Gateway Church - MO

A part of our problem as Jesus followers in America is that we are focused on "what's in it for us?" We demand our rights. We have the right to worship, we have the right to free speech, we have the right to… whatever. But when we focus on our rights and getting our way, we are really looking for what our world, or culture, or political parties can do for us. But Jesus said he didn't come to be served. Rather he came to serve. Until we unite with an attitude of service to others rather than having others 'serve us' we will continue to be divided. But when we choose to serve, our cultural, social and political differences melt away as we partner with Jesus to transform the world.

The American church is divided. We have taken sides in the culture wars and worse than that, we have taken sides in the political divide in our nation. We have developed an Us vs Them mindset. On our best days it's The Church vs. The World. On our worst days it's The Church vs. The Church. This 'great divide' has sidelined the church in our culture and made us ineffective in sharing the Gospel building the Kingdom of Jesus. Even if we win the debate, because we are divided, we lose. The solution is to be "like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind." (Phil 2:2) Only when we are unified in Jesus will we "win" the world for His Kingdom.

“Most important of all, love each other deeply, because love makes you willing to forgive many sins. Open your homes to each other and share your food without complaining. God has shown you his grace in many different ways. So be good servants and use whatever gift he has given you in a way that will best serve each other.
I Peter 4:8-10

Often, we as follower of Jesus, can’t seem to get anyone to listen to our message of hope, joy and life. We assume others just don’t want to hear the message or we assume the message is offensive in our world. Maybe it is, but the reason the world doesn’t listen the message is because often, as messengers, we can be offensive. We need to learn to walk the truth in love and gentleness before we try to speak it into the lives of others.

Sometimes we are offended by how other people live their lives. We want to judge those living 'sinful' lives that offend us. When we realize that we are not called to judge the world, but to help transform it we stop viewing others as offensive and see them as people who need to experience the love of Jesus just as we have.

Part of the reason we are so offended is that we are having an identity crisis. When someone attacks or simply disagrees with the group or career or lifestyle or whatever that we identify with, we feel as though our identity has been attacked. But what if we are finding our identity in the wrong places. John tells us that our identity should be found in the fact that we have been adopted as children of God. When I know I’m God’s child, I don’t have to be offended. I know who I am.

Anger keeps me offended and it only produces more offense. Often we think we have a 'right' to be angry. But do we? When we recognize that we are servants of Jesus and that our only right is to be obedient to him, we don't get offended when someone violates 'our rights.' When someone is offensive, I can be right or I can be righteous. Being unoffendable helps be me righteous.

Being offended is a choice we make. We cannot control what others do or say, but we can always control how we respond. Godly wisdom enables us to overlook those things that offend us. When you are easily offended, you don’t point others to Jesus. When you choose to overlook an offense, your life is more attractive and points others to the God who loves them.

When we focus on ourselves and on our problems, we tend to lose perspective. Our problems seem so big and so unmanageable. When we focus on ourselves we tend to follow our own path and that often causes us to wander away from the God who love us. But, when we make our lives about the worship of that God, our perspective changes, our problems seem to downsize and we are drawn ever closer to the God of grace of loves us.

Sometimes life hurts. Really hurts. When life hurts and the world doesn’t make sense, will your faith hold up? When we build our faith on the wrong foundation, it cannot stand up to the storms we will face in life. But when our faith is built on the foundation of Jesus found in Scripture, it may shake when the storms come, but it will never fail.