The Blessedness of The Un-Offended
November 28, 2021      |     By: Jonathan Brickley      |      Category: Sermons      |      Location: El Dorado
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Original Blessing:
Be Fruitful / Multiply / Fill / Subdue / Rule & Have Dominion

#1 Killer of Original Blessing Recently for the Church Has Been Offense

Luke 7:18-23 (NIV)
18 John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them,
19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?’”
21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.
22 So he replied to the messengers, “Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.
23 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

Skandalizo:

• To put an impediment in the way upon which another may fall.
• To cause a person to begin to distrust and desert one whom he ought to trust and obey.
• To be offended in one. To see in another what I disapprove of and what hinders me from acknowledging his authority.
• To cause one to judge unfavorably or unjustly of another.

“Offense is a tool of the Devil to bring people into captivity” - John Bevere

Core of all offense (and all sin) = pride
"Thinking of ourselves more highly than we ought"
Being "wise in our own sight" (Romans 12:3, 16)
 - I am wiser than them!
 - I don’t deserve this!

Romans 12:3,16 (NIV)
3 For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.
16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

OFFENSE is “Give & Take”

James 3:13-18 (NIV)
13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom.
14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.
15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic.
16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.
17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

“If you are TRULY wise, then that wisdom will have birthed MEEKNESS in you”

Meekness - Gentleness of spirit / humility.  Mildness of disposition.
Toward God - Accepting
Toward People - Trusting God is working for our good

Results (Good & Bad) take place in the soil of the HEART
1) Take offense - sow a seed
2) Heart becomes impure
3) Shoot of Jealously / Bitter Envy arises
4) Jealous plant blossoms
   - Selfish Ambition
   - Boasting
   - Lying / Denying the Truth

Disguised as “wisdom” and “discernment” - becomes a license for acting unbiblically
Earthly - World's Operating System
Unspiritual - Natural Man Led By Soul, not Spirit
Demonic - (began with Lucifer)

Numbers 12 (NIV)
1 Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.
2 “Has the Lord spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the Lord heard this.
3 (Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)
4 At once the Lord said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the tent of meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them went out.
5 Then the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When the two of them stepped forward,
6 he said, “Listen to my words: “When there is a prophet among you, I, the Lord, reveal myself to them in visions, I speak to them in dreams.
7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.
8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
9 The anger of the Lord burned against them, and he left them.
10 When the cloud lifted from above the tent, Miriam’s skin was leprous—it became as white as snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had a defiling skin disease,
11 and he said to Moses, “Please, my lord, I ask you not to hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed.
12 Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.”
13 So Moses cried out to the Lord, “Please, God, heal her!”
14 The Lord replied to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.”
15 So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.
16 After that, the people left Hazeroth and encamped in the Desert of Paran.

Earthly Wisdom (Offense) - Yields harvest of unrighteousness
Heavenly Wisdom (Meekness) - Yields harvest of righteousness 

James 3:17-18 (NIV)
17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

James 3:17-18
1) Confess offense - Uproot bad plant
2) Heart becomes pure (Pure in heart SEE God! We SEE our sibling according to the spirit!)
3) Sow a seed of Peace
4) Shoot of Gentleness arises
5) Gentle plant blossoms
    - Openness to reason
    - Mercy & Good Fruit
    - Impartiality
    - Sincerity

Wisdom - From Heaven - births Meekness - which yields harvest of righteousness

Living under the blessing! Fruitful Land!