Reverend Raymond Osborne, Pastor

Please Note That Most Messages Follow
The Revised Common Lectionary

Friday I went to Wesley Chapel Elementary and had lunch with my children. As I was sitting with my son and his friends the subject turned to football and I began to share with the boys about my college days. One of the boys asked me if I was ever on television. I told them of a time when I was in fact on television but it wasn’t for a football game.

Some of you may remember a television show called “That’s Incredible.” Yes, your pastor was on that television show. I was in an incredible race down Main Street in Enka, North Carolina. Our college football team was pitted against the Asheville Body Builders Club. The television show had arranged to have two 14 X 70 mobile homes sitting side-by-side on Main Street. Each mobile home was fully furnished and had an iron rod welded around it. On top of our mobile home were the cheerleaders for the team, and on top of there’s were the women body builders from their club. Each team had the task of surrounding a home, grabbing hold of the rod, picking the home up off the ground, and racing down Main Street. The first team to the end of the street won. To me what was incredible was the very fact that we actually were able to pick up those homes and move them down the street! Did we win? Well the show made it look like we were neck and neck, but the truth is those body builders picked up their home and literally RAN down the street while we crept along. No we did not win.

I sure do like to win - don’t you? Some of my favorite times are those times of winning! The desire to win is something that I have carried throughout the entire journey of my life. It is something that I will probably carry with me to my grave as I go out of this world striving even then to win! I enjoy being successful. Some of my most memorable times are those when I have been successful.

You enjoy winning too. Ladies you love it when you beat a man at a game or sport don’t you? Young people you love to when those ball games don’t you? Sure you do! We all love to win and be successful.

However, winning and success are not always attainable are they? The reality is that there are days and moments in my life that I feel like a complete loser. Life for me is a continuous battle. There are both opportunities and challenges every single day our Lord allows us to live. I don’t know about you but sometimes those challenges overwhelm me. There are days I feel like a centipede with a bunion on every toe!

There are times that when I get done speaking, I sink into the solitude of my study realizing that I never got the sermon on the runway yet alone off the ground! It just didn’t fly and when those times come I feel like a failure. I don’t know anyone who enjoys feeling like a loser, a failure, or a centipede with a bunion on every toe!

Because I think we all need it, I want to share with you this morning some words of encouragement. I want to affirm you this morning and then when we close the service, I want us to affirm one another. I’ll share with you how we are going to that when we get there okay?

First, I want you to know is that you ARE a winner! You are NOT a loser! I don’t want this to sound like some get rich quick motivational speech. I don’t have any desire to use psychology on you or brainwash you this morning, or even trick you into thinking and believing you are a winner. So sit back and relax – the pressure is off!

What I want to do is take God’s Word and simply read it to you and pray that His Holy Spirit will open your eyes and your heart to HIS understanding. The Scriptures I read to you may not make a lot of sense in our humanistic mode of understanding, but the Bible says “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not rely on your own insight.” (Proverbs 3:5 NRSV) The KJV says, “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.”

Can I ask you to do me a favor this morning and keep an open mind and an open heart? Can I ask you this morning to entertain the possibility that God has brought you here for a very specific reason? And that reason is because He has something He wants to say to you.

Again, the first thing I want you to know is that you ARE a winner! You are NOT a loser! There is a verse of Scripture in the New Testament that should make that very clear to us. Let me read it to you:

What is your concept of God this morning? I remember one night when I was speaking to a group of youth and I asked a question that was very similar and one person’s response was “God is everything.” God is everything. A three word answer yet very theologically profound! I tend to agree. When I think about God and all that God is I come to the conclusion that God is far too complex for me to completely understand. In all that I read about God I find that there remains a mystery about Him that we will never know and I think He intentionally does that.

God is kinder than the kindest person. God’s anger and wrath can annihilate the world in an instant. God is wiser than the wisest human. God is more knowledgeable than all the great minds of history put together. God is smarter than anyone or anything. Therefore we are forced to conclude that God would NEVER, EVER allow His only Son to die for a loser. By the very fact that God gave His Only Son to die for you and for me – we are all WINNERS this morning!

I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know am I? You already know that God loves you. You already know that Jesus died for you. You already know that Jesus rose from the grave and if you have invited Him into your heart and have received Him as Savior of your life you have everlasting life. You know all of that right?

You see when you and I place our trust in Jesus then we are automatically winners; winners over death and the grave, winners over any battle or trial that comes our way, winners in life, winners for Jesus. Or are we? Some of us are, and some of us have not yet learned how to be a winner for Jesus.

You see, I’m convinced that the one common will of God for each and every one of us this morning is to be a winner for Jesus. If I were to ask you this morning “Do you believe that Jesus is God’s son?” Most everyone here would say, “Yes.” If I were to ask you, “Do you believe Jesus died for your sins?” Again, most everyone here would say, “Yes.” But what if I asked you this question, “Are you completely sold out to Jesus?” Put another way, “Have you turned over everything in your life to Him?” “Have you given everything you have to Him?”

Now I’ve quit preaching and gone to meddling haven’t I? Nope. The words of Jesus are plain on the subject:

“So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” (14:33)

Do you want to be a winner for Jesus? Then whatever you are holding back from Jesus GIVE IT UP! GIVE IT TO JESUS! I don’t know what you are holding back:

Your finances
Your talents
Your family
Your job
A hidden sin that no one knows about except you and God.
Your fears
Your health

I don’t know what your holding back from Jesus, but whatever it is, the only way to be a winner for Jesus, a 100% authentic disciple of Jesus is to give Him everything you have. You’ve heard people speak of “living a surrendered life?” That’s exactly what it means. If we are to be obedient to Jesus, then we must give Him everything.

There’s a cost to following Jesus and the price is everything you have. But let me tell you something, the return is out of this world. By losing all we have, we gain everything the Father has to offer.

Yes, because of the grace of God and by the blood of Jesus we are winners over many things this morning, but the question that remains is are we a winner for Jesus? This morning I’m going to give you the opportunity to become a winner for Jesus. During our last hymn if you want to be a winner for Jesus I want you to come and gather around this alter. If the alter fills up that’s okay, simply stand or kneel behind the ones who get here first. Then I’m going to lead us in a prayer and we’ll go downstairs to eat.

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