Dharius Daniels - Stop Tweaking

I’m going to be your pastor, teacher, professor, and coach all in one today. Let’s do it, because we’re going to need a bit of all of this. Genesis chapter 27, verse 38: listen to this. I’m reading part of a story here. Esau said to his father, «Do you only have one blessing?» That’ll preach right there. Do you only have one blessing? Then Esau wept aloud. Oh, y’all don’t know how important this is. This is a hunter, a man who just came in from the field, killing animals, and he’s standing in front of his father, weeping. He probably cut himself before and didn’t cry. He may have been bitten by an animal before and probably didn’t cry. But there’s a place deep in your soul that a painkiller can’t reach. What made this man weep? His father, Isaac, answered him, «Your dwelling will be away from the earth’s richness, away from the dew of heaven above. You will live by the sword, and you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless…» I’m preaching my sermon already, hurry up, because some restlessness comes with growth. That’s why you’re restless now in areas you didn’t used to be restless in, because you’ve grown into restlessness. Come here, talk to me, right? That’s why a spiritual diet that served you well in one season might not serve you well in another season, because you’ve grown into restlessness. It says when you grow restless, you will throw his yoke from off your neck. In other words, the yoke is going to stay on there as long as you don’t become restless. Esau held a grudge against Jacob because of the blessing his father had given him, and he said to himself, «The days of mourning for my father are near.» You know what he’s saying? «My dad is going to die soon, and when he dies, I’m killing Jacob.» I want to talk from this subject in our time together today; two words, everybody. I need my electronic evangelist to help me preach, because some people are visual learners, right? They’re auditory learners; some people see, some people hear, some people feel. So I want you to put this in the chat: «Stop tweaking.» Stop, stop, stop tweaking. Put it in, just stop tweaking! For those of you right now who are unfamiliar with the sentiments of my subject, stop tweaking. Allow me to explain what I mean; let me elucidate. Let me make clear what I mean when I use the adjective «tweaking.» According to the academic Urban Dictionary, tweaking refers to bugging, tripping, acting unintelligently, irrationally, and illogically. So when someone is acting in a way that is unwise and they’re acting seemingly, one would say to them, «Stop tweaking. You’re smarter than this; you’re more clear than this.» Oftentimes when this word is used, it is to describe those who are acting this way as a result of some type of intoxication. Listen to me; wherever there’s tweaking, there’s intoxication. Wherever there’s tweaking, there’s intoxication. Now, when we hear the word «intoxication, ” many of us assume some sort of substance like alcohol or drugs. And although these may be common culprits when it comes to intoxication, they are not the only types of intoxicating substances. Sometimes we are intoxicated, not by what we put into ourselves from the outside, but by what’s going on inside us. We can be intoxicated by our emotions, which can cause us to act illogically, unwisely, and irrationally. We can be intoxicated by our ego, where we act impulsively without proper consideration for the consequences of what we might do or say. But our text today exposes us to a different kind of intoxication—an intoxication that’s often overlooked but is extremely important. The text teaches us about the importance of dealing with the intoxicating impact of unaddressed offense. Offense has you high; offense has you drunk; offense has you tweaking. Offense has you behaving in ways that are irrational and unseemly. Unaddressed offense, listen to me, evokes attitudes and activities that can cause us to block our own blessing. Unaddressed offense can blind us to the totality of a person’s contributions to our lives, because we are so upset with what they haven’t done that we forget all the things they have done. Our text today is tailored to teach us that unaddressed offense is a dream killer. How is unaddressed offense a dream killer? Make that make sense to me. Here it is: unaddressed offense causes us to obsess about our enemies and not our assignment. Did you hear what I just said? Unaddressed offense is a dream killer because it causes us to obsess over our enemies and not our assignment. So the fuel for someone’s future becomes a motivation to punish others or to prove to others that they can do something someone else said they couldn’t do. Instead of living a life that chases purpose, they’re living a life trying to prove something or punish someone because unaddressed offense is a dream killer. There are too many people not walking in their purpose because they’re too busy trying to prove to others that they’re worthy of it. Here’s the thing, guys, about offense. Can I just work this for a minute? Here’s the thing about offense: John Bevere calls offense „the bait of Satan.“ The bait of Satan… and I don’t know how much you know about…