Reclaim your courage

Sins of Omission vs Sins of Commission

Burger King Video:

Burger King bullied Whopper Jrs. and a Junior High School kid.

How many people stepped up?

95% of customers complained about the bullied Whopper Jr.

12% Stood up and stopped bullying.

Classically we think sins of commission are worse than sins of Omission. But what if that’s backwards?

Maps of meaning addresses this question.In the great atrocities we’ve seen in the 20th century, even in American school shootings, what happened? More people were involved in seeing the symptoms and the evil. And they stood by. And when you walk away from bullying, allow lies to go unchallenged, what are you walking away from? You know exactly what you are walking away from. It’s something that left unchallenged is likely to grow into greater acts of evil and expand. How many times could Hitler, Stalin, Osama Bin Laden and so on have been stopped before they killed masses? How many times did these school shooters get bullied, bully, or act out and no one stopped them?

A person might ask, what makes a bully? What terrible thing must occur for someone to be a bully? I would push back and say, you don’t have to have some horrific unjust thing happen to you to become a bully. All of you have had sufficient enough trauma to feel the world is unfair. All of you have had experiences that cause you misery.

And we know without a doubt that when you dwell on something like misery, it grows. It can become malevolent, especially if it goes unchallenged and perhaps even rewarded. And misery loves company. So when you embrace misery, it goes unchallenged, and even a reward, it begins to expand. Laughing at bullying would be an example of reward. Feeling the sense of power over the victim.

How many of you stand down and how many of you stand up for Jesus?

I believe the Western world and culture will fall in the near future not because people don’t really know evil. I believe it is because we have allowed bullies and people of ill intent to repackage evil and garb it in intellectual language that allows you to rationalize inaction or cowardly.

So the Devil plays both sides of the field. See the Devil doesn’t need to openly defeat you. He merely needs to discourage and sideline you. He just needs to get you to sit down when you should stand against evil.

Vance Havner has said, “The task of the Preacher is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Far too many Christians are part of the problem when we are called to be God’s solution to a broken and sin filled world. We stand down when we have been called to

STAND UP STAND UP FOR JESUS, YE SOLDIERS OF THE CROSS.

Ye that are men now serve him against unnumbered foes; let courage rise with danger and strength to strength oppose.

To him that overcometh a crown of life shall be; he with the King of glory shall reign eternally.

Tertullian, a prolific early Christian author and apologist from Carthage in the Roman province of Africa.

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.”

In America, it’s a more subtle attack that often goes unnoticed. It’s an attack on core principles of truth the Creator God of the Bible reveals through His Word and even nature. They don’t attack Christians directly, but socially. How, if you dare say, “A person is born male or female.” Genetics and design are not fluid, you will be called all sorts of names by the media, social media, and have the full force of State against you where progressives have power.

Biden’s attorney General Merrick Garland labeled parents who believe and desire girls restrooms to exclude males. And when a parent reveals that his daughter was assaulted by a male in a girls restroom after a school board covered it up, that father gets arrested. Just search for Loudon County Virginia father arrested on google.

Why was he arrested for speaking the truth with facts when bullies want it hidden and won’t talk about it. Well that’s a page out of the Devil’s play book we see in Ezra Chapter 4-6.

Ezra 4:1–7 CSB

1 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple for the Lord, the God of Israel, 2 they approached Zerubbabel and the family heads and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we also worship your God and have been sacrificing to him since the time King Esar-haddon of Assyria brought us here.” 3 But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the other heads of Israel’s families answered them, “You may have no part with us in building a house for our God, since we alone will build it for the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus, the king of Persia has commanded us.” 4 Then the people who were already in the land discouraged the people of Judah and made them afraid to build. 5 They also bribed officials to act against them to frustrate their plans throughout the reign of King Cyrus of Persia and until the reign of King Darius of Persia. 6 At the beginning of the reign of Ahasuerus, the people who were already in the land wrote an accusation against the residents of Judah and Jerusalem. 7 During the time of King Artaxerxes of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel and the rest of his colleagues wrote to King Artaxerxes. The letter was written in Aramaic and translated.

Ezra 4:23–24 CSB

23 As soon as the text of King Artaxerxes’s letter was read to Rehum, Shimshai the scribe, and their colleagues, they immediately went to the Jews in Jerusalem and forcibly stopped them. 24 Now the construction of God’s house in Jerusalem had stopped and remained at a standstill until the second year of the reign of King Darius of Persia.

After the Jews challenged the letter, Darius searched and found the enemies lied. He then issued a decree:

Ezra 6:6–8 CSB

6 Therefore, you must stay away from that place, Tattenai governor of the region west of the Euphrates River, Shethar-bozenai, and your colleagues, the officials in the region. 7 Leave the construction of the house of God alone. Let the governor and elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its original site. 8 I hereby issue a decree concerning what you are to do, so that the elders of the Jews can rebuild the house of God: The cost is to be paid in full to these men out of the royal revenues from the taxes of the region west of the Euphrates River, so that the work will not stop.

In the end because Godly leaders stood and challenged the lies and bullying, God made their enemies pay for the Temple out of their pockets.

But before you get there you need to recognize how the Devil will work and use people:

1. Our spiritual enemy will vigorously oppose every attempt at spiritual advance.

a. He will offer compromise. (v.3-4)

He will ask you to accept and adopt behaviors and beliefs that contradict God’s vision.

He will use government threat. Businesses will exclude you. He will threaten your job security.

If that doesn’t work,

b. When you refuse to cave, you will face openly hostile opposition.

1. Christians are the most persecuted group even today.

It is noticeable that when you make a simple search on the internet on what is the most persecuted religion today, Christians are always number one on the list despite being among the top religions in the world with the most number of populations. Christian minorities are often intimidated and murdered in Muslim nations. They suffer from discriminatory practices and awfully invoked blasphemy laws. Churches can also be burnt down in these places with little to no protection or justice. There are also some places were constructing churches is prohibited, and becoming a Christian is punishable by death.

Ongoing pervasive persecution of Christians in some parts of the Middle East is sometimes amounting to genocide. Millions of Christians in the region have been taken from their homes, and many have been killed, kidnapped, imprisoned, and discriminated against. The findings of some of the reports have shown accusations towards leaders of tolerating or instigating the prosecutions.

There are strict limitations on all forms of expression of Christianity in Saudi Arabia, which includes the ban on public acts of worship. Also, there have been regular crackdowns on private Christian services. State-sponsored social media is found to have been inciting hatred and publish propaganda against Christians, especially in Iran, Iraq, and Turkey. In fact, the governing AK Party in Turkey views Christians as a threat to the stability of their nation. There are also reports that school textbooks in Saudi Arabia are teaching children religious hatred and intolerance against non-Muslims, including Christians and Jews.

“A coward dies a thousand times before his death, but the valiant taste of death but once. It seems to me most strange that men should fear, seeing that death, a necessary end, will come when it will come.”

― William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

Courage is not the absence of fear. Courage is standing up to the challenge at hand despite the fear or danger because it is the right thing.

Chamberlain avoided confronting Hitler’s evil before the Nazi’s secured much of Europe.

What would the world look like had Chamberlain been forceful in response to Hitler’s over reach?

2. The goal of the enemy is to trap you into inaction!

a. One of the Enemy’s greatest tools is Discouragement.

b. He then amplifies fear.

c. He will use misinformation and false accusations to undermine Godly leadership.

3. Ways you fall into the Enemy’s trap.

a. You give up on Spiritual goals and join the crowd.

b. You Settle for second best.

c. You Blame God’s leaders for not doing things the way you think they should have done it.

d. When it gets difficult, you conclude it must not be God’s timing.

4. Remember, God will honor those who choose courage over complacency and cowardice.

Would you rather stand up for a damaged meal or a damaged child? According to Burger King, most would choose the former.

a. Prepare your mind and soul for the enemy to attack.

2 Corinthians 2:11 CSB

11 so that we may not be taken advantage of by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his schemes.

b. Take an open stand against the Devil’s schemes and lies.

James 4:7 CSB

7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

This power of prayer can be illustrated by the story that goes back to the fourth [sic] century – the monk… followed a crowd into the Coliseum, and… he saw the gladiators come forth, stand before the Emperor, and say, ‘We who are about to die salute you.’ And he realized they were going to fight to the death for the entertainment of the crowds. He cried out, ‘In the Name of Christ, stop!’ And his voice was lost in the tumult there in the great Colosseum…

📷And as the games began… the crowds saw this scrawny little figure making his way out to the gladiators and saying, over and over again, ‘In the Name of Christ, stop!’ And they thought it was part of the entertainment, and at first they were amused. But then, when they realized it wasn’t, they grew belligerent and angry…

And as he was pleading with the gladiators, ‘In the Name of Christ, stop!’ one of them plunged his sword into his body. And as he fell to the sand of the arena in death, his last words were, ‘In the Name of Christ, stop!’ And suddenly, a strange thing happened. The gladiators stood looking at this tiny form lying in the sand. A silence fell over the Colosseum. And then, someplace up in the upper tiers, an individual made his way to an exit and left, and the others began to follow. And in the dead silence, everyone left the Colosseum. That was the last battle to the death between gladiators in the Roman Colosseum. Never again did anyone kill or did men kill each other for the entertainment of the crowd…

One tiny voice that could hardly be heard above the tumult. ‘In the Name of Christ, stop!’ It is something we could be saying to each other throughout the world today.

c. Submit and depend on God during the trial.

James 4:8 CSB

8 Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

d. Persevere through the attack.

1sam2:29-32 “29 Why, then, do all of you despise my sacrifices and offerings that I require at the place of worship? You have honored your sons more than me, by making yourselves fat with the best part of all of the offerings of my people Israel.’ 30 “Therefore, this is the declaration of the Lord, the God of Israel: ‘I did say that your family and your forefather’s family would walk before me forever. But now,’ this is the Lord’s declaration, ‘no longer! For those who honor me I will honor, but those who despise me will be disgraced. 31 Look, the days are coming when I will cut off your strength and the strength of your forefather’s family, so that none in your family will reach old age. 32 You will see distress in the place of worship, in spite of all that is good in Israel, and no one in your family will ever again reach old age.”

Thoughts to reflect:

Where am I being challenged to act courageously?

It is difficult to face an enemy alone. Who do you have as a band of brothers or sisters to encourage you when temptation comes your way?

Thank God for them?

If you can’t name people, who can you approach?

Encourage a godly political leader this week. Write a note, email, or make a call.

Kid's Perspective

The boys who acted in the scene spoke to the camera also telling adults that for a kid, it's not always easy to stand up for their friends or classmates that are being bullied.

In recognition of National Bullying Prevention Month, the fast food chain Burger King partnered up with NoBully.org to perform an unusual experiment. They staged a loud, demonstrative teenage bullying situation (with actors) inside one of their restaurants to see what customers what do. On the other side of the counter, Burger King employees “bullied” a Whopper Jr. before serving it to customers, also to see what they would do. They found that 95% of customers complained about the state of their food, while only 12% of these customers stood up for the kid being bullied in the corner. But when those 12% stood up, it was in a truly meaningful, empathetic way, relating it to their own experience from which they learned.

‘I’ve been that kid so if I see it I’m gonna do something about it and I hope there’s more people out there like that.’ …Scrawny. Short. Ugly. Fat. Weird. 30% of school kids worldwide are bullied each year and bullying is the #1 act of violence against young people in America today. …In the BURGER KING® brand Bullying Jr. experiment, more people stood up for a bullied WHOPPER JR.® than a bullied high school Jr.

"Sometimes, you're just thankful it's not you being bullied so it's easier not to do anything". The other boy said, "It's hard to stand up to kids that are bigger than you, especially if you already could be a target"

What I’ve observed at school and in other instances, the majority of people will ignore or avoid being honest about a bully. Most will run or avoid dealing with a bully. And often the trouble maker will get the other kids or employees in trouble for reporting or calling them out. Our modern society makes bullying people of character the norm. They play on word games and newspeak.