Lose Life

Welcome to Sharper Sword, the publication ministry of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.

Lighthouse believes that individuals can reach their potential for the Lord as they grow in Christ.

We want to hear our Lord say, Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Let's join Pastor Doug Fisher as he preaches another important biblical message from the Word of God.

Look if you would in your Bibles at Matthew chapter 10, Matthew chapter 10, and also would you uh pick up 1 Corinthians chapter number 6, Matthew chapter number 10, and 1 Corinthians chapter number 6.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention Matthew 10 · chapter mention

Now, while you're looking at those scriptures real quick, and I'm not asking you to read all the chapters, I'll get to the right scriptures in just a moment.

I was sitting up here thinking, once in a while, Matthew 10, 1 Corinthians 6, you might see me on my cell phone up here.

Uh let me just clarify, I'm not scheduling a fishing trip.

Uh on my cell phone, I have an 1828 Webster's dictionary, and uh that's a wonderful dictionary for our Bible.

And once in a while, the Holy Ghost will say, Look up this word real quick.

I get it last minute.

You say, Why didn't he tell you before?

I probably wasn't listening very well, but uh once in a while I'll get that, or I have a concordance on my phone, and once in a while uh he'll say, Look over at this scripture real quick.

And uh so I'll look at that, and if it kind of ties in together, I'll I'll uh bring it up in the message.

And so that's some of the things I'm doing.

And then uh also uh uh I have the ability up here with uh Brother Odell to control the temperature in here.

So if I feel like it's uh a little too warm or too cold or something like that, I tell him up one degree, put the fan on, and we have two different air conditioners, and uh and uh you understand uh uh uh part of how it feels up here is depending on having no hair.

Yeah, it is.

In my year earlier years when I had hair, my head didn't get cold, so I don't know what that meant in the way of temperature.

So if you're not comfortable today, we're only gonna be in here 35 minutes and everything's great, amen.

But I'm just joking with you.

We do control the temperature a little bit.

I just told Ed uh to uh lower the temperature up here one degree, put the fan on.

It won't kick in for a little while.

And uh in the back we have another one, but uh uh so it's either concordance or it's uh it's uh dictionary or temperature control, or uh if you would uh talk into my wife a little bit.

Just kidding.

Amen.

All right.

Great to have you here today.

Let's jump in.

Matthew 10, 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

I'm gonna ask you to turn to four scriptures, and these scriptures are in succession.

Uh they they are just one scripture, so I'm gonna ask you to turn to four of them, and we'll start this way.

Matthew chapter 10.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

Here's the introduction to the thought this morning, please.

I want to say that uh I really sensed at about four o'clock this morning as I was thinking further on this, that somebody in here, maybe myself also, that this is timely.

So if you look at the scriptures, Matthew 10, verse 39.

Matthew 10:39

Matthew 10, verse 39.

Matthew 10:39

He that findeth his life shall lose it.

And he that loseth his life for my sake, shall find it.

Now let me stop there a moment again and look at it again.

He that findeth his life shall lose it.

And he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.

There's scriptures on both sides of that, obviously.

One of the things that scripture is talking about is salvation.

We lose our life and this life, and we get saved and we find eternal life.

When we are drawn in by God, and when I say find eternal life, may I say God finds us?

And he draws us to himself.

But when we receive eternal life, there's something that we begin to lose, and what we lose is temporary life.

What do you mean?

Praise the Lord that this earth and what's going on down here is not the end for Christians.

It's just the beginning.

This life down here, this temporary life we live, when you read the Bible solidly, you'll see that this is just temporary.

It's just for a little while.

But may I say eternal life goes on and on and on.

So one of the thoughts is that this talks about the concept of salvation.

Another thought is this after we get saved, we begin by following the Lord to lose our life and the gain, the life He has for us.

After we get saved, some things begin to typically change a little bit.

Now, if you were saved as a young person, you may not have seen those dramatic changes.

But some of us who've got saved just a little bit older, the change was so impactful in our lives.

Now, I want to say this: if you got saved as a young age, you ought to thank the Lord for that.

There's a lot of things you might have avoided that some of us didn't.

And I want to tell you, even in your 60s, you have remembrances of things that you wish you would have never done.

So if you got saved as a young age and you say, I don't have a dramatic salvation testimony, I got saved at eight years old.

I want to tell you, you ought to thank the Lord for that kind of testimony.

I mean that with all my heart.

So he that findeth his life shall lose it, and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it.

Now I want you to do this.

You're holding your place in 1 Corinthians 6, but I have something in between.

You're in the book of Matthew, chapter 10.

Matthew 10 · chapter mention

Look over at Matthew 16.

Matthew 16, still holding your place in 1 Corinthians 6.

Matthew 16, you're doing great.

Matthew chapter 16, and I want you to see this again.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

You know, if God puts it in the Bible once, it's important.

But this is in all the Gospels.

But what's interesting about this thought is he puts it in the book of Matthew a couple times.

Look at Matthew chapter 16, you're holding your place in 1 Corinthians 6.

Matthew 16 · chapter mention

Notice verse number 25.

Verse number 25.

For whosoever shall save his life shall lose it.

And whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Somebody would read that and go, I don't understand that.

Well, we're going to talk about it in just a moment, for whosoever shall save his life shall lose it.

But whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

It goes on to say, what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul?

So you know that's talking about salvation.

But it's talking about even a little bit more than that, because look at verse 24.

If any man will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

So one of the contexts in verse 26 is salvation, lose his own soul.

But in verse 24, it talks about when we get saved that we're supposed to take up our cross daily, and the cross is that we die to self daily.

Would you agree with that?

That's the concept of take up our cross, die to self daily.

So when we get saved, there's a little bit of things that'll happen that cause us to lose our life.

Let me clarify that just a little bit.

What happens after we get saved is we might lose the plan we had in our life.

I'll say that again.

After we get saved, God may change the plan that we had because he has a much better plan for us.

And I'm not saying that always happens, but he'll adjust it along the way.

With that in mind, look at 1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

1 Corinthians chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6 · chapter mention

Remember, I said four scriptures I asked you to turn to, and I might add one more.

It's just in my mind right now.

Luke, I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians chapter number 6.

And here's something important with this idea of losing our life.

I know it's salvation, but also after we get saved.

And look at verse number 19, 1 Corinthians 6, 19.

What?

Question mark.

Know ye not that your body, after you get saved, your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you.

The Holy Ghost is in us at salvation, which you have of God.

We didn't get it ourselves.

God gave us the Holy Ghost.

And then he says this, and I want you to underline this little few words, and ye are not your own.

And ye are not your own.

One more time.

You say, why is that important?

Because in our society, it's really a big thing to say, I'm my own person.

I'm my own person.

I want to tell you something.

When you get saved, you might say that, but you don't really own you anymore.

When I got saved, and it didn't, it didn't come away right away, but after a period of time of study and prayer, and I'm not saying I understood this in the first month or two, but after you've been at it for a little while, you begin to realize more and more, I'm not my own.

And I'm glad I'm not my own.

I'm glad I'm not making the plan.

May I say to you, he says, ye are not your own.

You say, I don't like that.

I want to be my own.

When he humbles you, you'll be glad you're not your own.

At when we're when we're passing out of this life, we'll be glad we're not our own.

Come on, would you agree with that?

So he says, You're not your own, but notice what he says next.

You're bought with a price.

That price is the death of Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, that he sent and he gave his life and his blood.

For you're not you're bought with a price.

Therefore, glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are whose.

Say it?

God's.

So I want you to see, verse 19, ye are not your own.

And I pray that the Holy Ghost will really edify us this morning that Jesus owns us.

I'll say it again.

Jesus owns us.

And there's nothing wrong with acknowledging his ownership.

No, I want to be my own.

Oh, when you get saved, it's so wonderful that we are not our own because at death, Jesus says, I'm taking to heaven what I own.

If you're whatever your name is, Jesus will take to heaven what he owns.

But in this life, he protects what he owns, he guides what he owns, he cares for what he owns.

In fact, he will allow us to go through tribulation because he owns us and wants to refine us, make us better.

But he'll never suffer us to be tempted above that which we're able.

Because he owns us and he knows our limits, but he also knows our potential greater than we know it.

Let me say it again.

Brethren, you say, I got big vision.

God's got bigger vision for you.

God's got a bigger plan for us.

So we're not our own.

We're glorifying God, and he owns us.

Now, if you would, uh, Galatians 2.

Galatians chapter 2.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

We're almost there.

Galatians chapter number 2, please.

And it reiterates this in a different way.

Remember, we're talking about losing our life, thank you, and giving that life over for his sake to him.

If we lose our life, we find it.

And if we lose our life for his sake, because he owns us, he gives us something that's wonderful.

Look at Galatians chapter 2.

Galatians 2 · chapter mention

And you know this, most of you all, but look at verse 20.

Verse 20.

I am crucified with Christ.

Now let me relate that back to take up your cross daily.

Meaning we want to die to self, die to what we want to do.

That doesn't mean you can't have a good time in life.

It just means you have a good time in Christ in life.

Brethren, Christianity is not boring.

And Christianity does not say we can't have a good time and laugh.

It doesn't say that.

There's a lot of joy and laughter in Christianity.

God wants us to be happy Christians.

Come on, is that right?

Absolutely.

But he says this: he says, I am crucified.

There's the cross, our own cross with Christ.

Nevertheless, I live.

I'm still alive.

And then he says these three words, yet not I.

It's not I anymore, it's Christ that liveth in me.

And the life which I now live in the flesh.

What do you mean?

Right now we're still in the body.

The night life that I now live in the flesh, what do you mean?

I'm still in the body, but he owns the body.

I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

So we're lives, our lives, we give it over to Him, and He shapes those lives.

He may leave you right where you're doing what you're doing, or what your career is.

But may I say this?

No doubt He will touch something in our lives and change it.

Even for people growing up who's been saved a long time, he'll guide and direct our thought patterns on what we're supposed to do and who we're supposed to be, and even who we're supposed to be around.

Look, if you wouldn't one more scripture, one more.

You said four.

Okay, five.

Philippians three.

Last one, Philippians three.

And then I'll explain a couple things, praise the Lord, hopefully, to you.

Philippians chapter three.

Here's an example.

I want to show you an example about losing life, and then there's a real important word that I want to show you today.

Please.

Philippians chapter number three.

So so far, lose the life.

For Christ's sakes, ye shall find it.

It's all for his sake.

And then he talks about being crucified with Christ, bearing that cross.

That we don't own ourselves, but he owns us, and then he's got a plan for us, and that we're supposed to live a yet not I type of life.

How he's going to change, how he's going to adjust, we don't know for sure, but here's an example, and I want to tell you, this one is an extreme example, but it's what God can do.

And I want to tell you, he does so many things in miraculous ways.

But once in a while, God may say, I want you to consider and I want you to obey me, and he wants us to fine-tune something.

What we're doing, what our focus is, who we're around, what our direction is, what the next plan in life is.

There are seasons of life.

What do you mean?

There are seasons.

There are seasons that uh uh may be from joy to heaviness, but there are also seasons chronologically.

Uh the teenage season of life, the young adult season of life.

Um, the uh, if you would, uh, I got saved in my 20s, so I was in a season of life 30s, 40s, 50s.

Brethren, these are different seasons of life, and once in a while God makes an adjustment.

You may be going through an adjustment period right now, and he's directing you with a new season you've crossed into.

It might be a season of uh of uh tribulations, trials, blessings, or it could be a chronological season of age, or possibly in other ways.

So look if you would at Philippians chapter number three, and I want to show you a word that's really important.

This is about Saul who becomes Paul in the New Testament.

Look what it says in Galatians, chapter, I'm sorry, Philippians chapter three.

Did I give you Galatians or Philippians?

Philippians three, good.

Philippians 3, verse number 5.

So here's what Paul was.

He was circumcised the eighth day, which means he was Jewish.

He was of the stock of Israel, specifically of the tribe of Benjamin.

He was in Hebrew of the Hebrews.

What he says was, I wasn't just Jewish a little bit, I was Jewish all the way.

I mean, I wasn't just a little bit of Hebrew, I wasn't just playing with it, I was a total Hebrew.

I mean, culturally, uh, traditions, scripturally, that was me.

In fact, he says, as touching the law, a Pharisee.

If you know what a Pharisee is, it's somebody that really worked to obey every every small faction of the law, but also the Pharisees had an attitude.

The Pharisees had an attitude of superiority.

The Pharisees had an attitude that uh, you know, if you're not a Pharisee, you're not like us and we're better than you are.

All those attitudes and philosophies were what a Pharisee was and who he was.

So he says, as touching the law as Pharisees.

And then he goes on to say this, concerning zeal?

You talk about motivation?

You talk about somebody zealous?

You talk about somebody excited and committed about what they were doing?

He said, I was such a committed Pharisee that I went out and persecuted the church.

Why?

Because the church was after Jesus Christ, and the Pharisees didn't believe that Christ was the Messiah.

Let me say that again.

The church was believing in Jesus Christ as the Messiah, but the Pharisees did not believe he was the Messiah.

Why?

Because to them the scriptures didn't all line up.

It wasn't that they didn't line up, it just was that they didn't understand.

All the scriptures lined up that Jesus is the Messiah.

Come on, is that right?

But they questioned him because they were concerned about where he came from.

And they said, Is not this the carpenter's son?

This can't be the Messiah.

It's it's their intelligence got in their way.

Let me say that again.

Their intelligence got in their way.

Because how could this carpenter's son be the Messiah?

Jesus came to earth very humbly on purpose.

He came meek and lowly because he didn't come to take over yet as Messiah, he came as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world.

Please listen again.

He didn't come to take over the first time, he came to take away sin.

He came as the Lamb of God to die for us in our place to take away our sin.

But they were looking for somebody that was going to take over.

He didn't come the first time to take over, but he's coming back to take over.

Oh, he'll be back and he'll take over.

How do we know that?

Scripture.

He's still coming back as the Messiah.

But Paul, and when he was Saul, thought it wasn't Jesus.

Why?

He believed like a Pharisee.

He acted like a Pharisee, lived like a Pharisee.

He was so zealous as that Jewish Pharisee that he persecuted the church.

Verse 6 Touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Now stop there for a moment.

Brethren, the law was never made to make somebody holy.

The law was never made to justify somebody.

Because its justification is by faith.

He said, But touching the law, I was blameless.

I did everything the law told me to do.

Blameless.

That righteousness is not good enough.

And then he says this, and here's what I want you to see carefully, verse 7.

But what things were Would you underline the next word?

Gain to me those I counted lost for Christ.

But what things were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ.

Brethren, he said, the things that I lost because of Christ and for Christ actually caused me gain.

What I gave up for Christ actually promoted me in my life to have a better life and do more.

I'll say this again, please.

Gain.

When we lose our life for his sake, often we get gain.

Something better.

Something more productive.

Something that brings greater joy.

Something where we say, what a good life God has given me.

Something like that.

But in order to do that, there's things that we have to lose.

And what we lose, Paul said, I counted that gain for Christ.

So here's what he lost.

He lost his Pharisee status.

He lost, if you would, the people bowing down to him as a Pharisee.

He lost control.

What do you mean he lost control?

Oh, he was zealous.

He persecuted the church.

He was wreaking havoc on the church.

He was committing people to prison.

He was causing them to blaspheme.

He was a manipulative controller.

And he lost all that.

Where?

On the road to Damascus.

What happened on the road to Damascus?

The light of the Lord came on him.

And it blinded him for three days, and he neither did eat nor drink for three days, and it humbled him.

And his life changed.

Brother, I want to tell you something.

When we lose our life for Christ, there is gain.

G-A-I-N.

Gain.

We get greater opportunity.

We get a greater, if you would, uh, effective life.

It's because of what Christ does.

May I say to you carefully that losing often in the Bible is gaining.

Say, what do you mean?

Giving up something is gain?

Yeah.

Yeah, losing something, giving up something can be great gain.

But it doesn't often appear that way at the time.

Now, I'm going to be uh a little specific.

Some of us in here are considering what the Lord seems to be leading us to give up.

I'll say that again.

Some of us in here are considering something that we believe the Lord is leading us to give up.

Okay, you're getting it.

Some of us in here, because Christ owns us, he bought us, he paid for us.

We're in a yet not I lifestyle.

We want to know what he wants us to do.

We will obey if he'll show us.

If he'll lead us and guide us, we want to obey him.

And some of the things he'll lead us and guide us to do is gainful.

It's going to cause something in our life in a wonderful, wonderful way, but initially the loss of it may not make sense to us.

I'm pausing for a reason.

Sometimes the loss of something does not make sense to us that this is actually gain.

And God orchestrates things in our life, and sometimes we'll look at it and say, I wonder why that happened.

It doesn't make sense.

May I say to you, it doesn't make sense yet.

But it will.

Because he owns us, he bought us, he paid for us.

I'm crucified with Christ.

Nevertheless, I still live, yet not I.

I'm now living in the yet not I phase of my life, trying to do what he wants me to do, and sometimes I'm not sure exactly why this is taking place, but I trust it's taking place with his purpose in mind.

Because all things happen for good.

Come on, is that right?

Who?

To those that love God that are the called according to his purpose.

Those that are the called according to his purpose.

Things that happen that we don't even understand typically have a purpose and a reason for us.

Maybe it's not just for ourselves, but it impacts somebody else in a great way.

And that's important.

So the concept is losing our life that we might gain it.

I want to carefully say in here again, there's some of us going through losing something right now.

Losing an attitude, losing a philosophy, losing uh maybe it's uh maybe it's a career change.

Uh maybe it's uh a new chronological phase of your life.

Brethren, it could be losing health for a while.

You say, why is that good?

If God allows us to lose health a little bit and gives us a thorn to humble us, it's that the power of Christ might rest upon us.

And that resting of the power of Christ, that abiding Holy Ghost upon us is worth whatever we give up.

Whatever he asks us to give up, it's worth it.

Because the plan that he has is to glorify him.

But but but but there's something else that I that I need to tell you.

And I'll not ask you to turn there, but I want to read you two scriptures before I give you an illustration or two.

Uh I'll I'll I'll tell you where it's at, but please don't turn there.

I don't want to lose your focus.

In Mark chapter 10, it says this uh those that are willing to, if you would, leave certain things.

Mark 10 · chapter mention

Uh it was said by Peter, uh, we have left.

We've left all.

And here's what the Lord says.

After he tells them that uh there's nothing you left that I can't give you back, he says, Ye shall receive a hundredfold now in this time.

So what he says is, whatever you left, or whatever you're willing to leave, whatever you're willing to transition, I can give you a hundredfold more, a hundredfold more in this present time, now.

I can make it even better for you.

That's what the book says.

I'll read you the other scriptures that deal with this, and it's in and it's in the book of Luke.

He said, uh, talking about the same thing, that there's no man that has left certain things, then he says, who shall not receive manifest or manifold more in this present time.

You say, but it seems like I lost something.

It seems like I I lost a lifestyle, or I lost, uh, I lost this, or I gave up that, or I lost that, or I gave up this, and and I didn't quite know why.

And well, God says I can manifold a hundredfold more in this present time and give you even greater, because God doesn't just say, lose something, he says, lose something and I'll replace it with gain.

Lose something that I want you to lose and I'll replace it with gain.

There are people that have lost jobs.

And you say, I did a good, I did good work.

I I don't know why they let me go.

I don't know why they closed that out.

I don't know why the company went down.

I don't know why I've lost this, I don't know why this happened.

I just don't understand why.

Hang in there.

God probably has something that you'll gain.

Why?

Because the scripture says, What you lost, Paul said, I counted it for gain.

Certain things we need to lose in our life that's hindrances to us, hindrances, and certain things, if you would, we need to lose because he's got a better plan for us.

For example, uh, Paul, who was Saul, lost his Pharisee grouping.

He lost his uh he lost his peers, he he lost those who respected him.

In fact, he kind of went against them and began preaching Christ.

What do you mean?

Over here he's a Pharisee persecuting the church, and over here he's preaching the very one, Christ, that he caused others to blaspheme.

Well, they couldn't understand it, and he lost all those friendships, brethren.

Sometimes going through life, God may show you to lose some friendships.

Let me say that again.

God may cause you or show you to lose some friendships.

Please don't think this is like a superior statement or inferior.

But sometimes friends, the wrong friends, can hold us back.

I'm not saying break any vows.

I didn't say break any vows.

But sometimes the wrong grouping of friends can hinder us from what we're supposed to become for God.

Now, if you're saying you mean that person next to me, no, not that person.

You're in church.

Come on, stay with me.

You know that person right in front of me?

No, I'm not saying that person.

You're in church, man.

You're in church.

Don't say that.

But sometimes God may say, I want you out of that business and those associations.

Why?

Because he's God.

Or I want you away from that setting and those people.

Well, they don't seem that bad.

Just do what I'm telling you.

I mean, that's God.

Why?

Okay, I'm going to give you an illustration.

It's a silly illustration, but I want you to listen.

So I was in Buford, South Carolina.

It's a true story.

I was in Buford, South Carolina in the Marine Corps.

I got saved down there in the Marine Corps a number of years ago.

And once in a while I like to I used to like to walk out on the water, or not on the water, uh, near the water.

All right.

That'll go down in history, amen.

Hey, did you hear Pastor Fisher say he used to walk on the water in South Carolina?

No, no, I didn't do that.

That's that didn't come out right.

All right.

Put that on Facebook and I'll deny it, amen.

I'm just kidding with you.

So uh near the water, and I like to go out on this certain pier that goes out into the water, and there were fishermen out there.

And and then, if you would, uh, on the on the front end of the pier as you're going out, there were people uh with crabs.

They caught crabs.

And the crabs down there are not small little crabs, they're they're the kind of crabs you eat, amen.

Good kind of crabs.

And I was walking by one day, and I remember this, it was my maybe my second time out there, and this this guy was catching crabs.

And uh I noticed something that he had an open bucket, just an open five-gallon bucket, and he had the crabs in there.

I said, uh, don't you have to put a covering over that or something?

And he said, You're not from here, are you?

I said, What is it?

My uh my accent?

And he said, No, your knowledge.

He said, Your accent too, but you know.

He did, he said, Yeah, it's your accents, but really it's your knowledge.

He said, You put one crab in the bucket and it gets out.

It'll crawl up, it'll find a way to get out.

You put two crabs in there and nobody gets out.

He says, once you got two crabs in there, it doesn't matter how many crabs you put in there, as long as you don't get too close to the top, nobody gets out.

Because when one tries to get out, the rest of them pull him back down again.

He said, Watch.

He had about three, three, four crabs in there, three or four crabs, and they're pretty big.

And I watched, one would try to get out and get its lip, get his little claw up on the top, and the others would pull him back down.

I'm giving you the truth.

I walked away from there and I didn't get it at that time.

It was years later that I start thinking about, you know, sometimes God pulls us away from the crabs in the bucket.

Some guys, sometimes God says, lose that.

They're holding you back.

Their attitude, their philosophy, their spirit, their their focus, their something, their their business practices.

Their emphasis on this in in whatever it is.

Uh there's nothing wrong with that, but that's too emphasized.

It's too important to them, and it's not important to Christ.

Come on, are you still with me?

Uh they're doing something that you shouldn't be doing.

And they just keep pulling us back and pulling us back and pulling us down.

Like, like, like there's no lid.

You can see daylight.

You can almost get your little hand up on the lid to get out, and then all of a sudden they pull you back again.

Attitudes or philosophies or criticisms or whatever it is.

I gotta tell you, in business, you can't operate unfairly and out of balance.

You can't be dishonest in business.

There can't be a false balance.

Come on, are you still with me?

Now I'm not saying all businesses are perfect, but when they're asking you to do something that your conscience bothers you.

And I was in business for a while when I became pastor of this church.

And for the most part, we did right.

And and and and may I say, then they asked me to do things that I just didn't feel comfortable doing.

I mean, I didn't want to tell you what they asked me to do.

But it was like like they came to me and and wanted me to do some things uh with clients and all kinds of stuff that we're in the businesses, and I just said, look, if you don't mind, I can't do that.

It's not like I'm not providing good service for them, I'm keeping the contract, uh, you know, we gave them a good price, we're making money off of this, and and everybody's happy, but you're asking me to gouge them now.

You're asking me to do a false balance and make way more money than we actually should.

Now look, there's a difference between making this much and making this much, where you have a false balance going on and you're lying to them.

Come on, are you with me or not?

You know what the crabs wanted to do?

They wanted to pull me back in the bucket.

Well, this is what everybody does.

No, no, I said, no, they don't.

No, I'm not that dumb.

God is blessing our our our division, the division I was in charge of.

God is blessing our division, and he's made us look good.

And look at the money that you're making on the bottom line of the PL.

Profit and loss statement.

Yes, we see that, but we're asking you to do this.

And I said, I can't do that.

I just can't do that.

But it's available, they'll never know.

When they say they'll never know, I'm thinking, wait a minute, God knows.

And I'm not being blessed because of they'll never know.

I'm being blessed because I'm trying to follow what God wants.

Now I wasn't perfect, I lost money once in a while.

What do you mean lost money?

I I bid a job and it didn't make as much as it should have.

And then some jobs I bid and we'd do and make a little more than we thought.

Come on, you still with me?

But when they said do it purposely, unfairly, and dishonest.

Now, wait a minute, I got a conscience.

And I've read the book of Proverbs.

And I can't do a false balance because in his eyes, that's unjust.

It goes overboard, and there's got to be a line you draw somewhere.

And that line was drawn in my conscience.

And they said, Well, we don't know what we're gonna do.

And I said, Look, if you want, I'll go start looking for another job.

No, no, no, no, don't do that.

No, I will, no problem.

In fact, there's probably a guy across town that would like to hire me.

We just got two very, very large bids that he wanted.

One of them was Hewlett Packard up in Rancho Bernardo.

Another of them was National Cash Register in Rancho Bernardo.

He lives in Rancho Bernardo and he worked to get those jobs for 10 years, he told me on one of them, Hewlett Packard.

Hewlett Packard was in-house, the service we did, it went outside the contract, and he was walking around thinking he got it.

He got it, he got it.

I remember doing the walkthrough.

I remember walking through late at night, the employees weren't there, they didn't want the in-house employees to know.

And we did that walkthrough, and he was walking around like he already knew everything.

He'd already been through the facility many, many times.

He thought he had it in the bag.

And we got the bid.

Man, was he mad.

He called me up and said, How'd you get that bid?

His name was Gary.

I'll never forget it.

I said, Gary, I think the Lord blessed us.

He said, I knew you were gonna say that.

True story.

I could give you his last name.

I know his last name.

He said, I knew you were gonna say that.

He said, Did you underbid?

I said, I don't think so.

He said, What do you think sold them?

And I said, Well, I already told you.

I think the Lord blessed us.

He said, I know, I know, I know, but what on a practical basis?

And I gave him about a half an hour dissertation on how it was presented.

And he said, Oh.

I said, but Gary, it was the Lord.

This is a true story.

Two years later, Gary hired me.

Maybe a year and a half later.

Why?

He said he called me up and he said, Doug, I want to have lunch with you.

Now you go to lunch with a competitor.

That's that's that's okay.

It's fair.

People do it all the time.

And my conscience didn't bother me.

So I went to lunch with a competitor.

We got two buildings out there, and we got one of the high-rises downtown.

Man, it wasn't the money, it was he didn't win.

He took me to lunch and he said, Doug, what are you making over there?

I said, You know everything.

You probably already know.

He said, I really did, and I do, but I just wanted to ask you.

I said, I'm not telling you.

He said, Well, I already know.

I said, Okay.

He said, I'll double your yearly salary.

I said, uh, Gary, do you know I'm pastoring a church?

He said, I do.

I said, you know everything.

He said, I know a lot.

He said, I'll double your salary.

I said, Why are you doing that?

He said, I don't want you to bid against me anymore.

I'm not making that up.

This is not, I'm not exaggerating anything.

And my wife's sitting in here, I came home and I said, I just got a job offer.

I don't know if I told her everything because when I walked out of there, I was stunned.

But let me tell you what I was thinking when I walked away from that lunch.

God, are you in this?

Lord, are you in this?

Lord, is this something you want?

Because I don't want to be bought.

And if it's not something you want, you say, why?

Why were you saying that?

I was getting ready to leave the crabs in the bucket.

Who were the crabs?

The company I was working for.

They wouldn't let me go anymore.

They wouldn't let me, they wouldn't let me go.

What do you mean they wouldn't let me go?

They wouldn't let me do things the way it needed to be done in my in my thoughts.

Are you still with me or not?

There's certain things they wanted me to do that I didn't want to do that I had a problem with doing that was just business, and they did it, and I just couldn't do it.

I I I didn't go, please listen, I didn't go to the drunken parties.

I'm not being unkind.

I'm not trying.

Judge anybody.

I just couldn't go to them.

I just couldn't.

My my wife and I went to one function up in uh up in uh uh the high rent district just north of us in the places where the rooms are extremely expensive.

And I remember the night we were sitting at a banquet, they were honoring certain uh managers and sales and all that, and I was getting honored that night.

And when my wife sat down, when she when she picked up her little uh thing there, there was a hundred dollar bill under the cup.

And all the women got that just to start.

What do you mean?

It there was just money flowing, like rewards and thanks and gifts and manipulation.

I mean, money.

What was that?

That was the crabs in the bucket.

What were they doing?

You need us.

Look what we're doing for you.

Look what we're giving your wives.

And I mean, it was it was fancy, but behind the scenes there was a lot more to it.

Well, well, how'd you get in there?

Well, I believe God gave me that job.

If you know the whole story, I won't go into it.

God gave you that job.

Stay with me.

But there was a point in time when you get so much higher into the into the making more money.

And now you're making them a lot of money on a monthly basis.

Then they want you to do things to make more.

But that's not how we got to where we were.

We got to where we were by being honest and fair and doing a good job, and they were profit.

We know there was profit.

Some jobs I would do as a one-time job, we make a lot of money, other ones not so much.

Stay with me.

But there came a point in time where they wanted me to do certain things that it just started bothering me, and it was just on my mind a lot.

Like my conscience.

Problems with my conscience, stay with me.

And the idea is my phone is saying it's time to quit.

I set an alarm.

I'm way over.

But let me finish.

Because somebody is thinking about losing something right now, and you need to consider it for Christ.

For Christ.

And it's gain.

So Gary called me, true story, had lunch, said I'll double your salary.

I uh then I still get commissions on top of that.

And he said, I just don't want you bidding against me anymore.

And I said, Gary, I'll meet with you a second time, but I'm gonna tell my manager I'm meeting with you.

He said, That's fair.

So I went back and told my manager, because I didn't want to do anything unethical.

I have nothing to hide.

Really?

You say, Well, you wouldn't do it that way in normal business.

I wasn't normal.

And I'm still not.

The idea is I went back and told my manager, I want you to know I had a meeting with you know who Gary is.

Yes, competitor, and he offered me double the salary, but I'm not asking you to counter that.

I'm not playing that game.

I just wanted you to know that.

And he looked kind of flushed and he said, What are you gonna do?

And I said, Well, I don't know.

I mentioned it to my wife, and I'm just not sure yet.

I'm gonna have a second meeting with Gary no matter what, either to say yes or no.

He said, Okay.

They did offer me something more, but that wasn't the point.

I met back with Gary again, true story.

And I said, Gary, I need to tell you something.

I'm a pastor of the church, but the church is growing.

This is three years, two and a half years into my pastoring.

The church is growing.

I can't be here as much with a growing church.

He said, Doug, I've kind of checked that out.

I said, Would you visit our services?

He said, I already had somebody visit.

I said, You already had somebody visit.

He says, You one of my employees visited the church.

Gave me a full report.

I said, Oh.

How'd I do?

He laughed.

He said, I can see, we see it's growing.

I can't be here, Gary.

He said, Look, Doug, as long as you're not beating bidding against me, I know jobs that are coming up, and you do too.

And you know there's three big ones coming up.

And I don't want you bidding against me.

I don't care if you come to work twice a week.

I said, What'd you say?

I said, I don't care if you come to work twice a week.

He said, No, I'd like you to hear a little bit more for the rest of the employees to see.

I said, but but I don't have to be as aggressive out there getting bids.

He said, No.

I just don't want you bidding against me.

I said, let's shake on it.

He reached across the table with a big smile and shook on it.

I said, Done.

I went to work with him for him for almost nine months and didn't sell anything.

One or two little, small, little, five little small things, but nothing big.

And I said, after the end of that nine months, or said, I need to leave and become pastor full-time at our church to put my time in here.

He said, No problem at all.

He said, if you ever need a job, let me know.

You mean you don't want me to hire in with the other company?

He said, That's right.

Brother, I'm gonna tell you, the crabs by God let me out of the bucket.

And I didn't do much for that company, but allowed me to serve here.

It was losing something to gain something.

Look up here, and then losing that to gain more.

The progression was losing this over here, getting out of the bucket.

And I gotta tell you, Gary never put me in the bucket.

He freed me from the start.

And then at the right time, saying, Now I need to move over into this position and thank you.

And we remain friends.

He did come to church one time after that.

He got to hear the gospel.

The gospel is that Jesus Christ died purposely freely and rose again from the dead.

And you can be saved if you trust Christ as your Savior.

Maybe today God's saying, lose something that you get gain.

Hundredfold more, a hundredfold more in this time, manifest more, manifest more.

Maybe not in the same exact way.

Please look.

From over here what I made and the crabs in the bucket to getting out when things changed, to what I was making for Gary, please look up here.

Would you understand?

I took a significant salary cut to become a pastor.

Not just a little significant, but wait a minute, wait a minute.

But the opportunities here were much greater than all that.

Praise the Lord for all that.

But the opportunities now, there was great gain in the future.

You mean monetarily?

That's not as big as a problem, that's not as big as an issue as giving God glory.

Giving God glory.

My apologies for preaching so long.

That's for somebody who's going, come on.

For the rest of us, may God use this in some way, shape, or form.

And maybe there's a crab or two holding you down.

A person, a situation, a philosophy, an attitude, a something.

I gotta tell you who's in the bucket.

My carnal nature is in that bucket, too.

So is yours.

And our carnal nature will hold us back.

And every time we want to get out, our carnal nature will grab a hold of us and say, No, you can't.

Come on, are you still with me?

Don't let your carnal nature say you can't.

Because in Christ, that carnal nature is to be crucified.

To be able to be what we want to be.

Thank you for listening to this message by Pastor Doug Fisher of Lighthouse Baptist Church in Lemon Grove, California.

To learn more about Lighthouse Baptist Church, visit our website at www.lighthousebaptist.com or call six one nine four six one fifty five sixty one.