Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is naive. And you've reached the Mosaic Church Podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community, and I'd love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there, and there's more opportunities for you to get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast if you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity, and I'd love for you to pay it forward.
[00:00:39] Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you and enjoy.
[00:00:59] Good morning.
[00:01:01] Hello. Hello. All right, you guys seem excited. Fun crowd here. Yeah, you guys are fun.
[00:01:08] Which side is funner? This side's fun.
[00:01:13] Wow. Good luck with that, guys.
[00:01:15] This side.
[00:01:18] Okay. Okay.
[00:01:20] You guys brought it. You guys brought it. Well, hey, excited if you are a guest. Sorry, sorry.
[00:01:25] Yeah. We're in a series called Pick a side. And so here's the deal. We've been talking about some things that we gotta be. We gotta pick some sides. It's not political. It's not cultural wars. We're not trying to find those. We're trying to actually pick some sides that actually shape our character. So we kicked off the series talking about, are you gonna pick the side of love, or are you gonna pick the side of fear? Last week, I talked about either you pick comfort or you pick purpose in life, because it's hard to pursue comfort your whole life and then actually somehow fulfill your purpose and do amazing things. So it's just tough. You gotta pick the side because it shapes your character. And so today, we're gonna have to pick a side. Now, I've got some kettlebells over here where you guys are like, what's happening here?
[00:02:08] What's the size that we're gonna pick on? Is it weight training or cardio? No, it's not.
[00:02:12] That's not the pick a side thing. We're not gonna do that. We are actually gonna talk about offense.
[00:02:19] Offense or. Or freedom. The side of offense or freedom. Like, for example, how offendable are you?
[00:02:29] Like, what can I say right now that'll make you mad?
[00:02:32] You're like, anything, man. Anything. Anything. Anything. I'm pretty offendable. Okay.
[00:02:37] What Is it. Have you met a Christian who is, like, highly offendable?
[00:02:42] Have you worked with people who are highly offendable? You're like, come on, bro, calm down. It's all good. No one's trying to hurt you.
[00:02:51] You know, no one's trying to mess with you. Do you know someone who just. They just want to pick a fight?
[00:02:56] And you're like, dude, we're all good. All good. You know, like, you should not do drugs, but maybe you should, like, no, like, calm down, Calm down. So here's the thing, though. Here's the thing.
[00:03:08] The truth is that there is plenty of reason, plenty of people that we either work with, maybe even live with.
[00:03:17] We, you know, roommates. We've got friends that offend us. So what do we do? What do we do? We want to, like, yeah, we don't want to hold onto offense, but it's so easy to. Right? And sometimes it actually feels good to hold on to a grudge, man, a good grudge. You know what I'm saying? That lasts for a long time. Some of you guys are like, no, it's not what you do. What you do. We do. We hold on to some stuff. Listen, I grew up in the Middle east, okay? I grew up. We are an Eastern family.
[00:03:48] We hold on to things for a long time. Generational.
[00:03:54] We just hold on to hurts. We hold on and one day we pay back. Like, it's just so crazy. Maybe you grew up in that kind of a family. So what do you do? What do you do? So here's what I wanna do. I wanna talk about the Scriptures, because I believe that God is calling us to live a certain kind of way. And so I wanna read you the first passage of Scripture. And if you wanna follow along, it's in the app as well. So because we put the notes in there, there's resources there as well, of every series. So it's really great if you wanna jump into that as well. So Galatians 5:1, and let's read this. It says, freedom is what we have. Christ has set us free. So stand then as what? Free people. And do not allow yourselves to become slaves. Again, Galatians. This guy who wrote this is Paul. Paul became a follower of Jesus. And he was talking to a church in the Jewish people, Christians in Galatia. And these people, I just want you to know, these people were people who have been oppressed. Now, they have been oppressed by the Romans for a long time. So if you ever. If you didn't know the New Testament, the context of The New Testament is written, Jesus preached to a people who been oppressed. I mean, even before he was born, I mean, Jesus family or his generations, for about 27 years, they were all oppressed by the Roman Empire. So that. Because the Roman Empire actually occupied the Jewish people from like 27 B.C. and then 400 some A.D. i mean, so these people lived a life that were oppressed by other people. They're not like us. As in, as in we have some things that we feel oppressed by. No, these people actually lived in it. And back in those days, slavery was okay. And slavery was like, it's just one of those things. People owned people. It was not, hey, people worry about it. That's how it works. That's how it works. And so the context of the scriptures are very interesting because you're like, the scriptures are hard enough to live out with us, but to them it was really tough. And so here Paul is saying, hey, I want you to know Christ has set you free. To which. To which some of them would say, not really. Right though, because Romans are still my boss. We're still not free. Because he's talking about a different kind of freedom. He's talking about a freedom that exists within ourselves, that you could be enslaved to someone, but yet you could live free. You could have the freedom. Because some of us, some of us, we are free. No one owns us, no one enslaves us. I mean, we are our own boss, but yet we have imprisoned ourselves.
[00:06:38] An offense does that more than anything else. Offense. When you hold a grudge, it locks you in a prison. Because offense starts off at a grudge. Or someone hurts you and you go, you know, that person owes me an apology. Or you want to write a letter, or you want to say something and say, hey, you know what? I want to text you and say, hey, you know what? I think you owe me an apology. You should say, I'm sorry.
[00:07:04] For some of us, we're waiting for someone to say sorry. Unfortunately, I want us to say sorry. You might be waiting a long time, it might never happen.
[00:07:14] And you're not good with that. You're not good with it. So you're holding onto it. So what happens is it starts off with you owe me something, an apology, admission, accountability. But eventually when you hold onto that, that offense doesn't just make you, doesn't make people owe you. No, no, it actually makes people own.
[00:07:37] They now own you.
[00:07:41] They rent space for free. In your soul, in your heart, for free. You are now carrying them along the rest of your life.
[00:07:49] And free people says, I might owe you, but you never will own me.
[00:07:55] I owe you an apology. I might, I might, I might owe some people some debt. I do that. But I am going to live free. I'm not going to. I'm not gonna live a life enslaved to anything. So here the writer is saying, hey, friends, Jesus has set you free from this idea of trying to be self righteous, trying to have like spiritual worth so the gods will love you. No, no, Christ has set you free from needing to perform for religion and the gods, he set you free. So don't go back into that. Don't go back into the slavery mindset when which these people were, and I think we do too, a tendency to go back into other people owning us.
[00:08:40] And so today we wanna talk about the reality that God has called us to live a very different kind of life. So when Jesus started speaking and teaching as, you know, if you read the scriptures, he would explain the Old Testament, but he would not just add to it. He.
[00:08:57] He would add to it or he would say, you've heard it said. But I'm gonna tell you this, I'm gonna tell you this, this, this, this. And if you read the teachings of Jesus, what you realize, which a lot of theologians and scholars have realized, is that he is defining and describing a new way to live.
[00:09:14] He's talking about a new way to be human, a different kind of humanity, and in fact a different kind of kingdom. He's like, hey, in this world, this happens, this happens, this happens, this. But you are not of this world world.
[00:09:26] You are a citizen of heaven, so act like it. I know you're on earth, but no, no, there are other rules that apply here. You need to live a different kind of life, a different kind of human, which is actually in fact fully human. So Matthew 5 is a passage, you know, a passage, but it's also, it's a sermon of a lot of things Jesus covers and he addresses those things. He starts off, I love this. I. In Matthew 5, 13, he says, you are. Help me out. You are like, what? What's that word? Say it again. What's that word? Salt. Okay, say that word. Salt. Say that word. All right. Not bad. Okay, okay. Salt. Salt for the whole what?
[00:10:07] For the whole human race. And if salt loses its saltiness, there is no way to make it, what, Salty again. Okay. It has become, what?
[00:10:18] Worthless. So it is thrown out and people trample on it. Why would you start off inspiring people like, you? Guys, guys, you're salt.
[00:10:28] You're a little pepper like, why is he saying that? And why is he talking about worth?
[00:10:35] Because back in those days, salt was the currency.
[00:10:39] People would use that as currency. Like it was. It was sacred.
[00:10:45] It was like gold.
[00:10:47] People would pay people with salt to the degree is that we get the word salary. Anybody get a salary? Anybody.
[00:10:57] Salary comes from the word salt.
[00:11:00] So they would. Jesus is saying, I just want you to know, you are precious.
[00:11:06] You're like gold.
[00:11:08] You're not gold.
[00:11:10] You are important. You matter. You are worth so much more than you realize, but you get to act like it or you choose not to act like it. I'm asking you to act like you have worth.
[00:11:25] There's some people. You know this. You act like you are worthless, like you have no dignity. People can treat you like trash. He says, no, no, no, no, no, no. You. You have worth. So much worth. You are the salt of this world. You are the most precious commodity this world has to offer.
[00:11:45] Wow. That's what he's talking about. He just says that. He says, then I want you to act like it. So I'm telling you a new way to live. And he starts off by saying, hey, one of the things you have to understand is you cannot allow offense.
[00:12:00] You cannot allow other people's actions to determine who you will become.
[00:12:06] You cannot do that. You cannot allow people who hurt you to become people who shape you.
[00:12:13] You cannot do that. You cannot allow oppression or any kind of pain that people want to put on you or demands that you want to put on you to begin to mold the kind of person you are meant to be. You are meant to live free. You are meant to be human. You are the salt of the world. You are worth something. But please live like you are worth something.
[00:12:36] And then he says, here's. Here's what it says. He says, here's what I tell you. Matthew 5:39 says, this is what I tell you. Do not.
[00:12:44] Do not take revenge on someone who wrongs you.
[00:12:48] Salty people, precious people, people who are like gem, they don't do that. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, let him slap your what?
[00:12:58] Left cheek. What's the expression we get turned the other cheek. You get it from here. But you're like, ah, I don't like this. I don't like this. But he says. Then he goes on, he says, and if someone takes you to court to sue you for your shirt, let him have your coat as well.
[00:13:15] If some. One of the occupation troops. Roman soldiers, in other translations, if the Roman soldiers forces you to carry his pack of 1 mile, which they were allowed to do. They could stop any citizen at any point, the Roman soldiers, and ask them to carry their stuff for at least a mile. It was the law. You could do that. You could do that. No, you don't have to pay them. You don't. You could just stop any citizen. You could do that.
[00:13:40] He says, if they do that. Which someone's like, yeah, they just made me do that. Here's what I want you to do. I want you to carry it, what, two miles.
[00:13:49] When someone asks you for something, give it to them. When someone wants to borrow something, lend it to them. He's saying, this is what I want you to know. People who have a lot of self worth don't live, like passive lives. This is not a passive passage of scripture. It's actually very courageous. It's really like in your face. You're like, no name. It's not. It's like, turn the other cheek. That's how we know, we think it's that. No turning the other cheek. The expression is very interesting because we mean something else in our American Western culture. But over here, talking about turning and slapping the left cheek is interesting because when you would slap a person in the Middle east like this, right, okay, that was. In a weird sense, it was okay.
[00:14:33] It was not dishonorable to slap someone out of whatever.
[00:14:38] But if the person turned the other cheek, you would have to do. You would have to backhand them.
[00:14:46] And when you do that, that's disgraceful on you.
[00:14:51] It's like how we get the whole, you know, you put a dagger in my back, you shot me in the back. There's no dignity that you're not. No, no. It's like human.
[00:15:04] Give me some dignity here. Let's do this.
[00:15:08] But when a person turns you remind them of your humanity and their inhumanity.
[00:15:16] That's what he's saying. Turn to the shaykh. And then he says, hey. And when they tell you to walk a one mile because they can force you to do that, guess what you do? You go the first mile, I'll walk because I'm enslaved by you. The second walk, the second mile. I walk because I want to.
[00:15:31] You don't owe me.
[00:15:32] I'll walk, I'll walk with it.
[00:15:35] I'll do it. It's defiance.
[00:15:38] It's saying, I, I. You don't own me. You want this? I'll give you that.
[00:15:44] Could you imagine living a life that no one could offend you?
[00:15:48] You be so annoying.
[00:15:51] What? No one's gonna offend you. You're like, ah, that's fine. Could you imagine in traffic not being offended?
[00:15:59] Oh, my gosh.
[00:16:01] No, you can't. You're like, that world does not exist.
[00:16:05] You're like, let him go. Oh, you cut in front of me. Oh, look at you. All right, all right.
[00:16:11] No, because we just wired a different kind of way. And God's saying, I want you to live a certain kind of way. Now here's. It's all cute and all when someone does some certain things to you, and you're like, ah, okay. But then sometimes people kind of can get you. They can get you. They can do some things. They can do some things. And I don't know. I don't know what it is about me because, I mean, I have had people say all kinds of things about me, and some people have hurt me big time. But there are other things that I just kind of like.
[00:16:40] This is hilarious. Like, for example, okay, I wrote a book.
[00:16:44] I wrote two books, but the first book was, like, 10, 12 years ago. And the other day, Ashley, she was like, hey, you just got a review, a new review on your old book. I was like, okay. The book is called Ex Muslim. It's my story of how I came to faith in Jesus. And she was like, oh. I was like, oh, wow. Someone wrote a review now, like, 12 years ago, 12 years later. And she was like, yeah. You know what I mean? That's cool. I said, okay, great. She was like, well, but.
[00:17:10] Right? It's not good. I was like, how many stars? Like, one.
[00:17:14] I was like, what? What?
[00:17:17] I was like. She was like. And they wrote a whole book about it. Like, the review is long. And I was like, let's read it. She's like, do you really want to. I'm like, yes, I want to read this thing. So I can't read all of it. Okay. But some of it. I gotta be honest. This is funny to me. Okay. This starts off the book. It starts off. He says, this book was a tremendous disappointment.
[00:17:41] I was like, read more, please. I need to know this, he says, because I wanted to be able to provide a full, informed opinion, I plowed my way through the book.
[00:17:50] Greg Surratt, a pastor mentor, a friend of the author, writes about Fazel's story in the forward. There was a. And he says, I'm sure. I'm sure this book, it kept you turning the pages.
[00:18:04] No, it didn't.
[00:18:06] I was like, this guy is so funny. It's hilarious. I'm like, this is funny.
[00:18:13] This is.
[00:18:15] I could only read it for about 10 pages. At a time. Then I had to put it down to come up for oxygen.
[00:18:23] I was like, dramatic much? But okay, okay, this is so funny. And then kind of ends the paragraph because I'm not reading all of it. It's a lot. It says now to be fair. To be fair. Okay, it's happening to be fair.
[00:18:38] To convert from Islam to Christianity is no small transformation. I'm like, amen to that.
[00:18:46] Yes.
[00:18:48] He keeps on going, even if one is a ho hum Muslim.
[00:18:57] I was like, what?
[00:19:00] Don't you mean fee fi fo, fo? No, no.
[00:19:04] Then he says, while I found the book to be shallow and quite generic, others have obviously been benefited from it.
[00:19:16] So there's that.
[00:19:18] I was like, genius.
[00:19:20] This guy should get writing a book about this, bro. You should write books about criticizing other books. I'll read it. It's hilarious.
[00:19:27] It's hilarious. Now here's the thing. Here's the thing. You're like, really? Because my wife is like, really? You're not mad about this? I'm like, come on, it's just an opinion, you know? And he criticizes the writer who wrote with me. And she is performing professional and she's amazing. And she. I was like, hey, listen, I'm not gonna hold on to that. Now, for some of you, it's easy to not hold onto some things, but when it gets to something personal, it's easier to do it. Like when you create something, when you do something and people go, they make fun of the stuff that you made out of love and care and all that. And you're like, ah, I did this at work. Or something like that. You're like, ah. Cause people can. Right at work, they can like maybe take credit for your work. I mean, that's pretty offensive.
[00:20:11] Mistreat you, misrepresent you, say things about you, bully you. I mean, there are things that people do that it's very hard. But, but, but, but here, what we read is we cannot live like people who keep on holding on to offense. We can't do it. Peter had an issue with Jesus teachings because he was like, okay, this whole turn the other cheek thing, I get that baggage. But. But this is so hard to do. So one day he actually kind of says, okay, let me just ask you this, Let me just ask you this. And this is only something the apostle Peter would do. And he goes, he says this. He comes to Peter. I'm sorry, he comes to Jesus in Matthew 18, and he asks the question, which I think a lot of us would want to ask. Okay. He Goes, lord, suppose.
[00:20:56] Suppose a brother or sister keeps on doing the same thing.
[00:21:01] They keep on sinning against me. Question, question, question. How many times do I have to. What?
[00:21:08] Forgive? How many times? How many times is it okay for them to do this?
[00:21:12] Now, we're not talking about unhealthy things. We're not talking about abusive things. He's like, how many times, though? How many times do I need to forgive them?
[00:21:20] Seven times. Ha, ha. Because we all know seven's a number. It's a number. And Jesus goes, no, no, no, no, no. Not seven times. Okay, okay, okay. What's the number then? What's the number? Give me a number. But 70 times 7.
[00:21:37] And what he meant by that was. That was an expression.
[00:21:40] It's countless. That's what he really meant. He says, because the kingdom of heaven is like that, God forgives you, doesn't keep score. You shouldn't either. But, oh, no, it's so hard for us to do.
[00:21:54] So Peter is asking the question that we all ask. How many times did. Okay, how many times? How many times do I have to.
[00:22:02] And Jesus is basically saying, hey, when you live a life keeping score, you live a different kind of life.
[00:22:11] You become a different kind of person. Let me illustrate it through these kettlebells. Now, first of all, this is the cutest kettlebell in the world, right? I mean, if you don't know what a kettlebell is, kettlebells are. That's a big daddy over there, if you can see it. I can't even. Oh, my God.
[00:22:27] I think this is, I don't know, 50 to 70 pounds. But this. Oi. Hey. Okay. All right, so you got this one. Really cute. Okay. Problem is, is that what happens is when we go through life and someone says something to us, it's not a big thing, but it's something. Maybe it's on social media and you're, like, holding onto it just a little bit. You're, like, mulling over it. I don't know. What. I don't know.
[00:22:49] Eventually what you do is you just kind of strap it to yourself. You're still holding onto an offense. Like, there are some of you, you're like, ah, yeah, someone does owe me an apology. I wonder when they're gonna do it. I wonder when they're gonna do it.
[00:23:02] And I don't know, maybe they might not.
[00:23:05] Then someone does something else. Because, you know, it's not just people that, you know. You have family members, the weekends, sometimes the plans, the holidays. Some of you are not looking forward to Thanksgiving because you're like, I don't know if I have anything to be thankful for, maybe, because I don't know if so and so is not gonna come. Why? Because you kind of had a conversation last Thanksgiving and it was whatever, whatever, whatever. And you're just kind of thinking about it. You are, quote unquote, praying about it, but you're praying about it. Let's just be honest. Looks more like this.
[00:23:38] Now you're holding on to that person, too. You got a couple of kettlebells swinging. But here's the cool thing. The cool thing is no one really knows, because they're cute offenses, they're small. You're fine. You're still walking fine. You're still walking fine. But the problem is we just don't have family and friends. We have other people in life. Like, life does something to you, and it's a little bit. Someone does something and it's a little bit heavier.
[00:24:02] It was a little bit more painful. So you're like, I don't know. So you're like, I don't know. And you're trying to figure this out. You're trying to figure it out, what I'm going to do with this thing. And you're trying to figure out, like, do I need to forgive them? Do I did not forgive them? I'm not quite sure. Let me just think about it some more. And the problem is, a fence needs you to do something. So it says, hey, just put me on for a minute.
[00:24:24] And now you're walking around like this.
[00:24:27] And now you are a different kind of person because you gotta walk a little funny when you got all this.
[00:24:32] And then you show up on a date.
[00:24:38] And you're looking at that person and you're like, get me out of this.
[00:24:44] What is wrong?
[00:24:46] Or you meet someone you're trying to do business with, and you're like, they got some stuff going on.
[00:24:52] They got something.
[00:24:53] They can't see this, but you got this.
[00:24:57] You got this.
[00:24:59] They walk a little funny. They get a little agitated. Why? Because they're carrying a lot of stuff.
[00:25:04] They're easily angered. So easily, they go off.
[00:25:09] They just go off.
[00:25:10] And they always have a good excuse for it, but they go off.
[00:25:15] Why? Because they're doing this. They're doing this. Now, what's really ridiculous is when you have this, you can still function. You can still function, but then something tragic happens and it's heavy stuff, and for some reason you decide you're just gonna carry this thing.
[00:25:40] And the reason, you know, it's heavy.
[00:25:43] But here's your logic, even though you've got other things that you know going on, your logic is this. And I get this because I had to carry something this heavy for someone who betrayed me early on, did something with.
[00:25:59] Involved mosaic. And it was very hard.
[00:26:04] It did split the church. It did some really. Some big damage. To the point, though I knew very well the day I picked this up, and I remember someone talking to me about it, and I said, I'm not ready.
[00:26:17] And I carried it. And I knew I would carry it for about three to four years because I just. It was too complicated. I didn't have time to. To kind of go through the process of, like, trying to, I don't know, go through therapy.
[00:26:34] I needed to talk to someone about this. Oh, gosh, it's heavy.
[00:26:38] But I had to carry it. And I say, one day, I am going to drop this.
[00:26:42] The day I call him and say, hey, let's have coffee. And I remember the day. I remember where we did it. I remember everything about that. I remember what he wore. I remember what I wore.
[00:26:54] Because that day, it was done.
[00:26:58] I was done.
[00:27:00] I was like, hey, you don't have to apologize, but I don't want to carry anything anymore. I'm done. I'm done carrying that. I can't. I can't live my life like that. And since then, though, I gotta be honest with you, since then, I've had opportunities where I just kind of go, I'm not going to let go. I mean, I'm going to just let go. I'm not going to.
[00:27:25] I can't hold on to this. I can't. It's affecting how free I live. It's affecting how flexible I am with people. It's affecting everything in my life. I just can't do this anymore.
[00:27:40] And for some of you, today is the day you do that.
[00:27:43] You do that because you're used to keeping score. And Jesus is like, hey, don't be that person who keeps score. Don't.
[00:27:54] Don't do that. What's really interesting is that Peter, who asked the question, writes a letter years later talking to a church. And he says this in first Peter, he says, hey, this is what I've learned. He says, do not pay back evil with what evil? He said, it doesn't work.
[00:28:21] Or cursing with. Cursing like fighting fire with fire. That whole hate with hate. It just doesn't work. It doesn't work. He says, instead, pay back with a blessing. Because a blessing is what God promised to give you when he called you.
[00:28:39] He doesn't he doesn't give you what you deserve. He gives you what you don't deserve.
[00:28:48] And you have to be like him. You gotta become like him. As people who have his holy spirit. You have the power. I know. You're like, I don't even know if it's possible. That's why God's spirit lives inside of you. You have the power to become more than who abused you, who hurt you. And Peter's warning, and he's warning us. He said, don't do evil with evil. Here's why. Here's why. Because if you do, you become the person that hurt you.
[00:29:23] You become just like them.
[00:29:26] And we've heard it. It's a little cheesy, but it's true. Hurting people, people.
[00:29:32] It's true.
[00:29:34] And the trauma that we have not transformed, it's transmitted.
[00:29:44] That's why for some of us, like, it's hurting how we parent.
[00:29:51] It's hurting how we parent. We're mad at other things, but we take it out on our kids.
[00:29:57] We're mad at other people, but the spouse is the problem.
[00:30:02] We are mad at some other stuff that's happened to us because we're carrying things. And now it's something else.
[00:30:09] Now it's not like some people. It's the whole world. The whole world is trash.
[00:30:15] Everybody is awful. And you just become the most cynical person. And it was not fair. It was not fair for them to abandon you. It was not fair for them not to give you a reason to leave. It was not fair for them to say the things they said. It was not fair. It's not right. It's not right by any means. It's just that. It's just that they really should not own you.
[00:30:41] Even though they owe you.
[00:30:44] They shouldn't own you.
[00:30:46] You can't.
[00:30:48] They shouldn't be given that much power to imprison you.
[00:30:53] They should not give you. They should not be given that much power to have to be.
[00:31:01] To be able to offend you.
[00:31:03] And I can't tell you how many people that I've met.
[00:31:07] They're so offendable. And all I have to do is. All I have to do is just say something off. And they're gonna forfeit all their goals and dreams just because I can get them to go get mad. And that's why, for me, I find myself in a place. I mean, I started off ministry. My first job, ministry job was at a church where a person told me, hey, I have a problem with you being my pastor. And I was like, what's the issue. She's like, because you look like that.
[00:31:39] And I was like, good looking. I get it.
[00:31:42] I get it, girl.
[00:31:44] No, she's like, oh, wow.
[00:31:47] Yeah. And if you think I've not heard that before, I've heard it my whole ministry life.
[00:31:53] You're from the Middle east, you're brown, you're colored. Whatever, man. Dude, I don't have time.
[00:32:00] I don't got time to dwell on that kind of stuff. Guess what? Because I know what I'm called to do. I know who I'm called to become.
[00:32:08] And I'm not gonna give anybody the right to distract me.
[00:32:14] I'm not gonna do that. Then why are we?
[00:32:18] Why are we? You could have a better relationship with your kids. You could have a better relationship with friends and family. You could have a better relationship with the world if you would only let go of the offense.
[00:32:31] That doesn't make it right.
[00:32:34] They still owe you. And God will figure it out, or people will figure it out or whatever. But you just can't live burdened carrying all this stuff and live free.
[00:32:50] So that's why Galatians says, hey, I know what happened was not right. I know, I know, I know. But it is for freedom that Christ has set you free.
[00:33:00] So don't.
[00:33:01] Don't put on the stuff.
[00:33:04] Don't carry the stuff.
[00:33:06] Don't put on the yoke of. Don't act like a slave again.
[00:33:11] Don't act like sin owns you and people own you and offense owns you and anger owns you and rage owns you and bitterness owns you. Do not do that.
[00:33:24] The writer of Hebrews says it this way.
[00:33:26] He says, look out, look out for each other so none of you fail to receive the grace of God.
[00:33:36] He says, watch out, Watch out that no poisonous root of what of bitterness grows up.
[00:33:47] Grows up to trouble you, corrupting. Many says, hey, it's going to grow up and it's going to corrupt a lot of parts of you that you don't even understand.
[00:33:58] You can't do that.
[00:34:01] And I would say, start young.
[00:34:04] Start young.
[00:34:05] If you're a teenager, you need to just.
[00:34:09] I know words are painful, but I'm gonna pray that God would just make you forget those words.
[00:34:18] I mean, I.
[00:34:19] Words can harm and I got words.
[00:34:23] I got all kinds of words spoken over me because I have, you know, I've got a learning disability. So I.
[00:34:29] It's a lot.
[00:34:32] But if you start early, just letting go, determine. I will not be owned by the words that any kid says.
[00:34:44] I'm not gonna be owned by this bully's words or his actions. I'm not gonna be owned by anything, not allow fear, bitterness to own me. I want to let go.
[00:34:54] I want to let go of stuff and see how God changes me to the person that he's made me to be.
[00:35:02] Let me pray for you. Can I do that? Let's pray together.
[00:35:05] Lord God, we just thank you.
[00:35:08] We thank you.
[00:35:10] We thank you that we today can come before you and ask you for power, ask you for the power to do something, to be people who refused, who refused to be.
[00:35:28] People who are shaped by other people's sins.
[00:35:34] We will not be people who will be shaped by other people's sins, God. We will not allow people to determine who we could be.
[00:35:49] That we are asking you, God, to shape us. We're asking you to do something inside of us, God, that only you can do, God, that you can allow us to forget or allow us to heal or allow us to let go, God, because some of us, it's so tough to do, so tough to do. Do so. Father, I just pray in Jesus name. Would you, as we respond, would you do something, God, here that we just cannot do on our own?
[00:36:18] Let go of some things, God, we can't heal ourselves.
[00:36:24] We can't get rid of that poison inside of us, ourselves. Because, God, you are God and you've given us your holy spirit, Your goodness in our lives has followed us.
[00:36:39] So, God, would you do a work that only you can do today as we sit maybe, and just allow some things to just be dropped off as we mentally just or maybe even physically write down the person's name or the offense and we go, okay, I'm physically dropping this.
[00:37:00] Maybe we go to the cross and we put that offense on the cross and we go, it's on the cross. I'm not going to carry it anymore.
[00:37:09] I'm going to go and light a candle because I'm going to pray for someone who's hurt me.
[00:37:17] I'm going to receive communion because I don't deserve it. But yet God gives me so much grace and his power works in me.
[00:37:32] So, God, have your way with us.
[00:37:35] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
[00:37:40] For more audio and video content, visit us at MosaicChurch TV.
