Sermon Series Overview 

 We all love a good come-from-behind, against-all-odds sports moment when we get to root for the underdog. The thing that makes the suspense of these contests so compelling is how unlikely they feel. Someone or something caught you off guard in a surprising way. The dark horse won the race. The underdog triumphed when no one gave them a chance. God has been writing throughout history and wants to write into your life the story of the underdog winning and the unlikely becoming reality.

How can we not cheer for Michael Oher in The Blind Side, overcoming his dysfunctional upbringing to become a pro football player? What about the disgraced Coach Norman Dale leading a small, talent-deficient high school basketball team to victory in the Indiana state championship, as portrayed in Hoosiers? We root against all odds for the US Hockey team in Miracle, and for Daniel Ruettiger to get his moment to actually play in a Notre Dame football game. The intensity and emotion of these stories are in what they overcame to achieve success. These unlikely sports heroes didn’t become a great victory story in spite of their limitations but because of them. It’s their weakness that became their strength. 

Now what about you? What’s holding you back? Maybe you’re too weak, too afraid, or too uneducated. Or maybe you can’t get past your past, or you’ve failed beyond recovery or hurt too many people. What makes you most unlikely to… live your dream, discover love, respond in faith, make a difference? What’s your excuse? 

Is it possible you’re an underdog story in the writing, and you just haven’t made it to the chapters of victory yet? Is it possible that what others see as unlikely makes you most likely for God to show up and show off through your life?

Saul was an unlikely candidate to become one of the most influential leaders in the Christian Church. In fact, he hated and killed Christians. But after he had an encounter with Jesus through a vision, he became a devoted Jesus-follower and used his business to fund church plants across Asia and southern Europe.

To the church he started in Corinth, he wrote, “Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong... Therefore, as it is written: ‘Let him who boasts boast in the Lord.’”