Gary Blanchard 5-25-24 "Victim or Victor"

The speaker thanks the children for their offering and shares a story from the book of Genesis about forgiveness. He then introduces the conference president and talks about various announcements and upcoming events. The speaker emphasizes the importance of having a victor mindset rather than a victim mindset and encourages the audience to trust in Jesus. He acknowledges that many people have been victimized but reminds them that God calls us to forgive and have a positive mindset. All right. Thank you, children, for picking up that offering, and thank you for listening to the story. You know, we're all children, right? That's why we listen to those stories so intently. I always do. I get so much out of the children's story. I have a simple mind, and I hope it always stays that way. But anyway, we are pleased to have our conference president, and he's going to speak today. But before he speaks, I just wanted you to know that that's who this gentleman is. OK, he is our conference president. I know I'm putting pressure on him, but before he comes up here and speak, we're going to have Nick give the scripture reading. OK? All right. Scripture reading is found in the book of Genesis, chapter 50, and verses 15 through 21. So Genesis 50, 15 through 21. The Bible says, when Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, perhaps Joseph will hate us and may actually repay us for all the evil which we did to him. So they sent messengers to Joseph, saying, before your father died, he commanded, saying, thus you shall say to Joseph, I beg you, please forgive the trespass of your brothers and their sin, for they did evil to you. Now please forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of your father. And Joseph wept when they spoke to him. Verse 18, then his brothers also went and fell down and fell on their faces, and they said, behold, we are your servants. Joseph said to them, do not be afraid, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day to save many people alive. Verse 21, now therefore do not be afraid. And your little ones, and he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. Amen. Amen. Well, happy Sabbath, everyone. I'm not the Grim Reaper, just the president of the conference. I'm glad to be here. What an honor to be here. This is probably one of the most beautiful sanctuaries, I think, in the conference. You won't tell anybody, will you? And those of you watching online, don't tell anyone this is beautiful. Because in fact, somebody was sharing with me today, if the sermon is boring, you can always look outside. Amen? So I'll be watching to see who's all looking outside. I'm just kidding. No, it's what a blessing to be here. Also, I just wanted to say how much I love your bulletin, too. See those beliefs right there? Outstanding. When you look through those, those are the core doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Is that pretty cool, or what? The entire Bible is the inspired word of God. That's the first thing that you mention here. Maybe you've heard somebody say, as a famous saying goes like this, it's, if the facts are on your side, then pound the facts. If the truth is on your side, then pound the truth. If none of them are on your side, then pound the table. And we don't have to do any of that, do we? We can pound the truth, because we have the truth of God's word. Amen? And that doesn't mean we're better than other people, but we've been given quite an incredible responsibility to preach God's last message of hope and warning to the world before he comes back. I wanted to share with you just a couple of quick announcements about what's happening around the conference. And then I want to have prayer and get started with you. But how many of you know about Connect Live? Every lunchtime at 12 o'clock, we have something called Connect Live, where we interview very interesting people. In fact, I'm going to ask Dr. Frank to speak at one of the coming interviews. Dr. Frank, wouldn't you love to hear Dr. Frank be interviewed? Amen. So we have a lot of interesting people that we bring on there, and we interview them and hear about their walk with God and some of the things they want to share. How many of you have the newsletter coming out? How many of you know about the newsletter? Oh, man. OK. If you go to nnec.org, that's our website, you can actually subscribe to our newsletter that goes out and lets you know what's going on. How many of you know who the amazing speakers are at camp meeting this year? Well, if you get nnec.org, you will know. They're all there. Ron Kelly from the Village Church will be here. Dan Searns will be there from the Central California Conference. Just a lot of exciting people on there. Just really, really. Eric Walsh will be there speaking. Anyway, just phenomenal. So make sure you connect live on Wednesdays and get that newsletter so you can be in touch. I think you all know about camp meeting, right? How many of you know what the theme is at camp meeting this year? All right. Everybody say, it's 3 AM. It's 3 AM. That's the theme. Does anybody want to guess what that means? It's time to preach the three angels' messages. It's that time. So it's all going to be about the three angels' messages. Christ, our righteousness, and the great hope that we have in these last days. So you don't want to miss that. Elders Connect, once a month we meet with our elders. The first Tuesday of every month at 7 o'clock, we meet on Zoom. Just wanting to work closely with our leaders around the church. And how many of you have heard of Fill the Baptistry Sabbath? OK, we've got a couple here. We've got to tell everybody the good news. Fill the Baptistry Sabbath, twice a year, we're challenging every church to fill their baptismal tank and for the members to bring the people they've led to Jesus to that tank to be baptized. Two special days that we've made special for the laymen and women of our church, for them to bring the people they've been studying with to be baptized in those days. What do you say? That's twice a year. We just had our next one coming up here will be October 5. If you're giving Bible studies to somebody, that's the Sabbath to bring them to get them baptized. And then what's going on on June 2nd via Zoom? Town hall meetings. You want to know what's going on around the conference on June 2nd, just on Zoom? From the comfort of your home, we're going to kind of unpack the things that are happening and talk more about camp meeting and cool stuff like that. What do you say, everyone? All right. I want to have a word of prayer one more time and just thank the Lord for being with us. Father, we have a message today, I believe, that you've given us to encourage us. We're living in a world right now that we're being divided up on so many things. We're being victimized in many different ways. And we have the great danger of getting a victim mindset rather than a victor mindset. And I want to pray, Lord, that you'll give us a victor mindset no matter what we're going through. And we just pray that you'll guide us and teach us in your wonderful name. Amen. Amen. So how many of you love dogs? Anybody here love dogs? How many of you love dogs so much you have more than four dogs in your house? Hands went down. I have four dogs. We have a hard time saying no when we have a chance to get a dog. So what's that? She can relate. OK, good. She'll probably be my best friend someday. But we have four dogs. And two of them are German shepherds. They're big, long-haired German shepherds, beautiful dogs. They're really mine. But my wife has two dachshunds. And they're not even really full dachshunds. They're mini dachshunds. But if I was going to be as scared if a visitor came to my house, I wouldn't be afraid at all with the German shepherds. I'd be more concerned with the little mini dachshunds. In fact, we have one. His name is Hank. And the mailman is worried about him. The other day, the mailman came. And I opened the door. And he shot out the door toward the mailman real fast. He has no sense of fear. He's tiny. Like I said, he's not even a full dachshund. He's a mini dachshund. But he thinks he's a giant. He goes charging after the mailman. And the mailman is ready for him with treats in his pocket because it's happened before. Whips out the treats and then all of a sudden distills all the problems. But my little dog, that little dog, Hank, has a victor mindset. He thinks he can take on anything. Amen? And I was talking to the guy about it. He goes, boy, that little dog. I was thinking to myself, he's going that dog's got a real champion mindset. He goes, no, I think your dog has a problem. I said, what is it? He goes, your dog's got little man syndrome. But for the sake of our sermon today, it's victor mindset. Amen? But God wants us to have a victor mindset. We're living in a time where the world is trying to divide us up, whether it's on race, whether it's on politics, you name it. You name it. Trying to divide us up. Trying to put in our brain a victim mindset so we turn on one another and cannot love each other. But I've got to tell you today, Jesus took down all the walls of hostility and brought us together at the cross. We're going to talk about that in a minute. But we don't need to have a victim mindset. We should have a what kind of mindset? A victor mindset. If our Savior defeated death, we don't have a problem. He can't get us through. And our Savior rose from the dead. We should have a victor mindset. Because no matter what we're going through in our life, we may have been victimized. We can still get through and have a victor mindset because of Jesus. We're going to unpack that a little bit. I want to be clear, very clear. There are many of you here in this room today have been victimized. You've been victimized. Let's just be real. In fact, sin victimizes people. You remember the commandments are divided into the first four commandments are about our responsibility to God. And the last six commandments are our responsibility to who? So when a person sins, they're either victimizing God or they're victimizing their fellow man. Sin victimizes others. And all of you have been victimized by someone. And then all of you have victimized others. Interesting. But what is God calling us to do? I love this book right here. If you get a chance to check out this book, I think this book is speaking to our generation. It's called Zero Victim, Overcoming Injustice with a New Attitude by James E. Ward, Jr. And here's how he defines. And this book is worth getting. It's a quick read. You can read it in about an hour or two hours. Depends how fast you can read. And just powerful. But here's how he describes a victim mentality. Let's read this together. One, two, three, go. Victim mentality is a perceived or conditioned mental tendency to regard yourself as a victim of the negative thoughts, words, or actions of others. But what he challenges in this book, and I believe that the Bible does as well, is to get rid of the victim mindset, even if you have been victimized, and instead embrace a victor mindset. It'll change your life. It'll change your life. You know, the problem with a victim mindset is it leads to bitterness. Maybe you've noticed that. When you have a victim mindset, and you have those thoughts about other people and what they've done to you, you begin to get bitter. You ever had that fruit of bitterness in you? How about anger? You get anger, and division, and hate, and revenge. Do you know that revenge lights up the same part of your brain as video games do? Revenge lights up the same part of your brain that video games do and other things, like drugs. It lights up that part of your brain. That's why people get addicted to having bitter thoughts and a victim mentality toward others, because there's something about it that generates energy. It's just a bad energy, hurtful to yourself. A lot of people adopt, because they have the idea that they're a victim, they justify harming other people, because, well, you deserved it. You had it coming to you. It happened to me. I'm doing it to you in reverse. The Robin Hood mentality, you stole from me, I'm going to steal from you. This victim mentality brings that out more and more. In fact, what's really interesting is those who have been treated unjustly oftentimes turn around, and they're more unjust to the person that was unjust to them. It goes to a higher level. It gets even worse. And also, ultimately, it leads to less quality of life. Listen, let me tell you, Jesus came to give you life more abundantly. Amen? A famous comedian said it like this. Jesus, we have ups and downs, right, in the life. Jesus came to give us life more abundantly, he says, like this. But God wants us to enjoy life and not be caught up in a victim mentality. What do you say? I'm preaching to myself here today, because I know it's very easy to fall into that. Let me tell you what your identity is. Your identity is not a victim. Your identity is a son and daughter of God. That's the mindset you need to have, is that you're a son and daughter of God. In 1 John chapter 3, verse 1, let's read this together. One, two, three, go. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called what? Children of God. And that is what we are. And that is what we are. Turn to the person next to you and say, you're one of God's kids. You're one of God's kids. Doesn't that change everything? Do you realize if you're a child of the king, you're royalty? It doesn't get more privileged than that. It doesn't get more than that. That's the mentality we have. You've heard the saying about some people who take the high road, not the low road. When we're being bombarded by all these things trying to give us this victim mentality, we need to take the high road. Why? Because we're on the high road. We're on the king's highway. Sons and daughters of God. Man. Very interesting. Dartmouth College in 1980 did a very, very interesting thing. And this experiment helps us know that your mindset can affect the way you live your life and how you view what other people do. Very interesting, that experiment. It took several women. And what they did with these women is they put scars on their faces. They just drew them on their faces. They did kind of artistic, kind of put a scar on their faces. Then they told the women to go out and to interview another person, to talk to another person, and kind of document how that interview goes. Well, just before the ladies left to go and talk to people with their scars, they were walking out with those fake scars out to go and have an interview, just before the artists or the researchers pulled them aside and said, listen, we've got to touch up your scar a little bit, make it more defined before you go. The only thing is, they didn't touch up the scar. They completely erased the scar. So the person went out with the interview thinking they had a scar, but the scar was gone. When they came back, they talked about how they were mistreated because of the scar on their face. They documented it, how they looked at them a certain way, how they treated them a certain way. You see what I'm saying here, folks? Our mindset matters. If you have a victim mentality, everything people do to you will be blamed on victimhood. But if you have a victor mentality, you'll be able to look at things a whole lot different. What do you say, everyone? It matters what our mindset. Proverbs 23, 7 says, as a man thinketh in his heart. What? Can we put as a woman thinketh in her heart, too? I think so. We do need to have a victor mindset. You know, it's hard to find somebody more mistreated than Joseph. You know, I won't ask you to raise your hand, but there may be some of you who have been victimized by family members. Joseph experienced this. He was victimized by his family members. Remember all the things that happened to him? His brothers didn't want anything to do with him. They excluded him. He was excluded by his brothers. Then when he went to go check up on them, they saw it as a bad thing, and they threw him in a hole in the ground. Then they sold him into slavery. How many times? Sold him into slavery twice. And then while he was in slavery, his master's wife, who was an adulteress, tried to get him to sleep with her. He said no, and he got thrown in prison for 14 years unjustly. If there was anybody that should have had a victim mentality, it would have been who? But you remember what happened? Remember what happened? One day, and he just read the verse for us today, which is outstanding the way he read it here. But you remember what happened? They eventually, after Jacob died, the brothers were scared to death because there was a famine in the land, and they knew that Joseph was the boss. And they were afraid that he would have a victim mentality and would destroy them and wipe them off the planet. And this really hurt Joseph's feelings. But look at this. When their message came to him, Joseph wept because he heard that they were afraid he was going to kill them now that their father had died. But notice what happens. He has a victor mentality. His brothers also came to him, bowed down before him, and said, we are your slaves. But Joseph replied, let's read it together. Ready, one, two, three, go. Do not be afraid. Am I in the place of God? Wow. As for you, what you intended against me for evil, God intended for good. In order to accomplish a day like this, to preserve the lives of my people, therefore do not be afraid. Wow. Do not be afraid. I will provide for you. What? They threw him in a hole, gave him no food, and sold him into slavery. And he's actually given them everything they need to survive. I will provide for you and your little ones. So Joseph reassured his brothers and spoke what? Kind to them. Let me ask you a question. Was Joseph a victim? Yes, he was. And in this world, he would have been told you should take advantage of this opportunity and get rid of those people that have done those things to you and do worse. But he has a victim mentality. This is supernatural. Look what he does. Let's break this down. First of all, Joseph's mindset is a victim mindset. Number one, notice this. He leaves vengeance to God. What do you say to that? You know, that's a lot of stress for us to think that we have to avenge ourselves. He leaves vengeance with God. What do you say, everybody? Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. Amen? And God will swiftly deal with the issue. He does that. Next, notice he calls it evil. He doesn't try to sweep it under carpet, make it sound better than it really is. He calls it what it is. What they did to him, how they victimized him, was what? You had victimization happen to you. Guess what? It's OK for you to call it what it is. Evil. Thirdly, he realizes God brought good into it. God did not cause the injustice and mistreatment of him. But what God did is he brought into that situation good. Do you know there are many people that go through hardship in life, and because they go through it with a victor mentality, they come out as leaders and influencers in impacting others. He found his destiny. God turned that around, that difficult situation, and God made something beautiful out of that. Amen? Amen. Somebody told me a long time ago that if you haven't gone through hard times in your life, you're not ready yet to be a leader. And God helps the people that are under you if you've never gone through a hard time and you become the leader, because you'll have no mercy on people and their weaknesses and their struggles and their mistakes. But when you've screwed up, or you've gone through hardship and you've gone through pain, guess what? You're able to be a better leader. Wow. Notice what he does next. He repays disgrace with grace. They got undeserved kindness. Did they deserve it? The world would say no, but God says yes. And Joseph responded to that, Joseph's mindset. So Joseph, what about Queen Esther? Is this a woman that was mistreated? I mean, I don't know. I grew up on Uncle Arthur's bedtime stories. Anybody grow up on that, Uncle Arthur's bedtime stories? I love it. In fact, all of our kids went through Uncle Arthur's bedtime stories. I love them, absolutely. And in fact, we just found out a month and a half ago that we're now grandparents. So anyway, so they're going to be getting Uncle Arthur's bedtime stories. But you know what we don't realize is that it wasn't as pretty as the Bible stories painted. The Bible says very clearly that Esther was taken. No, she didn't sign up for a pageant and walk through nice clothes on as the king looked over all the beautiful brides and chose one. That wasn't at all. She was taken and thrown into a harem. This is quite an interesting way to look at this. And this would have been very difficult for any type of Jew to go through this very experience. But she found herself as a young woman who probably wanted to get married and have children of her own and a family. Instead, she gets taken and put into a king's harem with many other women. How was she going to respond? Well, the Bible says here's what she does. Notice, first of all, she refuses to overcome evil with evil. Oftentimes, the world views of our day say you need to overcome evil with more evil. But instead, she does not do that. She does not try to overcome evil with evil. In fact, she's told to go in before the king. And instead of saying, what I don't want, she could have got on social media and canceled him, done all kinds of stuff. Of course, they didn't have social media back then. But she could have been all kinds of negative. But instead, she asked the question, well, what kind of perfume should I wear? How should I dress before the king? In other words, she was thinking about how can I go in there without repaying evil for evil and leave vengeance with God. Amen? And secondly, she says she courageously pursued justice. Everybody say, pursue justice. I want to make sure I'm really clear. If you've been victimized by someone, there's a reason why we have courts of law. I didn't get any amens on that. If you've been victimized by somebody, it's OK for you to go to the courts of law and call upon the magistrates to act in your behalf. There's nothing wrong with that. That's biblical. Remember, there was a widow in, I think, it's Luke chapter 18, who was mistreated by somebody, abused by somebody. Back then, if you were a widow, I mean, you were in some serious trouble. You had no financial help at all. You were in trouble. And somebody was taking advantage of her. And Jesus told the parable of how she went to an unjust judge. Maybe you think the courts are corrupt or whatever else. You see them as corrupt. Well, that's God says go anyway. And she went to this unjust judge. And she began to be persistent. She went peacefully, but she went persistently to the judge. And what does the Bible say? Finally, the judge is like, you know what? I'm not a just guy. I don't really care about this woman. But she is bugging me. And what does he do? He judges in her favor. And God used that system. So listen, Esther does the same thing. Remember, she goes in before the king. She needs to get justice for her people. She walks boldly in there, puts her life on the line, and she goes in there. Can you say amen? That's not a victim mindset. That's a victor mindset. How about Booker T. Washington? Oh my. This man was incredible. You guys study up on Booker T. Washington? If there was somebody that was mistreated, it was this man. He grew up on a slave plantation and never met his father. But the rumor is that his father was a white man who ran a plantation just down the road. Didn't care anything about him. He was raised on his own with his mother in pretty bad situation in his life. You could go on and on about that. If there was anybody that had a right to have a victim mentality, it was Booker T. Washington. But this man had a victor mentality. And he rose to be a great leader. He focused on education and on hard work. And when Emancipation Proclamation came and he was able to do this, he pursued all this. He read when others didn't take the time to read. He worked hard and he studied. He became an incredible influencer on many presidents. But Booker T. Washington wasn't the only one. Do you realize that there were many slaves in those days that also had a victor mentality, not a victim mindset? Did you know that? In fact, let's read this. This comes out of Booker T. Washington's autobiography. This is stuff you will never read, but this is phenomenal information that Booker T. Washington wrote. Let's read this together. As a rule, not only do the members of my race entertain no feelings of bitterness against the whites before and during the way, but there are many instances of the tenderly caring for their former master, whoa, and mistresses who for some reason have become poor and dependent since the war. Have you guys ever read that before? That many of the slaves actually looked after their white masters that mistreated them even after the war was over. I know of instances where the former masters of slaves have for years had been supplied with money by their former, what? To keep them from suffering. This is beyond normal. This is beyond natural. This is supernatural. This means that these people were filled with the Spirit of God. That's all I can say. They understood the grace of the Lord Jesus. They had a victor mentality, not a victim mentality. And I have long since ceased to cherish, whoa, and I've long since, what? Ceased to cherish any spirit of bitterness against the Southern white people on account of the enslavement of my race. This right here is phenomenal. This man was incredible. Let's break this down. First thing, he refused to become bitter. You know, somebody once said that bitterness is like drinking poison and hoping the guy that hurts you dies. Bitterness will kill you. It'll destroy you. You'll be in darkness over your entire life. Number eight, he actively loved his enemies. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that we should be cruel to our enemies. In fact, the Bible, totally counter-cultural. It says we're to love our enemies. I wish I got an amen on that. And notice this, in the midst of everything he was going through, he bettered himself and others through education, character, and hard work. When you're going through a trauma in your life, when you're being mistreated in your life, when you're a victim of what other people have done to you, guess what, the best thing you can do is rise through the challenge. This is what he did. And this man stands out as a hero in many people's minds. And finally, the cross of Jesus. I wanna say something to you that I think is, to me, it's profound to me, but maybe not to you. You probably already thought about it. By the way, we had a wonderful Sabbath school today. Excellent teacher, really good job today. We studied the sanctuary message today. What do you think of that? The sanctuary message. You don't wanna miss that. Do you know the sanctuary message is the one unique doctrine we have that nobody else has? There are other people that keep the Sabbath, folks. You know that, right? Praise God for the Sabbath message and our understanding of how it fits into Bible prophecy, but the sanctuary message, this is our core doctrine. And we're studying it now in Sabbath school, but we were talking today about how when somebody sinned, they would take a little lamb and they would bring the lamb to the temple, right? And they would cut the throat of the lamb, the lamb would die, and the blood would be carried into the temple and sprinkled on the curtain in there, which is symbol of the death of Jesus, right? And our sins being transferred from ourselves to the sanctuary. And we've kind of talked a little bit about that. And this happened. This is documented throughout the Old Testament. And it's not just God was trying to tell people how awful sin is, but how wonderful the price that Jesus would pay for the sins of the world. It's the gospel. It's the gospel being played out right before your eyes. You don't wanna miss Sabbath school, is what I'm trying to say, or at least studying the lesson. And, but one thing I noticed here is, all those lambs that died, they died quick death. They didn't even know what was happening. It was, it was, that was it. They weren't dragged around, beaten up. Their hair wasn't ripped out. Crown of thorns weren't crammed down on their heads. They weren't nailed to a pole, cross. Just a quick, merciful. So if Jesus is the lamb of God, why did he have to die so brutally? You guys know the word excruciating means, the word literally means out of the cross. I mean, if you've never been nailed to a cross, you've never experienced excruciating. Jesus was excruciatingly abused. And I've often wondered, why? Why, why couldn't his death be just quick? But I think you know the answer, and I think I do too. Jesus knew that you would be abused and battered. Many of us have been abused and battered by others. So that if you've been mistreated, if you've been degraded, if you've been abandoned and abused physically, emotionally, spiritually, all those things Jesus experienced on the cross, if you've ever had questions that have never been answered, and you've been going, my God, my God, why? Guess what? If you've gone through any of that, Jesus puts his arm around you, and he says right now, I know how you feel. You got a friend in Jesus. You got a friend in Jesus. If you've been a victim of other people's mistreatment, you have a friend in Jesus. He knows how you feel. Is that good news? Don't run away from him, run to him, he knows how you feel. I think that's so important for us to remember. Jesus, nobody was more mistreated than Jesus. In fact, in Isaiah 53, it says his face was so marred that you couldn't even recognize him. We don't know what happened to him when he was alone with the Praetorian Guard. The Bible has shielded us and shielded the world from seeing exactly. It tells us just enough. When you go to the cross, you need to realize that if you've been a victim of sin and Satan and things upon your life, that you have a friend in Jesus. He knows how you feel. He'll get you through it, amen? He'll get you through it. He's not gonna take you out of it now. The time is coming when God will take us out of this world. But until then, we go through stuff. And sometimes the stuff we go through, folks, isn't because of other people. Sometimes we live in a fallen world and tragedy happens. It feels like injustice has fell upon us. My mother just recently died of cancer, 73 years old. And I feel like that was unjust. Not from God, but from the things that are happening that's unjust. I wish I could have had her a little longer. She died too young. Remember, Jesus also lost his stepfather too. Joseph was dead by the time Jesus died on the cross. Jesus puts his arm around me too, and you, and says, I know how you feel. You got questions about God or why things are going on in your life? You got a friend in Jesus. He'll get you through it. You know what's amazing is that even though Jesus said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Spirit of prophecy tells us that he had to experience the second death. He was experiencing the second death. This is what the wicked will feel who have rejected the Messiah. They'll feel like they've been abandoned. None of us have ever felt this before because whether you reject God or accept him, he's with you and you know he's there. You may not be, your conscience may not pick up, but you know life is there. It's beating through your veins. God is with you, around you. But the second death, the presence of God is completely removed. And there on Calvary's cross, Jesus said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? But here's what I want to tell you, that even though he didn't feel the presence of the Lord, the Bible says that there were a great cloud went down over Jesus. You guys all were there for the, what do you call it? My brain's not working right now. What was it? The thing that just happened, the moon before the sun. Help me out here. What in the world is wrong with me today? A lot of people think on Calvary's cross there was an eclipse that took place. The moon went in front and blocked out the sun and it was dark around the cross. Spirit of prophecy tells us that is not what happened. What was happening is God wrapped himself in darkness and drew close to his son. That's what was happening. You're going through dark times right now in your life. Where, my God, my God, where are you? Well, he's right there with you. He's right there with you, you're not alone, no matter what you're going through, amen? So when we go before the cross, we remember that we have a savior that knows how we feel and we're not alone no matter what we're going through. Is that good news? But there's something else that we discover at the cross. We discover at the cross that we're all victimizers. We killed the son of God. You've been victimized by others, but guess what? You've victimized others with your sins too, and so have I. And if you can't think of anybody, just look at the cross because at the cross Jesus suffered because of your sins and mine. We drove the nails in his hand. He died because of our sins and he paid for them on the cross, amen? Your sins, past, present, and future, were nailed, Jesus took upon your sins, became sin for you, and died for you at Calvary's cross. Is that wonderful news or what? But you victimized the son of God. You gotta admit it. You gotta admit that you killed the son of God. That's why we don't confess to a priest. That's why we don't confess to a pastor. That's why we don't confess to any human being. That's why we go directly to Jesus and confess our sins. Why? Because our sins nailed him there. A change is how we treat others that have victimized us too, doesn't it? Doesn't make what they did right. Doesn't mean we don't respond. It just means we have a victim mindset and we realize, you know what? Jesus died for me and I'm the victimizer. Think about that. It's interesting that the movie, The Passion, was written by Mel Gibson. And there's a scene in there where the Roman soldier is nailing the big spikes through Jesus' wrists there. It's interesting when you read the commentary on that, that hand that was holding the hammer was Mel Gibson's hand. Because Mel Gibson realized that it was his sins that nailed the son of God there at the cross. He was basically understanding what took place there on Calvary. What a wonderful thing, amen? So we at the cross, we found out, you know, what's really interesting, we find out that we can forgive people, amen? We can forgive. You know what's interesting when they, this is really fascinating. This is really fascinating. Jesus didn't say, Father, forgive them after they drove the nails in his hands. Didn't say, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. He did not say that after they drove the nails in his hands. He did not say it before. He was saying that while. Check me out on Spirit of Prophecy. He was saying it while they were driving nails in his hands. What is that? That's forgiveness. That's incredible forgiveness. To be able to forgive the victimizer while. This is a whole nother level of love. It's a whole nother level of forgiveness that only God can give us. It's supernatural. And that's what I want to end with this. You know, let's look at the victim mindset. Let's read them together. Here's the victim mindset. Number one, let's go. Leave vengeance to God. Leave, yeah, leave vengeance. Call it evil. Realize God brings good out of it. Repay disgrace with grace. Refuse to overcome evil with more evil. Pursue what? Justice. Refuse to become bitter. Actively love your enemies. Better yourself through the situation. And what? Forgive as you have been forgiven. Do you know that the Bible tells us to forgive the same way Jesus forgave us? Not a lower level, but the same level. If you don't forgive, you won't be forgiven. Because we're supposed to reciprocate to others what we've received from God. And that's why when you stand at the foot of the cross, you realize that God did something amazing for you too. Amen? The giving of the gospel to the world is the work that God has committed to those who bear his name for earth, sin, and misery. The gospel is the only antidote. The gospel is the only way to make known to all mankind the message of the grace of God is the first work of those who know its healing power. That's pretty amazing. When we go to the cross, we realize that Jesus knows how we feel. And we realize that we've killed the son of God. It puts us on ground zero with others, doesn't it? We realize that he forgave, and we must forgive too. But also here's what's interesting. When Jesus died on the cross, two things flowed out of his side. You guys remember what they were? They were what and what? Blood and water. I wanna challenge you to use your sanctified imagination. Is that okay? And I want you to imagine that you're there at the cross right now, and you see the blood coming from his side. You know, it's very interesting that blood is symbolic of pardon for your sins, right? You can actually go to the cross of Jesus and have your sins washed away today. Jesus died for all of your sins. There's no sin that's an exception. He died for all of your sins. No matter how deep the stain of your sin might be, he can wash it away. Go to the cross and let the blood of Jesus just wash away. And when the devil tries to give it back to you, tell him right to his face, you're not an Indian giver. You gave it and got rid of it, it's gone. You're not taking it back. Let Jesus take away all your sins. So the blood at the cross washes away all your sins. You victimized others, washed away. And we've all done it. But the water is really interesting. Do you know the Bible says in John chapter seven that the water is symbolic of the Holy Spirit? So if the blood is pardon for your sins, the water is power to live a holy life that doesn't victimize others. The blood is pardon for your sins. This is why we gotta go to the cross. This is why we're told to spend a thoughtful hour contemplating the cross. We gotta go there, receive the blood of Jesus to pardon our sins and we need to receive the Holy Spirit to empower us to not victimize others because that's what sin is, to not victimize God and others, amen? We can be filled with the Holy Spirit today. What do you say, everyone? Wanna be filled with the Holy Spirit and pardon for your sins? I wanna leave you with this little story. One day a little boy came to his pastor after he was preaching. He said, pastor, that was a really good sermon, but I got a question. You were telling me that in your sermon that Jesus wants to live inside me. And the pastor said, yeah, that's right, son, that's right. Jesus does actually wanna live inside you. Little boy looked at the pastor and goes, pastor, I got a problem with that. Pastor's like, what do you mean? He goes, well, Jesus is so big and I'm so small. If Jesus lives in me, won't he like kinda stick out? The pastor looked at him and said, you got it. You figured it out. If Jesus lives in you, he will stick out and you'll be able to do things that the world cannot do. You'll be able to have a victor mindset. Is that good news? Amen. Let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the promise of pardon for sin and the power of the Holy Spirit that we might have a victor mindset in a world that's so discouraged and divided. We thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.