Romans 12. Are you guys ready for Romans 12? This is our last week in Romans 12. We've been in this chapter for over three months, so you can turn in your Bibles to Romans 12.
I'm sure in the future we'll come back to Romans 12, but this is going to be our last visit there for a while. Romans 12. And would you stand with me? We're going to read this out loud together.
After being in this passage for a couple months, I thought to close out, it would be really valuable to just review where we've been by reading the whole passage. So Romans 12 verse 9. Let love be genuine, abhor what is evil and hold fast to what is good. Love one another with brotherly affection, and outdo one another in showing honor.
Don't be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit. Serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, and be constant in prayer. Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep.
Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.
To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, you should feed him. If he's thirsty, you should get something to drink for him. For by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
And everybody said amen. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. You may be seated.
Do you know where we're going to start is just with that difficult phrase burning coals on their head, right? We read this a couple of times over the last couple months and I said, man, we're going to get to it. And now it's finally arrived. This phrase burning coals on their head.
What the heck does that mean? Because it seems mean. What does it mean? It seems mean, right?
And so this phrase burning coals on their head is actually a phrase that was an idiom in that region during that time. And what it meant is that when you do something good in response to evil done against you, if you respond with blessing in the face of evil done against you, what it does is it actually turns up the heat on that person in between their ears and convictions that sets in. It's actually coals of conviction that start happening to that person, right? Because they have to start wondering and questioning, they're going, why are you responding to me that way?
And it starts moving the little atoms inside it. Do you know when heat rises, then all the atoms start moving faster? Right? That's what happens when we respond with goodness when evil is done against us, and the conviction of our righteousness sets in.
And so that's significant. And it's important for us by the end of this message to get to the place where we're not thinking about coals on their head in a passive aggressive way when we respond to their evil actions with good, okay? So that's the ditch here is, yeah, I'll respond with goodness and I'll teach them a lesson. So they'll be convicted and they're going to apologize to me, right?
So that's not love and that's not the goal, all right? But what is the goal is that they would experience the conviction of the Holy Spirit, not the conviction of Johnny and Jenny and Veronica, okay? They don't need your conviction. They need the conviction of Holy Spirit, all right?
And that conviction of the Holy Spirit, like coals on their head, is actually preventing them from burning with their whole body in the lake of fire. So I want coals of conviction on their head because I'm responding to their evil with blessing and hoping that it actually results in repentance so that they would avoid the day of the Lord and the wrath of God and vengeance. And so it's actually an act of love and mercy when I respond in kindness and they have to sit with it. They have to sit with it in tension.
It's actually healthy for them to face a representative of a different land and a different kingdom. How many of you know when you started to follow Jesus, you didn't follow Jesus just to get out of the vengeance of God? When you follow Jesus, maybe this isn't true, but now it's going to be true. When you follow Jesus, you signed up for transformation.
You didn't sign up just to avoid a day of judgment. You signed up to actually become like Jesus, to be transformed into his image, to look like him. That's what Romans 12, right at the start of the passage. The goal is transformation.
Look at verse 2. Do not be conformed to this world. Don't respond like the world does. What does it say?
But by you changing the way that you think, you're going to be able to test and discern what is God's wants, what he desires, and then you're going to be able to know what he wants and you're going to be able to be transformed into his likeness. You're going to start instead of just knowing information. You're going to become the truth. You're going to become Jesus as an, not becoming Jesus, but like become like Jesus in your everyday life.
You're going to look like him. You're going to smell like him. You're going to act like him. You're going to be like your big brother.
That's why you're here is to represent God everywhere you go. You're not just meant to be comfortable, look like the world, smell like the world, be like the world, respond like the world, but evil happens, have the world and all of its circumstances and how people treat you, define who you are and how you're doing. You don't have to live like that. There's a higher way.
It's the way of the kingdom. You get to be transformed into his likeness, responding to circumstances the way that he would respond to them. So let's talk about vengeance. We'll get that one out of the way as well.
Vengeance is required for injustice. I preached a message called Jesus the Judge last year. And if you are a victim of trauma, I would encourage you to go listen to that message. Jesus the Judge, because that message is really focused at revealing God's heart of justice that we have to know.
You've experienced abuse from those in our lives throughout our life, whether it was minimized or whether it was hit on and it was addressed, we must actually grapple with and understand Jesus' justice. It brings healing to the soul and brings healing to the heart when we actually understand that he has vengeance for what was done against you. I want you to turn to Isaiah 63. There's been innocence that has been stolen.
There's been violence that has been familiar. There's been intimate betrayal. There's been neglect. There's been abuse that's been excused again and again and ignored and swept under the rug.
There's been pain that's been pervasive. And Jesus is the only one that truly can empathize with what you've gone through. Jesus is the only one that can empathize with your story of pain and with your story of trauma. Because he, as he's hanging on the cross, it says that he became one with sin, which means that he fully embodied and experienced every sin that's been done against you.
When he's hanging on the cross, it isn't just like, oh, wow, that must have been painful and it must have been hard to breathe on the cross. It says that he became one with sin past, present, and future. In other words, everything that's been done against you, he fully experienced it in the cross. How is that possible?
Only God can experience that. But if you just picture, like all of a movie flashing, the trillions of sins done against humanity, Jesus experiencing all of those things in his body and in his mind emotionally. It says that he didn't look like a man. He was marred beyond human likeness and it wasn't just the physical torture.
It was actually the torture of every sin that's ever been done in human history that he took within himself. And then as he did that, the wrath of God was poured in the vengeance and the fury of God that God has for every sin that's been done against you and every person in history was poured out on this God man, Jesus. And as all of the wrath of God and Jesus is experiencing all of the sins done throughout human history, as that's happening, he's experiencing it, he blurts out, father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.
They don't understand the gravity of what they've done. Father, forgive them, have mercy on them. And as we become more and more like Jesus, that becomes our response when sins are done against us. We go, I don't look at this one dimensionally.
I know that they're sinning against me because somebody else sin against them and they don't experience healing and they don't even understand the implications of what they are doing and the damage that it is creating. They don't understand how far reaching their evil goes. God have mercy on them. Have mercy on them because Jesus knows what's coming.
He knows that there's a day of vengeance and he's going, if possible, I'll take the vengeance and the wrath and the fury of God on me so that they don't have to at the end of the story. I look at Isaiah 63. This is a picture of what's going to happen at the day of the Lord at the end of the story. Isaiah 63, I've trodden them in my anger.
I've stomped on them in my anger. He's talking about those that have taken advantage of the vulnerable and trampled them in my fury. Their blood is sprinkled upon my garments. I have stained all my robes.
For the day of vengeance is in my heart and the year of my redeemed has come. Turn your Bibles to Revelation 19. Revelation 19 verse 15. We're just going to talk about vengeance just a little bit here.
Revelation 19, 15. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. He will rule them with a rod of iron and he will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. And on his robe and on his thigh he has the name written, King of Kings in Lord of Lords.
This is just one little window into the end of the story. The end of the story is Jesus the bridegroom coming for his bride and there being a beautiful wedding day. And his love for the bride is so perfect. It's perfect love.
And the opposite side of the coin of perfect love is perfect justice. Jesus carries a heart of justice because he loves his bride so much so that if his bride is attacked and there's evil done to his bride he wouldn't be a perfect lover if he just dismissed evil that's done against her. But he loves her with such great love that there will be a record of all of those wrongs done. There will be a day of reckoning.
And there's a day of reckoning and wrath and judgment in his heart for all of the culprits of evil. Satan, the demonic, this broken world, people that have not surrendered to Jesus that have evil in their hearts and they resent God and want nothing to do with him. And there's tension here. I realize that it's unpleasant to talk about.
But Jesus has literally cleared the debt of the whole earth and it's just like if you have credit card debt. And Jesus says, I'm clearing the whole debt. And then most of the world is going, ah, I don't want you to clear my debt. I'm good.
I'm good myself. And most of the world goes, ah, Jesus, I don't want you to be Lord. And Jesus is going, that's fine. You don't have to have me as Lord.
You don't have to receive the payment. You don't have to receive the clearing of the debt. But I love you and I want you. I have filled with compassion and empathy because you're being deceived.
And I don't want anybody to suffer on that day. I don't want anybody to actually live in that. But most of the world goes, I don't want you to be Lord over my life. And how dare you send people to hell.
The reality is, if you don't like his Lordship in this life, Jesus is the main attraction in heaven. You are not going to like his leadership and his Lordship forever if you don't want his leadership in Lordship right now. And so Jesus is basically going, hey, I'm allowing you to make the free choice. But there's a day of vengeance in my heart for all the wrongs done in history.
Look at Proverbs 634. For jealousy arouses a husband's fury. This is like Jesus the bridegroom. And he will show no mercy when he takes revenge.
He will not accept any compensation. He will refuse a bribe. However great it is. And he's a bridegroom.
And he has perfect justice. And the Apostle Paul knows this, that there's a day of vengeance coming against sin. And people are going, well, I love sin and I'm becoming one with sin. Jesus doesn't want any man to perish.
But he's going to pour out his wrath on sin because it destroys the ones that he loves. And if humanity wants to become one with sin and they don't want to repent, they're caught in the line of fire of the wrath of God at the end of the story. And the Apostle Paul is writing this. He knows this.
And he's going, let's have calls of conviction on their heads to prevent them. From the day of vengeance that is coming. And he's saying, this is the call of the believer, not to just know information, but to become like Jesus in his suffering. To become like, this is the pinnacle of the Christian faith when you're mistreated and you don't respond in revenge.
When you are mistreated and evil is done against you and you're not thinking about retaliation. But instead you respond with, how can I bring peace? How can I actually respond in honor? That's what it said.
In Romans 12, he's going to repay no one evil for evil. Don't avenge yourselves. Overcome sin done against you. By what?
Bringing blessing and goodness. He says, this is how you're going to overcome by thinking what can I do that's honorable. How can I bring the culture of honor in here knowing that this isn't a one-dimensional thing? I see things according to the Spirit.
This person doesn't know Jesus. They're doing evil against me. Why am I surprised? Why am I surprised if they're mistreating me?
Why am I surprised if a sinner is struggling with sin? And I'm shocked. And I can't believe it. Did you hear what she said to me?
Did you hear what he did? And it's like, yeah, of course. That's like natural. Of course they would do that.
Because their God is themselves. Of course they would sin against you. Why are you responding with condemnation? You got to respond the way a kingdom person does.
Because a kingdom person isn't enslaved by what's been done against them. A kingdom person is a surrendered son that knows who they are. And then when they get squeezed and the pressure gets turned up and the heat gets turned up, how they respond is how Jesus responds. A father forgive them.
Now I'm going to bring blessing. Now I'm going to bring goodness. Now this whole thing is going to get flipped on its head because Jesus is going to get glorified on this one. Now every single time evil is done to you, you're going, man, the glory is coming.
Jesus is going to get glorified because he's going to get famous because I'm not going to respond the way the world does. Now I don't have to feel like I'm in self-pity mode. Every time somebody says something in my family or my friend group or my workplace or my neighborhood or the committee of moms, I just get to be free from what she thinks. And I get to respond in love.
Let's look at some passages that before we get into these passages, I'm talking about these big traumas that have happened and then like vengeance, the vengeance of God. But I'm talking about like all of fallen and there's like the little sins up to the big horrible evil can't even put it into language things that have been done. It's vengeance for all of it because it's all injustice. It was never supposed to be this way.
You're never supposed to experience that. And so as we're talking about this, I want us to understand I'm not primarily addressing traumas that have been done to you. I'm more so in the zone of like in your everyday life. Because we got to practice this.
You're going to experience like really evil things at the hands of people. But I'm talking about like until that day, some of us have experienced that already and you can just walk in freedom and forgiveness and releasing that and going through counseling. And that's like a whole journey that we go through. Right?
But what I'm saying is let's start practicing responding to the little things with goodness rather than retaliation. I feel this in my everyday life. Something said it's disrespectful and I'm like, oh my goodness, that was the button. You just touch the disrespect button.
Right? You know what I'm talking about? Some of you parents, some of you singles, some of you people that have jobs and you're like, did you say that? Really?
You said that to me, right? I'm talking about those little moments. Okay. All right.
Second Thessalonians one. Turn there with me. We're going to breeze through this really fast. Okay.
Second Thessalonians one. We're not going to let sin produce sin in us. What if the domino effect of sin stopped with you? What if she sinned against him and he sinned against them and then they sinned against and then it's like, oh, it stopped with the Son of God.
The cycle stopped. The snowball effect stopped and then there was a new domino effect. It was a kingdom domino effect that started because of you. Second Thessalonians one.
This is what I'm trying to do is show you that this is everywhere in the scriptures. Okay. Second Thessalonians one. We ought to always again, thanks to God for you brothers as is right because your faith is growing.
I love this. Your faith is growing abundantly. And the love of every one of you for one another is increasing. Love just keeps on growing over there.
Thessalonica. Come on. Therefore we ourselves boast that we're bragging on you in the churches of God because you're steadfast faith in all of your persecutions and in the afflictions that you're enduring. They're getting persecuted.
They're enduring. They're suffering. They've got afflictions. Right?
Evil is being done against them. But the believer is growing in faith and growing in love for one another. Do you see that? That is what the kingdom looks like.
Suffering and then I'm growing. Wait a second. That's not usually how the American church rolls. Usually suffering is my time to be in self pity.
Usually things not going my way is my time to just feel sorry for myself. Usually when things are going my way I'm just praying for the end of that season because it's a really rough season. It's a wilderness season and I'm being mistreated and I just need a new job. And the Lord's going in the midst of the fire.
You're growing in faith. In the midst of the fire you're growing in love. Look at you. Your steadfastness is just exploding.
Alright, let's go on going. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering. Since indeed God considers it just to here we go. We're talking about vengeance now.
To repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us. When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and those who do not obey the gospel of the Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction that comes from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. When he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all who have believed because our testimony to you was believed.
To this end we always pray for you that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve. And you got to have resolve for good in every work of faith by his power. So that the name of the Lord Jesus. Why?
Why respond with blessing and overcome evil with good so that Jesus gets glorified? So the name of the Lord Jesus may be glorified in you and magnified in you and you and him. How is it going to happen? Because God is going to give you grace.
Let's turn to 1 Peter 2, verse 15. 1 Peter 2, 15. Now I want to give context here that as Peter is writing, he's writing to a community all throughout Asia Minor that are actually not in power positions in their culture. He's writing to actually people that are enslaved in the Roman Empire.
He's writing to servants. He's writing to people that are actually experiencing suffering. He's not writing to the financial elites of Asia Minor. So as he's talking he's actually addressing those that are in persecution, in enslavement.
And he's not justifying slavery. He's actually speaking hope and freedom over those that are in that circumstance. Does that make sense? This is not to be used as a hey this is culturally okay in the kingdom.
No he's going I'm going to speak to you as you're struggling with the kingdom of this age that is oppressive. And this is how you're going to carry yourself and bring the kingdom even in that broken system. Does that make sense? Alright verse 15.
For this is the will of God that by doing good you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish people. Live as people who are free but not using your freedom as a cover up for evil but living as servants of God. Honor everyone. Love the brotherhood.
Fear God and honor the emperor. Servants be subject to your masters with all respect not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. Oh my goodness. For this is a gracious thing.
When mindful of God one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly. For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it you endure. But if when you do good and you suffer for it you endure. This is a gracious thing inside of God.
For to this you've been called because Christ also suffered for you leaving you an example so that you may follow in his steps. God is associating himself with every oppressed people group in history as one that has suffered enslavement. And he led and enslaved people the Jewish people and he gets it and he's going this is how you carry yourself in the midst of injustice. He committed no sin neither was deceit found in his mouth.
When he was reviled he did not revile in return. When he suffered he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. Now what he's not saying is slavery is okay. Slavery is right.
Slavery is just. No he's saying this thing's got to get dismantled. But until that time this is how you're going to carry yourself when you're a part of an oppressed people and you're actually you should have people on the outside fighting on your behalf. I wasn't talking about this but this should be the response of the body of Christ.
When there's oppressed people that are experiencing injustice those people that aren't experiencing injustice that have the privilege of not experiencing injustice should be the ones that have the loudest voices. And it shouldn't be the people that are oppressed having to stick up for themselves and fight on their own behalf. It should be the people that have the privilege of not being in that oppressed group standing up as the kingdom people and going this is wrong. And this shouldn't be.
But look at the faith that was demonstrated in the first century. What they were doing is they were actually aligning themselves with Jesus in his way. And it was beautiful to God. He committed no sin neither was deceit found in his mouth.
When he was reviled he did not revile in return. When he suffered he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He knows there's a day of vengeance. He himself bore us in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you've been healed.
I love this last passage. For you were strained like sheep but have now returned to the shepherd and I love the word overseer of your souls. That master isn't your overseer. You got an overseer of your souls.
That person that's mistreating you isn't your overseer. They're not your lord. They're not the overseer of your soul. You got a different overseer of your soul.
And it's the shepherd. It's the good shepherd that in the presence of your enemies guess what he does. He prepares a table before you so that you can feast in every broken circumstance. In every dysfunctional relationship all this on the shepherd's going.
Alright let's set this table again. Let me bless you again. Let's feast again in this situation. How many of you got situations where you're being mistreated?
Where there's injustice happening? That's your moment. You better sit down. You better sit down at the table because the shepherd's got something for you.
Alright let's keep on looking at 1 Peter 3 verse 8. Finally all of you have unity of mind. It's almost like a repeat of Romans 12 but it's Peter writing. They had unity.
Peter and Paul had unity on this one. Finally all of you I think it was the Holy Spirit. All of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind. Don't repay evil for evil.
Or I got this wrong last time too. Reviling for reviling but on the contrary, bless. For to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing. Why goodness?
There's a blessing for you. As you respond with goodness in the face of evil there's so much blessing. You don't even know what's going to happen. Do you know what the blessing mostly feels like?
You being free. Freedom feels good. Freedom is a blessing. You get to be free from other people, free from your circumstances.
It's a good day. It's a good day when you're free. Whoever desires to love life and seek good days. Let him keep his tongue from evil.
Oh no, I need that. Because most of the time I start talking when I get mistreated and I have to keep my lips from speaking to see. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it for the eyes of the Lord on the righteous.
His ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? It's almost like you get this invincible thing on you.
You're like no matter what anybody does to me, I'm just like bringing good. Every time it's just like I bring the blessing everywhere. Can you imagine what atmospheres around you will look like if you just bring favor and blessing everywhere you go? But if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you're going to be blessed.
Have no fear of them nor be troubled but in your hearts honor Jesus as holy. Always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you because they're going to start asking you. They're going to be like, hey, you're going mistreated. There's people making fun of you.
There's people betraying you. There's people back biting you. Why are you responding this way? What is wrong with you?
You should be defending yourself. You should be trying to strategically figure out how to get them back. You should be moving things like chest pieces on the board so that you can get revenge. And then you're not getting revenge.
And then now they're curious. And then Peter knows they're going to be curious. So he said, you better be ready. You better be ready to testify about Jesus and what Jesus did for you.
That you had no hope. You're an enemy of God. You were bringing, bringing hell. And then Jesus, all the sons stepped into your life and gave you something that you didn't deserve which was good for all of your evil.
So now you have hope and you get to spread the good news of Jesus everywhere because instead of repaint evil for evil, you responded with good. This is how the kingdom is going to advance forcefully through you not being in self pity and self defense. But you're responding with the character of Jesus. It's the culture of the kingdom.
It's freedom. What if we became a people that practice this in mundane days and weeks? What if we became a people that when little evils are done to us? Like cutting comments or disrespectful nonverbal communication or little moments of rejection?
What if we responded with what we just read and we kept our tongue from evil and we sought peace and we responded with honor and we carried gentleness and respect and sympathy. And even when we were getting mistreated, we responded with joy and tender hearts and humble minds and entrusting ourselves to him who judges and faith and love keeps growing and growing. Jesus keeps on getting opportunities again and again and again and he gets so much glory from us not repain evil for evil. It's the heaping coals that our city needs because there's a day of vengeance coming.
And I see greatness inside of you and it's the greatness that goes low and serves. It's the greatness that Jesus demonstrated right before he went to the cross. Do you remember what he did? He bends down and washes the feet of everybody that's going to betray him.
Everyone that's going to abandon him, he starts serving him. That's greatness. And the Holy Spirit that led him to do that, that infused his identity into him so he knew who he was and where he had come from and where he was going and what God had given him just like you as you know who you are and you know what God has given you and you know the end of the story. Do you know what you can do?
You can bring blessing and goodness into those atmospheres that are demonic, into those relationships that are unjust and you just get to start spreading the kingdom of goodness and blessing everywhere you go. It's just like joy bombs. Now you're not a victim. You're actually a son of God.
Now you're not self-focused. You're kingdom focused. Now you're not evil focused. You're blessing focused.
And God is shining forth his character through you because you're becoming transformed into his image. This is your destiny as a son and daughter of God. This is what you are designed to do. This is who you are always going to be coming, Jesus.
This is just gonna happen as you continue to surrender to his leadership. As I continue to surrender his leadership, it's possible. He wouldn't say all this stuff if it wasn't possible. If he didn't care to give you the grace to do it, it wouldn't be written.
But he's gonna give you grace. He's gonna give you the ability and it's gonna be divine ability. That's all Stan wanted to respond to the Lord. Romans 12 has been a passage all about becoming, not just knowing information.
Romans 12 is about becoming, not knowing, but becoming. We are a people that is becoming. We are in process. There's greatness on the inside of you and then you're totally in process and most of us are just a mess.
We're in process. Is that right? Man, we all got our stuff. We're in process.
But the Lord is refining us and he's transforming us and it's starting with changing the way that we're thinking. What I want us to do is respond to the Lord. And I think many of us need to get out of the chair of Judge. We've been in the Judge's chair in the courtroom of heaven and it's time that we get out of that chair because it's not good for us.
We're going to say, vengeance is not mine. Vengeance is yours. You're going to take care of it. And then we get to stand and respond the way Jesus did and say, Father, forgive them.
They don't get it. And then from forgiveness, what you do, I'm giving you the steps of freedom right here. Are you listening? You get out of the seat of Judge.
You go into forgiveness mode and releasing forgiveness against those who have wronged you. And then you start getting creative with your blessings. Some of us need to start getting creative with our blessings. Man, Holy Spirit, how are we going to bless them?
What if you just started, you get mistreated? How are we going to bless them, Lord? How am I going to actually deposit goodness? How am I going to bring blessing to their lives?
I want some creative ideas. Do you know what's going to excite Holy Spirit? You start, you just ask, Lord, can we do something creative to bless my enemy? Oh my goodness.
Do you know Holy Spirit is going to be like, Tigger? He's going to be just bouncing around in your bedroom and in your cubicle. He's going to be like, what did you say? Blessing our enemies?
Let's go! There's going to be so much joy on you. You're going to be like, man, I get to joyfully have an unoffendable heart. I get to joyfully bring the kingdom everywhere I go.
No matter what anybody does to me, I'm free from them in their opinion and I get to walk in freedom and joy. I'm not defined by what people do to me, but I'm defined by what the Father has said over me. This is such a good day. What a great Monday.
What a great Wednesday. What a great Friday, what a great everyday with Jesus. You just get to live free from the evil that's done against us. And I'm not at all minimizing the sins that have been done against us.
Jesus doesn't minimize it. There's a day of vengeance and a day of reckoning. But there's a way that his people respond. It's the way of forgiveness, the way of blessing those that curse us.
We just open your hands to the Lord. I believe the Holy Spirit wants to highlight one relationship that we actually get to take evil that's been done against us. And we get to respond by not repaying evil for evil, but having an overcoming spirit on us by the Holy Spirit, his grace to respond to evil with good. There's so much blessing in this.
It's the Holy Spirit. What's that relationship that you're highlighting? You can just ask the Holy Spirit. Would you bring that to my Lord?
You can just tell the Lord, Lord, I want to be free from them and what they've done. And then what they've said. And you can just forgive them. Just forgive them for one thing.
Just start with one area where you're going to forgive them. And you can choose to forgive them. You can just say, I choose to forgive them for this. You might be going, man, they're not like an enemy.
They're just a person in my life that's close. That's good. You can forgive them. And then let's ask Holy Spirit.
I know he's so excited right now, but let's ask Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, how do you want me to bless him? Sometimes he just has very fun ideas. Lord, how do you want me to bless him?
How can I bring good to this relationship? If you're not getting anything, you can just ask Holy Spirit again. Sometimes the things that he'll say will not be noticed by that other person and that's totally okay. It's totally normal if it's just kind of an undercover blessing goodness strategy.
They don't even need to know, but you know, and the Lord knows. So God, I just commission out all of these obedient servants, these obedient sons and daughters of God. I commission them out. Lord, I thank you.
That you see them and you know them and you love them. And Lord, I thank you that you're strengthening them by your grace to absolutely transform every sphere that they walk into with forgiveness and blessing. Lord, I thank you that they're free. And everybody say amen.