Live Free with Josh Howerton - Choosing to Be a Victor instead of a Victim • Pastor Levi Lusko | Ep. 314 | Thursday, April 18, 2024

Episode Date: April 18, 2024

When hard things happen, do you respond with a victim’s mindset or with a victor’s? It can be easy to compare ourselves to others and their lives, but God wants us to keep our eyes on Him. Instead of being jealous of what others have been given, we can choose to be thankful for all the amazing gifts He has given us. He is the one who will lead us triumphantly. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.com. and church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, Lake Point Church. My name's Levi Lesko, and I am back again, excited, thrilled, humbled, and honored to be

on the Daily Drive with Lake Point Church podcast. I'm excited today to talk to you about choosing to walk as a victor and not as a victim, choosing the victor's mentality, the victor's mindset, because that truly is who you are. Now when I talk about being a victim, what am I talking about? I'm talking about assuming things are going to chronically go wrong. I'm talking about fixating on what you can't control. I'm talking about letting hardships define you and focusing on other people's lives. If these things are your common practice, you're going to end up with a victim mindset.

You're going to end up sort of just, well, it figures, it figures, right, sort of things you're going to say when you're victim like figures or or here's here's the classic one you might be a little bit more of a victim if dot dot dot right if something bad happens and you say story of my life story of my life that's language of a victim right classic example is john chapter five jesus is walking by the pool of bethesta sees a guy's been lying there for 38 years says to the guy uh do you want to be made well and what is the guy's response? Oh my gosh, thanks for noticing me. Super nice of you to ask.

I, in fact, do want to be well, right? No, he says, I don't have anybody. I don't have anybody to help me get into the water when the water is turtle. Because there was this urban legend that an angel would come touch the water. And whenever the angel came down and touched the water, whoever was first to get in would be healed. And it was pagan, and it was, it was,

It was probably not even actual. Because, I mean, can you really imagine God being so capricious and mean and having it be like a demolition derby to get fixed? That does not God's spirit. But that's how they believed it worked. And so maybe at some point someone had experienced healing there, so it developed into this kind of cult there. And so you have this guy who's been there for a long time,

been disappointed a lot of times, and so ends up saying, well, I don't have anybody. What does he say? I'm the way I am because X, Y, Z. I'd be better if I was given more. I would be further along if I had the right people. Other people have had it easier than me. So I am the way I am because of this. That's to have no power. That's to have no agency. And the gospel, hear me, is all about us having agency. God has brought us out of the graves. He's given us our lives back. He's given us a hope.

He's given us a future. He's called us with a new name. He's told us we're seated in heavenly places. is he's given us our agency back. We're freed up to live lives of worship and surrender, to no longer be under the sway of the wicked one. 1, John, 1 chapter 9. So we're not in debt to do what our old nature tells us to do anymore. See, they want a devotion, not walking in the flesh, but walking in the spirit.

So we don't have to choose to be victims. We don't have to choose to focus on each other's lives and say, well, if I was given, five talents, I would do this, but I was just given the one, right? But that's so common and so easy. You even see it in the disciples. I mean, think about when Jesus had risen from the dead, forgiven Peter, for denying him, and the disciples for abandoning him. He came and made him breakfast on the beach. I mean, how nice is this, right? He's risen from the dead. Now he's like Wolfgang Puck on the beach, making them breakfast. Very nice, Jesus is. And he goes to Peter and says,

Peter, do you love me? You know, the whole sequence of events, Peter's restored by the end of it. And then Jesus puts his hand on Peter's shoulder and says, this is John chapter 21. Peter, I have a hard job I want you to do. I want you to follow me and feed my lambs and, you know, take care of my sheep, and you're going to eventually be taken and put to death in a death of crucifixion. Your hands are going to be spread out. He was prophesying over Peter that he was going to be a martyr and died just like Jesus died. And Peter, who, who's just been given his life back, who's just been restored by his best friend.

He looks into Jesus' eyes and says the following, what about John? Wait, what about John? Yeah, he's like, what about John? What's John going to get called to do? He's like literally saying, I want to know what he's going to be. I don't know, I'm going to make my decision about my calling, but first I want to know what he's called to.

And Jesus just like shakes his head, and he says what he says to you and to me. He says, what is, I'm going to say, I'm going to say, say it out of the King James, because that's how I first memorized it, and it rhymes. And everything that rhymes is like 12% more anointed. We all know that's what he teaches at Bible College. So he says, what is that to thee? Follow thou me. God's speaking to you today. He's definitely speaking to me today. What is that to thee? Follow thou me. Because, man, how easy it is to rank, how easy it is to compare, how easy it is to stop being grateful.

for what we've been given because someone else got more, right? I'm like, oh, Pastor Josh is so good. His Instagram posts, I read them, I'm like, these things are works of art. I can't do stuff like that. Like, I look at people that, you know, preach so, so well. And I'm like, people who can sing while they preach, right? Pretty soon I'm like not like pumped on my calling anymore.

And I'm letting myself off the hook for what God has called me to do. Because it's easy to develop that kind of victim mentality. well yeah sure it would be nice if x y z look if god wanted you to have those things he would have given them to you but god's entrusted you with a lot god's given you what he's chosen to give you so you don't need to choose to be a victim one more minute say it with me i quit i quit choosing the victim's mentality i choose i quit to i quit believing the lines have not fallen to me in pleasant places I quit saying, God, you did all things badly. I quit thinking, God, you did a bad job dispensing gifts and callings and opportunities and dispensing families and giving hardships out, right?

Because God's entrusted us with certain things for a reason. I quit. It's empowering. So what do we need to practice? What do we need to foster? Well, we need to, of course, be anchored in Scripture. So if I'm saying not choosing to be a victim, but we're choosing victim, but we're choosing victim. Whose victory is it? Well, let's now read 2 Corinthians 2.14.

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. I mean, hello, can I just run a lap around this room? Like, I'm so excited on the idea and the revelation that God always leads us in triumph. I'm going to read it again, just because it's that. good. Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in grace. Notice it doesn't say, now thanks be to God who sometimes leads us in triumph. Now thanks be to God who if everything's going really well leads us in triumph. If we're having a good hair day leads us in triumph. If we're fitting into our jeans leads us in triumph. No, it's thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ.

And through us, so we have a part to play in this, diffuses the frit, defuses the, diffuses are hot right now, right? Everyone's loving their diffusers, right? Diffuses the fragrance of his knowledge in every place. How does a diffuser work? From what I understand, you go find this essence, if it's eucalyptus, or if it's, you know, whatever it is, mint, and you have to crush it. You have to crush it and distill it to get that essence. Crush it and distill it to get that ferns. I mean, Jesus went to Gethseminine, which means olive press, and there would have been a press there where they would have crushed olives to get the essence, the olive oil out of it. So good news, bad news, sort of situation.

God is going to lead us in triumph, but it is going to mean being crushed. It is going to mean being persecuted but not abandoned. It's going to mean being struck down, but not, you know, in despair, perplexing, but not giving up, not panicking, right? It's going to mean we're going through hard things, but through those hard things, when we choose to believe, hey, you still are good, you still got a plan, you're up, to something. I'm not going to look at my neighbor. I'm not going to compare my calling to someone else's. I'm just going to keep my eyes on you, Jesus, through him. That aroma of the gospel is going to be

released into the world. And so let's today and every day choose to walk in victory and not as a victim. And I want to end today's devotional for this Thursday with seven confessions we can speak over ourselves daily that will put us in that victor's mindset. Number one, I am in Christ. Say it with me out loud. I am in Christ. Number two, I am invincible in the will of God. I am invincible in the will of God. Nothing can separate you from them, right? Romans 8.

Number three, there's a calling on my life. I'm a part of that royal priesthood, that kingdom of priest to our God. I'm a peculiar people. So there's a calling on my life is number three. Number four, speak it over yourself. I have a future. I have a future.

I shall live and not die. I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Number five, I have so much to be thankful for. I have so much to be thankful for. Number six, if we have the victor's mentality and we know he's diffusing through us, hardships make me stronger. We can speak that over our lives. And then lastly, and most significantly, because it's seven,

and, you know, it's like God's favorite number and stuff, my prize is knowing Jesus. Speak that over yourself today. My prize is not what I accomplish. My prize is not my part in it and how successful I get to be. My prize is knowing Jesus. And that prize of knowing him makes everything else look like garbage. Paul said I counted as dung for the prize of knowing Jesus.

And no matter what you're going through, no matter where you are today, he is with you, he is for you, he sees you, he is madly in love with you. and in knowing him, you have the opportunity to become like him because we become like whatever we worship. So today, let's choose the victor's mentality and not the mindset of a victim. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship, join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. For more information, visit lakepoint.com.combe.com slash daily drive.