This "Tiny" Heart Issue Has Massive Consequences.

Offense is a sin. You just don't know what they did to me. No, you don't know what you did to Jesus. Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels, but the devil is taking men there. And one of the... primary tools is unforgiveness. The Christians are holding offenses with one another, slandering each other, they're attacking each other on social media and just going after each other.

keep blinding ourselves to how serious of an offense unforgiveness is to God. If we treat unforgiveness the way we treat murder, will probably be free. In fact, there are more scriptures how that God will not forgive us if we don't forgive than there is how God will not forgive us if we murder somebody. Here's what I believe is the root of all of this.

Hey everyone, welcome to the John Bevere podcast. I am John Bevere, joined by my son Arden. Arden, it's great to see you. Good to see you too. Yeah, I am so excited about what we're talking about. I've been praying a lot about it this morning, and we're going to continue talking. about the dangerous trap of being offended, of being hurt, of being wounded.

And as we saw in our last podcast, when the disciples asked Jesus what were going to be some of the signs that would occur right before he returns, and boy, do I believe he's returning. In fact...

I've written, spent a whole year writing this new book called The King is Coming. And I have never felt so... prompted and urged by the holy spirit to prepare the body of christ the people that i he entrusts me to speak to about jesus's second coming because i believe it's so close it's so imminent and so The signs that he talks about is that many are going to be offended. And wow, that word many means a very, very large number.

Some translations even say majority. So at least 51%, and I can say this without a doubt, in 30 years of ministering on this, because I wrote the book, The Bait of Satan, over 30 years ago, I've only seen one... time, think about it, 30 years of ministering this all over the world, one time where less than 50% of the people in the conference or the church responded saying, I'm offended. Now...

That means 99.9% of the times that I've preached this, over 50% of the people were offended. Now, most didn't realize they were offended until the Word of God exposed it. That's why I'm glad you're listening to this podcast. Because we are going to spend this podcast bringing the word of God that, to be honest with you, as I was preparing, it was bringing me under conviction. It was sharpening my heart. So I know...

for a fact this is something that god wants us to do i really believe it yeah and i think it's good that you highlighted that the word of god exposes it because i think a lot of people don't fully identify what an offense is. They just see it as like, no, maybe I just have this thing towards this person. And it's like, I'm not offended. I just.

I don't trust this person. I don't want to be around this person, whatever it is. And they're just slowly beginning to kind of slip into that offense trap. And so identifying that and not making it understandable for people that it's something that... It's impossible. The Bible says it's impossible that you are not going to go through this life without being offended.

having that reality and that humble spirit to not say, no, I'm too proud to be offended or I've never been offended. I remember even saying like, my dad wrote the book on offense. I'm not going to get offended. I'll be able to avoid it. And I quickly fell into that trap. So true story. Even after writing the book, after preaching it, preaching it, I became offended with our pastor and everybody in our family.

When I say everybody, I'm saying, you know, you sons weren't married yet. None of you were married. Lisa and all four sons were going, Dad, you're offended with him. And I was like, I'm not offended with him. I know about offense. I wrote a book on it. I mean, how stupid was I behaving, right? Then. I had to go read The Bait of Satan at Focus on the Family. It was way back when we lived in Colorado Springs. And I'm reading this book, and I came under the greatest.

conviction. And I came back and I looked at all of you guys and I said, I've been offended. I went and met with him. It was a wonderful meeting. There were two other men that I was offended with that I had to call. They were both leaders. And I said, I am so sorry. Now, all three of those men, our relationship are really, really strong and solid today. But it's amazing how I read that book.

in the studio, and my own heart got exposed. That's how I know that I didn't write these books. The Holy Spirit wrote these books. And that was one of the things I said to Lisa when I came back. I said, I know 1,000%.

I did not write that book. God did, because that book just brought me under tremendous conviction. I love that. And that shows the humility as well, because that's a huge part of with offense. I wasn't being humble before that. I was like, I'm not offended. I'm not offended. No, I know. I think, I think.

anytime we try to rectify and we're trying to still justify and figure out like yeah so look i i'm so sorry this happened or i want to apologize for how i did things just this thing though over here it It always leaves a door open and which I know we'll go into more in depth on these things. But I've always watched this when we try to justify when we're trying to reconcile. It leaves that door open. And I've watched so many times where it's just.

boom, that offense just slips right back in. And I think I've always seen it when it's almost true reconciliation in that letting go of the offense is like, look, I have been offended with you. I don't even care what happened. Look, I look at those things. I've reasoned. I've run through them how many times. I'm not even going to try to justify any of those things that happened. I'm not trying to reason with those things. I'm just so sorry.

Like, I'm sorry that I've held this to you. And then through that conversation, it's a better understanding of each other and a reconciliation. I think when you come into it with this, I've got it. You've got to. apologize, but I want to get answers still around certain things. Not saying that you won't get those answers. It's just there always leaves this door open. And I love it because the humility says, look, I'm just going to deal with myself.

And I'm going to deal with the things that I can't control and understand that I was in the wrong. And I'm coming into this conversation accepting that. So there's the situation right now. The person that's been hurt, offended.

is blinded to their own sin of offense. Okay, so we justify offense because of how badly I was treated. So what I would like to say is two wrongs in the kingdom of God. have never equaled into an act of righteousness. Two wrongs have never made a right. In other words, my sin of offense is not justified by how it was treated. And this is the thing that I hear over and over and over because Jesus makes this statement.

Right after he says many will be offended, he said many false prophets will then rise up. After this, many false prophets rise up and deceive many, which tells us that an offended heart is the breeding ground for deception. Now, when I'm deceived...

That is a dangerous place to be because I really believe I'm right when in reality I'm wrong. And that's scary. Hey everybody, we're going to interrupt this podcast just really quickly because I care about your health. One of the things that Lisa and I do is good ranchers. Good Ranchers just isn't another company out there.

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bevere and you're going to get meat that's healthy delivered right to your front door and can i tell you every time the shipment comes i'm so excited i hope you'll take advantage of this generous offer they're making to all of our listeners on the John Bevere podcast. So go over to GoodRanchers.com and let's get back to the table. You know, I looked carefully back. What kept me?

in this place of deception, of torment, was the fact that I was treated so badly by someone who should have protected me, someone who should have nurtured me.

that I was blind to my own sin of being offended. Offense is a sin. And this is the thing. I've heard so many people say this to me. You just don't know what they did to me. And what I would like to say to you, if that's it, let's just be honest. Let's open up our hearts right now and let's open it to the word of God and let's get healed because the word of God doesn't hurt you. It heals you. You just don't know what they did to me.

No, you don't know what you did to Jesus. Now, here's a statement. I actually want you to write this down and look at it after the podcast is over. Think about this. A person who cannot forgive is a person that is actually... forgotten what they've been forgiven of. Now let me say it again. I'm going to get a little bit more specific. A believer who refuses to forgive is a believer who is actually forgotten or never realized.

what they were forgiven up. We have to remember that first of all, what we did to God, all right, was so offensive. that we deserve to burn in the lake of fire forever. I mean, here's what I believe is the root of all of this. I think in the Western church especially, we categorize sins. OK, so we got the big sins. We have witchcraft. We have murder. We have adultery. We have these big sins. Then we have what we call weaknesses. OK, strife.

outbursts of anger, unforgiveness. Okay, now, this is what's amazing, and I just felt prompted of the Holy Spirit to go look at it this morning. Proverbs 6, verses 16 through 19, tells us the six things that God hates. Okay? Hates. But the seventh one... goes beyond hatred in God's eyes. It goes to an abomination. All right? What are these six things? Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that murder innocent blood.

Wow, that's a whole message right there on the fact that we've killed over 70 million people in America. Oh, I don't even want to talk about it. Okay, a heart that manufactures, and I'm talking about babies in the womb. A heart that manufactures wicked thoughts and plans. So in other words, you're scheming wicked thoughts and plans. Hurrying. Here's number five. Hurrying to do wrong.

Here's number six, being a false witness. All right, misrepresenting, lying about somebody. All right, those six the Lord hates. Now, what's interesting is... Okay, adultery is not in this list. Now, is adultery not a sin? No. Listen, it's the eighth commandment, okay? Jesus... makes it so clear. You know, Paul makes it so clear. Paul said, don't even be deceived. Adulterers will not inherit the kingdom of God. So not justifying adultery, but I find it amazing. It's not in this list.

But the seventh one that God says, this one trumps them all, is someone who sows discord among brothers and sisters. Okay, gossip. Now here's what I like to say. Treat gossip... the way you treat murder, you'll probably get delivered. If we treat gossip as something that's not in this list, and it's amazing.

Adultery is not even in this list. But this is the one that God says is an abomination. If we really see gossip as being abominable, sowing discord among family members, we see that. the way god sees it well let me tell you something we won't touch it with the 10-foot pole yeah if we treat unforgiveness the way we treat murder we'll probably be free but the problem is we keep

blinding ourselves to how serious of an offense unforgiveness is to God. Because it's the very foundation of Calvary. I mean, think about it. Jesus, on the cross, said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Okay. They knew what they were doing. They drove nails into his hands. Okay. But in reality, he's not talking just about those soldiers. He's talking.

about the next generation the next generation the next generation right down to you and me because our sins put him there on that act of forgiveness led to the roman officer even acknowledging He said, truly, this was the son of God. Because he saw this man forgive. That was just beautiful. The most gruesome death a human being. Do you realize that when he was beaten and scourged,

He didn't even look like a human being. Yeah. Isaiah wrote that. I mean, would you just stop and think about this? This is after he is so beaten by four regiments of soldiers. He doesn't even look like a human being.

And yet he goes, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. Yeah. Look, I mean, can I actually touch on that? Going back to the Roman soldier is I understand there was an earthquake and there was shaking that took place as well. But one of those elements was the forgiveness that he acknowledged. But that Roman office. or probably saw countless crucifixions that had taken place.

But yet one of the defining factors in that moment of understanding that was truly the Son of God was the forgiveness. And that set it apart from everything else that he continued to see. It wasn't that he saw, oh man, this was so brutal or so gruesome. Wow, it says, no, I saw that man endure the things that he just endured and still yet said, Father, forgive them. Like that's beautiful. And that's an understanding for our lives is the things that we have to navigate. Understanding.

It's impossible that it will not come. Understanding the tribulations, the hardships, the lying, the things that will come up against us that we have to navigate. But yet, as much as we go through...

One of the defining factors it should be as us as children of God should be that our ability to forgive those who have wronged us. And I think that also stands us out from the world. Right now we have so much in the world that we talk about. We have so much in the world where people are...

The Christians are holding offenses with one another. They're slandering each other. They're attacking each other on social media and just going after each other and disagreeing openly and leading to this place where they're hating their brethren openly on social media. And we're not showing any difference.

Yeah, we're not showing any difference than the world. And so people don't know us or see us by the fruits that they're actually taking. Here's the thing. I mean, you have to understand the magnitude. Well, you just don't know what they did to me. Okay, do you understand what you did to Jesus? Do you really understand? So, Arden, I'll never forget this as long as I live, okay? My just punishment for what I did to God was that I deserved.

John Bevere, I deserve to burn in a lake of fire for all eternity. That was my just. Now listen to my word, just. In other words, that's what was fair to God. because of how much I offended him is that me burning a lake of fire forever and ever and ever. I can't think of anything that we can do to one another that is worse than that. Yeah. Okay, so here's the worst thing I can think of is child abuse.

That's probably, I've sat there and I thought, what's the worst thing one man can do to an innocent, a defenseless child being abused by an adult? And I'll never forget this. Remember our next door neighbor? He was a WWF wrestler who used to play street hockey every single night with him. Kip and his two sons were about your boy's ages. And we had a lot of fun. And I remember...

I went to Kip. Kip kept saying to me, John, I'll take you to the gym. I'll train you. So when I was 35, I went to the gym with him and he started training me. Well, in this sweat box of a gym, they always played the local radio station. And back in those days, we didn't have earphones. I'm always listening to the radio station. Well, all of Orlando was in an uproar because of the way a father treated his little 18 month old baby girl. She was crying too much.

I'm going to guess. I never heard this, but I'm going to guess. She probably had... What's that thing that causes... Colic. Colic. She probably had colic. He got so upset because the mother was gone working, he's home with the baby, that he put the... Oven on broiler. Broiler. Got the oven rack so it was red hot, a branding iron, and started bouncing the baby on that broiler thinking, I know.

thinking it would silence the baby's crying. The baby ended up with second and third degree burns. I'm telling you, the guys in that gym, I'm talking about even the sinners. wanted to kill that guy. Yeah. They were so furious. I mean, the radio announcer day after, and this is something we heard because I'm in the gym every day because he's making me work out every day, but one. And I'm hearing this over and over, right? Now.

is bad as what that father did to that baby. That's nothing compared to burning in a lake of fire for all eternity in utter darkness. with a stench that no nostril could ever... Because the stench of hell is sulfur. And that's the only thing your nose can't get used to. So you're in a lake, you're being eaten by worms because Jesus said the worm will not die and the fire will not go out. All right, this was the punishment God created for the devil.

And Jesus, when he looks at him and says, you're going to hell. Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels, but the devil is taking men there. And one of the... primary tools he's using to take human beings there is unforgiveness okay yeah and this is why we hear over and over again in the gospels

that if we cannot forgive we will not be forgiven by our heavenly father and i'm going to read these scriptures because i want you to hear these scriptures and there's a reason jesus says this it's because god put his nature in us The Bible says the love of God was shed abroad in our heart by the Holy Spirit, which means the very same love that Jesus had on the cross that forgave us before we ever said, I'm sorry.

Because somebody says, when they apologize, I'll forgive them. Well, what if Jesus would have waited for you to apologize? You never... The kindness of God never would have led you to repentance. So he forgave you long before you ever said, I'm sorry. And I remember this was the thing that kept me in the trap of unforgiveness, is I kept thinking,

It's so blatant, so obvious. Everybody else sees what he's done to me. Why doesn't he come and apologize? Okay? That was one of the strongholds that kept me in unforgiveness, that kept me under torment. Okay? So let me, let me, I, I, I, I just got to read this, this, this parable. Matthew 18, the whole. The whole chapter is basically Jesus talking about unforgiveness, about offenses, about being in disagreement with brothers. Okay, we're going to interrupt the conversation.

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days free. So there's no reason why you shouldn't just jump over there right now and set up an account. And now, let's get back to the word. Okay, so let's get back to this. I deserved hell. You deserved hell. That was our just reward. That's far worse than what happened to that baby. And that baby will grow up. And because of the sin nature in that baby, eventually that baby would have sinned. And so that baby's destiny would have been the same thing.

That's far worse than what we deserved. It's so... Mind-blowing. I mean, in Matthew 18, Jesus makes this so clear. In Matthew 18, Peter comes to Jesus and says, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Now, Peter thinks he's just stretching to the hilt on this one.

Because they were brought up under an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. In other words, you do something to me, I get to do it back to you. And I get to do it legally because it's under the law. And Peter keeps hearing Jesus talk about forgiveness.

And so Peter just looks at Jesus and goes, okay, okay, I think you've already said, blessed are you, Peter, because I recognize you were the Christ. I've already walked on water. I want to get three notches up on these guys because they're constantly jockeying. for who's the greatest. I mean, these guys are amazing. And Peter goes, I'm just going to think as big as I can think. And he goes, my brother sins against me seven times. I forgive him. That's enough. And he's expecting Jesus to go.

wow, you finally got it, Peter. Peter goes, and Jesus goes to Peter. No, no, no, not seven times, 70 times seven. And if you go over to Luke's gospel, he says in a day. He said, if your brother sins against you seven times in a day and comes back and says, I repent, you shall forgive him. And by the way, that's when the disciples said, Lord, increase our faith. They saw him raise the dead. They saw him open up blind eyes. They saw him calm the ocean. But when he says...

Your brother sins against you seven times in a day and comes back and says, I'm sorry. That's when they go, increase our faith. In other words, this is too difficult. They don't have the love of God shed and they're brought in their heart yet. We do. And Jesus is speaking to us prophetically as the church. Can I?

Before we jump onto that. I know, I'm kind of on a roll. No, you're good. I think something that is practical, people are probably asking, I remember seeing a post, someone said, and I disagreed with it, but he said, you know, Jesus said to forgive, but not to forget. I've always kind of correlated these two things because we're supposed to forgive as Jesus has forgiven us, correct? And the Bible talks about... Let's read the scripture. Okay, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Forgive us our sins. This is the Lord's prayer. We pray this in the Lord. Forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who have... sinned against us, okay? Now, how did God forgive us? Well, the scripture says he buries our sins in a sea of forgetfulness as far as from the east is from the west, which is an infinite distance. And so how do we navigate that, though? Forgive but not forget which is what that guy was saying, but I think that's that's almost wrong in a way, but also

We talked about last time the boundaries and keeping those rest of the boundaries. So what is the correct way to navigate that? Or what does true forgiveness look like in this? Let's look at the way God forgave us. Was he good to me? Did he bless me before I was saved? Yeah.

gave me food, gave me sunshine, gave me water to drink, gave me clothes to wear, gave me something to sleep on. It's the goodness and kindness of God that led me to repentance. So before I'm saved, he's good to me. That's the way we're supposed to be.

with someone but before i got saved did he share the intimate things of his heart with me no OK, it wasn't until I got saved and I started walking in obedience by the power of his spirit that he started sharing his intimate secrets. So what that means is we go back to what we said in the last podcast. We don't put up walls. We put up. Boundaries. God had a boundary with me before I repented. He said, I'm not going to open up and share the intimate things in my heart with you.

But he still blessed me. He still would protect me. I didn't get in any car wrecks that took my life before I got saved. I didn't get diseases that took my life early before I got saved. He was protecting me. He was good to me. So that is an excellent question. But there was a boundary. He didn't share the intimate secrets of his heart with me. Yeah. So creating those boundaries, but not like...

Because I feel like that saying of forgive but don't forget is like I'm creating a boundary, but I'm almost building it up into a wall. After I repented, he buried my seas in the sin of forgetfulness. Yeah. So I can go back to him and say... Do you remember what I did? And this happened to me just recently. He said, son, don't break this up again. I have forgotten this. Okay, so let me ask on this, because I think this guy was even correlating it to...

emotional well-being and this understanding. I remember I had a friend who was going to a Christian therapist, and it was like... He was talking to him, going back and forth, and he came to me one day and he was like, oh, I realize why I'm so messed up. Like, it's my dad's fault. And now I know it's my dad's fault. And so...

I understand why I messed up. And it wasn't this point of like, I told him, I said, well, are you going to go talk to your dad and just be able to reconcile in that area? He was like, no, I just know now why I messed up. And it was this point of almost like this emotional, like. and for lack of better words, but emotional crutch where it's like we understand why we are the way that we are. because of the way that someone else treated us. And so we tie our unforgiveness to them.

And we attire emotions to them. And then we try to walk and navigate life forward, understanding this crutch. And I feel like that's almost what he was even... alluding to within the emotional awareness scene because I think so many people are in that space where they're like I have unforgiveness towards my parents or unforgiveness towards this person or I've walked through like I forgive them but I'm still

this way because of them. How do we navigate that? Do you understand what I'm saying here? Because I think that's big right now. Let's take a look at Joseph. Yeah. Joseph gets a dream from God. Now we know his character is a little bit, he's a bragger, he's a tattletale. His brothers hate him. Yeah. And God gives him a dream. You're going to be a leader and your brothers will serve you. What happens? His brothers seek to destroy him. They seek to kill him. Yeah.

They throw him into a pit. They tear his rope, cover it with blood. They're going to let him just rot in the pit. Judah, who happens to be... The one whose lineage Jesus comes through. Judas sees the caravan of Ishmaelites. He said, guys, I got a better idea. Get some money.

He dies, he dies. Let's make some money off of him. And when we sell him as a slave, when you're back in those days sold as a slave to a foreign nation, you will be a slave the rest of your life. Your wife will be a slave. Your children will be slaves. It's over. So a lot of us Americans, a lot of us Westerners don't realize how serious it is what they did to him. It is one thing to be born a slave.

It's another thing to be born of a very wealthy man. Just think about it. Abraham's, all of his wealth went down to Isaac, went down to Jacob. Okay? Do you remember kings came to Abraham? Abraham had armies. Abraham was extremely wealthy. The Bible even says that he was wealthy in cattle, silver, and gold. This is Jacob.

Joseph is the heir of this very wealthy man. And because of what his brothers do, it's all stripped from him. Now he's a slave. He's going to work the rest of his life to build somebody else's wealth. Now he is sold to Potiphar's house. If you're a believer, you know this story. Officer of Pharaoh. He is a slave in his house. Now, we don't understand. Joseph's inheritance was not just the wealth of Jacob. It was the name.

Remember how depressed men were when they didn't have sons in the Old Testament? Because they had no one to carry on their name. Joseph's inheritance was to carry on the name of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. they stripped that of him. So not only did they strip him of the inheritance of wealth, but his name. I mean, this is serious stuff, what they did. To be honest with you,

I imagine in the 19 years before Joseph saw this dream fulfilled, and I'm going to go through the 19 years, he thought many times it would have been better if they just killed me. Yeah. All right. So you're made of a slave. You get a little favor with your master after 10 years, and you're made now steward of his household. But something very wicked is happening.

the master's wife potiphar's wife gets the hots for joseph she doesn't approach him once she approaches him every day yeah every single day now He's got no church he's going to. He's got no fellowship he's going to. He's got no family to look to. No accountability. No accountability. Yeah. All he has to do is sleep with this woman. Nobody will ever find out. But he fears God so much. Now think about it.

He got a dream that he was going to be leader of his brothers. And this dream hasn't been fulfilled for 10 years. Some people are upset if God didn't fulfill their dreams in six weeks, six months, 10 years. And you're thinking, you know. What good is it that I'm serving God? I've been a slave for 10 years, and I've had really, you know, everything stripped from me. I've got this beautiful woman who probably has a seducing spirit up to her eyeballs.

Nobody's gonna know. But he fears God so much, he says no. And she approaches him daily, every single day for sex. And one day they're alone, and he says, God forbid. That I do this. Great sin. And he flees. And she's got a hold of his robe. He flees the house naked. She's a scorned woman. She screens rape. Now he's thrown into a dungeon. Our prisons are country clubs. Country clubs compared to a Middle Eastern dungeon.

I've been in two of them. They're usually underground. They're very, very damp. There is no toilet. There's no toilet. You're living in your waste. What they did in those days is they gave the bread of affliction and the water of affliction. That was they wanted to give you just enough to keep you alive because dying is too easy. So he's in this dungeon. Now God brings the greatest test to him. If he's offended at all with God because of what my brothers have done to me.

When these two guys come to him and say, we had dreams last night, and they recognize there was a gift on Joseph to interpret dreams, Joseph could have said to them, you had a dream last night, I had a dream once, leave me alone. And...

If he would have done that, he never would have gotten out of prison. But he interprets the guy's dreams. He says, hey, just remember one thing to the butler. Please remember me when you get before Pharaoh. I'm completely innocent. The butler forgets. Two more years go by. Okay, now Pharaoh has the dream. God exalts him in one day, right? Okay. Two years of, or excuse me, seven years of plenty.

Okay, so now we're at 12 years, at seven more years of plenty, and you're at 19 years. Actually, I was wrong earlier. It's 21 years. Then you have two years of famine, 21 years. All right, I'm answering your question in a long roundabout way. All right. 21 years, and finally here come his brothers. Now, what if Joseph didn't forget what they did? He's now an authority. He can punish them. He can make them slaves.

He can execute them. Yeah, easily. But he blesses his brothers. Yeah. So that's not a guy remembering what they did. He blesses them. And then he says, because this is what we think, okay?

This is what we think. We think other people control our destinies when in reality they don't. There is no man, no woman, no child, no devil that can get you out of the will of God. The only one that can get you out of the will of God is you. Look at Joseph. His brother said we're going to destroy his dreams and they end up being the very vehicles that fulfill it because God says this is going to happen. Israel gets offended with Moses and really offended with God.

And they don't fulfill their destiny. They die in the desert. So the only one that can get you out of your destiny is you. By being offended. Which you would say an offense is one of the... best ways to the enemy will use to get you out of you out of the will of god yeah okay he looks at those brothers and says you didn't send me here yes they did no they didn't he saw beyond it and he said

God, I realize, because this is the way we think, okay? God the Father is sitting next to God the Son on the throne, and God the Father goes, Jesus, Bill just lost his dream job. Because Jack, his fellow employee, gossiped and lied about him, and he got fired. Do you have any job openings available for him? That's the way we think God responds. Oh, Jesus, Jane.

oh my gosh she the the man i wanted her to marry he married her best friend because her best friend lied to him and he he turned his affections from jane to her best friend Sally, and they got married. Do you have another guy for her? This is the way we think God responds. So that's why we remember. Yeah. When I go, wait a minute, if I stay free from offense, if I walk in obedience to God, if I keep myself in the love of God,

No man, no woman, no child, no devil can get me out of God's plan for my life. The steps of a good man and woman are ordered of God. So I'm going to remember. Now what I'm going to do is remember is I'm going to continue to be tormented. Yeah. Do you feel like that's why? Because I have seen studies that have shown the massive uptick of emotional...

emotional health being such a massive thing. Whereas before, I think it was like the 1960s, 1940s, something like that, it was not as big of an emphasis. Do you actually feel like a fence?

is tied into that which i'm not saying offense wasn't as much of a breeding ground but i don't know like i'm just seeing there's such an uptick within it i think the danger of counseling is it gets the focus on our soul instead of truth okay joseph had to be focused on truth god gave me a dream god is faithful god will bring forth his promise yeah and no matter what my brothers did to me

Because the Bible says he remembered. When his brothers came before him, he remembered. And that remember doesn't mean, oh, I forgot, now I just remembered. It means he kept before him the entire 21 years that one day his brothers would serve him. He never lost sight of that. Yeah, and I want to make sure that's clear. You're not saying there's no benefit of counseling. I'm not saying that because I believe in counseling, but I believe because your mother and I, I look at our marriage.

Our marriage wouldn't be as strong as it is today had it not been for the godly counselor who is a pastor named Chip who... who spent time with us and used the word of god by the spirit of god to uproot things out of us yeah okay yeah but he never would look at us and say lisa you need to remember the way john treated you 20 years ago because if he would have done that she wouldn't have

Or Lisa, you're justified in feeling these things because the way John treated you 10 years ago. And so just remember, it's okay that you're feeling this. That's kind of where I feel like the lie has so much snuck in. it leads to identify. identifying and not forgiving i love what i feel like mom said this a few times is people are trying to have counseling without the counselor like and saying that is they're they're understanding god is our counselor and we go to other methods and means

and not to godly counselors that will use the word of God to uproot, to destroy the lies of the enemy and to point us into a direction of health. So let me finish this because I just want to make sure. Jesus realizes that Peter has tried so hard when he says, if my brother sins against me, seven times I forgive him, it's enough. And Jesus said, no, 70 times seven, right?

So he realizes these guys are really struggling. So he says, I'm going to tell you a story that will illustrate the way I want you to forgive. So he says, therefore, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring it. His accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought to him who owed him millions. Now, this translation was done way, way back, okay?

I looked it up recently. Billions. Okay? It's not millions. It's billions of dollars. Okay? So this servant owes his king billions of dollars. That is an unpayable debt. Okay? He couldn't pay. Of course he couldn't. So his master ordered that he be sold along with his wife and children and everything he owned to pay the debt. And that probably wouldn't have even paid it.

But the man fell down before his master and begged him, please be patient with me and I'll pay it all. Yeah, right. You're going to pay off billions. Then his master was filled with pity or another translation says he released him. Okay. Now listen to this. and forgave his debt so what does what is jesus saying here okay your debt which is billions is forgiven in other words you don't owe me anything you don't owe me reparations you don't need to pay me back

you're completely released. Wow. Billions of dollars. This is God the Father's forgiveness to us. This is why I said a person who can't forgive is a person who's forgotten what they've been forgiven. Now, the man, when the man left the king, He went to a fellow servant. So now we're talking a fellow believer who owed him $10,000. I looked it up.

okay it says a few thousand dollars in the translation it's actually ten thousand dollars now whoa whoa whoa time out time out it's actually twenty thousand dollars but anyway okay so he's been forgiven of billions And now his fellow servant has done something, you know, and $20,000 is not, hey, I'm so sorry. Hey, bro, don't even. Yeah.

this is what jesus is communicating is his fellow brother really did him dirty yeah there's there's a significant amount but you put it yeah scale if i take from you arden twenty thousand dollars from your family yeah literally take it and don't pay it back That's not what it is. Me coming to you, hey, Arden, I'm sorry. Dad, don't even think about it, right? I mean, he really did him dirty. But in comparison, the very worst thing we can do to each other compared to what we did to God. Yeah.

is like comparing $20,000 with billions of dollars. That's why I said the person who can't forgive is the person that's forgotten what they've been forgiven of. All right? So what does he do? He grabs this guy by his throat. And he demands payment. His fellow servant fell down before him, and he does exactly what he did with the king. Okay? Yeah, he begs. And he begged for more time.

Be patient with me. I'll pay it, he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn't wait. He had the man arrested and put into prison until he could pay the debt in full. When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king. told him everything that had happened. Now listen to this. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, you wicked servant. Wow, I forgave you. So we're talking about like somebody who's been.

forgiven. We're talking about a believer, not an unbeliever here. This parable is not about an unbeliever. It's about two believers. I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Now listen to this. Shouldn't you have mercy? Another translation says, compassion on your fellow servant. Now listen to these words. Just as. Just as. How many times do we see, Colossians, that we are to forgive one another, even as God, just as.

God in Christ has forgiven us, okay? Shouldn't you have compassion on your fellow servant just as I had mercy on you? Then the king... sent the man to prison to be tortured listen to Jesus's words tortured until he paid the entire debt that's the unpayable yeah okay now this is the only parable

In all four Gospels, Jesus gives the interpretation without them asking. If you look at every other parable, they had to come to him and say, what did you mean by that? And then he would open it up to his disciples, right? But he says, I'm going to tell you the interpretation of this without you even asking. It's the only time it happens in all four Gospels. Here's the interpretation of this story. That's what my Heavenly Father will do to you.

If you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart. Oh, my goodness. Now, let's look at scriptures. When we pray the Lord's Prayer, I've already said. Forgive us as we've forgiven those who have sinned against us, Matthew 6, 12. Let's read it from the Amplified. And forgive us our debts.

as we have also forgiven, remitted, let go of the debts and have given up resentment against our debtors. So in other words, the way we forgive others is the way God's going to forgive us. That's what the Lord's Prayer states. Jesus then amplifies after the Lord's Prayer. This is Matthew 6, 14 and 15. He's just prayed the Lord's Prayer, taught him how to pray, but then he amplifies because he knows this is a hard one to follow, hard pill to swallow.

If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly father. God is not father to the sinner. He is only father to the believer. If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, Your father, he's not talking to unbelievers, will not forgive your sins.

Mark 11. That was at the beginning of Jesus' ministry. Let's look at the end of Jesus' ministry. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive your trespasses. But if you do not forgive... Neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses. Hey, I want to take a moment to say thank you to everyone who has chosen to financially support

this podcast. Because of your generosity, the Jambavir podcast has actually reached over 15 million views and has over 3 million watch hours. That's just crazy when you think about it in just one year. That means millions of people around the world are hearing bold biblical truth. We truly couldn't have done this without you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you.

for standing with us praying with us and helping us share these timeless truths for our ever-changing times if this podcast has encouraged you i just want you to consider partnering with us to make uncompromising followers of Christ who will transform their world. Just click the link in the description to give now. I could go on and on and on. In fact, there are more scriptures in the New Testament.

that how God will not forgive us if we don't forgive, then there is how God will not forgive us if we murder somebody. There's more scriptures. So what we have classified as a weakness. is actually a very serious sin in the eyes of God. And the reason is, is in the New Testament, the Old Testament, they didn't have the love of God in their heart. They didn't have the divine nature of God put within them.

That's why they lived under an eye for an eye and tooth for tooth. But Jesus said, hey, listen, this is what the law says, eye for an eye and tooth for tooth. But this is what I say. Love those who are your enemies. Do good to those.

who persecute you and treat you unfairly. And this is the way to freedom. Jesus doesn't say this to us to put us in bondage. He says this to us because he wants us free from the... tormentors Arden when I was in unforgiveness for that it was probably 18 months I was tormented I could not stop thinking about how badly I'd been treated. How I didn't do anything to deserve the treatment I got. And it tormented me. And people are tormented right now. That's why...

They're lashing out on Instagram. They're mad at everybody else. They've embraced tribalism. They've embraced gender as their identities. Instead of realizing... You're a child of God, and the way Jesus forgave us is the way we're supposed to forgive those who have harmed us. Any thoughts?

No, I mean, it's very sobering. I think the biggest thing, and kind of even what I mentioned in the beginning, was I think pride is obviously what leads into it. I know Proverbs says pride leads to conflict, and those who take... take advice or wise. And that understanding of what pride will do, it will lead you into conflict. It leads you into offense. And then what you even said last time is when you're in offense, the people that you think are actually against you.

oftentimes are the ones that are for you and trying to see reconciliation happen and then the people who are actually against you or not benefiting you are the ones that you think is actually for you. And just what a scary place it is to be in. And this is something that obviously it creeps into marriages. It creeps into families. It's one thing that I've... I've always looked at even for my wife and our family growing up, like you guys modeled, is we would always fight through something.

We would make sure things could get really rough. It could get messy. It could be that we just didn't navigate it well. But one thing I always appreciated is we were always dedicated to make sure we finished that conversation. that we reconciled, that we came to an understanding with each other and forgiveness. Yeah. And that we walked away as still, you know, understanding this is my brother, this is my parents, whatever it is, or this is my spouse. And that's one thing that I look at.

Christianized marriage that I'm so glad that you guys modeled for us because I've had people tell me that they've they've just allowed things to sneak underneath their marriage and they won't address them because they don't want to confront them. And I've watched this with Christian and I, she, she almost is, it's been, you know, annoying to her at times when, in the beginning stages of our marriage is where I'm like, we just need to make sure.

that we talk through this. Like, we completely have this conversation. And it's harder to have those conversations and to navigate those things. That is the harder thing to do. than to just allow it to sneak underneath. But in the long run, it will be the harder thing to do, to allow it just to sneak underneath and continue to distort and ruin different areas of your life. And so as much as we can, just continue to live peacefully.

as the Bible says, live peacefully with all men as much as possible. Because there is some times where it's like, you cannot force a person to forgive you. You can't force them to reconcile with you. But as much as you can do, you take care of the things that are in your heart. Take care of those things. You pray over that person. You bless them. I love...

I think you mentioned this a lot last time, but making sure people understand is they're saying, well, how do I walk in forgiveness? Exercising that ability to pray for that individual. that's one of the best things that will lead you into forgiveness for that individual seeing them the way that god sees and this is this is certainly not something that's just theory to me and i i remember that 18 months

What really brought healing to my heart is praying for the man, what I wanted God to do for our family. Oh, wow, wow, wow. It hurt when I prayed the truth. It hurt when I asked God to bless him in all the ways I wanted him to bless me and my family, right? And that's what God told me to do. And when I started doing that, that's when I got healed. And I think had I not gotten healed...

I would have remembered because I have been in contact with that man many times and there's not even a remembrance. I have to force myself to remember what that time period was like. I love that man so much. And that is totally gone. It's not in my memory. The only memory I have with that man is the ways that he did bless me. So I'm walking free from that memory that was very, very painful. It brought me into prison.

and you can be free too can i can i say this really quick because we we did gloss over this with the gossip and i know we we talked about how much how god hates it and how to treat it I will say one of the greatest ways just to lead yourself into offense and continue down that path is just not going directly to the person. And we talked about Matthew 18. That's the whole model. You'll go to somebody else probably. Yes. If you have the urge to...

pick up your phone and call someone else besides the person that you have an offense with or navigating something with, that will be the beginning of offense that starts welling up. And always just double check with yourself. Did I hear that this person just had this conversation? And if you pick up that phone and you're not calling that individual or you're going to that individual directly and you go to someone else. That will lead you down a slippery slope. And that is why God says he hates.

people who sow discord amongst brethren because he understands what it leads to. We on our team, we treat a gossip as a fireable offense. We treat it the same as if someone would have stole something from the ministry or whatever else it could be. Because why? We see it as something that will completely undermine the culture and what the things that we are trying to do here on this team and what we're trying to build.

He doesn't hate the person. He hates the gossip. He loves the person and hopes the person will repent of it. Yeah. But he doesn't hate the person that actually gossips. Yes. But that hatred. will cause separation between them and God and continued and pursued, it will not... I mean, Jesus will look at them one day and say, I don't know who you are, you who practice lawlessness. So yes, it's very, very dangerous. But we choose whether we're going to walk in truth or we're going to walk...

according to our feelings, or what friends say to us. Because I did find in that period, and I want to bring a close to this, because I don't feel like we're done really, really talking about this. I think we could actually do another whole podcast. I found one, I found two people. One was my wife, Lisa, and another one was a very godly pastor who I knew that me...

Walking through this with him wouldn't cause his opinion of this man because this man is so well known. And between those two, there were times that I was feeling overwhelmed. And I went and all they did. I mean, your mom at first didn't. She kind of jumped in it with me. And one day God spoke to her and said, I'm doing a work in your husband. Don't you get in the offense with him. Speak the truth to him.

So she started speaking the truth to me, and that other pastor started speaking truth to me. He's in heaven now today, and I'm so grateful for him. So you're saying you went to godly counsel to help reconcile with the person. That was the two people I went to.

because I realized I'm not going to be spreading gossip about this man of God. Correct, yeah. I'm just not going to do it. But I've got to get out of this, and I need a little help. I need somebody to take my hands. But I knew they would speak the truth, and I knew I would not ruin what their opinion is. or their love for that man. Well, and then you also can perceive it because...

probably even when mom started saying, no, I think you need to go have this. It's like, if you're looking at through the lens, you're like, well, now she's not having compassion for me. And that's what I was saying about the people that you actually think are against you. It's like.

No, they're actually for you. They're having compassion. They're directing you. Here's a good litmus test. When somebody speaks the truth, the word of God to you, and you get angry, there's your problem. You just found your problem. Pride will cover it up. Pride will justify you, but you just found your problem. And so with that, let's close. And I just feel right now, there are some of you right now, you just, you need to forgive and you know exactly who you are.

Arden and I want to lead you in that prayer right now. So just say this with me. God in heaven, my Father, forgive me for my sin of harboring an offense, refusing to forgive. I recognize that I have sinned against you and I ask forgiveness. So I'm asking now in the name of Jesus that you would flood your love in my heart and in the strength of that love.

I forgive. Now say that person's name out loud. If it's your mom, your uncle, a former pastor, whoever it is, say that person's name out loud. I forgive in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. If you still fight torment, start praying for that person, whatever you want God to do in your life. I guarantee you that will bring the healing you need in your soul.

I hope this has helped. Until next time, this has been the Jon Bevere Podcast. Remember, please, please share this podcast with others. Rate it. Write a review. We would really appreciate that. And to all you patrons that support the John Bevere podcast, we're so grateful because so many, many are being reached, literally millions every single year.

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