But I Just Can't Win Series

Please e-mail me with any comments or if you use any part of this at your church at Mail4ChrisR@aol.com. I would love to hear about it. God Bless! - Chris

Series: “What To Do”

But I Just Can’t Win (See also I Don’t Know What To Do; But I Disappointed; But Life is Too Hard; What You Need, God Has)

Intro: God knows the pains of life because as a human God endured those pains. God knows how to comfort and encourage us. The author of Hebrews encourages us as he or she would advise an athlete preparing for a contest so that we might win.

I. Turn your eyes to the Saints in Heaven (v. 1)

A. Hebrews 11 lists examples of people who accomplished many things by faith

B. We should emulate these pillars of faith

II. Let go of the things that hinder advancement (v. 1)

A. Don’t be fooled by possessions and illusions of power

B. Confess our sins before they make us fall

III. Stick to the task that is before you (v. 1)

A. The details of our race are listed out in our Bibles

B. Don’t give up until you win

IV. Look to Jesus whom you are to follow (v. 2-3)

A. Jesus did all of the above

B. Jesus is the pioneer and we get to take advantage of all that He did for us

Conclusion: Because of Jesus, the hardship we face will discipline us to be great children of a Heavenly Father.

Sermon:

When I was a child I loved to read the comics page. With Garfield being so popular in his hometown of Muncie, I imagine many of you still read the comics. Well, one of my favorites was and still is Peanuts. In one particular one, Charlie Brown in the Peanuts cartoon strip complains that his baseball team always loses. Lucy, who was always wise with advice, consoles him by saying, "Remember, Charlie Brown, you learn more from your defeats than your victories." Charlie Brown replies, "That makes me the smartest guy in the world!"

How many of us are the smartest men and women in the world? I know I am working on it.

Lucy’s advice is pretty good though. You learn more from your defeats than your victories. That’s about right isn’t it?

Today we conclude our series on “What to do.” And well I suppose on the topic of what to do when you feel like you just can’t win, I could repeat Lucy’s advice one more time and sit down. But I won’t do that.

God has given us some wisdom about What to do when you don’t know what else to do, and when your disappointed, and last week we looked at what to do when life becomes too hard. And as I looked back on these past three sermons I discovered that the suggestions had many consistencies. In all three God stresses in the passages we looked at to “know.” Know God has what we need when the storm comes. He has all the power and ability to help us overcome. And the other consistent idea is that God will keep His word. God has told us many things, he has promised us many things and He will keep His promises.

Today is no different. When you feel like you just can’t win, I would say that knowing God’s ability and knowing God’s truth and honesty is a great place to start. But in our passage God gives us some more advice on what to do when you’re on the losing side of life.

God never was nor never has been on the losing side of life. God is always victorious. But God does know what it is like to stand in the face of opposition. God knows it first hand and experienced it as he hung on the cross. The human side of Jesus is a very comforting concept because I know that he knows first hand all of the same things that I experience. He knows my pain because he has felt pain. He knows my anger because he has felt anger. He knows my sorrow because he has felt sorrow. And he doesn’t just know them as some God who says, “Yeah, I know what you mean.” Have you ever said that to someone when they are explaining their pain to you, “Yeah Bob, I know what you mean.” Jesus, our God, our savior, knows our pain, anger, sorrow and more because he was human and dealt with these emotions and feelings. He dealt with life, as we know. And he cares about our lives. So when you feel like you just can’t win, know that God feels your pain with you, and when you know pain you can know how to comfort those who feel the pain you once felt. This is what God saying to us through the author of Hebrews.