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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 Matthew chapter 5, we're gonna read in just a moment. I wanna talk to you on the subject of the ultimate test of the Christian life. The ultimate test of the Christian0:11 life. How many know that Christianity is gonna be a series of tests? Anybody getting tested right now? You might be getting tested financially like we just talked about. You might be getting tested relationally,0:23 socially. You might be getting tested occupationally. You might be getting tested with a spirit that is attacking you, your family. I don't know. But what I do know0:35 about Christianity is that it is a series of tests. And today, we are talking about the ultimate 1. I'm gonna give you a spoiler right off the bat to give you the context for where we're going. Here's0:47 the test. Love your enemies. Love people who hate you. This 1, this is doctoral level0:59 testing of the Christian life. Elementary school test, can you come back to church? Can you come back and worship with God's people on a regular that's like elementary level testing.1:11 God bless you all. Y'all passed that test this week. Amen. High school level testing, can you give? Can you serve? Can you be involved? College level testing, can you1:23 lead others to Christ? Masters level testing, can you tithe regularly? Can you give things to people in need? Can you serve when you don't feel like that's masters level? Okay. Doctoral1:34 level Christian testing, can you love those who hate you? Matthew chapter 5, Jesus is talking about this, and he's in the sermon on the mount, and he's talking about1:46 how different God's people are compared to the people of the world. Write this down so I know you're getting it. Christianity is countercultural. That's where we're gonna start.1:58 That's the baseline. Christianity is countercultural. Hear me very clearly, Americans. Christianity is not American.2:10 Christianity is not Democrat or Republican. Christianity is beyond all that. It's above all that. Christianity is not about a country or natural borders on a map.2:22 Christianity is where the kingdom of heaven invades the kingdom of this earth and the kingdoms of this earth and serves the true king, the king of2:34 kings and the Lord of lords. We Christians don't march to the beat of Donald Trump or Joe Biden. We don't follow politicians with blank stares as if we're hopeless2:45 dupes. We are followers of the author of life and the king of kings and the Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. We don't always get it right, but we do do our best to follow him in every2:57 test. And I wanna help you do better in this test because this message this week, and I got news for you. I am not preaching to you, mostly I'm preaching to myself. If you manage to get something out of this message, God3:08 bless you. But I'm preaching to me because this one's tough. Now full disclosure, I'm really preaching to you, but I'm also preaching to me. Christianity is counter cultural. So3:20 I want you to read with me what Jesus says in Matthew chapter 5 about loving your enemies. Would you stand for the reading of God's word? He says, you have heard it said this is verse 43 of Matthew 53:32 you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. For he makes his3:44 son to rise on the evil and the good. He sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even tax collectors do the same? He says this, if you greet3:56 only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is4:08 perfect. This is God's word. Let's pray. Father, help me. Speak through me. Remove from my mouth and my mind anything that you don't want me to4:19 say. And help our hearts and our ears to be open to hear you. May the seed of your word, your true righteous good word, go down deep into the heart of every single 1 of us.4:31 Take root in our character, in our being, and bear fruit in our living and doing, and help us to see Jesus.4:43 Him and him only. In his mighty name we pray. Everybody said Amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a seat. Well, Matthew chapter 5 is the sermon on the mount. Somebody say sermon on the mount. The reason why is because Jesus4:54 goes up onto a mountain to preach a sermon in Matthew 5. He is imitating what Moses does before he leaves the people of Israel in Joshua's hand. He goes up onto a mountain, declares unto them the word of God. So here is5:05 Jesus, the new Moses, giving a higher law, a new law if you will, the true law, the heart of the law on, in Matthew chapter 5.5:17 And what he has been talking about in the passage we just read is based or predicated on something that he says in verse 20 of Matthew 5. We'll put it up on the screen. Verse 20 of Matthew 5, Jesus says5:29 this, for I tell you unless your righteousness, what's the next word everybody? Exceeds the scribes and pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. What does Jesus5:41 say? Look at the scribes were the theologian the theological scholars of Jesus' day. These are the people who translated or transmitted and transcribed the Bible. And the Pharisees were the most strict religious sect5:53 of Israel in that day. They were the fundamental Baptist and the legalistic Pentecostals and the guilty Catholics all wrapped up into 1 group. I mean, don't get any more strict and religious than these people.6:05 The Pharisees, I mean, they tithed. They tithed on their spice rack. They wore funny little hats and big long gowns. They dressed to impress. They had 39 laws about6:17 the law of the Sabbath. They didn't just take God's law seriously. They added laws to the law. There was a 1 law in the 10 commandments on the Sabbath. They said, well, what does that mean? What does it mean to not work?6:26 They added 39 stipulations as to what that means. These people were the strictest religious sect in Jerusalem of that day. And Jesus says, I need you to do better than them.6:38 Yikes. But what he's talking about was the heart, the heart of the law. And so if you go past verse 20, Jesus unpacks what it means to exceed that law, that standard. And here a couple of examples. He says,6:50 look, they say do not murder. But I say to you, don't even be angry. Don't even call people names. Don't even call someone a fool, because that's the start.7:02 That's where murder, That's where, anger leads to murder. And so if you're angry with your brother, you're on your way to murder already. Another passage he says, you have heard it said, don't commit adultery. But I say7:13 to you, don't even look lustfully. Don't even desire with the eyes. Cause that desire from the eyes leads to the action of the of the body. He's elevating all the7:25 standards of the law. Then he goes into divorce. He says, look, no divorce except for sexual immorality. And he talks about oath taking and and being a person of your word. He says, stop swearing by the temple. Stop7:36 swearing by the gold of the temple. Stop that nonsense. Just just let your yes be yes. You know, he's elevating the law every single step of the way. By the way, we still do that, don't we? It's like some of you guys you7:46 say, I swear to God. I swear to my mother's grave. Or we do simple things like this. We say, well, I'm really telling the truth now. It's like, well, what were you doing 5 minutes ago? Were you not were you lying? Do we7:56 always have to add mom's grave to what we say to be taken seriously? Just let your yes be yes. He talks about retaliation. Then he says he says this, don't don't retaliate. Somebody hits you on the cheek. What do you do?8:08 Turn the other. Another passage he says, if someone care asks you to go 1 mile, go 2. What what is he talking about? There was a law in Rome in those days. Law, the Romans used to conquer kingdoms and to make sure the8:19 people knew they were con conquered. A Roman centurion had the right to ask any citizen to carry his bags for 1 mile, just randomly. So it'd be like a military man in America just coming up to you on the street saying,8:30 carry my bags. 1 mile according to law. I mean, imagine if that was the case here in this in this country, we wouldn't stand for it. But But in those days they didn't have a choice. They had to carry that that equipment8:39 for 1 mile. Jesus says, don't just go the 1 mile. What does Jesus say? Go 2 miles. Some of you know this. By the way, anybody ever tell you go the extra mile, guess what? They're quoting Jesus.8:51 That comes from Jesus Christ. And I bring all this up to say this, that the Sermon on the Mount, and this is true, the Sermon on the Mount is the highest level of moral living ever pronounced anywhere9:03 on this planet. No 1 has been able to beat it. No preacher, no philosopher, no religious leader, no 1. And the Sermon on the Mount has been the highest level of moral living and has been9:15 staying at the top of the list for 2000 years. Do you ever think about that? These words, nobody can improve on them. Why? Because they're not the words of man. They're the words of God, the Son, the 1 who made us,9:27 the 1 who loves us, and the 1 who's coming back for us, and the 1 who knows what is true and what is a lie. And so no 1 improves on Jesus' standards in Matthew chapter 5, 6, and 7 in the sermon on the mount. And he gets9:39 to the end of this segment, and he says, this is what I want you to do lastly. Last of all, are you ready? Listen. Listen. Listen real close. I want you to love your enemies. And you guys would think to people in the9:50 ancient world, are you crazy? That's nuts. We should be hating people and hating us. Why should we love those who love us, don't love us? And Jesus actually goes even higher than what you10:02 think, because he uses the word for love that is in the Greek text, agape. Now I know he spoke Aramaic, but but the writers who translated Jesus' words chose this word to be the word that10:14 Jesus was referring to. Agape. And if it says if you got your notes out, you'll see the definition of agape love there. He says, this is not this is not an emotional endearing kind of love, but a 1 way no strings10:25 attached. Somebody say no strings attached. No strings attached kind of love that flows from grace and mercy. He says, that's what I want you to do with10:36 people who hate you. Man, that's tough. Raise your hand if you got any haters in your life. It's okay to raise your hand in church. Amen, somebody?10:48 I see that hand. I see that hand. I see that. I mean, we got we got haters, and and here's what I've learned. And somebody didn't raise your hand yet, And I know why you didn't raise your hand. Well, 2 reasons. Either10:58 you're Baptist and you were trained not to, or you just or you just haven't lived long enough to make a few enemies. Jesus ends this passage by saying, you're gonna be perfect.11:10 You're gonna be perfect as your heavenly father in heaven is perfect. Now there is 1 thing that I've learned about this text that and I11:22 say this humbly, I have only been able to learn by living. Living as long as I have. God has graced me with 47 years, and here I am. And I gotta tell you this,11:34 it gets harder to love your enemies the older you get. Anybody hear this? Anybody with me on this? Am I the only sinner in the crowd? You know what I'm talking about?11:46 Like it gets harder because I have learned, and some of you 20 year olds, you're like, I love everybody. Everybody's my friend. I just love the world. Okay. Just give it time. Eventually you will11:58 find betrayal, rejection, hate just because you are you. That's life. You can't help it. It will happen to the best of12:10 us. It happens to me, and I preach the word of God. I got enemies. I got lists of enemies, and some of the people on that list, Do you know where they used to sit?12:22 Right where you're sitting. All I gotta do is check our Google reviews to find a few of them right now. They're out there. They hate me. They hate you. They hate this church. And12:34 I'm like, man, preach the word. They still hate me. Yes. They hated Jesus, and he told them the truth. That's what's gonna happen in life. And even if you don't follow Jesus, you're still gonna get hated. So how are you12:46 gonna how are you gonna handle this? I mean, I I've been challenged this week. Like I said, the Holy Spirit through this word. As I prepared this word, the Holy Spirit was hitting me right here in between the eyes. And12:57 I'm like, Lord, this message is for me. Yeah, it is. It is. Because I gotta start crossing names off my lists. And hear me, so do13:09 you. So do you. Couple months ago, was walking my dogs as I always do. I give my dogs 2 walks a day. I'm a good dad of dogs. I got13:20 2 beautiful boxers. I call them my favorite children. And I'm walking them 1 morning, and I did this. I had this habit where I walked them in the morning, there was this open field, and on the backside of the field there13:32 were some homes. And I just said, you know, let them off the leash because they're boxers. They need some run-in their in their walks. So I would let them off, and I did this, and I got away with this for a year. And 113:43 day, I let them off the leash, and way on the other side of that field, someone was coming out of their house. But the problem was they were coming out with their kids and their dog. Any dog owners13:54 notice what's about to happen. My my my youngest dog was about 100 feet away, and he got a sniff, and he just jetted. My oldest dog was sitting right next to me, and she got the sniff, and then she and it was14:06 like, no. And I tried to grab I couldn't grab. She just fly. And and this woman is coming out with her dog and that my dogs go running. Run. Run. Run. They think they're playing. They're not attacking her. They're14:17 attacking her dog and she's going a little bit nuts in it. She got little kids there and I'm like scared for for for her and for her kids. I run up to my dogs and I yanked them out. I'm like, I scream at my dogs. Can't14:27 believe you did that. What's wrong with you? And I said, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It never happened again. And I put them back on a leash and I took them home and I was so mad at my dogs. And I thought that was gonna14:36 be the end of it. I come up here, I preach at the weekend, and I go back home. And I go to small group. I go to my Waters Church small group. Come on somebody. How many of you are thankful for your Waters14:48 Church small group? I need 1 myself. I show up early. I'm sitting down in the place where we meet and somebody walks in. The first group member comes in and says, hey pastor, how you doing?15:02 I'm doing fine. How are you doing? Second person comes in, hey, thinking about you this weekend. What happened? Well, does something bad happen? Third person comes in and15:13 says, pastor, I saw the video. I'm like, what video? This woman took her ring doorbell video and15:25 posted that incident on the community wide Facebook group. Thousands of members saw that moment.15:38 And not only did she post the video, but she wrote a college level essay detailing all the ways in which I am a second cousin of Lucifer himself.15:50 And that wouldn't have been bad, but I read and I saw the comments. 45 comments from people in my community and the comments went like this. Oh, know that guy. He has no control over those.16:02 Oh, he lives down the street from me. Oh, this is where he is. I'm like, oh my, am I on trial at Nuremberg here? What is going on? I felt about 2 2 centimeters16:14 tall. And that group at life that night at life thank God for Waters Church Life Groups. I needed the ministry that night. Everybody's like, well, I'm going through this.16:26 I'm like, I don't care what you're going through. I feel terrible. I don't know what I'm gonna do with it. And I said, add that woman's name to the list. And as we're doing small,16:38 we're talking about the bible in life group in small group. And here's what I'm doing in my mind, my little factory of ideas is cooking during life group. And I'm thinking, I'm gonna get that woman. I'm gonna get her.16:48 And I thought of I came up with some plans. You wanna hear 1 of the plans? Do you wanna hear 1 of the plans? I don't know if you wanna hear the I'm gonna tell you anyway. I I said to myself, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm16:58 gonna save up a week's worth of dog poop. This what I'm gonna do. A week's worth, I'm gonna put in a bed, and then I'm gonna go out at 3 AM with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Predator, Mace Mask, all that kind. And I'm gonna go17:08 over to the back room of her house. I'm gonna throw it over the fish, and then I'm gonna run, get to the chopper, and it's gonna be all good. I'm gonna get there. You ain't got till pastor got you. That's what17:20 I thought. Meanwhile during life group, they're like pastor maybe you should go and apologize. Maybe I don't know who does. Extend an olive branch, know, be the bigger person, take the step. I'm like, I don't wanna do17:30 that. I wanna hate. I just yeah. Come on somebody. Anybody know this? Sometimes hate feels good. Can we just be real? I wanted to hate. They said,17:42 no. You can't do that. Cheryl's like, yeah, let's just go tonight. Let's just do it. Let's just do it now. I'm like, no, Cheryl. I'm arguing with my wife. How many know that never ends good? So we drive over to the17:53 house. Knock on the door. Woman doesn't even open the door. She sees me big beard. She sees me. She opens the window, talks through the screen like I'm some kind of18:04 terrorist. Like I'm some kind of, you know, menace to society. I'm like, hello. Remember me with the boxers? I'm so sorry. And I apologized all over myself. I18:16 mean, I had already apologized, and she exploited the action in in in any way, and I still apologized. It was can I tell you? It no. No. No. Don't don't clap.18:28 Don't, please, because I fail way more than I succeed here. And I just apologize all the way. And I said, by the way, I'm a pastor, and my people see it, and it's kind of embarrassing. Could you possibly take the video?18:40 Yeah, I'll take it down. I go to that church over down the street. I said, you just keep going to that church. God bless you. You need it. You know, that was my thought in my head. I didn't say that. But you know what18:48 I'm talking about? And, man, that was hard. That action went against every grain in my body.18:59 Christianity is counter cultural. You understand what I'm talking about culture? I'm talking about you. Now my story is a silly story, but some of you could19:11 get up here and tell your story. It's not just dogs. It's what dad did to you 30 years ago. It's what the business partner did to you 12 years ago. It's about what the friend did to19:23 you over the girlfriend or over the girl you were interested. It's about it's about what the girl down the street did to you with your husband. And you are just sitting here in this19:34 moment saying, I will never forgive them. I will never let them off the hook. I will hold this until the day I die. And I'm gonna tell you something. Are you ready for it? Jesus is asking you right now to scratch19:46 their name. Not scratch. Erase their name off the list. I got your attention now, don't I?19:58 You wanna talk about being Christian? This is where it is. Some of you are gonna walk out of this service today and say, I don't think I wanna be a Christian. I'd rather that response than you fake it for the next 520:09 years. I want you to really measure this because this this loving your enemies deal exposes whether or not we're Christians.20:21 Honestly, I'm going to tell you the truth. And you're not going like it because I don't like it either. So I got 3 points about this test concerning your loving enemies. Write this down. Point number 1, loving20:32 my enemies is the ultimate test of how deeply I embrace God's grace toward me. How deeply do I really embrace God's grace toward me? Why why does this20:44 apply to God's grace toward me, pastor? Here's why. Are you ready? Because you were an enemy of God. And he loved you20:57 when you did not deserve it. Jesus says in Matthew 5 45, you're gonna love your enemies. Then he says, so that circle so that in Matthew 5 40. Circle the so that because so that's mean, this is why21:08 I'm asking you to do this. So that you may be sons or daughters of your father who is in heaven. He makes the sun rise on the eve of the good. He makes the rain fall on the just and the unjust. Here's what21:20 that passage is underscoring. It's a theological doctrine of the church. Are you ready? It's called common grace. Somebody say common grace. Okay. Here's what that means. Adolf Hitler21:33 enjoyed many sunrises. Chairman Mao enjoyed many rainfalls in due season.21:44 Evil people have received God's grace regardless of what they did, And everybody gets it. Everybody gets some amount of it.21:56 Common grace. Now, now, now, now. Don't get nervous. Don't get shook. Because common grace is not saving grace. Common grace ends the day your heart stops beating,22:08 or the day Jesus comes back. Common grace is for everybody, but saving grace is for special people. Saving grace is is what God did for you in sending22:20 Jesus to die for you and rise for you. And then listen to this very carefully, orchestrating all the events of your life to bring you to the point where you22:32 finally said yes to Jesus Christ. I hope you understand this, and I hope you listen to this. You did not get saved because you came to church.22:44 You did not get saved because you were a good person. You did not come to Jesus because you had made a conscious choice that you were gonna fix your life and get your life right. I know you22:55 think that because we all tend to interpret all the activity of our life through the lens of we're the star of the movie that is our life and we made these decisions. No, my friend, you are not the star. Jesus is the23:07 star. He's he's the protagonist of your life and he is the 1 who came and got you and found you and selected you and chose you and predestined you to be conformed to the image of himself,23:19 that you should bring glory to Almighty God who created you. That's who you are. That's what it means to be saved. I hope you're getting this. Oh, I hope you're getting this because church23:31 people need to hear this more than non church people. You did not come to Jesus, Jesus came to you. You did not find him, he found you. Can I get a good amen?23:44 How did he find you? When you were an enemy. Look with me at Romans 5 verse 10. For if while we were, what's the word? Enemies.23:56 You were not neutral toward God. You were his enemy. You know why Jesus died? It says it right there. We were reconciled to God by the what? Say the word.24:08 The death. Jesus had to die to bring you life. A bloody, unjust,24:19 murderous death befell the perfect, glorious, wonderful son of God for you, for24:31 me. And I didn't deserve it. And I got saved because he made the first move. Amen, somebody.24:44 I was his enemy. So were you. Write these 3 thoughts down. The entrance to Christian faith is receiving grace. How do you get into the Christian24:56 movement? You receive grace. You say, God, I didn't do anything worthy to be called your son. In fact, I did all all the things that make me not your son. Have mercy on me a sinner. God forgives25:08 you, welcomes you into the family. Now, number 2 thing I want you to write down here is the test of Christian faith is giving grace to others. Tell me25:19 you're a Christian by giving to others what God has given to you. But here's the third part of this line I want you to write down, and25:31 grace is always undeserved. The term grace means unmerited favor. You don't earn it. You don't you don't live up to an expectation that Jesus saves you. No. You you get it when25:43 you least deserve it. So to those of you who wanna say, you don't know what they did to me, pastor. They don't deserve25:55 my love. Yep. Agreed. And you and I did not26:06 deserve his love. If we change the terms of the of the agreement, we're no longer operating on grace, we're operating on26:18 works. Some of you are doing this with your enemies. Well, when they come and properly apologize to me. Is that what you did?26:31 Forgot? I mean, I really want you to think about this question before you raise your hand. Raise your hand if you have properly apologized for every sin you've ever committed against God. Go ahead. Raise your hand. My26:42 hand is down. I'm not even gonna I'm not even gonna display it for you because that there's no way I could have ever properly apologized for every sin I've ever committed against God, but he's forgiven them.26:54 He's forgiven them. And so if we're going and this is so important for you to get. If we're gonna be sons of that God, daughters of that God, we27:06 gotta start acting like him. Now please understand that loving your enemies is not a condition for salvation, but it is a condition of your heart after salvation. Are you hearing that? So so, I I I wanted to just27:18 do a little thing here. You have to understand that everything that we do as Christians is responsive to what God has already done for us. Theologians call this the theological as, a s. The theological as. Everything27:30 that we do for others is because God has done it for us. Let me show you a couple verses that that explain this. Ephesians chapter 4 32, be kind to 1 another, tender hearted, forgiving 1 another, what?27:43 As God in Christ forgave you. Why do I forgive people? Because God forgave me. How do I forgive God? How do I forgive other people? As God forgave me. Who do you need to forgive who hasn't properly27:55 apologized for the sin that they've committed? Because guess what? They might not even know. They might not even know what they did. And you're gonna sit there and spend 15 years not talking to them because they haven't28:06 properly identified what they don't even realize they did you. And how about get over that and start apologize or start forgiving as God has forgiven you? Here's another 1, John 13 34. A new commandment I give to you28:16 that you love 1 another just, what's the word? As I have loved you. I don't love you based on how my mom loved me or my dad loved me, and they love me greatly. I love you based on how God I'm supposed to28:28 love you as how God loved me. Good Lord. That is tough. I got a couple other examples that are not on the screen. Romans 15 verse 7, welcome 1 another28:40 as Christ has welcomed you. Luke 6 36, be merciful as your father is merciful. Ephesians 5 2, walk in love as Christ loved us.28:53 Theological as. Some of you need to get your ass in order. Stop being a stubborn ass. Stop being a dumbass. Stop being a mean29:04 ass. And start being a grace filled ass. Amen, somebody. Stop being a Jesus loved me. Now I gotta love you kind of ass. Come on, somebody. It's29:16 okay to have fun. It's okay to have fun. Alright. Just put it in the Google review. Okay. Are you ready? Love it or hate it. Point number 2, loving29:28 my enemies is the ultimate test of God's character developing in me. Now here's some of you. This is what you're saying, and you're a young Christian, and I'm I'm so29:40 glad that you're here, and I love you. I thank God for you. You keep us older Christians awake. But you're saying, man, I'm really growing in Christ. Really learn a lot about the Bible. Oh, God is good. Man, I'm seeing29:51 God all over my life. He's man, ever ever since I came to Christ, I've seen God's goodness. Oh, I am I am excelling in Christ. Okay. Okay. Great. How 's the loving your enemies thing? I mean, do30:03 we really wanna talk about being Christians? Do I have had enough. I am I am up to here with30:15 preachers on YouTube and TV talking about your destiny, and your purpose, and finding your way, and Jesus being your helper, and Jesus getting you through the storm, and Jesus help me be this, be an30:27 ad, and be calm and all this and everything. It's all about you. It's like wait a second. You understand that that's not the heart of Christianity. Jesus does not come to this earth to be your30:38 spiritual advisor. He came to this earth to be God's substitutionary sacrifice for your sins. And your job as a Christian is not to find your30:50 purpose. Your job as a Christian is to know his purpose and live it out on this earth however he sees fit for you to do it. And if we're gonna live out his31:02 purpose, then the world needs a little bit less hate and a lot more love of Jesus. And this is how Jesus says look at this. Because he says in verse 45 that you may be sons of your father who31:14 is in heaven, but read verse 46. For if you love those who love you, that's normal. If you greet only your brothers, Gentiles do31:26 that. Outsiders do that. Normal people love their own. So in all the divisions of our country. And and I don't think they're as bad31:38 as the news media makes them out to be. This black white divide, I don't think it's nearly as bad. There's a of black people, a of white people sitting right next to each other in this church. God God be praised for31:47 that. Amen. There's old people sitting next to young people. This boomer zoomer divide. This male female. I see a lot of males sitting next to females. Amen. Praise God. Hopefully, they're married to the female and31:57 producing godly children. Praise God. Amen. But all these divisions, you know, that that we we Christians have got to go above what this normal world does. A lot of people32:09 play economic games with their relationships. Well, I'll like their I'll like their Facebook post, but they got to first like my Facebook post. What a child. Well, I'll have them over to my house, but they haven't32:20 invited me over their house. Child. Well, I like them. I'll say good things about it, but if they don't say good thing about me, then I'm gonna cut them off. Child, grow up. You're acting just like the world.32:32 Christianity is counter what? Cultural. Jesus didn't just say love your enemies, he exhibited love your enemies. When they hanged them, when they hung them on the cross. What's 1 of the words32:44 on the cross? What's 1 of the phrases? Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Oh. There's a beautiful movie that you need to watch if you haven't seen it already. It's called Ben Hur.32:57 And if you got a spare 4 hours, I challenge you to watch it. It's from 19 59 before they made movies with CGI and fake, you know, computer graphics. Beautiful movie. It's about a a guy named Judah Ben Hur,33:09 and he's a prince in Israel, and, he's betrayed by his best friend growing up named Masala. Masala wants to climb the ranks of the Roman army, and so he betrays he betrays Judah Ben Hur, gets him thrown into a slave ship33:20 as a prisoner, as a as a as a as a criminal for a crime he didn't commit. And and, through the course of events, he has the the ship collides with another ship, and he gets, out of the ship. He gets out of the33:31 slave ship, and, then this noble Roman adopts him as his son and and gives him all his money, and then that Roman, nobleman dies, and now Judah Ben Hur has the opportunity to go back home, and he does. He goes back home,33:42 but with the expressed the expressed intention to kill Masala. In fact, while they were arresting him and dragging him off to prison, he yells back to Masala, may God keep you alive until I return.33:55 He finally gets back and the girlfriend Well, the girl that he was gonna marry before he got wrongly convicted doesn't recognize him. She says, this is not the Judah Ben Hur I knew. You34:07 have become more like Masala. And then he is in chariot race against Masala, and against all odds he defeats the his his nemesis, and and Masala falls off34:19 the chariot, gets run over, and then Ben Judah Ben Hur is able to come to the deathbed of Masala and watch this man who he hated die. And he realizes that it's not all that.34:30 He got vengeance and it wasn't enough. He walks outside and just coordinated events. When he walks outside, they're putting Jesus on the cross.34:43 And he stands, and the cinematography of this movie is absolutely brilliant. They show the the shot is from the back of Jesus's head looking at the crowd as they look on at his dying. And you see Judah Ben Hur34:55 staring at Jesus saying these words, and his face changes. And he goes back home and he talks to his wife and, his his his mother and his sister, and he says, even while they were hanging him on the cross, he35:07 said, father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And his sister says, even then even then, he was still loving people. And Judah Ben Hur says this, and I felt his voice35:19 take the sword out of my hand. I need that, and you do too.35:32 How are we ever gonna see this country stave off killing itself if we, the church, don't start being like35:43 Jesus, loving people who hate us. On the other end of the spectrum is a guy named Jonah. You know Jonah's story is in the35:55 bible, but it's not a good story. It's not. It's it's a terrible story. This this man runs from God's call. Everybody thinks he's because he's afraid. No, he's not. You read the whole story. You know why you know why36:06 Jonah ran from the call of God? Jonah was called to go to Nineveh, Israel's enemies, and preach God's word. And at the end of the story, you find out that the reason why Jonah ran from that mission36:18 was because he knew that God would show mercy to his enemies. That's why he ran. He says this in Jonah chapter 4. He says, it displeased Jonah. God36:30 spares the city. God spares the city through Jonah's preaching. And then Jonah goes up onto a hill and watches the city hoping, hoping that God will still annihilate the people he hates.36:42 But God doesn't. And it says, it displeased Jonah. And he was angry. And he prayed, God this is what I said when I left my country. This is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish. I knew that you were gracious and merciful36:54 God, slow to anger. Some of you that's where you are. I can't stand that God lets them live. I can't stand that God blesses them. I can't stand that he's letting them get away with it. My friend,37:06 he's treating them the way he treated you. He's being gracious because that's what he is. He's a gracious and merciful God. And Jonah gets to the end, he says, I would rather die. Oh my word.37:19 You know, I wonder how many of our suicidal people. That's where you are. You're suicidal because God isn't getting them, and he'd rather die. And this is Jonah's heart coming out. This is a mess. This37:30 is not a good man. And I thought about this. You know, Jonah went into Nineveh to preach. He went into a pagan, godless, god hating country country to preach. They repented. And when he37:42 left the city, what you find out is that though he went into Nineveh, at the end of the story, Nineveh got into him. George, come on up here. Where are you, George? He's gonna help me illustrate this because some37:54 of you gotta see this in your life. And the Lord just gave me this thought, this is you. And this is what you do with with the hurts in your life. This is what you do with the people who have hurt you.38:07 Well, this is my high school friend, and you don't know what she did to me. Oh, she stole my boyfriend, and I will never forgive her. And so this whole part of my life is darn dark because I will always hate that woman.38:16 Oh, this is what my dad did to me. He was awful. He was so strict. He was such an authoritative dictator. I couldn't do anything. And that's fine. And some of you are like, yeah, and this is what this is what my first38:26 employer did to me. This is my I couldn't stand him. He treated me so terribly, and this is what my former church did to me. Oh, this Christian, they call themselves a Christian, and some of you gotta hear this. This is38:37 what pastor Tim did to me. This is what he did to me. That's where I am on your face right there. And some of you before you know it, before you know it, if you keep keeping records, if you keep adding up all the waysShow more
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