Living To Win

What is your pursuit in life? Are you living to win, or are you content with just playing? If you’re truly living to win, what are you hoping to obtain?

This is one of those passages that we have heard repeated countless times. It is also one of those passages that we frequently miss the point. Paul is here reflecting on his life (past, present and future).

By the way, this is what we typically find with anniversaries. Anniversaries allow us us an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on our life.

Paul is here reflecting on his life (past, present and future). By the way, this is what we typically find with anniversaries. Anniversaries allow us us an opportunity to celebrate and reflect on our past.

As Paul began to reflect on his life he began to put things into perspective. He does not do what some of us do. He doesn’t look back on his life in order to boast about his accomplishments and the things he had gained. Instead, he looks back on these things and concludes that they cannot be compared to what is yet before him—gaining Christ!

There are many things that we consider to be of value in this life (social or religious status, material or religious benefits, comforts, honors). None of these things can be compared to gaining Christ.

The KJV uses the term “win” in place of the word “gain.” It seems strange that Paul would compare his pursuit of Christ as a desire to “win” Christ. The word “win” implies a conflict or fight. I’ve never heard of anyone trying to “win” or trying to fight to obtain Christ.

The word “win” implies conflict. When you talk about “winning” something you are talking about gaining or acquiring something as a result of a contest or fight.

It seems strange to me that God would inspire the Apostle Paul to speak of his purpose in life as a desire to “win” Christ. I don’t think I have ever heard of anyone trying to “win” or fighting to obtain Christ until Paul I read these words from Paul.

I’ve heard of people fighting for success, or fighting for better pay, fighting for their freedom. I’ve even heard of people fighting for a parking spot at the mall. But I’ve never heard of anyone fighting to win Christ!

Last time I checked, no one’s fighting to get to the altar. No one is even fighting to get into Church! Doesn’t Paul know that it doesn’t take much effort to be saved? Isn’t he familiar with the plan of salvation? Doesn’t he know that salvation is a gift from God and all you have to do is confess with your mouth and believe in your heart and you can have all the Jesus you want?!

When Paul talks about winning Christ he’s not talking about being born again or having your sins forgiven. When he talks about winning Christ he’s talking about gaining spiritual perfection ().

How do we win Christ or gain spiritual perfection?

According to the Jews in Paul’s day, to obtain perfection you had to have the right pedigree or parents ().

For the Jew if you could prove you descended from the right parents you could prove or even guarantee your status in the kingdom of God.

There’s a new movement sweeping across our college campuses and major cities in America. It’s called the Black Hebrew Israelite Movement. They are convincing countless African Americans that they are descendants of ancient Israelites and, therefore, are God’s chosen people.

This isn’t anything new. They were doing this in Paul’s day. They were assuming salvation can be gained through lineage.

They also had other superficial accomplishments that they looked to gauge their success ().

It’s like this today. We have come to equate success with things like: congregation size, state of the art facilities, cutting edge ministries, gifted musicians and singers. Those that are able to GAIN these things are the ones we recognize as winning!!

I remember growing up I begged my parents to buy me the most expensive shoes because I believe that having the best and most expensive shoes gave me an advantage over my competition. But, the best equipment doesn’t mean you’ll win. If there’s anything we’ve learned from 9/11 is that it doesn’t take a lot of money to win against your enemies. (9/11 cost only $500,000 to pull off.) It takes is sacrifice!

(This is why there seems to be an ‘arms race’ among churches!)

Winning Christ or achieving perfection is not determined by what we are able to gain. It’s determined by what we’re willing to sacrifice (, , , )!

Some of you feel you are “losing” because haven’t received the training others have had, or the pedigree others may have. I’m here to tell you that you cannot gauge whether or not your winning by how much you’ve gain since coming to Christ, or by how many friends you’ve gained since coming to Christ, nor even by how many times you’ve been celebrated. You gauge whether or not you’re winning by how much you’ve given up, and by how many times you been despised and rejected for the sake of Christ ().

Are you looking to gain His life, then show Him your losses (what you’re dying to), because losing is winning when it comes to Christ!

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You don’t measure success by how much you have gained since coming to Christ. You measure success by how much they have giving up since coming to Christ. You measure victory by how many cars you were willing to give up for the sake of Christ. You don’t measure success by how many friends you have gained since coming to Christ. You measure your wins by how many friends you were willing to sacrifice for the sake of Christ. You don’t measure success by how many times you have been celebrated for coming to Christ. You measure your wins by how many times you been despised and rejected because you came to Christ (, ; , ). Show me your losses, and I’ll show you gains! Paul said “Alwasy bearing about on my body the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life may be manifest in my flesh!” Do you want His life? Then show Him your what you’re giving up (dying to). Whenever I look at Facebook all I see is the gains. We see these gains and assume that they are winning. We never see any losses. It seems we’re afraid to lose. But losing is winning when it comes to Christ.

Paul does not say, “IN SPITE of these things we are more than conquerors (winners).” He says, “IN all these things (i.e. in our losses) we are more than winners!”

Losing isn’t necessarily the same as being defeated. You can lose without necessarily being defeated. To be defeated means to be prevented from achieving a goal. Jesus died, but He was not defeated. He said, “No man takes my life. I lay it down!”

I may have loss, but it was not because I could not win. Instead, it was because I determine that there was something better, something worth fighting, dying and even sacrificing for.

We cannot win Christ if we are not willing to lose the world.

Let me just say that when we talk about “losing” we’re not just talking about sacrificing sins (unlawful things). We must realize that there are some lawful things that we must be willing to lose and sacrifice for the sake of obtaining Christ. Moreover, those things are typically things that are competing with Christ.

It seems we’re trying to win without sacrifice.

What’s competing with your attention, your affection and even with your devotion?

When I talk about “losing” I’m not talking only about sacrificing our sins. We must realize that we must forfeit even lawful things, IF THEY ARE COMPETING WITH CHRIST.