Speaker 1Hello, welcome to day 20 of Intimacy 30, and I have a very, very important thought to share with you today. We're still teaching on hindrances to intimacy, and this is a big one that you have to give very serious attention to. We have looked at several of them. I can't go through them. Sexual profanity, lack of consistency, sin consciousness, quite a number of them. Now, I want to deal with this. It is offense now, and I'm referring specifically in this case, offense towards God. Now, definitely, offense and bitterness in your heart towards others will affect your relationship with the Lord, definitely, but I think that there's a dimension of offense that we don't give so much attention to, yet it festers. It festers and grows in the secret parts of your heart, and then you wonder why you don't have a relationship like you expect to have with the Lord. I want to start out with a few scriptures. Acts chapter 24, and I believe that Paul made that statement. In making that statement, shows us clearly the possibility of having offense in your heart towards the Lord. I know people could say, me, offended in God. No, God can do whatever it is he wants to do, but I'll show you in just a bit. Acts chapter 24. Verse 16, and it says, Herein do I exercise myself to have always a conscience void of offense towards God. And then it says, and toward men. But first, toward God, and then it says, and toward men. Now, in Matthew chapter 11, I want you to see Jesus making a very important statement here about the subject as well. In verse 6, John the Baptist heard of Jesus in prison and asked, Are thou the one, or should we wait for another? Let me tell you the undertone, the real thing John was asking. Are you going to hear him in prison and leave me in prison? That's what John was asking. I mean, you can imagine he was the one who brought him forth, all right? Baptized him in the Jordan. He was his forerunner. And now, maybe somewhere in his heart, he definitely expected that Jesus will come to deliver him from the hands of Herod. But look at what happens here. In verse 6, Oh, that's a powerful statement. There are too many people who are offended in God. And you know, as simple as it sounds, they feel like, no, I can't be offended in God and all the rest. But then it happens. Offense is always based on a feeling of being offended. You are being wronged, hurt, or you are disappointed. So it's not just wrong. Sometimes it's just wrong and hurt. Sometimes it comes from a place of disappointment as well. And what usually starts as offense ends up as resentment. Or better put, offense, resentment, bitterness. All right? So people usually start out offended, and then they realize that, oh, they begin to resent, as it were, the person. And then they get bitter. In Hebrews 12, 15, it talks about being careful to ensure that no bitter root grows up and defiles you. Bitterness has a way of defiling the entire human person. And offense and bitterness towards God is a big deal that a lot of people are dealing with. This offense is very, very dangerous because it actually pollutes your heart. Like we saw in Hebrews 12, 15, it defiles the heart. You find out that it's difficult for you to worship the Lord. It's difficult for you to love the Lord and to receive love of the Lord. In fact, you question the love of God for you. And then the second thing that this offense does, which is equally very, very dangerous, is that it distorts your view of God. You know, Martha made a very, very important statement in John 11, 21. She said, Lord, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. You see? What she was saying in essence was, we called for you. We called for you. We sent for you. We told you that our brother was sick. You did not come. She said, if you had been here, my brother wouldn't have died. She was voicing her disappointment, which had led to offense in her heart. And there are many people today who have disappointments in God. For example, you feel like, oh, well, I prayed concerning something. And I didn't get an answer. I don't know. You may be listening to me. You're there. You prayed about something. You believed God for the healing of a close relative, a close family member. And the person was not healed in court. And the person died. Or maybe you went through an event in your life that you consider it to be unjust that you went through this thing. I mean, why did this happen? I was tightened. I was, you know, I mean, busy serving God. And yet all of these things were happening in my life. Another thing that happens many times is you could be in a church where a lot of people are sharing testimony, sharing testimonies, and it looks as though you never have a testimony to share. I mean, sometimes you can even tell you're engaging in court, the word of God, more than others are engaging. And you just feel like, is it that God does not love me? Is it that, is there something wrong about me? And then you come to that place of offense in your heart. That's where it starts out from. Really, do people get bitter at God? Yes. Not really. People don't. People don't immediately get bitter with God, but it always starts from offense. And then you start resenting the fellowship of the brethren. You start resenting prayer. You start resenting all of these things. You even say to yourself, well, if I do it, nothing will change. If I do it, what's really going to happen? And really, that's what happened with Marta there. She said, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. I mean, you know, and so people have that, that offense and that bitterness in their heart. Their heart becomes closed. Their desire for the things of the spirit begins to die. And then usually, then they get to the extreme of wanting to isolate themselves. It's like John who said, are you the one or should we expect another? And Jesus gives that bombshell there. He said, blessed is the one who is not offended in me. Let's put it another way. Cursed is the one who is offended in me. It's a dangerous place to be. Everything just begins to go to waste. And then you find out that your heart is unable to be open to receive the love and the grace that God brings. And let me quickly say this to you here. Never forget it. Love does not give you what you want. Love gives you what you need, how you need it, and when you need it. You see, so many times the disappointment we have is because we don't have the full picture. Now, definitely. There are events that we may not be able to explain from a human standpoint, all right? But the disappointment many a time we have, the relationship didn't work out. You were sacked at the job. Sometimes the disappointment we have is because we don't have the full picture. Because by the time you have the full picture, you realize that you were sacked because something is going to happen at that company. People are going to be thrown in jail because there's a fraud. And if you were seated there at that time, you'd have been part of that. And God set you up in a situation that didn't look. All palatable, but because of his full knowledge of your life and the events that are yet to happen, I mean, these things happened in your life. I want you to understand this, that as long as we know and believe the love of God for us, then nothing can be against us. No situation can be against us, even though in the immediate, they look like they're against us. So you have to fight offense that and because many of us have grown up as. I mean, religiously, you know, in the body of Christ, we know better than to be offended and angry with God. So we maintain a disposition of I'm not angry. I'm not shouting. I'm not fighting. However, you know, this I mean, you are not your heart is not open excitedly towards God because you feel like you have been disappointed by God. Let me say this to you and let me say it well to you. God has not disappointed you. He's a very present help in the time of need. In his full knowledge of everything and of your life, what he has for you is greater than the way you have planned that things should pan out. If you will trust in him, you will see his mighty hand at work in your life. And so what you need to do is to you need to come to a place where you genuinely not many people want to acknowledge this, but genuinely come to an awareness and acknowledgement that I am unhappy. I'm offended in the Lord. And then you let go. That offense in prayer, you repent of it and you let go of that offense in prayer and you release yourself to receive the forgiveness and the love that Jesus brings. A major barrier hindrance to building intimacy with God is this issue of offense and bitterness. And I pray for you today that your heart will be healed in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. Thank you for joining again today. Comment there, share it with somebody, like, follow. I mean, you know, the things that we do on YouTube and I'll see you same time tomorrow.
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