Sun., Dec. 13th | Dr. James Hughes

so [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] let your presence some glad morning when this life is oh [Applause] [Music] when the shadows like a bird from prison boys when i die hallelujah um [Music] hallelujah just a few more weary days a day shall never hallelujah let's worship the lord right now oh thank you jesus for that holy someday i'm gonna see you i'm gonna fly out of this world and go see my lord thank you jesus thank you jesus hallelujah hallelujah praise god welcome to the refuge i hope this sunday morning so glad you have joined us here with in this next song we're going to receive our offering there is three ways to give online so if you want a text to give go online and do that or we have our offering plates up here up front and vases in the back so if you want to uh worship with us this next song in your giving we appreciate it and we thank you for your support here at the refuge of hope this wednesday seven o'clock here at the church is our girl service please join us for that so why don't right now we pray for ourselves that we will receive what god has for us today lord jesus we come before you right now god we ask you to help us god open up our heart that we will receive lord what you have for us that we prepare our heart right now for you lord jesus in jesus name we pray hallelujah praise god oh how beautiful [Music] [Applause] and rescued me just a moment i give you glory glory jesus i give you golden glory i give you glory for it i give you glory oh and it was yours [Music] glory jesus jesus and with the crowd of thorns [Music] foreign [Music] foreign i give you glory glory i give you glory for [Music] jesus you became my king forever and with the crowd of yours foreign [Music] [Music] i give i give you glory glory i give you glory glory jesus i give you glory glory i'll give you glory glory i give you [Applause] hallelujah jesus you get all all the glory lord you are all powerful almighty are the king of kings oh we magnify you we magnify you jesus [Music] here as wait and seek your face come and make your throne upon our praise and here in this place have your way the moment that we see you we are changed show us your glory show us your glory in wander and surrender we fall down [Music] and shout your glory show us your glory let every burning heart be holy ground here not by power and not [Music] oh show us your glory show us your glory show us your glory show us your glory [Music] show us your glory show us your glory [Music] [Music] here and now jesus should change everything now jesus [Music] jesus every day jesus show us your glory show us your glory [Applause] raise make this your prayers [Music] come on do you feel the presence of the lord i feel freedom i feel restoration in the presence of the lord [Music] he is here his presence is here he is here for you he's here to meet your needs this morning go ahead and lift that up go ahead and lift up that knee to him today hallelujah there is a sleep anointing in the sanctuary there is come and lay down the burdens you wear there [Music] oh [Music] [Music] and bless the progress [Music] or in the sanctuary [Music] foreign [Applause] is [Music] is he is here [Music] he is here he is [Music] come and lay down the foreign oh yeah hallelujah jesus hallelujah jesus if you believe he's here would you let your voice out once again and magnify your name the king of kings the lord of lords the great i am is in this house he is here to heal he's here to deliver he's here to save he's here to redeem he's here to change lives in this place so would you lift your voice and magnify him before before your miracle would you dance would you clap your hands would you glorify the king of kings the lord of lords the healer of your heart here today that's it that's it that's it that's it he's here he's here in this house this morning we feel his glory we feel the peace of god [Music] yes jesus [Music] yes god is here god is here yes jesus we love you lord we love you lord we magnify your name oh the sweet presence of the lord is in this place the glory of god is in this house he hears he knows the burdens that you have carried in this place and not only that he understands and he cares the about the very mind you details of your life here this morning so you're in the right place at the right time to hear what god has to say to us this morning amen i'm excited to be in the house of the lord amen are you excited to be in the house of the lord i'm excited to be in the house of the lord welcome to our connect service we connect to god in this place and we connect to the family of god we are the family of god here at refuge of hope we believe that we are a family we're not a community this is not the place the community that you live it is the people that you live with we are a family we walk work together hand in hand we help each other so you are part of the family so welcome to refuge of hope thank you for joining us in person and on in line as well we appreciate you all thank you for supporting refuge of hope and all that you do here this morning we are so excited to have dr hughes here this morning with us and we're so excited for his ministry if you were here yesterday with the sessions what an incredible incredible word that he brought man i feel refreshed this morning i feel energized this morning because of the word that i receive the bible says that we are renewed by the washing of the word and the word washes us and so we are excited for his ministry and and what he's doing i've already asked him about next year so he will be with us in february last weekend of february on a friday saturday and sunday we want to get as much as we can from this man of god uh not not not being greedy but we are amen we we want to hear his ministry and i hope i hope this morning that you have put your roast in the slow cooker and that you don't have to worry about your food it'll be ready when you get home because i've told brother hughes here this morning please take your liberty we might go a little extra and that you know last yesterday two hours went by so fast and i by the end of it i'm like is it over okay so i told him i said please i know he has to catch a plane this afternoon but he is going to take his liberty and minister the word of god to refuge of hope and this will not be the last time that you will see him and so relax get comfortable because this man he knows what he's talking about he's a man of god has done this for over 30 some years his experience is anointed and i believe that you'll be engaged for the entire time that he speaks here this morning so open your heart welcome brother hughes to the pulpit but he was come and take your liberty and minister the word of god amen praise the lord everyone if you have your bibles let's go the book of luke the 17th chapter while you're turning there let me say what an incredible honor it is to be here today and i hope and pray that i don't irritate you too bad luke chapter 17. i will irritate you i'm just going to warn you luke chapter 17 verse 1 then said he unto the disciples it is impossible but that offenses will come but woe unto him to whom they come for better for him that a millstone will hang about his neck and he cast into the sea then that he should offend one of these little ones take heed to yourselves if thy brother trespass against thee rebuke him if he repent forgive him if we trespass against thee seven times in a day and seven times in a day turn again they saying i repent thou shalt forgive him and the apostles said unto the lord increase our faith and the lord said if thou had faith as a grain of mustard seed you might say unto the sycamine tree be thou plucked up by the root be thou planted in the sea and it should obey you but which of you having a servant plowing and feeding cattle will say unto him buying by when he has come from the field go and sit down to meet will not rather say unto him make ready wherewith i may sub gird thyself serve me till i have eaten and drunken and afterward thou shalt eat and drink doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him i throw him i don't think so so likewise you when you have done all those things which are commanded you say he made them repeat after him we are unprofitable servants we have done that which was our duty to do i want to speak to you today from a question the question is how will you handle offense the question is not will offense happen jesus prophesied that every human being sitting here today will be offended it is impossible but that offense will come offence is going to happen the question is when it happens how will you respond lord bless you may be seated this passage of scripture is incredibly unique it has many unique characteristics about one of the most unique characteristics is that the men who happened to be there that day to hear jesus say this never wrote about it matthew doesn't write about it peter doesn't remind mark so mark can write about it john doesn't write about it the only person who writes about this passage of scripture there's a gentile who was not even there to hear jesus say this but this gentile who happened to be a doctor heard about jesus he experienced the new birth and he had a friend he started sharing the gospel with by the name of theophilus and the gospel of luke is written to his friend it's not written to a church it's written to a friend and he tells his friend oh excellent theophilus i i am going to endeavor to write to you the things that i have discovered about jesus christ others have written but i felt that it was my responsibility right to you and explain to you what i have discovered he is the only one who records his story it is the only time that i can find in the ministry of jesus that he made his disciples repeat after him and what he made them repeat they didn't like he said repeat after me when i have done all that is my duty to do i am a worthless servant when jesus says to them if thy brother trespass against thee forgive him their response was increase our faith and jesus said it is not a faith issue faith the size of a mustard seed pen head size can cause a sycamine tree to be plucked up by the root and planted in the sea it's not about faith it's about duty it's not what you choose to do it's what you're required to do there are some things jesus requires of us that our nature does not like i don't know about your nature but my nature doesn't enjoy reading the sermon on the mount my nature doesn't enjoy reading that if my brother smites me on the right cheek turn the other if my brother hits me on the right cheetah i want to deck him i don't wanna my nature and your nature resist what jesus said and that's why the three or the twelve men that were there who heard it never talked about it it bothered them so much they could not even discuss what jesus said after that in killer i can prove to you how much it bothered them because it's not long afterwards in matthew chapter 18 that peter says to jesus how many times do i forgive my because jesus is addressing offense a second time and he calls jesus out and says how many times do i forgive seven and jesus said no peter not seven seventy-two times seven can you imagine what's going through the mind of peter would you please make up your mind you told us seven now it's 490 what's the deal here there are things jesus addressed that wreck your home wreck your relationships it'll cause you to get fired they'll cause all kind of chaos in your life if you don't learn to do what he asks you to do i've had the privilege of watching six kids grow up over the last 19 years and they've taught me a whole lot about life they've taught me that your most powerful need as a human being is not to be fed it is not to be clothed it's not to be held it's not to be loved oh those are all needs but that's not the most powerful need you have the most powerful needs you have as a human being is revenge and you'll get even no matter what it costs you you're willing to pay the price of whatever happens so you can get even let me ask you a question the last time the real you showed up and everybody at your house knew you was present and the dog hid and the neighbors heard the conversation when you got through with your episode did anybody at your house run up and hug you and say oh my this is the greatest experience we've ever had in life you got a promise to do this on a regular basis repeat this as often as you can because we need this in our life on a regular basis does that happen do you change or do anything differently so we know the consequences of our behavior but we choose not to change it see my world empowers me to have as much anger as i can have because they applaud anger they applaud selfishness and self-centeredness they applaud you bragging about your abilities and your talents and and what you can do folks god is not impressed with your talent god has angels that can out sing humans only man is impressed with talent not god god is impressed with your servanthood god responds when you choose to submit yourselves to people and be willing to be a servant to people instead of being self-centered and demanding that everybody take care of you jesus says to his disciples it is impossible but that offense will come i've heard a question repeated over the last 30-plus years and the question kind of goes like this brother hughes if god really loves me then why did he allow this to happen to me it's really difficult for humans not to act like job's friends when something bad happens it's real difficult it's difficult for preachers not to act like job's friends i told you about some of my accidents yesterday i cut my fingers off one of them was laying on the ground between my feet and i had 12 hours of surgery put them back on and and i i come out of it started on friday night they operated all night long putting it back together the next morning i come out of anesthesia and my friend who pastors a church there in town i hear him in the room with my wife and i hear him say to my wife james's guardian angel would like a reassignment folks if god wanted to get even with you trust me he could do it in an instant god is not hurting people god don't damage us humans say really dumb things when my first child died i was back at church on the the next sunday morning the lady met me in the foyer of the church and she said oh brother hughes i'm so sorry that you lost your child but god just needed another rose in heaven why would god cause me so much pain just so he could have flowers quit saying dumb stuff it's better to keep your mouth shut and just be present than to speak things that wound and injure people for life everything is not the will of god matter of fact i dare say that 5 of what happens in the world is the will of god god under no circumstances will violate a human will god when he does something once is obligated to repeat it if god violates your will every other human in this room loses theirs at the same instant if god was going to violate a will he'd have violated adam and eve's in the garden humans choose to be evil god doesn't allow it he doesn't tolerate it he doesn't permit it he's not mean but we act like people go through things because god is punishing them now there is some in there there are some imperatives there are some absolutes in the scripture and you will reap what you sow that's a fact if you reap kindness you get kindness back if you reap long suffering you get long suffering back if you re if you sow hate you will get hate back if you sow jealousy you get jealousy whatever crop you sow you will get a return on your crop if you plant one seed of corn do you get one seed back when you plant crops you don't get back what you planted you get a multiple back of what you planted and it's not what god has done it's just the fact that i chose to do it and i did god hates offense jesus said it'd be better you were buried in an unmarked grave where nobody knew you existed than to offend someone be better a millstone was tied about your neck and drowned in the sea there would be no tombstone in your life nobody could come visit the grave where you're buried you're buried where nobody could ever even remember you existed god said jesus said it'd be better you didn't exist than to offend someone and our world doesn't have a problem with offending everybody around us matter of fact your world applauds you when you're offensive and we offend on a regular basis jesus said be better you didn't exist and to offend and when offense happens what are you going to do about it how are you going to handle it how are you going to react are you going to plot to get even that's your nature you're born with that so i don't believe in daycares it's just my personal opinion okay it's just huge it's not bible it's just my opinion i don't believe god gave us kids for the world to raise so i believe if i preach it i better practice what i preach so i have run the huge daycare for 19 years they've been at my house i've had my influence on their life i took them to the bus stop in the morning i picked them up from the bus stop in the afternoon i talked to them on the way to the bus stop and told them that they needed to affect somebody's life around them and you need to make somebody laugh today and and make sure you come home having having made someone else feel good about life they heard that from papa every day of their life that i took them to the bus stop when they got off in the bus in the afternoon they knew i was going to ask them well who who'd you make laugh today who'd you cause a smile to happen in their life why not so they're at my house the oldest one actually was about eight at the time the only 22 months apart comes in the family room she's crying mozzie monzy mozzie sophia pulled my hair so my wife says sophia come here and sophia the six-year-old struts in the room very proudly and and mozzie said sophia did you pull adriana's hair she didn't say a word she just held up her hand out between her fingers were strings of blonde hair she didn't pull her hair she pulled her hair out she had trophies and she was proud of her trophies she had released them yet and mozzie explained to her why that behavior wasn't appropriate in our house and stimulated multiple nerve endings put her in time out so she's sitting beside us and she's she cried a little bit and she's sat there for a little while and after about 15 minutes mozzie says to sophia sophie do you think you can play with your sister without pulling her hair and she said mozzie i promise i will never pull her hair again there's not a human alive that can use the word never without lying you can't use the word always without lying you're always late if i'm on time once you can't say always you never take me out to eat if i do it once you can't say all never so those are exaggera but mozzie didn't say sophie you're gonna do it again no she just said okay you go play with your sister she jumped up she never went anywhere walking she ran everywhere she went she jumped up and took off running and i can see in the other room where older sister is playing and i i see older sister hear her footsteps and she stood up real straight and got real still and when little sister went running by she just reached out and locked her fingers in all her blonde hair and just held on a little sister's feet just kept going and she got about a foot and a half off the ground and an older sister brought her to the ground wham and slammed her body slammed her into the carpet and ice cream adriana what are you doing scared my wife she's what happened i said she just yanked her off her feet now she stood and watched while sophie got multiple nerve endings stimulated but she knew she would experience the same results but it didn't matter because she wanted a little sister to know don't i'll pay whatever price is necessary just don't cross this line again see that's an airborne your natures and that's what wrecks your homes that's what wrecks your family is that what wrecks your relationship you're gonna always when someone does something that offends you and most offense the person who offends don't even have a clue they offended you see we're gonna our offended over we've got to be careful we got too many kids in here i can't use some of the words i normally that that we we just do dumb stuff and and never think about the consequences of what's happening it's never okay to retaliate the world says revenge is sweet that's a lie revenge will never remove the pain in your life you can't hang somebody up and take a scalpel and slit their skin just deep enough to penetrate those three layers and then get you a pair of pliers and pull that skin off like you would a catfish and listen at them scream and holler as you pull the skin off and then take soap and water and vinegar and salt and mix it all together and rub it all over that exposed plate and listen downstream it won't change one ounce of pain in your life you cannot transfer pain to forgive somebody you've got to live with the pain because the pain is not going to go away can i tell you today that forgiveness is conditional and the bible says so what's the lord's prayer can you quote it our father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven give us this day our daily bread forgive us our trespasses as we forgo who trespass isn't as conditional forgive us our sin or trespass how as we forgive those who trespass against us forgiveness is not an option it's not something you get to choose to do actually there's a new disease that doctors have discovered that causes 61 percent of cancer seven six or eighty to eighty-five percent of strokes and heart attacks and that new disease is called the disease of unforgiveness the day you choose not to forgive is the day you turn your immune system off and you increase the odds of disease in your life not just casually but exponentially 61 of cancer why is there so much cancer in our world the answer is because we hold on to grudges and our world is teaching us on a regular basis that it's okay to hold on to those grudges and it's okay not to let things go and it's okay to get even it's okay to retaliate and it's okay to make sure they pay for what they did don't work see the instant you don't forgive you cause your body to shut down its production of cortisol and as a result the cortisol being shut off then your body doesn't have the ability to produce the antigens that would combat disease that shows up in your life so instantly you start seeing all this junk start happening and the odds are incredibly high folks that this pandemic we're part of right now the the root cause of why it's so bad is unforgiveness now they won't say that now but five years from now they'll start putting out that information because they know doctors are now being trained to do forgiveness therapy when they go in to find a patient who has some horrible disease one of the first things they start asking them about is did anybody ever hurt you have you experienced someone offending you what have you done with it have you handled it and they're going to start talking to you about the offense because they know they can do all that they know how to do but if there's a fence involved no matter what they do you'll never recover from the offense see this forgiveness thing jesus warned us about two thousand years ago he said if your brother trespassed now we think that word means a willful violation he intentionally did it but if you'll go to the greek text and look at the word the word that's used there for trespass is not a trespass it's hamartia which is sin hamartia is is just it's a word picture you put a target on the wall you take a bow and arrow you pull the bow back you shoot at the target but you miss you aim but you just didn't hit what you were shooting at it's not intentionally doing something most people don't intentionally hurt you if they do their sociopath offense happens because of anger because people say things i've been doing this 30 something years and i've never had anybody walk into my office that that had a bruise that covered the side of their face that was the result of them standing in front of a mirror and pounding themselves in the face i've seen lots of bruises but it didn't come from themself it came from other people one-sided injustices are rare they do happen but they're rare they don't happen very often the offenses that wreck our lives are not what happened out in the world or around us it's what happens in the walls that we live in at home those are the ones that destroy life those are the ones that wreck i hate you i wish you weren't born you're stupid you're dumb you can't do anything right you're a mistake why did i marry you you're not lovable those offenses produce scars that last forever did you hear me they last forever so i cut my fingers off they put them back on if i didn't tell you they were off you wouldn't probably notice it other than the fact the middle one's a half inch short you wouldn't notice it but there are scars there you're never going to get rid of the scars to forgive somebody is to choose to manage the memory for the rest of your life because that memory will never go away all you gotta do is see something hear something smell something taste something there's a memory boom memories are not photographs all the emotions you felt with the memory carded so when the memory comes back if it made you cry the first time when you think about it make you cry again if it made you angry the first time when the memory comes back you'll get as angry as you was the first time because it's all recorded in the brain doesn't mean you haven't forgiven it's just that when it shows back up you got to remind yourself i took care of this i'm not going to let this memory torment me the rest of my life now i could take you all kinds of examples in the bible and prove that point maybe sometime i will if i come back forgiveness is not an option it's requirement matter of fact if you read matthew 18 carefully and you look at the illustration at the end of the chapter where a certain master had two servants and one servant owed him 10 000 talent that's approximately 80 million dollars and that master says to that servant pay me what you owe me he said i don't have it put him in prison until he can pay the debt and he begged to cert the master saying you know i'm good for this i'll repent he said you know what you've been very profitable to me so here's what i'm gonna do i'm gonna forgive your debt it's the same word in acts 2 38 for remission of sin it's off they say i will remove your debt and your debt will never be part of your life again that servant went out and found a fellow servant that owed him 100 denarii that's about 15 bucks took him by the throat demanded payment and when he wouldn't pay he said put him in prison sell his family make slaves out of his whole household until he pays me my debt and other servants saw what he did and they went back to the master and said master you know that servant that you forgave so much he just put a man in prison for 15 and jesus said and the master was wroth he was angry and he said bring me that servant when the servant showed back up he said your wicked and unprofitable servant forgave you much and you forgive so little bind him and put him in prison until the debt is paid unforgiveness drags your sin out from among the blood when it's applied in baptism you start holding on to grudges and don't let things go what god removed from your life and jesus said and so like why shall your heavenly father do unto you if you from your heart do not forgive your brother god hates offense but he hates just as much the fact we don't let people go when we've offended him on a regular basis and you offend him and come and repent and he forgives you and you won't forgive somebody else when you're a multiple offender but my nature says i don't have to it's not a big deal it's okay but it's not okay if i'm not mistaken there's a a well-known christian psychologist that came from your state his name is jay adams a lot of pastors have his books in their library one of them is called competent to counsel i believe he's still alive he's created a counseling therapy called nuthetic counseling i had the privilege of meeting jay adams he talked to us one day about forgiveness and he made a statement that i quite often repeat he said forgiveness is three promises promise number one as i promise never to remind you again promise number two is i promise not to tell anybody else promise number three is i promise to never remind myself and forgiveness is just keeping the promise he used his passive scripture and he used this analogy he said what jesus is saying but he's let me give you an illustration he said you're sitting in a chair and you got your foot out on the aisle and your brother this is not strangers it's family okay it's family your brother walks by your foot is in the way instead of going around it or stepping over he stomps on it real hard as he goes by and you scream and he says oh did i do that i'm so sorry will you forgive me if he does it seven times in a day jesus said forgive him the disciples said we've got to have faith for this one jesus you're just asking us to do more than we are capable of doing i told you i was going to irritate you didn't i i warned you i didn't sneak this one up on you i gave you plenty of warning that's good how many times have you got even with your mate don't raise your hands how often do you get even with your brothers and sisters see that's in our nature jesus said if he did it seven times in a day the disciples said oh we can't do that and jesus says the lord showed me this several years ago i'm fixing to reveal something to you it's going to irritate you worse than what i've already said i was sitting in church with my brother he was teaching for this passion of scripture on wednesday night i travel usually 47 weekends out of the year and so i'm usually only in town on during the middle of the week to tell to be at church wednesday nights i'm usually there and he was teaching this past scripture and i i have a a program in on my ipad it's a bible program that's quite unique if if if i touch one of the words there's a screen pops up in the middle and gives me the greek word in this definition so i'm i'm following him as he's speaking that day and i touch that word and when i saw what jesus actually said i got cold chills and i thought whoa there's no way that's what jesus said there's got to be a there's got to be a problem here somewhere so so something in the greek text didn't get shot there there are multiple greek texts so i i went and found every greek text i could find and they all had the same word and then men god started having an argument for about six months i said god surely this is not what you meant when god speaks to me he's not i usually have irritating pretty bad and so my response is not often what what it's not kind one day after saying how can this be jesus he said james have i ever needed your opinion about anything did i need your help creating a world do i need your help doing anything this is a duty issue son do it he said how many times have you offended me i said many times god he said how do i treat you when you show up when you come to an altar and repent do you walk away feeling like you've been beat up or someone's hurt you severely how do you leave my presence well i leave feeling like i'm the most special person all the world well that's what i expect you to do the people if i can do it to you i expect you to pass on to others what you're receiving from me he says to these disciples if you had faith as a grain of a mustard seed you'd say this sycamine tree well i when i saw that revelation i thought okay i'm i'm i'm going to speak at a singles conference there's going to be about 2 000 singles there they need to hear this message it's it's got to be good two thousand people at a singles conference the odds are incredibly high that all two thousand been offended or they'd be married so i it was like i let a bomb go off in that place they just sat and stared at me if if looks could have killed that drug me out in a hearse because i irritated them incredible and i tried to make them they wouldn't laugh they wouldn't do anything when i got through i just walked out the back and and i hear somebody running down the hallway and i hear my name called and and and i turn around and stop and here's this young man comes running up to me and he said he's out of breath he said brother hughes the lord sent me to pray for you but on the way he told me not to you're just an old man on a soapbox and nothing you have to say is spiritual now i just preached about a fence and i can't even get out of the building without being offended see god's going to demand you practice what you preach my brain is saying look at me kid do i look like i'm 20 would i pass for 30 would i even pass for 50 the bible says rebuke not an elder and there's no asterisk that says you can do it if he's wrong so our nature don't like people hurting us and we respond so i didn't have courage to ever say anything about this again for about nine months and i happened to be in a town in oklahoma and the lord kept prodding me that you need to do this one again and so i said but jesus the last time the results were bad but he wouldn't let me get by without it so i started talking to him about a fence when i got through it's like that bomb went off second time kind of like what it is right now i mean it gets real y'all not running the house i saw you do it earlier you do know how to do that i see a guy coming to the front i'm thinking oh no here it goes again he said brother hughes said yes sir he said you mispronounced a word in the scripture he was reading today i said i did he said yes i said okay what word i misprotect mispronounce he said remember that tree you read about i said yes he said you called it a sycamore tree which i did because our brains look at the beginning of the word the ending of the word if we've got one close to it we don't look at the middle we just say what's in our brain and so i have no clue what a sycamine tree is but i do know what a sycamore tree is he said brother hughes you really need to go look at that tree he told me his life story it was horrible i don't have time to address it talk about it but he lost his family he wound up homeless living under street bridges he lost his life for over eight years living begging money on corners and streets he'd pastored church he'd become an alcoholic but a fence in his family caused him to get bitter his boys are rock stars they're a rock musician in america one of their first songs was entitled holy roller nova king and it's about the preacher at their church and his white cadillac and the behavior he was participating in he'd let bitterness he had been done wrong lost his family he lost everything and so he started knowing life because he couldn't deal with the pain he got offended by his family he got offended by the church he was out he got offended by everybody he said i was homeless a beggar a drunk if i could get enough money i stayed drunk all day long so i didn't have to deal with the pain in my life but one day the lord kept talking to me i kept hearing him he said i finally decided i need to go back to church and the church i was at is the church he had come to after living on the streets he said the lord took me this passage of scripture and he caused me to spend a whole lot of time there he said if you'll read what that tree's about it'll add to what you're saying so i got home right now i said honey i called my wife i said go to my library second road books get out the s i need you look up a tree for me so she went to my ecclesiastical theological dictionary the bible she flipped it open and she starts reading the characteristics of this tree the sycamine tree is indigenous to the middle east it's actually called a black mulberry tree the sycamine tree is the most prolific tree that exists it doesn't require a seed to reproduce you can cut a limb off stick it in the ground water it and it'll sprout roots and keep growing it is impossible to kill its roots don't go out they grow down and they will grow five to six times deeper than they are tall their roots can penetrate a hundred plus feet in the ground till they find water droughts can't kill them [Music] the interesting thing about a sycamine tree is that it does produce fruit but for this fruit to be produced in the spring it requires the sting of an asp to sting the blossom and the sting of the ass causes the blossom to germinate and the fruit is produced as a result of being stung the fruit is bitter if you cut the tree down it'll grow back if you take the root ball up he'll grow back if you don't get every root out of the ground it grows back so jesus says to these disciples it if you had faith as a grain of mustard seed you'd say that sycamine tree which represents all the bitterness and the joke you got in your life and you'd say to that tree be thou plucked up by the roots and buried in the sea and it would obey the only thing that will kill it is salt water its tree trunks are used to make caskets out of see bitterness resentment unforgiveness will be the casket you get buried in you'll produce your own coffin they'll terminate your life it's not an option it's not something i choose to do it's something i if i don't do it i destroy my life and i destroy the lives of those around me jesus said if thy brother trespass against thee what's that next word rebuke him oh that's a comforting word the severity of my rebuke is going to define whether he repents that's how our brains think the problem is when you touch that word it's a compound word word actually is epi which is positional it's a preposition which means a bone the root is taimayo and taimeo is a verb tame i says the noun tamios is defined by valuable extremely valuable of exceeding great price of great worth when you put the preposition on it then what jesus is saying is when your brother offends you you're obligated to make him feel like he's the most valuable thing that's around now that's difficult my nature does not i've got three brothers one's passed away but i still have two we did bad things to each other's kids and by the way for me to smite you on the right cheek there's only two ways i can do it most people are right-handed ninety percent of people right-handed so for me to smite you on the right cheek i gotta sneak up behind you and do it your right cheek is never present to me what's present is your left one so if i'm in front of you and i'm going to slap you i'm going to get you on the left cheek not the right one so i either sneak up behind you and hit you or i hit you with the back of my hand jesus said if your brother smiled be on the right sheet deck him if he asks go a mile quit say no what do you say go too if he asks for your coat the sermon amounts irritating that's why we don't read it and preach from it very few people ever preach from the sermon because it goes against our nature as humans and it goes against the preacher i can guarantee you because i'm preaching this sermon today before tomorrow's over i'm going to be offended i already know that's going to happen the odds are it's going to happen at the airport today because every time i've done the pass when i get the airport i'm convinced they give people lessons in how to be rude it's just our nature if my brother offends me when he walks away he's gotta feel like he's the most valuable person alive if your wife offends you when she walks away she's gonna feel like a diamond instead an old pair of shoes you're about to put on and where if your husband offends you when he walks away you better make him feel like he's the most valuable person that's alive or jesus can make you stand up from the class and say i'm worthless i couldn't even do my duty now tell me he's not this is not an issue with jesus do you understand that offense is the only heaven and hell issue jesus actually addressed jesus said we bear you cut your foot off cut your hand off then to hurt one of these little ones and wind up in the lake of fire he said be better you pluck your eye out than to wind up in hell these are both heaven or hell issues offense is a heaven that's why i say you don't need a devil to go to hell you need a family it's what we say to each other what we do to each other that destroys lives we want our lives better then i gotta choose to do some things even though it irritates and my natures won't rise up i gotta keep it controlled because the war is not between me and the devil is between spirit and flesh and i can let my flesh loose and it'll wreck everybody's life at the house or i can choose to control it i can choose to bind it and not let it wreck lives i can choose to do that it's my choice where'd you stand this morning i understand because of social disney all this we got to do things a little differently so but but here's what i would like to ask you to do i'm going to ask you to do something that i hope you start repeating on a regular basis i'm going to ask you to find your family and gather in a circle there's only two of you that means you have to face each other because i want both hands full and i want you to pray for each other and what i want you to pray is that god makes them the vessel of honor he created them to be i want you to play blessings in their lives if your children are here you need to you you need to bless your prayer blessing and everyone in their lives if you would do this on a regular basis you'd get rid of all the chaos at your house there wouldn't be chaos anymore so we want our homes whole and healthy here's how you do it you want to see revival here's how it happens the reason america is not seeing revival is because of our broken families it's not because we don't have the message the men or the means we've got all those we just have broken families and god can't give us the revival until we get our families you can't trust us with kids we're going to wreck so he's waiting for us to get our family right if you don't have a family this is the family of god so pick one of them out and join it so everybody ought to be able to find somebody and you don't have to come to the front you can get an aisle you stay with the chairs around you or but just form a little circle and let's pray for each other would you do that let's pray gracious father thank you today for every family that's represented here today lord i know that satan's greatest desire would be to destroy every one of these homes if he can destroy the home then he's destroyed the church he's not coming after our doctrine he's not coming after our relationship but he will come after our home and he's going to do everything within his power to bring chaos into our homes he can't read our minds he doesn't have the ability to control our lives but he listens to our words and he uses the words that we say to change the world that's around us that he does control to bring the chaos into our lives that can cause the chaos to get worse so jesus i pray today that you you'd station angels around every home so that satan cannot bring an enemy in to sow tares among we lord jesus i pray today that you'd bless every man in this place to become the man he should be to his world the father he should be to his children the husband he should be to his wife i pray he becomes the priest of his home and leads his home in spiritual things today lord i pray you bless every lady that's here today to become the lady she should be for her world the mother she should be for her children the wife she should be to her husband i pray she discovers those abilities you placed in her to produce life to nurture life you gave her incredibilities to nurture to train so i pray jesus that she would raise her children up in the nurturing admonition of globalism lord i pray today you'll bless our children that they become the vessel of honor you created them to be i pray they discover their talents and their abilities and they learn how to use them for your glory for your kingdom i pray love that the world that's around them does it make them feel broken damage used i pray jesus that you would station angels around alive to protect them from the enemy the world that would love to destroy and wreck their lives and control their lives i pray that you'll anoint our hearts together today bless our hope let our hearts be united together in the unity of the spirit and the bond let your spirit be part of our lives let us start our worship in our dining room table our breakfast table we start church at home and we bring it here we don't wait till we get here to start church we start living at home the way you treat us here at your house jesus bless every home bless every family bless every relationship here today in the name of jesus in the name of jesus in the name of jesus would you make this a day of commitment would you commit to your family then on a regular basis you're going to come back to his altar and you're again going to do what you're doing right now and you're going to play blessings in the lives of the people would you do that we worship you will today after you lead me on and i will run after you give me one pure and holy passion [Music] give me one magnificent obsession give me one glorious ambition for my life to know and follow heart after you [Applause] [Music] to grow as your disciple in your truth [Music] [Music] is lead me on and i will run after you give me one pure and holy passion [Music] give me one magnificent obsession [Music] give me one [Music] as they sing again yes let god bring healing let god bring deliverance it does not matter what has happened what who has done let god bring this healing up to our heart yes jesus yes jesus [Music] in jesus name that's it that's it that's it young people that's it that's it in jesus name i'm not gonna hold a grudge i'm not gonna hold revenge i'm not gonna hold a bitterness in my heart i'm not gonna let all these destroy me i'm not gonna let the world affect me in my offenses i'm gonna forgive i'm gonna let go i'm gonna be live free i'm gonna be liberated yes i choose to forgive here today i choose to let go those who have offended me here today because i want to be all that god wants me to be i want to be a vessel that god can use i want to be a vessel for the spirit of god to flow through me i want to be a vessel for the anointing of god to flow through me here today in jesus name in jesus name yes oh god yes yes yes yes in jesus name hallelujah hallelujah would you once again lift your hand and your hearts towards heaven and would you thank god for speaking to our hearts yes that before before we walk out these doors that before we walk out these doors we will know that our hearts are free that our hearts are free that our hearts are clear that you're walking in freedom and liberty that god i will i will adhere to the holy ghost here this morning i will hear what the holy ghost is saying this morning i have not said a single word to brother hughes brother hughes has come and we have not discussed anything what god did and i told the church here a few weeks ago that i want the holy ghost to move whatever is in the air whatever is in the spirit that is working i want the holy ghost to move in this place and if the holy ghost has spoken let's respond let's respond to the spirit of god because god knows more than what we know about each other god knows what we carry in our hearts god knows the bitterness that we've held god knows the anger that we've held god knows the hurt god knows all of that and so therefore the holy ghost is speaking to you here today don't walk out these doors do not walk throughout this building without taking care of what god is asking you to take care of here this morning i'm telling you i'm not trying to put fear in your heart this might be your last service who knows you might walk out these doors drive away and have an accident entire this might be your last service so make it right with god and your family and the people around you make sure that you walk out these doors and know that you're right with god saints of god those that are listening make sure that you know that jesus you have spoken to my heart i'm not gonna carry these burdens i'm not gonna carry this bitterness and unforgiveness in my heart i choose to let go [Music] you

Channel: Refuge of Hope UPC

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Id: dFmTdYD2UiQ

Length: 96min 5sec (5765 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 13 2020