio to refer to God’s calling. The reformers focused on this as a part of the Protestant Reformation and the Protestant work ethic that we would take seriously God’s calling. Whatever God calls you to do, he wants you to win. It may have to do with your job or your career, if he has called you to that and gifted you. He certainly wants you to use your gifts and find fulfillment through the use of your God-given talents and gifts. A lot of times his vocatio, his call, just has to do with things you volunteer for. He may call you to teach Sunday school. He may call you to sing in the choir. He may call you to go into the inner city and tutor with us. He wants you to win. He wants you to find victory in these ministries and these services wherever he calls you. That is a big part of our heartbeat here at Cherry Hills Community Church. We give you many opportunities to hear his call and hopefully to win.
Certainly, he wants you to win in marriage. I know that we all have different experiences in terms of how we fell in love and our marriages are all different. I just thank God for my marriage, and I thank God for my wife Barb. The truth of the matter is, and some of you know this, that my whole background in terms of courtship, the time in your life when you are dating, was a disaster for me. I was totally inept. By the time I was a junior in college, there were eight of us guys who were close friends, eight of us who were in athletics and sports together. The other seven were all married by our junior year of college. I think that is unusual for folks to be married by their junior year, but my seven best friends were all married. I was the only one who wasn’t. I kind of felt like, “What is wrong with me?” I entered into this dating frenzy in my junior and senior years. This is back when people actually dated. You actually called a young woman up and asked her if she would go out with you. I know now a lot of kids just hang out in groups and do things together, but we would actually date. I decided I would go on two dates every weekend because I was in a dating frenzy. There were lots of opportunities for rejection. Every time you would call somebody it was kind of like giving them a chance to reject you. It happened. I was very good at experiencing that. In those two years, I had all these dates and I struck out. By the end of my senior year I really felt like a loser.
Some of you know the story—about that time I was taking a walk on the beach in Santa Barbara, California. It was wintertime. There was nobody there. It was cold. I was walking by myself and I had kind of a breakdown. It was a God moment. I was walking on the beach, and I started crying. By yourself you can cry. Then I began to pray. I recommitted my life to Christ; I recommitted my life to Jesus. I made a promise to him. I said, “Lord, I will be single the rest of my life if you want me to be single. I can live without a girl, but I can’t live without you. I will go where you want me to go. I will do whatever you want me to do.” So I relinquished my life. It was out of that moment on the beach when God called me into the ministry. I began to have this passion to serve Christ and to do something in the ministry. God called me to seminary and to theology school. It was really while I was in seminary that I met Barb. I knew I couldn’t win a wife. I had proven that countless times, but Barb was just a gift from God. I am so thankful.
I hope you understand that you still have to work at marriage. If you want your marriage to be victorious, if you want your marriage to be a win, you still have to work at it. That is true, particularly for Barb in our marriage; it is a lot of work being married to me. You have got to make the decision that you are going to learn what it means to serve your spouse. You have got to make the commitment. You have got to make the commitment to love. You have got to make the commitment to your marriage. You have got to make the commitment to do all the things necessary to enhance your marriage and to grow your marriage. We have so many different groups and events around here at Cherry Hills Community Church to strengthen marriages. It is your move. God wants you to win in this area, but it is your move and you have got to commit yourself to this.
There are many areas where God wants us to win, but there are some areas where God wants us to lose. We want to take a few minutes before we close to look at a few things God might want you to lose. First of all, there are certain habits that God might want you to lose. Maybe you are habitually involved in lust. Because we are fallen, and because we are sinners, and because we live in a culture that fuels and feeds lust, this is a real problem in America, and the world, and even in the churches of our Lord Jesus Christ. You remember the words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, “You have heard it said of old, ‘thou shall not commit adultery.’ I say to you whoever looks at a woman with lust in his eyes has already committed adultery in his heart.” God looks on the inside. If you are involved in lust, God wants you to lose it. It is your move. He wants you to lose it. You can’t fuel or feed lust. Some people in our culture, and in our congregation, have involvement in pornography. You just can’t go there. It doesn’t matter whether it is on the Internet, it doesn’t matter whether it is film, video, photographs or magazines. You just can’t go there. You have got to lose it. It is your move, it is your decision, it is your choice. “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” God looks at our souls and our hearts and our minds.
You may have an involvement with drugs. It might be prescription drugs. It could be alcohol. God wants transformation and God wants you to lose it. It is your move. We have an incredible ministry here at the church called Celebrate Recovery. Celebrate Recovery meets every Sunday night from 6:00 to 8:00. They meet in the small gym, which is also where we have the Tree House Ministry. It is a great ministry. We have a leadership team under Robert Smith. People just come as they can. The first Sunday night of every month they have a potluck. There are great people and great friendships that are formed. It is not just about alcohol and drugs; it is about hurts, habits, and hang-ups. When we talk about the focus of our Celebrate Recovery, everybody is invited because everybody has hurts, everybody has hang-ups, and I think most of us have some struggle with habits. Here is a ministry that it is your move, but there might be some stuff in your life that God wants you to lose.
Maybe you are struggling with gossip. Maybe you don’t even realize how offensive this is to Jesus. Maybe you sit down over a cup of coffee and you just talk about people. Maybe your gossip borders on slander. Maybe it is entertaining for you. Maybe it is fun for you. The Lord wants you to lose it. It is your move. You realize how seriously the Bible takes this, how important this is to Jesus Christ. If you look at the book of James, the third chapter, the first verse and you see these words:
“Let not many of you become teachers, my brothers and sisters, for you know we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all make many mistakes. If anyone makes no mistakes in what he says, he is a perfect man able to bridle the whole body as well. If we put bits in the mouths of horses that we might control them, we control their whole body. Look also at the ships. Though they are so great and driven by strong wind, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. The tongue also is a little member that boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire? The tongue is afire, an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell. For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind, but no human being can tame the tongue–a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image and likeness of God. From the same mouth, brothers and sisters comes blessing and cursing. It ought not to be so. Can a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh water and brackish? Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives or grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh. Who is wise and understanding amongst you? In the meekness of wisdom let him show forth his goodness.”
This is a passage of scripture that makes it very clear what we do with the tongue can be deadly. We can literally set everything around us on fire with our tongue. This is a scary and very dangerous thing, the use of speech. God is watching. There might be some behavior here where Christ wants you to lose it. There is some stuff there that you need to lose and it is your move.
Maybe you are just struggling with a bad attitude, grumbling, and complaining. Maybe you wake up most days and the glass always seems half empty. People around you notice because you are grumbling and complaining. It grieves Christ who says to give thanks in all circumstances, who calls us to rejoice always, who says, “Whatever is good and lovely, think on these things,” and who warns us about grumbling and complaining. You look at a passage like 1 Corinthians chapter 10, starting with verse 1 and you see these words:
“I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and they all passed through the sea, and they were all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and they all ate the same supernatural food, they all ate manna from heaven, and they all drank the same supernatural drink. For they drank from the supernatural Rock which followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased; for they were overthrown in the wilderness. All these things happened to them as a warning to us, not to desire evil as they did. We must not be idolaters as some of them were, for it is written, ‘The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to dance.’ We must not engage in immorality as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. Nor put the Lord to the test, as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents; nor grumble or complain, as some of them did and were destroyed by the Destroyer. All these things happened to them as a warning, but they were written down for our instruction, upon whom the end of the ages has come. Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.”
Here is a warning of many things, but grumbling and complaining is a part of the warning. The Greek word is gogguzomai. which is onomatopoeic. It kind of sounds like grumbling and complaining. Christ is saying, “If that is part of your stuff, lose it. It is your move.” It is your move, but he really cares. An attitude that involves joy and gratitude is a choice. It is a choice you have got to make every single day.
Maybe what he wants you to lose is a few pounds. As we look at issues of body and soul, as we look at your move, maybe what he wants you to lose is a few pounds. Maybe he wants you to change your diet, the amount you eat, and maybe the type of food you eat. He wants you to know that your body, as a Christian, is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you. You are to glorify God in your body.
When I married Barb, I weighed 210 pounds. In all humility … it was all muscle. I was in good shape. I had competed in track and field in college and afterwards with the Southern California Striders. I was a trim 210. Then our first year of marriage, I relaxed. The battle was won. I had my life partner so I could relax. I let it go a bit. I am a big UCLA fan because my dad went to UCLA My brothers and I were all UCLA fans. We went to UCLA games. When Barb and I were first married it was the John Wooden era of UCLA basketball. The away games were always on TV in L.A. on a delayed tape basis at like ten o’clock in the evening. Dick Enberg was the announcer for all of those UCLA basketball games. I would stay up in this first year of our marriage. Barb was lovingly tolerant.
I would stay up at ten o’clock to see the UCLA game and I would watch the game and I would eat these cherry turnovers. I think they were Pepperidge Farm cherry turnovers. They were frozen and you would slip them in the oven and they would just puff up real nice and hot. I would sit down with a big glass of milk and it was easy to gain 40 pounds. In that first year of marriage I went from 210 to 250. I didn’t even realize it. It was incremental, the frog in the kettle. We took a trip to Europe with my brothers and their wives and my mom and dad. We were going to places and some little towns in France. There are little streets. We took a lot of pictures. We are back home and I am looking at the pictures as I am walking down these narrow streets and it literally looks like I am hitting both walls. I am just huge. I realized it was my move. I made the decision to shut my cake hole, eat less, and eat better, and lose weight. But it is your move.
Later, when Barb was pregnant with Heather, our first child, I had some kind of a sympathetic reaction, as Barb was pregnant with Heather. I don’t mean I began to look pregnant. My blood pressure rose. I felt like I was wearing a hat, but I didn’t have a hat on. I went to the doctor and my blood pressure was 180 over 120. He said, “You need to start jogging.” Once Heather was born, my blood pressure went back to normal. I made the decision, it was my move, to start jogging. I jogged six days a week for 35 years. I jogged six miles a day most days. I jogged six minutes per mile. So six, six, six, not a good number. I went six days a week, six miles a day, and six minutes a mile for at least the middle part of those 35 years.
I was neurotic. I was really kind of driven. I would jog on the Highline Canal with the mile markers there. If I came to the five-mile mark and I was at 30 minutes, which is six minutes per mile, I knew I was running 30 seconds too slow and so I would run the sixth mile in five and a half minutes. I would finish on pace, right at 36 minutes. I would run the last mile in five and a half minutes and I would throw up. I was that sick. That is neurotic, right? That is kind of driven.
In the last fifteen years I felt like the Lord said to me, “I want you to enjoy this. Slow it down. Look at the creation. Look at what I have made. Think about some of the scripture you have memorized. Enjoy it.” So I did. The last fifteen years (I jogged until I was 59) were just a gift from God. I miss that jogging so much. Because of my hip replacement I can’t jog. I do the elliptical machine. It is your move. Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you. Glorify God in your body.
There is some stuff in your life you might need to lose. It might have to do with a habit; it might have to do with an addiction. It might have to do with gossip. It might have to do with attitude, grumbling, and complaining. It could just be a matter of diet and exercise. There are things God wants us to change. Win some. Lose some. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.