“When God Lets You Win”
“The Lord answered me with wide-open spaces.” Psalms 118:5 CEB
Intro: A priest decides to paint his church one day. He goes out and buys some paint, comes back to the church, and then he realizes that he did not buy enough paint to do the job. So he just adds some water into the paint and mixes it in a larger bucket. Right before he starts to work, he looks at the church and decides he still doesn't have enough. So, he adds some more water and spends the whole day painting his church. That night, there's a huge rainstorm. When the priest wakes up, he finds that the rain has washed away all of his paint from the building. He looks up and prays, "Lord God, what should I do?" He hears a voice that says "REPAINT, AND THIN NO MORE!!!"
Life is full of victories. Some are easy to see. The strongest team gets the trophy. The prize is given to the fastest. The reward is earned by practice and preparation. There is exercise and rehearsals and run-throughs and it is obvious to everyone watching who is the best, the most excellent, the greatest and most deserving of the title of victory.
Then there are other victories that are not so obvious. These are the victories that take place within us. Internal victories. Like when you are about to get angry and “blow your top” but instead you calm down, settle back down and stay in control.
Or, there is a temptation. Maybe just a few seconds of pause, where you think about something just brief enough, for you to realize the terrible consequences and sinful outcome, so you choose to move beyond it and you overcome the temptation before you act upon it, before you need to ask for forgiveness and so you are victorious in your walk of faith with God.
Solomon in his wisdom saw how the world is twisted by sin and called life unfair. He said, “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.” Ecclesiastes 9:11 KJV
There are some battles that you are supposed to win because you are the odds on favorite. But out of nowhere comes a “Hail Mary” pass and a shot is made at the final buzzer, you lose, and the crowd goes wild.
There are some fights you are supposed to lose. You are so outnumbered. You are out gunned. You are the underdog. No one thinks you are going to win. Even your family members have that look on their face. (Yea…, you know…, the look.) The look that says, “just go out there and do your best.” Or your friends say “it’s not about who wins. (You only hear that when you are expected to lose.) “It’s not about who wins or who loses it is just about having fun.”
That can be true when it is just a game. What about when it is not just a game? What about when the outcome is much bigger than bragging rights.
Today we are going to talk about “When God Lets You Win.”
I. In tight circumstances God lets me win.
“In tight circumstances, I cried out to the Lord.” Psalm 118:5a CEB
We have all used the phrase, “Wow! That was a close call.” That phrase means: “Something almost happened.” It does not necessarily mean something bad happened. It just means “Something almost happened.” It could mean: “You dodged a bullet.” (What would you say?) “Wow! That was a close call.”
It could mean: “Some crazy driver almost ran you off the road, but they didn’t” (What would you say?)
“Wow! That was a close call.”
It could mean: “The doctor ran a series of tests.” But when the test comes back the results are good. (What would you say?) “Wow! That was a close call.”
David said, “I prayed to the Lord and the Lord answered me and rescued me.”Psalm 118:5 NLT David was in one of those tight circumstances. Let me ask you a question to think about. Do you believe in prayer?
The longer you are a Christian and the older you are in your faith, you grow and you begin to understand that there are not only different types of prayers but there are also different ways God answers our prayers.
There are prayers of gratitude where you are thanking God for His blessings and favor. There are prayers of adoration where you are worshiping and praising God for His greatness. There are prayers of love where you are expressing your love for God because you are object of His love. There are prayers of repentance where you are seeking God’s forgiveness and mercy. And then there are prayers of petition when you are asking God for things we need. There are all kinds of different ways to name and states these different types of prayers. There are all kinds of different ways God answers our prayers. When you think about, where you are at? What is happening in your life? What your prayer is for really depends on how you expect God to answer.
But the real key is to have faith, no matter what your circumstances are God will answer. No matter how long it takes. God will answer. No matter what your need or desire is God will answer with what you need. In tight circumstances God has let me win.
II. I Have Seen God Do Mighty Things (Read Acts 12:1-5)
“But the Church was Earnestly Praying” Acts 12:5
I have seen “God Do Mighty Things” in my life as a Pastor and the leader of the Church. But it always has been when the church, “was earnestly praying” to God for me. Get ready to say AMEN! God can do the impossible! I have seen God do mighty things.
This is a true story. In 1874, in Hyde County North Carolina there was a small group of believers that decided it was time to build a permanent church building to hold services in. The church committee picked out a perfect site for a church building. It was in the heart of town, on the highest spot of their village. After much prayer, they approached the owner of the lot, (a man by the name Sam Sadler) and they asked to purchase the land. But Mr. Sadler would not sell.
Though disappointed, the congregation accepted other property in town (offered as a gift) and began to build their building. It took over a year to construct the wooden structure set on rock piers. Even before it was finished people began to worship in it.
Just before they dedicated their new church building (Sept. 16, 1876) a huge storm swept the community. Rain fell and the wind blew. The wind was so fierce and the tide rose so high that the force of the water moved the little church building off its foundation. It began to float down the road. It went straight down the road to a corner and bumped into a general store. The building took a sharp right turn and floated about 2 city blocks until it reached the corner of what is now Church Street. Then it moved slightly off course, took another turn to the left and crossed the Carawan Canal and eventually settled. (pause) Well? Where do you think it settled? Exactly in the center of Samuel Sadler’s property!
Mr. Sadler was so convinced he had seen the mighty hand of providence at work that he sold his land to the church. Till this very day you can visit "Providence United Methodist Church" in Hyde County North Carolina. I have seen God do mighty things. With God NOTHING is impossible.
Read Acts 12:6-11 “The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers,
bound with two chains, and sentries guarding the entrance. 7 Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists. 8 Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. 9 Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing he thought he was seeing a vision. 10 They passed the first (guards.) (they passed the second guards) (they passed the iron gate leading to the city.) It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him. 11 Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.” In tight circumstances God has often let me win. And I have seen God do Mighty things in my own life.
III. God often does something Bigger than what we have asked for.
I called upon the Lord in distress: the Lord answered me, and set me in a large place.” Psalm 118:5 KJV
“The Lord answered me with wide-open spaces.” Psalms 118:5 CEB
David was on the battle field. David was in a tight situation. He was trapped in a small place. The enemy was closing in on him. I believe David, in his distress: was praying for God to rescue him. To let him retreat. To let him slip through the enemy lines. To let him find a safe place to hide. To give his refuge and sanctuary. To let him withdraw. To let him give ground, so that he and his men could regroup. But that was not the answer that God had for David.
Instead of picking David up and setting him over to the side out of danger, God picked David up and set him down in a large place. He answered David with wide-open spaces. Now I know a few things about battle strategy . After all I was the President of the Chess Club in College. Go ahead and laugh, that is true but I understand and it was meant to be funny.
I know that if you want to win a fight you need to be on the high ground. Or you need to have ground cover for fortification. You don’t want to be on the front line right out in the middle. Those are the people that die first.
But that is exactly what God did to David. God put David right down into the heat of the battle. Psalm 118: Verse 10 the hostile nations surrounded me. Verse 11 they surrounded me and attacked me. Verse 12 they swarmed around me like bees. Verse 13 they tried their best to kill me.
David prayed for one thing but God gave him something else. This is one of those times that David is not supposed to win. He is out numbered. He is over extended. He is exhausted. He is in distress. He prays for rescue. But God puts him into the middle of the battlefield.
I’m not even going to ask if anyone here can identify with what is happening to David. Because if this has never happened to you, then you should jump up and down and shout praises unto God and come forward to the altar and thank God that you have never gone "from the frying pan into the fire."
But if you are like me, I have spent more of my Christian life in the fire, with God teaching me lessons about how to fight the enemy than I have somewhere on the high ground watching everyone else fight in the battle.
This is how God gets us to do what he wants us to do. “He loves us nearly to death” (Hello? Did you hear that?)
Because it takes that kind of testing and struggling and conflict and fire, and fighting the enemy to teach us to trust and obey. To teach us how to pray. “For there is no other way…, than to trust and obey…, But our toil he doth richly repay BUT NOT Until all on the altar we lay.” There is a lesson in those words of that hymn.
Last week I received a card in the mail. It is from the Knox United Methodist Church, “Praying Across America." I wander why God would place on the heart of people in 408 miles away to select us to pray earnestly for? I wander if God knows something about the struggles that we will face even before we know what kind of open places we will find ourselves in.
Psalm 118 verse 6 David looked to his left…, “The Lord is for me, so I will not be afraid.” Verse 7 David looked to his right…, “The Lord is for me, he will help me.”
And God set David down into the middle of the most wide open place where he was most exposed, most vulnerable, where he was his weakest. And God Let David Win!!!
And then God tells us, "How that you and I are going to 'Win against Satan,' because we are in a spiritual battle for our soul and the souls of others." God says to David, Psalm118:22 “I’m going to take a stone that all the other builders will reject.” A stone that all the other architects and designers are going to look at. They are going to pick it up and look at it and examine it and toss into the pile of rubble and say, "No we are going to do it our way. We are still going to trust in the sacrifice of bulls and goats and rams. We are not going to follow Jesus."
But God is going to do something impossible. God is going to do something marvelous. God in His providence is going to do something that they say can’t be done. God is going to take the stone that is rejected by the builders and make it the foundation and cornerstone of salvation by Grace.
Jesus explains what is meant by these words given in Psalm 118 to David in Matthew 22:43 Jesus says, “What it means it the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to the nation that will produce proper fruit.” Time and time again God tries to point us to the cross. We ask him for small things, He wants to do something bigger than what we are even asking him to do. We ask God for this little corner over here for protection. God says, I’m going to give you this wide open space. We ask Jesus to help us make it through from month to month. Jesus says, If you will do what I say, I will give the Kingdom of My Father. I will give you the Kingdom of God.
In tight circumstances God has often let me win. And I have seen God do Mighty things in my own life. God often does something Bigger than what we have asked for.
Closing: I don’t have to win every fight to be victorious. Sometimes it is enough just to survive. God is going to let us win the impossible battles. We are not supposed to be able to fight the Devil and win. But God let’s us win. Read Psalm 118:1-5 again.
