The Bait of Satan: Get Free from the Trap of Offense

How many of you are under 20 years of age? Let me see your hands. How many of you are under 20? Put up your hands. Look at this. That's amazing. Do you know you're the fulfillment of what God spoke to me? When I became a youth pastor back in 1987, I was a bit intimidated and I was reading this manual because I was desperate on how to know how to be a youth pastor. And the guy who wrote the foreword said, the youth of the church of tomorrow. And I was highlighting and I thought, that's a great statement. And the Holy Spirit literally came into my house in a powerful way and said, the youth are not the church of tomorrow. They're the church of today. And the Lord then said to me, he said, the world has four age groups. Babies, children, teenagers, adults. In the world, you become an adult when you're 21. Not when you're, you know, not when you're 13. When you're 21, that's when you can vote. That's when you drink. And God said, I have three age groups. Babies, children, adults. If you look at a Jewish young man, he goes through bar mitzvah when he's 13, not when he was 21. That's when he becomes a young man of the covenant. If you look at our physical bodies, the way God made us, when do boys get hair under their arms? When they're 13, not when they're 21. When do their voices change? When they're 13, not when they're 21. When do girls get breasts? When they're 13, not when they're 21. That's adolescence. And so the Lord said, much of the church has embraced the world's view. They have nursery, they have children's church, they have youth church, then they have church. And so what happens is between 13 and 20, they have nothing to relate to in God. It's like a no-man's zone with God. And so, consequently, many are lost in that time period. This church is literally a fulfillment of what God spoke to me. I look at all you capable leaders that are between 13 and 20 years old sitting in this room right now, and I'm just so proud of you. And, you know, God spoke to me when I became a youth pastor. He said, you treat them like rebellious teenagers, like teenagers, they'll act like teenagers. If you said, if you treat them like adults, they'll act like adults. And, you know, I watch Pastor Howe with you. I watch him interact behind back there, in here. And he doesn't see your physical age, he sees your spiritual age.

I've seen 13-year-olds that are more mature spiritually than some 50-year-olds. And so that's the beauty is spiritual growth is not a function of time like physical growth is. It's a function of how you handle suffering, how you handle hardship. See, do you remember Peter says, as Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves. Most people aren't armed to suffer. When adversity happens, offense happens, things happen with authority. They react instead of act. If you look at a pilot, a pilot's armed. Why is he armed? Because they put him in flight simulators and they throw every catastrophe they can at those pilots. So that's why many aviation accidents have been averted because the pilots were armed. One aviation situation that occurred, disaster struck, the pilots were acting, the passengers were screaming when they recovered the audio box. The pilots were armed, the passengers weren't. You can't be a leader unless you're armed to suffer and you've matured. So as Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves, Peter said, right? For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. In other words, he's reached maturity, she's reached maturity. So Jesus learned obedience by the things he suffered. He didn't bring obedience to the earth, he learned it by handling adversity correctly. I look at the greatest growth in Lisa's and my life and it's come in the toughest times in our life. So there are two areas that I really wish I would have been well established in because I had to learn the hard way. And I'm glad now because two books have been written about it and many people have been blessed by these books. Boy, I had to learn this the hard way. The first one, I want to just throw up one scripture, Hebrews chapter 13 verse 17. It should be up on the screen behind me, I hope. Yeah, okay. Now look at this scripture, this is amazing. Obey those who rule over you and be submissive. Watch out for your souls. So you can see right there, he's talking about spiritual authority right there, right? He's not talking about your civil authorities,

your parents, he's talking about your spiritual authority, your pastors and the people they appoint, right? As those who must give an account, let them do so with joy and not with grief. For that would be unprofitable for your leader. No, that's not what it says. It's gonna be unprofitable for you. Yeah. So what I'm about to say for the next couple minutes isn't for the sake of Pastor Howe or others, it's for the sake of you. Yeah. Look what he says. He says, obey those who rule over you and be submissive. Yeah. Everybody say obey. Obey. I remember when I was a youth pastor, I was so intimidated. I flew to Louisiana and I said, cause in Louisiana, the largest youth group in the United States was there. So I fly to Louisiana, they're growing a hundred kids a month. They've got four youth pastors overseeing this youth group. You gotta remember, we weren't as advanced as you guys were. We actually had youth groups and I wish there were millions of churches like this in the world, but unfortunately there aren't.

But I remember they told me, they said, hey, the key to success for our youth groups is that we do parties every Friday night. Every Friday night, there's 118 parties going on throughout the city. We can't get kids from high schools into the youth group, but we can get them to parties. So all of our kids target somebody in the high school, they ask them to come to the party. We come on Friday night and I went to one of the parties and I couldn't believe it. You know, the music was playing, the soft drinks were out, the chips were out, kids were talking and then the leader started gathering everybody and talking about things. And then he turned it to spiritual things and then he gave the plan of salvation. He said, who wants to give their life to Jesus? A bunch of kids said, yeah, I wanna give my life to Jesus. Brought them in the back room, prayed with them, got their name, contacts, got them into the youth group. I thought, wow, that's brilliant, right? So I flew home and I prayed about it. I said, God, do you want me to do this? And God said, yes, I want you to do this. So I started focusing my whole youth group on this and I started training up leaders, 24 leaders that were gonna start these parties. I had my associate youth pastor

and I were working on this for eight solid months. We had the city mapped out, we had it all planned out and we had the curriculum all done. Eight months of work, right? And I go into a pastor's meeting. Now my church was large and there was 11 of us pastors on staff. And I remember the senior pastor walked in. Now I had seen the senior pastor a couple of months before and just casually mentioned, hey, we're gonna do parties. It's really gonna be evangelistic, get kids saved and get them into the youth group. And my senior pastor was like, great. Well, I remember three weeks before they started these parties, my senior pastor walked into a meeting. He said, you know, I really feel in my heart that our church is not to have home cell groups. So I want all of you guys to cancel your home cell groups. Well, we had a couples pastor, seniors pastor, we had singles pastor and the youth. And I was like, cancel? We've been working on this for eight months. And all of a sudden I thought, wait a minute, theirs is all more care, fellowship. Ours is evangelistic. So I raised up my hand. I said, you mean except the youth group, right? And he said, John, he said, God's put it in my heart not to have youth groups. I said, but pastor, I can't get kids in high school

into church, they don't wanna come to church. They'll go to these parties. We can win a lot of kids to the Lord. Do you understand? We can win 2,500 kids to the Lord. We could fill this auditorium. We can win all the city of Orlando. And he said, John, God's put it in my heart not to do this. And I argued with him for 20 minutes. And finally I just shut up. He just kept saying, God put it in my heart not to have youth groups. And I remember I was so upset. And when that meeting was over, I got in my car and I drove home. And I was just sitting there going, oh my gosh, eight months of work. This is totally the whole focus of our youth group. I preach it to the youth group. They're all excited. They're targeting kids. I've announced it. He just canceled eight months of work. And I remember I got home and I walked into my house and I'm furious. And my wife's walking right by the front door. And I said, you're not gonna believe what he did. And my wife just got this look of terror on her face. She said, who and what did they do? I said, pastor, he just canceled the home groups,

what we've worked on for eight months, the whole focus of the youth group. He just canceled them. And my wife says to me, well, looks to me like God's trying to teach you something, John. And she walks out. Now I was mad at her. So she went to the bedroom and I went to the kitchen. I thought, I'm not gonna get around my unsubmissive wife. So I'm in my kitchen. and I'm looking out the window and I'm just like, this is a nightmare, I'm gonna wake up. This is eight months of work. This is the whole focus of our youth group. And I'm just looking out the window and the Holy Spirit speaks to me and he said, whose ministry are you building? Mine or yours? I said, I'm building yours. He said, no, you're not. I said, God, we can't get kids out of the high school into church, they don't wanna go to church. They'll go to parties. I said, we could win the nation. City of Orlando, see that's how stupid you get when you're in rebellion. I'm trying to convince God. That's stupid, you understand? And so the Lord lets me go through the wholesale's pitch. And he said, son, when you stand before me in judgment,

you're not gonna give an account of how many first, you will first of all not give an account of how many souls you won in Orlando to me. He said, you're first gonna give an account of how faithful you were to the man I put you under. He said, I put one person over a ministry and he showed me. You know, the book of Acts, all the leaders spoke, but when James said, I judge this, everybody did what James said. He said, you're an extension of his hands, his arms, his legs. He said, you're first of all gonna give an account of how faithful you were to the leader I put you under. And then he said this to me. He said, son, you could win every single high school student to the Lord in the entire city of Orlando and stand before me at judgment and lose credit for every soul you won because you weren't submitted to the man I put you under. All burned up. When he said that to me, I started quaking. I literally started shaking. And he said, son, if you keep going the way you're going, you're gonna cause a division in the church. And the word division means, di means two visions. He said, the church is gonna go this way and the youth group's gonna go this way. I'm gonna tell you, I got, I ran to the phone. My wife has no idea this is going on.

I ran to the phone. I called up my pastor. He answered the phone. I said, pastor, I am so sorry. I have sinned against you today. I've sinned against God. I am so sorry. He said, oh brother, I love you so much. And he hung up. I was like, oh my God. So when he hangs up the phone, the Holy Spirit says this to me. He said, how are you gonna tell your leaders? And I had a vision of me walking in to that room with my 24 leaders who had gone through six months of classes, preparing to be leaders of these parties. And I'd kind of dragged into the meeting. You know, I was heavy. And I said, guys, you know, we've worked on this for eight months, but pastor, just cancel the home groups, the parties. They're over. And I saw my 24 leaders in this vision. I saw them go, what? And they were furious. And you know who they were mad at? They were mad at my pastor. And the Lord said to me, he said, is that what you're gonna do?

I said, no, sir. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, sir. No, no, no. So I remember I walked into that meeting a couple days later. I had a skip in my step. I had a spark in my voice and a twinkle in my eye. I said, guys, I got great news. And they're all looking at me like, yeah, what, what? I said, our pastor has spared us from birthing an Ishmael. He has declared the direction of this church is not to have home groups. I said, we're canceling the parties. And they all went, yeah. And that was it. We never had a problem. Yeah, but John, I thought you said God told you to do it. Didn't he tell you to do those parties? Yes, he did tell me. Do you mean God would tell you to do something after eight months of work he would cancel through your pastor? Well, let me ask you something. Didn't God tell Abraham to do something? That after three days of travel and packing, he fully intended him not to do? Why? Because God will test you with obedience. See, God doesn't test you with evil, but he does test you with obedience.

Paul wrote to the whole Corinthian church, and he said, I wrote you this for one reason, just to see if you'd obey me. Because if you obey me in this, I know you obey me in everything. See, do you know how the Bible talks about the only people that God can use are who? People that are what? Broken and of a contrite heart. Come on, talk to me, right? Those are the people God can use. What does it mean to be broken? Okay, this is the way we view a person who's broken. They've gone through a disaster, they're like, broken. That's not broken. Okay, if you want to understand broken, look at a horse. You can have a horse that's more gifted, he's more talented, he's swifter, he's faster than any other horse in the stables. But if he's not broken, when wartime comes, less gifted horses will go to battle, and he'll sit in the stables. Why? Because they're broken, he's not. What does brokenness deal with?

When the rider rides him into the gunfire, into the swords being wielded, into the cannon fire, that horse does exactly what's contrary to its nature. He rides right into it because he's completely submitted to his master who's his rider. Those are the leaders God can use. And that's not our natural state. Do you understand the very core of what happened in Eden when Eden was rebellion? So that has to be he who has suffered in the flesh to cease from sin. Many times, the suffering in the flesh is when authority tells you to do something and you think you know something better. But you see, what God needs in the church is he needs a church that's one. God can do more through a church that's one than a church that's right.

Jesus ministered, they estimate, to 80 to 100,000 people. But yet he's executed with a criminal's death and there's only 500 left. And he tells 500 to go to the upper room. But 10 days later, there's only 120. Where'd the other 380 go? Well, let's go start a ministry. I'm preaching. You understand what I'm saying? But there was 120 that said, he said, go to the upper room. We're going to go there and we'll rot. If he has to raise our bones up like Ezekiel, he'll do it. The Bible said they were one. And when they were one, I mean, do you understand? How many of you know Peter? Every time he opens up his mouth, he's putting his foot into his mouth. Come on. One minute, you're the Christ. Next minute,

get behind me, Satan. One minute, he's walking on water. Next minute, he's sinking. One minute, he's in the glory of God. Next minute, he wants to build a tabernacle for Elijah. I mean, the guy is like... Isn't that interesting that Jesus chooses him? Because he meets those 3 qualifications that your pastor talked about. Every one of those. I was thinking about those qualifications for Peter. But anyway, see, Judas couldn't self-medicate. Judas went and hung himself. Peter could self-medicate. He knew to go back to his master. Boy, there's a lot of wisdom which your pastor just said. I hope you grabbed it. It was good. I was taking notes in my heart. I got them. I'm going to go back and preach it to my team. So Peter, in the upper room, man, he's true to form. Right? One day, the 120's in the upper room, and he comes bursting out of his quiet time. He says, Guys! I just read about Judas

in the book of Psalms. It's right there! But it says that somebody else is supposed to take his office. Okay, look from among you. Find all the guys that have been with us since the beginning of John's baptism. Bring them up here. And we're going to pray and draw lots to see who God's choosing to replace Judas. Now, how many of you know God does not use a lottery system to pick apostles? Okay. I mean, and you see the fruit of Peter's little lottery. I mean, two guys are found, right? Justice and Matthias. They do the lottery. Matthias wins the lottery. They appoint him as the next apostle. You never hear about him again the rest of the Bible. Paul was the one that said, I was born out of due time. Paul was God's choice to replace Judas. Okay? But Peter's completely out of sync with God. Matthias, you're the apostle.

Now, if that would have happened in an American church, we would have had a three-way church split. We would have had the anti-lottery apostle-picking group split off. We would have had the apostles passed away when Jesus ascended to heaven group split off. And we would have had the lottery apostle-picking group stay. Right? But do you know what the Bible says? Just the next verse, when that day came, they were one. Because Jesus said, there's a glory that God's reserved for us when we become one. And the only way we become one is we become like that horse. So that means no matter what offense occurs, what hardship occurs, we keep our eyes on the focus to obey those who roll over and be submissive. See, it's not just obedience. How many of you know you can obey but not necessarily be submitted? Come on, talk to me. Submission deals with your attitude. Obedience deals with your actions. The Bible teaches unconditional submission to authority but not unconditional obedience. The only time you are not to obey an authority is if authority tells you to do something contrary to the written word of God. They told those guys, you cannot. The authority said, you cannot preach in the name of Jesus. Peter said, hey, whether we obey God or you, you judge. Nebuchadnezzar, who God calls my servant, yet the guy is so crazy, he becomes like an ox for a year. But God called him my servant because God appoints authority. You meet God, you meet authority. All authority comes from Him. You resist authority, you resist Him.

So that's why God gives us these clear guidelines. Nebuchadnezzar was God's appointed authority. And he builds a statue and says every time the music plays, bow to it. Well, that's contrary to commandment number one and two. So the music plays and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, they stand. The king's furious, they are brought before the king. And they don't look at the king and go, you jerk. You're a dog, you know it? I'm not bowing to your statue. No, they look at him and say, your majesty. They speak with the utmost respect. They keep their submission. Unconditional submission. They say, your majesty, we will not obey your law. So they refuse to obey his law that was contrary to the written word of God. But you see what I find in most churches? What split churches aren't what authority tells us to do that's contrary to the word of God. It's just the way they do things. Can I show you an interesting verse that I'm going to really see how good your team is back there? They're probably really good. Can you throw out 1 Corinthians 4 and same version, 4 verses 16 and 17. Can you look at this? 1 Corinthians 4, 16, 17. I know. That's just really mean of me to do this right in the middle of this, right? But they're amazing. They're going to do it. 1 Corinthians 4, 16 and 17. They'll get it up and I'll find it too. And let's see who gets there first.

I have four boys. I live in a competitive household. 1 Corinthians 4, they'll probably beat me. And I'm going to go to the 16th verse. You ready for this? You just listen and they're going to get it because they're really good. All right. Now listen to what Paul said. You ready for this? This is verse 16. Therefore, I urge you, imitate me. Look at how good they are. Give them a hand. All right. I want you to look at this. Paul says, I urge you, imitate me. Now notice he doesn't say, imitate me as I imitate Christ. He probably does say that in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 1. But he's setting a precedence here. And it's pretty important. He says, imitate me. Now he's speaking to his church that he birthed. This was the Corinth church. He says, I'm telling you, imitate me. Okay. Do you notice he doesn't say, okay. Now let me just keep reading. reason. For what reason? For the reason I just told you. Imitate me. For this reason I have sent Timothy to you who is my beloved and faithful son in the Lord. Okay? Who will remind you of my ways in Christ as I teach everywhere. Now notice

he doesn't say, who will remind you of Peter's ways in Christ. Was Peter a man of God? Yes. But Paul didn't say he's gonna teach you Peter's ways. He doesn't say he's gonna remind you of James way in Christ. Was James a man of God? Yes, he's Apostle. He's got a book in the Bible. But he didn't say he's gonna remind you of James ways. He said he's gonna remind you of my ways. See there's something we all have to understand and that is this. 1st Corinthians chapter 12 says this, there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit. Holy Spirit's over the gifts. Diversities of Lord, excuse me, there are diversities of offices but the same Lord. Jesus is over the offices. He himself personally gave some to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers, right? Then the next verse we don't talk about. There are differences of operations. James had an operation flow. Peter had an operation flow. But Paul's was different. See in the United States military we have the Air Force, the Navy, the Marines, the Army. They all have different flows. It's the same military. See God says I'm gonna have different local bodies with different flows but it's all the same body. So he doesn't say imitate Brian Houston. He says imitate me. This is Paul. This is the church that God had in birth. Does Brian Houston have a flow? Yeah, it's amazing. I'm gonna preach there in three weeks. When you guys are all off for New Year out the last week in the month, I'll be at Hillsong in Sydney. I have the utmost respect for Brian and Bobby Houston. They have been friends of Lisa's and mine for years. But you're not under Brian and Bobby. You're under Howe and Leah. Do you see what he's saying here? There's different operations and if a Navy guy imitates a Marine, he's gonna be in trouble. If a Marine imitates an Army guy, he's not gonna be in flow with his team. Now how do we keep this oneness? By staying offense-free. As a leader, I have seen offense knock more people out of the ministry than anything else. What's an offense? I've been mistreated. It's not fair. It's not right. It's wrong. I've been hurt, mistreated. Well, hello. So is Jesus. A person that can't forgive is a person that's forgotten what they've been forgiven of. Write that down. A person that cannot forgive is a person that has forgotten what they've been

forgiven of. You and I, we deserved hell. You know, the problem is, we categorize sins. We have the big ones. Adultery. Murder. Right? Homosexuality. Then we have what we call weaknesses. Unforgiveness, bitterness, strife, gossip. You know what's amazing? If you look at Proverbs chapter 6, it says, these six things the Lord hates and seven is an abomination. Do you know adultery is not in any of them? Don't get me wrong, those that practice adultery will not inherit the kingdom. I'm not justifying adultery. But what's interesting is adultery is not in that list. But do you know what the seventh one is that God says is an abomination? Those that sow discord among brothers. Gossip. So treat gossip like you treat adultery, you'll probably get delivered. Treat unforgiveness the way you treat murder, you'll probably get free. Unforgiveness is a sin. Do you know I can show you three times more scriptures in the Gospels that people who refuse to forgive will not inherit the kingdom of God than I can show you a murder? Three times more. Do you remember Jesus said, when you stand praying? No, he's not talking to sinners here. Forgive that your father may forgive you. But then he said, but if you don't forgive, your heavenly father will not forgive you. Do you remember the Lord's Prayer? Forgive us this day as we've forgiven those who have trespassed against us. How would you like God to forgive you the way you've forgiven those who have hurt you? The truth is you will be forgiven the way you've forgiven those that have hurt you. That's the Lord's Prayer. See, that's what the grace of God has done. It's placed what Jesus did for us into our hearts. It's there.

But if you want to choose and you want to say, well, I've been mistreated and I'm going to make them pay for this. What if Jesus said, make them pay for it, dad. Just make them pay for it. We all would have been in hell. Do you understand when Adam sinned against Eve? The father could have looked at the son and said, let them all go to hell. Let's go create another universe and create somebody who really loves us. And you know, God would have been totally justified because we deserved to burn in fire forever and ever and ever and ever. That was our just reward for the way we offended God. So that's why I said a person that cannot forgive is a person that's forgotten what they've been forgiven of. I mean, read the parable of the king in Matthew 18. Just read it. You're leaders. Here's the servant that's been forgiven of a $14 billion debt, unpayable debt. Yet a fellow brother really hurts him. And that fellow brother has basically taken $10,000 from him. $10,000 is even a drop in the bucket. You know what God's showing us? The very worst thing we can do against one another is like a $10,000 debt compared to a $14 billion debt. That's what we did to him. That's why I said a person can't forgive is a person that cannot be forgiven. The guy refuses to forgive his fellow servant, not fellow heathen, fellow servant. These guys are forgiven. They're in the kingdom. And the servant's brought to the king, and the king says, you wicked servant. He doesn't say you wicked outsider, you wicked servant.

This guy's been forgiven of the unpayable debt. I forgave you all that debt. Should you not have forgiven your brother the way I forgave you? So then he turns him over to the tormentors until he pays the whole debt. That's the unpayable debt. You figure that one out. You've been forgiven of so much. I've been forgiven of so much. Much more than anything that ever could be done to us. Let me tell you, this is not a bunch of theory for me. I went through this. There was a man in my life. He was like a spiritual father. He was closer to me than my natural dad. He did some things to me over a course of a year that were devastating. It climaxed with a bunch of stuff, and it was so obvious. People were coming to me going, John, are you okay? I said, yeah, I'm fine. I'm fine. Other people would come to me, John, are you going to go to him? Nah, I'm going on with the call of God in my life. I'm fine. You know what? Can I be honest with you, leaders? Listen to me. I'm in the ministry. I've been in the ministry now for almost 10 years. I said, I'm going on with the call of God in my life. I was too proud to admit that I was offended. I saw being offended as a sign of weakness.

And so I wouldn't admit it. So you know what happened? I'm going to tell you what happened. The love and the fire and the passion of God started getting colder and colder and colder in my heart. It's like the frog in the kettle. You ever heard of the frog in the kettle? Right? It was reverse. The frog in the kettle, you put the frog into a lukewarm water, and you turn up the heat, and he stays in there while you boil him to death. It's the other way around. Your heart starts out hot. hot with the fire of God and the love of God and starts getting colder and colder and colder and colder and colder and You know, it was really scary. God was still using me in the ministry people were still getting saved Yet I'm getting colder and colder and colder month months have gone by Remember one time Lisa and I were driving down the road and we had a worship. I Think it was a cassette. I know you're gonna have to look in and Google and see what a cassette is It's it's prehistoric, okay But anyway, we were playing this worship medley and and and and and Lisa's just tears pouring down her eyes She's worshiping God. We're driving the car and she looks over and I got this stone-cold look on my face, right? And she goes John what's wrong? Said nothing. Nothing you worship. I'm meditating. I'm meditating I See, I'm so proud. I can't admit I'm offended. You see what I'm saying? So it got so bad. I was so personally dry That one day I walked out to my backyard and I just kind of looked up and I said Father am I offended? And I heard this on the inside Yes It's The loudest I have ever heard the voice of God to this day in my life

And I hope I never hear him speak that strongly again to me And I remember I just went Lord, I need help. I can't get out of this. I've prayed I fasted I've done every I've confessed I've forgiven by faith. I can't get out of this. I need your help And I remember I was on the end of a four-day fast Okay, and I go to this funeral and this man who would deeply hurt me was doing the funeral, right? and I'm sitting in the back and About two-thirds of the way through the funeral the wells opened up and I mean I cried and cried and cried for the first time in months and I just said I was whispering in the back. I was going I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you. I forgive you I forgive you and I left that funeral quick because my eyes were red and I thought it's over. I've forgiven him It's done. God. Thanks, right? So I see this guy two weeks later and When I see him again Sit there and go how can he be so blessed? He did this to me and he did that to me and he did this to me and he did this to that person And he did that to that person and I remember I left and that afternoon. I talked about it with Lisa and I Thought about it all afternoon that night at dinner. I talked about it again. I Went to bed thinking about what he did to me I got up thinking about what he did to me I got in the shower thinking about how bad he treated me And then I got scared. I thought I cried two weeks ago I'm still tormented So what I didn't understand is what Paul says in Acts 24 16 look at this Acts 24 16 Paul says this Anyway Yeah, there it is. And herein now look at this. Look at this guys here And I'm gonna wrap this up in a few minutes you with me. You okay? Okay, and herein do I exercise myself? It was I exercise To have always a conscience void of offense towards God and men Paul said I got to exercise to keep my conscience free from offense. Let me say exercise Alright, I need my muscle man. Come on up here run up here. What's your name? I

Got a muscle man up here Whoa? Okay, what's your name? Joe how much can you binge? Huh? Hundred kilos, that's 225. That's pretty good. Okay. Now I can walk up to Joe and do this Did you like that oh good he's honest But now look look look he's okay, but now I could do this I Could take this chair and I could go like this and if I do that, what am I gonna do? I'm gonna wound him Okay, there are some offenses that hit us. We don't like it when it's over. It's like water off a duck's back there's other offenses that hit us that wound us and wounds don't heal overnight and If wounds aren't properly treated they never heal Joe are we still friends? Thank you very much. Don't beat me up afterwards, right? Okay. All right. Thanks. Okay, you could go Thanks, buddy Give a man Okay, so several years ago, Lisa and I were in Hawaii and we were doing a conference suffering for Jesus in Hawaii, it was wonderful. And the second to last day of the conference, I went to climb a wall illegally on my dad and it was a rock wall and there was a bunch of boulders and I put my right foot up on it and I went to put all my weight on my right foot because it was crooked. And when I did, I heard this in my knee, and I went, ah! So my wife and the associate pastor are laughing at me until I get down and I'm like this and my wife goes, he can't walk. So they ran out, got me and brought me back to the car. Well, I was in a brace, getting on airplanes with wheelchair and using a crutch sometimes for the next six weeks. So the next day, the associate pastor's wife of this church, she was seeing a physical therapist, he wasn't a saved guy, he owned his own gym and she brought me to his gym. And the guy's working on my knee, making me hurt in his gym.

He's rather a cocky guy, he's big, he's huge. And he goes, you know, look around this gym. And everybody's exercising in his gym, right? He said, do you see all these people? I said, yeah, yeah. He said, do you know, if they would have climbed that wall yesterday, they wouldn't have injured their knee, but you did. He's really cocky. And I got a little mad at him, I said, okay, wise guy. I didn't say wise guy, but this is what I'm thinking, okay, why did I injure my knee and they wouldn't? He said, because you're out of shape, you don't exercise. Joe, right? So you know why I picked Joe? Because he's in shape. If I were to hit some of you the way I hit him, you would have been in the doctors. You understand what I'm saying? Then there are some people that are like my next door neighbor. A few years ago, at least this is my next door neighbor, he was a WWF wrestler. He weighed 235 pounds, 4% body fat, okay, six foot two, three, somewhere in there. He had a perfect V chest. I remember we used to play basketball and I'd come at him full steam and I'm not kidding, he wouldn't budge and I went flying backwards. And he said to me one day, hey, John, come watch my videos. I was like, okay, I used to think it was all fake. They broke a guitar over his head and he was like, fine. They broke a chair over his back and he was fine. A 400 pound sumo wrestler jumps on top of him and he gets up. I'm like, oh my gosh, that happened to any of us? We'd be in the hospital six weeks.

And I thought they're Christians like our WWF wrestler. See, Psalms says, great peace have them that love your word and nothing can offend them. There are Christians that have built their spirits up so strong, they're like that wrestler. See, I started thinking, you know, God used this, they're Christians, they're in positions of leadership. But you know what? They're not spending time in the word. They're not spending time in prayer. Oh, they work a lot, don't get me wrong. They work hard in church. But they're not taking that time with God. They're not building their inner man. So they're easily wounded. Then they're Christians like Joe. They're spending time in the word and I could hit him as hard as I want and I probably wouldn't injure him. So then I flew to Indonesia. I think we were in, I'm going to butcher it, I'm not even going to say it, Semarang, yeah, is it close? So we were there and another physical therapist is working on my knee in Indonesia. And the guy says to me, he says, you want to know how to get your knee healed? I said, yeah, man, tell me, how do I get my knee healed? He said, exercise every day. I said, here and do I exercise, you see that word exercise? And then I started thinking, okay, football players, they blow out a knee, what do they do? They do physical therapy. What is physical therapy? Focused exercise to get their knee healed. So you know, God spoke to me.

He said, son, that's what you need to do. You need to exercise. Remember, I had seen him and I was tormented with these thoughts. See, I was wounded. What he did to me wounded me. God said, you need to exercise, you need to do physical therapy, spiritual physical therapy. I said, God, how do I do that? And the Lord spoke to me and said, read Matthew 5 and look what I found in Matthew 5. Matthew 5, Jesus said, but I tell you, pray for anyone who mistreats you. You know what's amazing? You'll never once find it in the Gospels, Jesus said, pray for your mother. It's the truth, go look. Now are you not supposed to pray for your mother? No, you're supposed to pray for your mother, I mean yes, you're supposed to pray for your mother, but Jesus doesn't say pray for your mother. The only one he tells you to pray for is anyone who mistreats you, the person who offended you. So God, you know what he said to me? That's how you exercise, pray for him. So I got up from the table, and this is the way I prayed, I said, Lord, bless him. That's the truth. The next day I said, oh, by the way, bless him. At the end of my prayer time. The next day, I said, God, if you can, bless him. So that's the way I prayed for the guy for the next four weeks, right? You know what that's like? That's like lifting a penny, okay? I got no better, I got worse. So then I'm on another fast, and the Holy Spirit speaks to me, he said, read Psalm 35. So I start reading Psalm 35, and look what David says, he says, evil pay me back.

Evil people pay me back evil for good. In other words, he did them good, they paid him back evil. And I sink into spirit, and I think, okay, the next statement David's gonna make is bust their teeth out, Lord. You know how he says that? Break their jaw, you're right? But that's not what he said. He said, but when they were sick, these evil people that paid him back evil for good, I dressed myself 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 Lord said, that's what you need to do, you need to pray for him what you want me to do in your family or your life. I remember, I got up from the table, I was alone in a house, and this is the way I started praying, I said, Father, I pray that this man would be as close to you as a man can be close to you. I pray that he would know you the best a man would know you. I pray that you would bless him with your presence, surround him with angels. I'm asking, Lord, that the anointing of God would increase upon his life. I'm asking, Father, in Jesus' name, that you would surround him with godly men and women, deliver him from wicked and unreasonable men and women, surround him with godly counsel. Father, I'm asking that you would bring finances for his ministry from unexpected quarters. And I start praying like that. Everything I wanted God to do for me, I start praying for him. Can I tell you, it was so hard. You know how, hey, can I destroy a premise that we have? Can I destroy what feels good? That's baloney. Do you think when that guy, that football player has blown out his ACL and he's healing and they put 20 kilos on that leg curling machine, he's screaming? My wife did physical therapy.

She wanted to hit her physical therapist. It would hurt so bad. It didn't feel good. It was so painful for me to pray all that I was praying for him. And I kept, but I kept doing it because that's what David says. So after two weeks, you know what I noticed? I started getting passionate about it. What's happening? I'm getting healed. I kept getting more excited about praying it. And then one morning, it was about five weeks later, I'm out praying. And I remember I was deep in prayer and I was praying for this guy. And all of a sudden I just screamed his name out. I went, so and so, I love you. And when I said, I love you, it was like junk came out of me. It's like, whoa, whoa, I'm all better. I'm all better. I'm all right. So I went home. I love the way you guys do that. So I went home and I was so excited. I told Lisa, I said, I'm all better. I'm healed. I'm healed. So I saw the guy two weeks later, right? Another little on the inside, I thought now what? So my wife, who's so prophetic, oh my gosh, between Lisa and the Holy Spirit, I can't get away with anything. And I like that. So Lisa sits me down and she goes, honey, you need to go to him.

And I said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. I prayed. I'm fine. She said, okay. So I went out and prayed. I said, God, do I need to go to him? Lord said, yes. Now you know when Jesus said, if your brother sins against you, go to him, can I tell you how most people take that? What's your name? Who? Wesney? Come here, Wesney. Wesney! This is the way most people take that scripture. I just want you to know you did this and this and this and this, but I forgive you. What are they doing? They're using that scripture as an excuse to come vomit all over you and tell you how bad you treated me. That's not what Jesus had in mind. What Jesus has in mind is he says, go to your brother for the purpose of reconciliation. There's a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation. And this is where most Christians miss it. What's the difference? If you want to know the difference, look at the cross. When did Jesus forgive us? When he hung on the cross. He said, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. He wasn't just talking to the soldiers in the sand.

He was talking to the next generation, next generation, right down to you and me because we put him there. So have you ever heard somebody say, well, I'll forgive them when they apologize. What if Jesus would have waited for you and I to apologize before he forgave us? We would have been in hell. But now, when were we reconciled back to Jesus? When we repented and said, I'm sorry, you were right, I'm wrong, forgive me. What led us to repentance? The goodness of God. So what Jesus is saying is go to your brother and create an atmosphere of goodness that's going to want to make him say, I'm sorry. Right? Yeah, come on. So when you go to him and you say, you know what he wants to say? Excuse me. So this is what the Lord led me to do through my wife. I bought this guy a gift, a really nice gift, a gift I'd like to have. You understand? And I brought it to him, made an appointment, brought it to him, and I handed it to him. I said, here, I want to give this to you. And he takes the gift. Yeah, yeah. So he just, his eyes get like this. He looks at this gift because it's a nice gift. He looks at me and he's like, he's speechless. Thanks, buddy. He's speechless. And when he's speechless, I felt like I better start this conversation. So I looked at him and I said, hey, I've been really critical of you and judgmental, and I'm so wrong.

And I've come here today to ask you to forgive me. He goes, no, no, no, no. You've not been critical and judgmental. I said, oh, yes, I have. Well, you know what it did? It opened him up, and he shared with me his frustrations. And an hour later, we came together like this. And we've been like this ever since. I looked at my wife that weekend after I'd met with him, and I said, you know, I said, this is amazing. I said, when I first met him, he could do no wrong in my eyes, and I loved him. I said, that's immature love. I said, then I saw his faults. His faults were directed towards me. I didn't love him anymore. That's immature love. I said, you know what? Now I still see his faults, but I love him with the intensity of when I first met him. I said, that's got to be the love of God, because the love of God covers the multitude of sins. Lisa and I, we talk about this. We go back to that day that I met with him. Our whole life changed. I don't even think I'd be standing here in front of you today had I not done it. My whole life changed. Jesus said, and let me close it with this. In Luke 17, verse 1, he said, it is impossible that no offenses should come. What is Jesus saying here? He's saying, if you breathe air, you will have the opportunity to be offended. But 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 if you're offended. Are you seeing this? Now, the Greek word there for offense is the Greek word. It's actually an ancient Greek word that was originally used to describe a bait stick of a trap. It's skandalon. And what it is is the skandalon was the part of the trap where the hunters put the bait on. When the animal takes the bait, the trap closes and either captures or kills the animal. Thereby, an offense is the bait of Satan to pull you, the believer, into his captivity. Paul confirms this with Timothy when he says this. He says, look at this. He says, those that are in opposition with one another, in 2 Timothy, he says, those in opposition are taken captive of Satan to do Satan's will. Did you hear what I just said? You can read it later. They're taken captive of Satan to do Satan's will. 2 Timothy chapter 2. I may not have the scripture. There's a man that I respect, he had a vision of the army of hell that was going to fight against the church in the final days. In the vision, as the armies, the demonic armies started getting closer to the church, he noticed in the vision the demons were not riding on the backs of horses, they were riding on the backs of Christians that were offended. And the Christians, he said in that vision, thought they were serving God when in reality they were being used by Satan to do Satan's will. I'll end it with this. I was getting ready to speak at a conference one night, and I remember before I got up to speak, the conference host had a man come up that was about 36 years old, he was in construction clothes, he had a beard, long hair, he didn't look like the crying type, but he was crying. He was a tough guy, and I thought, this is interesting, this guy doesn't look like he

should be crying. And he said, I've been raised in the church, he said, but I've never experienced the presence of God. He said, I'd go into the building, people would get blessed, touched, there would be like a wall between God and me. He said, for years I've tried so hard, God, how do I get into your presence? He said, it was like a wall. He said, then somebody put in my hands your book, The Bait of Satan. And he said, I read that book in two days, and I realized that I held unforgiveness against my mother. He said, because my mother gave me away when I was six months old. He said, I held unforgiveness against her all my life. He said, so I contacted my mother and talked to her for the second time in 36 years. He said, Mom, I've held unforgiveness against you for 36 years, and I'm just calling to say I'm so sorry. She started crying, she said, I've hated myself for 36 years for giving you away. He forgave her, she forgave herself. Many times people can't forgive themselves. And this is where the story gets good. Now the tears are dripping off the beard onto his shirt, and he said, now the wall that's been between me and God for 36 years is completely gone. He said, I've been crying like this for the last three weeks in my prayer time and anytime I go into a service. Do you have the right to be offended? You have the right to do anything, but if you want to walk with God, you want to be a leader in his church, an effective leader in his church, you do not have the right to be offended. I want you to bow your heads, I want to pray for you. Father in the name of Jesus, thank you for what you've given us today. I'm asking you now, Holy Spirit, that you would move in this place in a powerful way.

If you're sitting here today, I want you to just really be honest, okay? I want every head bowed, every eye closed. I don't want, I don't want you to do what I did. I don't allow pride from keeping you from getting free today, but if you say, John, I'm harboring an offense. Some of you might be weeks, some of you might be months, some of you might be years. Or you're sitting in here today going, you know what, John? I may be obedient to the authorities, but I'm not submitted. I think my offense has something to do with that as well. You might be saying that right now, and you say, you know what, I realize that two wrongs don't make a right. Yes, what was done to me was wrong, but it doesn't justify my sin of being offended. And I want to take responsibility for that offense. I want to take responsibility for my not being submitted to my leaders. If that's you, I just want you to raise your hand up right now, I want to pray for you. Don't be ashamed. It's probably, put them up high. Don't be ashamed. 50% of the hands are up in the building right now. We're leaders, we're mature. I want every head bowed, every eye closed, but if you're really serious, I want you to stand up if your hand's raised. I want you to just stand up. You know, right now, if you could see the face of Jesus, you wouldn't see him frowning at you. You wouldn't see a disgusted look. I'm going to tell you what you'd see. You would see the biggest smile because he's so, so delighted for you to be coming. free. I just want you right now to just turn inside, look inside. I want you to admire him in your heart. You're not going to see a disgusted look. You're gonna see the biggest smile if you get a glimpse. The most loving, strong

eyes. He's so pleased with your humility. There's his presence right there. His presence is already touching people right now. This is beautiful. Now I want you to speak to him. I'm gonna lead you and I want you to repeat this prayer. Everyone in this building, pray with the people that are standing. Say this with me. Father. Father. Thank you for speaking to me today. Thank you for speaking to me today. Thank you for reaching out to me. Thank you for reaching out to me. By your spirit. By your spirit. I realize. I realized. Two wrongs don't make a right. Two wrongs don't make a right. What was done to me was wrong. What have done for me was wrong. But it doesn't justify my sin of offense. But it doesn't justify my sin of offense. I come before your presence today. I come before your presence today. I ask you to forgive me. I ask you to forgive me. For unforgiveness. For unforgiveness. Forgive me for not submitting to authority. Forgive me for not submitting to authority. I realized today... I realized today. That I've been so wrong. That I've been so wrong. I ask you to cleanse me with the blood of Jesus. I ask you to cleanse me with the blood of Jesus. Because in the name of Jesus. Because in the name of Jesus. I renounce. I renounce. Unforgiveness. Unforgiveness. Resentment. Resentment. Bitterness. Bitterness. Insubordination. Insubordination. I renounce it. I renounce it. In the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. I'm asking you now. And I'm asking you now. Fill my heart. Fill my heart. With your love. With your love. Because from my heart. Because from my heart. Right now. Right now. I forgive. I forgive. I just want you to whisper under your voice. Nobody else needs to hear this. I want you to right now. You're in the presence of God. He's here. I want you to release those people that have hurt you. Just say it. I forgive you. And say their name. Just release them. That's it. That's it. There's his presence right there. Right there. He's here. Now Father, I'm asking. Pour out your love.

Shed it abroad in their heart afresh. And Holy Spirit, manifest the presence of Jesus. Touch them with his presence right now. Fill them. Fill every man and woman. In Jesus name. And I release your healing power. I command their body to be healed. I command tormenting spirits. Loose them! In Jesus name. Just lift up your hands one last time. There's, there he is right there. There he is. That's his presence on you. Now just whisper your thanks and your gratitude to him right now. Just whisper your thanks to him. Say thank you so much. Let's give Him praise. Come on, let's give Him praise. Come on, give Him praise. You can be seated. Wow. Hey, I want to ask an honest question. Don't be polite. Be honest. How many of you could sense His presence? Let me see your hands. Put up your hands. Wow. He's amazing, isn't He? Can I say I'm so proud of you guys? Leaders, most of you are probably 15 to 25 years old, and you're seasoned leaders. What are you guys going to do to the enemy's kingdom? I mean, you're just 18, 19, 20 years old, and you realize how mature you are already? How great a leadership you've had, how much it's been entrusted to you? Isn't it wonderful to have pastors that believe in you, like Pastor Howe and Leah? It's amazing.

Can we thank God for what He's done, and also thank God for them? I love you guys.