REWIND
The podcast "REWIND" features a collection of past sermons from Organic Church. Each episode takes listeners on a journey through the teachings and messages delivered during previous worship services. The content is a retrospective look at the spiritual guidance and insights shared by Pastor Michael and visiting guests!
Listeners can expect to revisit powerful sermons, meaningful scriptures, and impactful messages that have been shared in the past. The podcast aims to provide a convenient and accessible way for the church community and new audiences to engage with the timeless wisdom and spiritual teachings presented during earlier sermons.
Whether it's a reflection on a particular theme, a series of teachings, or a selection of sermons covering various topics, "REWIND" offers an opportunity for individuals to deepen their understanding of the faith and find inspiration in the timeless messages.
The podcast may also include commentary or reflections on the historical context of each sermon and how it continues to resonate with the present-day congregation.
REWIND
Caught in a Trap (August 17, 2025)
Have you ever stepped into a trap you never saw coming? We've all been there—that moment when someone's words or actions catch us off guard and suddenly we're nursing hurt feelings that grow into something much darker.
In "Caught in a Trap," we explore how offense functions as a spiritual snare in our lives. Just like a mousetrap that uses cheese to lure its prey, offense begins with something small that draws us in. A careless word, a perceived slight, someone not acknowledging us—these seemingly minor incidents can trigger a cascade of negative emotions that eventually ensnare us completely.
The Greek word for temptation—skandalon—is the same word used for "trap" or "snare." This is no coincidence. Jesus specifically warned that offense is a trap designed not just to hurt us but to separate us from our spiritual family. When we become offended, especially within the church, we don't just suffer silently. We talk about our hurt to others, spreading the offense like a contagion until entire relationships and communities are infected with bitterness.
The most dangerous aspect of offense is how justified it makes us feel. We believe we're the victims, when in reality, by nurturing our hurt feelings and spreading them to others, we become the ones causing harm. Unlike a mouse caught in a trap that cannot free itself, we have access to divine power through forgiveness that can break us free from this cycle. But it requires a deliberate choice to overlook wrongs and focus on what truly matters.
What offense are you carrying today? Is it worth the spiritual bondage it creates? Instead of rehearsing the hurt, what if you chose to release it through forgiveness? Your freedom—and the health of your spiritual relationships—depends on it. Listen now to discover how to recognize the traps of offense in your life and find the courage to choose forgiveness instead.
Lord, this message has been planted and watered and, as it comes to harvest today, lord, I thank you for allowing the hearts to hear it, the ears to hear it. Lord, just allow us to absorb your goodness today. We thank and we praise you in the mighty name of Jesus, and the church says amen. You can be seated. Will the kids go back to class today? Yes, dale's like yes, oh, he's going back there. That's why he said it. That wasn't an excited yes, that was just a yes. Well, nick, you'll appreciate this, and I know that you're probably the only person in the room that will. Okay, today's message is titled you ready, caught in a Trap. Now, why is that today's message title? Come on, man, elvis, right. Yesterday was August 16th. It was the anniversary of Elvis's death. I'm sure all of you mourned, I'm sure you took a moment and just had to process that, but I've been toying with this message for a while. I was actually going to do it about three weeks ago and, for whatever reason, the Lord said no, you're not. We did something different. But today we are going to do this message and I am going to do my best not to lose any fingers. Okay, uh-oh is a good word. So I brought something with me today because I feel like the only way to really get through this message is to show it to you, and so, again, I'm going to try not to lose a finger today. So does anybody know what this is? Yeah, so somebody saw these this morning and said, uh-oh, do we have mice? No, we don't have mice, or at least not that we know of. Right, but these little traps always remind me of something in our lives, and it's so funny, because how many of you have ever used one of these traps? Yeah, a lot of people don't use these ones anymore. We like the humane ones. Right Now, some people call the sticky traps humane. That seems awful. Right, a little mouse gets stuck in a trap and just starves to death over time. That seems terrible. This one is a pretty quick kill, right, margie, are you okay? She's not okay. She's not okay. We're not going to kill anything today, I promise. Okay, we're not going to kill anything today. Somebody get. Okay, we're not going to kill anything today. Somebody get rid of that bucket of mice.
Speaker 1:I'm kidding, this device is designed for one thing and one thing only, and that's to trap and to kill, right. The idea behind this device is to trap whatever it is that you want to catch in this little device, right, a mouse? Well, it depends, because if you set it in the wrong place, it could be your toe. Right, it could be a. Never mind. I'm not going to go there because Margie's going to get upset. I think she's already crying. I'm not sure this device is designed for one thing, and it's to trap. See, the mouse thinks that it's getting something good, but really it is setting itself up for destruction, amen. So the mouse, when it sees the trap, thinks, oh, there's something good in there for me. And when it looks at it, it assumes that something good is about to come into its life. Because they're foragers, they like to scurry around and pick up things off the floor. The problem is is that when the mouse actually gets to it, it's trapped, Amen.
Speaker 1:Do you know the one thing that traps us every single day of our lives Offense, offense. How many of us have been offended before in our lives? This side of the room has been super offended. This side is like no, we're good, we don't ever get offended over here. We become offended by things that don't really matter. We think that when somebody says something to us and we hear it. It's making a difference in our lives, but really what we're doing is we're building up an offense. Amen.
Speaker 1:How many of us have ever heard something and thought I can't believe that person said that to me. You think, you let it go. And then two weeks later you're like I really can't believe they said that to me. And then, four weeks later, you're like you know what, I'm going to punch that person in the face Right me. And then, four weeks later, you're like you know what? I'm going to punch that person in the face right. And then you hear it again in your head and it just keeps replaying over and over again and you find yourself offended and in dislike of that person amen, and you don't want to see them, you don't want to talk to them, you don't want to be around them, and all because of one thing that they said you've allowed yourself to be offended.
Speaker 1:The enemy uses the same strategy of catching us in that trap, but he uses the offense as the bait. Amen, or you can put cheese. She says. You can always put cheese in there. The cheese would catch me for sure. I love cheese. Mcdonald's Coke in there will get me every time, every time Luke 17.1,.
Speaker 1:It says one day Jesus says to his disciples there will always be temptations to sin, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting? Leave that up for me. There will always be temptations to sin. I want you to hear that there will always be a temptation to sin, amen. That does not mean that you have to sin, right, we can look around the room all day long and find temptations. Right, if you're a smoker and I offer you a cigarette, that is a temptation.
Speaker 1:But the second half of that says but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting? So it is worse for me to tempt you, which is why I say that when you come to my house, I'm not going to offer you alcohol. When you come to my house, I'm not going to offer you cigarettes. I'm not going to offer you something that may trip you up. Why would I do that to you? I don't know your life. I don't know your struggle, right? Have you ever been to a party where somebody offers you alcohol and you say no? And they're like oh, you don't drink. Yeah, I don't have to explain myself. Right, I don't have to explain myself. But they say those things and then you hold onto it and they're well, am I the weird one because I don't drink? Am I the weird one because I don't go to parties? Am I the weird one because I don't partake in these things? You are not the weird one.
Speaker 1:The enemy is trying to convince you that you are the weird one. The enemy wants you to live for the world, not live for Christ, amen. And so what he does is he traps you in that and you think about it, and you think about it, and you think about it until eventually you find a way to be offended by what that person said to you or the way that you're living your life. Or my favorite is the fact that your pastor tells you you shouldn't do it Right, when your pastor says, hey, that's probably not a good idea, and you're like well, who's he to tell me? Listen, I'm not telling you because I don't want you to have fun. I'm telling you because I've probably been there, done that and screwed up right, most of us have been around the block a time or two. We've seen the valleys, lots and lots of them, and all we wanna do is help you to stay or to achieve the mountaintop.
Speaker 1:So the problem is, when we talk about temptation, we don't always look at the word the way that it should be. So I am not typically go back and figure out what the Greek word was and how does that break down, but I did this time, so just roll with me, okay. The word temptation in Greek is skandalon. It's a fun word skandalon S-K-A-N-D-A-L-O-N. For those of you who needed to know how to spell it. The same word is used for trap or snare, and in that passage of scripture, Jesus warned us that an offense is a trap and offense is a trap. Now, I'm not talking about offense like in your backyard, for those of you who are still confused. I'm talking about that feeling you get when somebody says something to you or something happens in your life.
Speaker 1:Listen, some of you are probably sitting in this building offended today, right? Probably about something that happened in this building this morning. There are people who become offended because somebody didn't hold the door open for them. Well, marcus held the door open for everybody this morning. There are people who become offended because somebody didn't hold the door open for them. Well, marcus held the door open for everybody this morning, but when I came up, he walked away. Right, that's offensive to me, because why would he do that? Does he not like me? Is there something wrong with me? Does Marcus not want to hold? Am I not worthy of having the door held? There's probably somebody in here thinking it this morning. Well, pastor Michael walked right by me and he didn't say good morning, or I said good morning to him and he didn't speak back.
Speaker 1:That is the devil trying to convince you that being in the house of the Lord is the wrong place to be, amen. And he wants you to be offended with your brothers and sisters in Christ. Because where will you turn when you become offended by those people? To the world? Now some people say no, I just go to a different church. No, you don't. No, you don't. You go to the other church for a week and you say I didn't really feel at home there, and you go to another church the next week and you do that for about a month until you just stop going to church. And he wins, and he wins. There is victory in Jesus. There is only loss and condemnation in the name of Satan.
Speaker 1:But for some reason, we like to hold onto that offense and we like to be upset with people, we like to be upset with ourselves and we like to find ourselves living in the world. See, the offense always looks small at first. So if I were to bait one of these with cheese or peanut butter you know, peanut butter is supposed to be the best I don't know why they say that peanut butter is really, really good. It looks harmless to the mouse because it's small. It's food, it's something that he likes, right? So when I'm hanging out with my friends and somebody says that is the dumbest shirt I've ever seen you wear Courtney said that to me once. Well, it was probably true, I'm kidding. We hold on to those things, we think about it all, and then we don't wear the shirt anymore, right? Does everybody else think that shirt's stupid when I, when I, did everybody else think that man, I probably should have. Man, I might have to get rid of that one, right?
Speaker 1:Ladies, you got a closet full of clothes you put on. You think you don't look good in because somebody has said something to you about it, right? What, vicki? You got a closet full of clothes. You think you don't look good in Sweaters? I love all of your sweaters. I love all of them. Don't let these people try to offend you. Don't let them build up an offense. Vicki, your sweaters are beautiful. I like to joke about them, but they're beautiful. It always seems small.
Speaker 1:A comment, a look, a post on how many of you have ever seen an ambiguous post that somebody has made online and you think it's about you? I know they're talking about me. I know they're saying that about me. Why wouldn't they just have a card? They don't. They ain't saying it about you and if they are, do you really care? Does it really matter? Because that ambiguous social media post doesn't change your life. Thank you, thank you. How about that? That's weird. Did you give me a bum battery? She gave me a bum battery this morning. I'm offended, wildly offended.
Speaker 1:Are we in Proverbs 19.11? Yes, proverbs 19.11 says sensible people control their temper. They earn respect by overlooking the wrongs. Sensible people Today, I want you to be sensible people, right? I'm asking you, please be sensible people. When you become offended by Marcus not holding the door open, go. You know what. He was probably busy. You know what. He probably needed to go. Do something else. He probably didn't need to. He had something.
Speaker 1:Listen, if you choose to be offended, if you choose to be offended. You will be stuck in that offense and then, when the spirit starts to move in this place, you won't be able to receive it, because you're sitting here thinking about all of the things that have happened to you. Listen, I stood in the sound booth this morning and I was like man. I could come up with a hundred ways to wreck this person's life. I'm in church, Vicki, don't look at me like that, don't judge me like that. Vicki, I'm being honest right now. Okay, I'm pouring out my heart to you and I realized that I was holding onto a fence, an offense that they had created.
Speaker 1:It's not, there's no doubt that they didn't do something wrong to me, but why am I choosing to live that way, especially when I'm in a house of worship, especially when I am preparing to receive a move of the Holy Spirit? Right, I choose that because I allowed the enemy to convince me that I had to focus on that right now. Listen, that never needs to be a central focus of my life. Never, because it doesn't matter what that offense is. What matters is how we overcome it. It says they earn respect by overlooking wrong. So, marcus, when you don't hold the door for somebody, they should be able to go. You know what? That's okay. I still love him. He's still a good guy and I know that if I asked him for anything he would be there, right, the problem is is we often think, well, he didn't hold the door open for me this week and last week. Whenever I went over and talked to him, he didn't talk back, or he gave me a one word answer, or he doesn't. He doesn't whatever. Right, we start building that offense little by little, by little by little.
Speaker 1:Listen, sometimes we can be mean, right. Sometimes we can be mean as Christians. Sometimes we can cut another Christian to the bone because we know what their lives are like, right, we know our struggles, we spend time with one another and we know that we're struggling in certain areas of our lives because we pray for one another, right. And so if you call me and say, pastor Michael, can you pray for me? I'm really having trouble stopping smoking, and I'm like, yeah, certainly I'll pray for you. And then I come to church on Sunday morning and you say something to me and I'm like, well, no, it's not as bad as smoking cigarettes, right, it creates an offense. We as Christians can be mean. We can use things.
Speaker 1:It starts as a joke, Right? See, we always think we're funny, right? My wife was mad at me this morning, like when I left for church, my wife was mad at me. Mad at me. Now, I couldn't remember why, until she told me why. So apparently in the middle of the night I had gone to bed, fallen asleep. In the middle of the night, she came to bed. She got in bed and she was on her phone and it woke me up and so I started picking on her, like smacking her phone out of her hand, poking her in the face. I thought it was funny. She didn't think it was funny, right? As Christians have we been there? We poke and poke, and poke and poke, and then that person doesn't talk to us anymore and we can't figure out why. It's because what we thought was funny was not in fact funny.
Speaker 1:We have to learn how to treat people with the same respect that we want to be treated with. And that's the hardest part, because, listen, I don't want you guys going around telling people all about my life and the stupid things I've done. Listen, I do a lot of them and it wouldn't be hard for you to do that. But if I don't want you to do it to me, why would I do it to you? Why would I run out into the streets?
Speaker 1:And when somebody comes up and says, hey, you know, you know Marcus McVeigh. Yeah, I know Marcus pretty well. Oh, did you know he right? And then I go back and Ashley, did you hear what Marcus did? Did you yeah. And then I go back and Ashley, did you hear what Marcus did? Did you yeah.
Speaker 1:And then I start telling everybody and guess what? Eventually, marcus is gonna hear it and chances are he's gonna hear it when we least expect it. We're gonna be standing at the coffee station talking about Marcus doing that thing that we know about, that nobody else knows about. Marcus is gonna be like who told them that? How did they find out about that? And now Marcus doesn't trust his church family. That's not fair. That's not fair. We are creating an offense for absolutely no reason. We're creating an offense so that we can have a fun time talking about somebody. Whoa. That is the wrong place to be in the church, amen.
Speaker 1:As a Christian, as a disciple, as a follower of Christ, we should not, for any reason, be choosing and trying and actively seeking to disrupt the lives of our brothers and sisters in Christ ever. What was that? Was that Proverbs? Okay, so I missed a point here. I gotta get back. The offense does not feed us. So when we hear it and we think, oh, I can let that go, and then we start to stew on it. We're not being fed from that, we're being bound up from that.
Speaker 1:Right, because now we're caught, we're locked up in this desire to be justified. Almost right, because when somebody talks about you, you feel like you have to defend yourself. Have you ever felt like you needed to defend yourself? Listen, I was in a meeting one time and I said I feel like every time I speak I have to defend myself. I don't want to feel that way. I don't want to look at you and say, oh well, I did that because of this. No, I shouldn't have to. When God speaks into my life and he gives me purpose, I should be able to move in that purpose without explanation and you should be able to look at that and say God's got it. Even if you don't agree with it, you can pray about it. Right, we don't have to tell. Listen, as pastors me, pastor Holly, pastor Roger it is our responsibility to tell you if you're wrong. Okay, it is also your responsibility to not become offended by said statements. Right, it is our responsibility to do it in love. It is our responsibility to share with you what the Holy Spirit has discerned to us with love.
Speaker 1:There are some people who can't hear that. They can't hear the love, they can't take it, they can't run with it. Instead, they become offended at the drop of a hat. They become offended because they don't want direction in their life. Right, they become offended because they don't want to be lifted up. They want to stay complacent. They want to sit right where they are. Amen.
Speaker 1:Today we're going to challenge that. Each and every one of us are going to challenge that. Each and every one of us are going to challenge that by being open-minded and ready for growth. Now, when I say open-minded, I don't mean we have to go out and accept all of the things that the world is doing. When I say open-minded, I say we need to be able to look at one another and say, hey, I might not like what they do, what, how they act, what they say, but guess what? I know right now that God is moving in their life just the same as he is moving in my life, and they may be a rung down on the ladder right now in their spiritual growth, right?
Speaker 1:Not every one of us is in the same place with Christ today. Some of us have been doing this for a lifetime. Some of us have been doing this for four weeks, right? Some of us have been doing this for four weeks, right? Some of us have been doing it for a lifetime and still don't know what we're doing, right? Some of us have been doing this for a long time. We don't know how to read our Bible. We don't know how to pray. We don't know how to have a conversation with another Christian.
Speaker 1:Some of us are uncomfortable when somebody says let me pray for you, right, and if it's ever that way, listen you, right, and if it's ever that way, listen. I love it when people pray for me, but I don't I want you to pray for me for a distance. Okay, you know why? Can I tell you why? I don't know? No, it's not that I don't want them to touch me, but that is fair. When I hear the things that they're saying, when I hear it, when somebody says, lord, I pray that Pastor Michael continues to grow into greater. That sets an expectation that I have to meet. And if I hear that expectation and I know I have to meet it I try so hard to be everything for everybody, amen. And then what happens? When I don't, I become disappointed in myself and then I find a way to become offended by that word. And when we're offended by it, listen, I'm going to tell you guys something. Maybe I shouldn't, I don't know, but I'm going to anyway.
Speaker 1:Do you guys remember that there was a word spoken over my wife and I that we were going to have another baby? You guys remember that? And I laughed. I was like that ain't ever going to happen, never going to happen. And so I toyed with it. Like maybe I'm gonna birth something new in the spirit, maybe we're gonna do something in the church Like that can be considered a spiritual child. And then my wife and I we were talking the other night and I'm like maybe we should have another baby. I'm like, god, you are good but you are crazy. Like I know you are good, but you are crazy. We got to the point to we were looking up how much it would cost Jesus, jesus. But here's what I know I'll start a fund. I know that God is good in all things and if that's what he wants in our lives, he's going to make that happen, right?
Speaker 1:The problem is is when that word was spoken, my choice was to not receive it in what God was happen. Right? The problem is is when that word was spoken, my choice was to not receive it in what God was saying. Right, I tried to put a spin on it. Now, I don't know that we're ever going to have another baby, right? But I know that the thought was there, which means he was moving, he was doing you guys realize I have five kids, right? Like six sounds crazy, right? Well, at some point and this is the conversation that I have with my wife, this was the exact statement After two, does it really matter? Because when you get to three, there are more children than there are adults in the house, so you already have no control, right? And so I just keep praying that God would show us what it is that he was trying to tell us, and he hasn't given us anything yet, and I'm thankful for that right now, but I know that I will do whatever he calls us to do.
Speaker 1:The problem is is when people speak a word into your life, you have a choice to receive it or to rebuke it right. And oftentimes when that word is spoken into our lives whether it's hands laid on us or whether it's somebody saying, hey, the Lord asked me to share we rebuke it because if we don't, then we have to make change in our lives. And when we make change in our lives it makes us grow, it stretches us. It's kind of like taffy, you know what I mean. And when we stretch we get better, we start to grow and we learn new things. But oftentimes we don't wanna learn new things, because with learning new things comes new responsibilities, and new responsibilities puts us in a different office, and that different office is sometimes uncomfortable.
Speaker 1:Amen, listen, I don't like the prophetic. It scares me to death. Pastor Holly lives in it. She'll call me and she'll say I had this dream. Can you help me interpret it? I'm like I don't know how you live in that head. I love it. I love that we have somebody so willing to open themselves up to that that we might hear from the Holy Spirit. But when he does it to me, I'm like Lord, I don't want this in my life right now. And then I say but here I am, lord, here I am, use me. And when I allow him to use me, I have to discern what it is that he's saying so that I can share it without creating that offense. Amen.
Speaker 1:Because a lot of times, when the Lord is speaking to us, he's correcting us, he's making change in our lives and in the lives of the people around us, and it becomes so quick and so easy, so easy to just become offended. Now I brought another friend with me. These ones make me nervous. Come here, marcus, this will break your finger, guaranteed. This one will break your finger. Now my question is whose finger are we going to put in it this morning, ashley? Does that get you off work? Yeah, see, the offense oftentimes hurts more than just you, amen.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes, when you become offended, it hurts more than just you, because what happens is you're hurt. How does it go Hurting? People hurt people, right? And so when you become offended by something, then you start to talk about the person who offended you, to other people, to your friends, to your neighbors, to whomever, and then we just continue to do this time and time again until eventually everybody hates everybody, right? I firmly believe. I firmly believe that there are some places that you go to work and literally everybody hates each other. They don't know how to talk to each other in a kind tone, or they will, and then when you leave the room, they'll tell everybody else in the office that you're in, how much they hate that person. Right? It's bizarre to me that we live in that world because what we've done is we've created this cycle of hate and as Christians, when we work in those environments, we should be able to break that cycle.
Speaker 1:I can't stand clutter. I hate it when there's junk laying around, it drives me bananas. And rather than saying to people who live like that, that's disgusting, come on, like what are you that's nasty, why are you doing that? Listen, I'm not going to tell. I know somebody that lives like that. I would never say that to them. Do you know what I instead say? I'm a really great organizer and I'm really motivated. I would love to help you get organized if you want that Right? Sometimes they hear you nasty, right, and they become offended and then you break the stick. I almost got my finger caught in that one. It was just a bit too close for comfort.
Speaker 1:The problem is is these big traps, when we set. Them are super easy to set off. They're still just as sensitive as the other traps are right. The challenge that we have is that the offense that we set or the trap that we set for some of you are walking around with these bad boys in your pocket. You know that, right, like you. Just, I'm not going to put a live one in my pocket, I'm going to put the already tripped one. I'm not brave enough for that. Put it in my back pocket. Some of us be carrying these things around waiting for somebody to set one off. Right, you're carrying this thing around and as soon as somebody speaks to you, the trap goes off. Now the thing that happens is you immediately look at that person, you're upset with them, you're frustrated and the next thing, you know, everybody is hearing about it. There is nothing worse as disciples, as followers of Christ, as Christians, that we can do than to continue our offense into other people, because, see, what we do is then we really build that fence.
Speaker 1:Right, when I become offended with you, marcus, because you didn't hold the door open for me and I tell everybody that I come in contact with that Marcus wouldn't hold the door open for me, you know, ashley told me that Marcus was talking about me last week and now he won't hold the door open for me. That's not fair, right. How can, as a Christian, how could he treat me that way? And now I'm telling Mike about it, now I'm telling Danny about it, and now I'm telling Roger about it, and I'm telling Tyler about it, and I'm telling Dave about it, and now, pretty soon, all of the guys in the church are looking at Marcus like he's some sort of evil genius because he won't hold the door open for Pastor Michael. Right, and he's creating this. But Marcus didn't create the animosity. Who did Pastor Michael? Because I'm the one who was offended, and so I created an offense with everybody who was willing to listen.
Speaker 1:See when the trap got set off. It wasn't just me who became hurt, it was anybody with an earshot that I could convince that Marcus was doing something wrong. I want to be clear that anytime that I've ever been offended, I have done the exact same things that the world would expect me to do, right? When I become offended or I become hurt or I become upset by something, I take the trap. Hopefully I won't snap my fingers in this as we're doing this. I set it and I make sure that everybody knows that I've been offended, because I want you to know just how upset I am with whatever person did that. Right? Because I want you to be on your guard so that whenever you walk up to them and they say something to you, even if it's kind that you find a way to become offended by it. Right, it is my desire, when I am offended, to make sure that everybody else feels the exact same way. The world would want us to choose offense over forgiveness. The world wants us to choose offense over forgiveness.
Speaker 1:Oftentimes, when people offend us, it offense over forgiveness. Oftentimes, when people offend us, it catches us unaware. Is that fair? Like, I think Marcus and I are good friends, but he won't hold the door for me. What the heck is going on? Like I didn't do anything to him, I didn't ask him to do something that he wouldn't do for other people, and so I become wildly offended by it. And as the quote unquote victim, I didn't see it coming. Well, here's the problem. I'm absorbing a victim mentality and I'm thinking that I am the one being wrong. So I'm going to tell everybody else that I have been wrong. Now I am the one doing the wrong. What good is that doing for any of you? Every time I tell you that Marcus won't hold the door for me, does it make you like Marcus? Does it make you think, well, what if he doesn't hold the door for me next week? Right, you guys sleeping, we good. You guys just don't want to be mean to Marcus. Here's the thing. He's too big. He scares me.
Speaker 1:The enemy sets the trap where we least expect it. He sets the trap in our home, in our churches and in our workplace. But that's why Paul warned us to be alert in 1 Peter 5.8. It says stay alert, watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. That offense is always prowling. It is always looking to ensnare us in some way, some shape or some form. Let's go to Hebrews 12, 15. Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many that last line corrupting many.
Speaker 1:It is our responsibility to look out for one another. So when I walk up to you and I say can you believe Marcus didn't hold the door for me. It is your responsibility to say I'm sure he didn't mean it. I'm certain Marcus wasn't not holding the door for you because he doesn't like you. Marcus could not like me right and he could have let that door shut in my face because he doesn't like me. It is not your responsibility to tell me yeah, he told me he doesn't like you. It is your responsibility to say have you talked to him? I can't imagine that Marcus would have done something like that on purpose. He's always been so kind man. I've asked Marcus to help me with something and he jumps right on. I can't imagine that he didn't let you or didn't hold that door open for you. That is our responsibility, because we don't want any poisonous root to grow up inside of the church family. Amen.
Speaker 1:Now here's the thing. There are some people who will find a ways to be offended regardless of what you do for them. Those are the branches that you prune. Right, because it tells us that we separate the wheat from the chaff and we let it burn. Right, we don't keep what isn't usable. I'm not trying to be mean. I'm just saying that there are some people who don't wanna be a member of the church. They don't want to be mean. I'm just saying that there are some people who don't want to be a member of the church. They don't want to be cared for, they don't want to be liked, they don't care about the body. They show up to sow discord. There are people sitting in this room who sometimes show up to events to just sow discord, sitting in this room who sometimes show up to events to just sow discord, to just create chaos in the lives of those around them.
Speaker 1:It's true, I've seen it, I've watched it happen. I've walked into the building and somebody says can you believe that so-and-so did such? You know what I usually say Not my circus, not my monkeys. I'm going to pray for them because that's all I can do. I cannot change your mind. I cannot change how you treat other people. You need to find your centering with the Holy Spirit and say Lord, I don't want to be this way. Right Now, there are some people who will send a text and they were just like well, so-and-so did such and such, and so I'm not doing. Listen, don't be offended by what you didn't receive. Listen, oh Lord.
Speaker 1:Somebody said to me one time don't focus on what you don't have, focus on what you do have. It's the dumbest statement I've ever heard. That's the dumbest statement. You took something away from me. How would I not focus on that, right? And then, when the realization sets in that I didn't actually lose anything, that I gained freedom, and letting go of that, thank you Jesus. Thank you, jesus, for the realization.
Speaker 1:The problem is is, many times we don't move into the realization, right, we live in the offense and we stay in the offense so that we can constantly be bad-mouthing or talking about or dealing with whatever it is that's going on. Don't call me and ask me for advice if you don't want it, because I'm going to give it to you and it may offend you. It is not that I am trying to offend your flesh. I'm trying to convict your spirit, right, that's the goal. The goal is that your spirit man will have abundant life and that your flesh man will die. To that, the challenge is your spirit man has to be alive, right, your spirit man has to be alive. That means you have to be willing to walk in the spirit, to pray in the spirit. You have to be willing to live in the spirit and not focus on the world.
Speaker 1:The Bible tells us that money. The love of money is the root of all evil, right? The challenge is that we need money to survive, amen. So we don't ever think that we've become obsessed with it, that we love it so much until we don't have it. And then we realize very quickly how much we really love money. Right, it's not that I love the luxuries of life. I like having the ability to do whatever I wanted whenever I want it, right? And so I become offended when I see other people spending money that I think I should have. Is it true? How many of us look around the room and go so-and-so got a new car. Marcus and Jenny got a new car. Of us look around the room and go so-and-so got a new car. Marcus and Jenny got a new car Right. That's exciting. It's not new. It's new to them. But you know what? They've only had one car for so long. I'm excited. They got a second car Right Now.
Speaker 1:I could be offended that God had blessed them, because God hasn't blessed me in that way. But what would be the sense in that? What would be the sense in that? I want to celebrate. I don't want to be offended. I will tell you that if I'm offended with a person that's on me, that's my flesh just being stupid. But if I'm offended with God because he didn't move in my life, that's my problem. I have to focus on why am I offended with God? God didn't do anything but give me all the good things in my life. All he's ever done was given me good things, and when he takes something away from me, I have to learn to be a little more like Job. I have to learn to celebrate that loss and still give him glory in all things. I might want to die, God, if you would, please just let me die, and God is still going to provide all of those good and wonderful things in my life. Manna from heaven, right Every time I turn around, god is doing something in my life that I don't understand.
Speaker 1:I've never once had him do something that has ended up bad. I was thinking, you know, I don't know how long it's been when I lost my job. I didn't know what to do with myself for two whole weeks. I was completely lost and confused, and when I finally realized I didn't have to carry my phone everywhere, I didn't have to worry what happened after five o'clock. I didn't have the stress that I was carrying before. Thank you, jesus.
Speaker 1:It was a loss in some areas of my life, but I gained so much more, so much more. Do you know how present I've been able to be with my family in all of that? Listen, loss is gain To lose things that are not important in your life. I was defined by what I did, not who God had called me to be right. When people looked at me, they saw a busy man, always had his phone, was always doing something, but I wasn't doing God's work, I was doing the world's work.
Speaker 1:And when I finally said I don't have to live that way anymore, I was able to refocus. And way anymore. I was able to refocus and recenter, I was offended. I was offended because I didn't understand, and then I started to contemplate well, they lost this and they lost that. I gained this and I gained that.
Speaker 1:And then I thought you know, lord, it's selfish of me to only be concerned about myself. My loss is mine to deal with. Lord, I want you to bless them too. I want you to bless them abundantly. I want to see great success. And I want to see it, lord, because I want everyone to know just how good you are. This isn't about how good I am or how good I was. This is about how good you are, lord, because if you will do it for me, you will do it for anyone, and I want to tell you that if you are sitting in your seat today thinking that God has done something for somebody else that he has never done for me, I need you to pray about it and I need you to ask God what changes would you have in my life today, lord, lord, how can I overlook this offense? How can I get past this? Lord? I don't wanna be in this trap any longer. Lord, I want to be free and I want to be alive in you, not just alive in the world. Amen.
Speaker 1:And so many of us are still living just in the world. Forgiveness is the fastest way out of the trap in the world. Forgiveness is the fastest way out of the trap. A mouse cannot free itself. Once caught in that trap, somebody else has to release it. Amen. We can't free ourselves from the offense either. We need God's power to do that. We need to be praying about the offense. Lord, what is it that you would have me learn from this, god? How can I better serve you in this moment of my life, lord, the frustration that I feel. Use it for something good today. Open my eyes, heal my heart, father, but instead we want wanna live in it. You ever sulked before? Just sat and just like I am miserable because God won't do. Yes, yes, I still do that to this day.
Speaker 1:I drive to work every morning and I think, lord, I don't know what you're trying to do to me. God, I know that you provide all of these things so that I might have an abundance of life in you, but, god, I don't want to do this. You know this isn't me God. And you know what he says. Every morning he tells me the same thing. I'm not joking when I say this. Every morning he tells me the same thing I get on 36, just get out of Gen 8. And I'm not joking when I say this. Every morning he tells me the same thing I get on 36, just get out of Gen 8,. And I'm like Lord, I don't want to do this. And you know what he says to me every time Then slow down, then slow down. I don't want to.
Speaker 1:When I get to work, I get my work. This is not a joke. I get my work done in under two hours. I got nothing else to do for the other six hours of the day. I stare at a computer screen for six hours waiting on the phone ring, hoping somebody needs something from me. I'm not joking, it is what? Yeah, yeah, can you guys just start calling me and just give me mundane tasks? I don't really care what they are at this point, but God keeps saying slow down.
Speaker 1:What do I do when I hurry? What do we all do when we hurry? Get a speeding ticket, some of us one in a warning. But yeah, it does happen. We make mistakes, right, we start to hurry and we make mistakes, and then we can't understand why we're making so many mistakes. It's because we cannot focus on what God wants us to focus on. We want to focus on the speed at which we finish. Let me tell you that this fleshly life that we are living is not a sprint, it is a marathon. We are going to run this until Jesus calls us home. Pace is everything calls us home. Pace is everything when we move from this day to the next.
Speaker 1:I should not be complaining to God that I have to go to work. I should be thanking God that I get to go to work, that he has blessed me with a place to go and earn money so that I might care for my family. So that I might care for my family, that sixth child, that's going to come right. I have to learn to focus on what God wants for me and not what I want for me. And every day he tells me slow down. And every day I argue with him. Right, and I wrestle with what does slow down mean, god? What do you want me to slow down on? And he just keeps saying it slow down, well, what, what? And he just keeps saying it slow down, well, what, what? And he just keeps saying it over and over again. And eventually I'm going to figure it out, but until then I'm going to suffer. But there is no greater glory than to suffer for the kingdom of God.
Speaker 1:Paul was imprisoned and still sang praises. Right, and listen. I might be in prison, I might feel like I'm in prison to the world right now, but I am not being beaten, I am not being shot at, I am not. My life is better than most lives in this world. Amen, my life is better than most other people's lives in this world and I can, and I say in this world, because if you go outside of the United States, there is poverty everywhere, there is war, there is destruction, there is hate, there is deceit. We see it here, but we don't see it like other places do. We are so focused on ourselves that we cannot focus on the goodness that we have and the glory that God has given to us. So, while I feel like I'm trapped and I feel like I'm caged and I can't get through any of these things, I realized very, very quickly, very quickly, that that is not where God would have me be. It's easy to hear, it's easy to think. It's hard to live, amen, it is hard to live.
Speaker 1:So today I want to challenge you with walking out of this place in a complete state of forgiveness, a complete state of forgiveness. I need you right now. Can you turn on the prayer music for me, please? I need you to, just for a second, think about all of the things that have been in your life in the past however long you feel like you need to think about and the things that have offended you. And as you're thinking about those things that have offended you, I want you to consider what it looks like what life looks like for you if you're not holding on to that offense, if you're not carrying around the hate and the concern and the worry about the things that have happened in your life. Because let me tell you something right now, god does not want you to carry that with you today. He wants us in complete forgiveness. Amen, father, I thank you for forgiveness that flows through the body of Christ today.
Speaker 1:Lord, father, that we may, as disciples, as followers of Christ, as Christians. Lord, that we may forgive one another sitting in this room. Lord, that we may have been offended today by something, but, Lord, that trap is not being triggered. We will not live in offense, we will live in the glory of God. Lord, move in our lives, inspect our hearts. Lord, show us what it is that you would have us to see that we should give up the strongholds that are being formed in our lives. Allow us to break free from them today.
Speaker 1:Father God, the chains that have bound us for so long, those chains are broken today, in the mighty name of Jesus. Chains that have bound us for so long, those chains are broken today, in the mighty name of Jesus, we are set free. We are alive in the spirit today, father, I will not be bound and I pray that the people sitting in this room will be free from bondage. Father, bless us as we leave this place. Give us discerning spirits as we leave, as we move from this place, that we may be able to talk to people and not become offended. Lord, father, I thank you and I praise you. I give you all the honor and glory in the mighty name of Jesus, and the church says amen, love you.