https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Offense.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text Matthew 15:21-28<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I. We live in a society with a chip on its shoulder<\/p>\n
A. People are looking for reasons to complain and to blame.<\/p>\n B. Say the wrong word and you will find your job in jeopardy, close friends will\nsplit, or long standing members of the church will leave in a huff – never to\nreturn.\n
C. Paul once insulted people from the isle of Crete – Titus 1:12-13<\/p>\n
1. If a preacher said that about your home state, would you get up and leave?<\/p>\n
II. Christians are not to give offense<\/p>\n
A. I Corinthians 10:32-33 – Do not offend Jews, Greeks, or Christians<\/p>\n
B. However, today we have lost sight of the meaning of offense.<\/p>\n 1. Today, anything I don’t like or I feel demeans my position in anyway is\nconsidered offensive.\n 2. People have called, as offense, the use of a pitch-pipe, to men having\nbeards, to the lack of a suit-coat when serving the Lord’s Supper.\n C. The word offense is a translation of the Greek word ‘skandalizo’ (verb) and\n‘skandalon’ (noun), which means a trap or a snare\n
1. The young man who visits a harlot – Proverbs 7:23<\/p>\n
2. Psalms 106:36 – Idol worship becomes a snare<\/p>\n 3. Comfort and peace at the wrong time can be a trap – Psalms 69:22,\nEcclesiastes 9:12\n
4. The desire for wealth can be a snare – I Timothy 6:9<\/p>\n D. As Christians, our duty is to lead people to Christ – not to drive them away into\nsin.\n
1. Wicked people cause others to stumble – Romans 14:20-21<\/p>\n
2. II Corinthians 6:3 – Give no offense so the ministry is not discredited<\/p>\n 3. An offended brother (“caused to rebel”) is hard to be won. – Proverbs\n18:19\n
III. Yet, as much as we may try to live peaceably, we will offend people<\/p>\n
A. Luke 17:1-2 – We all sin and at times our sins will drive others away.<\/p>\n
B. But even righteousness will drive people away from the truth.<\/p>\n
1. Jesus was called the rock of offense – Romans 9:33<\/p>\n 2. Jesus did no wrong, but he caused people to choose and some will no obey\nthe truth – I Peter 2:8\n 3. John’s disciples wanted to know if Jesus was the Messiah. Notice Jesus’\nanswer – Matthew 11:2-6\n
4. Yet many Jews did stumble over the things Jesus did – Matthew 13:54-57<\/p>\n
5. They were offended by what Jesus said – Matthew 15:10-12<\/p>\n C. In other words, no matter what you do – good or bad – someone will see it as a\nreason to depart from God.\n
IV. Some people are offended by insults, but every insult is not an offense<\/p>\n
A. To illustrate this, let’s read Matthew 15:21-28<\/p>\n
1. Notice that Jesus ignored the woman (verse 23)<\/p>\n 2. The disciples, in her presence, wanted to send her away (verse 23). \nRepeatedly!\n
3. Jesus said she was of the wrong nationality (verse 24)<\/p>\n
4. Jesus called her and people of her nationality dogs (verse 26)<\/p>\n B. Did Jesus offend this woman? No, because it did not drive her away. It did not\ncause her to stumble.\n
1. Then why did Jesus insult this woman? It was a test of her faith.<\/p>\n 2. This woman did not live by her emotions. Faith is not emotional and this\nwoman’s faith was unshakable (verse 28)\n C. When Paul made his comment about Cretans, was it to drive them away? Read\nTitus 1:12-13\n
1. No, Paul is acknowledging what the people on Crete already knew.<\/p>\n
2. They live in a wicked society whose habits are influencing them.<\/p>\n 3. Paul’s statement, while insulting, was needed to pin-point the cause of sin\nand the means of addressing it.\n
V. We live in a society that is looking for any excuse to claim offense<\/p>\n A. As Christians, we should try our hardest to minimize the offense, knowing that we\nwill fail to completely eliminate it.\n 1. Some are so afraid of driving someone off, that they will avoid correcting\nan error.\n
2. They leave a brother or sister in sin, so as to avoid driving them into sin.<\/p>\n
3. Makes great sense, huh?<\/p>\n
B. However, as Christians, nothing<\/i> should stand between us and our Lord. <\/p>\n 1. We may be insulted. Our feelings may be hurt. But we need to be like the\nCanaanite woman and not allow ourselves to be offended.\n
2. Think about what you may be saying.<\/p>\n a. Does it offend you that someone is serving the Lord’s Supper\nwithout a suit and tie?\n b. Are you saying that you are going leave the Lord’s church and\nfollow the way of sin because someone is not wearing a suit?\n
c. You see that is what you are technically saying.<\/p>\n
3. There are going to be times that a brother or sister may need to rebuke you.<\/p>\n a. It will hurt your feelings. It wouldn’t be much of a rebuke if it\ndidn’t.\n b. But if that brother is doing his part, the rebuke is supposed to keep\nus from falling, not to drive us away.\n
C. Don’t look to give offense, nor look to find offense.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text Matthew 15:21-28 I. We live in a society with a chip on its shoulder A. People are looking for reasons to complain and to blame. B. Say the wrong word and you will find your job in jeopardy, close friends will split, or long standing members of the church will leave in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[634,455],"class_list":["post-46454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-attitude","tag-offense"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":53126,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-jesus-offend-you\/","url_meta":{"origin":46454,"position":0},"title":"Does Jesus Offend You?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 11, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Warfel, Jr. Lessons from Matthew","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8180,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-spirit-of-offense\/","url_meta":{"origin":46454,"position":1},"title":"What is the spirit of offense?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is the spirit of offense? How do you know if you have it? Why do so many churches use this phrase against people to control them? Answer: The phrase \"spirit of offense\" is not found in the Bible. People can cause offenses by their behavior, but using the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":38145,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-need-to-apologize-when-i-didnt-intend-to-cause-an-offense\/","url_meta":{"origin":46454,"position":2},"title":"Do I need to apologize when I didn’t intend to cause an offense?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 25, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello Mr. Jeffrey, I have a question.\u00a0 Recently I visited a church small group. It so happened that the group, which was lead by a man, had 9 women and 2 men which is significantly more skewed than the general church's ratio. I obviously was weirded out by this\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":56644,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-the-stone-of-stumbling\/","url_meta":{"origin":46454,"position":3},"title":"Jesus, the Stone of Stumbling","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer \"But the LORD (Yahweh) of hosts, him you shall honor as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And he will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/stumbling-stone-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":37273,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-can-we-be-given-grace-without-repentance\/","url_meta":{"origin":46454,"position":4},"title":"How can we be given grace without repentance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 20, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What does this mean? Does this mean that we are giving grace without repentance? I'm looking at a church and I looked up their beliefs, this was one of them. \"That God has given us all a measure of grace according to our gifts: Ephesians 4:7\u00a0\"But to each one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":24136,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-free-gift\/","url_meta":{"origin":46454,"position":5},"title":"What is the “free gift?”","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 27, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm having a little trouble with this passage and hope you can shed some light on it for me. Romans 5:12-21 talks about a \"free gift\". What is it? Who brought it? What does it do for us? Answer: \"But the free gift is not like the offense. 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