Doomed To Lose
Updated: Sep 18
Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
The word of the Lord. The title the Lord has given me this morning is this: Doomed to lose. Doomed to lose. I want to read with you first Romans 5:12. The word reads this: "When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death. So death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned." Here we have a reference in the New Testament to the incredibly famous Old Testament story of when Adam sinned. Now all the men in the room go, "Wasn't it Eve that first?" and then brought it to Adam. Yes, you're right. Just be quiet about it, but you're right. But the word of God always holds the man responsible over the house. And so the word tells us, when Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam's sin brought death. So death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. No one excluded. Another translation says, in Adam we all sinned. Now what does that mean? That means we all experienced, one way or another, we all experienced the lockout. Same experience Adam had. He got locked out of the garden of Eden, where everything was right. Where he walked in the fullness of his call, in the fullness of his relationship with the Lord. Peace between him and God. Unity between him and his wife. And he got locked out of that garden, and so did everyone else. And now what is the main struggle to figure out how to walk out your call?
Do I even want that anymore? And then, if I want it, how do, how in the world do I walk in the fullness of my call? How do I get and stay close to God? How do I hear his voice? All the same experiences as Adam. Locked out of the garden. We lost. The devil showed up first time, and we lost. Every single one of us did. And mind you, Adam believed in God. He personally knew him, and he still lost. I saw an interview this week with a billionaire investor, an older man, quite old. He had handled with his hedge fund over $ 160 billion dollars at the peak of of his work, and he was being interviewed and giving investment advice. And as a matter of fact, he was more so cautioning us what not to do. And as I watched the interview, it wasn't long, but it was very clear that this man, in many ways, an impressive man. He was full of fear, constantly warning of all the things that could go wrong and how not to stumble into what is going to go wrong. And then he got a very interesting question about what country he would feel safe living in, economy wise, and he got very shifty and said he couldn't really share that answer because of the influence that he has, but that for sure he was not comfortable living where he was living now, which was in this country, the US.
Not comfortable with where he lives, incredibly cautious with all of the money problems in the world today, afraid of the future. And here we have this man that is being interviewed at the end of his life because of everything he did accomplish. Quite impressive stuff. And he still wasn't a winner. He still was full of worries, maybe even more fears than earlier in his life. still worried, still a pending sense that somehow, someway we are doomed to lose, one way or another. And as I was watching it, the Holy Spirit spoke so clearly to my heart. There is no winning outside of God. We were removed from the winning circle when we lost access to the garden. No longer in the winning circle. And there's nothing we can do to reverse it. No one can escape it. It doesn't matter how much or how little you achieve. Sooner or later, that sense of pending doom, it's never enough. It's never accomplished. It never satisfies. It always sets in. Job 5:13 reads this. He, that is God. He traps the wise in their own cleverness, so their cunning schemes are thwarted. He traps the wise in their own cleverness. So their cunning schemes are thwarted. What does that mean? That means you can be hecka smart in this time. You can have a better plan than everyone else, and you're still doomed to lose. That's what that means.
Proverbs 11:28. "Those who trust in their riches will fall. Here God makes a promise. Those who trust in their riches, great or small, doesn't matter. Those who trust in their riches will fall, but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.
What does that mean? That means that if you have so much riches that you feel you are set, that's the moment you are doomed to lose. There is in this universe no winning outside of God. Literally. Literally. There's no one else in the universe ever that has been a winner. The devil lost. The angels lost. Man lost. There is one winner in the entire universe. And unless somehow you become one with God, there is no other way to get away from the losing in this life and after this life. There's no other way. And that is the very miracle that Jesus comes to do. And that's for all who believe on him and repent of their life. You see, before Jesus came, there was preaching in the temple. There was prophets, there was preachers, so to speak, of the scriptures, teachers, rabbis, and they would also preach to believe on God, and to repent of your sins. And they had the help of the ten commandments to explain to people and to help people recognize one what was sin in their life so they could actually obey those words. And Jesus comes and changes the preaching. He says you have to now have faith in the son. Whoever does not have the son doesn't have the father also. And and not only that, now you have to repent of your life, not just the wrong stuff. Jesus says, "Unless you lay down your life for my sake and my gospel, you will lose it."
Let me read to you John 17 verse 21-23. This is the miracle we're speaking of. Jesus praying to the father. I pray that they will all be one just as you and I are one. Let me stop right there because this is one of those most misinterpreted scriptures that I've ever heard preaching on. And it there's nothing wrong to be in unity with a brother. Don't hear me say that's wrong. But that's not what the Bible's talking about right here. And I've heard it preached. Oh, we have to learn to get along. We have to have unity. Get away from all denominations and and and figure out how to work alongside and oh boy, if that is what the Bible meant, we have messed it up for eternity. Let me continue reading. I pray that they will all be one just as you and I are one as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you send me. Now, if the Lord was talking about us all getting along in a way that would impress the world so much that they would start to believe the gospel, we've messed it up. There's no turning back now. There's no fixing this. That's not what Jesus was talking about.
Verse 22: "I have given them the glory you gave me so they may be one as we are one. I am in them and you are in me that they may experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you send me and that you love them as much as you love me." He says, "I in them and you in me, Father, that the world may know that I am the Christ, that you have sent me." It's not some Christian utopia that Jesus is speaking of and and he's saying, "Father, if the world could only see how nice they get along with each other, then the world will believe." That's not what he's speaking about. He's talking about the fact that God himself comes to live inside of your heart and you who have always been on the losing side. No matter if you were trying to live or you were trying to die, always on the losing side. And Jesus came that we may be one with God. The only one who is the winner in this universe that you may not be losing anymore. No, he's talking about something in your life that the world will see a and they'll they'll see these people have become one with God. They're not losing anymore. They're not separate from God anymore. They're not cast out of the garden anymore. They're not worried about death anymore. They are not trying to find something in this world anymore. They have already won. They've won all there is.
You see, the word tells us that God has given you and I all things in Christ. Second Peter chapter 1, let me read to you verse three and four. "By his divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know him, the one who called us to himself by means of his marvelous glory and excellence. And because of his glory and excellence, he has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share his divine nature and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires." Here the word couldn't explain it more clearly. The miracle the Christ came to do is to get you and I lost sinners deserving of nothing but hell and punishment. Jesus came that you and I may be made one with God and get away from all of the losing, get away from all of the slipping away into an eternity of meaningless failure of a life and an eternity of punishment. See, every single one of us when we were born, we were born doomed to lose. And it isn't until a man or a woman is born again, born of God, that he is now one with God and forever a winner. It does when somebody knows God personally. Jesus clearly speaks to him or to her. They have been brought into relationship by the spirit of God, making known the word of God, making known the voice of God. You can take away everything from that man or that woman, and they will still feel privileged over you a hundred million times over. And when we are still part of this world, still doomed to lose, it drives people, driven people. Not knowing God causes this drivenness in people and it makes them angry. Makes them terribly angry.
I was watching a video today that a public school put out, and it was a a man dressed in a woman's dress, makeup on, long nails, and I'm watching this video, and it took me a good minute to realize it wasn't a parody or a joke, or that that a public school was actually putting this out to say hi to the students and welcome them into the new school year. It was really hard for me to believe what I was watching because of the severity of its lack of of wisdom, its lack of logic, its lack of of care for students. How do people digest this kind of stuff? It was really hard to believe that that people had thought this through and made this decision. And as I was meditating on the word the Lord had given me, it all began to make a little bit more sense because when you are doomed to lose, and I remember what that is like, church. I was 22 when I got saved. And in some ways, I have thanked the Lord that I know what it is like to be an adult and to not know God. I remember what it felt like. I remember how decision making worked. And you can try to go further and further in trying to do the will of the flesh. You can try to go to such extremes of of of trying to do the will of the flesh.
You can go and try to sin so much that you get everybody's attention. You can go nowadays and try and sin so much that you even get protection because of how great of a sinner you are. and God makes this incredible statement about it when he speaks of the last days. He encourages it. He tells the people in the last days, "Whoever is filthy, be more filthy still." Let me read it to you from Revelation 22 11 and 12: "He who is unjust, let him be unjust still. He who is filthy, let him be filthy still. He who is righteous, let him be righteous still. He who is holy, let him be holy still. And behold, I am coming quickly, and my reward is with me to give to everyone according to his work." He says this to those that just want to do what they want to do. It may not look like you're dressing up in in the clothing of of the opposite gender. It may look different in your life. He says this to people that have something in their heart. They're still separated from God, and they just want to do what they want to do. They want to try because the heart is not satisfied. They feel like they are losing. So they're ready for a win. If I go further, harder, more, deeper, longer, then maybe
I'll feel like a winner. He says it to those in the church and outside of the church. Go and sin. Do what you want to do, but you'll never win. You're losing. Losing not only life, you're losing in death. While you're grasping for something that you think will cause some kind of an emotion, a feeling, a satisfaction, an identity boost that that will make you feel like you're not a loser. Impossible next win. Sin more. Maybe satisfaction will come. Do your own will more. Maybe joy will come. Maybe happiness will come until one day you realize suddenly that the footsteps coming down the hall are on its way to collect you and to take you to hell. Doomed to lose all along after everything we've tried. You need to call on the name of Jesus Christ and repent of your life in order to be made one with God. That is the only way you will not lose in life and in death. Matthew 13 starting at verse 40: "Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so will be the end of this age. The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all that offends and those who practice lawlessness or disobedience, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth." Church, we cannot live outside of God. We cannot die outside of God.
Matthew 16 24-26 reads this: "Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way. Take up your cross and follow me." If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?" She hears Jesus speaking. All wisdom of God, all understanding, the world in the palm of his hand. He's known all things all along. And He asks a question. And He says, "Is anything worth more than your soul?" God himself in the flesh can't think of anything worth more than your soul. And the invitation of Satan and the world and the flesh in agreement alike is the things of this world. That's why he says, "What if you gain the whole world? What if every promise Satan ever made you, he's going to bring to pass? What if every desire in your heart you're able to satisfy? What if you get it all and you lose your soul? And Jesus says, "I can't think of any anything that comes close to the value of your soul." And he clearly showed us the way to become one with the Lord again, with the father again. Says, "Unless you stop holding on to the life you have here on earth, unless you lay it down, you're going to lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it."
If you would stand with me for a moment, church, the only way to win in life and in death, in every situation, everything you could ever come up with, the only way to win is to believe on Christ Jesus and to give him all of your life. It's not more complicated than that, but there's only one way. There's only one way to escape the truth that we are doomed to lose from the beginning. There's one way. And Jesus didn't make it vague. He didn't hide it. He didn't make it unclear. Said, "You're going to have to give it all up. And I will take care of you. I'll bring you home. I'll fill your heart. I'll give you all things." Believe in me and let go of your life. Let this Jesus Christ of Nazareth make you one with God. Let him make you into a winner. You You can't even comprehend or ever understand what it means to be a winner until you have allowed Jesus to make you one with God. Every shadow that the world portrays of what it means to win is is is a pale reflection at best of what what the devil knows he lost. Let Jesus Christ of Nazareth make you one with God and let him take you out of the circle that is doomed to lose and and bring you back to the father.
I want to invite you online to respond. If you say online in your heart, I I can understand in my heart that the Lord is really inviting me to believe on him that he is going to do this for me. Or if you say, I really never repented of my life. I agree with God that I shouldn't do bad stuff, but to actually not even have a life and to trust that whatever I'm going to get from him is going to be enough that I've never truly done to the depths that I probably should have. I don't know his voice personally. The Holy Spirit doesn't open the Bible when I open it and teaches it to my heart. I don't have God's joy. I'm not a winner, and I sense it. I want more and more stuff in this world. I'm not satisfied. I'm not already arrived into the greatest winner circle of all, being one with the father again. And I have believed him a long time. So, it must be my repentance that is the issue. If that is you online, I want to invite you to respond. It doesn't matter if you're alone, but to raise your hand, and God will honor that. It is a it is a form of humbling ourselves and saying, "Lord, that's me. Lord, I know what you're speaking to my heart. I understand, Jesus. You're coming soon. And I understand that when you speak to my heart, that is the time I have a chance for you to do the greatest miracle of all. Lord, you are ready. So, I'm joining you, Lord, in what you're doing today." And if you are here in the house, I want to invite you to symbolically respond by simply coming to the altar so we can pray together. If you say, "God is challenging me to believe on him in a deeper way, or God is challenging me to repent in a deeper way."
I want to invite you to come to the front at this time. See, if you don't know what I'm talking about when I say the Lord speaking with you on the daily, clear as I'm speaking to you, much more clear actually. He made you; when He speaks, you can never miss it. You can never be guessing. You are designed to be able to understand his voice. You were destined to have the best relationship in the world with him. And if you don't know his voice, if you don't know this sense of deep godly satisfaction, done with life. I can now live, and whatever comes comes. Whatever goes, goes. But I'm already satisfied. There's nothing I feel I missed out on in life. If you don't have that, you do not know God. You die. You are not going to heaven. There is no other way to face the father but to know Jesus Christ and to having been made one with God again with all of the benefits that used to be enjoyed in the garden. They're back now. The unity, the voice of God, the walking with God, the peace with God, the purpose in life. If it's missing, don't settle. You're putting things at risk that Jesus would never put at risk. He said, "Is there anything worth gambling your soul over?"
-Pastor Stan Mons
