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Rocky Byers - 6_7_2026

• Bread of Life Christian Fellowship

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Rocky Byers

Dis-Appointment to Appointment 


Matthew 11:1-3 (niv) 


Matthew 11: 4,5 (niv) 


How to get over Offense 


1. Pray for the offender 


2. Forgive them 


3. Bless them 

SPEAKER_02

To welcome Pastor Rocky Myers.

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Well, it's good to be with you this morning. The psalmist David, he said, I was glad when they said to me, Let's go to the house of God. Come on, somebody. Anybody glad in the house? Anyone happy to be in the house of God this morning? Come on, you could be in the best hospital bed in Houston, Texas, but instead you're of the house of God. Come on, anybody happy today? Anyone glad today? Come on, stand to your feet with me this morning. We're so happy to be here. We're glad to see you. Come on, stand to your feet. Come on now, lift your hands to Jesus. Come on, lift your hands to Jesus. He's worthy. There's nobody else but him that's worthy. Jesus, we glorify you. Jesus, we exalt your name. You are the King of kings and the Lord of Lords. There is nobody but you, Jesus, that's worthy to be praised. So we lift our hands in honor of you, Jesus. We thank you today that you've walked into this room, and we thank you today that you've walked into this room to do what you do and to do what you do best. You've come to set captives free. You've come to heal broken hearts. You've come to open blinded eyes. You've come to raise the dead. And we thank you, Jesus, that that's what you do because that's who you are. So we bless your name. Come on, somebody, lift your voice right now. Come on, lift your voice if you don't praise in the rocks. We'll cry out. We bless you, Jesus. You're worthy to be praised. There's nobody but you, Jesus, that we exalt and that we glorify because you are king, you are Lord, and every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that you are Lord. Hallelujah. Thank you, Jesus. We thank you, Jesus. We bless your name. Come on, put your hands together for Jesus. Come on, praise Him like you need it this morning. We bless you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. You may be seated. My beautiful wife is with me today. And we uh we want to share with you, real quick, a little bit about our family.

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So we have that, we can put that up. There we go. Can we see that? Is that okay? What do we got going on with the screens? Those are just my eyes.

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Okay, so here we go. Maybe you talk about your daughter and son and our grandkids.

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I'll I'll start on the top right. That's my daughter Bailey and her husband Mike. They're gingers, if you can't see. And uh they live in Corpus Christi. We're gonna see them after we leave here today for a couple days. Um underneath them on the bottom right is our dog Trigger. He's our fur baby. He's 12 years old.

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That's my son. He looks just like his dad, don't you think? At least has my nose.

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He's a uh half sheepdog, half poodle. And that's when he's full grown out, but right now he's a little shaved. Um, and then in the middle bottom, that's my son Brandon and his wife Megan, and they live in the Chicago area with um my two grandsons in the bottom left. That's Andrew and Alex. And um they're getting bigger by the minute. I'll let you introduce Melissa.

SPEAKER_01

Okay, so up top left is my daughter Melissa and her uh husband, Jarelle. And Jarel's a worship leader, and my daughter is a children's pastor, and uh they live in Waxahatchie, Texas. And then in the middle is our three grandkids, and that's Amaya on the right, and I don't know, I've lost track of how old they are. I mean, they're just growing like weeds, you know. So Amaya's on the right, Christian is in the middle, and then Talia is on the left, and uh, they're all just, you know, they're at that age where they're just doing everything, and they're active and active in sports, active in soccer, active in playing musical instruments, and so those are our three grandkids in uh wax a hatchie, and so we have a lot of fun with them. We love them, amen.

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All right, thank you, baby.

SPEAKER_01

All right, good to see you this morning. If you have your Bibles or however you read your Bible on your phone, or if you have Bibles, I like I like leather. I believe God rides a Harley Davidson, that's why he likes black leather. Come on, somebody, say amen. And if you have Bibles, you can open the Matthew chapter 11.

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We're gonna start there today. Are you really happy to be here?

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I'm glad you are. I am too. So if you have something to write on, I I encourage people to take notes because smart people smart people take notes. Take notes. Others don't. And I like pastoring smart people, amen. So I encourage you to take some notes, take some good notes, write them on a notepad, or write them on your phone, however you take notes, but I encourage you to take some notes because the truth of the matter is, is no matter how good the preacher is, if you don't take notes, you're gonna walk to walk out, go to lunch today, and you're gonna say, What was he what was he teaching on? I don't remember what that guy was teaching on. So I encourage you to take some notes. Matthew chapter 11. And right at the top of your notes, if you're taking notes, write down disappointment to appointment.

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Disappointment to appointment.

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So this message today is as we look at it, and I teach this morning, it's not just something that I teach, but it's something that God has done in my life. It's something He has taught me firsthand and personally. Seventeen years ago, my wife of 30 years, uh, she had an affair with her uh multimillionaire boss, and uh she thought that uh he would be a better husband to her than I would be. And um so the night that we had the discussion, I had prepared myself, I saw the red flags, and I had prepared myself for the answer that she would give me, and I just flat out asked her, I said, I believe you're having an affair with your boss, and she said, Yeah. And so as soon as those words came out of her mouth, I was prepared for them. I had my emotions under control because I'd thought through this whole process, and uh I said, Well, you know I love you and I forgive you. And we're gonna go start counseling next week to get healed, right? And she didn't want anything to do with it. Uh she had me removed from the house and for the first time in my life, I've been pastoring for twenty-some years, built large ministries, preached in twenty-some different nations, literally seen tens of thousands of people come to Christ, seen thousands healed, uh raised from the people raised from the dead. I've Jesus has used me to literally raise two people from the dead, cast out a lot of demons, and here I am for the first time in my life in what what's called real depression. I tried to hang on to my church after a month and I had a great church, a revival church in Bradington, Florida. And after a month and a half, my daughter and a son-in-law told me, said Dad, you cannot continue to do this.

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You need to step down. You need to take a break. I was living on Prozac. Dying in a cave by myself every day. My mentor would call me every morning. He'd say, Rod, what are you doing? Are you still in bed? Get dressed. Walk the beach. He kept me alive.

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So after a month and a half of building a great church started with 12 people in my living room, I had resigned from the church.

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I didn't know what I was gonna do. But fortunately, God healed me. Fortunately, God delivered me from depression and restored me back into the ministry. Talking about broken heart, talking about broken life.

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Today we're gonna talk about it today. Today we're gonna get real and what Jesus really wants to do in our lives. So, this is personally something that He taught me. I don't um teach this as a theory, but this is real life, amen. Come on, we all go through heartbreak, we all go through disappointment. But the good news is that Jesus showed up just for that. Come on, I said, Jesus showed up just for that. So, what I found out is that what I'm gonna teach you today, God has used this as a source of survival and healing for me and my disappointment. Over the last 17 years, I've actually only taught this five times in 17 years. And the reason being is because when I show up to teach, I'm just not teaching because it's a good lesson. I'm just not teaching because it's a it's in the Bible, not just teaching because, you know, it's good it's good theology. I teach because it's what the Lord has told me to teach. So today I believe there's some folks sitting here today that Jesus has showed up in this house today just for you. See, if you come to church for any other reason other than the fact you came to meet with Jesus, you've come to church for the wrong reasons. If you come to church just to listen to some guy preach, you came to church for the wrong reasons. If you come to church just to see other people, you come to church for the wrong reasons. There's only one person that we come to meet with, and his name's Jesus Christ. Amen? Because he's the only one that has the power to move in our lives. He's the only one that has the anointing that will set us free. Jesus Himself. So when I teach, it's because I've gotten a word from Jesus and He's told me this is what the people need today, so this is what I want you to teach. So I'm I'm just announcing to you today that you're here on a good day. Come on, I said you're here on a good day. And the day Jesus is in this house and he's here to do what it is that he does, and that's heal broken hearts. To set captives free, the recovery of sight to the blind. And I I I don't know how you're how you're walking through life right now, but I do know this. I do know that wherever we're at, there's something that we have not yet seen of Jesus. And he opens the eyes of the blind so that we can catch a bigger revelation of who he is, amen. And so today I just want to teach you from something that I have personally learned from him myself. And so today I'm just announcing to you that he's here. And he's here today to heal us of past disappointments. Amen. Anybody got any past disappointments? He's here today to heal us of past disappointments. And here's what we need to understand. We need to understand this time does not heal. And unhealed hurts can numb us to life. And we can attempt to bury them, but then time only amplifies our pain. Did you catch that? Time does not heal, and we try to ignore the hurt, we try to ignore the pain, and ignore the disappointments, but what happens is that time just amplifies our pain. See, I believe that this message is a message that he told me to deliver today for us as a people, but also believe it's a message for the city of Uvaldi.

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That he's the healer that can heal of every disappointment and every pain. Amen.

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So I've been pastoring for 38 years, and I've been a certified counselor for over 20 years. And this one subject I have found is the biggest hindrance in most people's lives that keeps them from moving forward and experiencing the abundant life of Christ. So today we're gonna get to get healed. Come on, somebody say get healed. Today we get to get healed today. Amen. We get to get healed of disappointments and we get to move forward in our destinies in Christ. So are you ready? So write down if you're taking notes again, disappointment to appointment. And ever since time began, as we know, all the way back to the garden with Adam, we can see that mankind was created by God, but he was created to know God. Amen. And out of that knowing him, you find out the reason why you're here. See, nobody is here by mistake. Every person is created with a kingdom purpose. Now, the sad thing is that the majority of people never find out why they were here. They never find out the kingdom purpose that they were created and created for, and God put him here. But every single person was created with a kingdom purpose. Come on, someone shout, kingdom purpose. See, your life is so much bigger than how you look at your life, and your life is so much bigger than what you think. Your life is so much bigger than your little family. You have a kingdom purpose, and that's why you're on this earth is to walk out and live and experience and experience why God put you here. And so we have a kingdom purpose, and we see that in the garden with Adam. And so Adam went about pursuing this purpose, but here's what we see with Adam that Adam did not step into his purpose until after his mistake, until after his fall. Because he was created, which the Bible tells us this that he was created to multiply and have dominion. Come on, someone say dominion. To have dominion on the earth. Man, you were created by God to have dominion on the earth. See, so the the sovereign misunderstanding of God will not teach you this. Because God turned the dominion of the earth over to his creation, over to you, over to dominion on earth. See, God's dominion is now experienced and now recognized through his creation, humanity, you walking out the dominion of God in your life. That's how dominion is taken on the earth. And so Adam was created to multiply and have dominion. And he did not step into that until after his mess. Come on, someone say mess. After his mess, and so what we see is that the Bible tells us that God would come down in the cool of the day and he would hang out with Adam, he would fellowship with Adam, he would talk with Adam, he would walk with Adam. What does that mean? Just write this down. You were created for daily appointments with God. Come on, I said you were created for daily, not just Sunday morning. Come on, daily appointments with God. That's how why you're here is to have a daily appointment. See, Jesus himself, it says that the disciples would wake up in the morning, they'd look around, they say, Where is he at? Where's Jesus? We're here by ourselves, but where's Jesus? And it said, Oh, they'd find him up on the mountaintop, what? Hanging out with God. They'd find him in the garden doing hanging out with God. Why? Because you were created to have a daily appointment with God. I don't know what your day looks like, but your day should start off on your face before God, on your knees before God, just showing up for your daily appointment with him. Because watch this, we see this in the life of Jesus. Jesus would come out of the place of fellowshiping, hanging out with God. And so he'd come down and see the boys. It's like, boys, we're going over here today, and this is what we get to get to do today. Where did Jesus get that from? He got it from his appointment with God. See, our daily lives should look like this is my assignment for today. This is what the father told me this morning, this is what I'm gonna do today, this is where I'm gonna go today, and guess what? I get to do today, I get to represent my father and have dominion on the earth. Come on, someone should have dominion. Come on, you were created to represent the kingdom of God on the earth, and that kingdom has dominion over the kingdom of darkness, that kingdom has dominion over everything of Satan, that kingdom has dominion on the earth because I'm living in a kingdom that has conquered and overcome every spirit of darkness, every evil thing in the name of Jesus. So you're created to have dominion, but that dominion is gathered, and that dominion is actually duplicated and replicated in our lives as we live from our appointments with the Father. So we have to show up for our daily appointments with the Father. So the good news is that Adam didn't step into his kingdom assignment until after he blew it, and after he made a mess. What was Adam's assignment to be fruitful, multiply, and have dominion on the earth? Now watch this. After a mess has been made, after we've we've come through a disappointment, after the mistakes that we've made in our lives. God says, after you've missed it, after the mess, after you've blown it, after you've tried to do things your way, after the disappointment, God says, now I'll take your mess and I'll make it your message.

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Isn't that good news? He'll take our mess and make it our message.

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Because now he wants to turn that disappointment into our appointment. Amen. Why can't he take our mess and make it our message? This is why. God's in the restoration business. Come on, somebody. I said, God's in the restoration business.

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See, we need to realize winning doesn't always look like we think. Sometimes winning means learning. Sometimes winning means growing.

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Sometimes winning means healing. Sometimes winning means we get better. Amen? We get better. Now watch this.

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Write this down. Satan's objective is disappointment in your life.

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Satan's objective is to keep you in disappointment. That's his objective. Because he knows you've got a kingdom assignment. He knows you're created to do something for the kingdom of God. And so his objective is to keep you from that. His objective is to keep you in disappointment. And if he can keep you in disappointment, he now separates you from your appointment. Amen. What is disappointment? Write this down. Disappointment is separation from your assignment. Come on, somebody say I have an assignment from God. I have an assignment from God. I just say it like this. I simply say this. There are no nobodies in the kingdom of God.

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But if Satan can keep you in disappointment, he can keep you from fulfilling your assignment in the kingdom of God.

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But there are no nobodies in the kingdom of God. Every person has a high calling from God. Amen. Come on, somebody say, I have an assignment from God. Jesus said it like this in John. 14 12 He said the works that I do you shall do also. Come on now.

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The works that I do, Jesus said, you shall do also.

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See, we need to familiarize ourselves with the works of Jesus. What did he do? Come on, what did Jesus do? He healed the sick, he cast out devils, he raised the dead. Come on. He set captives free.

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Jesus said, now this stuff I'm doing, you get to do too. You have a high calling from God.

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And nobody's gonna fulfill that for you but you. Now the enemy's objective is to keep you from that.

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See, watch this. Satan is not fearful of you going to heaven. In fact, his tactic is to get you to heaven as soon as he can. To get you out of the way.

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He's not fearful of you going to heaven. What he is fearful of is you fulfilling your kingdom assignment. That's what he is fearful of. And so he tries to keep us in disappointment. Because disappointment will keep you out of the assignment that God has for you. Because what happens when we get disappointment disappointed is what happens is we become we become self-centered.

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Woe is me.

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Don't you see how I'm hurting? Don't you see what's happened to me? Don't you see what they've done to me? Don't you see how they've just betrayed me and rejected me? Don't you see that? Don't you?

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I feel that, don't you?

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It's called disappointment. And as long as the devil can keep you in disappointment, he keeps you. He keeps you from the assignment of God on your life. So every person has an eternal significance. Matthew chapter 11, start with me there. Verse number one. After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. When John, someone shout, John.

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When John was in prison, someone shout in prison.

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Where's John?

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In prison.

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John being in prison heard about the deeds of the Messiah. He heard about the deeds of Jesus. He sent his disciples, John had disciples, and he sent his disciples. These disciples are simply followers, and these disciples were the followers of John, the teacher, the baptizer. He sent his disciples over to where Jesus was to ask him, are you the one?

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Are you the one? Really? That messes with me, man. That messes with my brain. That makes me scratch my head. Here's John the Baptist in prison. Sending his boys over to ask Jesus. Are you the one? Man, don't that mess with you? Don't just go like, tweak, what is going on?

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Because it was just two years earlier. You remember this, right? Two years earlier, John was down at the river having a baptismal service.

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And John's in the river baptizing people. And says, here comes Jesus walking over the hillside.

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And John stops the baptismal service, looks up and sees Jesus coming, and John prophesies. He says, Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And then Jesus comes down to the river and he says, I have need of you to baptize me. And John says, Whoa, whoa, whoa! I am not worthy. But we know what happens. Jesus says, I have need of you to baptize me for unto righteousness. And so John the Baptist baptizes the Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the one that came to take away the sins of the world. And watch this now. Jesus gets baptized, and we know what happens. The clouds open, the clouds part. A dove descends down and comes upon Jesus now. Everybody that's there. John sees it. All the brothers that see it, John's disciples see it, and the dove comes down, descends, and lands upon Jesus, and the clouds are spread, and then the voice of heaven, God himself says, Behold, my beloved son. And who I'm well pleased.

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Wait a minute.

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Two years ago, John, you were at the river and you baptized him, and you heard the voice of God. You saw the Holy Spirit descend upon him, and now here you are in prison, and you're saying, Are you the one?

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Come on, somebody. That that don't mess with your brain? That don't mess with you? What's going on here? What what's happening with John? You go into dementia? So John goes, whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Here's what's happening. John says, Are you the one? Are you the one? John is probably wondering, listen to me. Just like us. Did I really hear right? When I asked for that in prayer, did I did I really hear right? Did I miss it? Did I prophesy wrong? See, many times ourselves we have this question. Am I really believing right? Am I really in faith? I don't understand then. Why is this happening? What's going on? What's going on with John? What's going on with us when we have these questions? Let me tell you what's going on. Write it down. What's going on as life is going on. Life is happening. Things are happening out of our control. And it makes us question what do we really believe? Do we really believe? Is he really the one? Am I believing right?

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See, but just like with John, wasn't it just two years ago? What wasn't it just two years ago when when he healed when he healed your body?

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Wasn't it just a couple years ago when he got you that new job? Wasn't it just a little while ago when he met that need?

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But yet here we are with question, am I really in faith? Am I really believing right? Did he really say by my stripes you're healed? Did he really say that I've redeemed you from the curse of the law?

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Did he really say that all power is given to me on heaven and earth? Did he really say whatever you ask the Father, it shall be done unto you? But yet here we find ourselves in this questioning on faith and questioning of we're believing right and questioning who he really is. Did he really say I'll never leave you nor forsake you? Then why am I in this mess? Why is this happening? Did he really say that you will live and not die? See, here's the truth for all of us. All of us. We all live according to our current revelation that we have of him.

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We we're all at different places in our journey. And all of us are living at the current revelation that we have of him. I can't expect you to be where I'm at. You can't expect me to be where you're at. But we all live at the current revelation that we have of him. That's why faith is progressive. Faith comes, it's progressive. Faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God, not having heard the word of God, but hearing. See, the problem with most people is they're trying to live on yesterday's faith.

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Most people are trying to live on yesterday's manna when faith is has to be current. It has to be growing.

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That's why you were created for daily appointments with the Father. Because you can't live on yesterday's faith. You can't live on yesterday's manna. You need fresh manna today. You need faith that's going from glory to glory, faith to faith, faith growing, faith progressing.

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So God, He wants to take our mess and make it our message.

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Amen? God wants to take your greatest disappointment and turn it into your greatest victory. Amen? Your greatest victory. So here, back to John. Back to John. It says, John is where? He's in prison. John is in prison. So why is John questioning? Because John was there when Jesus preached his first sermon in Luke chapter 4, verse 18, where Jesus preached that he just came out of the wilderness, 40 days of fasting and being with the Father, being tempted by the devil. He just comes out of the wilderness and now he's stepping into his ministry. And his first sermon, he says, in his first sermon, John was there and he heard it. His first sermon was said, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach the gospel. Someone shout the gospel. That's good news, right? He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. Someone shout the poor. It's a whole message in itself. I could teach you today how to never be poor again, how to get out of your poverty and get into prosperity. I could teach you that today. We don't have time for that, but that's that's the truth. The gospel will take you from wherever you're at to wherever God wants you to be. Amen. Come on. He's anointing me to preach the gospel to the poor to heal. Someone shout heal. To heal the brokenhearted. The recovery of sight to the blind. Watch this. And to set captives free. Come on, someone shout captives.

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To set captives free. Where's John? John was there. He heard the message.

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Now I know this is why you came. You said you came to set captives free. I'm imprisoned.

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Now come and set me free.

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John probably heard Jesus' message on the separation of the sheep and the goats, where Jesus preached and he said, When I was hungry, somebody, somebody knows this sermon, right? When I was hungry, you you fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink. When I was naked, you clothed me. When I was sick, you visited me.

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When I was in prison, you came to me. Come on now, where's John? Now you said you came to set captives free.

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Now I'm sitting here captive in this prison. You can't you said when you were in prison, we came to set you free, but I'm in prison.

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Now what are you doing, Jesus? Where are you? Are you really the guy? Where's John? Does Jesus come? What happens to John? He gets me headed. Wait a minute. I heard you I heard you preach that stuff. Is that true? I mean, did you did you really come to do that, or is it just a good sermon?

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Don't you hate it when you hear preachers preach good sermons, but then you find out something else about their lives is not quite lined up?

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Huh? Is that all this was, Jesus? That's a good sermon to get us on our feet shouting and hooping and hollering and hanky waving. Where's John? He sends his disciples, he says, Are you the one?

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Who is to come or should we expect someone else? Verse 4, Jesus sends him the answer. Go back and report to John what you hear and see. Come on now, and see. This is the manifestation, this is the proof. Because I'm not just preaching it, I'm actually doing it. Go tell John what you hear me preaching, and tell him what's the manifestation of my preaching. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. So go tell John that this is what I'm preaching, and this is what I'm doing. Jesus' answer to him is that this is the indication that I, yes, I am him. This is the indication that I have come to do what it is I said I would do. What is Jesus giving us here? Watch this. He's giving us the picture of the kingdom of God. Jesus is giving us the new covenant. This is what the new covenant looks like. This is what the new covenant is made up of. What Jesus preached and did. This is the new covenant. Now watch this. Catch this, you got a hinge on this. John preached that the kingdom was coming. Jesus preached that the kingdom is now and the kingdom is here. Come on, someone say the kingdom is here. Jesus came to establish his kingdom and set up his kingdom on the earth. That's why he said, now his disciples, one day, I'll teach this one day. The disciples said, Hey, teach us to pray.

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And he said, Pray like this. On earth as it is in heaven. Your kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. So he came to establish his kingdom on the earth. And what he's saying is now, my kingdom, whether it's up there or it's here, looks like heaven. Come on. Looks like heaven. That's the kingdom of God. The problem with most people is they got their they got one foot in the kingdom of the world and one foot in the kingdom of God. Don't work like that. It's either you're in it or not.

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And so Jesus came. John, why did John, why did John said the kingdom is coming? Watch this. Because John was the last old covenant prophet. And he said that I've come that I would decrease, that he would increase. And so John was the last old covenant prophet. Jesus came to establish as a prophet, apostle, pastor, teacher, and evangelist. He came to establish the new covenant. So what's happening is here is we're in transition. We're in transition from John, the last prophet of the old covenant, to Jesus, the first prophet of the new covenant. Amen. So Jesus is answering John, and this is the proof that this is who I am. So why didn't Jesus come to John? Watch this. What was John's assignment? Remember? Kingdom assignment. You have a kingdom assignment. John had a kingdom assignment. What was John's assignment? Prepare the way for the Lord. John was Jesus' forerunner. Amen. In John 3.30, John tells us, I must decrease, so did he increase us. John was the last Old Testament, Old Covenant prophet. Jesus was the first New Testament prophet, and the first new covenant prophet, and he came to establish the new covenant. Amen? Come on, amen. The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 8.6 tells us that we live in a better covenant with better promises. Come on. Better covenant, better promises. Amen? That means whatever they experienced in the old covenant, we had better. Come on, I said we had better. So why didn't Jesus come to John? Watch this. John fulfilled his assignment. John had completed his kingdom assignment, and Jesus is saying, John, I'm not coming.

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John, you're being promoted. Promotion day has come for you, John. Your assignment is over. You have completed it. Jesus is saying, I'll take it from here, John. So Jesus gives John this word.

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It's the final word that Jesus will give John. But Jesus gives this word, and watch this, don't miss this. This word that Jesus gives John is a word that our lives are dependent on. Don't miss this. Everything about your life is dependent on this one word that Jesus gives John. This word is dependent upon you fulfilling your kingdom assignment. This word is determined how you will live in the truth of God's word and by living out this principle. See, you see, for us to live, watch this, a healthy life. For us to live the abundant life is determined by this truth that Jesus is getting ready to share. See, you understand something. Watch this. Jesus tells us in John 10, 10, this is the gospel. He tells us in John 10 10 that the devil, you know, he's real, right? He's real, right? I'm in the right place, right?

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He says that the devil, if you just act like he don't exist, guess what? He's going to eat your lunch. The devil has come to steal, kill, and to destroy.

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That's what the kingdom of darkness looks like. But I have come, Jesus said, to give you life and that life more abundantly. Now listen to me. For you to live in the abundant life, for you to live a healthy life, is dependent upon this truth and this principle that Jesus. Is getting ready to tell John, tell us.

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Watch this, don't miss it. This is the key to the kingdom.

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This is the key to living the abundant life. This is the key for you to fulfill your kingdom assignment. In verse 6, Jesus says, Now tell John this. I'm not coming. His assignment's over. He's finished his course. He's finished his assignment. John, you're being promoted.

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Verse six. Blessed is he who is not offended by me. Come on, somebody. Say not offended. The New American Standard Bible says, Blessed is any person who does not take offense.

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The American Standard Version says, Blessed is whosoever shall find no occasion of stumbling, so we shall have stumbling. Blessed is he who is not offended. See, when God doesn't do it the way we want it done, blessed is he who is not offended. When God doesn't answer the way we want it answered, blessed is he who is not offended. When God doesn't do it in the time that we want it done. After you've quoted every Bible verse you know about divorce and marriage and love. After you have confessed and made declarations of every faith confession you can make, after you have begged, after you have pleaded, after you said, God, you've got to do this. God, you gotta make this work. God, I need you to answer. And God doesn't do it the way you want it done and doesn't do what you want.

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Blessed is he who is not offended. Write it down.

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Pastor Roy was talking about it. Write it down. The word blessed. Let me give you the Greek definition of the word blessed because this is the impactfulness of what Jesus is saying. The word blessed means happy, fortunate, and prosperous.

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Happy, fortunate, and prosperous is he who is not offended. Why doesn't John Why doesn't Jesus, excuse me, come to John?

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Why does Jesus tell John, Blessed is he who is not offended by me? Why does he tell him that? Watch this. Who is John?

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Come on, I got some Bible scholars in here. Who is John? John is Jesus' cousin. Oh, come on, somebody. Isn't it always those that are closest to us?

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See, we've been hurt by family members, we've been hurt by our siblings, we've been hurt by our spouses, we've been hurt by our friends, we've been hurt by our bosses, we've been hurt by our exes, we've been hurt by the church, we've been hurt by pastors. Isn't it always those that are closest to us that had the publicity to offend us?

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And why is that? See, the closer we are to somebody, the more likely they are to offend us. But Jesus said, Do not be offended.

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Why does Jesus say, do not offend? Do not be offended. Why does Jesus say that? Write it down. Offense is Satan's attempt to disappoint you. Offense is Satan's attempt to get you in disappointment.

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And watch this. What's disappointment?

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It's separation from your kingdom assignment. Disappointment will keep you separated from God's assignment on your life. See, we're not to stop at hurt. We're not to stop at past hurts. We have to get past hurts to healing. Amen. See, because what has happened to you, watch this, is never just for you. It's so that your mess can become your message.

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So God wishes to get you past the hurt to the healing. So that you can stay in your kingdom assignment. Amen? So what makes offense so powerful?

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It's a good question. Don't you think that's a good question? What makes offense so powerful? Well, the apostle Paul tells us this in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, verse 30. The apostle Paul says, offense is a stumbling block. Somebody say stumbling block. Stumbling block. So Paul, Paul gathers this term stumbling block from something that he had seen many times in his world. See, evidently two thousand years ago in the Middle East and in Europe, there was an epidemic of blindness. And so there were a lot of blind people on the earth two thousand years ago.

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And so the Apostle Paul had seen this played out many times in many days. So he equates offense to stumbling block. What's a stumbling block? I'm glad you asked. So the legend goes like this. Now I know we don't have any pranksters here, but I grew up as a prankster. And legend goes like this. The blind man would wake up one morning and say, you know what, I need to go into town today. Now he can't ride a donkey. He can't get he can't steer a cart. He has to walk into town.

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And so legend has it that the blind man would get up and go, you know, I need to go into town today. I need to get some fruits and some vegetables with some supplies, maybe some lamb chops, you know. I need to get some supplies for the week, you know. And so he'd usually go into town like once a week or so, you know. And legend has it that the blind man would get on the path.

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Now he's got a he's got a destiny. He's got an assignment. It's to get into town and to get some supplies. So the legend is that the blind man would take off going down the road, and the kids will see the blind man coming. And they would get the tree limb.

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They'd get the piece of wood that they could find off the side of the road, and they would throw it out on the road in front of the blind man, and he's going along, minding his own business, heading into town. And he's just, he's on his way. I got my destiny, I've got my purpose, I know where I'm heading, I know what I'm going to do, and he's heading into town. Next thing you know, bam!

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Can you say offense is a stumbling block? What? What just happened? I didn't see that coming. Out of the blue. I'll give him back. They took advantage of me. They spoke negatively about me. They lied about me. They stole from me, they offended me, they hurt me. What just happened? Stumbling block. And the blind man gets himself off the ground. And what's going on? He's disoriented. He's confused. Where was I going? Now, because of the disorientation, the confusion, he's like, it wasn't that important. Oh. I'll just go back. And he missed his destiny. He missed his purpose. The stumbling block is the devil's attempt to get you to be disappointed and give up on your destiny. Give up on your kingdom assignment. Because they hurt you. It's real. They disappointed you. It's real. They've offended you. It's real. They took advantage of you. It's real. They lied about you. It's real. But the good news is Jesus shows up to heal the brokenhearted. Jesus shows up to heal that hurt. Heal that betrayal. Heal that rejection. Heal that pain. And he's the only one that can. Hours of counseling can't do it, brother. I've tried. Doctors can't do it. Only Jesus can do it. This morning I want you to stand to your feet. I'm gonna ask you to stand to your feet. I'm gonna ask the worship team to come back. I'm gonna ask my wife to join me.

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Today I don't deliver this message lightly. I deliver this message because it's what he did in my life. And I delivered this message today because he said, This is the message for the house this morning. This is the message for you this morning. Hurt doesn't just go away because you try to ignore it. Pain doesn't go away just because you act like it's not there. Healing comes because you meet with Jesus.

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You have an encounter with Jesus. So this morning the good news is Jesus is here.

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And the good news is that he's here to do what he does best. That's healed a brokenhearted. Heal those that have been lied to. Heal those that have been taken advantage of. Heal those that have been wounded, traumatized. I was traumatized as a little boy my whole life. I was never good enough for my father. I made every awards team, every athletic team, every all-star team that you can imagine, but I was never good enough for my father.

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Only Jesus can heal that kind of trauma. That kind of pain. So this morning, nothing fancy. Nothing emotional. No hype. I'm here today to tell you. Jesus is here to heal you. Do you want to be healed? Do you want to be healed?

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Some of y'all, this is last chance that you get to get healed. You've been carrying it for a long time. You've been carrying it too long. And when Jesus walks into a room to do what he does, is all he asks is that, are you gonna let me do it?

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Are you gonna let me do it? We want to pray for you. If you want prayer, get out of your seat. Get out of your seat.

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Everybody's healed, huh? Everybody's doing okay. And Jesus told me to preach the wrong message to the wrong crowd. Because he knew you were going to be here today. He knew the hurt and the pain that's happened in your life, and he knew what he was gonna do here today. Any other women of God, any other men of God in this house that will say, Yeah, I've been disappointed. He wants to take your disappointment and turn it into your appointment. He wants to take your mess and make it your message.

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He wants to take your hurt and your pain and turn it into his healing. Everybody else, this is your opportunity.

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Anybody else? Come on, let's sing some, let's sing, let's worship the Lord. As they were worshiping, come on, you get a you get a chance to get healed this morning. Nothing fancy about it. It's just allowing Jesus to be who he is. Amen. Nobody can heal you but Jesus. Nobody can fix you, but your spouse can't fix you. Your spouse has been trying to fix you her whole life. And she's failed miserably. Because that's not her position or her job or her capability. The doctors can't fix this. Why don't you all stretch out across the across here so me and my wife can just pray for you individually? Now listen here. This is really simple. Is all you have to do is just allow Jesus to be Jesus. That's it. You don't have to do nothing except receive. Just simply receive who Jesus is. Now forgive me, I did lie. You do have to do something. You have to be willing to forgive that person, that parent, that ex-spouse, that boss. You have to be willing to forgive them. There you go. Good question. What do you do? What do you do? For six months, I ask God. God straighten her out. God fix her. God restore our marriage. I know that's your will. Fix her. Father, I forgive her. I ask you to forgive her. Jesus said, bless those who hurt you. Father, bless her. Father, let this day just be a great day for her today. I ask you to bless her. I ask you to forgive. I forgive her. I ask you to forgive her. What do we do? It's a great question. You wake up the next day, and if you have that thought of what happened to you, what they did to you, what they said about you, and there's still that little bit of on the inside of you, Father, I forgive them, I ask you to forgive them. Father, I bless them, I ask you to bless them. And listen, how long do you do that? You do it until that pain is gone. You do it until there's no more animosity and there's no more anger in your heart towards them. Do they deserve to be angry at? Well, absolutely. Sure, they did they took something from you. Sure, they lied to you. Sure, they took advantage of you. Sure, do they deserve pain? Yeah, they do deserve pain, but guess what? God's the one that repays. Not us. And as long as we stay in the pain of unforgiveness, guess what? We aren't able to step into our assignment from God. So we're gonna do this. Such a great question. It's the perfect question. So we're gonna do this. Let's lift our hands to Jesus. He's the healer. Come on. Lift our hands to Jesus. He's the healer. I can't heal you, you know that.

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I can't even heal a fly. But Jesus can heal everything.

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Okay, now what we're gonna do is we're gonna forgive that person. We're gonna forgive that person that's in your mind right now. You know what they did to me. You know what they said about me. We're gonna forgive that person. And now when we get to the point, Father, I ask you, I forgive Joe. I don't know her name. But you just, in your voice, under your voice, you know the name and you tell their name. Anyone ask God to forgive Joe, right? Okay. With hands raised and by faith. Father, I forgive. Come on, I forgive Geraldine. She didn't hurt you, she hurt me. I forgive Joe. I ask you to forgive Joe. Father, I ask you to bless Geraldine. I bless Geraldine. Y'all can sing.

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I'd also say to answer your question, I have visualized laying the offense, the hurt, the person at the foot of the cross. And I've released it to Jesus. And I believe that's what is referred to as a sacrifice of praise. We are taking our offense and our hurt, our wound, and saying, Lord, I give it to you and I trust you with it. I trust you with that whole situation. And you might have to do that every day. Might have to do it multiple times a day. But it's not for nothing. You're not just not going away. You're releasing it intentionally to the foot of the cross to be covered by the blood of Jesus and to be remembered no more.

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The good news is you get to walk out of here different than how you walked in. The good news is you get to walk out of here today healed. So you just receive the healing bomb of Jesus over your heart as we pray for you.

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And I would say expect to see a difference. See a difference in your glow, in your attitude, in your presence, in your physical body. You will feel a difference. As Pastor Roy was talking about the presence of darkness, you will feel the presence of blessing, the presence of God, because offense keeps him from you. He can't be in your midst with unforgiveness.

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All right, just receive, we're going to pray for you.