Note: These are some notes from last Sundays sermon.. so I apologize if they are not clear... ask me what I meant if it's not clear!
Offended. Offending, offensive...
Being Offended is not a cool thing.. According to John Bevere in “The Bait of Satan” the word offense means bait.
ok I like definitions so:
offense: annoyance or resentment brought about by a perceived insult to or disregard for oneself or one's standards or principles.
wow a PERCEIVED insult or perceived disregard… hmmm what sort of perceptions do you have to have for this to happen?
Bait:food used to entice fish or other animals as prey. or deliberately annoy or taunt (someone).
so when we “take offense” we are really taking the bait by choosing to perceive some wrong doing. or annoyance.
Face it most of us get annoyed over stupid things… Starbucks “red cup season” anyone? please! but what does that mean? If we are offended then we are NOT looking to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. how can I say that.. well perception: a way of regarding, understanding, or interpreting something; a mental impression. or of using our senses to beware of something… if we are looking only to Him then how can we look at others and be offended by what they do or don’t do or say?
Seriously, is it possible?
can I be offended with someone if I am looking at them through Jesus’ eyes?
You know what? it doesn’t matter if what someone says is wrong… or if what they do is wrong, or where they are going is wrong… I have to look at them with the love of Jesus. See God didn’t give us the permission to judge others, he gave us a directive to love one another. In fact he went so far as to say “by this shall they know you are my disciples, that you love one another” How can we assume that it’s ok for us to be offended?
Now I will say this, Jesus through the Holy Spirit, will convict people of wrong doing. Jesus will redirect people, Jesus will guide people… my job is to love people and in loving them lift the name of Jesus so that all people will be drawn to him.
Now back to offense and bait...
Bait is something that we want! We want that juicy bit of information, that tasty treat of insider news, that little snack of personal information… it doesn’t matter what it is, bait is something that we are looking for… if we don’t have our eyes on Jesus. We will see the bait, take the bait and SLAM caught in the trap! then we are offended at someone, because of what they did, or didn’t do, at Jesus because he didn’t keep us out of the trap, etc...
However… I’m reminded of a story about REv. James Wright. At Maranatha Fellowship in St. Albans, WV he had one of his parishioners bring in a dozen or so still-jaw traps. The kind used to catch animals for the fur trade, maybe some bear traps, I don’t know but they were all nasty. You wouldn’t want to get your hand or foot caught in them. They put those traps all over the platform, you could walk through them if you knew how to sep and where to put your feet. Then Rev. Wright called for young boy, 4 or 5 maybe to come up on the platform. Rev. Wright was on one side then the traps in the middle and the boy on the other side.
Rev Wright asked the boy if he trusted him. The boy said yes...
Rev. Wright had someone blindfold the boy, and turn him around like in blind mans bluff...
He then told the boy, remember its dangerous between you and me, but I am going to talk you through the traps till you get to my side.
The congregation gasped and said no, pastor, you can’t...
Rev Wright asked the boy, “ Would it be easier to get across if someone held your hand and walked you through?” The boy nodded, Rev Wright said how about if that someone was your daddy? and the boy smiled and nodded, his daddy had placed all the traps… Then Rev Wright said, how about if he carries you to me? The Daddy had come up and and this point picked the little boy up and carried him through the traps to Pastor wright who then hugged and kissed him, and assured the congregation that he wouldn’t have had him walk through the traps EVER it was an example!
God wants us to walk past the bait which will get us caught in the traps of the enemy. Offense is that bait, we get offended and then we are stuck at that point of offense, much like a wild animal is caught in a trap, we can’t escape… if we try to escape ourselves we have to gnaw off a foot.. it hurts, it’s painful and most of us can’t imagine doing that so we lay there trying not to focus on the pain caused by the trap that we got caught in because of some stupid offense. God wants to talk us through the traps, but He knows we can’t make it.. he knows that we have to have someone to hold out hand… or better yet to carry us. Jesus can see the traps plainly, he can walk through them without getting caught, and He is willing to carry us so that we will be safe.. we simply have to trust him!
In this day and age its SO easy to get offended politics, religion, money, money and politics, health, morality, ideology, sports, people even get offended over which Americas Got talent act is best or got more votes.
Offence is everywhere.. there is so much of it that you would think that the traps would be all gummed up.. but when we get offended, we are stuck… as I said before stuck right there we can’t move on no matter how we try. we are injured, and chained to the spot where the one who set the trap can come at his leisure and kill us...
Part of the problem with offense is that once we have taken the bait once.. we tend to take it again and again and again… we tend to simply eat ourselves full of the bait and that just makes us sicker and sicker...
so what do we do? how do we NOT be offended? on one hand it’s simple, on the other it’s VERY hard.
If we can keep our eyes on Jesus, then we won’t be hungry because He will feed us, we won’t get caught by the bait of offense we will be too focused on Him. This is hard. the “real” world tends to throw us under the buss, people do things that anger us that make us legitimately upset, or angry. legitimate because it’s something that they do TO us… at us or whatever… however, Jesus wants us to Love one another.
ok you say, but he said by this shall men know that YOU are my disciples that you love one another… true if someone isn’t his disciple then how can we love them? The old testament said and Jesus reaffirmed “Love your neighbor as yourself “ is the second greatest commandment! see we must love our neighbors. it’s hard to say something nasty about someone you love. It’s hard to do something mean to someone you love, it’s hard to accuse someone you love of wrong doing.. in other words if you love, then you will have a very difficult time getting offended. If you are eating the fruit of the spirit then that old dried up chunk of cheese or stinky piece of rotten meat doesn’t look nearly as enticing, and you simply avoid the trap!
so remember, offense is a choice. We take the bait and then we are stuck. The devil wants us stuck so that we aren’t following Jesus...
Now one more thing, if you find yourself in a place of offense… it’s hard, the only thing you can do is to forgive those who you are offended at… you don’t have to say anything to them. chances are they don’t know they offended you. However forgive them, and then climb into Jesus arms and let Him carry you past the traps and pitfalls.
My peace I give to you!
