Dinner Church: Victory, 5 May 2019
06 05 19 Filed in: Dinner Church
Dinner Church: Victory
Today is Cinco de Mayo, a celebration which, interestingly, is celebrated more in the United States than Mexico. What does this day commemorate?
The Mexican Army’s victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. It is not Mexico’s Independence Day, but it has become a day for us to eat tacos and burritos! Leave it to USAmericans to take a solemn occasion and turn it into a food feast!
Our them tonight is victory. We’ve all had victories and defeats, wins and losses. We will throughout our lives. Not even the New England Patriots or New York Yankees—or that team down south—win every year!
I love sports. I love to play sports. I love to watch sports. And I’m very competitive. I’ve never been fast, but I want to be! I want to win…and I want my teams to win.
Many years ago, I discovered the key to watching sports is to cheer for a person or team.
The most important part of a game is the…end. As many people have found out, it doesn’t matter the score with one second left on the clock or in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs. Anything can happen in those final moments.
As much as I love basketball, for instance, I rarely sit and watch the first half of a game, even if it’s one of my favorite teams. However, if I know the Pistons or Sixers are in the fourth quarter and the score is tied, get out of my way! Some of the great moments in sports history came when a certain defeat became a miraculous victory.
What is one victory you’ve experienced in your life? It could be field day as a kid, a little league game, watching your favorite team win on tv, getting a job you wanted, winning an award, etc.
How did it feel?
How is a victory different from a defeat?
What does it take to be victorious?
I want to suggest often victory requires defeat. I’ve rarely met anyone who is just a born winner and effortlessly succeeds at everything.
Last month Christians around the world celebrated a day called Good Friday. It was actually terrible. Jesus spent about three years creating a movement, a movement which continues to this day, a movement of faith, hope, and love. He spent three years teaching, healing the sick, raising the dead, attracting crowds, mentoring men and women, and then all of a sudden he allows himself to be arrested on false charges, refuses to defend himself, and goes from celebrity status to that of a criminal. Imagine the horror of all of his friends and fans as he is crucified, nailed to a cross, butchered for all to see in the most humiliating and excruciating of executions.
In a word, all was lost.
The life of Jesus. Lost.
The hope of his followers. Lost.
That’s not all. As Jesus died on the cross, the universe began to shift. Literally.
From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. (Matthew 27:45)
Even with all of the cloudy, rainy days we have in Toledo, it’s not dark from noon until three in the afternoon! These were the hours Jesus was dying on the cross. Matthew, the writers of one of Jesus’ four biographies called the gospels, wrote,
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. (Matthew 27:50)
He died. There’s no way anyone could’ve survived the beating, torture, mocking, thorns, and nails.
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. (Matthew 27:51-53)
Did you know zombies were in the Bible? When Jesus died—and a spear was shoved into his side causing blood and water to flow, proving he was dead—the whole universe went crazy. All was lost. Or so it seemed.
Have you ever had a moment like that? Maybe it was a day, a week, a month, or even a year. Maybe that moment is right now. Life feels like one big loss.
It could be a literal loss, like the loss of a job or a relationship breakup. Maybe your physical health is failing or your finances are a wreck.
If it feels like Friday, I’ve got good news for you. Your story’s not over. In fact, this very moment of pain, struggle, and storm may actually be preparing you for the greatest victory in your life.
Here’s the thing about Jesus and the cross: it wasn’t a loss. Sure, for a couple days all seemed loss, but something was going on behind the scenes. The crucifixion wasn’t an accident. In fact, Jesus had predicted he would die. He told people he would die. Ancient prophecy from hundreds of years earlier predicted he would die. What looked like a loss was just part of a plan.
On the cross, Jesus died to forgive you and me of all of our sins, our mistakes, our junk. Nobody’s perfect, right? Except Jesus.
See, the bad news is God is perfect and demands perfection from all of us. He doesn’t grade on a curve! If our lives are not 100% perfect, he has to reject us. It’s like the measles that are spreading in parts of the country. Nobody wants to get close to someone with measles because it’s very contagious. If you’ve got the measles—even if you’re a nice person and get good grades in school and make a lot of money and volunteer at the Humane Society and support the Toledo Symphony—you’ve got to be quarantined. You’re contagious.
Sin is contagious, and we’ve all got it…and God can’t get close to it. We were all—all—destined to go to hell when we die. Don’t get freaked out about a place with guys in red suits wearing horns and carrying a pitchfork. Hell is simply where God is not present. It’s not a good place, but it’s where we all deserve to go because we’ve all got sin.
But the amazing thing is Jesus—perfect Jesus—died to forgive our sins, to bring our score to 100%, to cure our sickness, our measles, so we can know God, so we can be with God, so we can go to heaven. Heaven is where God is, and you can experience heaven before you die, and even more after you die in the next life.
But heaven is not for people who are good. You have to be perfect…or know someone who is! Jesus came, lived, and died so you could know God, do life with God, and experience the love, joy, peace, freedom and hope that come only from God.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible says,
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:15, NIV)
On the cross as Jesus died, the real loser was sin, evil, and death. He made a public spectacle over satan and demons.
Jesus took the beating. His body was broken. His blood poured out. For you. For me.
The cross was actually a victory for all of humanity, anyone who would say yes to Jesus, say yes to the cure he offers for our sin disease. And guess what? It’s a gift! You can’t earn it. You can’t buy it. You can’t do enough good things to deserve it.
If someone offers you a gift—a wonderful gift—what do you have to do? Take it!
Tonight I want every one of you to experience sweet victory. I’m not talking about self-help, positive thinking, cheerleading. I mean take your junk to Jesus…your fears, failures, hurts, habits, and hangups. Let go and let God.
“Our God loves triumphing over what looks impossible.” – Lisa Bevere
On the third day—the day we celebrate on Easter—Jesus came back to life. He rose from the dead.
Dr. Tony Campolo famously said, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!”
There’s a lot of talk about Christianity dying in this country. I think some of it has to do with abusive priests, power-hungry pastors, and hypocritical Christians. I’m very sorry for that, by the way. Christian means “little Christ” and a lot of Christians don’t look like Jesus…including me, sometimes. I’m very sorry.
But a lot of people have no need for God. They say they don’t need a crutch. They feel like they’re experiencing victory. But it never lasts. Eventually every team loses, every champion retires, every dollar is spent, every breath is breathed.
If you don’t need God, thanks for coming tonight. I hope you enjoyed dinner and made some friends.
But if there is any part of your soul that needs healing, any part of your heart that needs love, any part of your mind that needs truth, or any part of your body that needs healing, I know where you can find victory tonight. It might not be instant victory, but surrendering your life to Jesus, receiving his forgiveness, repenting and turning away from your past life and running to God will change you forever. Forever!
This isn’t about religion or even church. It’s about Jesus.
Steph Curry’s favorite verse is Philippians 4:13
For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13)
If you want to experience victory in your life, I have a short prayer I want to invite you to pray tonight. It’s simply this: Jesus, I give you my life. I believe for some of you, tonight is your night. This prayer is not the end, it’s just the beginning. Jesus, I give you my life.
At the end of the Bible is a somewhat mysterious book called Revelation. It begins with letters to churches and Jesus speaks to an ancient church in what is now Turkey says this to those who followed Jesus:
All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine. (Revelation 3:5, NLT)
That’s victory! That’s eternal victory! And that’s the victory we can experience with Jesus is greater than any Mexican war victory on Cinco de Mayo, greater than any NBA Finals championship, and even greater than winning the lottery!
Amen!
Today is Cinco de Mayo, a celebration which, interestingly, is celebrated more in the United States than Mexico. What does this day commemorate?
The Mexican Army’s victory over the French Empire at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862. It is not Mexico’s Independence Day, but it has become a day for us to eat tacos and burritos! Leave it to USAmericans to take a solemn occasion and turn it into a food feast!
Our them tonight is victory. We’ve all had victories and defeats, wins and losses. We will throughout our lives. Not even the New England Patriots or New York Yankees—or that team down south—win every year!
I love sports. I love to play sports. I love to watch sports. And I’m very competitive. I’ve never been fast, but I want to be! I want to win…and I want my teams to win.
Many years ago, I discovered the key to watching sports is to cheer for a person or team.
The most important part of a game is the…end. As many people have found out, it doesn’t matter the score with one second left on the clock or in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs. Anything can happen in those final moments.
As much as I love basketball, for instance, I rarely sit and watch the first half of a game, even if it’s one of my favorite teams. However, if I know the Pistons or Sixers are in the fourth quarter and the score is tied, get out of my way! Some of the great moments in sports history came when a certain defeat became a miraculous victory.
What is one victory you’ve experienced in your life? It could be field day as a kid, a little league game, watching your favorite team win on tv, getting a job you wanted, winning an award, etc.
How did it feel?
How is a victory different from a defeat?
What does it take to be victorious?
I want to suggest often victory requires defeat. I’ve rarely met anyone who is just a born winner and effortlessly succeeds at everything.
Last month Christians around the world celebrated a day called Good Friday. It was actually terrible. Jesus spent about three years creating a movement, a movement which continues to this day, a movement of faith, hope, and love. He spent three years teaching, healing the sick, raising the dead, attracting crowds, mentoring men and women, and then all of a sudden he allows himself to be arrested on false charges, refuses to defend himself, and goes from celebrity status to that of a criminal. Imagine the horror of all of his friends and fans as he is crucified, nailed to a cross, butchered for all to see in the most humiliating and excruciating of executions.
In a word, all was lost.
The life of Jesus. Lost.
The hope of his followers. Lost.
That’s not all. As Jesus died on the cross, the universe began to shift. Literally.
From noon until three in the afternoon darkness came over all the land. (Matthew 27:45)
Even with all of the cloudy, rainy days we have in Toledo, it’s not dark from noon until three in the afternoon! These were the hours Jesus was dying on the cross. Matthew, the writers of one of Jesus’ four biographies called the gospels, wrote,
And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. (Matthew 27:50)
He died. There’s no way anyone could’ve survived the beating, torture, mocking, thorns, and nails.
At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split and the tombs broke open. The bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs after Jesus’ resurrection and went into the holy city and appeared to many people. (Matthew 27:51-53)
Did you know zombies were in the Bible? When Jesus died—and a spear was shoved into his side causing blood and water to flow, proving he was dead—the whole universe went crazy. All was lost. Or so it seemed.
Have you ever had a moment like that? Maybe it was a day, a week, a month, or even a year. Maybe that moment is right now. Life feels like one big loss.
It could be a literal loss, like the loss of a job or a relationship breakup. Maybe your physical health is failing or your finances are a wreck.
If it feels like Friday, I’ve got good news for you. Your story’s not over. In fact, this very moment of pain, struggle, and storm may actually be preparing you for the greatest victory in your life.
Here’s the thing about Jesus and the cross: it wasn’t a loss. Sure, for a couple days all seemed loss, but something was going on behind the scenes. The crucifixion wasn’t an accident. In fact, Jesus had predicted he would die. He told people he would die. Ancient prophecy from hundreds of years earlier predicted he would die. What looked like a loss was just part of a plan.
On the cross, Jesus died to forgive you and me of all of our sins, our mistakes, our junk. Nobody’s perfect, right? Except Jesus.
See, the bad news is God is perfect and demands perfection from all of us. He doesn’t grade on a curve! If our lives are not 100% perfect, he has to reject us. It’s like the measles that are spreading in parts of the country. Nobody wants to get close to someone with measles because it’s very contagious. If you’ve got the measles—even if you’re a nice person and get good grades in school and make a lot of money and volunteer at the Humane Society and support the Toledo Symphony—you’ve got to be quarantined. You’re contagious.
Sin is contagious, and we’ve all got it…and God can’t get close to it. We were all—all—destined to go to hell when we die. Don’t get freaked out about a place with guys in red suits wearing horns and carrying a pitchfork. Hell is simply where God is not present. It’s not a good place, but it’s where we all deserve to go because we’ve all got sin.
But the amazing thing is Jesus—perfect Jesus—died to forgive our sins, to bring our score to 100%, to cure our sickness, our measles, so we can know God, so we can be with God, so we can go to heaven. Heaven is where God is, and you can experience heaven before you die, and even more after you die in the next life.
But heaven is not for people who are good. You have to be perfect…or know someone who is! Jesus came, lived, and died so you could know God, do life with God, and experience the love, joy, peace, freedom and hope that come only from God.
One of my favorite verses in the Bible says,
And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:15, NIV)
On the cross as Jesus died, the real loser was sin, evil, and death. He made a public spectacle over satan and demons.
Jesus took the beating. His body was broken. His blood poured out. For you. For me.
The cross was actually a victory for all of humanity, anyone who would say yes to Jesus, say yes to the cure he offers for our sin disease. And guess what? It’s a gift! You can’t earn it. You can’t buy it. You can’t do enough good things to deserve it.
If someone offers you a gift—a wonderful gift—what do you have to do? Take it!
Tonight I want every one of you to experience sweet victory. I’m not talking about self-help, positive thinking, cheerleading. I mean take your junk to Jesus…your fears, failures, hurts, habits, and hangups. Let go and let God.
“Our God loves triumphing over what looks impossible.” – Lisa Bevere
On the third day—the day we celebrate on Easter—Jesus came back to life. He rose from the dead.
Dr. Tony Campolo famously said, “It’s Friday, but Sunday’s coming!”
There’s a lot of talk about Christianity dying in this country. I think some of it has to do with abusive priests, power-hungry pastors, and hypocritical Christians. I’m very sorry for that, by the way. Christian means “little Christ” and a lot of Christians don’t look like Jesus…including me, sometimes. I’m very sorry.
But a lot of people have no need for God. They say they don’t need a crutch. They feel like they’re experiencing victory. But it never lasts. Eventually every team loses, every champion retires, every dollar is spent, every breath is breathed.
If you don’t need God, thanks for coming tonight. I hope you enjoyed dinner and made some friends.
But if there is any part of your soul that needs healing, any part of your heart that needs love, any part of your mind that needs truth, or any part of your body that needs healing, I know where you can find victory tonight. It might not be instant victory, but surrendering your life to Jesus, receiving his forgiveness, repenting and turning away from your past life and running to God will change you forever. Forever!
This isn’t about religion or even church. It’s about Jesus.
Steph Curry’s favorite verse is Philippians 4:13
For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:13)
If you want to experience victory in your life, I have a short prayer I want to invite you to pray tonight. It’s simply this: Jesus, I give you my life. I believe for some of you, tonight is your night. This prayer is not the end, it’s just the beginning. Jesus, I give you my life.
At the end of the Bible is a somewhat mysterious book called Revelation. It begins with letters to churches and Jesus speaks to an ancient church in what is now Turkey says this to those who followed Jesus:
All who are victorious will be clothed in white. I will never erase their names from the Book of Life, but I will announce before my Father and his angels that they are mine. (Revelation 3:5, NLT)
That’s victory! That’s eternal victory! And that’s the victory we can experience with Jesus is greater than any Mexican war victory on Cinco de Mayo, greater than any NBA Finals championship, and even greater than winning the lottery!
Amen!