MORE THAN CONQUERORS:
Staying Strong in a Sinking World!
Part 3
“Overcoming Offenses”
2 Cor. 2:10-11 NKJV “Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, 11 lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
If you were to ask me what Satan’s number one most successful weapon is against Christians and churches, without hesitating I would say OFFENSES.
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Now, in the NT the word “OFFENSE” can mean several things.
For instance, Jesus said that He came not to bring peace but a sword—meaning the gospel would bring offense and division.
Matt 11:6 “And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.”
So first, there is OFFENSE over the gospel of Christ.
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And then Offense also refers to a person who seeks to trip up a believer in their walk with Jesus through something like false teaching or temptation.
In Matthew 16:23 Jesus tells Peter “You are an offense to me” because Peter had tried dissuading Jesus from God’s will by not going to the Cross.
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The Apostle Paul warns us to be careful of causing an offense that causes a brother or sister to stumble:
1 Cor. 10:32 “Don’t give offense to Jews or Gentiles or the church of God.”
In other words, Do your best to never give someone a reason to turn aside from the right path.
Jesus warned in Mark 9:42, “Whosoever shall cause one of these little ones that believe on me to stumble (be offended), to fall away from the faith, or fall into sin, it would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large millstone hung around your neck.”
So there is the OFFENSE of the gospel, and there is the OFFENSE of causing someone to stumble and sin.
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But there’s one more type of offense I want to focus on today that carries the meaning of “making someone angry, to do harm to, to wound, or to hurt them.”
This kind of offense is when someone says or does something that angers, wounds, or hurts us and we become OFFENDED.
The Greek word for offense is skandalon.
We get our English words scandal and scandalize from skandalon.
In the Greek world Skandalon referred to the bait in a trap.
—The offense is the bait.
In a mousetrap we would say it’s the cheese.
The mouse has no idea as he begins nibbling on the cheese that a trap is about to snap down on his head.
So when someone says or does something that offends us it is like the cheese in a trap.
A lot of times we don’t even realize we’re being set up for offense by the devil’s carefully concealed trap.
Christians rarely stop to consider that to harbor an offense is to allow themselves to be pulled into a trap set by Satan.
Jesus spoke a WOE over those that become ensnared by offenses:
“It is inevitable that offenses will come, but woe to the one through whom they come!”—Luke 17:1
So the question is—When offended will you bite the bait and be trapped by the offense?
Or will you refuse to take the bait and respond like the Bible teaches?
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Now, here’s the deal:
There is no way that you or I will ever be able to achieve and sustain a strong inner man if we choose to harbor a grudge, unforgiveness, or bitterness over an offense.
Notice in our text how Paul links failing to forgive with Satan “getting an advantage” over us.
“…lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.”
The idea is that to carry a spirit of offense is to give the devil the upper hand, enabling him to cheat you from God’s best!
The NIV says, “in order that Satan might not outwit us.”
NLT “…so that Satan will not outsmart us.”
ERV “so that Satan would not win anything from us. We know very well what his plans are.”
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So what are his plans?
Our adversary’s plan with an offense is to dive bomb our walk with Jesus by turning our focus off of Him and onto an offense.
Now, let me give you a few signs that characterize an offended person.
The number one sign is:
I. Division
Offense brings division.
It is Satan’s favorite weapon to divide and conquer a marriage, a business, a church, and so on.
We see this in Proverbs 18:19 “A brother offended (pasha) is harder to be won than a strong city, contentions are like the bars of a castle.”
Offense puts bars between you and your offender.
We say, “I can’t believe they said that, did that, went there!”—and the bars go up!
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Now, when an offense happens you have a decision to make—Either to forgive and go on, or to sow discord and trouble out of your offended heart.
If you or I choose to harbor the offense it will follow this pattern—First, you will:
NURSE IT by coddling it rather than dealing with it.
REHEARSE IT by continuously recalling in your mind how the offense went down.
—And then finally you will:
DISPERSE IT by spreading the offense to others in hopes of getting them on “your side.”
“Without wood a fire goes out; without a gossip strife dies down.”—Prov. 26:20
NLV “When there is no wood, the fire goes out. Where there is no one telling secret stories about others, strife stops.”
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DISPERSION of the offense brings division every time!
It creates an “us” against “them” scenario.
The offender and his team, against the offended and their team.
This is deadly for the body of Christ because the church’s strength is in unity!
Hence, Paul warns us in Romans 16:17,
“Mark them that are causing the divisions and occasions of stumbling, contrary to the teaching which you learned, and avoid them.”
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The spirit of offense also:
II. Destroys love
Listen to what Jesus said:
“Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.”—Matthew 24:9-10
Offense spawns hatred and betrayal rather than love!
The Pharisees and Sadducees were so offended by Jesus it made them go crazy to the point they wanted Him dead.
I have seen this first hand with people I know.
An offense goes down for whatever reason and they…
nurse it,
rehearse it,
and then, driven by anger and resentment,
they disperse it, drawing others into their offense,
and confusion and division are always the tragic result!
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So How can we overcome offense? Two ways:
First:
FORGIVENESS is the number one go-to response to an offense.
Whether the offense was unintended,
Or it was intentional and nasty, forgiveness will immediately break its power.
—Forgiveness is offense’s kryptonite!
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And secondly:
As I once heard someone say, Eat some humble pie!
Remind yourself that you haven’t always done the right thing either.
And when YOU failed you needed the forgiveness and mercy of others—Now it’s your turn!
Eph. 4:32 “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
Forgiveness and humility are righteous cousins!
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Are you offended today?