Your Easily Offended Spirit | Let it Go | Rick Atchley

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Welcome to The Hills, I'm Preacher Rick, and I want to greet our online family around the world. We've got four campuses, if you're in person at one of them, North Richland Hills, Keller, West Fort Worth, Dallas, I'm glad you're spending the day with us, too. I am excited about the men's conference. Jamie Winship, Bob Goff, and Steve Carter, all in their own ways, have been big blessings in my life. I'm looking forward to time with them. I'm looking forward to time with brothers from across the state and the country. I've talked to many. Many attend smaller churches that can't put on a conference, so we become their conference, and I get to spend time with them. It's going to be a great weekend. But I'm thankful for this weekend, one of my favorites as well, because it is NFL playoff weekend. I love professional football playoffs. I watched both games yesterday. I will watch two games today, and tomorrow night, I will watch the University of Indiana play the University of Miami. You're saying, Pastor, duh, that's college football. I would say, duh, college football is professional football. So, I'm looking forward to all of those games.

And I really appreciate how sports can bring a lot of joy to people. I don't completely understand why people let sports rob them of the joy they should have. For example, I read an amazing story a few months ago, and it involved this player. His name is Shadur Sanders. He's a quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. He played at the University of Colorado, coached by his father, Hall of Famer Deion Sanders. He's a great athlete, and many thought last spring he would be a first-round draft pick. Well, he fell to the fifth round. It became the story of the draft. And there are many reasons people think that might have happened, but one upset fan decided it was because of collusion among NFL owners. They got together and decided to make a show of him, and that's why he was drafted lower than expected. The fan said, every time I saw a team pass on him, I got sick to my stomach. But he didn't stay there. He has filed a lawsuit. He is seeking $100 million in damages from the NFL for deep emotional stress. You can't make this up. I'm thinking that if deep emotional stress caused by sports is a reason for a lawsuit, we should have all been suing Jerry Jones for the last 30 years. But a story like that doesn't surprise us, does it?

Many social commentators refer to this current time as the age of outrage. More than in the past, people live today looking for reasons to be upset. We virtue signal by who we have befriended and who we have unfriended and why we are so offended. And it seems that no one or nothing is beyond being cancel-proof. Look at this picture. You recognize the Grand Canyon. I don't know how you can look at that and not want to worship God, but they have a website where you can visit the Grand Canyon and leave your comments reflecting on your visit. These are actual comments, reviews of the Grand Canyon. Walking up, not as much fun as walking down. False advertising. Well, friend, did you not see the word canyon? This one, just a big dumb hole in the ground, put in a rollercoaster, and some dipping dots, we'll talk. Amazing. This one, depends on what donkey you get. Okay, I could make so many jokes there that I'm just not going to even touch. Or this review, decent view, but lost my favorite pants. Love those pants, will not be back. What on earth happened at the Grand Canyon? I mean seriously you can criticize the Grand Canyon So we're calling this series. Let it go and the idea behind it is that we tend to bring from the past things that diminish our future that we bring Baggage that does damage to our soul

We started last week talking about our need to let go of our anger at God. It must have resonated. I got a ton of feedback Thank you. But today I'm going to ask you to let go of something that is just as Corrosive to your soul. I want to challenge you today to let go of your easily offended spirit In the book of Proverbs we read it is to one's glory to overlook an offense But Overlooking is not common today Overmagnifying is It wasn't as bad in the past as it is now and the reason I believe is our cell phones and our social media platforms our cell phones allow us to know about Injustice all over the world in a moment at a capacity I don't think our souls can handle and those social media platforms we get on, you know Do not exist for the community good They exist to make money They make money by keeping us engaged. We are the product they are selling our Attention to advertisers so they need to keep us engaged and the research is unassailable What keeps us online is? conflict and controversy and So they study your clicks. They know your algorithms. They make sure every day that you get a specifically curated diet of things to keep you upset Because when you are riled up their profits go up and So what's happened is that we're living now in a climate that is in Constant contradiction to the wisdom of Scripture my dear brothers and sisters take note of this Everyone should be quick to listen slow to speak and slow to become angry

Instead today, it's normal to be quick to post slow to listen and we get angry at the drop of a hat and What you're going to hear over and over today in this message Whether you're a Christian or not is that you have agency Regarding how? Offendable you will be or to put it another way Just because someone lays down an offense doesn't mean you have to pick it up It is Impossible to live life free from offense but it's possible to live an offense free life and in the kingdom of God it is expected and so Because we follow rabbi Jesus We know that in the kingdom The expectation is that we will cancel offenses not offenders So what I want you to do today for the next few moments is lower your defenses on the way you have been handling Offenses lately. In fact, I want you to do this. I want every one of you watching online at every campus I want you to turn to your neighbor right now, and I want you to say this message is for me I will not use it against you do that right now This message is for me. I will not use it against you now Turn to a different neighbor and say this message is for me, but you probably need it more than I do This problem is all of our problems whether you follow Jesus or not I know people listening to me right now are across the faith spectrum But I'm going to share wisdom today that will bless you and help make your life better whether or not you follow Jesus, but I am going to do some teaching especially for Christians. Let's just start there I believe Christians should get angry slower and Get rid of anger quicker than anyone else Jesus did not say,

by this everyone will know you are my disciples, by how offended you are. Our primary citizenship is in and our primary allegiance is to a kingdom that is ruled by the Prince of Peace. And he expects his disciples to be the most unflappable and least offendable people on the planet. But question, is that the reputation most Christians have with outsiders? When they see how quick we are to engage in argument, when they see what we post, does the reputation among outsiders of Christians exist? Boy, those people are impossible to offend. In fact, our reputation is we get upset with each other all the time. I heard a story about a man. For several years he is stranded on a deserted island. Finally, a boat comes along. A captain notices and rescues him. Says, I can't believe, but you've lived alone

on this island for three years? Yes. Well, why do I see three huts? He says, easy. That hut there, that's the hut where I sleep at night. And that hut there, that's the hut where I go to church every Sunday. And the captain says, well, what about that third hut? He says, well, that's where I used to go to church. This is how we live. And what I want to do right now is I want to do a teaching about anger that is going to challenge and even contradict what many of you believe and have even heard taught. See, I think it's sometimes the right thing to do to be angry. We witness injustice. We experience injustice. We experience evil. Sometimes it's right to be angry. It is never right

to stay angry. Hang with me. Look at Ephesians 4. In your anger, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry. And do not give the devil a foothold. Please notice Satan is not credited with causing the anger but with taking advantage of it. Your anger might be legit, but Satan will be there to take advantage and use it as leverage. When we hold on to offenses, the Scripture says, we give the enemy a chance to get a hold of us. I know what you're thinking. But, Pastor, my anger is righteous. My anger is justified. I am right to be angry. I'm like Jesus when He was in the temple turning over all those tables. Okay. First, I went and I read every account in each gospel

of when Jesus cleansed the temple. Not one time is the word anger or angry used. Perhaps He was. If He was, then it was a righteous anger. And only God can hold on to righteous anger because only God is holy enough to handle it. You and I are not. So no matter how justified we think we are, because our flesh is weak, if we hold on to that anger, our flesh will eventually be polluted. And so right after James said, be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to get angry, he said this, human anger, no matter what caused it, human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. Righteous anger is not listed among the fruit of the Spirit. The Scripture does not say

the fruit of the Spirit is this, love, joy, peace, patience, and righteous anger. Now, anger will visit, but we must not let it move into our heart for an extended stay. The New Testament is consistent. We are told to do only one thing with our anger. Let it go. Ephesians 4 again, get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. The offense may be legitimate, but continuing to carry it is not. Our rabbi does not want his followers loaded with that kind of baggage because he knows over time what it does to their hearts. Some of you say, well pastor, I'm just not wired that way. Listen, the offense-free life is not inherited, it is cultivated. You want to claim that you have no choice, you just have to be angry. Scripture challenges that. A little boy got into a fight with his big brother, got a pretty good whooping. He went to bed that night still fuming. His mother tried to calm him down. She said, now remember, the Bible says, do not let the sun go down on your anger. He said, mom, how am I supposed to keep the sun from going down? This is our attitude. I have the right to hold on to my anger.

Here's what I want you to understand. The fact that anger is a choice is a truth that was recognized by people before the Prince of Peace ever showed up. Before Jesus was born. Before the Holy Spirit was ever sent to fill the believer. Here's what Scripture says. Book of Proverbs. People with understanding control their anger. A hot temper shows great foolishness. Let me say it again, over and over in Scripture. You have agency about how offendable you will be. And how angry you will live. You know, I like the game of golf. I like to keep up with professional golf. Last spring I was reminded of this truth. There's a pro golfer named Ryan McCormick who has a hot temper. He says it keeps him from enjoying the game. So he took action in a tournament last year and he just put tape over his mouth and played golf that way. He says, I've tried many things. I figured I would just shut myself up. And if you are a believer, if you have been born again, you don't ever get to use the I'm just born that way excuse. You are a new creation. You are you 2.0. As a Christian, you have access to resources a non-Christian does not have to enable you to live with peace and at peace. I agree with Dallas Willard. A mature Christian is almost impossible to offend. Offense is inevitable. But living unoffendable is optional. Unless you follow Rabbi Jesus. And then I think it's non-negotiable. Let it go.

You're easily offended. Spirit. Here's how. First thing. You have to admit that living offended is a choice. The offense may not be your fault, but deciding to take offense is your call. In other words, maybe someone else left the suitcase, but no one else made you pick it up. And if this was not true, then why does Scripture Old Testament and New Testament admonish us about the danger of getting angry too quickly and holding anger too long? No one makes us angry. It's a choice that we make. And by the way, it's often for the purpose of controlling other people. You know that, right? That I try to control how you behave and how you think by saying, well, you offend me. It's a tool we use to get our way. One of the great lines from the classic movie Toy Story was when Mrs. Potato Head asked Mr. Potato Head, are you in a good mood today? He said, not sure. And she said, okay, I'll pack your angry eyes just in case. We make a decision to pack our angry lies. We have agency. Again, the book of Proverbs. Someone with a quick temper does foolish things, but someone with understanding remains calm. You do not have to give people and platforms permission to rile you up. The psalmist says, be still in the presence of the Lord. Wait patiently for Him to act. Stop being angry. Angry turn from your rage. Do not lose your temper. It only leads to harm Listen, whether you're a Christian or not, this is true Living constantly angry and offended only leads to harm But if you are a Christian Instead of taking up offense you could choose

To be filled up with the Spirit And so if you say I follow Jesus I especially am talking to you right now and here's what you do You submit to the Spirit for supernatural patience joy and love Jesus is not asking you to do what he did not do and so Jesus gave us his spirit To help us live his life And so Paul writes let the Holy Spirit guide your lives Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves your sinful nature loves to blow up It craves a good offense but when the Holy Spirit Guides the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives love joy. Peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and notice Self-control This doesn't mean we don't see things that are wrong that upset us that we shouldn't act But the motivation for a Christian to make things right is never anger. It is always love No one is in therapy today because they responded too often with the love of Christ Well I just can't help myself. The Spirit takes over and I respond with love and mercy and patience and joy That's why my life is so messed up said nobody ever You see the witness of the Christian community is not the absence of offense it's the presence of a reconciling spirit I I Know there's such a thing as church hurt. I think I would prefer church harm People in churches have been abused. There is no excuse. It's never justified But that's different than saying I went to a church and someone hurt my feelings. I Can't tell you where to go to church where that can't happen Church is a collection of sinners in a hospital needing regular doses of grace and What separates the church is? We're a community not where we never get hurt

We're a community of people that don't look like each other. Don't vote like each other Don't think like each other and offense is going to happen but more than that more than what we like is That we want to be like Jesus and so this reconciling spirit marks us We don't take up offense easily we dispense grace regularly This weekend We are rightly honoring the life of One of the greatest Americans in the history of our show our country Dr. Martin Luther King Who led the civil rights movement and we remember him as a incredible orator and strategist and leader but I want to argue the genius of the movement that he led Was in something he wrote in his journal in During the Montgomery bus boycott before anyone had heard of it These were his words Monday I went home with a heavy heart. I Was weighted down by a terrible sense of guilt remembering that on two or three occasions I had allowed myself to become angry and indignant I'd spoken hastily and resentfully Yet, I knew this was no way to solve a problem. You must not harbor anger

I admonished myself. You must be willing to suffer the anger of the opponent and yet not return anger This was a spirit that he embedded in a moment a Spirit that was formed by the ethic of Jesus Jesus, which I believe gave the movement its moral authority. The flesh will always move you to curse, and the Spirit will always prompt you to bless. And when you're filled with the Spirit, you don't have room for offense. So allow me the next couple of minutes to be a little autobiographical. As a younger person, one of my besetting sins was anger. I came by it rather naturally, because every actually man I knew had a temper. Both my grandfathers had tempers. My father had a temper, and he would display it by getting angry and just spewing his rage over all in his way. And because more than once I was covered with that kind of verbal vomit, I said, I don't want to be like that. I was still angry. I still had a problem, but I wasn't a spewer. I was a steward. I would just internalize the anger and carry it around for days. I brought this into my marriage. I brought this into my early years as a minister. And if somebody was critical and unfair and slanderous, I could just let that eat me up for days. And then over 25 years ago, I had this profound thought. What if the Sermon on the Mount was not just supposed to be memorized, it was actually supposed to be practiced? What if we were supposed to do it, not just admire it? And I picked a part of the Sermon on the Mount that I knew applied most to me, that Jesus said, when someone curses you, you bless them instead. And I committed, I'm going to try to live that principle.

It has made such a profound difference in my life. A few years ago, I received what was without question the meanest, ugliest, most hateful email I have ever received. It was paragraph after paragraph of slander, of misstatements, of accusations against me that were not true. Old Rick would have written a reply, and I would have intellectually and theologically decapitated every single argument. And I would have relished it and sinned. But I still would have stood for days. This time, I replied, I'm so sorry that what you heard me say hurt you. I promise to pray for you, and I want to thank you. It took courage for you to write and tell me how you feel. Did it change her life? I don't know. I do know that I was able to spend the rest of my day and week not stewing over that letter. About two weeks ago, I'm on the freeway here in the Metroplex. It's rush hour time. It's crowded, bumper to bumper. You've been there. You know what it's like. I think the speed limit was 70, and nobody could drive 70 because it wasn't safe. I think I was driving about 68, and that wasn't good enough for the guy in the big giant pickup truck behind me. Why is it always a guy in a big pickup truck? And he's honking and he's honking, and finally, he recklessly swerved lanes in front of someone else and pulled up beside me, honking some more, rode down the window, stuck out his arm and told me he thought I was number one. I, Rick, would have stewed for the next five miles thinking of all the reasons why his life needed to be terrible, but in that moment, the Holy Spirit said very clearly to me, pray for his family, and I thought, of course.

Is this how he goes home every day? What's it like to live in a home where you never wonder when your dad pulls up in the driveway what kind of mood he's going to be in? And so I prayed for his family. I prayed that peace would reign. You know what I learned? Doing what Jesus said works. You should try it. It's really good. Good advice. Spirit-led people cancel offenses, not offenders. And this is the posture they take up before they have an offense to pick up, because they commit to pre-decided forgiveness. You cannot avoid offense. I promise, no matter how much you intend to wake up tomorrow and have a good day, before that day is over, somebody is going to bump into your happy. It could be on the freeway. It could be in the line at the grocery store. It could be at the cubicle next to you. It could be in the classroom. But I promise you, tomorrow and every day next week, somebody is going to bump into your happy. But you can decide in advance that you're going to act and not react. The greatest illustration I've ever heard of this principle was from Bob Goff, who's going to be at our men's conference. His 17-year-old daughter wrecks the car. He gives her a shovel and coordinates and says,

go dig up a jar. And she goes and she does and she digs up a jar, and in the jar is a letter he has written to her saying, I forgive you for wrecking the car, which he buried when he learned he was going to be a dad and he was going to be a father of a little girl, and she's still in the womb. He had already decided in that moment what he was going to do. And Jesus modeled a way for us to do this every day. It's called the Lord's Prayer. How often should you pray the Lord's Prayer? Let me ask you, how often do you like to eat? I like to eat every day. Jesus said in that prayer, give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Do you understand what you're praying? You're announcing to God, just as you're good to me, I'm going to be good to people that have hurt me. I've already decided what I'm going to do, God, because you've forgiven me. I commit to forgive them even before I know who it is I'm going to need to forgive. And you know what? It is so liberating to wake up and start every day mad at nobody. So, I'm sure all of you recognize this painting. It's Da Vinci's masterpiece, The Last Supper. I'm going to tell you a story, and I don't know if it's true. I've heard it for a long time. I tried my research. I couldn't verify it, but I tell you because it teaches a truth.

Now, here's the story, that Da Vinci got very, very angry at a neighbor, even threatened them. And he's painting this masterpiece, and he gets to the face of Jesus, and he can't finish it. He can't finish it because he feels the tension of being so angry in his spirit while he's trying to paint the face of the Prince of Peace. And so, he goes and he finds the neighbor, and he forgives him. And then he goes back, and he finishes the painting. I don't know if it's a true story, but I know that it teaches something true. You cannot hold up Jesus and hold on to anger at the same time. The scripture says, it is to one's glory to overlook an offense. And when you do, it is to Jesus' glory. So, let it go. Do what you have to do. Put the phone down, get off the platform, tape for your mouth. Do what you have to do, but let it go. You will be so much freer, and the Jesus in you will be so much clearer. Bow your heads. So, God, we pray and we thank you that you are a holy God, that you and you alone are able to righteously steward anger. Know when it's due and who it's due. And thank you, Jesus. Thank you for coming. taking the penalty for our offenses on Yourself, and for showing us even on the cross You could

forgive an offense. Thank You for showing us that we don't have to take up what somebody puts down. Thank You, Holy Spirit, for giving us the resource and power to model this peaceful life. Help us this next week, when someone bumps into our happy, to act in such a way that makes Jesus look good. We pray in His name, amen.