John Bevere - How to Respond When You've Been Mistreated
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You can do something. You can put all offended Christians into two categories. Did you know that? Category number one: those who have been genuinely mistreated. Category number two: those who think they've been mistreated. Now, I'm not dealing with category number two. Category number two has inaccurate information, or they have accurate information and have discerned inaccurately. I don't want to engage with that; I want to deal with category number one: those who have been genuinely mistreated.
Now, I want to ask you a question, and I want you to think this through. If you've been genuinely mistreated, do you have the right to be offended? Yes, you have the right to do anything. You have the right to go to hell, to burn in a lake of fire, and to be eaten by worms forever, and God will protect your right if that's what you choose. So yes, you have the right to be offended, but if you want to walk in the presence of God, if you want to walk in the blessing of God, you do not have the right to be offended. That's a good place to clap! The rest of you missed the spot right there. Seriously, I'm telling you I'm so passionate about this right now because I'm so fed up with seeing people brought down in life because of offense. I'm mad at it. I'm not mad at any of you; I'm mad at offense. I'm really angry about it.
That's why I actually called Pastor Robinson and asked, "Can I come and preach at the church?" and he said, "I'd love it!" because I am so tired of what's going on today. The world and the church don't look much different to me today because the church is getting so easily offended, just like the world gets easily offended, and I'm like, "We need help. We need the Word of God to set us free!" Amen? Listen, man, I was raised Catholic—don't make me nervous and go quiet on me, okay? All right, so anyway, where was I? Oh, okay. Do you have the right to be offended? No, not if you want to walk with God. Wait a minute, John, you just don't know what they did to me! How many of you have ever heard somebody say that? "You just don't know what they did to me." Let me see a show of hands. Come on. Do I need to pray for the rest of you for lying later?
Now, how many of you have ever said that? Don't put your hands up. You know what I say to that person when they say, "You don't know what they did to me"? I say, "No, you don't know what you did to Jesus!" An offended Christian is a person who has forgotten what they've been forgiven of. Do I need to say it again? An offended believer is someone who has either never realized or has forgotten what they've been forgiven of. What we need to realize is that when Adam sinned against God, God the Father could have looked at God the Son and said, "You know what? They chose the devil over us. They committed high treason against us. Let them all go to hell and burn with the devil forever. Let's go over and create another universe and create somebody who really loves us." He would have been perfectly just because you know what? Our just reward was that every single one of us deserved to burn in a lake of fire forever. That's what we deserved.
You know what the big problem is? We've categorized sins in the church. We have the big ones: adultery, murder, witchcraft, stealing. Then we have what we call weaknesses: strife, unforgiveness, gossip. You know what Proverbs 6 says? "These six things the Lord hates, and the seventh is an abomination." Do you know that adultery is not in that list? I am not justifying adultery; the Bible states that if you practice it, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. But you know what I find interesting? The seventh one on that list that God calls an abomination is those who sow discord among brothers: gossip. So this is what I want to say: treat gossip the way you treat adultery, and you'll probably get free. But if you see it as a weakness—oh, it's getting quieter in here!
Treat unforgiveness the way you treat murder, and you'll probably be free. You know what's amazing? I can show you three times more scriptures in the Gospels where Jesus says that a person who refuses to forgive will not inherit the kingdom of God than I can for murder. Three times! You pray every day in the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." Do you want God to forgive you the way you've forgiven those who have hurt you? Well, the truth is, that's the way you will be forgiven because God has placed His love in our hearts, and we have the ability to forgive just like Jesus did when He hung on the cross and said, "Forgive them; they don't know what they are doing." Isn't that good news?