How to overcome victim mindset

   

12/04/2020 Easter Celebration Sermon

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From Victim to Victor!

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-When Jesus was crucified on the cross, for the disciples their whole world had turned upside down .

They were expecting a military empowered Messiah to save them from the oppression that they were facing with the Romans. 

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-When Jesus was buried all of them wept and went on to their ordinary lives again without even remembering what Jesus said to them while he was still alive. Peter went back to fishing. (John 21)

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-The Son of God appeared to be powerless on the cross while bearing all the pain and bruises but because He loved us, He humbled himself to such an extent and paid the penalty of sin for us.

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-Through the cross Jesus defeated sin, death and the devil and thereby making us children's of God again. 

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But are we truly living the life that is meant for us?

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As followers of Jesus Christ, we play the victim role many times in our lives and we tell the victim story to ourselves over and over again. 

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3 cases of victim mindset

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  Victim of Circumstances 

Too often we want to change the circumstances in our live but when it doesn't change, we become disappointed. We loose hope and we play the victim role since we are powerless to do anything.

-Looking in the life of Peter and the disciples, they went back to fishing when Jesus was buried. (John 21:1) 

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-The disciples were expecting a powerful Messiah who will deliver them from the oppression of the Romans but Jesus came to save humanity from sin, eternal separation and the devil.

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-They were disappointed and they lost their hope when Jesus died but they forgot about the promise He made that He will be resurrected on the third day.

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-Jesus appears to them in John 21, after He was resurrected, they were amazed at seeing him. Jesus reminded them the task that was before them. 

Victim of other people's behavior

We want people to behave in a certain way towards us, we want others to treat us right, with respect and love. When others don't treat us right or behave in a certain way, we get disappointed or heart broken. Our feelings get hurt and we tend to dwell in that hurt or disappointment for a long time. 

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-We can't control how others behave towards us but we can always rise higher above it.

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-Elijah felt disappointed too in 1 Kings 19:1, he left to  Horeb fearing for his life as Queen Jezebel threatened him. He hid in a cave and asking God to take his life away. (1 Kings 19:4)

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-But God responded in a gentle still voice. God reminded Elijah of the truth and the task he had for him to complete. (1 Kings 19:10-14)

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Victim of past trauma or hurt

- We all have would have gone through some sort of hurt in our life emotionally and at the same time some sort of trauma, whether it is loosing a loved one or an accident and so on.  

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-This past trauma or hurt often causes us to live in a cage as we replay them in our mind over and over again.

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-We don't have to live in such a cage and we can choose to move on from the past. 

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-Looking in the life of Jacob, as Jacob decided to go back to his homeland he was very much anxious and afraid as he feared that his brother might take his life away. (Genesis 32)

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-He wrestles with God  the whole night for God to bless him (32:26) and indeed God blessed him.  His name was changed from Jacob to Israel. The blessing gave him the confidence and the assurance that he will live and not die.

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Sometimes we all wrestle with our past traumas, hurts and fears but the goodnews is Christ is here to liberate us all!

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Through Jesus we have victory 

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-Through Jesus Christ we are transformed from being victims to victors. 

  

 a) By His blood my relationship with God has been restored.  Today we call God 

       to be "abba" father. (Galatians 4:6) We have a heavenly Father who is wanting to 

       help His children to overcome challenges in life.

    b) Because Jesus overcame the world that means we too can overcome the world            (our trauma, hurts, fears,) with His strength and His empowerment through the 

        Holy Spirit. (John 16:33)

    c) We are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus, (Romans 8:37) that means 

          no matter what comes our way, it will not be able to defeat us as we stand       

          strong in our savior. 

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