“Born Losers – The Phenomenon of Susan Boyle”
May 3rd, 2009
Psalm 113; Text, verses 7-8: “He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of their people.”
(Show video) Susan Boyle has taken the world by storm. Here is this middle aged homely spinster who has never been kissed – and she has won the hearts of, not only Britton, but nearly everyone in the world. Why is that? Is it because she is such a fantastic singer? I don’t think so. There are many wonderful singers in England and America. Is it because she is so beautiful? Obviously not. Is it because she is so wise and sophisticated? I don’t think so. I think she is so popular because we love for losers to win. We love Cinderella stories. We love Joseph stories and Gideon stories and Sleeping Beauty Stories and Rocky Balboa stories. We buy those books and go to those movies. Why? Because we want losers to win. One of the first songs I wrote goes: “In this world of shallow love; In this world of wrong and sin; We need gentle, gentle people. We need losers to win.”
Why is that true? Well, I’ll tell you. We are all born losers. From the richest to the poorest of us – we are born losers. From the smartest to the most intellectually challenged – we are born losers. From the most plain and homely – to the most physically beautiful of us. We are born losers. From the greatly talented to the handicapped – we are born losers. And that’s why we need losers to win. We live vicariously through Cinderella and Rocky Balboa and Susan Boyle.
We all grow up with inferiority complexes and low self esteem and a sense of inadequacy to a certain degree. There is a reason for that. The Bible says,
“for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” Isaiah 53:6
“Even from birth the wicked go astray; from the womb they are wayward, spreading lies.” Psalm 58:3
Jesus said, “For from within, out of your hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and defile you." Luke 7:21-23
“As it is written: "There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one." "Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. “The poison of vipers is on their lips." "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know. There is no fear of God before their eyes."
Romans 3:10-18
The first thing I want you to understand this morning is this: 1. We are Born Losers. We are born into sin. From the womb – we are rebellious. But I have good news. We don’t have to stay that way. It is not God’s will that we be losers. He created us to be winners. Like Susan Boyle, there is a winner inside of you waiting to come out. God did not create you to be an unloved, unkissed, loser. He created you to love – to cherish. He has called you His bride. He created you to win; to overcome; to be more than conquerors. He created you to reign with Him. He created you to rule. That was His plan from the very beginning. Listen to the Scripture.
“Then God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." Genesis 1:26
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him? You made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him ruler over the works of your hands; you put everything under his feet: all flocks and herds, and the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, all that swim the paths of the seas.” Psalm 8:3-8
“…and with your blood you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth." Revelation 5:9-10
I want you to understand, secondly, that there is a winner inside you waiting to come out. 2. You are a winner. Maybe no one sees it. No one may realize it or believe in you – but Jesus does. Jesus saw the winning potential in people. Someone once said, “Anybody can count the number of apples on a tree, but only a rare and wonderful person can count the trees in an apple.” Jesus had the ability to count the trees in an apple. When Jesus saw Simon he saw a diamond in the rough. Here was this weak, fledging man who became one of the leaders of the early church. Jesus saw the special person God intended Simon to be. Jesus saw a winner.
In Luke 19 we find Jesus’ encounter with Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was an outcast – a loser in the world’s eyes. Jesus saw his winning potential. Jesus told him to come down from that tree. He was going to share a meal with him. In Matthew 9 we find Jesus’ encounter with Matthew. Matthew was a hated tax collector – another loser. Jesus saw his winning potential.
In Mark 16:9 we find Jesus’ encounter with Mary Magdalene. She had formerly been possessed by seven demons. Can you imagine having her sitting on the front row of your church? What a loser! How embarrassing. Where others saw a loser – Jesus saw a winner. And she WAS!
In John 4 we find Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob. She was living with a man and had been married five times. In addition, she was a person with a mixed pedigree. The Jewish people frowned on such things. Those people were losers - lower than dogs, in the Jew’s eyes. But Jesus saw the potential in this lady. He saw a winner – while everyone else saw scum.
In each of those situations Jesus saw the potential, not the problems. He saw winners – not losers. Potential sometimes lies dormant. Oftentimes winners are hidden. "The history books are full of stories of gifted people whose talents were overlooked by everyone - until someone believed in them. "Einstein was four years old before he could speak and seven before he could read". Einstein became one of the greatest physicists who ever lived. "Isaac Newton did poorly in grade school." Newton, like Einstein was one of the smartest people of his day. He was a winning scientist. "A newspaper fired Walt Disney because he had "no good ideas". "It is reported that Walt Disney was, not only a remarkable man, but also a remarkably happy man. But when he started out in Kansas City, he couldn’t sell his cartoons. Some hinted that he had no talent. Disney had a dream, so he set out to conquer his foes. He found a minister who paid him a small amount to draw advertising pictures for his church. Disney had no place to stay, so that the church let him sleep in the mouse-infested garage. One of those mice, which Disney nicknamed Mickey, became famous---as the world knows."
"Leo Tolstoy flunked out of college." It was later on that he wrote the literature classic that we know as "War And Peace".
(SOURCE: Alan Loy McGinnis. Bringing Out The Best In People. Minneapolis: Ausburg Publishing House, 1985, p. 34)
You are a winner. God created you that way. It is Satan who would have you believe you are no good; worthless; inferior. The bible says,
“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power
and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Messiah. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down.
They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” Revelation 12:10-11
Notice that Satan is a false accuser. Day and night Satan accuses us before God. Day and night Satan calls you a loser. Day and night Satan points our your sins and faults and failings. And what does God, the Father do? He points to the blood of the Lamb. It’s all been paid for – paid for in blood.
Do you see the process? God created you to win – to rule – to reign over His creation. Satan came along, and like Essau sold his birthright to Jacob, Adam sold is birthright to Satan. God didn’t make Satan the prince of this world. Man GAVE it to him by rebelling against God’s will to do Satan’s will. So now we are born in sin with rebellious, fallen natures. We are born losers. And we yearn for losers to win. And guess what? We can! We can be the winners our Father Creator intended us to be. God wants us to win. He enjoys helping us.
“He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap; he seats them with princes, with the princes of their people.” Psalm 113: 7-8
I want to share with you how you can become a winner. 3. The transformation from loser to winner; sinner to saint. God made it simple so anyone can understand it. He made it so available that anyone who wants to be a winner can. It’s this easy. First, we must realize that we are sinners.
“For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23).
Because we are sinners, we are condemned to death. God’s Word says, “For the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). This includes eternal separation from God. But God loved each of us so much that He gave His only begotten Son, Jesus, to take our sin and die in our place.
“God demonstrates His love toward us, in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
God said our sins were laid upon Jesus and He died in our place. Jesus became our substitute. In the Bible, a jailer asked his prisoners, Paul and Silas:
“’Sirs, what must I do to be saved?’ So they said, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.’” (Acts 16:30-31).
It’s very clear in the Bible how to be transformed from a loser into a winner. Believe in Jesus as the one who took your sins, died in your place, was buried, and whom God resurrected. It’s Christ’s blood and resurrection that assures us of everlasting life when we call on Him as our Lord and Savior.
"For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved." (Romans 10:13).
“Whosoever” includes each and every one of us. Therefore, if you understand that you are a sinner, and want to be a winner, and you believe that Jesus Christ came as the one and only Redeemer of sin - then you understand the plan of salvation. The question is – are you ready to implement the plan, by receiving God’s gift of His Son, Jesus Christ? If so, believe in Christ, repent of your sins,(in other words, stop doing them) and commit the rest of your life to Him as Lord. You do that by praying a prayer like this:
“Father, I know that I have broken your laws and my sins have separated me from you. I am truly sorry, and now I want to turn away from my past sinful life toward you. Please forgive me, and help me avoid sinning again. I believe that your son, Jesus Christ died for my sins, was resurrected from the dead, is alive, and hears my prayer. I invite Jesus to become the Lord of my life, to rule and reign in my heart from this day forward. Please send your Holy Spirit to help me obey You, and to do Your will for the rest of my life. In Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.”
When a person accepts Jesus as their Lord and becomes a child of the King, there are a couple of things He needs to do.
• Get baptized as commanded by Christ.
• Tell someone else about your new faith in Christ.
• Spend time with God each day. It does not have to be a long period of time. Just develop the daily habit of praying to Him and reading His Word. Ask God to increase your faith and your understanding of the Bible.
• Fellowship with other followers of Jesus. Develop a group of believing friends to answer your questions and support you.
• Get involved in church and worship God.
You are a winner. Let’s Realize it. Every time you see Susan Boyle, remember that you are a winner, too. Believe it. Think it. And Live it.
