Levi Lusko - Overcoming a Victim Mentality

I cannot control the hand I have been dealt in this life. I cannot control the family God has seen in His providence fit to put me into, nor the genetic predisposition He has given to me. I cannot control anything that you are going to do to me. I cannot control what the government is going to do. I cannot control what the stock market is going to do. But what I can choose to control is how I respond, in faith or not. What I can choose to control is whether I yield my members to righteousness or to sin; whether I say, «God, I believe You’re here, and I trust You.» And I still have a choice, and I choose to rejoice.

Come on, somebody! I choose Jesus! We’re going to jump into Scripture today. I am really excited about this message; this is one of the first messages that I wrote-actually the second one — when I was planning out this series at the end of 2023. You know, we make a lot of decisions every single year. We make a lot of decisions every single day, and believe it or not, we make a lot of decisions every waking hour. You would be shocked! And don’t Google it, because I did it for you: the number is 2,000. 2,000! They call them remotely conscious decisions.

What’s a remotely conscious decision? Well, it’s not, «Did my heart beat this second?» because that’s not something you can control. It’s not something you can-you know, keep breathing while I’m talking. No, those are subconscious things that we do. But «remotely conscious» means you have a say in it. So here’s an example of a remotely conscious decision: You wake up, you sit up, and you swing your legs to the side of your bed. Now, which foot do you take your first step with? That’s a remotely conscious decision. And on that basis, on that tally, you will make over 30,000 decisions that you’re remotely conscious of-remotely meaning it’s happening somewhere; you have to decide if it’s left foot or right foot. 2,000 every hour, over 30,000 every day! Of course, that depends on how much sleep you get, which is another decision, right? How much did you drink? How many shows did you watch on Netflix? How long and how much sunlight did you get right after the sun rose? Some will say that determines how sleepy you get when the sun begins to set at 3:00, and we all want to cry, right? All the things!

So this is our lives-one decision at a time, for better or for worse. Now, of course, not all decisions weigh the same. Left foot, right foot- that’s not really going to alter significantly the course of your life, though some would say «butterfly wings in the hurricane,» right? But what we’re trying to do in this collection of messages as we begin a year is say, «Hey, out of all of those 30,000 daily choices we’re going to make, which ones are we going to prioritize the most?» And we picked four.

We began with the idea that we’re going to choose this year to walk in the power of the Spirit and not the works of the flesh. We’re going to do that by walking with Jesus. We have to make up our minds between these two, because it’s one or the other, right? You can’t do both. There’s no option D on this multiple-choice test, right? It is either walk in the Spirit, or you will be producing the works of the flesh. You don’t ever have to wake up and say, «I’m going to sin today.» All you have to do is not walk with Jesus, and sin will be the evident byproduct of that.

Then, the second week of the series-and of course, these are all on our YouTube, all in our podcast. You can listen to them on Spotify-we’re going to choose to walk in compliance over clarity. I’m going to choose to obey even when I don’t understand. It’s not always going to be clear when I walk with God, but I’m going to choose to obey anyway. I’m going to obey when I don’t like it. I’m going to obey when I don’t understand it. I’m going to obey when it’s not the popular thing to do. I’m going to trust in God and not human understanding, and I’m going to believe that when I look backward- because the will of God is most evident in your rearview mirror-I believe that with all my heart, you’ll look back and say, «Oh, now I know why you had me zigging and not zagging. Because you’re God! Because you have an elevated vantage point. Because you can see things that I can’t see!»

Then, last time we were in this collection, we talked about choosing presence over pressure. How easy is it to walk a life of pressure, to just be white-knuckling it, right? And I think in this current cultural moment, all this manifests like, «We got to manifest everything!» Like how much pressure is that? «I gotta manifest this life I want!» Like, what is that? That is having a God that you have to keep propping up — a God that can’t break His fall when He falls on His face, as Deeon did. So instead of that, we’re going to choose the presence of God. The presence of God in the moment; the presence of God in our lives.

Then, this week, we’re going to talk about walking as a victor instead of a victim. How to choose being a victor- which is what God says you are-and not a victim, which is always the easy way out. The title of my message is «I Quit. I Quit! No, I do, I quit! I absolutely, emphatically quit!» Could you say it out loud? It feels so nice: «I quit! I quit! I quit!»

Now, I’m not talking about the great resignation and, you know, getting itchy career feet. I’m not talking about quiet quitting, where you stay, but your heart’s not in it. Where you’re taking a paycheck, but you’re not actually giving it your all. I’m talking about the kind of quitting where you choose the path of destruction-the wide path that the enemy wants you on-and you choose to say, «I quit!» Because there’s a better way; there’s a narrow way; there’s a narrow road that few find. The way may be difficult, and that’s why many people are not going that way. But through many tribulations, through many troubles, through many difficulties, we must enter the kingdom of God! Come on! How many of you are with me? It’s time to quit!

Now, they say quitters never prosper, but what if you were trying to succeed at the wrong thing? Then knowing when to fold them, to cut your losses, and to change course is indeed the most prosperous thing that you could ever do. I want to talk about breaking free from a victim mentality. This is what we are told in 2 Corinthians 2:4: «Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.» In Jesus' name, come on! How many of you believe if God says it, He means it? And that means we can choose the narrow, difficult road of believing we are more than conquerors in Christ.

Father, we ask that you would help us see our lives from Your perspective-to see ourselves as we actually are, seated in heavenly places. And as we’ve been all throughout this series, Lord, would You help us to choose God? To believe that if we set our minds on things above, it will change how we live with our feet here on the earth below. We pray this, asking for revelation, asking for insight, all with a mind toward action that we would live this out this week. Lord, help us, God. We repent of the ways that we’ve fallen short. I repent of the ways where, for me, it is so easy to shift back into a victim mentality and blame everybody else. And how easy it is for me to sulk and think about what others have done and why that sort of excuses me and lets me off the hook. Everyone would be this way if they had it as hard as me. And how easy it is just to sit there and cry a river of how hard we’ve had it instead of realizing all we have in Christ.

So, Lord, would You open the eyes of our hearts? Help us to see how wide Your love is; how deep Your love is, God; how high above our heads Your love is! You’ve given us every blessing in spiritual places in Christ Jesus. Open our eyes, God, to see our inheritance, to see our armor, to see our calling. Lord, it won’t make the hard things we face easier-some of us have been victimized-but none of us, Lord, in Jesus Christ’s name, have to live the life of a victim. So would You, Lord, help us to see that You always lead us in triumph.

If there’s even one person listening or watching, God, who is without You and without hope in this world, I pray for the miracle of all miracles: salvation for someone headed to hell; Lord, living a life of hell, departed from You and disconnected from You. I pray for You to open them up, God; for You to knock on the door of their heart; for them to, by Your grace, open the door of their life to You and be born again today. We pray in Jesus' name, and we said together, «Come on, give Him a good amen on a Sunday morning!»

Paul has clearly on his mind a picture because he uses a very unique word, found only two different times in all of Scripture, and that is the idea of a triumph. Right? Now we think of triumph when we think about the Olympics, what’s going to be happening in Paris. Someone said, «Man, that would be an exciting time to be in Paris for the Olympics.» I’m like, «That’s the worst possible time you could be in Paris!» You know, it’s just imagine a million people all trying to look at the Eiffel Tower. That sounds terrible! But the idea of victory- the idea of someone on the podium receiving a medal-that’s what happened there. I did podium and medal at the same time, and it came out pedal. But we understand that; we understand victory! V for victory-we understand someone getting the spoils of war. Man, that person worked hard. Here’s what they get-that’s a triumph!

«Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph.» Does it say «sometimes»? Does it say «occasionally»? Does it say «unless they’ve been through bad things, didn’t have a dad, or their parents got divorced; or unless they were sexually assaulted; or unless they went bankrupt; or unless their business partner took them for a ride „? Does it say that? No! He says, „Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ Jesus, and through us diffuses the fragrance.“

I’m choosing victory this year! I’m not walking as a victim anymore! The victim story, „Oh, poor me! You would too if you’d been through what I’ve been through.“ Well, you don’t understand the wages they pay. Well, of course, we can let ourselves out and sell ourselves short every single time. „You know, none of my family’s ever been divorced without being divorced, so of course, I’m going to have bad marriage problems.“ „Of course, I’m going to always be an alcoholic.“ „Of course, I’m always going to be overweight.“ „I’ve tried before; it didn’t work. My leg hurts sometimes.“ Right? Just the things we accept as fact, as though it were written over us, flawed from before the foundation of the earth, instead of what’s really written: loved, called, known, seen, hand-built from before the foundation of the earth.

I’m choosing a victory story. I’m choosing to believe this year that God always leads us in triumph. And the mental picture that’s utilized both in Colossians chapter 1 and here in 2 Corinthians chapter 2 is that of the Roman triumph parade. When a conquering general- are you not entertained? Gladiator! At my signal, unleash hell! -when the Roman general was successful on the battlefield, expanding the borders of the Roman Empire-what you men think about every single day, right? If you’re on TikTok, if you’re not, you probably still do.

They would have these military campaigns and they would expand their territory-Alexander conquered the known world and wept, right? And that followed in the footsteps of Alexander’s vision of this far-flung empire. The generals that did a good job out in Germania, or wherever, trying to make it bigger, all for the glory of Rome. There was a dream once that was so fragile that anything above a whisper… man, I’m getting stirred within-we’re watching Gladiator later, right?

And to reward the generals who crushed it, if they did one of two things: Number one, expanded the territory; or number two, conquered 5,000, then they were allowed a triumph. The triumph looked like this: they were paraded through the streets of Rome, and they were brought all throughout with the spoils of war being dragged and paraded behind. Any of those who had been taken instead of killed would be paraded as slaves in chains behind the victorious general’s chariot, and he would be given this right, this privilege that really should only go to the emperor. But it was like „King for a Day“ kind of moment, and he would be paraded throughout the streets of the city being cheered on along the way.

So, that very specific word that, again, as I said, is only used two different times in Scripture- Colossians 1 and here in 2 Corinthians 2-is what we are told every single day and in every single way we get to walk in and participate in, in Christ Jesus. Come on! Who’s thankful for what Jesus did on the cross and in the resurrection that has unleashed for us-I mean, I would resist it if I could, but all we do is win, win, win, right? And every time He’s in the building, everyone’s hands go up, and they stay there! This is King Jesus! Who can go toe-to-toe with our King, who defeated death and sin and hell and the grave and who says, „I’m always leading you in triumph in Christ Jesus!“

How can we choose to write a victim story? Why would we for one moment, one decision of our 2,000 per day, choose the path of the victim? „Oh, well, you don’t understand,“ and „It’s been so hard for me lately.“ If we choose to, „set our minds on things above“, we’re going to remember we’re hidden with Christ! And that Christ, who is our life, is coming. And when He comes, we will appear with Him in glory. And we’re going to choose to think this way in 2024! Or we can choose what’s wide, what’s broad, what’s easy, and just let the victim story that some of us have been living, that does creep into all of our thinking, keep us shackled to this planet, pulled down by all of our various excuses.

But the breakthrough insight is that connecting the dots in your therapeutic journey and figuring out what has led you to some of the decisions is no longer an excuse! You always have a choice in Christ Jesus to walk in and participate in the divine life that’s been opened up inside of you, regardless of what you faced, regardless of what you’ve been through.

So, you say to me, „Levi, that sounds nice. It sounds great, and I’m, quite frankly, kind of in with you on this whole’I quit' thing,“ but what are we talking about exactly? Let’s get real specific: I quit assuming things will go wrong. I just choose to believe that’s not going to be my default, that’s not going to be my norm. I refuse to just look into it and assume everything is going to go wrong. And that means no longer will there be this stuff that comes out of my mouth like, „Well, you know, figures. Story of my life!“ Right? Just to sort of bend towards the negative when I have been seated in Christ Jesus!

Jesus, and the most important person who ever lived chose to die to save me. What’s the story of my life? That what was dead is now alive; that I got mercy when I didn’t deserve mercy; I didn’t have people, but now I got people! I’m not going to-I quit just assuming things will go wrong! I’m going to prepare for the worst, but I’m going to hope for the best! I’m going to hope that I’m going to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living!

Now, I know some of you are sitting back and you’re like, „Hold on, this sounds like half-full, half — empty mumbo jumbo!“ No, it’s so much better than that! My cup, my cup is overflowing, in Jesus' name! Come on! He’s just pouring it out, pouring it out, pouring it out! And that full cup- if you were here for our most recent Psalm 23 series-sends a message. We peeled back the layers of Middle Eastern hospitality to decipher the code communicated. Now you know the code: as long as the glasses kept getting refilled, the host was sending the message, „You’re welcome!“

Some of us need to get better at deciphering the subtle cues a host gives when they start talking about how early they have to get up the next morning. That is not the time for you to settle in for another rousing story from your interesting life! Right? Be brief, be brilliant, be gone! That’s some of the best public speaking advice I ever received, and it applies as well to being a guest in someone’s home, right?

So whoa, they’ve now changed into pajamas; they put all the food into the refrigerator. But you’re still on the couch? Leave them wanting more! So, a host that kept refilling the vessels was saying, „Don’t go anywhere! Stay! Stay! Stay! Stay! Stay!“ But in that culture, if a host went up to a guest of honor and chose to pour and pour and fill it up, and then just kept overflowing, it was a lavish way of saying, „I don’t want you to go anywhere! You stay right here! Not for what you’ve done for me, but how much I love you!“

That’s how your Father thinks about you! Your cup overflows! He anoints your head with oil; He’s gone ahead of you and figured things out. So why would you just have a bend towards, „It’s not going to go well; Murphy’s Law, after all,“ and just sort of this belief that the King of the universe isn’t your dad? The problem isn’t that you might be wrong; the problem is you might be right, writing these self-fulfilling prophecies about how things are going to go wrong.

So I quit assuming that! I’m going to choose to find the good! I’m going to choose to find the favor! I’m going to choose to look for the silver lining, both in difficult situations and in difficult people! I quit fixating on what I can’t control! There are many things in life that are outside of our control, but our attitude is not one of those things!

And the enemy wants to keep us in the chokehold of a victim mentality by just staring at the forces outside of our control, therefore letting ourselves off the hook of whatever is in our control. I think about John 5 when Jesus walked up to the man who had been lying at the Pool of Bethesda for 38 years, and Jesus said to the man, „Do you want to get well?“ Oh, come on, Jesus! Everybody wants to get well! Do they? Do we? I think sometimes we get comfortable where we’re lying and who we’re lying with!

And the man did not even say yes! He said, „I don’t have anybody to help me; other people are faster than me! That guy got there quicker than me last Tuesday!“ He’s focusing on what he can’t control instead of what he could control-and that is looking into the eyes of the One who is saying, „You ready to rise? You ready to walk?“ See, if you are, I am!

I quit focusing on what I can’t control! I cannot control the hand I have been dealt in this life. I cannot control the family God has seen in His providence fit to put me into, nor the genetic predisposition He has given to me. I cannot control anything that you are going to do to me. I cannot control what the government is going to do. I cannot control what the stock market is going to do. But what I can choose to control is how I respond, in faith or not. What I can choose to control is whether I yield my members to righteousness or to sin; whether I say, „God, I believe You’re here, and I trust You!“ And I still have a choice, and I choose to rejoice! Come on, somebody! I choose Jesus! I choose to rise! I choose to walk!

So I quit letting my hardships define me. The real problem, it’s been said, is that a victim mentality soon creeps into a victim identity. And the victim identity will cause you to seek out a victim community. Now I’m not talking about, you know, „I’m going to go to Celebrate Recovery or AA,“ because I want other people to help me, encourage me along the journey. I’m talking about finding people who are just as stuck as I am, so I don’t feel bad for choosing to embrace and continue in my dysfunction. Because seeing you broken makes me feel better about how I have refused healing in the parts of my story.

And so we then, as birds of a feather, just get to flock together and be jaded and stay cynical, and sort of, you know, speak bad about and angrily write off or dismiss anybody who is choosing to live a God -given dream and destiny-a calling of healing and victory and change and triumph in Jesus' name! That’s why Jesus said, „Take up your mat in John 5! Get out of here; you need a new crew, bro! You don’t need to surround yourself…“ And then later He warned the man, „Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.“

We cannot always attribute consequences in this world to actions, but there are plenty of them that we can! And clearly in this man’s life, what he had done was it a drunken stupor that caused him to fall off a roof? I don’t know! Was it an STD that caused an infection to flare up that, without the proper antibiotics, led to his paralysis? We do not know! There are plenty of ways-come on, drunk driving-that a dumb decision can lead to difficult reality, both for you and for other people as collateral damage!

But what we can choose to do eventually is, whatever the cause of the hardships, we can let those things sink into how we think about ourselves, where it’s not just „I failed,“ but „I actually see myself as a failure.“ I’m not just, you know, someone who struggles with this-I am now this! Right? Perhaps you struggle in your marriage; fidelity is a struggle for you; but you start to see yourself as an adulterer. You struggle with same-sex attraction; you begin to see and identify yourself based on your struggle. This is easy to do, and it can lead us into this kind of victim mentality where we’re letting our hardships, struggles, and propensities lead to the thoughts we think, then eventually to the identities of ourselves we hold. And this will then lead to the community that we draw around us that affirms us in those things instead of choosing to walk in wholeness, to walk in triumph, to walk in victory.

I think of no better text in Scripture that illustrates this than Ruth 1:20. Some of you are familiar with Ruth enough to know this is a verse about Naomi, who is Ruth’s mother-in-law. And Ruth and her whole family, they suffered. Some of you are like, „Well, this is all nice for you to say, but you don’t really know what I’ve been through!“ Okay, this woman Naomi-her husband died, then she had a son die, then she had another son die! Oh, and what started this whole thing off was a famine so bad she had to leave her country of origin and go live abroad just to even make it!

You go through that long enough, it’s going to be tempting to take the broad road approach. What’s common to man is to start to see yourself through the lens of what you’ve been through, and that’s what she does in a very dramatic fashion. Look with me at Ruth 1:20: „But she said to them,“ speaking out to her two daughters-in-law, whose husbands have also died as her husband has died, „Do not call me Naomi; call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me.“ You might not see it because it’s hidden in the Hebrew, but Naomi means „pleasant“ and Mara means „bitter.“

She is at the Social Security office; she’s at Town Hall; she’s at the courthouse-legally changing her name from Pleasant to Bitter! Why? Because that’s how life’s been, so that’s how she sees herself! It’s so easy and natural and tempting to take our identity from the brutality of life’s activity instead of the truth of the Holy Spirit that speaks a better word over you, in Jesus' name!

You do not have to be bitter just because your life is; you can choose to stay sweet even when life is salty! Do not make the hasty mistake of changing your name! Do not make the hasty mistake of coming to the conclusion that God’s against you when the truth is God’s for you! And if you haven’t seen Him for a while, that’s because He’s working on something for chapter 4!

And that’s exactly what happens in Ruth’s story! She gets to her ending, and God hadn’t been absent -He had been working, He had been planning, He had been weaving. And the weaver needs the dark threads, too! Come on, He’s making a tapestry! He’s making a garment! He’s making a coat of many colors for you! If you haven’t seen Him for a while, that’s because He’s preparing a new green pasture for you to go to! He’s scouting for some still waters for you to lie beside! He’s getting the table ready for the feast that’s going to happen in the presence of your enemies, in Jesus' name!

And that’s exactly what happens! By the end of the story, these same women — Naomi was telling, „Don’t you dare call me Pleasant!“ Come on, tell me that’s not a victim mentality. „Don’t call me that! Pleasant’s for people that wear a size 2 dress! Pleasant’s for people who have abs!“ It doesn’t matter what they eat! Pleasant’s for people who have perfect little lives and perfect little wives and have happy little marriages and get the Norman Rockwell Christmas. „I’m not happy, because my life’s not been the way I thought it should go!“ But by the end, when they see what God was up to, these same friends said, „Huh! Guess you were a little hasty with that label maker, weren’t you, girl? God’s been better to you than someone who had seven sons!“ That’s what they said to her!

And she got to be a part of the Messianic line that brought the King of Kings into this world! So what’s God doing in your suffering? He’s getting ready to bring Jesus into this world through you! He’s going to do it through you! He’s going to do it through you! I’m talking to every hurting heart! I’m talking to every person who’s felt the sting of betrayal! I’m talking about everybody who’s got tear-streaked pages in your journal and knees worn out from your pleading with God! I’m telling you, God’s preparing to bring Jesus into the world through you!

So keep the name Naomi! Your life doesn’t have to be how you have a self-identity! I quit! Come on, say it with me: „I quit!“ I quit focusing on other people’s lives! I quit letting my joy erode over what God, with His nail scarred hands, has said, „Levi, I have this for you!“

My son Lennox and I, we got to visit my dad and some of my other family this past couple of weeks. And you know, my dad’s been walking through this journey with hope and faith. And it’s been just a joy and an honor to get to just be a son and walk with him through it. We were playing; he was taking a nap, and my dad was taking a nap. I went to Walmart with Lennox, and we bought a little football. We were in the backyard playing football, and we heard this noise from the wall in his neighborhood that goes over to his next door neighbor’s house.

I laughed so hard when I saw what was happening over there. I had to take a video, and I thought of this moment. I knew the sermon was coming together, and I was grateful that it happened, 'cause you know… material! Just watch this video; it’s ridiculous! I don’t think the leaf is poisonous, but I laughed because I saw myself in that dog!

'Cause I peeked over, and his yard was great. It’s as good of a yard as any! But if he heard so much as a noise on our side, „What’s going on over there?“ And I just saw myself in it, looking at what you’ve been given! „What do they have over there?! What are you doing, guys?!“ Right? Like, he would literally try and hang from the branch if he could just to get a look!

I quit choosing to believe the grass is greener on the other side of the fence! I choose to believe that the lines have fallen in pleasant places, that God-the King of the universe-didn’t make a mistake when He gave me what He gave me, when He called me to what He called me to. I choose to believe this grass is really good! This grass is green! I' m gonna water it! I' m gonna love it! I' m gonna bless it! I’m going to speak life over it, in Jesus' name! Life and death is in the power of the tongue!

And you can choose to say your marriage sucks and your job’s terrible, and where you live is so expensive and crime-ridden, and blah blah blah blah blah! The problems; your career; problems, your situation; the problems-this and that! And if we just got to that-if we just got to that-you will play that game to the grave and miss out on the best parts of the life that Jesus died for you to have!

But the moment we choose to start staring at whatever we have and saying, „Man, I don’t know; I don’t know!“ But God, if this is what You gave me, I' m gonna use it! It may not be five talents! I may have to, like, cross my eyes and do like a magic eye thing to even see anything good in it! But I’m going to do it! Five loaves, two fishes? Cool! It’s going in Your hands!

How easy is it to despise small things that God wants to bless? How sick would it be if you could master the art of being content in all things? And you could say, „I could have a lot; I could have a little!“ Because there are a lot of bad marriages and unhappy lives with all the things you wish you had that, if you had, would make you happy! Because when you have money, you don’t have time! When you have time, you don’t have money! You know what I mean?

Like, that just keeps going! Read Ecclesiastes! Sometimes that’s not the solution you know! „Well, if we just had this…“ And it’s like, „Dude, how about we just, right here, right now, choose to say I’m not looking at what you got; I’m looking at what I have!“ And I’m choosing to apply the Jesus goggles. Everyone’s all excited about Apple Vision Pro! How about we look through our lives with the Jesus goggles, right?

And the Jesus goggles just say, „I gave it to you for a reason! I didn’t make a mistake! I want to bring my glory out of it!“ So I’m going to bless you, my one talent! I’m not hiding this in the ground. I’m not-I’m not going to do it! 2024, mark my words! My life, from my lips to heaven- I don’t want to look at what someone else is doing in ministry! I don’t want to look at what someone else is getting to be a part of! I want to be faithful with what God called me to! And I want that for you as well!

I quit focusing on other people’s lives! All those things will do-if you fall in those traps, like I do, I did it this morning! I was taking a shower this morning, and my mind just gravitated towards this situation I’m working on. And I noticed about myself: my go-to was blaming other people! And then I was frustrated! I felt the tension! You ever feel that?

And you gotta follow that, 'cause you’re worried. What did we learn two weeks ago? It’s leading us to what we’re hoping! And that’s not God! It’s tipping us off that we’re propping up a false God. So in that moment, I felt that blame reaction-that kind of victim mentality rising up, that like, „Well, I can’t believe, and it’s like, whoa, whoa, whoa! How are you complicit in this? How are you a part of this?“

And more to the point: how can you lead us out of this instead of just being angry and stuffy about it? All that inflamed reaction does is lead to death! Can I prove it to you? Cain is his name-the first murder in history. His brother’s worshiping God; God accepts his brother’s worship; God does not accept Cain’s worship. And Cain’s mad! He’s all mad: „I did this great thing for You, God, and You don’t like it!“

God’s like, „Hey, hey man, your brother got accepted because he did a good job. You did a bad job! Look at your attitude! It’s terrible! You could be accepted too, bro!“ Literally God says that to him! God’s like, „If you do well, would you not be accepted also? You did a bad job. Your heart’s not in what you’re doing! There’s no faith in your faith!“

So instead of letting God address that and drill that out in his heart, what does he do? He makes his brother a victim! And when God comes down on him, he doubles down in his victimization of himself! God says, „You killed your brother. Where’s he at?“ „Well, I don’t… What am I? My brother’s keeper?“ Like, yes! Actually, you literally are! And you’re his older brother! Like, you’re doing a terrible job!

And then God’s like, „So here’s what’s going to happen.“ He gives him his consequences for it, and Cain goes, „It’s too much for me!“ You just murdered somebody with a rock! At church! God did not send a bolt of lightning, but it’s too heavy for you to bear? What about what’s too heavy for Abel to bear?

You see what I’m saying? It just leads to death when we make ourselves the victim. When we’re not deserving of how hard or how difficult life has been, and we don’t have to now take responsibility, we’re back there at the pool of Bethesda! I have nobody! Jesus says, „Get up!“ But you have nobody; you’re just this big martyr! No one’s ever suffered as much as you have, right? So it just leads to death. And yet Scripture tells us-and here’s where we’re kind of making the turn; team, you can come on out here; make your slow way up here-but the gospel gives us agency!

Agency! Always agency! Scripture gives us-God calls us agency! Agency is the ability to make a choice! And Victor Frankl, in his best-selling book „Man’s Search for Meaning,“ really kind of makes this point in a very beautiful way, because he lived through two different internments in concentration camps during the Holocaust, had everything taken away, and he observed those who fell into a victim mentality. „You’re like, they’re all victims!“ Yeah, but not everyone chose to live that way!

Some people chose to find purpose in their small little sliver of choice they did have, and he said that made the biggest difference in the world! Look at this actual quote-this is an excerpt from the book: „The one thing you can’t take away from me,“ he said, „is the way I choose to respond to what you’ve done to me. The last of one’s freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance!“ If he can do it, so can you!

How about this? If Jesus could do it, so could you! And Jesus told Pilate, „You could do nothing to me if it wasn’t given to you from above!“ Dang! That’s John chapter 19! You have no power at all against me unless it has been given to you from above! That’s why we need to remember these seven things:

Number one: I am in Christ! I am in Christ! I’m hidden with Christ in God, right? So I’m in Jesus! Jesus is being held by the Father! For the devil to get to you? Good luck! He’s got to win a thumb wrestling match against God to get Jesus out of God’s hand! He’s got to then defeat Jesus somehow and get you out of Jesus’s hand! How’d that work for the devil last time he went toe to toe with Jesus? Spoiler alert: not well!

So I’m in Christ. Thus, if it got to me, it went through Him! So the situation? You have no power at all against me if it weren’t given from Him. And if He permitted it, He’s got a plan to use it!

So let’s see! This now became a talent! This suffering became a talent! It just did! It wasn’t beforehand, but it is now! And I’m going to use it! I’m going to bring a return on this investment! I am invincible in the will of God! Say that! Say that! Say that!

I am invincible in the will of God! Height can’t take you out; depth can’t take you out! Angels can’t take you out; they don’t want you-they’re on your side! Demons can’t take you out! Nothing can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus! Here I stand before you right now in the will of God! Invincible! No weapon formed against me can prosper!

Say it over yourself: „I am invincible in the will of God!“ This is why Paul could say in 2 Corinthians 4, „I’m hard-pressed, but I’m not crushed! I’m perplexed, but I’m not in despair! Yeah, I’m persecuted, 100%! But I’m not forsaken! I’m struck down? Sure! So you had a bad day! But am I destroyed? Certainly not! Amen!

So I’ll choose to believe I’m invincible in the will of God! And when He’s done with me, I’m going home! Which leads me to this: there’s a calling on my life that’ll pull you out of your little victim slump, your little mopey self-pity! „Well, you would too if…“ Maybe I would, but what does God want you to do? There’s a calling! You’re noble! You’re a King’s son; you’re the King’s daughter! You are a special treasure! He bore you out of Egypt on eagle’s wings, and you are a kingdom of priests to God!

Me, in my little one-bedroom apartment that I can barely pay to keep warm? Yeah, you! A kingdom of priests! A special treasure! There’s a calling; there’s a plan! And if you believe that, you’re going to walk in triumph! You’re going to walk in victory! And I have a future! Come on, somebody!

I’m going to heaven! Strike me down, and I’ll become ten times more powerful than you could imagine when God lifts the force field from my life and chooses to bring me home, however He does so! Look, I’m keen to stay here and serve you and preach the gospel and find blessing and enjoy life as many minutes as God will give me on this earth to make my decisions per hour!

But to depart and be with Christ? Far better! To live is Christ; to die is gain! I have a future. How can I be a victim when I have a future? When He’s preparing a place for me?

And then I have so much to be thankful for, don’t you? Yes, you do! You have everything to be thankful for! Look at Habakkuk chapter 3 for a second. He says, „Though the fig tree may not blossom, nor there be fruit on the vine; the labor of the olive may fail, and yield no food; though the flock may be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls- yet I will rejoice in the Lord! I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!“

Do you have troubles? Sure! Merely a trifle! He’s talking about some severe economic situations-no figs! I’m a fig farmer! That sucks, man! But you got God! Rejoice in Him! Paul said 17 times, „I will rejoice!“ in Philippians, from prison! Yeah, but you don’t know what I face in my life! We can’t even say that with a straight face; Paul’s getting beaten in prison! Back’s got no figs!

You know, I’m not belittling your hardships! I’m just saying rejoice! Rejoice! You always have a choice! They didn’t take away your choice when they hurt you! You can choose to rejoice and have a sweet spirit!

Do you sense the Holy Ghost in the room? And hardships are going to make me stronger-that’s number six! The hardships I face in this world are going to make me stronger-that’s the judo turn-that’s some jujitsu, man! That’s good stuff! Because not only now am I not like going to be mad and entitled because of how much life’s hurt, when I stay sweet, even when life’s smokey, and I come out of my fiery furnace, not smelling like the furnace like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, because I’ve been with Jesus in my furnace, then I’m like, „Oh, you’re going to use it? How good are You?“

That’s why James could say, „Count it all joy, brethren, when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience!“ But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing! „God, You want to make me stronger through this, and I’ve just been praying for You to take away what You want to use in my life! So God, it pains me to say this, because all I wish is that it wasn’t my reality, but Lord, not my will but what You want to be done. So use it for Your glory! Make me stronger! Thank You for being near to my broken heart!“

Come on, the Holy Spirit’s healing hearts right now! Don’t miss out! Don’t let the story of this day be, „I was there and God was moving in other people’s lives!“ What about your heart? What provokes you into a victim narrative? How can you see God calling you to triumph?

I didn’t tell you about my favorite part of the triumph parade. The general getting cheered on got to bring his kids, and they got to ride with him in the chariot or walk behind him. They didn’t do nothing, did they? They didn’t defeat 5,000 on the battlefield-heck no! But their dad did! And so they got to walk in triumph like they did because he did! Come on; we’re the King’s kids!

He always leads us in triumph! And seventh point, on your feet! Come on! I’m done! I’m done! I’m done! My prize is knowing Jesus! My prize is knowing Jesus! My prize is knowing Jesus!

Paul said, „Whatever used to be gained to me, I count as loss! I count as garbage! That was my asset! I was religious; I was strong; I was Paul! That’s garbage to me! That’s propping up day one to me: how comfortable I can be, how accomplished I can be, the square footage of my house, where my kids go to college-it’s garbage to me! I only want Jesus! I only want His call! I only want His plan! I only want His presence! I want my kids to walk with God and live in heaven forever! This world doesn’t have any trophies to offer me! It’s broken and bankrupt! But Jesus is my life and the length of my days!

So give me Jesus! Come on! Make that the cry of your heart! Give me Jesus!