USE IT OR LOSE IT
II Pet. 2:20-21
INTRO.- ILL.- Neon pink shorts and pink running shoes. What would you think of a guy who runs in
these? You might think he was either gay or else he just didn’t care what other people thought.
GUESS WHO RAN IN THEM? I’ll give you two guesses and the first one doesn’t count.
Rick Vicenzi, a deacon in the First Christian Church of Anna, IL, saw me in those pink shoes and shorts
one time during a race and commented, “Any man who would wear those is certainly sure of his masculinity.” And I thought, “Thank you very much,” because I was quite sure of my masculinity. And
still am.
It may be not much masculinity, but it’s still masculinity. I just happen to like the color pink, however, I like red better and I always ran faster in red.
ILL.- After winning the over-40 division (called Master’s division) in a half-marathon in Nashville, TN, my picture appeared the next week in the Democrat/Gazette newspaper of Anna, IL. The next day I received a phone call from a lady preacher in town, who said, “Hey, I just wanted you to know that
you’ve got a great-looking pair of legs.”
And I said, “Thank you very much.” No, I don’t even remember what I said. I was so taken back by her remark I didn’t know what to say.
Brethren, believe it or not, at one time my legs were very strong and muscular from running all the time. BUT THEY’RE NOT ANY MORE!
I haven’t run since 1995. In the spring of 1995 my doctor diagnosed my right hip with osteoarthritis.
From then on it was all downhill. I couldn’t run and my walking even deteriorated to a limp.
I limped for three years before finally giving in and having my hip replaced. And just before my surgery
on April 15th I discovered something else about my body. MY RIGHT LEG HAD ATROPHIED!
My right leg had shrunk as a result of three years of limping. I WAS A FREAK! Of course, some people
thought that all along. Some still do.
Brethren, the old axiom applies: USE IT OR LOSE IT!
The principle is this: If you don’t keep on using your body and using your muscles in various forms of work and exercise, you will lose a certain amount of muscle tone. THEY WILL ATROPHY!
ILL.- A man who was having a great deal of trouble in life and was really becoming frustrated and discouraged, said, “It’s enough to make a man lose his religion.”
A friend observed, “NO, IT LOOKS TO ME LIKE IT SHOULD MAKE A MAN USE HIS RELIGION.”
Whenever we are faced with some difficulty in life we will either turn away from the Lord or turn to Him. We will either use lose our religion or use it. I prefer to use it.
Use it or lose it. If we don’t continue using our faith, i.e. living by faith, then there is a good possibility it won’t be there whenever we are faced with some serious trouble in life.
And living by faith in the Lord is the only way I know how to effectively cope with life’s difficulties!
Use it or lose it. Generally, the principle can be applied to almost everything in life.
PROP.- In this message I want to talk about three areas where we must “use it or lose it.”
1- Use your body or lose it
2- Use your faith or lose it
3- Use your church or lose it
I. USE YOUR BODY OR LOSE IT
ILL.- Baseball pitcher Dizzy Dean was the first to admit that he wasn’t that smart. On being enshrined
in the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953, he said, “I want to thank the good Lord for giving me a strong right arm, a strong back, and a weak mind.”
Brothers and sisters, no matter what you’ve been given: a strong arm or a weak arm, a strong back or
a weak back, a strong mind or a weak mind, it still comes from God!
There are definitely some things that we don’t like about our bodies. If most of us had the opportunity
to change something about bodies, we’d do it! Few of us are truly satisfied with what we’ve been given.
That’s why we fix up, paint up, color up, doll up, dress up, and jump up! Or something like that.
Why do you think runners run? It’s not because they like to run. It’s because they don’t like their
bodies. They are trying to reshape their bodies. That’s also why guys lift weights!
Regardless of what kind of body you have, it comes from God.
Ps. 139:13-14 “For you (God) created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.”
The human body is a wonderful creation of God.
ILL.- For example listen to these facts.
- The average human heart pumps over 1,000 gallons a day, over 55 million gallons in a lifetime. This is
enough to fill 13 super tankers. The heart never sleeps, beating 2.5 billion times in a lifetime.
- The human lung contains 1,000 miles of capillaries. The process of exchanging oxygen for carbon dioxide is so complicated that Dr. John Medina says, “It is more difficult to exchange oxygen for carbon dioxide in the lungs than for a man shot out of a canon to carve the Lord’s Prayer on the head of a pin as he passes by.”
I’d say that would be pretty hard to do, wouldn’t you?
How did this complicated act of exchanging oxygen for carbon dioxide come about? ONE WORD ANSWER: GOD.
- The human body contains enough DNA that if it were stretched out, it would circle the sun 260 times.
Wow!
- The human body uses energy very efficiently. If an average adult rides a bike for 1 hour at 10 mph, it
uses the amount of energy contained in 3 ounces of carbohydrate. If a car were this efficient with
gasoline, guess what kind of gas mileage it would get? 900 MILES TO THE GALLON.
Amazing body! Amazing Creator!
Brothers and sisters, regardless of the body you have it is an incredible creation of God. Praise Him for
it! And take good care of it. Use it or lose it.
ILL.- Many dads have their names on the title of the car that their child drives. The child may be 16 or 18 or even 20, but dad’s name is on the title. And I’ve known of some dads to say to their child, “If you don’t take care of that car. Or if I find you doing something that you shouldn’t be doing, I”m going to take your car away from you, like it or not. And there is nothing you can do about it.”
Right on, Dads! Sometimes that’s the only way to get some kids to straighten up. THREATEN TO TAKE THEIR WHEELS AWAY FROM THEM. Most teens today would die without their wheels.
Brothers and sisters, whether you realize it or not, God has the legal title to your body! He paid the
price for your body on Calvary! And you have no legal right to do with it whatever you want! It’s not
yours!
I Cor. 6:19-20 “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. Therefore honor God with your body.”
If you are a Christian then your body belongs to God! You are not the legal owner of your body.
We don’t want to over-emphasize the importance of the body, but neither do we want to under-emphasize the importance of it.
We don’t need to strive to have a body-beautiful like an Arnold Schwarzenegger or a Cindy Crawford. But neither should we neglect it or abuse it and possibly lose it.
Some things seem to be beyond our control, however.
ILL.- My mom recently turned 81-years-old. She’s had arthritis for many years as well as Lupus. At one
time she thought she was going to go on kidney dialysis. Now in recent years she has contracted Parkinson’s disease, which is giving her all kinds of trouble. She takes medicine for it 4 times a day, but if she happens to forget her medicine the disease really does a number on her.
There will be times when she just freezes up, so to speak. She’s not able to move. It’s as though her
legs weigh a hundred pounds a piece. And sometimes she has pain along with it.
Some months ago she said to me, “I sure hope you don’t get this.” And I said, “Mom, I might and who knows? I might get something worse.”
Believe me, I don’t want Parkinson’s disease! And I don’t want something worse than what she has, but we all get some kind of disease or ailment as we age.
ILL.- Back in about 1984/85 I started having a sharp pain in my neck. I know, I know, I’m a pain in the
neck. The pain kept getting worse and especially, when I would go to ball games and yell for my team.
It was like somebody was sticking a knife in my neck. Finally, I had to give up on going to ball games because I couldn’t go and watch and be quiet. NO COMMENT, PLEASE.
I put up with the pain for about 6 months and finally gave in and went to an ear, nose and throat
specialist. I said, “Doctor, what do you think it could be?” He said, “Well, it could be cancer.”
Turned out I had ulcerated nodules on my vocal chords. He prescribed Prednisone and told me to go
home and be quiet. In order words, shut up!
Brethren, I have learned that I must take care of my voice and my vocal chords in order to use them for
the Lord in preaching, teaching and witnessing. I HAVE TO DO THAT BECAUSE MY BODY BELONGS TO GOD, vocal chords and all.
The same is true of you too! Your body, vocal chords and all, belongs to the Lord. Consequently, that
means we must take care of our bodies as best we can since the Lord has the legal title to them.
God wants us to enjoy our bodies and at the same time He wants us to use them to honor Him and serve Him.
We need to take care of our bodies as best we can! We need to get the proper amount of sleep in order to function properly. We need to eat right and get some exercise, if at all possible.
ILL.- Someone asked the other day, “Where’s so and so?” And somebody responded, “She’s overeating.” Someone said, “I do that occasionally.”
She’s overeating. Actually, she meant, “she’s over there eating at that restaurant.” The truth is
sometimes we do overeat and it’s really not good for us. AND I DON’T HAVE ANY ROOM TO TALK, BECAUSE I’M OVERWEIGHT. I’ve gained 10 or more pounds since moving to Mattoon.
It’s not bad, but it could get bad! Lord willing, I’m not going to let it get too bad.
I’m suggesting that we all do a better job of trying to care of our bodies because they belong to God.
And if we want them to function properly and be able to enjoy life and serve the Lord then we must do
something. USE YOUR BODY OR LOSE IT. Or at least, you’ll lose some of it’s ability to function
properly.
II. USE YOUR FAITH OR LOSE IT
ILL.- The following conversation took place between a church member and a minister. The minister asked, “Are you interested in going to heaven?” The church member replied, “What a question to ask me, preacher. Of course, I am interested in going to heaven. That’s the reason I was baptized by old Brother Faithful over at Poney Slab Holler back...well, I just don’t remember when it was.”
The minister said, ”Where are you attending church?” The church member said, “What’s that? Where am I going to church? Why, I go once in a while over to Coal Holler where Brother Smoothit preaches. You say he’s been gone from there for three years. Well, I didn’t know it had been that long since I had been to church! Of course, the weather’s not been the best. And I’ve been busy and I haven’t felt too good. But I’m really interested in heaven.”
The minister said, “Where does your family attend church?” The church member said, “Why, they don’t
go anywhere. You know how my wife is. Oh, you ain’t never met my wife. Well, that woman just won’t hear anything about church. She won’t get the children ready and take ‘em to Sunday School. And you know it’s not a man’s place to do that. I tell you, I just don’t know how I’ve stay interested in heaven and lived with that woman. I’ve put up with more from her than Sodom ever put up with his wife Gommorah.”
The minister said, “How much money have you given to the church?” The church member said, “What’s that...how much money have I given to the church? Now wait just a minute preacher! You can ask all the questions you want to, but when you ask about money you’ve gone a mite too far. It’s none of your business how much I give to the Lord. It’s no body else’s business either. That is one thing I never do, go around bragging about how much I give. And when people ask me, like you did, I ain’t going to tell ‘em. Just makes me glad that I don’t give
anything. The very idea asking me if I was interested in heaven, and then trying to find out how much I give to the Lord.”
James 2:26 “As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.”
Brethren, that so-called church member didn’t go to church and didn’t give back to the Lord. HIS FAITH WAS NOT ACTIVE. He wasn’t using his faith, consequently he was losing it. USE IT OR LOSE IT.
II Pet. 2:20-21 “If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them.”
Brethren, this Scripture doesn’t sound very good. It’s not a positive Scripture. But a negative Scripture can be a positive influence for good in our lives if we will let it.
This Scripture suggests to me a person who has escaped the sin and corruption of the world through faith in Christ and then they turned back to the world. That’s bad and a very dangerous thing to do!
Some people have turned away from Christ and are walking on dangerous ground! And that generally
happens when people don’t use their faith. USE IT OR LOSE IT.
ILL.- I once knew of a young married couple who had two sweet little girls. The mom and dad were
probably in their upper 20’s or early 30’s. The mother had been raised in the church most of her life. She was always in Sunday School, church, youth meetings, sang special music, and even went to
church camp nearly every summer. She seemed to frolic in her faith. She seemed to enjoy it very much.
Her husband was something of a recent convert but had become quite involved with the church. In fact, he even served on the church board. Together, the family attended church faithfully.
But then one day, they started slacking off in their attendance at church. One Sunday led to two and two to three and before we knew it they weren’t coming at all. They were contacted about not coming to church, but nothing seemed to get them back. People were concerned about them. They were prayed for.
The next thing we heard was they were frequenting bars. And the young mother ended up getting pregnant by another man and their marriage ended in divorce. I don’t what happened after that. How sad!
Brethren, sometimes bad things happen to people who don’t use their faith or keep working at it. USE
IT OR LOSE IT. How do you use your faith or keep it active?
ILL.- Perhaps we can think of this way. When I lived near the Lake of Ozarks in central Missouri I got
involved in bass fishing. I even subscribed to Bassmasters publication, a magazine for bass fisherman.
And the more I read, the more excited I became and the more I wanted to fish. And the more I fished,
the more I caught.
Something else stimulated my interest in bass fishing. I found the more I talked to fellow bass
fisherman about bass fishing, about tackle and techniques, the more interested and excited I became.
And brethren, the same principle applies to the Christian life. The more you dig into the Word of God
and the more you read good solid Christian literature and books, the more excited you will become about living the Christina life.
And the more you talk to other Christians about the Christian life and the Bible, the more excited you
will become about living the Christian life. You’ll want to live the Christian life to its fullest!
BUT IF YOU DON’T KEEP ON WORKING AT YOUR CHRISTIAN FAITH, YOU COULD LOSE IT!
III. USE YOUR CHURCH OR LOSE IT
ILL.- A little girl asked her new neighbor, “Do you go to church?” “Yes, do you?” the new neighbor responded. “We’re Methodists, and I go every Sunday with my mother.”
“Doesn’t your daddy go too?” “No.” “Isn’t he a Methodist?” “I’m not sure. MOTHER SAID HE IS A SEVENTH-DAY ABSENTIST.”
I don’t know about Seventh-Day absentists, but I think there are an awful lot of First-Day absentists
around, meaning a lot of people who don’t come to church on any given Sunday.
ILL.- Three preachers got together for coffee one day. They discovered that all three of their churches
had become bat-infested. One preacher said, “I got so mad that I took a shotgun and fired at them. It
made holes in the ceiling, but did nothing to the bats.”
Another preacher said, “I trapped them alive and then drove 50 miles before releasing them, but they beat me back to the church.”
The third preacher said, “Well, I haven’t had any more problems with bats.” One preacher asked, “What did you do?” He said, “I simply baptized them and I haven’t seen them since.”
ILL.- Someone said, “If you want the church to go on, then go to church.” If we don’t attend the church and attend to church matters, we could lose the church.
ILL.- Someone else wrote: “I am your church. Without you I am nothing. If you fail to make an investment in me, I cannot materialize. Invest in me or I die.” USE IT OR LOSE IT.
ILL.- One preacher wrote, “Football in the fall. Basketball in the winter. Baseball in the spring and
summer. I have been an avid sports fan all my life. But I’ve had it! I quit! Here’s why.
- Every time I went to a ball game, they asked me for money.
- The people didn’t seem to be very friendly.
- The seats were too hard.
- The referee made a decision which I didn’t agree with.
- I suspected I was sitting next to some hypocrites.
- Some games went into overtime and I was late getting home.
- The band played some numbers I’d never heard before.
- Some of the games were scheduled when I wanted to do other things.
- I was taken to too many games when I was a kid.
- I don’t want to take my children to any games, because I want them to choose for themselves what sport they like best.
Brethren, the quickest way in the world to kill a church is by either not attending it or when you do
attend, do nothing but criticize it.
ILL.- Someone else said, “The typical American has developed a remarkable capacity for being serious
about religion without taking religion seriously.”
Brethren, we need to get serious about our relationship to Christ and that means we must get serious about attending and supporting the church!
Eph. 1:22-23 “And God placed all things under his (Christ’s) feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”
If Christ is the head of the church then whenever we neglect the church we are also neglecting the Head, because the two cannot be separated!
USE IT OR LOSE IT. If we don’t use the church in the sense of getting actively involved, we could well
lose the church!
ILL.- A year and a half ago I drove a 1990 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. It had over 130,000 miles on it. It ran fine though. In fact, it ran very good. One time I told my son Shane, “I keep hearing a noise in the engine compartment, like it’s rattling or something.”
Shane said, “Dad, have the checked oil lately? It’s probably the tappets making noise.” And I thought,
“It couldn’t be. My car doesn’t burn oil.” Well, I went and checked the oil and it didn’t even measure on the dipstick. No wonder it was rattling and making noise.
I nearly burnt up my motor simply because I didn’t pay any attention to it. I didn’t attend to it. AND THE SAME THING CAN VERY EASILY HAPPEN TO A CHURCH.
Use it or lose it. Attend it and attend to it or else you’ll lose it.
In the future we all need to become more committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and to His Church! We need to attend the worship services, the Bible studies, the dinners, the parties, the youth meetings, you name it. And we need to support the church with our offerings. Matthew 6:33
If we don’t support the Lord’s church in every way there won’t be a church to support some day.
CONCLUSION-----------------------------------
ILL.- A collector of rare books ran into a friend of his who had just thrown away an old Bible that had
been in his family for generations. He happened to mention that some man by the name of Guten.. something had printed it.
“Not Gutenberg?” he asked. “Yes, that was the guy’s name.” “You dummy! You’ve thrown away one of the first books ever printed. That book was probably worth a half-million dollars.”
He replied, “Na, mine wouldn’t have been worth much at all because some guy named Martin Luther had scribbled all over it.”
Brethren, many times we don’t realize the value of something until it is gone. That can be true of
family member or a friend. That can also be true of our bodies, our faith and our church. All of these
are extremely valuable in God’s sight. Let’s attend to them. Let’s make good use of them or else we
may lose them.
