Offenses: A Sin Causing Hate and Division

Offenses: A Sin Causing Hate and Division                    Capt. Kelly Durant

Matthew 11:6 And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me

2. Many of you know about the example I am about to describe. It is the parable about boiling a frog in water. There is a claim that if you but a frog in boiling water he will jump right out, however, if you put frog in cool water and then slowly turn up the heat, he will not notice it. He will stay in the pan until the water is so hot it cooks him!

This example is often used to describe the nature of people. If you want to get people to do something offensive, wrong, or shocking, they will not do it because they react strongly against it. But if you start out with slow small increments, then over time what was shocking, what was rude and offensive, what would never have been accepted is suddenly un-noticeably alright and imitated. 

This example is, in part, a proof that we can use to show that we are living in the endtime and that people have become calloused, sinful, and evil. What did Jesus say would happen towards the end? Matthew 24:10 “And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another”. Today hate, offenses, and wrong behavior has increased exponentially and most people are accepting it as the normal! The cooked indoctrinated ones are attacking the wise ones who have resisted the forced topsy-turvy paradigm! It’s been a slow process but every area of society is invaded by corruption, immorality, and offensive behavior!

3. The problem is those who are offending others, offending soldiers, offending a country, offending any and everyone over politics, religion, and even over decorations, are divisive tools of Satan and they do not perceive it! They have been slow boiled in the water of hate, so any and everything good and functional, as seen by them, is to be hated. What miserable souls who really need Jesus!

Today we are now dealing with new divisive forces who hate and offend claiming that others are hateful and offensive?! How do they get away with that?  But when the denouncer who claims to stand or kneel for some cause has a lifestyle of being more hateful, violent, extravagant and perverse than the ones being accused, it is time to denounce the hypocrite denouncers for being shamefully guilty and unworthy to have a voice. What ungodly authors of confusion who care not for making a better world but instead just want to wreck-havoc!

Offended protesters are simply distracting us away from solving matters with God’s standards of love, forgiveness, holy justice and kindness. Many issues are much more important than all the politics of the moment. We should be focusing in on the horrible crimes committed by dictatorships, the oppression of the human trafficking rackets, the mega murders done by false religious or atheistic nations who oppress by murder and torture of their own. These are traumatic and real issues that should summon our call to Christian protest. What about the dozens of thousands of Christians tortured and murdered in certain nations every year? We all should stand against real injustices!

4. In this country, and it is the same pattern recurring in many countries, we observe how offenses and divisions begin. They begin with hating certain top leaders, then it progresses on to hating the police, and then on to hating the rich, and hating certain political parties, and then on to hating certain races which are accused to, but not universally true, hate other races. Where does this hate, hate, hate, come from?

Mostly the news channels, the TV, and the internet. Many of these information sources seem to be directed by Satan himself since they produce distortions and pure lying poison pretending that they are on the public’s side while falsely exposing (with no evidence) those they chose to hate whom they claim “offend”. Stop drinking their cool-aide! Read God’s Word in the Bible so wisdom and discernment will guide you out of this world and into a better world of peace and love!

Remember Satan has many identifiers and one of them is as “the prince of the air”, and Christians should not be listing to Him! Ephesians 2:2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

5. What are some of the characteristics of Satan anyway? He loves breaking all of God’s laws and offending God as much as possible! God stands for love, he stands for hate! He does his evil works through others making them offensive to God’s people. When the hypocrite Pharisees and religious leaders accused Jesus of being the prince of devils, which is a horrible offense, Jesus fired back at them and denounced them as being the ones God is most offended by because they were hypocrites for being false teachers, exploiters of the poor, and murderers of the righteous! They were offended by His exposure of them!

These rich and powerful false leaders had their hand in getting Jesus arrested by their own Sanhedrin soldiers and later got the crowd to say, “Crucify Him” as they welcomed a curse on their selves for perpetual generations. That is the evidence that they were evil! They were so hateful and offensive they wanted to see Jesus cruelly murdered! This spirit of anti-Christ is still alive and well today!

Satan’s offensive qualities influence, with his demons, the people of the world so they become a deceiver like him, appearing to be defending something good, while behind the scenes working evil as he and his rich and powerful people operate by intimidation. They are liars, thieves, exploiters, perverts, God-hating, violent, murderous, psychopathic loud-mouthed hell-raisers!   

6. Putting up with offensive devils on earth is like having to live in hell! As earth dwellers and sojourners, we are as those in a prison. The situation is as such: the good warden was murdered (Jesus), and the evil warden (Satan) is temporarily in control and he is continuously inciting people to get offended so they fight each other! Many powerful people love everything evil and they love filling people’s heads with hate so there is war, violence, and atrocities. Never go with the flow and trends of the world, question everything! Luke 16:15 (b) for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

So I offer you the idea that there are different ways in which people get offended. The way in which we as Christians get offended is when someone is insulting or mocking our holy God, our loving Jesus, our Christian faith, or our compassionate works done with our heart. But our reaction is different from the world. How did Jesus tell us to handle it? He told us to give it up in prayer and to ‘forgive trespasses’ because we too have in some time or another been trespassing, or offending, someone as well. So let offenses pass, God will handle it! He said also that we are blessed when other people offend us for being His own!

Matthew 5: 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

7. Here is something very important that Jesus said about offenses. Matthew 12:31 “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men”.

In other words, if a person is hearing God’s truth, is learning that Jesus is God’s Son, and he or she is so evil that they will not allow God to touch their heart with His Spirit, then that person has resisted fiercely to remain in their own stubborn sinful perverse ways. But to resist God’s love and forgiveness is to invite hell on your soul! There is no other way to clean the spirit making it fit for heaven.

It is nothing to play with, God will not tolerate evil offenders in the judgement of the Great White Throne in the end! We are currently living in a grace period and God is holding back the lake of fire as he wants to give everyone an opportunity to repent and to have a chance to live in a holy loving manner. His gospel of love needs to be preached to the whole world! If everyone had converted hearts, it would be heaven on earth! But as it is the entire world suffers under the reign of the usurper, Satan, which is afflicting everyone with his evil people doing evil in word and in deed as they do now.

8. The world is offended by Jesus, but we are offended by the world! We are blessed, but they are condemned by their own choice of self-destructive Satanic ‘offensive’ practices done in word and deed.

The people of Satan are at war with God’s children and anyone who does anything good, fair, just, loving, or something glorifying God, will get attacked as evil. The offended complainers will always find fault with the good and make it a scandal and lie and want the whole world to be as offended as they are! But the so called offended people are committing an offense and insulting when they label good people as evil, as bigots, or racists, with their invented accusations. They are bearing false witness against their neighbor, a grave sin with God! Many, many people are guilty today of repeating lies about others just because they love creating controversy, which escalates to war and is Satanic, not of God’s peace.

What a never-ending torture to listen to people who whine, complain, and decry an offense over matters that are usually defending postures that are perverse, rebellious, or evil in nature. These people invent evil even where it is not!

9. So, God’s people forgive and let God do the sorting out and do not go on the attack to offend, insult, riot, and burn down cities as evil people do. God commands his people to let Him have the vengeance. Romans 12:19  Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.

As Christians, we do not want to offend others, or offend God with our complaints either as the children of Israel did after leaving Egypt. They offended God with their whiny complaints and they paid for it. I Cor. 10:10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Obey God, love your neighbor and help him, preach the good news of Jesus!

As Christians we do however, have legitimate complaints and God-given rights to speak up and get the brakes put on offensive evil seducers, liars, violent instigators, and Jesus hating perverse, corrupt, doers of evil! We fight with the truth against human injustices and exploitations which include murder by despots, the murder of innocent ones, and the seduction of others by means of perversions, false religion, or atheism! How unfair and hypocritically oppressive is Satan’s world! His reign will end with Jesus return, thank God for that!

Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers”, which implies that the troublemakers are cursed by God! Here is our comfort, ‘this world is not our home, we are just a passing through’. And here is a line from Martin Luther’s hymn that I love, ‘And though this world with devils filled, should threaten to undo us, we will not fear for God has willed, his truth to triumph through us!’ Amen! 

Pray that you and I can win as many souls as possible with Jesus liberating, refreshing, un-hateful, loving truth!

Prayer: Do it with a Clean Heart, Persistently, and Be Patient!

Prayer: Do it with a Clean Heart, Persistently, and Be Patient!   Kelly Durant                                                     

There is a testimony by a Sergeant in the Salvation Army that was stationed in the Middle East years ago. He frequently traveled from Cairo to Haifa and every time he would get up and say a prayer for the safe journey of the train. One day, however, there were heavy storms and the train’s engine failed with no explanation at 3:00am in the morning and no one could understand why it would not work. Also, some men had been sent to check out the rails in from of them to make sure they were safe. To their amazement, not far up the tracks their had been a washout from the rains and it had made a hole in the ground big enough to swallow the train! Here we see a lesson. Sometimes when we pray, at first some things appear to go wrong, but many times the Lord is doing something for our safety and good, or for a reason we will not know until we get to heaven!

Did you know the Bible has 667 prayers in it and 454 of those are prayers that got answered?  In the U.S, it has been a tragedy that prayer has been removed from our schools and now we have crime and destruction like never before, but do you know what the greatest tragedy is? It is that the Christians like you and me quite often don’t even pray in our homes! I know there are a few here who do pray, because they tell me about it. Please tell me about your prayers because when you do it shows you have faith and you are trusting God to do something in your life! We all have seen many people in this church get jobs, and obtain their needs supplied by unusual means, and it has been the power if prayer that has done it! How many of you are praying, not just for you own needs, but for the needs of others, and for our church so that we can win more confused suffering souls to Jesus so they will be saved from a life of enslavement and tragedies that come from the consequences of their sins?

I heard a testimony once of how one church made a list of people in their town that needed to be converted and come to the Lord, and one by one even the worst drunk was getting converted because everyone was praying, united and it works! I want to make a list like that for our church too. And also, do you know what the latest trend of some churches is for prayer? They have a 24/7 prayer chain. That means for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week (that is 168 hours) there is a volunteer praying every hour! The Salvation Army has that program in effect too, and it you want to be a part, please tell me and we will put you on the schedule.

Let’s open our Bibles to                Luke 18:1-8

18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

2 Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:

3 And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary.

4 And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;

5 Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.

6 And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.

7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

What we learn here is that you should not expect a $1,000 answer to a 10 cent prayer! Sometimes some of us pray with pessimism, that God has never done much for me, and why should I even put effort into prayer when He probably won’t answer. Well, maybe the reason He hasn’t answered isn’t His fault, but your fault! As you will remember Job, who lost every thing, prayed, and He didn’t get an answer right away but months later, be He was persistent; and because He passed the test of loyalty and faithfulness to God, God answered and blessed Him with even more than what He had had!

I know the greatest dilemma that most of you have is why doesn’t God answer me when I need Him most?  God is always there, and sometimes He has us in the same position as Job, He is waiting on us to mature and realize that we are nobodies to be judging Him as to what He should or should not do. We forget the part that talks about how the self righteous man, who reminded God of how he fasted and did not sin, like the people that tell God, I go to church thinking that is all the have to do. The prayer of those who heart is not right does not get answered; but the sinner that said, “God have mercy on me a sinner,” was the one that got His prayer answered. And I know the sinner that got an answer from God provoked the jealousy and criticism of the self righteous one, and that has happened here in our church too. The people that are not obeying so much what God wants get jealous and mad when someone gets a special answer to prayer. It is a terrible thing in human nature that we all can be just like Cain who killed his brother, because his brother was willing to do what God wanted and he pleased God, but Cain was not willing and he burned with jealousy and anger. Check your heart, are you jealous and angry with the prosperity and the spirituality of others who often speak of how God answers their prayers?

So to pray you must

1) Start with a clean heart, knowing you have no righteous of your own, your only righteousness is the blood of Jesus

2)Pray with faith, and pray with persistence and passion

3)Be patient for the answer, and willing for God to teach you what you need to learn from your trial

Let’s pray so that we all can pray more, and in the right way, and to pray as I Tess 5:17 says, “To pray without ceasing”.

5 Signs of Being a Christian

5  Signs of Being a Christian                                        Kelly Durant

Colossians 3:11-12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; ¹³ bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

2. There is a saying in English that goes: If it walks like a duck, if it swims in the water like a duck, if it quacks like a duck; then it must be a duck! In other words, people are known by their characteristics and for the most part it is true, you can make a judgement call on whether a person is a Christian or not based on their lifestyle, actions, and love for God and others.

Today I will explore 5 things that identify a person as being a Christian. Ask yourself today, do I have these characteristics in my life? Am I really a Christian? Some people we can observe have gone to church all their lives but with little or no spiritual revolution in their lives! I can tell you all about the day I took Jesus in and how my life changed after that! And the more I practiced these things here, the more truth and purpose God led me to.

What do you consider to be the most important things for a Christian to do?

Let’s explore them. These are very general attributes most all denominations agree on and practice weekly, but these things should be a part of us every day.

3. #1) Prayer!  When you become a Christian you become a Son of God, and what do sons and daughters do? They communicate with their Father! Observe what Jesus first comments were on prayer in the sermon on the Mount:

Matt 6:5-8

5 "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

The obvious here is Jesus is desiring that we pray but not in a way to show off spiritually in front of others. It is a private communication with you and the Lord. However, it is also something we do collectively in group settings. So don’t ramble and babble or repeat a phrase over and over which is identified by Jesus as pagan practice, pray sincerely from your heart.

4. Right after these verses is the Prayer of, “Our Father, hallowed be thy name”;  So right after prayer in importance is worship, the recognition of God’s Holy name so that you have all your passion and energy busy with adoring God.

#2) Worshiping God should be at the top in our priority list!

Luke 4:8 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'"

In this verse Jesus is quoting to Satan who is tempting Him. The trick of Satan is to get us to worship anything that is not God!  

How do you know you are not worshipping God? What do you worship? Your personal things? Your family? Your own pride of intellect and accomplishments?

Worship is defined as: An extreme devotion or intense love or admiration of any kind such as in reverence to a deity.

5. Some people worship money and materialism, some people worship spiritual leaders, bt the worship of anything not God Jehovah is idolatry and lust and is condemned in the 10 commandments! God made us to only be satisfied in our spirits if we are worshipping Him alone.

So what more does Jesus say:

John 4:23-24

23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."

God is love and He wants all your love! He wants you spending time with Him loving and worshipping! He wants you passionate for Him! Are you passionate for Him?

When you light a candle in the darkness of a room you have a little light, but when you light 100 candles like we have here on Sunday, all worshiping together, you have a bonfire of light! Worshiping God with praises and songs and in prayer is what a Christian does on Sunday, and it is something a Christian does in his personal time any day at any moment!

So a sign that you are in the right relationship with God is if you are worshipping Him!

6. Lets refer back to the verse we just read in Luke 4:8

8 Jesus answered, "It is written: 'Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.'

So what do we conclude after we pray and worship God?

#3) We must serve God! And Him only!

Where else does Jesus use the word serve? Matt 6:24

24 "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money.

Jesus was always clear to show the difference. He could see all humanity is concerned with is the physical things of this life, what they will eat, what they will wear, and our money needs. He made the distinction that we have need of those things and God will provide, but the idea is that we should serve God and then trust Him as our Father to supply those things!

Eph 6:7-8

7 Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, 8 because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.

7. Jesus made it clear how to serve God: You serve God by taking care of mankind which He created! We serve each other in love and we serve the suffering people too!

Matt 25:35-40

5 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

37 "Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

40 "The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

When was the last time you served another in need? To be honorable with God you must be more than self-serving, and in that point many people fail God!

8. So now is the question, how will we know God’s will in order to serve Him the right way?

#4) We must study His word! Everyday you and I discover more about how God’s character is, and what He wants from us!

2 Tim 2:15

15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.  How well do you know your Bible?

Heb 4:12

12 For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.  Does God’s word convict you of your sins when you do wrong?

Ps 119:9-12

9 Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to thy word.

10 With my whole heart have I sought thee: O let me not wander from thy commandments.

11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

12 Blessed art thou, O LORD: teach me thy statutes.

9. Only by study of the Bible will be gain the knowledge to have our souls cleaned with the light of God’s word! His word teaches us prayer, worship, and how to serve! And finally…

#5) Faithfulness (stewardship, & consistency) is the final attribute!

Rev 2:10

be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

Matt 25:21

21 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master's happiness!'

1 Cor 4:2

2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.

Faithfulness implies maintaining your salvation and relationship with God with being consistent. If God sees you are faithful with prayer, worship, with learning and teaching his word, plus faithful serving Him and others: then He will bless you in this life and in the life to come! Imagine people who will face God and say, well I was faithful to you God going to church sometimes! God will say, I gave you 70 years and you only gave me the equivalent to less than one?! How God measures is not how we as righteous-in-our-own-eyes measure!

Those that come a few weeks or months and then get lost are not being faithful to God!

10. With God it is like a marriage, He wants all of you, all the time, all of your love, and all your resources! And just like in a good marriage, God will offer you His faithfulness and security, and there will be (within His will) prosperity, but the best part is you will have a love that will make you walk on the clouds! Life in the Spirit, being obedient is extremely rewarding!

Rom 7:4

4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Faithfulness to God’s work also means you give Him your tithes and offerings with generosity. Just like in a marriage, the woman will not like it if the man spends all the money on himself and does not bring home what is needed to support the home and pay the bills, and pay for the new Christian children hanging on your feet!

Loving God also implies giving money to support His work! Reflect today, just how dedicated are you in each one of these points with God.

What are the 5 sighs of being a Christian?

Prayer- Worship- Service- Study of God’s Word- Faithfulness