Enemy Love
Transcript
All right, how are we doing this morning? All right, I don't know how to take that. We'll be in Matthew chapter 5. Hopefully we'll get better, wake up a little bit. We're in Matthew chapter 5. We're walking verse by verse through the Sermon on the Mount.
We're spending a good bit of time this spring just walking through, studying what Jesus teaches in the Sermon on the Mount, how we can apply it to our lives, how we can begin to live as if we know this, trust this, believe this. So we're just spending some time in these three chapters in Matthew. So Jesus kind of begins the Sermon on the Mount by saying he's building a culture. But he begins by proclaiming a message that's going to change the culture of the people who are going to follow him. He's beginning to say, I'm starting a kingdom, and this is what we're going to be like. This is what my people are going to be like.
And it's any of you who have ever gone from one culture to another, have gone even just in the U.S. You can go from southern culture to kind of the northeast or the west coast, and you'll see that there's just some differences in how people think and how they act, how they treat one another. If you ever go overseas, there's just some different cultural things that happen. And that's what Jesus is saying is he's building a culture. I remember in college I got the opportunity to go to Romania on a mission trip, and we were just serving with some churches that were already there, and we were traveling around and getting to preach in different churches.
And preaching in Romania was interesting because everything took twice as long because you would say it, and then your translator would translate it. And it's interesting, too, because you don't know, like, I like to cut up jokes and stuff, and I think that's probably even worse. When I was in college and preaching, like, that was like half of what I did. And that you just don't know the Romanian churches. It's like, I don't know what to do. So I remember the very first time I was going to preach in a Romanian church, I was thinking, I kind of hope I had something to kind of break the ice a little bit, try to get people on board with what we're doing.
And I walked up, and I stand in front of everybody. It's a small church. There was an aisle right down the middle, and there was just two little sections of pews, and one section had only men, and then there was a section of only ladies, except for my two brothers, who had sat on the ladies' side. Because we didn't know. We didn't know there was a men's section and a ladies' section, and that was a cultural thing for them. That's not really, like, not taught in the Bible as a way to do this, but it was just how they were expressing their culture.
And I remember walking up and being like, jackpot, I got a way to start this off. And my brothers didn't realize it until I pointed it out, that they were sitting in the ladies' section, and both of them were like, you could see them tense up like, should we move? What have we done? But they were real gracious towards us, not knowing what to do. But there's just something about, there's these different cultures where this isn't okay.
You stand out if you act this way. This is the way we're going to behave. And that's what Jesus is doing in the Sermon on the Mount. He's saying, this is what my people are going to look like, and if you say you're a Christian, if you say you're a part of the kingdom, this is how you behave, and you should stand out. It should be odd in two ways. If you are a Christian in normal human society culture of the world, Christians should stand out.
He says, as a city on a hill, that there should shine, that there should be something different about us. And if you say you are a Christian and do not behave this way, if this isn't your posture, you should stand out among Christians. You should look weird. The church should have its own distinct, this is how we respond. This is how we act. This is our culture.
The reason I say that is because what we're going to look at today, Jesus says three very difficult, very hard sayings here that are difficult to apply, difficult to live with. And I know our attitude when reading the Sermon on the Mount a lot of times is to make it law. It's to immediately start saying, okay, well, what are the rules? Where does that apply? How far does that go? When Jesus is working to say this is what people are going to be like, this is the culture we're going to have, not to say here's rule number one, here's rule number two, here's rule number three.
He's painting a picture for a type of people. And that means that as we approach it, we're asking what's our posture, what's our attitude, how in general are we going to act? These are examples of that, not here's this rule and you just perfectly apply it and you're okay. And if you can kind of figure a way around it, that's okay because he's giving rules. He's not, he's giving a way of life. That means that as we walk through life, there are going to be things that aren't covered here, but then we're going to say, okay, well, how does that apply given the posture we're supposed to have as Christians?
If you don't get that, this is going to be really confusing. So does that make sense? We're on page where he's building a culture, he's making a type of people. Okay, cool. Let's pray.
And then we'll jump into the text. Lord, we ask for your help. We pray that you would bless the proclamation of your word. We pray that you would bless the healing of it. That we might receive it. That it might change us.
And God, we ask that you would bless the healing of it. That we would live this way as we follow you. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. We're going to pick up in verse 33.
So Jesus is continuing to teach. Here's kind of what we're going to look like. Here's how my culture, this is the group of people I'm making. Again, you have heard that it was said to those of old. So he's been quoting the law, the Old Testament law, and how people have been teaching it.
And then he's been kind of correcting and saying, you've been following it like it's law. What I'm saying is follow the heart behind it, the culture behind it, the pattern, the posture behind it. So you heard it said to those of old, you shall not swear falsely, but shall perform to the Lord what you have sworn. That rule in the Old Testament was, if you promise God you're going to do something, do it. That was the rule. Don't swear falsely.
If you promise God, if you make a vow to God, follow through you. And he says this. But I say to you, verse 34, do not take an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is his footstool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not take an oath by your head, for you cannot make one hair black, white, or black. And I know that we can now, by boxing, or beating up your head, especially with my church, but it doesn't stay that way. Let what you say be simply yes or no.
Anything more than this comes from evil. So this is the first difficult thing we're going to look at today that Jesus calls us to. And he's calling us to integrity, to honesty, to when you say yes, mean yes. And when you say no, mean no, don't have some sort of secret thing behind it. And when he talks about taking oaths, what they were doing is they would say, I swear by heaven. I swear by Jerusalem.
I swear by the earth or by my head. And then when they kind of weaseled out of the oath they had taken, they were like, well, I didn't make a vow to God. Had I made a vow to God, I would have followed through with it. But I just promised by Jerusalem. And so what Jesus says is, hey, all of it belongs to God. Heaven's his, the earth's his, Jerusalem's his, your head is his.
Stop it. Like he's in all of it. Not just when you say, I swear to God, does it shoot a flare up and he goes, oh, what was this about? Let me write that one down. No, he's paying attention to us on all levels when we're speaking. And he's saying, have integrity, be honest.
Quit trying to get away with things. So, here's what this means. Very, very straightforward. Tell the truth. You say something, it should be true. That's the point.
Be honest. Don't have to live a life. He says anything else comes from evil. The reason he says that is if sin hadn't entered into the world, we wouldn't need to have an extra special yes. Yes would be yes, no would be no. We wouldn't be tricking each other.
An oath is just, I double promise yes. This is an extra special yes. This one's a yesy yes. That's what an oath is. So when somebody tells you a story and you go, promise?
You're just saying, like, you swear? This really happened? Is this an extra special yes? Or is this one of those yeses that actually isn't a yes at all? That's what that is. That's why he's saying everything else comes from evil.
Like, the only way we had to start doing this was the lies in the world. This is when you say, I swear my mom is great. Or just you tell somebody something and they say, that's a lie and you say, that's money. It's the same thing. It's this. This one's for real.
They say, no, just when you speak. Yes or no. That's it. Quit all this other stuff. Let me give you an example of how this plays out. So when I was growing up, we used to do tactical misrepresentations of the facts.
The tactical misrepresentation of the facts, which is you represent facts. Like, it's true. And then you let them draw the conclusions they would like to do. I'll give you an example. In high school, I went to a bathroom. Took my shoe off.
Put it up in the air. Took my wallet out. Tossed it up in the air. I took my keys out of my pocket. Tossed it up in the air. And I walked to the nurse's office.
And I said, I'd like to go home. I was just in the bathroom throwing things up. Both of those statements were true. I would like to go home. I was in the bathroom throwing things up. Had the nurse asked what, I would have said, my shoe, my keys, and my wallet.
I'm going to head back to class. Or when I tried to play it off, it's like I had a really bad diet. Like, I just eat terrible things. She let me go home. It was excused. That's deception and is outside of what Jesus is calling us to here.
Technically, I did not lie. But in a way more real sense, yes, I did. So Jesus is saying, have integrity. I'll show you another way that this plays out practically in life. I go to my wife. I said, hey, the guys in my group, we're having a poker night on Friday.
Is it cool if I go to that? She says, yeah, that's fine. I mean, it's my one evening off, and I'll just stay home and watch Archer. And I say, you sure? She says, yes, fine. Do whatever.
That'll be okay. I said, okay. Then I go. And then when I come home. Yes, y'all, you're aware of what I'm talking about. So I walk in the house.
I'm also in the future. You walk in the house, and then she's sitting up. Archer's already in bed, and she's like, I cannot even know. I'm smart, so I'm like, what on earth are you talking about? You should have known. Like, I can't believe.
And it's like, you know what I'm saying? She said, it's fine. But secretly, it was a love test. And here's what happens as we begin to do this in life, where we let integrity kind of break down, is you can't even pick a restaurant when this begins to happen in a relationship. Hey, you want to go? Do you want to go to this burger place?
Yeah, that's fine. Oh, it's fine? So it's not fine. No, I'm okay with that. No, you know, whatever. You want tacos.
You always want tacos. Let's go eat tacos. You can just have 15 tacos and be happy in your little heart. It's like you cease to be able to even talk to each other. So if your spouse is just coaching on how to apply this, your spouse says, I want to go to this thing, and you think, I don't want you to go to that thing, don't say, sure, go to that thing with this secret.
I don't want you to go. I don't want you to go. Have a real conversation. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. This is one of the things we teach in premarital counseling all the time. Say what you mean.
Don't mean it. And then if you do this, here's how we handle this in my house. I'm sorry. Right. Um. But you said that you don't.
So it's not fine. No, I'm okay with that. No, you know, whatever. You want tacos. You always want tacos. Let's go eat tacos. You can just have 15 tacos and be happy in your little heart. It's like you cease to be able to even talk to each other. So if your spouse is just coaching on how to apply this, your spouse says, I want to go to this thing, and you think, I don't want you to go to that thing, don't say, sure, go to that thing with this secret. I don't want you to go. I don't want you to go. Have a real conversation. Let your yes be yes and your no be no. This is one of the things we teach in premarital counseling all the time. Say what you mean. Don't mean it. And then if you do this, here's how we handle this in my house. I'm sorry. Right. Um. But you said that you don't. So next time, don't say that.
And just make sure that you're not going to click the line. That'd be fine. it's not quite approached that way but it's close um here's the thing like be honest be be truthful uh and don't expect people to be able to figure out what you what you're doing here and don't intentionally deceive people Jesus is saying stop that just be honest for some of you in the room practically this is going to be very difficult because you have made a practice of deceiving maybe it's in small things maybe it's it's uh you just kind of some of you you feel like this is the only way you can do your job there's no way I could do my job as a salesperson if I just was completely honest there's no way I could do my job as a mechanic if I was just completely honest like this some people act like this well this is just how our our industry works that's not true there is a distinct way to be a christian in every industry you're in some of you just life is like this with your spouse you just kind of lie a decent amount um maybe even over small things the beginning for you because stopping yourself from lying when you really practiced in it is hard the beginning for you will be coming back and saying what I just said I know I said it this way I actually said it that way on purpose of you to believe this uh and not a need to be honest one of the some of some of us in life have met someone have known someone maybe in our family maybe we weren't here and we were too much just honest when I said yes and yes and said no and no and that was refreshing beautiful and helpful
Okay so if that was difficult I have good news it gets worse um go to verse 38 you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth that is old testament law it is in three different places but I say to you do not resist the one who is evil but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also and if anyone would sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak as well and if anyone forces you to go one mile go with him two miles give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you this is one of the most well-known uh passages uh that in the bible one of the most well-known sayings that Jesus has that we would turn the other cheek that we would go the extra mile we still use these terms uh here here's what he's getting at and I think it's helpful to understand the eye for an eye tooth for a tooth law that was given in the old testament was given as a way for Judges to judge properly it was not an interpersonal way to interact it was for Judges to make right judgment and it was to um limit excessive punishment as well as to a smaller degree keep from having a major issue happen and then someone gets a slap on the wrist but mostly it was it was saying payback isn't double you knock my out I don't get both of yours I just get one that's what an eye for an eye a tooth for tooth was was a no excessive punishment it led the punishment to crime and it was given to Judges to make wise judgment but they have begun to use it the same way we use it
So something happens to us someone at work lies about us makes it hard for us to get a promotion and we say well which means here it comes the bible's given me free reign to retaliate that I get to do to you what you did to me someone lies about you someone uh offends you someone harms you and we we quote it as well I get to retaliate I get to make it even I get to get even and Jesus says no that's not that's not our culture that's not what we look like um that's not how we're going to act I do think when you read by itself
Verse 39 but I say to you do not resist the one who is evil if you read that by itself it becomes you immediately want to say okay I have like a thousand questions I think two of the main ones that pop up are we're not allowed to stop hitler that side of the argument or the if someone breaks into my house I'm not allowed to defend myself I think that that those two questions are helped by the context because everything Jesus gives after this when he says don't resist the one who's evil because he talks about personal the personal implications of this so being slapped having someone take your property
Having someone impose upon your time and then having people ask to walk he's not talking about nations military laws this rule was actually given to Judges that's assumed that there would be Judges and rulings and laws but he's just saying quit applying this personally as I can retaliate against you the bible has other places where it talks about the rightness of an army the rightness of a military that he's going to never put his force so I think it's wrong to take this and push it into every aspect of life and say make sure they don't have cost
I don't think that's ever so appropriate in understanding the context of what he's talking about so he says in your personal life when it has to deal with your person you here's how we respond and so I want us to to look at what he is saying because I think it is very difficult if someone slaps you on the right cheek turn to him the other also he does not say attacks you although I do think if someone were to to strike you not just open hand slap you but to to uh punch you or attack you
That there is room for christians to hold this with some uh tension and say I think we've got to at least wrestle with the implications of Jesus so for the person who says I have a family and if someone breaks into my home I believe I'm called to defend myself I would say I think you have warrant there in scripture to pay attention to that to hold that view I also think you need to consider how to respond in a way that is in line with this that has some sort of a posture here so that when someone says
Uh they have their concealed weapons permit and they act like I hope somebody starts on with me I don't think that's in line with the culture Jesus is talking about I think that would be something that you would need to consider think about way out for someone who says I don't have wife kids if someone breaks in my house my main goal is just to get out of my house I don't want to harm them I believe that when he says that if they sue you and take your clothes that'll include being robbed and I'll just do what I can to get out of this situation even though
In south carolina I have the castle doctrine which means that I can uh kill that person and then walk away but I believe that I'm a christian I've been called to a different culture I think that's fair I think that's within this I do think Jesus knows he's mostly speaking to being slapped and being slapped is not a major physical injury it hurts your pride it is degrading let me give you an example you're at a restaurant you see a couple and it's tense and then one of them
Let's say the lady just to help you she jumps across the table and starts trying to like call the guy's eyes out and choke him I would think look at this situation this is a hot mess both of these people have serious problems like there's there's something that's happened in this relationship to cause this now let's say she splashes water on him and open hand slaps him and walks out I don't think what a terrible lady I think I want to look back at him does that make sense an open hand slap
When he's talking about being struck it is a you are beneath me you it is an affront of pride and character this is the same as if someone lies about you who undercuts your character I can tell you right now that if if another grown man comes at me and punches me I'm gonna be angry I'm gonna have a hard time handling that if he open hand slaps me I'm gonna come real close to me and here's why he punches me he thought I better do a good shot on the first one because this is about to get serious if he open hand slaps me his thought process was I'm gonna learn whatever I want
This guy is a weak, weak, small and I'm telling you the logical implications of me being an open hand slap are gonna be so much harder to deal with than someone just attacking you that's what Jesus is talking about he is addressing when someone comes after you your name when someone comes after you you're right when someone comes after you're self-warned you don't get to retaliate that's not the posture that we have they lied about me I'm gonna lie about this they kept me from getting a promotion I'm gonna keep them from getting a promotion or they got the promotion over me because they lied I'm gonna do everything I possibly can to get them fired
And he said no that's not our culture it's not what we're gonna lie he keeps going so personal pride personal insult and he says if anyone would sue you and take your tunic let him have your cloak as well you see Jesus is teaching that his people that the church and the people who follow him and his kingdom are not going to walk around demanding their rights that our goal as christians is not to say well this is my legal justification and this is my legal right but that we're gonna hold that with an open hand
That we're not going to demand and impose ourselves on others but that in situations where someone's wrongfully suing us or rightfully suing us we're gonna hold very weighty how do we respond when I'm talking about you and how do I show the praise when someone is evil and insulting me when someone is imposing upon me how do I show the praise how do I model the way that Jesus is responding up to see Jesus says if he sue you for your tunic that's your inner garment give him your outer garment as well he says respond
Not the way they would assume you would respond I'm gonna sue you and take your tunic man I'll give you I'll give you both right now and I'll make this right right now I'll see you in court no you won't let's handle it right now what you need what's restitution how can I be gracious right now he's saying these people are gonna look for if anyone forces you to go one mile go with them two miles you see what Jesus just did in these three instances he says if they attack your pride in your name
Your self worth if they attack your stuff or if they attack your time all christians are gonna hold down with another how many of you how many of us would say well I'll give some time but I won't give my stuff or how many of you say well I'll give my stuff but I'm not giving any time how many how many of us have said things like I can't be friends with that person they're just too many they just need too much for me I can't be friends with them they take up too much of my time I can't
I can't be around them anymore all they ever do is ask me for stuff and Jesus is saying his people are ready for that have an open hand because they have an open heart 42 give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow you the christians are supposed to be the people who follow Jesus who are his people and his kingdom are supposed to be open handed when someone asks
For something when someone asks to borrow something even though they haven't even given back the other thing they borrowed he says our response is yeah it's just stuff yeah it's just my time oh yeah it's just part of my reputation that's what his people are I want to specifically take a second on this one
The borrowing give to anybody who asks if you because of our location we live near columbia some of you live in columbia there is a decent amount of hand handling that happens and so one of the immediate responses to this is anybody comes over and asks for ten bucks as a christian I'm supposed to just give
Ten bucks that's one of my fun choices one of the things I've wrestled with in the parking lot and someone comes over and I have a really good inclination with the people that are telling me some story about having to get back to orange bird or their mamas and get enthrined and they've got to catch
Them like am I supposed to just hand them 20 bucks I want to say a few things on that real quick one is if you come to the conclusion yes yes Jesus says give to those who beg beg beggars that's what they're doing give to beggars yes I will give you the ten bucks
I'm not going to give them the ten bucks and let Jesus sort it out I'm going to respond faithfully to what he's called me to and just be open handed and give to beggars and let him sort out how they respond to that we're going to do you think that the people who are homeless in our city in those situations in our city are in those situations for a
Reason if we lived I grew up in edgefield if we lived in edgefield I think I would approach this passage differently we don't live in edgefield we live in columbia there are multiple homeless shelters in downtown that will help people get out of homeless situations so the way that my wife and I handle
This is we've had this discussion I've told her my wife said and I said and I said and I said and I said and I said and I said just give to those who borrow and her response was okay somebody walks over and says I want your truck appropriate christian responses here
I like my truck so I was like hold on a second uh move out of your house here are the keys this is your question it looks like again I think if someone said I think that's what Jesus called me
To and I'm going to just do this in faith I think there's some room for I don't know how I would say you're wrong although I'm not sure that's what he's getting at here's here's the way we handle this our yes is on the table someone comes and asks us for help if someone comes and asks us
For money if someone comes our yes is on the table although we will slowly over time define what that yes looks like giving you ten dollars a day so that you can stay on the street and keep a habit going is not us loving you that harms you so we put our yes on the table and then we say here's what we'll do we're actually
Going to invest more time we're going to invest more energy because we're going to try to help you get off the street rather than just doing this one time thing and then at times as we have done that as we have said we're not going to keep giving you ten dollars a day but here's what we will hope you do we'll hope you
Get in the same business we'll hope you get in the same business and we'll have other programs and we'll have people then tell us yes because there's a reason why they're doing this and at that point I feel like we have done it and we can do to say yes to actually give to those new people
So what I think people do this is what I'm just why I'm explaining this and trying to help I think what people do is say well giving that person ten dollars isn't going to help them they're just going to use it to further their habit and so they use not harming people with giving money to just say no and what I think we need to do is have a
Qualified yes that's what our church does we help people our goal is to put significant amount of money towards getting people off the street getting people jobs getting people in we don't just help them by maintaining the lifestyle they have help them by saying yes here's how we're doing it and I think that's what
Jesus told us that our stuff our turn and our reputation is made the ones that are okay here's how I do think at times we try to respond to this and I think Jesus covers it but I want to point it out we say okay yeah but they're ungrateful yeah I did that but they're a jerk
About it yeah okay okay I did I did go you know I was trying to do this but they're they're rude or they they waste it and that's why I think Jesus begins by saying do not resist the one who is evil because I think anything we could put in the yeah but there category
Eventually we'll just fit on the category I think Jesus covers that today at the beginning of the set right this is how we can do come on that's that's that's hard I think it's 42 43 this is our third difficult
Teaching that gives us respect you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy that's not in the law love your neighbor is but then people took it to the they kind of said well that's true and this has true so our response
The way we're supposed to live is to love our neighbors and hate our enemies he says but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you here's what happens as soon as God says love your neighbor our response is who's my neighbor we even see that in the in the gospels
Where somebody comes to Jesus and ask him that who's my neighbor and so Jesus says love your neighbor and love your enemies and now you shouldn't have any follow-up questions who's my neighbor love them all the way over to who's my enemy love them okay what Jesus
Just said was love people and he's going to tell us how to love our enemies but I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you persecute means they are actively trying to tear you down destroy you destroy your
Way of life take you out remove you from the picture they are persecuting you they are actively that may be a co-worker that may be a neighbor that may be someone who just Acts like you don't exist they're doing things actively
To harm you and he says pray for them and don't pray things like God get them you may pray God change them God help me to love them but pray for them so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven for he makes his son rise on the evil and the good and sends his rain on the just
And the unjust so he says that God does this this is how he treats evil people the sun rises on them it sets on them rain falls on their crops just like it falls on good people's crops that God is gracious in creation
To all of them and that our response should be the same so here's let's think about this for a second we have enemies ISIS for example Al-Qaeda all the other number of people out there in the world who are actively trying to harm we have real enemies I believe that
That includes them so when Christians say I think we should just carpet bomb the Middle East and start over I want to respond no I don't think we can arguably we solve some problems but we can't that's not appropriate that's not
Our posture that's not like we can't do that we're supposed to love them we're supposed to pray for them pray for their hearts to change pray for us to be able to interact with them well pray for I think one of the ways you pray for someone who
Is actively seeking evil is that their plans wouldn't work out so that they have less to stand before God and be judged to her God help that to fall through be gracious on them let them change let their plans be terrible and not work but pray
For them but I also think this applies to normal everyday life and most of us will not interact with people from ISIS so those will and again if you are in military or desire to be in military I'd love to speak with you about that because I don't believe that's exactly
What Jesus is talking about here and I think there is some room for conflict inside of nations on nations we don't have time for it but for most of us who will not be facing an enemy on a battlefield I want to help
Us see something our culture we've gotten tribal it just means each one of us has begun to say this is the people I belong to my uncle my uncle Abel is from Nigeria when he was born
They cut tribal marks into his face and packed it with dirt and salt so that his entire life he is marked by which tribe he is he sees anyone whose face looks like that he can immediately begin to talk to
Him because he never was from my grandmother was on an airplane saw a guy with the same tribal marks as my uncle immediately was like she immediately knew you're from you're from Obamachal Nigeria like immediately because he
Marked himself he did but he finished him he was one of the last they kind of stopped this he's one of the last guys to have this done that last generation but we do this to ourselves we kind of announce which tribe we're a part by how we dress
By if you're ever in a meeting and everybody pulls out a computer you can kind of see which tribe you're a part of are these all PCs are these all Macs if you've ever met a person who uses a Mac and you open a PC
Around them you'll know they're a Mac person by how they go I said to someone the other day man my computer's slow he just walked off I was like well what the heck like this is the thing we've marked ourselves you can
Walk into a high school cafeteria and you can see people who've labeled themselves it's made easier by the fact that they're all together in chunks but you can tell is it a white guy with pink shorts he's announcing things about
Himself they made fun of us because when we ordained a pastor all of us had beards and we were wearing plaid we've marked ourselves we've done this in the way we dress in the way we speak we we've become tribal but see it's it's beyond
That get on facebook sometimes and you begin to see who belongs which tribe are they a part of and here's what happens we have grown increasingly unable to get all more people in office how many have been flipping to facebook
And told somebody to repost something from fox news limbaugh wire federalist I think that's what you know I think that's what you immediately thought okay I get it someone post something for
Black lives matter or reposted some article about how clinton should have won or somebody's posting stuff about make america great again and you immediately thought okay good to know who's your enemy who's the person who's destroying america
Who's the person who's ruining the family who's the enemy of progress you see we might would say this includes the refugees and this includes isis but then if we see somebody who is a part of an organization in the
U.s we think well I don't ever have to talk to them I don't have to be their friend you could do this during election time and see who had signs in their yard for bernie or for trump and you immediately
Could know well they're part of that group so they're my enemy I'm against them and Jesus says no love them pray for them care about them get to know them now this is hard how do you as a christian relate to someone who
You fundamentally want their plans to not work out how do you how do you relate to people who absolutely you disagree with on so many levels that's a good question and I think we'll figure it out as we try but I think we've gotten really really good at hanging out with our tribe and demonizing
Everybody else this happens in theological circles we're the only people who read the bible right God have grace on the idiots don't know how to study the bible like I mean this happens we do this and Jesus is saying love them get to know them care about them
Now you may not feel warm and fuzzy inside that's not the word he uses he uses a word that's an unconditional love for all the times you don't feel warm and fuzzy for the people who are very difficult this means that this is your neighbor who always parks in front of your house when you talk to him about
Him this is the co-worker if this kind of thing bothers you drinks out of your mug or actively will always ask you for help but will never help anybody help this is your boss who means you in front of other people there's some people in your life
Who have made themselves you in front of your your life who have you in front of your your life who have you in front of your your life who have you in front of your your life very good I think this is helpful for us to think about I was watching some of those animal planet
Like dog shows this was a while back but they catch a dog they rescue them from a terrible situation they set them down put a ball in front of them and then they reach down and snatch it have you all seen this like right when the dog is about to eat and if the dog tries to bite
Them they think oh it's violent put it down have you all seen that they do this I remember watching that thinking are you kidding me I would try to bite you if you snatched my plate away from me like and this dog just came out of a terrible situation how is it ever going to not act like that unless
People get around that care about it and change it and I think that's part of what we've got to understand as we say this person is toxic right but how do they get un-toxic they have some people who are unwilling to they have some people who sit them down and say hey we've got to talk this can't be how our relationship works I love you
I care about you I want the best for you but this isn't how we're talking to you I love you I care about you I'm not going anywhere but you got to be honest with me I love you I care about you I'm not going anywhere but we can't have it to where when you want attention you throw a fit or you set your house on fire figuratively to get people to come pay attention to you we've got to work on this
It's the only way they grow having a two-year-old has helped me with this the only way he'll act like a normal human in society is if there are some people around him who keep loving him through the fact that he has no clue how to do that and that's the way it is for some people that's what God's called us to who's your enemy and how do you begin to love them okay he says this verse 46 for if you love
Those who love you what reward do you have do not even the tax collectors do the same and if you greet only your brothers what more are you doing than others do not even Gentiles do the same you therefore must be perfect as your heavenly father is perfect so what he just said was if you love the good and the bad the evil the just and the unjust those who are easy to love and those who are really hard to love you'll start looking like sons of your father
And then he says if you only love those who are easy to love but you get away from those who are hard to love everybody does that that's not what my people look like my people like a group of people who hold their reputation their finances their material their time their energy with an open hand and love all the people who are hard to love that's my people that's my church this is impossible without Jesus you cannot do this without Jesus some of you who are
Going to try to make this a long go okay I'm a white knuckle and love all the unlovable people it's not gonna happen and some people will break themselves over this rule and say well I'm done I can't I can't be like this is how it's supposed to work this is ridiculous to call me this you cannot do this without Jesus Disney's remaking Beauty and the Beast this will be a live action one this will be a real piece which you're seeing in the story
Line there's an 11 year old prince so she curses him until he turns 21 if he can find somebody to fall in love with him he won't have to see him she was a little heavy and they don't love you they don't okay then's the breaks kid so this is the story that unless he can find someone to love him
He will remain at peace and I love this story because I think we all so badly want that to be true but we know that through our decisions and our attitudes and actions we are thinking to learn but many of us are very aware of that and the hope that someone can do the wrong and love us and love us I think that's not that easy
And that's what happens in the gospel unless you see that Jesus has already done this for you he has no hope to live this unless you see that Jesus fulfilled all the promises of God and was perfectly honest and had perfect integrity on this world on your behalf you'll never be able to have it in any kind of real way
In life unless you see that when evil people imposed themselves on Jesus he actually did turn the other cheek he actually did allow them to take every bit of clothing that he had off of his back that he actually did carry a Roman cross up a hill that he actually did have everything robbed of him stripped of him that he actually
Was able to stop it as the son of God had all of the rights in the universe to stand and say this will not happen but laid them all down on our behalf and that he did that to pray for and care about and love his enemies whenever he ends until you see clearly that Jesus has done this for you and that's the only way you were saved in the first of your life and that was the
Only way to change from a thing so they're loving them because they're loving them and they're loving them and they're loving them and they're loving them only for Christ and I hope you're saved and I hope you're saved and I hope you're saved and I hope you're saved
And I hope you're saved and I hope I want to tell you two practical ways things that we can meditate on think about that I think will help us actually carry this out in life have you ever seen an adult argue with a child to the point that they both look like children have you ever seen this like it turns into like I can already tell like I've got a
Two year old he can barely talk I got so frustrated with him the other day I had to like set in his crib and leave the room and I know I should be like a well adjusted adult but it's difficult and I can tell you there's going to be a time where I'm with a four year old in Walmart and he's going to be like well I hate you I hate you yeah and look like another four year old like have you ever
Seen this like there are these moments where you want to look and be like hey unless you act like an adult that kid doesn't have a chance unless you see more clearly than the kid can this isn't going to work out and I think as Christians that's one of the positions we get to take in the world is that we get to see some things we're privy to some things
That other people aren't so we get to act differently and it's going to be really easy to act in the sense two things that I think we get to hold in our minds because of the truth of the gospel that will help us apply this one is the eternal ramifications of the mission that God has through Christ reconciled the world to himself and he has given us the ministry of reconciliation meaning that as Christians
We have a responsibility for the eternity of the world that they will one day stand in judgment before God and we all will and as Christians we believe we'll stand in judgment before God and say my hope is in Christ as that Psalm said earlier I'm clothed in his righteousness alone like the only thing I have is what Jesus has done for me and so what Jesus calls us to to be the father
To be imposed upon to love those who are harming us if we can remember that most likely we'll go into a Christless eternity and my interaction with them may be one of the only times that you can see the grace of life in the face of evil which is the relationship I have to Jesus grace in the face of evil I think it will help us we pray for the last Holy Spirit help me care about this person's soul
More than I care about my stuff help me care about this person's eternity more than I care about my time that they've asked for the second one is I think the eternal ramifications of God's blessing the truth is if you are a Christian your hope is eternal you have an inheritance that is undefiled unperishing and unfaded kept in heaven for you people can take all your stuff they haven't taken anything from you people can take
All your time that's a drop in the bucket of eternity people can take your life and they've just shot you into an eternity of true life and real life before the king I think if we'll remember the eternal ramifications of the mission and the eternal ramifications of the full and free blessings that we have in Christ we actually can live with a culture that Jesus calls us to we can actually begin to know
What we've done this kingdom and I want you to remember you saved sinners and pray for Jesus about good for those of us who have messed this up in the past who are terrible at this right now the absolute thing that we need to repent up I think the best I want you to know that we can and use the saved sinners and hope that we're there and we have an eternity to follow this morning God we thank you
For your grace thank you that you saved sinners that you loved us enough to die for the enemies that you loved us and that you called us to love so that we have a model for it and we also have to be about to do and the power to actually protect us I pray that you would help us to look like this that as years go by that this would be a good description of our church family that we would look
Like we belong help us to not retaliate help us not help us not