August 19, 2024 • 48 mins
2024 Conference Ep. 015 Torrey Williams
Gaslighting the Gospel
Genesis 3:1-13
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome back to the PHSA podcast.
(00:10):
My name is David Bigford.
I'm the pastor here at SalmonArm.
This is a very special podcast series where I'm going to be sharing with you messages
from our most recent conference in Prescott, Arizona, the Beyond Limits Conference with
a theme of to preach the gospel in the regions beyond from 2 Corinthians 10-16.
I'm going to share all of the sermons from this conference series to include Greg Mitchell,
(00:37):
our head pastor, Joe Campbell, Richard Ruby, Tom Payne, and many, many others during this
series.
So I'll be sharing these with you over the next couple of weeks, and I hope you really
enjoy these messages.
If you'd like to see these messages in a video format, you can go to PrescottPottersHouse.com
(00:58):
where all of these will be available for you to view in a video format.
So without further ado, I'm going to pass, I'm going to go ahead and move on to the messages
and I hope you enjoy them.
God bless.
Thank you, Carlos.
(01:21):
Hey, Pastor Martinez, you left your sweat rag.
Come on.
Come on, man.
Come on.
So, I just want to express my appreciation and gratitude for the invitation from Pastor
Mitchell to preach here.
(01:44):
Definitely counted a privilege.
I want to thank my pastor, Pastor Campbell.
Everything I am, much of what I am is because of your investment, and I recognize I'm here
because of that investment.
And so I'm going to get deep here, if you don't mind.
Hey, you know, the truth of it is Pastor Martinez is deeper than you think.
(02:06):
If you're hearing him, you recognize he's a lot deeper than he puts on.
But I was going to say he's deep in the right stuff, as he mentioned, discipleship and church
planning.
Can you say amen?
That's why we need to be deep.
Can you say amen?
If you have your Bibles this morning, John chapter 5, I want them to put a picture up
and I'll explain it.
(02:28):
This is a young lady.
Her name is Caitlin Clark.
And we're basketball fans around here, but she is she was the top college basketball
player recently.
She was the number one pick in what's called the WNBA, which is our male version of our
excuse me, female version of our NBA.
(02:49):
And what's up there is what you're looking at is the contract that she got.
These four years amounts to three hundred and forty three hundred thirty eight, three
hundred forty thousand dollars.
And what caught my attention is this became an outrage to a lot of people, particularly
(03:11):
a lot of feminists.
And the feminists begin to use Caitlin Clark to tell their story and to tell their narrative
that women are being exploited.
But since the male NBA players are making millions of dollars, then this is clearly
sexist.
(03:31):
Now for context this morning, the WNBA was founded in April of 1997, played its first
game a little bit later that summer.
But this is a league that has been around for 28 years.
And in the nearly 30 years of existence, this is a league that has never once turned a profit.
(03:58):
And yet we have people complaining about someone coming out of college, getting their first
job and being paid close to eighty five thousand dollars per year for playing 30 to 40 basketball
games during the summer.
Listen I came out of college from the University of Missouri in 1999.
(04:20):
My first job was for seven dollars and fifty cents an hour.
And no one felt sorry for me.
I didn't feel sorry for myself.
In fact, I felt grateful that someone gave me a job.
It's unbelievable.
I was determined to make the most of it to turn that seven fifty into eight fifty, the
(04:43):
eight fifty into eleven dollars, twelve dollars an hour and on from there.
My question here this morning is how do we get to a place where someone coming out of
college 21, 22 years of age, making nearly six figures to play a game for a third of
a calendar year is somehow seen as being mistreated.
(05:08):
I'll tell you how we got there.
One word victimhood victimology victimology is the possession of an outlook that glorifies
and exalts the state of being a victim.
Church my fear this morning is that we are living in a world of victims.
(05:30):
Playing the victim is quickly becoming the curse of our generation.
It's like it's become the new currency in our world where it literally pays to be a
victim.
Thinking of the theme of our conference beyond limits, I dare say this morning there is nothing
on planet Earth more limiting than having a victim mentality.
(05:53):
I want to preach a sermon I've entitled I am not a victim and neither are you.
John chapter five verse one after this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up
to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda
having five porches and these lay a great multitude of sick people blind laying paralyzed
(06:17):
waiting for the movement of the water for an angel went down at a certain time into
the pool stirred up the water and whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the
water was made well of whatever disease he had.
There was a certain man who was there who had an infirmity 38 years and when Jesus saw
him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition for a long time he
(06:37):
said to him do you want to be made well?
Sick man answered him sir I have no man to put me into the pool but when the water stirred
up while I am coming another steps down before me.
Jesus said to him rise take up your bed and walk and immediately the man was made well
took up his bed and walked.
God we come this morning by the blood of Jesus we thank you God for this assembly this morning.
(07:03):
God stir us as we are preparing to go back to our city God and encountering God a victim
generation God I pray give us your mind give us your heart God I pray that we might reach
you souls God for your kingdom I thank you for all you are doing in Jesus name and all
God's people said amen.
I am not a victim and neither are you.
(07:24):
Let's consider firstly this morning the victim's story our text this morning is a very familiar
story it chronicles the life of a man who has been sick for 38 years and we are not
told this morning what type of disease he has or sickness but evidently he is not lame
he is not blind and he is not paralyzed because our text names these conditions specifically
(07:51):
that others at the pool would have had and so more than likely based off verse 4 this
man's sickness is some sort of disease but the truth is this morning that is neither
here nor there what is important is that we understand that this man's sickness has been
going on for 38 years.
(08:13):
I don't know about you but there's been times I've had the flu for just like a week and
I feel like I'm about to kill somebody or die can you say amen.
It's not so much that this man is sick we've all been sick it's not even that this man
has a disease but it is precisely 38 years that makes his condition grab our attention
(08:36):
and when you first read of somebody you know having an infirmity for 38 years almost everyone's
immediate response is sympathy right you hear this morning if I told you somebody has been
suffering from some condition for 38 years you would probably feel pretty bad for them
(08:58):
no doubt your heart would go out to such a one but in our text verse 6 Jesus comes on
the scene and he immediately asked this man a question he says do you want to be made
well of course we all preach he would you would think he would respond yes absolutely
I would do anything to be better at the very least you would expect some sort of positive
(09:23):
response from him.
This man's heart did not leap with anticipation of being healed instead he just told a hard
luck story.
Sick man answered him verse 7 sir I have no man to put me in the pool when the water stirred
up while I am coming another steps down before me.
(09:44):
Now look Jesus didn't ask this man how did you end up like this he didn't ask him you
know why have you been like this for so long Jesus asked him do you want to be made well
do you want help out of your condition and this man goes into this story I got no man
it's like almost when I get read somebody steps in before me and I just bit he goes
(10:10):
into this story and when you read it it's almost like he had it ready like this wasn't
the first time he had told this story he's been at this pool for 38 years in the picture
here it's the same old story.
Let me tell you something every victim has a story.
(10:33):
True victims always have a story and usually they've told it so many times they've told
it to themselves they've told it to they've told it to just about anybody who care to
listen and the difficulty this morning is you could be trying to help them just like
Jesus but they're just stuck on their story.
(10:54):
See here we learned something about the victim mentality and that is the victim mentality
isn't really looking for a solution to its problem but only sympathy for the perceived
injustice.
In our text as this man tells his story there's three distinct elements that I believe highlight
the victim mentality number one is I can't.
(11:19):
This man actually believes that since he's been this way for so long there's no hope
for him all hope is lost and so mark it down this morning eventually every victim comes
to a place where they embrace the philosophy of I can't.
I can't achieve.
Can't succeed.
I can't win.
(11:39):
I can't overcome.
I can't do this.
I just I just can't.
And so people with this mentality has literally surrendered their power to change.
It's always what can't be done or what you don't have.
Take America for example this is truly the land of opportunity.
If you don't believe me just check our borders.
(12:05):
Vivek Ramaswamy he has a book called the Nation of Victims I want to quote from his book listen
to what he says he says today almost all Americans live far easier and more luxurious lives than
our forefathers did.
The lifespan of the average American has doubled since 1776.
GDP per capita has multiplied by over 40 percent.
(12:25):
He said an analysis by the Heritage Foundation points out that even poor Americans have things
their ancestors wouldn't have even dreamed of.
According to the government's own data the average American family or single person identified
as poor by the Census Bureau lives in an air condition centrally heated house or apartment
(12:46):
that is in good repair and not overcrowded.
They have a car or truck.
Indeed 42 percent of poor families own two or more cars.
The home has at least one wide screen TV connected to cable satellite or streaming service a
computer or tablet with internet connection and a smartphone.
(13:06):
Some 82 percent again of poor families have more than two smartphones.
By their own report the average poor family had enough food to eat throughout the prior
year.
No family member went hungry for even a single day due to a lack of money or food.
They had health insurance either public or private.
They were able to get all the medical care and prescriptions when needed.
(13:28):
And so to sum it all up it says in absolute terms the average American is doing pretty
well compared to the ones that came before us.
As you would expect in the richest most powerful nation in the world he said next to the most
of the world we live in the land of milk and honey.
And yet more and more Americans have adopted a victim mentality.
(13:55):
You know if this can happen in America the land of blessing it can happen anywhere.
And that's my point actually this morning that once you adopt a victim mentality it
never stops.
It's never enough.
How could it be possible that people living in a place that offers so much adopt a mindset
(14:16):
where they become convinced that they have so little.
Because when you have a victim mentality even too much is still not enough.
Remember my pastor saying in very early days of my salvation he said victims never have
the victory.
(14:36):
Fact I would submit to you this morning that it is in fact our prosperity that now affords
us the luxury of seeing ourselves as victims.
See our forebearers in American history like much of the developing world today they had
to focus on surviving and building a future for their descendants.
Today we live in a world where people focus on microaggressions.
(15:00):
Our forefathers had to focus on real ones.
See I believe one of the dangers we face as a fellowship if we're not careful is we can
become a people so obsessed with its flaws that we can no longer recognize our values
and our virtues.
These WNBA players very interesting one of their biggest grievances is that they have
(15:24):
to fly commercial.
They don't get to go to their games in private charter planes.
And so never mind that out of the literally millions and millions of young ladies who
play basketball around the country around the world these women have been chosen as
one of only 36 every year they draft 36 players to play professional in the U.S. every year
(15:50):
and they've been chosen they've been handpicked.
But see the victim mentality always gets fixated on what it doesn't have or what it doesn't
get to do to the point where it becomes blind almost to what it does have.
Second element of the victim mentality that we see in our text is that it's someone else's
fault.
(16:11):
This man says in our text he says sir I have no man.
In other words what he's saying is it's someone else's fault.
The reason I am in the condition that I'm in is because of so and so.
Pastor Brown minister very aptly on the fatherless generation and I agree about God using the
(16:32):
fatherless for revival but having said that if we're not careful we have 40 year old men
who are fathers themselves still blaming their father for where they are in life today.
Victims always always have to blame other people for where they are in life.
(16:57):
Sir I have no man no one to help me.
There's not enough help around here.
I want you to think about this because for this man to survive for this long in such
a condition no doubt he must have received some sort of help.
Surely someone would have moved him to the toilet or brought him food or but he's unwilling
(17:22):
to acknowledge any of that.
See when you live as a victim no amount of help is ever enough.
Because no matter what people do when you adopt this mindset your focus will always
point its attention to what people haven't done.
Other people are always the problem.
(17:43):
It's the government's fault.
It's God's fault.
It's the wife you gave me.
It's rich people aren't sharing enough.
It's pastor didn't support me enough.
The mother church never sent an impact.
It's on and on and on.
(18:05):
Third element we see from this man's predicament concerning the victim mentality is that everybody
else has it better than me.
Verse seven again he says but while I am coming another steps down before me.
What he's saying is I'm trying but they have an advantage.
(18:27):
Never mind the fact as I stated that everybody else at the pool is blind lame or paralyzed.
Which begs the question this morning how are they stepping down before him.
Evidently they figured it out.
Evidently they've worked through their limitations.
(18:51):
Yet still this man in his mind I'm doing the best I can but it's just never good enough.
Someone else gets promoted it's favoritism.
Or they must not see your true potential.
See the victim mentality constantly feels as though it's gotten the short end of the
stick.
(19:13):
It magnifies the harm that is done to us but minimize minimizes our own errors.
It blinds us to our own weaknesses.
It distorts your perception or your view of reality.
When you have this mentality when somebody challenges you or corrects you it's because
they don't understand you.
(19:34):
They don't understand your struggle.
They're not black enough.
They're not white enough.
They're from Chandler.
You're from Tucson.
You're a man.
You're a woman.
And so you just convince yourself that they don't understand you and they never will.
And if you're not careful then you begin to use that as an excuse for just cutting that
(19:54):
relationship off completely.
Let's look then secondly at incentivizing victimhood.
Because when the men in our text when he said while I am coming someone else steps down
before me what he is implying is I deserve better than this.
Made me think of these WNBA players.
(20:18):
You know something very interesting is that many of the complaints that were coming up
centered around them not getting what either they or people close to them felt like they
deserved.
I have a tweet from Russell Wilson he's a quarterback in the NBA excuse me the NFL.
Listen to this.
It's a two he says these ladies deserve so much more praying for the day.
(20:48):
Listen she's making plenty of money for playing basketball.
Folks she won't be curing cancer.
Oh but let's pray.
It's a tragedy.
These women need more support.
I can feel some of you that's why I'm going here.
(21:09):
Let's pray.
Listen of all the things we could pray for in this nation I confess to you women's professional
basketball salaries is not one of them.
It's nowhere on my list.
They're playing basketball and they're only making eighty five thousand dollars per year.
(21:31):
That's insane.
As Rick Martinez shut up.
Hannah Nicole Jones she's just you know it's funny where they get these people from anyway
she says honestly y'all should be embarrassed for even posting this salary.
Women deserve better.
(21:53):
In church we're talking about a basketball player but see it's all wrapped up in the
language of victimhood and entitlement.
These women deserve that is the language of entitlement.
I deserve better.
I deserve more.
Never mind that the real tragedy in this global system that we've created is that we pay people
(22:14):
millions and millions of dollars for playing games.
That's the real problem.
This society is upside down.
There are people actually doing important work who have got who are getting a fraction
of this truth be told these WMB players as I said they're actually overpaid.
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I mean what business that has never turned a profit pays entry level employees eighty
five thousand dollars a year as well as their top employer two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars.
Who does that?
But that's what happens when you buy into victim ology.
People become entitled to.
(22:59):
Oh you're underpaid you did somebody owes you some you've been mistreated.
Listen let me say it clearly this morning.
You're not a victim.
You don't got to believe every lie told on Twitter or told on college campuses.
Listen you're not a victim and neither am I.
(23:24):
We see our culture listen tries to at every hand to affect people or people groups with
this sense of entitlement.
I have another quote.
This guy was Arthur walking.
He's complaining about Caitlin.
He said this.
She's making a teacher salary.
They need to pay these ladies.
(23:45):
He's actually suggesting that a basketball player is more valuable than a teacher.
Talk about tone deaf.
What world are we living in.
He should be arguing just the opposite.
He should be saying hey she's making more than a teacher.
That's a crime.
And in the middle we're like why are kids not being educated.
(24:08):
Hello.
If all of this surprises you it shouldn't because this is exactly where victimhood takes
us.
You know one of the great fallouts when victimhood is incentivized is that it makes even the
most privileged people victims.
Consider the case of Jesse Smollett.
(24:31):
Some of you recognize that name.
In January of 2019, Jesse Smollett a well known actor who is black and gay.
He filed a police report with the Chicago Police Department claiming that he had been
the victim of a very heinous hate crime.
He said he had been attacked by two ski masks, MAGA wearing men who savagely beat him, wrapped
(24:58):
a noose around his neck, poured chemicals on him.
He said they were shouting racist and homophobic epithets and declaring their allegiance to
Trump and he claimed all the while he said his attackers were white.
He was hospitalized for a day, received treatment.
All types of support poured in.
Put the first picture up if you will.
(25:19):
Black queer lives matter, justice for Jesse, etc. etc.
His co-star on his TV show Empire said at the time this despicable act only shamefully
reveals how deeply the disease of hatred, inequality, racism, and discrimination continue
to course through our country's veins.
Comedian Steve Harvey said this is about coming to the aid of another brother that has tasted
(25:41):
the brutality of hatred, racism, and bigotry.
The list of politicians and celebrities who came out in support of him, it reads like
a who's who's list of luminaries.
Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Nancy Pelosi, Ellen DeGeneres, Al Sharpton, AOC,
Bernie Sanders, I could go on and on and on.
(26:03):
Couple days later after the attack, police investigators they asked for his phone, they
wanted to confirm some of the details, the MAGA references he had made, he refused to
turn his phone over and a day later the police they stopped asking for the phone, they said
he is a victim and we don't want to treat him like a criminal.
(26:23):
And then finally after a lot of political wrangling, the Obamas got involved, the trial
took place, and during that trial two of Smollett's friends testified in great detail how Smollett
had paid them $3,500 a piece to stage the attack.
(26:44):
Both of them were black and one of them was involved in an intimate homosexual relationship
with Smollett.
Nevertheless, get this now, Smollett still insisted that the attack was motivated by
homophobia.
You can't make this stuff up man.
(27:06):
He was eventually convicted with one black juror saying that the smoking gun for him
was when Smollett's own testimony said that after the attack he returned home and placed
a noose around his neck again, put that picture up, so that when the police who came in to
interview him they could see it.
He went home, put a noose around his neck.
(27:32):
Prosecutors and the judge concluded that Smollett had staged his own abduction because he figured,
get this now, that if people saw him as a victim it would serve to further his acting
career.
Now I asked you this morning, how did we get to a place where being a victim is seen as
(27:53):
such a successful method of promotion and upward mobility that a man who's already a
successful Hollywood actor would literally stage his own robbery, his own victim scene?
How did we get to a place where victimhood became a status symbol, a fashion statement
and nearly a get out of jail free card?
(28:17):
How did this identity become so prized in our culture?
Listen, even our former president, Donald Trump, challenging the election results because
he felt like he was cheating.
Oh don't get quiet on me now.
And I get it, but I said even back then, I said listen you better be careful because
(28:40):
whether it's true or not might not be the biggest issue.
But when you get stuck in this, it's not fair, the system is against me, I'm a victim.
Listen, be very, very, that's a very slippery slope.
Not to mention a very dangerous one at that.
It can become unending because victimhood knows no limits, it knows no boundaries.
(29:03):
Again think of, if wealthy Hollywood stars, professional basketball players and even an
American president can all be victims, then tell me who can.
No one is off limits.
When it comes to playing victim, once it is incentivized and rewarded within a culture.
(29:27):
So the question then is what about us?
Because as Christians, we are without question the most privileged people on planet earth.
Can you say amen?
And if we're not careful though, we too can play the victim card.
(29:47):
We too can walk around with a sense of entitlement that we're old something, that we've been
grossly mistreated and that life is somehow not fair.
See entitlement, I'm against it because it's such an anti-pioneer spirit.
Because it's so pervasive in our society, we can live completely this way and all the
(30:08):
while we can see victimhood in everyone else, but we can totally miss it in ourselves.
Listen, playing the victim is nothing new, which is to say that it's not unique to our
current culture.
Bibles filled with people play the victim card.
Think about the worker who buried his talents.
(30:29):
He was literally given the master's goods.
Most believe it was a sum of money, but when it came to give an account, guess who he blamed?
The master, the one who had given him the money.
I knew you'd be a hard man.
In other words, you're unreasonable.
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And on top of that, it's not fair.
You gave him five, you gave him, and I only got one.
How come I get the short end of the stick?
Favoritism.
How come he got that church?
Oh, I know it's because I'm a minority, isn't it?
(31:14):
I knew it.
It's rigged from the beginning.
There's no way I can possibly succeed.
One talent, are you kidding me?
Besides, you read where you haven't even sewn.
Look at you.
I knew where you come from.
You haven't even sewn.
Can you hear the victim speaking?
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What about the first hour workers?
It's amazing.
The master, hey, nobody's got any work.
Hey, man, you know what?
Let me hire you.
You're standing around doing nothing.
You're looking for somewhere, okay.
You're an absent champion.
I'm going to help you out.
Comes in.
He's got his workers, and man, you know the story.
They work, and the master sees some more.
(31:58):
You need some work?
At the end of the day, he decides to pay.
He brings the last end.
He pays them an amount, and on and on and on.
And those first hour workers, man, they're sitting around, hey, if they got that, I can't
wait to see what I'm up in here all day.
Then he goes to pay them.
You gave me the same that you gave them?
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I've been here all day.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Did I not give you what we agreed to?
Are you upset because it's your heart?
Are you upset because my heart is good?
It's not fair.
(32:46):
We're victims.
The elder brother.
You know the story, the prodigal comes back, he pulls his dad.
Dad has to come outside, look for him.
He's pouting, he's upset, and he has the audacity to say, I never disobeyed.
Remember, I told you that the victim mentality literally blinds us to our own errors.
(33:11):
Distorts our perception of reality.
We only see what we've done right and what everybody else is doing wrong.
You never gave me.
Everybody's saying is, I deserve better than what I'm getting.
Adam and Eve, when God, it's the wife you gave me.
(33:32):
It's the serpent's fault.
Listen, people have been playing the victim from the very beginning.
Again, our text, I have no man.
So let's close then and look at confronting the victim mentality.
I want to just state for the record that I'm not preaching this to diminish the struggle
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of real victims.
Bibles filled with people who were actually victimized.
Joseph, the apostle Paul, Tamar, who was raped by her half brother Amnon, and on and on it
goes.
And so I'm saying that because there are people here this morning, no doubt, you have been
victims of abuse, you have been victims of crimes, and we fully acknowledge that.
(34:19):
And I am in no way attempting to undermine those very valid experiences.
But we have to ask, why are there people who have indeed been legit victims and yet you
find them later in life living a great life, a life free of bondage?
(34:40):
I would submit to you because somewhere they either never adopted, refused to accept, or
they got delivered of a victim mindset.
Think about Joseph.
Yeah.
All that Joseph went through, in fact it might be better stated, all that Joseph was put
(35:03):
through, betrayal by his own brothers, falsely accused by the very people he was given his
life to serve, then confined to prison and forgotten by the one person he had helped
set free.
Am I ministering to anybody who's involved in any ministry?
(35:26):
I mentioned earlier how every victim has a story.
How many know right here if Joseph wanted to, man, he could have written an autobiography
on victimhood.
And in many respects, he would have been completely justified in doing so, particularly by today's
standards.
But yet later down the road when his brothers are standing there before him and they don't
(35:52):
know it's him but he knows it's them, and in Genesis 45 tells us that as he makes himself
known he says to them, you know, come closer.
Listen to it.
And Joseph said to his brothers, brothers come near to me.
So they came near, then he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.
But now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here.
(36:19):
For God sent me before you to preserve life.
For God.
But God.
If you're here this morning and you're suffering through a situation where you've been victimized,
oh beloved, listen to me this morning.
God is here to help you.
(36:40):
You've got to be able this morning to get a glimpse of God.
And it says he saw God in the midst of it.
In our text, think about it, Jesus comes to this man.
This man in our text, he was not crying out for Jesus.
This man was not looking for Jesus, but Jesus came looking.
What a picture of the grace of God.
(37:04):
Whatever you've been through, whatever you may be currently going through, I want to
tell you, listen, God sees where you're at and you've got to trust this morning that
the grace of God will eventually find you.
In our text, I said it at the beginning, but it's remarkable how Jesus deals with this
(37:25):
man's victim mindset.
Because he doesn't coddle him, he doesn't feed into it.
Can be argued that he doesn't show one ounce of what we would call compassion towards this
man.
It's like, as this man is telling his victim story, I got nobody, when I try to go, somebody
(37:45):
else jumps in for me.
Jesus says, get up.
Huh?
Wait, you didn't hear what I said?
I said I've been laying here for 30.
Get up.
Get up.
Rise up, take up your bed and walk.
Oh wait, you're not going to pray for me?
(38:08):
Uh-uh.
People have been praying for you for 38 years and you're still here.
Not going to rebuke this infirmity?
He simply challenged him to stop being a victim.
(38:32):
Stop it, man.
Stop it.
I was sitting with Sean Gunkel, Pastor Sean Gunkel yesterday and he reminded me of Ben
Carson's mother and her name's Sonia Carson and many of you read the book, Gifted Hands
and Various Things, but she grew up in a foster home and received only a third grade education.
(38:57):
Now her son Ben Carson, of course, went on to be one of the greatest neurosurgeons.
He graduated from Yale.
He had another brother named Carson or I believe Carson who, Curtis was his name.
He became an aeronautical engineer and on and on, but his mother grew up in a foster
home and she got married when she was 13 years old to a man named Robert Carson and he was
(39:24):
28 years old.
And long story short, he was a minister, but sooner or later she realized that he was married
to another woman and had a whole other family.
Kind of what Pastor Martinez was just saying.
He had another family and so she had to take her two boys, move to Boston with her and
(39:46):
live with her sister for a while and then later in life she comes back, she moves back
to Detroit and she's working three jobs.
She said she would leave in the morning, hardly never see her boys, come back home at night,
never really see them, but one day Ben got an unsatisfactory report card.
He was in the fifth grade and his mom being, having some Christian background, she said
(40:11):
she laid a whole, he actually said that she laid a hold of God and God laid on her heart
that her boys, as Pastor Warner mentioned, needed to become readers.
So that's what she set out to do.
She got, she took them to the public library.
She had them read two books a day or two books a week and every week and at the end of the
(40:34):
week she required them to write a book report on one of those books and she would grade
the book report, she would highlight her notes on the book report and very interesting, a
little bit later in life Ben and his brother realized that mom didn't really grade any
of those reports because mom couldn't even read.
Remember she had a third grade education.
(40:57):
Here she raised these two boys, neurosurgeon, engineer and in an interview they asked Ben
Carson, they said how did your mom succeed despite all the obstacles she was faced with?
And he said this, he said her formula was simple and here it is.
He said she absolutely refused to be a victim and she raised her boys to do the same.
(41:22):
Put the picture up, put the picture up of Sonia Carson.
She shared this poem, he shared this poem that she would always read to them when they
wanted to make excuses.
Listen to this, it says if things go bad for you, I think they have the poem, if things
go bad for you and make you a bit ashamed, often you will find out that you have yourself
(41:48):
to blame.
Swiftly we ran the mischief and then the bad luck came.
Why do we fault others?
We have ourselves to blame.
Whatever happens to us, here's what we say, had it not been for so and so, things wouldn't
have gone that way.
And if you're short of friends, I'll tell you what to do, make an examination, you'll
(42:09):
find the faults in you.
You are the captain of your ship so agree with the same.
If you travel downward, then you have yourself to blame.
She said you're going to take responsibility.
You're going to be responsible.
In a world that is birthing victims at an all-time rate, and many of our young people,
(42:35):
men and women coming to our churches, listen, they are coming in, they have embraced this
victim mentality full on.
It's the spirit of our age.
But I would say if we're going to turn victims into disciples, we must continue to be willing
to confront this spirit.
Listen, pastor, when you get back to your city, you've got to attack this mindset.
(43:00):
You've got to have the mindset, man, that I'm not going to coddle this thing.
I'm not going to be super sensitive.
I know this generation.
Listen, we're not here to imitate this generation.
We're here to impact it.
And I'll just say this to every disciple here.
If you're going to go forward and be able to fully apprehend your destiny, you have
(43:26):
to be willing to allow this spirit to be confronted in your own life.
Because I say all the time, the simple fact of life is you will never fix what you refuse
to face.
Somewhere you have to decide, I am going to break those generational curses.
You have to choose to stop telling yourself them old tired narratives that keep you bound,
(43:51):
keep you mentally tied up.
What I'm saying, as a child of God, you must embrace a spirit that overcomes.
John 5 for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
Listen, as Christian this morning, as those who have been born of God, we don't get to
(44:14):
play victims.
We don't get to play because we have been given something.
God has given us a faith that overcomes, overcomes the obstacles, overcomes all the injustices,
all the inn- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
I can overcome this.
(44:35):
I can defeat this.
Because how many know as Christians, we don't fight for victory, we fight from it.
We are victims, not- victors, not victims.
We are the head, not the tail.
We are above and not beneath.
And so as Holy Ghost field, born again believers, we have the choice in our life.
(44:55):
We can go one of two ways.
We can either live like the world's against us or we can live like the world needs us.
Jesus says, take up your bed and walk.
What is so powerful, verse 9 says, immediately, immediately took up his bed and walked.
(45:21):
How many people showed him sympathy for 30, 20, 15 years and Jesus said, I know what this
is.
I've seen this before.
This is nothing new.
You've been through- most people, 38 years, Jesus is like, 38 years you still putting
this on bro?
Ain't you tired man?
(45:42):
Close, I tell people I was raised by a single mother.
I only met my father on two occasions, once when I was about 12, another time when I was
about 19.
He made all kinds of promises.
I had those conversations for about 30 minutes a piece.
Never- if I walked- my father could be in here right now and I wouldn't know it.
(46:04):
But you know what, I was raised by a mom, single mom, again worked many- worked three
jobs many times.
I'm doing all kinds of stuff.
We had a car that was like the Flintstones.
It literally had a hold in the floor.
And me and my sister would always joke about who's going to ride in the front and help
mom drive the car.
(46:26):
We used to- I remember times where it was so cold in St. Louis, Missouri that we would
open the- our electricity was off.
So we would open the stove to heat our house.
Now you might not know but that's dangerous.
Carbon monoxide will kill you.
But we survived.
I think about- we grew up in Section 8 homes, you know, just trying to- my mom just trying
(46:50):
to make it- keep her dignity.
But I remember my mom always saying, son, you can be anything you want to be.
I don't care what the neighbors are doing.
They're selling drugs, they're roaching.
She said, listen, listen, son, don't look at this neighborhood and think that you've
got to live like you can be better than this.
And she always- you don't have to be a victim.
(47:17):
I thank God.
Don't play a victim, don't be a victim, and don't coddle victims.
I am not a victim and neither are you.
God bless you.
It is me.
Thank you for listening to the P.H.S.A. Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast.
(47:43):
Be sure to follow us on Instagram at pottershouse underscore salmon arm to keep up to date on
what we are doing, join the conversation, and discover how Jesus Christ can revolutionize
your life.
Hello and welcome back to the PHSA podcast.
(00:10):
My name is David Bigford.
I'm the pastor here at SalmonArm.
This is a very special podcast series where I'm going to be sharing with you messages
from our most recent conference in Prescott, Arizona, the Beyond Limits Conference with
a theme of to preach the gospel in the regions beyond from 2 Corinthians 10-16.
I'm going to share all of the sermons from this conference series to include Greg Mitchell,
(00:37):
our head pastor, Joe Campbell, Richard Ruby, Tom Payne, and many, many others during this
series.
So I'll be sharing these with you over the next couple of weeks, and I hope you really
enjoy these messages.
If you'd like to see these messages in a video format, you can go to PrescottPottersHouse.com
(00:58):
where all of these will be available for you to view in a video format.
So without further ado, I'm going to pass, I'm going to go ahead and move on to the messages
and I hope you enjoy them.
God bless.
Thank you, Carlos.
(01:21):
Hey, Pastor Martinez, you left your sweat rag.
Come on.
Come on, man.
Come on.
So, I just want to express my appreciation and gratitude for the invitation from Pastor
Mitchell to preach here.
(01:44):
Definitely counted a privilege.
I want to thank my pastor, Pastor Campbell.
Everything I am, much of what I am is because of your investment, and I recognize I'm here
because of that investment.
And so I'm going to get deep here, if you don't mind.
Hey, you know, the truth of it is Pastor Martinez is deeper than you think.
(02:06):
If you're hearing him, you recognize he's a lot deeper than he puts on.
But I was going to say he's deep in the right stuff, as he mentioned, discipleship and church
planning.
Can you say amen?
That's why we need to be deep.
Can you say amen?
If you have your Bibles this morning, John chapter 5, I want them to put a picture up
and I'll explain it.
(02:28):
This is a young lady.
Her name is Caitlin Clark.
And we're basketball fans around here, but she is she was the top college basketball
player recently.
She was the number one pick in what's called the WNBA, which is our male version of our
excuse me, female version of our NBA.
(02:49):
And what's up there is what you're looking at is the contract that she got.
These four years amounts to three hundred and forty three hundred thirty eight, three
hundred forty thousand dollars.
And what caught my attention is this became an outrage to a lot of people, particularly
(03:11):
a lot of feminists.
And the feminists begin to use Caitlin Clark to tell their story and to tell their narrative
that women are being exploited.
But since the male NBA players are making millions of dollars, then this is clearly
sexist.
(03:31):
Now for context this morning, the WNBA was founded in April of 1997, played its first
game a little bit later that summer.
But this is a league that has been around for 28 years.
And in the nearly 30 years of existence, this is a league that has never once turned a profit.
(03:58):
And yet we have people complaining about someone coming out of college, getting their first
job and being paid close to eighty five thousand dollars per year for playing 30 to 40 basketball
games during the summer.
Listen I came out of college from the University of Missouri in 1999.
(04:20):
My first job was for seven dollars and fifty cents an hour.
And no one felt sorry for me.
I didn't feel sorry for myself.
In fact, I felt grateful that someone gave me a job.
It's unbelievable.
I was determined to make the most of it to turn that seven fifty into eight fifty, the
(04:43):
eight fifty into eleven dollars, twelve dollars an hour and on from there.
My question here this morning is how do we get to a place where someone coming out of
college 21, 22 years of age, making nearly six figures to play a game for a third of
a calendar year is somehow seen as being mistreated.
(05:08):
I'll tell you how we got there.
One word victimhood victimology victimology is the possession of an outlook that glorifies
and exalts the state of being a victim.
Church my fear this morning is that we are living in a world of victims.
(05:30):
Playing the victim is quickly becoming the curse of our generation.
It's like it's become the new currency in our world where it literally pays to be a
victim.
Thinking of the theme of our conference beyond limits, I dare say this morning there is nothing
on planet Earth more limiting than having a victim mentality.
(05:53):
I want to preach a sermon I've entitled I am not a victim and neither are you.
John chapter five verse one after this there was a feast of the Jews and Jesus went up
to Jerusalem.
Now there is in Jerusalem by the sheep gate a pool which is called in Hebrew Bethesda
having five porches and these lay a great multitude of sick people blind laying paralyzed
(06:17):
waiting for the movement of the water for an angel went down at a certain time into
the pool stirred up the water and whoever stepped in first after the stirring of the
water was made well of whatever disease he had.
There was a certain man who was there who had an infirmity 38 years and when Jesus saw
him lying there and knew that he had already been in that condition for a long time he
(06:37):
said to him do you want to be made well?
Sick man answered him sir I have no man to put me into the pool but when the water stirred
up while I am coming another steps down before me.
Jesus said to him rise take up your bed and walk and immediately the man was made well
took up his bed and walked.
God we come this morning by the blood of Jesus we thank you God for this assembly this morning.
(07:03):
God stir us as we are preparing to go back to our city God and encountering God a victim
generation God I pray give us your mind give us your heart God I pray that we might reach
you souls God for your kingdom I thank you for all you are doing in Jesus name and all
God's people said amen.
I am not a victim and neither are you.
(07:24):
Let's consider firstly this morning the victim's story our text this morning is a very familiar
story it chronicles the life of a man who has been sick for 38 years and we are not
told this morning what type of disease he has or sickness but evidently he is not lame
he is not blind and he is not paralyzed because our text names these conditions specifically
(07:51):
that others at the pool would have had and so more than likely based off verse 4 this
man's sickness is some sort of disease but the truth is this morning that is neither
here nor there what is important is that we understand that this man's sickness has been
going on for 38 years.
(08:13):
I don't know about you but there's been times I've had the flu for just like a week and
I feel like I'm about to kill somebody or die can you say amen.
It's not so much that this man is sick we've all been sick it's not even that this man
has a disease but it is precisely 38 years that makes his condition grab our attention
(08:36):
and when you first read of somebody you know having an infirmity for 38 years almost everyone's
immediate response is sympathy right you hear this morning if I told you somebody has been
suffering from some condition for 38 years you would probably feel pretty bad for them
(08:58):
no doubt your heart would go out to such a one but in our text verse 6 Jesus comes on
the scene and he immediately asked this man a question he says do you want to be made
well of course we all preach he would you would think he would respond yes absolutely
I would do anything to be better at the very least you would expect some sort of positive
(09:23):
response from him.
This man's heart did not leap with anticipation of being healed instead he just told a hard
luck story.
Sick man answered him verse 7 sir I have no man to put me in the pool when the water stirred
up while I am coming another steps down before me.
(09:44):
Now look Jesus didn't ask this man how did you end up like this he didn't ask him you
know why have you been like this for so long Jesus asked him do you want to be made well
do you want help out of your condition and this man goes into this story I got no man
it's like almost when I get read somebody steps in before me and I just bit he goes
(10:10):
into this story and when you read it it's almost like he had it ready like this wasn't
the first time he had told this story he's been at this pool for 38 years in the picture
here it's the same old story.
Let me tell you something every victim has a story.
(10:33):
True victims always have a story and usually they've told it so many times they've told
it to themselves they've told it to they've told it to just about anybody who care to
listen and the difficulty this morning is you could be trying to help them just like
Jesus but they're just stuck on their story.
(10:54):
See here we learned something about the victim mentality and that is the victim mentality
isn't really looking for a solution to its problem but only sympathy for the perceived
injustice.
In our text as this man tells his story there's three distinct elements that I believe highlight
the victim mentality number one is I can't.
(11:19):
This man actually believes that since he's been this way for so long there's no hope
for him all hope is lost and so mark it down this morning eventually every victim comes
to a place where they embrace the philosophy of I can't.
I can't achieve.
Can't succeed.
I can't win.
(11:39):
I can't overcome.
I can't do this.
I just I just can't.
And so people with this mentality has literally surrendered their power to change.
It's always what can't be done or what you don't have.
Take America for example this is truly the land of opportunity.
If you don't believe me just check our borders.
(12:05):
Vivek Ramaswamy he has a book called the Nation of Victims I want to quote from his book listen
to what he says he says today almost all Americans live far easier and more luxurious lives than
our forefathers did.
The lifespan of the average American has doubled since 1776.
GDP per capita has multiplied by over 40 percent.
(12:25):
He said an analysis by the Heritage Foundation points out that even poor Americans have things
their ancestors wouldn't have even dreamed of.
According to the government's own data the average American family or single person identified
as poor by the Census Bureau lives in an air condition centrally heated house or apartment
(12:46):
that is in good repair and not overcrowded.
They have a car or truck.
Indeed 42 percent of poor families own two or more cars.
The home has at least one wide screen TV connected to cable satellite or streaming service a
computer or tablet with internet connection and a smartphone.
(13:06):
Some 82 percent again of poor families have more than two smartphones.
By their own report the average poor family had enough food to eat throughout the prior
year.
No family member went hungry for even a single day due to a lack of money or food.
They had health insurance either public or private.
They were able to get all the medical care and prescriptions when needed.
(13:28):
And so to sum it all up it says in absolute terms the average American is doing pretty
well compared to the ones that came before us.
As you would expect in the richest most powerful nation in the world he said next to the most
of the world we live in the land of milk and honey.
And yet more and more Americans have adopted a victim mentality.
(13:55):
You know if this can happen in America the land of blessing it can happen anywhere.
And that's my point actually this morning that once you adopt a victim mentality it
never stops.
It's never enough.
How could it be possible that people living in a place that offers so much adopt a mindset
(14:16):
where they become convinced that they have so little.
Because when you have a victim mentality even too much is still not enough.
Remember my pastor saying in very early days of my salvation he said victims never have
the victory.
(14:36):
Fact I would submit to you this morning that it is in fact our prosperity that now affords
us the luxury of seeing ourselves as victims.
See our forebearers in American history like much of the developing world today they had
to focus on surviving and building a future for their descendants.
Today we live in a world where people focus on microaggressions.
(15:00):
Our forefathers had to focus on real ones.
See I believe one of the dangers we face as a fellowship if we're not careful is we can
become a people so obsessed with its flaws that we can no longer recognize our values
and our virtues.
These WNBA players very interesting one of their biggest grievances is that they have
(15:24):
to fly commercial.
They don't get to go to their games in private charter planes.
And so never mind that out of the literally millions and millions of young ladies who
play basketball around the country around the world these women have been chosen as
one of only 36 every year they draft 36 players to play professional in the U.S. every year
(15:50):
and they've been chosen they've been handpicked.
But see the victim mentality always gets fixated on what it doesn't have or what it doesn't
get to do to the point where it becomes blind almost to what it does have.
Second element of the victim mentality that we see in our text is that it's someone else's
fault.
(16:11):
This man says in our text he says sir I have no man.
In other words what he's saying is it's someone else's fault.
The reason I am in the condition that I'm in is because of so and so.
Pastor Brown minister very aptly on the fatherless generation and I agree about God using the
(16:32):
fatherless for revival but having said that if we're not careful we have 40 year old men
who are fathers themselves still blaming their father for where they are in life today.
Victims always always have to blame other people for where they are in life.
(16:57):
Sir I have no man no one to help me.
There's not enough help around here.
I want you to think about this because for this man to survive for this long in such
a condition no doubt he must have received some sort of help.
Surely someone would have moved him to the toilet or brought him food or but he's unwilling
(17:22):
to acknowledge any of that.
See when you live as a victim no amount of help is ever enough.
Because no matter what people do when you adopt this mindset your focus will always
point its attention to what people haven't done.
Other people are always the problem.
(17:43):
It's the government's fault.
It's God's fault.
It's the wife you gave me.
It's rich people aren't sharing enough.
It's pastor didn't support me enough.
The mother church never sent an impact.
It's on and on and on.
(18:05):
Third element we see from this man's predicament concerning the victim mentality is that everybody
else has it better than me.
Verse seven again he says but while I am coming another steps down before me.
What he's saying is I'm trying but they have an advantage.
(18:27):
Never mind the fact as I stated that everybody else at the pool is blind lame or paralyzed.
Which begs the question this morning how are they stepping down before him.
Evidently they figured it out.
Evidently they've worked through their limitations.
(18:51):
Yet still this man in his mind I'm doing the best I can but it's just never good enough.
Someone else gets promoted it's favoritism.
Or they must not see your true potential.
See the victim mentality constantly feels as though it's gotten the short end of the
stick.
(19:13):
It magnifies the harm that is done to us but minimize minimizes our own errors.
It blinds us to our own weaknesses.
It distorts your perception or your view of reality.
When you have this mentality when somebody challenges you or corrects you it's because
they don't understand you.
(19:34):
They don't understand your struggle.
They're not black enough.
They're not white enough.
They're from Chandler.
You're from Tucson.
You're a man.
You're a woman.
And so you just convince yourself that they don't understand you and they never will.
And if you're not careful then you begin to use that as an excuse for just cutting that
(19:54):
relationship off completely.
Let's look then secondly at incentivizing victimhood.
Because when the men in our text when he said while I am coming someone else steps down
before me what he is implying is I deserve better than this.
Made me think of these WNBA players.
(20:18):
You know something very interesting is that many of the complaints that were coming up
centered around them not getting what either they or people close to them felt like they
deserved.
I have a tweet from Russell Wilson he's a quarterback in the NBA excuse me the NFL.
Listen to this.
It's a two he says these ladies deserve so much more praying for the day.
(20:48):
Listen she's making plenty of money for playing basketball.
Folks she won't be curing cancer.
Oh but let's pray.
It's a tragedy.
These women need more support.
I can feel some of you that's why I'm going here.
(21:09):
Let's pray.
Listen of all the things we could pray for in this nation I confess to you women's professional
basketball salaries is not one of them.
It's nowhere on my list.
They're playing basketball and they're only making eighty five thousand dollars per year.
(21:31):
That's insane.
As Rick Martinez shut up.
Hannah Nicole Jones she's just you know it's funny where they get these people from anyway
she says honestly y'all should be embarrassed for even posting this salary.
Women deserve better.
(21:53):
In church we're talking about a basketball player but see it's all wrapped up in the
language of victimhood and entitlement.
These women deserve that is the language of entitlement.
I deserve better.
I deserve more.
Never mind that the real tragedy in this global system that we've created is that we pay people
(22:14):
millions and millions of dollars for playing games.
That's the real problem.
This society is upside down.
There are people actually doing important work who have got who are getting a fraction
of this truth be told these WMB players as I said they're actually overpaid.
(22:39):
I mean what business that has never turned a profit pays entry level employees eighty
five thousand dollars a year as well as their top employer two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars.
Who does that?
But that's what happens when you buy into victim ology.
People become entitled to.
(22:59):
Oh you're underpaid you did somebody owes you some you've been mistreated.
Listen let me say it clearly this morning.
You're not a victim.
You don't got to believe every lie told on Twitter or told on college campuses.
Listen you're not a victim and neither am I.
(23:24):
We see our culture listen tries to at every hand to affect people or people groups with
this sense of entitlement.
I have another quote.
This guy was Arthur walking.
He's complaining about Caitlin.
He said this.
She's making a teacher salary.
They need to pay these ladies.
(23:45):
He's actually suggesting that a basketball player is more valuable than a teacher.
Talk about tone deaf.
What world are we living in.
He should be arguing just the opposite.
He should be saying hey she's making more than a teacher.
That's a crime.
And in the middle we're like why are kids not being educated.
(24:08):
Hello.
If all of this surprises you it shouldn't because this is exactly where victimhood takes
us.
You know one of the great fallouts when victimhood is incentivized is that it makes even the
most privileged people victims.
Consider the case of Jesse Smollett.
(24:31):
Some of you recognize that name.
In January of 2019, Jesse Smollett a well known actor who is black and gay.
He filed a police report with the Chicago Police Department claiming that he had been
the victim of a very heinous hate crime.
He said he had been attacked by two ski masks, MAGA wearing men who savagely beat him, wrapped
(24:58):
a noose around his neck, poured chemicals on him.
He said they were shouting racist and homophobic epithets and declaring their allegiance to
Trump and he claimed all the while he said his attackers were white.
He was hospitalized for a day, received treatment.
All types of support poured in.
Put the first picture up if you will.
(25:19):
Black queer lives matter, justice for Jesse, etc. etc.
His co-star on his TV show Empire said at the time this despicable act only shamefully
reveals how deeply the disease of hatred, inequality, racism, and discrimination continue
to course through our country's veins.
Comedian Steve Harvey said this is about coming to the aid of another brother that has tasted
(25:41):
the brutality of hatred, racism, and bigotry.
The list of politicians and celebrities who came out in support of him, it reads like
a who's who's list of luminaries.
Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Nancy Pelosi, Ellen DeGeneres, Al Sharpton, AOC,
Bernie Sanders, I could go on and on and on.
(26:03):
Couple days later after the attack, police investigators they asked for his phone, they
wanted to confirm some of the details, the MAGA references he had made, he refused to
turn his phone over and a day later the police they stopped asking for the phone, they said
he is a victim and we don't want to treat him like a criminal.
(26:23):
And then finally after a lot of political wrangling, the Obamas got involved, the trial
took place, and during that trial two of Smollett's friends testified in great detail how Smollett
had paid them $3,500 a piece to stage the attack.
(26:44):
Both of them were black and one of them was involved in an intimate homosexual relationship
with Smollett.
Nevertheless, get this now, Smollett still insisted that the attack was motivated by
homophobia.
You can't make this stuff up man.
(27:06):
He was eventually convicted with one black juror saying that the smoking gun for him
was when Smollett's own testimony said that after the attack he returned home and placed
a noose around his neck again, put that picture up, so that when the police who came in to
interview him they could see it.
He went home, put a noose around his neck.
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Prosecutors and the judge concluded that Smollett had staged his own abduction because he figured,
get this now, that if people saw him as a victim it would serve to further his acting
career.
Now I asked you this morning, how did we get to a place where being a victim is seen as
(27:53):
such a successful method of promotion and upward mobility that a man who's already a
successful Hollywood actor would literally stage his own robbery, his own victim scene?
How did we get to a place where victimhood became a status symbol, a fashion statement
and nearly a get out of jail free card?
(28:17):
How did this identity become so prized in our culture?
Listen, even our former president, Donald Trump, challenging the election results because
he felt like he was cheating.
Oh don't get quiet on me now.
And I get it, but I said even back then, I said listen you better be careful because
(28:40):
whether it's true or not might not be the biggest issue.
But when you get stuck in this, it's not fair, the system is against me, I'm a victim.
Listen, be very, very, that's a very slippery slope.
Not to mention a very dangerous one at that.
It can become unending because victimhood knows no limits, it knows no boundaries.
(29:03):
Again think of, if wealthy Hollywood stars, professional basketball players and even an
American president can all be victims, then tell me who can.
No one is off limits.
When it comes to playing victim, once it is incentivized and rewarded within a culture.
(29:27):
So the question then is what about us?
Because as Christians, we are without question the most privileged people on planet earth.
Can you say amen?
And if we're not careful though, we too can play the victim card.
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We too can walk around with a sense of entitlement that we're old something, that we've been
grossly mistreated and that life is somehow not fair.
See entitlement, I'm against it because it's such an anti-pioneer spirit.
Because it's so pervasive in our society, we can live completely this way and all the
(30:08):
while we can see victimhood in everyone else, but we can totally miss it in ourselves.
Listen, playing the victim is nothing new, which is to say that it's not unique to our
current culture.
Bibles filled with people play the victim card.
Think about the worker who buried his talents.
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He was literally given the master's goods.
Most believe it was a sum of money, but when it came to give an account, guess who he blamed?
The master, the one who had given him the money.
I knew you'd be a hard man.
In other words, you're unreasonable.
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And on top of that, it's not fair.
You gave him five, you gave him, and I only got one.
How come I get the short end of the stick?
Favoritism.
How come he got that church?
Oh, I know it's because I'm a minority, isn't it?
(31:14):
I knew it.
It's rigged from the beginning.
There's no way I can possibly succeed.
One talent, are you kidding me?
Besides, you read where you haven't even sewn.
Look at you.
I knew where you come from.
You haven't even sewn.
Can you hear the victim speaking?
(31:37):
What about the first hour workers?
It's amazing.
The master, hey, nobody's got any work.
Hey, man, you know what?
Let me hire you.
You're standing around doing nothing.
You're looking for somewhere, okay.
You're an absent champion.
I'm going to help you out.
Comes in.
He's got his workers, and man, you know the story.
They work, and the master sees some more.
(31:58):
You need some work?
At the end of the day, he decides to pay.
He brings the last end.
He pays them an amount, and on and on and on.
And those first hour workers, man, they're sitting around, hey, if they got that, I can't
wait to see what I'm up in here all day.
Then he goes to pay them.
You gave me the same that you gave them?
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I've been here all day.
Wait, wait, wait, wait.
Did I not give you what we agreed to?
Are you upset because it's your heart?
Are you upset because my heart is good?
It's not fair.
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We're victims.
The elder brother.
You know the story, the prodigal comes back, he pulls his dad.
Dad has to come outside, look for him.
He's pouting, he's upset, and he has the audacity to say, I never disobeyed.
Remember, I told you that the victim mentality literally blinds us to our own errors.
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Distorts our perception of reality.
We only see what we've done right and what everybody else is doing wrong.
You never gave me.
Everybody's saying is, I deserve better than what I'm getting.
Adam and Eve, when God, it's the wife you gave me.
(33:32):
It's the serpent's fault.
Listen, people have been playing the victim from the very beginning.
Again, our text, I have no man.
So let's close then and look at confronting the victim mentality.
I want to just state for the record that I'm not preaching this to diminish the struggle
(33:55):
of real victims.
Bibles filled with people who were actually victimized.
Joseph, the apostle Paul, Tamar, who was raped by her half brother Amnon, and on and on it
goes.
And so I'm saying that because there are people here this morning, no doubt, you have been
victims of abuse, you have been victims of crimes, and we fully acknowledge that.
(34:19):
And I am in no way attempting to undermine those very valid experiences.
But we have to ask, why are there people who have indeed been legit victims and yet you
find them later in life living a great life, a life free of bondage?
(34:40):
I would submit to you because somewhere they either never adopted, refused to accept, or
they got delivered of a victim mindset.
Think about Joseph.
Yeah.
All that Joseph went through, in fact it might be better stated, all that Joseph was put
(35:03):
through, betrayal by his own brothers, falsely accused by the very people he was given his
life to serve, then confined to prison and forgotten by the one person he had helped
set free.
Am I ministering to anybody who's involved in any ministry?
(35:26):
I mentioned earlier how every victim has a story.
How many know right here if Joseph wanted to, man, he could have written an autobiography
on victimhood.
And in many respects, he would have been completely justified in doing so, particularly by today's
standards.
But yet later down the road when his brothers are standing there before him and they don't
(35:52):
know it's him but he knows it's them, and in Genesis 45 tells us that as he makes himself
known he says to them, you know, come closer.
Listen to it.
And Joseph said to his brothers, brothers come near to me.
So they came near, then he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt.
But now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here.
(36:19):
For God sent me before you to preserve life.
For God.
But God.
If you're here this morning and you're suffering through a situation where you've been victimized,
oh beloved, listen to me this morning.
God is here to help you.
(36:40):
You've got to be able this morning to get a glimpse of God.
And it says he saw God in the midst of it.
In our text, think about it, Jesus comes to this man.
This man in our text, he was not crying out for Jesus.
This man was not looking for Jesus, but Jesus came looking.
What a picture of the grace of God.
(37:04):
Whatever you've been through, whatever you may be currently going through, I want to
tell you, listen, God sees where you're at and you've got to trust this morning that
the grace of God will eventually find you.
In our text, I said it at the beginning, but it's remarkable how Jesus deals with this
(37:25):
man's victim mindset.
Because he doesn't coddle him, he doesn't feed into it.
Can be argued that he doesn't show one ounce of what we would call compassion towards this
man.
It's like, as this man is telling his victim story, I got nobody, when I try to go, somebody
(37:45):
else jumps in for me.
Jesus says, get up.
Huh?
Wait, you didn't hear what I said?
I said I've been laying here for 30.
Get up.
Get up.
Rise up, take up your bed and walk.
Oh wait, you're not going to pray for me?
(38:08):
Uh-uh.
People have been praying for you for 38 years and you're still here.
Not going to rebuke this infirmity?
He simply challenged him to stop being a victim.
(38:32):
Stop it, man.
Stop it.
I was sitting with Sean Gunkel, Pastor Sean Gunkel yesterday and he reminded me of Ben
Carson's mother and her name's Sonia Carson and many of you read the book, Gifted Hands
and Various Things, but she grew up in a foster home and received only a third grade education.
(38:57):
Now her son Ben Carson, of course, went on to be one of the greatest neurosurgeons.
He graduated from Yale.
He had another brother named Carson or I believe Carson who, Curtis was his name.
He became an aeronautical engineer and on and on, but his mother grew up in a foster
home and she got married when she was 13 years old to a man named Robert Carson and he was
(39:24):
28 years old.
And long story short, he was a minister, but sooner or later she realized that he was married
to another woman and had a whole other family.
Kind of what Pastor Martinez was just saying.
He had another family and so she had to take her two boys, move to Boston with her and
(39:46):
live with her sister for a while and then later in life she comes back, she moves back
to Detroit and she's working three jobs.
She said she would leave in the morning, hardly never see her boys, come back home at night,
never really see them, but one day Ben got an unsatisfactory report card.
He was in the fifth grade and his mom being, having some Christian background, she said
(40:11):
she laid a whole, he actually said that she laid a hold of God and God laid on her heart
that her boys, as Pastor Warner mentioned, needed to become readers.
So that's what she set out to do.
She got, she took them to the public library.
She had them read two books a day or two books a week and every week and at the end of the
(40:34):
week she required them to write a book report on one of those books and she would grade
the book report, she would highlight her notes on the book report and very interesting, a
little bit later in life Ben and his brother realized that mom didn't really grade any
of those reports because mom couldn't even read.
Remember she had a third grade education.
(40:57):
Here she raised these two boys, neurosurgeon, engineer and in an interview they asked Ben
Carson, they said how did your mom succeed despite all the obstacles she was faced with?
And he said this, he said her formula was simple and here it is.
He said she absolutely refused to be a victim and she raised her boys to do the same.
(41:22):
Put the picture up, put the picture up of Sonia Carson.
She shared this poem, he shared this poem that she would always read to them when they
wanted to make excuses.
Listen to this, it says if things go bad for you, I think they have the poem, if things
go bad for you and make you a bit ashamed, often you will find out that you have yourself
(41:48):
to blame.
Swiftly we ran the mischief and then the bad luck came.
Why do we fault others?
We have ourselves to blame.
Whatever happens to us, here's what we say, had it not been for so and so, things wouldn't
have gone that way.
And if you're short of friends, I'll tell you what to do, make an examination, you'll
(42:09):
find the faults in you.
You are the captain of your ship so agree with the same.
If you travel downward, then you have yourself to blame.
She said you're going to take responsibility.
You're going to be responsible.
In a world that is birthing victims at an all-time rate, and many of our young people,
(42:35):
men and women coming to our churches, listen, they are coming in, they have embraced this
victim mentality full on.
It's the spirit of our age.
But I would say if we're going to turn victims into disciples, we must continue to be willing
to confront this spirit.
Listen, pastor, when you get back to your city, you've got to attack this mindset.
(43:00):
You've got to have the mindset, man, that I'm not going to coddle this thing.
I'm not going to be super sensitive.
I know this generation.
Listen, we're not here to imitate this generation.
We're here to impact it.
And I'll just say this to every disciple here.
If you're going to go forward and be able to fully apprehend your destiny, you have
(43:26):
to be willing to allow this spirit to be confronted in your own life.
Because I say all the time, the simple fact of life is you will never fix what you refuse
to face.
Somewhere you have to decide, I am going to break those generational curses.
You have to choose to stop telling yourself them old tired narratives that keep you bound,
(43:51):
keep you mentally tied up.
What I'm saying, as a child of God, you must embrace a spirit that overcomes.
John 5 for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.
Listen, as Christian this morning, as those who have been born of God, we don't get to
(44:14):
play victims.
We don't get to play because we have been given something.
God has given us a faith that overcomes, overcomes the obstacles, overcomes all the injustices,
all the inn- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
I can overcome this.
(44:35):
I can defeat this.
Because how many know as Christians, we don't fight for victory, we fight from it.
We are victims, not- victors, not victims.
We are the head, not the tail.
We are above and not beneath.
And so as Holy Ghost field, born again believers, we have the choice in our life.
(44:55):
We can go one of two ways.
We can either live like the world's against us or we can live like the world needs us.
Jesus says, take up your bed and walk.
What is so powerful, verse 9 says, immediately, immediately took up his bed and walked.
(45:21):
How many people showed him sympathy for 30, 20, 15 years and Jesus said, I know what this
is.
I've seen this before.
This is nothing new.
You've been through- most people, 38 years, Jesus is like, 38 years you still putting
this on bro?
Ain't you tired man?
(45:42):
Close, I tell people I was raised by a single mother.
I only met my father on two occasions, once when I was about 12, another time when I was
about 19.
He made all kinds of promises.
I had those conversations for about 30 minutes a piece.
Never- if I walked- my father could be in here right now and I wouldn't know it.
(46:04):
But you know what, I was raised by a mom, single mom, again worked many- worked three
jobs many times.
I'm doing all kinds of stuff.
We had a car that was like the Flintstones.
It literally had a hold in the floor.
And me and my sister would always joke about who's going to ride in the front and help
mom drive the car.
(46:26):
We used to- I remember times where it was so cold in St. Louis, Missouri that we would
open the- our electricity was off.
So we would open the stove to heat our house.
Now you might not know but that's dangerous.
Carbon monoxide will kill you.
But we survived.
I think about- we grew up in Section 8 homes, you know, just trying to- my mom just trying
(46:50):
to make it- keep her dignity.
But I remember my mom always saying, son, you can be anything you want to be.
I don't care what the neighbors are doing.
They're selling drugs, they're roaching.
She said, listen, listen, son, don't look at this neighborhood and think that you've
got to live like you can be better than this.
And she always- you don't have to be a victim.
(47:17):
I thank God.
Don't play a victim, don't be a victim, and don't coddle victims.
I am not a victim and neither are you.
God bless you.
It is me.
Thank you for listening to the P.H.S.A. Potter's House Salmon Arm Podcast.
(47:43):
Be sure to follow us on Instagram at pottershouse underscore salmon arm to keep up to date on
what we are doing, join the conversation, and discover how Jesus Christ can revolutionize
your life.
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