back to index2017-03-11 Qualities of Biblical Love Part 5
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If you could turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 12, I'll be reading from verse 9 all 00:00:38.640 |
Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 00:00:42.040 |
Bless those who persecute you and bless and do not curse them. 00:00:50.360 |
Heavenly Father, we want to praise you and thank you. 00:00:59.960 |
You are worthy of our praise, our affection, our very lives, Lord God, as you've purchased 00:01:09.520 |
We pray that your word would help and guide us, Lord God, to shape our thoughts, our mind, 00:01:15.720 |
May it be sanctified, Lord God, because we are confronted by it. 00:01:19.160 |
I pray that the preaching of your word would be a proclamation of the voice of Christ, 00:01:25.000 |
and your children will hear his voice and follow him. 00:01:33.400 |
All right, so as you guys know, Romans chapter 12, we started a new section in the book of 00:01:39.280 |
Romans where he's talking about the ramification of believing in justification. 00:01:44.520 |
How should justification look like in the life of a Christian? 00:01:48.920 |
Again, I know it is a broken record, but for whatever the reason, there has been a heavy 00:01:54.060 |
emphasis on justification, especially in the last maybe about 10 years, and we've benefited 00:02:01.800 |
And I think it's crucial, it's fundamental for every Christian to have a deep understanding 00:02:08.240 |
But along with the emphasis on justification, there's also been a confusion as to what does 00:02:15.660 |
And so there are some discussions going on, again, in some circles where they think justification 00:02:22.100 |
should be the only thing that we talked about in the church. 00:02:26.120 |
Sanctification somehow leads to legalism and burden, where again, it is a false dichotomy 00:02:33.060 |
when we understand that somehow sanctification and justification are two separate things, 00:02:38.220 |
and as long as we are justified, sanctification may happen or may not happen, it doesn't matter 00:02:43.520 |
as long as we're justified, which is absolutely wrong. 00:02:49.400 |
All throughout church history in the 2000 years, there's always been a fringe movement 00:02:54.040 |
to nullify sanctification, because it's easier. 00:02:58.440 |
It's easier to bring people to church, it's easier for people to keep the people in church, 00:03:02.820 |
it's easier to live a life where you're living in the world and at the church same time when 00:03:06.860 |
you get rid of sanctification, because if you get rid of sanctification or de-emphasize 00:03:11.600 |
sanctification, basically you have a group of people who are at church who are embracing 00:03:17.220 |
Christ for his love, and you take away all the struggle of what it means to be a follower 00:03:23.900 |
I mean, you can humanly understand why that would be attractive to any generation. 00:03:31.780 |
You focus on the love of Christ and his free gift and eternal salvation, and then all the 00:03:37.060 |
struggles, all the wrestling, all the difficult things of being a Christian, you just wipe 00:03:45.940 |
And you can, again, you can easily see why that type of teaching would be attractive 00:03:55.700 |
Let me say right off the bat, Christianity is a very unnatural religion. 00:04:05.100 |
Christianity is not something that you can practice in your flesh, because it goes against 00:04:09.180 |
the very nature of the core values that we are taught in this world. 00:04:15.580 |
To say that the greatest in the kingdom of God is the one who serves and not the one 00:04:19.480 |
being served, think about the fundamental teaching behind what that says. 00:04:26.220 |
Our whole life, we study hard, we get good grades, we work hard to get ahead so that 00:04:32.340 |
we can have a better life and make something of ourselves. 00:04:36.140 |
When Jesus says, before he goes to the cross, if you want to be great in the kingdom of 00:04:39.540 |
God, you need to learn to be the servant of all, it goes directly against. 00:04:43.740 |
It's not just a little bit skewed, it's the complete opposite of what you and I have been 00:04:52.900 |
Why we were taught to study, why we need to get good jobs, why you need to go to a good 00:04:56.380 |
university, why you need to get good grades, it goes directly against all of that. 00:05:03.060 |
Think about all the difficult things of sanctification. 00:05:09.520 |
And I think at the core of the message that if you really think about it, that would be 00:05:15.740 |
very difficult to accept, is this salvation by grace alone? 00:05:22.640 |
That in and of itself, it flies directly against everything that you and I naturally believe 00:05:31.740 |
All of it is completely unnational, by faith alone. 00:05:35.300 |
Because you and I are taught if you're good, you get rewarded. 00:05:42.580 |
And then the gospel message comes in and says, that's not it at all. 00:05:46.740 |
In fact, if you add works in any part of our salvation, if you add works to any part of 00:05:54.340 |
our justification before God, you're a heretic. 00:05:58.500 |
In fact, the whole book of Galatians is written for that purpose. 00:06:01.460 |
Because the Judaizers were trying to say, you need to believe in Jesus, and then you 00:06:05.700 |
need to do all these other things, get circumcised and celebrate these festivals. 00:06:11.820 |
If anybody preaches you a different gospel, a skewed gospel, other than the one I've already 00:06:16.380 |
preached to you, let him be absolutely anathema. 00:06:18.580 |
And he says it twice in verse 18 and 19, in chapter 1. 00:06:24.460 |
So that idea-- again, think about where else do you practice that? 00:06:35.300 |
Outside of teaching them the gospel, do you ever say that to your kids? 00:06:39.420 |
It doesn't matter what you do, as long as you believe. 00:06:44.220 |
Outside of the belief in gospel and entrance into the kingdom, have you ever said that 00:06:52.740 |
If you're a schoolteacher, do you ever mention that to your kids? 00:06:55.580 |
It doesn't matter how hard you work in the classroom. 00:07:00.060 |
You get an A or an F, it doesn't matter, because it's not about your work. 00:07:04.140 |
I want you to work, but even if you don't work, it doesn't matter. 00:07:07.100 |
You're all going to get an A. You're all going to get scholarships. 00:07:12.820 |
Where else do you even think of applying that? 00:07:16.900 |
Outside of the most important thing in our life, which is salvation. 00:07:20.420 |
Eternal salvation and reconnection with our God. 00:07:24.620 |
So at the core of the gospel message, it is absolutely unnatural in the flesh, not only 00:07:36.700 |
That's why the scripture says it is spiritually discerned. 00:07:41.400 |
You can't even begin to understand the gospel until there's a regeneration that takes place. 00:07:47.660 |
The Word of God wouldn't make any sense. A natural person who studies the Word of God 00:07:51.860 |
in his flesh would absolutely reject what it says. 00:07:57.460 |
And it's a wonder in the flesh why so many Christians accept it without ever truly believing 00:08:05.980 |
Of all the things that we can talk about that is unnatural for people to accept and to even 00:08:10.820 |
practice, I think that the most difficult, the most unnatural of all the things that 00:08:22.300 |
And even though as fundamental as it is, and even though we do see it, even a non-Christian 00:08:26.960 |
practices love to a certain degree, but this call to love as he loved us, it is so unnatural. 00:08:37.260 |
And just as we don't teach anybody outside of the gospel message itself that your good 00:08:44.220 |
works doesn't matter, we would never say that to anybody else outside of the context of 00:08:51.060 |
What Jesus tells us to do, to love as he loved, as he loved, not just any kind of love, not 00:08:58.220 |
the love that the world we naturally practice, but the love that he tells us to love, it 00:09:03.140 |
is so unnatural when you really understand it. 00:09:16.620 |
He says in practicing love, he says, "Contribute to the needs of the saints." 00:09:24.020 |
We talked about how that is talking about partnership. 00:09:32.900 |
There are some very generous people in our church. 00:09:36.580 |
And you can't tell because they never tell people. 00:09:40.020 |
People who are like, they're very frugal with their finances, and when they go out to eat, 00:09:46.860 |
They're always frugal with their money, but when it's time to give, when they're really 00:09:54.980 |
Few people are just naturally, or maybe unnaturally, very generous. 00:10:03.900 |
Understandably so because your money represents your time. 00:10:10.260 |
Your money represents a good chunk of your life. 00:10:14.020 |
And there's a reason why God says to demonstrate lordship through finances because finances 00:10:23.940 |
You may never get money and just lay it around the house. 00:10:33.300 |
No human being is completely reckless with money. 00:10:39.980 |
So the very first thing about contributing to the need of the saints, again, this is 00:10:44.980 |
not something somebody can just naturally, just normally do. 00:10:52.340 |
When it says to show hospitality, remember we talked about hospitality is not just getting 00:10:57.100 |
your friends over to your house and hanging out late and you just love to have events 00:11:04.660 |
Hospitality is philozenos, which means to love strangers, people that you wouldn't normally 00:11:10.360 |
have at your house, people that you may not know well, simply because they are in need. 00:11:18.700 |
Hospitality, a lot of people, even within the church, they fantasize about hospitality 00:11:27.020 |
We need to be concerned about all these poor children, all these countries who don't have 00:11:30.780 |
water and these orphans who don't have parents." 00:11:33.700 |
And it's easy to stir people up because there's need and we want to be benevolent. 00:11:42.260 |
When the rubber meets the road, this is probably one of the hardest things to practice because 00:11:46.580 |
hospitality basically, it doesn't mean to write a little check and send it over and 00:11:51.180 |
clear your conscience and feel good about yourself. 00:11:56.180 |
He used the word pursue, go after, and to bring them near to you. 00:12:03.460 |
I remember years ago when Esther and I, we were heavily involved with the homeless ministry 00:12:09.260 |
and there's maybe one or two people in our church that may remember because it was a 00:12:15.260 |
And I became friends with a few of the guys out on the streets and then we were trying 00:12:22.940 |
And so there were at least two guys who I met on the street, we got them off the street, 00:12:30.340 |
And so they were a regular part of our church. 00:12:34.020 |
And one guy for maybe a year and a half and another guy, he came maybe about three months 00:12:39.100 |
while he was on the streets and then another two years after he got off the street, he 00:12:43.940 |
And again, not Berean, it was a previous church that I was at. 00:12:47.860 |
But I remember the frustration that I felt because everybody was so excited that we got 00:12:55.260 |
people off the streets and we all, you know, and when we say we, we're talking about the 00:13:01.300 |
And they were so excited, "Our church helps the homeless, our church does this, our church," 00:13:08.640 |
And then they have to go eat and they don't have money, so they always have to pay for 00:13:14.540 |
They don't have shoes, so we had to get them shoes. 00:13:15.540 |
You know, and it only lasted for a couple of months before people started feeling uncomfortable. 00:13:21.220 |
It's another thing to have them in there, but to be in the regular part of the fellowship, 00:13:29.500 |
And then I remember there was a guy that we felt comfortable enough, this is before we 00:13:32.940 |
had kids, we felt comfortable, this guy was struggling. 00:13:36.380 |
His name was Michael and he was really struggling, but it's a guy that I've spent a lot of time 00:13:41.500 |
with, probably six, seven months doing Bible study with him and he was hooked on crack. 00:13:47.700 |
But he became a part of our church, he would play basketball and we'd hang out with him 00:13:51.860 |
and he just like, he'd be doing fine for three, four months. 00:13:56.180 |
And then he would just drift off and disappear for a week and then he showed up, show up 00:14:03.260 |
Sold his shoes or bike that we got for him and then he would come crying and, you know, 00:14:12.340 |
So eventually, in order to keep him accountable, I brought him into my house. 00:14:15.700 |
So he stayed with us for about three months, you know? 00:14:20.260 |
And I remember when that happened, you know, obviously it was very uncomfortable. 00:14:24.540 |
Again, I didn't think I was making a huge risk. 00:14:27.540 |
I already knew him for about a year before we did that and this is before we had kids. 00:14:32.820 |
And Esther would be gone most part of the day, so she doesn't come back until I'm home, 00:14:39.020 |
But I remember during that period, the various responses I got from people, you know, and 00:14:46.260 |
And he's like, "Peter, I know, you know, you're being irresponsible. 00:14:58.060 |
And I remember being thoroughly discouraged during that period, you know, because majority 00:15:03.780 |
of the response was, "It's good that you're doing homeless, maybe to church, but to your 00:15:11.300 |
It's something you're, you got to screw loose. 00:15:17.780 |
You know, when we talk about pursuing strangers, pursuing strangers, just even from the response, 00:15:30.460 |
It's not normal to give away your comfort for somebody that you don't even know. 00:15:36.340 |
So what Christ is asking us to do by our own effort is extremely unnatural, maybe even 00:15:46.540 |
But up to this point, even the world practices some of that. 00:15:55.580 |
A lot of non-Christians contribute to their brothers and sisters, right? 00:16:02.780 |
You hear a lot of athletes, they become millionaires, and "What's the first thing you did?" 00:16:05.580 |
"I bought my mom a house," or "I brought my brother, paid for his tuition." 00:16:14.620 |
You hear about, whether it's Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and these millionaires 00:16:20.340 |
are sports stars or movie stars, or even not movie stars. 00:16:27.780 |
The lot of non-Christians practice, even though it's difficult, they practice going after 00:16:37.220 |
But what he calls us to do in verse 14, in verse 14, outside of Christianity, I've never 00:16:52.420 |
This is, the other two, as difficult as it is, what he tells us to do in verse 14, "Bless 00:16:58.660 |
those who persecute you and do not curse them." 00:17:05.940 |
The word for persecute here is the same word that he uses in verse 13, to pursue. 00:17:12.980 |
He says to pursue the strangers, and the word for persecute here is the one who pursues 00:17:19.580 |
Immediately, I think of Apostle Paul when he was persecuting the Christians, where it 00:17:23.780 |
wasn't enough for him to persecute the Christians in Jerusalem. 00:17:27.140 |
He got permission from the leaders of that time, and he got a small army and chased him 00:17:33.540 |
You have to understand the distance between Jerusalem to Damascus would have been about 00:17:39.300 |
He took an army, and he heard that they were over in Damascus, and he committed his time, 00:17:45.780 |
his money, his energy, his life to go get them. 00:17:49.840 |
So the idea of persecutors are not just simply just people who are just passive, saying, 00:17:55.460 |
"Oh, I don't like that guy," "Oh, I don't like Christians in my neighborhood." 00:17:58.740 |
He's talking about people who have determined to bring you harm, and he's committing to 00:18:06.220 |
That's who he's talking about when he says to bless these people. 00:18:11.340 |
Now we hear, this is not new to Paul, Jesus himself says that. 00:18:17.060 |
In fact, that is taught all throughout Scripture. 00:18:22.180 |
To bless those who are actively committed to harm you. 00:18:28.820 |
It's one of those commands that are so difficult to practice, or impossible to practice, that 00:18:39.640 |
We just automatically think, "Of course he doesn't expect that. 00:18:45.360 |
Sometimes it's so hard to love our family members." 00:18:49.420 |
And then every once in a while you see people who are going after strangers, it's like, 00:18:55.580 |
He committed his life to help people that he doesn't know." 00:18:59.380 |
But to bless those who are actively committed to harm you? 00:19:07.980 |
So a lot of times the way we respond is we don't even try it. 00:19:15.140 |
It's one of those superlative things when Jesus says, "If you're struggling against 00:19:18.500 |
sin and your hand causes you to sin, cut it off." 00:19:28.740 |
He couldn't possibly really want us to practice this. 00:19:32.260 |
See, at the core of human nature, at the core of human rebellion, at the core of our sin 00:19:39.520 |
against God, is self-preservation, self-gratification, self-glorification. 00:19:45.820 |
So an individual who is actively pursuing to harm you is your enemy because he is actively 00:19:53.740 |
trying to prevent you from self-gratification, self-preservation, and self-glorification, 00:19:59.500 |
whether through their words or whether through their action. 00:20:03.460 |
So this command to bless those people, not to curse those people who are actively pursuing 00:20:11.300 |
and to bring you down is as difficult and as strange as you can possibly think, what 00:20:22.460 |
How can we even begin to entertain applying this? 00:20:28.300 |
See, this is not something that you and I could do in our flesh. 00:20:32.500 |
We are called not only to bless them but not to curse them. 00:20:36.860 |
You know, the word for bless is where we get the word eulogy, right? 00:20:43.820 |
So when it says to bless them, he's basically saying to get on your knees to pray for them. 00:20:50.060 |
We don't go around saying, "Bless you, I bless you. 00:20:52.420 |
I don't have holy water to bless people that I don't like." 00:20:56.420 |
Basically what he's saying is put in a good word to get on your knees to pray for them. 00:21:00.020 |
And then to not to curse them is to check your heart, right? 00:21:08.060 |
And isn't that the first thing that we do when somebody hurts us? 00:21:11.620 |
"That guy's like this, that guy's like that." 00:21:13.220 |
And it's so hard to control because our natural tendency when somebody harms us is vengeance. 00:21:22.140 |
So if you look at all the Old Testament laws, some of it is very harsh. 00:21:26.100 |
Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, you know, limb for limb, you know, life for life. 00:21:30.220 |
And it seems harsh, but it was actually God being very gracious because he knows that 00:21:37.940 |
our natural tendency is not justice, but vengeance. 00:21:41.780 |
If somebody slaps me deliberately, is it enough to slap them back? 00:21:50.300 |
Would your anger be appeased if he like that and you had, "Well, how dare you?" 00:21:56.460 |
And then, you know, your anger has been satisfied because you did to him what he did to you. 00:22:04.460 |
Because our natural tendency is when we're angry, he hits me, I punch him. 00:22:11.980 |
You do it again, I mean, something more serious is going to come because our natural 00:22:16.260 |
tendency because we can't just, you know, we're not satisfied with righteousness. 00:22:22.860 |
So if you look at the Old Testament laws, it was actually putting parameters to our 00:22:27.820 |
anger to temper our natural tendency for vengeance. 00:22:39.620 |
When our anger comes up, it's not easily appeased by, "Well, you took $5, I'm going to take 00:22:44.500 |
your $5," "No, you took $5, I'm going to take your car." 00:22:55.060 |
So for God to call us, not only to like to withhold anger, but to actually bless them, 00:23:04.420 |
to come before God and plead on their behalf. 00:23:07.820 |
If there's anything that you cannot practice in the flesh is this, you think prayer is 00:23:14.060 |
You think you can't sit with somebody that's actively trying to harm you? 00:23:20.140 |
You know, finances, you think that's difficult? 00:23:23.420 |
Try to practice blessing upon somebody who's actively trying to harm you. 00:23:30.340 |
You and I have to admit and be honest, it's impossible. 00:23:36.580 |
The best that you could do is to not punch them. 00:23:42.220 |
The best that you might be able to do is to keep your mouth shut, even though anger and 00:23:52.300 |
Why does he even command this, knowing how difficult it is, knowing how impossible it 00:23:59.980 |
When he says to bless and to curse, immediately a Jew would have probably thought in his mind 00:24:04.940 |
the Old Testament covenant, because the Old Testament covenant was about the blessing 00:24:09.580 |
So when Paul says to bless and not to curse, the imagery immediately for a Jew would have 00:24:14.380 |
been at that mountain when God says, "If you trust me, if you obey me, here's the blessings. 00:24:20.900 |
And then if you don't obey me and you break my commands, here's all these curses." 00:24:26.780 |
When we read that, I don't know about you, when we read that, it's like, "Wow, that's 00:24:32.860 |
All that judgment that's going to come down on them because they weren't obedient." 00:24:37.940 |
And when we think of that as a party just kind of looking in from the outside, it's 00:24:47.620 |
The only reason why we think that is because something else has been ingrained in our mind, 00:24:57.420 |
But naturally, we all think that that's righteousness. 00:25:07.260 |
If you work hard and you stayed up all night, memorized all the stuff, you should get an 00:25:11.340 |
A. You don't go out and stay out and watch movies all night and hang out with your friends 00:25:15.460 |
and then you drink, you know, did whatever you want and show up and then you get an A. 00:25:21.940 |
The people who worked hard and obeyed and did the right things, they should be rewarded. 00:25:26.660 |
And the people who disobeyed and then did whatever they wanted, they should be cursed. 00:25:30.920 |
So immediately, that fits well with how the world functions. 00:25:35.180 |
All other religions practice that very principle. 00:25:45.180 |
Every religion outside of the gospel teaches that because it fits right in with our sense 00:25:53.500 |
So a Jew would have understood, you know, to bless them, not to curse them. 00:26:01.900 |
You're supposed to bless those who are good to you and curse those who aren't good to 00:26:06.620 |
But what Paul is saying is not of the old covenant. 00:26:12.060 |
And that's what the whole 11 chapters of Romans was about. 00:26:16.500 |
Whole 11 chapters was basically to teach the old covenant of blessing and cursing has now 00:26:22.860 |
Now you're living under the new covenant of His grace. 00:26:27.420 |
And so now when he comes in chapter 12 and he's telling not to curse those people who 00:26:32.560 |
deserve the curse, it's something that we cannot understand with the old covenant mindset. 00:26:47.260 |
We think, you know, we would think naturally that that's righteousness until we recognize 00:26:58.420 |
And I was thinking about, you know, we have several lawyers in our church and we have 00:27:01.820 |
some prosecutors, you know, and then we have some people in the DA's office. 00:27:05.780 |
And then if you're the public defender, those of you guys who don't know what public defender 00:27:09.100 |
is, public defenders are state mandated or given attorney to represent people who are 00:27:15.660 |
in trouble, you know, whether they're drug dealers or you stole or you did something 00:27:20.460 |
and then so they can't afford a lawyer so the attorney is given to them from the state. 00:27:25.380 |
So their work is to try their best to get the best deal for somebody who's been convicted 00:27:31.220 |
So when we think about a public defender, it's like, ah, this guy is letting, you know, 00:27:37.940 |
And then we think of the DA as the one who's representing righteous and bad guys in jail. 00:27:43.380 |
That's normally the response, natural normal response that we would get because bad guys 00:27:54.020 |
We don't want them harming and getting into our homes and selling, we don't want that. 00:28:04.480 |
Until somebody you know that you care about get in trouble. 00:28:07.900 |
And all of a sudden the public defender is Jesus. 00:28:13.700 |
All of a sudden you get a complete different picture of who is good and who is bad depending 00:28:24.580 |
If you are righteous and you are in God's seat, blessing and curse is actually righteousness. 00:28:37.180 |
But when you are the sinner and you are in need of someone's forgiveness, all of a sudden 00:28:48.720 |
I know I deserve punishment, but I need mercy. 00:28:53.120 |
But the command, the New Testament command to forgive the sinner, naturally, I mean, 00:29:01.560 |
again, it's hard for me to understand people who've been raised in the church who proclaim 00:29:06.320 |
to be Christian who don't wrestle with this thought. 00:29:09.880 |
A righteous person who's never done anything wrong was killed and tortured for somebody 00:29:21.680 |
You hear stories about how recently there's been stories about police officers getting 00:29:26.320 |
shot and they're getting killed and a lot of times it was deliberate. 00:29:30.760 |
They're responding to a call in a bad neighborhood and some of these guys who need help maybe 00:29:36.120 |
drug dealers in the context of dealing drugs, something went wrong and there was a gunshot 00:29:42.800 |
and the guy who was sitting on the ground with a gunshot wound that he's coming to help 00:29:49.720 |
And then it's in that context that they come to this bad neighborhood and they get shot 00:29:54.040 |
And we look at that and we say, "Wow, that is not right. 00:30:02.800 |
In what context would you and I think that a righteous person giving his life for the 00:30:14.520 |
Naturally, our response would be, "That should not be. 00:30:25.960 |
There should be a natural response, not to the blessings and curses, but what Paul is 00:30:32.800 |
What Jesus did for us is absolutely unnatural. 00:30:37.920 |
That's something that you and I should be contemplating. 00:30:41.160 |
Why would the righteous, the Son of God, why would he give his life for me? 00:30:51.120 |
The practice of love that he is telling us to practice with one another, it is central 00:31:01.600 |
What he's telling us to do is, verse 14, it is at the core of the new covenant. 00:31:13.720 |
And it is difficult for us to understand, "Why would these perpetrators in my life, 00:31:29.760 |
But every time we ask that question, we have to ask the bigger question of, "Why did he 00:31:38.320 |
He asks us and he commands us to do this because it is at the core of the redemptive message 00:31:43.000 |
that you and I sing about, practice, study, memorize, meditate, and share. 00:31:59.040 |
If that's the core of the Christian message, the old covenant has gone, the new covenant 00:32:08.240 |
Because I don't know of anybody who's actively pursuing me. 00:32:12.480 |
You know, think about all those poor people in the Middle East. 00:32:17.160 |
You know, the persecution in India, when we first started going just five years ago, four 00:32:21.440 |
or five years ago, they were on number 27 on the list of places that are hard to live 00:32:27.800 |
They jumped to number 11 just in two years, two or three years. 00:32:36.440 |
You know, that's the one time a year that we go, you know, we get to kind of get a glimpse. 00:32:42.640 |
It's just the idea of getting persecuted kind of, you know, kind of makes us feel uneasy. 00:32:52.400 |
Who are our enemies if no one is actively trying to get us? 00:33:01.800 |
And I really want you guys to focus your attention on this part because the reason why this is 00:33:09.920 |
so significant and important is because the enemies are much closer than you think. 00:33:16.160 |
And there's not a single person in this room that doesn't have one or many. 00:33:24.440 |
As soon as they fell, right, and because the rebellion on the surface seems like a very 00:33:34.320 |
They disobeyed God and ate fruit that they weren't supposed to eat, right? 00:33:38.760 |
And from our perspective, it's like, "Wow, the whole judgment of God came upon mankind 00:33:47.840 |
It was about a willful rebellion saying, "Lord, I'm going to do what I want to do." 00:33:54.440 |
It was expressed in this eating of the fruit, but at the core of it, it was a rebellion 00:33:59.640 |
against God, a willful rebellion against God. 00:34:01.600 |
This willful rebellion against God, what was the very first fruit that came out of it? 00:34:26.120 |
So Abel's first persecutor was his brother, home brother. 00:34:38.400 |
It was his own brother that drank the same milk, ate the same food, received the same 00:34:53.240 |
I mean, if some persecutor comes and kills your child, you want vengeance. 00:34:58.840 |
You want to kill him and his family to make sure that doesn't happen again. 00:35:09.320 |
And now they have to live the rest of their life watching their son being punished. 00:35:39.640 |
They're the people who are sitting right next to you. 00:35:51.120 |
Because at the core of our rebellion is self-preservation, self-gratification, and self-glorification. 00:36:00.880 |
Another sinner who is living by that same principle is going to encroach upon your life 00:36:13.260 |
Another sinner who is living by that principle is going to get in the way of your life purpose. 00:36:30.240 |
I remember early on in marriage, I've been married 26 years now. 00:36:39.240 |
I remember early on in marriage, majority of the time, I would say 90% of the time, 00:36:51.160 |
I married her because I'd rather spend time with her than my goofy single friends. 00:36:57.480 |
So I wanted, and I was happy 90% of the time. 00:37:01.240 |
But whenever we had a problem, it would never get resolved. 00:37:06.480 |
Her and I are just as polar opposite as you can get. 00:37:10.440 |
The way she communicates, the way I communicate. 00:37:13.000 |
I communicate like I'm on the pulpit, which is not good when you're talking to your wife. 00:37:19.440 |
Thus saith the Lord, the passage says, you know. 00:37:27.520 |
A lot of you guys don't even know what she looks like. 00:37:31.520 |
She's at the core so introverted, she hides from people. 00:37:35.320 |
And so her and I are like, I'm up here, and she's in some room somewhere hiding. 00:37:39.080 |
That's how polar opposite we are in our personalities. 00:37:41.440 |
So whenever conflict came, her first instinct was to go hide. 00:37:47.160 |
My first instinct is to deal with it today, not five minutes later, like right now. 00:37:52.560 |
So you can imagine how frustrating this was for both of us. 00:37:57.320 |
And I noticed it in the beginning, but after a while, the frustration started building 00:38:05.800 |
And I remember, I think it was maybe about five or six years into our marriage. 00:38:12.400 |
You know typically when husband and wife fight, they fight. 00:38:16.640 |
It's usually me giving my three-point message. 00:38:19.820 |
And then she would turn her head, try not to make eye contact with me. 00:38:24.240 |
And then the more animated I get, the more she would just kind of disappear. 00:38:28.780 |
The more she disappeared, the more angry I would get. 00:38:31.400 |
It would turn into a four-point message, a six-point message. 00:38:37.560 |
And then we're just like, there's no resolution. 00:38:44.480 |
And then you just forget, and then you don't want to bring it up. 00:38:48.880 |
So you just kind of tiptoe around that situation, and then, oh, everything's good. 00:38:51.920 |
I'll take something else, snaps, and then boom, we're right back to where we were. 00:38:59.720 |
It must have been like from a mission trip or something. 00:39:20.480 |
And I remember thinking to myself, I understand why people get divorced. 00:39:27.200 |
If I get a divorce, like, it would ruin my life. 00:39:30.800 |
Everything that I believe, everything that I teach, everything that I sacrifice for. 00:39:34.240 |
But I began to understand why people would do it. 00:39:41.400 |
You know, to have conflict outside your house is one thing. 00:39:44.160 |
To be in the home, on your bed, every time you turn around, and it's nonstop. 00:39:55.440 |
And it wasn't like she was doing anything particularly wrong. 00:40:00.840 |
It was just, I just could not understand her. 00:40:03.040 |
And then she was making me miserable, and I was making her miserable. 00:40:07.000 |
And I remember just sitting, just sighing and praying, Lord, help me. 00:40:13.840 |
And then I started memorizing a passage that I memorized when I was in high school and 00:40:23.000 |
It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 00:40:27.400 |
The life I live now, I live in the faith of the Son of God who loves me and died for me. 00:40:31.800 |
And I started memorizing that over and over again. 00:40:33.880 |
And I started to tell myself, Peter, die first. 00:40:41.400 |
And I know, like everything in me is like, no, but it's not fair. 00:40:48.040 |
I'm trying to serve God, and she's making it difficult. 00:40:57.960 |
And I started thinking like, well, how do I do that? 00:41:00.800 |
Well, approach her like you would approach your daughter. 00:41:04.720 |
You know, like imagine, you know, at that time, faith was probably like an infant or 00:41:10.800 |
And I said, if faith did something to me, what I thought and I believe with all my 00:41:15.200 |
heart she was wrong, I wouldn't go and just to punish her. 00:41:17.800 |
I'd have to come, because if I did, I would ruin her, right? 00:41:23.080 |
And I started to tell myself like, okay, what would I do? 00:41:27.200 |
Well, I need to correct her, but I need to correct her in a way that she actually is 00:41:33.760 |
Like what does, you know, if I'm supposed to be the Christ in this relationship, 00:41:42.920 |
Not like what do I need, but what does she need? 00:41:45.360 |
So I decided that I'm going to put aside all my anger and bitterness and frustration. 00:41:52.200 |
I'm going to put that aside and I'm going to kill it for the moment. 00:41:55.240 |
And I'm going to approach her like her father and just hold her hand and say, 00:42:11.640 |
Trust me, inside of me, I had an eight-point message that I had in my mind that I was 00:42:16.280 |
like, "If you poke me, it will come out," you know, like, but I'm holding it in. 00:42:20.720 |
And I had like 15 verses that she needed to hear, you know, and then I'm holding it in. 00:42:26.680 |
And so I just go in and I said, "Okay, just be there." 00:42:32.680 |
And then I just held her hands, "Are you okay? 00:42:35.720 |
And I could tell her response was completely different than all the other times I'd 00:42:42.680 |
And then you could see her body starting to turn away from me. 00:42:46.880 |
But for the first time, she started turning toward me and she leaned against me because 00:42:55.240 |
And then, you know, obviously, she started crying and it's like, "Should I tell her now?" 00:43:03.680 |
You know, and then I kept my tongue, kept my tongue. 00:43:05.880 |
And then, you know, she would cry it out and afterwards, "Is everything okay?" 00:43:12.520 |
You know, like maybe the kids were acting up or she got a nasty phone call or something 00:43:18.800 |
You know, I mean, at that moment, it had nothing to do with me. 00:43:22.080 |
You know, but it was just so frustrating because she had such a hard time communicating 00:43:28.480 |
Because I was expressing my anger, she's encroaching upon my space, and then I'm encroaching 00:43:38.360 |
And I remember thinking like, "Wow, it's this hard." 00:43:43.720 |
The reason why I share this story with you is that the sin that encroaches upon our lives 00:43:54.720 |
And the reason why Jesus says to practice this is because at the core of redemption, 00:44:01.400 |
the core of the reversal of this curse, the most tangible evidence of this you will see 00:44:12.480 |
If you do not learn and to practice love with people who you don't think deserves it, you 00:44:18.960 |
will eventually begin to see the fruit of that in your own marriage. 00:44:22.120 |
You will begin to eventually see that with your own kids. 00:44:26.000 |
You will begin to see that with your friends. 00:44:29.320 |
If you're in the practice of only loving people who are easy to love, you are probably already 00:44:38.180 |
Because basically, you cut off everybody that's difficult to love, and you find yourself that 00:44:42.480 |
there's nobody worth loving but yourself, even within the own family. 00:44:50.560 |
The ramification of the curse of mankind, you see it unfolding in the closest of relationships 00:45:01.680 |
with your closest friends, with your coworkers, with your church friends, eventually. 00:45:10.880 |
See this call to love our enemies would be a cruel enslavement if he didn't give us the 00:45:19.560 |
We are the recipients of this love in Christ. 00:45:23.120 |
In Romans 5, 8, he demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet hostile, 00:45:31.800 |
The first and foremost, our motivation is that we ourselves have been recipients of 00:45:37.040 |
He pursued sinners, enemies, and he gave us an example to follow. 00:45:42.180 |
Not only that, in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, he gave us a new heart. 00:45:46.800 |
We are given a changed heart to be able to even receive this command. 00:45:50.260 |
The reason why you're even sitting here and any of this is even making sense to you is 00:45:54.640 |
because God has already given you a new heart. 00:45:57.620 |
In Romans 8, it says we have been given the Holy Spirit that is constantly interceding 00:46:01.220 |
on our behalf, groaning with words that we cannot even begin to comprehend because God 00:46:06.900 |
knew that we needed the Holy Spirit for redemption. 00:46:12.580 |
We are given the motivation as a reward that the harder it is for us to practice this love, 00:46:22.900 |
Agape love may seem at first to be the greatest burden, but the application of it at the core 00:46:32.440 |
is the redemption and reversal of the curse of man. 00:46:38.060 |
I hope it really sinks in because he's not simply telling us what is impossible to do. 00:46:47.860 |
What he's commanding is something that we cannot have. 00:47:04.980 |
It is at the core of redeeming our friendship. 00:47:11.260 |
What he did on the cross wasn't simply justification. 00:47:25.260 |
The only way that we know how is what Jesus did. 00:47:33.100 |
I pray that that truth would sink in, and I'm sure some of you guys can think right 00:47:37.540 |
now of some people who are encroaching upon your space. 00:47:41.820 |
Maybe it's your wife, maybe it's your husband, maybe it's your kids, maybe it's a friend 00:47:54.660 |
The preaching of the gospel must be more than just our words.