Why You're Losing - The Key 2 Victory

Why You're Losing:

Why You're

Losing:

Great, now you have the first things first. What’s next for the key to victory? It’s actually the reason behind why you’re losing. Let’s revisit Kirk’s home run again. If the Dodgers were winning when Kirk went to bat, his home run wouldn’t have mattered, but since the Dodgers were losing, Kirk’s hit made all the difference. This may sound crazy, but simply put, right now you’re losing. Do you want to know why this is? The answer goes back to why God made you.

As we just covered, God made you, and everyone else to worship Him. Not only that, but worshiping God is ultimately what will bring you the most joy. But, if that’s true, then why are things the way they are right now? It sure seems like something is wrong with our world. Why is there pain and suffering if God designed creation to be joyful? Well, that’s because there is something wrong with our world, and here’s what it is.

When God created you, He commanded that you love Him so that you could experience His glory. But, a defining characteristic of love is freedom. If someone forced you to play a sport, would you really love that sport? Of course not. Love that is forced is not love at all. Although God commanded you to love Him first, you have the freedom to love yourself more than you love God. Doing that brings all sorts of things God never wanted, and that’s why this world is broken. People have chosen to love themselves more than God.

But what about you? How do you know that you didn’t love God first? It’s actually really simple to find out, because God has said,

“If you love me, keep my commands” (John 14:15).

Ok, that sounds easy, doesn’t it? Are you ready for a quick game to test your love for God, aka if you have kept His commands? Have you ever stolen, or lied, or…done anything wrong? Well then guess what, you lost the game. When God gave His commands, He said,

“You shall not steal. You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor...” (Exodus 20:15-16).

The list doesn’t even stop there, it actually goes on longer. All these things are called sin. Basically, sin is breaking God’s commands.

The point is, when you sinned by breaking God’s commands, you showed God you didn’t love Him. Once again, God made it clear when He said,

“Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching” (John 14:24).

What this means is, if you truly want to love God and experience His glory, you can never, ever, not even once in your life ever do anything wrong.

Terrible news, we’ve all blown it, and this is serious. We’ve all lost, and once you’ve broken God’s list, you are doomed for punishment forever. Don’t try to trick yourself. Everyone in this world, including you, has broken this list and because of that, have abandoned fully loving God.. Even if you’ve only done one thing wrong your entire life, God says,

“For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it” (James 2:10).

What is the punishment for breaking God’s commands? God says,

“For the wages of sin is death…” (Romans 6:23).

That means that if you died tonight you would spend forever in the most painful place ever…hell. God describes Hell as,

“…the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 13:41-42).

This is way worse than any workout, or injury, or anything you have ever experienced, and you will be in the place forever!

You might be asking, “Why is the punishment so severe?”, and a simple logic statement can answer this. Can someone who has never lost a game, lose, and still have a perfect record? It’s not a trick, the answer is no. What does this have to do with anything? God has described Himself like this,

“As for God, his way is perfect…” (2 Samuel 22:31).

Since God is perfect, and every human is not, we can’t be with God anymore, otherwise, He wouldn’t be perfect. Another way God is described is like this,

“Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrongdoing” (Habakkuk 1:13).

You might be thinking, “Well if He’s God why can’t He just forget about the things that I’ve done which are wrong?” Good thought, but imagine this story.

Your team has lost to the same opponent in the Championship for the last three years. Your team has been great, but this other team always seems to be a little bit better and has dominated everyone else for as long as you can remember. Now envision that a few weeks before the championship game you’re getting ready to play, word gets out that your opponent, the team which has dominated year after year, has been using performance-enhancing drugs all this time. Odds are, you would be angry…like really angry. Now, what if the sports committee in charge of punishing this team decided to let them off the hook, just because they like them. Words probably can’t describe how furious you would be.

Guess what? You are that rule-breaking team. Remember, God is perfect, and you broke His law. Yes, He loves you, but if God just decided to let your wrongs off the hook because He loved you, He wouldn’t be perfect anymore. He wouldn’t be just. God tells us He is,

“a righteous judge…” (Psalm 7:11).

So, as a result of your wrongdoing and God’s perfection, you’re in a bad situation. God wants to be with you and wants to let you experience His glory, but He can’t. As an imperfect human, you’re separated from God forever, never able to really achieve what God made you for.

Simply put, you’re missing the purpose for why you exist. It’s kind of like you’re a basketball without air. Not able to do what you were designed to do. Alright, this might sound hard, but you actually should be feeling bad right now. That means you understand that you have wronged the one who created you, and you have a terrible fate ahead of you. God has described this fate as a place where,

“…the smoke of their torment will rise forever and ever. There will be no rest day or night” (Revelation 14:11).

Thankfully, the key to victory doesn’t end there.