Let Go of Me

hey this is pastor John Ryan Cantu from PNEUMA church in Houston texas thank you for listening

to the message today i hope that it blesses you and all those that you share it with god bless you

i hope you're excited to be in the house of god welcome to welcome to church this morning uh you

you chose a good place to be on a sunday morning um i i wanna i wanna can we do we have that code

i would hate for nobody to get discipled because we didn't have a qr code up there

uh so if if you want to get can you read that we'll talk about that later um if you want to get

discipled we have an amazing amazing uh discipleship program for i'm for both men and women um but this

one is specifically for for PNEUMA women so if you aren't a part of that yet scan that and and you

could be um you could be a part of that but i thank god because um man this week um we we started our

our fellowship hall project and um we we did we we i didn't do anything um but they did a lot this

this week and and so i praise god for that and so because of that you know our our uh 412 is is

closed five to 11 um kids are over there so they're in here with us uh for the next maybe maybe two weeks

um also this wednesday again we will be closed we won't have bible study and i know how much we love

bible study um i know boo but we will be back shortly uh i do want to i want to make this announcement just

in case nobody knows we we still do have our toddler care over there our little fisher's class we also have

infant care um right next door so if if you didn't know that um now you know amen um well let's get into the

word of god i'm gonna ask you to stand and we're gonna go to the gospel of John if you see somebody

missing this morning do me a favor don't call them out just just call them call them and say i miss you

you know pastor brandon's like let's go let's go for the throat man why aren't they here i don't care

it's your kid's graduation you need to be a church John John chapter 3 25 through 30 if you have it give

John 3 · chapter mention

me an amen praise the lord this is what the word of god says it says now a discussion arose between some

of John's disciples and a jew over purification and they came to John and said to him rabbi he who was

with you across the jordan to whom you bore witness look he is baptizing and all are going to him

John answered a person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from heaven you yourselves

bear witness that i said i am not the christ but i have been sent before him the one who has the bride

is the bridegroom the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him rejoices greatly at the bridegroom's

voice therefore this joy of mine is now complete he must increase but i must decrease say read verse 30

with me out loud one more time he must increase but i must decrease amen let's go to god heavenly father

i thank you for this word that you've spoken over your servant my god i pray lord that as i have received

it my god uh your people would receive it my god with with conviction my god i pray that this word would

penetrate the depths of our hearts and take root my god that this would not just be another word my god

but it would call us to attention my god and call us to seriousness my god and call us to to betterness

father god all for your honor all for your glory in jesus name amen amen you can be seated praise god

i think this this word is a little long overdue you know our church has been growing um at a faster rate

than i think we have in a long time all glory to god for that um but you know as a church grows it it

only means that there's more people who need spiritual growth and so as as we interact with more people

you know we quickly find that people bring problems right people are prideful people are gossipers

people like to choose sides people like to divide and so as we uh get more people and as we create more

relationships and as we create more laborers in the kingdom of god um and build more ministries i think

this conversation is worth having um not to say that we have any of that drama in our church amen

thankfully uh thankfully only occasionally do i hear of some drama but if it's not here it's going to be

somewhere else and as christians we need to know how to handle things in a mature um and wise fashion

and so this passage it demonstrates what every christian needs to seek on a daily basis and that

is maturity somebody say maturity paul tells uh church leaders to equip the saints until we all attain to

the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the son of god to mature manhood to the measure of the

stature of the stature of the fullness of christ so we may no longer be children rather speaking in truth

and love we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head of the church christ christ christians

are called to maturity amen we're not we're not called to stay the same we are called to grow and i i've

defined christian maturity in different ways i think there's a lot of different ways to define it but my favorite

is the ability to exercise the fruit of the spirit in the midst of adversity so if you can practice peace

in chaos if you can love the haters if you can if you can have patience in in the pressure right that is

maturity but when we're talking about the fruit of the spirit we have to realize that we're talking about

the spirit so in order to obtain maturity there has to be more of the spirit of god in you and less of you

in you you know what i'm saying i i i know that if there's too much Ryan you know Ryan Ryan's got some

immaturities you know i i've got some weaknesses pastor Ryan is a lot more mature um because pastor Ryan

has to think like a pastor everybody in pastoral ministry knows that the pastoral ministry keeps you

accountable right it should be the holy spirit but if nothing else the pastoral role is good at keeping

some of my natural immaturities in check you know i can't say that i'm a pastor i can't i can't i can't

tell you what i really think i'm a pastor there are some memes that i think are hilarious

that pastor Ryan probably shouldn't post i mean it's not bad it's just not the wisest thing pastors

have to think like leaders they have to make decisions on what is best for the church even if

they don't like it personally we've got to counsel people based off of the scriptures not based off of

personal preferences and so pastor Ryan is a lot more mature but but he's still not perfect

pastor Ryan is still human pastor Ryan still gets frustrated and so instead of being Ryan and instead

of being pastor Ryan the best thing that i could do is completely let go of myself and have the spirit

of god increase in me in every capacity imaginable that's how you obtain christian maturity so i i

entitled the sermon today let go of me let go of me and i'm going to challenge you this morning right

now before we even get to altar call to remind yourself to let go of yourself

whenever you are in moments that want to drive you to immaturities whenever you're tempted to entertain

gossip whenever you're tempted to dwell in bitterness whenever you're frustrated beyond control and you just

want to lash out tell yourself let go of me John says i must he must increase but i must decrease

there's a but in there i must decrease as he increases every good christian wants more of jesus

right but not every christian wants less of themselves we want to be full of the spirit while being full of

ourselves and it doesn't work like that and so whenever you're telling god lord i want more of you god uh

god fill my life you also have to tell yourself at the same time i need less of myself he must increase

but i must decrease tell the person don't miss the but

see that's that's that's Ryan pastor Ryan would never say that that's that's Ryan he must increase

is i must decrease we have to make room for the holy spirit church we have to declutter

the things that we we bring into the room the junk that we bring into our hearts if you have a tendency of of getting

jealous you've got to remove the parts of yourself that drive you to jealousy if you can't see a birthday party post

that you weren't invited to

you're better off just deleting social media

i'm serious because it social media will be an infestation to everything that wants to drive you to

jealousy if you tend to be a prideful person a selfish person you have to give these things over

to god you have to tell god lord i want more of you and i need less of me you will only grow to the

capacity of what you're willing to let go of are you hearing me something i feel sleepy today

you will only grow to the capacity of whatever you're willing to let go of and part ways with

this week we had a lot of things that we threw away a lot of people are gonna be mad

we took advantage we had a our dumpster out here because you know we're doing the renovation and

and i was a little frustrated this week pastor Ryan was a little frustrated this week because

i went into so many of these rooms just to find clutter you know and i i call it all junk i call

everything junk i mean ask my wife ask my kids all their toys are junk anything that's not mine is junk

right it's not junk i want it all out the house you know i want to declutter and but we're all we're

all like that you know we all advocate for everybody else's stuff to be thrown away but when it gets to

our stuff no that's not junk that's treasure so we had a lot of treasure slash junk that we

threw away this week because what you got to do when you make room for growth you have to

make room for it because you will only grow to the capacity of what you're willing to let go of

same thing with the heart and the mind of the believer if you don't need it throw it away

if god doesn't want you to have it get rid of it don't become the just in case person

how many just in case people we got in here you are afraid to throw things away just in case

i might need i haven't used it in 10 years but i might need it

stop it

and it's it's the same thing spiritually you removed that girl from your life because she

was toxic you know she was no good but you still got her number just in case she's still your friend

on instagram just in case you get to a point where you're ready no no no man you decluttered some

things from your life you took away you stopped listening to certain uh music you you got rid of

certain movies but you still got it back to the cloud just in case

god will not increase if you are not willing to decrease

now all of this is really just a setup for what i really want to talk about

god had put on my heart to talk about a spirit that i believe has made itself very comfortable

in the church you know every every spirit that is not of god it begins in the world

but when it's not checked or when we're not even aware of it it can easily infiltrate the christian

life godly relationships and and the church and so the spirit that god had put on my heart to speak

about is the spirit are you ready the spirit of offendedness

there there is a there is offensive and then there is being offended i'm not talking about being

offensive i'm talking about being offended so many people in our world and in the church are offended by

things that were never even meant to be offensive nobody hurts you you're just hurt

and this is a problem everywhere it's in culture in politics and our family relationships but i'm talking to

kingdom people today okay so let me tell you what kind of problems a spirit of offendedness creates in the kingdom of god a spirit of

offendedness brings distance between godly people it creates division it creates insecurities being offended makes you doubt yourself it makes you questions uh people's motives and attitude uh towards you it creates victim mentalities it keeps people down and ultimately it keeps us from pursuing our purpose with effectiveness

effectiveness being offended will slow you down realize that truth this morning being offended by

everything will slow you down because you're always going to need a moment you're always going to need to process you're always going to need time to get over it you're always going to need time for the fumes to burn out

peter calls the gospel a stumbling stone for many a rock of offense not because the gospel is supposed to offend you it's actually supposed to build you but some people take offense to it anyways

they stumble over it which causes them to fall and sometimes it keeps them down being offended slows down progress

so jesus tells John the baptist blessed are those who are not offended by me

the gospel will call me out it'll call out Ryan it'll call out pastor Ryan it'll call out

el ungido de dios it'll call out any it doesn't care about your title the gospel will call you out it will reveal

my areas of weakness jesus called out the woman at the well he called out the pharisees he called out peter

he called out paul when he said why are you persecuting me jesus jesus has said some things

that many people have been offended by but blessed are those who take his words to work to better

themselves blessed are those who don't stumble over the rock blessed are those who are not offended

christians aren't offended by the gospel we're transformed by it right

but in everyday christian life where there is a lack of maturity are you listening this morning

where there is a lack of maturity in a certain area it makes people easily offended and it slows down

the spiritual growth the ministry growth the anointing the influence that god wants to place on your life

because people are just offended and so in in ancient uh in ancient literature you'll find many

many rivalries between uh you know different philosophical groups and we even see it in the bible

paul has to deal with division there was a lot of divisions that were happening in the church particularly

in the church of corinth and so um paul talks to the to the corinthians and he says you know some of you

people say i follow peter i follow apollos i follow paul and paul's like bro we're all preaching christ

crucified we all follow christ but people tend to rally around certain leaders we rally around certain

ideas everybody's got their own preferences we always everybody has their favorite and if the leader

isn't mature enough to handle it he or she will play into the division that naturally wants to be created

does that make sense so when John's disciples go to John and they're like hey rabbi

he who was with you across the jordan the one you bore witness look he is baptizing and people are going

to him John the audacity of this man jesus who you rolled out the red carpet for who you honored and

praise and celebrated he he wouldn't even have a platform without you because you

prepared the way how dare he be now creating disciples how dare their disciples his disciples

now be baptizing people in water you are John the baptist

the disciples of John had a spirit of offendedness

meanwhile jesus was he wasn't doing anything offensive he was just fulfilling his purpose

he was just carrying on doing his ministry not not minding the business of anyone else because as he

learned very early on and he had to tell his parents don't you know that i'm about my father's business

i don't have time to be worried about what you're doing because if i worry about what you're doing it's

going to slow down what i'm doing i can't be focused on what you're doing i've got to be focused on what

i'm doing i've got to be focused on what god called me to do because if i'm looking at your walk i'm not going to be

looking at my walk and i'm going to stumble and it's going to slow down my progress that the spirit

of god has placed over me

the problem is that everyone who gets offended by everything

makes everybody else's business their own business

mind your own business

focus on your business

this is what happens when we're offended as we're looking over there they didn't even do anything

offensive we're just not minding our business we're looking at their we're looking at that social media

posts we're looking at that conversation we're looking at that group

and and this is something that i want you to hear look and i'm talking to to my church i'm talking to

PNEUMA talking to PNEUMA i want you to hear me as laborers of the kingdom of god our leaders our

disciples our disciple makers our pastors we should always always strive for honoring one another

always always the bible says outdo each other and showing honor if you're going to compete in

anything compete in showing honor to one another always we should always have our backs we should

never play into the people who want to create sides or cause division or or say well i only do spanish

ministry i only do english ministry i just pass i just follow pastor Ryan i just listen to pastor

danny i just follow pastor and we don't we don't do that we all follow jesus anyway

there's no time for that and so when here in this house we outdo each other and showing honor

100 but at the same time we should also never be offended by people who are simply doing the lord's

work please tell yourself that this morning i should never be offended by somebody who is simply doing

the lord's work if i am offended by a church down the street who was packing out the house with thousands

of people and i get offended by it that's a me problem i should never be offended by people who are simply

doing the work of the lord uh last last year my brother adrian i don't know adrian's here uh he's probably

out there um you know bodyguarding uh but uh my brother adrian he's a he's a friend i love adrian and

and uh he loves me man and he's always calling me and he's checking in on me and telling me that he's

praying for me i i love adrian man but when we first uh when he first came to the church pastor brandon

really took the initiative to to disciple him and and meet with him one-on-one and he would talk to him

on the phone and he would you know set up some time here at the church to meet with adrian one-on-one

and and so they got close and and uh we were having baptisms one sunday and um adrian asked pastor

brandon if he could baptize him and you know pastor brandon he's always always got my back you know and

and so first thing he does he calls me he's like hey pastor man i just want to let you know um

i've been discipling adrian and and we've gotten really close and and he asked me if i could if i

would baptize him um i know you're the pastor i know that's your thing what do you what do you think

bro can i tell you i was ecstatic pastor brandon when he told me that i i literally was i was rejoicing

that god had sent laborers that disciples were making disciples that man like godly men were multiplying in

this house i said bro of course you can so that sunday pastor brandon baptized adrian all glory to

god i'll tell you the only thing that i got offended by was one brother who thought that they had to bring

out the big guns to baptize adrian because apparently i couldn't lift him up that offended me

how dare you i go to the gym um i just wanted to clear that up just in case you were thinking that too

we should never be offended by people who are simply doing the lord's work

that that how immature of me would it have been to say no pastor brandon you know i'm the pastor man

that's kind of that's i i do the baptizing if John the baptist could say he he's doing what he needs

to do right now i i don't need to baptize anybody anymore i prepared the way i i fulfilled my assignment

how much more should we grow up and be mature in the faith

at the same time we also have to acknowledge that people are human

people have emotions and i and i know this and so whenever you know whenever we get new members

who come to to the church from another church uh and i know the pastor i've done this several times

i'll call the pastor and i'll say hey pastor i just want to let you know

someone so started coming to our church and i know they were previously members of your church

and i just want to let you know we had nothing to do with that um we're not in the business of

of stealing members but they made that decision to to attend our church and i just want to let you

know that we're going to steward them the best way possible and and we're going to pray for them

we're praying for your ministry and and i make a habit of doing that because i know in the ministry

ministry you see somebody playing up here or you see a photo you're like hey that he was that was my

member we have to be aware of those things but and everybody receives that with maturity but we

should never be offended by people who are simply doing the work of god amen now now um i i also want to

apply this same principle still with me still with me okay i want to apply the same principle to the

christian life because some of you maybe you're not in ministry and so you don't get offended by other

ministries uh but there's still a spirit of offendedness in you so i want to try my best to say this with

grace because i don't want you to get offended um but offendedness it slows down spiritual growth as well

just like it it slows down ministries and an anointing and all of that stuff it it slows down

spiritual progress not all the time sometimes let me just say this sometimes you need to get offended

okay sometimes you need to get mad jesus was offended when he saw the money changers in the temple they

were corrupted the temple if the holy spirit is offended i better be offended okay when somebody

hurts or talks about my kids you need to go in beast mode i gotta go in beast mode there is a healthy

offendedness and to John's disciples maybe they felt like it was worth getting offended we have

to have the wisdom to know when we should rightfully be offended by something but more often than not we

are offended by things that we need to let go of and so let me tell you this when you are offended by

things and it's causing division and it's causing strife and it's affecting godly relationships and it's

affecting the church and it's affecting the marriage and it's affecting the family when it's consuming you

when it's all you think about when it makes you angry and bitter when it's stealing your joy every

every morning you wake up when it's slowing down your spiritual growth there is too much of you in you

that you need to let go of

can we be super practical for a second

not everybody is going to invite you to their birthday party

not everybody is going to include you all the time

and i i think the only way that you learn from this is by going through it

you know growing up i wanted to be everybody's friend i wanted to be included in every invite

i wanted to be one of the guys in every circle of guys

why are you laughing at me man i'm sharing my heart

never wanted to be left out of any text groups and you know that there was there were there were

times where i would text thanks for the invite lol and i was crying inside there was no lol

there there have been times where people didn't like my idea

and i would go home be like nobody likes me everybody hates me

i quickly realized thank the lord it was quick

that if i was going to mature into the man of god that he has called me to be

i needed to let go of the silly

tell the person next to you let go of that silliness

and if you're sitting next to a person that's close to you you know exactly what that silliness is right

everything you take personally can affect you spiritually

so so they said something ugly about you

confront them

confront them with calmness okay

but but pastor i can't confront them because then they're going to know that so-and-so told me

i i hate that man i hate this so much

some middle school drama right there but it happens

it happens

so if you can't confront the person pray for the person

pray for them pray for those who persecute you

that's literally what jesus says

pray for some look realize how much is going to change the posture of your spirit

when you begin to pray for the people that gossiped about you

look how much you grow when you start to pray for the person that bad mouths you

let go of the silliness

don't be consumed by it

when you overhear

that somebody been in common about you

don't start giving her oh

every time you see her

so so maybe there was a disagreement between you and your brother

and you're saying pastor he's stubborn

and he's just stuck in his ways and and and he makes it so hard to move past this

i can't work with that

then you work on you

work on maybe maybe you can't work on him

work on you

you have no control over anybody else's maturity level

but you do have control over yours

and let me tell you occasionally

melissa and i

we hear about a comment

that was made

about either myself or my wife

so lord tell lord speaks to us

i better watch it

we hear it we hear it

pastor i think you should know that somebody said this about you

and you know what can i be honest i do not want to respond as pastor Ryan

i don't even want to respond as Ryan Ryan's too nice

i need like a not a tree or motive like a like a like a north side Ryan or something you know like a

another personality

but we we have both learned my wife and i have both learned

that somebody else's immaturity doesn't need to call out our own immaturities

we've had to work through that

babe i i know she said that but just

let it go

let it go

and she and she's so good about

encouraging me as well

when little Ryan wants to flare up you know

but but you know we've

we have worked too hard

spiritually

spiritually

to get to the place we are today

how many of you have worked too hard on your maturity to revert back to pettiness

you know i'm saying like you've gone through enough drama

to be hurt by a little dirty look

the devil knows that the more of you that is in you the less of the spirit that is in you

and so he is going to work to call your attention to things that are meant to call you out

so that there is more of you present and less of the holy spirit present

but when there is a spiritually mature man

when there is a spiritually grown woman of god

who was filled with the spirit of god

you aren't offended as much by the natural things

no you are offended by the things that grieve god

you are offended by the attempts that the enemy takes to take god's glory

you are offended by the things that stunt spiritual growth and kingdom growth

i have i have learned

let me share this little nugget with you

i have learned that if the stumbling blocks in my life are people

it's because i have given people too much power

people should not listen listen listen listen listen listen

people should not be stumbling blocks in your life

it should not

i love you i love all of you

and it will hurt me

if you hurt me

it will grieve me

if you betray me

it will break my heart

if some of the people that i have learned to love and trust the most turn out to be somebody else

i know that it sat in jesus when judas betrayed him

i know that it hurt him to see all of his disciples flee from him and his prosecution

but it never slowed down his progress because he was about his father's business

and so when people hurt you and people will hurt you

some of you came to church today hurt by somebody

some of you are intentionally avoiding somebody here today

some of you have chosen to sit across the other side of the sanctuary and everybody's like

why is he sitting over there he never sits over there

when people hurt you

don't let it make you stumble

you can have a jealous thought

that's that's natural

but but be aware

that a jealous thought can produce a jealous spirit

don't let a moment of pride turn into a spirit

of pride

don't inhabit a spirit of offendedness

learn to let go of you

i'm getting ready to close but

i want to go back to John's response real quick

John says to his disciples

a person cannot receive one thing unless it is given from him

given him from heaven

you yourselves bear witness

that i said i'm not the christ

but i have been sent before him

the one who has the bride is the bridegroom

the friend of the bridegroom who stands and hears him

rejoices greatly at his voice

therefore

this is the joy of mine that is now complete

he must increase but i must

decrease

this is my

my time is over

i i had a

i had a moment

the lord the father

allowed me a moment

to do what i needed to do for his name's sake

but now that jesus is here

it's

it's not about me

it's never been about me

so now this is the moment

where he must shine

he must increase

and i must decrease

see John

understood

his assignment

that is so important

knowing your assignment

and and who it is

that assigns it to you

is one of the greatest weapons

against the spirit of offendedness

John didn't play into this

as a stumbling block

because why

he knew what he came to do

jesus

didn't make people

a stumbling block

because he know what he came to do

John says

i i came to bear witness

about him

because this is all about him anyways

i did my thing

now he's got to do his thing

and church

the bible says in colossians

that in whatever you do

do with all your heart

unto the lord

and not for man

and all you do

and everything you do

and the way that you parent

and the way that you treat people

and the way that you work

and the way that you run your business

and the way that you do ministry

and all you do

every aspect of your life

don't do it for man

do it for god

because if you do it for man

you're gonna try to please man

and then when man displeases you

you're gonna be offended by it

and it's gonna slow down the progress

of what i've called you to do

i'm calling the church today

to understand their assignment

know what you have been sent here to do

everybody in this place

has a calling from god

you have been called

to give glory to god

in every aspect of your life

and i want you to understand this

that my assignment

will not be exactly like yours

yours will not be exactly like mine

so so what does that mean

i cannot compare myself

to anyone

anybody else

because

what god has entrusted to me

he's entrusted to me

what god has entrusted

to pastor danny

he's entrusted

to pastor danny

i can't compare myself

to pastor danny

he can't compare himself

to me

because

we have two different assignments

and though they're very much

similar

i've got the people

that god has already laid out

for me to reach

and he's got the

the people that god has called him

to reach

i can't be looking over there

and say why

why is he discipling somebody

i should be

i'm the

i'm the lead pastor of the church

i should be discipling

no i can't do that

because it'll slow down my progress

we have too many christians

that are still immature

and it's time to grow up church

and i say this with love

and i say this with grace

but it's time to grow up

because god is calling you

to so much

greater

that you have not even

seen yet

because you are stumbling

every single day over somebody

i don't have time

i'm 35 years old

i don't have time

for the stumbling blocks

to keep me from growing

i don't have time

to please

people

i was never called

to please

i don't have time

to be offended

by every word

by every stare

by every disappointment

by every disagreement

because my assignment

is to him

and him alone

remember

people of god

listen

man didn't call you

god called you

see oh no

man did not call you

god called you

now i i know that sounds

real good

and it makes you want to cry

because you're like

yes lord

yes you called me

i'm not called by man

but understand this as well

just like he called you

he called the person next to you

you weren't meant

to compete

you were meant

to collaborate

you were meant

to divide

you were meant

to unite

the church wasn't

meant to be offended

by the church

the church is meant

to offend the plans

of the enemy

by being the light

and the darkness

by being salt

and light

by being known

for its love

he must increase

but i've got to decrease

and i want you to stand

this morning

because this morning

i want to

i want to call out

that spirit

of offendedness

i don't know

who this is for

okay

but listen

if you haven't heard

anything

listen right now

if you dwell

in a cloud

of offense

it's time

to decrease

listen i'm not saying

that you're never

going to be offended

we're human

this morning

my wife

said

that my pants

look a little tight

i was a little offended

by that

i just washed

them

you know

how

when you wash

pants

it's time

it's time

to stop being

offended by everything

church

if it has made

you insecure

if it has made

you angry

if it has made

you a jealous

person

to the point

where you can't

even celebrate

the things that

god is doing

in somebody else's

life

if it

if it has made

you wonder

if you are good

enough because

you are comparing

yourself to other

people

and if this is

stunting your

spiritual growth

because you have

allowed people

to be a stumbling

block

this is for you

today

god says no

more

no more

god is saying

let me increase

as you decrease

god is saying

you've got to

declutter some

things

because i want

to inhabit

every aspect

of your life

no more

offendedness

no more

offendedness

if that's you

this morning

people are already

coming up

if that's you

come up

and we're going

to give it to god

we're going to

give everything

to god

thanks for listening

if you'd like

some more information

on PNEUMA church

visit us on our

website at

my PNEUMA church

dot o-r-g

if you enjoyed

the podcast

you can subscribe

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on social media

and tag us

at my PNEUMA church

thanks again

and god bless

you

you

you

you

you

you

you

Thank you.