The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 5: Blind and Toothless

Episode Date: May 17, 2020

The reason that we are to love our enemies is because when we were enemies of God, He first loved us. but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. - Romans 5:8 For more information and resources on this series, visit coe22.com/bestsermonever. For Disciple Group Curriculum please visit coe22.com/disciplegroups.

Amen and amen. You may be seated wherever you are. Hey, if you got your Bibles, as you just heard, we're going to be in Matthew chapter 5. We are in week five of this series, best sermon ever. And before we dive into the scriptures, I want to say a word to all of our high school graduates. We have 89 students that are part of our student ministry that are graduating this year. And we say, we are very proud of you. And this will be, here's the thing. I know it seems tragic that you don't get to do all the stuff.

We can't even remember what we did at graduation, okay? But you will forever be known as the corona class. So that's kind of neat. And so I hope and pray that you do not hop on the merry-go round of normality, but you run fast after Jesus, and you are sent by this church as a missionary for the glory of God to fulfill the great commission, however God has designed for you to do that.

And so we would like to invite you to be a part of our online baccalaureate service Tuesday, May 19th at 7 p.m. You can go to C-O-E-2.com slash students for that. We love you guys like crazy. Page 22 on your journal, Matthew Chapter 5. Like I said, we're in week five of this series. Let me recap just a little bit, just to catch us up. Because, again, we're doing 13 weeks, but when Jesus did this sermon, he did it all in one chunk.

It was just one sermon. I have no idea how long it lasted, but we've been looking at it piece by piece. peace. And he kicked the whole thing off with the very famous section of scripture that are known as the beatitudes. But as we started this series, we said that a lot of people misunderstand the beatitudes because oftentimes it's taught as eight separate circumstantial blessings. Like if you're poor in spirit or if you're mourning or if you're meek, then God has a special blessing for you. But I don't think that's what it is at all. I think Jesus was actually laying out the gospel and it's not eight circumstantial blessings.

it's really the order of salvation that starts when we are poor in spirit and realize that we're spiritually bankrupt and we need God to do for us what we can never do for ourselves. You're blessed when you find yourself in that place. And then you find yourself in the place where you decide, oh, you know what? I'm ready to turn the reins of my life over to the Lord. That's what it means when God says, blessed or the meek. Meek is a Greek word that means the bit in a horse's mouth. So it's that moment in your life where you decide you're not the boss of you anymore. You're going to turn control of your life over to the Lord. And then the rest of the beatitudes are about how our lifestyle is impacted by the life that we have through Jesus Christ.

And then right on the heels of that in the sermon on the mount, then he says, kind of therefore, since through the gospel your whole life has changed, now be salt and light in this world. In other words, the gospel's effect on you should affect the world that you live in. And then he says, now, I did not come to do away with this law, the Bible, the scriptures, but I came to fulfill it. Every jot and tittle is the way King James says. I just wanted to say that out loud.

And he says that I came to fulfill this law. And so to move away from the scriptures is to move away from Jesus. And then he says this, remember the disciples are there listening, like the main 12 guys. And there's a large crowd there, lots and lots of people, because Jesus has been doing miracles. And then right on the heels of that on Be Salt and Light, and I've come to fulfill this law, he says this, he says, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees and the scribes, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. to which if you're taking him seriously, which I hope you do, you should hear those words and think,

uh-oh, because the righteousness of the Pharisees was exceeding all of us already. I mean, they were professional Bible people that were professional do-gooders. And then that leads into Jesus six times he is going to deconstruct the righteousness of the Pharisees, the religious people, and he's going to reconstruct it in an even more impossible way, because he's going to take it from just the physical activity like don't murder, and he's going to elevate it to a heart deal, like when you're angry with your brother, uh-oh, you've already murdered. And so he does this six times.

He deconstructs and reconstructs. And I think where we're going to end in our time today is going to be the bookend to this phrase that he says, unless your righteousness succeeds that of the Pharisees, you have no part with me. And so six times, he says, you've heard that it was said, there's like a religious way to do it,

but I say to you, and we've covered four of these already. You've heard that it said, don't murder, but I'm saying don't be angry. You've heard, don't commit adultery, but I'm saying don't lust. We talked about divorce, we talked about oath,

we did those four, then we're going to pick up in five and six today. Verse 38. Jesus says, you have heard that it was saying, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth. This is Leviticus chapter 24, verse 20. Now, what's happening back in the book of Leviticus is that God is essentially writing like Israel's constitution. They were not a people, and now they're going to become a people.

They were a group of slaves in Egypt, and now all of a sudden they have to be a people that is not ruled over, but they are going to figure out how to live together in community. And so God gives the Big Ten, the Ten Commandments, and then there's all of these laws about how they are going to treat each other. And essentially, what Moses is doing, what God is doing through Moses in Leviticus 24 with eye for eye and tooth for tooth, is he's trying to put a stop to the chaos that's going on. He's saying, when you are done wrong, I want to put a lid on the retribution that you seek as you're trying to seek justice. And so, in fact, all of chapter 24 is what you get to do to people when they do something to you, which is kind of weird.

If somebody steals your cow, then this is what you can do to them. You can get one of their cows. If somebody breaks your arm, you can break their arm. Somebody pokes you in the eye, you can poke them in the eye. And the deal here, though, it was raising the level of morality. Because apparently what was happening at this point, it was just total chaos, is that someone, would poke you in the eye, and in revenge, you would not limit it to exact retribution, but you would get poked in the eye, and then you'd burn their house down.

It was that kind of thing. And so the problem here is that it just kind of doesn't work. Because what happens, man, you poke me in an eye, and then I poke you in the eye, and then what you're going to do next? Then you've got to figure out how you're going to get me back for getting you back. And then it escalates a little bit. Anybody that's got a brother, and you would fight, you know, you remember, we used to fight with your brother. This is how it turned into all-out war.

It was just this series of escalating events because no matter how much you try to pay somebody back for the bad thing that you have done, you ever notice it doesn't work? You ever notice? I mean, look, I'm just going to be honest. It feels good for a second. Like you hit me and I get you back. It feels good for a second, but it just goes away so quickly. And then you thought, you know what I should have done? You know what I should have said. and it escalates and escalates and escalates, and this is how you get like the Hatfields and the McCoys, this like generational feuding between two families, and they don't even know where it came from exactly. The problem with the eye for eye, tooth for tooth,

is you do this long enough, and it leads to a blind and toothless world. You're just like, you don't even know why you're swinging anymore, and you can't even see what you're swinging at, but that's what happens. And Jesus said, a very famous thing even if you've never done Bible study before in your life

you know Jesus said this okay and I think it's one of the most misunderstood verses maybe in the whole Bible and for especially men like me it rubs us the wrong way 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

Well, isn't that sweet Jesus? So what does that mean? It's very famous. In fact, there are some people that have built an entire theology of pacifism around this verse. And what we typically do when we hear something like this is we start playing the what-if game. You ever play the what-if game with God? God, do you mean to tell me what if somebody breaks in my house? Somebody's trying to harm my family?

Somebody smacks me in the face. Or you mean somebody breaks in my house? and I'm just supposed to just, they smack me, and I just turn the other cheek and pray for them as they do whatever they want. Is that what we are talking about here? Well, no, it's not. You see, it can't mean that you can't protect yourself. In Luke, chapter 22, verse 36,

Jesus tells his disciples, if you don't have a sword, this is he's sending out the disciples to go and cast out demons and trampling on snakes and do cool stuff like that. And he says, if you don't have a sword, you should probably sell your coat and get you a sword. You see, Jesus was pro-concealed carry. Amen. All right. In fact, at one point, Jesus himself sees the religious people taking advantage of the poor,

and he makes a whip, he makes a weapon, flips over tables, and whips people out of the temple. Romans chapter 13 says that God has given us government to exact his judgment on people. And so, I don't think that's what he's talking about. In fact, it's not about violence. It's actually the slaps you on the right cheek was a Jewish metaphor. Jesus is not talking about violence here. He's actually talking about public insult. You see, let me just be clear.

If you break into my house and you try to hurt my family, I will not have to pray for you. I will introduce you directly to him. That is how that will go. You understand that we'd be? do, we can, you know, protect ourselves and all of this. What this is about, you see, this isn't about violence because there's not, you've never seen an MMA move where somebody's like, you know what, you go for the cheek. No, a slap in the cheek and a punch in the face are two different things.

The way that you would publicly insult or dishonor someone in this culture is that you would backhand somebody in the face. And again, it's not so much about you're not trying to injure them physically. You're trying to insult them publicly. Now, again, it's not to harm. It was about public dishonor. In fact, if I were to translate this into the 21st century, it's more like this. It's more like, but I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil.

And if anyone posts something awful about you on Facebook, turn the other cheek. This is what he's talking about. What do you do when somebody publicly insults you? What do you do when somebody sends a mean email to you? We keep a list of the mean emails that people have sent to us here at the Church of 1122,

and we have some doozies. I mean some dozies. One day, that's going to be the sermon. I'm just going to read the things that people have said. What do you do? How do you respond? Do you fire back quick? I mean, what do you go?

Do you go all caps so they know you're yelling, what do you do when somebody slaps you on the cheek? Well, the first thing you do is you do not react by slapping them back. And again, maybe don't think slapping in the face. I don't know a lot of us that slap people in the face anymore. I hope not. But what do you do when you're in a meeting and somebody insults you? Do you insult right back? What do you do when somebody like cut you down?

Do you go right back? What do you do when somebody mean tweets you? Do you bring up that embarrassing photo that you have of them from college and then share that for the world to see? What do you do when somebody tries to dishonor you? Well, Jesus says, if anybody does that, you turn to him the other cheek. What does that mean? Well, first and foremost, I think here's what Jesus is saying, is that you don't have to defend yourself because you believe that God is. is your refuge and God is your defense. And then secondly, you don't have to allow them to continue

to walk over you. You see, if somebody slapped you in the cheek, you got a few options. You can slap back quickly, all right? That's my instinct. Or you can just be totally passive and lay on the ground with a red face. But Jesus says that is not what you do. You stand back up, you look at them, and you present to them the rest of your face. You see, I got another book, okay? I've been reading a lot of books. My neighbor is a counselor. She gives me a lot of books because I need a lot of counseling, okay?

And so there's a book called Boundaries by Henry Cloud. That might not be the whole name. There's about 25 of them, but the one I'm reading it's called Boundaries. Henry Cloud is one of the authors. And I think understanding this biblical idea of boundaries is essential to help us understand the text that we're going to study. You see, boundaries is a God-given idea. And in order for us to be able to love our neighbors and love our enemies, we have to know where we end and where you begin. Everybody knows what a boundary is like in your yard, right?

You know where your yard ends and where your neighbor's yard begins. In fact, and if you don't have very clear boundaries, you can have some serious disputes with your neighbor. Okay. I got one neighbor that's great. I got one neighbor less than great. disputes is we're not sure what the boundary is and one day I come home and he'd cut down all the bushes that I'm convinced are mine and he thinks they're theirs and so we got boundary issues you understand so you can work that out if it's just if you're talking about like where the fence

goes but when people have boundary issues it's a mess you see God gave us boundaries boundaries are are his idea you see God created physical boundaries in creation he sold the ocean you're going to stop right here. That's ocean, that's land. That the sky was the boundary between the heavens and the earth. That God himself created boundaries between himself and us. He is creator. We are created.

God in and of himself is one God in three persons. That there is unity, and yet between God the Father, God, the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, there are three distinct persons. And so when we understand boundaries, then we can be empowered to decide how we respond when people do evil against us. You see, when Jesus was on trial before Pilate, he was not railroaded.

He was not walked over. Jesus determined to lay his life down because he knew where he was and he knew what God's call in his life was. You see, good boundaries are like, They're like fence with gates. Okay? They're not just to keep people out, but it defines who you are.

And there are times that you decide to open the gate to let good come in, and there are times that you decide to open the gate to get the bad out. If you don't have boundaries at all, you can get trampled on, and people will be slapping you all the time, but you never get up to show them to turn to the other cheek. Now, a lot of times when people get abused because of the lack of boundaries, what they do is instead of building like fence with gates, they build walls.

And the problem with walls is all the bad stays in and all the good stays out. So I think a part of what Jesus is saying is this. So when someone publicly dishonors me, I can choose not to react. To react is to just re-enact the evil action that they had towards me. I'm just telling you, that is my instinct. But you can choose to not react, like to defend myself. but to offer my face again so that I can be treated as a human being. Now, there is a limit.

You run out of cheeks real quick here in Jesus' illustration. So he is not asking us to be a doormat. I think what we'll see when we look at all of his examples is what Jesus is saying is when the evil one, again, we're not talking about brothers and sisters either. When someone evil does this against you, you are more concerned about God's reputation than defending your own reputation. He keeps going.

And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, that's like your undershirt, then let him have your cloak as well. That'd be like your coat. Now, this is important. Not let them take your stuff because you're a wimp, but you are going to choose to give them even more than they think they needed. Do you see the difference here? You see, now here's what I would say.

My first thought is, well, that's not fair. Because if they try to take my shirt and I give them my coat, then they'll get away with it. It's not fair and they'll get away with it, to which I think Jesus would say, exactly. You see, we're not fair people. We're grace people. And it's just different. I think the underlying question here that Jesus is getting at is this, do you trust God to give you another? shirt and jacket? Or do you think God needs your help in hanging on to the stuff that he has

given you? And it's even deeper than this. Do you want to play the fair card? Do you want to play with? Nobody gets away with anything card? Because Jesus real quickly can lean in and be like, hey, you sure you want to play the fair card? Do you sure everybody ought to get what they deserve? We could start with you if you'd like. Then you're like, no, here you go ahead. Have my shoes too, okay? This is what I think Jesus is going to. Now he's going to go to another example. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Now this was specific to Roman occupied Israel.

A Roman soldier could require any Israelite to carry his stuff up to one mile. If he just looked at you and said, hey, come here, Israelite, I'm tired of carry my stuff. You have to carry my stuff. And the Roman law required everybody that. was occupied to carry it up to one mile. And Jesus is saying the next time a Roman soldier hands you his stuff to carry, why don't you go ahead and go the extra mile? That's where this phrase comes from.

To go over and above. If you remember in the Gospels when Jesus is being crucified and he's carrying his cross to Galgotha and he can't carry it anymore, a Roman soldier grabs on the assignment and says you have to carry this. This is what this is. And so Jesus says when people ask you to do inconvenient things, not because you have to. In this law, you have to go one mile,

but what I am saying is you choose to go over and above and go this second mile. Then he goes on to the next one. Give to the one who begs from you. And do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. To which you say, yeah, but Jesus, what if they use it for drugs? What if he's in this position

because he's lazy and he doesn't want to work? and now he's just got this sign out here. What about that? What kind of goes back to the boundaries conversation? You have to know where you end and they begin, and you can't control what anybody else does. And if you really want to dig into stewardship, you don't want Jesus asking you the same questions, do you?

Have you used everything that I have given you in the way that I intended for you to use it? No, let's don't talk about that. Let's talk about that guy. I don't want to talk about me. I want to talk about him. So Jesus goes like machine gun approach here. Boom, boom, boom, boom.

And this is a radically different ethic than fair and just and right. Why? Here's what I think Jesus is saying. I think Jesus is saying, I want you to understand that the grace of Jesus is more important to me then my honor, my stuff, my time, my comfort.

So like if you dishonor me, if you ask me to do something inconvenient and uncomfortable, if you want some of my stuff, if you want to make me uncomfortable, my grace-filled response to you ought to be that I am more concerned about you understanding or experiencing the grace of Jesus than I am concerned about defending my own honor, defending my stuff, defending my time, and defending my comfort. And I am, therefore, because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I am willing to joyfully sacrifice it for you. I'm not trapped.

I don't have to. You're not taking this from me, but I choose love instead of having things my way. I think this is what he's saying. Now, just for a second, imagine, because none of us are here, none of us are here. Imagine not being tethered to image or comfort or stuff. I mean, just for a second, man, okay? Just imagine if no matter what anybody said about you publicly, whether it was true or false,

No matter what your boss thought, your wife thought, your husband thought, your kids thought, your people you go to church with, people in disciple group, the random people you don't know on Facebook, no matter what they thought about you, you were perfectly content with what God thought about you and you were untethered from the opinion of others about you. Can you imagine the freedom? Imagine. Imagine if you were completely untethered from all of your stuff because fundamentally you knew it wasn't. your stuff. No, I'm not saying you would throw it away. You'd be a good steward of your stuff. But if somebody needed to borrow anything, you would say, of course you can borrow it. It's not even mine anyway. Like when the house was a wreck, it didn't ruin you. When you saw everybody else's stuff, you could be pleased that they had better stuff

than you because you were not ruled by stuff. Imagine if you were completely untethered from fighting so hard for your own comfort and telling yourself you deserve it. Imagine that kind of freedom. I think this is the picture that Jesus is painting here. Instead of being ruled by your image and your comfort and your stuff, what if you were ruled by the grace of God in your life? So when someone mistreats you, imagine you treating them the way I have treated you. Have you read Les Mis? Yeah, me either.

But I saw the movie, the one that Liam Neeson was in back in 1998. This is way before like his daughter was taken, and he had a very specific set of skills that would be a nightmare for you. Before all that, 10 years before that, 1998, that's the way. I just saw the movie, Lay Miss. okay. It's set in the 1800s, and Liam Nissen plays Jean Valjean. Now, I don't know if your last name is Valjean, why you name your first name, Jean. It's very confusing, okay? And I can't even say it right. My family and I were in

Paris this last year, and even if we were like at a restaurant and I just even tried to say a French word, I felt like they thought I was making fun of them. Do you know what I'm saying? It's like, Wong, yon, yon, yon. That's all that sounds like to me. But Jean-Maljean gets out of prison. He got locked up for like 19 years for stealing bread. He gets out. Because of his parole, nobody will hire him. And this bishop allows him to stay in his home. Just trust him like crazy. And then one night, Jean Valjean wakes up and he decides he's a thief. That's what thieves do. They're going to steal. And so he steals his stuff. He steals a bunch of silver. And then the bishop wakes up and he knocks him in the head. And then he's the Jean Valjean's out. He gets caught by the police.

He makes up this story for the police. And he says, like, when the police catch him with all of his silver, he's like, the bishop gave this to me. It was a gift. And they're like, all right, we'll see. And they bring him, caught red-handed. They bring him back to the bishop. They knock on the door.

He opens the door. And the policeman is like, we've caught him. We got him. He says, you gave him this silver. There's this long pause. I think the bishop knew the sermon on the mouth. And the bishop's like, he's absolutely right. We gave this all to him.

And in fact, Jean Valjean, you forgot some stuff. And he goes back into his house and he begins to get gold and he begins to get coins. And he begins to get more valuables that the man didn't steal. And he's like, you forgot all these things. And he loads up his sack with all of these things and goes along with the story so that the man will be forgiven. And then you look at that and you, you know, it's in a movie. So you're like, who does that? I tell you who doesn't do it?

this. That's not my instinct. You steal for me. I have an instinct that wants to protect. It wants to fight for my honor and my comfort and my stuff. You know who does this? Jesus does this. And in the book and in the movie, his life is forever changed. The trajectory of this guy's life from that moment on completely changes. I think because he's standing there in front of the man that he stole from expecting to get fair and instead he gets grace and jesus is saying hey for graced people we grace people then he keeps going he says you've heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy all right this is the first time that jesus says this and that second part nowhere in the old covenant doesn't say that you're going to hate your enemy

because here's what happened in I think it's Leviticus 1918 the Bible says that we're to love our neighbor and then the religious people wanted to find well who's my neighbor and over time a couple thousand years where they landed as this my neighbor is someone that thinks like me and looks like me and that I like and that agrees with me so they decided that their neighbor the neighbor of the Jew was the Jew and everybody else was their enemy. And so the dark side of loving my neighbor became,

and I'm going to hate my enemy. So you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you. Who does that? I mean, Jesus tells us to love our enemy. Now here's the thing.

This is one of the reasons we know love is not a feeling. Because you can't command feelings. Right, husbands? We try to do this all the time. Hey, why you feel so cruddy? Don't feel that way. It doesn't work, all right? Jesus doesn't command us to feel a way.

He commands us to action, which is to love our enemy and pray for those who persecute you. Not pray about those who persecute you. Pray for. Do you know the difference between praying for and praying about? We pray about people all the time. Dear God, I pray about my wife. Would you just change her attitude to be in line with what I, okay?

Dear God, would you just be with my boss in such a way that he would know what an amazing employee I am? Now, you realize you're not praying for your boss. You're actually praying for you and you want God to change your boss for you. That's not what he's asking us to do. He's saying, I want you to pray for the person that is praying for you. persecuting you, that I want you to begin to go before the Lord on their behalf and pray God's blessing in their life. Paul is going to say it this way in the book of Romans chapter 12. He says, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them, rejoice with those who rejoice

and weep with those who weep. Now, a lot of times pastors like me pull this verse out of context to talk about anybody, when somebody in the body's hurting, we're all hurting. And that's legit. That is true, okay? But in this context, what he's saying is, is that you typically don't rejoice when your enemy rejoices and weep when your enemy weeps. You typically rejoice when your enemy weeps and you weep when your enemy rejoices. And he's like, but when you start praying for your persecutor, what begins to change is not

necessarily them, but your heart towards them begins to change. I don't know how you can authentically go before the Lord on someone's behalf and your perspective of that person not begin to change over time. And so Jesus

says, pray for them and rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another, do not be haughty but associate with the lowly, never be wise in your own sight, repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

And if possible, we're back to our boundary word again, sometimes it is not possible. It is not. But if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. You see, because as you begin to pray for that person, God may not change that person, but I promise he will change you and your attitude towards that person.

So let me ask you this question. Who is your enemy? Who is your enemy? In fact, on page, I think it's 23 of your journal, I want you, if you know who your enemy is, some of you, it doesn't take you very long at all. I know right now, it's my ex, it's my boss, it's my old roommate, it's that person on Facebook, I mean, it's that business partner. Here's my thing.

I don't know about you. I typically walk around and don't even know I have enemies. and then I get on social media and I'm like, oh, I guess I do. There they are, okay? But for some of you, I know, I mean, for some of you, it's legit. Like, I'm not even saying what they did wasn't evil. Remember the context here.

He's not talking about brothers or sisters in Christ. He is talking about don't resist the one who does evil against you, and I'm saying it was evil. Like your ex-husband, your ex-wife, stood in an altar and promised before God, and the pastor and Nana and all your friends till death do us part. And six years in, he bailed. And then made up all this stuff about you that was just vile and evil.

Or for some of you, man, it's your business partner. Y'all started out together. Actually, you invested more money and there were all your ideas and then you fast forward a little while and somehow he has the company and you got nothing and he's evil. or for some of you

was a roommate. She just lied. She just lied. She couldn't stand that you were the favorite in the group. So she made sure she was there first

and stayed last to always shape the story in such a way where somehow, unbeknownst to you, you were left out and you're not in the group anymore and they don't even like you.

You can't figure it out. But every time her name comes up, I mean, you're a Christian, so you're like, well, I forgave her. I'm just one. or that's going on. Yeah, who's your enemy?

Well, Jesus says you should love them. If you don't want to know what that means, just go to 1 Corinthians chapter 13. I don't have time to go through it, but you on your own, just go to 1 Corinthians 13, and it tells you, blow by blow, step by step, what love looks like from one person to another. That you'll be patient and kind.

and not arrogant and not rude and not keeping a record of wrong. So he says, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. You ever been persecuted? Have you ever been persecuted? I have. Not too bad. Not like jail time and, you know,

it meant something quite a bit different then than it does now. And we do live in a different day. I mean, 20 years ago, people couldn't persecute you like this, right? I mean, they couldn't. I don't know the exact quote, but Mike Tyson, who is solid got to listen to when you're working on sermon material. He just said when he was going up, nobody would talk that way to his face like they do online because they get punched, all right? To which I would lean him back to the turn of the other cheek, but still, have you ever been persecuted? I have.

You know, people picketing our church with people. verses or Bible verses and then my name, Jobie's going to hell, magazine articles, Facebook posts, those kind of things. Now, I wish I could stand before you and say it bothers me none. But here's the thing, man, I'm a human. I'm a human. And when I was, we had the picketers out there, especially the sign. about me going to hell and how I don't preach the gospel and all that stuff.

The hard part was when I was tucking my daughter in that night and trying to explain to Reagan why people that say they're Christians would do that. Now, my instinct is to defend my name. And particularly, like I think physically and aggressively, you know, that's just how, I don't know, if it's flesh or the way the Lord wired me or some combination of that. So when we are persecuted, you can either defend your name,

which honestly has something to do with this mix of your ego and your insecurity. And sometimes it's almost indistinguishable which one you're being driven by. Your ego because you're offended or your insecurity because you think everybody will believe. and so when we stand up and say I got to defend my name that's one way to go or what Jesus instructs us to do is to pray for their soul see the difference I can either stand up for my name or I can pray for their eternity this thing is either about my ego and insecurity or like Jesus we could choose empathy towards the people that we think are our enemies and are persecuting us.

In my best moments, which are few and far between, when you begin to pray for someone, oftentimes what God allows to happen, I don't even know how to explain it, but in a supernatural way, is you begin to see the people persecuting you the way God sees them. And you begin to ask the question,

what sort of hurt must this person be carrying around that they would lash out at me? And if I could understand how hurt they are, then it would make a whole lot of sense to me why they would want to hurt someone else. I mean, what kind of wound must this person have to say these things about me? And when we begin to see people the way God sees them as broken hurting people in need of a Savior, it leads us to begin not to respond by trying to defend our name, but to respond saying, oh, I have empathy. for your soul. You see, it's nearly impossible to carry bitterness and unforgiveness and walk in the abundant grace-filled life that Jesus intends for us. Let me say that again, because there's a lot,

a lot of you listening, a lot of us. To some degree, every single one of us deals with this. But it is nearly impossible to carry bitterness and unforgiveness and walk in the abundant, grace-filled life that Jesus intends for you to walk in. And so he says, all right, you got enemies, people slap you on the face, steal you coat, all of these things, sue you, then love them and pray for them. So that. See that word so that? There's a reason.

Not because Jesus wants you to be a doormat, but so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good. and sends reign on the just and the unjust. Now, real quick, what he is not saying is, if you are good enough, then you can become a Christian. In Greek, it was hard to, like, the way that they would say godly is they would call you a son of God. If you remember, blessed are the peacemakers,

for they are called sons of God. What this means is, is that if you want to be godly, if you want to walk in a manner worthy of the gospel of Jesus Christ, then you act the way Jesus acted. And so when you are reviled and when you are cussed at and when people try to smear your name, you want to respond like Jesus? Then pray for them.

Love them. And in so doing, you will be like Jesus. You see, because when we were enemies of God, when we are defaming his name, when we are trying to steal from him glory. Do you know how he responded to us? Ephesus chapter 2 says, And you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked,

following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work, and the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature, children of wrath like the rest of mankind. As offended as you have ever been by what somebody else

has said about you or done towards you, we have been exponentially more offensive to the one true and holy God. But God, being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved. So when we are reviled, when we feel like we are treated poorly, how do we treat those people in the sermon on the Mount because of the gospel of Jesus Christ? Jesus essentially is saying, why don't you treat them the way I have treated you so that you will be godly and they will experience grace instead of fairness? Then he says, 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 the Gentiles do the same. He's saying, listen, the world acts that way. Drug lords and terrorists are cool to people that are cool to them. And you are supposed to be a son or a daughter of the Most High King who, operates with a different kingdom mindset. So when you were treated poorly, choose grace. Because when somebody slaps our cheek and we slap them back, he says you're acting,

when it says Gentile, it doesn't mean non-Jewish here. He says, you're acting like somebody that has nothing to do with God. All your theology may be right, but in that moment you're a practical atheist. Because you're more concerned about defending your own glory. than demonstrating the glory of God through the cross of Jesus Christ. C.S. Lewis says this. To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

And the reason that we do that, again, verse 45, so that the people will see God. Because it's one thing to declare the gospel, and it is very, very important. But it is a whole other thing to demonstrate the gospel tangibly before people that are mistreating you. One of the most beautiful displays that I've ever seen of this in modern times, it happened in the aftermath of the shooting at Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

A father who lost his wife and his son in the court says this to Dylan Roof, who was the murder. He looked at him on the stand and he says, I forgive you, son. And my family forgives you, but we would like you to take this opportunity to repent. Repent, confess, give your life to the one who matters the most, Jesus Christ, so that he can change it and change your attitude. About a month ago, somebody sent an article where they were interviewing this dad because it's been, there's some time has passed since he said those things.

And in the article that they sent me, the person interviewing asked him this question. Do you have any second thoughts about looking at your son and wife's murderer and saying, I forgive you? And here's his response. He says, I always get asked that. And people want to know why, even if he did repent, why I would ever forgive the man who murdered my wife and my son. And he said, my answers to them is always the same. choose to forgive the racist killer because I believe and trust God's word when he tells me that

vengeance is his to repay, not mine. I need not avenge the vile deeds of Dillon Roof myself. It is mine to avenge. I will repay. Scripture promises me. Now that is a grace-filled freedom that the gospel of Jesus Christ offers to every single one of us. So what do you do when you're mistreated? What do you do when you're not treated fairly? What do you do when people put you on blast? Even if it's not true, especially if it's not true. Essentially what Jesus says is, why don't you do to them exactly what I have done to you?

And why don't you put it on display, not how great your name is, but why don't you put on display how great my name is? And then Jesus gives this book-in statement. Remember he kind of kicked this whole thing, this whole, you have heard that it is said, but I say with, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you have no place in the kingdom of heaven, and then he's going to wrap it up with this. You therefore, after he's talked about anger and lust and divorce and oaths and retribution and enemies, you therefore be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect. unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees. You got no place in the kingdom of heaven. It gives us six examples of what a righteousness looks like that exceeds the Pharisees.

And then he wraps it up with, therefore, just do this one thing. Okay, you got one action step this week. Ready? Just be perfect as the Father is perfect. To which, if you're honest, you go, I can't. Jesus, I can't. I'm old for six on your list. that's not an excuse to not have a lot of grace-filled effort towards the ethics of the sermon on the Mount.

There's just the problem, and the problem is me. It can't be perfect, which I think Jesus would say, all right, well, let's go back to the top of the very, the first thing I said in the sermon. Or blessed are you when you're poor in his spirit. Blessed are you when you realize you're spiritually bankrupt? And blessed are you when you realize that your righteousness will never accept. see the righteousness of the Pharisees. And blessed are you when you realize you can never live up to perfect.

And my Heavenly Father is perfect. When you get to that place, you are blessed. And now you are ready to hand over the reins of your life to your Lord Jesus Christ. And then the spirit in you can let you move towards a life that looks a lot more like Jesus. You see, here's the point. The reason that we are to love our enemies is because when we were enemies of God, He first loved us. Romans 5.8 says, but God showed his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ

died for us. So let's just get real practical. Who is persecuting you that you need to pray for? I dare you to write that person's name down and you commit to pray for them. I mean, and to really pray not pray about them, not that God would drop a mountain on their head, but that God would drop the gospel in their heart and change. everything. And who is your enemy that you need to forgive? Not because they deserve it, but because you didn't deserve it either. And at the cross of Jesus Christ, he forgave you. And maybe, just maybe,

maybe the real reason you have an impossible time loving your enemy and loving those that you don't like. And maybe the reason that you have an almost impossible time forgiving people who have sin against you is simply this. It's because you've never been forgiven. Maybe the reason you have a hard time loving others is because you have never received the love of God towards you through his son, Jesus Christ. You see, if you ain't given it, it could be simply this, because you ain't got it. And the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ is if you realize that right now,

blessed are you when you realize your spiritual poverty and you come to Jesus and you say, I admit it. There's no way I can be perfect. There's no way I can be righteous before you. Jesus, I need your help. You admit it. I'm not just a bad person that needs to do better. I'm not just a struggler that needs to try harder, but I am a sinner in need of a Savior.

And God's invitation to you is this. Well, then believe. believe that when Jesus Christ died on the cross that that counted for you. And then confess. Confess him as Lord and Savior. Confess, Jesus, I admit it. I need your help. I need to be saved by you.

I believe when you died on the cross that counted for me. And in this moment, I confess you as my Lord and my Savior. And the Bible says that you will be saved. And then everything changes. Everything changes. I'd like to give you an opportunity right now to receive the forgiveness of Jesus Christ, to experience the love of Jesus, demonstrated by Him for you on the cross, before you did anything to change or deserve it.

So wherever you are, would you please bow your head and close your eyes? And if you would say that's you, if you would say for the very first time, I think the reason that I've got this bitterness and this unforgiveness, I think the reason when I get slapped, I immediately slapped back. I think the reason that I want to defend my name and my honor is because I have never fallen on my face before the cross of Jesus and surrendered my life to him. And so if that's you in this very moment, would you just pray to him? Would you just admit it? I'm a sinner in need of a Savior.

And if you believe that when Christ died on the cross somehow that counted for you, would you confess it right now? Would you just confess Jesus as your Lord and Savior? Would you cry out on the name of the Lord? our good and gracious heavenly Father God, we love you because you first loved us. God, I thank you that this sermon on the Mount is not just a new law, but this sermon on the Mount is a demonstration of the gospel's effect in our life. God, forgive us, forgive us when we harbor unforgiveness that turns to bitterness. And God, would you overwhelm us with your grace and overwhelm us with your mercy

overwhelm us with your love. God, may we not only declare the gospel with our mouth, but may we demonstrate the gospel by the way we treat those that may mistreat us simply because when we were enemies of you, you paid the price for our sin, you adopted us into your family, and you call us sons and daughters, not because of the things we do, but because of what Christ has done on the cross.

We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. If you prayed to receive Jesus as your Lord and Savior, we want to know who you are. There's a button on the page that you're watching right now. And would you just click it and say, I raised my hand, I surrendered my life to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and somebody will be in touch with you? Because the job of the church is not to just make converts, it's to make disciples. And you become a part of the body of Christ.

You become a part of the family of God. love, love, love to be your church family. And to all of us, we're going to respond to the gospel. We respond by bringing our ties and our offerings, our first and our best. We respond by praying. And there's a bunch of us that need to pray big, bold prayers that God would give us the power to forgive and to not try to defend our honor, but to put on display the honorable name of Jesus this week. And we respond by singing. So would you please stand as we bring, as we sing, and as we pray? Let's respond.