In this conversation we discussed the sermon from this past Sunday, “Offense Under-Construction”

[Music]

hello

and welcome to the dig we are so glad

that you’re here

my name is charles and we just want to

take a moment to say welcome tonight no

matter where you’re joining from

i believe that you’re here on purpose

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tonight is going to be an amazing night

and some time spent together as we

gather around this past sunday’s

sermon which was absolutely amazing it

was getting into that in just a moment

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transformation church

or experienced who we are our vision our

mission why we exist

is to represent god to the lost and

found

for transformation in christ that’s why

we exist and so tonight i’m believing

that is going to happen in your life

i said it earlier but welcome to the dig

i was calling it the jig and run through

but i got it right the dig it stands for

deeper in god and uh what we realize is

sometimes there are

sermons there’s messages there’s things

that really warrant more conversation

yeah and so our goal tonight really is

to uh show you and

even be an example of what community of

what conversation of how you can dig

into god’s word

and really through the power of

conversation with other people there’s

different perspectives you can

experience there’s things that can

kind of enlighten your ideas and so

tonight through our conversation and

through

our conversation together i’m believing

that your life is going to be really

impacted and changed

uh we got some amazing we’re on a new

set we’re sitting behind us it feels

like the view

feels like espn live i don’t know what

it is uh but hey listen i want to take a

moment we’re going to introduce

ourselves so i’m going to start with

i’m not i can’t say your name because

you’re introducing yourself so i feel

like we need like a cool little like we

all share something though yes okay

let’s start it let’s go what you got

let’s say the the best place you’ve ever

traveled best place okay

so my name is destiny um and i didn’t

just plug that because i wanted to share

where i’ve traveled at all

but no i think the best place i’ve ever

been i got to go on a mission trip to

brazil

and it was like amazing like i was there

for missions but also it was vacation a

little bit it was

it was amazing i’ve never had so many

beans in my life but so many great

like the food was amazing everything was

great so shout out to brazil

wow that is awesome so my name is tim

and i have not traveled out of the

country yet

yes yet so the best place i’ve traveled

is definitely a

beach in florida come on it’s a secret

yeah you can’t tell us this is like a

secret beach

tim owns an island in the south right

south of florida apparently

and we’re all vacationing there next

week so yes we’re just giving you our

time my name is amberly and

i would have to say i’ve been to a lot

of really cool places in the world done

a lot of mission trips traveled all over

the world but honestly one of my most

favorite trips or places to go

was for my husband’s 40th birthday i uh

for a year

planned a surprise trip to the dominican

republic and

so like 365 days right yeah number one

wife until one of our dear friends

really sorry if you’re watching but um

the day before she was like so are you

guys so excited to go to dominican

republic and i was like he

doesn’t know where we’re going and so

all that to say it was an incredible

trip though so that was good

beautiful places the bad friends sorry

to the bad wolf i love you bad love you

bad friends for goodness

forgiveness yeah what was that again um

my name is charles favorite place i’ve

ever been

um is it’s called the third district in

paris it’s like so

paris is broken up into neighborhoods

the third district is the favorite i

would move there tomorrow

tomorrow okay you know call it god is in

tulsa so i’m here

shout out but hey when i catch me at 70

you can call me i’ll be speaking french

when i turn 70.

well my name is barbara and my favorite

place that i visit is

in israel the holy land come on

i was favored to take a dip in the

jordan river okay

and there i left two fears height

and uh going through a cave in dark

places

come on wonderful she gave it to god in

the holy land

i definitely need to go there but my

favorite place first of all my name is

stephen

my favorite place that i’ve ever been

was hawaii and here’s why

there’s there’s like really nice

beautiful places to go to and then

there’s

nice beautiful and fun places to go to

hawaii i mean i was talking we were

scaling waterfalls

we were like like shout out all tc

nation in hawaii i love you guys over

there i love you guys

he’s gonna be doing a pop-up shop in

hawaii stephen’s like do we need a

campus in hawaii all of a sudden

he feels the call of god i always this

is a completely random pet peeve and i

told you i was gonna say anything

tonight but i always have trouble

believing people that are called to

beautiful places

you know it’s like you know god’s just

been speaking to me and i feel called to

minister in hawaii because we’re calling

who doesn’t feel called to me ain’t

nobody

you know god was speaking to me and i

want to go to the dirt roads of idaho

like

you don’t hear people being called to

idaho but

if you’re called to idaho you’re really

hearing from god anyways

okay well aloha stephen uh listen

you guys had some incredible comments um

on sunday sermon it was so funny and

we have this private staff chat and um a

couple of our online host was talking

about how

they’ve never had to approve so many fu

comments in

the youtube chat like i guess youtube

censors f you i guess that’s not you

know a kosher thing to say and so

anyways a lot of great comments so we

want to share a couple of them melissa

mcqueen said

wow wow wow this is so powerful

thank you pastor mike for the way you

illustrated this i always thought the

boundaries and fences were protecting my

hurt

but really they were blocking my

blessings and she said that is

a word melissa we

agree and ty says that was a great word

it put me in tears

and it was so good that i had to share

it with my father

and i’m like that’s that’s invitation

right there transformation begins

investigation

saints were wilding out in the comments

i don’t approve of this comment but my

personal

favorite there was one so helping pastor

michael

write sermons and being around when he’s

preparing i still every time i hear him

say it i’m just blown away it’s like

it’s the first time so i’m just

all guys somebody said take a shot every

time pastor charles says wow

do not do the take a shot of grape juice

there’s communion grape juice

but that was a crazy comment wow see i

just said it you just said it

you killed it listen tc nation let us

know in the chat how this past week’s

message impacted you go ahead blow us up

start

typing fu all the things you need to

type so we have to approve it later

somebody needs to know it stands for

forgiveness university we haven’t said

that yet

this is true good point yes so actually

we

um pastor mike has been doing an

incredible series titled fu

which is for forgiveness university and

the 39 year old version of me

which is today is really panicking

because if my mom were to hear me say f

you

i would be in a lot of trouble and i’d

be but pastor mike said we could say it

but

no he’s really taken a concept and

there’s nobody like pastor mike that can

take a concept like that

and and just make it like it’s just so

scriptural and so relatable and so

relevant

and what god is doing through this

series and so we had week two

of forgiveness university and he talked

about a fence under construction

and he talked about how a fence you know

is a prison it’s it holds us in and i

don’t know if you guys saw

the way that illustration the fence that

he built and then the gates that he

wrapped around him and the barbed wire

and then our production crew shout out

to the tcp productions

right there yes that angle of pastor

mike being locked up

in that prison of fences and he was

talking about how our offenses

create this prison for us and it was

just it was incredible

so we’re going to dig in we’ve got a

clip so let’s go to the first one right

now

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

wow wow that was awesome natural they’re

never natural you know when pastor

michael was talking about that

i actually thought of growing up when i

was playing basketball actually we were

just talking about i was super short i

was so small

so tiny and i remember in basketball we

had to practice the fundamentals and we

would practice

shooting and there was a specific way

you’re supposed to hold the ball and

what i realized is at a young

age i didn’t learn the fundamentals i

learned

what was easy for me and honestly how i

shot the ball

was different because i was small

because i was weaker i didn’t shoot it

the correct way because of my weakness

so because i was a smaller kid because i

wasn’t as strong as everybody else

i had to adjust and i wasn’t shooting

the right way but i was shooting how it

was comfortable for me

and it made me think about when he was

saying that that the fundamentals aren’t

natural what’s natural is to bend

towards your weakness

what’s natural is to make an adjustment

because you can’t do it the right

and so for us when it comes to

forgiveness forgiveness isn’t the

natural thing it’s like it’s not the nat

we’ve been towards our weakness towards

our flesh

and you know earlier stephen we were

talking about this and you had a great

thought would you share that with him

yeah so i we were talking about how like

pastor mike said like

you have to put work into it it doesn’t

come natural and so something that i

realized was

um you can’t go into your

uh emotions you can’t go into what feels

right so

naturally if you’re driving and someone

you know gives you the finger

you naturally want to curse them out you

want to say fu

right not the one that we’re saying but

the actual

yeah and um what you have to do though

instead is like you know like let’s be

the christ that’s within us

so hey i’m gonna pray for you man i’m

just gonna keep driving i’m not gonna

like look your way anymore like

forget you you know yeah um but that

took me to the verse it’s in james 1

verse 19 and

he pretty much is saying you know be

quick to listen slow to speak and so to

anger

and that’s not our initial response like

when something something offends us we

want to just

go we want to be quick to speak we don’t

want to be quick to listen

and that’s something that i’ve tried to

embody like i take a step back if i get

offended

and i want to like contemplate like how

is what i’m about to do

going to affect my current situation and

i think of

i think of like a cycle of offense and i

have this story that goes to that right

so like

first year marriage i’m married three

years so you know not not new but not oh

yeah

it’s the first years that year where

you’re figuring everything out and

something that um

we were figuring out a lot in our

marriage was there was issues

in our past relationships that we didn’t

get over and those offenses carried over

into our present situations so i may

have done something that i had no idea

was an offense to my wife in the past

but because she didn’t deal with it back

then

and it was still with her we would get

into these fights and i’d be like so

confused like why are you mad at me like

i didn’t mean to like what’s going on

and it’s because

your fence can travel right so if you’re

not careful

and you don’t get rid of these offenses

and you don’t build this like

you know um scenarios in your life to

help you be quick

to listen so you know then your offense

can travel and then guess what now your

present

situations are affected by your past and

i don’t know what you can do at that

point

wow that is so awesome your fence can

travel

well that’s why i i believe so it was is

so important when you’re doing the

fundamentals

they say say that 21 days of doing

anything consistently it becomes a habit

so i prac i i believe that it’s so

necessary for us to be quick

to acknowledge the offense if you

if you get to where you allow it to be

something mentally ascending to it

rather than being intentional with it

saying it acknowledging

it you will become religious in your way

of

trying to get rid of something someone

has done to you and i use my own

personal experience of going through a

divorce

uh i love how you said it’ll travel with

you because for a while in a season

all i can think about was how angry and

frustrated i was

in having to go through the divorce

especially when i personally

wanted to reconcile my marriage

and i thought about how pastor michael

was doing that illustration

seeing those blocks building and the

posts going up i had to take the word

the word of um god says in ephesians 4

26 don’t let the sun go down on your

wrath

so that means that every opportunity

moment i had to tell myself remind

myself of this word

that fit forgiveness god forgave me i’ve

got to forgive him

i’ve got to let it go i cannot harbor

that in me and think that i’m going to

be

succeeding in my walk in life so well

and it’s so crazy because you guys were

just saying you know offense

travels and we were talking about maybe

from relationship or

from one marriage to a divorce situation

but when you think about that scripture

to not let the sun go down on your wrath

like if we’re not careful a fence will

travel into the

not even into next day relationship but

just into the next day and that i think

that’s why that scriptural is that

scripture is so important is because

we have to you know throw off that

weight that so easily entangles and

hinders us

and and move into the next day so pastor

amberly offense

travels but it grows as it travels

because if you let that thing

overnight like especially in marriage

like look i could go to bed angry about

a small thing

but by the morning i could have swore he

just did something so much worse

and so it travels but then it grows the

longer you just let it sit

me and abby stayed up for six days one

time no i’m joking

yeah but as as we were talking i thought

of the scripture colossians 3 13 it says

make allowance for each other’s faults

and forgive

anyone now this is the part where it’s

like in scriptures that’s like really

god

like anyone like including billy from

sixth grade like

it says forgive anyone because of this

remember the lord forgave you

you must forgive others and i just think

when it comes to forgiveness we have to

acknowledge like we were saying

that it’s not the natural thing like

it’s a if you have a moment and it’s

like i’ll just do what’s natural or your

first response

your first response usually isn’t what

god’s plan would be that’s right we have

to be able to acknowledge that hey

like i need to take a step back like you

were saying i need to

to step back from this and you know tim

you were talking there’s really

pieces of this that help you with the

fundamentals like you don’t learn

fundamentals by yourself what were you

saying about yeah you absolutely cannot

learn about yourself and it is critical

so for me i’ve learned to have

community so so my wife has always been

an accountability for me like she

she’s not shy about saying what she

needs to say on but when god sent me my

family here to tc

tc became that community for us and

um here’s where i struggled though i use

lazarus a lot because i can relate to

him so he was in the tomb

right locked up jesus calls him out the

people unwrapped him where i struggle

with

is i wouldn’t allow people to get close

enough to me to unwrap me

wow come on yeah and for me wow and and

i didn’t do that because i truly was

offended but matthew 18 and 19 it says

if two agree on earth concerning

anything

i would do it for them right wow and

that tells me that there are some things

god never intended us for us to do by

our own

yeah but offense will make you think you

can do it on your own right and you

really can’t and that’s why community is

just so critical

can i add to that because i i know that

when i

when talking about how you can think

something but you can start a

conversation talking with someone

i have a dear friend miss claudia brown

i can shout out to this body if you’re

watching we love you i can start

talking and she can hear the offense

wow in my conversation that’s a real

friend

and call it out wow and that’s why i was

like

that is so important community and

people that know you

and they know the word but she will call

it out sister

whoo come on hearing yeah so

wow well the thing is i think many of us

we have friends

it’s it’s we get offended by the friends

who call out our fence

because we want friends who are caught

on our offense

and we have these friends that make us

feel good but they’re literally they’re

not

what’s happening is they’re actually

adding to the post

they’re being like let me hand you

another one they did like and they’re

adding

that and i think it’s so important there

have been so many times where it doesn’t

feel good it’s not the natural thing but

having people in your life

that can call out and say hey like

that’s like you were saying like yeah i

see

that i see what you’re doing with that

and uh yeah it’s just so important that

we do those things that’s so important

and i wanna even to make it practical

for you guys at home like it’s not gonna

always be these

huge huge like your marriage is falling

apart because of a fence

like it can be really small things yeah

and like what pastor charles said at the

very beginning we know

our vision here representing god to the

lost and found for transformation in

christ

and for me i know one of my areas of

offense is customer service

watch out i get very easily offended

when it comes to poor

customer service like i’m the one that

fills out every survey from the receipt

like i’m the one that like

i have a chick-fil-a coupon right now

from receipt don’t play y’all okay but

really though like i really want i want

the service to be excellent i want like

you know i’ll tip well if it’s good if

it’s good you know but

thankful for my community my husband

really has helped me with that because i

used to really be that one

um but it made me realize that there’s

been moments in my life where

i’ll have a waitress that just is doing

a terrible job and i’m so caught up on

the fact they offended me and they

didn’t do what they were supposed to do

that i’m missing an opportunity to do

our vision in real life and it’s not

just the vision for the church this is

the vision for

all of our lives representing god our

vision as a christian is the great

commission like we’re meant to get

people to come to christ

and so how silly is it that i’m letting

small things like a customer service air

be what gets in the way of that and i

know for me like understanding like the

definition of offense literally it says

offense is annoyance or resentment

brought about by a perceived insult to

or disregard for oneself or one’s own

standards or principles

wow so really it’s not even like you

can’t even say like oh i don’t i don’t

really get offended like no if anyone

goes against your own in your mind

standards or principles

you’ve experienced defense and so it’s

keeping that mission like above

everything else and realizing those

little things just aren’t worth it

that’s so good that’s so good well and

it’s crazy because the bible says you

know it’s the little foxes

that spoil the vine and so it’s not all

what really like pollutes and is so

difficult to overcome are the little

things and the little things begin just

like pastor mike did

in this in the sermon illustration the

little things begin to build bigger and

bigger and that’s why

forgiveness is something that has to be

practiced corrected and perfected

and it’s hard but it’s one of the

fundamentals so that’s good okay

let’s throw to clip number two and see

what pastor mike has to say

if forgiveness is the end thing that we

want to get to i gotta 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 nother

message ready to go didn’t i 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 we

have to start

with the offense you know we’re talking

about this and you know

people were commenting and saying

different things and you know you hear a

sermon like this and it’s like all right

pastor mike the fence was amazing

it looked good your purple outfit was

perfect but how like

how do i practically deal with offense

because it’s going to happen there’s so

many things that are going to happen

but i think first you know um something

i remember my dad talking about it

growing up

and we were talking about all the time

understanding that really when it comes

to anything the first practical step

is acknowledging that it’s really not

practical and what i mean by that is is

everything is spiritual

like everything is spiritual the

scripture says we don’t fight against

flesh and blood enemies like

it’s it’s not something just in the

natural there’s so much more

than this and i think for many of us

when it comes to offense we get so

caught up on the individual

and we’re fighting the wrong things

we’re fighting a person we’re fighting

the way they said something

and the first step you got to understand

is it’s way bigger than this this is

something spiritual there’s

there’s a war that’s going on there’s

something beyond the moment that you’re

in if you’re not aware of that

how you fight is different i think yeah

pastor emily you were saying something

earlier that was so good

when you were saying that we were

talking about this earlier and i had

this visual of like you’re

literally in battle and you know the

bible says we fight not against flesh

and blood

against principalities and powers and

rulers of the unseen dark world

there’s a war there’s a war tc nation

there is a war for your soul in case no

one has told you this

the enemy comes to steal kill and

destroy but he jesus comes to give you

life

and life more abundantly and so i think

about that if you if the enemy can

to to deceive you to think that you’re

fighting against that aunt or that

uncle or that spouse or that brother

that’s really offended you or

that customer service you know that

manager that sucks and can’t get the

order right or you know whatever the

situation would be

then what happens is you’re distracted

and so i think about this

this visual that i got was you’re

fighting and you’re giving everything

that you’ve got to this

to this thing that’s not even really it

you know so then when you

actually have to deal with the thing

that’s it you are so exhausted

and you’re so worn out and you’re so so

overly exhausted that you have nothing

left you know those

punches yeah there’s nothing left in you

because you fought

the wrong thing and i believe that’s

what the enemy just wants to do is

that’s why forgiveness really is

about a spiritual matter those offences

offenses are dealing

with something spiritual not practical

it has nothing to do

i’m going to give you a word of wisdom

it has nothing to do with your mom

it has nothing to do with your dad it

has nothing to do with the fact that

your dad was not there for you when you

were a little girl

it has nothing to do with the fact that

your husband walked out on you and left

you with your kids to raise by yourself

it has everything to do that there is an

enemy that would like nothing more than

to take you out and to steal

kill and destroy your life and once you

realize that it has nothing to do with

that x it has nothing to do with that

family member

that it’s the enemy then you can

actually be prepared

and ready to fight the battle that’s

really there that’s so good that’s so

good and we were talking about this

and there are practical things that we

can do that are spiritual that are

daily things and stephen you were

talking about this even something that

happened just the other day that you had

to remind yourself

of what were those literally happened

yesterday okay

this is real-time stuff right now

before i go into that story like let’s

talk practical like you said right it’s

about being proactive

so my question to all tc nation would be

are you covering yourself each day

like when you get in your car to work

are you praying on your way to work

saying god cover me help me not get

offended

oh if this person comes at me again

today help me to be a little bit more

patient

help me to not go off on them like i

want to like be better god help me

that’s the first thing you got to do

like cover yourself it’s

easy it’s like you’re just talking to

god and he’s going to help you out with

that but

like pastor charles was saying yesterday

um like going back to the prince

i just woke up in a funk like i don’t

know what it was

it wasn’t my health physically i just

like i’m sure we’ve had those yes

and i didn’t connect the dots though

until midday like wow i was just going

through my day and i started like

nothing i was doing was working

things were just failing i was getting

frustrated um people were offending me i

was offending people i’m sure

and i got to my halfway mark and i said

i need to do a reset

yeah um and i just went home my lunch

break

i took a shower started over put my

clothes on uh new clothes by the way new

clothes hold on new outfit come on

new clothes uh i had lunch i think you

know sometimes food you were just hungry

[Laughter]

uh and then i was praying and then by

the time i got back to work

i just was like a whole new person and i

believe it’s because it wasn’t anything

physical it was

it was like something spiritual

attacking me something trying to stop me

from

um getting on in my day and come on

that’s just that’s just renewing your

mind so the bible says

you know we need to be transformed by

the renewing of our mind

then we’ll be able to test and approve

what god’s will is right well

so i did a renewal of my mind i took a

step back and so sometimes you know

you’re going through stuff and you just

need to renew your mind like take a step

back

if you feel like you’re getting offended

first of all if you feel like people are

coming at you all day

it’s probably not the people’s issue

it’s probably your issue like

something you gotta like take a step

back and like

is it me like and then do the reset

renew your mind and guess what you’re

gonna have a

better day because you’re giving it to

god and you’re asking him to cover you

right now so

it’s kind of like that moment where i

know you guys have experienced this i

might be by myself but

like you keep looking around for like do

y’all smell that like

does anybody else smell that and then

you do one of these it’s like oh god

it was me like that’s what we look like

a lot of times like we’re looking around

like everybody’s coming at me today like

no actually you stink like it’s really

you i know for me like i’m i literally

like it takes a lot for me to get

embarrassed i’m not easily offended

like i felt like i wasn’t easily

offended but what’s true like some of

y’all might be saying that at home

like this message didn’t really apply to

me like i don’t really i don’t build the

fences

but what i realize is when i have

trouble like when there’s someone that

um kind of just rubs me the wrong way i

always challenge myself to say

pray for them and then if i don’t want

to

i realize i’ve been offended wow because

it’s easy like i love pastor charles

like it’s easy for me to pray for him

and for his family and to do this

but i know there’s because even what

stephen was saying earlier like pray

ahead of time about that person at work

you’re going to encounter like we know

who that person is

we know who that that same person that

always kind of has a weird attitude or

that

same person at starbucks that helps you

every single time like we know

who that person is and so if you take

the time to pray for them not only it’ll

if it feels uncomfortable you probably

need to do it

and then on top of that i promise you

you cannot hold onto a fence for someone

when you start to go to god on their

behalf

like when you start to literally

intercede and say god whatever’s been

affecting their day

i pray that you would help them to walk

through it give them peace like

i have a whole new perspective when i

encounter them and i’m able to let go of

that offense before it even comes to me

wow that is good and we know i mean of

course prayer really is the key and it

is our

our sauce here and pastor mike cho i

mean he choked me out so much

this past sunday i mean it was like he

hit me like for real

and and as he was you know speaking and

preaching and then he transitioned to

this moment where he was kind of

uh transitioning to the song lord i’m

available to you and the lyrics said

use me lord to show someone the way and

i love this song i’ve

heard it countless times listen i was i

was singing in the background

but but when it got to that part where i

said use me lord to show someone the way

the holy spirit spoke very clearly to me

he said yeah tim butch which way

because when you’re offended you show

people a way but not the

way and in that moment it really hit me

the responsibility

that i had to show someone the way but i

couldn’t fully do that with the weight

of a fence on my back wow

and and really being aware of that

knowing that yes i have

been offended by people but i offended

people too

so just being mindful of that kind of

helps and it’s the it’s the managing of

the offense

because if you feel it on your shoulders

then you’re like oh now i know how to

how to manage it and um you know a lot

of the times

when people we get saved right we’re

like oh i got saved today

tomorrow my life’s gonna be perfect come

on but the reality is is no

it takes your decisions your choices

every single day it’s work

and it’s the same thing with defenses

because guess what if no one ever told

you you were gonna get offended

or offend someone else i’m telling you

right now it will happen

it’s all about how you manage it because

you know the bible says that our

emotions

um like who knows them who can

understand them actually i think i wrote

this verse down proverbs 14 12 it says

there is a way that seems right to a man

but its

end is the way to death even in laughter

the heart may ache

and the end of joy may be grief so like

our emotions are so

changing right we could be laughing one

second and sad the next

i can say i know for a fact that i love

my wife

like it’s a fact but she can do

something that makes me mad

yeah and in that moment in the anger i’m

not feeling love right

right but i still love her but it’s how

do you manage it right

am i gonna react in that anger or am i

gonna realize big picture

i still love this woman and so i’m not

going to do or say anything that’s going

to put our marriage at risk

that’s right and that’s what i think

what pastor michael said about offense

is the currency of the culture but

forgiveness is the currency of the

kingdom

so when you enter into your own feelings

or what you think

or how you you know you are now out of

the kingdom

so we’ve got to keep our emotions in

check and managing it again

understanding first that the person

causing the offense

over over whatever it might be over a

time they

they if they knew better they would do

better that’s my feeling that’s so good

their knowledge base uh what they their

understanding

may not be at the level where yours is

and the scripture tells us out of

proverbs 4

5 through 6 that wisdom is the principle

thing therefore get wisdom

but in all you’re getting get an

understanding

we have to understand where are these

people that are offending us

where are they mentally yeah where are

they spiritually or what are they going

through

we’ve got so much going on in our world

today

we’re dealing with a pandemic we’re

dealing with racial injustice the

cultural

uh social ills we the economy there’s so

much that is happening

that people are acting and doing things

out of

their emotions or their lack of

understanding and the bible says we

perish for lack of knowledge

so it is so important to go back and

think

that all of what is going on now how can

i

not allow offenses to be

or subject it to my identity

i know who i am that’s so good so i

don’t have to

always take offense as something that

yeah uh you know yeah well that’s so

good and something i i just thought of

is i heard somebody say one time that

distance always creates distortion

so it’s sometimes there are things that

we’re offended by because we’re not

close to it

so it’s easier to get offended by

someone that i don’t know what they’re

going through i don’t know how they grew

up i don’t know the struggles at home

and so because we’re far away or because

i don’t see or because i don’t know that

they’re hurting

i don’t know that their father wasn’t

there for them so anybody who reminds

them of they just

like and when there’s distance between

us it’s easy to distort their meaning or

why they said that or maybe they meant

to offend me or they were trying to

and for many of us it’s so crazy because

it says get understanding to get

understanding i have to get close to you

i have to really get ups and see why did

you say that and

what did you mean when you said that and

so many times we live

in a in a culture that refuses to give

people the benefit of the doubt

but we always assume someone else would

know like i didn’t mean to do it

i didn’t mean to hurt you i’m sorry you

was offended i didn’t like

and but for so many times it’s so easy

for us to just say well i don’t know

them are they meant to hurt

me and it’s so important um that we’re

able to give people grace to give them

the benefit of the doubt and those

things

oh it’s so true and we’re talking about

you know how do we manage those offenses

and

it’s so you what you said steven’s so

good it’s not a matter of

you know if you get offended but when

you become offended because it

it will happen like there’s just no like

like stephen said if

if you haven’t been you will be yeah

lived on the earth for one minute

you know 30 seconds you’ve been offended

and so it’s

it’s managing that and i think about

like whenever um i was going through

marriage counseling i did the

traditional you know

a few couple sessions to get the cheaper

marriage certificate this is so

embarrassing

wanted that discount you know calling

the manager up for that discount

but um i had a pastor who sat my husband

and i down and he’s like i’d really like

to walk you through some things that

you’re gonna come up against when you

get married and

i was like okay you know i’m you’re

young and in love and you got those

butterfly feelings and

and the pastor started to talk to us

about um just how that’s going to work

when we become offended with our spouse

when our when our spouse doesn’t look at

us the right way or doesn’t talk the

right way or didn’t pick their dirty

underwear up off the floor or they don’t

pay the bills that the way you want to

pay they don’t parent the way you wanted

a parent they don’t

get the job that you thought they should

i mean the list goes on and so he was

talking about that it’s so important

and what he what he said was that

illustration that pastor mike gave on

sunday is that

it’s building that wall and he said if

you don’t take care of the bricks as

they come

it’ll eventually become a wall and it’s

so much easier

to manage it is to take it down and to

to address each brick as it comes it’s

easier to take a brick that you

that you throw and assess it do what you

need to do with it throw it to the side

than it is to have a whole wall built up

that you have to now tear down and

bulldoze down an entire

wall of a fence and so whenever my

husband and i you know we

you know we’re married so there’s you

know we have problems okay

if people married people tell you they

don’t have problems they lying

okay and all the married saints in the

chat say amen

and right here okay so listen and for

you single folk let me tell you

something god that sounded like really

let me tell you single young whipper

snappers

i’ve been married now for questions you

know we had it

this is kind of off the side but we had

somebody’s comment on one of our chats

on the dig like we wish there was more

single people and

so let me just speak to the single ones

for a moment it’s been a moment since

i was single but i just want to

encourage you and yet at the same time

warn you that in marriage it is very

natural to argue it is very natural to

disagree

it is very natural to be offended by the

person that you have vowed to spend

forever

with and so i think back to what that

pastor said if you don’t deal with the

bricks as they come they become a wall

and how much

easier is it to tear down brick by brick

than it is to try to destroy an entire

wall it’s managing those

managing those expenses yeah there’s so

much in

offense that is really the result of our

projected

standards it’s so much my i’m offended

by you

because i projected onto you the

standard that i live my life by

and so many times in life we have these

unspoken rules

the unspoken expectations that’s what

happens in marriage you’re offended

because i expected

that you would never communicate but i

never communicated and there are so many

people that maybe you’re experiencing

offense

of something that you never you never

told them that hey when you do that it

makes me feel this it’s like the

toothpaste thing

the tooth okay you squeeze from the

bottom up

and he squeezed in the middle yeah

amber you don’t know about that dude

yeah she’s got specific situations

but listen there’s so many times when it

comes to offense and really dealing with

those

i think it’s so important that we have

perspective yes um so many times

a lack of perspective will often cause

us to forfeit the purpose that god has

put in front of us

and really what happens in the middle of

the fence is our perspective and our

view gets focused on ourselves

and there have been so many practical

times and literally so many in 2020

where if i’m honest with myself

there were moments where my um offense

almost sacrificed god’s opportunity

where i wanted to

i i wanted to hold on to my offense more

than i wanted to hold on to the

assignment that god had put in front of

me

and i think sometimes you just have to

stop yourself and say is me

expressing this offense is me because

here’s the thing you’re always going to

take your offense somewhere

yeah so you’re either going to take it

to your instagram you’re going to take

it to your friend or you’re going to

take it to god

wow and you have a decision to make

where am i going to stephen said you’re

going to get offended it’s a matter of

where you take it what do you do with it

and there have been so many times where

i wanted to take my offense to that

person i wanted to take it and post and

tell people how i felt about

but really there are a couple times i

did have to take it down but

but there were times where i had to

realize like god would i

rather express this offense and lose the

opportunity to represent to somebody

or would i rather take that to you allow

you to do the work of my and still have

the ability to speak into their lives

and maybe there are some of you right

now that your ability to

really take that offense to god it’s

going to hinder your ability to speak to

that co-worker

if you keep saying that if you let them

know how they feel and what they did and

how they

it’s going to and what you don’t realize

is maybe god will be able to work in

your heart

and in the future you’re going to be the

person they need that’s going to walk

them through a hard situation that’s

going to be able to be the light of god

in a dark situation but if you’re

expressing about what they did

and doing all these things you won’t be

able to speak life into them at the time

it’s a matter

of really managing saying god like i’m

going to trust you i’m going to take my

offenses to you

because the truth is no one else can

handle them your

your spouse can not is not the solution

they can’t give you that and we have to

make the decision that you know what

when these offenses come

because they will come i’m going to make

a decision to take it

to god the scripture talks about of

shaping our worry

into prayers that’s what this is we take

our offenses we shape them into prayers

it informs us how to pray and really

what to say in those situations so

listen as we continuing to talk about

offense there was this final moment

really where pastor michael was talking

about what offense does

and really um what we think it’s doing

versus what it’s actually doing

check out this third clip 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 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 2020. why did 2020

happen to me and what ends up happening

is 2020 has barbed wire around it

and it may not be 20 20 for you it could

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 oh

jesus just a little space

you know we’re talking about identifying

an offense he’s he talks about that how

to identify the defense that’s held us

back from our purpose

and can i just say something to

all y’all and i guess to all y’all out

there too so all the thousands of people

watching that’s not very churchy

and probably not very popular to say in

church but sometimes the person that

offends me the most that keeps me from

my purpose now let me explain this

is god okay let me let me outline this

for you

sometimes i’m so offended because god

hasn’t done things the way

i wanted them done wow god didn’t show

up the way i

thought he would show up god didn’t do

it in the timing that i

thought he should do it in and so i’m

missing out on those opportunities and

i’m missing out on those blessings

because i’m so mad at god that when i’m

praying

that i’m like you didn’t do what you

said you were going to do and you that

didn’t turn out the way you said i was

going to turn i thought you were going

to be there and i thought you were going

to get

you know give me the desires of my heart

and you speak and i yeah

and i find often times that sometimes

it’s not my mom or my sister or

my husband but it’s god that i’m

wrestling with that’s the truth like i’m

wrestling and i’m like

and i realize okay your word declares

his ways are not our ways his thoughts

are not our thoughts in fact they’re

higher they’re greater he the thing

about i’m learning in my walk with god

is that he can see

so far ahead he can see the end from the

beginning in the beginning from the end

he knew the foundation he knew what the

whole world would look like before the

foundations of the earth

he can count how many hairs are upon our

head and so knowing that i’m like why do

i think that i need to meddle in what

god’s doing

so god has taught me like you can you

try to be offended all you want but the

reality is i know better than you

i know what the outcome is and so that’s

probably the non-churchy answer but no

but it’s good

it’s so real it’s so real and i think

there are so many times you know early

um early in uh in the year there was

this this thought that came to my mind

but

i was looking at um parts of my life

parts of who

i was and and i remember writing in in

my journal i said god it’s not what i

thought

like it’s not it’s not what i thought my

life

it’s it’s not what i thought this year

is not what i thought like

and i just started listen like my where

i would be at this age it’s not what i

thought like the

father i thought i would be and and i

was sitting there and i was just

grappling with this idea of the picture

i had made

and the picture that that was playing

out in my life

and i realized that it was so funny i

was talking to my wife about it and

um when we got married there um we kind

of chose like this

this scripture that was going to be our

foundational scripture and it was

ephesians

3 20. it said god will do exceedingly

abundantly more than you could

ask think or imagine and that scripture

came into my mind

and literally he said charles if it’s

what you thought then i can’t be true to

my word

if i did what you thought it couldn’t be

exceedingly abundantly more

than what you could ask think or imagine

so the fact that it’s not what i thought

shows that his plan is in action in my

life

and so many times the offense of god

what you’re that’s such a real thing

amberley it’s because

we had a picture yeah we had a plan we

had a timeline

and i think part of letting those

offenses go is understanding that hey

god like you’re

it’s not going to be the timing i didn’t

think my life was going to be at this

point i didn’t think i would have that

struggle

i didn’t think the relationship would be

that way i didn’t but

god i’m not gonna i’m gonna trust your

will in your way

right so i can identify with that 2020.

i’ve found myself

in a difficult relationship with friends

uh close friends i mean college

friends we room we’re roommates and

stuff and

just just with all of the uh the

polarization that we are seeing

has affected our relationship to the

point that we’ve had heated discussions

and um we we would hang up the phone or

in the text and

inside you know i think it’s our i’ve

done whatever but then the holy spirit

would bring to me this scripture

out of psalm 66 that if i regard

iniquity in my heart

he will not hear me wow and i was

definitely doing that because in my

i had taken on that offense of how could

you

be this or say this or think this and

and going back to what you were saying

earlier amberly about we’re wrestling

not against flesh and blood

this is a warfare and i had to

understand that it’s the thief that

comes to steal kill and destroy

and it’s even in your relationship the

relationship again

with friends relatives your parents

family members

not speaking so we have to go back to

where we

know that if we don’t acknowledge and

allow the holy spirit to work through us

so we can

knock down those walls yeah instead of

building we’ll yeah and you know pastor

barbara even what you were saying with

that

we those walls you were talking about

and the things you’ve been going through

with friends and the iniquity in your

heart you said god can’t hear it’s like

that fence pastor mike talked about

that’s fencing out god to a point like

we think we’re just

protecting ourselves from people hurting

us but we’re really protecting ourselves

from god’s hand

intervening in our situation like we’re

putting up a fence to hold things

together

and he’s literally saying i can’t get to

you because of the fences

that you put up yeah and it’s so sad

because a lot of times we put up those

fences to protect ourselves like you’re

saying but we’re actually hurting

ourselves

and if i can just be like hot for a

second humble open transit transparent

you know

um growing up i i gave a lot of

pedestals to

to man i would put certain people in my

life on a pedestal and every man fails

right we’re all human

and so the problem that i would

encounter would be that i would get

disappointed

hurt i would be offended and so to guard

myself

i put an offense around myself and i

tried to say okay i’m never gonna let

this happen to me again

all that did it didn’t hurt them it

didn’t hurt future people it just hurt

me building relationships with people

that i could have

in the future and something that i find

so often is that offense creates

isolation

yes and i know so many people today that

an offense that happened to them 20

years ago

they are still living in it today and

it’s not hurting anyone else but them

they’re missing out on their family

functions they’re the ones missing out

on meeting new people and living in the

freedom right and so what happens is you

get isolated this happened to me

i was isolated out of a fence and then i

grow bitter so from offense comes

bitterness

right then you start getting mad then

everything starts bothering you then oh

i can’t stand that they go out on new

year’s day

and they having fun and i’m home i’m all

by myself they should have just they

should have invited me

it’s like well you never put yourself in

a position to get invited

you denied the last five invites like

he’s talking to somebody right now

and so then you’re isolated you get

bitter and then you grow in misery

and misery is the part you don’t want to

be in because when you’re miserable

people don’t even want to be around you

at that point you you put yourself in a

position like pastor mike said that you

build that fence

and now no one can get to you not even

god because you’ve

put yourself away from it and he and

everyone else might be there

god has his hand out and he just say hey

yeah are you going to reach out because

like

i can’t come around that fence if you

don’t like push it up to the side

and so it’s just a terrible thing that

you can do to yourself even when you’re

talking about like god can’t get to you

i know that

speaking of tc nation even in the chat

like there’s opportunities we’ve missed

out on because we chose to pick up a

fence

and just like you were saying steven

just continuing like being hot i know

for me

i’ve missed opportunities because of my

own offense i my oldest sister

she ended up some years ago getting a

very aggressive form of cancer

and she was she was you know like 20

years older than me and so my family

brought her to tulsa she lived in

different cities they brought her here

and my parents just like

dropped everything to take care of her

and you know i was like 12 or 13 at the

time and i was just so

hurt and offended like i just felt like

well they never did anything like that

for me like they never

dropped anything and me and her had you

know some back and forth things in our

relationship

and so i let that fence just build up

and build up

and build up and what i missed out on at

the time that she was living here with

us

was the opportunity to grow in a

relationship with her to really really

get to know her and and to see from that

other perspective we talked about before

like to extend

grace um and the thing is we miss out on

those opportunities because of offense

so often and i know for me

i couldn’t get past the thought of the

things she had done to hurt me i

couldn’t get past the thought of like if

i let that go

then what if she does it again or

whatever else and i’ve had to realize

that

um god says that when he restores

something he makes it better than it was

before

and sometimes we’re afraid to like step

out and forgive because we think that oh

they’re going to do the same thing but

if god really does the restoring if god

really does the reconciliation

you have no reason at all to fear

that something’s like what’s going to

happen because god told you to do it now

god won’t always tell you to go back and

make them your best friend kind of thing

but when god tells you to like you can

trust 100 but i want to speak to someone

right now

for me that specific situation my sister

passed away from cancer

i didn’t give that opportunity i i

missed out on that opportunity

to be able to really allow that fence to

come down and to see what could have

happened

and unfortunately i may not know and i’m

thankful to know that you know she was

saved and she’s in heaven but it’s like

i missed out on an opportunity because

of offense

because something to happen with my

parents or because of what hurt like

those

i can’t even remember what the things

were that were in between and so it’s

it’s so important i want to speak to

people right now like

whatever it is whatever that fence is

like put that thing down and once again

like

if god chooses to restore that thing if

god chooses to reconcile you

let that thing happen but either way you

can’t let that offense stand there

because

you’ll literally live in a place of

regret because of that yes that is so

good destiny and i know

going back to thinking about when i was

uh

as a divorce person i was thinking all i

was thinking about was

how i was holding him hostage

that was my thought by holding the

offense being

angry and uh but the thing about it was

going back to

pastor michael’s example i was building

a prison for myself

instead of for him and the bible says

the gates of hell

shall not prevail against the saints so

whenever you know that you’re holding

those offenses

if you’re not quick to let go of it

every one of those bricks every one of

those posts

instead of doing the harm to the person

on the other side

you have put yourself you’ve made

yourself to become a hostage

and pastor barbara that’s that’s so good

because even we think about war anytime

there’s war something is going to die

but the thing that’s going to live is

the thing we want to protect the most

and sometimes we truly want to be able

to protect

our like we want to be offended like i

don’t want you to change my offense like

i want to stay there you know what i

mean

and and it just doesn’t it keeps us from

where god wants us to be

wow that’s so good well i i wanted as

we’re getting kind of to the end of our

time here i want to give some of you

just some practical things some

practical things to help

um kind of walk through this is a

journey and a process and

um something you know that we even say

here at transformation church is

following jesus

is about a journey not a destination

yeah there is no moment of

arrival there’s not a point where it’s

like i officially have let go of all my

offenses

and nobody’s ever like it’s going to be

a process and so there are

three quick things we want to tell you

but the first thing is you have to

recognize your offense

and it seems so imp in easy and and in

in just

surface level but pastor michael said

some things all the time of

god can’t bless who we pretend to be and

we can’t uh

another even layer of that is god can’t

cover what we cover

yeah and so many times really because

man has hurt us

and because we we went into this retreat

and i’ll take care of myself what you

were saying stephen of uh because people

have failed me before and because i’ll

make sure that never happens again

and unless you truly acknowledge it and

some of you there are things that you

need to acknowledge

and maybe even some of you with things

that you’re afraid if you speak up about

it people will think about you

differently you’re

you’re afraid to even admit it to

yourself that it actually had like

some of you like they said that and it

hurt me like

they the way that they spoke into me at

that age i i grabbed onto it and now

it’s become my identity some of you

you need to acknowledge that that

relationship falling apart it did it did

shake your confidence you need to

acknowledge that that not getting into

that school

it did maybe make you question whether

you are quite like you need to

recognize the offense because once you

recognize it

then it gives the opportunity for god to

show up it gives the opportunity so i

just want to challenge some of you

maybe tonight you need to take time and

say god what are the areas show me

where am i holding on to a fence where

where are those areas that maybe i’ve

allowed things to become my identity

i’ve i’ve held on to certain people or

certain situations or certain events or

certain phrases that were spoken

over me you need to first start by

recognizing

the offense yeah and the next thing

after you recognize it you have to

release that thing

and truly give it to god i literally i

can think of so many times like where

there’s been offenses that we’ve

recognized but we can just be like well

i’m gonna keep that in my back pocket

for a while like literally but we have

to give it to god because we have to

realize

you can’t afford the cost of

unforgiveness like you

literally can’t afford it for one it’s a

cost that we can’t calculate

we have no idea what kind of things it’s

going to affect in our future our

children

our families our friends opportunities

that are missed jobs that are missed

like

pastor mike shared something really

transparent saying the day that

everything that happened with george

floyd was the day that he

he talked to you pastor and imagine like

i mean she’s been such an amazing

addition to our team and our staff and

it’s like what if he had let his offense

like

stop that opportunity and so we have to

release it because we can’t calculate

the cost of that thing and i think of

like when i was a little kid we used to

play this game hot potato come on

like you want to like pass the potato or

whatever you’re passing before the music

stops like that’s how we need to treat

unforgiveness and effect as soon as that

thing gets in your hand

i pass to the next person i can’t afford

to hold on to that thing so take the

time like

what pastor charles said ask god what

those things are recognize them

and release them as soon as you can ask

let god help you to release that

so that’s so good so we recognize we

release and then the third and final

thing is that we have to repeat

forgiveness wow and pastor mike said

something and in all my years of serving

god i’ve

i like you know how you’re like it just

wrecks you and i’m like oh it just

wrecked me but

he’s talking in matthew 18 22 peter says

how many times must we forgive

and jesus responds and he says 70 times

seven and so

when i remember when i was younger and i

was just learning how to do

multiplication i was like okay 70 times

7

that’s 490 times whoo that’s a whole lot

of times to forgive

but if that’s what you say lord i’ll do

it 490 times but pastor mike said that

it’s

not about um keeping count but it’s more

about

losing count because it takes i mean

think how long it takes to go from one

to 490 like it takes a minute right

but i think about you know um it would

take you a long time to go from one to

490 but think about when you’re driving

on a highway i don’t know about you

but sometimes i get lost in my thought

and i end up somewhere and i’m like man

when did i get onto i-44

when when did i get out of 169 all of a

sudden you’re there and you’re like

jesus thank you god you were with me and

your angels are surrounding me

but you get lost in that moment and you

really forget about what’s happened you

just all of a sudden show up now i’m not

pleased tc nation that’s not i’m not

recommending driving that way

and to the police officers out there

please do not follow me but i’m just

saying that that’s what he was talking

about when you

when you stop losing when you stop

keeping count

you get lost and you’re and you don’t

realize then all of a sudden you know

you’re there but

keeping that count that 70 times seven i

remember like 490 times lord jesus they

offend me

okay that’s 77 and i can’t you know i

guess so but if you think about that

490 times is a lot it’s a lot but it’s

not about keeping that count

it’s about actually losing count whoever

whoever loves his life

right yes exactly well it’s so powerful

and i think

of um to bring it all full circle

um scripture says that god throws our

sins as far as the east is from the west

like and and we start talking about

unforgiveness you can’t talk about

unforgiveness without understanding that

you have to receive forgiveness first

and i think about so many times where

it’s so easy to

i think about how easy would it have

been

for the savior of the world to be on the

cross

and pick up offense like how like if

anybody could have been offended yes

if if he if jesus could have said cause

the thing i think we forget is he’s

fully god fully man that’s right so we

just think he’s always

healing like if he’s fully god fully man

he’s experienced what he’s doing

he could have been like y’all don’t even

know like y’all like y’all are sitting

here you’re talking about me

you’re like jesus had opportunity after

opportunity after opportunity to pick up

a fence but he chose

you know what like i i can’t like i know

it was so crazy in the scripture he says

forgive them for they don’t know what

they do

and so many times i think when it comes

to offense that needs to be our heart

posture yes there’s a story in in the

bible where stephen he’s sitting there

and and stephen is so interesting in the

scripture the bible says as they chose

the disciples and

the people who are going to kind of

further the church he was someone that

was full of the holy spirit that’s how

they describe stephen

and steven’s last words were the same

last words of jesus

he’s literally saying that he’s getting

stoned and he says forgive them for they

don’t know what they do

the only way you can say that is that

first part says stephen was full of the

holy spirit the truth is if we’re going

to be

able to really extend forgiveness it’s

not going to be our effort

it’s not going to be more willpower it’s

not going to be well it’s just what i

should do

it’s not going to be because oh i just

this is what a chris it’s going to be

asking god

help me to forgive them god i can’t

afford to lord i don’t want to be

isolated i don’t want to

rest in this pain i don’t want to rest

in this hurt and there are some of you

really right now i want to take a moment

and pray for you that there are offenses

that

that you have been trying to protect

yourself from getting hurt

and today god says listen if you will

take these walls down i can come and

heal you i can bring restoration i can

cover you

i can i can make you able to to to be

able to talk to that person again and

not your heart be all hardened i can

he can bring healing in the middle of

those things and so

i want to take a moment just ask

everybody no matter where you are right

now

i want to take a moment and pray and if

you would right where you are just take

a moment to bow your head and close your

eyes just out of a moment to focus on

where you are with god and you know

right now god we come to you and we’re

just asking lord

that first you would illuminate the

areas that we have held on to offense

right now i pray lord god for every

single person that’s watching lord that

there is

areas where there’s unforgiveness in

their heart or god areas where what

certain people said or a certain action

that was done

or in marriages lord jesus or or things

that were said about them lord jesus i

pray that you would illuminate it lord

god

so then that you could heal it lord i

speak the healing

virtue of god that would enter into

people’s homes into their hearts

into their heads or got into areas of

their life that they’re not even

realizing lord god i pray that you would

bring things lord to the remembrance not

so that they’ll have to

relive it lord god but so that you can

bring restoration i thank you lord god

that you’re exposing things that have

held people back lord god

i see people right now lord god and

literally they don’t even realize it but

the fence

they’ve been living their whole life and

it’s been invisible they didn’t realize

that they put it up there

maybe it was put on them or god and

they’ve kept trying to move forward

they’ve

kept trying to step into that purpose or

step into the relationship

i thank you that you would make the

fence visible to they will be able to

see that maybe i have held on to what my

father said maybe i have held on to

getting denied into that school i

thank you that you’re exposing it so you

can heal it and i thank you lord god

that there is healing happening

in people’s homes or god in marriages

lord i thank you that you’re exposing

the areas lord god that we have held on

to offense for jesus and we make a

decision to release it

to you lord you are the only person

you’re the only person that can handle

those hurt areas you’re the only person

that can handle those areas

that that are broken that that that

we’re holding on to lord god we release

them to you right now

as we remain in an attitude of prayer

there are some of you that

as we’re talking about offense and and

all the things that are happening

the scripture says that while we were

still sinners

christ died for us what you need to

realize

is in the middle of us offending god

he knew that you were gonna do it he

knew and he said you know what i still

love you

and some of you even the offense that

you’ve put up it’s because you’ve

questioned people’s ability to love you

but you need to know that there is a god

that he loves you he cares about you

he knows that you’re going to do things

to offend him he knows that you’re going

to make mistakes that you’re going to

sin literally means to miss the mark to

to try to aim a certain way but you are

just off and there are some of you that

you’ve sinned and the bible says that

sin it separates us from god

but jesus came he lived a perfect life

and he died on the cross and what he did

is he took on

our offense because literally our

offense separated us from god

jesus said i’m gonna step in the way i’m

gonna take on the hurt and pain of the

world and when i do that

it opens up it takes down the fence that

is between man

and god and now you have open access to

him some of you today

the forgiveness that you need to give

will not happen until you accept

the forgiveness that has already been

given and some of you right now the

reason

you’re on this right now is to accept

the love

grace and mercy of jesus christ i want

to take a moment right now

and if you’re here you say you know what

i’m in a place in my life where i’ve

tried everything else i’ve been hurt

before

maybe i’ve been offended and really the

offense that i’m holding on to feels

like it’s holding me

in a moment if you would surrender your

life to jesus you don’t have to stop

doing a bunch of things you don’t have

to

clean up your life the bible says you

believe in your heart and you confess

with your mouth

you will be saved what i want to do

right now is i want to ask you to repeat

this prayer after me

this prayer is really it’s something

powerful that happens i believe that

when you speak this out of your mouth it

is confirming what god is already doing

in your heart so right where you are

everybody i’m going to ask you

to bow your heads close your eyes and

repeat this prayer after me say dear god

dear god thank you for loving me dear

jesus

thank you thank you for laying down your

life

to save mine i admit i’ve made mistakes

save me change me transform me

it’s in jesus name i pray

amen listen if you just made that

decision

that is the best decision you could ever

make and listen we’re happy the bible

says that when one person

gives their life to jesus when they make

that decision that all of heaven

it stops and it celebrates and we are

celebrating with you

and listen we’re so excited for what

this means listen we want you to text

the word saved

to the number that’s going to come up on

the screen and we want to send you some

resources

we’ve been talking about it but but

dealing and really following dealing

with the fence and

following jesus is not meant to be done

on your own it’s not it’s not meant to

be done by yourself you’re gonna need

people to help you

tim said it earlier that lazarus he was

dead in the tomb and he came out

and it said jesus called him out but the

people unwrapped him we would love to be

some of those people to help you get

unwrapped to help

you find out what god has really said

about you there’s so much

really that i believe god wants to do in

your life and it’s just starting

even some of you maybe you’re you’re

dealing with certain things some of you

need to go back and watch

some other messages some of you need to

watch grace like a flood you need to

watch the sermon series plain and not

buried you need to watch

services that really are just washing

over you and helping you to get a

new picture of who you are in god and

that you don’t have to be what you’ve

done you can

you can have a new star in god but

listen if you made that decision

it’s the best decision you could ever

make and we are so

grateful for you well listen i want to

take a moment again and just say thank

you so much for joining us tonight on

the dig

and i really believe as we have

conversation it really transforms what

can happen

in our lives the bible says we overcome

by the blood of the lamb and the word of

our testimony

and as you share as you have

conversation it really begins to

transform things so i want to challenge

you man maybe there’s a conversation you

need to have with somebody

after this maybe there’s within your

family you’ve been watching in your

living room maybe you all need to start

talking about hey what are some things

maybe that you realize

through this that you’ve been offended

in and as we have that conversation it’s

going to change so much listen

we love y’all so so much um

and listen we want to invite you to join

us we have noonday prayer that’s been

happening we’ve been in noonday prayer

forever you hear what i’m saying prayer

is not a secret at this point

if you don’t know about prayer you live

under a rock so every day

at noon on our youtube on instagram

we’re doing noonday prayer i want to

invite you to join us um on the weekends

we’re in week three

of fu today me and pastor michael

working on the sermon and it is bananas

gwen stefani b-a-n-a-n-a-s

so listen we love you guys thank you so

much for joining us on the dig go

out and live a transformed life we’ll

see you guys