Warning: Trip Hazard Ahead

People are hard

Put your seatbelt on, buckle up, here we go. It’s relationally number three, because people are hard. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that, but we’ve noticed. People are hard. Pretty much everywhere you go, and so all this month we’ve been diving into the scripture to see what God tells us about how we walk life out with people because we need people.

The first thing that God said was not good was that mankind would be alone, and that’s right at the beginning. Pastor David talked to us in week one about how we manage these relationships, and not everybody gets a key to your life. We can be friendly to all kinds of people, to all people, but we may not be friends with all people, and that’s okay. If you if you have kids, you know this. Some of y’all do. Y’all like being in trouble. I knew a man one time, I worked with him. He liked stirring things up and keeping people agitated. Mm-mm, no. No. I don’t like being in trouble, and I want to stay out of it.

And this morning, I believe that Jesus has a, he has some insider kingdom truth for us that we need it’s a warning. It’s a warning, and Jesus gives us warnings throughout scripture. And the warning is not straighten up and fly right. How many of you had parents that use that one? My parents, straighten up and fly right. I’m like, I can’t fly. Okay. My dad would say to my sister and I, as we’re bickering, well, she started it, well, she did this, and he would just say in his loud, booming voice, and I’m gonna finish it. Hear that one? Yeah.

And I don’t think that’s the way that Jesus means this warning. It isn’t straighten up and fly right, or else it isn’t get it together, or I’m coming after you. It’s hey, there’s danger ahead. There’s a yellow blinking light. That there’s danger ahead relationally. And I want to give you what you need to avoid the danger. So the the question for us is: can we receive his warning? Will we will we take heed to that warning?

Warning there’s a trip hazard ahead

And that’s what I’ve really titled this is warning there’s a trip hazard ahead. I know you’ve seen this when you go places. You go into some places now, and there’s like yellow tape with black stripes right at the edge of the step. Why? Because they don’t want us to trip off the step. Right? You ever tripped off the step? I tripped off the step in my closet about four or five years ago. Had put something way up on the, and I thought I was on the bottom step, and I wasn’t on the bottom step. And when and I tripped coming off the stepladder and broke my foot. And Jesus is saying, I don’t want any broken feet, I don’t want you falling into a hole, I don’t want you getting into something before you even knew it was a thing, and you can’t find your way out of it.

So are you ready? Luke chapter 17, verse 1. Jesus said, then he said to the disciples, it is impossible. Jesus said something’s impossible. He said to the disciples, it is impossible, but that offenses will come. But woe unto him through whom they come.

Then he said to the disciples, it is impossible, but that offenses will come. But woe unto him through whom they come.

Jesus said, this is a warning. Do you get it? I’m telling you, he’s telling the disciples, and he’s telling us, I want you to know this. There are opportunities, and in fact, it’s going to happen. You’re going to have the opportunity to be offended. People will cause you to become offended. They might, some of them will do it on purpose. Most of them will not even know they did it. It comes primarily through words that people say or through words they don’t say, or actions that people take, or actions they didn’t take that we wish they had of. And we’re just as prone to causing an offense as we are to being offended.

It’s a warning. It’s a good warning. It’s for our benefit. He’s trying to keep us from running into something that is going to create great harm. Don’t you want that? I don’t want, I don’t want to run into something that I’m unaware of that I could have stopped. And so we get on the same page here. We’re talking about relationally because people are hard, number three, and we’re talking about being offended.

And here’s the definition. And you could add much to this, but just so we all get on the same page. And when you’re reading this, just very quietly try to locate in your own heart where this might be happening in you. Okay. This is not something that I can excuse myself from, and it’s not something you can excuse yourself from. So to be offended means this comes from biblical meanings. It means to cause, to stumble, or fall. In fact, in the verses of scripture that we’re gonna read later, sometimes it’ll use the word stumble, sometimes it’ll use the word false, sometimes it’ll use the word offend.

It means to see in another what I disapprove of. Let’s just hold there just a minute. Hold to see in another what I disapprove of. Every morning, every morning. I’m offended. I tell you this every time I speak. If you’re driving on tramway and you’re driving 35 or 40, drop down to U Bank. Do us all a favor. The speed limit on tramway is 50. 50. And if you can’t go 50, you don’t want to go 50, or your car doesn’t go 50, get out of the fast lane. And now, Lord, deliver me from my offendedness. I have to pray it every morning.

So to see in another what I disapprove of and what hinders me from acknowledging authority. So we get to this place, and we are in this place where I disapprove of something, and then I won’t acknowledge a person’s authority that is in authority because I disapprove. Okay. Have you identified anything yet? If not, here you go. To feel annoyed. Pretty much. I don’t know, just count it up today. How many times do you feel feel annoyed? Feel annoyed, displeased, or indignant because someone has been rude or shown disrespect. And this is a biblical meaning of offense. It literally means to entrap. And there’s bait inside the trap. And the little stick that will fall down and entrap the animal when they go after the bait is the word offense.

And this tells us something vitally important. This is Jesus revealing something to us. That all of these things that cause us to become annoyed and indignant and upset and angry at other people or other things, that there’s something more than the event or the person behind it. It’s a trap. And the trap is to keep you and I in that little box. Offended and live our whole lives. Upset, indignant, resentful, angry. That’s the purpose of it. And he’s giving us understand this about Jesus. He is revealing something of the kingdom of God. And we see here how he’s opening our eyes to yet one more way that the kingdom of God functions so very differently than the kingdoms of this world. And it functions so much better. Than the kingdoms of this world.

So he’s letting us know, Jesus, thank you, Jesus. He’s letting us know offense is going to come. There’s gonna come a day. It’s not here yet. So we’re not to this point yet. But he said there’s coming a day when the angels will gather out all causes offense of the earth, and they will be cast into fire. That hasn’t happened, and you and I do not have the authority to cast people into fire. Just to be clear. Okay. That’s a good thing. I mean, the disciples wanted to do that. You remember there at one time that they say, Jesus, let us call fire down from heaven and burn these people up. And he what did Jesus say? Hold up, boys. You don’t know what spirit you’re of.

So that day’s coming, but that day’s not now, and you and I don’t get to throw the fire, and we don’t get to decide who goes into the fire. But we do have an assignment from Jesus right now to recognize that offense is coming at us. And behind whatever the word or the action is or is not a trap. That’s right. And I I really believe if we can get this, that we won’t just take offense so much. It’s practice. And Jesus is giving us this insight because he’s equipping us so that we know and understand that we have a responsibility about how we respond to what is offensive to us. We’re not in control of other people. You can’t even control you. Come on. Think it through. You don’t want to be, and we’re not going to be.

So he’s helping us see that we have a responsibility, but we also have God’s help. This is not just straighten up and fly right. This is call on God for help so that we can move past this because God is calling us up to something higher. And Jesus not, he didn’t just reveal it, he didn’t just teach it, he lived it. He showed it. He showed us. And if you follow Jesus through the gospels, you will see this that Jesus was spit on, he was lied about, he was slandered, he was betrayed, he was abandoned by his friends, he was stripped naked publicly, he endured the cruelty of the cross, he was murdered, and among his very last words, Father, forgive them. So what do I say? Help me. Because I can’t do that without God’s help. And he knew we couldn’t do it without his help. So he’s revealing things, he’s teaching things, and he’s empowering us to live this way.

So let’s look at these verses of scripture. You ready to fly? Proverbs 17, 9. These four verses I’m gonna read are written by King Solomon. Remember this that King Solomon had prayed and had been granted by God the supernatural wisdom of God. So when we read the words of Solomon in the book of Proverbs and in the book of Ecclesiastes, we’re reading the wisdom that Solomon gained from God. Can you and I agree we need the wisdom of God to live in right relationship with God and with other people? Amen. We’re in agreement. So this is what he said.

Proverbs 17 9. He who covers and forgives an offen and offense seeks love. But he who repeats or harps on a matter separates even close friends.

I’m just gonna read. Okay? You’re all right? Everybody okay?

Proverbs 19 11. Good sense makes a man restrain his anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression or offense.

Oh no, I ain’t doing that. Nope. Well, you’re not acting of the nobility that God has made you. And it has to be learned. And I’m telling you, this is a hard, this is a hard course. It’ll take us all our lives.

Ecclesiastes 7 9. Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

Okay, just in case you’re not familiar with Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, you don’t want to be on any part of the scripture that God is describing as a fool. That’s no. Just do the opposite of that, and you’ll probably be good.

Ecclesiastes 10 4 gentleness and calmness prevent or put a stop to offense.

And church, I just want you to recognize that the world that we are living in does not believe and does not function in one bit of those four scriptures that we just read. It’s not their world, it’s our world. It’s kingdom of God world.

Offended a national sport

And so I have three points for you. The first point is offended a national sport. Last Sunday was the Super Bowl. Very boring to most of us. But I’m telling you that this sport of being offended, it doesn’t have one season. It goes year-round. It’s in media, it’s in antisocial media. I’m renaming it. It is anti-social media largely fueled by the antichrist spirit. It’s right in front of us. It might be being played out in your house every day. It never stops.

And I want us to understand the scripture talks about it this way. We even say it this way culturally. Well, I take offense at that. Uh-huh. Offense is something we take. It’s offered to us, and Jesus said it will be offered and it will not stop being offered. It’s out there. We you and I, we have opportunity to be annoyed, disgusted, indignant, resentful, offended multiple times every single day, and we get to choose whether we take the offense or we don’t. And self-justification, and you can’t treat me like that, is our default mode. And so, in order for us to not just react, we’re gonna have to learn something different. So we’re not living reactionary, we’re living responsive to the spirit of the living God who lives on the inside of us. Y’all okay?

The Constitution of the United States give gives us the right to freedom of speech. We hear this daily right now, so we believe that means that we can say anything, no matter how offensive or untrue it is because it is my protected right to express my feelings. That is the Constitution of the United States. Being offended really and truly has become a national sport. We are perpetually, perpetually solicited to get on this side or on this side. Pick this side. We we are we and here’s the purpose to get you or I on this side so that we love people that are like us and we hate people that are not like us. And it’s being very effective. This sport.

This world no longer believes that we can have a difference of opinion without being hateful and divisive and even violent and justified in opposing people that we disagree with. We see it, it’s listen, no longer do we just hear about it, no longer do we just read about it in a newspaper. We see it, we see acts of hatred, we see acts of violence many, many, many times in one day, and then we have a voice behind that, those pictures and that video that are telling you what to think about it. And which side to choose, and both sides are doing that.

You do not need anybody to tell you what to think. You need, and I need to get more curious about what God says about every single matter. Don’t go to chat GBT first. Don’t go to social media or your friends or the media or whoever your favorite commentator is. Please, please, please go to your Bible. Well, I don’t know where to start. Matthew is a really good place. And watch what Jesus does. He’s our example. He will teach us. People said the most cruel lying things about Jesus, and you’ll see how he reacted and how he responded.

Family, I’m asking you to quit this sport. Not many takers. This national sport is killing our nation. It’s killing it. It’s not the Republicans, it’s not the Democrats, it’s not the Independents. It’s the division. The constant perpetual offended spirit is killing our nation. It will kill your family and it will kill your faith. And I’m asking you to quit. Quit this sport. Don’t participate and don’t spectate. Sell your season tickets. Because there’s a better way. And the better way is God.

Let’s see what Isaiah had to say about this national tendency. It didn’t start with the good old USA. Isaiah chapter eight, verse eleven through fourteen from the Passion Translation says,

The Lord’s mighty hand rested on me, and he warned me with these words.

Are you getting it? The Lord’s hand warned me. It’s a warning. It’s a warning to keep us out of trouble. It’s a warning to get us on God’s path and not off path.

The Lord’s mighty hand rested on me, and he warned me with these words. Not to act like these people. Don’t believe their every conspiracy rumor.

You think your Bible isn’t relevant. Don’t believe. Some of us are living lives fueled by conspiracies. You’re a believer. You’re in this world, but you’re not of this world. And if that’s your fuel, you’re slowly but surely killing your body, your brain cells, and your spirituality. There’s no life in it. No life. No life.

Don’t believe there every conspiracy rumor. And don’t fear what they fear. Don’t be moved or terrified.

Good grief that you know the kingdom of darkness operates and functions on fear. That’s right. So every new fear, every new day, we have a new thing that we’re supposed to be afraid of. And he says, don’t fear what they fear. The kingdom of darkness operates on fear, hatred, and violence. And the kingdom of God operates on love. Which kingdom do you want to live in? I want to live within God’s kingdom. And I don’t want it to, I don’t want to wait till I die and go to heaven. I want to live in God’s kingdom now. And he said, the kingdom of God is within you. That’s right. So we can’t be mixing that all up in there. It’s tough, isn’t it?

Fear nothing and no one except Yahweh, commander of angel armies. Honor him as holy. Be in awe before him with deepest reverence. He will become for you a holy sanctuary. But for them who do not believe, Jesus becomes a stone people trip over. He is a rock that causes the two houses of Israel to stumble, a trap and a snare for the people of Jerusalem. Many will stumble and fall and be broken. Yes, they will be snared and taken away captive.

People have been stumbling at Jesus before he got here. They stumbled at him when he was on the planet and they are still stumbling. They’re still offended at Jesus. And you and I we choose. Are we gonna fear everything the world fears, or are we gonna fear and stand in awe and reverence and hope and faith and expectation of God? Am I gonna stumble over the words of Jesus, or am I gonna say, this is hard, I don’t get it, I need help. That’s right. Because I can’t do this on my own. And thankfully, we do have the help of God.

Matthew chapter 11, verse 6, Jesus said this,

And blessed is he who takes no offense at me and is not hindered from seeing the truth.

Did you catch that? If we live offended, we are hindered from seeing the truth. So we’re still in this national sport of being offended, one side at the other, and we think our side has the truth. Nope, neither side has the truth. Because living offended and preying upon people and offending people every single day hinders both sides from seeing the truth. Not my words, God’s. So if you hang with me just a little bit longer, I’ll give you some answers to some of the questions, swirling and arguing. This is this is amazing to me that when we hear the scripture, we start debating in our minds. When we just need to be saying, God help me see this, help me do this, help me understand this, increase my understanding. Because this is not the world I live in. And God knows that. You know, Jesus lived in this world. He gets it.

What about justice?

So point number two, what about justice? What about justice? We have so conflated justice and anger, particularly in this nation, but in many nations. They are so conflated. They work to us, they have to work together or they don’t work. We think if we’re not angry and offended that we don’t we can’t do the right thing. You gotta get angry at the wrong thing before you can do the right thing. Just do the right thing. Just do the right thing. That’s what God says. That’s what Jesus says.

Listen, I’m telling you, this is a lie of the enemy. It is the way the world operates. Get offended, get angry, and then go do something good. Do you know most research shows this that most of the people that are the angriest, the loudest protesting on the corner, yelling and screaming on behalf of some group or person that they deem defenseless, does nothing. To help the people that they’re protesting for. They don’t go serve in any way, they don’t give any money, they certainly don’t pray, they just scream. That’s right. Well, I think protest can be helpful. Read Proverbs. Dig it out. You can dig it out.

So what about justice? The world and sometimes even the church tells us if we aren’t angry about an unjust situation, that we’re simply passively accepting it. Silence is violence. That is not biblical. We did not get that from the Bible. Justice and forgiveness are both biblical truths. And you and I cannot just pick one. We have used and we have been trained well by this world to be angry about injustice and have nothing to do with forgiveness. You see how much more complex God’s way is.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said I must not harbor anger. We are supposed to recognize injustice. God does. God is a just God. So we should recognize it. Not just on our side. But for everybody. We should grieve it. We should act against it. And we can do all of that without rage, without malice, without anger, and without violence. We just do the right thing. You have a lot more energy to do good.

Listen, we can and we must confess to God when we’re hurt, when we’re wounded, when we’ve been mistreated, when we’ve been abused. Humans do horrible, horrendous, demonic things to other humans. That’s reality. Will it anger you? Yeah. And then you’re going to have to decide what to do with the anger. Because he who keeps anger in his soul is a fool. That’s right, that’s right. Not my words. We think we can’t do anything good unless we’re good and angry about it, but you know what? Your anger will run out. And when your anger, especially when that flare-up of anger runs out, you won’t have any fuel.

Where if you operate and we get motivated by God, and we get motivated by God’s love for people to stand up for the defenseless, stand up for the voiceless, help people that need help. You know, you can help somebody that needs help by feeding them, giving them clothing, by giving them good advice, good counsel, and that’ll do a lot more than standing on the corner with your signs screaming at cars that pass by. What are you gonna do with it? So, well, I don’t know. I think I know you like that. I know. I grew up with people like that. Another 70-year-old hippie still protesting everything. Y’all look sad. There’s a bunch of them on the corner at Ventura and Paseo a couple. I’m like, y’all, you retired, and this is what you’re gonna do? Stand on the corner with your hate Trump signs. Go down to the food bank and serve some people. Come on, do something good.

Micah 6 8. He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.

God has shown us what’s good. We don’t decide what’s good. God knows what’s good.

And what does the Lord require of you to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God?

Act justly, love mercy, walk humbly. This isn’t pick one. This is all three. And I’m telling you, we cannot do this without God’s help and without God’s spirit.

James 1, 19 and 20 says, understand this. We need understanding, don’t we? We’ve been trained by the world. I want you to know this. We are in this world. The world has systems that are breaking down. And they have trained us to function in their systems. But the systems of this world are not the way of God. And we’re called to live in this world, but not of this world. So while we’re in this world, we need understanding that does not come from this world. But it comes, our understanding comes from a higher place, a better place, a place that works. God’s kingdom.

James 1, 19 and 20. Understand this, my beloved brethren.

So he’s writing to the church. Got it? Say it’s for me.

Let every man, this is human, let every man be quick to hear, a ready listener.

Okay, right there. There’s a lot of talking, but there’s not a lot of listening. While you’re talking, I’m not, I’m kind of listening. Wives know this, right? You’re talking. He’s nodding. But if you give a pop quiz on what you just said, Marshall have a word or two. He will, usually. But we’re while someone else is talking, we’re thinking about what we’re gonna say. That’s not the kind of listening we need to be doing. We need to hear people’s hearts. God hears hearts.

So be quick to hear, a ready listener, slow to speak, slow to take offense, and get angry. For man’s anger does not promote the righteousness God wishes and requires.

Did you get that? Man’s anger does not produce the righteousness of God. And just because we’re Christians, it doesn’t mean that all of our anger became righteous. Well, I have righteous anger. Well, what are you doing with it? And if you can find me a scripture that uses righteous anger, bring it to me. Well, Ephesians chapter 4 says, be angry and sin not. And five verses later, it says, get rid of anger. Come on, right. When he says sin not, it means don’t keep it. You get angry, but you let it go. Get it out of you. You get offended, but you get it out of you. You get you get upset, get it out of you, and not by shooting somebody. Or shooting off your mouth, or texting, dear God, or posting. Stop. Stop. Stop, stop.

Luke 6 27, and this is I’m telling you, this one, I’m like, I cannot do this without God. Jesus talking,

But I say to you who are listening now to me, in order to heed.

In other words, we’re listening to hear it and to do it. And to make it a practice.

Love your enemies.

What? What? How love your enemies. You notice he did not say you don’t have any enemies. He didn’t say everybody, just be friends with everybody. No. He identifies. He has enemies and we have enemies.

Love your enemies. Treat well and do good to and act nobly towards those who detest you and pursue you with hatred. Invoke blessings upon and pray for the happiness of those who curse you. Implore God’s blessing upon those who abuse you, who revile, reproach, disparage, and high-handedly abuse you.

And to that I say, dear God in heaven, I need help. Family, this is completely antithetical to everything that we live in. But it’s the way of God. In verse 37 of that same chapter of Luke 6, he says,

Judge not and you won’t be judged. Don’t condemn and you will not be condemned. Forgive and release, give up resentment and let it drop.

Listen, there’s a lot of things that we get offended at that are really petty. They are. They’re just can if you can’t admit it about you, admit it about the person next. You get you get upset about petty things. You should stop that. And if we tell each other that, then maybe we’ll all let some of the pettiness go, right? So really, really, that’s a great place to start practicing this. There’s just no reason to live that way.

But then there are horrific, horrible, abusive things that are done to people. And when God says to you that have been treated that way, when he says, give it up, let it drop, he is not saying it’s no big deal. Just let it go. That’s not what he’s saying. I know that was evil. It was wrong. That should not have happened. That should not have been done to you. It was done to him also. He knows what it feels like. And he knows how deep that wound is in you. He is not making light of it. He is not glossing over it. But he is also the healer of the crushed and the broken. And he’ll say to us, if you will come to me with that, I’ll help you to see that what I’ve done for you and what I will do for you will be far greater than what was done to you. Thank you, Lord. It will be.

And then you can take a deep breath. And you can put your shoulders back and you can get back up on your feet and you can walk through life. And you can begin do what this, what Jesus said in Luke 6. You can pray for that person. You don’t have to be friends with them. You don’t have to let them back into your house. You don’t have to subject yourself to that mistreatment. But you can pray, Lord God, I pray that every single day that the Holy Spirit is working upon their heart to bring them to repentance, to show them a different way to live. Why? Because God wants all men saved. And he gives all of us the opportunity to repent from our vile, evil wickedness. And he will continue to do that. And if they don’t repent, he will repay. You don’t get to repay. You don’t get to take vengeance. And there ain’t no vengeance like God’s.

Be men and women of justice. We don’t always see that. But it can still be a case that criminals should be taken to court. And you can do all of that without anger, without offense. You can just say this was wrong, it needs to be righted. Keep your heart clean, keep your heart pure. I’m gonna show you in the last point why that’s so important. But you know what? Even if the justice system doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, God says that every person that is a judge will be held accountable for their judgments. That’s right. That’s right. And he will still take care of the offender that didn’t repent. But instead of you being chained to them for the rest of your life and barely living, you can be unchained from what they did, and you can go on living. The life God had for you.

Shouldn’t we stand up for people? Shouldn’t we advocate for people? Absolutely. Did you know you can do that without being angry? You can do it just because it’s the right thing to do, it’s the loving thing to do, it’s what Jesus did. But be aware of this. If Satan can’t get you offended, he will get you offended with someone else’s offense. So we have to learn how to advocate on other people’s behalf without becoming offended on their behalf. Mom and dad, you gotta watch this with your kids. Somebody will say something to one of your kids at school, and you’ll be ready to bomb the school. Nope. Nope, Pastor David’s not gonna bail you out of jail. Don’t do that.

Advocates for the poor are expected to hate the rich. Advocates are for women are expected to hate men. Advocates for the oppressed think it’s right to become the oppressors. None of that is the way of God. It’s not the way of God, it’s the way of the accuser. And if he can get you on that path, he will trap you in that place, and it will block the life of God and the power of God from flowing into you and through you as God intended. You say, Well, I don’t think that can happen. Well, it happened in Nazareth. The people of Jesus’ hometown, they at first they were all excited about him. They were like, wait, we know this kid. What does it say? They got so offended. That’s the word at Jesus, that he could do no mighty work in their midst.

People are always asking us, why do you think there’s so few miraculous things happening? Well, here’s one reason. Because we have been trained by this world, and sometimes even the church, that it is somehow godly to live our lives angry, upset, resentful, offended, and unforgiving. And all of that will block what God intends to do in us and through us.

The price of living in offense is too high

And that brings me to my last and final point. The price of living in offense is too high. It’s too high. You guys, many of you that know me, I love shopping. Although right now it’s pathetic everywhere. I love going to a beautiful mall and shopping. I just love it. It’s like air to me. Energizing. Even if I don’t buy anything, I like it. But even in that setting, there are stores that I will not go in. I don’t even go in them because I know their prices are too high. Even if I could, I’m not going to. It costs too much. I’m not spending my money that way. And that’s how we need to get about offense. It’s costly. It’s deadly.

Jesus said in Matthew chapter 24, He’s when they said, What will be the sign of your coming, Jesus in Matthew 24? He said, many, many things among this. And then the many will be offended. Who’s he talking about? The world? He’s talking about the church.

Many church people will be offended and repelled and begin to distrust and desert him.

Who? Jesus, who they ought to trust and obey.

And they will stumble and fall away and betray one another and pursue one another with hatred. And the love of the great body of people will grow cold because of the multiplied lawlessness and iniquity. But he who endures to the end will be saved.

Amen. It’s deadly.

He says the sower goes out to sow. He tells us there’s four different kinds of soil. And then he tells us this that the seed that is sown is the word of God, and the soil is the heart. And there are four different kinds of hearts there, and we all have these conditions in our heart. We all do. In the seed to bring forth the fruit of God for the glory of God in the life of the believer. Do you get that? The seed of the word of God has all the power of God in it to produce the fruit of God through the life of the believer. Depending on the kind of soil it goes into the condition of the heart.

And the second kind of soil he talks about there is the stony heart. And the stony heart, he says that the people receive all of the people, all kinds, all four hearts are hearing the word of God. We’re hearing it. The second kind of heart, that seed goes into a heart that he calls stony. We know this because we live in the desert. Isn’t it crazy that you can have a bunch of rocks and there will be a little thing coming up through the rocks? Marshall and I have we about four, we have about four big boulders in our backyard. And every spring, through a boulder that is this thick, there will be a little green thing that comes up through the boulder. It’s crazy.

So we get stony heart, right? The seed goes in, the word goes in, he says we receive it, it makes us happy, we’re joyful, we’re excited about it, and then something happens, and we get ticked off, and we get bent out of shape, and we get mad and we get angry and we get offended, and that beautiful green little sapling that had just started coming up in our hearts dies, withers and dies. No fruit of God because the heart got angry and bitter. But guess what? When the seed of the word died, the heart didn’t stop producing. The heart kept producing. And there was put in the heart with the offense, as it is with every offense that we keep a root. A root goes down into every heart. And it’s a root of bitterness. And the root of bitterness will keep producing. It just produces, it doesn’t really even need any help. It just keeps producing.

When I’m holding on to an offense, it is negatively affecting every relationship in my life. It’s my affecting, it’s affecting my relationship with my family. And Paul or the the writer of Hebrews writes to us, the church in Hebrews chapter 12, verse 15, and he says,

This look after one another, look after one another, in order that no root of bitterness, resentment, rancor, bitterness, or hatred shoots forth and causes trouble and bitter torment, and the many become contaminated and defiled by it.

Family, it costs too much for me to stay upset, angry at the president, the Republicans, the Democrats, my neighbor, my family, my ex. It costs too much. I’m not, I’m not willing to pay that price to give up eternity with God to give up my peace for today. Or this family. Jersey. I’m not. I gotta know the way of God.

And if you notice in every single one of these, the opposite is love. And it’s not ooyooey Valentine candy love. It’s not red roses and balloons love. No, no, no, no. This is the God kind of love that ain’t nothing like we call love. So whenever you get offended, get back into your Bible and read about the miraculous love of God for humanity. It won’t make you okay with wrong, it will make you hate what’s wrong, and it’ll make you pray for your enemy so that right, the right of God can prevail.

I’ve said this to you numerous times, but I want you to know the scripture that

Galatians 5 15 says, if you bite and devour each other, watch out, or you will destroy each other.

I don’t think we should destroy our nation. I don’t think one party can save it. I know God doesn’t want us to destroy our families, He doesn’t want us to destroy our churches. We need each other, we need to be in right relationship with God, and then we need to learn and help each other. Be relating rightly to one another. If you see somebody getting bitter because of maybe something horrible, pray for them, but talk to them gently, lovingly.

I believe this morning that God wants us to help people. You’ve stumbled and you’ve fallen. Maybe you’re offended at somebody in the room. Maybe you’re offended somebody in your family. Maybe you’re offended at the whole world. Or worse yet, maybe you’re offended at God. God’s not offended at you. He loves you. And he has a hand out to help you up. When you fall down, he wants to help you get back up. When you stumble over something that you know is wrong, it’s evil, it’s not right, it’s not fair. God wants to steady you so you don’t fall down. You don’t trip and break something.