Eric Poulin

You might find this talk a little different than a traditional Easter talk.

But I hope you’ll join me on a mental voyage into the past, and then into your future.

You see, Christ’s life can be viewed as a series of amazing and escalating comebacks.

Let’s travel into Christ’s past for a fast-paced, partial review of how He merits a new title I’ve come up with for Him – “The Great Comebacker”

1. First, in the pre-existence, Jesus held a pre-eminent position as the only begotten of the father. In the pre-mortal Council of Heaven, God the Father presented his plan, requiring a Saviour. Jesus came forward volunteering. But then Satan also stepped forward and put forth a very convincing argument that his alternate plan be considered. A HUGE number followed him… 1/3 of the hosts of heaven. Things were looking bad, but Jesus and Michael rallied the spirits and evicted the dissenters, casting them out of heaven. COMEBACK!
2. Jesus was born in the most unsanitary conditions one can imagine, in a stable for beasts of burden… but grew into the worlds strongest leader – COMEBACK!
3. When King Herod heard about young Jesus’ birth, he feared being overthrown by the coming King of Kings and ordered all infants 2 years old and younger to be killed. Jesus family, warned by an angel, fled to Egypt. Later Jesus’ family returned to Israel after an angel appeared declaring that Herod was dead and it was safe to return. COMEBACK!
4. Young Jesus, while on a trip to Jerusalem went missing on the way home. His parents returned to Jerusalem with great worry and found him teaching the Pharisees in the temple. Jesus very likely had only studied in synagogues with all other Jewish children, yet here he was… an underdog educationally, but had greater understanding of the Law and scriptures than all of the religious leaders of the day – teaching them in the temple… then finally his parents found him and he returns to his family – COMEBACK and COMEBACK!
5. From relative obscurity during the first 30 years of his life and coming from the most meager of beginnings and circumstances, the son of a carpenter, he began His ministry. Rejected by those in his hometown, he showed miracles, taught radical teachings and gained a large following, becoming the greatest teacher His day and of all time. COMEBACK.
6. And biggest of all — mankind was literally lost. Since no imperfect thing can enter the kingdom of heaven, and we are all imperfect, our return to heaven was impossible. But then, during his last evening as a mortal, and as had been fore-ordained from the very foundations of the world, He wrought the Atonement on our behalf – taking all of the sins of the mankind upon him – making Himself a sacrifice for sin. His atoning sacrifice satisfied the demands of justice making it possible for us all to return to Father in Heaven’s presence. MAJOR COMEBACK!
7. Finally, Jesus overcame the final obstacle… death. Through His own power, He was resurrected and broke the chains of death, and returned to convince His disciples and the world of his divine lineage. COMEBACK!

Maybe you too are convinced that Jesus is “The Great Comebacker”.

Now we all know that Jesus is our great exemplar… that we should follow His example in all things.

I hope that each of you have a goal to be more like Jesus and follow Him – to try to emulate Him.

I suggest to you today that His example as “The Great Comebacker” is a key characteristic we all need to cultivate every single day.

Now I’m not going to insult your intelligence or your will-to-succeed by saying its easy. In fact, I’m sure you’ve learned that life is not easy. It’s hard.

Many of you have your own dreams and goals and passions you want to follow, but maybe life has struck you down.

Maybe there are obstacles in the way of your success.

• Maybe as a youth you find it hard to get the grades you want
• Maybe you haven’t been able to find the right spouse to share your life with
• Maybe your spouse and you don’t always see eye-to-eye and you feel like its slowing you down from reaching your goals and dreams
• Or maybe, like me, you’re trying to follow your dream, but every step forward is a constant fight and you don’t feel like you’ve got a lot to show for it

You may look up at heaven at times and wonder, “Why God? Why is this happening to me? I’m just trying my best to do what’s right? Why can’t things go my way?”

Maybe Jesus thought that very thing when he was going through the ultimate sacrifice.

Well if there’s one lesson from Jesus’ life that will serve you day-to-day its DON’T GIVE UP!

One of the greatest lessons I’ve learned in life is that “Every adversity, every failure, every heartache carries with it the seed of an equal or greater benefit.”

Said another way, there’s a COMEBACK in embryo for all situations.

If we are to follow Jesus’ example, we MUST not give up when adversity strikes. We must FIGHT for our dreams.

As Elder Bednar explained just a few weeks ago in General Conference, we must be prepared and willing to bear the loads the Lord puts on our backs.

Instead of praying for our burdens to be TAKEN FROM US, we should learn to pray for the STRENGTH TO BEAR them. We must learn to OVERCOME. We must look at our failures and seek for our own COMEBACK!

I heard a story from renowned speaker Les Brown about his son learning to play checkers.

 

Les’ son asked him to play connect 4 and Les agreed. His son was just learning, but Les was not one to simply throw the game to bolster his confidence. They played game after game after game and his son lost every game. Eventually Les became bored and said “Son, I’m bored, I’m going to do something else now”.

As he was walking away his son called back and said “No, dad”. Les looked back, confused and said asked, “What?”. His son replied, “It’s not over until I win”. Curious about how far this would go, Les kept playing and game after game went by and finally Les’ son won a game.

Immediately after winning, Les’ son stretched his arms, yawned and said, “I’m tired, I’m going to bed now” and proceeded to leave.

What if we all could adopt an “Its not over until I win” attitude about our dreams and goals.

What if we all had that type of attitude about the way we approached our baptismal and temple covenants, our duties and responsibilities as members of the church and the Bowmanville Ward and the Oshawa Stake.

Now brother and sisters, I don’t know what all of your dreams and goals are. I hope I know some of them as it relates to your eternal progression.

But you need to ask yourself, are there some things you currently love MORE than your own success that you can make a COMEBACK from?

• For some of you, how much you eat is in the way of you reaching your goals. You may like food more than success.
• Some of you like TV more than success – you work towards your goals, but when your show comes on, your dreams and goals have to wait!
• Some of you like sleep more than you want success.
• Speaking towards your spiritual goals… some of you like your favorite sin more than you want to get to the celestial kingdom… that’s what it comes down to.

BUT

• What if we would sacrifice a Sunday afternoon nap or the Sunday sports channel and not rest until our Home and Visiting Teaching was done
• What if we sacrificed sleep by getting up 30 minutes earlier every day to study the scriptures and pray
• What if we would struggle through the obstacles in the way of our dreams and goals and when the proverbial night blackens upon us and all appears to be lost… if we would fight and claw our way back to the light and say to ourselves “It’s not over until I win”, or rather “My work is not finished until the Lord wins”

You have to be willing to GIVE UP some things to reach your goals. You need to be willing at any moment to sacrifice WHAT YOU ARE TODAY for WHAT YOU WANT TO BECOME TOMORROW.

You may need to SACRIFICE snack food, and TV shows and sleep to meet the opportunities that present themselves.

You have to be willing to give up some things to make it to the celestial kingdom. You DEFINITELY need to man up and make a serious COMEBACK from your favorite sin.

You have to be willing to become a changed person… and no one is going to change you… YOU have to make the change yourself… and the only way to do it is with faith, repentance, determination and enduring to the end and saying to yourself – “Its not over. Until. I. Win.”

Brothers and sisters, you have the seeds of godliness in you. God has given you all of the mental fortitude, endurance and determination you need to make your personal COMEBACK from life’s follies in order to reach your goals.

Brothers and sisters, be like Christ… Become a master of the comeback. Don’t let temporary failures define who you are.

Become the person you know you can become.

Fight for your goals… fight to overcome sin… fight for the light… because the Lord wants to give it to you, but you need to show your determination and Never. Give. Up… and the blessings will surely come.

I am grateful for the lessons learned from “The Great Comebacker” and pray that we may ALL be able to have the courage and determination to pursue our dreams and goals, make personal COMEBACKS from our weaknesses and say to ourselves, especially in our darkest moments, “Its not over. Until. I. Win.”