February 6, 2023

Religious people are offended by the truth (The heart of a man Matthew 15:10-20)
I have heard our pastor, Mitchell Bias, say on many occasions that the Holy Spirit will not rest upon those who are easily offended. He does not say this to put anyone down or disqualify anyone from the Holy Spirit working in their life, He says it to bring about some self-evaluation in the heart of the congregation. If we are always offended by what is going on around them more than likely we are a little self-absorbed, egotistical, and walking in religion and not fellowship with God the Father. In verse 12 when the disciples make sure that Jesus knows that what He said offended the Pharisees, Jesus made know that truth would only be received by those planted of His Father. The Pharisees had gotten to a place where they knew everything about their religion, they were sure of themselves, and they could not stand to hear someone tell them something differently even if it was the truth. Their love for God had been replaced with religious arrogance because they were certain that if someone disagreed with their man-made doctrine that that person was not only their enemy but the enemy of God as well.
This type of religious pride has been in the hearts of men since the beginning of time as satan has used the spirit of offence to draw individuals’ hearts away from God and towards selfish agendas. In Acts 23 a group of religious men made a pact that they would do God a favor and not eat or drink until they killed the apostle Paul who was obviously their enemy because he had offended them by preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can look at this a say, that was then, and this is now but the sad reality is that the spirit of offense still rests heavily upon many individuals, churches, and denominations in our modern society as well. When someone disagrees with their religious dogma, they automatically go into attack mode because “how dare someone have an opinion different than their own.” As children of God, we should be slow to anger (Proverb 19:11), loving, joyous, peaceful, forbearing, kind, good, faithful, gentle, and full of self-control (Galatians 5:22-23). When these attributes are ever present in our lives, the spirit of offence has no power over us because the Holy Spirit has set up home in your heart.