165. The Price of Offense

I found my freedom in you I found a joy I can't lose And thank God it's true You wrapped your arms around me And heaven broke through From the moment you found me I found my freedom in you Welcome to the For Freedom Podcast. This podcast exists to bring the freedom of the gospel for everyday Christians with everyday issues. Now here are your hosts, James Safer and Brad Martin. Well, welcome back to the For Freedom Podcast. And, you know, For Freedom, Christ has made us free. We are just so thankful to be here. We just enjoy coming to you. We enjoy recording. We enjoy coming up with content. Me and James sit around all day thinking about our podcast, about our listeners, what we can do to make it better for you, how we can make it better. And listen, we want to talk to you. We don't want to be a podcast that just passively has listeners, don't interact with them. We want to interact with you on social media. We want you to message us and IM us and Facebook comment. And we want you to talk to us on social media. If there's an issue or if you've got a suggestion for us, we are open to those suggestions. So hit us up on social media. But in the meantime, we've got a good episode planned out for you today. So let's drop in and check in on James. James, how's your day going so far? Brett, this week has been a busy week, man. We are – I know you had spring break last week and you've got midterms for college right now. Man, we're just in a season of just busyness right now. And I love it. It's great. Part of it is this is self-inflicted busyness. So my schedule yesterday, I'm in spring ball for football right now. And so we had football practice at 3 o'clock after school. Practice went until about 5 o'clock after practice. Went home, scarfed down some food. Brody and Hudson both had baseball practice. So I took them to baseball practice until about 7, 30, 8 o'clock. Allison took Jade to volleyball practice from 6, 30 to 8 o'clock. Got home, got the kids ready for bed, put the kids in bed, woke up, got a game today. I mean, it is just nonstop right now. I love it. It's great. I was praying with our pastors this morning at the association. And, you know, sometimes it's good just to stop and reflect and think through some things and pray with some men. And so that was a blessing and encouragement. But, man, ministry has been busy. It's been great. Family's been busy. My youngest son just turned 4 this past Saturday. And so, yeah, it was awesome. So, yeah, things are going great with us. Oh, things are going great over here. We're getting geared up for Easter. It's coming up on the Easter season. So we've got some different things we're doing in church, trying to get people here on Easter Sunday. And then we've got some other activities. We've got a crusade that we're planning for later on this year with Alex McFarlane. We're also going to try to have Alex on the podcast. Some of you might know Alex from American Family Radio. Yeah. He's kind of a big name in the radio land. And so we're going to have him on our podcast hopefully soon. We've got some great things planned for you. But one of the things that we've got planned coming up, and I'm just going to go ahead and mention it now, even though it might be out of order, is the Israel, our Israel trip. James, I got a message this week from Marcus Merritt, Dr. Sir Marcus Merritt, MD, PhD, all the letters you can put at the end of his name. And he contacted me from Mount Carmel, sent me a video. And he is there. He's with the group. Everybody's safe. Tours are open. Flights are coming in. So Israel is open for business. Yes, they've got a little skirmish down in the south, but that's not affecting anything. And we are looking forward to our For Freedom in the Holy Land trip. The dates for that are January 30th through February 7th of 2026. And we want you to go ahead and come with us to the Holy Land. Check out our website. The password is Jan26. And check it out. Look at our itinerary. We've got good prices. Go ahead and reserve your spot now, because the spots are going to fill up fast. We want to try to have all the deposits in by June, July. So we want you to go ahead and reserve your spot now. Put the deposit down. You can make payments throughout the year to go with us to the Holy Land. I cannot wait to go back to Israel. I've been looking forward to this for a couple of years now. Yeah, I've got one of the guys that's there with Marcus right now. His name is Russ Billio. And Russ is a pastor real close to where I'm at. And we've had coffee once. And we've got a lot of mutual friends. And so we were able to talk and hang out. But he's there with them. And he's sharing all the places that we went to when we were there. He's sharing all the pictures. And I'm like, I'm envious. I'm watching it. And I'm looking at his videos. And, you know, he was at Magdala this morning. And, you know, because of the time change, they were there. And they're going through everything. He took a picture of his outside of his window at the Sea of Galilee. And they were on the boat. And I'm just like, we were there. We're going to be there soon. And so, man, I'm so excited watching it and getting to hear his perspective when he gets back of how it was and how the environment was while he was there. But everything I'm seeing right now, man, they're safe. They're good. And so, yeah, we are excited about our Israel trip in January. Also excited about our convention meetup here soon in Dallas. And excited about being there with you guys and your family there in June. And we'd love for you guys to meet up with us while we're down there. Absolutely. We want to meet you. If you're there, you're in the Texas area and you'd like to come meet us. Meet us in Dallas. We've got some of the RFP fam already planning on meeting us, you know, a little for free to meet up there. And then we've got some things planned. And we are going to look forward to that. James, we've got something going on with our cigar line. You want to tell people about that? Yeah, man, we're doing well. Things are really picking up. We're getting some orders going out. We're getting some reviews coming in. Everyone that's enjoyed it has had it, has enjoyed it. My brother-in-law, he's a big-time cigar smoker. And he got a pack of them. And he called me and said, when can I get more? Because it's one of the best cigars I've ever put in my mouth. And so, he's really excited about it. And we're about to roll out with a box of 20 for all of our lines. And our sweet line is about to come out. We've got some samples in that we've got to investigate and try through those. And once we get settled on the one we want, we'll be rolling out that. And we'll have our full line of four cigars. And in the summer, we've got some really exciting news with some partners that we're going to be partnering with. Some opportunities for you to be able to support some local missionaries. Some local businesses that are starting up. And we're going to be partnering together with them, with our cigar line, to help them out, to help plant churches, and to be able to help do some wonderful things. And so, we're very excited about what we've got going on with that, the connections that we've made, and just some wonderful things that we've got going on. We've also got me and Brett are planning our second annual, which is almost like an annual thing now, mission trip in September down to Nicaragua. And our churches are partnering together to lead that group down there. So, looking forward to that. James, why did this cigar go to therapy? Did not know, Brett. Because it kept getting burned out. I love it. That's great. It's part of Grade A content we bring to the table here at the Fort Freedom Podcast. Absolutely. I've got a friend of mine, Paul Schronz is his name. I'm sure he doesn't listen to the podcast, but he's a local pastor in Alexander County. And he's one of those guys, he has to start every sermon with a couple of jokes, just like that. And it's like he just oozes out of them. When I'm sitting in a room with him, he'll just pull out a random joke out of nowhere. And I think he tries out a couple of jokes throughout the week to see how they land. And then he gives them to the church on Sunday. But all the time, man, he's throwing out jokes. He's throwing out little funny stories. That's not my personality. I don't do it. But it works well for him. I had a pastor friend of mine. He said, yeah, I tried starting with a joke, but it just didn't land like Paul does. And so I just don't do it. Yeah. I've always been a big fan of humor. Yeah. You know, the church I'm at now, and I'm not afraid if they hear me say this, because I've told this to them from the pulpit. They are really hard to get to chuckle, to laugh. You know, so but so they make me work for it. So when I do get a get a chuckle out of them, I've earned it. But, you know, I try to incorporate it here a little bit. But, you know, it's always good to kind of dump on the local football team. You're always you're always, you know, that's a surefire way to get a reaction, a little laugh out of them. And so we've been doing that here lately. But but yeah, so, you know, in North Carolina, you're either a Carolina fan or a Duke fan. You can't be both. You can't be a Duke fan and a Carolina fan. It's impossible. And where I'm at, we've got a bunch of NC State fans and a lot of my family's NC State fans as well. A lot of farmers. And I'm a Carolina guy. Well, I've learned that there's two types of NC State fans. There's NC State fans that like North Carolina and there's NC State fans that like Duke, but they don't like both. And so whenever I'm able to give a nice little jab at NC State or Duke, I do. And yeah, I always get a good, good laugh and a good, you know, layer up when I get to talk about the two colleges or get to bash on one or the other. So, yeah. I was standing up the other day and, you know, we we we are right here beside. Is it no Starkville? So we're right here by Mississippi State. And I was saying something the other day about losing and in the pulpit. And I said, you know, you you you state fans should be used to losing by now. Oh, man, that was I got I got the looks. I got the chuckles there at some of them ready to throw hymnals at me. It was it was full of the spirit that day. I love it. I love it. Well, Brett, we've got some we're in our continuing our series and our woke series. We've only got like two or three episodes of this left. And we're going to close in a couple of weeks with our woke series on the slippery slope. As we talked about last week, the slippery slope of the topic of last week, we want to look at. Um, not cultural relativism as we talked to that. But but what happens when people do begin to go woke? And there's a story that the New York Times or the L.A. Times, I can't remember which one ran a couple of weeks ago. And we're going to deep dive into that story and sort of show the results of what happens. Oftentimes people say, well, why are you guys talking about this? Right. This isn't this isn't dealing with legalism. This isn't dealing with spiritual abuse. But what it does is it can lead to a lack of everything. And so we want to address that from a biblical worldview, from a Christian's perspective. And then we're going to finish out this season beginning to talk through some different camps of the IFB, some different Bible colleges. How's Anderson, Bob Jones, Crown. I'm sorry, the Crown College of the Bible. We'll, uh, different camps that have come out of it. And, uh, then we'll, that'll be leading up into our summer break. And so excited about this today. Uh, we're talking through, uh, being offensive and what that looks like as we begin to, uh, unpack some of these truths. And so we're going to jump in to our opening at this time. We cannot truly worship God while we stay silent on injustice in all kinds of areas. And I know as a white pastor, I have blind spots. So I am part of the problem. James, Paul, elected to unhitch the Christian faith from their Jewish scriptures. And my friends, we must as well. White people fear black men. That's not fair. But it's true. Jesus repents of his racism and extends healing to this woman's daughter. I love this story because it's a reminder that Jesus is human. He had prejudices and bias. And when confronted with it, he was willing to do his work. I believe in the non-binary God whose pronouns are plural. I believe in Jesus Christ, their child, who wore a fabulous tunic and had two dads and saw everyone as a sibling child of God. I believe in the rainbow spirit who shatters our image of one white light and refracts it into a rainbow of gorgeous diversity. I believe in the church of everyday saints as numerous, creative, and resilient as patches on the ace quilt, whose feet are grounded in mud and whose eyes gaze at the stars in wonder. I believe in the calling to each of us that love is love is love. So, beloved, let us love. I believe glorious God. Help my unbelief. Amen. This woke self-loathing. And we will never let the woke left take it away. It's because they're putting woke ideology. To a woke mob that can't even tell you what a woman is. In this season of the For Freedom Podcast, we want to bring to you some enlightening topics that deal with the wokeness of the church. We want to bring to light some issues that are often overlooked. And we hope that it will be a blessing to you in your listening experience. Hey, hey, hey, man, right there. Everybody okay? Okay. Okay. It was a simple comment. An offhand remark. Shared casually on social media. A tweet. Just a few words. But in the world we live in now, a moment like this can shift a person's life forever. A well-known writer, someone who had been once celebrated for their bold voice, spoke out about a topic. Something that seemed innocent at first. Something people had discussed a thousand times before. But this time, it landed differently. This time, it cut through the silent tension of society on edge. Where every word was weighed and measured. This tweet wasn't attacking anyone. It wasn't meant to cause harm. It was an opinion. One that had been shared by millions of others. But this time, it was labeled offensive. The backlash was immediate. The comment was picked apart, magnified, distorted. The writers found themselves thrust into a whirlwind of outrage. Each retweet, each angry response, like a strike of lightning in a storm. The virtual world was unforgiving. And just like that, a person's reputation was torn apart. This wasn't just a debate over differing views. It wasn't a conversation about differing perspectives. No. It was personal. It was a moral judgment. How dare they say that? How could they hold such an opinion? It didn't matter that the writer had a history of integrity. It didn't matter that their past actions spoke louder than this one moment. In the court of public opinion, offense was the only thing that mattered now. The media picked it up. The outrage spread faster than wildfire. And soon, their entire career was at risk. The cancellations came in waves. First, a book deal was pulled. Then, a speaking engagement. Social platforms suspended them. Sponsors dropped them like a hot potato. No one wanted to be associated with someone who had offended the masses. Their crime? A single, ill-timed comment that didn't align with the consensus of the moment. This wasn't an isolated incident. This is the reality for so many today. The world we live in has become a place where offense, real or perceived, doesn't just lead to disagreement. It leads to exile. No room for redemption. No space for mistakes. In a culture of outrage, the price for offending someone is high. And as we move through this storm, we are left to wonder, can anyone truly speak freely anymore? But here's the question we need to ask. Is this really the world we want to live in? One where silence becomes the safest answer? Is there another way? A way to stand for what's true without the fear of being canceled? In today's episode, we're going to unpack what it means to offend others, and more importantly, what it means to stand for truth, even when it's uncomfortable. Welcome back to today's episode. We're excited to be with you today. Excited to talk about this very, very important topic of offending others, and what that looks like from a biblical worldview. Brett? Right. We're going to dive into a major topic in today's culture, the fear of offending others. It's a huge thing in woke culture, isn't it, James? Yeah, Brett. We have all felt the pressure in one way or another, whether it's everyone tiptoeing around each other, someone else, someone's afraid of saying the wrong thing, or causing someone else to get offended. But today, we want to ask, do Christians need to avoid offending anyone? I don't know, Brett, if you've ever been. I've been on staff at a couple different churches, and maybe a deacon, maybe another staff member, where you can just tell the room changes because you're afraid to say something, you're afraid to do something, because if this person gets mad, the entire room, the entire atmosphere changes. Right. You just got to walk on eggshells around certain people, and you know you've been around somebody for any length of time. You know who those people are. You know, and in our current world, it feels like you can offend someone just by breathing, right? I mean, whether you meant to or not, whether it's something small, like using the wrong word, or something bigger, like standing firm on a biblical truth, and it seems like people live on this razor's edge and this hair trigger of being offended. And it's like if somebody is offended, oh, it's like the end of the world. Yeah. And that's what we're going to be tackling today. We're going to explore the notion that Christians should never offend anyone, and we'll examine what Scripture says about it. We've all heard the verse, give no offense if anything, 2 Corinthians 6.3. And some people use it as sort of as a golden rule of Christianity, never offend anyone ever. In the Southern Baptist world, Brett, we commonly refer to this as the 11th commandment, right? Speak no ill of your SBC brethren. And this is the thought, right? We can't say anything bad. We can't offend someone, especially if they believe like we do. Exactly. And, you know, the reality, though, is a little bit more complex than that. The idea of avoiding offense, it's pervasive in our culture, and it affects how people interact, especially on social media. It's the reason why so many avoid difficult or controversial conversations. It's the reason some churches are watering down the message of the gospel, afraid of offending people. But the Bible, does the Bible really teach that we should avoid offending people at all costs? And, you know, this fear of offending, it's fueled by the social media era that we're in. You know, I was talking to my people the other day, talking about watching the news and how when we were kids, you know, you got 30 minutes for the news and that was it. That was your only option. But on your phone today, you can get the news 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And I said we were never meant to carry the weight of the world around in our back pocket. And this social media, it's like a firestorm where it takes just a little bitty thing to set people off. Yeah, you're exactly right. We're going to dive into this question today. Is this fear of offending someone something we should carry as Christians, right? Can we find biblical foundation for always being concerned about causing offense? And what does Paul actually mean when he says we give no offense in anything? It's sort of the premise of what we're going to talk about and sort of be the launch pad of today's episode. And to help us understand this, we'll be bringing in some examples from modern society where people get outraged and offended over seemingly small things. And we'll also take a look at how this plays out in the church and in our everyday lives. Plus, we'll look at a few key scriptures along the way and see what they have to say about this issue. We've got a lot to cover today. So without further ado, let's dive right in. Absolutely, Brett. Well, let me begin starting with and talking about the culture of offense that we see today. You don't have to look too far to see how sensitive our world has become. Brett, you know as well as I do the smallest slip up or an unintended comment on social media, even a joke that doesn't land well can result in people being shunned, canceled, or labeled as out of touch. I mean, how many times on social media has a comment that was meant to be just a joke towards someone, it turns around and someone takes that joke and they twist it and they turn it into something else because, well, my brother or my sister or so-and-so had this happen to them. And all of a sudden, this entire huge firestorm breaks out. Exactly. You can get canceled today. You can offend people just by saying that you're a Republican. You can offend people just by wearing a MAGA hat or a Make America Great Again hat. It doesn't take much. And a lot of these comments and videos are taken out of context on purpose. Like a few episodes ago, we talked about that kid that was just standing there minding his own business. And this Native American man came up to this guy and started chanting in his face. And people thought that the kid walked up to the old man and just stared at him. But in actuality, the whole video, the Native American man walked up to him when he was just minding his business. And so things like that can be comments and things like that can also be taken out of context. But, yeah, like we've been saying, social media has just really amped this up. It's really amplified this. People are getting canceled left and right for things they said years ago or for things they didn't even realize were offensive at the time because at the time they weren't. There's this huge emphasis on political correctness, right? And it's spreading everywhere from workplaces to schools and even in churches. People are getting scared to speak up because they don't want to step on anyone's toes. You know, everybody, there was a joke that was said in a movie 20 years ago. And 20 years ago, everybody laughed at it. Everybody thought it was fine. But today, people are getting canceled over a joke that was funny 20 years ago. And it's just spread everywhere. Yeah, Brett. And I think that this is where it can begin to get really tricky. You know, as Christians, we care about love. We care about grace. We care about truth. And we begin to balance in our mind. Is it possible to love people while still offending them or not offending them, right? We don't want to speak out even though it's speaking biblical truth. How do we aim this? How do we do this without offending people at all costs? What does the scripture say? How does the scripture encourage us, right? Jesus says, I'm sorry, the Colossians says, speak the truth in love, even when it might offend someone. And so we have to be people of truth and understand there's got to be some grace and love in that. Let me make a statement. Accountability demands offense. Accountability just demands it. If we're going to be accountable as Christians, that demands offense. And Jesus, what was the premium example of this, right? He's the premium example of, like you said, speaking truth in love. That's a great question. And this is where the whole don't offend anyone idea doesn't quite line it with scripture. I mean, just look at Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 6, 3, for example, where he says, we give no offense in anything that our ministry may not be blamed. So here's what people do. They take this as a blanket statement saying Christians should never offend anyone. And they hold this up as a proof text. They say, look, look, look, Paul said it. Paul said it. We don't need to offend anyone. Is that actually what it's saying? You know, when you look at it and you actually look at this verse in context, because we're called not to take things out of context, but to bring them into the context that they're in, Paul is saying something completely different, right? The word offense here in the Greek, and I'm sure I'm going to butcher this Greek word, but it's proscopian, and then what it means is it doesn't really mean offending someone's feelings as we think of today, but it refers to as a stumbling block or something that maybe gets in the way of someone walking with the Lord. So Paul was literally saying like this, I won't put anything in the way of the gospel that would discredit my ministry. Exactly. You know, it isn't what does the word mean to us today. It's what did the word mean to the original audience? And that's what we're looking at. That's proper exegesis. Today we want to take words and fit them in our context and redefine them to what we think they are, but we need to look at what was Paul saying to his original audience. And Paul, to his original audience, wasn't saying don't ever hurt anyone's feelings. He's not saying that. He's saying don't let anything you do become an obstacle to people hearing the gospel. That's a big difference. That's a big tone shift change there. The message, listen, the message of Jesus is offensive to people. The cross is offensive. You know, if we're always trying to avoid offending someone, we're going to end up watering down the truth. That's the danger of this. There are liberal left atheists that mock us for wearing torture devices around our necks, wearing crosses, wearing ancient torture devices. But, listen, you know, if someone else wears, you know, the crescent moon of Islam, or they wear, you know, a Dharma wheel of Buddhism, nothing is said about them. They only mock the cross. There's a reason for that. Absolutely. You know, and really, we need to get to this point, Brett, as we begin to talk through this, of why the truth is offensive. Why is it when we speak truth is offensive? And hear what I'm saying, not what I'm not saying. We're not talking about opinion kind of offense, right? If I think women should only wear skirts, and that's going to be offensive to someone, or I get up and I say you shouldn't do this or that, and someone takes an offense to it. We're not talking about opinion. We're talking about the truth of God's Word, right? We're talking about the truth of the Gospel. God's Word can be tough to hear. However, as preachers, we understand we live the message in our life all throughout the week as we're preparing our message. It is tough for us to process what we're preaching on Sunday. And so just think about the message of the cross, right? It says that we're sinners in need of salvation. No one likes to hear that they're wrong. No one likes to hear that they've done something to offend someone, especially the Almighty God. And yet God is saying that we're sinners in need of salvation, and you can do nothing about it. You cannot save yourselves. And Brett, for a lot of people, that's just offensive, and that's downright offensive, and they won't listen to you because that right there, the message of the Gospel, is offensive to them. Right. Just saying the words, Jesus is the only way to heaven, is offensive. Yeah. When he said, I am the way, the truth, the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me, that has, I have seen that statement offend people before. People get fighting mad. What about people that didn't hear the Gospel? What about people on a deserted island? What about these people that were born in other countries? And you repeat the truth. Jesus is the only way. No man cometh unto the Father but by him. Okay. And that's the reason why in the Old Testament, everybody hated the Jews. Everybody hated the Jews because the Jews, everybody else would say, okay, we've got our God, you've got your God. We'll all get along. But the Jews said, no, all your gods are fake. Our God is the only true God. And that's why people hated the Jews. And we go into the New Testament. We see the example of Jesus. He didn't. Jesus never shied away from saying things that offended people. He was not afraid to hurt your feelings. He wasn't afraid to offend you. Like when he told the Pharisees that they were whitewashed tombs. You know, that was offensive to them. When he was called Herod a fox, that was offensive to him. Jesus was speaking truth and it offended their pride. It wasn't a personal offense. It was the offense of truth clashing with their worldview. And that's what happens when the truth of the gospel confronts people who don't want to hear it. Yeah. You know, Paul had the same experience, Brett. In Galatians 5.11, he said he was being persecuted for not preaching a man-made ideology of circumcision that was for the Jews only for a specific period of time. For the people who still held that Jewish law, it was an offense for Paul that he wasn't holding to that while he was preaching. And I'm here to say this, Brett. The truth of the gospel always confronts our pride and our self-sufficiency. We are built up people who think we can handle things on our own, who think that we know what's right, when all of a sudden the Bible or biblical truth approaches us and it tears down what we think we are because we are nothing and God is everything and Jesus sacrificed everything for us. And it's offensive to us when we are put in our place of you are not self-sufficient. You are reliant on God. Exactly. And, you know, I think of the example of Paul confronting Peter for not eating with the Gentiles. You know, just called him out at a potluck in front of everybody. I always love that story that Paul tells because he wasn't afraid to keep him accountable, to put him in his place. Look, when you hold up the standard of God's word to anybody, that's offensive to them. When you hold up the measuring stick of the Bible, people always get offended. And then they'll look and say, well, you know, you hold the Bible up to them and then they'll look to their neighbor and they'll say, well, at least I'm better than this group of people over here. But that's pride. Not that this all this. So I think that the root of this is pride. Pride is the root of so much of our sin. And it's a prideful to say, you know, you know what? It's humble to say, yes, the word of God tells me that I need to change. You're right. It's prideful to say, oh, well, at least I'm I'm better than these people over here. You know, so so with that in mind, what does this mean for us today as Christians? OK, we're not we're not called to go around trying to offend people just for the sake of it. Although me and you know, some IFB preachers who do just that, you know, you know, you got your your your your Tony Hudson's and you got your you know, your. Oh, what's his name? A list goes on and on. A list goes on. You you've got all those people that are just out for shock value. They're just out there to try to offend people. So we're not out here trying to do that just for the sake of it. But we also can't hide the truth out of fear of offense. Yeah. And we also understand that some people do this for the fact of getting clicks, getting clickbait, getting the attention of others, saying something that maybe be preferential that is going to allow people to watch and listen to them. But, Brett, the fear of offending shouldn't control us. In fact, if we're really living out the gospel and I don't mean to say this in a hard way or a harsh way, but if we're living the life that Jesus has called us to live, we will offend people. Right. Just as Jesus and Paul did. If I am walking through life and someone comes up to me that is living a different lifestyle, let's say a homosexual lifestyle or a same-sex attraction lifestyle, and I have to approach that with a biblical perspective and guard my children and guard my family from that, because I'm living for Christ and because I'm living for truth, they are not living in truth and that's going to offend them. And so it's important to note that the offense should come from truth. It should not come from our attitude or our approach. It should always come from the realm of truth. When truth is offensive, it's not on us. And this is where it gets tricky in today's world. We need to make sure that our desire is not necessarily to offend someone, but we must also not compromise the gospel. We must speak the truth in love because love and truth always go together in God's word. Every time we see grace, we see love and we see truth. That God calls us to be people who are of love and truth. And, you know, I'm glad you bring that up because let me say that if you're not willing to offend someone with truth, then you don't love them. Exactly. If you are not willing to tell someone the truth, even though it may hurt their feelings, even though it may hurt your relationship, even though you might offend them, if you're not willing to do that out of love, then what that means is you love yourself more than you love that person, if you're not willing to offend them. If you want to just keep the peace and not say anything and hold your tongue rather than tell them the truth. I deal with this sometimes with family members. I have family members that are going astray. And sometimes I catch myself wanting to hold my tongue rather than tell them the truth because my pride gets in the way. But I have to stop and say, look, I love this person. I need to tell them the truth, no matter if it offends them or not. That's how I show them that I love them. I tell them the truth. And to take it a step further, we need to be careful not to let the world dictate what's offensive either. OK, we don't let the world tell us what's offensive. If we're living by God's word, we will inevitably offend people, especially when we speak the truth about sin and we speak the truth about salvation. But listen, that's not our fault. OK, our goal isn't to offend people. It's to share truth in a way that's clear and loving. Yeah. And finally, I think it's what we should be looking at is the way this plays in the church. Sometimes Christians feel that it's a pressure to avoid offending someone. So what happens is, is we begin to water down the message. I often think of Joel Osteen. We mentioned this last week with cultural relativism, where we water down the message of the gospel, where we say that there I hold up my Bible in my hand and I'm not going to speak anything that's ill will because the word of the Lord is here. And we're just going to tell stories and never approach the gospel from a biblical perspective. And I think that if I'm too bold, people may not come back. Right. Joel Osteen gets up and he says, if I preach sin is sin and sin is wrong, then my 20,000, I don't even know how many, 50,000 people, whatever he's got, they may not come back. They may not come back in here. And that is not the biblical model. We see all throughout scriptures, I'm preaching through Acts right now, men who get up and they preach the word unashamedly. I'm into the passage where Stephen is getting up and Stephen's about to preach the gospel of what these people did to Jesus. He starts with Moses and they look at him and they say, you have offended us. And so we're going to kill you. He knew that, right? He knew that they were going to kill him because they killed Jesus and he's preaching the same message that Jesus preached. And so if the church isn't supposed to be in a place where we say only what we want to hear, then there will not ever be truth proclaimed. And we must stand up and we must speak it even when it's hard to hear, even when it's hard for us to say the truth, even when it's difficult to call out sin. We are called to do that. So, Brett, we've got some examples that we're going to go to. Any thoughts on that as we begin jumping through this? Well, you know, I think since you talked about old Joel, you should take the first one. So this is an example of some of the things that we've talked about. Why don't you take this first example? Let's do it. Many churches today shy away from preaching on traditional biblical teaching about sin, such as the reality of hell, the need for repentance and the exclusivity of Christ as a way of salvation. May sound familiar to anyone. Man, if old Joel's not the poster boy for that one. Yeah. I don't know what is. Just never preaches on anything negative. Never preaches on sin. And then you've got other seeker sensitive churches that all they do is preach fluff. And, you know, look, if you there is no gospel without sin. There is no gospel without repentance. There is none. You cannot save people unless they know what you're saving them from. Right. And so, you know, he doesn't want to offend people because he feels the Astrodome up three times on a Sunday. That's his gravy train. And so as long as he preaches feel good, self-help fluff, he's still got his money coming in. OK. Even though hurricanes come through and he won't open up his church. Well, that's another story for another day. But this just this this this grinds my gears here. This really irks me about him. I know we pick on Joel and we're going to continue to pick on Joel. So let's go on to the next one. Brent, I'm pulling up Joel Steen's most recent books. Let's let's look at his most recent books here. The Abundant Mindset. Oh, how to live an abundant mindset. The living your best self now. Right. This is this is pray boldly. The as we speak the blessings of our life. 13 ways to live longer and healthier. Here's a good one. Ready? You can live the dream. Your your greater is coming. Your greater is coming. Don't worry about it. The greater is coming and you get ready for it. I like this one, Brent. Rule your day. Don't let someone rule your day. You rule your day. This is this this fluffy feel good type of. Here you go. Again, I don't ever look at any of Joel's books or stuff. Empty out the negative. Let's get rid of the negative in our life and let's live a life that is full of positiveness. Ready? The power of I am. 35 life change motions. Hopefully it's talking about Christ as the I am, not him as the I am. But these are things, right? This is the the modern world that is helping you in this self-help world. That's making you feel good. So there's no confrontation and you're going to feel good on your way to hell. And that's the the problem with it is there's no confrontation of sin. And when there's no confrontation of sin, why would you need to repent of anything? Good old Uncle Aristotle says that good intentions are always paved with the path of leading to hell. You may have good intentions, but if there's no repentance, then you're going to split hell wide open. Exactly. Exactly. The next example of this is changing stance on same sex relationships. So in some modern churches, the traditional biblical stance on marriage and sexuality has been adjusted or ignored to align with more more with the views of culture that is increasingly accepting of same same sex relationships. To avoid offending those in the LGBTQ plus community or those who support same sex marriage. Some churches have chosen to reinterpret or downplay the scriptures that speak against same sex relationships, choosing instead the focus on messages of inclusion and love. Just like our open love is love is love. This may be done with good intentions, but it compromises the truth of the gospel and the clarity of the church's moral teachings. Listen, listen, a progressive pastor is not a pastor. A progressive church is not a church. It's just not. When you're not speaking the truth of God's word, you're a poser. You're the synagogue of Satan. And that's exactly what you are. You make people Christ the child of hell that you are when you do this. And so this is something we have to stand firm on. And it's not about hate. We speak the truth in love. We don't want to hate anybody. We're not going to turn anybody away from coming into the church and listening to the truth. But if they're going to be a disciple of Christ, they've got to accept the truth that of the word of God that we preach. And so and this is something that is so pervasive in our society. It's everywhere. And any chance they get to put this type of stuff in your kids cartoons or in every new show that comes out or every commercial that you watch, they try to shove it down our throats to make it normal. And some people are taking the bait and they're saying, oh, well, this is the new normal. We need to reinterpret scripture and update it for modern times. No, we need to stick by the truth that has always been those words in the Bible have meant the same for 2000 years. And they're not going to change in the last 20 because of culture. Yeah. And the person that we would use for this illustration here would be an Andy Stanley. Right. He he preached a whole message on the new normal where he and we talked about, I think, on here one time where he brought the homosexual couple up. And he said, this is the new normal when he showed the graphic. Right. This is what we're leading to. And I want to piggyback on one thing you said before I jump into the next one. You know, if Joel Osteen were to get up this next Sunday and say, church, I've sinned. I've been preaching the wrong message. I'm needing repentance. I need to seek the Lord and forgiveness. We we are in a wrong direction. We need to forsake the things we're doing and and preach the truth of the word of God. I would applaud that. I would stand behind him. I would be gracious as a brother and welcome him in because there was repentance and there was a recognition recognition of what he did wrong and his stance of where he's been at wrong. So it's not like we're saying, no, we're never going to accept it. If they begin to see the Bible as truth and change their perspective and their message, then, yes, by all means, we're going to welcome them in. But if they're going to continue to never preach on sin and never preach on repentance and accepting the world the way it is, then then that is the opposite of what Jesus preached on. Some churches in the efforts to attract larger congregations or to avoid wealthy donors. I'm sorry, to avoid offending wealthy donors. They emphasize the teaching that align with the what we call prosperity gospel. This teaching asserts that following Jesus will lead to financial success, health, wealth and prosperity. It avoids the more challenging parts of scripture that talk about suffering, sacrifice and the importance of laying down one's life for another. By focusing on the benefits of material blessings and avoiding the more difficult teachings of Jesus, these churches continue to water down the message of the cross. They make following Jesus about a personal gain rather than an eternal kingdom. Exactly. You know, and when it comes to this, this prosperity gospel stuff, they have this, you know, they say, oh, well, we God wants you to have life more abundantly. Jesus came so you would have life more abundantly. That doesn't mean having a fat bank account. That doesn't mean having all the good, all the nice toys. It's about being spiritually filled with peace and contentment and love and hope. And, you know, that's what that's what this this live a more abundant life. It's about. It's not about having all the toys. And, you know, there I heard somebody say the other day that Jesus doesn't want you. I can't remember who said it, but Jesus doesn't want you to be poor. Jesus doesn't want you to be persecuted. Jesus does. You know, and actually Jesus promised us that these things would happen. He promised us we'd be persecuted. He promised us that the world would look down on us and we'd have a hard time. So I don't buy into that prosperity gospel junk either. Another issue that we have is emphasizing tolerance over truth. This is the age of tolerance. Tolerance is highly prized. Some churches have shifted their emphasis away from calling people to repentance and change in favor of simply being tolerant of all views. While there is a biblical call to love everyone and to meet them where they're at. This has often been taken to an extreme where choice where churches avoid proclaiming difficult truths such as the call to holiness and living according to biblical standards in order not to offend. Instead of lovingly confronting sin and inviting people into a transformed life. The message is simply that everyone is fine as they are leading to a shallow faith that lacks the life changing power of the gospel. It is so ironic to me, James, that this culture that preaches tolerance so much is so intolerant to people that don't think like them. Like they'll have the coexist bumper stickers with all the different religions on there. But they really don't mean that. Okay. If you're Christian or conservative or you have conservative views, you have a different way of thinking. They are, in fact, intolerant of people and they will shut people out of their lives. We've said this several times. There's no room for forgiveness. There's no room for repentance. And so this preaching tolerance is just a smokescreen for more intolerance, in my opinion. Yeah, absolutely. We're talking about the prosperity gospel. I went ahead and Googled real quick the richest pastors in the world. And this came out in 2023. And I want you to hear this, Brett. The first one that came up was Brett Martin for some reason. And I had to continue searching, but Kenneth Copeland is the richest pastor in the world in 2023. He was estimated at $760 million, almost a billionaire as a pastor. He's the founder of Eagle Mountain International Church, 1,500-acre campus. The campus has a private airstrip with a hangar that houses his $17.5 million jet and other aircrafts. He also has a $6 million lakefront mansion where him and his wife Gloria reside. He was converted to Christianity in 1960. He's going to have plenty of time to spend that because God told him he's going to live to 120. Yeah. So, I mean, and this is just this overwhelming, like, man, what are you doing with what God's given you, right? Are you taking the stuff that God's given you and sitting on it, and you're going to be ashamed when you stand before the Lord, or are you just spreading the gospel with the money that God's given you? Last one here we'll look at before we close this out is the overemphasis on social issues at the expense of the gospel. And at the end of this, I'm going to talk about one of our SBC brethren here. Some churches have increasingly focused on the political or social issues, sometimes to the exclusion of preaching the gospel. While addressing social justice issues is important, there's a danger of focusing more on cultural engagement and avoiding biblical truth that might be seen as controversy. In some instances, churches avoid teaching on personal salvation, sin, and grace in favor of addressing political charge topics in a way that may pallicate their congregation or to appear woke. The message of Christ's redemption and the call to follow hymns become secondary in favor of the social causes and don't necessarily reflect the core of Christian doctrine. Brett, I'm guilty of this as well, right? Political social issues are the heart of where I'm at. I love politics. I love the engagement of it. But oftentimes, I can find myself being distracted by it. And I think that our dear brother, Al Mohler, this can happen to him as well. He spends a lot of time on the briefing and spending time researching. I think sometimes he becomes a distraction to the things that are true, the things that are right, and the things that need to be addressed, even in the old seminary, a Southern seminary. And I believe that if he took as much time investigating the things, the political ideologies of the day, and he spent some of that same time investigating some of the wrong teachings, I guess I should say, at Southern seminary, we would begin to see one of our flagship seminary change for the better. But I think oftentimes we get charged up talking about political topics, and we forget what's right there in our own front door. And I'm guilty of that as well. And so, well, just a challenge there of the social issues that we can get caught up in. Exactly. You know, Jesus is, we're called a priest, Christ crucified, and that's what we're here to do. And on the subject of social issues, I want to say that Jesus did meet physical needs, but Jesus never met a physical need without addressing a spiritual need. Because even when he said to the lame man, he didn't say, stand up and walk first. He said, your sins are forgiven. Because even though the man couldn't walk, he couldn't stand, his bigger need was his spiritual need, was his need for salvation. So we have, yes, we address physical needs, but that addressing physical needs is just an avenue to addressing spiritual needs, because that's where the true need is. You know, at the end of the day, we have to live by truth. It's truth that sets people free. That's why we think that this is in our sphere of subjects that we can talk on. We have a For Freedom podcast, and it is truth that sets people free. And what we've been giving you today is all truth. You know, not sugarcoat it so we can avoid stepping on people's toes, okay? You know, we should be mindful of how we speak to others, but we should never avoid speaking the truth just because it might offend someone. Never do that. Absolutely. I think that's well said there, Brett. Not avoiding things to offend, but as long as it's in truth, in love, and grace, it's a great way to do it. And I think that's going to wrap up today's episode. We hope this has helped you in thinking through the balance of truth and love and fear of offending as we go through the world that we live in today. Remember, our goal is not to avoid offending people at all costs, but it is to speak truth and love just as Jesus and Paul did. And sometimes love has to be tough. There's times where Jesus spoke the truth in love, and it was still rough for him to call those people whitewashed tombs. It was tough for him to step up and whip the criminals out of the courtyard and said, you're turning my father's house into a house of thieves. It was tough for him to do that, but he was doing it out of love, out of purity, out of purging his church. Think about how tough it was for him. Think about how tough it was for him to stand up in his hometown. Oh, man. Yeah. And say what he said to them, to the people that saw him as a kid, that saw him as a teenager. And he knew that they would reject him. And he knew that he would never, ever be, ever, could ever go back to where he grew up. That he was shunned from there forever. He could never see his home again. He never went back to Nazareth after that. Think of how hard that was for him, but he did it anyway because he loved them. So my final words are this. Look, speak truth in love because at the end of the day, it doesn't matter what man thinks of you. It only matters what God thinks of you. Absolutely. I love it. Well, until next time, to God be the glory. Great things he has done. Found my new name. Found that good grace. Found that healing. And the tears fell down my face when I found my beginning that has no ending. Found that second chance. Found my best friend. Found my forgiveness. Found my happiness. I've been singing ever since. I found my freedom in you. Thanks for listening to the For Freedom Podcast. If you enjoyed our content, do us a favor by liking, subscribing, or sharing our podcast on whichever podcast platform you use. Be sure to join us next time for the For Freedom Podcast.

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