welcome to the victory broadcast if this ministry has impacted you in any way please consider supporting the spread of

the gospel by visiting us online and choosing the giving option that works best for you now we pray that this

message will stir your heart and build your faith get ready to receive the word of god

so my my brothers and sisters of victory south in victory city and uh

our family watching online from across the country in some pockets around the world shout out

to my sister i can't remember your name who hit me up on ig thank you for watching

um these gatherings from australia every single week i don't know what time you consume these

messages i know the sun is probably down when it is up over here

but the fact that you consume this every week your your your message to me on ig i

wish i could remember your name it might have been elisha i don't know if i botched that forgive me

thank you for encouraging me and for reminding me that the gospel is not chained to atlanta georgia

and that uh in these last days the gospel is spreading and that people are paying attention because i believe call

me weird or spooky that the return of the savior is near and that uh i am doing everything i can

to prepare a people uh for its coming uh no entertainment uh no just trying to make you feel awesome

every week uh doing all i can to prepare a people uh both in atlanta and those who are watching even in australia

for the return of the lord and so thank you my sister i i'm sorry i wish i could remember your name

what's her name say it again laurella not alicia

lorella shout out to you lorella in australia you are my sister on the other side of

the planet uh we are in this thing together because we have been bought by the same

blood and we live under the same bloodstained banner of the lord jesus christ thank you my sister lorella in

australia we are in a a teaching series through romans chapter 12 uh in a sermon series just called romans

12 i shared with you that this letter was written by a man who was

a former persecutor of the church named paul converted to christianity in the first

century a.d by jesus himself he writes this letter to our church he had never visited uh he would die

without visiting this church he spends 11 chapters explaining to them the gospel that is

what god has done for you in the person of jesus christ and beginning in chapter 12 he pivots from theology to response

how does a grateful human being who has been rescued by jesus from a wrath and punishment you could not escape on your

own how do you respond to that level of grace in america we tell you jesus loves you and you're awesome and ask him into

your heart and then make him your personal genie for the rest of your life and when he does not give you what you

as disappoint you you walk away from him because you were taught a false gospel the scripture teaches you that you was

an object of god's wrath from your mother's womb and that you were headed towards eternal damnation there was no

way for you to escape that your goodness could not escape that your morality could not escape that your church

attendance could not escape that some of you were born on the altar and still headed to eternal damnation could not

escape that until you responded to the grace of jesus christ made available to you on the cross he saved you from

eternal damnation wrote your name in the lamb's book of life changed your eternal address gave you

promises that are eternal said now you are a son and daughter of the most high god pray and he hears your voice no

matter what's happening you will spend your days and your eternity in purpose and

in the presence of god when you die and your reasonable response to that it's just live for me

and glad submission that is all of what romans 12 is about until 16 it is our response to the gospel message and um

today we're gonna we're gonna camp out in the final verses of chapter 12 and yes next week will be the last

installment of this series although i am doing the last verses uh in

this series today romans chapter 12 and verse

17 through 21 is where we're going to be camped out i want to read it to you because i i want you to hear all of it

before i teach it and uh i gotta get you out on time america

verse 17 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 and i will repay

says the lord to the contrary if your enemy is hungry feed him

if he is thirsty this is so anti-american give him something to drink

for by doing so you will reap he burning coals on his head last verse

do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good

i'm going to tag a title to these verses we're just going to call it

a righteous uh revenge a righteous revenge

father i am a a mere human being and even this morning

stepped into this pulpit battling my own weakness on my knees

right here in this room asking for grace to teach these passages in my own moment of weakness this morning

i can't make this make sense to these people my brothers and sisters apart from your

holy spirit yet it is so necessary and maybe even more so for the future of our nation

would you open up these verses and give us revelation and insight as we study your word together

now i ask for grace and help in the mighty and majestic and matchless name of the lord jesus

christ amen and amen and amen

a righteous revenge i want to start this message by reading

to you three statements that was spoken by two great men men that i would consider mentors

men that i have tried to pattern my life to follow have fallen short following these men at

different points but these are men who i believe are probably two of the greatest leaders the

world has ever known i do all i can to strive to follow after these men i want to read to you three

statements by these men you tell me as i read these statements

if you've ever experienced anything that these men have said uh

are you are you ready to hear these statements are y'all are you are you ready to hear

these statements are we ready to unpack god's word together

can i read to you these statements online are you are you ready to re hear these statements

right let me let me read the first statement to you and it's not going to come up on the screen and i don't want

you to take notes i just want you to listen to what this this man said he said this

in this life you will have many troubles has anybody

anybody can testify to that truth yeah jesus said that he also said if men hated me

they will hate you too i wonder if anybody in this room can testify uh to that

just being a christian and being hated on now we know nothing of the sort another man who i follow

said this all who desire to live godly lives in christ will be persecuted

paul said that that if you just try to live right at some point in time he said you will

suffer persecution for living right that is you cannot live right and not pay a price for living right

and that if you have a christianity that has never encountered some measure of offense to you for living right then

maybe you don't have christianity maybe you have compromise yeah

you have compromise and if you've been walking with god for five years 10 years 15 20 years any

month of time and never felt any of these then maybe what you don't really have is as christianity maybe what you

really have is religion and compromise because when you live right you're gonna pay a price for living right

you may lose some things for living right you may lose some people for living right right

these words were spoken to prepare christians for the inevitable hardships that happen uh in this life

and even more painful the hardships that arise from people who watch hurt you

people who offend you uh people who mistreat you people who use you

people who cross you wrong or like i say betray you or people who offend you or may even be

scheming on you uh some of these i'm talking about will be people in your own family anybody can

testify to that i'm talking about people that have become a former friends they are no

longer part of your circle i'm talking about people that may even be co-workers or spouses that you're married to right

now or even ex-spouses people who were working against you strangers that persecuted you all these

different people that fall into the various categories of people who have hurt you offended you

bruised you wounded you was scheming on you took advantage of you that person you trusted that took that virginity

away from you long before you even know what sexual activity was i'm talking about all the people you see in your

mind and they give you nausea when you think about them right

and the real question is not if you will experience evil at the hands of another the real

question is how do you respond to evil at the hands of another how do you i'm talking to you in this

room those watching me online how do you respond when people do you wrong how do you respond when people offend

you how do you respond when people you trust in betray you

or some family member you love do you wickedness how do you respond when people are

unjust to you or people you love hurt you how do you respond when you've been treated in a way that you know was

unfair unjust cruel not right you did not deserve that how do you respond to difficult people i know it's

easy for you to love and be in relationships with people that are easy to deal with but the the bigger

christian question this morning is how do you deal with difficult people from the early days of my faith i

followed a publication that became a ministry called watch the voice of the martyrs or vom

okay and the voice of the martyrs is a ministry that has dedicated its entire resources and all of its life to making

known the stories look right at me and giving a voice to look right at me

our brothers and sisters who are suffering immense persecution

in nations around the world outside the united states of america their magazine

their instagram page you should follow it the voice of the martyrs their publications their facebook page

everything that they do is to give a voice to our brothers and sisters who have no voice of their own

who are suffering immense persecution and hardship and trials

for the faith that you and i believe in and in this nation at least not yet we have no idea what that level of

persecution feels like and while you and i sit comfortable in

our american houses of worship men and women and children of the faith that we believe in are being pushed to

the brink of enduran immense hardship for the sake of

jesus christ paying a price that you and i do not pay

and i would just go so far as to say uh yet yet

uh their stories illuminate two things simultaneously one the grace of god on this nation that we can come in here and

worship so freely when nobody in the parking lot waiting to kill you on the way out

the freedoms that we enjoy in this nation and at the same time it makes almost

laughable the things that pluck us out of god's hand when i think about the kind of

suffering that other believers are doing for the faith i mean if the lord don't give you the job we abandon him right if

if i'm single and not married we abandon him if he didn't give me my vision board in

america we abandoned him and it makes almost laughable the things we turn our back on god for when i think about some

of the things that other people are suffering for the name jesus christ i mean listen to these headlines i pulled

just from the month of february um other nations because obviously this is not happening in the u.s on february 16th

christian youth a young man a teenager stabbed to death for his faith in pakistan

okay this month in the month of love valentine's day february 15th four christians in china's inner mongolia

were arrested for just selling bibles to other believers on valentine's day february 14th india's

christian community is currently experiencing a sharp increase in persecution across all eight states

during the past three weeks with indians even being put to death february 12 a nigerian pastor was hacked

with a knife to death while rescuing school children who was in need february 9th

the head of the etrian orthodox church died at the age of 94 after spending the last 16 years of his life under arrest

in prison for his faith in the lord jesus christ and then the average show that at least

estimated 13 christians die every single day somewhere around the world for simply putting their faith in christ

that by the time you go to bed tonight 13 brothers and sisters of the faith would have been put to death for the

faith that you and i enjoy and take for granted in this nation let me repeat this one more time by the

time you go to bed tonight let's make it real by the time you get up for breakfast tomorrow morning

and you go grab your latte and your bagel 13 brothers and sisters that believe in what you believe in would

have been put to death for simply believing in what you believe in so while you're crying tomorrow morning

for the raise you did not get or the house you did not have or the man that's not in your life or

for the thing that god did not answer why are you shedding your tears just wipe it for just a moment and remember

as i'm crying over this bagel 13 brothers and sisters who believe the same thing i believe

have been put to death on sunday for just faith in jesus christ is my problems really that bad

right for faith in jesus christ what does this persecution look like

like in the world i want to show you a picture of what some of this modern day persecution looks like

uh around the world uh if y'all have that first picture uh put that up on the screen for me please

you're suffering no this is what persecution looks like outside the u.s these are the bodies of

your brothers and sisters who were slain during a church service ambushed by militias while they were in

a room gathering singing listening to the preaching of god bodies did not make these are husbands

that are dead wives that are dead

children that are dead for simply doing nothing else that are coming into a gathering to sit down and listen to the

preaching of god's word you're gonna make it out of here and you're gonna rush me but you're looking at your

wrists just so you can make it to your restaurant these are what our brothers and sisters are suffering outside the

united states of america right like they didn't make it out of their church service

and now funerals are being had this is a recent thing that just happened for simply coming into god's house to hear

his word like so this is what modern persecution looks like outside of america and

because we're unread and uninformed we don't understand one how good we have

it in this nation even our suffering is better than what people have outside of this nation some people would trade

places for your suffering i should say that again there are brothers and sisters who would

trade places for yourself they would they would they would pray for the problems you have

and and in the days of rome what what did persecution look like in the days of rome i'm going to get back

to the text i see you looking at me get to the text i'm going to get back to the text

but what what what did persecution look like in the days of rome give me give me the next picture this is a drawing of

what persecution looked like in the days of rome and the days that this letter was

written i want you to see this before i read you the text again

this is what this is what hardship looked like in the days the letter was written so in the days the letter was

written hardship did not look like i don't have money to pay my bills it did not look like god did not come

through on this prayer it did not look like a quarter flat tire on 75

it did not look like god did not respond to my vision board i want you to look at this drawing this is what hardship

looked like in the days this letter was written this is going to make sense to you when i come back to the text i need

you to get this in your heart when the letter of rome was written when romans was written this is what hardship looked

like in those days if you go to rome right now in italy there is underground tombs called the

catacombs and there are the bones of christians who was eaten alive by lions and used as sport

in the coliseum so this is what they would this is hardship in the days of paul

snatching christians throwing them in the coliseum and watched people cheer and clap as they

was ripped apart and mauled by animals alive that's hardship

we're going to get this last prayer off watch we're not getting out of this

could you still hang on to your faith in the middle of that could you still could you still testify

of jesus in the middle of this right and pastor why do you show us all of

this this is what hardship looked like in the days of rome

right this is what hardship looked like in the days of rome so great was the

persecution if christians was not fed to lions they were burned alive at stakes the persecution was so bad under the

various emperors the worst on the nero and it was on the nero that the apostle paul the one who wrote this letter was

beheaded on the nero peter was crucified upside down under that persecution died for their faith i'm just trying to

put some some strength in you died for their faith watch this is what persecution looked like in rome and

while you and i know nothing of this level of persecution we know what it is to be socially

persecuted and persecuted by family and betrayed by friends and trolled on

instagram like i know what that is to be trolling it's i've gotten death threats for preaching the gospel

from people of other faiths that said if you don't stop talking like that we're gonna come and see you

and i will always say pull up and give them the address that maybe they might come in to try to

kill me and hear the preaching of the gospel and walk out my brothers and my sisters

right i've gotten death threats in my own ig my own that's why i even checked dms

i've gotten death threats my my page was hijacked by islamic organization last year

preached a whole series about that called battlefields right this is right

right so some of us we we know what it is to to feel some some tension for the face i mean if you've lived this thing

for real you felt some tension for the faith right

and in the middle of your attention fill in your blank but in the face of this

paul sees people dying like this now let's read this one more time and he writes to them in verse 17.

he says to them repay no one evil for evil are you kidding me paul

see this is going to connect this is how that's how they're dying and paul writes to them as they be as

they're being killed like this across rome and he says to them under the inspiration of the holy spirit watch

repay no one evil for evil right he says repay no one evil for evil okay i know what you know

what paul knows that's not natural it's not natural to not repay someone evil for evil you know what's natural

what natural is revenge is natural retaliation is natural trying to get people back for when they hurt you is

natural and the passage assumes the potential will always exist for wrong to be done to you and i

paul is telling them watch but don't repay evil for evil he's kind of leaning on jesus's teaching from the sermon on

the mount although the christians in that day was living in an atmosphere where it makes

sense to revenge yourselves he says don't repay anyone evil for evil

the scripture implies man that there is always a temptation to punish somebody for what they have done

punish them in your prayers praying evil over people that have done wickedness to you hoping that god would get like so

there is a natural response that we have to evil you know what this feels like i testified to you

a couple weeks ago of my own weakness when a woman cut me off in traffic i followed her for all of three or four or

five miles why she gave me the finger and my natural response was not grace

with all your judgmental eyes staring at me my natural response was not grace but you have done the same thing

right that our natural response is to repay evil with evil it said it was it was ingrained in the roman society was

ingrained in their religious doctrines it was ingrained in them to retaliate why they've heard teachings from the old

testament like an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth that if somebody does you harm you do them harm back

somebody inflicts danger on you you inflict danger on them back but paul says watch he says do not repay evil for

evil but watch what he says he says watch leave that up to god he says look what he says repay no one evil for evil

but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all he says watch when people do you wrong look right at me and

people will do you wrong paul says give thought to do that which is honorable in the sight of all watch give thought to

do that is when you are hurt the first thing you do is not respond out of your emotions

but when you are hurt the first thing we do is slow down and think about what has happened

because he says give thought to do what is honorable the sign of all that is every time you are offended every time

you are hurt every time you are the victim of injustice you know what is automatically created an audience

an audience who is in that audience the person who hurts you and brothers and sisters that know you

and people that see you putting god first on your profile so every time you and i are offended

automatically an audience is created and what paul is saying don't blow your witness in the presence of that audience

man you we we call ourselves believers somebody hurts us our first response is to retaliate and now our christian

witness has been diminished in the presence of that audience so he says you have to give sight to do

that which is honorable what is honorable when people hurt you sometimes maybe silence is honorable don't say

anything back to that person i'm trying to help some of you who've been hurt sometimes distance is honorable you just

got to stay away from that person watch let's let's go even deeper sometimes praying for the person that hurts you is

honorable like like sometimes the most liberating thing you can do is get down on your

knees and pray for the person that hurts you that is honorable

sometimes doing something good for the person that hurts you is honorable so he says watch when you are hurt give

thought to do what is honorable he says think what to do that is honorable and verse 18. i'm almost done he says

if possible so far as it depends on you look what he says live peaceably with all look what he says he says if

possible so long as it depends on you live peaceably with all paul tells them

to live in peace with people who are persecuting you i like the clause if possible

the word if possible tells us that there will be times when living in peace with people will not

be possible right like this does not mean we're supposed

to be christian doormats it doesn't mean we're supposed to live right it doesn't mean we're supposed to live

in a type of way that we are passive towards wrong but he says when it is possible live in peace with other people

especially those who have done you wrong what is the text really saying to you look right at me because some of you are

really good at this he said if possible stop avoiding people that are difficult oh god yeah i miss that

right you if possible stop avoiding people who are

difficult i can't stand working with her but if possible live in peace i can't stand being around this parent

but if possible live in peace i can't stand co-parented with my ex-spouse but if possible live in peace the scripture

tells you it's really not something to say that you don't get an out from from avoiding people who are difficult to be

around the scriptures actually calling you to make an attempt

to live in peace especially with difficult people watch he says but when do i get out from

doing that when they can't be peaceful but as far as it depends on you

he says do everything you can to live at peace with other people martin luther king said that peace is

not the absence of conflict but what we do know from the scriptures what is peace it is the state of being

that we need to seek and pursue and try to have that peace with other people even those who are persecuting us so he

says watch if you don't have peace with someone else it should not be your fault i need to say that again for some of you

that love cutting people off some of you your cutoff game is dope you got an excellent cutoff game you

know how this go you get offended you cut people off they say something that hurts you cut

them off they confront you cut them off don't like something they said to you just cut

them off some of us have excellent cut-off game but the scripture says watch if you don't have peace with

somebody else it should not be because of you it should be because of that other

person has chosen not to have peace that means while you feel that tension between you and that person your

responsibility is to do all you can to have peace with that other person see some of you right now you feel

conviction because you see faces who you know you have tension with and the scripture calls you to make an attempt

to have peace with that person that does not mean that if you're in a was in a formally abusive relationship or

somebody was trying to hurt you or bodily harm this does not mean you go jump back into our abusive relationship

that's not what the scripture is saying but what the scripture is saying that if you have animosity or tension with

somebody else it should not be because you have chosen to leave it that way it should be because that you have made

an attempt to have peace and the other person has made an attempt to not lean into that peace

right so it says be at peace with one another do everything you can to be peaceful

with another person verse 19 and i'm about to wrap it up see i'm cutting out my whole entire outline because we spent

time in god's presence and i'm okay with that he says beloved

i like this verse never avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of god for it

is written vengeance is mine and i will repay says the lord i love how the apostle paul says and i'm

almost done he says watch watch this look right at me he says beloved notice how he starts to text with

beloved he just he just throws that in there by accident no the word beloved is supposed to

signal a reminder to you that you have a father somewhere it's supposed to signal to you that you

are a son and daughter of a living father and the father he's trying to remind you

of is a father that said to you watch i will avenge any person that has done you wrong

he says watch you can't sit in that judgment seat it's too heavy for you to sit in

that seat of judgment that seat of revenge that seat of give them back that seat of bringing justice he's saying

that seat of bringing justice for what happened to you does not belong to you you know why you and i don't have the

moral character to exact justice you don't have the moral character to exact justice you don't know the whole

story to exact justice so he says when it comes to you being wrong yours is not to exact justice for being wrong we can

speak out about justice we can pray against justice but you do not sit in the seat to exact justice when you have

been wrong why you don't have the moral framework to do that it takes a perfect being with no sin in him who understands

the totality of the entire circumstance he knows where the heart of the person was who sinned against you he and he

alone is the only person worthy to sit in the seat that exacts justice on another human being and you

don't have to worry watch no one who has hurt you is going to escape i want to free some of you no one who

has hurt you is going to escape there is no sin that's going to go unpaid for it will either be paid by the blood of

jesus or paid by the wrath of god in this life or the judgment so even the people you hate because of what i've

done to you trust me no one is going to escape with doing you evil the father who loves you who has called you your

his son and his daughter promises to repay evil for everyone that has hurt you and

offends you watch that's why i watch the best thing you can do when people hurt you this is what i do i turn them over

into the hands of god i pray them into the hands of god because his hand will bring a much

better judgment than mines he says to the contrary verse 20 if your enemy is hungry feed him

and if he's thirsty give him something to drink for by doing so you will reap burning coals on his head this has two

meanings in the greek i'm gonna give you this really quickly and finish up with the last verse

what this really means and this is very important two meanings in the greek give a drink to your enemy

give them food to eat simply means when people do you wrong respond to them with love and kindness

and the two meanings in the greek is that when you do that the coles represent your kindness towards someone

who has hurt you well arousing them this burning sense of shame for what they have done

like i can't believe that this person is responding to me after what i've done to

them they're actually responding to me with good and what that does it raises in them this awareness this burning

sense of guilt that the person i have offended keeps loving me the way i don't even deserve to be loved some of you

need this for your family members and for friends and parents that you just keep loving them although they

don't love you the way you know you're supposed to be loved and what it what and what would happen in them and start

to stir in them this burning sensation of guilt and shame that i keep being cruel to this person that keeps loving

me the way i don't deserve to be loved and then the other meaning in the greek is those calls of fire represents the

more they persecute you as you love them the greater wrath they're storing up for themselves the

worse their punishment is going to be when they face god if they face him with unrepentant sin

and this last verse do not be overcome by evil i hate i had to chop this thing down but it's okay

but overcome evil with good simply put this word overcome in the greek

uh it is a uh i'm done frank it is a military word and because because it is a a military

term it speaks of a kind of battle of warfare that we're dealing with look right at me

that you and i softly you and i living in a type of battle of warfare against evil

but but look look right at me but where are those two fronts at the first front is the evil that's

coming against us that's perpetrated by the enemy through people and circumstances

you will never guess where the other front is it's in you

the evil in your own heart the wickedness that you think about the judgment you want to get the dreams you

have about getting somebody back the evil is in you there's a battle for evil in you

some of you you love cursing people out when they offend you you love cutting people off in traffic

your first response to offense is get them back you know that that's evil working in you and in me

he says don't be overcome by that don't let that oh how do you get overcome by evil if you respond evil to evil evil

has won over you and the way you keep defeating evil is to keep responding

with good towards evil i i wish i had more time to unpack this the way that i want i'll touch this a

little bit next week because i got to get you out on time but i want to speak to some real

problems in this room if you would just give me a second because some of the perpetrators of evil

towards you are people you're not gonna escape because these are family members and friends and people you love so let

me just say something to you before i i pray over you i've learned this the hard way i'm gonna

i'm gonna take a few extra minutes because this is important listen to me as believers

everyone look right at me eye contact this is this is grown man talk this is grown woman talk

as believers you can't be good at just coming to church and singing songs and preaching and being on a team or giving

your tithes and your offerings or posting on social media that's easy christianity

look right at me i'm talking to you in 19 years of walking with god almost a day almost two decades at some point in

time as christians especially in america you got to get good at absorbing hurt because too many of us are too immature

we know it because every time you get hurt you you fall apart you leak

we see it in your posts and we know you're hurting by your post every time you hurt the whole world gotta know

because of the stuff you put on instagram you gotta out people every time you get hurt you gotta implicate

people every time you get hurt your husband's downstairs you implicating him upstairs

we know that immature stuff we know everything you you go on social media looking for somebody to feel sorry for

you so you make a whole post trying to out people who hurt you we gotta be mature enough to start

absorbing hurt you absorb that you absorb it on your knees

you absorb it in god's presence you absorb it by keeping your mouth shut you absorb it by not posting about that

person we gotta learn to how to absorb hurt

because if you don't you're not gonna last you gotta know how to cry and get back

up and go to work the next day i'm going to take a couple extra minutes i don't care put me on the swat

you got to learn how to cry and get up off your knees and still love and still go to work

and not put people to shame on social media watch you gotta grow up

pain is part of the christian experience some of you holding people in unforgiveness

you don't even realize the longer you keep holding that person you tie yourself to what they've done

i feel the spirit of god that forgiveness is never for the offender

forgiveness is for you it's to free you it's to release you from the season the

pain the person they molested me they don't for they don't deserve

forgiveness you're right it's not for them it's for you the scripture says if you hold people

you will never be able to sleep in peace and as long as you have unforgiveness in your heart you remain permanently

chained to the person the season the incident some of you you need to give yourself

the gift of forgiveness by letting that person go offended we're gonna keep getting

offended so what grow up ain't no perfect church this is a

glorious mess somebody on your team is going to offend you i'm going to offend you the gospel

is going to offend you if every time you get offended this culture man i'm tired of y'all be so

easily offended everybody is offended oh my gosh every time we go on your page you

offended at what point do you respond to that because you got an audience do that

which is honorable when we keep acting like that you know what we keep diminishing

your personal witness and the witness of the person you say you serve

so he's not strong enough to keep you from acting a fool in your offense

oh no the cross is not strong enough for you to release someone for what they have done for you

the the blood of jesus is not enough to pay for that person what they did to you his blood is not enough it's not strong

enough to pay for that pastor you have no idea what they've done to me so the blood is not strong

enough to release them from that you have any idea what you did to god do you know but you don't know what they

deserve do you know what you deserve [Applause] you don't deserve grace

you don't deserve mercy you don't even deserve to be in your right mind

you deserve to be burning in the fires of hell that's what the scripture says you deserve for all my american brothers

and sisters you deserve damnation is what you deserve you're only saved because god forgave you

and every time danielle i'm tempted to revenge my hurt i get a glimpse of the cross i kneel

down and i cry out my anger and god's presence

they hurt me they betrayed me i loved them and they walked away from

me i gave them everything and they took piece of my heart with them y'all don't know nothing about hurt

i get broken up with every season of my life some of you you've been broken up with

twice i ended up in a hospital welcome to the pastoral ministry we get broken up with every season love people nowhere

to be found in another season you know what it feels like that people walk out of your life every season you

think you're strong enough to handle that [Music]

this is christianity this is the gospel beloved so we absorb that

we pray we love we wish them well we cry out that god blessed them and not cursed

them did not llewellyn preach that bless them and not curse them that takes a grown christian to do that

the only revenge that is right in the sight of god is kindness

love and mercy that is the righteous revenge that you are allowed to take really yes kindness

love and mercy i'll add a fourth one grace

um [Music] [Music]

i have a image of my mind of a courtroom and in that courtroom was

a family who lost their loved one his name was a botham john

on his own couch in his own apartment get a bang at the door a cop burst in

and put a bullet in his heart in his own apartment amber geiger

during her trial she's sentenced to some maybe 10 years in prison

and then something that shocks the country happens the brother of the deceased

walks over to the cop and puts his arm around her and says watch

i forgive you for what you have done

and the judge puts the arm around the cop we forgive you for what you've done and you know

what he receives for that persecution by those who don't understand the depths

of christ-like love why it's what paul wrote to the church in

ephesus it's a type of love so deep so high so wide

that it cannot be comprehended in the human mind that i could actually wrap my arms

around a person that took the life of my loved one and said i forgive you for what you have done

could you have done that that is the depth of christ-like love that is the kind of love which no one

will win against you that is the kind of love the country needs to see

[Music] that is the kind of love your family needs to see

that's the kind of love somebody in this room i see you crying you need to go home

and release that to the person that you know you've been holding when you came in here

watch free yourself [Music]

a father in the name of jesus [Music] um

god i i know that this whole presentation to me was a mess

but it's your word and i pray you would you would take what i tried to get out

and make it make sense to these my brothers and sisters father there's so many people crying in

this room they've been crying the whole time i've been talking

[Music] you know the depths of their pain i don't you know the people that have hurt

them i don't you know the difficult family member they're dealing with right now

[Music] i pray for two people i pray first for my brother and sister

that you give them strength to endure and the character to respond with a righteous type of revenge kindness love

prayer honor mercy

grace forgiveness and i pray for the offender

that you reap calls a fire on their head that you will make them aware of the hurt that they have caused

the wrong that they have done and that you would bring them to their knees and other repentance

in this life lest they meet you in the wrath of their judgment and the life to come

i pray that people would be the recipients of apologies in the name of jesus

apologies in the name of jesus and that father we would not continue to exact revenge or respond hostile

every time we offended or hurt or feel wronged but we would grow up in this moment

and respond god with a type of righteous behavior that puts our character on display

and puts you working in us in display i pray that over these my brothers and sisters

[Music] in the mighty and majestic

[Music] and matchless name of the lord jesus christ

amen and amen listening to the victory broadcast we pray that message was a blessing to you if you have a story or a

testimony to share we want to hear all about it send us an email to share at victorychurchatl.org or visit us online

under share thanks for listening go in peace