How to Handle Offenses

Forgiveness

There is no secret, that if you keep living long enough someone will upset you.

It is no secret that if you keep living, you are going to be offended; it is a way of life:

· Someone will upset you

· To irritate you

· Get under your skin

· It’s the way of life; you cannot escape it

· You can't ignore it

· It is a way of life

If you are going to interact with people, it's just a matter of time that's that someone will do something to you that's going to hurt

Not only do we have to learn how to forgive, but we also need to know how to handle people when these offenses come

· If you don't learn how to forgive

· If you don't learn how to handle these offenses

· You will find yourself in a position of always being upset and angry

The word forgiveness means to:

· Lay it aside

· let it alone

· Forget

· Send it away or clear the record

The call of God upon all our lives is to live a life of forgiveness

That we are able to take the things that people say about us and:

· Lay it aside

· let it alone

· Forget

· Send it away or clear the record

Have you ever met someone who has made a mental folder or file cabinet of everything you have said?

· It's like they pull out the cabinet pull out the file

· Then they remind you of the theme you have said or done

That's not the way that God had called us to live our lives

· We must be able to move on

· We can't allow them to hinder us

· Because if we allow them to hinder us, it will keep us from moving forward, then it will affect our relationship with God

If you don't learn how to forgive people, if you don't learn how to let it go, and you want to hold onto it, and you want to harbor it, and you don't want to forgive them

· You want to hold a mental record

· Or you want a whole day emotional record

· Or whatever type of record you are holding onto

· It will impact your ability to have a full relationship with God

o No matter who you are or what you have done is not worth me losing out with my relationship with God.

o We cannot let what someone has done have a major impact on our relationship with God

This message aims to help us forgive someone in our lives so that it doesn’t hinder our relationship with God.

· So, the goal is to help us to be able to forgive others for what they have done

· But also, to have the favor of God upon our life

· And it is no better illustrated then in the life of Joseph

Background on Joseph:

· Joseph is one of twelve sons born to Jacob

· He was his father's favorite child

· The Bible says he gave him a coat of many colors - in today's terminology he gave him a Gucci coat

One day Joseph had a dream, and he made the mistake of telling his brothers about his dream

· One thing I've learned you can't tell everybody everything in which God has revealed to you

· Or about your dreams

· Because everybody will not be happy about your success

So, one day he told him about his dream of them bowing down to him and not by surprise they did not like that dream, so they plotted to kill him.

So, they decided to take his coat of many colors and dip it in blood and take it back to their father, they had him in a pit, and they saw a band of traders coming along and so they decided to sell him into slavery.

This band of men took Joseph and sold him to a man named Potiphar who Happened to be a captain in The Egyptian army, and Joseph ended up being a slave in Potiphar’s house.

· Matter of fact he did his job so well that Potter for put him in charge of the whole house

· At one point the scripture says Potter didn't even know what he had in the house unless he asks Joseph what he had

God gave him incredible favor, but one day something happened

· The Bible says that Joseph was a handsome feller

· One day Mrs. Potiphar cast longing eyes old Joseph

· She went to Joseph one day and grabbed him by the collar and said come lay with me

· Something I've learned is that not all aggressive aggression is from men there are also women who are very aggressive.

Gen. 37:10-15 says: So, it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day, that he did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her.

But it happened about this time, when Joseph went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me.” But he left his garment in her hand and fled and ran outside. And so, it was, when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, that she called to the men of her house and spoke to them, saying, “See, he has brought into us a Hebrew to mock us. He came into me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And it happened, when he heard that I lifted my voice and cried out, that he left his garment with me, and fled and went outside.”

· He ran so fast that he ran out of his clothes

· I don't know if he ran because she was ugly or not, but he ran

· I want to believe that he ran because he was a man of character

So, she tells her husband when he comes home that Joseph tries to rape her, so Potiphar cast Joseph into prison.

· He went form being his father’s favorite son, to being sold into slavery.

· He went from being a free man to a slave in one day

· He went from having resources to nothing in one day

· He went from one spot to the next and just one moment

· And now he's gone from being a slave in Potiphar’s house who had access to everything to being cast in jail in one day

· So, he finds himself in jail with the former chief Butler and the former chief Baker of the Pharaoh

Their Dreams: Gen. 40

· He says to the Baker that your dream means in three days You're going to die

· He says to the Butler that in three days you will be released from jail and restored to your former position, he says to him. That when you are restored to your former position is that you just remember me.

· But the text says when he got back his position, he did not remember Joseph

· Here is a guy who had done nothing wrong

· If anybody had a reason to be bitter about life, Joseph did

· There are gonna be things that happen to us in life that'll make us bitter and mad, but we got to learn how to deal with the things that happen to us in life

If you don't learn how to deal with the circumstances in your life, how people talked about you, deal with the things they said about you, then you will never reach the destination that God has for you in your life you have to learn “How to Handle Life’s Offenses”

· Man, I swear these last few weeks, these sermons has opened my eyes, and I needed them myself.

· I refuse to let what people said about me and did to me stop me from reaching the destiny that God has for me

· It's no secret I was ready to throw in the towel after all that happened to me and the things that were said to me in this very church, and if I would have left then. I had made up my mind I was done with ministry regardless of the consequences.