From Victim To Victor
Sermon
The Glory Of Our Weakness
Sermons With Children's Lessons For Lent And Easter
If you have brothers and sisters at home, you know that while life is always busy, life is not always pleasant. Yes. You know that brothers and sisters do mean things. Like taking the remote and not letting you have it. Like exiting your computer game before you saved it and you had gotten to the ninth level for the first time in your whole life. Like making themselves a sandwich for school lunch and not making you one. Like telling your parents when you do something bad and they do the same thing, too.
Well, what do most children do in situations like this? We all know the answer is obvious: they get even! You hide the remote so your brother or sister can ït find it! You mess up their computer game on purpose. You make your own lunch and make sure not to make a lunch for anyone else. You find the first thing you can tattle about, and then you tell your parents what your sister or brother did, hoping to see them get punished â the theory being that you will feel better when they feel worse.
Of course, these things never happen in my house, but I have heard they happen in other people ïs houses. Well, before we decide that getting even is the way to go, let ïs look at a man in the Bible named Isaiah, because he was someone who was always having mean things done to him. He was one of God ïs favorites, a prophet. God gave Isaiah messages He wanted Israel to hear, but most people didn ït like what Isaiah had to say. Like telling them to be more fair to the poor. Like telling them to worship God with what they did in the world and not the words they say in church. Isaiah was brave and said things that made a lot of comfortable people feel very uncomfortable, and for this, he made lots of enemies.
So, people did mean things to him. They hit him. They made fun of him. They insulted him and even spit on him. Day after day, people tried to disgrace him in every way they could.
But Isaiah did not strike back. He did not say mean things back to people who said mean things to him. He did not spit on anyone or even complain to them. He simply let them be mean, and he trusted in God to keep him strong. 'The Lord God helps me,' he said, 'and therefore I have not been disgraced.'
People only disgrace you or insult you or hurt your feelings if you let them. People only make you mad if you let them. People only make you want to get even if you let yourself feel that way.
Try the other way sometimes. When someone (like a brother or sister, or someone at school) does something mean, let them! Let it go! Walk away! Say to yourself, 'God helps me, so nothing this person is doing to me can hurt me.' You won ït feel like a victim who feels hurt and angry, you will feel like a victor a winner who feels strong and proud of yourself. You will feel like Isaiah, which means you will be glad, because God will feel very real to you, and you will know that God is helping you. Amen.
Well, what do most children do in situations like this? We all know the answer is obvious: they get even! You hide the remote so your brother or sister can ït find it! You mess up their computer game on purpose. You make your own lunch and make sure not to make a lunch for anyone else. You find the first thing you can tattle about, and then you tell your parents what your sister or brother did, hoping to see them get punished â the theory being that you will feel better when they feel worse.
Of course, these things never happen in my house, but I have heard they happen in other people ïs houses. Well, before we decide that getting even is the way to go, let ïs look at a man in the Bible named Isaiah, because he was someone who was always having mean things done to him. He was one of God ïs favorites, a prophet. God gave Isaiah messages He wanted Israel to hear, but most people didn ït like what Isaiah had to say. Like telling them to be more fair to the poor. Like telling them to worship God with what they did in the world and not the words they say in church. Isaiah was brave and said things that made a lot of comfortable people feel very uncomfortable, and for this, he made lots of enemies.
So, people did mean things to him. They hit him. They made fun of him. They insulted him and even spit on him. Day after day, people tried to disgrace him in every way they could.
But Isaiah did not strike back. He did not say mean things back to people who said mean things to him. He did not spit on anyone or even complain to them. He simply let them be mean, and he trusted in God to keep him strong. 'The Lord God helps me,' he said, 'and therefore I have not been disgraced.'
People only disgrace you or insult you or hurt your feelings if you let them. People only make you mad if you let them. People only make you want to get even if you let yourself feel that way.
Try the other way sometimes. When someone (like a brother or sister, or someone at school) does something mean, let them! Let it go! Walk away! Say to yourself, 'God helps me, so nothing this person is doing to me can hurt me.' You won ït feel like a victim who feels hurt and angry, you will feel like a victor a winner who feels strong and proud of yourself. You will feel like Isaiah, which means you will be glad, because God will feel very real to you, and you will know that God is helping you. Amen.
