Don't Stay Down:Breaking the Cycle of Defeat

00:13Many people feel like losers

Many people today feel like losers, as if they will never win at anything. They lost all desire to compete, to strive, or to become the person God created them to be.

00:29Keys from God's Word

Today, I want to share with you powerful keys from God's Word that will help you overcome those deep feelings of frustration and defeat, so you can fully embrace your future and learn to win, not just sometimes, but consistently in every area of life.

01:27How not to stay down

Today, you will learn how not to stay down and how to break the cycle of defeat, once and

01:35Why losers lose

for all. Why losers lose? They don't want to win. They don't believe they can win. They can't focus on the task. There's a problem for them. They don't realize the pain they provoke to those who love them. That's very sad.

01:57"It's okay to lose"

Many of them losing think it's okay to lose. For some of them, there are no consequences, sadly.

02:06Angry, and looking for someone to blame

But if you lose, if you don't want to lose, there are going to be some consequences that you just can't stand it. One of those is makes you angry, right? Makes you look for someone to blame. That's very common.

02:27Losing breaks hearts

The truth is losing breaks many people's hearts. It's a fact, my friend, and when it's about your own view of yourself, create doubts about yourself that it's hard to get out of there. And actually creates doubts about everything.

02:50Isolation, and other losers

There are several consequences of losing. One of those is that moves you to look for isolation. So you want to be on a cave. It moves you to look for other losers. That's terrible.

03:11Can we all lose?

Can we all lose? Of course. Sometimes we can lose, but not all the time.

03:18Faith helps you move forward

Faith will help you to move forward in life. Precisely for that reason, I am happy that

03:25Broadcasting 24/7

you are here with me. Do you know that we are broadcasting 24/7. So we do it through different platforms, but especially our smart TV apps. You can choose the one that you want to utilize in your home. If you have one of those, people can watch and listen. And as they are hearing the preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ, sometimes singing songs will inspire somebody to begin to believe. Well,

03:59The atheist and the bear

reminds me the story of an atheist that one day went to the woods. He wanted to go hiking. Something like what I am doing here right now. But this story tells us that at some point the atheist was walking there when suddenly there was a big bear and he was lost. He knew this is the end of me. So it got his attention that the bear suddenly began to pray. So the atheist thought, this is great. This is a Christian bear. So he paid attention to the prayer and the bear said, thank you Lord God for my food of today. Not good. You know, my friend,

04:55Moses was a loser once

Moses was a loser once. Maybe you never heard this, but he was a loser. You know why? Because he tried to fix a situation on his own.

05:11He did it on his own

He understood that his job as an Israelite in Egypt and a position of leadership and influence, he understood that he was able to lead the Israelites out of slavery. But he did it on his own. He killed an Egyptian and suddenly he is running out of Egypt. This journey took him to different things that you probably would like to read yourself. But the thing

05:45The burning bush

is, there is a moment when Moses is in the desert in the middle of nowhere and there is a mountain there and suddenly he sees something special. There was a bush that was burning. He didn't understand what was that, but he was curious. So he decided to go and get closer to the bush.

06:12Holy ground

And as he is getting closer, he hears a voice. And the first thing that the voice said to him is that the ground where he was, was holy. Remove your sandals. The voice said he understood immediately this was God. As he is getting closer, he has this encounter with God, which happens sometimes for people that lose.

06:44Trying to figure out the mistake

Moses spent many years at this time trying to figure out what was the mistake when he was in Egypt and he realized he needed to help his fellow Israelites, but he couldn't figure it out. Sometimes when you lose, you just can't figure it out what was the mistake. And the interesting thing about it

07:13Losing can take you to the Lord

is that losing can take you to a place where you are going to encounter the Lord God. And he is the one who is going to tell you what's the next move.

07:25The assignment

The Lord gave him the assignment and said, "You are going to go back to Egypt and you will be the one who sets my people free."

07:37Eighty years old: "You can do this"

Moses at this point was not that person with that great self-confidence. In fact, he was not able to speak normally at this point. Many years passed by, since his years giving orders, giving commands, leading people, many years passed by. Now he is kind of old, 80 years old, not believing too much himself. But now he had an encounter with the Lord God Almighty. And the Lord said to him, "You can do this."

08:16Losing is not the end

You see, losing not necessarily is the end of your life. Maybe losing will take you to a place where you can be renewed, receive a new vision, God's vision, and He will tell you exactly what is what you need to do.

08:37Joseph, a loser for a long time

Joseph was another loser, and he was a loser for a long time. Initially, he was so happy because his father loved him and gave him a special coat. And he thought, "I am the big potato here." He had dreams, and he thought, "My life is going to be outstanding." Some people have that dream. When they are young, they think, "I'm going to be somebody really special." But some people struggle with identity crisis issues with siblings in the house, in their childhood, teenager years, etc.

09:22Betrayed and sold

Joseph was betrayed. He was sold as a slave. That's why the Israelites ended up in Egypt. He was in Egypt. While he was there, he was able to get a good job,

09:37He refused adultery

and the boss, the owner of this business, of this house, was happy with him. However, the wife was a horrible person who wanted to commit adultery with Joseph. Joseph refused that, and he again is a loser. Now, not because he did the wrong thing, remember, in the first place, he just told the brothers about his dreams. His fault was to have a nice coat, a nice tunic.

10:09Envy at home

The brothers knew about the love of the father, Jacob, Joseph, and that was an issue. Envy, envy, envy, envy. It's everywhere. Quite often, right there in the house, right there with your siblings, right there with your fellow friends that you think, "No, they will never envy me." What happens there? There was a betrayal from these siblings, these brothers, but also now there is a betrayal from the boss, because the owner of this house, the husband of this horrible woman, believed the wife. He obviously was not paying attention to what was happening, and he ended up in prison, losing again.

11:05Doing what he could

But you know what is interesting about Joseph is that while he's there, he decided to do what he could do in the midst of his circumstances.

11:17From the ashes

When someone has a calling from God to do something special, no matter what kind of problems this person faces, eventually from the ashes this person can rise. And that is what happened to Joseph. There were two dreams, interpretations, but the person that could help him, betrayed him, and didn't do much for him.

11:46Called to the palace

Eventually, so Joseph was called to the palace, and here's Pharaoh with this necessity for the services of Joseph. He prayed, the Lord revealed the interpretation, and said, "Sir, what you need is good administration for seven years, so you can store up stuff, and then you will take care of the seven years of famine." That's what I can tell you. Pharaoh said immediately, "You are the man." You

12:23Betrayal after betrayal

know, Joseph was a loser time after time after time for a long time. Some people might feel that way. Some people might feel like, "I don't get it." The Lord revealed this thing to me when I was young, and I knew that I could do good things, but for some reason, I'm not able to. Rather, live betrayal after betrayal after betrayal that makes them believe maybe I will never become anybody important in the hands of the Lord, in the kingdom of God, in my family, my community, in my life.

13:06He never gave up on God

But if you continue doing what is right, like Joseph did, he never gave up on God. He trusted in the Lord. Even after betrayal and betrayal and betrayal, he did the right thing. And that is how he became a winner, and he was a winner for the rest of his life, just like Moses.

13:33David lost twice

David is another interesting case of a loser, and this time, this case, he lost pretty much two times. The first big mistake of David was when he became an adulterer and a murderer. Actually, I spoke about this on the message, "The Killing Nap." I think you should watch that message. It's interesting.

13:59Repentance and honesty

But he was able to come back to the senses, and the Lord helped him through repentance and honesty. But later, there was with his own son and his second-in-command, Joab, and he started to escape, trying to hide. He was a loser. After being someone with so much power, defeating Goliath, and so many things that he lived, he knew the Lord God was with them. So now he is hiding from his own son, from his second-in-command.

14:49"Now I have nothing"

Anybody can feel that way sometimes. And they say, "You know, I was somebody. I had a business in the past. I had a good family. You know that I was in good shape. You know that I was smart. You know, I was a strong. I had money. I had this. I had that. But now I have nothing. I'm a loser." You know, David felt that way, but he recovered. And by trusting in the Lord God, he did it right.

15:28Abraham: Sarah protected

Abraham is another example. He also was a loser for a couple of times. There was one day when the bad guys came and captured Sarah, his wife, and he was dying thinking, "These guys are going to abuse my wife physically, sexually, emotionally." And he prayed. He trusted in God. You know what happened? The Lord protected her. Sarah was not touched. You need to read that story. It's very interesting how the Lord helped him. He was temporarily a loser. And you see, he didn't do anything wrong. There was a situation there. He's saying that she was his sister, which kind of was true.

16:32"I'm not doing anything wrong"

People might say, "I don't understand why if I'm not doing anything wrong, somebody in my family has to go through all this and it's affecting me." Well, Abraham can't understand that. But you know what he did? He prayed and he trusted in God. And the Lord did something there. You need to find out what happened. And now Sarah is safe.

17:01Abraham's big mistake

Now, the second time when Abraham just messed up big time, the Lord gave him a promise to become a father. Well, they didn't wait. He got involved with a woman. She got pregnant. Sarah was the instigator of this situation. So, they failed. They were losers in the eyes of God because they disobeyed.

17:32A new chance: Isaac

But the Lord gave them a new chance. The Lord gave them Sarah and Abraham, a son, Isaac. And from Isaac, the rest of the story of Israel, the rest of the story of the patriarchs from someone who was a loser for a couple of times.

18:00The apostle Paul

But I want to close with another example of somebody who was a loser at some point. It was the apostle Paul. Paul was persecuting the church. He was against the Lord Jesus. So, he became blind. And for three days, he was not able to see. You know that the Lord Jesus showed up and said, "Why are you persecuting me?"

18:30Blind and helpless

When he was blind and helpless, imagine if something like that happened to you. You are just against God, against the Lord Jesus, against the Bible, against the church. You are against preachers. You just can't stand the Christian movement. Suddenly, there is a crisis. And then, when you are there, imagine like Paul, blind in a house. And while he was there, suddenly he says, "I don't understand this, but the Lord sent him somebody, Ananias." And Paul was able to see again. He was a loser because he was against the Lord God. Who is going to defeat the Lord God? Do you know anyone? That doesn't exist.

19:33A purpose in Paul

But there was a purpose in Paul. I have found people in my life that they were so against God, and against the church, and against Jesus, and against the Bible, until one day they live certain experiences like Paul. And while they are there, sometimes in the hospital, sometimes in prison, sometimes divorce, sometimes in different types of situations, sometimes they have this stuff. Simply, they are unhappy and just wondering what's going on with my life. The Lord said, "You are persecuting me. I have met individuals that were that way." And then, boom, they became believers.

20:24Barnabas

In the case of Paul, there was a great friend of his, Barnabas. Barnabas introduced him to the rest of the apostles. Barnabas was very happy to see the passion of Paul preaching the gospel. And actually, he saw him growing. Barnabas was great, but Paul was smarter. Barnabas had passion, but Paul had a greater calling from God. And that started to create an issue in Paul's head.

21:08Paul, Barnabas and Mark

On one occasion, they are traveling, Paul and Barnabas. And there is a guy, Mark, and they say, "Let's go. Let's go together." Paul agreed. Barnabas was happy. Mark was even happier. But he was young, and there was a situation in this trip. Mark says, "I think I'm going to go home." Barnabas said, "That's okay. Not a problem. Not for Paul. Remember, Paul was all fire, and they got into a dispute so big, they separated. The next trip, Barnabas didn't come with Paul because Paul refused to bring Mark. How about that, my friend?

22:04Paul a loser at this point

Well, he became a loser at this point. Because he failed, being not understanding with Barnabas and Mark. But the Lord used him anyways.

22:21Great work, terrible mistakes

Many people in the Lord, through life, are doing things. Some of those things are great things for God. But at some point, they make terrible mistakes. And sometimes, they don't even realize the severity of the mistake. They damage relationships. And when things are bad, they keep on going doing what they are doing. Sometimes it's the work of God, not knowing that there are people that are hurting because of what this person did or said or does.

22:59Rejection, discrimination, pride

Rejection, discrimination, pride, perhaps an attitude toward others, you know, feeling better than the rest, for example. Whatever the case may be, some people live experiences like this, like Paul.

23:26Paul changed and reconciled

But I hope that if you are one of those, you will be able to do what Paul did. He changed and reconciled with Barnabas and Mark.

23:38"Keep on fighting"

There are beautiful passages in the writings of Paul. Many years later, when he says, "Hey, I like Mark. I like Barnabas. They helped me in ministry. You know, I afraid anyone can lose a couple. But it's either you back up and go home, or you keep on fighting." Precisely for that

24:07Keep learning God's Word

reason, I invite you to continue learning God's Word. I suggest you to check these three messages, as I was mentioning to you earlier, The Killing Nap, Build Your World, and Build Your Future. Those are essential teachings for someone who is in training. If you are in training, you need to learn exactly what the Scripture says about those three things. My friend,

24:39You can recover and come back

we all have our own experiences of losing, but it's up to us to recover and come back. You can recover and come back, my friend.

25:08How to stay on the winning side

The question is, how do you do it? How do you keep on the winning side?

25:15Keep your eyes on Jesus

First thing, you keep your eyes on Jesus, meaning, of course, you respect your leaders, but your true example, the standard is our Lord Jesus, is not a man. You cannot put a pastor in a pedestal and think, "That's how I want to be. That's a mistake."

25:42Not on a man

You need to keep your eyes on Jesus. Nobody like my dad. Nobody like my grandpa. There is no other entrepreneur like such and such. I just admired so much such and such person. Be careful. You need to keep your eyes on the Lord Jesus. Him.

26:05Eyes on eternity

When you read what the Lord Jesus says and you understand His teachings, you will comprehend that keeping your eyes on the Lord Jesus means also to keep your eyes on eternity, because for the Lord God, what matters is eternity. Of course, He wants you to have a good life and overcome many things and be useful in many ways for the sake of your family, your community, for yourselves, etc. But the main objective is eternity, my friend. What is the great thing about achieving things if you're going to lose your salvation? Because you got so involved into whatever you were doing. Keep your eyes on Jesus, my friend.

26:53Always do what is right

Remember that we must always do what is right, and you feel it in your heart. You hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, and if you have questions, you should have mentors. You should have somebody that you can rely on and ask for biblical advice. We must always do what is right.

27:20Give to the Lord

One of those things that is the right thing to do is to give to the Lord what belongs to the Lord. For us believers, it's essential to give the first 10% of our income. Here is the URL and also the QR code. If you feel that you want to cooperate with our ministry by sending your donations here, in terms of practicality, you

27:46Fight laziness and mediocrity

know what we need to do? Fight against laziness. There is a big problem there. Laziness and mediocrity. We need to keep working precisely for that reason is that you begin your day with the Lord, with the Bible, with your prayers, your devotion, your total conviction of doing what is right.

28:15Have a plan

But it's important that you have a plan. When you don't have a plan, you are going to try to do things in a random way. And the problem is not always you're going to be effective. And then suddenly you remember, "Oops, I forgot this. Oops, I forgot that." And then is when mediocrity knocks at your door. You don't want that. Lazy people do not please the Lord God, my friend.

28:48Fight the lack of organization

The next thing you should do is fight against the lack of organization. Many people just can't stand the idea of being organized. They don't know where IDs are, where, nothing. They lose everything. But when you are organized, you will know what you're going to do when, where, what do you need for every single activity. You're going to be very effective. And that, my friend, is what makes, will make you fight against evil. Because evil is the result of people that are not organized, lazy. And they don't look for excellence.

29:44Hard work, organization, excellence

Hard work, organization, excellence. Nobody is expecting perfection in what we do. Who can be really perfect? And everything shows the Lord God. But you can aim towards excellence. Organized, focused on the Lord, doing what is right. You see? Anybody can lose a couple, but we can recover.

30:13Daily Bible and accountability

The daily study of the Bible and accountability will lead you and force you to stay on track. You read the Bible daily and you are accountable. You need to find someone that you want to be accountable. Talk to this person. If you want to have one, two, three mentors, talk to them, ask them, what do you think about this? What do you think about that? And in your personal life, you need to tell somebody, where are you? What are you doing? Because when you are on track, you're going to become very powerful.

30:57Stay on course

And remember this, do not change anything right or left. Stay on course. Keep focused daily discipline in God and you will win all the time, my friend.

31:101 Corinthians 15:57: the victory

The apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, the first letter, chapter 15, verse 57, he says, "Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." It is in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that we can accomplish things like Moses did, Joseph, David, Abraham, Paul. It is through the Lord Jesus Christ.

31:43Give your life to God

If this is the right moment for you to give your life to God, just open your soul, your heart, you just say, "Lord God, I need you. Come and dwell in me. I am sorry for my sins in the name of Jesus." My

32:03He always wins

friend, nobody is a better example of winning like our Lord God. He always wins.

32:11A little humor

Hey guys, well, one day I was hiking and suddenly I ran into a cougar, almost made me pull my pants. Well, I love music. I made a playlist for hiking. It has music from bands like The Peanuts, Cranberries and the Mushrooms. I call it my trail mix. All right. This is a blonde joke and you probably know my wife is blonde and I love my wife and I respect all women. Everybody is just a little joke. Okay, take it with me. It says that there are two blondes that are hiking in the woods and they come across a pair of tracks and start discussing what type of animal made them. One says, "They are deer tracks." The other says, "They are bear tracks." They stand there arguing for a while, but before they can agree, a train hits them.

Transcribed from the video and lightly corrected. Spoken words are kept as Dr. Gian said them.