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
it’s not by accident
and uh here’s what you need i need you
to do i need you to stop right now
and text somebody let them know take a
picture of your screen post it on
let them know because i’m believing
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
if it is your first
time you are a vip very important person
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get to know you and uh really just share
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um that we could partner with you to see
god do amazing things
in your life if you’ve never been to
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