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Today's scripture reading is from Matthew 5.43 through 48. It's page 837 in the

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Bibles in the back of the pews. You have heard that it was said,

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love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies and

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pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your father in

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heaven, for he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain

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on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what

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reward will you have? Don't even the tax collectors do the same, and if you greet

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only your brothers and sisters, what are you doing out of the ordinary? Don't even

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the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is

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perfect. This is God's word.

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Thank you, Ben. Thank you, Laurie. A couple things just to acknowledge. One, I'm not

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John. As I said earlier, church mom, church dad are off right now there in

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Guam with Mike and a few other people there, serving one of our sister churches

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over in Guam and caring for them, building a new roof. Pray for John. Pray that he

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has enough AC. He really needs it. Just remember that this week, but they'll be

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back next week. And two, acknowledge there is a lot of mothers in here, so

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thank you, moms. If I haven't said it to you personally, just thank you so much

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for everything that you've done, and this includes those who've acted like

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moms. Maybe you're a biological mom. Maybe you've just shown up for somebody

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and acted as that role. Thank you for that. We just want to appreciate that.

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We would physically and literally and spiritually not be here, except if it was

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for you. And my mom is here to hear this, so I'm really grateful for that. We are

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talking about loving your enemies. So here's my joke. Hopefully we're not

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talking about your mom tonight. For the past few weeks, John and I have been

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trying to bring you back into Jesus' culture to understand his teaching. This

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was really important to understand the attitudes Jesus was calling us to

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exemplify. Last week, John explained that a right-handed slap across the left

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cheek is different than a right-handed slap across the right cheek. It meant

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something different. One was intimidation. It was demeaning. The other one was a

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challenge to an equal. Well, today I'm not gonna be trying to bring you back into

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Jesus' culture. I'm gonna do something different. It's a little uncomfortable for

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me, so I'm just gonna recognize that up front. I want to try to unpack Jesus'

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teaching about loving your enemies in light of our culture today. This

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teaching to love enemies has gone around the world. It has left a deep mark, but

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it's also caused a lot of imitations to show up that sound very similar to

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Jesus, but are not the same thing. But Jesus' meaning and focus is

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different from those, and we really need to hear everything that he is saying

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this morning. So let's hear Jesus' words one more time. No matter how many times

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I have read these things, they continue to shake me just a little bit, so I want

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to make sure that they are fresh on your mind. You have heard that it was said,

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love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your enemies and

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pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your father in

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heaven. Let's pray real quick. Father, I am scared to preach these words. These are,

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these are tough, but I pray God that this morning your word would come alive

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in our hearts, that you would look glorious because you are so giving and

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you are so loving that you give us a perfect example of what it is to love

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our enemies. God, I pray that you humble our hearts so that we would be able to

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find ways that we are acting like enemies to people and that we would treat

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our enemies in the same way that you've treated us. In Jesus' name, amen. So this

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is it, this is the climax of Jesus' teaching, our series, how you have

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heard. Jesus has been building up to this. All of the other statements get

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culminated into this one command, hate, lust, divorce, promising, retaliation, all

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fall here. Love your neighbor and love your enemy as yourself. The Old

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Testament law I've referred to for loving your neighbor is from Leviticus

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1918. It's probably the most famous verse in Leviticus because you all know a lot

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of Leviticus verses. Here it is. Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against

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members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Lord. And a

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little later in the chapter, the command is resided again but includes more

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people. Leviticus 1934. You will regard the alien, the red, who resides with you as

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the native born among you. You are to love him as yourself. For you,

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railings in the land of Egypt, I am the Lord your God. Jesus takes these

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foundational commands and brings them to their fullness. You are to love your

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neighbor as yourself even if your neighbor is your enemy. These words have

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serious power if used correctly. They have the power to change the world and we

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have seen it happen. That's my first point this morning. This teaching is

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world-changing. For Jesus' day, the people would hear love the tax collector in

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your town. They're the most despised person or love the Roman soldier that

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is currently occupying your nation and oppressing you. For us, for you, we should

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hear love that disrespectful person who demeans you. Love that person who

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intimidates you and belittles you. Love the person who abuses your kindness in

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your time. This idea has affected history and cultures around the world. And I'll

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pause here. This is probably a good time in the sermon to explain what Jesus means

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by love. What's that definition? Let's understand it, but it's a little tricky

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because the meaning of the word changed because of Jesus. Let me explain what I

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mean by that. In Greek, there are four different words that we would all

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translate into English as love. Two of those words appear in our Bible, two of

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them don't. The word here is a pretty famous word. It's agape. That's a

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pretty famous Greek word. There has been a lot of sermons and teachings about

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how agape is called really the highest form of love, the God love, the self

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sacrificing love. But the authors of the Bible actually use agape more freely

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than we would expect if that was the real definition. Agape is actually used

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for sinful love several times, like the lustful love of a sibling or the love of

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the world that makes somebody turn from Christ. Those people agape. There were

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other examples of agape being used for sinful emotions too. So where do we get

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this definition of agape that we know, this God sacrificing, self sacrificing,

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God honoring love? Well it comes from Christians acting in such a way that

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transformed the word around their community. Christians from the first and

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second century so fully adopted the idea of self sacrificing enemy love that the

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culture changed the definition of agape to match their actions. And as a

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Christian spread the gospel around the world so did the teaching of enemy love,

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which was aligned to agape love. So starting with Jesus and then his

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followers and then spread around the world through the church, the world

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changed. It only took 400 years from one guy preaching a gospel to all of the

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Roman world adopting Christianity as a state religion. Not true Christianity

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but just like as a state religion. 400 years. And we live in a world that's

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been shaped by that teaching too. It's been spread around the world. But it's,

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but that was a long time ago. So today love our enemy would probably be easily

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accepted by a lot of people. If you said hey you should love your enemy you

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should love those people. People like yeah that's a good ethic. That's probably

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one of those teachings that people would say yeah Jesus is a good teacher right?

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He has that one. And then like if you go back 12 verses and he has don't divorce

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anybody we'll push that one to the side or have joy and persecution drop that

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one completely like that's not gonna happen. But this one this one's a good

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one to hold on to. So I found this teaching in the words of Gandhi, the

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Dalai Lama, and even a Muslim teacher. And I found this YouTube video that we're

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gonna watch and it is so shocking every single time I hear. So let's go ahead and

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play this video. Can we Nate? So when I see someone who's been harming me, when I

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see someone who has been trying hard to hurt me, yes I will defend myself in a

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respectful respectable manner. But I will not do that which displeases Allah.

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I'm a Muslim. I need to love for my enemies. What I love for myself. I need to

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want the goodness for them too. I'm a Muslim. So if I have conveyed the message

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of Islam to the enemies of Islam in a way that they do not turn to Islam but

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they understand that Islam is a beautiful religion, I've achieved great success by

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the help of Allah. We can pause it right there. Conversion, reversion. It goes on to

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reiterate the same thing. So I want to be really clear. Just pause. This man is not

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honoring the Lord. He worships a different God than we do. He does not worship the

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God of the Bible. He does not recognize that Jesus is God. But he knows this

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command. He's heard it. And here's my point. Here's my point. Repeating the

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words of Jesus has lost its surprise factor. The way of his words is different

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today not because they're less true. They are not less true than they were when

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he said them. But a result of this teaching changing cultures around the

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world, this idea has been co-opted. It's so powerful that people who don't even

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follow Jesus have taken it, diluted it, distorted it. So we can't go around just

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saying the words and expect people to be drawn in. We need to take the full

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teaching of Jesus here and live it out. So I want to highlight two distinctives

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found in these verses. First it'll be our motives and then it'll be our focus. Let's

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talk about motivation. We must get our motivation correct if we are to fulfill

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this command. If we start with the wrong motivation we will seek the wrong outcome

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and then we will eventually fail to fulfill the command. Thankfully Jesus is

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kind to us and he outlines the motivation very clearly. So reading from verse 44

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but I tell you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Why? So

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that you may be children of your father in heaven for he causes his son to rise

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on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. The

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state of motive is to be like children of our father in heaven and that's my

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second point. Motivation must be being like our father. Our motivation must be

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like, must be to be like and to glorify our father in heaven. Imaging him into

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the world, bringing him into a visual representation into the world. And this is

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the same motivation Jesus had. Here are just a few examples of the words on

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Jesus's mouth. John 5 19 says, truly I tell you the son is not able to do

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anything on his own but only what he sees the father doing. For whatever the

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father does the son likewise does these things. John 4 34 says, my food is to do

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the will of him who sent me. John 6 38, for I have come down from heaven not to

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do my own will but the will of him who sent me. Jesus makes it very clear. His

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will, his desire, his aim, his goal is to be like his father in obedience and to

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be imaging his father into the world. And Jesus acted according to this in

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perfect obedience and we are just simply called to do the same thing by

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becoming like our father in heaven or be becoming like our father in heaven.

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Imitate our father who is perfect example of loving enemies and you will

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become like him and you will love your enemies like him and you will make him

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look amazing. Our motivation ties directly to the outcome we should expect

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from our love which is not for the enemy to do something but for us to become

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like God. Jesus doesn't give us a promise that the enemy is going to change. He

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gives us the expectation that we are going to change to be like him. Verse 45

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says it, so that you may be children of your father in heaven. And that be and

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I've kind of stated this is the idea of be becoming. It's not like you have done

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it, you're done. It is a progressive becoming, more loving, more godly. So

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let's build this idea with an example. If you're on a walk later today and you

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come across your enemy's donkey and it's stuck in a ditch, it's normal Sunday

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activity. But this I am I'm using this example because it comes from Exodus,

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okay? So this is pulled from Exodus 23 and I'm gonna pause, another pause. I

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recognize that you're probably gonna spend about a quarter of the sermon

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trying to figure out who your enemies are. Like that's just gonna be rolling

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around in your brain. I get it. You have my permission. I've already spent that

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time. So I know that that's happening. Okay, back to the example. So let's

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imagine you come across this donkey and it's stuck in a ditch because it has a

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broken leg and a heavy burden. It's never getting out. After hearing the sermon,

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you are ready to perform some enemy love. Like let's do it and you jump into the

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ditch and you help the donkey and you get it out and you get it home and then

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you ask yourself, why did I why did I help? Was it to help the hurting animal?

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Is that your answer? I'll give you a C. Just passing grade, sure. Or was it to

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show your enemy that you are better than them? Or maybe to convince your enemy

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that they should treat you better? I'm gonna be honest, both of those very

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self-serving. So I'm gonna give you a D. Like you barely passed. But what is the

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right response? I did it because I had an opportunity to obey the Lord and

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imitate him and to love that person like he is already doing. This motivation

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drives us to imagine how would God act? And then we do the same thing. This must

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be our ultimate motivation and that's the key word ultimate motivation. Those

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other things are good. They're not bad. The creation care is good. Carrying for

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animals is good. Compassion to somebody and what their needs are. That's good. But

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they aren't ultimate. And if I had time, I would go into an explanation of how the

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rewards that we get by doing this is Jesus and that we get to be more like

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him and then be more like him. We get more satisfaction but I don't have time

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for that. So we're gonna keep going. You may feel like I'm

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belaboring this point. Good it. Got it Nick. Let's keep moving. But it's really

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easy to miss this in the everyday practice of love. Our culture agrees with

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the idea of loving people but for a very different reason. Every humanist or

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atheist or person who doesn't believe anything that we believe would say the

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reason to love, which they agree that there is a reason, is because the people

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are worth it. The person is your motivation. It is embedded in sayings like

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just choose kindness or love not hate, which are really kitschy small phrases.

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Let me give you a bad example of this because that's what apparently I'm doing

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this morning. 15 years or so ago the Dalai Lama gave an interview where he was

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asked how he could speak of loving enemies when his enemies had ruthlessly

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killed his fellow worshipers and destroyed their temples. The Dalai Lama

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just for anybody who doesn't know, he's Buddhist. He's not, he does not worship

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Jesus. His response was to speak about how that other person, his enemy, seeks

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happiness and avoids pain just like him. So the enemy is worth our compassion and

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love because the enemy and the Dalai Lama both have human needs for happiness. Or

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put it a little bit more brashly. You should love people including enemies

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because their happiness is important. Your motivation should just breathe to

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bring them joy. Again on the surface it sounds good but it goes against what

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Jesus teaches. Jesus calls us to love and kindness in a particular way, a

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distinctive way is the way that I'm trying to say it this morning. Love and

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kindness that is motivated by imitating and glorifying our Father in heaven. And

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we must choose love and kindness for the glory of our Father in heaven not because

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of the happiness of another person. If we don't keep our motivation correct our

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love will fall flat. It will fail and it will not last. It may look good at points.

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It may make you feel good but it will not produce, it will only produce a

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temporary effect and will miss the mark in the end. Doing this will be like the

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sick and the lame who went to Jesus only for them to heal their pain but not

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and then ignored his message. They showed up, I have a need, fulfill my need. And

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Jesus did and then they ignored his message. They got their healing, they

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had some joy but they missed eternal satisfaction. Let's go to our next

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distinctive, our focus. We need to focus on loving enemies as an individual, not

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in an amorphous group of people or the idea of people. And this is, might sound

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weird but give me a moment to explain. And just as a reminder, my goal this morning

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is to understand these verses in light of our current culture and attitudes. The

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things that we experience every day that we are just baked into because we're

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Americans in the 21st century. Our culture loves the idea of love. They

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would disagree with Jesus' words as on the whole but there is two definitions

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of love at work. In society, love is kind of like equal to this emotive force

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that produces good into the world. Just love and good will come from it

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eventually somewhere hopefully we don't know how long it'll last. There are

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generations of pop songs that call this out. This one, what the world needs now

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is love, sweet love. Thank you Kimberly. Or the Beatles, all you need is love. Love

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is a common ideal today but it has this funny aspect. It isn't usually met for a

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particular individual other than maybe a spouse but as a way to contribute to

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mankind. Theodore Dostoyevsky was a Russian literary master and his last

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book is called The Brothers Karmasov. In it, there is a doctor who is struggling

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with his faith in God and love for people and this is how he explains

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himself. It's a little bit longer quote but I want to read all of it. I love

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humanity he said but I wonder at myself the more I love humanity in general the

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less I love man in particular. In my dreams he said I have often come to

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making enthusiastic schemes for the service of humanity and perhaps I might

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actually have faced crucifixion if it had been suddenly necessary and yet I am

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incapable of living in the same room with anyone for more than two days. As I

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know by experience as soon as anyone is near me he restricts my freedom in the

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24 hours I begin to hate the best of men one because he is too long over his

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dinner another because he has a cold and keeps blowing his nose. I become hostile

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to people the moment they come close to me but it has always happened that the

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more I detest men individually the more ardent becomes my love for humanity. This

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sounds like people I know today someone chewing the wrong way at dinner or

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someone who invades your personal space a little too much this was a book written

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150 years ago in Russia and I want you to get this point our society loves the

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idea of loving humanity they will express the need for more donations to

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the poor to stop war to stop violence don't do that over there to fight for

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the oppressed group again all good things but as soon as you narrow in on one

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person a flesh and blood human being things get really uncomfortable a person

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has their own feelings a person can do things that annoy you they're not

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morally wrong they're just not your flavor or maybe they do things better

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than you when trying to love a group of people you don't have to be near them

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you don't have to deal with their feelings or issues it is much easier to

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enjoy the idea of loving people than actually stepping into someone's life

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to love them the doctor I quoted had the same idea I detest men individually

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oh but I ardently love humanity that's a common ethos this isn't this isn't far

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off so we Christians need to be careful and intentional to not get sucked into

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that not get sucked into those words we need to love intentionally towards a

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person you know your enemies again you've probably been thinking about the

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mall morning there are people they're individuals in your life they aren't some

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theoretical fuzzy idea of a human like it maybe looks like 50 people stacked on

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top of each other but I don't know which one I'm I'm dealing with like a sketch

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artist or something no they have a body they breathe air they speak to you and

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Jesus's command is to love that person the human being this is this is so

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critical to understand just like the motivation point failing to love towards

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a person will result in getting way off track the world has a lot of flowery

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language for it too that sounds very Christian I just want you guys to hear

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that they will sound Christian they will use our terminology though they'll

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swap in our words that were commonly used but it's all smoke and mirrors

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requiring no self-sacrifice no sacrifice of security no leaves plenty of wiggle

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room to do exactly as they please they get to manufacture good feelings through

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random acts of kindness that puff up their ego and don't require them to be

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anymore like God but true enemy love who one that is directed at a person

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despite their actions despite the way they keep treating you that type of love

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changes people and changes the world I'm just gonna read that again enemy love

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that is directed at a person despite their actions despite the way that they

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keep on treating you it changes people and it changes the world so we're gonna

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walk through an example of Elizabeth Elliott Jim and Elizabeth Elliott were

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missionaries in Ecuador where they had a 10-month-old daughter Jim and four

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other missionary men contacted who are a tribe this this unreached people group the

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missionaries were seeking to spread the gospel to this tribe that's all they

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wanted they just wanted them to hear about Jesus but instead were violently

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speared to death during their second encounter with the tribe Elizabeth

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Elliott and the other women were rightfully devastated they had now

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become widows with children but Elizabeth had a simple prayer at this

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time and whenever she tells the story she seems to always reference this prayer

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Lord if you ever want to use me I am available in less than two years

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Elizabeth made contact with two Hararin women and they stayed with her for

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about a year this time Elizabeth used to learn language in the customs and then

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these Hararin women invited Elizabeth and her daughter to travel with them to

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the tribe in the jungle since they were returning home Elizabeth Elliott was

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stunned it had been two years since her husband's death the people who killed

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her husband are going to be there should she go into the jungle with her

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thrilled to meet the tribe that killed her husband what would they do to her

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what are they gonna do to her daughter Elizabeth felt the Lord calling her to

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take this step of faith so she and her daughter packed up and then traveled into

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the jungle with their guides and found the tribe the tribe warmly received

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them they lived with the tribe for two and a half years translating the Bible

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and preaching the gospel the men who killed her husband they remembered that

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event it wasn't something that it was so distant for them they remembered it

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they described it to Elizabeth they described the whole situation they heard

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the gospel and they repented one of the men told Elizabeth I look forward to

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dying so I can spend my days worshiping God and living at peace with the men I

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killed

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Elizabeth's love for her enemies made their salvation possible and and it was

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her she showed up and she was able to explain some of the activities and

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behaviors of the men to the tribe that they couldn't figure out since the time

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they killed them so it wasn't just any missionary that showed up but her being

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there brought more evidence to the love of Jesus think of what she had to go

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through how could she process the grave how did she stay motivated seeking for

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years to prepare herself to find and meet the people who killed her spouse

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not to enact revenge but to share Christ Elizabeth could have gone to a

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different tribe could have gone to a different country but that wouldn't have

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allowed her to fulfill her calling to love her enemies as herself Elizabeth's

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response and actions highlight something important that I really need you to

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hear she chose to let go of her safety her security her sense of justice in an

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effort to love the Haran tribe can you say that you are prepared to sacrifice

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those things in your relationships are you ready to get rid of your security

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your safety your justice our culture revolts at the idea that the offended

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should be the offended party should just be forgiven but but but but they were

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wrong they hurt me they abused me yeah Jesus agrees with you those things did

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happen there are scars there is pain and he sees it and hates it more than you

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ever do but he invites you to forego your security to forego your justice and

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choose love toward them I'm not saying that there's no justice in enemy love

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God is just and everyone will receive justice from the Lord and the wicked it

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will be an eternal punishment but the point is you don't need vengeance right

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now that's in the Lord's hands you don't need justice in your life because you

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have Jesus Jesus should be your satisfaction that is how you can love

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your enemies and when you love your enemies it will feel like they are

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getting away with murder without any consequence and they may be for a time

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but with the right motive with the right focus not on you and not on the person

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but on the Father in heaven who is already loving that person you will be

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able to keep choosing love and Jesus will be magnified if you want to make

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your non-church friends angry tell them that you are struggling with an enemy

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and that you are working to love them better you want to annoy people like

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who just get get at them choose forgiveness in the face of repeated

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offenses I'm not saying there's no recourse please please don't hear that

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John John just preached a whole message last week about this topic of

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retaliation and what needs to be done it's not about being a doormat it's

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about creatively subverting their expectations so you can achieve a lot

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so if you've got questions about that go and listen to that these things are

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not not in tension with each other but your protection and safety are

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important your mental health is important but when we are motivated by

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glorifying the Lord and focused on loving individuals in imitation of Him the

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sacrifice you make will have an effect and you can walk into the jungle with

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your innocent daughter and expose yourself to mortal danger to share the

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gospel with your greatest enemy

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I'll land the plane here I read and studied looking for a way to bring this

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text to life for you today I really want you to hear the words of Jesus and be

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compelled to act on them I hope that eventually your motivations bring you to

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this we need to strive to be like God so that he looks more and more glorious

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and that you focus on your love on the individual that you seek very good that

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you choose to love in the presence of suffering giving up from yourself so

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many things because Christ did it already for you so that in all ways and at

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all times you show that Christ is your treasure so whatever sacrifice or

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discomfort is required that you would find yourself pursuing to become more

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like Him and in the end you will become holy like he is holy and he may grant

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you the opportunity to change somebody's life amen