Living Free
Dealing with Offenses • Sermon • Submitted
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Haunted by Unforgiveness - Several years ago after an elderly woman passed away, family members were cleaning out her house when they found a scrapbook filled with obituaries from the local newspaper. Many of the death notices pertained to people she had detested. As bizarre as it may sound, she kept a scrapbook of her dead enemies.
Haunted by Unforgiveness
Several years ago after an elderly woman passed away, family members were cleaning out her house when they found a scrapbook filled with obituaries from the local newspaper. Many of the death notices pertained to people she had detested. As bizarre as it may sound, she kept a scrapbook of her dead enemies.
This woman had five different clippings of her most despised foe in her morbid memory book. Apparently she had gained some kind of strange satisfaction by thinking they could no longer torment her.
It is inevitable Offenses will come. (Impossible for them not to come. - ) So how do we live free of it?
It is inevitable Offenses will come. (Impossible for them not to come. - ) So how do we live free of it?
Bearing offense means we desire to hurt the people who have wounded us. It's like the little boy who was sitting on a park bench in obvious agony. A man walking by asked him what was wrong. The boy answered, "I'm sitting on a bumble bee." "Then why don't you get up?" the man asked. The boy replied, "Because I figure that I am hurting him more than he is hurting me!"
The healing process begins when we get up off the park bench. God will only heal our wounds when we stop inflicting pain on the one who hurt us.
It is inevitable Offenses will come. (Impossible for them not to come. - ) So how do we live free of it?
Paul points out that it is going to take ongoing effort to attempt to keep ones conscience void of offense
Strive - askeo - take pains, endeavor, exercise by training or discipline
Therefore I always exercise and discipline myself [mortifying my body, deadening my carnal affections, bodily appetites, and worldly desires, endeavoring in all respects] to have a clear (unshaken, blameless) conscience, void of offense toward God and toward men.
16
Not many like to talk about discipline and exercise, let alone do it. Progress is hard and often slow, and will quickly regress if discipline is not maintained.
Planet Fitness - Skip T, different faces
What are some benefits of physical exercise? (Feel better, think clearer, stronger with greater endurance, healthier, look better, often interact with people more easily)
Would that not also translate to spiritual things? What benefits would come from exercising to keep your conscience clear of offenses? (Stronger friendships, Marriages, church’s, better work relationships, promotions, internal and external peace)
But reject profane and old wives’ fables, and exercise yourself toward godliness. For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
Godliness - having the likeness of God
Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
As we strive towards Godliness, we will become more discerning and resilient towards becoming offended, and will work to reconcile relationships scarred by offense
Col 3:12-
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
2 Cor 5
Reconcile - To bring together and unite anew; to call back into union and friendship the affections which have been alienated; to restore to friendship or favor after estrangement
5 ways to resist and reconcile offense
Communicate with the right persons
Pray, Express your pain to God and ask for His help. (Listen)
As God directs, communicate with the offender.
Many offenses can be resolved through honest one on one
Make a decision to let it go and to stop being a victim
To Let it go
Choosing to lay down your right to punish another and choosing through the power of God’s love to hold onto the other person rather than his offense
Letting Go of Offenses
Letting Go of Offenses - Natives in Africa capture monkeys by setting up cages and placing bait inside. The bait can be anything a monkey would want, such as food or an unusual object. The monkeys are lured to the cages but are too smart to actually go inside. Instead, they reach through the bars, grab the bait, and try to pull it out. Because the object is too large to go through the bars, the only way the monkey can get away is to drop the bait. But monkeys refuse to let go. They kick and squeal but keep holding on. They stay trapped in bondage because they refuse to let go of the bait. —
Natives in Africa capture monkeys by setting up cages and placing bait inside. The bait can be anything a monkey would want, such as food or an unusual object. The monkeys are lured to the cages but are too smart to actually go inside. Instead, they reach through the bars, grab the bait, and try to pull it out. Because the object is too large to go through the bars, the only way the monkey can get away is to drop the bait. But monkeys refuse to let go. They kick and squeal but keep holding on. They stay trapped in bondage because they refuse to let go of the bait.
To Stop being a victim
Are you the devil’s monkey? Have you grabbed Satan’s bait, which is called offenses? Satan sets his trap, using offenses as bait. If you grab the offense, you will be his prisoner as long as you hold on. Many people are incarcerated in the devil’s dungeon because they refuse to let go. You must choose to let go of all past offenses and keep your hands off all future ones.
Are you the devil’s monkey? Have you grabbed Satan’s bait, which is called offenses? Satan sets his trap, using offenses as bait. If you grab the offense, you will be his prisoner as long as you hold on. Many people are incarcerated in the devil’s dungeon because they refuse to let go. You must choose to let go of all past offenses and keep your hands off all future ones.
Jesus at Gethsemane, Paul and Silas
Paul and Silas
Look to the present and future - don’t keep reviewing the past
Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus
Seek and pursue peace - Reconciliation
PJ and Joyce
Depart from evil and do good, Seek peace and pursue it.
Depart from evil and do good;
Seek peace and pursue it.
Forgive them AND yourself. Say it out loud!
Sitting on a Bumble Bee - Unforgiveness means we desire to hurt the people who have wounded us. It's like the little boy who was sitting on a park bench in obvious agony. A man walking by asked him what was wrong. The boy answered, "I'm sitting on a bumble bee." "Then why don't you get up?" the man asked. The boy replied, "Because I figure that I am hurting him more than he is hurting me!" - The healing process begins when we get up off the park bench. God will only heal our wounds when we stop inflicting pain on the one who hurt us.
The healing process begins when we get up off the park bench. God will only heal our wounds when we stop inflicting pain on the one who hurt us.
Forgiveness is a decision and not an emotion
Sitting on a Bumble Bee - Unforgiveness means we desire to hurt the people who have wounded us. It's like the little boy who was sitting on a park bench in obvious agony. A man walking by asked him what was wrong. The boy answered, "I'm sitting on a bumble bee." "Then why don't you get up?" the man asked. The boy replied, "Because I figure that I am hurting him more than he is hurting me!"
The healing process begins when we get up off the park bench. God will only heal our wounds when we stop inflicting pain on the one who hurt us.
Forgiveness is a decision and not an emotion
Forgiveness is a decision and not an emotion
Forgiveness is a decision and not an emotion
Forgiveness is not the same as forgetting - Often there is great power in the memory and testimony of true forgiveness
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Recognize that the payment was fully settled by Jesus