The Unholy Trinity | part 2 of The Commanded Blessing | June 14th 2026 | Craig Lapenski

Too kind.

So our pastor did an incredible job last week. If

you weren't here and didn't listen to his message talking

about the commanded blessing, you missed out. And if you

listen to it once, you need to listen to it again.

There's a treasure trove of gold and depth in there.

So He preached for two hours on Friday night. And

so you're going to get me in a continuation message

of what he started because there's something that he was

unpacking it as he was unpacking it. I mentioned to him,

I think I have the other side of your message.

And so he's going to get a verbal or a

vocal break tonight, or I should say this morning.

By the time I get done, it'll be tonight. That's

a joke.

We're on a significant time crunch today.

So I'm going to pray. Lord Jesus, we just, Holy Spirit,

I just say, have your way. Don't let a word

come out of my mouth that's me. Let it all

be you. And I thank you for your word. I

thank you for the tongue that you give, man.

Okay, the title of my message is The Unholy Trinity.

And I'm going to unpack some of this in a minute,

but this message could also be titled the popular Trinity.

In other words, it's something that's extremely common, and it's

pretty much everywhere you look and go. And when we

think about the Trinity, we think about the Father, the Son,

and the Holy Spirit. Typically, that's what our mind engages with. However,

I'm going to tell you that I think that there's

a trinity that's very commonly engaged with day in and

day out. And so I want to talk with you

about that because I believe it is something that the saboteur.

That the devil would want to try and sabotage our

lives with so that our destiny, so that God's calling

on your life, and so what Pastor Dwayne spoke to,

the commanded blessing, doesn't come to pass.

Okay?

And so I'm going to have you just repeat after

me and declare something. We're going to give the devil

an uppercut or a stiff arm this morning if you

like football. And so we're going to give the devil

an uppercut. I want you to repeat after me. New

Horizon Church is wise.

To the schemes of the devil. New Horizon Church is

wise to the schemes of the devil.

And doesn't participate in any of his tactics.

Doesn't participate in any of his tactics.

So the Holy Spirit gate, like this, I'm positive this

is from the Lord. He gave me this message and

told me this is the other side. When Pastor Dwayne

was talking about.

That a lack of unity removes the anointing and it

actually takes away this blessing that God would have for

his kids. I was realizing as he was talking about

the spirit of division at work to create a lack

of unity and affecting the anointing and basically trying to

create division, harm, and discontent, I realized there's a methodology

through which the spirit of division actually works.

Like he has a blueprint, if you will. And so

this message is gonna be the unholy trinity. And here's

the three components of the trinity. Offense, victimhood, and bitterness. Offense, victimhood,

and bitterness. This is the unholy trinity. And so obviously

it's unholy, so it's not for you because we just

sang a song about the holy one. And we get

to come here and he loves us and he's showering

us with his love and his grace. And he loves

us so much that he doesn't want to let us

stay how we are or even where we were when

we first got saved. So he's constantly looking to renew

us in our mind and change us as who we are.

And so I'm sharing this because the word of.

God is sharp. It's active.

It's able to divide soul from spirit, bone from marrow.

And it's just like if you've ever tried to shave before,

if you're a male and you're shaving your face, it's

really tough to do with a dull razor or maybe ladies,

if you've shaved your legs, tough to do with a

dull razor.

The beauty of the word of God is it's sharp.

It's a double-edged sword and it has the capacity to

cleave things, remove things from us.

And so we just say more Lord.

Ephesians 4, 31 through 32.

Get rid of all bitterness. Say that after me. Bitterness.

Rage and anger. You don't have to say the rest.

Brawling and slander along with every form of malice. Be

kind and compassionate to one another. Forgiving each other just

as in Christ God forgave you. Do you know what,

so Pastor Dwayne was preaching a little bit on Ephesians 4,

and he was speaking to it from a standpoint of unity.

And the whole first part of Ephesians, it talks about

be completely.

Humble and gentle, okay?

Humble and gentle comes from a heart that understands from

which we've been saved. It understands the grace of God

that pulled us out of the pit, okay? And when

we understand that, then it allows for us to be

humble and gentle and it will help us to not

allow for a root of bitterness to begin to grow

in our heart because we don't become offended because just

as he's been gracious to us, we're looking to extend

that same grace to everybody else that we're interacting with

because we know whose we are and what we've been

saved from.

Does that make sense?

In this passage, it's talking about Ephesians 4.

It's talking about number one, unity.

And Pastor Dwayne just did a wonderful job in his

message last week.

Again, go back, listen to it again. The commanded blessing.

If there's something that the devil could use to try.

And obstruct, create division, or affect the commanded blessing, the

thing that he will use is offense, right? Offense, like

a spirit of offense, like becoming offended. And why am

I sharing this? Well, the rest of Ephesians 4 at

the end is talking about a different context other than

just unity.

It's talking about maturation.

So for maturation to occur, maturation helps to build unity, correct?

Correct.

And so when it comes to how we interact with

other people, we have to know.

What the trap is, if that makes sense.

Every single day, an opportunity exists in your life.

Not a week goes by this doesn't happen.

You have an opportunity to become offended or to take offense.

It could be that you.

Were at church and someone didn't come talk to you.

It could be they did come talk to you and

they said something that.

Wasn't, you didn't enjoy it. It didn't lift you up.

It could be that you went out to create connection

and relationship with another person and they didn't reciprocate it.

So you're offended.

It could be that you had a relationship with another individual,

you knit your heart to them, you gave your heart

to them, and they actually abused and harmed you. It

could be that you were physically abused. It could be

that you were emotionally abused. Or it could be that

actually no abuse occurred. But the person whom you talked

to at church who ran out and didn't talk to you,

they actually weren't trying to ignore you. They weren't trying

to offend you at all. They just had dinner engagements

right after church. And we're taking offense to something that

their just life is full, right? And so sometimes a

spirit of offense can come because of something.

That doesn't even exist. It's not even real.

Sometimes it happens because really we were wounded or harmed

by another.

And they're wrongdoing toward us. But nonetheless, every single day,

this happens.

Relationship or capacity, this thing occurs where humans take offense

to another human because of what they did or didn't do.

Does that make sense?

And if you've been alive for more than five minutes,

this is the case. Maybe you actually, maybe you had

something and you worked really hard to obtain it and

somebody stole it. Like you'd be actually justified in your offense.

You're not, but that would be a good reason to

be upset.

With somebody, right?

John 8, 31 and 33. So Jesus was saying to

those Jews who had believed in him.

So these are Jews that believed in Jesus.

If you continue in my word, then you are truly

my disciples and you will.

Know the truth and the truth will set you free.

Who is set free? Those that know the truth and

apply the truth.

You can't be set free by a truth you don't

yet know and you can't be set free by a

truth you don't apply.

So who set free?

Those that know the truth and apply the truth. And

this is their response to him. They answered him, we're

Abraham's descendants and have never been enslaved by anyone.

How is it that you say you will become free?

They're almost offended that Jesus is saying that they're not

walking in freedom.

Can you see it? Like there's an offense actually in

the question.

And so this says we're Abraham's descendants. They had a

pride even about whose they were. Do you know, I

think that sometimes Christian people think that because I said

yes to Jesus, it means that I'm walking in full freedom.

I'm a Christian.

I'm walking in full freedom. No, you're walking in the

amount of truth that you know that sets you free

and you're applying.

Come on.

Good. Hello, somebody. So the unholy trinity is this, offense,

which will turn or result in victimhood, which will then

turn to a root of bitterness. This is the trinity.

This is the cycle of how it works. What will

actually occur is after the root of bitterness takes hold,

if it takes seed long enough and the seeds grow

really big and the roots get big, eventually what happens

is we actually end up with something else called.

A depraved mind.

Listen to Hebrews 12, 15. See to it that none

of you fall short of the grace of God.

And no bitter root, say that after me, bitter.

Root, grows up to cause trouble and defile many. So

he wouldn't be saying this if it wasn't possible for

a bitter root to grow up and cause trouble. He's

saying this because it's possible. And we at New Horizon

are very wise to the devil's schemes, and we do

not participate in his tactics. So as a church, we

recognize this is a foothold.

Of the devil and we don't give him place.

Romans 1.28 And just as they did not see fit

to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a depraved

mind to do those things that are not proper, people

having been filled with all unrighteousness, Wickedness, greed, evil, full

of envy.

Murder, strife. What's strife? Division.

He spoke about it in the commanded blessing last week.

The spirit of division.

Deceit. Deceit. It's saying something. It's misrepresentation. Deceit. Malice.

They are gossips. slanderers, haters of God. You might be

looking in here thinking, well, I'm not a murderer. I'm

going to tell you that every week you have an

opportunity to gossip about somebody, to spread a negative testimony

to another person. And this spirit of offense is coming

on you, trying to get you to participate with your mouth,

to say something derogatory about another human being. and you

do not have to participate with it. You can absolutely say, no,

I rebuke that. I reject that thought. I refuse to

say anything as far as slander or gossip about that individual.

I'm going to tell you this week, actually, with me,

I had an opportunity where somebody who I had once employed, uh, who,

who there, anyhow, uh, They ended up not employed with

me because they stole. And they lied consistently. They stole,

so I had to fire them. And so what happened

is this week, someone is in my office. I'm talking,

and the person's name came up. And when the person's

name came up, I actually said to the individual that

was there, I affirmed something good that they'd done. And

I didn't go down that road. I was very tempted

to go down that road. But instead I said, they

did a great job here with this.

And I just stopped. Said no more.

You have an opportunity to slander and gossip every single day.

And the enemy's actually, you preached about this last week.

The enemy's actually looking to get you to partner with

that spirit that would do that. Gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful,

inventors of evil, disobedient to their parents, without.

Understanding, untrustworthy, unfeeling, unmerciful. I'm going to skip the rest

of it.

In the ESV, it says of this verse, God gave

them up to a depraved mind.

That's an NIV.

And ESV says God gave them up to a debased mind.

This is talking about believers who aren't looking to God's will, way, wisdom,

and perspective is the context of this passage. And it's

talking about God giving them over to a depraved mind,

to a debased mind.

A King James says reprobate mind.

Reprobate mind. This is the word depraved in Greek. It's adokamon.

Adokamon.

If there's any children in here, I didn't say Pokemon.

Adokamon. And listen to the definition.

A mind that is unapproved, corrupted, or unable to make

sound moral judgments. A mind that has lost its proper function.

A mind that has lost its proper function. When it

says a mind that is approved, it immediately brought me

to this passage of Scripture in 2 Timothy 2.15. Do

your best to present yourself to God as one approved.

Not unapproved, but approved mind.

A worker who does not need to be ashamed and

who correctly handles.

The word of truth.

The people of New Horizon are workers who are approved,

not unapproved.

Which means we will.

Not participate with what leads to a depraved mind, which

is a spirit of offense, which results in a victimhood mindset,

which turns into a root of bitterness. I'm going to

encapsulate a story very rapidly. The story is the story

of Judas, and you're all familiar with it. But Judas

is literally one of Jesus's inner circles. If there was

cell phones and texting back then, he probably would have

texted Jesus and said, I'm your BFF, right?

Like he was close to Jesus. He reclined and ate

meals with Jesus.

He got to see miracles, signs, wonders, healings all the

time with Jesus.

I'm thinking, that sounds cool. Sign me up.

That sounds like how many people wouldn't want that? To

be selected to be part of that group?

Like, how cool would that be?

Like, you know, that's a lot of grace on your

life to be selected to be part of that group.

But somewhere along the line, what was happening is money

was coming in. And there was money bags and money, anyhow,

money's coming in. And Judas is watching how the money

gets distributed. And Judas, in his heart, really wants that money.

And so he starts to get super offended about how

it gets spent. And he starts to say things about

how it's supposed to get spent. But he actually didn't

even really care about the people who he was saying

he wanted to spend the money on.

It was all about him.

Right? Pastor Dwayne actually talked about this when he was

referencing the Tesla last week. Because if someone was super

offended that he drove a Tesla, there could be something

ruminating in their heart that could be unclean that they

need freedom from. Right? It was the same thing that

was going on in Judas. So money's coming in. He

takes an offense. Eventually what happens is that offense turns

into something else deeper. And it turns into a root

of bitterness. Next thing you know, what's occurring? He's going

and getting some money and he's betraying his BFF.

Then what happens? So they come and get Jesus out

of the garden. They arrest him. What happens next to Judas?

Judas ends up, he tries to give the money back,

can't give the money back. He ends up hanging himself.

His guts are spilled out on the field of blood.

Zach, that was the question that won your wife and

our team the victory at the staff party, the.

Field of blood. It's where Judas' guts spilled out. So,

Judas's gut spilled out. That didn't end good. Well, here's

the question. The question is, what occurred? What was the cycle? Offense?

Perceiving that something should be done differently than how he

thought it should be done, which is the cousin, which

is pride.

Then we had a root of bitterness. Then we had

something else happening.

And the thing that we'd had happening was he was

overcome by a spirit that gave him a depraved mind.

Any of you who've watched The Passion of the Christ,

that movie does a good job of depicting him being

demonically tormented, like demonically tormented and ultimately dead, correct?

Correct.

Well, what happened is the depraved mind ended up leading

to defilement and the defilement death.

There's a cycle. Do you see the thread? There's always

a pattern.

So demonic spirits, the dark realm, work in certain pathways

or patterns. And if you can see that there's a

thread of taking an offense, becoming a victim, adopting basically.

A root of bitterness in your heart.

then allowing for it to cause your mind and your

heart to become debased or reprobate, eventually you're defiled and

it kills you. At its end stage, the worst thing

that happens is this. That's not a good option. Why

am I sharing this? I'm sharing this because God loves you.

And what's his plan for you? His plan for you

is to prosper you, not to harm you, but to

give you a hope and a future. His plan for

you is John 10, 10. I have come to give

you life and give it abundantly. Not just to give

you life, but to give you life that is the

best life you could ever imagine, that's overflowing with milk

and honey. that your cup is running over. This is

the life, the zoe life. That is the thing that

he purchased on the cross for you. Did he purchase

that on the cross for everybody?

Yes. Is everybody going to walk in the zoe life?

No.

And it's our choice.

And if we can realize that a spirit of offense

leads to a victimhood mindset, leads to a root of bitterness,

leads to a depraved mind, then we can say, well,

I don't like that rabbit trail and I'm not getting

on it to begin with. So every time a thought

comes in your head and you start to become offended,

you just kick it out. I rebuke that thought in

the name of Jesus. I dismiss that thought in the

name of Jesus. That's not my thought. That's the devil's thought.

I cast that thought out. And so it's better to

get it out right away than let a root of

bitterness run deep within your soul because when that happens,

now you got a bigger problem to get it out.

You can easily get it out. It can be cast out.

But it's easier if we just do it and we

keep a short list. Why am I sharing this? I'm

sharing this because God's structures for life, for your life,

and for kingdom expression.

Are damaged and often destroyed by the spirit of offense,

which is the cousin of pride. I'm going to say

that again. God's structures for life and kingdom expression are

often destroyed or damaged by a spirit of offense and pride. Well,

what are God's kingdom structures and organizations? Obviously, you have

the church is the first, right?

You have the family.

God moves in families. You have organizations. You have businesses.

What are all of these things? These are collections of humans.

Are they not?

They're collections of humans. And division....

Will destroy collections of humans.

And collections of humans are God's expression of the kingdom.

God does things kingdom-oriented through humans and collectivism amongst humans.

I don't like that word. I take that word back.

Not collectivism. Humans collected together. Because that word means something

else today, which I don't like. I have watched....

So I have been the president of an organization for

a bunch of years, and I have watched how difficult

it can be if that organization has more than one vision.

If that organization has unity, oh man, it can accomplish stuff.

But if you get some people in that organization that

don't have unity, it is so difficult to accomplish anything,

get anything done, And it's the same thing in the church.

It's the same thing in your family.

And I'm sharing this because if we don't realize how

God moves and how God works and the institutions through

which he does this, and we allow something to come

in that can harm that, then we can actually affect

kingdom expression.

What do I mean?

I have watched in this church, I have watched people

who God has.

A calling on them. They're gifted. They're anointed.

God has something, a manifestation of his kingdom he's bringing

through their giftings and talents. And he's wired them for

these things. And the expression happens through church. And they've

been knit to this church. And unfortunately, I'm looking around

and I'm seeing that there's people not here right now

who have told me they were called to this house.

And they've been affirmed in gifting and expression and talent.

And they're not here anymore because they took a spirit

of offense. Then that spirit of offense grew and it

turned into a root of bitterness. And next thing you know,

the individual is manifesting evil intent because that root of bitterness,

in other words, they're triggered with hostility and anger and

malice because that thing got in their heart. And it

started to run rampant. And they didn't really know that

they were supposed to kick it out. And instead of

kicking it out, they started to partner with it. And

as they partnered, it grew deeper and deeper. And now

they have a root of bitterness. And if they let

it go long enough, the depraved mind comes. And a

depraved mind is something that will take you to the grave,

but it will also, if not to that extent, it

will also remove you from God's destiny for your life

and the application of his movement through you, through the

giftings that he's given you, and the conduit through which

he was designed to do that, which are those institutions.

Is that making sense?

Yes.

What happens after the root of bitterness comes in and

takes hold? What happens after these things occur?

It leads to solitude. You're division, divided off. You can't

have unity. It leads to solitude.

Well, what do we do with criminals when we're really

trying to punish them? We put them in solitary confinement.

Why would you put somebody in solitary confinement? Because Humans

in solitude are tormented. Humans in solitude are tormented. And

the reality, this was COVID.

Like, come on, people, really. Like, it was demonic, and

that's what it was. You were trying to create solitude

to separate the people. This was all a demonic thing.

So solitude brings destruction, and it brings demonic torment. So

how important is it that we recognize that we don't

want to participate with that voice when it comes to

bring accusation that causes you to be having an offense

towards someone else? How would you know if you might

be harboring an.

Offense? Well, I think there's a really obvious way. Here's

the obvious way.

If somebody's name comes up and it causes you to

have very negative thought processes and emotions.

it's very likely that you probably have an offense.

If somebody's name gets mentioned, if they pop in your

head for a second, and you have a very negative emotion,

it is likely that you probably have partnered at some

point with an offense.

So I come from a family who.

where one of the spiritual giftings of that family, I'm

not talking about my wife, nor my children, nor me.

I'm talking about what I was birthed into.

But I was raised in a family where the root

of bitterness was just like, that was the hallmark spiritual characteristic.

I'm not joking. I'm totally, you either got to laugh

or you cry.

But And it literally, my family, like the root of

bitterness is like, was over all these people. And it

wasn't until I got saved. And then I was like,

what is this? And then I'm like, I needed freedom myself.

And then I started to get some freedom. And so

I started to try and bring freedom to some of

my family. And what I found is when I was

trying to bring freedom to some of my family, you

cannot bring deliverance.

To someone who does not want to be delivered.

Right? I spent hundreds. So I'm going to tell you

a story. My parents got divorced maybe when I was

11 or 12.

I don't recall. But my mother, literally, if my father's.

Name was to come up 10 years after they were divorced,

20 years after they were divorced, 30 years after they

were divorced, or 40 years after they were divorced, the

same response would happen. And the response that would happen

is she would get irate. Just start saying every nasty

thing about him that she could. And I tried to

help bring freedom and some deliverance there. But what I

realized is that you cannot bring freedom to an individual.

You cannot deliver an individual who does not want deliverance.

For me, it was futile.

It was unproductive.

And I'm talking about hundreds of hours spent trying to

bring deliverance to someone who does not want to be delivered.

And so... I'm.

Sharing this with you because everybody grows up in different structures,

and you may be a little bit more immune to

a spirit of offense, but some of us, we grew

up in this, in a household where everybody's offended. And so,

how many people in here know the Gifts of the

Spirit story, or the Gifts of the Spirit song?

Song. Love, joy, peace, and patience, kindness, goodness, and faithfulness.

Gentleness and self-control.

Let these gifts in me be full.

Right? So we were in a.

Van teaching teenagers that song, and they didn't like the song,

so they turned it into a rap.

But here's the point. I'm not... No. I don't sing

what you got. That's as good as it gets. So....

In some families, they actually, you grew up and you

like love, joy, peace. My family wasn't that way. This

would be the song of my family. The song of

my family was offense, rage, and bitterness. So my family

was different than some of yours. And what I'm gonna

share with you is that when you start to get

free from that, you begin to have discernment for what

that looks like and you can pick it up from

a mile away because the Lord delivered you from it

So now you can take the spiritual temperature of that

thing like super fast.

You can see it from a mile away. You know

it's coming.

And my endeavor here this morning is that the word

of God would be sharp and active and it would

go in and it would.

Get some ick off our hearts.

It would allow for us to not partner with anything

that the demonic realm would want to bring harm to

our church, to our family, to our organizations, and to

our businesses. In Ephesians 4, Pastor Duane was talking about unity.

And I mentioned something that a good bit of Ephesians

4 is maturation. That the apostle, prophet, pastor, evangelist, and teacher,

these things were given so that we would come up

to the fullness of the maturation of the stature of Christ. Well,

this is what it says in Ephesians 4.23, and you

don't have.

This in the back.

But it says, be made new in the attitude of

your mind. Did you know that your mind has an attitude?

Did you know that your mind has an attitude?

So a year ago.

I was speaking at a conference, and while I was

at this conference, there was this other person who was speaking,

and this guy was super brilliant. And Pastor Dwayne, remind

me of my end time, because I have to land

the plane.

I thought it was 1240. What was my end time? Angela,

help me. Okay. So, okay, we can do this. So I'm,

I'm at this conference.

I'm talking to this guy and he's, we're talking, anyhow,

he's a brilliant guy. And the, the conference was a

bunch of people that were there talking about brain health.

And so people today are discovering something that's actually been

talked about for 30, 40 years.

Which is neuroplasticity.

And the concept behind this is that your brain is

constantly changing. Every time you have a thought, it changes

the neural conductivity and your brain is different.

So from day to day, your brain's different. It changes

all the time.

And so what happens is if you were a farmer

and you were digging with your hoe, you're digging a

track in the dirt, and then what you're gonna do

is you're gonna go take and you're gonna go throw

some seeds in there And then those seeds, you're going

to cover it. Those seeds are going to turn into

a harvest, correct? Well, what happens is that we can

harvest the wrong thing. And if our mind continues to

tell us something again and again, we dig a trough

in it, we could actually tell ourself a lie. You

tell yourself that enough, you actually believe it's true. And

now your mind gets darkened. Your mind gets darkened and

we can actually end up with a depraved or reprobate mind.

Okay. James 1.19. My dear brothers and sisters, take note

of this.

Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and

slow to become angry. For anger does not bring about

the righteous life that God desires.

Quick to listen.

Slow to speak, and quick to listen before when we

hear something come in, we take the offense and we

cast it out. James 1.22, do not merely listen to

the word and so deceive yourself.

Do what it says.

Anyone who listens to the word but does not do

what it says is like someone who looks at his

face in a mirror and after looking at himself, goes

away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever

looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom.

And continues in it, and continues in it.

Not forgetting what they've heard, but doing it, they will

be blessed in what they do. If we're Christians and

we don't have a discipline of waking every morning and

opening up the word of God, you're not looking in

the mirror.

And you can't get the ick out. your heart will

not be cleansed.

And a few days go by, and instead of getting

the ick out and your heart being cleansed because you're

looking in the mirror, what happens is you actually start

to participate with the spirit of offense that brews over

three or four or five days, and two weeks later,

you've got a root of bitterness growing.

James....

Two three two we all stumble in many ways anyone

who is never at fault in what they say is

perfect able to keep their whole body in check do

you know that your tongue is a rudder do you

know that it drives your entire ship Do you know

that it's like a spark that sets a fire ablaze?

And it actually says in that context in James 3

that it actually will set your soul.

Like on fire. And what happens is when the thoughts

come in and.

We don't kick them out immediately and the root of

bitterness begins to grow. There's a crop producing not righteousness

but unrighteousness. And then what happens is all of a

sudden our mouth is expressing what it shouldn't express and

we're directing our ship in a path it shouldn't go.

If we believe we're an oppressed group, then we're partnering

with a victim spirit rather than an overcoming spirit in Christ.

This is extremely... dangerous.

A victim spirit. This opposes everything God says about you.

What does God say about you? That you're an overcomer

in Christ Jesus. What does he say about you? That

you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you.

What does he say about you? That he gives you

the victory. It says that he gives you the victory

and spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.

You're an overcomer in Christ. It's no longer you who live,

but Christ who lives in you. Like you are an overcomer.

And if we partner with that second component of the

unholy trinity, the victimhood spirit, We're opening ourself up to

a depraved mind.

So I'm going to finish with a story.

So a few months ago, what happened is that I

was having a little challenge with my mother. And what

I mean by that is that my mom was getting

really upset with everybody. She's just super bitter, angry with everybody.

And I realized it didn't matter who she was talking to,

if it was a healthcare provider, if it was somebody

at Comcast, it didn't matter who, a family member. And

what was occurring is she was getting very, very angry

with everybody.

And so I tried.

To kind of do what I could to spread some joy,

but it wasn't working. I normally talk to my mom

about three, maybe four times a week. And usually every

other Sunday we have her over for dinner after church.

And so all of a sudden it's Mother's Day and

she's like, I'm not coming over.

I'm like, what do you mean? What are you going

to do? Stay at your house by yourself? I'm like,

I'm making food. I have flowers and a card for you.

You know, come on, come over.

So I'm endeavoring to go do this, like force her

to come over.

She kicks me out of her house. And so.

I'm sharing this with you because what happened is she

didn't come over. A few days went by and I

knew that this root of bitterness had been growing. And

I ended up going over to her house to check

on her and find out what's going on.

And what ended up occurring is I walked into her

bedroom and I found my mother dead.

She'd taken her own life. And The circumstance around it

is she actually did it on Mother's Day.

And she did it.

As a final shot to my family and me. Pun intended.

Pun intended. And so, I'm sharing this because This cycle

of a spirit of offense, a victimhood mindset, a root

of bitterness, a depraved mind, and defilement, it's a real cycle.

It's a very real cycle. And this is a key

strategy that the devil.

Will use to try and take you out, to try

and separate you out from the church, to try and

separate you out from your family so you don't have relationship,

to try and separate you out from all the humans

that God's called you to interact with. Because what people

don't realize, it's that circle that God actually designed to

bring you health and healing. So when you're hurting, it's

that group that's designed to bring.

You out of your distress. and solitude removes you from it.

We cannot allow.

This root to take hold in us because when it takes.

Its full course, it leads to death.

My mom's life should have been watching my kids grow up,

my kids get married, grandchildren being born, and that won't

be the case, unfortunately. And that wasn't the Lord's plans.

And I'm sharing this because the unholy trinity is so pervasive,

it's so popular, it's so everywhere you look every day

that if you're not careful, you could participate in it.

And its goal would be to take you out of

all of the things that God would have put you

in to have your destiny and your life's calling manifested

to create that blessing that he.

Has for you.

We must avoid it like the plague. We must think

of this like Superman with kryptonite. Like I ain't picking

that up because I'll lose.

My strength and my power.

We gotta keep short lists with people and forgive others

as Christ forgave us.

Oh man, stand with me for a moment. We're gonna pray.

Lord Jesus, we just cast off the unholy trinity. We rebuke,

even if you're online right now, we rebuke the unholy trinity.

We say we do not partner with a spirit of offense.

We do not partner with a victimhood spirit. We do

not partner with a depraved mind. We kick these things out.

We say they have no root in us. We say

that we are ones who forgive easily and we actually guard.

Our hearts and our minds from so.

That the enemy has no foothold, zero foothold. We see

his tactics and his strategies, we cast them off, and

we say we as New Horizon Church, we as the

body of Christ, will not participate with the demonic realm

and the spirit of division, but we will walk out

the commanded blessing that God has for us, and we

give you praise, Lord, in the name of Jesus.