Born To Win

Open your Bibles this morning to 2 Tim 3

Do any of you remember the comic strip called "The Born Loser"

I don’t know.....it may still be around.....

I haven’t looked at the comic section of the paper in a while.....

but its a comic strip about a man named Brutus Thornapple......

...and he’s a guy who can never catch a break.

Everywhere he turns is One Problem after another.......

and there just never seems to be an END......

You know, there are MANY people in the world today who can REALLY RELATE to Poor Brutus.....

....People who have settled it in their minds....

....that they really are just BORN TO LOSE........

It’s even become a Regular saying that folks get Tattooed on themselves..... "Born Loser"

I read where a business man, noticing "born to lose" on a display window of a tatoo shop.....

.....went in and asked the man inside "Do people really get that tattooed on themselves......

The Old man inside said "Yes, but its only because they already have it written on the INSIDE."

The truth is that NO ONE is Born a Loser......

Losers aren’t born.....they are MADE

They’re made from a combination of ingredients...

...that include "What we DO that we shouldn’t"

"What we DON’T DO that we should"

......and How we Respond to BOTH

The Human tendancy when things go Bad is to BRACE OURSELF for MORE Bad to keep from being disappointed.....

Someone told the story of a young paratrooper who was to jump out of an airplane for the first time in the jungle.

He was given his instructions and told that a truck would be waiting to pick him up when he landed.

So, when the call came to jump.....

....he jumped just as he was told.....

....he waited ten seconds and pulled cord....just like he’d been instructed.....but NOTHING HAPPENED.....

Then he proceeded to pull the cord for the secondary chute.....also as he was told.....But it didn’t work either.....

In near panic he was heard to say "I knew this would happen and I bet that truck won’t be waiting on me either"

I hope you know today that YOU Were Created by God to be a WINNER and not a loser.....

You were made in His Image and Likeness....

....and Eph 2:10 tells us that you were Made by God Himself and Ordained long ago for GOOD WORKS.....

That means that you really were BORN TO WIN.....

.....and even IF there have been failures along the way.....

.....even if there have been more than your share......

It’s still not too late to TURN Your Life AROUND.....

Like we said earlier.....Losers are MADE...not born.....

and God has given ust the Instructions we need to REASSEMBLE ourselves back into the Winners HE made us to be.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction (CJB says "correcting faults), for instruction in righteousness:

17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

Correcting faults by the Instruction of the Word of God is HOW we REBUILD from our losses.....

.....and become the Winners God Made us to be.....

That’s one of the ways we’re supposed to PROFIT from God’s Word.....

Then, I also particularly llike the Last one in verse 16.....

...that tells us that the Scripture is Profitable for "Instruction in righteousness"

That’s what we have to have IF WE ARE GOING TO STAY BUILT UP RIGHT.

So, its the Word that teaches us How to Turn our lives Around for the good and to KEEP them turned in the right direction.

.....in the way of righteousness.....

That’s what my Study Bible says right above Psalm 1 ...."The way of rightousness"

Let’s go on over there and see what Instruction we can get about THE WAY of Righteousness"

Psalms 1:1-6 Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.

2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.

3 And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.

5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

6 For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Now, here we have, in contrast, the ONLY 2 Types of people God Recognizes.....

....the GODLY and the UNGODLY