Losers No More!

3rd Sunday of End Time, Saints Triumphant, 11/15/15
Hebrews 10:11-18


Losers No More!
I. You have victory over sin.
II. You have victory in life.


Unless you’re a graduate of California Institute of Technology—and I’m pretty sure none of you are—you’re probably unaware of what I’m about to tell you. I’m sure Caltech is a fine scholastic institution. In fact, US News and World Report ranks it number 10 among science and engineering schools in our country. Quite an achievement. Something to be proud of.

But there is one thing that the people of Caltech are not proud of. In fact, they probably wish that I wouldn’t say what I’m about to. Thankfully, it has nothing to do with their academics, and thus doesn’t affect their number 10 ranking. And that’s this: The Caltech basketball team is the holder of the record for the longest losing streak ever. From 1996 until 2007 the team didn’t win a single game. They lost 207 straight games. Can you imagine that? I would think that after 4 or 5 years of losing, no one would even want to be a part of the team. After all, you play to win and that wasn’t happening. 207 straight losses. Even though you may feel some pity in your hearts for the people associated with the basketball program during those years, it’s still true that they were losers. Losing is the only thing they accomplished.

Losers. I was on a college football team that didn’t win a single game one season. That was bad enough. But when you feel like a loser in life, it can be unbearable. We try so hard to achieve something in our lives, but we fail. We want to be good employers or employees, we want to be a good spouse or parent, we want to be a good friend or church member, we just want to be a good person, but we fail.

In fact, even when we succeed at doing the Christian thing in some aspect of our lives, it seems like we end up suffering for it. It doesn’t turn out like we wanted. Our efforts aren’t appreciated. In fact, we encounter pushback. And we end our day feeling as if we failed completely.

Worse yet, our failings remind us of our sins, and we begin beating ourselves up. Losers.

But then we show up for worship this morning and we find out it’s Saints Triumphant Sunday. In other words, God tells us we win. Losers no more. How can that be so? Follow with me as we delve into this morning’s text from Hebrews 10 and take to heart the truth that you are losers no more.

Part I.

But it sure feels like we’re losing, at least from an outward observance. A local home gets riddled with bullets and one strikes a 5-year-old in the head and he dies. Each day babies are born already addicted to heroin. Another report of an arrest for embezzlement. Monsters who abuse children in the worst way. People who demand the right to sin as they please. It’s a sin-sick world we live in and try as we can to reverse the trend, we fail. Losers.

Worse yet, our own sins confront us. There are things I’ve said and done in my life that fill me with shame. I hope and pray that they stay buried in my past. How about you? And when I’m working to make something good happen in my life and it doesn’t, or, worse yet, when something tragic happens and, after I’m done playing the “blame someone else game,” I begin to ask what I did that caused it or what I could have done, but didn’t, to avert it. Worst of all, I’m confronted with how I’ve failed the people I love the most. I gave my spouse or my children the impression that I didn’t care. I left others with the impression that it’s all about me. It seems like guilt and shame are my constant companions. Loser.

Not loser. Saints triumphant. And we’re not just speaking about our fellow Christians who have been called home to heaven already. We’re talking about you and me. How can that be given what we just discussed? Listen to these words, “But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God. Since that time he waits for his enemies to be made his footstool, because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” It’s not all about me. It’s all about Christ, the eternal Victor. The answer to sin and guilt—the only answer to sin and guilt—is in the truth that Christ sacrificed himself once for all. Contrary to what even so many Christians think, there’s nothing left for you to do about your sin and guilt. There’s nothing you can do. It’s all been done already by Christ.

But how can you be sure? The writer reminds us that Jesus is at the right hand of God. If Jesus had left one sin unforgiven, he would have failed to do the work the Father sent him to do. If he had failed, he would not have ascended into heaven. His decayed body would still be in Joseph’s tomb outside Jerusalem. But he has risen and ascended as the eternal Victor over sin. By faith in him his victory is our victory. We win! Losers no more.

So now listen to this once again. “He waits for his enemies to be made his footstool.” Who are his enemies? Any person or group of people who oppose him and his word. In other words, the very people who make the Christian life so difficult for us. Their demise is as sure as Jesus’ return to this earth. In the end, he rises above them all and places all of them under his feet and under us who live and reign with him. That, my dear beleaguered friends, is not losing. That’s winning. Forever.

Losers no more. You have victory over sin.

Are you feeling better now? I hope so. Our Savior has just shared with us his victory over sin and its results for us. Sin and guilt are gone! The problem? They have a nasty way of returning. Just wait a little while. And even if you succeed in keeping yourself busy enough during the day so that you keep the guilt at bay, the night time can be a killer. The room is dark. Your head rests on a pillow and you’re alone with your guilt. You thought you had dealt with it, but it’s back like a nasty virus. You’re losing again. But Jesus wins. “But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God.” When the Apostle Paul was pounding himself up over the evil he did and the good he failed to do, he wrote, “What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Rom. 7:24-25). Paul’s Savior is your Savior. Losers no more! You have the victory over sin.

Part II.

If you’ve ever noticed that our world seems to be getting more depressed, stats from the CDC regarding suicide support your view. After decreasing during the 1990s, suicides are on the rise. In the US a suicide occurs every 13 minutes. What’s more, it’s estimated that there are 250,000 suicide survivors in the US. What’s happening?

There are many reasons for it, and I’m no expert, but I can’t help but think that one of them is the teaching that we’re all just a biological accident. If I’m just the result of billions of years of an evolutionary process (and I know I’m not), then what’s the point of my life, of my place in the universe?

And that leads many people to wonder, “Why am I here? Where am I going?” In other words, what’s their purpose? They can’t figure it out, especially when they keep hitting dead ends in their efforts to find some meaning in life. And as the nagging meaninglessness becomes more intense, the conclusion quickly becomes that it’s not worth it, so why not end it all? They feel like losers.

I pray that no one here today feels that way. If you do, let’s talk right away. Look at what your God has done for you! Take to heart the words of this one verse of our text, “By one sacrifice he [Jesus] has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.” That verse expresses two astounding truths about you. First, by his death on the cross Jesus has made you perfect forever. When we hear “perfect” we usually think “without flaws.” But the Greek word has a slightly different shade of meaning. It means that God has reached his goal for you. By his death Jesus has redeemed you. That’s how much God thinks of you. And now he has brought you to faith in Jesus and has made you one of his dear children. In fact, he has set you on a course to live forever with him in heaven. That’s God’s goal for you and by his grace he has accomplished it. Amazing!

And the second truth expressed in that verse is that you are being made holy. God is referring to the things you do each day as his dear child. It’s everything you do, from the mundane to the important. As you carry on in your life, you are fulfilling your God-given vocation in life, the things he planned in eternity for you to do. Boggles the mind, doesn’t it? And even though our daily efforts to live as God’s children are marred by sin, God sanctifies us and our efforts. We and the things we do each daily are holy sacrifices to God, done out of love for what he has done for us. Again, these are the things God planned for us to do. You talk about meaning and purpose in life! With faith in Jesus, you can’t lose. You win each day!

Losers no more. You have victory in life.

So don’t leave Christ out of the equation of your daily life. When you do, you lose. You lose your purpose. You lose your meaning. Worse yet, you lose your grip on heaven. So when difficulties arise, when the troubles mount, when the senselessness of what’s happening overwhelms you, look at all of it through Christ. Sure we sweat and toil, we grind out each day, we suffer some defeats along the way, but we do so in Christ who has made us perfect and sanctifies all that we do. And, in spite of the way things may seem, we’re not losing; we’re winning. That’s as sure as Jesus’ death and resurrection. Jesus wins and you win with him! Losers no more! May your eternal victory bring you comfort and strength each day of your life. You are one of God’s saints triumphant! Amen.