Today we continued in our new series called, “FU” or “Forgiveness University.” Online classes are now in session and we are ready to learn about forgiveness. In the second week of this series, Pastor Michael spoke about the power of offense. If you feel like there are offenses that are standing between you and your purpose, this message is for you!

y’all ready y’all ready y’all ready all

right

let’s go i’m going right in okay so i

need everybody to get this

um most people would ask why is it

important to forgive

most people will ask why is it that big

big of a deal to forgive let me give you

point number one

because i’ve gotten this in the dms and

a lot of people that are watching and i

y’all are watching from everywhere type

in the chat where you’re watching from

because i’ve seen people there’s

mississippi in the building

we got minnesota in the building hold on

we got montana in the building all the

m’s i don’t know

okay come on all in the chats it’s just

a bunch of fu’s that’s crazy

but the reason why this is important is

because write this point down

forgiveness is fundamental to our faith

forgiveness is fundamental

to our faith just say it one more time

with me forgiveness

is what fundamental to our

faith now the reason i had to bring this

very basic

point to you is because a lot of people

don’t appreciate fundamentals

like anytime you talk about something

that’s a fundamental

the literal word means something that is

a core

or primary rule a principle something

which everything

else is based on so so let me let me

help you understand

that the coldest person on the

basketball court that can dribble

between the

legs and do all this other stuff and

fade away and all that other stuff

all of the extra comes from a

fundamental

and there’s many people in the church

that want all the extra

we want the signs the miracles and the

wonders we want to be able to manage a

bunch

we want to be an example and a leader

and god says but you ain’t got no

fundamentals

and the thing about fundamentals that

everybody has to understand

is that when the pressure is on when

there’s when there’s the game on the

line

when you forget all the fancy stuff the

thing that you rely on and you go back

to is the fundamentals

and the reason why 2020 has been

whipping some of y’all’s tail

is because there was no fundamentals

there to begin with you would post your

scripture

but there was nothing that it was

written on your heart it was

post uh y’all don’t hear me it was

posted and you may got a tattoo of it

but you don’t even know what your own

tattoo says

[Music]

because there was no fundamentals

and when i come into this this life with

christ

there are some things that are

fundamental prayer

is fundamental worship is fun to

fundamental generosity is fundamental

you cannot talk about how much you love

god but you never give anything

you never give time you never give your

talent you never give your treasure

god’s saying for god so loved the world

that he did what

gay it is fundamental

and the other thing that’s fundamental

that the church is shining on many times

because the pastors

are walking in the same level of

unforgiveness as the people that they

lead

is forgiveness somebody say forgiveness

is fundamental to our faith

let me give a practical example can you

bring that real quick um ever since i

was two years old

i’ve been playing drums okay and um i

started out very young

playing drums my mom and dad are sitting

right here and they got me my first drum

set when i was how

a year and a half old is what my mama

said i don’t even know if i could really

talk for real at a year and a half but

she said i asked for a drum set

and i have pictures and proof that i

used to play drums well from the time i

was two to the time i was 12

i got pretty good naturally okay so like

i would sit down and i had a nap that

had a gift that was given to me and when

i got 12 i like hit the ceiling

and i remember going and asking um our

minister of music my dad actually did

the minister of music

at the church i attended at the time

david smith shout out to everybody who

used to go to higher d

what up and um and and he said you need

to go take

lessons from this guy named arthur

thompson

and i went to arthur thompson downtown

on denver and we went down into this

dungeon

and he had all of these drums and all of

this stuff and i was like oh

my goodness i’m about to show this man

what i can do

and he sat me down and he listened to me

play

and he was like you’re really good he

said for the next

six months we’re gonna work on the

fundamentals and at that time at 12

years old i didn’t really have a grasp

of what the word fundamentals mean i

thought it meant fun

because i heard fun the mentals we gonna

work on the fun

of playing drums like literally i didn’t

know what it meant and and he was like

so

um i said so what do i need to do he

said um we’re taking the drum set away

from you

we’re not gonna let you do all of the

licks and all of the things and have all

of these things to hit

he said i’m gonna give you the snare and

so he gave me the snare

and i was like cool i can rock the snare

if you is this a challenge

because if it’s the challenge to see how

much i can do with the snare boy i’m

about to tear

the snare up and then he put a pillow

on top of the snare and he said you will

not hit a drum

for the next six months we need to work

on the fundamentals

and i was like what are you talking

about he said you need to do these

things called rudiments

and if you’ve ever seen drumline or any

of those movies that’s the thing they

always are practicing

he was like yeah i’m going to teach you

how to do a double stroke roll and i was

like cool i can do a double stroke roll

and he was like you’re going to go right

right left left right right left left i

was like is that it

this the fundamentals and he i was like

easy

like i just i i was so prideful

because i had done so much before but i

didn’t have the fundamentals

and he said that’s where you start but

he said now i want you to speed it up

and he put a metronome on and

he started making me go and what i

realized at this point when i was doing

the fundamentals

that there was no bounce from the drum

anymore

the reason he put me on the pillow is

because every one of these strokes had

to be me

every one of these i felt him like why

is my wrist burning right now

why is this he said because what you’ve

been doing

is trying to get it to sound

good on things that enhance what you’re

doing but when you take it to the bare

minimum

what does it look like what does it

sound like and i bring that to your

faith right now

if you strip away the lights if you

strip away your favorite worship

song if you strip away your small group

what does your walk with god

sound like does it have any ability to

last

does it have any endurance is it even

and he began to say until you get the

fundamentals

and then he started switching it up he

said we’re going to do a paradiddle

i said apparel what he said apparently

he said right left right right

left right left left right left i said

okay

and then he said keep going

five minutes nothing

but the pillow and fundamentals

six months of fundamentals then he put

me on the drum set

and he said play and i said play what i

ain’t been on a drum set so long i don’t

even remember how to play

and that’s what we feel like a lot of

times when god trains us in a different

environment

and then he gives us an opportunity or

tells us somewhere to be it’s like i

don’t even know how to do this

and as soon as i sat on the drums

and i begin to play it was like the

whole

drum set opened up to me in a brand new

way

because what i did in private on a

pillow when everything was stripped away

it then began to give me tools to be

able to do what was in my head it came

out in my hands

and i begin to move and i’m sitting

there like oh my god

oh my god and i’m doing stuff i’ve never

done and he said see

he said everything that’s fancy

comes from fundamentals

and i just came to tell somebody the

reason why we got to understand

forgiveness

the reason that we have to have a

passion and a burden

to work on our offenses because this

is a fundamental premise of our faith

and god says everything that’s fancy

everything that the world will see

everything that people will know you for

it will come from everybody say

fundamentals

and forgiveness is the fundamental

of our faith the thing that i had to

realize about fundamentals and i’m going

somewhere with this i need you to stay

with me class this is week two

you made it back so you’re ones that are

gonna ace this class and some of y’all

gonna be the valedictorian do i got any

valedictorians

in the building right now come on here

we go the thing i learned about

fundamentals check this out

fundamentals are never natural

you you don’t naturally do the

fundamentals

fundamentals are write this down they’re

practiced

they’re corrected and then they are

perfected

any fundamental of your life when i was

on that pillow

it was practiced and then he would come

over and be like lift your arm up right

there you need to be using your finger

somewhere

it was corrected and then it was

perfected

i don’t know why in church we act like

you get saved and then everything’s

perfected

i’m sorry for everybody who’s had an

experience

that it was like you got saved today now

speak in tongues tomorrow

now preach your message on the next day

and do this and start

no that’s not real there are some

core fundamentals that we may be working

on for the next three years

i know nobody wants to hear this because

in our culture we want everything to be

sped up

we want to be this overnight sensation

and god says if you want to last you

need the fundamentals

and fundamentals are practiced

they’re corrected and then they are

perfected

and when it comes to this thing of

forgiveness i want to let you know why

we’re doing 10 weeks and

just by the end of this series some of

y’all are just going to decide to start

practicing

because it’s been 25 years of offense

it’s been 10 10 days that you haven’t

talked to your spouse in a loving way

it’s been so long since you’ve even

thought about going back to that high

school you don’t even go back to your

10-year reunion because you don’t want

to see that coach

who told you that you would never be

able to amount to something and still

that same

offense is now affecting your heart with

unforgiveness today

and what i’m telling you is i’m not

asking you to change today or tomorrow

by the grace of the holy spirit i pray

you get a miracle i pray that he speeds

up things

i pray that there’s a breakthrough that

happens for you but i want to let

everybody know

that it’s going to have to take a

journey to forgiveness you’re okay

you’re okay to have to walk this thing

out

because the fundamentals if forgiveness

is a fundamental of our faith

fundamentals are what practiced

corrected and then perfected god’s gonna

have to correct some of the way we

forgive people

y’all ever forgave somebody on the

surface but you ain’t really forget him

come on like we’ll make a whole

instagram post

about how some friendships they come and

they go but some friendships last

forever

and this is a friendship that’ll last

forever you was just talking about them

yesterday

and god’s like no no no before you make

a public post let it be a private

promise he might have to come in

and correct it but i promise you if you

stay on this journey of forgiveness

it will be something that will become

perfected in you somebody say perfect me

lord

come on somebody say perfect me lord

that’s why at transformation church it

is one of our values

that we are never enamored with

perfection

it is all about what progression

because once we learn the fundamentals

once i learned how to do the basic

things

i was able to go to other levels that

were capped for me

and this is the year that god’s saying

you want to be able to go to that level

i need you to learn the fundamentals you

you want to be able to lead millions

i need you to be able to get the

fundamentals and and so

i i need everybody to understand that

that our feelings make us forfeit the

fundamentals sometimes

how we feel about it can i tell you that

there were tons of days

that i punched kicked cussed in the

pillow i was practicing on

ah this is not cool

all my other friends get to post where

they travel

all the people in my family are married

like

and god’s saying but i have you in a

season of fundamentals

and sometimes our feelings make us

forfeit

what we really need but god is saying

will you just commit

to forgiveness and that’s why

forgiveness is the goal

but i want us to get an understanding

and the understandings might take a

minute for us to get

and that’s why if forgiveness is the end

thing that we want to get to

i got to dial it all the way back in

this class

to the very beginning because write this

down i said it last week but it’s worth

mentioning again

offense is the gateway

to unforgiveness i had a whole another

message ready to go didn’t know charles

and the holy spirit said mike they

didn’t understand the offense thing

fully

they didn’t really get how offense is

creating a prison of unforgiveness for

them

and if they don’t learn how to deal with

the offense at the moment

they will wind up in a place in a space

that they never thought was possible for

them to get in

and god says we need to understand that

if unforgiveness is the place we don’t

want to be

we have to start with the offense

because offense is either picked up or

put on

but i went deeper than that this week

and i said god could you

show me why it’s so hard because i’m

scrolling on facebook and

instagram and somebody finds out that

the president has corona

and somebody’s comment is like that’s

what he get what

as a believer now i can understand

people in the world like i

i don’t agree with everything that he

does and there’s a lot of stuff that is

very questionable

but somebody falls sick and you say

that’s what they get

sound like a curse to me and i think my

bible says blessing and cursing

are coming out of this same tongue that

unstableness

at the moment i’m like what is going on

well i can be offended by so many little

things

and this is what the holy spirit told me

and if you don’t hear anything else i

say today

you need to get this because there’s a

parallel that is happening

in the world and in the church that

there should be a difference but it’s

looking a little bit like the same

like there’s there’s this lukewarm like

i can believe god but i can cuss you out

and f you up and doing i’m like where is

all of this coming from

and the holy spirit told me michael

offense

is the currency of our culture but

forgiveness is the currency of the

kingdom

oh that’s good the currency of our

culture

is offense that’s why we can cancel

somebody after one mistake

that’s why if they if they do the wrong

thing or wear fur and i’m for peta and

all this like

we be canceling people for all kind of

stuff like like and god says but michael

don’t be surprised

offense is the currency of our culture

it’s how people make money do y’all know

people will see something

and they look for the controversial

thing so that they can

promote that instead of all the good

that happens

because offense and guess who buys it

us we’re the one that clicks on the

things that we shouldn’t really want to

watch

but they got the most views so what are

we teaching people to do do more of that

be more offensive go go a little more

lewd

show a little more chest go a little

deeper try it and what we do is we

become offended

and god says that’s going to continue to

happen

but for everybody who calls me king we

have a kingdom

and the currency of the kingdom of god

is forgiveness

and this is not a new situation look at

john 18 36

jesus is talking to the disciples this

is him speaking this is read in your

bible

it says jesus jesus answered my kingdom

is not an earthly kingdom what i’m doing

don’t look nothing like what’s happening

on tmz

don’t have nothing to do with what’s

happening on the shade room

like my kingdom is not an earthly

kingdom

matter of fact if it were my followers

my goons my gangsters would have f

all up and they would have fought you to

keep me from being

handed over to the jewish leaders he was

saying if we was like y’all

if we responded how cultural response

it would be riots in the street i hear

no give you buck

no just imagine all the disciples coming

out like

you hear what i’m saying but the reason

that jesus said our response is not the

same

is because we don’t belong to your

kingdom

and somebody needs to hear me say this

very distinctly because what you want

you

want what everybody wants is they want

heavenly um rewards with earthly

responses

they want heavenly rewards with earthly

responses and jesus says that’s not

that’s not how it works he said but my

kingdom again

is not of this world

and that’s why we have to understand

that forgiveness and offense

we have to learn about these two things

so that they are not so easily swaying

how we live our life because y’all know

that no matter what we deal with

internally

we still have an enemy and the enemy the

devil satan whatever you want to call

him

he has an agenda for your life let me

help you understand this

and i heard pastor stephen say it and

and i’ve tweaked it a little bit and i

want you to see it

he said the enemy’s agenda is

destruction

write this down i’m giving you the cheat

code to being able to defeat

the enemy the enemy’s agenda

is destruction john 10 10 says that he

comes to do nothing like he don’t have

another assignment but to steal kill and

destroy

he wants to destroy our families destroy

our purpose

destroy our faith our hope that is his

agenda

but his strategy is division

now i need you to hear me say this

because every

team that faces each other has the

agenda of winning

okay so like if i’m i’m playing

basketball against another team

everybody wants to win that’s the agenda

but the difference between

winners and losers are strategy

and what you try to do about your

opponent is learn their strategy

and many people do not know the strategy

of the enemy for your life and i’ma tell

you today

his strategy is division

all the way back to the garden remember

we never see the devil

until it’s adam and eve

when adam was just there where the devil

but at the moment unity came into

the picture that’s why he’s fighting

your marriage so hard

that’s why he’s fighting you and your

children so hard that’s why he’s

fighting you and your business partner

so hard

because where there is unity the bible

says there’s a commanded blessing

so what would be the enemy’s strategy to

win

let me divide them let me make that

husband become more in love with video

games than his wife

let me let that wife come more in love

with their kids

than the husband of the children

let me let me divide the church by

making them democrat and republican

oh y’all didn’t think i was going to

talk about it

let me go ahead and let me go ahead and

divide the bride

of christ by making it black church and

white church

and hispanic church and asian church

yeah yeah

let’s let them feel good because it’s

all of them but i’m winning in the

background cause my strategy was

deficient and that’s why at

transformation church

i don’t care where you come from the

staff the team

everybody white black i don’t even know

no other colors

red green tall short big

i don’t care where you are at if you

breathe

and you’re god’s creation you are called

to be a part of this

because even if we do not like the same

music

and even if we don’t vote the same and

even if

i like fried chicken with hot sauce and

you

like pumpkin pie instead of sweet potato

pie all i’m telling you

is that god said that we are family and

if we

fight for unity y’all better help me

right now if we fight for unity

then we defeat the strategy

of the enemy so if

the agenda is destruction and the

strategy

is division there’s a tactic

see this is the difference between

people who just like to play

and people who ball is life

like like everybody as gender is to win

and people have a strategy

to be able to stop the best player but

then there’s tactics

what i do in every interaction to be

able to throw them off their game

what are the what are the things that i

always make happen

and the enemy’s tactic is offense

so i’m trying to give you the whole

playbook

his agenda destruction

his strategy is what division

but his tactic is what offense

and and i know many of us would be like

well dang if people wouldn’t just

offend me then i wouldn’t be offended

pastor might

but in this in this world like you don’t

get to live without people

even the disciples were talking about

this because they were in an age kind of

like we’re living in right now matthew

24

verse 10 he said this jesus and then

shall many be what offended

like people going to be offended when i

post this message

i don’t even understand like i can get

up on sunday morning and say

everybody is loved and jesus is good and

i’m sending everybody a hundred dollars

and on youtube at during the week

there’ll be 30 lunatics that are like

thumbs down

thumbs down who are you and why do you

put thumbs down on good things this is

good news

but they’re like i love you thumbs down

because it may have been the jacket that

i wore

it offended somebody it may have been

why would you spend all of this money on

led screens and there’s homeless people

out there and

they will make up a reason to be

offended you don’t even know what we did

for the homeless community this week

but if you don’t know you’ll make up a

reason to be offended

and that’s why jesus is telling us let

me give you a cheat see

a lot of people going to be offended he

said but i need you to understand why

it’s important that you don’t be

offended as my disciple

because offense leads to something look

it says many will be offended

and then they shall betray so offense

turns into betrayal

and once they betray one another they

shall start

hating one another so my little offense

turns into me betraying somebody that

which becomes

hate in my heart watch this and then it

says

because you’re offended and you’ve

portrayed what you thought or the love

that you have or your christian faith

and then you start to hate a group of

people or hate a person that hurts you

or anything then you start listening to

false prophets so because

anybody who’s offended wants to have

agreement

so you start listening to people who

aren’t saying god’s word with you

they’re false prophesying over you it’s

okay to be mad at them

they deserve blah blah blah and that’s

why it’s very careful

you got to be very careful not to just

listen to people who have large

platforms

because people who are offended around

the same thing are the people who gave

them that big platform

if your platform is not centered on the

word of god you better be careful

what you’re listening to and who you’re

listening to but you can be in an

offense thinking you’re right and it’s

all false

but that’s what happens offense turns

into betrayal

betrayal turns into hate hate turns into

listening to false prophets that rise up

and then you shall deceive many

so the the constant faith being built in

the wrong thing

lands you in deception and now i’m

deceived now i’m going around telling

other people it’s all good to be like

this

now i’m making statements like this is

just the way i am take it or let me

don’t your bible say to love everybody

we start taking pieces without the

principles

we start taking pieces without the

principles

and it says and because iniquity the

inward heart posture

shall abound this is the problem this is

the devastation

of offense it ends up in the love of

many

waxing cold

it’s the heart when your heart grows

cold

then you stop caring about everybody

an offense is the thing that leads you

to a cold heart alexa cue

ice box by omarion

some of y’all too young for that but he

says there’s an

ice box where my heart used to be

literally for many people

that’s what happened because of offense

you no longer

have a heart of compassion a heart of

joy

a heart of love it’s because you let

offense

turn into deception which then which

then

um made you go and listen to false

prophets and all of these things hate in

your heart

and now your heart is cold

and the reason why this is a problem i

told you i’ma teach you today

the reason why this is the problem is

because jesus says

look at this in john 13 35 this is

again going back to the plan agenda and

tactic of the enemy

he said by this this is jesus talking

everyone will know you’re my disciples

if you what love one another

the enemy’s whole plan is to offend you

to the point where you have a hard heart

that you will no longer love because

it’s the only proof that we actually

know him

so when you go around telling people

ethnic you don’t mean forgiveness

university

when you mean that and it’s in your

heart and you no longer care about

people and you throw people away and

there’s no mercy for anybody

and all of that other stuff the enemy is

sitting back

with all of his demons and imp saying

yes

we got him we put

our plan into place and we

got them to be divided we got

them to be distracted we got

them to to actually fall for the offense

and now we win let me

show you a real picture of this see

offense

starts very very small

offense starts with with one thing

bring me an offense real quick not that

just just just bring me uh a piece of an

offense please

like like an offense it

it’s one of those things that you forgot

my birthday

and this is what it is but

you’ve known me too long you you you

actually know how much my birthday means

to me

so no i’m gonna go ahead

and i’m gonna dig into that one and it’s

all good

cause i still got i got space to roam

and be used by god and be able to walk

around in my purpose

and come to church and hallelujah glory

to god

and and some of you guys are in

marriages right now

and and the offense has come

because you ain’t talk to me right and

your tone was wrong

and we’re offended but it’s okay because

we can still

act like we love each other and still be

married

and still be able to jump in and out of

having good

days and bad days

so what we do is we learn to live

with the offense

but the thing about it is then other

things happen because i work at a job

where i’m the only black person there

and they say little racist remarks all

the time

talking about oh you like watermelon

don’t you

oh y’all gonna act like this ain’t real

stuff that’s happening

don’t you play basketball you’re tall

and black huh

okay my white people like do they really

do that

you pastored that big old church over

there wow you must know some really good

people

huh yeah don’t you ever come to this

really nice church

i’m offended now what happens

if they’re in a state where they’ve been

offended so they offend others

and now i’m offended by what they said

now this multi-ethnic multi-generational

church all i want to put on the outside

of the building is black my lives matter

because now my offense uh see your

offense does not

take into consideration your authority

or your platform

so when you get offended you bring your

whole self

to everything that you are this is why

as believers we gotta watch what we let

offend us

yes it hurt yes it sucked

yes it’s frustrating but if you do not

check the offense at the door what you

begin to do

is build a barrier to your purpose

see and some of it started when we were

young

some of it started when we were older

but then what ends up happening

is remember i said last week a fence

is either picked up these are all picked

up offenses

or offense is either put on

yeah and there are many people right now

that are walking in pain and frustration

where the offense was put on them my

daddy left me

my brothers and sisters didn’t treat me

right

everybody in my family keeps leaving me

out

and for some reason

i had some offenses that i picked up

and i thought i could function with

these but then there was some offenses

that were put on

there’s some things that i didn’t know

was gonna happen

there was a molestation that happened

when i went to my cousin’s house

that i didn’t even know was gonna be i

just wanted to watch cartoons

now it feels like the walls are closing

in on me

it feels like the offenses that i picked

up

now have company with the fences that

were put on

but you still feel good cause you can

fake it you can get out of it once in a

while

you can act like it’s okay i can’t love

nobody over here

and i can’t trust nobody over here but

as long as i got a little access

and that’s what happens then i get a

friend

who they said they would never tell

anybody what we did that night in vegas

they know what it says

what happens in vegas stays in vegas and

that fool gonna tell everything that we

did at the mirage hotel

and i ended up losing the girl that i

thought was gonna be my wife because

you gonna go ahead and tell her and i’m

offended now he’s offended over the

truth

i gotta stop and pause right here cause

some of us are offended over things

that we should have been caught for

we’re offended over our

offense we’re offended over us doing

something wrong to somebody they found

out and then we want to blame the person

who accidentally like what are you

talking deception

let me go back to the scripture it says

that many shall be offended then they

shall betray one another

then they will hate one another then

they’ll start listening to false

prophets and false prophets come

through music too

your favorite rapper r b singer rock

star country singer pop star

may be your false prophet

it may be the images in the idea that

agree with your offense

and so faith comes by hearing and

hearing

the word of god if you want good faith

but hearing whatever you want to hear

if you want your faith to grow in that

and then it says then many will be

deceived

and so i’m only now cause this friend

told the freaking truth on me nephew

now i’m only gonna align myself with

people who do the same type of stuff

come on and so now

i’m offended because my kids

they don’t check on me how they was

supposed to

and i’m a mom i did everything for them

and i’ma walk in this offense

and that church i was at last time

who didn’t use my gifting and talent

the pastor talked about he want us to be

in our purpose but my purpose

is the praise and worship leader and

they didn’t use my song

or even listen to it i’m offended

and so at the next church i go to i’m

gonna make them

find out who i am

i’m so offended that i’m going to this

next church i ain’t gonna give

i ain’t gonna sow i ain’t gonna do

nothing but sit and i’m gonna make them

prove to me that i should be a part of

their church

oh you don’t think we don’t get emails

like that

but it ain’t us it’s the offense

and slowly but surely the offense

is starting to build a prison of

unforgiveness

i’ma say it one more time because this

is the picture of many of our lives

and you’re going to target and looking

cute and shopping on etsy

and you’re you’re you’re flossing in

front of your boys and you making it

happen at soccer practice

and you’re doing all these great things

while god

sees you like this everybody else sees

you doing everything that you can do

but he knows there’s levels that he

can’t take you to

because of the offense that you’ll try

to bring with you

and then there’s an offense that happens

that we didn’t see coming like the

offense

i don’t know for me like 2020

has been really offensive can i get some

hands in the chat of anybody who’s been

super offended in 2020 come on

by coronavirus that is offensive

by all the racial injustice that is

offensive or on the other side

being saying that you have white

privilege that is offensive

all of these things from the political

party to to the people who are dying to

what color people are wearing and these

movements that are happening

and the job loss i am offended

i cannot stand 20 20. why did 2020

happen to me and what ends up happening

it’s 2020 has barbed wire around it

and it may not be 20 20 for you it can

be whatever you want it to be for you

like but what you don’t understand is

is that now the situations in my life

have only left a little space

for me to be used by god

it’s only left a little space for me to

actually pray

and hear from god a little space to get

a song

from heaven just a little space

ah because everything else

has kept me

trapped in the prison of unforgiveness

and now you gonna tell me

that i need to pray for the president

you you must be crazy

you oh no no no my fence failed

see cause some offenses you work hard to

keep up

oh no no no no no i’m not letting that

go

i remember what they did to me

and now the space i feel the presence of

god

the space for me to be used by god

is getting smaller and smaller

and what ends up happening is that we

cry out

if you can use anything lord you can use

me

he said could you take down some of the

offense so it’d be easier for me to use

you

i can’t even take you into a white board

room because as soon as you walk

in there and see that everybody’s white

your offense will keep you from the

purpose i sent you in there for

ah i’m just saying i don’t know what

your offense is

but i promise you it’s keeping you from

your purpose

and then the offense comes

because i did make a mistake and i did

watch the pornography i did it

but i never forgave myself

and now probably one of the worst

offenses that you can make

is making offense against yourself and

you offend

that’s why sexual immorality y’all know

what the bible says about that it’s the

only

sin that offends you like the reason why

you can’t just netflix and chill

and sleep with anybody is because you

can get out of climaxing

and have some more offense

was it worth another board

was it was it was it worth being further

out of destiny and purpose

and now this is what most of the church

looks like

we look like wilson from home

improvement

y’all remember that show we look like

wilson

trying to do the will of god trapped

in the prison of unforgiveness

and so what ends up happening in this

moment is god send somebody into my life

to love hey charles

i need to mentor you god sent you here

so that

so that you can i can mentor you

hey but only stay that close because the

last dude i mentored

they left me and i’m still offended

over what they did so hopefully we can

hug like this

hopefully i can be transparent like this

hopefully you get what you need

because i’m still locked up in the

prison of offense and now i’m gonna send

you to your next assignment and

unprepared

because i wasn’t able to let

go of the offense of somebody who wasn’t

even you

[Music]

but god however you want to use me

whatever you want to do with me lord and

people aren’t able to even see the real

you because of who

and how you’re offended

and then god sends somebody in my life

he sends somebody in my life pastor

tommy

he he sent somebody in my life that’s

supposed to be a father figure

because i grew up without my daddy

and so then when they try to correct me

no y’all both come up here

mentor i need to be mentored and

fathered

and the problem is they only can get a

piece of me

hopefully yeah you just got cut past the

tommy

is that yeah that’s i get lethal

sometimes

when when people don’t i don’t have

grace for people that much anymore

because i’m offended still

and so when people don’t do what they

say then i’m i’m just very harsh with

them

i i’m uh i’m sorry for the barbed wire

and the caution tape

hopefully we can live a pure

relationship and have a pure

relationship

but i’m still very offended and some of

the offense

i created and others of the fence was

put on me

but i’m still trapped

and then amberly god sends somebody

that i’m supposed to hire god i’m

leading this

huge organization i need some people of

diversity and ethnicity

because because god it’s not about what

we do on sunday mornings

it’s about what’s in the back room and

in the boardroom and so if we’re

actually going to be a multi-ethnic

church

we gotta we gotta have people there so

god just send the right people

george floyd happens and on the same day

i’m interviewing you for an executive

team member position

so when god answers your prayer but

you’re offended

i need to talk to somebody what happens

when he sends the right thing but

because of my offense

i now think it’s the wrong package

and i want to be able to forgive white

people amberly and i want to be able to

hire you

but i just don’t know i don’t know and

if i let my offense

oh snap it’s cutting up my clothes

it just cut my finger are you telling me

that the very walls

that i put up to defend myself

[Laughter]

can end up harming me are you

telling me that i what served me at

in one season can now damage me in

another i’m preaching right now

are you telling me the offense that i

hold on to from my family and my big

mama and my cousin

that that offense can now become the

prison

that hinders my purpose

my prayer for you is that no longer

will we be trapped in the prison of

offense

i speak by the power of the holy spirit

that through this series

the grace of god is about to come to

your life

and piece by piece you’re about to start

tearing out the offense and piece by

piece

you’re going to say i forgive you dad

and i forgive you co-worker

and i forgive you person that cut me off

because you

need freedom

from all unforgiveness

somebody i feel is so strong that

something’s beginning to well up on the

inside of you

because you thought you were gonna be

forced to live in this prison for the

rest of your life

but baby i came to tell you that there

is grace for you

that there is grace for everything

you’ve walked through there’s grace for

everything that’s been put on you

and that you’ve picked up somebody’s

about to get free in this

place i feel the presence of god that my

offenses

will no longer be my prison

if you believe it say somebody say i’m

getting free somebody say i’m getting

free

somebody say i’m getting free

that’s why we can’t be offended that’s

why we kind of lay down and cast down

our offenses

the crazy thing about it though is

even though everybody started shouting

and everybody started rejoicing after

today

you can go right back into this prison

and start picking up more offenses

i’m just trying to tell you this is why

it is a fundamental

of the faith because even if all of

these go away

they can all come back one post one lie

one misunderstanding and i’m picking up

another offense

and today god is saying i needed them to

see

the prison of offense has to be

something that’s watched this words a

lot of church people don’t like to say

managed

you have to ask the holy spirit to help

you

manage your offenses

because they will keep you trapped

in places that god never

wants you to be can i give you a couple

of scriptures on offenses

proverbs 18 19 it says a brother

offended everybody say offended

is more ye unyielding than a strong

city and quarreling is like the

bars of a castle

when you get a fence between the people

that you’re supposed to love it says

it’s fortified it becomes what i just

um displayed for you a prison it is

stronger than walls around

a city it is unyielding that’s why

people die

and they’re at the burial

of the open casket talking about how

much they forgive and they want and they

had

decades deal with the offense

that’s why i’m begging you to walk in

forgiveness

it’s not for the person outside of this

it’s for you that’s trapped inside of

this

and god says i want to tell you to go to

the nations

but offense a

fence has been created by your

offense or offense

and today i’m asking you could you put

your fence under construction

that’s what the rest of this series is

going to be my offense

my offense is under construction i’m

pulling up stuff

and i’m laying it down how can i do that

pastor mike

because there was a man 2 000 years ago

[Music]

that took every offense

and he put it on a cross

[Music]

and because i would offend him and you

would offend him i never offend god read

the bible all have sinned and fallen

short of the glory

some people have walked in alternate

sexual lifestyles

other people have cheated on their wives

in their heart but not with their hands

other people have told little white lies

which there is no such thing

but god took all of the offense of

humanity

and he said i’m gonna go ahead and put

all their offense on me

huh

and the offense of racism

and the offense of political

lies and the offense

of a family member i’m gonna take every

one of them

and i’ma die

on the same tree that makes fences

i’m gonna die on the same wood i just

want them to have

a reference all the time that every

offense you could build

i died on the same thing so that you

could walk free from offense

and today what christ did for us

and how he dropped the offense

that we made he’s asking you

to just do the same thing he did for you

drop the offense

and i know that’s hard

i know that’s going to hurt for a long

time

and you don’t know how you’re going to

do it that’s why i’m here

through the power of the holy spirit and

in god’s word

we’re going to figure out how to let go

of offenses

and walk in forgiveness because i need

you to write this point down

offense builds the prison

of unforgiveness

and i just see hundreds of thousands of

people right now

you’re trying to move around in a

contraption like this

and god is saying give it to me well how

do i do that pastor mike

we got to go back to the fundamentals

we got to get in the word of god

well how many times am i supposed to

forgive this is one thing that you got

to understand

when jesus said 70 times 7

it wasn’t about keeping score it was

about losing count

[Music]

he said um yeah forgive like 70 times

seven how much is that like hold on

was that my 332nd time forgiven or my

300 he’s like i want you to lose count

i want you to get in such a habit or

afford to become a

fundamental that when the pressure of

life is on

when everything is on the line you go

back to forgiveness

i don’t even know how i got in this oh

but i’m gonna forgive

they don’t deserve but it’s a

fundamental

cause i’ve experienced it i’m gonna give

it away

so you got to get in the word of god

look what proverbs 19 11 says i’mma

leave you with this

good sense makes one slow to anger

and it is his glory to overlook

an offense what

you’re walking in glory

when you let an offense go

god show us your glory he says show me

your glory

show us your glory god he said i’m

asking you the same thing

if you would overlook them forgetting

about you

you messing up that one time you not

being the father you were supposed to be

but now you’re trying to be

if you would let go of that offense

that’s why we got to put our offense

under construction why pastor mike

my last point because every one of these

things that i’ve built

offense is always changed

from the inside out

i can’t tear these down from the outside

in i gotta do it

from the inside

out now there’s more room to roam

now there’s room to have

change oh but this is where community

comes in

see i’ve built offenses i need my

community i need community

to come in and what i say is hey i i did

the wrong thing

but i need to i need you to help me roll

this out of my life

hey i really thought i was going gonna

be able to hold this stuff

but i need y’all to get this stuff and

help me

i need to confess to you emily i need to

confess to you yeah i almost tripped

over my offenses

because i almost wanted to put it back

up again but i need to confess to you

that i do talk about white people but i

don’t want to anymore

i need to confess to you charles that

the last person that hurt me

no longer is in my life so i’m not going

to hold you responsible for what they

did

and what ends up happening

is now we get in a space where we can

really say

[Music]

if you can use anything lord

anything you want to do i’m

available i have nothing keeping me in

no more

it did hurt it did define a moment of my

life but no longer

will i stay in this place

of having built the fence of offense

the prison of unforgiveness will no

longer keep me in

i’m gonna walk in my purpose

if that’s you right now all over the

world i feel the presence of god moving

right now

somebody needs to say god i’m available

to you or that just needs to be your

desire right now

lord i’m a favorable i want to be

available you’re going to have to help

me

tear down the fence of offense you’re

going to have to help me get out

of this prison of unforgiveness but god

it’s what i desire i want

to be available to you

[Music]

lord i’m available

to you

somebody needs to make this your prayer

send my

will i give to you

i’ll do what you say

do use me lord

to show someone the way

and enable me to say

i don’t want to stay like this guy said

my storage

is empty and i

am available

to you right now all over the world

if that’s your prayer that you know that

you are

in a prison of offense right now whether

it be with people you’re in the room

with

people that you haven’t seen in decades

or people you’re going to go to work

with tomorrow or people that you even

birthed

out of yourself if there’s offense and

you want prayer you want god to

start that thing in your heart right now

that allows you to begin to lay down the

fences i want you to lift your hands

yeah

right now in your home in your car

watching on rebroadcast lift your hands

right now

i’m about to pray that god will begin a

deep work in your heart

father in the name of jesus come on

lifted hands all over this world

i declare and i believe that you are

giving us the ability

to lay down the offenses holy spirit

the offenses hurt these things have

defined us for years

father god but today i’m asking by your

holy spirit

that you would begin to tear down the

walls

that we picked up and the walls that

were put on us

in the name of jesus i declare that the

finished work of jesus christ on the

cross

gives us all the ability to let it go

and god i’m asking you not that we would

be able to forgive yet

but father you’d give us the desire

for some of us father god we haven’t

even had the desire and today

that seed was planted and i served

notice on the enemy

that you will not be able to steal the

seed

that went in today that forgiveness will

be the fruit

of this seed god we come to you

saying that we want to be available

there’s people listening right now

that you’ve never given your life to

christ

you’ve never received forgiveness

so it’s very hard for you to forgive

somebody else

today i want to give you the opportunity

to make the greatest decision

of your entire life i want you

to be able to give your life fully to

jesus christ

well pastor mike you don’t know what

i’ve done you don’t know how i’ve done

it

and god said i know i know what you’ve

done

i was there when you did it and he said

that i

have taken and paid released you of that

debt

and today all you have to do is receive

it

so all over the world it’s the one

greatest decision i ever made

it’s the thing that took me from a

manipulator a liar

somebody who was addicted to pornography

and it turned me not into a perfect man

but a

progressing man and today god’s saying

i’m giving you the same

opportunity you don’t got to clean up

and change everything he said that’s

what i’m for i’m the great physician

if you’ll give me your heart i’ll help

you change your habits

and today god wants to give you

the gift that he paid for so long ago

and that’s the gift of salvation if

you’re saying pastor i want to be

included in this prayer

because the bible says all you have to

do is confess with your mouth and

believe in your heart

and you’re safe then we start the

journey but your eternity is secure

but now we’re going to walk out your

your earthly life

in a way that literally gives him glory

today if you’re saying pastor add me

into that prayer i want to give jesus

christ

my life i don’t just want him to be

savior i want him to be lord

i want you to pray this prayer with me

and for transformation church y’all

already know

nobody prays alone all over the world in

england

in australia in north tulsa in

mississippi

in minnesota in new york and dallas

there’s people

all over the world that’s about to agree

with you in prayer so i want all of us

to say this prayer together

for the benefit of those that are coming

to christ everybody say lord

today i give you everything

my offenses my hurt

and my pain you can have it all

i believe that you lived

and you died just for me

and today i give you my whole life

change me renew me

transform me i’m yours

in jesus name amen

if you just prayed that prayer oh

let me help you if you just prayed that

prayer the bible tells us that all of

heaven

is turning up right now and everybody in

this room is turning up right now and

everybody around the world

is giving god praise for just one

person that came to christ we want to

help you walk this out

if you prayed that prayer i’m telling

you i’m so excited for you

because everything in your life has an

opportunity to transform what i want you

to do

is i want you to text the number that’s

on the screen right now and when you

text that we’re going to give you some

information

and we’re going to help you walk this

out because this is a journey

what i’m asking you to do is come back

next week because everybody else here is

going to come back next week

because next week i’m going to give you

practical steps on forgiveness like how

do i do it

and today i just feel a fence is

beginning to be laid down all over the

world

i’m so proud of you and transformation

nation

you have officially made it through week

two

of forgiveness university go and give

yourself

a hand clap many of you will need to go

back and study this for extra credit

many of you these last two sermons all

they were to do was to till

the ground of your cold heart

see if anything is going to change in

you you have to be moldable you have to

be pliable

and so i had to do these first two weeks

so we could get you to next week

share this with everybody you know i’m

praying for you

i believe in you no matter what happens

this week

we are loved we are called we are chosen

and god is for us so who can be against

us i love you

we’re praying for you go out and live a

transformed life

i love you thank you so much for

watching this message

if this has impacted you in any way i’m

asking you to do a couple of things

first thing join transformation nation

subscribe and make sure to join us

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but this movement

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people that are around you

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the last thing i would ask is that you

would consider partnering with us

financially if this ministry has

impacted your life and is transforming

you

listen we want you to pray about it see

what god would say that you would give

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can go to the whole

world i want you to know that we love

you and your best days

are right in front of you this week go

out and live a transformed life we’ll

see you next week