“I HOPE YOU WIN”What God Hopes For You

January 24, 2016Cornerstone Community Church

I have always hated losing. I don’t merely mind losing – I genuinely hate losing. It’s not that I’m a baby about losing, or that I pout every time I lose at something. I pick my pouts. I only pout when I lose at something that really matters to me, like basketball and arguments with my wife. Oh, I suppose I’ve pouted a couple of times when my favorite football or baseball or basketball or hockey team lost, and maybe I pout when I lose to my wife in an argument, but other than that I’m really quite a gracious loser.

But I’m not the only one who cares about winning and losing. God cares. The truth is, I serve a God who says to me, “Craig, I hope you win.” If you don’t believe me, you can look it up. The Bible actually talks a fair bit about winning and losing. But I’ve got to be honest. There are some times when God hates for me to lose, and other times when he says that losing is good for me. For example, God hates for me to lose my temper. Proverbs 16:32 says, “Better a patient man than a warrior, a man who controls his temper than one who takes a city.” If I win the battle but lose my temper, God says I’m a loser. God is also grieved when I lose heart. Time after time after time throughout the Bible God challenges his people not to be discouraged and not to lose heart. God does not want me to lose my temper and he does not want me to lose heart.

But curiously, God does want me to lose my life. Do you remember the words of Jesus? They are at first glance odd, puzzling, even disturbing words, and yet we intuitively know exactly what Jesus means. Here’s what Jesus said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” (Luke 9:23-24) If we really want to win in life, Jesus says, we have to lose first. We have to lose our life by giving ourselves to Jesus totally and without reservation. And while it sounds like Jesus is talking nonsense, we really do understand what he means. We understand, for example, that the only way we really win at love and marriage is when we give ourselves to our spouse totally and without reservation. It is a sure recipe for marital failure to tell yourself that marriage is a 50-50 proposition. Marriage only really works when you give yourself 100% to your partner, when you lose your life out of love for the other person. And Jesus says that’s how life works. The only way to really win is to lose our life out of love for him, to devote ourselves to him totally and without reservation.

So if you tell me, “Craig, losing isn’t always bad,” I will have to agree with you. And yet I’ve got to tell you that when I crawl up into my Heavenly Father’s lap and ask him what he hopes for me, this is what I hear him say: “Craig, I hope you win.” So far in this series we have discovered some of what God hopes for us. We have discovered

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that when we have a chance to sit it out or dance, God hopes we dance. God hopes we use the enormous gifts he has given us and the numerous opportunities he gives us every week to make a significant impact on the people in our lives. We have discovered that when given the opportunity to hate or given the opportunity to look away, God hopes we love. We have discovered that God hopes we dream – to dream about what we can ask God to do, to dream about what we can become, and to dream about what we can contribute. And this week we will discover that in certain critical respects, God hopes we win. Let me show you from God’s own Word just what I mean.

God Hopes You Win Respect

Let me see if you can guess the first thing God hopes you win by referring to an old song. Let me warn you that by guessing the name of this song you will reveal your true age to those sitting around you. First clue – the artist is Aretha Franklin. Second clue – the chorus contains these immortal words: “Can you dig it, can you dig it, can you dig it, can you dig it.” Third clue – the artist even spells out the title of the song for us while singing the song. You’ve got it – “Respect.” And that’s what God hopes you win. God hopes you win respect.

In 1 Thessalonians Paul writes these words to the Christian church in Thessalonica: “Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody.” (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12) Did you know that God cares what other people think of you? I can understand that. I care about what people think of my children. I want people to respect my children. I want them to live in such a way that people who know them will genuinely respect their work ethic and their integrity and their character.

God hopes that you live your life in such a way that you win people’s respect. God hopes you conduct yourself at work in such a way that your boss and your coworkers and your clients respect you. God hopes you conduct yourself around the neighborhood in such a way that your neighbors genuinely respect you

In a later letter to the church at Ephesus Paul gave some similar instructions about winning respect. Paul wrote: “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men.” (Ephesians 6:5-7) Now I am aware that none of you here are slaves. Oh, I understand, some of you kids probably feel like slaves, especially during summer when you make the mistake of telling your mother that you’re bored, and she comes up with a list of 100 chores you can do so you aren’t bored any more.

But we all work for someone. We all have someone we report to, someone we are accountable to for our time and our efforts. And God says, “I hope you win their respect. I hope you work as hard for them as you would if I was standing there watching you.”

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Think about that for a moment. Would that make any difference in how you did your job? Would the way you use your time be any different if Jesus was physically looking over your shoulder while you were working? “Craig, what are you doing?” “Well, Lord, I’m just playing Solitaire. It’s a game.” “Aren’t you supposed to be working right now?” “I’m just taking a little mental break, Lord. Everyone needs a break.” “What are you doing now Craig?” “I’m just going to run over to the donut shop to get a cinnamon roll. I just need a little energy boost, and then I’ll get back to work.” “Craig, now what is that you’re doing on the computer?” “Well, Lord, it’s too hard to write while I eat my cinnamon roll, so I’m just reading some sports on the Internet while I eat. This will just be a few minutes. I just have to check Sports Illustrated and Fox Sports and ESPN and the Mercury News and the Chronicle to make sure I haven’t missed any important sports news, and then I’ll get back to work.” “Craig, who are you calling?” “Well I just thought I’d call my friend to say hi and to see if he read this article I just saw online about the Warriors. That’s work, isn’t it Lord? After all, I am his pastor.” “Craig, is that what you’re supposed to be working on now, or are you supposed to be writing a sermon?” “You know, Lord, you’re really starting to bug me. Maybe it would be best if you waited downstairs. I can’t seem to get anything done with you looking over my shoulder.”

So how about you? Would you change anything about how you do your job if Jesus were looking over your shoulder? Paul says that’s exactly how we should do our jobs if we want to win the respect of the people for whom we work. Here’s how Paul phrases it in a companion letter to the letter to the Ephesians: “Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men.” (Colossians 3:23) That pretty much covers the bases, doesn’t it? In whatever you do, do your best. Do your best at school, as though the Lord is your teacher and not Mr. Grumpypants. Do your best at the gym, as though the Lord is your personal trainer and not Mr. Gruntsalot. Do your best on the practice field, as though the Lord is your coach and not Mr. Runharder. Do your best at home, as though the Lord is your spouse and not Mr. Toobusytohelp.

And when we live that way, we will win the respect God hopes we win. A number of years ago my son was playing his first year of organized football. Ryan’s coach was unlike any coach he had ever had, an extremely hard-nosed, rough and tumble sort of coach. He was a very good coach, but he’s just wasn’t a coach you messed with. At the end of one of the practices the coach gathered all of the players and the parents together to talk about the practice schedule. He was going to schedule some practices on Sunday mornings so families could have Sunday afternoons together, and he wanted to know if anyone had any problems with that. Ryan raised his hand. He had church on Sunday mornings. But no one else said anything, so coach said we’ll practice Sunday mornings. I looked around at a number of the parents I knew said they went to church, but no one said anything, so I jumped in. I gave a little speech about the value of going

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to church, and I let the coach know I thought it was wrong to schedule practice on Sunday morning when he could schedule it any time he wanted to.

The coach didn’t appreciate my comments. He agreed not to practice on Sunday morning, but he was unhappy about it and he let me know in no uncertain terms he was unhappy about it. And once I calmed down, here’s the thought that occurred to me: “Oh, no. I just blew any chance my son has of playing a down on this team.” And sure enough, when the season started, Ryan only played the minimum number of plays and that was it.

I thought about talking to the coach about the issue. But I decided not to. I decided to let my son handle it. And do you know what? He did. Oh, he didn’t say a word to the coach. He just outhustled everybody on that team. I remember watching one practice and seeing Ryan make one tackle after another against the first team offense. I heard the coach yell, “Who is that making all those tackles?” Ryan said, “It’s Ryan Selness, sir.” Then the coach turned to the offense and yelled, “How come you guys are letting Selness make all these tackles? What’s the matter with you?”

When the season ended, Ryan was playing first team offense, first team defense, and was on every one of the special teams. He won that coach’s respect without saying a word. He did it just like Paul said to do it, by working at it with all his heart.

That, by the way, is how the Bible tells those of you who find yourselves married to unbelievers to win the respect of your spouse for your faith. 1 Peter 3:1-2 says, “Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.” Win them over not by your convincing arguments. Win them over not by your witty remarks. Win them over not by nagging. Win them over without a word by your purity and your reverence. God says, “I hope you win respect.”

God Hopes You Win Recruits

Let me show you something else God hopes we win. Here is a verse my kids have heard me quote many times. To be honest, I usually quote it out of context. By the way, have you ever done that with a quote? You either took it out of context, or maybe you said it just a little bit wrong? Here, for example, is a quote my Mom shared with me once upon a time: “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him go down the slide.” I’m sure if you think about that long enough it will mean something, but it’s not quite the same meaning as the original quote intended.

Here’s the verse I quote to my family: “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize.” (1 Corinthians 9:24) I would quote that verse when my son had a game to play or my youngest daughter was competing in gymnastics or my oldest daughter was taking a test. My point to them was to do their best, to not settle for doing OK, to not settle for being

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part of the crowd, to stand out and finish in front. But I have a confession to make. That’s not at all what that verse means in its context. Oh, I’ll still use it my way too with my grandkids. But let me tell you what the verse really means.

Let me back up a few verses so we get the context of the verse. There’s an old saying we learned in seminary that a text without a context is a pretext. Here’s the context. Paul is writing to a church in the city of Corinth, Greece. Corinth was very much like the modern city of San Francisco – a port city that was very cosmopolitan, very diverse and very sophisticated. And in the ninth chapter of this letter Paul shares with these Christians his strategy for winning new recruits to the Christian faith. He says:

Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jew. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some.

1 Corinthians 9:19-22

When Paul says in verse 24 that we should run to win, he’s not talking about winning the 100 meter dash or the Miss America pageant or the race for president. He’s talking about winning recruits, about winning people over to the Christian faith. Let me give you a loose translation of those verses I just read to help us get a better handle on Paul’s point.

To my friends who are interested in sports, I will try to connect with them through my interest in sports and look for ways to bridge our interest in sports to my faith in Jesus Christ. To my friends who could care less about sports, I will submerge my interest in sports and make the effort to become interested in the things that interest them so that I can win them as recruits for Jesus. To my friends who are Raider fans – well, let’s leave them out of this. To my Republican friends, I will try to see things from their perspective and to listen to them so that I can find ways to connect with them and introduce them to Jesus. To my Democratic friends, I will try to see things from their perspective and look for ways to connect with them. Rather than alienate people over things that are less important – like sports or politics or stocks or nationality – I will make every effort to get into the interests and preferences and passions of my friends so that I can better connect with them and better build bridges between my friends and Jesus.

When God says to you and me, “I hope you win,” here’s a large part of what he means – “I hope you win recruits.” Let me tell you something about yourself that you probably didn’t know, you who are followers of Jesus. Did you know that you are a priest? Yes, that’s right, a priest. In a number of places, including Revelation 1 and 1 Peter 2 the Bible says that we who are followers of Jesus are priests. Now don’t worry.

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That doesn’t mean you can’t get married, like a Catholic priest, or that you have to wear a collar. Nor does it mean you get to take the parking spots at the hospital that say “Clergy Parking Only.”

To be a priest means that you have a privilege and a responsibility. The privilege is this. As a priest you get direct access to God. You don’t need to go through anyone else to get an audience with the Creator of the universe. You don’t need someone’s permission. You don’t need an introduction. You don’t need a modem or cable or anything else. You have direct access to God, anytime and anyplace.

That’s the privilege. But there’s also a responsibility. In Latin the word “priest” means “bridge builder.” A priest is a go-between, or a mediator. As priests, the Bible tells us, it is our responsibility to build bridges between our friends and our God. It is not our job to force our friends to cross the bridge, or to trick our friends into crossing the bridge, or to manipulate our friends into crossing the bridge. But it is our job to build the bridge so our friends who are lost without God can cross that bridge and enter into a relationship with the God who loves them.

And bridges aren’t built by accident. Bridges don’t just happen. The most photographed bridge in the world is the Golden Gate Bridge. It took six years of around-the-clock work to build that bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge, which was completed in 1937, is the third longest suspension bridge in the world, with a main span of 4,200 feet and a length of 9,266 feet. The bridge is held up by cables. Each cable is 36 and ½ inches around. And do you know how many wires are in each cable? There are 27,572 wires, each one fifth of an inch in diameter, in each cable. The Golden Gate Bridge didn’t just happen.

God calls us as his followers to be bridge-builders. He calls us to build bridges so that people who are lost can find their way home to the God who loves them with all his heart. Paul uses the term “win.” He said he would do anything to win lost people back to God. And God says, “I hope you win. When it comes to rescuing lost people and leading them home, I hope you win.”

The U.S.S Indianapolis sailed out underneath the Golden Gate Bridge on July 16, 1945. Unknown to all but two of the over 1,200 hundred sailors and Marines on board, the U.S.S. Indianapolis was carrying the most important piece of equipment of all of World War 2 – the first atomic bomb, nicknamed “Little Boy.” After offloading the bomb at Guam, the Indianapolis set sail for a short training mission before it was to join the rest of the U.S. fleet as it prepared for the invasion of Japan. But shortly after midnight on July 30, 1945, tragedy struck. A Japanese submarine struck the Indianapolis with two torpedoes, immediately killing 300 sailors and sinking the mammoth ship in only 12 minutes. There was no time to lower any lifeboats. The only thing keeping afloat most of the over 900 American men who survived the attack were the life jackets they managed to grab as they abandoned ship.

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Before abandoning ship, the captain was able to get off two distress messages. But through a series of mistakes, no one paid any attention to them. And through another series of mistakes, no one in the Navy noticed that the ship was missing. Without even realizing how dire their situation was, those 900 sailors were truly lost at sea.

It was four and a half days before a low-flying U.S. airplane accidentally discovered the stricken sailors. By that time nearly 600 of the 900 men who had made it alive into the ocean had died. Nearly 200 of them had been eaten by sharks. Others died from drinking the salt water. Most of the men were covered with oil from the sinking ship, and the combination of the oil and the salt water and the burning hot sun did them in. Others died from dehydration.

And many of the men simply gave up or committed suicide. The men watched numerous American planes fly overhead. At first those planes gave them hope. But when they realized that the planes were not looking for them and could not see them, when it dawned on them that no one even knew that they were lost, they simply took off their life vests and sank to the bottom of the ocean.

By the time help came, the remaining 317 survivors were spread out in a variety of groups over a number of miles, having been carried by the current a very long ways from where their ship had been sunk. Marine Private Giles McCoy was in one of the smallest groups, a group of only five survivors. McCoy and his companions could see the rescue planes and boats picking up other survivors miles away. But no one, it seemed, could see them. Here’s how the story reads: “As the day wore on, the planes got smaller and smaller in the sky. And then they disappeared. Gone. No one was coming. No one. McCoy and Brundige assumed their burial position and started to weep.”

Then, just before dusk, they heard another plane. They had been disappointed so many times they didn’t even bother to look at first, but when McCoy did look he could actually see the pilot pointing down at him. The plane flew away, but not long afterwards a small boat came roaring up to them. Strong hands leaned over the boat to lift McCoy and his four shipmates out of the water. And here were McCoy’s words: “I can’t believe you found us! You found us! You found us! I can’t believe you found us!”

God has given you and me the privilege and the responsibility of finding and rescuing lost people. I read the story of the U.S.S. Indianapolis and I think, “How tragic that 900 men were lost at sea, dying by the hundreds, and no one was even looking for them.” In our city 94% of our population doesn’t go to church. And God says, “Go look for them! They’re lost! They need to be rescued! I sent my Son Jesus to die for them; now go out and tell them.” When it comes to the matter of rescuing lost people, God says, “I hope you win.”

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