You Cannot Be the Victim and the Victor at the Same Time

Sermon outline

You cannot pray a prayer of faith and live a life of unbelief, so stop managing your afflictions, pray from a grateful heart that seeks the Creator rather than the creation, and forgive by faith.

1. Remember the names of God

   When the chips are down and you do not feel close enough to the Father, remind yourself of His character: Jehovah Tsidkenu, my righteousness; Jehovah Mekaddeshkem, who sanctifies; Jehovah Shalom, my peace; Jehovah Shammah, who is always there; Jehovah Rapha, my healer; Jehovah Jireh, my provider; Jehovah Nissi, my banner; and Jehovah Rohi, my shepherd.

   “It's good to remind us of the characteristics of God.”

   • Matthew 6:9

2. You cannot be the victim and the victor

   By faith we please God and by unbelief we displease Him, and He is not pleased with a double mind in our ways or our thinking. So change your language: what you are unsure of, you do not discuss, you declare over. With words, like the pen of a ready writer, we change the atmosphere. Jesus simply said "stop" and the demon stopped, and the enemy has no legal right to our homes, businesses, workplaces or bodies.

   Illustration: Jesus did not take a bush knife or a sjambok to the people who mocked Him. He said "stop".

   “We cannot be the victim and be the victor at the same time. We cannot pray a prayer of faith but live a life naturally of disbelief.”

   • Hebrews 11:6
   • James 1:8
   • Psalm 45:1
   • Joshua 24:15

3. Stop managing the affliction

   At twelve or thirteen he had only a small fraction of his lung capacity and was on a nebuliser and every pump there was. One night, sick in the sink and struggling to breathe, his mother asked whether he wanted to go to hospital, and he told her he was tired of the thing holding on to his body. That was the night the Lord delivered him, because nothing changed until he decided. Things do not change when the money is in the bank but with the mouth and the mindset; three hours of faithless prayer does not move God, but fifteen minutes of total belief moves mountains.

   Illustration: On Saturday everyone is dressed and wide awake for the party; on Sunday morning their eyelids are having a contest.

   “When will be the time that we, as a people of God, will stop managing the afflictions and when will we be the people that destroy what the enemy is trying to do in our lives?”

   • Proverbs 23:7
   • Mark 9:29

4. Pray for the nation, and let your children hear you pray

   He recaps the week: praying for ourselves, our families, the church and our civil family, and praying God's will be done in every sphere. Wherever we are in life we must pray for our nation, our pastors and even the teachers in our children's classrooms. Faith is not injected into children by handing them a document; they must hear us pray and see us do it. If you do not know your calling, serve in the house of the Lord and you will find it, because your gift and your calling can be two different things.

   Illustration: A father enjoys a shot of whiskey on a Friday night after a rough week, and his son does as he does, whatever comes out of his mouth.

   “When we are not around, our words should echo in our children's ears.”

   • Ephesians 1:17-18

5. Spoil your Father: seek the Creator, not the creation

   Before you ask for anything, wake up and tell your Father how wonderful He is, the way children pull your ears in the morning. He knows your needs before you ask and the number of hairs on your head, and His angels watch over you at night, so sometimes there is nothing left to pray but thank you. No eloquence gives you a shortcut, because God looks at the heart.

   Illustration: The brother who prays so well that the room gets goosebumps may be living a double life, while the widow who put in two mites and could not speak properly is heard, answered and sustained.

   “We can't just come to the Lord when we need something, but we come to the Lord because He's good. We seek the creator, not the creation.”

   • Matthew 6:8
   • Matthew 10:30
   • Psalm 91:11
   • Luke 21:1-4

6. Keep your heart, rooted and grounded in love

   The third model prayer is that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. Keep your heart with all diligence, because it determines the course of your life, and whoever trusts his own heart is a fool. Rooted in love, you can love your family, the teacher, the boss and the man on the street with the love of the Lord. Give your anger, disappointment, bitterness and offences to the Lord.

   Illustration: A man kicks the dog and terrorises the house in the morning, then is all "good morning, madam, how can I help you" at work, and the terror comes home again in the evening.

   “Love at home, love at work.”

   • Ephesians 3:16-17
   • Proverbs 4:23
   • Proverbs 28:26

7. You need faith to forgive

   Stephen's last words under the stones were "Lord, do not hold this sin against them", and Jesus prayed from the cross for His persecutors. An unforgiving Christian is a living contradiction of his new nature. Straight after the mountain-moving faith of Mark 11 comes the instruction to forgive, so we forgive by faith and remove ourselves from the equation, letting God deal with the person who wronged us. We do not have the luxury of bitterness.

   Illustration: As a pastor he gets carved up plenty of times over other people's Sunday lunch.

   “We don't have the luxury of bitterness. We don't have the luxury of resentment.”

   • Acts 7:60
   • Luke 23:34
   • 1 Corinthians 13:13
   • Mark 11:22-26
   • 1 Corinthians 10:13

In this message