Water Off A Ducks Back
“WATER OFF A DUCK’S BACK” by James Wilson
Psalm 119:165: “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.
Heavenly Father, I ask your blessing now upon this message and this sermon. God, I pray that this message would find the hearts of all those here in this room this morning. God, this is something that we all need. It seems like we’re living in a day and age where Christians are so thin-skinned, Lord, and so sensitive, and so touchy. It seems like every time you turn around you’re stepping on somebody’s toes or offending somebody. God, people are getting called in on the carpet before the preacher, and before each other; there are always confrontations here and there, Lord. Somebody’s always getting their nose bent out of joint. Father, I pray this morning that we learn some things from your word that would help us be good soldiers, and not be so offended, Lord God, at some of the things that go on around us. Father, I pray now, God, you help us to be attentive in the next few minutes, Lord, to try to preach. I pray that you’ll loosen my tongue and let it go, Father. I pray that you anoint me with your Holy Spirit, God, and fill me. Give me divine unction from on high. I ask in Jesus’ precious name. Amen. Amen.
“Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.” I call this message, “Water Off a Duck’s Back.”
You know, there are probably three types of people here in this congregation this morning in relation to this message: those of you who came looking for a blessing; those of you who came looking to be offended; and those of you who probably didn’t come looking for anything at all. If you’re one of those people, one of those latter people who didn’t come looking for anything at all, you go ahead and go to sleep. We’ll wake you up when the invitation comes, so we’ll make sure that you get on out of here on time with everybody else.
I’m serious about that. I mean, if you have to fall asleep, go ahead and fall asleep. Some pastors and preachers get so upset, when they see somebody nodding off in the congregation. They say, “Now, you wake up! You’re not getting enough sleep! Open that window! Turn on the air conditioner. Turn on the fan! Come on! Everybody, wake up in here!” Well, it’s not the congregation’s fault. It’s not the parishioners’ fault. It’s the preacher’s fault. If you can’t hold somebody’s attention for about thirty or fourty minutes, then let them go to sleep. It won’t hurt my feelings. Some preachers just get so upset and so touchy if their congregation doesn’t react a certain way to their message. You won’t bother me. Take off your shoes and lie down in the pew; I don’t care. Have yourself a ball.
I heard a tape one time about Brother Jack Hyles when he was preaching. How many of you have ever heard tapes by Brother Jack Hyles, or heard him preach? You can hear him right there on the tape. If somebody gets up and walks around, he’ll stop in the middle of his preaching and say, “Find that man a seat. You need to sit down somewhere. You in the front row! Kids, you be quiet, and you settle down right here. You listen to my preaching.”
And he said he was in a Bible conference one time with John R. Rice. And he arrived late. His plane got to the airport, and it was fogged in, and he had to land somewhere else and take a commuter plane over and get on a bus and a car and a taxi. And finally, when he made it to the auditorium, John R. Rice, who was preaching before him, was about ten minutes into his message.
And as he came up into the foyer in the back of the auditorium, the usher stopped him at the door right there. He said, “I’m sorry, sir, preaching has started, and you’re not allowed in the auditorium.”
He said, “Well, what do you mean?”
“Well, those are just the rules.”
He said, “Man, can’t I just slip in and sit down in the back?”
The usher said, “I’m sorry, sir, the rules are nobody enters the auditorium once the preaching has started.”
Brother Jack Hyles said, “Well, that’s a stupid rule! That’s a dumb rule! I never heard of anything so ridiculous in my life!”
And the usher said, “Well, I have to agree with you there. But, the pastor said so. Those are the rules, and I have to enforce what the pastor says. He’s the boss.”
Jack Hyles said, “Where did he pick up such a stupid rule?”
“Well, he went to Pastors School one time in Hammond, Indiana, you know, and the preacher told him there, ‘Once the preaching starts, you shouldn’t let anybody in the auditorium.'”
That was Brother Jack Hyles’ rule! And it finally turned around and bit him!
But those of you who are looking for a blessing here this morning, you won’t go away disappointed. And those of you who are here this morning looking to be offended, you won’t go away disappointed either.
You know, it’s like this. When I was in the electrical trade, this happened more often than not. I’d climb up twelve steps up a twelve-foot ladder and be working on a ceiling somewhere, installing a light fixture–and I’ll drop a screw! And that screw will go, plank! plank! plank! plank! down the rungs of the ladder. And those construction sites are never clean, and it lands in a pile of construction debris, where you’ve got pieces of metal stud, pieces of sheet rock, you’ve got empty bags of grout, you’ve got broken tiles, you’ve got ceiling tiles, you’ve got paint–you’ve got all this junk! And you dropped this one little tiny screw, and that’s going to be the only 1024 that fits that light fixture.
So, I have to climb down those twelve steps, and I look around in that debris. And I’m looking for this screw. And I push this back, and I push that back, and I push this back. And finally, “Oh! Praise God! I found my screw!”
I grab my screw, climb back up that ladder, and I install the light fixture.
Now, if you were to ask me five minutes after I found that thing what was in that pile of debris, I couldn’t tell you. About the only thing I could tell you was, yeah, there was an inch-long 1024 machine screw which I needed for my light fixture. I couldn’t tell you what else was in that pile. Why? Because I wasn’t looking for anything else in that pile. I was just looking for that screw.
And you’ll find what you’re looking for. Here a while back in Temecula, we had a revival meeting with Joe Boyd. Joy Boyd was preaching. He’s a good ol’ Southern, hard preacher. He really holds the corn. And I’ve seen people get up. You know, this California crowd, it’s hard for them to handle preaching like that. And he’d preach hard. And I would see people get up in the middle of the message and just walk out, find their way towards the side door or back door and walk out and go sleep in the car.
You know, after that meeting, you could talk to one group of people over here, and they’d say, “Man, that was a blessing! Boy, that fellow could really preach! Man, I really got my cup full! I wish we could have him in every year.”
Then you’d go over here to another group of people, and they’d say, “That obnoxious, headstrong, that high-minded, proud, arrogant, dirty so-and-so. I’ll never come listen to that man preach again!”
Why? Because when people come to church, they’re looking for different things.
You know, preachers don’t offend you on purpose. Sometimes it happens, but they don’t do it on purpose. You know, if I offend you in this message this morning, I’m not here doing it on purpose. I’m trying to build up this work. I’m not trying to tear it down. I don’t want to see anybody leave.
But you know, with some people, you just can’t help it. You can’t help it.
We were sitting in Bible school one time. It was during the morning message. And I was sitting there. We used to fill that church from the front, back. We used to have to get there early so we would get a good seat up front. And I sat down on the third pew; I was there with my wife and my kids. All of a sudden, this cripple came in on his crutches. He had to straighten out his braces, you know, like Brother Harrison, and find himself a seat and sit down.
And he was sitting there, and his wife helped him in and sat down next to him. As they were sitting there, I said, you know, “Good morning. Nice to see you. How are you doing?” And smiled and shook their hand.
And Brother McGaughey got up there and made the morning announcements. And during his morning announcements, he was reading a letter from this missionary, which happened to bring out a certain religion in that country, which was in the negative light. These people weren’t there five minutes, and he got up; she helped him up; they were struggling to get up.
I figured, “Well, this poor fellow, he has to go to the bathroom.” So I went over there and I helped him up, you know, and helped him get on his feet. They made their way down the aisle and walked out the back door–and they never came back.
I said, “Boy, that guy must have, you know, physical problems or something. He’s not making it back!”
I came to find out later that they were invited by a student at our school to that church to come hear the message, and they were offended by the remarks Brother McGaughey made during the announcements! Not during the preaching, but during the announcements!
They said, “We want a church where they preach love. And if you make a negative remark toward somebody’s religion, that means you’re preaching hate. We don’t go for that. We’re offended. We’re leaving.”
Those people were looking for an excuse to leave; and it didn’t take them long to find it.
Brother, preachers are obligated to preach the truth. The truth is good for you, but you know the old cliche: “The truth hurts.” And if you get offended, then something is wrong with your life, and something is wrong with you.
You know, if you’re in here, and you’re looking for a blessing, you’ll find it. If you’re looking to be offended, then you’ll find it.
I remember one time Brother Prather used to say, “If I haven’t offended you yet, stick around; I will!”
But, you know, he didn’t go out of his way to offend folks. I remember one time he asked me to preach, and I got up and preached this message called “Running the Race.” During that message–I don’t know, some of you may remember–I was preaching that thing just a few years ago. I was still kind of salty, still kind of rough around the edges, you know. I got up and I was preaching, and I mentioned the fact that, you know, Baptists love to eat, but you ought to get out and you ought to exercise, you ought to run, and you ought to watch your diet and watch your weight, and keep in good physical condition. You know, your body is the temple of the Lord–you know, stuff like that.
And I made a few base remarks about people who happen to be overweight. When I did, these two portly young ladies got up from the front row, and they turned around and they walked off down the aisle, and we never saw them again. I figured they were just going to the bathroom, you know.
Later on, I found out that they got offended at what I said, and they left the church and never came back. I said, “Brother, I’m really sorry. I really didn’t mean to offend anybody.”
He kind of smiled at me and he said, “Well, brother Jimmy, that’s why I had you preach. I figure every time the vineyard needs a little weeding, I’ll put Brother Wilson up there, and he’ll hoe ’em out! Those two gals in the front row were always giggling and always poking.” He called them “squirrels.” They made fun of the piano player, they made fun of the organ player. He said, “I was trying to figure out how to get rid of them.”
But, you know, he didn’t want to do it himself! Preachers don’t go out of the way to offend you themselves, but if you are offended, that’s up to you. That’s up to you.
Now, brother, some of us just need to relax. You need to relax. You need to take it easy. Don’t get up on your high horse, and quit walking around with a chip on your shoulder. I mean, some people are just so touchy, so sensitive. And you just can’t say anything to them. Brethren, these things ought not so to be.
How many of you were ever in boot camp? How many of you were ever in boot camp? How many of you ever had to put up with some verbal abuse by your drill sergeant? Now, how many of you ever stepped out of formation under this verbal abuse and walked back to your barracks offended? Nobody! You know, you stood right there and you took it.
How many of you ever wrote a letter to your commanding officers and complained, saying, “Well, Drill Sergeant Schmidt, he offended me! He hurt my feelings!” How many of you ever wrote a letter like that?
How many of you ever confronted your drill sergeant and said, “D.I., you offended me! You hurt my feelings! You better stop that!”
No, brother! And, you know, I’m no drill instructor, and you’re no boot! And I’m not trying to dress you down in the military during boot camp. Brother, surely we can do better than the U.S. Army.
You know, you’d think that these pews sometimes were upholstered with with pins and needles, and the floor was carpeted with eggshells, the way people are just so touchy, and you have to watch what you say. They’re always getting offended.
Well, I was reading through my Bible, and I picked out a few things out of this passage of scripture, “Great peace have they which love thy law: and nothing shall offend them.”
Some of you here this morning, you won’t get offended at anything I say. Why? Because you’re looking for a blessing. If something comes across that seems kind of hard and hits you right between the eyes and hits you right in the heart, you’ll probably go out of here saying, “Well, thank you Lord for that! Praise the Lord, God must be speaking to my heart.” And if you’re here looking to be offended, you’ll probably go away thinking, “Well, how did that preacher know about me? That preacher’s out to get me. He’s after me. I’m offended.” And go away in a huff.
So, why do some people get so offended?
Offended People Have No Peace
First of all, I’d like you to notice that they have no peace. There’s no peace. You know, the definition of peace in the dictionary is this: “A state of tranquillity, free from fears, agitating passions, or moral conflict.”
You know, the Bible says in 2 Thessalonians 2, “Be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter, as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.” “Be not soon shaken.” You know, some people are so sensitive. The reason why some people are so sensitive is because they’re unstable. They’re insecure. They’re on shaky ground in their faith, in their church, their home, their job, in their friendships. They’re just unstable, insecure, shaky ground. Always self-conscious.
Like the two psychiatrists who passed each other in the hallway in the professional building. And they got out, and it was the end of the day, and they saw all their patients. One left his office and started down the hall. The other left his office and started down the hall. As they passed each other in the hall, one said, “Good evening. How are you doing?”
The other one said, “Hi, how are you?”
When they got to the elevator, the one turned around and thought, “I wonder what he meant by that?”
That’s the way we are! Brethren, we’re always looking for the hidden meaning. Always wondering. Never sure.
Folks who are off-balance are easily knocked over. They’re easily offended.
You know, up in the North Atlantic during wintertime, some merchant marines say that during some of those winter storms, that their huge vessels are just tossed back and forth and beaten violently against the high waves in those North Atlantic seas. And it always amazed them how they could look up and see an iceberg just gliding across the ocean by them, just seemingly untouched–as the waves crashed against its white walls like a great, white castle. Just gliding across the waves.
Well, you know the reason why that is? Only about one-ninth of an iceberg is above the surface. The other eight-ninths are down below in calm, deep waters. You know the saying “Still waters run deep”? I’ve always been drawn to and attracted to people who were just quiet, kind of peaceful, kind of complacent, placid. You know why? Because they’re just not easily offended. They know where they stand. They’re surefooted in their position. You just can’t push them off-balance very easily.
You know, people like that are offensive to the extroverted, superficial, flighty type of person, because more than one-ninth is on the surface, out of the water. It’s more like the other way around. They get knocked around by the heavy waves and the heavy sea. Always complaining about these people who are quiet, you know. Never quite sure how to read them.
They say, “Well, he offends me. I’m not quite sure where I stand with him. I’m not quite sure how to read him.”
Well, who cares? Who cares? Mind your own business! Why are you so uptight? Because you’re shaky. You’re insecure. You’re not on solid ground.
You know the type. Always yacking, trying to feel you out as they’re talking to you. Ask you this question, ask you that question. They’re like a blind man tapping his cane down the street–tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, yack, yack, yack, yack, yack, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. Why? They’re always trying to find out where they stand, where they are in relationship to somebody, somewhere, sometime.
Shaky ground.
You ever bump into a blind man? They knock over real easy!
You know, there’s a lady who has her child in our Christian school. I won’t mention any names; don’t worry. But this lady is constantly on the phone, calling parents about the way their children treat her daughter. Constantly! I got to thinking that maybe they just singled out my little Joanna, you know, that she’s got a personal vendetta against her or something, because she was always calling on the phone, complaining about the way Joanna was treating her little girl. I came to find out that she didn’t single us out or Joanna out. She called all the parents! Always worried about her child’s social standing. Always worried about her grades. Always worried about the way that she was being treated. Always worried about putting in that positive reinforcement. “Don’t pick up any negative comments or reactions or vibes from anybody else!” And anytime she felt that maybe her little girl was threatened, either in the social circles of all the other little children in that school, she’d get on the phone and she’d call the parents. Why? Because she was insecure as a parent herself.
I heard some little girl make the remark, “She’s just an eightyear -old girl in a 33-year-old body.” She’s not fit to raise kids. Insecure. Unstable.
Well, you know, the Bible says, “Be steadfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord.” Can you imagine what kind of pastor I’d be if I offended easily? Brother, I wouldn’t last two weeks behind this pulpit. You know, if your life is unstable, nail it down. Anchor it. Find some sure footing. Stay with it.
Are you insecure in your personal life? Are you insecure with yourself? Not sure about yourself? No confidence? The Bible says, “Stand. Having done all, stand.” The Bible says, “Be rooted and grounded in love.” Are you having personal devotions? Are you seeking God’s will? Are you a personal witness? Are you being yourself, or are you trying to act like someone else? Are you keeping your conscience clean and pure?
Brethren, we need to quit wasting time trying to “find ourselves,” find out who we are and where we stand, and the way other people are treating us. Brother, you’re right here! You don’t have to go out and find yourself. You’re right here, right now. Find out what you ought to do, and if it’s right, do it. And don’t care about anybody else, or what anybody else thinks.
Is your marriage on the rocks? Make sure of your marriage. Nail your relationship down. Are you talking? Are you praying with your mate? Do you know where you stand with him? Is your home unstable? The Bible says, “Build your house upon a rock.” Do you have a family altar? Are you spending time with your kids? Do you discipline them? Is your schedule too busy? You ought to learn to say, “No!” every once in a while. When people find out you’ve got a willing heart, they’ll get on the phone and call you and ask you to do every little job that comes along. And, brother, I’m against too many social activities in the church. You know why? You know the type. Preachers get up and say, “We’re having this function.” “We’re having that function.” “Be there.” “Be there.” “Be faithful.” “Be there.” “Attend!” “Attend!” “Attend!” “Attend!” And then, when you don’t show up, when you come to church the next Sunday, you get the brow-beating. Amen? Amen, brother!
You know, I’d rather have you spend some time with your family and get your home life nailed down, and make sure your home life is stable. I like to provide something for people to do, but if you can’t make it, if you’ve got to stay home, then fine. Stay home. Be with your wife. Be with your kids.
But turn off the TV! Turn off the boob tube! Sit down and read them a book or something. Spend time; nail down your family; make it stable. “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he’ll not depart from it.” Are you shaky in your church? Well, are you stable? Are you consistent? Do you support the ministry? Do you pray for the pastor? Do you pray for the congregation? Do you have a burden for souls? Do you support the missionaries? Are you right with God? Do you pray? Do you read God’s word? Do you stay faithful to him? Well, brethren, when you’re right with God, when you’re right with your family, when you’re right with the church, you’re on pretty solid ground, steadfast, sure. And any offense that comes along would be like water off a duck’s back.
Offended People Have No Law
Not only that, but I want you to notice that these people who are offended in this passage of Scripture have no law. No law. Law is “a binding custom or practice of a community, rules of conduct enforced by a controlling authority.” Have you ever played a game with somebody who makes up the rules as they go along? Man, brother, that’s offensive! I hate playing in a game where there are no rules.
You know, I remember one time, I was sitting at my desk studying, reading my Bible. And all of a sudden I heard Jake and Joanna going at it like cats and dogs. I came out in the front room and found out they were playing the game of Life. And they were arguing back and forth.
And I said, “What’s the problem here? What’s the trouble?”
He said, “Well, she broke the rules. She said this and she said that.” You know, I looked at the rules on the back of the game and said, “Well, you can’t do this. The rule says this. You can’t do that!”
“Well, we changed that rule, Daddy. And we changed this rule here.”
And they forgot about all the rules that they changed, and pretty soon they were playing with no rules–and they were at each other’s throats.
Brethren, you need law, and you need order.
Can you imagine pro basketball without any rules? I mean, football would be no big deal. They play like there are no rules anyway. The same with hockey; they look like there are no rules at all, the way they bang each other around on that ice. And baseball, if you didn’t play by the rules, I think they would just kind of take their balls and bats and just walk off the field and go home.
But, basketball! Whenever you watch basketball, that referee is blowing his whistle about every fifteen seconds. “Foul!” “Foul!” “Foul!” “Free throw!” “Inside double dribbles!” “Outside the key!” “Inside the key!” “Time!” “Goal tending!”
If there were no rules, man, it would be a bloody mess! You talk about players getting offended!
Can you picture a country without laws? You know, I got these newspaper clippings I was reading in the paper the other day. One of them is about a man on death row. The fellow’s name is Harris. It says, “Convicted murderer Robert Alton Harris will be executed in April or May.” Now, this was last week’s newspaper clipping out of the PressEnterprise in Temecula Valley. “…April or May, the state attorney general predicted yesterday, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Harris’s latest appeal. But Harris’s attorneys immediately took action to thwart execution. Harris, 38, was convicted of the July 1978 kidnap and murder of 16-year-olds John Mayeski and Michael Baker, whose car he used to commit a bank robbery the same day. He has appealed his case several times in state and federal courts, most recently challenging his psychiatric examination as to inadequate, to show he suffered from several mental impairments. The Supreme Court without comment let stand a federal appeals court ruling that Harris was properly sentenced to die in the San Quentin gas chamber. Harris’s attorneys responded by filing a new motion in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, asking that it reconsider its August 1991 rejection of Harris’s appeal. The action did not affect a likely March 13 hearing in San Diego Superior Court to set Harris’s execution in 30 to 60 days from that date, said state prosecutors who predicted his execution between April 12 and May 12. If defense attorneys are unsuccessful in blocking that, Harris, who is among the 323 people on death row, would be the first person executed in California since 1967.”
What good are laws if they’re not enforced? You know what reaction that has on the public? It says, “The court members in recent years have indicated they understand these internal delays do not promote justice, he said. Lundgren said that Harris’s appeals alone have cost the state at least $477,000. Michael Lawrence, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing Harris, said, after filing a motion intended to thwart execution, that the Supreme Court has officially turned its back on its historical responsibility to protect the rights of all people– although,” the article says, “the majority of Californians support the death penalty.”
Where is the law? Our country’s capital, Washington, D.C.: “Sergeant-of-arms at the House of Representatives was in stable condition yesterday after being shot in the face while walking his dog just five blocks from the Capitol. The incident was one of many recent violent crimes in the neighborhood around Capitol Hill. ‘The District of Columbia has been drenched in an acid bath of violence,’ said House Majority Leader Richard Gephart from Montana. ‘Just what will it take here in the nation’s capital for those of us in Congress to be convinced that we need to bring the death penalty for substantial crimes?’ he asked. A 25-year-old aide to Senator Richard Shelby from Alabama was murdered last month just eight blocks from the Capitol, and the wife of Senator Kent Conrad from North Dakota was attacked by a gunman in December outside their Capitol Hill home. And earlier that month a female House aide was stabbed with a twelve-inch butcher knife.”
Brother, without laws, it’s going to be easy to offend somebody. You know, we have a group in this country called the L.L.L.L. It stands for “Less Lawlessness Through Less Laws.” This is from the Washington United Press International: “More and more law officials are coming to the conclusion that the only way to reduce crime is to make everything legal. Tests show a decline in drug busts where they have decriminalized marijuana.” The ways to get rid of outlaws is just to get rid of the laws, they say.
“The leading advocate for decriminalization is an organization called Less Lawlessness Through Less Laws.” They say this: “The way to reduce crimes of pornography, prostitution, gambling, and other vices is to make them legal. An L.L.L.L. spokesman said, ‘If we are going to have a genuine improvement in the situation, we’ve got to attack the root cause of crime: the laws.'” The laws? That’s anarchy, brethren!
You say, “Well, I want my liberty! I have the right to pursue happiness, life and liberty, according to the Constitution?” Well, you know what, brother? Your right to swing your arm ends where my nose begins! And in order to keep from offending everybody with your liberty, you’ve got to have laws.
You know, in Hymn number 455, if you want to look this up, in “America the Beautiful,” the second verse says that we have “liberty in law.” And that’s the only we can have liberty, brother, is to have law. That’s the only way that we can have peace and get along, without offense and without being offended.
You know, even outlaws have laws. Have you ever heard of “honor among thieves”? “The unwritten law”? “Street etiquette”? “Prison ethics”? Did you ever hear of “the dirty double-cross”? “The law of the jungle”? “You’re on my turf!” “You’re horning in on my action!”
You know, these are just from the Bible verse, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” You know, people get offended when you break the rules. In order to cohabitate in society, we practice ethics, morals, etiquette…rules! We have rules. We have laws in order not to offend.
When friends fight, somebody broke the rules. When marriages fail, somebody broke the rules. When churches split, somebody broke the rules. When governments fall, it’s because somebody broke the rules.
My Bible says in Romans 7, “I had not known sin but by the law. The law is our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ.” You know what? This Book teaches us here–this law–how to get along, how not to offend. How much time do you spend in it? Did you ever wonder why you’re being so offended, or offend people all the time? How much time do you spend in this Book? How often do you practice what’s in this Book? You know where it says, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”? In this Book. You know where it says, “Love thy neighbor as thyself”? In this Book. You know where it says, “Dwell peaceably among all men, as much as lieth in you”? In this Book. You know where it says, “Go the second mile”? In this Book. The law. The law.
Offended People Have No Love
That brings us to our last point. No love. No love. Brother, if we’ve got sure ground, you know, if we have a law which we go by, and somebody violates that law and breaks that rule, you’d know it. You can be sure in your law, as long as your law is being enforced. And any time you’re offended, it’s just water off a duck’s back.
Water off a duck’s back.
Another reason why people get so offended so easily is because they have no love. Oh, they’ve got plenty of love for themselves. They just have no love for others. Intolerable. They won’t tolerate anybody else but their own selves. You know, instead of being concerned about how we should treat others, we’re concerned more about how we are being treated by others. You won’t tolerate any advice, criticism, or correction, contrary to your own. You’re always getting your toes stepped on.
We wake up sometimes with our nose bent out of shape, and we walk through the day just begging somebody to tweak it for us. And when we do, “Aww, he offended me! He offended me! You hurt my feelings! You stepped on my toes!” Well, what do you expect, man? You’ve got to have a little grace sometimes. You ought to be able to put with some people sometimes.
We had one of our children get up this morning on the wrong side of the bed. In those cases, we have to administer what we call an “attitude adjustment.” And that is where the “board of education” is applied to the “seat of knowledge,” amen? You understand, they get up on the wrong side of the bed, and they’re just walking through the house, just begging somebody to offend them and rub them the wrong way. I mean, they just have that look. “He looked at me!” “He touched me!” “You touched me!” “No, I want the Golden Grain!” “No, you said you wanted Rice Crispies!” “I want the Golden Grains!” Just waiting, just begging to be offended.
And it doesn’t take much to set them off.
Some folks get offended just because they didn’t get their own way. You know that? Someone else had a better idea. Or your opinion was rejected. Or you thought you said something pretty profound, and somebody said that it was silly. Offended. Offended.
You know, I was working on one of my model airplanes in my garage one time on a beautiful summer day. I mean, the sun was out, and there was a gentle, warm breeze coming out of the west. Not out of the east, but out of the west. And I was sitting in my garage, and I was having a good ol’ time listening to the Dodger game on the radio and building my model airplane. And we had all these neighbor kids coming over, and they were swimming in the pool in the backyard.
I was working along and I was happy, you know, content in the state I was in. And pretty soon, a group of girls came walking through there on the way from the backyard, just dripping water all through the garage. They got out of the driveway, and they were just mumbling, backbiting. They walked off down the street, they split up, and they went home.
And I was wondering, “What in the world is this?”
And I walked in the house and there was Joanna on the couch, just dripping wet in her bathing suit. She had come out of the pool, and she was crying on Mom’s shoulder: “They said this…that said that…”
You know what the problem was? Joanna wanted to play Marco Polo one way, with her own set of rules, and these girls wanted to play Marco Polo this way, with their own set of rules. And they had a church split right there in the pool.
“You don’t like it? You can just GO HOME!”
“That’s fine with us! We don’t want to play with you anyway! I want to GO HOME!”
Why? Because they didn’t get their own way.
Intolerable.
I had this woman in my Sunday school class one time. I taught adult Sunday school in the church in Temecula. I was teaching a series on the family. Everything I said was Scripturally sound, doctrinally based. I had a verse for everything I said. I was going by the law. I didn’t give my own personal opinion; God knows I’m no expert, or I’m no James Dobson or Gary Smalley.
You know, this gal piped up one time while I was talking about, “The man and woman should be one flesh. They should leave their father and mother and cleave unto their mate, and the twain shall be one flesh.”
And this gal thought she had a really good idea, and she said, “You know what? You know what really works out in my marriage? We take separate vacations.”
When she said, “We take separate vacations,” the other twenty people in the class just laughed hysterically. They laughed her to scorn. They thought it was a bad idea.
You know what? She got offended. She said, “No, really, you people, it works!”
“Awww!” they scorned her. “If I go somewhere, I want to be with my wife.” “I want to be with my mate.”
I tried to help her save face a little bit, you know. I came up with this cliche: “Well, you know, they say absence makes the heart grow fonder.” I tried to help her save a little bit. They were laughing her to scorn.
And she came to me later and said, “I was appalled at the conduct of the rest of the students in this class!”
You know why? Because they thought her opinion was silly. They thought her idea was a bad one.
Intolerable. Intolerable of anybody else, or anything that’s contrary to their own way of thinking, and their own beliefs.
You know, the Bible says in Philippians, “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory, but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than himself.” Did you ever take a look at a palm tree in a hurricane? You know it’s hard to uproot a palm tree. Palm trees don’t have a real huge root system in the ground. They’ve got a long, pretty elaborate root system, but the roots on a palm tree are pretty thin. They reach deep through the sand, and they grab hold, sure enough, but they’re little. It’s not too difficult to uproot a palm tree and move it somewhere. But, you know how they’re able to withstand those 150-milean -hour gale force winds in a hurricane? Because they’re full of water, and they’re long and slender, and they’re pliable. They have the ability to give, the ability to bend, the ability to yield every once in a while.
Some of us, brethren, we’re just so stiff and rigid and set in our own ways and in our own belief, that we just can’t tolerate anything contrary to the way we are. When we get caught in a situation that’s offense, you have a limb break off here, a branch break off her, we get uprooted, and they’re going to find us five miles down the road in the river bottom somewhere, being carried away with the water. Why? Because we’re just so easily offended.
You know, four of the nine fruits of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5 are, “Love”–love your enemies; “longsuffering,” which means patient endurance; “temperance,” which means you have self-control; and “meekness”–that means you’re patient under injuries. No matter how hard you get hurt, you’re patient.
When you finally realize that this world doesn’t revolve around you, all those offenses that come your way will be like water off a duck’s back.
You know, Jesus Christ was offensive. I’ll conclude with this. You know why the Pharisees were offended in Matthew 15:12? Because in verse 9, Christ ridiculed their doctrine. He said, “You make void the law of God by your tradition.” Christ shows up with the Scriptures and He says, “You’re all sinners. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you’ll not enter into the kingdom of God.” All these Israelites–children of Israel–holding to the fact that they’re the seed of Abraham, living in the Promised Land with the law of Moses, figured they were in like Flint. Christ comes along and says, “Your heart has gotten hard. You strain at a gnat and choke at a camel. You teach for doctrines the commandments of men. You are set in your own ways, your own way of thinking, your own righteousness. You’re making your own plan of salvation your own way to Heaven. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
You know what the Bible says there in Matthew 15:12? That they were offended. They were offended. Why? Because Somebody came along and professed the Scriptures and preached a doctrine that was contrary to their own beliefs, and they just would not tolerate it. Wouldn’t tolerate it. Christ shows up rocking the boat. He said, “You’re doing it all wrong. The best your righteousness could do is buy you a seat in the lake of fire, where you’ll burn forever and ever and ever. You need to trust my righteousness. I am the way, the truth, and the life.”
You know what they did? They said, “Well, who does He think He is? Who does He think He is?” And they crucified Him. Hung Him on a cross. “We won’t tolerate any opinions but our own.”
And He said in Matthew 11, verse 6, “Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me.”