Don’t Be So Offended

Don’t Be So Offended
Don’t be offensive and don’t take offense either! Today’s culture is so easily offended! We must have self-control and love those who seek to offend us, demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit!

God’s the potter. He’ll work out the things that shouldn’t be there. Stay pliable. Be willing to change, but don’t be down on yourself if it’s not happening as fast as you would like. Give yourself permission to have some weaknesses. Give yourself the grace to not perform perfectly all the time. We should have discipline, be focused, be growing, but don’t live pressured thinking you have to make it all happen in your own strength, frustrated because you’re not changing as fast as you would like.

With a country divided, the Republican risk and morality being redefined, it’s time to gather round a camp fire, get back to basics, and spark the revival that this country so desperately needs.
This is the American Camp Fire revival with Cook Cameron.
We’ve been talking about this amazing group of free thinking out of the box people called the pilgrims.
And their their their kind and compassionate wise pastor named John Robinson who equipped them for the adventure of a lifetime.
In fact, these were gonna be the people who who although they they didn’t they didn’t know what the future held.
They knew the god who held their future and they had faith and believed what he said that god would be with them and that he would honor the justice of their cause as they escaped out of England and got out from under the fist of big church power and went to hospitable Holland where they had some tolerance for their Christian worldview and they began to study and learn these principles of history and government and self government and faith.
And they so desperately wanted their children to understand these things that they decided to do the unthinkable and that is to get into tiny little ship called the Mayflower that was paid for not only by the little money that they had, but also paid for by by others, they called, uh, merchant adventurers.
These were strangers they called them.
They didn’t know them, and they certainly didn’t have their world view and their values.
And they got on the ship with them.
And they set out across the Atlantic Ocean for an unbelievable adventure.
And I wanna share with you a letter that was written by the pilgrims pastor So remember, this is an essentially a a little floating church, but it’s more than just a church because half of the 102 passengers were not part of the pilgrims.
They were these adventurers. They were these merchants.
And the pastor knew that this would be a great challenge for the pilgrims to not only get along with them, but to not just self destruct as this little experimental church floated across the perilous waters.
All of the hope of of of bringing heaven to earth in this new world depended on these Christians and their ability to govern themselves and not completely crack and lose it and fall apart in the middle of the ocean with people who were diametrically opposed to their worldview.
Some of them, known as troublemakers and would cause great difficulty to them And so Pastor Robinson wrote them this farewell letter.
Listen to the wisdom in in all of this.
He He first reminded them of all of the self government principles before you think of anything else you make sure you love god with all of your heart that you have self control and that you’re demonstrating love and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and gentleness and self control.
Love your neighbor as yourself. And he said, your your principles should start with renewing your own repentance before god daily.
Every morning when you wake up, every evening when you go to sleep you turn from any wicked ways.
Oh god. Search my heart. See if there’s any wickedness in me and lead me in the way that is right and good and true.
He said once you have peace with god daily, then strive with all your might to have peace with everyone else on that ship.
And specifically, he said, do not give offense nor easily take offense being given by others.
Now think about that. Do not give offense. Don’t be offensive.
And when other people are offensive toward you, don’t be don’t take offense. Don’t be so offended.
But that that that that’s opposite of our culture today. Right? Everybody’s offended.
It seems like everybody is into offending one another with caustic language.
And then when language comes at us, we can be so easily offended in our culture.
We’ve got a a a council culture where where it’s, uh, people’s right and duty to be offended and fire back.
And so he’s saying, don’t do that. Right?
You know, you know, you can be called a racist or a bigot simply because of the amount of melanin you have or don’t have in your skin.
Okay. That that’s offensive. He’s saying, don’t don’t don’t do stuff like that.
And if someone does do that to you, don’t get into a fight with them, have self control and love them.
Like Jesus said, show them a better way. Show them kindness. Bless them. Pray for them.
Don’t easily take offense uh, when it’s given to you by others.
Uh, if if you love God, if you love this country and you believe that it is your right to be able to protect your family and your property.
Someone might call you a danger to the community. Well, that’s that’s not true. And that that’s offensive.
But if somebody says that to you, don’t take offense, show them the better way.
Demonstrate the fruit of the spirit. To everyone.
He’s saying that’s gonna be critical for you as as you travel off.
And by the way, he wrote them the farewell letter because he couldn’t go with There wasn’t enough room on the Mayflower.
Originally, there were 2 ships, the speed well, and the Mayflower, and the whole congregation was gonna get on with the pastor, but the speed well sprung a leak it had to be docked back at the harbor and there was only the Mayflower and all these other passengers who were helping to pay for it.
So the pastor stayed behind with the majority of the congregation with the family of faith, and he just had to pray for them.
Can you imagine it it like sending your own children off on a boat to an unknown land to a to a to what ended up becoming a wilderness and they expected savage tribes to be there and and and unknown on the waters, this little 2 week trip turned into months of death fying danger.
And he knew that this would test them to the to the max.
He understood that there would be people who didn’t believe like they believed, who didn’t have their world who didn’t have their values, who didn’t have the truth, who didn’t have the spirit of god, they didn’t have the word of god, they didn’t care, and they would test them greatly.
And this was going to be the thing that would determine their character and and and their faith and their success.
And he said, lastly, once he once he touched on self government in the letter.
He moved on to politics because he understood that you’re gonna have to set up some sort of government when you get there.
You gotta have laws. Gotta have people who are gonna judge whether or not people are innocent or guilty.
You’ve gotta have you gotta keep the peace. How are you gonna do that? And here’s what he said.
He said, lastly, when you become a a political body, a civil government, he said, let your wisdom and your godliness guide you.
Okay. What’s wisdom? Uh, where do you get wisdom?
The Bible says the fear of the lord is the beginning of wisdom.
It’s to know how to make the right decision at the right time.
How to make the most god honoring choice in every situation.
Let your wisdom and your godliness be seen not only in choosing such persons as entirely love and will promote the common good elect people to be your leaders who will love with all of their heart and promote the common good, but not only that, he says, let your wisdom be seen in the way that you yield to those leaders, giving them all due honor and obedience in their administration of their jobs as long as they’re doing it lawfully.
They’re your leaders. You’ve elected them now honor them Now give them the obedience that is due.
And he said, not looking at them as ordinary people but as god’s instruments for your good.
Don’t look at these leaders.
That you have selected based on your wisdom and godliness to help guide and serve you in political matters as merely regular people, but as god’s ordained instruments for your good.
And if they are doing their job lawfully, honor them, Give them your respect and obey the laws, and this will serve you well.
And he offered a farewell prayer.
And he said, god, he said, guide them inwardly by your spirit and outwardly by the hand of your power.
And that’s exactly what god did. He guided them inwardly in their hearts.
They could self govern and outwardly by his great power.
He saved them in the middle of storms where the the beam that was holding up the mast of the ship cracked in half and he providentially gave them away to save the ship when all looked lost.
He kept them from from the the rumors of mutiny that were on the ship, there was gonna be a violent uh takeover and a coup that would overthrow these Christians with this godly worldview by these others who didn’t like the way that they were doing things And if they had cracked and lost sight of the wisdom and godliness that they had been taught, no doubt You and I wouldn’t be here today.
They wouldn’t have had the wherewithal to sign the the liberty document that they did on that ship.
The Mayflower compact, which led to the other Liberty documents and the and the the charters, the the constitutions of the of the other colonies and the declaration of independence ultimately, the the federal constitution that gives you and me this wonderful form of government that we have based on Judeo Christian principles and allows us to have life, liberty, and property, and protect all three.
Because by law, these god given rights are protected in America. What a great country.
I love that flag. I I I I love that you can work and provide for your family.
I love everything that we have inherited from these great people, and I want to be just like them.
And I know that you do too. That’s why you’re here tonight.
God revive my faith. Make me like Pastor Robinson.
Make me like those those those those free thinking out of the box, radical adventurous pilgrims, who risked everything for liberty.
God revived my family. Make me a good husband and a good father.
God revive our churches. Give us leaders of integrity and help us to honor them.
As they serve us lawfully and with devotion to you and to their church congregations, and god revive our nation so that we can once again be a shining city on a hill shining to the rest of the world.
Making much of your goodness and your faithfulness to us.
And we ask this in Jesus’ name. Amen. I want revival more than anything.
And I believe that the secret is getting back to the covenants. God works by covenants.
This sacred promise with far reaching importance that determines the relationships between god and us as individuals And as the family of faith and nations, that’s our hope.
Our hope is in the power of god working through you, and me, and passing this on to our kids.
God bless you. Thanks for joining again tonight.
Thank you for listening to the American Camp Fire revival podcast.
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If you’d like to learn more and join the movement, visit Kirk umron.com.