Breaking Free from Unforgiveness

Thank you so much. Good morning Cornerstone, good morning! It's great to be here. Let everybody stand up. I always love praying before bringing the Word of God, so everyone stand up. This morning I want to say hello to everybody who's watching by home. Hopefully somebody from Vermont has tuned in by now. I just want to say this is one of my favorite churches in the United States. And why is that? Because this church has stood for truth ever since it was founded by Pastor Hagee, right from the beginning. I have been so impacted by his ministry, and then to see Matt come along and continue that legacy and bring it even up to another level, it is a great honor and a privilege to stand before you. I also love this church so much because you love Israel. Thank you for loving Israel. Thank you for being the body of Christ. Thank you for being the family of God. For those of you that don't know me, I'm hoping that you don't see me as a guest speaker, but that you see me as family. You can just call me Uncle John. Uncle John is in the house. I think the best way I know to introduce myself to you is show you the people that I love so deeply, and that's my family. Here's a picture of my family. Lisa and I have been married 40 years this year, and she is my very best friend. And I told her just this week, I said, if you would have me, I would marry you in a heartbeat tomorrow. These are our four sons, three daughter-in-laws. We are about to get a fourth daughter-in-law next month.

Please, it is still a secret, so don't tell anybody even though it is going all over the world right now. It's gonna be announced tomorrow by our third-born son. He's marrying an Australian, and we love her very much. We have six G-babies. You say, what is a G-baby? I am way too young to be grandpa, so it's G-daddy, NG for short. And we just had a brand-new grandbaby born, and her name is Scarlett. Look at those eyes. Those are the eyes that look right into your soul, so she's the one that says, I already know what you're thinking. Anyway, that's my family. I love them deeply. I love them dearly, and I realize how much God loves us, because we're His big family. Can you say amen? Now, I'm gonna ask you a question. I asked the first service this. Do you want a message from me, or do you want your life changed forever? Let me hear everybody. Okay, that's a good answer. I did not travel all the way down here to give you a bunch of information. I could be the best communicator on the planet, but if the Holy Spirit doesn't anoint these words, that's what you're gonna get instead of transformation. Transformation is what we need. Amen? So, with that, the Bible says you don't have because you don't ask. Let's everybody lift our hands and ask God. Father, in the name of Jesus, thank you so very, very much for the privilege, the honor of being your children. You could have made us slaves, and we would have been much better off than where we were,

but you called us sons and daughters of God. And so, Lord God, we come before your throne in the name of Jesus, and we ask in agreement that you would literally fill our sanctuaries, whether we're at home or whether we're in this room today. That Holy Spirit, that you would do what you love to do the most, and that is that you would glorify Jesus in a way like we've never known Him before. And as you do that, may we go from glory to glory, and from strength to strength. For I decree, your kingdom has come, your will shall be done in this place on earth as it is in heaven. And for this, Lord God, we give you all the honor, the praise, and the thanksgiving, and the glory in Jesus' mighty, wonderful, majestic, holy name. And everybody that agrees, shouts! Come on, give Him praise in advance for what He's going to do. Amen, amen, amen. You can be seated. I am so glad I got to come to the second service just to hear the choir again. How do you stand listening to them every single week? That is absolutely amazing. Absolutely. As my dear friend Pastor Matt shared, I am going to share with you out of a book that I actually wrote 28 years ago next month. Well, it was launched 28 years ago, and yeah, I wrote it when I was five years old. So anyway, it is a book, and where I'm going to begin is Jesus addressing His disciples about the last days. Now you are a member of Cornerstone, and I don't think I even need to ask. We all know we're living in the last days, correct? So the disciples come up to Jesus, and they say, what's going to be some of the things that are going to happen right before you return? And Jesus begins to list these signs that would occur. But the one I really want to focus in on is verse 10, 11, 12, and 13.

Jesus said, and then many, everybody say many. The Greek word for many there literally means majority. Then many will be offended. Say offended. Many will betray one another. and will hate one another. Now this is actually a progression. An offended person will eventually betray, and if a betrayal is not dealt with, it can lead to hatred. You say, John, where do you get this from? Proverbs chapter 18, verse 19 says this, a brother offended is harder to win than a strong city. Now in the days of Solomon, who wrote the book of Proverbs, what did strong cities have around them? Walls. What were walls built for? Protection. They would keep out those people you believed were against you and allow in those people you believed were for you. Well this is exactly what an offended believer does. They begin to build walls, but the walls are not physical walls, they are walls built on our soul. During Corinthians chapter 10, verses 3, 4, and 5, the Apostle Paul says, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. How many of you know we are in a battleground, not a playground? He said, for the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but they are mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now what are those strongholds? He lists them, and I want you to look at these carefully. Pulling down every reasoning, point to your head and say reasoning.

And every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge, say knowledge, of God and bringing every thought, thought, captive to the obedience of Christ. So what are strongholds? They are thought processes or reasonings that we develop deep within our soul that are contrary to the will of God. Now how many of you know God's will is found in His word? And His word is rooted in His nature. What is God's nature? Love. He doesn't have love. He is love. Okay? So the love of God always seeks to give, to give, to give. A person that has been hurt, they will not want to be hurt again. So now they develop thought processes or reasonings to protect, protect, protect. When you do this, it makes you a candidate for betrayal. Now a lot of people don't understand betrayal. They think of just the extreme cases. Benedict Arnold, Judas, a betrayal, the definition of a betrayal is when I seek my benefit or protection at the expense of one I have a relationship with. A betrayal is an ultimate abandonment of a relationship, and if it's not dealt with, it can ultimately lead to hatred. Now a lot of people in the church really don't understand hatred. They associate hatred only with strong emotions. You can hate someone and not have any emotion. The Bible says that Absalom hated Ammon, his brother, therefore he neither spoke good nor evil to him. The word hatred in the Greek literally is defined as this, loveless. It is a vacuum in which there is no love at all, so it is the absence of love. So what Jesus is saying is going to happen is in the last days there's going to be massive

amount of offenses, and I think we all can see that's going on today. Those offenses are going to lead to betrayal, and betrayal is ultimately going to lead to hatred. And the Bible says you hate your brother, you're a murderer, and don't even think you've got eternal life abiding in you. Then Jesus goes on in the very next verse, verse 11, and He says, then, everybody say then, once these massive offenses begin to occur, many false prophets are going to rise up and deceive many. Who are the many they're going to deceive? The many that are offended. So this tells us something right there. An offended heart is the breeding ground for deception. Now there is only one problem with deception, and that is this, it's deceiving. The person who is deceived believes with all their heart they're right, when in reality they're wrong. They have fooled themselves. That's scary. And then Jesus says in verse 12, and because lawlessness will abound. Now what is the word lawlessness? It is the Greek word anomia, which simply means this. You are not submitted to the authority of God. When we develop thoughts that are contrary to the love of God, contrary to the truth of God, the word of God. And we're now seeking to protect, protect. We have entered into lawless thinking. And so, Jesus said because of the massive offense, lawlessness is going to abound. And because of that, the love of many will grow cold. Now how many of you would agree that lawlessness abounds in our society today? Can I see a show of hands? Here is what is scary, and I mean really scary.

He's not talking about society. He's talking about the church. How do you know that, John? Because the word love that he uses is not phileo, which is affectionate love, which the world has. The word love there in verse 12 is the Greek word agape. It is the love of God that is shed abroad in a believer's heart. It is the love that Jesus said the world cannot receive. So Jesus is not talking about society in these verses. He's talking about inside the church. And I can prove it to you, because verse 13, he goes on to say, but he who endures to the end shall be saved. You do not look at an unbeliever, a sinner, and say if you endure the race, you're going to be saved. They haven't started the race. So what Jesus is saying is in the last days, there's going to be massive offense in the church that will lead to betrayals and even hatred. Now, the person that can hurt you the deepest is the person that is closest to you. David said it like this, it was not an enemy that reproached me. I expect that from an enemy. It was you, my brother, my equal, my companion. We went to the house to God together, and we heard the word of God. You're the one that has lifted your heel against me. You see, the person who's closest to you, you have a higher expectation on them. Have you ever heard somebody say in the church, well you know, the world treats me better than most Christians? Have you ever heard that? Don't put your hand up on that one, okay? Why is that? Because our standard expectation on a believer is here, but our expectation on the world

is zero. Our expectation on our spouse is here, and our expectation on our pastor is about there. So, if a believer only does that for you, they've offended you by that much. If the world's done that much for you, they haven't offended you. And so, we set ourselves up for an offense with our expectations. Now, if you want to put all offended believers in two categories, you can actually do it. Category number one, those who have been genuinely mistreated. Category number two, those who think they've been mistreated. Okay, I'm not dealing with category number two this morning, why? Because they have accurate information and have discerned inaccurately, or they have inaccurate information. I don't want to deal with them. I want to deal with the people that have been treated unfairly, unjustly. If you have been unjustly treated, do you have the right to be offended? You have the right to do anything. Even die and go to hell and burn in a lake of fire forever and ever, and God will protect your right, because He gave you a free will. But if you want to walk with God, you do not have the right to be offended. Yeah, but John, you just don't know what they did to me! You ever heard somebody say that? Let me see a show of hands. Come on, put it up. You ever say that? Don't put your hand up. You just don't know what they did to me! No, you don't know what you did to Jesus. An offended Christian, one who refuses to forgive, is a Christian that has forgotten what they've been forgiven of. Do I need to say that one more time? An offended believer, somebody who can't forgive, is a person who has forgotten what they've

been forgiven of. When Adam sinned against God, God the Father could have looked at Jesus and said, they all chose to betray us, they all chose the devil over us, let them all go to the lake of fire and burn forever. Let's go over and create another universe and create somebody that really loves us. And it would have been perfectly just. My just reward for what I did to God is I should have burned in a lake of fire forever. See, the whole problem stems from this, we've categorized sins. You know, we have the big sins, murder, adultery, robbing a bank, right? Then we have what we call weaknesses, strife, anger, unforgiveness, weaknesses. You know what's amazing? The Bible says these six things the Lord hates, and the seventh is an abomination. Do you know what the seventh one is that's an abomination? Gossip. Do you know adultery's not on that list? Now I'm not justifying adultery. Those who practice such will not inherit the kingdom. But the seventh one is gossip. So this is what I like to say to people. Treat gossip the way you treat adultery, and you'll probably get delivered. Treat unforgiveness the way you treat murder, and you'll probably get set free. But if you see it as a weakness, you won't address it. And yet I can show you three times more Scriptures in the Gospels of someone who will not be forgiven by God if they don't forgive than I can somebody who murdered someone. Not justifying murder. Sure is quiet in this Presbyterian church. You still here? You just listening real good, right? See Jesus had this situation with Peter in the 12, and you know the guys are always jockeying for who's going to be the greatest, and Peter's two notches up on all of them, you know?

I walked on water, and I'm the one that said you're the Christ. So Peter just thinks as big as he can, right? I mean Jesus has been talking about this forgiveness stuff, and he just thinks as big as he can. He goes, Jesus, Jesus, okay. If my brother does me wrong seven times, and I forgive him, that's enough, right? And, and Peter's expecting Jesus to go, blessed are thou, Simon Barjona, whoa you really got my teaching, right? And Jesus goes, no Peter, not seven times, 70 times seven. And in Luke's Gospel he said in a day. That's 490 times in one day. For you to sin against me 409 times in one day means you'd have to sin against me once every three minutes provided you and I don't go to sleep. I don't know anybody that can sin that good. So what is Jesus saying to Peter? Your forgiveness is to be inexhaustible like your Heavenly Father's is. And then he tells him this parable, he said, Peter, he said, let me make sure you get this right here. He said, you got this kingdom, and this king, he's got a servant that's brought to him who owes him 10,000 talents. Now 10,000 talents in today's currency would be over 10 billion dollars. So that would be an unpayable debt. Basically we see the king is like God the Father, and the servant is like us, right? The king forgives him of the debt, but the servant goes out and finds a fellow servant who owes him 100 denarii. That's 100 days' wage. That's one-third of a year's salary. Now let's say you make $60,000 a year, and your brother or your sister steals from you $20,000. Is that one of those little offenses? Like hey dude, sorry, don't even think about it.

You know what Jesus is illustrating is, his fellow brother really did him wrong. But in comparison, a $20,000 debt is nothing compared to a 10 billion dollar debt. That is why I said a person who cannot forgive is a person that's forgotten what they've been forgiven of. And do you know what is amazing? Because Jesus says that this king commands the servant to be turned over to the tormentors until he pays the debt. Now I know about this, because I lived in torment for over a year. This is not a bunch of theory for me this morning, guys. Before I got saved, I didn't find it very hard to forgive. After I got saved, I found it very easy to forgive, because I had the love of God in my heart. And there was this man who I really looked up to. He was like a father to me. He was actually closer than my natural father. And he did some things to me over a course of a year that were devastating. And it was so obvious that people were coming to me like crazy going, are you okay? I said yeah, I'm fine. Are you okay? Yeah, I'm fine. Are you going to go to him? No, I don't need to go to him. I'm going on with the call of God in my life. Now I'm going to tell you something right now. I was too proud to admit that I was offended, because I saw being offended as a sign of weakness, and I wasn't willing to say I'm weak. So I just went on, and I pretended like it didn't happen. And what happened was the fire, the passion for Jesus started getting colder, and colder, and colder in my heart. It was like the frog in the cave.

kettle, but in reverse. And I remember in those months that ensued, ministry became more of a occupation, not a passion. I started getting a little cynical, a little jaded. I know nobody can relate to this, right? All right, I'm completely preaching over your heads this morning, right? And I remember, you know, I'm tormented. And one time Lisa and I are driving down a highway and we got a worship set on. She's sitting there crying and she looks over and she sees this stone cold look on my face. And I remember she went, John, are you okay? And I went, hey, hey, I'm just meditating, babe. I'm meditating. You worship, I meditate. I was just so proud. I couldn't admit that I was offended. So finally it got so, I got so cold, so indifferent. And I actually started scaring myself. And I remember one day I walked out to my back patio and I said, God, Father, am I offended? And I heard this on the inside of me. Yes, it is the loudest I have heard the voice of God in my entire life up to this day. And I remember when he said that, I just dropped my hands and I said, what do I do? I said, I prayed, I've confessed, I've prayed to forgive, I've fasted, what do I do? I need help.

And I remember I was on the end of a four-day fast and I go to this funeral and this man that had so deeply hurt me, he's doing the funeral and I'm sitting in the back of the building and about two-thirds of the way through the funeral, the wells broke open and I started weeping. First time I'd cried in probably nine months or a year. And I'm just weeping, weeping, weeping. And I remember really quietly just saying, I forgive you, I forgive you, I forgive you. I totally release you, right? And I remember walking out thinking, okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, it's okay, I'm better now. I told my wife, I'm okay. Two weeks later, I see him again. How can he be so blessed? He did this to me, he did this to me, he did this to me, he did that to that person. I remember I went home thinking about it. I talked about it at lunch, I thought about it all afternoon, I thought about it at dinner. I went to bed thinking about it, I got up the next morning thinking about it, I took a shower thinking about it, then I got scared in the shower. I thought, oh my gosh, I cried like two weeks ago. I am still so tormented. Well, there is a principle that I didn't understand that Paul says in Acts 24, verse 16. Paul makes a statement, look at the board,

look at this really carefully. He said, and herein do I, can we see it? Maybe no, no, no scriptures today? Okay, and herein, I guess you're just listening to everything I'm saying. And herein do I exercise, everybody say exercise. To always, oh there it is. And herein do I exercise myself to always have a conscience void of offense towards God and towards men. Where's my buddy? Is Joel helping me? J.W., who's helping me? Come on, come on, buddy. Okay, everybody give him a hand. Okay, now there's a reason I'm picking J.W. because he's a football player and he lifts weights a lot and he's strong, okay? So, run buddy, come on, clock's ticking. Come on, I'm gonna make you do a 50-yard sprint if you don't run. All right, now, Joel, you love me, right? Now look at me, all right, I could do this. Did you like that? Oh, thanks for being honest. But, I could do this, and what's gonna happen? It's gonna wound you. Now listen carefully, everybody. Come here again. There's some offenses that hit us, we don't like it. But when it's over, it's like water off a duck's back.

We're okay. There are other offenses that hit us that wound us. And here's the deal. Wounds don't heal overnight. And if not properly treated, they never heal. Am I still Uncle John? Oh, yeah. Okay, thanks, buddy. Love you. All right. Years ago, we were doing a conference in Hawaii. And the second to last day of the conference, I decided to play tourist, and I went to take a picture at a place called Inama Bay. And there was this wall that was made out of boulders that were cemented together, and it was uneven. And I remember putting my right foot up, and when I put my weight on my right foot, I heard my knee do this. And I went, ah! Now, my wife's laughing at me with the associate passenger in the car. And when I get down, I'm like, and they're like, he can't walk. So, they rush out, they help me. And I'm in a brace, and I'm in a brace and using a crutch for the next four months. So, the assistant pastor's wife knew a physical therapist, and this guy owned his own gym. So, they arranged for me to go to him.

The next morning, and this guy is really cocky. I don't think he was saved. And I'm in his gym, and he's making me hurt on the mat. I mean like he's really making me hurt, and he said, hey, you see all these people in here? And he's pointing to all the people working out, right? He said, if they would have climbed that wall, they wouldn't have gotten injured, but you did. Now I'm a little perturbed. I said, okay, why did I get injured and they didn't? He said, it's because you're out of shape. You don't exercise. You know why I picked JW? Because he's in shape. If I would have hit some of you the way I hit him, I would have injured you. You wouldn't have been in the doctor afterwards. See there are people, spiritually, the Bible says, great peace have them that love your word and nothing can offend them. It's like the WWF wrestler that used to live next door to us. He was one of their seven-digit guys. And I remember one time, I remember we used to play street hockey. I'd skate in him full blast, and I'd go flying the other way. I'd go driving in on a basketball court, and I would go flying back. He'd just stand there, and I'd go flying, right? And he said to me one day, come watch my videos. And I watched a 300-pound sumo wrestler land on top of him. I watched the chair broke over his back. I watched the guitar broke over his head. And I thought, if they do that to most people, they'd be in traction for six months. And there are people in the spirit like that WWF wrestler.

Nothing can offend them, because they're so strong in God's word. But then there are people like me. They're easily wounded. And I work out now, so it wouldn't happen now, okay? I can't wait to see that trainer someday. And so, I get on the plane. This was hilarious. We fly to Indonesia. I get off the plane. Well, I don't get off the plane. My wife and kids get off the plane. My kids are about this big, and they've got all the luggage. And here comes the man of God to preach to Indonesia in a wheelchair. And there's another physical therapist in Indonesia, and he's working on my knee. And he says, Mr. Bavira, would you like to know how to get your knee healed? I said, yes. Tell me how to get my knee healed. He said, exercise, exercise. I said, oh my gosh. And then I started thinking about it. I thought, okay, those football players, right? They blow out their knee. What do they do to recover? They do physical therapy. And what is physical therapy? It's focused exercise to get your knee back to where it was, right? So, the Lord said, John, that's what you need. You need to exercise. I said, herein do I exercise, right? Paul said.

I said, how do I exercise? And he said, read Matthew 5. So, I go over to Matthew 5. I think the Lord has a sense of humor. I have to read 43 verses before I find the one that He wants me to read. In verse 44, Jesus said, pray for anyone who mistreats you. Now, can I point something out? Nowhere in the Gospels does Jesus once say, pray for your mother. You won't find it. Does that mean I don't pray for my mother? Yes, you do. But I think it's interesting that the person He points out you pray for is the person that mistreats you. And another version says abuses you. So, when He said that to me, I got up from the table, and I started praying, right? Lord bless him in Jesus' name. Next day, oh yeah, by the way, bless him in Jesus' name. The next day, if you can, bless him, okay? That's like putting a penny on the curl machine, okay? I got no better for the next five weeks. I'm just getting worse. And so, I'm on another three-day fast, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, son, read Psalm 35. So, I go to Psalm 35. The first 10 verses don't mean anything, but then I get verse 11. And verse 11 was amazing. Verse 11, David said, evil people pay me back evil for good. In other words, I did them good, they paid me back evil. I said, hey, that's me! That's me!

I did him good, he paid me back for evil. And I'm thinking the next verse is going to say break their teeth, bust their jaw, bust their arm, right? Throw them in a pit, whatever. Look at the next verse. But when they were sick, I was dressed in mourning. I deprived myself of food. I prayed with my head bowed low as I would pray for a friend or a brother. And the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, you pray for that man, what you want me to do in your life or your family. And that changed everything. And I remember, I got up from the table, and I started praying everything for that man that I wanted. I said, God, I pray that he would walk as closely with you as a man can walk with you. I pray that he would know you as deeply as a man can love you, that he would love you as deeply as a man can love you, that he would please you the best a man can please you, that you would, Lord, cause his ministry to expand, to reach further quarters, that you would meet his needs financially, that you would protect his family, put angels around his wife and children. Can I tell you something? It hurt. You ever hear somebody say, pray what feels good? Oh, gosh, really? You must be a millennial, but I mean, I mean, really? You pray truth, and that truth was — when you put the weight on — do you know there is only one time in my life that I wanted to hit a girl? And that's when a physical therapist was working on my shoulder, and everything in me had to restrain because she was making me hurt. And so, I said, OK, I've got to pray everything I want for him. And so, I'm asking.

I'm really asking. And you know what happened? After a couple weeks, it started getting stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger and stronger. What's happening? I'm getting healed. I'm getting healed. I'm getting healed. And then one morning, I was up praying, and I screamed his name out. I said, so-and-so, I love you! And when I said, I love you, it was like junk came out of me. I went, I'm healed! I'm healed! So, I went home, told my wife about it. Really happy, right? I saw him a couple weeks later. Another little, eh, on the inside. I thought, now what? Now, my wife is so prophetic. Between her and the Holy Spirit, I can't get away with anything. And I like that, actually. So, she sits me down on the couch, and she goes, honey, you need to go to him. I jumped up off the couch. I went, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I prayed. I'm healed. No, I don't need to go to him. So, I went out and prayed. I said, Lord, do I need to go to him? The Lord said, yes.

Not so loud that time. Now, when Jesus said, if your brother sins against you, go to him, listen, this is the way most people take that Scripture. Hey, I just want you to know, you did this, and you did this, and you did this, but I forgive you. So, what are they doing? They're using that Scripture to vomit all over you and tell you how bad you treated me. That is not what Jesus had in mind. Jesus had in mind reconciliation. Now, there is a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. Most people don't get it. Look at the cross. That will illustrate forgiveness and reconciliation. When did Jesus forgive you and I? When He hung on the cross and He said, Father, don't forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. He wasn't just talking about the soldiers in the Sanhedrin. He was speaking to the next generation, the next generation, the next generation, right down to you and me, because our sins put Him on that cross. So, He forgave us before we ever said, I'm sorry. Do you know how many Christians have looked at me and said, oh, John, I'll forgive them when they apologize. What if Jesus would have waited for you to apologize before He forgave you? Now, when were we reconciled back to Him? When we repented and said, I'm sorry, you were right, I was wrong, please forgive me. What led us to repentance? The goodness of God. The goodness and kindness of God. So this is what the Lord led me to do through my wife.

I bought this guy a really nice gift. I mean a gift that I really would like to have. It wasn't a re-gift from Christmas, OK? So, yeah, yeah, everybody knows what I'm talking about. So I bring it in, it's all wrapped up, and He opens it up. And I'll never forget when He opened it up, He was like, that's exactly what He did. He was stunned, because it was a really nice gift. And I took His silence as a chance to put in some more goodness, and I said, I need to apologize to you. He said, what? I said, I've been really critical and judgmental of you over the past year, and I'm so sorry. That's all I said. He goes, no, you haven't been critical of me. I said, yes, I have. Well, you know what it did? It opened Him up, and He shared it with me. And you know, within an hour, we came together like this, and we have been together like this ever since. Couple days later, I said to Lisa, I said, you know what? When I first met the man, he could do no wrong in my eyes. I said, I loved him. That's immature love. I said, then I saw his faults, and his faults were directed at me. I didn't love him anymore. I said, now I still see his faults, but I love him with the intensity of when I first met him. It's got to be the love of God, because the love of God covers the multitude of sins. Jesus says in Luke chapter 17, verse 1, it is — look it, I want the script — they're doing it for me. It is impossible that no offenses should come.

What is He saying? He's saying if you breathe air, you will have the opportunity to be offended. What you do with the offense will determine your future. Either you'll become stronger, or you'll become bitter, but you'll never be the same again. Now the Greek word for offense is actually an ancient Greek word that was originally used to describe the bait stick of a trap that hunters would use to catch small animals and birds in. The hunter would place the bait on the scandalon, the animal would take it, and the trap would close and either capture or kill the animal. Thereby, an offense is the bait of Satan to pull you, the believer, into his captivity. Paul affirms this when he writes to Timothy in 2 Timothy chapter 2, and he says those who are offended with one another, those who are in opposition with one another, are taken. Look at this, are taken captive of Satan to do Satan's work. Will, to carry out Satan's purposes. You know what's really scary? You can still preach, still volunteer in the church, still attend church, still tithe, but you're not releasing rivers of living water, you're releasing waters tainted with bitterness. I'll end it with this. I was getting ready to speak at a conference one Friday night, packed auditorium, and they had a man come up and testify right before they had me preach. The man got up, and he said, I've been raised as a Christian. I mean, this guy was a construction worker. It was a Friday night. He just got off work. You could tell he still had all his construction clothes on. He had a beard, and he's crying. And I thought, this does not look like the crying type. This looks like the kind of guy that could bust me in two if he wanted to. And I remember he's crying, and he said, I was raised in the church, but he said, I've

never experienced the presence of God. There was always a wall between me and God. I'd watch people get touched by the presence of God. There'd be a wall. He said, three weeks ago, somebody gave me the bait of Satan. He said, I read it in two weeks. He said, when I got done reading it-excuse me, he said, I read it in two days. He said, when I got done reading it, I realized I held unforgiveness against my mother, because she gave me away when I was six weeks old. He said, so I contacted my mother and talked to her for the second time in 36 years. He said, Mom, I want you to know that I've done something really wrong. I've held unforgiveness against you for giving me away for 36 years I've done it. She started crying on the phone. She said, I have hated myself for 36 years for giving you away. He forgave her. She forgave herself. And that's when the tears started coming off his beard onto his shirt. And he looked at all of us, and he said, now the wall that's been between me and God is totally gone. He said, I have been experiencing God's presence every time I pray and when I come into services like this. Do you have the right to be offended? Do you have the right to do anything? But if you want the presence of God, if you want the blessing of God on your life, you do not have the right to be offended. It is not suggested to us, it is commanded to us to forgive one another even as Christ forgave us. I want every head bowed, I want every eye closed. Father in heaven, thank you for giving us your word, for answering our prayer. And now, Holy Spirit, I'm asking you to draw men and women to the heart of Jesus.

Please let many be free in here today. With your heads bowed, your eyes closed. Please don't do what I did. Please don't allow pride to keep you from getting free this morning. But if you're in here and you said, man, I didn't even realize I was still carrying an offense until the word of God just exposed it, that's, that's God. He's not exposing it to embarrass you, He's exposing it because He wants you free. I was tormented, I was a prisoner for over a year, please, please, you know what I'm talking about if you, if you've been offended. God and I and every leader in this church wants you free. If you say, John, that's me, I realize I have sinned against God by holding an offense. Yeah, what was done to me was a sin, but two wrongs have never made a right. And I realize I've sinned against God by holding unforgiveness. If that's you, I want you to raise your hand up high, I want to pray for you with every head bowed. Oh my goodness, maybe 80% of the hands in the building are up in the air. Put them up high, don't be ashamed. You know what I want you to do? I want you to stand because I want to pray for you to be free. Just stand right there, just stand at your seat. Beautiful. That's why I love this church so much, you love truth. If you're at home, just stand, just stand up. Because the presence of God is already here. He is already here. Now close your eyes and lift your hands up. Holy Spirit, I'm asking you to show them the face of Jesus in their hearts. I'm asking you, Spirit of God, in Jesus' name. If you could see the face of Jesus right now, I just want you to open the eyes of your heart. Do you notice he doesn't have a look of anger on his face?

Do you notice he, do you notice the delight, the delight, the excitement in his eyes? Every bit of his eyes focuses on you right now. He's so happy for you. He died to set you free, and you're about to enter into a greater level of freedom than you've known for a long time, many of you. His presence is here already, and we haven't even prayed. So lift your hands up, and I want you to speak to the Lord. I want you to say this, Father in heaven. Amen. Thank you so much for speaking to me this morning. Through your servant, I realize I've sinned against you by harboring an offense, by refusing to forgive. I realize two wrongs don't make a right, and so I ask you to cleanse me with the blood of Jesus Christ. I'm so deeply sorry, and I repent. And I'm asking you, Father, that you would forgive. As Jesus asked you to forgive me when he hung on the cross, I'm asking you to forgive those who have hurt me. And from my heart, I choose this moment to forgive. To forgive. And I want you to say this under your breath. I forgive you, Mom. I forgive you, Dad. I forgive you, whoever it is. I want you to release them in the presence of Almighty God. His presence is so strong right now. Thank you, Holy Spirit.

There's healing, actually physical healing occurring right now. But people's souls are being healed right now. And in the name of Jesus, that trap is gone, and that hold is gone. And my brother and my sister walk in the freedom of love. And Father, I'm asking that you would baptize every single one of them. In your love, pour out your love afresh in our hearts. In Jesus' mighty name, amen. Let's give him thanks for what he's done.