Josh Broward
December 5, 2010
William Carey was born in 1761 to a simple family in Paulerspury, England. His father was a weaver, and when Carey was 14, he became an apprentice of a shoemaker.
In his 20s, he transitioned from shoemaking to being the local schoolmaster, and soon after, he became the pastor of a local Baptist church. He lived in a simple cottage with a thatch (or grass) roof, but he taught himself Greek, Hebrew, Italian, Dutch, and French.
As he read about the adventures of Captain Cook (one of the first great English explorers), he felt a growing passion for world missions. He realized that there are whole lands, whole nations out there who have never heard about Jesus and God’s amazing grace. One day, he heard the missionary calling in the quiet of his workshop, and he answered with tears in the words of Isaiah, “Here am I; send me.” (See Isaiah 6:8.)
However, his fellow Christians and even his fellow pastors were not all that supportive. In one pastors meeting in 1786, Carey raised a challenging question. He asked if Jesus’ command to “go and make disciples of all nations” still applies to us today. (See Matthew 28:19.) One Dr. Ryland snarked back: "Young man, sit down: when God pleases to covert the heathen, He will do it without your aid or mine."
We don’t know if Carey sat down in that meeting, but Carey did not give up. In 1792, he wrote a book about the history of Christian missions, the current state of the world, and a basic plan for establishing a missionary sending organization. Later that year, when the Baptist Missionary Society was formed, Carey was so poor that he could only promise that he would give the profits from his book.
In the same year, Carey preached a sermon that sparked the modern missionary movement. Throughout the sermon, he repeated one line again and again: “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.”
In 1793, Carey and his family left for India. However, they didn’t get very far. The British government stopped their boat because they feared the missionary activities would endanger the trade interests of the British East India Company. A few months later, they found a Dutch ship willing to carry them to India.
Carey was a God Gambler. He went against his family, against many leaders in the church, and against his own government. He left a stable life and a stable job. He redefined success as following the call of God. He bet everything on Jesus. And he would be the first to tell you, it was the best bet he ever made.
For seven years, there were no tangible results - not a single convert. His wife went crazy, and his son died of dysentery. However, he stayed for 41 years. He translated the New Testament into several Indian languages, and he helped to establish the first Christian college in Asia.1
Carey was a God Gambler. He couldn’t see the whole picture. He didn’t know how it would turn out. He heard the call of God to participate in the salvation story, and he risked everything to obey. Like Cary, God asks us to gamble everything on God’s salvation story. You and I are called to be God Gamblers. Go “all-in.”2 Push your chips to the center of the table. Bet your life on Jesus. It is a gamble, but God is worth the risk. It will be the best bet you ever make.
Let me introduce you to another set of God Gamblers: Bill and Myrtle Lee Jetton, my grandparents. Some of you may remember that we celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary this summer. When they got married, my grandpa was 18 and my grandma was 15. She says, “Well, I was almost 16,” and my grandpa says, “Yeah, 15 and 2 months!” They were pretty poor folk from the country. My granddad did his courting by riding 10 miles each way on horseback.
After they married, grandpa worked various types of farm jobs. Eventually, they moved out to Colorado to work on a sheep ranch, and my grandma worked as a cook for the farm hands. She also finished high school through the mail.
Then, World War 2 started, and my grandpa was drafted. He fought in Okinawa, while my grandma tried to support herself and two little girls at home in America. (By the way, my grandpa was a pretty good card player. He sent home extra money for the family from his earnings in poker.)
After the war, grandpa started university and he got involved in a job selling Vita-craft Cookware, high quality pots and pans. Grandma and Grandpa would invite people over for dinner and then try to sell them pans. They were great at it. My mom says the secret to their success was half Grandpa’s skills as a salesman and half Grandma’s skills as a cook. Anyway, within a few months, Grandpa was promoted to be his boss’s boss. He became the director for sales in the whole region.
All this time, he was still going to university. One day one of his sales appointments made him late for class, and his professor said, “Mr. Jetton, you’re late! What do you have to say for yourself?” Grandpa said, “Well, I made a hundred dollars this morning, and that’s why I’m late.” (I checked the inflation rate, and that was about $1,000 today.) After that, none of his professors complained if he was late to class.
They were making it rich. Grandpa bought a brand new car, and they were starting to think about owning the horse ranch that Grandpa had always dreamed of. Grandpa was starting to think about buying a private airplane. They were a few steps away from making the big time, wealthy businessman life.
Then, they became Christians. Then, God asked my Grandpa to be a pastor. That was a difficult calling for Grandpa. It came just as his business career was starting to take off. He knew the sacrifice involved, but he decided to stake his life on Jesus. He bet everything on Jesus.
They had some hard times. Usually, Grandpa would take a small struggling church, and he would help it grow to be a few hundred people, and then he would leave. He felt like his calling and gifting was for the little churches. There were times when they didn’t have money for Christmas presents, so they gathered wild nuts to sell door to door. Grandpa kept food on the table and put the kids through university by buying and selling anything he could find at a bargain: cars, refrigerators, land, horses, anything. But even at that, my mom remembers many meals of beans and cornbread - because they simply couldn’t afford anything else.
But they continued on. They kept serving, and they kept loving. I’ve asked my grandpa for advice on ministry many times, and he almost always says the same thing. “Just love the people. Just love the people, and everything else will work out.”
Throughout his ministry, he helped hundreds of people become Christians, and he mentored several future leaders. One of those is Andy Johnson, now a New Testament professor at Nazarene Theological Seminary, and another is Dan Boone, who is now president of Trevecca Nazarene University. Dan Boone told me that when he thinks of the word “pastor,” Bill Jetton is the first image to come to his mind.
Bill and Myrtle Lee Jetton are God Gamblers. They couldn’t see the whole picture. They didn’t know how it would turn out. They left a successful business career and dreams of a big ranch to follow God’s call to pastor struggling little churches. They redefined success as following the call of God. They heard the call of God to participate in the salvation story, and they risked everything to obey. They bet everything on Jesus. And they would be the first to tell you, it was the best bet they ever made.
Like Bill and Myrtle Lee, God asks us to gamble everything on God’s salvation story. You and I are called to be God Gamblers. Go “all-in.” Bet your life on Jesus. It is a gamble, but God is worth the risk. It will be the best bet you ever make.
Our Gospel Lesson today tells us about one more God Gambler. Throughout Advent, we’re reading Luke chapter 1, and today we begin Mary’s story. Let’s read it now: Luke 1:26-38.
Mary was a God Gambler. She was engaged to a good Jewish man. He wasn’t rich, but neither was she. He had a respectable job as a builder. The most important thing was that he was a good man, and he wanted her. She was about to experience the fulfillment of every Jewish girl’s dreams: a beautiful marriage, a good home, and a family.
Then, God shows up and asks her to risk it all. God asks her to risk her marriage, to risk her reputation, to risk her family’s social standing, and to risk her very life. To understand the depth of the gamble that God was asking Mary to take, watch this clip from The Nativity Story.3 So, remember the story. Mary was engaged to Joseph. Gabriel told Mary she would have God’s Son. Then, Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth for several months. As this clip begins, Mary is returning to Nazareth after several months away.
Mary was a God Gambler. She risked everything. She went against her family, her fiance, her culture, maybe even her self. She couldn’t see the whole picture. She didn’t know how it would all turn out. She redefined success as following the call of God. She heard the call of God to participate in the salvation story, and she risked everything to obey. She bet everything on Jesus. And she would be the first to tell you, it was the best bet she ever made.
Like Mary, God asks us to gamble everything on God’s salvation story. You and I are called to be God Gamblers. Go “all-in.” Bet your life on Jesus. It is a gamble, but God is worth the risk. It will be the best bet you ever make.
God calls us to be God Gamblers, too. There may be times when we have to go against our culture, against our friends, against our family, maybe even against our own desires. We can’t see the whole picture. We don’t know how it will all turn out. But God is calling us to redefine success as following the call of God.
God is calling us to participate in the salvation story. Will you risk everything to obey? Will you bet everything on Jesus? Let’s take a few minutes and think about some gambles God might be asking from us.
God might be asking you to gamble your job. Maybe you have a good, stable job. Maybe if you stay with the business you are in now, you could become rich, or at least very stable for your future. But maybe God has something else for you. Maybe God wants you to give more of your time to serving others and less to making money. Maybe God wants you to follow your dreams into a career that has few guarantees. Listen for the call of God, and then bet on Jesus. Go all in. It’s the best bet you’ll ever make.
God might be asking you to gamble your test scores or your children’s test scores. I know, I know, I know. This is a HUGE part of Korean culture. But maybe that is exactly the point. Maybe it’s too HUGE. Maybe the importance of test scores IS the problem. Maybe God is calling you to focus on your child’s total health rather than her test scores. Maybe God cares more about whether she is emotionally, spiritually, and socially healthy than her grades.
The hard part here is that you can’t see the whole picture. You don’t know how it will all turn out. It would be easy not to stress about test scores if you knew that your child would grow into a healthy, happy, God-loving adult, anyway. It would be easy not to stress about your test scores, if you knew you’d find a job that was meaningful and satisfying and provided for your family. But studying like crazy doesn’t give you any guarantees either. Either way, it’s a gamble.
Mary didn’t know how it would all turn out. Like Mary, God asks us to gamble everything on God’s salvation story. Be a God Gambler. Go “all-in.” Bet your life on Jesus. Yes, even bet your children’s lives on Jesus. It is a gamble, but God is worth the risk. It will be the best bet you ever make.
God might be asking you to gamble your relationships. Maybe you’ve been hanging out with the same people, the people like you. Maybe God’s call for you is to make new friendships with people who are different from you, people who might need a little more grace and patience. Maybe you’ve got this conflict that you just haven’t dealt with. Maybe - at this moment - the call of Jesus in your life is to get all the junk out in the open and deal with everything so that you can all find healing. Maybe the call of Jesus in your life is to find a good counselor.
I know. You don’t know how it will all work out. It would be so much easier to do the right thing if we knew it would go well for us. Life is a gamble, but God is worth the risk. Bet everything on Jesus. It will be the best bet you ever make.
Maybe God is asking you to gamble your church. Maybe our church is not exactly what you want. Maybe you just don’t know about this or that. Maybe NO church - at least no church you’ve ever seen is exactly what you want. Instead of sitting there on the sidelines or dropping out, go all in. Bet all your chips. Give all you’ve got to make this church the kind of church God is calling us to be. Bet on Jesus - here. Of course it’s a gamble. But you just might find that it’s one of the best bets you’ll ever make.
Maybe God is asking you to make the biggest gamble of all - your life. Maybe this is the time when you need to decide that you are going to follow Jesus no matter what. Maybe you’ve just been hanging around church. Maybe you aren’t so sure about this Jesus guy and this whole Christianity thing. Or, maybe you’ve been in church for most of your life, and it’s growing stale. Maybe you’re not sure you actually want to do this for the rest of your life.
Here’s the deal. You can’t see the whole picture. You don’t know how all of this is going to turn out. It would be easy to trust in Jesus if you knew that everything would be peaches and roses. Maybe all you can see right now is just the hint of light on the horizon. Maybe you still don’t really get how this whole Jesus thing works. But maybe there is something in that purple and blue that has captivated you. Maybe there is something in that hint of the light of Jesus that you KNOW is true, something that demands that you follow.
I can only offer you two guarantees. First, it will be hard. Following Jesus is necessarily difficult. Jesus calls us to be countercultural, to go against the flow. That is always hard. But here’s the second guarantee. It will be worth it.
Like William Cary, and Bill and Myrtle Lee Jetton, and Mary the mother of Jesus, God asks us to gamble everything on God’s salvation story. Be a God Gambler. Go “all-in.” Bet your life on Jesus. It is a gamble, but God is worth the risk. It will be the best bet you ever make.
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