Does this offend you?
Teaching Notes
What do you want?
Jesus, John 1:38
The LORD God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground– trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.
Genesis 2:9
Core Desire #1
Appetite
The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.
Genesis 2:15
Core Desire #2
Ambition
It is not good for the man to be alone.
Genesis 2:18
Core Desire #3
Approval
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Genesis 3:4-6
Our desires aren’t wrong, they often settle for less.
“If we consider..the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”
C. S. Lewis in “The Weight of Glory”
Our desires often become idols.
“When anything in life is an absolute requirement for your happiness and self-worth, it is essentially an ‘idol,’ something you are actually worshiping. When such a thing is threatened, your anger is absolute. Your anger is actually the way the idol keeps you in its service, in its chains. Therefore if you find that, despite all the efforts to forgive, your anger and bitterness cannot subside, you may need to look deeper and ask, ‘What am I defending? What is so important that I cannot live without?’
Timothy Keller, Counterfeit Gods
On hearing it, many of his disciples said, "This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it? Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, "Does this offend you?"
Jesus, John 6:60-61
When's the last time Jesus has offended you?
If you’re not being regularly offended by Jesus, then it’s likely that you’re not following the real Jesus.
“The fact that there’s just so many different voices says, ‘How can you possibly know or choose?’” he says. “You just pick whatever appeals or doesn’t appeal to you.”
Christian Smith
Does this offend you?
Setlist
WFC Lenexa + WFC Anywhere
Praise You Anywhere-Brandon Lake
Tremble- Mosaic MSC
O The Blood- Mitch Langley
Thank You Jesus For The Blood- Charity Gayle
WFC Speedway
Glorious- BJ Putnam
Love So Great- Hillsong
Here Again- Elevation Worship
Gratitude- Brandon Lake
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