Sermons Archive - Grace Bible Church of Phoenix

Thank you it's all yours.

OK well I've got some bad news for you.

We're weird.

It's more you guys than me but we're weird Have you ever invited somebody to church who had no concept of church whatsoever who had no idea what happens it never been inside of a church and they ask you OK that let me know what I walk into first before I say Yes let me know what I'm walking into first OK it's a room of also there's one hundred fifty of us in here this morning there's your to go to a room with one hundred fifty people there thinking that's fine I've been to Costco.

I've been in line at Costco so I've been with one hundred fifty other people I've been to the movies that's that's not weird What do you what do you do in church well first. We're going to schedule is to conflict with football so. I hope you're OK with that you're going to show up and what we're going to do is we're going to take your infant and we're going to put them in this room over here with somebody you don't know where to take your toddler and put them in this building over here where you can't see them most of them are on board at that point.

And then right before the guy gets up to speak we're going to let all the kids run to the back of the building like they know something we don't know.

And then OK so I get the kid thing what else do you guys do while we sing.

Pump the brakes hundred fifty people saying Yeah and sometimes we stand up and do it that doesn't happen in many other places in the world right that there's not many things outside of church where a group of people come together and say hey let's sing songs together. And then what happens will then we have these really soft bags with handles that we're going to pass back and forth and everybody I don't know why they have handles on both sides like we couldn't possibly handle the circle to each other but I know why it was nobody sits too close to you if they're too close to grab it and they're too close to be sitting next to you we're going to hand that and everybody is going to put money in it but not you OK because you're our visitor and you going to feel horribly awkward because every. Body else is putting money in it. But not you and then when that's done. A very handsome and rugged man is going to get up and talk for thirty thirty five forty minutes now that man is on vacation and I'm filling in for him today.

We are weird and what we do in church is not really found anywhere else nobody else duplicates this model because it would be really good to market something or to sell something or to have an office that structured this way this is unique to what we do.

When we do church nobody else duplicated in and. Mike prayed for what God had laid on my heart pastor Josh laid it on my heart and said This is what you're going to preach on. So it's the next best thing to God laying it on my heart.

And he. He's going to start a series on the church and what we do inside of the church and he asked me to kind of kick it off with this week his I will I brought up his handwritten notes because I'm afraid if I misspeak this I could be and I get in trouble his his series is going to be how do we one another each other.

And I've seen some of his notes it's honestly it's going to be very good it talks about what do we do inside of the church but before we get to that I want to talk what are our individual responsibilities that make church successful what do I need to bring into the church to make it successful we're going to start talking about once we're here what do we do what do I need to do so that I can make church as productive as possible.

We have we used to have the kids come up for a children's sermon right and one of the things I miss our dandruff always jokes.

And so I have a dandruff I joke for you.

What is the holiest a vegetable.

The holiest vegetable I'll give you hint. Probably the pastor says that every single week.

Let us pray.

And I thank you thank you.

And that's why we no longer have a children sermon.

We're going to look if you'll turn with me to Hebrews ten

humors ten we're going to start in verse twenty two we have a series of let us statements. That I think kind of give us the groundwork for our responsibility as Christians the things we need to get really nailed down so that when we come to do church we can do church as successfully as possible and that's going to be again he rues ten will start twenty two is our passage I'll start reading in one thousand

therefore brothers since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the Blood of Jesus by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain that is through his flesh and since we have a great high priest over the house of God Let us draw near with the true heart in full assurance of faith with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and with our bodies washed with pure water. The first piece of ground work the first thing that we need to do is this First let us statement and that is what we need to draw near to God. With a pure heart we need to draw near with a pure heart when you think draw near the first thing you might think is distance right of a spatial thing of he's over there I want to draw nearer to him I want to I want to walk and I want to get closer to him.

But we know that's not true because we know that God is one of our church words is omnipresent God is everywhere there is no part of the world that he is not in and so the idea of drawing nearer getting physically closer to God is not possible we have the Holy Spirit if we are Christians can't get any closer than indwelling And so this isn't a distance of getting physically closer to God This is getting more intimate with God developing a deeper relationship the the trust that I have the communication that I have with God.

The time that I put into that relationship making that relationship stronger and so he says let us draw on your let us become more intimate with God.

I think about.

A funeral service it was a little over a week ago we watched Senator McCain's funeral funeral service on T.V. if you've ever been in a funeral service you were sitting and you may have.

Your loved one sitting next you know maybe sitting next to a perfect stranger because it's a funeral service and friends and family have come.

In filled with emotion you have people crying on both sides of you this is your loved one and this is the perfect stranger I can put my arm around my wife or my relative or my close friend and comfort them in their grief because we have that intimate relationship we have that trust we're familiar with each other if I put my arm around this person in their moment of need it's awkward it doesn't feel right because I'm physically as close to both of them but I am not functionally My relationship isn't as close and so he says to draw near to build that relationship where you are intimate with God. But we have to do it in the right way we have to do it he says with a pure heart.

To put it bluntly. God is not a sugar daddy a sugar daddy to someone when you want something you go to them and you say oh man I would really like X. Oh I got X. I'm going to go away now and then when I want why I come back and I say Oh man I really want Y. and I get why and then I go away for a while.

God is not a sugar daddy we should not have a relationship with God that is built on when I want something I go to God that can't be intimate that can't be personal that is solely what I need your there for and when I don't need you anymore I go away I have to do it with a pure heart I have to come to God and say This isn't because I don't want to be close with you because of what I want I want to be close. With you because of what you have already done for me. When we recognize the gift of salvation and the scope of that we should want to be near to God we should want to be intimate with God When we look at our lives and we say I can see times where God took care of me and I had no idea it was happening in the background that should make us want to be near to God he says that we should draw near with a pure heart our motive for being close to God should be out of respect out of gratitude for what God has done for us.

It sets the table and one of the reasons this is the groundwork for what we do before we come in and do church is that if my relationship with God is based on that sugar daddy model of when I want something I come to you that's how I'm going to come to church is when I want something I come to church and I expect church to provide that for me if instead my model is I come to God and I want that intimate relationship because of what he has done for me it creates a servant mindset of I do this out of respect for what's already been done for me when I come to church I do church because I want to glorify God for what he's done for me I do it out of a pure heart I don't do it because I expect to get anything out of it the stuff I get out of his off side benefits I'm doing it again because of God and not because of myself

the next let us statement the next. Piece of ground work that we need to lay.

Is in ten twenty three.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful that's all a lot of words that are kind of difficult to muddle through Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering for he who promised is faithful. He the book of Hebrews has a lot of bow non-accrual terms a lot of sailor speak and this is one of those this idea of holding fast is tying a boat up secure to the dock. If you've ever seen a boat Michelle's parents have a pontoon boat and when you pull it up to the dock you don't just park it and get out that would be bad news for the pontoon boat you would in the morning see it on the other side of the lake because it needs to be shored up and it needs to be tight because if a storm comes along and it's not tied up tight to that permanent structure it will slam up against that structure all night long so he says Hold tight drawn near tie up tightly to the permanent structure so that when the temporary storm comes through you don't drift out into unsafe waters you don't slam up against the rocks he tells them hold fast.

It helps us to understand who he's writing this to Hebrews is a tricky book about who wrote it who's it written two lots of ideas out there I'll tell you what I think because it's right.

There and there are other opinions but again Mine is the right one.

In this audience is new Jewish Christian believers and so they have left Judaism because someone shared the gospel with them and said Jesus Christ was the Messiah he died on the cross our salvation is in him it's not in the law anymore which means you don't need to go to temple you don't need to do all of the ritual things anymore those have all passed away and now your salvation is solely in Jesus Christ that make giving up. So much it was genetic their families Judaism wasn't a going to go choose to be a Jew ninety nine percent of the time it was it was genetic your you were born Jewish Your faith was Judaism that's who you were their families are now separated from them their friends their social circles were around the temple the temple was the gathering place that's gone their business was tied to that you did business with other Jews and so now your your workforce your life is just thrown up in chaos and so his audience he says Hold tight life is chaotic hold tight to what you know was true for the one that promised it is faithful.

One of the commentaries I read said it's interesting that here he says let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering he doesn't say let us hold fast to the confession of our faith without wavering. The point he tried to make is that hope is an extra dynamic of faith faith is I know God's going to take care of me I know this is this is bad stuff but God's going to take care of me hope is that next step of faith that says. It's a mess I know God is going to take care of me and I can't wait to see how he does that what is he going to use this situation for these this audience how is he going to take this chaos of my life where I've had to separate myself from everybody I know my business everything that's what is this pruning in my life going to flower into next what is this going to do for me and so he says to them hold fast but don't just weather the storm look forward to what you have in front of us as we look at it today. What do we do how is this ground work for us what do we need to do as individuals I think I honestly think we've got a. Sell out to God we've got to say I'm in this whole heartedly I don't do this casually I don't make my relationship with God a Sunday and a church thing I am I'm all in when I read a passage in Scripture I don't like it because maybe it tells me that my close friends that are living a life the Bible calls sin what do I do with that I love them they're good people I hold fast I say this is the Word of God and I'm going to tie up to this even sometimes when I don't like it so we hold fast. We sell out to God and we said this is this is where I am I don't like it sometimes it's hard sometimes there's other things in life I'd rather be doing but this is this is what I do I sell out to God He gives us one more let us statement that is the first twenty four and we'll get into twenty five as well. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another all the more as you see the day drawing near. He tells them.

Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works this one stands out a little bit different the first two were individual acts right the first to war you need to draw near with a pure heart that is an individual act something you and God build that relationship that intimacy the next one is to hold fast so that when the storms come your your relationship is solid with God Those are individual acts and now he gets into beyond just yourself here's what else you need to do the next step is to reach out and to spur others the word spur is Greek its proxy mosse probably not pronounced that way but again that's how I'm pronouncing it today.

It can mean some of your translations will have in the N A S B We have spur you may have provoke. You may have stimulate. And some of the newer transition translations say encourage in your Bible in the Greek it is a negative word it means to irritate or to exasperate exasperate youth I like and I asked B. because they used spur because I I think that pictures the the meaning of the word Cowboys wore the spurs on their heels not so that they sounded cool to change walking down the street you know that might be why we wear them today that's not why they wore them there that a purpose you wanted the horse to go faster you used those little metal wheels to dig into the side of the horse and the horse went faster.

It was to irritate the horse to action that's not it that's not at all the meaning here and we should not all wear spurs to church next week that that's not his intention what he does is a little bit of wordplay here he takes what is a negative word and uses it in a very positive way why I probably draw the reader's attention to this and say what he wants us to do Oh I see he he wants them to take pause and really look at this he wants them to spur one another to love and good works he doesn't just say spur one another he he quantifies this is what I want you to do to love. And good works.

Your Ground work doesn't stop with yourself if we want church to be productive and to be a tool that God can use in amazing ways it doesn't stop it it doesn't start with me getting right with God in and there it's how I interact with my other Christians and is my interactions spurring them to better things to show love to others because if they're showing love to others I mean pretty soon we're in a multilevel marketing thing because they're showing love to others and they're showing love to others and this gets big. Is how I'm treating my fellow Christians. Spurring them to loving good works.

I think it is and and one of the ways we accomplish that is through corporate worship because he finishes in verse twenty five not neglecting to meet together as is the habit of some but encouraging one another and all the more as you see the day drawing near.

Pastor Josh gets into the corporate the this body of church starting next week

but we have responsibilities before we come in the door to make sure. We're an active part of that that we aren't just coming in to consume and to absorb but that we're coming in to help this body grow and to make it healthier.

There has always been a concern as we look at verse twenty five that technology was going to rule in the church right in the fifty's some some guy created a T.V. and then shortly after that some guy said hey I can put a sermon on T.V. and people have to go to church anymore and and T.V. was going to destroy the church because you could sit at home in your pajamas and go to church problem solve so much of what happens on Sunday people still went to church then somebody said you know drive in movie theaters are making very much money let's have a drive in church or on Sunday you can go and we'll put a little radio box and you can physically see the pastor maybe that's what we were missing is that you got to physically see the pastor and that didn't work in

those I don't want to say those things are bad those things have a place we have podcasts or will this sermon will be up to listen to online for anybody who wasn't here those things have a place but there is something about coming together as a as a body and spring one another on if I make this just about myself I've got to go back to Step one and say.

Is my relationship intimate with God am I treating in my here just for what I can get out of it because if I'm doing those right I should want to share that and be a part of this with other people.

Let's imagine a church where. Every single one of us let's again let's say there's one hundred fifty people here this morning hundred fifty people walk in this door and we all just have a casual relationship with God we're all Christians well believe God God saved us but when we walked in this door that was the extent of it and I believe God saved me but that's it does this church grow and prosper and affect the community maybe but we are sure making him a lot harder for God God can do anything at any time with anyone but sometimes we set the table for him to do it and sometimes we go fighting and kicking and screaming that's the fighting and kicking and screaming imagine a church where for all of us when we came in this was just a Sunday thing you know you have that friend that says you say are you a Christian Oh I believe in God but I'm not religious What do you mean I don't go to church well OK are we treating this as Sunday is church God I got all of those things done Monday through Friday is work Saturday is kind of relax and catch up in family time and we're back to Sunday and Sunday is church and God time. If we treat this as a checklist ARE WE whole sale bought in are we drawing near Are we holding tight. To that whole.

Imagine a church kind of feel like John Lennon.

That's where the similarities end.

Imagine a church where we came in and we sat down next to people we didn't know their name when when they told us to stand up and shake hands we would shake hands. And then when that was done we'd sit down and then afterwards we would make like three minutes awkward conversation as we all headed towards the exits and then once we were outside we'd all go to our cars and go home that one might have a little bit closer to home. It's tough that. The issue with every church especially as you get bigger and bigger and bigger is keeping it personal how do we keep personal connections in the church how do we make sure that we have that relationship to spur one another along because if I come up to you and I don't know your name how am I going to spur you all along in love to show that to other people I've got to have a personal relationship with you.

And so as we start talking about what do we do to build that healthy church.

I think we have to look and say are those are issues.

Because one when we talk about the church a lot of times that is.

An entity a a corporation this thing over here the church really did me wrong or.

I don't like what I hear from the church

my mom is in town and we did she did this with the kids I'm going to get it wrong but here's the church and here's the steeple open it up here are here are we right if there's something wrong with the church there's something wrong with we because we are the church the church should not be this thing that we come and do on Sunday church should be the thing where we come to spur one another along where we come out of respect for what God has done for us to say thank you I want to come and worship you in a corporate body and to help build that personal relationship.

I want to be careful though that if you're sitting here and you're like oh man he said at the beginning if I don't have an intimate relationship with God something is wrong and then he said what if this church was full of people who don't have an intimate relationship with God The church is going to be a mess I can't keep coming to this church that is not at all what I'm saying for every single one of us we have been at stages and are at stages in our spiritual journey and there are times where we say I believe in God I am really struggling to feel close to God or. I believe in the Bible but man I'm struggling with some of these passages I don't know what to do with some of this stuff or. Church is good but lately it just feels like a task on the To Do list for me I am struggling to connect a church that is OK because if those are things you want to change there is no better place than here and I would like to honestly plug a couple of things that we have right now if you find yourself in one of those spots where that's a weakness and that's something I want to do going to Sunday school class I sat in this morning that's how to study your Bible if you sit down with your Bible and you look at it and you flip it open like we do sometimes and you read a passage and say What on earth just mean we just we have a Sunday school class that you missed week one but there's seven more weeks we're going to do twelve different ways to study your Bible and we're sitting down and we're actually doing it in class so. And you can go home it's not like you're getting a pamphlet you go home and you figure it out on your own or actually doing it in class if you want to know a deeper relationship with God and you want to study the Bible better there's a Sunday school class for that if you feel like you come to church and you're good at shaking hands and you know enough. To get into a conversation but not have to use anybody's names and get out of here safely without embarrassing yourself we got small groups small groups is an excellent way to get that personal connection with church we have we are bigger this church has been down to thirty five people and it was a small group at one point it was its own small group and everybody was connected and everybody knew their names and what happened during the week as you get bigger that is harder and we don't expect everybody in here to be best friends Burger King does not want all of us to show up on a Sunday afternoon. We're going to have different relationships inside the church but if you're struggling to connect to the church the new Here eat here is a great way to find out about the church and then getting plugged into a small group is a great way to walk into a room of people who would otherwise maybe not talk to each other besides small casual talk on a Sunday and get to spend an hour or two knowing about each other and studying the word together. Those options are here primarily I want to challenge you that when we start talking about how to get I'm going to look at his notes one another each other next week

don't come into this and think that's right the church should be doing that or that's right people in the church really need to hear that

we have responsibilities we have ground work we need to work on.

Our goal for this church is that it is a ministry to the community that we can reach out to the community in the community see something here that they are drawn to we do that by being successful in a functional church but if we work backwards we have those individual responsibilities we have a responsibility that personal intimate relationship with God and responsibility to be in our Bibles and to hold tight to what we learn and then if we can spur each other on to love that gets out to the community if we can do those things well potential is unlimited for us as a family as a church let's pray

Heavenly Father we thank you for the the tears the different levels of what it means to be a Christian and that you've given us a personal relationship with you that is there all the time.

Even one hundred we don't want and it is always there we cannot physically walk away from you Lord you are always there we thank you for your word that you communicate to us through it and we thank you for the church that truly wants to build disciples and wants to reach out to the community we ask that you would help us each to find our own individual role in that and that we would see this is an opportunity to say thank you back to you and to serve you as part of this church in your name Amen.

He's doing math. And what I mean by that is I'm always think you know how many more days until a search to cool off.

And I have been on so many websites looking at the daily average temperature in Phoenix and I almost have it memorized for the entire year but did you know that soon as September rolls around we dropped ten degrees from September to the first of October the average of the high by ten degrees and then again another ten degrees from October first through October thirty first so in about zero from now it's going to hit the off button on the oven.

It's going to take a while for it to kind of cool off but we're almost there so so we can we can look forward to that and you know I have come to a lot of Arizona I can even say that I love the seasons you know we have to endure the summer but I look I was so look forward to the fall I think fall here in Arizona is probably the most beautiful place in the entire country but as long as we've lived here I really truly love Arizona I love the geography and of all the places that I've grown to love there's one of particular many of you probably love this place too it's called.

The gray ended Canyon how I have been to the Grand Canyon raise your hand oh good most of you OK the rest of you shame on you you need to know now it's.

Back in December of zero six Kritzinger.

Or the last names of the bakers and Michelle one of the older kids older siblings a little a couple years older than Kristen she moved here to Phoenix and so on they said hey why don't you guys come over and we will talk to you and we'll kind of have someone that you can you can talk

and Mark is a

go take pictures obviously the Grand Canyon and so he showed us some pictures and is the very first person to start talking to me about all the different hikes that you can do in the Grand Canyon and he's the first person and I've heard other people talk about it since and you've heard me talk about sense but he's the first person who told me that there is these crazy people who decide to hike from the south rim of the Grand Canyon all the way down over the river to the north rim of the Grand Canyon it's called a rim to rim.

You guys are crazy and he says there's all these different hikes and he said that a rim to rim is actually more difficult than running a marathon and I had never done either so I believe in whatever I've done both sense and it is a rim to rim is harder than running a marathon and he also said that some people who need to be checked out psychologically will decide to go from the south rim to the north rim and back and that's called a rim to rim to rim and he said one time he did that he hiked up to the north rim and then he hiked he hiked over to the hotel is only one hotel on the north rim he stayed there the night he woke up the next morning and he came back and he was telling me how difficult and how painful that was. And it planted the seed in one hundred six twisted mind I thought that sounded so cool I would love to do that some day and so what I decided to do is I decided to not be one of those people who all go there some day I said I need to make plans I need to go hiking the Grand Canyon and so later that year we had some friends from Michigan they came down and they said hey we'd like to visit you and so this is November I think of zero seven and they said well we're here in Arizona we want to go to the Grand Canyon I said oh great let's do a hike and so I did my research and I decided not to be a crazy person who goes from one side to the other and I said well there's this other hike it's called a plateau point it's about halfway down literally halfway down into a canyon and about halfway as far as ovation at six miles down and six miles back some other twelve mile round trip that's still it's still a pretty pretty good hike and so my friend Wally and I we got to the Grand Canyon with our families and and I just remember I can still write you know how in time you know first experience it's always the most special and you never forget but I remember sitting there on the Grand Canyon and looking at it and thinking oh we're going to go inside of it tomorrow and so we wake up in the morning and we start hiking down into the Grand Canyon and I'll never forget how exciting it was every time we got to a switchback we. Just look at a new view and all while Look at that view all this is great when you go to the next which back in you don't it is all this is great and every time you go to a switchback you're just there's more and more that you want to see and you're so excited you have all this energy and more importantly you're walking down hill but you made great speed and great time and eventually we got past in gardens then we made it out to pot to a point and I are and I'll never forget the first time we're getting towards the edge and then I heard for the first time the Colorado River a couple thousand feet below it was just echoing off the canyon walls and I remember getting to the ledge and it wasn't like a sheer drop off but I think it's about another fifteen hundred two thousand feet I'm not one hundred percent sure aperture you're standing there and you're looking at it and it was the first time that I had I kind of had mice first spiritual experience in the Grand Canyon you just looking around and thinking I am so small and this this creation is just so beautiful and so we had a few moments were down there to a point we had some water we had some food and we looked at each other and we said you had enough all right dreaded to head back and it was at that point that we did one of these we looked up all the way up the river oh no we've got to get out here we have to actually get up there out of the room and on our way down we had seen a whole bunch of signs and the sign said this hotshot down is optional. It isn't mandatory and so true in the Grand Canyon it's fine it's easy to go down but guess what you got to get back out you have you have to turn around and you have to walk out and so I remember as we're starting to walk out and thinking oh man this is this is a chore this is going to take a lot of work to get out I remember really the importance of those signs and for those of you who've been to GRANT KING. And you probably noticed lots of tourists there from different countries and the first time that we were there this November maybe they had some tour group from China because there was a whole bunch of Chinese teenagers boys and girls who were like down the three mile rest house in flip flops with just one bottle of water.

Are they doing Didn't they read the signs are not Chinese so maybe they couldn't do better I don't know but I know exactly what happened is they got to the Grand Canyon they look at the big hole they see the trailhead Bright Angel Trail head they said hey we see people walking down there hey let's go down and so they go down to one switch back and they've got plenty of energy I mean it's downhill and they said hey let's go to the next one and before they know it there are a mile and a half down there three miles down and they're fools because eventually they've got to turn around and a lot of people over the years have got caught up in going down hill into the Grand Canyon not realizing how much effort it takes to get out and they get stuck. And that's why God created helicopters.

To pick up people to get stuck in the Grand Canyon I'm actually going to sit well guided and create the only I guess you can create a helicopter but you know the last time I was there in this last May when we got to the three mile rest house and I don't know how to say this in a good way there was someone who is losing their long as they were just throwing up a violently and it was pretty sad and as we were hiking out one of the park rangers lying by Has down to a three mile rest house and about a half hour later we heard the blades of the helicopter and went down and probably picked up a person up there that we was having a hard time but that's the danger of something is beautiful as the Grand Canyon it's easy to go down it's beautiful it's exciting but at some point you realize what did I get myself into. With.

About one of Satan's strategies to get us caught up in thinking about fleshly things and that is to get us to be offended and so a couple looking at and trying to define what is the trap that Satan uses I'm using the book of the bait of Satan from John Vere and he talked about how those the offense are being offended as one of the traps

about what is the bait and the bait is when someone offends us what happens is were offended and there's this chain reaction that takes place in our in our minds in our hearts were offended by what someone else said or what they did to us and then a whole bunch of emotions are released inside of our hearts and our minds and sometimes those emotions are anger bitterness resentment whatever it is and then as soon as those emotions are released then we have two different pathways that we can go down to the first one is this we looked at last week the first pathway is to do Satan's will and Satan's will for all of us is not that we're all going to become murderers or C. These are things that.

For us to get so caught up in the things of the flesh that we won't be able to be used by God for spiritual or spiritual purposes and so that's the first path that someone will go down after they've been offended after all those emotions have been released the second path which is the one that we want to go down is where God It refines us and we know what is happening we know we've been offended and yet we say God it's not good for me to mix into my heart this anger and this bitterness and so God says that he refines us he draws out those negative emotions and he keeps our heart soft impure Well today what we're going to do is we're going to talk about what we do when we find out that we went down the wrong path. What do we do when we find out where the bottom of the Grand Canyon and we can't get out and say What in the what how did I get here and so today is all about escaping the trap once we realize that we have been sucked into it and so this morning what I want to do because this is a church and I'm a preacher many of you three things are right he's got to come in threes three main steps and I will say this at the onset you're not going to hear anything new or magical about how to get yourself out of the bait of Satan or the trap of Satan it's going to be exactly what you're expecting to hear but sometimes we just need to be reminded that doing the right things sometimes is difficult but you have to commit yourself to and so the first thing that we need to do or the first step to help getting ourselves out of this trap that Satan has gotten us into is this the first step is to recognize that we took the bait. You have to recognize what's really going on and recognize that you took the bait that Satan had put out for you for you to be offended and don't you hate those moments in life where you realize you just went a little too far like especially with food you know how often do we have a couple pieces of pizza and then there's a third piece of pizza and then he said good I still got room you have a fourth piece of pizza and if you're the guy on. As one left I mean you can't just let that last piece of there so you have that an adventure like the old me or what did I do why did I do that that's what things giving is for we do that on Thanksgiving you know if you're going to Merican the hopefully we have those moments when it comes to spiritual issues where we recognize I know exactly what I've done I've taken the bait I've gone into this temptation and this is where I'm out for the prodigal we we use the example of the prodigal son a little bit ago there was a moment when he was feeding the pigs and it says that he longed for his belly to be filled with the pods that the pigs ate and has this wonderful phrase he said when he came to his senses.

That's a time that all of us need to come to in our lives where we we come to our senses and we realize the situation that we're in.

A passage that we looked at a couple times second Timothy two twenty four three twenty six Paul is teaching me to talk in a way that is not going to bring out more bait for people or a temptation of the trap and Paul A tells Timothy he says as the Lord servant you must not be quarrelsome but kind everyone able to teach patiently enduring evil correcting your opponents with gentleness and then he says God me perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth and then verse twenty six is the important one. And they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do His will and so God is telling Timothy you need to help people escape the trap of the devil after they come to their senses so how do we know that we need to escape the snare how do we know what are some cues that we can find in our life when we realize that we have been caught up into this one way that we can recognize that we are in a situation like this is if we can answer the question Who owes you. A debt.

That's kind of a real question is there anyone in your life that owes you a debt and I'm not necessarily talking about money but maybe in your mind someone owes you an apology.

Or someone deserves to be punished for what they did to you you know when a person holds an offense against another person it's a lot like someone owing a debt especially in the in the mind of the person who is offended the offended person feels like the offender must pay that debt whatever it is in order to be forgiven and this is what lawsuits are all about a person is wrong and so they sue and they hope that the court finds in their favor yes you are guilty you owe this as damages and here is the danger of allowing ourselves to fall into this trap of being offended it can put us in the mental and emotional prison of seeking revenge on another person. I don't know if you've ever lent money to a family member Dave Ramsey I think Dave Ramsey probably other people have said this it's best to never lend money to a family member or maybe should just you know give them a gift but don't let it be a loan and many many years ago probably I don't know how many years ago maybe sixteen years ago one of my one of my siblings one of my sisters she asked us for money and she said I think it was for a car payment and she was in a really bad situation and so we felt so sorry for her and we had we had a little money so we said OK we'll help you pay your car payment I can member what it was it was just maybe two or three hundred dollars or whatever it was and I remember she said OK I'm going to get paid at this time and I'll pay you back in and as soon as she owed me a debt my relationship with her changed it was kind of funny and for those of you have ever let money to a family member you know what I'm talking about but I remember there was one day I come maybe a couple days after I had let her borrow this money and she came back to the house and I think she had something like a coffee and maybe like a snack from the grocery store or from. From the gas station and I'm thinking Hullo Well you know sech a good how can you afford that you can't enjoy anything until you pay back my deli's I didn't say that you are but that's what I was thinking it's you know my dad that she owed me was the most important thing in my life that I imposed on her I said you can't enjoy life until you give me back what you owe me right and I remember at that moment I thought I hate this i hate thinking of other people this way that they owe me a debt I don't like being in that situation listen when we're offended by another person we go down that path that Satan wants us to go down when we view that person differently we view them as someone who owes us something and we will view most of their life through that lens you know there's many verses of talk about the emotions that we can feel towards another person and these are good indicators that we have we have taken this bait that we have fallen into this trap of saying a good one is the fetus Chapter four verse thirty one.

Says Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away for you along with all malice. If you're experiencing those feelings in those emotions a good reason why we feel those is because someone has offended us someone offended us we took the bait and we let all of those emotions sort of out of the bag out of our heart.

Another good verse is found in Hebrews twelve fifteen. Such a good verses says See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble and by it many become defiled I think that last phrase is important if you allow a root of bitterness to come in in your heart in your mind against another person. Then you could potentially become defiled that's exactly what this verse says you know here in Arizona we all hate weeds because they grow up in our nice rock gardens and you know you can you can see a weed just sitting there when's the best time to pull the weed right away right or maybe not Pole it spray and get the round up out and spray it and there are times we call them the monsoon season when you know the moisture comes out of the clouds and it hits the ground and we know when that happens in Arizona what's going to happen the weeds are going to pop up and so when you see that happen we should all be prepared the weeds are coming you get out your spray or get out there around and soon as you see it you attack it then is a better to attack a weed when it's this tall or when it's two feet tall obviously when it's small when it's small in the roots have not been established and yet when we're offended by other people sometimes if we take the bait of Satan we say I kind of like this route it feels good to feed it feels good to water this root of bitterness and we call that gossiping and did you hear what so and so did to me and we let the root grow and eventually like the verse says sometimes we can become defiled because we have gone too far down that road.

That's why we're told not to go to bed angry to go to bed angry with a certain person over a number of weeks that would have bitterness really has a chance to grow up if he's in it for twenty six we looked at this a couple weeks ago it says be angry and do not sin do not let the sun go down on your anger and give no opportunity to the devil Why do you think God tells us to knowledge the sun go down I think he's trying to say simply deal with it immediately if you have the root of bitterness sprouting up in your life against another person deal with this immediately well do you see all of this in your own life I mean this is obvious if you live long enough you deal with these situations all the time but hopefully as we go through life we are. Recognize this sooner and sooner in the process so is there anyone in your life I'm asking you this question rhetorical but seriously is rainy one in your life that you think about and say you know what. That person owes me they need to be punished for what they did. It could be a spouse former spouse it could be a family member it could be a coworker could be someone someone at church it could be anyone recognize that if you feel that way about another person you have taken the bait and you need to recognize that So so what do we do the first step is to escaping the trap is we recognize that we took the bait the second step is that we forgive the debt. You have to forgive the debt and by saying that you forgive the debt maybe a good way to describe this is you give up your right to receive the payment for the debt owed.

Instead of taking it upon yourself to say this person owes me something what you do is you transfer that right over to God and say God if you want to collect on this debt that's up to you but I'm releasing myself from the burden of trying to collect on this debt that's what we're told to do and when the child twelve verse nineteen Romans twelve thousand nine hundred says beloved never avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God For it is written Vengeance is mine I will repay says the Lord and I want to.

Team that says how often should we invent your selves you know half the time and says this is never of yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God and I know this is very hard to do because as human beings we are wired for justice we want to see fairness and justice a couple of passages I want you to turn to they're too big to put on the screen so you got to open your Bibles first one has to Leviticus I know you don't go to Leviticus every week so I want you to make sure you get there this week Leviticus Chapter twenty four. Genesis Exodus numbers of a kiss. Very part of beginning part of the Bible Leviticus twenty four beginning in verse seventeen this is probably something that you have heard before Leviticus twenty four beginning in verse seventeen and this is a great passage were God is telling the nation of Israel when you have issues arise between you or another person and there is a loss a loss takes place this is how you resolve it and so this is a passage on on justice and fairness Leviticus twenty four beginning verse seventeen.

Says whoever takes a human life shall surely be put to death whoever takes an animal's life shall make a good life for life if anyone injures his neighbor as he has done it shall be done to him fracture for fracture eye for eye tooth for tooth and don't you wish you could go back in time and see if they ever actually did this you know someone knock out their tooth and say OK let's take that tooth out of like to see that says whatever injury he has given a person shall be given to him whoever kills an animal shall make it good and whoever kills a person shall be put to death that it's their right that's justice and people really really took it to heart and they made their heart just be defiled with roots of bitterness because of this and so Jesus teaches us something different go to Matthew chapter five.

Matthew chapter five biggie. In verse thirty eight.

Jesus getting into the spirit of the law not so much the latter because the Jews definitely focus too much on the letter of the law and Matthew chapter five beginning in verse thirty eight Jesus addressing the passage that we just read.

Matthew five thirty eight it says you have heard that it was said An eye for an eye and a choose for a tooth but I say to you do not resist the one who is evil but if anyone slaps you on the right she turned to him the other also and if anyone would sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak as well and if anyone forces you to go one mile go with him two miles give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you so here Jesus what he kind of does is the kind of eliminates the gray areas where we all hold grudges against each other in fact he says something along the lines of your attitude should be so far removed from avenging yourself that you in some way you willingly open yourself up to being taken advantage of again.

When did Jesus forgive us of our debt was it before or after we asked him to. He was before when he was on the cross in Luke twenty three thirty four it says Jesus said from the cross Father forgive them for they know not what they do. The apostle Paul tells us something important very similar in kolache three thirteen says bearing with one another and if one has a complaint against another for giving each other as the Lord has forgiven you so you also must forgive and so when we are offended what we want to do is make sure that the other person learns the lesson we want them to learn the lesson but God says you know I am a better teacher than you are let me teach them the lesson that they need to learn but God also says I forgive you. A greater debt than they'll ever O. you so you need to forgive and that me be the one who's going to collect on the debt if I choose to do that and so to skied this trap of the devil the first step is we recognize that we took the bait the second step is that we forgive the debt or we give the debt over to God and say God I'm putting it in your hands you can do with it what you want and then the third step is that we need to actually size forgiveness and this is a little bit different than the second one all right second point how easy is it for all of us to have a momentary emotional response of mercy or grace to somebody who did something wrong to us and we forgive them and they ask for forgiveness and and when everything is all great but what if they really didn't learn the lesson as fast as we wanted them to or to the extent that we wanted them to then what do we do do we Unforgiven them until they change their behavior and what how do we deal with that while this is a place that God does not want to go to and so he asks us and tells us to continually forgive a person and leave the results to him I want you to turn over to Luke Chapter seventeen. This is the passage that we first looked at when we were looking at the bait of Satan and this is kind of the main verse that it kind of launches from Luke Chapter seventeen beginning in verse one.

Luke seventeen beginning in verse one Jesus is speaking to His disciples and he says temptations to sin are sure to come but whoa to the one through whom they come and the word for Temptation is the Greek word scandal on which means an offense or the thing to which the bait in a trap is attached so in other words temptations or offenses or the temptation or the trap to sin are sure to come but whoa to the one to whom they come and then he gets to the relational aspect verse three. Pay attention to yourselves if your brother sins rebuke him and if you repents forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day and turns to you seven times saying I repent you must forgive him and of course the disciples said Oh that's easy God it will have no problem doing that no they didn't say that what they did is they responded by saying in verse five the Apostle said to the Lord increase our faith. That's hard to continue to forgive someone when justice has not been served and they have been brought up their entire life that there needs to be fairness and justice and so this is hard work and so maybe this is why the awesome God to increase their faith so what is easier What is your for us staying angry at someone and holding a grudge or forgiving them over and over and over again letting God avenge the wrong obviously forgiving over and over again you know the Apostle Paul said something very interesting in Acts Chapter twenty four this is up on the screen actually every twenty four verse sixteen Paul says. So I always take pains and that's not the verse twelve it's six OK I'll tell you what is X. twenty four sixteen it says so I always take pains to have a clear conscience towards both God and man and the word for take pains is literally somebody's going to hate this word so many think this is a swear word it literally means to exercise so Paula saying I exercise I literally put my faith into practice to have a clear conscience towards both God and man Paul only

spiritual shape to have the right kind of relationship with other people he need to practice the spiritual discipline of forgiveness and one way that you and I can do that is to continually forgive people when they ask for forgiveness or even when they don't is by being in control of our thoughts this is a verse I think all of us should have memorized released paraphrase in our own mind this is a fantastic verse seven Corinthians ten five it says we destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ you and I are taught that every time there is a thought that comes into our minds we stop and we ask ourselves where did this thought come from and we make it obedient to Christ and I'm doing a much better job at this today than I did twenty years ago in thirty years ago but every now and then and I know you go through this through a thought will come through my mind it's usually a bad thought and I may be someone poles in front of me your address as I'm driving or someone does something I think is ridiculous and and I start to get upset and that bitterness or that anger starts anger starts to come up and I have to I stop and ask myself now where is this fun coming from where are these emotions coming from Could it be that the Holy Spirit is impressing this upon me to be upset and angry with this person and the obvious answer that question is No The Holy Spirit leads us to have unity and peace with each other so there's only two other options and nine times out of ten it's usually This one is just our flesh is just our selfishness we're just being selfish jerks and we're going… of set but it could be sometimes that Satan or the spiritual forces that are in place in our life are putting thoughts into your mind because they're trying to grow a root of bitterness in your heart and so that's why we are told to take every thought captive we ask ourselves the question where did this thought come for. And what path is this thought going to lead me down. You know David gives us a great example of how he dealt with situations like this on this one's a little too long to put on the screen as well but it's found in Psalm thirty five you can turn there if you like already just a portion of this. I'm actually reading from The Living Bible sometimes passages like this they just sound better if you're more of a dynamic translation but David if there's anyone who's ever gone through his entire life more or less having people offend him seeking to kill him and him potentially going down the path a sane want to go down it's David David was always being offended always being wrong he is the one who truly should say they owe me a debt and yet this is how he dealt with those situations I'll pick up in verse seven Psalm thirty five beginning in verse seven. David's talking about people that a fight against him they declared war against him a verse seven he says for though I did them no wrong yet they laid a trap for me and dug a pitfall in my past let them be overtaken by sudden ruin caught in their own net and destroyed the first portion of this David is basically saying God they've harmed me they've done wrong against me I'm giving them to you you fix it according to your desire verse nine but I will rejoice in the Lord he shall rescue me from the bottom of my heart praise rises to him Where is his equal in all of heaven and earth who also protects the weak and helpless from the strong in the poor and needy from those who would rob them. And then in verse a law when we get how David deals with people who sinned against Him He says these evil men swear to a lie they accuse me of things I have never even heard about and this is what he does verse twelve I do them good. But they return me harm I'm sinking down to my guess when they were ill I mourned before the lot and said Lord in sackcloth asking him to make them well I refused to eat I prayed for them with utmost earnestness but God did not listen I want about sadly as though it were my mother friend or brother who was sick and nearing death you know David teaches us this and we need to learn this very valuable lesson that praying for someone who has offended you might be the best way to free yourself from the trap that Satan has and sneered you in when you allow your heart to view the other person the way the God views down and God views them as madly in love with them and he's sent His Son to die on the cross for their sins too when we view them the way that God used them then we are released from the trap that Satan has put us into if you ever get to that point where you're genuinely praying for another person not praying that God will smite them not in a prank it Henri prayer but you're praying that God will bless them then you have been freed from this trap that Satan has put you in but to get to that point you have to exercise forgiveness you don't have to raise your hands I know who's going to raise your hand but how many of you like exercise a few people gave you something some of us like exercise here's the thing about exercise when you actually are sized you're preparing your body for anything physical that comes up in your daily life something that you need to push out of your way if you're exercising you're in shape you can push other way of if you need to jump out of the way you need to do something those people who exercise they're ready they're there ready for whatever their day throws at them the spiritual exercise of forgiveness and letting God avenge and praying for other people is similar listen if you find yourself quick to be offended then you are spiritually out of shape.

If you are quickly angered and you. Get that root of bitterness all the time then you are spiritually out of shape and you need to exercise so that you are spiritually ready for anything that takes place in your life and also to it to a certain extent when a person is hurt physically most of the time it's their choice that they want to recover that's all we have physical therapists if you're hurt you can recover you go to a physical therapist in a teacher these are the things that you should do and you can get better and sometimes you can even be stronger than you were before you were hurt but if a person who is hurt physically in the choose to let that injury dominate their life then it's going to define them in the same is true of the way that we carry around being offended it's like a weight it's a burden that hurts us spiritually but the more you practice forgiveness the quicker you will be in your life to get rid of that weight that you're not supposed to be carrying around anyway.

You know I keep saying that I have favorite verses and I would definitely say that Hebrews Chapter twelve versus one into our top three top five for sure verses in the entire Bible and I love this because it's kind of an analogy for how we should live our life it says and here is twelve one therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses let us also lay aside every weight. And sin which claimed so closely and let us run with and Durrance the race that is set before us if you are carrying around the offense. The burden of offense you can't run in this race that you're supposed to be running and a lot of people say you know what I know I'm supposed to be doing this for the Lord and also to be doing up the Lord but I can't because my mind is so preoccupied with this this this anger in this bitterness that I have against another person I can't run and God saying why are you holding onto this latest side get rid of it Satan has entrapped you so that you're not running the race in some situations to pay. Upon the offense sometimes we will let it completely dominate our entire lives and people are held captive to it and God says do to them what I did for you forgive and keep forgiving and let me handle the payment.

You know went out when Mark told me about the Grand Canyon my eyes probably got all big and my jaw hit the ground and I thought that sounds like so much fun at that point in time a seed was planted in my heart in my mind and I had one of two choices I could let that spark fade and I could wait ten or fifteen or twenty years and say you know I never did get around to going to the Grand Canyon and hiking in it now I know it's too late I can't get down there and it's it's too too late i never happened or what I could do which is what I did is I made plans to make it happen.

And if you're here today and you're carrying around the burden of being offended whether that's right now in your life right now you have been offended heard by another person or just the fact that you're an easily offended person people some people get offended very easily some people don't. But how are you going to respond to the message that God is giving to us in His Word are you going to let the freedom the God is offering you just drift away because of your lack of faith in your lack of trust in God and maybe some pride in some selfishness or will you cast your burden on the one who forgave you.

You know in a group this size I I don't know specifics but I believe that there's got to be some people in this room that are just holding on to something and God saying why are you holding on to that just let it go. You don't need to seek revenge against that person you can let them go you can escape the trap that Satan is bound you to give yourself freedom.

And run this race that I'm calling you to and so what I want to do is I want to give all of you an opportunity if that describes you. Going to take a moment give everyone just a couple moments of just silent prayer and I encourage you to do it God is asking you to do to free yourself and to forgive whoever it is you need to forgive and escape this trap that Satan has put you in and so that describes you don't wait do it now. And if you're in a situation where you say I thankfully right now I'm not why don't you pray for those people who are really struggling God will give them the courage to do that so let's just take a moment and I want everyone here just have just a moment of silent prayer to commit to doing what God is asking you to do.

I also want to say if you have done that this morning I'm not going to have an altar call and I'm not going to have you raise your hand. But what I am going to ask you to do in all seriousness is to tell someone.

Maybe tell the person that you need to forgive or tell a close friend or family member what you've done so that they can help you stay accountable Well it's close in prayer.

Dear Lord as we read through the Word of God It is just it becomes so apparent how important relationships are our relationship with you is so important that you sent your son to die on a cross person even before we asked you to you did it you took the step of releasing the offense that we had against you you forgave us and Lord you set the example for us you want to stand healthy relationships with other people whether that's friends or family members people in our immediate family people in church and Lord offenses come up they happen relationships get broken and Lord you you put it upon us to live in peace with all men and so Father our prayer this morning is for relationships to be healed. Don't let Satan have the upper hand don't let Satan the fill our hearts and our minds with with envy with bitterness with resentment and Lord so I just pray that you're really empower the people in this room anyone who is really struggling with something like out this morning that you will give them the courage to just trust you to do what you have done for us and to trust you with the outcome. And Father I thank you so much for giving us your guidance and your word that we don't have to go through life trying to figure this out on our own and now we hear a Grace Bible Church a Phoenix we we value the Word of God We believe in Bible center teaching and preaching and so we turn to your word to help us to restore relationships to the way that they're supposed to be Father I pray not even for today in today's message but over the next couple months we're going to talk about all the one another commands the the positive things that we should be. Doing the things that that are really helping to promote healthy relationships build them up I look forward to that I pray that you will be preparing our hearts and our minds but today Lord as we're just dealing with the broken relationships of the of the fences that we face or give us the courage and the strength that we need to forgive and to continue to forgive and let you be God and restore those relationships and so Lord we just lift up all these delicate situations and your hand and acid your will will be done and pray this in Christ's name Amen. One hope all of you have a wonderful week this week and even greater Labor Day weekend next week we will see that you dismissed.

And you look at the pool and I it's a lot of maintenance for me and I am so glad that I have a poor right now it's hot and sticky out there muggy today if you notice that I guess it's just August but our kids like the pool but I'm also noticing as the kids get older they're out there a lot less than they used to be when they were little but our daughter Jacqueline she is our fish she loves to go out and swim and it's kind of hard to get the kids out there you know some of them we have to some of them we have to force you know threaten to get out there in the pool we have a pool you're going to have the full enjoyment and some of them it's very easy to get them out there but a while ago we also have a hot tub which is great in summer it's nice but in the winter in the fall and in the spring it's awesome and we don't like in the winter months when we're not swimming because no one swims when it's you know fifty degrees in the pool would be sitting there in the hot tub and then we'd have this competition where we'd all be looking at the pool and it's fifty or sixty degrees and then we'd have this competition saying all right who's the bravest who's the bravest who's the bravest one to go jump in the pool and a couple kids are not going to go in that pool but my daughter and I we kind of have this competition between each other she's competitive I don't know where she gets it from a she's a little competitive but I'd always say all right who's the bravest and it's kind of a race to see who can jump in the pool and so even to this day if I look at Jackie and I want her to go swimming all I need to do is look at her and go Jackie I'm the bravest That's all I'm to say and she's like you not she runs affairs because there's some suit on images like this dead race to get into the pool she knows what I'm doing but there's a little button that I can push inside of my daughter and I can get her to do or I want her to do at least for now it's kind of nice parents what about you do you have you know what buttons to push with your kids to get them to do what you want them to do it definitely works when they're younger when they're older they're kind of they know exactly what's happening or how about with spouses spouses you know what buttons to push with your spouse. Usually it's it's kind of the opposite it's do you know which buttons not to push with your spouse something that's kind of more the deal when you get older well generally speaking someone who is highly intelligent can manipulate and control someone who is less intelligent than they are. And that does not bode well for us as human beings because our enemy satan knows exactly how to push our buttons and to get us to do His will last week I introduced kind of a new short series we're already through Glacier ins and what I want to do for the next several weeks is to do a small series on healthy relationships as a church we talked about this last week we have a mission statement here is a church I think every organization every church needs of a mission statement so we know why we exist what are we trying to do and our mission here Grace publisher to Phoenix is to develop fully committed followers of Jesus Christ of the teaching and encouragement of God's word so how do we develop committed followers Well we've identified four main values and so these are the things that we practice and I talk about them a lot so this kind of gets ingrained into all of our minds but we practice to revalue Bible center teaching and preaching and so in the fall what I like to do is kind of touch on some of these subjects we also our second value of the four is discipleship and last fall I did kind of a mini series on discipleship some of you might remember the four Chair series kind of talking about for moving from one church to the next third of our values is faithful service and the force is what we're going to be focusing on for the next several weeks and that is healthy relationships and so last Sunday what I did as I mentioned how in one of my small groups someone mentioned this book the bait of Satan and how Satan will use someone being offended to really destroy relationships Satan destroys relationships not God I just want to clarify that last week I said God this relationship. So obviously I messed up with that but this is based off of a loop seventeen where it says it's impossible for offenses to not come or temptation sometimes that word is translated temptations one passage that we saw this word it's called skin and a lawn is in second Timothy and we're going to look at that verse a little bit more detail pretty quick but in second Timothy two twenty six polls writing in he says something really interesting he says and they meaning people who are in arguments and actually that those who have been offended and they may come to their senses an escape from the snare of the devil or the trap of the devil or the bait of the devil after being captured by him to do His will and so we talked about how being offended is the bait of Satan or it is the temptation of Satan to lead us down a pass to doing his will and you wonder you know why is being offended so effective and we see it in the world everyone is talking about how they are of their offended well being offended is such an effective bait for Satan because it really taps into our human pride we all have pride to some extent and an offense can assault us our beliefs our values our thoughts or maybe the perceived value that we have on ourselves and so this is the process that happens when someone is offended when someone is offended they kind of take the bait of Satan it starts a reaction and that reaction is going to go one of two ways that's why I got a picture of you so a picture of there the picture of the two paths that we can take. And we're going to look at those two paths this morning and so the first pass that we're going to talk about is the path of Satan because I think that we all need to be aware of what Satan is wanting to do and hopefully when we're aware of what his trap is and what he's wanting to do then we will instead make sure that we're going the direction that God wants us to go but the first path that we have the option of going down once were offended is the path of Satan and that is to do Satan's will on. The first path is doing Satan's will. And I hope that sounds shocking because it should be doing things well really what anyone do satan's Well well it's got a second term of the chapter two of this up on the slider second term of the chapter two but you can turn there as well second term of the Chapter two verses twenty four through twenty six.

In Paul is talking to Timothy and he says and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone able to teach patiently enduring evil correcting his opponents with gentleness godly perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth in verse twenty six I think if we just stop and just take a look at this verse it's kind of a very surprising verse verse twenty six and they may come to their senses and a scape from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do His will. That there are literally people in the world today believers who have taken this bait of Satan and they are captive captivated by him to do his will so what is things you will look for those kind of clarify what this is saying is will is not to turn all of us into murderers OK it's a lot more subversive than that or subtle it is to divert our time and attention into fleshly things rather than spiritual things and so say he knows that as soon as we let our emotions control US Satan knows that we have become distracted and we will no longer listen to the Holy Spirit and do God's will and so Satan's will is basically preventing us from doing what God wants to do in our life which is make us become more like His Son Jesus Christ and Satan as well as obviously then to destroy the healthy relationships that mature us and the thing is and I just want us all to kind of think and you know this this week these last couple weeks have really I really thought about this and it's just kind of this shocking thing to discover but there are people who have been taken captive to do Satan's will and they don't even know it. And you look at verse twenty six and here's the hope for someone who has been taken captive by Satan to do as well and you hope this is what happens verse twenty six and they may come to their senses in a skate from the snare of the devil after being captured by him to do His will.

So so so Paul is talking to Timothy and he's telling him when you come across someone who is trapped they are taken captive by Satan to do His Will this is how you should talk to them this is how you should discuss things with them so as not to stir up their pride you just go to that couple verses before that verses twenty four and twenty five and he says to Paul Paul says to Timothy and the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome how many times have you been in a quarrel or an argument with something and you or the other person got offended quite often right that's a great way for us to get offended and so politics generally don't be quarrelsome don't lay out the bait or the trap for someone to be captured by Satan to do His will and then he also says Be kind to everyone able to teach patiently enduring evil how many times have you been offended by someone being kind to you and usually doesn't happen that way right so Paul is saying act towards people in a way that's not going to bait them into Satan's Trap verse twenty five says correcting his opponents with gentleness when we are gentle with other people we're showing them respect and when we're shown respect we're usually not offended and so Paul is teaching Jim if you do these things to help people not get trapped by Satan in captivated to do His will you know. These last couple weeks as I as I read that verse and I've read this first many many times before I'm sure many of you have read on second Timothy two twenty six before and I read the words and I've never really spent time really thinking in considering this but I thought to myself has there ever been a time in my life when I have allowed my emotions to control me so much that I took the bait of Satan hook line and sinker and I was for a period of time in my life taken captive by him to do His will. And that thought is very humbling and scary.

And as I thought about it there was a couple times I thought yeah I think so I think there was a time where I was kind of blinded by my emotions and I was not doing what God wanted me to do well how about you. Has there ever been a time in your life or maybe even right now where you are being controlled by your emotions and usually these kinds of emotions are where we say off to stand up and have to defend myself I have to fight for my own rights Well this is the deception that Satan uses to get us to think that this is how we should be acting well then what Paul does he goes on to talk about people who have taken the bait and this is what they look like in if you're in second Timothy just turned over to chapter three I don't have this up on the screen but second time of the chapter three Paul goes on to talk about what people will look like in the last day and this is another great description of someone who has really taken the bait of Satan second Timothy Chapter Three beginning in verse one it says but understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty for people will be lovers of self lovers of money proud arrogant abusive disobedient to their parents ungrateful unholy heartless unappeasable slanderous without self-control brutal not loving good treacherous reckless swollen with conceit lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God having the appearance of godliness but denying its power of void such people so it's a great description to describe someone who has been taken captive by Satan to do His will and this is what Satan wants to do it kind of goes like this Satan wants to have someone take the bait of being offended and as soon as someone is offended their emotions get stirred up and then they fuel the fire of their pride in their ego and then they do the things listed in second term of the three they're lovers of themselves they're proud or arrogant or ungratefully in on and on and on and when Satan can get a believer to do that he kind of sits back and he thinks to himself. I got him. I got him right now they're doing exactly what I want them to do and not what God wants them to do and so this is the first pass of what can happen when someone gets offended and I emphasize the word can happen because there's two options but as as we look at this first path does this sound familiar in other words have you seen this take place in the lives of other people in the world I mean we open up our eyes and we're seeing people are offended all the time or does this sound familiar on a personal level where you realize this happens to me all the time I allow myself to get offended and then I go down this path well the second path is the path to God wants to us to to take us down and that's what we'll talk about right now so the second pass is this. We are going to get offended let's make no mistake about that being offended is not sinning just like just being tempted to do something is not necessarily falling into sin but the second path is the path of God and it's the path of transformation what God wants to do is transform us Second Corinthians three eighteen this tells us what God's will for our life is that as we go through this life it says that we all with unveiled faces beholding the glory of the Lord our being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another for this comes from the Lord who is the spirit and so God is wanting to take us into transform us into the image of his son and sometimes for that transformation to take place God will use bad things in our life like being offended I want you to turn in your Bibles to Revelation Chapter three we usually don't go to the Book of Revelation but there's a passage in here kind of a warning from from God to one of these churches in Revelation and I think this kind of fits with this whole transformation thing and so as you're turning to Revelation what I want to do is kind of give you this. Kind of a background of the way that we can look at Revelation and interpret revelation for any of you who have ever read Revelation or at least know revelation it's kind of a unique book so he might even say it's kind of a weird book well there's four main views of how to interpret the Book of Revelation The first is to look at it all is historical It's the historical view meaning that the Book of Revelation is simply chronicle in the history of the church right on that's not the view that we have here is the church is not the view that I have on the second view is the view that I hold to and that is the Futurist view specifically starting in Chapter force a chapter four through twenty two these are all talking about future events that will take place chapters one through three are historical God had John write to actual churches that existed just like Paul wrote to the churches in F.S.S. and colossi So these are actual churches that existed the other two views are very not very popular at all one is called the Predator so you know if you can remember that I'll be really impressed but it's to say that all the events in Revelation took place just a short time right after the Apostle Paul or John wrote this and the last view is the allegorical view where it where you just read Revelation and you just kind of say this is just describing the normal Christian existence that we go through these fights and battles with with evil forces but we hold I hold to the Futurist view Chapters four through twenty two but chapters one through three are a storable and here God is speaking to one church in particular chapter three verse fourteen it's the church in Laodicea. And these people were kind of blind to their spiritual condition and what God is telling them saying I want to transform you and he uses a phrase that we're going to really look out for the rest of the sermon so.

Revelation Chapter Three beginning in verse fourteen says to the angel of the church and later C.-A right these are the words of the Amen the faithful and true witness the ruler of God's creation I know your deeds that you are neither cold nor hot I wish you were either one or the other so because you are lukewarm neither hot nor cold I am about to spit you out of my mouth you say so this is the the blindness that they have about themselves you say I am rich I have acquired wealth and I do not need a thing but you do not realize that you are wretched pitiful poor blind and naked and then he says something here in verse eighteen that we're going to really explore eighteen God says to them I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire so you can become rich the area of latest C.E.O. was known for their gold and they took pride in that but God is saying you your gold is worthless it is mixed with different things you need to buy gold it has been refined by me and so this idea of refined gold is all throughout Scripture and it really deals with difficult situations in our lives and it applies to us being offended you know in this book by John the Veer he writes about the refining process of gold and because I'm not a chemist I'm just going to read the words that he wrote there just like two or three small paragraphs I'm going to just write you about this process refine gold is soft and pliable free from corrosion and other substances it's when gold is mixed with other metals like copper iron or nickel that it becomes hard less pliable and more corrosive. This mixture is called alloy the higher the percentage of foreign metals the harder the gold becomes converse Lee The lower the percentage of Ali the softer and more flexible the gold is so you know you look at your gold ring and you find out how much gold is in there well the more gold is going to be soft and pliable and God is using this to describe the condition of our heart and here is chapters three and your notes I think I put thirteen but every now and then I read something wrong in the nose just to see if you're paying attention just like I have to misspeak every now and then to do that but Hebrews three verses twelve and thirteen God speaks to us and he says Take care brothers lest there be in any of you any evil unbelieving heart leading you to fall away from the living God and the verse thirteen it says but exhort one another every day as long as it is called to day so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitful in this of sin and so God is talking about our hearts and how important it is to keep our hearts pure and that if we put something else in our heart it becomes hard just like when you put something else into gold the gold becomes hard and the book he continues he says. If we do not deal with an offense it will produce more fruit of sin such as bitterness anger and resentment this added substance hardens our hearts just as our lawyer hardens gold This reduces or removes tenderness creates a loss of sensitivity we are hindered in our ability to hear God's voice our accuracy to see is darkened and this is the perfect setting for a deception and you see how true this is when you allow yourself to be filled with anger and bitterness your heart grows hard and cold and it's the perfect place for us to be deceived Oh how do we get all of those things out of our heart. The first step in the refining in the refining of gold is grinding it into a powder and mixing it with a substance called flux the mixture is placed in a furnace and melted with intense heat the alloy and impurities are drawn to the flux and rise to the surface and the gold which is heavier remains on the bottom the impurities of Droste such as copper iron and zinc combined with the flux and they are removed yielding a purer metal. Satan wants our hearts to become hard and callous and in offense is the perfect way to mix into our hearts anger and bitterness which makes our heart hard but God says don't go down that path let me use the fence to refine you instead and Isaiah forty eight ten God writes to us and he says See I have refined you though not a silver I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. You know unfortunately it takes many things that can come into our life for us to be refined this way but one of them is when someone very close and personal and very precious to us when they offend us that's when God can really refine our hearts another passage talking about God finding us is in first Peter one verses six and seven.

He says to us in this you rejoice though now for a little while if necessary you have been grieved by various trials so that the test of genuineness of your face more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ and so over and over in Scripture God tells us that he will refine us with the difficult things in life and only then can we see what really matters in this life the more impurities we add to our life in her newest bitterness resentment those things is there going to really harden our heart. An offense can be the first step that Satan uses to get us to go down that road you know was as I go through you know passages like this I'm always hoping that there's going to be a really great example that we can kind of like is a really personal thing that we can look at and say hi I see how this all plays out well there's a really good story in the Bible that kind of plays this out for us about people who are possibly being offended and they're going down the to pass would you like to know that story I mean there should be asking I guess would you like to know the story why won't you all a turn to Luke Chapter fifteen and this is by far my favorite parable is the parable of the Prodigal Son and in this it's such a great parable and the one thing I love about the Prodigal Son is it's kind of like this blank canvas where you can use it for so many different applications you know all Scripture has only one interpretation but sometimes there's many different applications that we can use and what I want us to do is we look at the story of the prodigal son and it's too big I'm not going to put on the screen so I need you to turn to Luke Chapter fifteen but what I want to do is I want to read this through the lens of the two paths that we just talked about that there was a fence is taking place and if someone took the offense and ran with it in savings down things path it's going to destroy relationships but if they go down God's path is going to soften their heart and so as we read through this story I want you to read in this sermon into the story of the Prodigal Son So let's begin Luke Chapter fifteen beginning in verse eleven.

Story goes like this and he said there was a man who had two sons and the younger of them said to his father Father give me the share of property that is coming to me and he divided his property between them and when you read this you have to ask yourself the question you know what happened here what happened to make the Son The younger son do such a horrible thing to his father basically by telling your father that you want the inheritance your sensually saying I wish that you were dead. Said because that's when you get your inheritance and so what caused the son to do that what was it between their relationship and of course it doesn't tell us because that means that we can kind of apply to our own life I wonder if he was just just a useful fool just an absolute fool or maybe he was just outright selfish but maybe in a situation like this and I know this happens in life maybe the younger son was offended by something that the father or the older brother did I maybe the younger son got to the point in his life where he said you know what my father is never going to give me the respect or the attention that I deserve and because he's not giving me what I think that I need I'm offended and I'm going to fill my life with anger and bitterness and I'm going to tell my dad I want the relationship to be done. That happens in the world all the time doesn't it we don't know what happened in the story of course but maybe something like that happened and so this is the path that the younger son went down thirteen

now many days later the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country and there he squandered his property in a reckless living and when he had spent everything a severe famine arose in that country and he began to be in need so he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him into the field to feed pigs and he was alone he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate and no one gave him anything in verse seventeen this is I think one of the best lines in this entire parable it says but when he came to him self for those of you reading in the N.I.V. I love how the end of you says but when he came to his senses remember what second time of the two twenty six said but when he came to his senses when he came to a self he said how many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread but I perish with hunger I will arise and go to my father and I will say to him Father I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son treat me as one of your hired servants and so this young man and he learned the lesson in his adversity God refined him in this difficult time in his life where he took the anger in the bitterness and removed it from his heart his heart was now soft and he said I want to fix things with my dad he was going down the path of Satan now he's going down the path of God and then the story is there any one person who has the right to be offended from a human standpoint absolutely it was the father the young boy did something that was the extremely offensive to his father he basically said Dad I wish you were dead. And the father had two choices he could take that offense and he could nurse it and he could add into it bitterness and resentment and anger but instead he didn't take the bait and allow God to remove that from his heart and he was ready and willing to accept his son verse twenty it says and he arose and he came to his father but while he was still a long way off his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him and the son said to him Father I have sinned against heaven and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son but the father said to a servant Quick bring the best robe put it on him and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet and bring the fatted calf and kill it and let us eat and celebrate for the son was dead and is alive again he was lost and is found and they began to celebrate and if that was it for the story would say great how wonderful and how they live happily ever after but just imagine what would have happened in this relationship if either of them would have held on to their offense they would not have had the relationship that they have right now but as we read the story Guess what there is another person in the story and we find out that he is the one who took the greatest offense and it's the older brother he took offense at watching his father be gracious to his younger brother he was offended they did his father gave grace instead of punishment.

I think a lot of Christians are offended when we see God giving grace to people who don't deserve it it's kind of hypocritical has it but sometimes we're even offended because of that look at verse twenty six twenty five. Now his older son was in the field and as he came and drew near to the house he heard music and dancing and he called one of the servants and asked what these things meant and he said to him Your brother is come home when your father is killed the fatted calf because he was received he received him back safe and sound Oh here is the bait What did the older brother do but he was angry and refused to go in. His father came out and entreated him but he answered his father look these many years I have served you and I never disobeyed your command and yet you never gave me a young go that I might celebrate with my friends but when this son of yours came quiz devoured your property with. Devoured your property with prostitutes you killed the fatted calf for him and he said to him Son you were always with me and all that is mine is yours it was fitting to celebrate and be glad for this is your brother this brother of yours was dead and is alive he was lost and is found and what happens after this we'll never know.

And I like how we were just kind of left hanging and the thing that I love about this parable more than anything else is I think at different times in all of our lives we are one of these three people sometimes we're the prodigal or we take the bait we take the temptation we say there's something else out there that's better and when we run off and hopefully we come to our senses then God refines us and he removes all the impurities from our heart and we come back to go out and sometimes we're the father where we are offended and yet we say I'm not going down that path and hopefully will see it if we are the older brother where we're offended at God's grace being given to people who deserve punishment but we Christians can really get offended over that can't we and so different times in our life we can identify with all of these but the thing is if we hold an offense it's going to destroy relationships if we see the bait and this is what I the point I hope all of us are getting from this if we see the big that Satan is presenting to us for what it is and what it will do and instead we let God refine us then we open ourselves up for the potential of restoration and having stronger relationships do you think the son the younger son and his father's relationship was stronger now than it was before obviously I think I think that it was. You know whenever we are offended and especially specifically by someone who's close to us I know we get offended by the world around us but you know you might get offended by what somebody posts on Facebook and you don't really know them or you're someone someone says something on the media but when we're offended by someone who's really close to us that we actually have a good relationship with just remember there are two ways that your relationship can go there are two paths that you can take and the first is if you allow that offense to build in your heart and growing your heart you are literally at risk of being captured by Satan to do His will. And as shocking as that statement is it's true it's Biblical and so the next time you see yourself starting to get offended realize that Satan is there hoping that you take the bait or the next thing that we can do is allow God to remove the anger and to remove the bitterness and to keep our heart pure and soft like Christ

unfortunately sometimes we don't realize a situation that we're in until we're in it was Oh I realize what's really going on but hopefully by studying Satan's tricks before hand we will be do a much better job seen them for what they are so let's stand our ground against Satan and let's let God do His work in our lives instead let's pray Dear Lord I thank you so much for for giving us this warning about this tactic of Satan how he wants us to get offended and as soon as we're offended something can happen except off a chain reaction what Satan wants for us to happen is for us to be filled with anger ness and bitterness and really be captured by him to do His will but Lord you reveal this to us in your holy word so that we don't go down that path instead Lord in those moments it's our opportunity to come to you and and to forgive and to give our hearts over due and let you remove the anger Nissin the bitterness within our hearts soft and pliable and moldable as a father my prayer request this morning is for all of us to see this take place in our lives when it's happening and to make that choice to go down the path that you want for us the path of transformation the Lord I also pray that if there's anyone here today who has been caught up in some some situation where they have been offended I hope that today might be the day where they come to their senses when they realize what's taking place that satan is trying to destroy the relationships that they have and you are trying to heal and forgive them so father if there's anyone here who has been blinded by their own anger or bitterness Lord help them come to their senses and to do would you want them to do and that is to seek forgiveness and to open their heart to use of that you can transform them or to pray that for all of us from the state Ford and Chrysler we pray you Matt.

Like what is the purpose of the church why are we doing the things that we do why are we doing all these activities as a church we have a mission statement and I'm just going to randomly call in one of you to see if you know it now I'm here I'm kidding i would.

Never forgive me if I did that but our mission statement of the tour yeah it's in the bullets and you just have to look at The Bolton but our church we exist to develop committed followers of Jesus Christ through the teaching and encouragement of God's word that's why we exist we want to see people become more like Jesus Christ and to truly be committed to being followers of Christ and over the last couple of years what we've done is we've talked about the values that we have as a church we have four main values the first in this is kind of in in order of priority is Bible center teaching and preaching if nothing else we are a church that honestly believes that God wrote this and so every week could you come here hopefully you either learn something new or are reminded of something that God said and so we are a church to prayer in values Bible center teaching preaching we're also a church that values discipleship we believe in the discipleship process discipleship the simply the older generation investing in the next generation bringing them up to be leaders so that they can pass on the teachings of God to the next generation after that so that's two of our values the third value is faithful service and we believe that God is given to everyone within the Body of Christ the gift that they should use to help build up the body and our fourth value is what we're going to be talking about this fall the next several weeks and that is healthy relationships we are a church that believes in healthy relationships and that means that our relationships with each other all the relationship dynamics that we have in this world they should be as God intended them to be.

A way to describe relationships the way God intended them to be they should be positive and encouraging. Kind of like the radio station K. love all you're probably thinking that they should also be based on grace and truth you have to have both in your relationships not just one or the other also healthy relationships mean that we should never compromise God's standards because in some relationships there's compromises and people will bring in their own fleshly desires and influences and it will ruin and distort the kind of relationship that God wants us down with each other so we're going to spend the next several weeks focusing on healthy relationships and we're also going to focus on some of the one another commands in the Bible I've never had a series like that some kind of looking forward to that but first what I want to do today is kind of look at the bad side of human relationships or release what satan is trying to do is what I want to do today is recognize that our enemy satan is focused on destroying relationships

if you have a healthy relationship with another human being whether it's your spouse friend parent sibling God [misspoke "Satan"] wants to destroy that and so what I'm going to do today I want to do two simple things today I want to identify a specific trap of Satan and then I also want to understand why that specific trap is so effective Well let's talk about the track.

I'm I'm multitasking today I'm actually doing my own slide so let's see we'll see how this goes what is the trap that we're going to be talking about for the next few weeks there's there are some common traps that are out there in the world many of you know what they are I always find this one I don't live in a clock whenever I go to Costco you know the samples the food samples are definitely a trap some of us really like those traps this last Monday the kids and I this is the last day before they went to school so we wanted to get kids there and we were doing some shopping and we got some samples and I don't know if you have been to Costco over the last couple weeks but they have introduced a new dessert. You guys know what I'm talking about now they've always had the cheesecake in the cheesecake I think it's like twelve ninety nine It's huge and it's awesome every now and then I give in and I buy the cheesecake Well now they have key lime pie for a Levon ninety nine and I don't work for Costco I just like so we're in there and they are the key lime pie as a sample and I'm thankful after I took it that we were well beyond the desert area so you are going to kids just keep moving keep moving but then Christian called me up I think I was on Friday and she said him going to Costco is there anything you want to pick up I said she lime pie. So there's a half eaten key lime pie at our house right now and it'll be gone by the rest of my today so that's one trout another trout and husbands you know this one comes up every now and. And if your wife says hey how do you like this outfit Do I look good in this outfit GUYS IT'S A TRAP you know what you're supposed to say of course you look wonderful honey kids kids do this trap every now and then kids will say Dad or Mom do you love me and you know what's coming next and so I always say no I don't love you so you just avoid whatever trout they're trying to to to put you in you know during college when I worked at restaurants I learned I don't know if you call this a trap but it's a really good sales technique and so as I'm waiting on tables and as people are ordering your food your response to up sell I think I've probably mentioned this before and so whenever one were never someone want to order a steak I would look them in the eyes and I'd start nodding my head up and down and say you want mushrooms and onions with that it works I tell you they look at you you're nodding up and down and they all of a sudden start nodding up and down it's a great sales technique like let me let me show you how this can work here in church how many of you want to make an eternal difference in the lives of kids and have returned rewards for yourself.

All right everyone who was nodding their head you just volunteered for the nursery thank you very much we have a secret hidden camera up here we'll be calling you you know kind of joking around if you ever see a pastor Mike or myself or Sarah walking up to you and we have a smile on our face and we just start doing this before we talk to you don't resist just say OK I'll do it just whatever it is you want me to do all do it well on a serious note there are a lot of dangerous traps in the world that Satan has set for us and we need help to identify them and really really need help the kind of navigating our way through them.

Many years ago I think probably some of you probably remember the Promise Keepers conferences fifteen twenty years ago a one time during one of the sessions one of the speakers his name was Dennis Rainey let me let me read this excerpt that I that I found one year Dennis Rainey placed animal traps up on the stage they were big ones to bear traps and even an African safari large animal trap that took two men to open and there were a dozen or so traps and he said or open them all then Dennis Rainey had a father blindfold his teenage son and the father then walked to the other side of the stage and called his son to come to him and the boy took one step and the father called out wait I'll keep you from stepping in the trap so this dad went back across the stage took his son's hand and led him through the difficult maze of traps.

There are traps in this world that Satan has set for us but God tells us what they are if we're willing enough to open God's word and read about them and so see him knows us very well he knows just how to push our buttons there's a passage in first Peter five eight it says be sober minded Be watchful your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour and I think that's such a descriptive passage you can just imagine Satan just kind of hiding behind something he's he's he's looking at us he's he's watching us so he knows our habits and our patterns and he's waiting for that opportune time where he can come and he can trip us up and so we know that there is a battle going on in Cygnus trying to trip us up so it's helpful for us to know his best traps and saving those one of the best ways to start the decaying process of a healthy relationship is to get one person to feel offended

that's one of Satan's best traps in the world and we're going to talk specifically about this trap of being offended over the next few weeks in our small group a small group and a Linda Linda Watts Linda and her husband Rich were in our small group and I don't remember how this conversation came up but talking about how everyone in today's society is offended I mean have you been noticing that everyone is offended about everything and she mentioned that she read a book many years ago it's called the bait of Satan and this is how Satan will use the trap of offense to destroy relationships and so she told me that she said I think this book has been out for about twenty or thirty years the twentieth anniversary edition so about twenty years and John but Vere's his the author I'm not sure if that's how you pronounce his last name I don't agree with him on some of his theology in different areas but on this subject I do one hundred percent so I thought OK before I do my fall series on relationships I wanted to talk about this and so I'm kind of using this to kind of loosely guide some of my messages but I want you to turn in your Bibles over to Luke Chapter seventeen I think there's something very interesting that we find here.

Luke Chapter seventeen.

Luke Chapter seventeen and we'll begin in verse one.

Luke Chapter seventeen verse one.

Jesus says to his disciples. And he said to His disciples I'm reading from the E.S.B. temptations to sin are sure to come but what of the ones through whom they come it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea that he should cause one of these little ones to sin pay attention to yourselves if your brother sins going interesting a Jesus and now adding this on to this whole thing about temptations if your brother sins rebuke him and if you repent forgive him and he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying I repent you must forgive him so it's very interesting that Jesus uses the example of human relationships after he talks about the temptation to sin now what kind of temptation to sin is Jesus referring to well obviously he doesn't answer that it's vague so that we can almost put every kind of sin in there for application but the context of this first little section of Luke Chapter seventeen is regarding human relationships and in fact it's very interesting what we read next now I want to understand these disciples up to this point in time have seen Jesus performing dozens and dozens of miracles they've seen him heal people they saw him feed the five thousand they saw him turn water into wine they saw him call the storm but after Jesus tells them that they are to forgive their brother seven times this is how they respond very interesting look at verse five the Apostle said to the Lord after he tells them to forgive their brother they say increase our faith. And so you have to ask why did they ask for their faith to be increased I don't think they were asking for their faith to be increased in the fact that Jesus was the Messiah I think it was because their faith in following Jesus commanded forgive is being challenged Did they ask for their faith to increase because the thought of not seeking revenge against someone else seemed wrong to them.

The think you really Jesus we're not supposed to seek revenge where we're supposed to just forgive someone that many times or did they ask for their faith to increase because they believe that they have a right as a human being to defend their honor or because maybe they were terrified of being taken advantage of while Jesus was teaching them and us one of Satan's greatest weapons you know the interesting thing about this passage here in Luke seventeen is Luke seventeen verse one the Greek word for Temptation the translated temptation is the Greek word scandal on and the word originally referred to the part of the trap to which bait was attached

so hear the word temptation is really the trout to sin the bait to sin this means laying a trap in someone's way that's going to eventually lead them to sin other translations for those of you who are reading from the King James Version it's interesting that it translates to word for Temptation the word as an offense the King James Version says and so Luke seventeen one then he said unto his disciples it is impossible but that offenses will come or a scandal on will come or the bait to get you to sin will come the SO Here Jesus teaching us one of same Meek's a trout or a temptation that leads us into sin is through being offended. And I want you to listen to this when you and I get offended by another person we just stepped into a trap which say didn't use is to destroy relationships. And the offense or that being offended is such a powerful weapon that Satan uses I want you to turn your Bibles to second term of the Chapter two I'll put this up on the screen as well the same word scandal on is used in second Timothy two and here just to give you some context Paul this is speaking to Timothy as a pastor and it's always in the best interest of a pastor to work hard at having healthy relationships with people in the church I think that's kind of obvious a pastor who is always getting upset and getting in arguments of people in church is that going to be a healthy place not at all you know before going in a minister I heard some pastor say sure is kind of a common saying and I think it's true not just for people that are in full time ministry but for anyone who has volunteered in ministry you need to have thick skin so much that a pastor needs the skin of skin of a rhinoceros because guess what you're going to get offended someone's going to say something criticize you and you're going to have a decision to make sure you stepped into that trap of being offended What are you going to do but here in second Timothy two beginning of verse twenty four Paul is writing Timothy and he says of the Lord servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone able to teach patiently enduring evil.

Correcting his opponents with gentleness God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth and they may come verse twenty six is the most important here and they may come to their senses and this tape from the mayor or the scandal on of the devil after being captured by him to do His will and sold this snare of the devil is. The trout is being offended being offended is the bait of Satan and can you see how powerful and effective that is being used in the world today I mean the climate of the world right now is everyone is offended by anything anyone says and sometimes the word offense is used as a trump card and soon as you feel like you can say to another person well you offended me when you did that then you automatically tell them that they can't do that anymore whatever it is it's come like a trump card.

In Matthew chapter twenty four it's kind of an interesting thing here Jesus is talking about the end of the age the latter days were not in the end the end or the we're not in the tribulation sure this is necessarily talking about this time right now however I think that we might be close but in Matthew chapter twenty four Jesus is talking about the end time events and in verse ten through thirteen he says and then many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another you see a lot of hate in the world right now I mean even more so than before I think we can see that and many false prophets will arise and lead many astray and because lawlessness will be increased and it says is interesting phrase the love of many will grow cold but the one who endures to the end will be saved the love that people should have for humanity in general we can see is growing cold in the world today never in my lifetime have I seen so many people on edge and it's amazing you watch all these videos of road rage you know why are people that upset with each other just let the person get in front of you it it's amazing how fast people are getting offended and so on edge with other people and being offended is one of Satan's greatest traps and another thing that we need to know about this Trout is that the people that we are closest to are the ones that we can be offended by the most. As I was thinking about this I've had these thoughts before I didn't really kind of put them together until until I did this I. There's one human being in the world who can offend me faster than anyone else all right you wonder who that is if you're married you know exactly who it is right it's it's my wife's minutes she can say something that another person can say and I wouldn't care that they said it but if she says it then I know Hey I'm kind of offended and I talk to Christian about this and I told her I was going to say this and she said are you going to use an example so no no I'm not and as a as a married person I don't need those examples you know what I'm talking about right it's just amazing but that relationship is so very important and so guess what Satan is going to try to do get me to be offended by something that she says or doesn't get her offended by something that I have said or I have done well fortunately and I've learned this over the years and hopefully if you do if you struggle with this with your spouse hopefully you'll learn this lesson as I find myself getting offended I'm doing this much faster these days I know what's going on I know exactly what's going on and I'll say no I'm not going to fall for this I'm not going to go down that path of getting upset and years really thinking about this say you know I'm not going to let you get a foothold in my life I'm not going to do it I love how in First Corinthians chapter thirteen Paul is talking to us about what love is and he goes through a whole list of what love is and he gets to verse fourteen and he says this is the N.I.V. the N.I.V. translates it this way that love keeps no record of wrongs

do you know what an offended person does or they keep a record and it's alphabetized and it's cross-reference with footnotes and it's dated I mean they know how to keep a record of wrongs while this hitting close to home with anyone here is anyone here think to yourself right now a lot I do I now that this is being brought up I find myself getting offended very easily Well hopefully you're in the right spot then because I think all of us deal with this from time to time and the reason why it's such a powerful trap and now we're kind of getting into the second point the reason why this is such a powerful trap is because when we are offended it directly relates to our pride so why is the trap of offense so effective it's because human beings are prideful that's why this is so effective and I'm just going to say something and I just want you to think about it

the more prideful a person is.

The easier it is for them to be offended.

I think that's a true statement it's an observation there's nothing in the Bible that says that but the more prideful a person is the more easy easily they are to get offended pride is what prevents us from dealing with truth in our life pride will distort our vision so we're not seeing things correctly pride will harden our hearts and it will dim our eyes to correct understanding and pride when our pride is hurt because we're offended then we get good we go into victim mode and soon as we think that we're a victim we say things like well I have been mistreated and I have been this judge and therefore I am justified in my behavior of retaliation that's what an offended prideful person says and when we believe that we are innocently and falsely accused we will his withhold forgiveness from other people because if someone says or does something that appears to make us feel less valuable than we think we are then we will be offended and one of the greatest thing or the great. Satan will use offense to attack our pride and usually the result of that is anger you're offended your pride is hurt and then immediately we get anger angry and I don't think it's a coincidence that Paul says what he says in the fusion Six me fusions four twenty six he says be angry now we're always going to get angry just be angry and do not sin do not let the sun go down on your anger in other words if you're angry you need to deal with it appropriately and then verse twenty seven it says and give no opportunity to the devil because the devil knows if he can get us offended it's going to hurt our pride and then we're going to be angry this is the trap that the devil will use you know what is the second sin recorded in the Bible it's when Cain killed his brother Abel and you think pride had anything to do with his anger towards his brother you think that he was upset when God accepted Abel sacrifice over his his pride was hurt he was offended and what happened he got angry any murder his brother and I got to an illustration I'll share with you of a time that I was offended and I had to deal with pride in all of those things that happen in a church setting I've mentioned this before I don't know when it was maybe of several years ago some of you probably heard this but when I was at my first church I was hired on when I was twenty four I was there part time and then after about a year I went full time so I was probably about twenty five years old this time and things were going well at the church and I can't remember exactly why this was but our secretary I think she had another job and they asked her to go full time at the saw the job and so she stepped down and we put in the Bulletin a few times now we were looking for a secretary to fill in and at one of our Bar Council meetings it was decided you know we don't really have enough for a secretary to do we don't have like twenty hours of work for someone to do what we really need to do is have someone do the bulletin and so it was decided at that meeting that I would add doing the bullets into my job as pastor. And so we get to church next Sunday and another person who was on staff his name is Bill Rigg Pastor Bill Rigg he was in at the meeting and he gets up and he was preaching on Sunday and someone told him hey we are the secretary positions taken care of we have to worry about Josh going to do some of the things he's going to do he's going to make the bulletin Well Pastor Bill is upfront and he's making announcements and he says the secretary position has been fulfilled will the new secretary of our church please stand up and here I am twenty five trying to make a name for myself trying to get people to respect me and so I have to stand up and everyone starts clouds are you laughing in and I all I was I was offended in that moment because that's not what it was I wasn't the secretary I was just doing the bolt it was a really bad moment I've seen seek counseling and I'm OK but in that moment I was like really he's doing this is a really really Dres thing and I remember I was I was hurt and I was a little offended and then I realized OK I have I have a choice to make over what just happened I can either forgive him or I can just fuel the offense the pride that has been hurt in the anger that I'm experiencing in that situation at that moment I had a choice to really important choices. And that's what we're going to talk about next week the inner workings of offense what we're supposed to do when we are offended Well obviously I'm not telling you the story you know what I did I forgave him and I know his heart and I know as intentions and as someone who doesn't know intimates I know how it goes you get up there you make an announcement you think all just say it this way to be funny this way so I know that he didn't really mean anything by that. You know all of us want healthy relationships and so next week what we're going to do like I just mention Next week we're going to talk about the inner workings of this trap and specifically the two choices that we have when we realize that we've stepped into this trap this bait of Satan and we are now offended but for this week what I want you to do is just a few things I want all of us to just pay close attention and recognize this trap in the world today all right notice how often you hear in the news or online or whatever it is that someone got offended and now you know what's really going on OK you know kind of what's going on behind the scenes also take special close attention to yourself and notice how quickly you get offended you might be surprised this week you might say hey I'm not doing that better wow I get offended pretty easily I also want you to prayerfully go before the Lord and ask Him to reveal if you are dealing with issues of pride that Satan could take advantage of in this way and also maybe some of you might need to just realize that there is a relationship that you have that has been affected by an offense whether you affected someone or offended someone or someone offended you I want to close with an illustration I came across which does a great job explaining why all of us need to be aware of this trap even if it's not a powerful one for you some of you might be here today and you think yeah I can see how dangerous this is I can see how the same uses people to get offended he'll destroy relationships but hey I I don't ever get offended I'm an easy going person I don't need to worry about this I'll see in about four weeks from now when the series is done now we all need to be aware of this because guess what when one relationship is affected all relationships are and so I came across this this story and I'll share this with you on that was a pretty good one.

A mouse look through the crack in the wall to see the farmer and his wife open up package what food might this contain the mouse wondered he was devastated to discover it was a mouse trap. This is great I'm going to do this more often this great.

Retreating to the farm yard the mouse proclaimed the warning there's a mouse trap in the house there's a mouse trap in the house. The chicken clucked and scratched raise your head and said Mr Mouse I can tell that this is of grave concern for you but this is of no consequence to me I cannot be bothered by it while the mouse turned to the pig and told the pig there's a mouse trap in the house there's a mouse trap on the House and the pig sympathized but said well I'm so very sorry Mr Mouse but there's nothing I can do about it but pray be assured you are in my prayers the mouse then turned to the cow and he said there's a mouse trap in the house there's a nose around the house and the cow said whoa whoa Mr Mouse I'm sorry for you but it's no skin off my nose so the mouse returned to the house head down and dejected to face the farmer's mouse trap alone.

That very night a sound was heard throughout the house like the sound of a mouse trap catching its prey the farmer's wife rushed to see what was caught in the darkness she did not see that it was a venomous snake whose tail had tripped the trout the stake bit the farmer's wife the farmer rushed her to the hospital and she returned home with a fever and everyone knows that you treat a fever with fresh chicken soup so the farmer took his hatchet to the farmyard for the soup's main ingredient.

But his wife sticks his continued so friends and neighbors came to sit with her around the clock to feed them the farmer had to butcher the pig.

And the farmer's wife died she did not get well so many people came to her funeral the farmer had to slaughter the cow to provide enough meat for all of them and the mouse looked upon it all from his crack in the wall with great sadness and so the next time you hear someone is facing a problem and think it doesn't concern you remember when one of us is threatened we are all at risk

Q little story but I think you think we get the point.

Animals don't really talk just in case you're wondering.

But any and all trout that say incense out it will affect all of us either directly or indirectly and so when we have a good relationship and we see a good relationship another relationship crumbling down because someone got offended it affects all the other relationships that that person has and so this concern should be all of ours we should be concerned not only for the health of our relationships but also for the health of everyone's relationships and so that's why we're going to be talking about this we're going to be aware of Satan's schemes and as we are dealing with healthy relationships Well right now let's go ahead and close in prayer and ask God to give us wisdom and insight and the willingness to fight against this trap Let's pray.

To your Lord I thank you for giving us your word lord you want us to know the devil schemes he is out to trip us up he's out to destroy relationships and Lord we recognize that this morning and so father it's my prayer that as we go through this the series for the next few weeks talking about the bait of Satan and how how being offended can just destroy relationships I hope all of us will be sensitive not only to our own relationships and to our own sensitivity towards being offended but also just learn the skills that we need the Bibles to John how to handle our emotions when we're dealing with things like this Lord I want our church to be a place where healthy relationships can grow and we have issues that will learn and we'll know from your word how to address them so Lord I pray your blessing upon us over these next several weeks as we're talking about healthy relationships and if there's anyone here today who is realizing that there's something in their life that they need to change whether it's their pride or anger or how quickly they are offended Lord help them see this for what it is it's not coming from you it's a bait that Satan will use to destroy our relationship so Help us Lord to fight against this struggle we present crisis in.