The Prison Of Offense

Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick.

I'm the pastor of Elevation Church and this is our podcast.

I wanted to thank you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope it builds your faith.

Hope it gives your perspective to see God is moving in your life.

Enjoy the message and must continue in this series.

The other half, we believe great relationships still exist. We don't believe that every marriage has to be dysfunctional.

Amen.

We don't believe parents have to hate their kids, kids hate their parents. We believe that Christ offers us plenty of wisdom and the scripture about not only how to relate to Him, but how to relate to one another. And we also believe that you can't worship Christ properly and treat people like craps. So sometimes you got to get it right at this horizontal level before the vertical level. Last week when I left you, I taught you how to put down the magnifying glass, Thank you worship team,

Can you help anybody else with their own issues.

You're just going to end up projecting your dysfunctions onto them, and then you be fixing things that are really wrong with you, but trying to fix it on the platform of their life.

And that won't be good.

That won't help you stay married, it won't help you make friends, it won't help you raise.

Your children or anything like that.

So I want to continue along those same lines today and go back to the words of Jesus and the sermon on the Mount.

I want to pick up.

In Matthew chapter five, verse twenty one through twenty six. And I know you're excited to study God's word today, and I'm excited to preach.

I want to talk to you about the.

Prison of offense, and I believe God is going to set some people free today from the prison of offense. And I asked that you pray for me as I speak, that I might speak with accuracy in a way that would liberate people.

Jesus says, you have heard that it was.

Said to the people long ago, you shall not murder. This begins a series of six theological upgrades that Jesus Christ has come to reveal.

He's taking some.

Wisdom that has passed down and deluded from the law of Moses, and he.

Is showing how his.

Perfect wisdom is the fulfillment of what began in Moses. And he begins with this idea that long before something happens in our lives, it happened.

In our heart.

I said, long before something happens in your life, it happened in your heart. And he says that there's this command you shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment. But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister raka, I don't even know what that means, but that sounds like a cushword.

It's got that hard consonant in the middle.

If you say that to your brother and sister, you are answerable to the court or the Sanhedrin.

And anyone who.

Says to a brother or sister, you fool, will be in danger of the fire of hell.

That kind of scares me because I've said some.

Worse things than raca and you fool, And I don't want to go to hell. But watch this, he said, in the knowledge of this, that what starts in the heart doesn't stay in the heart. What starts as a thought and turns into a word can actually create a living hell in your life. You know, you can turn your home into a living hell just.

By what you allow to access your heart. You really can.

You can turn a beautiful relationship into a garbage dump.

In fact, when Jesus says that you be in.

Danger of the fires of hell, he's not so much speaking of something.

Abstract and theoretical.

He's referring to Gahinna, which did you people would have been familiar with. It was like a place where they used to sacrifice humans. They would sacrifice their babies to the false god Molik, and they abandoned that practice, but they kept it as a garbage dump. And it said that the fires of Gahinna never never actually went out, and so there was always a smoldering fire in Gahinna.

I hope you guys enjoyed the sermon. Last week.

This was gonna be a little different this week, So I hope you're but there's a reality to be examined here about the progression of offenses in our lives. Have you noticed that we live in an age of perpetual offense?

I mean everybody is.

Offended about everything all the time.

No, I'm serious. I have to pray for twenty minutes before.

I post anything on Instagram or Facebook, just to think about how could I possibly phrase this where.

I won't offend somebody. I remember a couple of years ago that I put and this is years ago and I still remember it.

I put something on Twitter that I thought was very clever because I.

Was studying a sermon on sanctification, and I was trying to find a way to preach about sanctification that wouldn't put the people to sleep. Because if I just stand up to say I'm going to talk to you today about sanctification, I would lose a lot of my audience that isn't as spiritual as Brad. So I was trying to just put it in real terms, and God gave.

Me this phrase.

He said, you should live in your sermon. People don't need sermons that smell like a library. They need sermons that smell like real life.

And I was so impressed with that thought I put it on Twitter.

I said, sermons should smell less like a library and more like real life. And this lady tweeted me back she was a library. She wanted me to know she was highly offended. She said, great, just what I needed my pastor taking shots at my chosen career and profession.

How would you.

Feel if you were a library? And well, lady, I didn't mean it like all that, just offendable. Christians are the most offendable people on the planet, which is kind of ironic considering that our whole religion revolves around a relationship with somebody that dropped every offense that we had committed against him. That's kind of weird to me. I'm serious, man, you have to be really careful. People just get offended. I know I'm easily offended. God's working with me on this.

He said, the reason.

Is so hard for you to stay happy is because it's so easy for you to get offended. If you want to make it easier to stay happy, make it harder for you to get offended. So I'm working on this becoming unofendable project, and I want to invite you in on it because Jesus says that this offense, however it started with your brother and sister, if you entertain it, it.

Creates a living hell.

It spirals out of control, things can sink, things can spin out of control so quick you don't even know what's happening. And the enemy's agenda in your life is destruction.

Thief comes to kill, still and destroyer.

That's John chapter ten, verse ten, note takers, and his agenda is destruction. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, God's giver. Inemy's taker wants to destroy every good thing that God puts in your life. Okay, that's his agenda. His strategy is division. Jesus shared with us in Matthew twelve twenty five that a house divided against itself can't stand.

For them. They haven't proven anything yet. Is that pity?

Applause? Newly married couples? Just one more time and I see Rachie. I'm saying like, maybe, like you're newly married?

How new a year? That counts? Would you come on the stage? Do you mind?

I don't want to embarrass you in anyway. Is your wife here?

She's not here.

You gotta sit down and you would have been great too. Anybody here with your wife that's newly married. You guys actually made it to church together today.

I'm just kidding. I'm sure she's serving any kis. Would you two years? Two years?

Yeah? Come on, if you don't mind, come on, let's get my hand.

Come on, guys, go on my hand. This is brave man. I have no idea what they're getting into now. I'm not just gonna preach about married. It's coach day, but I think if I use a marriage illustration, imply relationship. Keep talking while they come. Come on, guys, can talk to your name Stephanie and Dan. Good to have you guys, Yeah, yeah, come on all the way off. That'll be great.

Let me show you what the devil wants to do in your relationship. Because God said that the two shall become one. This is exactly what the enemy wants. So every battle you're gonna fight, every argument about the dishes, really it's a it's the enemies. The enemy's agenda is destruction. And so his strategy is division. And the enemy, I don't know if you believe in the devil or not, but the enemy, Stephanie's not going to be happy until

His tactic is offense.

Satan has an offensive strategy because if he walked up to you, I don't know how I forgot your name already tell me one more time, Dan, Dan, Dan the man, Come on, is Dan the man?

Everybody?

And if the devil we're not subtle, Dan wouldn't stand for his schemes.

But the enemy is very strategic, and Jesus.

Is giving us, really in Matthew chapter five, kind of a playbook of how the enemy wants to work in your relationship.

And I know Dan's not going to let him, but he's going to try. Now.

He won't make an announcement, Hey, I'm coming to kill and steal and destroy, you know, because right now you just spend all those money on the flowers and the dresses and all the groomsmen and all that stuff. And I know it's been a couple of years, and that's good because what you see in those first couple of years is you see that the enemy will usually start in a small way because if he announced I've come

Your chest out.

Dan.

Dan ain't having it. Dan ain't having it.

But if the enemy can just what he'll do, he'll just use the littlest offense. And what Jesus is doing in Matthew chapter five. He's showing us how to deal with the offense so we can keep the devil on defense.

How many want to keep.

The devil on defense in your life and in your family? Come on church, So you guys, if you sit back down, I'll bring back in a minute. But I don't want you to have to stay up here the whole time. But just stay ready. Okay, all right, we're gonna come back to here.

Last week when I was freaching.

I don't know if you remembered how many of you were here last week.

Make some now.

If the person next to you isn't making noise, touch them and say you really missed it, You really missed it. I ended remember talking about you got this plank in your eye, and you're so concerned about the little speck in my eye while you're walking around your big old plank just whacking them on the head, just causing distraction, division and all this stuff. And it's the contrast between the small things and the big things. And there are times that a big offense. I mean, there's not a

Buck, is this true. It's not a week that goes by.

It'll be another pastor or maybe a situation in the church, and I get to talking to them about what happened. And if you can go back far enough, you find that every plank is made up of a lot of specs.

And to me, that's the heart of Jesus teaching. I really didn't read you the.

Whole passage because I want to break it down and show you how it happens. He said, it could be something as small as a word. Now write this down. The closer the relationship, the greater the opportunity.

And that goes both ways.

The closer the relationship, the greater the opportunity for intimacy. However, the closer the relationship, the greater the opportunity for offense. That's why nobody can make you really mad, like somebody that you really love. Really nobody can hurt you like somebody that you've given your heart to.

Nobody.

And I've asked the question a lot of times of people, and really in my own mind, I've seen people that were so loyal to each other and if you had asked me ten years ago, who is most likely to ever have kind of an enemy relationship, or who's most likely it could be a divorce, or who's most likely to not.

Be speaking to each other? And some of those very same people.

Just in the last year of my life, Ethan, I've watched some things happen that surprised me and you kind of every time you see it, you ask the question, how did we get here? You see how big Van was smiling over Stephanie. Now they're going to have a great marriage and all of that, and it's going to be awesome, But you ask the question, how could somebody who had that same hope, that same smile barely stand to be in the room with somebody two kids later.

Yes there are.

Betrayals, and yes there's adult tree, and yes there's abuse. I'm not really talking about those big things so much today.

As I am what Jesus was talking about.

He said, if you get something in your heart against your brother and sister, and then you nurse it and rehearse it long enough, it will literally create a smoldering garbage dump of fire in the very relationship that was once a garden of potential and love.

How does this happen? It happens one offence at a time.

How did we get here where we're smiling like everything is okay? But deep down in my heart, you know, if we come to church, man, nobody sees this stuff when we come to church, watch this, jesays. In verse twenty three, he says, if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother.

Or sister has something against you.

Leave your gift there in front of the altar and get it right with the person that is not right with before you sing a song or pray a prayer to try to cover up.

The fact that your relationships are under attack.

We were singing today in church, this song, this beautiful worship song. Man, you should have seen the people singing, and people had their hands lifted.

Mercy's folly.

And that's why was coming out of some people's mouths.

But if you can see.

What's going on in their heart, Jesus as possible for you to be doing something on an outward level and at an inward level you're full of anger and resentment.

Mercy is.

Fall except on my huh husband. He as.

If you could hear what was happening in the hearts of people. How do we get here? Jesus says. It starts small, but one offense at a time. The devil wants to tear dense heart from Stephanie's heart. You know, God takes the two and makes some one. The enemy takes the one and makes them two.

How does he do it? One offense at a time?

And God knows I need this message, man, because I'm not a perfect husband. I give ninety seven percent of the credit for the happiness that exists in my marriage to my wife. Three percent is me. I'm pretty proud of that three But if you put me in the wrong situation, I can get offended so.

Quick, just like on Twitter.

There was one woman that went off on me, and I still remember what she said three years later.

You know, thousands of people have said nice things to me, but I'm quick to find the offense.

We can train ourselves to find the offense and then just overreact. Man, it starts off as Raka, you fool. Next thing you know, I'm in living hell and watsch I.

Bad at this?

Jesus said, it can get so bad if you don't deal with it. If you don't learn how to deal with this Dan, if you don't deal with the little things, little foxes, he says, if you don't settle matters quickly verse twenty five, with your adversary who.

Is taking you to According to that confused me because in verse twenty one, we're talking about your brother or sister, Right, we're talking about somebody you're close to.

In verse twenty five, we're talking about your adversary. I always assume these are two different people.

What if it's not.

What if the same person who you called brother and sister in twenty one is the same person who will be your enemy in twenty five.

If you don't learn how to deal with offense, it happens you ever thought about that.

The person who, he says, the person who doesn't deal with the offense. And it's interesting how he says it. If you don't settle matters quickly, that's so powerful. Saddle matters quickly with your adversary who's taking you to court, do what you can while you are still together on the way, or your adversary may hand you over to the judge, and the judge may hand you over to the officer, and you may be.

Thrown into prison.

And truly, I tell you, knock it out until you paid the last penny, the prison of offense. And it all started with Roca. It all started with Roca, the small offense. It all started in the parking lot. I was backing out and this guy honking his horn at me and his pickup truck. Just a couple months ago, I took the boys to see that football movie, the Christian football movie. Okay, Wood Wood Woodlock Woodlawn. We went

Me, Hey, get out of her way.

She's waiting on your spot, and I'm like, And then I figure out that this is his wife because I'm putting it all together, and I rolled down my window and I says something back to him. No, it wasn't any profanity or anything like that, but it was a rocket type thing that I said something about his wife's driving skills or something, you know, something like that, just something insinuate.

But then he wants to get out of his truck and he's not bigger than me.

So now I gotta get out of my maximum because I got to because my boys are watching this, and I need even be a good example that if a man gets out of his pickup.

Truck and challenges you.

It doesn't matter whether you have an elevation sticker on your car.

You gotta handle this. Why are you clapping for me? I'm so bewildered.

And I got out and I said what are we gonna do?

Just a question, just a question. There's just a question. And I don't know what happened next.

I think, to this day, I still don't know, because his tone changed dramatically. I don't think he was intimidated by me. I think he really who I was. I think so because it was right here in town. And so I think he because I think he put the sticker and the all thing together, because all of.

A sudden he turned real spiritual. He was like, well, God, bless you man. We're just all trying to get where we're trying to go. And I was like, yeah, we are. Around this time, Graham comes out the car. He's eight, you know. He comes over and stands by me, and he said, you got your boys and I got my wife.

I says, cool, and we've got over here, and got back in the car and I said when Graham got in the car, I said, Graham, I said, what were you gonna do?

And Graham said I.

Was gonna kick him in the shin if I had to.

And Elijah, my older son, he.

Speaks up and says, Daddy, a better question is what were you going to do? I said, what ever needed to be done. Son, I hadn't thought that far about it, and he said, well, think about it. I mean, let's say you'll get in a fight in the parking lot of the movie theater.

Not only are the news.

People going to put you on the news, but they might not even we might not even ever see you again. We're in the back of the car, and maybe they leave us, and then maybe you end up in prison, and maybe we don't have a dad.

Did you think about that?

And I said, that's right, son, I'm giving you an example.

How not to handle a situation. We went and ate some Mexican food.

And here's why I told you that story. When you are in these moments I'm talking about, not with somebody in parking lot, somebody you love. You're not thinking through the fact that this is going to end up with me and you and an attorneys sitting down talking about dividing our assets.

That's not how division happens.

Because the enemy's agenda is destruction. His strategy is division.

But his tactic is those little offenses.

Come come on, Dan and Stephanie, come back, and I just I need.

Your help because bring up, bring up my garden. Come on, it's Dan and Stephanie.

Everybody two years, We're gonna get them to twenty. We're gonna get you to twenty. I so appreciate your help. I'm gonna send I'm gonna send you guys to your favorite restaurant. What's your favorite restaurant, Stephanie, what's our favorite restaurant?

I was gonna say Baker's Field, but theF change I love it too. So here here's a garden. This This represents the love of.

A relationship and and all the potential of a relationship. And this, of course represents the offenses that are going to come into your relationship.

Now you don't have to be married to get a whole lot out of what I'm saying right now.

This will apply to anybody in your life who is important to you and show you exactly what the enemy will try to do. Like, for instance, I don't know if Stephanie's a good cook or not.

Oh yeah, yeah, good good. And I was talking to my mom this morning. No, my mom lives here in Charlotte, and she reminded me of this story. This is hilarious.

It just shows how offenses can come because the question isn't our offense is going to come into your relationship.

That's not the question. They're going to come. They're going to come. The question is what are you going to do with them.

That's what determines whether or not you keep a strong relationship with God, with others, with yourself. So my mom was telling me they were at my father's mom's house, so my grandmother my dad's mom's house, for Thanksgiving, and she made some stuffing, you know that. Yeah, And when she and my grandmother made some stuffing.

And the way.

I understood the story, my dad was sitting there eating his mom's stuffing.

And while he's.

Eating the stuffing, he says, trying to give a compliment to his mom.

He's like, mmm, Mom.

Nobody makes stuffing like you. I mean, other people try to make stuffing, but nobody can make it like you.

And my mom is thinking.

While he's saying, nobody makes stuffing like you, my mom is thinking, and nobody is going.

To make stuffing for you.

Accept your mom, So you better invite your mom to be your cook.

If nobody makes stuffing like her.

And my mom said, I didn't make that man stuffing on Thanksgiving for the next six years, and.

I said, can I tell the church. That story is a good illustration. She said, yes, as long as you.

Clarify that I really do make better stuffing.

Than your grandmother.

Now I got you holding that because he says this stuff. Oh, he says these unintentional things, because men are stupid. We just say stuff. We don't realize what we're saying, and we just say stuff. And maybe Dan hasn't done it yet. To me, he looks like an intelligent man, but he's gonna say something.

And it will be unintentional in his mind. He's just saying it. He's just saying something. Just say it, just says stuff.

Or sometimes it's not what they say, it's what they don't do. It's an unmet expectation. That is the breeding ground of offenses and relationships. Unmet expectations. And let me tell you the breeding ground of unmet expectations, unexpressed expectations.

So you got to learn how to talk to people otherwise.

Like let's say, growing up in Stephanie's house, birthdays were a big deal. But maybe at Dan's house they didn't make a big deal about birthdays because hey, what did you do?

You didn't do anything on your birthday.

You were just born so maybe on birthdays at Dan's house, nobody celebrates the fact that you just came out into the world like it was some great achievement. But Stephanie wakes up and her mom used to make her pancakes on her birthday, and her dad had a special song that he was saying, I don't know I'm making this stuff up. I never met Stephanie and Dan before. I was making a scenario. And so Dan wakes up on the birthday and he's going to take her out to

And so now all of a sudden, it's the first birthday they spend as a married couple.

And he wakes up and gives her a little kiss and goes to work and leaves her with an offense. And you're like, well, that's stupid that she shouldn't get so offended over that. Well, you get offended over some stuff too, some little things, and you hold it and it won't just be you offending her. Let's say maybe let's say you're working really hard this used to happen in me and Holly's marriage.

This is an example. I did not ask for permission to share it.

When I discovered that her recreational preference was shopping.

And yeah, yeah, so she said me too, So you come home on Saturday.

Holly would come home on Saturday and she would be energized and she would have bags all.

Over her arms.

But to me, those bags didn't look like shopping bags.

Those bags looked like grenades to be launched into our financial picture. Here, I am trying to work.

She walking in with all these bags looking out, and then she has the nerve to say, don't worry, because I got it on. And this is what the devil wants all right.

Now, Dan is trying to fall asleep on Saturday night.

And again I'm just making this up, but she handed you this official.

One't trying to offend you. She was just shopping. It was just a thing.

But Dan is working, and doesn't she see how hard I'm working? And how does she expect us to get ahead financially? Like the last thing she needs is another pair of shoes, and the.

Enemy is like, yeah, yeah, that's good, Dan, that's good. She doesn't care about you. She doesn't respect you.

She doesn't she doesn't appreciate all that you're doing to provide for her.

She's working against you. It's just a little offense.

Meanwhile, Stephanie is still stuck on her birthday. It was four months ago. She's still mad about the pancakes.

Come here, Stephanie, and.

She's over here, and she's still she's still nursing that that thing about the birthday and see us every time she thinks about it, just a little deeper. She should drive it down in there with every thought and reliving it and thinking about what he said and what she did and what they didn't say. He didn't pay attention to me, I don't appreciate me, and drives it down deeper.

The potential for offense.

And so you're gonna have like a million offenses, little offenses, and if you don't learn how to deal with them, because sometimes the thing that you liked about her when you were dating will drive you crazy now that you have to wake up with it every day.

No offense to Stephanie. I'm sure she's wonderful. You're like, oh, why would you say that about her? It's true about everybody. Here's how the country preachers had it.

He said, before marriage, opposites tracked, after marriage opposite attack. Hey man, that's how the country preacher said it. And so I know it's kind of heavy. That's how offenses are. But it's not all at once, it's just one at a time. Let's say that before marriage you liked her because she is mysterious and quiet, and that draws you to her. But then in marriage it can go this way to where it was really attractive that she was quiet and mysterious when you were dating her.

But now in marriage she won't ever talk, and it's like no, but yeah, but no.

But just for example, it's like, why won't you tell me what's on your mind?

But that's why you liked her.

And before you married him, he was the life of the party, and he walked in and he just talked.

And lit up the room. And now why won't he ever shut up? Dan? Will not shut up? Shut up Dan?

And so what actually was part of building the foundation of the relationship.

Now it's a fence and it happens.

A million different ways in the enemy, all kinds of opportunities, and you don't realize what's happening because it's just one little conversation after another. You know, it's just dressing on Thanksgiving.

Yeah, a big thing.

It's just me trying to tell Holly how to drive and her saying, well, then why don't.

You drive if you do such a good driver.

And we have a lot of dysfunction in our relationship over what happens in the car because I can't find my way places and she can't drive. So she has a great sense of direction, but horrible driving skills.

I'm a great driver with no sense of direction.

So the other night, we're driving coming from a movie as a matter of fact, not the Christian football movie, but we're coming back and she almost got us killed.

And I was mad because to me, she wasn't paying attention.

And we talked about that later and she was like, well, you know, if you want to be in control of how.

The car works, there's a different seat you can sit in.

Shut up, lock up, ruck off.

H that's the biggest problem you have. No, it's not the biggest problem we have.

It's just the one I'm.

Gonna tell you about. It's none of your business or a problem here. But see offense by offense. If we don't learn what to do about this, the enemy would love just one conversation after another. You don't make a decision to walk away from a relationship that you love. You don't see them becoming your enemy. In Matthew five twenty five, it's just one unacknowledged effort after another, and you start thinking, well, I'm the only one who ever takes out the trash around here.

I guess I'll do it, do it again like always.

No, it's good, I got it, I got.

It's not a problem. I'm would love.

To get up with the kid again in the middle something.

I know, it's fine, I know you gotta work. And now what started as just a small offense, Now what God joined together separated because of offense. And now the crazy thing is Jesus said, if you.

Let it get to this point, if you live your relational life on the basis of well, I'm not apologizing first, apology us first last time. If you don't learn how to deal with these things, you find yourself in prison. It's not them that you imprison. It's you, Hey, Dan, Why don't we talk anymore? Where did the love go? Then we haven't been the PF change in three years? Then you built a fence. The enemies agenda is destruction. His strategy is the.

Vision, and his tactic is offense.

Thankfully, God has given us another way to deal with offense. If only we could find an example of somebody who had every right to be offended, of somebody who had every right to hold it against us, of.

Somebody who had every right to stand at a distance, but opened his arms and said, this is the way of relationship.

And the Lord gave me a real specific word for somebody who needs reconciliation in your relationship.

It's very simple what they have to do.

If they're gonna stay like they started, if we're gonna get back to where we were, we're gonna have to learn.

Watch this. This is very this is very profound.

It's deep. You're gonna miss it. This is what you're gonna have to learn. You got to learn to drop it. You got to learn to drop it. And I don't mean suppress it. I don't mean you don't deal with things after they happen, but after you've had the conversation, Dan, I like pancakes on my birthday.

Then drop it. Touch somebody say drop it?

I mean the moment, the offense, because you can't always control what's handed to you, but you can control what you do with this.

So what are you gonna do with the offense?

Come on, Dan, you can't choose anybody else's actions. The enemy wants you to drive it down deep.

You know. He wants you to ah.

Think about it and miss all the reasons that the person has worked their way into your life, and miss all the things they've done for you, and he wants to drive it. But God says, drop it. I believe that there are some things that we need to drop tonight.

Drop it.

Do it again, Dan, drop it? Every time they do it. I want you to reinforce it. One two three, drop it. What are you gonna do when they when they don't acknowledge you?

When they don't notice you. What are you gonna do?

What are you going to do when they when they are too busy to show you the love and affection, but you know that they're trying as hard as they can to you gotta. I'm telling you, being married, being in a close relationship is about not how quickly you can get offended, but how quickly.

You can get over it. And I want everyone to stand.

At every location because I want to pray for some people.

Thank you, guys, would you give them some love? That was amazing?

They're walking off hand in hand. I asked the Lord to help me in this message in a way. He said, you need to pray for people for not what they're going to experience while they're in the church, but what's going to happen when they leave, Because you know, you can offer a gift at the altar and feel pretty good about it, but what's happening back at home can

I mean, sometimes the person is dead, that you've held the offense again. Sometimes the person isn't willing, but release, release is always available. Release starts in your heart.

Smeed said that forgiveness is setting a prisoner free and finding out the prisoner was you. So I believe God wants to release some people today.

Release you from some things you've been.

Holding on to, some things that have been keeping you at a distance, some things that have been keeping you divided, And that in these closing moments of our time together today, there are some things, by the power of the Cross of Jesus Christ, that God is going to bring to mind, some offenses that you've been building in some very important relationships, and that God is going to begin to demolish your excuses and break down your pride and your walls today,

God says, drop it, man.

I feel the spirit of Snoop coming on me right now, and I want.

To say drop it like this hot.

Come on, you gotta drop it while you can't. He said, do it while you're still on the way, or this.

Won't end well with you.

Unchecked resentment leads to regret, unbelievable regret, and you don't want that for your life. So, with everyone standing today, I want to ask you a question. If God dropped the charges against you, is what offense is there in the universe that you can't let go of.

It's not just flowing to me. The forgiveness of God flows through me.

And because I'm forgiven, I can forgive now before I pray. I'm not saying that you tolerate abuse. I'm not saying any of that. Here's what I'm saying. Offense is an event. Offended is a decision.

Again.

Offense is an event they hurt me. Offense is an event. We need to work through this. But to live offended as a believer in Jesus Christ, and to stay that way and to live in that place, denies the very nature of the salvation.

That you claim to have received.

So we want to make some decisions today. If you feel comfortable, would you just lift your hands as a sign of release. Nobody's looking at you. Don't even worry about the crowd. Right now, Father, in this moment, we come before you and.

We just release, Release. Release.

First of all, we acknowledge our own parts. Sometimes we are so quick to see the ways we've been offended, and we miss the ways that we've offended.

So we open our hearts.

To you, and we thank you for grace, and we thank you for mercy, and we lift our hands in your presence because we want to be free. We lift our hands in your presence because we don't want to withhold anything, and we want to be right. And so we offer our gift on the altar. But God, we ask, would you.

Do a work in us.

Some of us have some stuff happening back at home and in our hearts and then our relationships that is killing our joy and killing our peace. So we've come into your presence not just to sing a song or to hear a sermon, but to be changed at our core, to be changed.

And we've got some things we need to drop.

With your hands still lifted in the air, I want you to ask God in your heart, is there anything I need to drop? Is there something I need to drop? Is it a decision I need to make in my heart to never bring it up again. Is it a conversation I need to have to work through it? What do I need to drop? Keep your hands lifted. You feel how the blood is flowing out of.

Your fingers in your hands.

That's what it feels like when you hold on to stuff, when you hold on to offensis, when you hold on to what happened years ago. But if you would drop it, drop it, you feel that come all over your body when you finally decided to drop it. I declare that God is going to set some captives free today, that you are no longer going to be divided, dying behind offenses, isolated behind offenses. And in the name of Jesus, I declare release to the prisoners. I prayed that this message would stay.

With you, that it would haunt you, that.

You would see Dan and Stephanie dropping those planks on the stage until you come out from behind every offense that has kept you in prison. I want to pray before I walk off stage, for people who need a right relationship with God, would you buy your head and close your eyes again, because there is someone here who doesn't have that relationship right. What calls your name, and when he speaks to your heart, it's not a good thing to wait around. You want to get right now.

And eyes closed.

At every campus, I would love to lead you in a prayer to let you know that everything that needs to be done for you to be a child of God has already been done. Everything that needs to be done for you to be forgiven has already been done. There's nothing you need to earn, there's nothing you need to do. God is the one who changes lives today. If you'll reach out for his grace, you will receive it.

Are coming to God or coming back to God.

Let's pray together, Church, Heavenly Father, I confess that I'm a sinner and I need a savior. And today I declare that Jesus Christ is my savior.

And my Lord.

I believe that Jesus Christ died to forgive my sin, rose to give me life.

And right now, right now, right now.

I receive this new life. This is my new beginning. I am a follower of Christ, I will never be the same. With your heads about an ice close on the count of three. If you just prayed that prayer, shoot your hand in the air.

Don't be ashamed.

Let's celebrate one, two, three, Shoot.

Them up right now, right now, right now. God bless you, God bless you. Love every little fiction.

Come on, Church, Come on, chart, come most celebrate these stignis. Celebrate these new lives, Celebrate these new beginnings.

Come on, celebrate the marcy of God. I'll be their rest.

Let your hand.

Thank you for joining us.

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