Gateway Church's Podcast
John Bevere - July 2005
A Gateway Sermon
Good morning. Good morning. Are you blessed this morning? Hey, man, so good to be back here. I was here last June and then your pastor's taking a little time away with the family. I applaud you for doing that and just continue to come and be in the church and be a member of the church and support it. God bless you, it's great. Now, Pastor Robert last year asked me. He said, man, when you come back, would you teach on the Beta State? And I said, I'd be delighted to. Because, you know, I wrote the book 11 years ago, but I've never felt more urgent about this message for the body of Christ than today, even more so than 11 years ago. So it's really kind of a fun twist for me today because I just got done with my 12th manuscript Friday and sent it to Time Warner. And so it's the longest book I've ever written. It's called "Driven by Eternity," which deals with the eternal. And so it's fun to shift gears back and preach this most important message. So I'd like you to open your Bibles with me because I want to get right into the Word of God. We've got much to share today to Matthew the 24th chapter. Matthew 24, and that's where we're going to begin. Now, why are you turning your Bibles there? Let me ask you this. How many of you believe that we are living in the last days, that Jesus is soon to return? Honestly, put up your hands high, put them up high. All right, that's good. Jesus said you'd know the season and you'd have to be spiritually dense not to understand that it is the season of his return. And so the apostles asked Jesus here. They say, hey, what are going to be some of the things they're going to happen right before you come back? And Jesus begins to list certain events and conditions that will exist just before he returns. And so the days he's speaking about are the days we're living in, right? And I want to focus in on this one particular situation and that's verse 10, Jesus said, and then many. Now everybody in here say many. Now the word many there in the Greek line means a vast, vast group and some of the Greek translations will actually tell you it means a majority. So over 50% and then many. So we're talking about massive, massive situation here. And then many will be offended. Everybody say offended. Say it real loud, offended. All right, many will be offended, will betray one another and will hate one another. Verse 11, then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many, everybody say many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many, everybody say many, will grow cold, but he who endures to the end, shall be saved. Now look at the verse 10 again. And then many will be offended, will betray one another and will hate one another. Now this is a progression. An offended person will eventually betray and a betrayal if it is not dealt with will ultimately lead to hatred. You see now, John, where do you get that from? Proverbs 18, 19 says a brother offended is harder to win than a strong city. Now, what did strong cities in the days of Solomon who wrote the book of Proverbs have around them? Everybody say it. Walls, what were the walls built for? Come on, everybody. Protection, they would keep out those people that you thought were against you and allow in those people you thought were for you. This is exactly what happens to a person when they pick up an offense. They begin to build walls. Now those walls are not physical. Their walls built in their minds and the New Testament calls them strongholds. Second Corinthians, the 10th chapter, the third, fourth and fifth first says this. Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to flesh. Everybody say war. This is not a playground, it's a battleground. Can you say amen? We do not war according to flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly or carnal but mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now what are those strongholds? Some people think all their demons in the atmosphere. No, Paul, listen. He said casting down every imagination in a better rendition is reasoning. Point your head and say reasoning. And every high thing, the exaltants up against the knowledge of God. Point your head and say knowledge and bringing every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Everybody say thought. All right, so Paul is talking about what? He's talking about thought processes or reasonings that are contrary to the will of God. Now how many of you or the word of God? Now how many of you know God's word is rooted in his nature? And what is his nature? His nature is love. The Bible says he is love. He doesn't have love, he is love. That is an amazing revelation when you think about it, right? Now the love of God always seeks to give, give, give. Follow me? But offended person is a person who begins to build thought processes, walls to protect, protect, protect. So the focus becomes inward, not outward. Are you following me? Now I've been hurt. I don't want to get hurt again. I've set up reasoning mechanisms, thought processes that will protect me from getting hurt again. So they no longer have the, listen, the willingness to turn the other cheek. Now when Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, he's not saying be a masochist. He is literally saying this, you will take the risk of being hurt again because you are so compelled to love, to give, give, give. Are you following me? But the offended person is like, I want to protect, protect, protect. Now if push comes to shove, you will protect or benefit yourself at the expense of one you have a relationship with. See a lot of people don't understand the word betrayal. When they, 'cause he said, man you'll be offended, we'll betray one another. When they hear the word betrayal, you know when they think of, they think of Judas or Benedict Arnold. And that's the extreme case of a betrayal. But what a true betrayal is this. Betrayal is when I seek my benefit or my protection at one I have a relationship with. So if you're offended, your thought mechanisms now are protect. So if push comes to shove, like I said, you will seek to protect yourself at the expense of one you have a relationship with. And a betrayal is the ultimate abandonment of a relationship. And if it's not dealt with, it will ultimately lead to one place, hatred. And John says you hate your brother, you're a murderer. And don't even think you got eternal life abiding in you. I don't care how many times you said Jesus Christ is Lord. You following me? Are you with me? And a lot of people really misunderstand hatred. Hatred means to love less. It means the absence of love. A lot of people think hatred has to deal with anger towards somebody. No, that's anger. Are you following me? Absalom hated his brother. Therefore the Bible says he spoke neither good nor evil to him. He had to love less. Are you seeing this? Good preaching, amen. Now look at the next verse. Verse 11, he goes on to say, and because law, excuse me, and then, verse 11, then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. Who are the many they're gonna deceive? The many that are offended. So you know what this tells me? An offended heart is the breeding ground of deception. Now there's only one problem with deception, and that's this, it's deceiving. The person who's deceived believes he's all his heart, he's right when in reality he's wrong. Are you following me? Now false prophets are called by Jesus, what in the New Testament? What is Jesus called false prophets? Wolves and sheep's clothing, not shepherd's clothing. Everybody's always looking for the false prophet behind the pulpit. I got news for you, I've learned in years of ministry. There are more false prophets in the congregation, in the pews, rather than behind the pulpit, although they can be there. Are you following me? Now what is the goal of the wolf? The wolf's goal, they travel in packs, by the way, is to isolate the sheep from the herd. There's protection for the sheep in the herd. Are you getting this? Now the isolation that Proverbs talks about occurs in the soul. So you can be a member of a huge church, be in a big family, but still be isolated, because of why the offenses occur here. So that means you're meat for the enemy's table. All he wants to do is get you isolated. Good preaching, amen. Now look at the next verse, I'm helping you, I'm waking you up this morning, all right, watch this now. Verse 12, and because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. Everybody say lawlessness. The Greek word lawlessness is the Greek word anomia, which means you are law unto yourself, that means you're no longer submitted completely under the law of God, which is the law, the royal law of God is the love, according to James. You are now law unto yourself because of your thought process and reason process, contrary to the law of God, you are law unto yourself, and Jesus said, because lawlessness will abound, lawlessness results from offended people. Are you seeing this? It's your protection mechanism. A lot of times offended people will not submit to authority, 'cause authority were the ones that hurt 'em. You're law unto yourself, you set up the mechanism, Jesus said the love of many are gonna grow cold. Everybody say, many. Now, how many of you would agree, listen to me carefully, how many of you would agree that love, or excuse me, that lawlessness is running rampant in our society, put up your hands? Come on, put 'em, all right, can I tell you this? He's not talking about society. He's talking about the church. You say, how do you know that? Do you see the word love, the love of many will grow cold? There are several words translated love in the New Testament, several Greek words. One of the main Greek words that's translated love is fileo, fileo is the affectionate love. That is the love where if you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you, gang members have that. You understand what I'm talking about? But the agape love is the love of God that Jesus said is shed abroad in a born-again believer's heart. That is the love that Jesus says the world cannot receive. Right? The only ones who possess agape are those who have been genuinely born again. The Greek word that he uses there is not fileo. It's agape because lawlessness was abound. The agape of many is gonna grow cold. He's talking about right inside the church, folks. And that's why he says, but he who endures to the end shall be saved. You do not say to a sinner, if you endure to the end, you'll be saved. He hadn't started the race yet. Okay, you say that to a believer. Are you following me? Now, I have literally seen these words of Jesus fulfilled. Because I have preached in conferences and large churches all over the world, in every continent. And every conference I preach at, at least 50% of the people responding saying they're offended and most of them didn't even think they were until the word of God exposed it right in service. I've literally seen these words fulfilled. Now, of all these people that I've met that have been offended, I find there's two major categories of people that are offended in the church. Category number one, those who have been genuinely mistreated. Category number two, those who think they have been mistreated. Now, I don't want to deal with category two. Those are people that have inaccurate information or they have accurate information and have discerned incorrectly. Don't want to deal with them. I want to deal with the people that have been genuinely mistreated. Now, let me say this first of all, you know who the person who can hurt you the most is? Is the person who's closest to you? Maybe I'll say that again. The person who can hurt you the most is the person who's closest to you. David said it wasn't an enemy that approached me. Then I could have borne that. He said, "It was you, my brother, my equal. We walked into the house of God. We heard the word of God together. You're the one who's lifted your heel against me." Why is it that the person who's closest to us can hurt us the easiest? Because our expectations are higher on them. See, we have expectations on our wives and our husbands that are about here. And then we have expectations on our pastors that are about here. We have expectations on our Christian friends that are about here. So if somebody only does this much for you, they've offended you this much. This is why many times when I run up against offended believers in the church, you know what they say to me? They say, "Well, you know the world treats me better than most Christians." Do you want to know why? Our expectation on the world is zero. So in the world does that much for us, they've been that much of a blessing. If our husband only did that much, he's been that much of an offense. Good preaching. Now you're getting it. Now, what I usually hear people say is this, "Well, John, you just don't know what they did to me." How many of you have ever heard that? Let me see your hands. Do I pray for the rest of you for lying right now? How many of you have said that? Don't raise your hand. Okay, you don't know what they did to me. No, you don't know what you did to Jesus. An offended person who refuses to forgive is a person that has forgotten what they've been forgiven of. Let me say it again. A person who refuses to forgive in the church is a person who's forgotten or never realized what they were forgiven of. You're in Matthew 24, go over to Matthew 18, Matthew the 18 chapter. In Matthew 18, Peter comes up to Jesus in verse 21. And we read here, "Then Peter came to Jesus and said to him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me "and I forgive him up to seven times?" Now you've got to understand, Peter thinks he's being magnanimous here. Okay, now the disciples are always rallying for who's gonna be the greatest, right? And Peter's two steps up on all of them 'cause he walked on the water and he said, "You are the Christ," right? So Peter says, "I'm gonna go up three strokes." All right? Okay? And so he says, "All right." He goes, he thinks just as big as he can think. I mean, he stretches it. He goes, "All right, Jesus. "And my brother sins against me, does me wrong seven times." And I forgive him, that's enough, right? And Peter is expecting Jesus to go, "Whoa, dude! "You got it, man! "You got it! "You're blessed." But Jesus doesn't say that. Look at verse 22, look at this. Then Jesus said to him, "I do not say up to you up to seven times, "but up to 70 times seven." That's 490 times. And in Luke's Gospel he says in a day. Now, for you to sin against me 490 times one day, you'd have to do it once every three minutes provided you and I don't go to sleep. (congregation laughing) Now, I don't know the best of them that can do that. Now, the best the sinners can't do that good. You understand? So what is Jesus saying? He's saying you're forgetting this to be inexhaustible just like you're having a father. And so he says, "Let me tell you parable "to make sure you get this." And he tells the parable about a king who's got a kingdom, all right? And he says, "The certain king calls his servants "to settle accounts, and one was brought to him "and owed to him 10,000 talents." Now, 10,000 talents, I'm not gonna go through the whole thing, but that is equivalent today to $5 billion US, okay? So this is serving Moses king, $5 billion US. Now, how many of you would call that an unpayable debt? Can you put your hands up, please? If you can't put your hand up, I'm sure Pastor Robert would like to talk to you about the building program. (congregation laughing) $5 billion is an unpayable debt, right? So immediately we say, "Jesus comparing this king to God the Father," because how many of you know we were forgiven of the unpayable debt? The Bible says Jesus took the handwriting of ordinance that was against us, the note was against us, and he blotted it out, wiped it out with his cross, right? Reach myself happy again, are you getting this, right? We were forgiven of the unpayable debt. Glory be to God forever more. Hallelujah, I have to just have a glory fit for a minute here, okay. All right, so this fellow serving gets forgiven of this unpayable debt, and he goes out and he finds a fellow servant who owes him 100 anari. Now 100 anari is simply this, a third of a year's salary. Now, let's just assume you make $45,000 a year, and somebody takes from you $15,000. Is that one of those little offenses? I didn't hear you. No, man, I mean, one third of a year, sorry. Hey, thanks, I got a real good listener over here. (congregation laughing) I like him, I want. So Jesus is illustrating that this guy really did his fellow brother dirty. I mean, this is a bad offense, okay? But in comparison, $15,000 isn't a drop in the bucket compared to $5 billion. You know what Jesus is saying? The very worst thing you can do against me, very worst, is like comparing $15,000 to $5 billion. That's what you did to Jesus. Good preaching. So the king brings a servant to him, he says you wicked servant. Now that's interesting, he says you wicked servant. Let's say you wicked heat and wicked servant, 'cause the guy's been forgiven of the debt. He said, I forgave you all that debt. Shouldn't you forgiven your fellow servant just as I forgave you? So he turns them over to the tormentors until he pays all that was due. That's the $5 billion debt. And do you know what? This is the only parable in all the gospels. Jesus gives the interpretation without being asked. He says, so my heavenly Father will do to each of you if you do not from your heart forgive your brother, his trespasses. I can show you three times more places in the New Testament that a person who refuses to forgive will not be forgiven than a person who murders people. Jesus said, if you do not forgive, your heavenly Father will not forgive you. In Mark's Gospel, the 11th chapter, the 26th verse. He says in the Lord's prayer, forgive us this day as we've forgiven those who sinned against us. How would you like God to forgive you the way you've forgiven those who have hurt you? Well, the realization is you will be forgiven, the way you've forgiven. That's what the Lord's prayer is. Sure is quietness, Methodist Church, you still here? (audience laughing) Now, this is not a bunch of theory to me, okay? Let me say this, I went through a deep, deep, deep, deep, wounding offense. Before I got saved, my college fraternity, it was very easy for me to forgive. I never had problems for giving before I got saved. After I got saved, it was even easier, because now I had the love of God in my heart. I had the word of God to stand upon it was so easy. But there was a man I highly respected. I mean, deeply loved and respected. I looked at him like a father and he did some things to me over a course of a year that devastated me. And it climaxed with some things that were so obvious and people start coming to me constantly saying, "John, are you offended? Are you hurt?" I go, "No, no, no, I'm not offended, I'm not hurt." I let people come and say, "Are you going to go to him?" I go, "No, no, I'm not going to him, I'm going on the call of God in my life." Now the reason I would say that is because I was too proud to admit that I was offended. For me to admit I was offended was for me to say I was weak and I didn't want to say I was weak. So I kept denying it. Now, what happened was is the fire in me started growing colder and colder and colder. The love of God started getting colder and colder and colder. And you know what was really scary? I was still preaching and still ministering to people. And people were still getting healed and saved. But I'm getting colder and colder. I remember my wife and I were driving down the road. We're listening to a worship tape. I look over in tears of streaming down her face and she looks over at me and I got this stone look on my face and she goes, "John, are you okay?" I go, "I'm fine, I'm meditating, okay? You worship, I'm meditating." See, it was getting worse. And I remember after months of this, five months, I walked out my back patio one day. And I simply looked up and I said, "Look, Father, am I offended?" And I heard this on the inside of me. "Yes!" He wanted me to know, "You are offensive. This is why a lot of people don't get free. They can't admit it." He said, "You've got to admit before you can get free." And so I said, "Lord, I can't get out of this one. It's too big." I said, "I need help." It was on the end of a four day fast and I go to a funeral that this man is conducting. And I remember I was sitting in the very back of the church and about three-fourths of the way through the funeral. Tears started streaming down my face. And I reached out my hand and I said, "I forgive you. I release you, I forgive you. I hold nothing against you, I forgive you." And I wept for the rest of the funeral. I left the building, I thought, "It's done. Everything's fine." Two weeks later, I saw him again. When I saw him, I went, "How can he be so blessed?" He did this to me. He did that to me. He did that to me. He did this to me. He did that to somebody else. And he did this to somebody else. So I remember going home and talking to my wife about it. I thought about it all afternoon. I talked about it at dinner that night. I went to bed thinking about it. I got up the next morning thinking about it. I took a shower thinking about it. And all of a sudden I got scared. I said, "Wait a minute. I already cried and wept and forgave. Why am I still tormented?" Now, there's a principle. I did not understand. And that's found at Acts 24. Go over there with me quickly. Acts 24. Please, Acts the 24th chapter. And while you're doing that, do I have anybody in here that you go to the gym a lot and you can bench Prince over 225, a guy in here. Please, raise your hand. You can bench over two. Come on. You. Right there. Yeah. Run up here. Run. Fast. You demand. Acts 24. 24. What's your name, sir? Ralph. Ralph. Stand right here, Ralph. Acts 24. I'm going to read Acts 24. Now, listen to this. Acts 24 verse 16. Are you behaving? All right. Verse 16 says, "This being so." This is Paul speaking. I am myself always strived. Now, the King James says, "Exercise." Everybody say, "Exercise." To have a conscience without offense toward God and man. Now, look up at me. Turn and face me. I can walk Ralph, right? I can walk up to Ralph and do this. Did you like that? Come on. Be honest. No. Thank you. He's honest. Okay. Now, I hit him pretty good, but he's okay. But now, I could take this. This nice stand right here. And I could take this thing. I got him going now. And let's say I hit him really hard with this. What am I going to do? Come on. What am I going to do? Wound him, right? Right? Now, listen. I'm going to be nice, I promise. Wounds. Listen. Don't heal overnight. And if not properly treated, they never heal. You see, there are some offenses that hit us. We don't like it. But when it's over, it's like water off the duck's back. We're okay. There's other wounds that hit us or other offenses that hit us that wound us. If we don't deal with those wounds, we'll never get healed. Are you getting this? You still love me? I love you, man. Thanks, brother. See ya. (Applause) Several years ago, I was in Hawaii. And this was back before I went to the gym. And I go to climb a wall. And when I went to climb the wall, I hear this in my knee. And I went, "Ah!" And my wife's laughing at me. And I get down off the wall. I can't walk. And I'm in a wheelchair traveling and embrace the next month. Well, the next day, I'm in this gym of this physical therapist. And the guy's not saved yet. But anyway, he owns the gym and he's a physical therapist to the associate pastor's wife. And he's got me on the floor making my knee really hurt. The guy's twice as big as Ralph. He's twice as big as Ralph. I mean, he's massive. He's sitting there working on me, making me hurt. And he goes, "You want to know why you injured your knee?" You know, most people wouldn't have injured their knee climbing that wall. But you did. I said, "Alright, why did I get injured?" And most people wouldn't. He said, "Because you're out of shape. You don't exercise." I started thinking about, "Wow, that's true." There are certain believers, a lot of believers. They don't exercise. They hardly read the word. They may come here the message once a week. They don't pray in the spirit. They're not strong in God. They're not pressing into the things of God. And they're weak. So when offense hit him, it injures him easily. You want to know why I had Ralph come up here? Because if I were to hit, 80% of you, as hard as I hit him, you would have been carried off this platform. I did that on purpose to illustrate how in shape he is and what exercise does to protect him. I remember my next-door neighbor was a WWF wrestler, okay? His wife got saved, his kids got saved. He's another story. Pray for him. But anyway. And, you know, we were really close. I mean, we actually moved houses together because we loved each other so much. And one day he looked at me and goes, "John, please come over to my house. I want to show you my videos." I said, "All right. I'll come to your house." So I watched and I couldn't believe it. I thought the stuff was all fake. I saw him break a chair over his back. I saw him take acoustic guitar and bust it over his head. Hello? I saw 400 million jump off that high down on top of him. A sumo wrestler. I saw him throw him off the rink eight feet and he bounced up like nothing happened. I thought they'd do that to most people. They'd be in traction. "Are you following me? Are you with me?" So you know what? There are people in the spirit there like that WWF wrestler. Boom! What does the Bible say? "Great piece of day that loved your law and nothing shall offend them." Are you saying this? Because they offense proof themselves. You understand what I'm saying? So I get on the plane and I fly to Indonesia. And another physical therapist is working on my knee in Indonesia. And he says, "Do you want to know how to get your knee healed?" I said, "Yes. Tell me how do I get my knee healed?" He said, "Exercise. Every day. Exercise." Those guys that injure their knees and ball. What do they have them do? Football? They have them do those what? Focused? Therapy, right? Focused exercise to get their knees healed, right? Right? So I said, "Lord, how do I exercise?" Because God's showing me that I'm wounded. I said, "How do I exercise?" And the Lord spoke to me. He said, "Matthew 544." You know what Jesus says in Matthew 544? I quoted it. He says, "Pray for those who abuse you." I mean, you got to pray for me, Ralph. Pray for those that abuse you, right? Are you getting this? You know, Jesus, go find anywhere in the gospels. Jesus said, "Pray for your husband or wife." Go find anywhere. He says, "Pray for your kids." He doesn't. Does that mean you're not supposed to? No. He just puts more emphasis on praying for those who abuse you. So the Lord spoke to me. He said, "I want you to pray for that man." So this is the way I prayed. I got my said, "Lord, bless him in Jesus' name." Amen. Next day. Oh, by the way, Jesus, bless him. Amen. Next day. "Lord, if you can, bless him." Now this is why I'm praying for the guy for weeks, five weeks. Now when I got, that's like lifting a penny. You understand what I'm saying? When I got no better, but rather grew worse, I was on another fast. And the Holy Spirit spoke to me. He said, "Read Psalm 35." And I went over to Psalm 35. And this is the Psalm of David. And I get to the 11th verse because the Lord just, I mean, just like you heard my voice. I heard the Lord say, "Read Psalm 35." And I go over there and I start reading. I get to the 11th verse. And David says, "Fierce witnesses have raised an up against me. They reward me for evil for my good." I thought, "Whoa, that's me, man. I did this guy good. He's rewarded me before." I said, "I'm God's about to bless me." Then David continues. The next verse. He says, "But ask for me when they were sick, those people that rewarded him evil for good, my clothing was sackcloth. I fasted and prayed for them like I would my mother or my brother." And I went, "Ooh, ooh." And the Lord said, "I want you to pray for that man which you want me to do in your life." Or basically your family. And I remember getting up from the kitchen table. I was alone in the house. And I started praying. I said, "Father, in Jesus' name, I pray that you would draw this man close to your heart. That he would know Jesus the best a man could know him. That he would please you. The best a man could please you. I pray that you would reveal your heart to him. I ask Lord God that he would walk in your wisdom and your counsel. I ask Lord that you would surround him with your presence and cause the anointing of God upon his life to increase. I pray that circumference of his influence would increase Lord. As he reaches the multitude you called him to reach. And I ask that you would bring the finances in for him to do it. Protect his wife." And I start praying like that for him. Now let me tell you, it took everything I had. You ever see a guy that the first he goes to his first physical therapy after an injury? He's screaming. He's lifting 20 pounds and screaming. Because it hurts. You understand? And that's the way I felt when I was praying. I didn't want to see him blessed. I did not want, I'll be honest. I didn't want to see him blessed. You understand what I'm saying? It took everything in me to pray that way. And so after I started praying that way a couple of weeks, that way a couple weeks, I start getting stronger and stronger and stronger. And now I start getting excited. I said, "Lord, bless Him in Jesus name. I'm drawn to your heart." And I'm getting excited. And after about four weeks of praying like this, one day I was out and I was deep in prayer, really deep in prayer. And out of my spirit I cried, "So and so I love you." And when I screamed that, I said, "I love you." It was like junk came right out of my gut. And I sat there that morning. I said, "I'm healed. I'm healed. I'm healed. I'm healed. I was so excited." Now, two weeks later, I saw Him again. And then another little "eh" on the inside of me. I thought, "Now what?" Now, my wife is really prophetic, okay? Between my wife and the Holy Spirit, I can't get away with anything, okay? And that's really good, okay? It's like my wife says, "You never have to worry. If he commits adultery, he'll be dead." And so anyway, and I say, "Praise God. Just let me repent first." But no, I'll never do it. I fear God and love God too much. You understand what I'm saying? Thank God for His grace. So anyway, she puts her arm around me on the couch and she goes, "Honey, you need to go to Him." I said, "Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I don't need to go to Him. I pray. I've healed. I've exercised. It's done." She said, "Okay. Okay." So I prayed. I said, "Lord, do I need to go see Him?" He says, "Yes." Now, do you know when Jesus said, "If your brother sins against you, go to Him?" Can I show you the way most people interpret that scripture? What's your name, brother? David. David, I just want you to know you did this and you did this and you did this and you did this, but I forgive you. Right? So what are they doing? They're using that scripture as a license to come to you and vomit all over you and tell you how bad you've treated them. So, okay? Anytime anybody says to you, brother, I love you, but when the butt comes out, put up the umbrella, here comes the vomit. You understand what I'm saying? Okay? That is not what Jesus had in mind when he said, "Go to your brother." You know why he has that? You know why he tells you, "Go to your brother for the purpose of reconciliation." Now, there is a difference between forgiveness and reconciliation and this is where most believers miss it. They confuse the two, okay? But now listen to me, the best way to see it is look at Jesus. Let me ask you a question. I want to participate. When did Jesus forgive you? I didn't hear everybody. What? I'm the cross. When he said, "Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing." He wasn't just speaking to the soldiers in the Sanhedrin. He was speaking to the next generation, the next generation, the next generation, right down to you and me because our sins put in there. Right? So he forgave us before we ever said, "I'm sorry." I have so many believers come up to me and say, "Well, I'll forgive him if he apologizes." Why did Jesus want to wait for you to apologize or forgive you? You would have been deep trouble. Good preaching, amen. I'll help you with that. Are you following me? He forgave you long before you said, "I was sorry." But when were we reconciled? When were we reconciled back to God? When we said, "Jesus, you were right. I was wrong. I'm sorry." So when we repented and what led us to repentance? Come on. Romans chapter 2, "The goodness and kindness of God," right? Do you know what Jesus is saying? Go to your brother and create an atmosphere of goodness that's going to want to make him say, "I'm sorry." When you go, "You did this to me, did this to me?" He goes, "Excuse me." So this is what I was led to do by my wife, okay? I bought the guy a really, really, really nice gift. I mean, I would like to have you. Understand what I'm talking about? I wrap up this gift. I make an appointment. I go to his office and I get into some. He opens up and he goes, "Whoa." He just looks at me and goes, "Wow." He's just speechless. And this is the way I opened up. I said, "Listen, I owe you an apology." He said, "What?" I said, "I owe you an apology." I said, "I've been very critical of you and very judgmentable and I am totally wrong." And he said, "No, no. You haven't been critical." I said, "Yes, I have." I said, "I know God's dealt with me. Would you please forgive me?" Well, you know what happened? He opened up and he shared his frustration. And you know what happened as a result of that meeting? We came together like this and we have been like this ever since. Couple days later, I looked at my wife and I said, "You know what? When I first met him, he could do no wrong in my eyes and I loved him for it. That's immature love." I said, "Then I saw his faults and his faults were directed at me. I didn't love him anymore." I said, "Now I still see his faults and I love him with the passion. I loved him when I first met him." I said, "That's got to be the love of God because the love of God covers the multitude of sins." My life, my whole ministry, everything has been revolutionized and never the same. And I can go back and pinpoint it to that day when I apologize to him. I've never been the same. Luke 17, verse 1, Jesus said, "It is impossible that offenses will not come." And let me put that in today's vernacular. If you breathe air, you will have the opportunity to be offended. But what you do with the offense will determine your future, either you become stronger or you become bitter. I'll never forget I was getting ready to speak before a conference. And this guy, the emcee of the conference, had this man come up and he was 35 years old, a little rugged, looked like a construction guy, he's got a beard. And the guy's crying. My son, man, this guy didn't look like your typical crying type. And he goods up and he says, "All my life," he says, "I've been saved over my whole life." He says, "There's been a wall between me and God." He said, "I go into services. People get touched by the presence of God. I just sit there and feel like I'm on the outside looking in." He said, "I've tried to get into the presence of God in my prayer class. I haven't been able to do it for 36 years." He said, "Then somebody put that in my hands, the bait of Satan." Now let me explain to you the bait of Satan. You know when Jesus said it's impossible that offenses will not come? The Greek word for offenses, the Greek word "scandalon." Scandalon is an old Greek word that they also used to describe the bait stick of a trap that hunters would use to catch small animals and birds in. The hunter would place the bait on the scandalon. The animal would take it and the trap would close and either capture or kill. Thereby, an offense is the bait of Satan to bring you the believer into his captivity. Paul confirms this in 2 Timothy chapter 2 where he says, "Those that are in opposition, offended are taken captive of Satan at Satan's will." Scary thing is you can still go to church every Sunday, pay your ties, serve in the church, even preach, but you are captive of Satan at Satan's will. Now instead of releasing living waters into people's lives, you release waters tainted with bitterness. It only takes 3% arsenic in rat poisoning to kill a rat. It only takes a little bit of poison HCL to kill somebody in a glass of water. Are you still here? So this man said, "My mother gave me away when I was 36 years old." He said, "I held unforgiveness against her for 36 years." He said, "Because I read the book, the bait of Satan, somebody put it in his hands." He said, "I couldn't put the book down. I read it from cover to cover." And he said, "I realized at the end of the book, I held unforgiveness against my mom." She gave me away when I was six months old. He said, "I called my mom. I talked to her for the second time in 36 years." He said, "Mom, I've hated you for 36 years. I've held unforgiveness against you for 36 years and I'm so sorry." She starts weeping. She said, "I've hated myself for 36 years for giving you away." Well, she forgave herself. He forgave her. That's not where the story ends. Now the man is balling, tears are running off his beard under his shirt. And he said, "Now, after 36 solid years, the wall between God and me is gone." He said, "I have been crying like this for the past three weeks." He said, "Every time I get into my prayer closet, every time I come into a service in the presence of God manifest, I'm crying like this." Do you have the right to be offended? Well, you got the right to go to hell if you want, but why be so stupid? If you want to walk with God, if you want to be a true believer, no, you don't. So don't take the bait. Bow your heads. Father, in Jesus' name, I preach what you've commanded me to preach and I thank you now, Holy Spirit, for bringing healing into people's lives today. In Jesus' name. With your heads bowed and your eyes closed. You say, "You know what, John? I'm harboring in a fence." I didn't even realize it until the word of God exposed it. Why you preached it, people were coming up or a person was coming up. And I don't want to harbor it any longer. I want to deal with it directly right now. If that's you, raise your hands up quickly. All over this place. Raise them up high. Okay, I'm looking at 50 percent of the hands up. Put them up high. All of you that have your hands raised, stand to your feet immediately. I'm going to have you pray right there at your seat. But now let me tell you something. Oh, wow. Okay, I'm looking at 50 percent of the building standing, but there's still a good percentage that you're supposed to be standing and you're not. You say, "How do you know?" The Holy Spirit just told me. I'm going to give you one more chance. Somebody says, "Well, I'll pray when I get home. No, you don't understand the anointing's here now." Okay, yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Let me just tell you, yes, sir. If you send somebody coming up in your spirit, you need to stand. Yes, ma'am. Anybody else? Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. Okay, I'm looking about 70 percent of the building standing up now. Those of you that are standing do something for me as a sign of surrendering your love and your will to God. Lift up your hands to Him. Just lift them up and just pray this prayer. I want you to forget about the guy on the platform and I want you to focus on Jesus and I want you to pray this prayer with me. Say it out loud. Those of you that are standing, Father in heaven. Out loud, Father in heaven. Thank you for speaking to me today through your servant. I realize that I have sinned against you. I've held unforgiveness. I've harbored offense because of what was done to me and I justified my sin of unforgiveness by how badly I was treated. But I realize today two wrongs don't make a right. I have sinned by holding unforgiveness and I repent and I ask you to cleanse me with your royal blood. Cleanse me, Jesus. I choose this day to obey you. And now, Lord, from my heart, I forgive. I want you to say that person's name or person's names. Whisper them right now. Whisper them. If it's your mom, your dad. I know some of you women in here have been very, very badly mistreated by men. I want you to release them right now. Let them go. Release them. Boy, there's a lot of tears right now. That's all right. That's the presence of God right there. Now, say this. Say, Lord, I ask you to forgive them. As Jesus asked you to forgive me from the cross, I ask you to forgive them in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, give the Lord a praise. Give them a praise. [APPLAUSE]