December 27, 2010
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Victim or Victor by Pastor Don Moore
Sermon Sunday November 21, 2010
We live in a time where people do not take time for God.
We keep thinking we are the mom, but we are the children in the womb of God’s plans. When God is birthing us it is messy, and the moment we are born our journey is not over. God works stuff out in us through the battles of life. The way we face the battles will determine if we are the victim or the victor. We do not want to fall prey to stress and defeatism. Life is a midterm exam, not a final exam. We have our final exam in glory where we earn our crowns or not.
Pastor Don, when faced with a problem, asks himself, “Will it matter 100 years from today?” Most of our “problems” are not as major as we think they are.
How we handle our problems from sickness to troubles, shows us where we place our faith. Do we place our faith in carnal responses to our problems or do we place our faith in God? We’ve all got stuff that we need to win the battle.
Jesus wrote and passed all the exams. He has prepared us for victory through Christ Jesus.
1 Corinthians 15:57-58 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
Are we a victim or gaining the victory?
The definition of victim is a person who suffers from a destructive or injurious agency, a person who is deceived or cheated (by own emotions, ignorance, dishonesty of others or an impersonal agency), misplaced confidence, a person or animal sacrificed for a cause (war victims or religious rites). To injure or go after an object or to gratify a passion. Ruthless. A person who falls prey to a scheme or scam. Fall prey to ruthless ambition.
At the altar or in the battlefield the place that the army wants to be is at the top of the hill because that gives them the advantage to be able to see everything around it.
The victim falls on the battlefield unable to rise, vanquished by the enemy. The victim may have lost that battle, but the way they respond to the enemy or the circumstance determines the outcome. If a victim is injured and lays in the field long enough he can become comfortable in his fallen state and forget that he has fallen on the battlefield. The victim can think he is a loser, fallen prey to the enemy, accepting the perception that he is conquered. He can fall back on the thought that he is injured and doesn’t need to fight the battle much more. They can think, it’s just the way I am, they hurt me.
Or as the commercial says, “I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.
If you are speaking to someone who feels like they are a victim, you may want to say to them, “I’m sorry for what happened to you. But, if you met Jesus…”
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
We no longer have to be the victim. In Christ we have the victory. We are called to be the victor.
I am looking forward to the victory, how about you?
Heather
