The Lure of Offense | Brandon Bilbo

So when I forgive somebody else I'm saying that this issue is not worth my salvation, that this issue is not worth my hope, this issue is not worth my joy, this issue is not worth my peace, and it's definitely not worth my destiny. I'm not gonna hold on to the pain and that's gonna keep me from getting to the promise. I'm gonna let it go. So you can go be crazy, you go offend other people, but I'm gonna be free. Well this morning I am so honored to be with you guys. Pastor Amy did an amazing job last week as she was teaching about how how lies sometimes we might think is the truth and we might think that that is from God and and her first point she talked about a trap that would be there. And this week I want to I want to kind of lean into that idea of a trap that might be there for some of us and this one has a lure attached to it. In fact if we're honest when I dig into this this is a a lure that every single one of us have taken the bait. Some of us we have the hook in our mouth right now and it's one that the enemy as he tries to lure us in and tries to trap us there's kind of one area of our lives that when he messes with that it has the ability to affect our hope, to affect our peace, to affect our joy. It can affect our witness, it can induce anxiety and pain in our lives and that's in the area of our relationships. And with that in the area of our relationships there is a lure and that lure is the lure of offense. Come on I know none of us in here ever get offended that's the early crowd right? I know I know y'all came in and y'all are holy y'all prayed up but I know some of us we get offended but with people in traffic we get offended with co-workers and we get offended with with people who who live in a house with us our parents or our children or our spouse. I'll say that one again some of us get offended with our spouse. Some of y'all fought on the way to church today right? But we get offended with everybody around us we expect everybody to give grace towards us but we take the bait of offense and God's designed our relationships to be something that brings life to us and so many of us it's an area where life is drained from us because we're holding on to offenses and and the offenses that we hold on to honestly it's dangerous what we what we think we think if we hold on to this offense that they owe me

something and that they can repay me but honestly you're holding on you're embracing something dangerous when you're when you're holding on to offenses. Okay so when I teach when I preach I tell a lot of stories from my life and and I'll share a story that that happened it was during the 2020 shutdown we my brother-in-law bought a place in Texas and so we went and spent some time with them in the woods we couldn't have church we couldn't do much and so we just went out there with them and and my brother-in-law he told me he's got a friend who has a big farm and they have a really large pond on this farm and so he said hey the the pond is stocked you could come fishing y'all y'all come on and and have some fun so we did we went we went to go fishing and while we're out there we found out or I found out that what his farm is he he actually farms white-tailed deer that that he he breeds these deer to try to get them as large as they can they sell them to a hunting ranch and then you've seen Bambi so you know what happens but uh but but this is kind of what he does this is what the farm is now we go out there and they want the deer to be as wild as possible because they're gonna go put them in the woods somewhere and so I was not expecting to have a close encounter with a deer but we did while we're fishing this doe walks up and and walks up to a friend of ours that's fishing with us and my friend pets the deer I think that's pretty strange but that's pretty cool then the deer walks over by my wife my wife pet the deer the deer walked by me y'all I was taking selfies with it I'm like check this out this is pretty cool and then it walked over towards my youngest son Marshall and I've actually got a picture of it the deer walks up and and look how cute this is he's just like he's like hey how are you right like they're having a little conversation and I'm recording this I'm I'm recording this I'm like hey don't make any sudden movements right just be real still and then the deer turned from this cute little animal to Muhammad Ali it starts standing up uh-huh feeling froggy about to jump right in and then it gets up a little higher and that's when I was like you know like like kind of a moment of fear like my baby is just trying to embrace this deer but you're embracing something that is

dangerous and some of us when we hold on to our our unforgiveness when we're holding on to our bitterness when we're holding on to offenses you think it's just something cute that you can hold on to but it's doing more damage than you realize holding on to the pain will keep you from God's promise. It will keep you from God's promise. And so, I wanna teach in a way that maybe is a little bit different. Now, I know here in Miami, it's different than it is in Louisiana. But in Louisiana, my people will come to church and they'll listen to a sermon and they'll tell all their friends that need, they listen to the sermon for other people. You know, like they'll sit in church and they'll be texting, girl, you should have been at church today, you know? Ha. So, my encouragement for you today is to listen to this message, not for your neighbor, not for your coworker, not for your spouse, but for yourself. Jesus said it this way in Matthew chapter seven, verse two. He says, why look at the speck in our neighbor's eye when we've got a log sticking out of our own eye? You ever had something in your eye? It's irritating. In our house, I'm the one who, I just decided early on when we had kids, I said, hey, look, you know,

both of us will take different roles. I'll cut their fingernails and toenails. I'll take care of that. That's gross, but I'll do that. And so, one night I'm cutting, I don't even remember which one of the boys it was, but I'm cutting their toenails. They're on the bed. I got a towel to catch all the shrapnel, you know what I mean? And like, I'm there and cutting the toenails and I get to the little toe. And you know the little toes, like it's kind of like the reject of the other toes. You know what I mean? Like all the other toes, they stand proud. And you got that little toe that just kind of sits on the side. It's got something that looks like a toenail that had kind of grown on top. And like, it's just weird. I got to that and I cut the toenail and that toenail was angry and it shot at me. I mean, it just like, it fired at my face and I tried to do the whole matrix, no, but I couldn't get back far enough. So then I'm telling my eyelid, close, close, close. And by the time my eyelid gets the message to close, it does in just in time to catch that toenail right in my eye.

And I looked at my son, I couldn't freak out because now he's gonna be afraid. If I freak out, he's gonna be afraid to get his toenails cut. You know what I mean? So I couldn't freak out. So I looked at him and I said, wait right here. And I don't know what it is, but if you ever get something in your eye, every woman, when you put on mascara, you make the same face. You cover your teeth with your lips. I don't know why. I don't know why. You cover your eye, that's what we do. So I looked at him, I said, wait right here. And I went and got my wife and I said, look at this. And I opened up my eye and she said, ah, you got a toenail in. I'm like, I know, that's why I came for help. And this scripture came to mind. Because if something has grown, if I've got a log in there and I couldn't look at something in somebody else's eye, I was only worried about what was in mine, meaning that God's people allow things to sit and fester like anger and bitterness. So today, listen for yourself. We're gonna go through Luke 17. Jesus is gonna tell us how to get over offenses.

Luke chapter 17, verse one. Then said he unto the disciples, it is, what is that word? Impossible. It is impossible. There is no way that you can go through this life, but that offenses will come. And I know some of us will probably look at Jesus and be like, Jesus, be more positive. And Jesus says, I'm positive. You cannot go through this life without having some offenses, that people are going to offend you, that there's gonna be things that happen in this life. And so if I were taking notes today and if I were looking at what Jesus is saying to my life, the first thing that I would look at is I need to prepare for the offenses. I've gotta prepare that offenses will come. Now, living in South Louisiana and living in South Florida, we have something in common. We have to deal with hurricanes. I know a lot of the country doesn't understand the pain of dealing with hurricanes, but I'm gonna just say it this way. Like, I hope throughout the rest of my life, I hope I never see another hurricane. Come on, can I get an amen to that one, right? But that said, I'm okay with one aspect of hurricanes. We get a warning, right?

I couldn't live like in California where there's earthquakes and the earth just opens up. That's too Old Testament for me. I couldn't do that. I wouldn't wanna live in like Central America where all of a sudden there's just, you know, like a tornado and Toto's gone. Like, I don't know that that would be my thing. Like, at least I get a warning for my issue. And Jesus is saying, hey, there is a hurricane in the Gulf and its name is offense and it's coming to you. So board up the house, get some batteries, get some water and get ready, prepare for the offense. It's gonna happen. So how do I prepare? Well, let me start by saying this. The way we prepare is we stop expecting the environments we're in to be offense free. Y'all, we go through this life and we look for what is perfect. We'll say it, I'm looking for the perfect school for my kids, or the perfect job, or the perfect spouse, or the perfect church, or the perfect this, or the perfect that. The only place that perfect exists is in your dreams, and then you wake up. There's no such thing as a perfect job, and no such thing as a perfect school. When my wife and I were launching our church, as soon as we signed the documents with the state

that our church was open, and it was just her and I in the church, it was immediately no longer a perfect church, because we had two imperfect people in it. And there's no such thing as a perfect spouse or a perfect marriage. You know how I know? They chose you. And you know how jacked up you are. Like, let that settle in. At worst, they got judgment issues, amen, right? There's no perfect place on this earth, and what we want is we want perfect places. We want everything to be perfect. We want everyone to give us grace when we're imperfect. But that's not how life is. In fact, maybe what we need to do is work on giving more grace than what we're receiving, and stop expecting perfection. Maybe another way we can do this is that we start working on the resolution before the altercation even happens. In business, people are wise enough to do this before they go in. They will set clauses in their contracts. They will say, we know we will have an argument, but when we do, this is how we're gonna settle it, how we're gonna handle it. But in our relationships, we walk into relationships like nobody's ever gonna offend us.

Everybody's gonna be perfect. Everybody's just gonna just love Jesus, and everything's just gonna be perfect in life. And most of the New Testament is telling Christians how to live with other Christians. Y'all, one of the things I love to do as a pastor is premarital counseling. Because in premarital counseling, these people, they will come in, and they're just like, I'm in love, I'm in love, and I don't care who knows it. I mean, they're just like, they look at each other with rose-colored glasses, and congratulations, this ain't gonna happen for y'all, but for the rest of us, the rest of us, we look at each other with rose-colored glasses. I mean, just like, they're perfect, they're wonderful, and I sit and chuckle as they're in their premarital counseling, because I'm thinking, y'all gonna be back in a couple of years, and y'all gonna be telling me about each other? Because listen, I know he is amazing. He is wonderful, but there's gonna be a day, brother's gonna roll over, he's gonna have that CPAP cord wrapped around his neck. He thinks he looks like Maverick, but he's breathing like Darth Vader. And he's gonna pull that mask off, and look at you and say, girl, how you doing?

Not today, boo, not today. There's gonna be times we're gonna get on each other's nerves, like we think each other's perfect, but we're not, so we need to live life where we, hey, get the arguments out the way before you say, I do. Understand, you walk into church, and there's gonna be people who are also flawed people in church. If everybody in here was perfect, we wouldn't need church, we'd be in heaven. But we come in broken, and those people who are hurting you and getting on your nerves, they're just broken people. They need more of your grace than they need your frustration. So Jesus says, expect it, it's going to happen. We're gonna get on each other's nerves, things are gonna happen. Verse three, he says, take heed for yourself. This is not for you to think about everybody else, this is for you to think about you if your brother trespasses against you. Rebuke him, confront the issue. And then if he repents, forgive him. The second thing we've gotta do is confront the wrong. When things come up, when things arise, we've gotta confront the issue. Maybe I can say it this way, you will never be able to release

what you cannot first confront. Why, because we get offended, and then we think we're gonna get over it, and then we get offended again, and we think we're gonna get over it. And guess what, just because you're thinking he needs to put the toilet seat down, he don't know. Ladies, let me just put it out here like this. I know you think, we've been married this long, he should know, he will never know. Until you tell him, and then he's gonna forget. Come on, fellas, can I get an amen on this, right? We need some grace. This is how God made us. We're not gonna know. Give us a list, check it twice. Preaching to somebody strong over here, amen. But we, like, we expect all of these things from each other that, oh, you're gonna be perfect, and oh, this is gonna... But maybe we just need to give grace. Confront the wrong. Have a conversation about it. There are some of us that in counseling, a counselor would say that you're reflective. What you do is you bottle things up and you don't say anything. You think that the absence of conflict equals the presence of peace. It doesn't.

That's artificial harmony. The absence of conflict does not mean that we're functioning well. That just means you're being quiet and you're suffering in silence. So let me say it this way. If you don't confront it, you're making a decision to live with it. Like if you don't like the way that they cook chicken and their chicken's dry, if you don't say something about, hey, maybe we could figure out how to cook chicken a different way, you have chosen to live the rest of your life with dry chicken. That was your choice. Don't be mad at nobody. You chose that. We've got to confront it. If something's going on, I've got to have a conversation about it and confront the wrong. This is what Jesus is saying. He says, confront it. Now, as I say this, there's a big caveat. Because when offense has happened, we need to confront the wrong. But for some of us, it's not wise to confront the person who offended us. For some of us, it was a person who abused us.

And for us to confront them would bring only more abuse in our life. For some of us, the person you've been holding on to these issues with, they're dead and gone. And I cannot have a conversation with them. I physically can't talk to them. I can't confront the person. But here's the beautiful part. You can confront the problem without confronting the person. Now, look, God's plan is reconciliation. This is why scripture says, as long as it depends upon you, that we would live at peace with everyone. But in those situations where I can't confront the issue, you need to know forgiveness. It's a one-player game. I don't have to have you play along. I can just decide I'm gonna be free because I can't get to the promise if I'm still holding on to the pain. So I'm gonna let go of the pain. I'm gonna forgive. I'm not gonna be bound by this any longer. I'm going where God's called me to go. And I can forgive even if the other person is not involved. But some of us, we live a life where we just dig up things that should be dead and buried. They should have been washed and under the blood.

I was reading a history book not long ago, and I was reading about these two believers. And as I say, this is not at all an indictment against their denomination. This was just two believers that should have had freedom. They should have been able to figure this out because they were believers, but they just didn't see eye to eye. It was in 897 AD, Pope Fromosa had died and he had some disagreements with the person who was about to become the next pope, Pope Stephen VI. But when Pope Stephen VI comes in and steps into the papacy, he decided he didn't agree with anything that Pope Fromosa did. So he literally had his body exhumed. He was dead, had his body exhumed and called a trial. He has the dead body dressed in papal garb, puts him there in the middle of the church as they're going through a trial and has somebody sit behind him and answer for him, which he was already gonna lose the trial because I don't know anybody who's dead who can win a court case. I don't know that, but they put him on trial and you know the outcome of it. They decided that he was guilty, that he should have never been pope. This is what Pope Stephen VI said, he should have never been pope.

And so they cut off the three fingers that he would bless people with and they took his body and they threw it in the river. They disregarded everything that he had done as pope. And that sounds so bizarre that someone would do this in history, yet we do the same thing to other people in our lives. Thing that should be dead and buried and covered by the blood of Christ. We keep digging it up and we keep bringing up issues from 20 years ago and we keep holding onto things. Come on, let it go. Let it go so you can be free. Let it go. Forgiveness becomes the most freeing thing that you can do. Verse four, we see what he says. Jesus says, if he trespasses against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day, he turns again and ask for forgiveness. He repents, you've got to forgive him. Point number three, forgive, forgive, forgive, forgive and keep forgiving. And when you do this, this becomes the most freeing thing in your life. Y'all, when we're not forgiving somebody, it binds our hands. That person who cut you off on the way to work, you're mad till lunchtime that,

I can't believe they cut me off. They cut off 10 more people because they just don't know how to drive. And you've lost your day. You're mad, you're upset, you're frustrated. Everybody around you is like, ooh, they in the mood today. Why? Because when you don't forgive, when we hold onto a fence, we tie our hands. But when I forgive, it's the most freeing thing I could do. And some of us are like, well, if I forgive them, that means I'm letting them walk on me again. No, no, no, forgiveness is not about them walking on me or them doing something to me. No, no, forgiveness is freeing for me. What forgiveness is saying is that if I don't forgive them, Jesus said, God can't forgive me. So when I forgive somebody else, I'm saying that this issue is not worth my salvation, that this issue is not worth my hope, this issue is not worth my joy, this issue is not worth my peace, and it's definitely not worth my destiny. I'm not gonna hold onto the pain that's gonna keep me from getting to the promise. I'm gonna let it go. So you can go be crazy, you go offend other people, but I'm gonna be free. I'm gonna be free.

I'm tired of holding onto it. And so many of us, we've been holding onto things for so long that you've spent a lifetime of unforgiveness and a pain that you're holding onto. Today's the day for your freedom. If you forgive, you're letting not them redo things to you and reoffend you, you're letting yourself find freedom. See, forgiveness is not a feeling, it's a decision. Because the fact is when we decide I'm gonna forgive somebody, you don't always feel like forgiving them. This is why another time in scripture, the disciples came to Jesus and they're like, how about if I forgive somebody seven times? What'd you think about that? And Jesus' response was 70 times seven, 490 times in a day. If you sleep eight hours, that's once about every three seconds that you gotta forgive these people. And that's about how often people who offended you post on Instagram. Come on, can I get an amen, right? Because when I forgive, I'm making a decision that I'm going to forgive, but my feelings don't always feel like forgiving. Because I make a decision to forgive and then I go out and I see a car that looks like theirs or I hear a song that makes me think about them or I show up to the store and I'm there about to just get some lettuce and next thing you know, I see them. Hallelujah.

And I'm remembering all the things that have happened, but as a believer, I'm not led by what I feel. Scripture doesn't say that we live by feelings, we live by faith, right? So I'm not led by what I feel, I make a decision. I made a decision that I'm gonna follow Jesus, but I don't always feel like doing what he would want me to do, but I made a decision, my feelings have to follow. And when it comes to forgiveness, my feelings have to follow, I make a decision. So maybe here's kind of the rule that we can have. If it's not gonna matter in five years, maybe I shouldn't give it more than five minutes. If it's not gonna be something that's gonna affect me five years from now, like that person who cut you off on the way to work and I might be preaching to myself, amen, like if it's not gonna matter five years from now, why would I give it more than five minutes today? It's just stealing my peace, let it go. Because there's a promise that God has for me. There's something that God has for me. And the longer I hold on to it, the further I've kept back from that promise, so how do I live free? Well, you're already done part of it, you're in a life giving church. One of the greatest ways that you can live free is plugging it, not just coming to church. There's a difference in attending church and getting involved in church. Let me encourage you, get involved in church.

Y'all, this is why we have groups, not so that you just have something else to do in the middle of the week, no, so that you can get in community with other believers, that you can be in a place where friends become family, where I get around other believers and all of a sudden, all of a sudden, as I start peeling back the layers of my heart, I can start finding freedom from the pain that's held me back for so long. This is why you need to be on the dream team. You need to find a place where you can use the God-given giftings and talents that are in you and you see them come to life and as you start seeing ministry come from you and life changes because of your ministry. Oh, I love the fact that you've got a serve day coming up in two weeks, that as a church, you get the opportunity to go serve the community and make a difference in the community. That's not the day to say, oh, pastor, I'm just gonna miss today, no, no, I'm gonna come in, I'm gonna use the gifts that God's given me so that I can be a difference in the world. Some of you, you need to jump into Destiny Steps, that you need to jump into the class and see what God's purpose and plan is for your life and get plugged in, use it, get plugged in, why? Because when I'm involved in church, when I'm in the church and I've got other believers speaking in my life, all of a sudden,

I start finding freedom from the things that are holding me back. So many of us, we just want to hold on to it. We just want to hold on to it and you're just really tying your own hands. Okay, so a few years back, we had just launched the church and the church was about three years old. We kind of set up in our house where we had different work schedules. So I was working, I would work late on Tuesday nights. My wife would work late on Wednesday nights. So that meant I had the boys on Wednesday. Maddox, at that point, my oldest, he must've been, I don't know, first grade or so, second grade. And Marshall, my youngest, he was about three. Now I've got the boys at the house and by myself and y'all, the night was going perfect. I felt like I was just killing it as a dad. Like everybody ate dinner. Had my oldest, he did his homework. Y'all, I even had time while they're bathing themselves, they're going through their little routine for the night. I even had time that I put some clothes in the washing machine, put some clothes in the dryer. I had dishes in the dishwasher. Now, fellas, let me just tell you this. Don't press start while she's far from home. You got to press start when she around the corner. You know what I'm saying?

Because there's a harmony. When she comes in the house and she hears the dishwasher going and she hears the washing machine going and she hears the dryer. I'm telling you, brother, it's better than Marvin Gaye. I'm telling you, it's a beautiful song. I'm trying to line things up. I got these kids bathed, pajamas about to go on. I told them, go in the bathroom, brush your teeth. I'm trying to get these children to bed so I can press start on all the machines, amen. And so I'm ready. They're in the bathroom brushing their teeth. I had enough time. I sat down, I picked up my phone to look at a text message. I'm like, oh, I'm killing it tonight. And all of a sudden I hear from the bathroom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, ah, boom, boom, boom, boom. I'm like, what is going on? And I get up and I run down the hall to see what's happening. As I do, I see my oldest, he's fleeing the bathroom. As my youngest went, I don't know why we had a back brush in the bathroom, but like one of those brushes, it was a wooden brush in the bathroom, like you could get your whole back with. My little one is taking it and he's swinging it at him. I'm like, what is happening? So I bring him in the den and as they're in the den,

I said, dude, y'all, what happened? Maddox, my oldest, he goes, listen, we're brushing our teeth, I pushed him, I forgot how small he was, he flew, my bad, I didn't mean to. And I looked at the little one, he just got his arms crossed, he's just glaring at me. I said, is that what happened? I said, all right, well, y'all got to go to bed. So tell each other you're sorry, hug each other. I got to press start on the machines, amen. So my oldest, he says, dude, my bad, I forgot how small you were, I didn't mean to do that, my bad. And a little one looks at him with this glare. I mean, it was like looking at eyes of like Don Corleone, you know what I mean? Like it was just like this glare and he says, sorry means nothing. I said, what? Sorry means nothing. Hold up, bro, hold up. So I get down on my knee and I'm looking him in his eyes, I said, I hold his little hands, I said, look in my eyes and say audibly, like where I can hear you, tell me what you just said. I said, I said, sorry means nothing. Now, I don't know if you've ever had one of these moments as a parent, where part of you like you're heartbroken and the other part of you like, that's really funny,

but I can't laugh right now, you know what I mean? Like that is hysterical. And it's so funny when you're three and you're like fighting unforgiveness, but it ain't too cute when you're 30 and you're still fighting it. And some of us, we've been holding on to this bitterness and this anger and this, and we still have the attitude of sorry means nothing. And you're the one who's bound. So the disciples asked Jesus, a question that doesn't make sense to me. Remember, he's talking about forgiveness and he's talking about offense and they say, they say, increase our faith, Lord. This is verse five, increase our faith. And when I read this, I'm like, are y'all in the same conversation? But the way Jesus answers, they knew what he was talking about, because he says, if you had the grain of a mustard seed, you might say to the sycamine tree, be thou plucked up by the root, be thou planted into the sea, and it should obey you. So many of us don't think about faith when it comes to forgiveness. We think about faith when it's a healing that we need and we need to see the walls of Jericho fall and we need to see our child turn their heart to God and we need to see the addiction broken

and we need to see our marriage restored. But I'm telling you to really forgive somebody, it's gonna take some faith. and faith. And he says that you should be uprooted. Y'all, it takes a lot of faith to truly forgive. Jesus uses the picture of a tree here for a few reasons. There's other places in scripture where he says, hey, speak to the mountain and the mountain will be removed, it'll be cast into the sea. But here he uses a tree and he uses it for a reason because a tree has roots. And so many of us, when we go to forgive, we just cut off branches. We just pull off some leaves, but we leave the tree and we leave the root. But Jesus is saying, if you apply faith to that place of pain, person who abused you, person who walked out on you, person who betrayed you, person who stole from you, person who violated you, if I apply faith that the pain of that can be uprooted, that I may never forget what happened, but I don't relive the pain. So many of us today, I mean, as I say that, I feel the pain in the room. So many of us, it's like, pastor, you don't know. You don't know what they did.

You don't know what I've gone through. And I don't. But I know God's plan was not the pain that you went through. The enemy brings pain. We suffer at the hands of evil people sometimes. But his plan is that he can turn all things to good, that he can bring beauty from ashes, that the worst moments of your life can become the most beautiful ministry of your life, that this can be something that changes generations, that brings hope to people, that changes eternity for people. But as long as I hold it in my hands, it just stays roots. When I apply faith, it can be uprooted. I don't know where you are. I know some of us, this is, we need some faith. We need some hope. And I'm telling you, you need to be in groups. You need to be around other believers. You need to be in the community of church because it's in other believers. When they're in our lives, scripture says we go to our heavenly father for salvation. It says, go to the elders of the church that will lay hands on you and you'll find healing. So when we're in community, our soul is restored. Some of us, what we need is we need restoration in our lives.

Some of us, we're talking about forgiving others. Maybe we don't realize how much we've been forgiven of. See, maybe I could say it this way. When you understand his forgiveness, the only appropriate response is that we forgive others. That's the only thing I can do. Because you can't just say, that's the only thing I can do. Because yes, they might've dropped me, they might've walked out on me, they might've done all of these horrific things, but, I can promise he's forgiven me more of anything I'll have to forgive someone else of. Some of us today, you need to experience his forgiveness. Maybe this church, things new. Maybe you came because a friend invited you. Maybe you're here, you've walked with the Lord, but you've turned your back on him and you've walked far from him, but you need to know his forgiveness today. I wanna begin by praying for you. I'm gonna pray for all of us, but let me invite you right now to bow your heads, close your eyes, that people around you don't distract you. And if you're here and you'd say, Pastor B, that's me, I need a relationship with the Lord. I need to know his forgiveness. I need to experience his forgiveness right where you are. I'm just gonna ask if you raise your hand. When you pray, pray with me.

Amen, amen, amen, amen, amen. Hands raised all around our sanctuary today. I'm gonna ask all of us to pray a prayer today. Somebody next to you might be borrowing some faith from you right now. Just repeat this with me, dear heavenly father, forgive me for my sins. I know that I'm a sinner in need of a savior. And Jesus, I believe that you died and you rose again for me. And I commit my life to you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Heavenly father, I pray that you'd move your hands Amen. Heavenly father, I pray that you'd move in our hearts and our lives. Holy spirit, do a work in your people. God, I thank you, your design for relationships is that it would be something that would bring life to us. God, it can't bring life if we're holding on to the death, pain, and the past. So God, I pray that you'd empower us. Lord, through the power of your Holy Spirit working in us, working through us, that you'd give us the power to forgive, that you'd give us the power to move on, that you'd give us the power to let go of our offenses so that we can embrace your purpose for our lives. Lord, we give you all the praise and all the glory. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. Hey, heaven is celebrating and we are celebrating with you. And we want to walk this journey together. So if you prayed that prayer or you just want to know more about Jesus, follow the prompts that are on the screen right now. We are so proud of you. And honestly, God's vision for you is to see you live that better

story epic and eternal. We say like this, to see you holy, healthy, happy, and bring in heaven to earth. And if you're watching and you want to help others find Jesus like that, you can partner with us and together we can make that epic difference. Hey, giving details are coming up on the screen. And we just say, God's blessed you. You can be a blessing to other people as well. And hey, if you're here in the South Florida area, we'd love to see you in person. Check out the description below for times and the location where you can come to a service. We would love to see you soon. This is History Makers Church where friends truly become family. See you soon. Transcribed by https://otter.ai