Think about that a minute. Think about the things that offend you. Does it offend you when someone cuts you off in traffic? What is the root of that – your desire to be first at the light? Maybe it is because you think you have “the right” to be angry when you are cut off?
What about when someone worships differently than you? Maybe they wave flags around, maybe they yell “Amen” every 5 seconds, maybe they sit like statues and don’t appear moved at all. Why is that offensive to us? Why does it bother us that they are different, that they worship differently than we do?
What is that offense revealing about our hearts?
I sat in worship this morning and listened to Pastor Steven Strader talk about God being the rock of our offense. I nodded my head, agreed with everything he said and willed myself to not be offended. He talked about how there will inherently be some measure of defense when trying to get to Jesus. Maybe someone will take our parking spot, maybe we will be freezing sitting in church, maybe someone will forget to silence their cell phone. All are distractions from getting to Jesus and the enemy uses them to offend us to the point that we are so pre-occupied with being offended that we lose the focus to worship. And at that point he has won.
It is our job at that point to take captive our every thought and make it obedient to Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:5). Pastor Strader hit the nail on the head for me this morning. He simply pointed out my offended mind and then challenged me to be un-offendable. Of course, I agreed. Yes, Lord I will take my thoughts captive.
Worship and prayer began again and there I sat, completely un-offendable. That is, UNTIL, the ladies behind me started to get a little rowdy. They apparently were drinking in the Holy Spirit and were rather vocal. And they distracted me, so I started to get a little antsy. Geez, didn’t they know I was trying to worship? Didn’t they know I needed quiet in order to be focused? Didn’t they know that I am still not sure where I stand on being drunk in the Spirit and they were distracting me. They offended me! 5 Seconds after I promised to be un-offendable.
What offends you? What offends you about a huge outpouring of God led by a guy chasing the Lord? What offends you about flag-waving, amen-shouting, sold out people for Christ?
I think I can guess what offends you, but the deeper question is why does it offend you? Most likely it is the same stuff that offended me until I got here. What is it revealing about our hearts? And can we be humble enough to apologize to our Father and repent for our unbelief. Can we be humble enough to sit and worship next to people who may look different than we do, act different than we do, pray different than we do?
