The Gospel of Mark | Chapter 14 | Swiper, No Swiping | Pastor Gladys Nordlund

tor Gladys opens with a personal story of a chaotic family trip to Disney World during a highly crowded New Year’s period in December 2020. She recounts a moment of miscommunication and misunderstanding where she and her niece got lost, causing tension and frustration among the family. This incident serves as a metaphor for how offenses—small misunderstandings or inconveniences—can escalate into larger conflicts, affecting relationships and spiritual well-being.

The core message of the talk revolves around the biblical concept of offense and forgiveness, emphasizing that offenses are inevitable but must be managed properly to avoid spiritual and emotional captivity. Using the playful phrase "Swiper, no swiping" from Dora the Explorer, Pastor Gladys illustrates how subtle attacks from the enemy (Satan) seek to steal our peace, joy, and spiritual gifts through confusion, offense, and bitterness.

She draws from scripture, particularly Luke 17:1, Mark 14:3-11, Proverbs, and the teachings of Jesus, to explain how offenses can build walls or fences around us, blocking vision and limiting relationships. Pastor Gladys distinguishes between offensive and defensive responses to offenses, noting that both hinder spiritual growth and fruitfulness. Rather than retaliate or defend, Christians are called to forgive fully, let go of offense, and operate in agape love—unconditional love that reflects God’s grace.

The sermon explores differences between agape love (unconditional, freely given) and fileo love (conditional, based on reciprocity), urging listeners to embrace agape love as the foundation for healing offenses. Pastor Gladys stresses the importance of humility, self-examination, and relying on God’s justice instead of personal retaliation.

Practical advice includes avoiding retaliation, softening the heart, encouraging one another, reconciling before worship, and recognizing that forgiveness without true healing is incomplete. The talk concludes with a powerful musical reflection on Mary anointing Jesus with expensive perfume, symbolizing costly love and sacrifice despite judgment from others.

Ultimately, Pastor Gladys challenges listeners to identify how offenses affect their lives and relationships and to choose forgiveness and love as pathways to freedom, spiritual maturity, and fullness of God’s blessings.

 Highlights  

☀️ The Disney World trip story illustrates how small misunderstandings can escalate into significant offense and conflict.  

🦊 "Swiper, no swiping" symbolizes resisting subtle attacks that steal peace and spiritual gifts.  

📖 Offenses are unavoidable, but how we respond determines spiritual freedom or captivity (Luke 17:1).  

🛡️ Operating from offense or defense damages relationships and stunts spiritual fruitfulness.  

💖 Agape love (unconditional) versus fileo love (conditional) shows the difference between God’s love and worldly love.  

🕊️ Forgiveness must be full and heartfelt, not just words, to remove walls and restore unity.  

🎵 Mary’s costly anointing of Jesus models sacrificial love and faith despite criticism.

 Key Insights  

🧩 Offense as a Catalyst for Spiritual and Relational Breakdown: The Disney story emphasizes how minor miscommunication or inconvenience can spiral into deep offense, producing bitterness, frustration, and broken relationships. Spiritually, such offenses open the door for the enemy to steal joy and peace. This suggests that everyday small conflicts are not trivial but can have long-term consequences if not addressed biblically.  

🔍 The Subtlety of Spiritual Attack: Using the analogy of “Swiper, no swiping,” Pastor Gladys highlights how Satan’s attacks often come disguised as minor irritations or offenses that seem insignificant but accumulate damage. This insight encourages believers to remain vigilant not only against obvious spiritual battles but also the small, persistent challenges that erode faith and unity.  

⚖️ Offense vs. Defense: Both Are Harmful: The talk distinguishes offense as an aggressive pursuit to “win” an argument or justify feelings, and defense as reactive guarding against perceived threats. Both mindsets foster conflict and hinder spiritual growth. The ideal spiritual posture is neither offensiveness nor defensiveness but humility, forgiveness, and trust in God’s justice. This challenges the common instinct to “fight back” or “shut down” when hurt.  

❤️ Agape Love as the Antidote to Offense: The contrast between agape and fileo love reveals that only unconditional love—rooted in God’s grace—can truly heal offenses. Fileo love, which depends on reciprocity and can be withdrawn, perpetuates cycles of hurt and offense. Cultivating agape love requires embracing God’s forgiveness and extending grace even when it’s undeserved or unreciprocated.  

🛠️ Walls and Fences as Metaphors for Unforgiveness: The imagery of walls (complete barriers) and fences (partial barriers) illustrates how unresolved offenses block vision, limit transparency, and stunt relationship growth. These barriers prevent believers from experiencing full spiritual freedom and unity. The insight is that forgiveness involves actively knocking down these barriers to restore open fellowship.  

🙏 Forgiveness Is Both a Command and a Process: Pastor Gladys underscores that forgiveness is not merely a one-time declaration but a continual process involving prayer, humility, and letting God heal emotional wounds. Partial forgiveness, where offense still lingers, is ineffective and keeps believers trapped. This deepens the understanding that forgiveness requires spiritual discipline and dependence on the Holy Spirit.  

💡 Transformation Over Information: Finally, the message warns against a shallow Christianity that focuses on knowledge or religious activity without real heart transformation. True Christian maturity is characterized by embodying the fruit of the Spirit—love, patience, gentleness—and living out forgiveness and grace in daily relationships. This calls believers to reflect on their own hearts and responses rather than merely accumulating theological facts.

 Conclusion  

This sermon weaves a relatable personal story with profound biblical teaching to challenge listeners to confront offenses and forgiveness in their lives. It urges believers to reject offense and defense as spiritual traps and instead embrace agape love and full forgiveness empowered by the Holy Spirit. The vivid metaphors and scriptural examples provide both warning and hope: offenses will come, but through Christ, they need not steal your joy, peace, or spiritual gifts. The call is to live mature, grace-filled faith marked by humility, reconciliation, and unconditional love.

 Summary  

Pastor Gladys opens with a personal story of a chaotic family trip to Disney World during a highly crowded New Year’s period in December 2020. She recounts a moment of miscommunication and misunderstanding where she and her niece got lost, causing tension and frustration among the family. This incident serves as a metaphor for how offenses—small misunderstandings or inconveniences—can escalate into larger conflicts, affecting relationships and spiritual well-being.

The core message of the talk revolves around the biblical concept of offense and forgiveness, emphasizing that offenses are inevitable but must be managed properly to avoid spiritual and emotional captivity. Using the playful phrase "Swiper, no swiping" from Dora the Explorer, Pastor Gladys illustrates how subtle attacks from the enemy (Satan) seek to steal our peace, joy, and spiritual gifts through confusion, offense, and bitterness.

She draws from scripture, particularly Luke 17:1, Mark 14:3-11, Proverbs, and the teachings of Jesus, to explain how offenses can build walls or fences around us, blocking vision and limiting relationships. Pastor Gladys distinguishes between offensive and defensive responses to offenses, noting that both hinder spiritual growth and fruitfulness. Rather than retaliate or defend, Christians are called to forgive fully, let go of offense, and operate in agape love—unconditional love that reflects God’s grace.

The sermon explores differences between agape love (unconditional, freely given) and fileo love (conditional, based on reciprocity), urging listeners to embrace agape love as the foundation for healing offenses. Pastor Gladys stresses the importance of humility, self-examination, and relying on God’s justice instead of personal retaliation.

Practical advice includes avoiding retaliation, softening the heart, encouraging one another, reconciling before worship, and recognizing that forgiveness without true healing is incomplete. The talk concludes with a powerful musical reflection on Mary anointing Jesus with expensive perfume, symbolizing costly love and sacrifice despite judgment from others.

Ultimately, Pastor Gladys challenges listeners to identify how offenses affect their lives and relationships and to choose forgiveness and love as pathways to freedom, spiritual maturity, and fullness of God’s blessings.

 Highlights  

☀️ The Disney World trip story illustrates how small misunderstandings can escalate into significant offense and conflict.  

🦊 "Swiper, no swiping" symbolizes resisting subtle attacks that steal peace and spiritual gifts.  

📖 Offenses are unavoidable, but how we respond determines spiritual freedom or captivity (Luke 17:1).  

🛡️ Operating from offense or defense damages relationships and stunts spiritual fruitfulness.  

💖 Agape love (unconditional) versus fileo love (conditional) shows the difference between God’s love and worldly love.  

🕊️ Forgiveness must be full and heartfelt, not just words, to remove walls and restore unity.  

🎵 Mary’s costly anointing of Jesus models sacrificial love and faith despite criticism.

 Key Insights  

🧩 Offense as a Catalyst for Spiritual and Relational Breakdown: The Disney story emphasizes how minor miscommunication or inconvenience can spiral into deep offense, producing bitterness, frustration, and broken relationships. Spiritually, such offenses open the door for the enemy to steal joy and peace. This suggests that everyday small conflicts are not trivial but can have long-term consequences if not addressed biblically.  

🔍 The Subtlety of Spiritual Attack: Using the analogy of “Swiper, no swiping,” Pastor Gladys highlights how Satan’s attacks often come disguised as minor irritations or offenses that seem insignificant but accumulate damage. This insight encourages believers to remain vigilant not only against obvious spiritual battles but also the small, persistent challenges that erode faith and unity.  

⚖️ Offense vs. Defense: Both Are Harmful: The talk distinguishes offense as an aggressive pursuit to “win” an argument or justify feelings, and defense as reactive guarding against perceived threats. Both mindsets foster conflict and hinder spiritual growth. The ideal spiritual posture is neither offensiveness nor defensiveness but humility, forgiveness, and trust in God’s justice. This challenges the common instinct to “fight back” or “shut down” when hurt.  

❤️ Agape Love as the Antidote to Offense: The contrast between agape and fileo love reveals that only unconditional love—rooted in God’s grace—can truly heal offenses. Fileo love, which depends on reciprocity and can be withdrawn, perpetuates cycles of hurt and offense. Cultivating agape love requires embracing God’s forgiveness and extending grace even when it’s undeserved or unreciprocated.  

🛠️ Walls and Fences as Metaphors for Unforgiveness: The imagery of walls (complete barriers) and fences (partial barriers) illustrates how unresolved offenses block vision, limit transparency, and stunt relationship growth. These barriers prevent believers from experiencing full spiritual freedom and unity. The insight is that forgiveness involves actively knocking down these barriers to restore open fellowship.  

🙏 Forgiveness Is Both a Command and a Process: Pastor Gladys underscores that forgiveness is not merely a one-time declaration but a continual process involving prayer, humility, and letting God heal emotional wounds. Partial forgiveness, where offense still lingers, is ineffective and keeps believers trapped. This deepens the understanding that forgiveness requires spiritual discipline and dependence on the Holy Spirit.  

💡 Transformation Over Information: Finally, the message warns against a shallow Christianity that focuses on knowledge or religious activity without real heart transformation. True Christian maturity is characterized by embodying the fruit of the Spirit—love, patience, gentleness—and living out forgiveness and grace in daily relationships. This calls believers to reflect on their own hearts and responses rather than merely accumulating theological facts.

This sermon weaves a relatable personal story with profound biblical teaching to challenge listeners to confront offenses and forgiveness in their lives. It urges believers to reject offense and defense as spiritual traps and instead embrace agape love and full forgiveness empowered by the Holy Spirit. The vivid metaphors and scriptural examples provide both warning and hope: offenses will come, but through Christ, they need not steal your joy, peace, or spiritual gifts. The call is to live mature, grace-filled faith marked by humility, reconciliation, and unconditional love.