Becoming Unoffendable: The Power of Forgiveness | Rick Renner

How many of you want revival in your life?

All right, you're the ones I'm talking to today.

So, Father, we thank you in the name of Jesus for today.

We thank you for the anointing of the Holy Spirit and Holy Spirit

today.

We ask you to open the Scriptures to us.

Lord, you always taught people with parables, you told stories.

And Lord, today we pray that you take us into the Scriptures in

a way that we would understand them in a brand new way.

And we thank you for this.

In Jesus name.

And everybody said, amen.

Open your Bible to Hebrews chapter 12.

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

And we're going to begin in verse 14.

And I'm reading from the King James Version.

And when you come to Hebrews 12:14, it says, follow peace with

Hebrews 12:14

all men and holiness without which no man shall see the Lord.

And if you have an ink pen or a pencil on which you'd underline

or circle several words in verse 14, first of all, either underline

or circle the word follow.

Secondly, either underline or circle the word peace.

Third, either underline or circle the word holiness.

And number four, either underline or circle.

The two words shall see.

These four words are really key in this verse.

The word follow, the word peace, the word holiness, and the

two words shall see.

And today we're going to begin at the very first of verse 14 where

it says, follow peace with all men.

And when you study this in the original Greek text, you find that

the word follow in Greek is the word dioko.

And the word dioko is actually the word for hunting.

Hunting.

So you could translate it hunt for peace with all men.

However, the form of Greek that is used here is a participle,

which means you could translate it follow, follow, follow,

follow, follow, follow, follow, follow.

Keep on habitually following until finally you capture peace with

all men.

And here we have a picture of people putting on their hunting gear,

putting on their hunting hat, getting all their weaponry.

They're going out into the forest to hunt some kind of an animal.

And they're so committed that they're looking for every footprint,

every little broken branch as they're following and following and

following and following the tracks of the animal until finally

they apprehend that animal.

But in this verse, it says, follow after peace.

And because the word follow means to habitually consistently

follow, it means you can't wait for peace to come in your direction.

If you want to have pe.

Your spouse, if you want to have peace with your parents or peace

with your brother and sister, or peace with somebody at work or

at church, then you have to determine, I'm not going to wait

for peace to come to me.

I'm going to do whatever is necessary to capture peace in my

relationship with this individual.

And it's very interesting that this word follow is also used in

1st Corinthians 14:1, where Paul likewise says that we are to

follow after love, which means if you want love and if you want

loving relationships, then you can't just sit at home and wait for

somebody to call you.

You've got to pick up your phone and you've got to start calling

somebody else.

If you want to have loving relationships, then you have to get

in gear and you've got to pursue them until finally you capture

loving relationships.

But now, when we come to this verse, it says, follow habitually

after peace with all men.

Here the word all is all inclusive.

It means with every single individual, which means to the best

of our ability, God expects us to do whatever is required to capture

peace with all people.

And that even means with difficult people.

And I want to give a testimony from my personal life.

It's not a story that I'm proud of, but it's a story which

demonstrates the point.

When my family and I first moved to the former Soviet union,

it was 1991.

Now, younger people don't even know it as the Soviet Union.

They know it as Russia.

But the Soviet Union, of course, was the bastion of Communism.

And we actually moved there when it was still the Soviet Union.

We began preaching, and God began moving.

And one day, Denise and I did a meeting in a public venue.

It was the biggest hockey stadium in the nation, and the ice

was still on the floor.

They rolled a piece of red carpet out into the middle of the

ice and put there a microphone.

Denise sang and I preached.

My feet were so cold, I could hardly feel my feet because of the

ice coming up through the carpet.

And finally, at the end of the service, we decided we were going

to pray for the sick.

Well, the sick were on the other side of the ice field, seated

up in the bleachers.

And now we invited the sick to come forward for prayer.

And Denise and I watched as people with crutches begin walking

across that ice.

And I remember thinking, we definitely need the power of God

because people are gonna break their necks before they get over

here.

Here are all these people with crutches and walking across the ice.

The power of God was in manifestation, and we did not know

that that Sunday someone was filming that event.

But when we got home, we got a phone call, and we were told that

it was going to be broadcast on national television the next day.

So Denise and I and our three sons, we sat together on our little

couch in our little Soviet house, turned on the black and white

television, and there we watched Denise singing on national

TV and me preaching the word of God and laying hands on the sick.

And while we were watching that program, the Holy Spirit spoke

to me and said, now I'm going to tell you why I really brought

you to this part of the world.

And I've learned through the years that very often when you begin

your walk of obedience, God doesn't tell you the full story.

Sometimes he waits until you're in motion and it's too late

to turn back.

And there we're sitting there.

We think that we're there for one reason, but we hear the Holy

Spirit say, now I'm gonna tell you the real reason why I brought

you to this part of the world.

And I heard him say, I want you to take Sunday school to every

home in the entire 11 time zones of the Soviet Union.

Well, at that particular time, we were working in a Bible school

that was trying to raise up pastors that when you have 11 time

zones, you cannot raise up pastors fast enough to take the teaching

of the Bible into every single home.

And now the Holy Spirit said, I want you to take Sunday school

into every single home.

I turned to Denise, and the Holy Spirit had said the same thing

to her.

So I began negotiating for the very first daily teaching of the

Bible in the entire history of.

Of the Soviet Union.

And at this particular time, the Soviet Union was about 70 years

old.

For 70 years, atheism had ruled as king.

God was an illegal topic.

People did not even own Bibles.

You couldn't even buy a Bible.

Back in those days, there were no public churches.

If there were churches, they were underground, hidden churches.

And there were no Americans on television because Americans were

viewed to be the enemy of the state.

And suddenly, every day for one hour, an American appears on

television.

It truly was miraculous.

And people were mesmerized by the fact that an American was on

television.

And they began tuning in by the millions.

And not only was an American on television, the American was talking

about the forbidden subject.

He was publicly talking about, about God on television.

And one day I said, if you will write me, I will write you back.

Well, I did not know that Soviet people loved to write letters.

And in a very short period of time, we had 80 tons of mail.

Tons of mail.

80.

Wow.

We didn't even own a computer.

And back in Those days you couldn't buy a computer because there

were no computers to buy.

And in fact, we, when we would go to the grocery store to buy our

groceries, when the grocery store had groceries, they didn't

even have calculators.

Do you know how they added up what you owed?

They had an abacus, remember the old abacus they used to use?

And they begin moving those beads.

It was like a sign and a wonder to me.

When they started moving those beads, I would say, would you please

do that one more time?

How in the world do they do that if it just was a world that

had nothing, that was technological?

Well, I said to Denise, we're getting all these mail, but I want

to have a meeting.

I want to see how many people will really show up if we advertise

that we're going to hold a public meeting.

So we decided to rent the largest venue in the capital city

of Latvia, which was the city of Riga.

That's where we were living at the time.

We advertised for 10 or 12 days and finally it was time for

the meeting to begin.

Denise and I showed up at the venue and the venue was so jam packed

that there was no seating room for anyone.

All of the bleachers were filled, the floor was filled, and

we had meetings for five days.

And in five days, 7,000 people prayed to receive Christ.

It was just like when Philip went down to Samaria and preached

the gospel.

We saw people come out of wheelchairs.

We saw one man that was paralyzed get up and walk.

Demons screaming as people came to Christ and Christ came in,

the demons went out.

And in Those days, in three of those days, we water baptized 926

people in three days.

And finally on the last night, as I was standing there and about

to dismiss the event, the Holy Spirit said to me, now what are you

going to do with all these new converts?

Well, I didn't like that question because it implied spiritual

responsibility.

They were like sheep without a shepherd.

And I understood they needed a church.

And by asking me, what are you going to do with these people?

I knew the Lord was telling me to start a church.

I didn't want to start a church, but yet I knew that's what

the Lord was asking me to do.

So we located a venue.

And the venue that we located was the central auditorium of the

Communist Party.

When you walked into that building, massive, massive chandeliers,

which were donated by Joseph Stalin, adorned the ceiling.

And all the way around the building were the sickle and the

hammer of the Soviet Union.

And directly under the stage was a bust, a statue of Lenin bigger

than me, and all it was was his head.

And every time I preached, I was standing on top of Lennon, thinking

about how we are taking authority in this place where wickedness

once ruled and God's power began to move.

And so many people crammed into that auditorium that people

were literally hanging over the balcony.

Well, there was another church in town which was also doing quite

well.

And in fact, there were only two churches in town which were considered

to be large.

Remember, at this time, all churches were still underground.

They were hidden churches.

They didn't try to reveal themselves.

They tried to hide themselves.

But now there's an American preaching in the local Communist

auditorium.

And there's another Pentecostal pastor, a little guy.

And when I say little, I mean he was about this tall.

And he had been from the Pentecostal underground movement.

And he said to them, I'm finished with you guys.

You're trying to hide all the time.

I'm going public.

I'm leaving you behind.

I'm the new thing.

I am the move of God.

And every other church in this city will eventually close.

And all of you pastors are gonna bring me your people, and you're

gonna come to me on your knees to declare how great I am.

Well, I would say that's pretty big arrogance.

And you don't make a lot of friends by talking like that.

He offended every pastor in the nation.

Well, he was quite upset because our church was growing.

And he had just declared his was going to be the biggest church.

In fact, he declared he was gonna take the whole city.

The whole city.

And now our church is thriving.

He is so upset by the fact that our church is thriving that

one Sunday he came into the pulpit of his church and he said,

I understand there's another church in this city.

I don't want to say the name of the church, but it's led by an

American who is bald.

And he said, if you want to know what I think, I think anybody

as young as him who is bald is probably under some kind of curse,

and I would advise you not to go to his church.

Well, when I heard that, I thought it was hilarious.

I've been bald since I was 17 years old.

It doesn't bother me that I don't have any hair.

I think it's a blessing I don't have anything to take care

of.

But the more I begin to think about his attitude, it really began

to get under my skin.

And I began to be offended.

And, you know, when you're Offended.

It's amazing.

People begin to bring to you information about the person you're

offended with, to confirm everything that you feel about that

person.

And suddenly people are bringing me all kinds of information

about crazy doctrines he's teaching, things he's saying about

other pastors, other things that he has said about me.

And it's affirming my offense with this man.

And finally, I got so upset that one Sunday I did something very

carnal.

I came to my pulpit in my own church, and I said, I have an announcement

to make.

I looked at Denise on the front row, and she was saying, don't

do it, don't do it, don't do it.

I just ignored her.

And I said, I understand there's another pastor in town.

Don't want to say the name of his church, but he's a little short

guy.

In fact, he's kind of a pygmy pastor.

And he says, anybody that is bald is under a curse.

But I'm telling you that I think anybody whose growth is so

stunted is clearly the one that's probably under some kind of

a curse.

Now let's open our Bibles.

And I continue to preach.

Well, the word of what I said began to travel like wildfire throughout

the city.

And a war erupted between that pastor and me and between his church

and our church.

It was horrible what was taking place.

And unfortunately, I entered into the fray.

And finally, one day, after many months, I was praying, and the

Holy Spirit said, rick, do you want revival in your life?

And I said, yes, Lord, I want revival.

He asked me a second time, do you really want revival?

I said, oh, Lord, I want revival.

He asked me a third time, do you really want revival?

I said, lord, I really want revival.

And I heard the Holy Spirit say, if you want revival, then I'm

requiring you to drive to that other church, go into that pastor's

office, get on your knees in front of him, and ask him for forgiveness

for your attitude.

And the Holy Spirit asked me a fourth time, do you want revival?

And I said, I'm not sure.

I'm not sure.

And I remember saying to the Lord, me, get on my knees.

What about him?

What about him?

And the Lord said, I'm not talking to you about him.

I'm talking to you about you.

I'm talking to you about your attitude.

I will talk to him, but right now, I'm talking to you.

And if you want revival, then I'm requiring you to ask for forgiveness

for what you have done.

Well, I didn't quickly Obey.

In fact, several months passed.

I kept thinking that if I ignore the voice of the Holy Spirit,

maybe he'll just stop talking to me about this.

But I say, the Holy Spirit is like the hound of Heaven.

He stays right on your heels and follows you and follows you.

And every day I would hear him say, are you going to obey me?

No, I'm not.

Are you going to obey me?

I'm still thinking about it.

Are you going to obey me?

And after several months, I was just so inwardly disturbed.

I knew I had to do what the spirit of God was telling me to do.

So I said to my associate, we're going to drive across town.

I'm going to get on my knees, and I'm going to take responsibility

for my attitude.

And my associate said, well, you know, he's been telling everybody

that all the pastors are going to come before him on their knees.

And if you get on your knees, he's going to say, look, the first

one to come is the American bald preacher.

He's going to make you an example.

Don't get on your knees.

So we drove across town and walked in the building, and I could

hear a buzz of people all around me because the enemy was in

the camps.

Everybody was shocked that I was in their building.

I walked up one flight of stairs and another flight and another

flight, and finally I came to the top floor of the building, walked

down the long hallway to his office, knocked on the door, and

heard a voice say, yes, open the door.

I opened the door, walked in, and there was the pygmy pastor sitting

on the other side of his desk, so short I could hardly see him on

the other side of the desk.

And so arrogant.

So arrogant.

So I came in and took my seat across the desk from him.

My associate sat to my side, watching.

We talked about the weather.

We talked about politics.

I talked about everything I could think of to talk about.

Just trying to buy time because I didn't want to do what

the Lord was telling me to do.

And finally there was nothing else to talk about.

And I knew it was time.

It's time to obey.

It's time to get on your knees in front of this man and take responsibility

for your attitude.

So I looked at my associate.

I said, it's time.

And he said, don't get on your knees.

Don't do it.

I said, I brought you here to encourage me, not to discourage me.

Just be quiet.

So I slipped onto one knee, and I heard the Holy Spirit say,

both knees.

So I went on to my second knee.

And when I looked up, this pastor was so thrilled I was on his

knees that he literally had crawled across top of his desk and

was looking over the edge with big eyes filled with glee.

Because the prophecy is coming to pass.

The first pastor's on his knee in front of me.

And I remember looking into his face thinking, you ought to get

off that desk and get on your own knees.

You need to be asking for forgiveness, too.

And then I realized, no, no, no, no, no, no.

You're not here to deal with him.

You're here to deal with you.

And so I began to apologize.

But at first, the apology did not go so well because it sounded

like this.

I'm here today to ask for forgiveness because I'm really offended

by your lousy behavior.

All the foul things you've said about me, and not just about

me.

And I began to give a list of all the things he had said about

other people.

I was really laying into him.

And I realized, this does not sound like an apology.

So I pulled back, and again, I heard the Holy Spirit say, you're

not here to deal with him.

You're here to deal with you.

And I began to ask him for forgiveness.

Now, the truth is, he should have asked for forgiveness.

He started the whole thing.

His attitude toward others was foul.

He should have asked for forgiveness.

He never did.

He never has.

And that's been 34 years ago.

But God didn't bring me there to deal with him.

God brought me there to deal with me, because my attitude was

not right.

And on that day, I began to put on my hunting gear, and I made

a decision.

I don't care how hard it is, I'm going to follow, follow, follow,

follow, follow after peace with this man.

And if he never initiates in my direction, I'm initiating in his

direction.

I live in this city with this other pastor.

I'm not gonna have a bad name for the church and two pastors.

I'm gonna follow after peace until finally I capture peace with

this man.

And the word peace that is in this verse is the Greek word erinae.

And guess what the word erinae is?

It was an old word which was used to describe the end of war,

the cessation of conflict, and the rebuilding of society after the

conflict has ended.

Building new streets, building new infrastructure.

That's what the word peace means.

To put aside the conflict, the cessation of war, and to take all

those same energies which were formerly invested into conflict and

now invest them into building and rebuilding and infrastructure.

And I understood it was My job to find a way to find a way to build

a new relationship with.

With this man.

And it was not easy.

He continued to say bad things about us.

I'll never forget when we were in the middle of our own building

project and we were desperate for finances, I was determined I

was going to capture peace with this man.

And he was in a building project.

So out of our own need, we gave a massive financial contribution

to his church, trying to buy peace with this man.

And when we gave it to him, he met with his staff and laughed at

the size of our contribution.

That was a little painful, but I'd made a decision that I was gonna

be like Teflon and nothing else was gonna stick to me.

I wasn't gonna be required to get on my knees a second time.

I was gonna get it right.

And now, 34 years later, he never has asked for forgiveness,

and he continues to do the same things.

But now I've come to a place where I just love that man in spite

of what he does.

And by the way, real love is agape love.

Agape love.

Now, there are two kinds of love in the church.

There's agape love and there is phileo love.

Philo love is a reciprocal love, which means, if you scratch

my back, I'll scratch yours.

But that the day I scratch your back and I don't get a scratch

back, I'm out of this relationship.

It is a love with strings attached.

And unfortunately, this is what most marriages have, and that's

why marriages fail.

They say, I put more into this than I got out of it.

They're looking for something reciprocal.

But agape love, Agape is a love that has no strings attached.

Agape love is the highest, the finest kind of love.

It is a love with no.

No expectation at all.

And this is why we read in John 3:16, For God so loved the world,

John 3:16

that's the word, agape, the highest spy in this kind of love

that he gave his only begotten son.

And yet we read in John 1:11, he came unto his own, and his own

John 1:11

received him not.

If God had been moving in phileo love, he would have said,

I'm out of here.

Here I've come.

I've done all of this.

You don't even know who I am.

But God was moving in agape love, a love that just loves.

It just loves.

And the best illustration of agape love in our sphere is when

a newborn baby is born.

It is the purest example of agape, when that child is placed

into your arms.

You love that child.

It is a love like you have never known love in your life.

But in that moment when that newborn is placed in your arms, that

child doesn't even know who you are.

The child can't say, hello, mom, hello, dad.

The child has nothing emotionally to give you.

In fact, the only thing the child has to give you is dirty diapers

and a lack of sleep.

And you just think it's so cute.

You just love that child.

It is the highest kind of agape on a human plane.

It is just loving.

And when you move in agape love, it is a love that can never

be disappointed.

It can never be disappointed.

And this is the kind of love which we are to have in our Christian

relationships.

It's what we're to have with our kids.

It's what we're to have with our spouse.

It's a love that just gives with no thought of expectation or

return.

And if something comes back, that's a blessing, but it's not expected.

You're loving simply because you've chosen to love.

And God enabled me to move into that kind of love with this

man.

I loved him in spite of him, and I still do to this very day.

And I really love him.

But wait, there's more.

Look at verse 14.

It says, follow after peace.

Now you understand.

It really means follow, follow, follow.

Follow habitually follow.

Put on your hunting gear.

Don't stop until you capture peace.

Peace is putting away strife, putting away offense, taking the

same energies you formerly invested in the strife and now using

it to build a relationship, reconstruction, infrastructure.

Now you're doing something positive.

And then it says, follow peace with all men.

And holiness.

Everybody say holiness.

The word holiness is the Greek word hagios.

The first time it appears in the Bible is in Exodus chapter three.

And in Exodus chapter three, Mount Horeb is there.

And Moses comes up on the mountain.

And God says, remove your shoes, for the place where you stand

on is what?

Holy ground.

That's the first time this word appears in the Bible.

That word Hagios described a place that was so consecrated, it

was so sanctified.

And the reason it was so sanctified is because the divine

presence of God had touched that spot.

And when God's presence touched that spot, suddenly that

spot became separated.

It became consecrated.

It became different.

There was not another place on the earth like this spot.

It was holy.

It was different.

Everybody say different.

Let me give you another example of the word holy.

You have in your Bible A what in your lap?

A holy Bible.

The word Bible is from the Greek word biblios.

It means book.

The first part of the word in Greek is hagios.

It's a holy book.

But the use of the word holy in this name, holy Bible, tells us

a lot about the Bible.

It means the Bible is different.

The Bible's in the category by itself.

There is not another book on the face of the earth like the Bible.

You can go down to the library.

It is filled with books.

And in the library, you'll find a Bible.

But the Bible is in a category by itself.

It is sanctified.

It is separate, it's holy.

It is different.

It's not like any of the other books in the library.

This word hagios is the same word which is used all over the New

Testament to describe you and me as saints.

The word saints is the same word, hagios.

Well, look at us.

We all just look like human beings.

But when the blood of Jesus touched us and when the Holy Spirit

sealed us, the divine presence suddenly set us aside, just like

it set the holy mountain aside.

And the mountains suddenly became different.

When God's presence touched each of us in salvation, it separated

us from the rest of humanity.

And we might look like normal people, but we are not mere men.

We are sanctified.

We're holy.

We are different from everybody else.

But when you have this word hagios in the context of this verse,

it really tells us that God expects us to behave differently,

to behave differently.

We don't have the option of behaving like other people, behaving

on a low level.

And that's why the verse says, follow after peace habitually continually

follow, follow, follow after peace and be different.

Be different than how other people behave.

And then it says, without which, without which no man shall

see the Lord.

Well, it kind of sounds like that if you die grumpy or if you

die offended or if you die bitter, you're not going to go to

heaven.

But we know that's not true.

There's a lot of bitter Christians that have died and they've

gone to heaven.

The two words shall see, which I asked you to circle would be better

translated, without which no man will be admitted into the immediate

presence of God.

And now we find that when you've got foul stuff going on inside

your heart, it becomes a blocker that stops you from entering

into and experiencing the presence of the Lord.

And this explains why you can be in a service like this, where

everyone around you is being richly, richly touched by the spirit

of God, and you feel nothing.

You Might even wonder what is wrong with me.

Well, if you've got any wrong attitude in you, it is a blocker,

so that you cannot be admitted into and enjoy the presence of the

Lord.

And that's why when you come to verse 15, it says looking diligently,

looking diligently lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest

any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby

many be.

The two words looking diligently in the King James Version

are translated from the Greek word episkopos.

The word EPI means over.

The word scopos means to look.

The word scopos is where you get a telescope, a microscope.

It's something that looks very intensely.

When you connect it to the word epi, it becomes episkopos.

It is one who has insight or oversight of something.

And in the New Testament, it is normally translated as the word

bishop, bishop.

And in fact, you could actually translate this verse bishoping,

bishoping yourself.

So you have to stop and think about a bishop.

What does a bishop do?

A bishop has oversight of a group of churches.

I'm a bishop in Russia today, I'm over a group of churches.

You, your pastor, in a certain sense, is a bishop because he has

all the V1 churches, and he has oversight of all of those churches.

He's the bishop.

He's the overseer.

Episcopus.

Well, when you're the bishop, if the churches under your care do

well, you get the credit for that.

But if you're the bishop and the churches under your care do poorly

and you're not managing it correctly, you will get the blame

for that.

And now when you come to this verse, we find that in some sense,

every single believer is a bishop.

Turn to your neighbor and say, you're looking at a bishop.

You're looking at a bishop.

You say, a bishop of what?

You're the bishop of your heart.

It is your heart.

And if your heart does well, you'll get the credit for that.

If your heart does not do well, God will hold you responsible

for that.

Now, there are people who say, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey.

My heart is filled with all this contention and bitterness for

a reason.

This person did this to me, and that person did that to me.

And you know what?

That may all be true.

But when you grow up, you find out that it's your heart.

And in some fashion, you had to say yes to that offense.

And if you're offended, it's because you opened the door for it.

And when you stand in front of Jesus and say it's their fault and

their fault and their fault.

Jesus is going to say, but it's your heart.

It's your heart.

It's your heart, your heart.

And I expected you to be the bishop of your heart.

And you're accountable for what goes on in your own heart.

And the day you begin to be set free from offense is when you

quit blaming others and you start saying, it's time for me to

deal with my heart.

And we're told in Proverbs, chapter four that out of the heart

flow all the issues of life.

But wait, it goes on in verse 15 and says, Looking diligently,

lest any man fail of the grace of God, how do you fail of the grace

of God?

How is that possible?

We all know grace is what God does freely for us.

You don't earn it.

You don't deserve it.

It's free.

So how do you fail?

Well, when you study other places in the New Testament, it says

that you can fall short of the grace of God.

It says that you can frustrate the grace of God.

The word grace is the Greek word charis.

It was borrowed from the pagan world.

It was carried into the New Testament.

It described a supernatural touch that divinely, supernaturally

enabled you to do what you could never do by yourself.

It changed you to be what you could never be by yourself.

And when grace came on you, a person was so transformed that the

pagans would say, that person's under grace.

It meant they're under the divine spell of the gods on their

own.

They could never be like that.

They could never talk like that.

They would never have those abilities.

But when grace touches you, it gives you abilities you don't have.

It causes you to do what you couldn't do, to be what you could

never be by yourself.

And now in verse 15, we find that if you're dealing with issues

in your heart and suddenly the grace of God comes, it might happen

in a church service, might happen while Pastor Mike is preaching,

might happen while you're reading your Bible.

And all of a sudden you begin to have good thoughts about that

person that you've been offended with for so long.

The grace of God has come.

And the grace of God has come to enable you to do what you would

never do on your own, to be what you would never be on your own.

He's enabling you to ask for forgiveness.

He might be enabling you to get on your knees.

He's enabling you to take responsibility for your heart.

And now you've got a choice.

You can partner with the Grace.

Or you can frustrate the grace.

You can say, you know, lord, I hear what you're telling me to do,

but I'm not doing it.

And when you reject the grace of God, you fail of the grace of

God.

It doesn't mean you lose your salvation.

It just means the grace came to help you do what you could never

do by yourself, and you didn't hook up with it.

And therefore, the grace of God could not do what it came to

do because you frustrated it.

Let's carry this into the context of your marriage.

If you're married, there's a lot of young people here.

I don't know how many married people we have.

What an awesome church.

Pastor Mike, let's say Denise and I have an issue.

Denise and I don't have many issues.

You know why we don't have issues?

Because we decided we're done with that.

We have a no strife policy.

We don't allow strife ever.

It's not permitted in our ministry.

Permitted in our home.

There's no strife.

But if strife tries to come, say, I get a little irked with Denise.

Happens not often.

Or maybe I have said something not as kindly as I should have said

it, and maybe I don't even know that I was not kind.

And Denise is upset with me.

Praise God.

It's pretty rare, but a moment comes when you're empowered to say

in a kind way, rick, I think you could have said that a little

nicer without chastising me.

Or I could have said, denise, I think that I could have been nicer.

I want to ask you to forgive me.

There's a grace that.

That comes to empower you so your little issues don't become mountains.

They don't have to become mountains.

And if you'll pay attention, the grace of God will come to empower

you to do it.

And you can get over things really, really fast.

But for you to do this, you've got to realize, hey, it is my heart.

It doesn't matter what she does.

It doesn't matter what he does.

It is my heart.

I've gotta be accountable for my heart because I am the bishop

of my heart.

It is my heart.

And if you'll embrace the grace.

Everybody say, embrace the grace.

You can live free.

Free.

Now, I'm going to end with a short testimony.

When this event happened with the pick me pastor, and I had another

event with another pastor the same year, I realized this is a trap

of the devil to steal my peace, steal my sleep.

If you go to bed thinking about somebody.

And if you wake up talking about somebody, and if you're talking

about that person in your prayers and in your conversation

all the time, you've got an issue.

Forget what they did, you've got an issue.

And I made a decision.

It's my heart.

I'm the bishop of my heart.

And from this moment forward, I'm going to be an unoffendable individual.

And for nearly 34 years, I have walked free of offense.

It.

It doesn't mean people haven't done things, because they certainly

have.

But when you've partnered with the grace of God, it gives you the

supernatural edge to let it go.

Let it go.

In fact, do you know the word forgive?

The Greek word ephiemi, it literally means let it go.

Everybody say it.

Let it go, let it go.

That's what forgiveness is.

It is to permanently dismiss and forfeit your right to ever retrieve

it and bring it up again.

It is permanent dismissal of the Greek word ephiemi, let it go.

And when you let it go, not only do you free them, you keep yourself

free.

Because there's nothing worse than living in a prison of bitterness

and unforgiveness and offense.

But it doesn't have to be you.

So rather than get offended, ask the grace of God to help you

put on your hunting clothes.

The Holy Spirit has the strategy and the key to every person's

heart.

And say, holy Spirit, show me how to catch peace with this person,

and he really will give you that ability.

I want to pray for you.

Would you bow your heads and put your hands on your heart?

I'm going to give this to Pastor Mike.

Father, I thank you that you gave us the wonderful opportunity

to be with V1.

Many people in this room that are young, they have life in front

of them.

Holy Spirit, I ask you to grace them, give them the divine

ability to take responsibility for their own heart and to walk in

freedom.

That they would be like Teflon, that forgiveness would rule

their hearts, and unforgiveness and offense just would

not stick to them.

Help us to partner with your grace, and we thank you for it.

In Jesus name.