Finders Weepers,
Losers Keepers
Dr. Dennis Corle
Dr. Corle is the Editor and Publisher of Revival Fires
“And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” (Matthew 10:38-39)
You’ve heard it all your life, the old adage, the childish statement that’s made -- finders keepers, losers weepers. That’s in direct conflict with what this text in the Bible says. God said that the finders, those that find their life and find their desire and find their own will are going to lose it and weep in the end. But those who give up their own will and get lost in the cause of Jesus Christ find true happiness and find their life in the end. We’re familiar with it, but that statement -- finders keepers, losers weepers -- is contradictory to the Bible. God said just the opposite, Finders Weepers, Losers Keepers.
To find your life is to fulfill your own ambition and to accomplish your will. That’s what it means for me to find my life. It is for me to accomplish my own will and me to have my own ambition fulfilled in my life. We live in an ambitious generation of people. We give people the idea that I ought to have all these ambitions and goals of success.
The truth is God never intended for us to be ambitious. When you find ambition in the Bible it’s a self-seeking thing. Ambition has to do with me performing my will and getting what I want, exalting myself and finding my place. What God wants me to do is get lost in the program of God. He wants me to lose my will in His will. He wants me to lose my program in His program. He wants me to get so wrapped up in His purpose that I just kind of lose track of mine. To find your life is to fulfill your own ambition and to accomplish your will.
The word find indicates a search. In Luke 15 we have the lost and found chapter of the Bible. You find three cases where something that was lost was found. In at least two of those cases there is a strong indication that there was a search. The Bible tells us about the woman who lost her coin. That was the one thing that she had on her person that if she was put away she could take with her. That was big stuff. That was all that she truly owned. It was that dowry that she had. It was important for her to find that coin. The Bible says that she swept the house. She went through every area. She was in search. She found the coin.
The Bible says that the shepherd went out and searched for the lost sheep until he found it. He found what he was searching for. Now in both cases it was something worthwhile finding, but it was not an ambitious thing. It was to meet a need. The picture in Luke 15 is a picture of soulwinning, you and I being in search of the souls of men, you and I being in pursuit of lost sinners, us seeking to find that which is lost.
The indication is if you’re lost, you don’t know where you are. If you don’t know where you are, it’s going to be mighty hard for you to find your way back. Somebody is going to have to be in search of you and find you if you are lost. That’s how God describes a sinner outside of Jesus Christ. He said that man is lost. He doesn’t know where he is. He doesn’t know how dangerous this territory is. He does not know the trouble he’s in. He does not know how to get back. Somebody has got to get in search of him and find him.
The truth is God said that I’m not supposed to be in search of my own happiness, in search of my own ambition, in search of my own will, in search of my own program. I am to be in search of the souls of lost men who do not know where they are, to get them to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me show you the other side of this thing. To lose something does not mean to discard it. The Bible says, “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” He doesn’t mean I throw my life away for His sake. When you lose something, it does not indicate that you threw it away or you discarded it. There is a vast difference between losing something and throwing it away. In my lifetime I’ve lost a lot of things. I’ve lost watches and keys. I didn’t throw them away. I just lost them. God said that I’m supposed to lose my life and He said that if I lose it in His will, I’ll find it. If I lose it in cross bearing, I will find it. If I lose it in pursuit of the souls of men, I will find it. God will see to it that it is still safe and intact.
A gambler may lose everything he has, but can I tell you something? He doesn’t throw it away. He’s there to get more, but instead while he is so consumed with getting more, he loses what he already has. The very thing that he is after he loses. When you talk about losing something, you don’t mean just throwing it away or discarding it or not thinking it’s important or valuable. That’s not what God is talking about. God wants me to understand that I am to lose what I have.
When I was about 12 years old, I was hunting in Pennsylvania. That was the first year I hunted. I crippled a deer. I shot it and didn’t kill it on the spot, so I started tracking that deer. There was no snow on the ground and I was up in the mountains. I was in search of that deer. I got on the blood trail. I started tracking that deer and I went a long way. All of a sudden it dawned on me that I had no idea where I was. I was lost. I wasn’t trying to get lost. I was consumed with finding that deer. My whole mind was just totally consumed with finding this deer. All my concentration and all my efforts and all my energy was directed toward that one goal of finding that deer. I got so wrapped up in finding that deer, I lost myself.
Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if you and I got that consumed with the plan of God? Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if our concentration was so firm on the will of God and our pursuit was so hot after the will of God that we just lost ourselves in His will? That’s what He’s talking about in our text. He wants us, not to throw our lives away, but just kind of lose them because we’re so preoccupied with His plan and His will and His program and His goals, that ours just get lost in the shuffle. The truth is that doesn’t happen to many folks and we don’t have a lot of folks that know much about cross bearing and losing themselves in the will and program of God.
We need to get lost, not in just any cause, but in the cause of Christ. Lost in a cause is what you and I are supposed to be, but most of us are lost in our ambition. We lost our Christianity in our ambition instead of losing our ambition in our Christianity. We’ve got the cart before the horse. We squeeze God into the schedule and we’re consumed with something else. Our lives revolve around something else. Our concentration is on something else. Our hot pursuit is of something else. We’re losing the most valuable things because we’re too wrapped up in lesser things. God said, “I want you to get so involved in these things of mine, that you just lose track of the other things that maybe are not evil and wicked, but are not going to promote My cause. I want you to get so wrapped up in what’s eternal that you just lose track of what is temporary.”
Jesus in the garden was lost in the cause. He said, “...let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39) He said, “I don’t really look forward to becoming sin for everybody, but there is something greater than what I desire. I don’t relish the thought, for the first time in eternity, being separated from My Father, not even for a short period of time. I don’t relish suffering the agonies of Hell.” He said, “...not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42) Why did He say that? Because He was consumed in the cause of saving sinners and He knew if He did not become sin for us there could be no salvation. He knew that if He didn’t pay the price of our sin on Calvary, that every last one of us would have to perish eternally in hellfire. He got so wrapped up in the will of the Father to save sinners that He lost His own will in it. He said, “...not my will, but thine, be done.”
You ought to lose your ambition in His program. You need to lose your will in His. You need to lose your dreams for His program. You need to lose your plans in His and lose your life in His.
We need to lose our program for happiness. You will never find happiness searching for happiness. Happiness is lost in the search because it becomes the object. When happiness becomes the object of my life, I will never find it. But when the program of God and will of God becomes the object and I lose my plan for happiness and I stop pursuing happiness and pursue the will of God instead, God said that He’d see to it that I’d stumble over happiness in the path of obedience. God wants me to get to the place where I trust Him with those things.
That’s what Brother Hyles was talking about years ago when he told about that woman that came to his office and said, “I’m about ready to have a nervous breakdown. What do I do?”
He said, “I want you to bake some cookies on Monday and take them down here and give them to some deaf folks. Then I want you to go ahead and bake a cake and take it down to some blind people and eat it with them. Then the next day I want you to go ahead and get some roses and go to the hospital during visiting hours and everybody that doesn’t have a visitor go in and put a rose in a glass there and talk to them and pray with them.” The reason she was like this is because she was searching for peace and happiness in her program and it will never produce.
She said, “What good will that do?” But she went ahead and tried it.
He stopped her one day, “How about that nervous breakdown?”
She said, “I got so busy I had to call it off.” She got so busy trying to meet the needs of other people that she lost her program in God’s program. She stumbled over happiness that she was hot in pursuit of and couldn’t find. It’s frustrating when you get in hot pursuit of happiness and can’t find it and your whole purpose in life is to be happy and you can’t find happiness. I promise you that anybody who gets in pursuit of happiness trying to fulfill their ambition, trying to fulfill their program for happiness will never ever find happiness because it is the object.
The Bible says, “He that findeth his life shall lose it:...” He that finds his will shall lose it. He that finds his program for happiness shall lose it. He that finds his ambition shall lose it. But “...he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” Get those words involved in losing yourself for His sake. It didn’t say he trashes his life; he throws it away; he discards it; he discredits it; he doesn’t value it. That’s not at all what He said. He said, “For My sake, he loses himself in this program. His program gets lost in Mine. His will gets lost in Mine. His life gets lost in doing My will.”
Life is not just existence. Life has to do with a standard of existence or a quality of existence. When people die and go to Hell they don’t cease to exist, but they don’t have life. They have sorrow and suffering. Their existence is called eternal damnation, second death, but never called life. What God is simply telling us is we have got to lose our plan and program and our way of happiness and we’ll find it in God’s will, our quality of existence.
In Luke 16:25 you’ll find the rich man died and went to Hell. Here’s what he said when he got to Hell. “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things,...”
Abraham said, “You had what you wanted in life. You had your program. You had your ambition. You had your will. You had your life. You didn’t want Jesus. You didn’t want salvation. You didn’t want church. You didn’t want Bible. You fulfilled your own plans and ambition. You had your good things, your worldly things, your things that did not include God.” “...and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” (Luke 16:23-25) He said, “You got what you wanted. You didn’t want Jesus. You don’t have Jesus. You died without Jesus, but you had your good things. You had what the world has to offer. You had what sin has to offer. You had what selfishness has to offer. You obtained your will. You fulfilled your ambition. You got wealthy and did what you pleased without God, but you lost everything when you died. You lost everything that you lived for and everything you’ve layed up and everything that was the object of your life. You lost it.” He said, “Lazarus didn’t have much, but he had Jesus.” If all you have is Jesus you’re not doing too bad.
I think about that widow woman in the Old Testament. The Bible says that all she had in the house was oil, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. If all you have is the Holy Spirit you’ll do all right. That’s all that Lazarus had, but the rich man found his life and lost it. He fulfilled his ambition and lost everything.
You’ll find that he’s not the only one. Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, the Bible says that God gave them the garden, what a place of beauty and splendor, what a wonderful situation, a perfect place that God gave them. God put one tree in the midst of the garden. He said, “Don’t eat of that tree. If you eat of it you’ll surely die.”
The devil came along. Even in a perfect situation the devil always comes along. He always will say, “There is something better than this perfect situation.” That’s what the charismatic crowd will tell you. “Well, I know you’re saved. You have your doctrine straight and all that kind of stuff, but boy I’ll tell you, if you just get this tongues stuff.” They always have something better than just the truth and the plan of God, something to add to it. Every cultist will tell you you’re missing out on something. “I know you’re saved, but...” “I know you know the Lord, but...” They prey on the people of God that are weak.
I had a Mormon tell me one time, “Well, you know many of our members in the Mormon church used to be Baptists.”
I said, “That’s no credit to you. I wouldn’t brag about that.”
He said, “What do you mean?” He thought that was really something. He was getting all these Baptists.
I said, “All that tells me is you don’t have a Gospel that will change a drunk into a Mormon. You have to take somebody that’s already been born again, regenerated by the Gospel and then mess with their mind. Why don’t you take your Gospel out here and get some of these drunks off the street and why don’t you go out here and get some of these dope-heads instead of gathering up all our members that are weak? You have to find somebody that already has some spiritual interest.”
Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden had a beautiful situation. The devil came. One tree was in the midst of the garden, and I don’t know if he ate of it. I kind of think he did to convince Eve. He probably said, “It didn’t kill me. It won’t kill you.” Do you know what he told her? He said, “God’s holding out on you. If you would eat of this fruit, you’d have knowledge just like God. You’d be just like God. You could be independent of God because you’d be as wise as God, knowing good and evil. God couldn’t keep you under his thumb anymore. God couldn’t oppress you anymore.” The devil will tell you that he’s going to liberate you. No, he’ll enslave you. The Bible talks about that crowd that says that they’re going to liberate you, but they themselves are enslaved by sin. The devil said, “Look, you can be just like God. You can be wise. You can know good and evil. You can be out from under God’s dominion.”
They said, “Yes, we want to be wise like God.” So they ate of the fruit. Guess what happened? They got to where they knew good from evil, but it didn’t turn out like the devil said. They fulfilled their ambition to be able to know and not be innocent anymore, to be conscious and know good from evil, but in so doing they lost the garden and severed their walk with God and fell under the dominion of Satan. They found their desire, but they lost everything.
Isn’t that something? It tells you how depraved man’s nature is. They only had one command. The whole law in the garden of Eden was “Don’t eat of that tree.” They disobeyed one command. Don’t look so pious. You would have, too. You would have probably ate the whole tree and a shovel full of dirt! Adam and Eve listened to the devil’s lie and believed his promise, and they made a bad mistake. They got what they desired. They fulfilled their ambition for knowledge at the expense of losing everything that was valuable. Had they not done that, I don’t think their one son would have murdered the other son. I don’t think they would have had some of the heartache they had. Their labor for God could have been a joy instead of a drudgery as they tilled the ground. They made things hard, but it looked like it was going to be better. They were going to get this one thing, but they forgot about everything else.
Nothing is free. Everything costs something. You can get what you want, but you’ll lose what you have. You’ll find the children of Israel got their will at Kadesh-barnea. Do you know what the word Kadesh means? It means consecration. Do you know what they did? They came to the point of consecration and turned back.
Do you know what consecration is? It is when I resign myself to fight God’s battles. Separation is when I come out from under the dominion of Satan. When they crossed the Red Sea, they were leaving Egypt and the dominion of Pharaoh. It was either a short or long journey through the wilderness depending on their obedience. It wasn’t very far to consecration, to Kadesh. When they came there they said, “Oh, there are giants and walled cities. We don’t want to fight God’s battles. Let’s go back in the wilderness. Nobody wants this desert land. Nobody will fight us for it.” Nobody wanted it for obvious reasons. They turned back at consecration and avoided fighting God’s battles. They got what they wanted, but that whole generation died in the wilderness. The judgment of God fell and everybody 20 years of age and older that made that vote, all of them died in the wilderness without ever getting a second chance to enter in to consecration, to enter in at Kadesh.
“What are you trying to say, Preacher?” I’m trying to say that they had an ambition of their own. They pursued peace at the expense of truth. They pursued peace at the expense of consecration. When I consecrate myself, I’m resigning myself to fight God’s battles. That means when I consecrate myself, I’m consecrating myself not to peace, but to war. I’m not consecrating myself to tranquility, but to conflict. There are giants out there that hate the God of Heaven. They want to inhabit His land and what He owns. It is my job to drive them out.
If I consecrate myself, that’s the positive move of resigning myself to fight God’s battles. When the children of Israel came to Kadesh, to consecration, they turned back, but there was something worse awaiting them than fighting God’s enemies. The judgment of God awaited them when they turned back. He didn’t stop them from turning back. He just judged them after they did. They all died without ever having a second chance to decide to fight God’s battles. They found their ambition. They found their will. They turned back and didn’t want to fight, but they found out there is something worse than fighting God’s battles.
Absalom was an ambitious young man, wasn’t he? He was also a hippie with his long hair, and that’s what got him in trouble. He got caught in a tree and was hanging by his hair. Joab came along and stuck the darts in his heart. One of the first sermons I ever heard outside of my own local church, I went to hear Lester Roloff in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as a young convert. He preached, “And The Mule Walked On.” He talked about Absalom getting his hair caught and the mule walking out from under him and there he hung helpless. Joab came along and killed him. Absalom was King David’s son who, in rebellion and ambition, turned on his own father. He had been estranged because of killing his brother.
Then when he finally came back, he started meeting the people in the gate. He said, “Oh, tell me your troubles. If I were king, if I was the pastor, here’s what I would do.” He started meeting everybody with a smile and telling everybody what they wanted to hear and being the ear to listen to all their gripes and complaints and problems. He said, “If I were king, here’s what I would do.” He had an ambition to be king. It wasn’t God’s will for him to be king.
The Bible says there came a day when he gathered a group of people who rallied around him and rebelled against David. David left the city, not because he was afraid of Absalom, but because he didn’t want to have to fight his own son. He was a valiant man. He did not leave for fear. He fled the city to avoid the fight because he did not want to kill his son. He left, and you’ll find this young man got his ambition, he found his life. It wasn’t long until he lost it all, even his physical life, his existence in this world. He found his ambition and lost everything when he found it. You and I would be smart to learn from that.
Ahab wanted Naboth’s vineyard. He said to Naboth, “Sell me your vineyard.”
Naboth said, “I can’t. It was passed down from my forefathers. It’s my job to keep it in the family and pass it down to my children. I have no right to sell that because it’s the inheritance God gave to my family, and I am to keep it and pass it down. I cannot sell it.”
There ought to be some things in your life that are not for sale. Naboth said, “It’s not for sale.”
Ahab said, “But I’ll give you another one better.”
He said, “Sorry, I can’t sell it. It’s not for sale.”
He said, “I’ll pay you a big price.”
He said, “I can’t sell it. It’s not for sale.”
Finally Ahab went back home and Jezebel was there. He went back whimpering around -- stinkin sissy, sucking his thumb, crying and whining. The worst thing in the world is a whining man.
Jezebel couldn’t stand it. She said, “I’d kill to shut him up.” He came back whining and whimpering. She said, “What’s the matter, Honey?”
He said, “Naboth won’t sell me his vineyard.”
She said, “That’s all right. We’ll take care of him.” They killed Naboth. Just about the time Ahab thought he was going to go enjoy the vineyard, God sent Elijah down there to meet him. Do you know what he called Elijah? “Oh, my enemy.” He said that Elijah was his enemy, his adversary. That’s what the preacher is supposed to be to wicked men. I’m supposed to love the souls of men regardless, but I am to hate the evil and be the adversary to all who practice ungodliness and false doctrine.
Elijah met him and made him nervous. He pronounced judgment on Ahab. He said the dogs are going to lick your blood. He told him where and so on. Years passed. It looked like they were going to get by with it. Ahab went out disguised as a common soldier. An archer let go of an arrow and it hit him between the joints of the armor and killed him. He bled out in the chariot. They took it down there and washed it out and the Bible says the dogs came and licked his blood.
Elijah said that Jezebel was going to be eaten by dogs. It happened. Jehu came into Jezreel and said, “Throw her down if you’re on my side.”
She was up there fixing herself up. She said, “I’m going to impress him.”
He said, “I don’t even want to get a close look. Throw her down. If I get a close look, I may change my mind. I know what her heart is like, so I don’t want to see her face.” They threw her down and he ran over her with a chariot. He got to feeling bad. He said, “You know she is a king’s daughter. We ought to go ahead and bury her.” They went back and all that was left was the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands. The dogs had eaten her.
“What are you trying to say?” I’m saying they found their life. They got their ambition. They fulfilled their wicked desires, but they lost everything in the process. The way they died was not the worst of it. Both of them went to Hell, but they found their life and then lost it.
The prodigal son came to his father and said, “I’m old enough now to go out on my own. I’m tired of all your rules. I don’t want to be part of the family business. This working is not for me. I don’t want to wait until you die to get my part of the inheritance. Would you just give me my half now and let me go?”
The father gave him what he wanted -- half of the inheritance. The Bible says that he went to a far country and lived riotously. That was his ambition you know. He didn’t want all those rules. He didn’t want anybody telling him, “No.” He didn’t want anybody telling him, “You shouldn’t do this and you should do that.” He wanted to be free from authority. When he got free from moral authority, he fell under the dominion of sinful power.
The Bible says that when he had spent all, then he came to himself. Here he was in a hog pen. He didn’t have any food, but the husks that he fed to the swine. He had no friends but the hogs themselves, had no shelter but that which maybe was prepared for the hogs. Isn’t it amazing how he had all those friends when he had money? As soon as he ran out of money, he was all alone.
I’ve got news for some of you. You’re going to get a rude awakening with some of these people you call your friends. They’re your friends as long as you have something to get. When you hit bottom in need, they won’t be anywhere in sight. He had lost everything and he said, “What am I doing out here?”
Finally he came to himself. That’s a bad time to wake up, when you bounce off the bottom of the barrel and say, “Good night, what am I doing here? My father’s servants have it better than I do. I’m a son and they’re servants. They have a roof over their head and clothes on their back and shoes on their feet and food in their belly. Here I am all alone, starving to death in rags. I know what I’ll do. I’ll arise and return to my father and tell him, ‘I’m not worthy to be called your son. Let me be as one of your hired servants..’” The point being he had lost everything. His father forgave him and received him back, but his father never did redivide the inheritance. What he had gotten he had thrown to the wind. Here’s a boy that didn’t want to work with his brother as partners. He ended up working for his brother. His brother inherited the family business. He got a job, but he worked for his brother instead of being partners with him because he found his ambition and his will and lost everything.
In every case they got what they wanted and lost what they had. After they lost it, they found out what they had first was better than what they thought they wanted. These stupid people that say, “If I had that woman, I’d be happy.” No, you wouldn’t. “If I had that man...” No, that wouldn’t make you happy. “If I had that job...” “If I had that house...” “If I had that income...” “If I had that position...” “If I had that authority, I’d be happy.” No, you wouldn’t. Because if you had that, you’d fulfill your own ambition and you’d fulfill your own program, and you would lose something better than what you want. I’m telling you, you can get what you want, but you’ll lose what you have. Ninety-nine out of 100 times you’ll find out that what you lost was far better than what you got. What you left behind was better than what you pursued.
I’m thinking of a young guy who got involved with a woman in the church. He was a young preacher with a lot of potential. He got his eyes on somebody and allowed an attachment to form, not only physically but emotionally. Now the thing has been uncovered, but they don’t want to make it right because they had developed a relationship that was wrong. Stop and think about what the guy has to lose. He lost his ministry. He is losing his wife. He is losing his children. He’s lost his self-respect. For what? He got what he wanted and lost what he had. He didn’t gain. He lost.
I had a buddy. His dad was a drunk all the time he was growing up. That boy was embarrassed. He wouldn’t take anybody to his house. When he’d leave the house, he’d curse his dad, who was sitting around in a t-shirt, big beer belly sticking out, with his eyes rolling around in his head, stacking 16 ounce Budweiser cans, and putting no food on the table. The kids didn’t have the clothes and shoes they needed. He literally hated his dad.
When this guy got out of school, he got married and things were going pretty good. Several years ago, he had an opportunity to buy a bar. After about six months, all he did was lay around the bar drunk.
His wife came by and told me, “I’m leaving him.”
I said, “You’ve been married to him for years now. Let me at least talk to him before you leave him. Give me a chance anyway.”
She said, “Okay, I’ll wait.”
When I went down to talk to him, he was laying back in the kitchen of the bar. I had to go in the back door into the kitchen. There he was, sprawled out on the floor, drunk, dirty, stinking. I picked him up, stuck him in a chair, told that bar maid, “Make a pot of coffee.” I started pouring coffee down him. I said, “Get me a wet wash rag and a bag of ice.”
Finally I got him awake, not sober, but he was conscious. I told him, “I’m going to take you up to your mother’s and drop you off. I want you to get a bath and eat, and I’ll come back.”
I took him to church with me that night and he heard me preach. I gave the invitation. He did not respond. Later I heard he said, “Jim Jones came and got me, took me up there to hear him preach.”
I told him that night, “You need to get rid of the bar. You’re going to lose your wife and your kids. Listen to me, your boy looks at you with the same hatred you used to look at your dad. He despises you. If you don’t get rid of the bar, you’ve lost them.”
He said, “No, I made $1,500 last Friday and Saturday. I’m not getting rid of it. That’s more money than I’ve ever made in my life.”
I said, “What’s $1,500 if you lose your wife and kids? Who cares? What can that buy?” He kept the bar. A month later his wife had him arrested. He lost the bar. He lost his wife. He lost his kids. He lost his house. He lost the money. When I saw him a couple years later, he was still paying fines over that place.
I’m simply telling you he got what he wanted and thought that was going to help him. “If I can make $1,500 on Friday and Saturday night, that will make me happy.” No, it won’t. Ask some prostitutes who make big money on a weekend. Ask them if they’re happy. They’re the most miserable people on the face of the earth, unhappy, sorrowful, broken-hearted, miserable.
The other side of that is this. Paul, in Philippians 3:4-8, talked about being a Pharisee and all that he had in his Jewish heritage. He said, “...I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,” (Philippians 3:8) That’s a pretty strong statement. After he talked about being a Hebrew and being of the tribe he was of and all his religious connection and the position that he had in the Jewish nation, he said, “...I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:...” He said, “That stuff lost its value when I fell in love with Jesus. I got in hot pursuit of Jesus and I lost every bit of that. That used to be big stuff to me. It used to be important. It used to be the object of my life, but I lost all that in pursuit of Christ. I didn’t lose; I gained.”
When the Lord Jesus lost His will because He was lost in the cause of saving sinners; it brought joy. The Bible says, “Looking unto Jesus...” He’s our Example, isn’t He? “...the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2) What He did was get lost in the cause of saving sinners. He endured trouble and suffering, but He knew that joy awaited Him. He has the joy of saving every sinner that calls upon Him now. Now He’s seated at the right hand of the Father. He found what He lost. He lost Himself to save sinners and found Himself with the joy of getting the job done.
If you and I will lose ourselves in the cause of Christ instead of getting wrapped up in our will and our ambition, it’s going to bring joy. The very thing that we lost to reach those people we will find again in better shape than we left it.
“Finders Weepers, Losers Keepers.” Go ahead and get in hot pursuit of wealth, your own will, your happiness, your program, your life, but I promise you you’re going to lose it all. You’ll weep because you squandered it, or you can go ahead and get in hot pursuit of the will of God, God’s program for your life. You get so consumed with His cause that you just kind of lose yourself in it, and if you lose yourself for the Lord, you’ll find joy. Though there are some things to endure, you’ll find joy.
Joy is the thing that gives me endurance. These long faced Christians don’t ever accomplish anything. They can’t endure anything because they have no joy. They have no joy because they’re pursuing their own will. They’re not lost in a cause. You will find your life if you will lose it in the cause of Christ.
Today you and I need to decide, “I’m not going to find my will and lose everything. I am going to get in hot pursuit of the will of God and get so consumed with doing God’s will. I’m going to put my concentration so heavily on God’s program that I just kind of lose my purpose in His.”
If you’ll do that you won’t want for happiness. The life that God has for you is better than one you have planned for yourself. But you’ll never find His until you lose yours.
Finders weepers, Losers keepers.
You’ve heard it all your life, the old adage, the childish statement that’s made -- finders keepers, losers weepers. That’s in direct conflict with what this text in the Bible says. God said that the finders, those that find their life and find their desire and find their own will are going to lose it and weep in the end. But those who give up their own will and get lost in the cause of Jesus Christ find true happiness and find their life in the end. We’re familiar with it, but that statement -- finders keepers, losers weepers -- is contradictory to the Bible. God said just the opposite, Finders Weepers, Losers Keepers.
To find your life is to fulfill your own ambition and to accomplish your will. That’s what it means for me to find my life. It is for me to accomplish my own will and me to have my own ambition fulfilled in my life. We live in an ambitious generation of people. We give people the idea that I ought to have all these ambitions and goals of success.
The truth is God never intended for us to be ambitious. When you find ambition in the Bible it’s a self-seeking thing. Ambition has to do with me performing my will and getting what I want, exalting myself and finding my place. What God wants me to do is get lost in the program of God. He wants me to lose my will in His will. He wants me to lose my program in His program. He wants me to get so wrapped up in His purpose that I just kind of lose track of mine. To find your life is to fulfill your own ambition and to accomplish your will.
The word find indicates a search. In Luke 15 we have the lost and found chapter of the Bible. You find three cases where something that was lost was found. In at least two of those cases there is a strong indication that there was a search. The Bible tells us about the woman who lost her coin. That was the one thing that she had on her person that if she was put away she could take with her. That was big stuff. That was all that she truly owned. It was that dowry that she had. It was important for her to find that coin. The Bible says that she swept the house. She went through every area. She was in search. She found the coin.
The Bible says that the shepherd went out and searched for the lost sheep until he found it. He found what he was searching for. Now in both cases it was something worthwhile finding, but it was not an ambitious thing. It was to meet a need. The picture in Luke 15 is a picture of soulwinning, you and I being in search of the souls of men, you and I being in pursuit of lost sinners, us seeking to find that which is lost.
The indication is if you’re lost, you don’t know where you are. If you don’t know where you are, it’s going to be mighty hard for you to find your way back. Somebody is going to have to be in search of you and find you if you are lost. That’s how God describes a sinner outside of Jesus Christ. He said that man is lost. He doesn’t know where he is. He doesn’t know how dangerous this territory is. He does not know the trouble he’s in. He does not know how to get back. Somebody has got to get in search of him and find him.
The truth is God said that I’m not supposed to be in search of my own happiness, in search of my own ambition, in search of my own will, in search of my own program. I am to be in search of the souls of lost men who do not know where they are, to get them to salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let me show you the other side of this thing. To lose something does not mean to discard it. The Bible says, “He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” He doesn’t mean I throw my life away for His sake. When you lose something, it does not indicate that you threw it away or you discarded it. There is a vast difference between losing something and throwing it away. In my lifetime I’ve lost a lot of things. I’ve lost watches and keys. I didn’t throw them away. I just lost them. God said that I’m supposed to lose my life and He said that if I lose it in His will, I’ll find it. If I lose it in cross bearing, I will find it. If I lose it in pursuit of the souls of men, I will find it. God will see to it that it is still safe and intact.
A gambler may lose everything he has, but can I tell you something? He doesn’t throw it away. He’s there to get more, but instead while he is so consumed with getting more, he loses what he already has. The very thing that he is after he loses. When you talk about losing something, you don’t mean just throwing it away or discarding it or not thinking it’s important or valuable. That’s not what God is talking about. God wants me to understand that I am to lose what I have.
When I was about 12 years old, I was hunting in Pennsylvania. That was the first year I hunted. I crippled a deer. I shot it and didn’t kill it on the spot, so I started tracking that deer. There was no snow on the ground and I was up in the mountains. I was in search of that deer. I got on the blood trail. I started tracking that deer and I went a long way. All of a sudden it dawned on me that I had no idea where I was. I was lost. I wasn’t trying to get lost. I was consumed with finding that deer. My whole mind was just totally consumed with finding this deer. All my concentration and all my efforts and all my energy was directed toward that one goal of finding that deer. I got so wrapped up in finding that deer, I lost myself.
Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if you and I got that consumed with the plan of God? Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if our concentration was so firm on the will of God and our pursuit was so hot after the will of God that we just lost ourselves in His will? That’s what He’s talking about in our text. He wants us, not to throw our lives away, but just kind of lose them because we’re so preoccupied with His plan and His will and His program and His goals, that ours just get lost in the shuffle. The truth is that doesn’t happen to many folks and we don’t have a lot of folks that know much about cross bearing and losing themselves in the will and program of God.
We need to get lost, not in just any cause, but in the cause of Christ. Lost in a cause is what you and I are supposed to be, but most of us are lost in our ambition. We lost our Christianity in our ambition instead of losing our ambition in our Christianity. We’ve got the cart before the horse. We squeeze God into the schedule and we’re consumed with something else. Our lives revolve around something else. Our concentration is on something else. Our hot pursuit is of something else. We’re losing the most valuable things because we’re too wrapped up in lesser things. God said, “I want you to get so involved in these things of mine, that you just lose track of the other things that maybe are not evil and wicked, but are not going to promote My cause. I want you to get so wrapped up in what’s eternal that you just lose track of what is temporary.”
Jesus in the garden was lost in the cause. He said, “...let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39) He said, “I don’t really look forward to becoming sin for everybody, but there is something greater than what I desire. I don’t relish the thought, for the first time in eternity, being separated from My Father, not even for a short period of time. I don’t relish suffering the agonies of Hell.” He said, “...not my will, but thine, be done.” (Luke 22:42) Why did He say that? Because He was consumed in the cause of saving sinners and He knew if He did not become sin for us there could be no salvation. He knew that if He didn’t pay the price of our sin on Calvary, that every last one of us would have to perish eternally in hellfire. He got so wrapped up in the will of the Father to save sinners that He lost His own will in it. He said, “...not my will, but thine, be done.”
You ought to lose your ambition in His program. You need to lose your will in His. You need to lose your dreams for His program. You need to lose your plans in His and lose your life in His.
We need to lose our program for happiness. You will never find happiness searching for happiness. Happiness is lost in the search because it becomes the object. When happiness becomes the object of my life, I will never find it. But when the program of God and will of God becomes the object and I lose my plan for happiness and I stop pursuing happiness and pursue the will of God instead, God said that He’d see to it that I’d stumble over happiness in the path of obedience. God wants me to get to the place where I trust Him with those things.
That’s what Brother Hyles was talking about years ago when he told about that woman that came to his office and said, “I’m about ready to have a nervous breakdown. What do I do?”
He said, “I want you to bake some cookies on Monday and take them down here and give them to some deaf folks. Then I want you to go ahead and bake a cake and take it down to some blind people and eat it with them. Then the next day I want you to go ahead and get some roses and go to the hospital during visiting hours and everybody that doesn’t have a visitor go in and put a rose in a glass there and talk to them and pray with them.” The reason she was like this is because she was searching for peace and happiness in her program and it will never produce.
She said, “What good will that do?” But she went ahead and tried it.
He stopped her one day, “How about that nervous breakdown?”
She said, “I got so busy I had to call it off.” She got so busy trying to meet the needs of other people that she lost her program in God’s program. She stumbled over happiness that she was hot in pursuit of and couldn’t find. It’s frustrating when you get in hot pursuit of happiness and can’t find it and your whole purpose in life is to be happy and you can’t find happiness. I promise you that anybody who gets in pursuit of happiness trying to fulfill their ambition, trying to fulfill their program for happiness will never ever find happiness because it is the object.
The Bible says, “He that findeth his life shall lose it:...” He that finds his will shall lose it. He that finds his program for happiness shall lose it. He that finds his ambition shall lose it. But “...he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” Get those words involved in losing yourself for His sake. It didn’t say he trashes his life; he throws it away; he discards it; he discredits it; he doesn’t value it. That’s not at all what He said. He said, “For My sake, he loses himself in this program. His program gets lost in Mine. His will gets lost in Mine. His life gets lost in doing My will.”
Life is not just existence. Life has to do with a standard of existence or a quality of existence. When people die and go to Hell they don’t cease to exist, but they don’t have life. They have sorrow and suffering. Their existence is called eternal damnation, second death, but never called life. What God is simply telling us is we have got to lose our plan and program and our way of happiness and we’ll find it in God’s will, our quality of existence.
In Luke 16:25 you’ll find the rich man died and went to Hell. Here’s what he said when he got to Hell. “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things,...”
Abraham said, “You had what you wanted in life. You had your program. You had your ambition. You had your will. You had your life. You didn’t want Jesus. You didn’t want salvation. You didn’t want church. You didn’t want Bible. You fulfilled your own plans and ambition. You had your good things, your worldly things, your things that did not include God.” “...and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.” (Luke 16:23-25) He said, “You got what you wanted. You didn’t want Jesus. You don’t have Jesus. You died without Jesus, but you had your good things. You had what the world has to offer. You had what sin has to offer. You had what selfishness has to offer. You obtained your will. You fulfilled your ambition. You got wealthy and did what you pleased without God, but you lost everything when you died. You lost everything that you lived for and everything you’ve layed up and everything that was the object of your life. You lost it.” He said, “Lazarus didn’t have much, but he had Jesus.” If all you have is Jesus you’re not doing too bad.
I think about that widow woman in the Old Testament. The Bible says that all she had in the house was oil, a symbol of the Holy Spirit. If all you have is the Holy Spirit you’ll do all right. That’s all that Lazarus had, but the rich man found his life and lost it. He fulfilled his ambition and lost everything.
You’ll find that he’s not the only one. Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden, the Bible says that God gave them the garden, what a place of beauty and splendor, what a wonderful situation, a perfect place that God gave them. God put one tree in the midst of the garden. He said, “Don’t eat of that tree. If you eat of it you’ll surely die.”
The devil came along. Even in a perfect situation the devil always comes along. He always will say, “There is something better than this perfect situation.” That’s what the charismatic crowd will tell you. “Well, I know you’re saved. You have your doctrine straight and all that kind of stuff, but boy I’ll tell you, if you just get this tongues stuff.” They always have something better than just the truth and the plan of God, something to add to it. Every cultist will tell you you’re missing out on something. “I know you’re saved, but...” “I know you know the Lord, but...” They prey on the people of God that are weak.
I had a Mormon tell me one time, “Well, you know many of our members in the Mormon church used to be Baptists.”
I said, “That’s no credit to you. I wouldn’t brag about that.”
He said, “What do you mean?” He thought that was really something. He was getting all these Baptists.
I said, “All that tells me is you don’t have a Gospel that will change a drunk into a Mormon. You have to take somebody that’s already been born again, regenerated by the Gospel and then mess with their mind. Why don’t you take your Gospel out here and get some of these drunks off the street and why don’t you go out here and get some of these dope-heads instead of gathering up all our members that are weak? You have to find somebody that already has some spiritual interest.”
Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden had a beautiful situation. The devil came. One tree was in the midst of the garden, and I don’t know if he ate of it. I kind of think he did to convince Eve. He probably said, “It didn’t kill me. It won’t kill you.” Do you know what he told her? He said, “God’s holding out on you. If you would eat of this fruit, you’d have knowledge just like God. You’d be just like God. You could be independent of God because you’d be as wise as God, knowing good and evil. God couldn’t keep you under his thumb anymore. God couldn’t oppress you anymore.” The devil will tell you that he’s going to liberate you. No, he’ll enslave you. The Bible talks about that crowd that says that they’re going to liberate you, but they themselves are enslaved by sin. The devil said, “Look, you can be just like God. You can be wise. You can know good and evil. You can be out from under God’s dominion.”
They said, “Yes, we want to be wise like God.” So they ate of the fruit. Guess what happened? They got to where they knew good from evil, but it didn’t turn out like the devil said. They fulfilled their ambition to be able to know and not be innocent anymore, to be conscious and know good from evil, but in so doing they lost the garden and severed their walk with God and fell under the dominion of Satan. They found their desire, but they lost everything.
Isn’t that something? It tells you how depraved man’s nature is. They only had one command. The whole law in the garden of Eden was “Don’t eat of that tree.” They disobeyed one command. Don’t look so pious. You would have, too. You would have probably ate the whole tree and a shovel full of dirt! Adam and Eve listened to the devil’s lie and believed his promise, and they made a bad mistake. They got what they desired. They fulfilled their ambition for knowledge at the expense of losing everything that was valuable. Had they not done that, I don’t think their one son would have murdered the other son. I don’t think they would have had some of the heartache they had. Their labor for God could have been a joy instead of a drudgery as they tilled the ground. They made things hard, but it looked like it was going to be better. They were going to get this one thing, but they forgot about everything else.
Nothing is free. Everything costs something. You can get what you want, but you’ll lose what you have. You’ll find the children of Israel got their will at Kadesh-barnea. Do you know what the word Kadesh means? It means consecration. Do you know what they did? They came to the point of consecration and turned back.
Do you know what consecration is? It is when I resign myself to fight God’s battles. Separation is when I come out from under the dominion of Satan. When they crossed the Red Sea, they were leaving Egypt and the dominion of Pharaoh. It was either a short or long journey through the wilderness depending on their obedience. It wasn’t very far to consecration, to Kadesh. When they came there they said, “Oh, there are giants and walled cities. We don’t want to fight God’s battles. Let’s go back in the wilderness. Nobody wants this desert land. Nobody will fight us for it.” Nobody wanted it for obvious reasons. They turned back at consecration and avoided fighting God’s battles. They got what they wanted, but that whole generation died in the wilderness. The judgment of God fell and everybody 20 years of age and older that made that vote, all of them died in the wilderness without ever getting a second chance to enter in to consecration, to enter in at Kadesh.
“What are you trying to say, Preacher?” I’m trying to say that they had an ambition of their own. They pursued peace at the expense of truth. They pursued peace at the expense of consecration. When I consecrate myself, I’m resigning myself to fight God’s battles. That means when I consecrate myself, I’m consecrating myself not to peace, but to war. I’m not consecrating myself to tranquility, but to conflict. There are giants out there that hate the God of Heaven. They want to inhabit His land and what He owns. It is my job to drive them out.
If I consecrate myself, that’s the positive move of resigning myself to fight God’s battles. When the children of Israel came to Kadesh, to consecration, they turned back, but there was something worse awaiting them than fighting God’s enemies. The judgment of God awaited them when they turned back. He didn’t stop them from turning back. He just judged them after they did. They all died without ever having a second chance to decide to fight God’s battles. They found their ambition. They found their will. They turned back and didn’t want to fight, but they found out there is something worse than fighting God’s battles.
Absalom was an ambitious young man, wasn’t he? He was also a hippie with his long hair, and that’s what got him in trouble. He got caught in a tree and was hanging by his hair. Joab came along and stuck the darts in his heart. One of the first sermons I ever heard outside of my own local church, I went to hear Lester Roloff in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania as a young convert. He preached, “And The Mule Walked On.” He talked about Absalom getting his hair caught and the mule walking out from under him and there he hung helpless. Joab came along and killed him. Absalom was King David’s son who, in rebellion and ambition, turned on his own father. He had been estranged because of killing his brother.
Then when he finally came back, he started meeting the people in the gate. He said, “Oh, tell me your troubles. If I were king, if I was the pastor, here’s what I would do.” He started meeting everybody with a smile and telling everybody what they wanted to hear and being the ear to listen to all their gripes and complaints and problems. He said, “If I were king, here’s what I would do.” He had an ambition to be king. It wasn’t God’s will for him to be king.
The Bible says there came a day when he gathered a group of people who rallied around him and rebelled against David. David left the city, not because he was afraid of Absalom, but because he didn’t want to have to fight his own son. He was a valiant man. He did not leave for fear. He fled the city to avoid the fight because he did not want to kill his son. He left, and you’ll find this young man got his ambition, he found his life. It wasn’t long until he lost it all, even his physical life, his existence in this world. He found his ambition and lost everything when he found it. You and I would be smart to learn from that.
Ahab wanted Naboth’s vineyard. He said to Naboth, “Sell me your vineyard.”
Naboth said, “I can’t. It was passed down from my forefathers. It’s my job to keep it in the family and pass it down to my children. I have no right to sell that because it’s the inheritance God gave to my family, and I am to keep it and pass it down. I cannot sell it.”
There ought to be some things in your life that are not for sale. Naboth said, “It’s not for sale.”
Ahab said, “But I’ll give you another one better.”
He said, “Sorry, I can’t sell it. It’s not for sale.”
He said, “I’ll pay you a big price.”
He said, “I can’t sell it. It’s not for sale.”
Finally Ahab went back home and Jezebel was there. He went back whimpering around -- stinkin sissy, sucking his thumb, crying and whining. The worst thing in the world is a whining man.
Jezebel couldn’t stand it. She said, “I’d kill to shut him up.” He came back whining and whimpering. She said, “What’s the matter, Honey?”
He said, “Naboth won’t sell me his vineyard.”
She said, “That’s all right. We’ll take care of him.” They killed Naboth. Just about the time Ahab thought he was going to go enjoy the vineyard, God sent Elijah down there to meet him. Do you know what he called Elijah? “Oh, my enemy.” He said that Elijah was his enemy, his adversary. That’s what the preacher is supposed to be to wicked men. I’m supposed to love the souls of men regardless, but I am to hate the evil and be the adversary to all who practice ungodliness and false doctrine.
Elijah met him and made him nervous. He pronounced judgment on Ahab. He said the dogs are going to lick your blood. He told him where and so on. Years passed. It looked like they were going to get by with it. Ahab went out disguised as a common soldier. An archer let go of an arrow and it hit him between the joints of the armor and killed him. He bled out in the chariot. They took it down there and washed it out and the Bible says the dogs came and licked his blood.
Elijah said that Jezebel was going to be eaten by dogs. It happened. Jehu came into Jezreel and said, “Throw her down if you’re on my side.”
She was up there fixing herself up. She said, “I’m going to impress him.”
He said, “I don’t even want to get a close look. Throw her down. If I get a close look, I may change my mind. I know what her heart is like, so I don’t want to see her face.” They threw her down and he ran over her with a chariot. He got to feeling bad. He said, “You know she is a king’s daughter. We ought to go ahead and bury her.” They went back and all that was left was the skull, the feet, and the palms of her hands. The dogs had eaten her.
“What are you trying to say?” I’m saying they found their life. They got their ambition. They fulfilled their wicked desires, but they lost everything in the process. The way they died was not the worst of it. Both of them went to Hell, but they found their life and then lost it.
The prodigal son came to his father and said, “I’m old enough now to go out on my own. I’m tired of all your rules. I don’t want to be part of the family business. This working is not for me. I don’t want to wait until you die to get my part of the inheritance. Would you just give me my half now and let me go?”
The father gave him what he wanted -- half of the inheritance. The Bible says that he went to a far country and lived riotously. That was his ambition you know. He didn’t want all those rules. He didn’t want anybody telling him, “No.” He didn’t want anybody telling him, “You shouldn’t do this and you should do that.” He wanted to be free from authority. When he got free from moral authority, he fell under the dominion of sinful power.
The Bible says that when he had spent all, then he came to himself. Here he was in a hog pen. He didn’t have any food, but the husks that he fed to the swine. He had no friends but the hogs themselves, had no shelter but that which maybe was prepared for the hogs. Isn’t it amazing how he had all those friends when he had money? As soon as he ran out of money, he was all alone.
I’ve got news for some of you. You’re going to get a rude awakening with some of these people you call your friends. They’re your friends as long as you have something to get. When you hit bottom in need, they won’t be anywhere in sight. He had lost everything and he said, “What am I doing out here?”
Finally he came to himself. That’s a bad time to wake up, when you bounce off the bottom of the barrel and say, “Good night, what am I doing here? My father’s servants have it better than I do. I’m a son and they’re servants. They have a roof over their head and clothes on their back and shoes on their feet and food in their belly. Here I am all alone, starving to death in rags. I know what I’ll do. I’ll arise and return to my father and tell him, ‘I’m not worthy to be called your son. Let me be as one of your hired servants..’” The point being he had lost everything. His father forgave him and received him back, but his father never did redivide the inheritance. What he had gotten he had thrown to the wind. Here’s a boy that didn’t want to work with his brother as partners. He ended up working for his brother. His brother inherited the family business. He got a job, but he worked for his brother instead of being partners with him because he found his ambition and his will and lost everything.
In every case they got what they wanted and lost what they had. After they lost it, they found out what they had first was better than what they thought they wanted. These stupid people that say, “If I had that woman, I’d be happy.” No, you wouldn’t. “If I had that man...” No, that wouldn’t make you happy. “If I had that job...” “If I had that house...” “If I had that income...” “If I had that position...” “If I had that authority, I’d be happy.” No, you wouldn’t. Because if you had that, you’d fulfill your own ambition and you’d fulfill your own program, and you would lose something better than what you want. I’m telling you, you can get what you want, but you’ll lose what you have. Ninety-nine out of 100 times you’ll find out that what you lost was far better than what you got. What you left behind was better than what you pursued.
I’m thinking of a young guy who got involved with a woman in the church. He was a young preacher with a lot of potential. He got his eyes on somebody and allowed an attachment to form, not only physically but emotionally. Now the thing has been uncovered, but they don’t want to make it right because they had developed a relationship that was wrong. Stop and think about what the guy has to lose. He lost his ministry. He is losing his wife. He is losing his children. He’s lost his self-respect. For what? He got what he wanted and lost what he had. He didn’t gain. He lost.
I had a buddy. His dad was a drunk all the time he was growing up. That boy was embarrassed. He wouldn’t take anybody to his house. When he’d leave the house, he’d curse his dad, who was sitting around in a t-shirt, big beer belly sticking out, with his eyes rolling around in his head, stacking 16 ounce Budweiser cans, and putting no food on the table. The kids didn’t have the clothes and shoes they needed. He literally hated his dad.
When this guy got out of school, he got married and things were going pretty good. Several years ago, he had an opportunity to buy a bar. After about six months, all he did was lay around the bar drunk.
His wife came by and told me, “I’m leaving him.”
I said, “You’ve been married to him for years now. Let me at least talk to him before you leave him. Give me a chance anyway.”
She said, “Okay, I’ll wait.”
When I went down to talk to him, he was laying back in the kitchen of the bar. I had to go in the back door into the kitchen. There he was, sprawled out on the floor, drunk, dirty, stinking. I picked him up, stuck him in a chair, told that bar maid, “Make a pot of coffee.” I started pouring coffee down him. I said, “Get me a wet wash rag and a bag of ice.”
Finally I got him awake, not sober, but he was conscious. I told him, “I’m going to take you up to your mother’s and drop you off. I want you to get a bath and eat, and I’ll come back.”
I took him to church with me that night and he heard me preach. I gave the invitation. He did not respond. Later I heard he said, “Jim Jones came and got me, took me up there to hear him preach.”
I told him that night, “You need to get rid of the bar. You’re going to lose your wife and your kids. Listen to me, your boy looks at you with the same hatred you used to look at your dad. He despises you. If you don’t get rid of the bar, you’ve lost them.”
He said, “No, I made $1,500 last Friday and Saturday. I’m not getting rid of it. That’s more money than I’ve ever made in my life.”
I said, “What’s $1,500 if you lose your wife and kids? Who cares? What can that buy?” He kept the bar. A month later his wife had him arrested. He lost the bar. He lost his wife. He lost his kids. He lost his house. He lost the money. When I saw him a couple years later, he was still paying fines over that place.
I’m simply telling you he got what he wanted and thought that was going to help him. “If I can make $1,500 on Friday and Saturday night, that will make me happy.” No, it won’t. Ask some prostitutes who make big money on a weekend. Ask them if they’re happy. They’re the most miserable people on the face of the earth, unhappy, sorrowful, broken-hearted, miserable.
The other side of that is this. Paul, in Philippians 3:4-8, talked about being a Pharisee and all that he had in his Jewish heritage. He said, “...I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,” (Philippians 3:8) That’s a pretty strong statement. After he talked about being a Hebrew and being of the tribe he was of and all his religious connection and the position that he had in the Jewish nation, he said, “...I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:...” He said, “That stuff lost its value when I fell in love with Jesus. I got in hot pursuit of Jesus and I lost every bit of that. That used to be big stuff to me. It used to be important. It used to be the object of my life, but I lost all that in pursuit of Christ. I didn’t lose; I gained.”
When the Lord Jesus lost His will because He was lost in the cause of saving sinners; it brought joy. The Bible says, “Looking unto Jesus...” He’s our Example, isn’t He? “...the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.” (Hebrews 12:2) What He did was get lost in the cause of saving sinners. He endured trouble and suffering, but He knew that joy awaited Him. He has the joy of saving every sinner that calls upon Him now. Now He’s seated at the right hand of the Father. He found what He lost. He lost Himself to save sinners and found Himself with the joy of getting the job done.
If you and I will lose ourselves in the cause of Christ instead of getting wrapped up in our will and our ambition, it’s going to bring joy. The very thing that we lost to reach those people we will find again in better shape than we left it.
“Finders Weepers, Losers Keepers.” Go ahead and get in hot pursuit of wealth, your own will, your happiness, your program, your life, but I promise you you’re going to lose it all. You’ll weep because you squandered it, or you can go ahead and get in hot pursuit of the will of God, God’s program for your life. You get so consumed with His cause that you just kind of lose yourself in it, and if you lose yourself for the Lord, you’ll find joy. Though there are some things to endure, you’ll find joy.
Joy is the thing that gives me endurance. These long faced Christians don’t ever accomplish anything. They can’t endure anything because they have no joy. They have no joy because they’re pursuing their own will. They’re not lost in a cause. You will find your life if you will lose it in the cause of Christ.
Today you and I need to decide, “I’m not going to find my will and lose everything. I am going to get in hot pursuit of the will of God and get so consumed with doing God’s will. I’m going to put my concentration so heavily on God’s program that I just kind of lose my purpose in His.”
If you’ll do that you won’t want for happiness. The life that God has for you is better than one you have planned for yourself. But you’ll never find His until you lose yours.
Finders weepers, Losers keepers.
