Bobby Bosler: It’s great to be back at Falls Baptist Church. Please turn with me in your Bible to Romans chapter 8. Please hear this evening, Romans chapter 8.

Some of you may have heard that I’ve become a pastor now. Ah, I’m not only a pastor, I’m a pastor in West Virginia. And I’ll tell you, I flew up here on Monday, put my shoes on and walked back into church here, just excited about what God was going to do in our midst here this week.

You know what? It’s exciting to me to be able to pastor such a wonderful group of folks at Fellowship Baptist Church. But I got to tell you something, there is a part of my heart that, let me put it to you this way.

Becoming a pastor, I thought traveling and evangelism will always be a side job now, okay? And so I, a couple weeks ago, I did a revival meeting up in Minnesota and I was sitting up there. This is where you know God was working, okay?

I was sitting up there in my hotel room thinking, I wish I was back in Fairmont, West Virginia. I’ll tell you what, Dr. Jim says this all the time, and it’s true.

There’s nothing better than the will of God. And there’s nothing better than to know that you are exactly where God has called you to go doing what God has called you to do. And I’m here this week, pleased to share some very good news with every last one of you.

God has called each person in this room to win. Doesn’t matter who you are, doesn’t matter how many times you failed, it doesn’t matter how much of a failure you feel like, how much like a loser you look like, the fact of the matter is here this evening, God saved your life to win. You are a winner through Jesus Christ.

The book that we’re in here, the book of Romans, is a book that’s all about good news. You know what good news is? It’s news that’s good to hear.

Good news for a person that’s suffering under a financial load is God provided. Good news for somebody who’s been suffering under the load of sin is you have victory through Jesus Christ. The good news for somebody who has been burdened under a load of affliction is that God can bear that burden.

then listen, friends, the good news of the book of Romans is something that we do not need to be ashamed of. Paul certainly wasn’t. And I tell you, it’s good news that a guilty world has been given a sinless substitute to satisfy the wrath of God, isn’t it?

It’s good news that a guilt-free verdict is a free gift of God’s grace, isn’t it? You know, it’s good news that a sinless Savior now lives inside of every single one of us, isn’t it? And you know what?

You can live his sinless life through his power. That’s good news, isn’t it? But you know what?

None of that changes the fact that life is hard sometimes, isn’t it? Sometimes we feel like we’re losers and we feel like we’re losing. We find ourselves questioning whether the good news to us has expired or whether we’ve exhausted its resources.

But what if I told you that’s not how it really is at all? I tell you, God did not save you to lose. He saved you to conquer.

He saved you to win. And we’re going to see that in our text here tonight, Romans chapter 8, verse number 37. Look at what the inspired word of God says to each one of us here in this room.

Romans 8, verse 37. Nay, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. I’m gonna preach a message to you tonight entitled, Saved to Win.

Let’s seek the Lord here this evening. God, I wanna ask that you would fill me and each person in this building with your Holy Ghost. I wanna pray that you’d help us understand the wonderful things that you prepared for us that I have not seen, neither ear heard.

God, we need your spirit to comprehend truth. And I pray that tonight would not just be an exercise in preaching and listening, but it would be an exercise in discerning the divine realities that your words speak of here. God, I feel weak and incapable of delivering this truth in a way that will do justice to it.

So God, I just present myself to you. Lord, would you speak tonight? Lord, would you encourage these folks?

Would you show us what we have in Jesus? Would you show us who we are in Jesus. And I pray, Lord, you would help us live the winning lives that you’ve saved us to live.

In Jesus’ name, amen. That Friday, the crowd cheered. The nails sank deep.

The sky turned black. The Son of God hung between two thieves, bleeding, broken, and eventually dead. By every human measure, that moment in history was the greatest loss there ever was.

In that moment as he hung between those thieves, Jesus appeared to be a loser. It appeared as if he had failed. But three days later, heaven declared what no one saw coming.

What looked like a loss was actually the greatest victory the world had ever known. And did you know that paradox of victory through loss, of looking like one is a loser and yet actually conquering and triumphing. That paradox defines every single one of our stories here in this room as well.

You realize the pathway to winning runs straight through what often looks like losing. And Paul sums it up right here. He says in all these things.

We are more than conquerors through him that loved us. I want us to start at where every person’s victory here in this room will begin and must begin. I want us to see first the setting of your win.

And I’m going to give a little spoiler warning. The setting of your win is this. You look like a loser.

What do I mean by that? Let’s look at our text here today. He says, in all these things.

You see, if you’re not expecting the setting, this might be a little bit jolting. And it’s important for us to answer the question, what things is he speaking of? He says, in all of these things, we’re more than conquerors.

Well, what are the things? Look back at verse 35 with me, if you could. He asked a question, who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

And I think all of us here in this room, we know the answer to that one, right? Nothing can and nothing will. Praise the Lord.

Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ. But I want us to look at how he continues. He asks, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword.

See, here’s the thing. I think many of us, we can know in our heads that God loves us, but we doubt it in our hearts because of our circumstances. See, we can know that God loves us.

I would even argue we can know that we are conquerors and still feel like losers. Does anybody else identify with me in that? Okay.

You see, I want us to notice the list here. He begins by saying, these are the things that are the setting of our winning. These are, you could almost say the requirements.

This is the kind of person, the kind of life, The kind of circumstances that Jesus promises are actually the settings in which we win. He says, shall tribulation. The word tribulation here has the idea of strong pressure.

It’s actually used of treading grapes. That is, it’s a pressure that bursts. One writer put it this way.

It’s the heavy stone rolling over the grapes until the juice bursts out. Have any of you ever felt like a grape like that before where you feel like the pressure of life is weighing upon you until you’re ready to burst? Listen, we’re not just talking about being inconvenienced here.

We’re talking about being pressured to the point that we feel crushed. Maybe young people, it’s feeling the pressure to fit in. There is a crushing weight of judgment when you don’t laugh at their joke, isn’t there?

There’s a crushing weight of judgment when you find out you didn’t watch their movie. You’re not joining into their trend. The crowd doesn’t like it when you stop playing their game and that crowd can squeeze you.

It can pressure you. It can crush you. Maybe you’re feeling the pressure to succeed.

Maybe you’re the spiritual kid in your youth group. Maybe your dad’s the pastor or your dad’s a staff member. You’re supposed to be the one who gets the best grades.

You’re supposed to be the one that has the highest standards. You’re the one who’s supposed to have virtually no problems. And if you’re honest, the pressure of that is absolutely crushing.

You feel like a fake and keeping up the act is about to make you burst. Can anyone identify? Maybe it’s the pressure to compromise.

Maybe you’re a young person here in this room and you identify as a member of the generation. You really do want to be totally surrendered to God, but at some point your choice of obedience ends up costing you something. Maybe it’s a friend.

Maybe it’s a dream. Maybe it’s a job. And there’s a part of you that feels crushed by disappointment and pushed to maybe just let up a little bit.

Can I tell you, this crushing pressure is not an accident. It’s not a sign of failure. It is literally the setting of your victory.

Don’t despise the pressure. Be who you are, a conqueror in the midst of the pressure. Listen, you might feel like a loser, but you’re not.

So just hang in there. He goes on, he says, or distress. The word distress here literally has the idea of narrow places.

It’s like being trapped in a tight canyon or pressed between two walls with no way out. It’s not the same as tribulation. Tribulation is that external pressure that weighs upon us.

This is an internal restriction that we feel when our options have close and there’s no escape route. It’s what happens when total surrender to God feels like it’s put you in a box. Maybe your surrender has cost you your freedom.

Maybe it’s your surrender has brought you to the point where you realize you can’t just spend your weekends the same way you used to anymore. You can’t just pursue any relationship you want. You can’t just chase the dreams you grew up with, if God hasn’t called you to them and suddenly it feels like your world has gotten a whole lot smaller, that is distress, the narrow path of obedience.

Maybe the will of God feels confining to you. Your surrender leaves you to something you didn’t expect. Maybe it’s leading you to missions or the ministry or maybe staying faithful in an unnoticed place.

You had such big plans for yourself. But now you feel like you’re limited. Surrendering to Christ sometimes takes you through hallways that feel claustrophobic, doesn’t it?

Maybe you’re hemmed in by consequences. Maybe you made the choice to get right with God about something, and that led to temporary pain. No easy way out.

And now you feel trapped by circumstances. You wonder if you should have just kept things to yourself because now you feel boxed in. But I want you to consider maybe these narrow straits are actually God leading you through the valley to come out in the plains of victory.

Jesus, I remind you, is the door. and sometimes the door to winning is narrow and it feels a lot like distress. It feels like losing.

He goes on, he says, or persecution. What is persecution? I think we know it’s an organized pursuit with hostile intent.

This isn’t just random mistreatment, but it’s a high pressure campaign designed to make you stop following Jesus. You see, obedience doesn’t just bring pain, though it does sometimes. Sometimes it also brings opposition.

Mark it down. When you’re surrendered to Christ, someone or something is going to try to shut you down. Maybe you’ll get pressure from people.

Maybe taking your stand for purity or for honesty or for humility makes people notice and not in the way you want to be noticed. You find yourself mocked in group chats. You’re left out of inside jokes.

You’re labeled as judgy or weird. The world doesn’t persecute casual Christians, but it sure does persecute surrendered ones. Maybe find yourself getting pushback from culture.

I wanna remind you the world is a system designed by the devil to derail your pursuit of Jesus Christ. Listen, it may not mock you or humiliate you, but it is programmatically pursuing you with an agenda. Every platform that you touch has an agenda.

The algorithms of TikTok and Snapchat, friends, don’t teach you self-denial. They don’t teach you God-dependence. They teach you self-indulgence.

And that intent is hostile. Maybe you find opposition from the enemy. Satan is the ultimate organizer of persecution.

He’s the mastermind who mobilizes systems, who mobilizes peers, who accentuates inner fears to do one thing from stop to stop surrendered believers from spreading the light. Can I say this young people? if you’ve ever felt an unexplained wave of discouragement right after taking a stand, that’s not a coincidence.

That’s opposition. And I say this persecution doesn’t disappear from surrendered Christians. It intensifies.

But remember, it’s the setting of your win. You might feel like a loser, but you’re not. He goes on, he says, or famine, or famine.

This literally means a lack of food. It’s a season of scarcity when resources run out and you can’t fill what’s empty. And listen, this isn’t just physical starvation.

I think in a sense, he’s describing what happens when following Jesus leaves you hungry. Sometimes surrender costs your bank account. You don’t make the pay you wanted to because you’re following Jesus, which means you don’t end up having the lifestyle you wanted, which might even mean that some bare necessities are scarce.

You might end up physically hungry and not sure where the next meal is coming from. Sometimes obedience leaves you missing out. The famine might not be for food, but for experiences.

The ones that everyone else around you is enjoying. Your friends might be feasting while you yourself are fasting. Your friends might be indulging while you’re waiting.

You see what they’re doing on your social media feed and you feel like you’re starving. You’ve given up the easy road, but the payoff hasn’t come yet. And that ache of deprivation feels like a famine to your soul.

Listen, sometimes you feel spiritually empty. When you’re doing right, even though you’re doing right, heaven feels silent. You’re praying, you’re reading your Bible, you’re trying to serve God, but your heart feels dry.

That could be famine too. Listen, friends, this matter makes you hungry. But I remind you, Jesus promised, blessed are the hungry, for they shall be filled.

You might feel like a hungry loser, but you’re not. He goes on, he says, or nakedness. This means a lack of clothing due to poverty, not immodesty.

In the first century, to be naked meant to have nothing left to protect or to present yourself. No possessions, no privacy, no dignity. It’s the image of being exposed and humiliated, not because you’ve sinned, but because your obedience has stripped you of worldly security.

Can I say sometimes surrender will cost you your image, young people? Your reputation can feel like clothing. It covers you, it defines you, it makes you fit in.

But the moment you start living for Christ, it changes your reputation. You stop being cool and you start being that Christian. surrender can strip away the image you once used to hide behind and you feel exposed he goes on he says or peril the word peril means danger exposure to harm risk of loss it’s the word sailors used for storms it’s the word soldiers used for battles and it’s the word believers used for persecution.

And this peril may not mean literal death, but it absolutely does mean risking what you value most. You can put your comforts in danger, your relationships in danger, your security in danger, your dreams in danger. Maybe your surrender puts you at risk of rejection.

Maybe God leads you to risk it all and do something radical. It will always feel dangerous to obey Jesus. That’s because surrender always puts something valuable on the altar.

Maybe that risk is stepping out into the unknown. It’s perilous. Following Jesus always means risk and danger in some capacity.

You might feel like a loser for risking it all. But as Jim Elliott said, he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain that which he cannot lose. I want you to notice, lastly in this list, he says, or sword.

This refers to violent death, execution, assassination, martyrdom. These are words we don’t use every day, except we’ve been using them a little bit the last few weeks, haven’t we? This matter of the sword was not poetic exaggeration.

Paul had seen believers executed, and he would face the sword eventually himself. We’re not talking minor inconvenience here. We’re talking about the ultimate cost.

And in case you don’t think the sword still swings today, I remind you of what happened on September 10th in Orem, Utah. The sword still swings today. In fact, the next verse makes it even more vivid.

He quotes Psalm 44, 22 in verse 36. He says, as it is written, this is undergirding the last part of his list. He says, for thy sake, We are killed all the day long.

We are accounted or considered as sheep for the slaughter. See, what Paul’s doing is he’s saying, listen, this last point isn’t anything new. God’s people have always been targets of killings for God’s sake.

They’ve always looked like sitting ducks. They’ve always looked like losers in the world’s eyes. In fact, some of the greatest Christians you know of looked like losers for a time.

How about Adoniram Judson? You’ve heard that name? BCM students have heard that name.

Judson’s life looked like one long defeat. He buried two wives and several children. He spent 17 months in a filthy Burmese prison, hung upside down at night, tortured, wasting away with fever.

His mission saw no fruit for six years, not a single convert. When his wife and baby died, he dug their graves himself and sat beside them in despair, even digging his own grave in front of his hut. It looked like the end for Judson.

He looked like a loser. Felt like a loser. But he wasn’t.

You ever heard the name James O. Frazier? Frazier went to the Lisu people of Southwest China in 1910.

He spent years with no converts. He was isolated, cold, depressed, and sometimes nearly suicidal. He once wrote, Satan laughs as he holds back my converts.

By every human measure, he was a failure at that point in his life. a lone missionary rejected by his target people. He looked like a loser, felt like a loser, but he wasn’t.

You heard the name Hudson Taylor? In the 1860s in China, Hudson Taylor was overwhelmed. The China Inland Mission was nearly broke.

His health was failing. His children were dying. He wrote, my faith failed.

I could not pray. I could not trust. He looked like a man undone, weak, overworked, underfunded.

He looked like a loser. He felt like a loser, but he wasn’t. You ever heard the name Jonathan Goforth?

I did pick these four on purpose. These are the names of our college fellowships. Jonathan Goforth and his wife Rosalyn lost five of their 11 children to sickness on the field.

Their home and possessions were destroyed in the Boxer Rebellion. He was driven out of provinces, mocked by officials, and was told his ministry would fail. At one point, he was literally burned out of his mission station and ran for his life.

He looked like a loser. He felt like a loser. But he wasn’t.

See, the setting of your win is important to understand because when we think of being a conqueror, we imagine glinting armor, shining swords, the glory of victory, but sometimes, actually more often, it begins with the warrior looking a whole lot like a loser and feeling a whole lot like a loser. One author said this of this text. He said, suffering and persecution are not mere evils which the Christian must expect and endure as best they can.

They are the scene of the overwhelming victory which Christians are winning through Christ. Listen, Judson looked like a loser, but he wasn’t. Frazier looked like a loser, but he wasn’t.

Taylor looked like a loser, but he wasn’t. Goforth looked like a loser, but he wasn’t. Every one of them found what Romans 8, 37 declares, you can look like a loser and still be winning.

The story is not over when you look like a loser or feel like a loser. In fact, that’s just the setup for our second point, the statement of your win. See, while it’s true, you feel like a loser, you look like a loser.

What’s actually true is that you’re actually a winner. He said, we are in all these things. We are more than conquerors.

This phrase, we are more than conquerors, is a reflection of a single Greek word. It’s a verb that’s a combination of two words crammed together. One has the idea of victory or winning.

The other has the idea of over and above. In other words, he’s saying we are actually winning. In all these things, we’re actually winning.

We are winning. Can I tell you as you sit in your seat tonight, You might walk into this room feeling like a loser, but according to this verse, you’re winning. You’re winning.

See, he doesn’t say in spite of all these things. He says in all of these things. You see, this whole feeling like a loser isn’t incidental to being a conqueror.

It is absolutely essential to being a conqueror. It’s not winning in spite of these things. It’s winning because of these things.

In fact, I think it’s important for us to focus on one aspect of this Greek verb here. He is not saying that we might win. He’s not saying even that we will win.

He’s not saying that we have won. The Greek is literally saying we are winning. We’re actually winning.

See, God’s trying to change our perspective here. We can look at the things, the lists we just saw, and we can think, well, it sure looks like we’re losing, right? But God wants us to look at the same list and say, it looks like we’re actually winning.

Now that might not make a whole lot of sense yet, does it? See, that’s why I think it’s important for us to understand we’re winning because we’re winners. In fact, the way it says it, we are more than conquerors.

See, we’re winners because that’s who God saved us to be. Jesus did not save us to fail. He didn’t save us to retreat.

He didn’t save us to end up losers. He saved us to win and to win big. Can I tell you, if you’re saved here tonight, this is who you are now.

You are united to the risen, victorious Christ. He lives in you. You’re no longer condemned.

If you’ll walk in the spirit, you’ll find you’ll win over your flesh. You’ll find you can fulfill God’s intentions. you’ll find you can pray in the Spirit’s power and know the mind of God.

Your identity has shifted. Your DNA has now been changed. Your potential is greater than you ever imagined.

I know it seems counterintuitive to say that losers are actually winners. And I’m not saying that the winning is automatic necessarily because as we’ll see, we are winners only through Christ. But I also want us to see the bigger picture in this chapter is that God is so big and he is so good and he is so invested in you.

You cannot lose. Look back at verse 31. This is what he essentially says.

What shall we then say to these things? Once again, notice these things. If God be for us, who can be against us?

Listen, young people, if God is on your side, you can’t lose. He goes on, he says, he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? If God spent his son on you, young people, do you think he’s gonna let you fail?

He goes on, he says, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. If Jesus rose from the dead and won the ultimate victory, and if he lives and prays for you, do you really think you’re going to lose?

See, it’s not just that we’re winning. It’s not just that we’re winners, but we are huge winners. The phrase more than conquerors doesn’t just mean that we’re winning and that we’re winners.

We are more than winners. First part of that Greek word means above and beyond. In other words, our win is a blowout.

It’s not a 21-20 squeaker. It’s an 80-0 blowout. See, it’s Pharaoh’s army drowned in the sea.

It’s Goliath face down, head chopped off. It’s a cross turned into an empty tomb. See, in the very setting where we seem to be the biggest losers is where God works his biggest wins.

Remember Adoniram Judson? He was buried in Burma, but God used him to reach a nation. From the darkness of prison came the Burmese Bible and a church movement that still stands today.

A lifetime of losses produced an entire language of light. That’s not a loss. That’s a blowout.

Remember Fraser? He was stranded in the mountains, but heaven was moving in the valleys. Whole Lisu villages turned to Christ.

And today, tens of thousands worship the Savior. He once thought he had failed to reach. That’s not a loss.

That’s a blowout. Remember Taylor? He was broke, sick, and forgotten.

Yet out of that weakness came a mission that reached all of China. Hundreds of missionaries. Thousands of churches.

That’s not a loss. That’s a blowout. Remember Jonathan Goforth.

He was driven out. Burned out. Nearly wiped out.

But the Spirit of God swept through Asia in power. Entire regions got right with God. Revival spread like wildfire.

That is not a loss, that’s a blowout. Judson’s prison became a platform. Fraser’s Mountain became a mission field.

Taylor’s weakness became a worldwide witness. Goforth’s fire became a fresh outpouring of God. God.

Every one of them looked like losers, but their losses were just the scoreboard, lighting up heaven’s win. That’s what Paul means when he says we are more than conquerors, not just squeaking by. It’s a blowout.

And when you trace every one of those wins back to its source. I’ll tell you whose name you find at the top of the statistics sheet. Through him that loved us.

It’s Jesus. This is the third and final point tonight. The source of your win.

Your wins are all through Jesus. What does it mean that it’s through Jesus? I’ll tell you what it means.

If you’re going to be a winner, even though you feel like a loser, it’s going to have to be his plan, not yours. You know what that means? Total surrender to God.

If it’s going to be through Jesus, it can’t be your dreams. It can’t be your plans. It can’t be your plots.

See, Judson didn’t set out to rot in a Burmese prison. Frazier didn’t plan years of silence in the mountains. Taylor didn’t dream of difficulty or loss.

Goforth didn’t pray for fire to consume his home, but in every case, their plans failed and God’s plans flourished. Surrender says, God, you write the script. I’ll play whatever role you assign.

And when you stop clinging to your version of victory, you’ll discover his. See, the pathway of total surrender may lead through pain, but it always ends in purpose. See, not my will, but thy will be done is not a sigh of defeat.

It’s the shout of a conqueror. The greatest victory you can win this week is to say yes to Jesus’s plan. Not only is it got to be his plan, not yours, it’s got to be his power, not yours.

That’s total dependence. See, every one of those so-called losers found out that human strength runs out long before the finish line. Judson’s endurance, Frazier’s praying, Taylor’s abiding, go forth revival.

None of them were self-powered. They were spirit powered. Can I tell you, dependence doesn’t mean passivity.

It means partnership with God. It’s Christ’s life, his power expressed through surrendered vessels. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in every believer who totally surrenders and totally depends.

You know, the Bible says I can do all things through Christ, which strengtheneth me. So I ask you, why did Judson’s prison become a platform or Fraser’s mountain become a mission field or Taylor’s weakness become a worldwide witness or go forth fire, a fresh outpouring? it’s because they stop trying to be the heroes of their own stories and let Jesus be the hero through them.

That’s the secret of every win you’ll ever win. Total surrender and total dependence. The same Jesus who loved you enough to die for you now lives in you to win through you.

You might walk into this room tonight looking a whole lot like a loser, but the good news is you’re actually a winner because your wins are all through Jesus. When you surrender your plans, he replaces them with him, his, excuse me. When you exhaust your power, he floods you with his.

When you run out of options, he runs to the table. That’s not just good theology, that’s real victory, friends. The same Jesus who wrote Judson’s story and Frazier’s story and Taylor’s story and Goforth’s story is writing your story.

So if you feel crushed by pressures, hang on. That’s the press where the grape turns to glory. If you feel boxed end by obedience, good.

That’s the narrow road that leads to life. If you feel opposed, mocked, or left out, perfect. That means the world has noticed whose side you’re on.

If you feel hungry, poor, or powerless, that’s exactly the place where grace wins the biggest. Because as we started, the cross didn’t look like a victory either. until the tomb turned up empty.

Paul tells us and he encourages us, listen friends, all week long, I want you to remember, yeah, you’re a loser. So am I. So are all of God’s servants.

But through Christ, we’re winners. We’re winning. In fact, we’re winning huge.

So let’s surrender to him completely. Let’s depend on him entirely. And let’s stop trying to win for him.

And let’s start letting him win through us.