Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life. I don’t see many of “the brightest and the best” among you, not many influential, not many from high-society families.27 Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses,28 chose these “nobody’s” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebody’s”? – 1 Corinthians 1:26-28 (MSG)
There are many out in the world who feel like they are losers, nobody’s, and the least among us. But I want to tell you today that God specializes in turning losers into champions! Whether you know it or not “there is a champion in you!” If you turn to God, seek God, believe God, and live for God, He can turn your loser disposition, loser circumstances, and loser attitude into a champion. For this God we serve loves to lift the least, find the lost, and transform losers into champions.
God is always turning Losers into Champions, the Lost into the Found, and the Least into the Greatest! In our world today, a loser is defined as a low life, a nobody, someone who is insignificant, unimportant, disliked, disinherited, and disconnected from family and friends, the popular and the prosperous. A loser is considered as someone who is defeated, someone who has failed at a task, a job, an assignment, and even failed at life! Moreover, a loser is considered as someone who accepts defeat, give ups, throws in the towel, and won’t even try to win in life! Whether you experience any of these things in your life or not, God told me to tell you, “there is a champion in you!”
This is what Paul is saying to the many people in Corinth who felt like a loser at one time or another. He is saying in so many words, aren’t you glad that the God you serve knows how to turn losers into champions? This is what he said to them and us in the messenger translation of 1 Cor. 1:26-28, and I paraphrase. He said, “Take a good look, friends, at who you were when you got called into this life (this life of faith, this life of victory). For when he called you, saved you, and made you champions, not many of you were the “the brightest and the best,” not many of you were influential; not many of you were from high-society families. Isn’t it obvious that God deliberately chose men and women that the culture overlooks and exploits and abuses? Yes, God chose these “nobody’s” to expose the hollow pretensions of the “somebody’s.” In other words, God chose nobody’s and made them somebody’s, God chose losers and turned them into champions! In fact, He’s turning losers into champions right now! There is a champion in you!
Don’t you see God turning losers into champions throughout scriptures? Abram, I know you live in a failed culture, with a loser family, but if you will leave your country and your father’s house, I will bring you into a new land, give you a new life, and make you a winner; for there is a champion in you.
The Graham Translationof Genesis 12:2-3, God said, “Abram,there is a champion in you! I am about to make of you a great and winning nation. I will bless you and make you famous, make you a champion, and you will be a blessing to others… and through you all the families of the earth will be blessed with champions.
Gideon, I know you don’t feel great, you feel like a loser, but you are great because I called you great! You are a champion because I called you a champion! This is what the angel meant in Judges 6:12, saying to Gideon, “The Lord is with you, mighty man of valor!”
Don’t you hear God saying to David in 1 Samuel 16, “David, I know you are the last and the least among your brothers, but there is a champion in you!” This is what God said to Joseph, son of Jacob in Genesis 37 when he gave him a coat of many colors. In so many words God said, “Joseph I know you are not the first born of your father Jacob, but Joseph if you stay with me, and live for me, I help you win in life, prosper in life, and even reign in life! Joseph, you are going to make it because there is s champion in you!
I’m so glad God did not stop with the Biblical characters. God is turning losers into champions right now! I remember not too long ago, I was a loser, lost, and on my way to hell, but Jesus stopped by, and picked me up, cleaned me up, made me to look up, and he saved me and set me free! He took a little loser, a little nobody from Andrews, SC, and made him into somebody. Yes, God, made me a winner, made to reign in life, and now this champion is helping others to win in life; this champion is showing others that there is a champion in you!
Confession: Lord, I thank you that you saved me and set me free from sin and shame; bondage and defeat. Thank you that one Thursday night, you turned a loser into a champion! Each and everyday I am activating, developing, and growing the champion in me, in Jesus name, Amen.