back to index2018-04-08 Qualities of Biblical Love Part 7
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If you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 12, we're going to be reading from 00:00:10.800 |
Romans chapter 12, verse 17 to the end of the chapter. 00:00:16.800 |
We're continuing our series, our seventh series on qualities of biblical love. 00:00:23.000 |
Verse 17, reading out of the ESV, "Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do 00:00:30.680 |
If possible, so far as depends on you, live peaceably with all. 00:00:34.240 |
Beloved, never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God. 00:00:37.920 |
For it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, and I will repay it as the Lord.' 00:00:41.680 |
To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. 00:00:44.780 |
If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. 00:00:47.000 |
For by doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. 00:00:50.280 |
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." 00:00:56.880 |
Father, we pray for your blessing over this time. 00:00:58.960 |
May your word go forth and not return until it has accomplished its purpose. 00:01:03.280 |
We pray for soft hearts and open ears, Lord God, and a committed will to follow all that 00:01:19.120 |
I think if we were to pose that question to different people in this church, or even outside 00:01:28.080 |
So if you're in certain circles, they may answer that question by saying, "Well, true 00:01:32.420 |
maturity are people who really care for the poor." 00:01:36.040 |
And so based upon how much time and effort and money they give to the poor and serve 00:01:40.320 |
for social justice, that's how we measure Christian maturity. 00:01:45.040 |
Some people may say about evangelism, that if we're making disciples and we're preaching 00:01:49.180 |
the gospel to the lost, that that's the measure of maturity. 00:01:53.360 |
Some people will say that you can only measure maturity by how much scripture they know. 00:02:01.860 |
How much theology or how much theological books have they read? 00:02:06.480 |
Now we don't have to guess, even though there might be discussions as to how to come to 00:02:10.600 |
this conclusion, we don't have to guess because Jesus made that very clear. 00:02:15.000 |
He said that the measure of a believer is his love. 00:02:20.020 |
The world distinguishes us and the non-Christian world with love. 00:02:24.080 |
He doesn't say theological accurateness, and all of these things are important things. 00:02:28.400 |
These are overflow of things that we ought to have. 00:02:31.640 |
But at the backbone of Christianity is love, and not just any kind of love, because the 00:02:41.960 |
Even the worst of criminals, they practice some kind of love. 00:02:45.760 |
He said, "If you love as I have loved you, specifically agape love that we've been talking 00:02:53.500 |
That's how you know if someone is truly a believer or not believer." 00:02:57.260 |
In fact, one of my favorite books, if not the most favorite book that I've ever read, 00:03:04.380 |
is the book from Jonathan Edwards called Religious Affections. 00:03:08.940 |
The context of that book is there was a great awakening that happened with his preaching 00:03:13.300 |
and George Whitefield's preaching, and a revival was breaking out all over the United States. 00:03:20.900 |
It caused a lot of debate whether that was genuine or not, because even in Jonathan Edwards, 00:03:27.140 |
a committed Presbyterian preacher who is known to be giving dry sermons with just heavy theologically 00:03:34.020 |
based sermons, and people would break out into singing and praising, maybe sometimes 00:03:40.220 |
There was a lot of people who were looking at that and saying, "That's not genuine." 00:03:44.620 |
There was a debate going on whether this awakening was a true awakening from God, or was it just 00:03:51.700 |
Jonathan Edwards writes this book, Religious Affections, to deal with that matter. 00:03:56.180 |
He begins the first half of the book identifying false affection. 00:04:00.980 |
In identifying that, he dissects like a surgeon that you can be at church and give a lot and 00:04:09.480 |
You can read the scriptures and be theologically astute, all for the wrong reason. 00:04:14.580 |
He just goes down the list of everything that we can imagine what a good Christian should 00:04:22.860 |
Then he begins to rebuild what a true Christian looks like, and at the backbone of his argument 00:04:29.380 |
You can tell if someone is a genuine believer in Christ, and if this revival is real, it 00:04:35.340 |
will ultimately lead to true affection for the Lord, which will lead to theological astuteness, 00:04:42.180 |
which will lead to serving the church, but at the backbone is this agape love? 00:04:49.500 |
This morning when we're looking at verse 17 to 21, there's three things that we are told 00:04:53.220 |
not to do in describing what this religious affection, this true affection for God looks 00:05:00.520 |
First one, we're taught not to repay evil for evil. 00:05:08.440 |
Our natural inclination is to retaliate, and it's not just some people, all of us. 00:05:15.240 |
I realized early on in my marriage with Esther that both of us have something in common, 00:05:20.840 |
and that commonality was we loved movies with vengeance. 00:05:26.240 |
You know what I mean, where somebody is oppressed, and you get bullied, and then at the end, 00:05:31.920 |
they rise up, and then they overthrow these bad guys, right? 00:05:35.560 |
There's some satisfaction you get when coming out of those kind of movies. 00:05:37.920 |
I think that's why some of you guys may remember the Rocky movies, the series of Rocky movies. 00:05:46.680 |
Maybe some of you guys watched it, didn't watch it, but that movie was always about 00:05:52.480 |
They didn't get the fair chance, and they're going against a giant, whether it's a heavy 00:05:56.880 |
champion or whether it's a Russian guy, and they're all mocking him because he has no 00:06:02.000 |
chance, and then he gets beat up for half the round, and all of a sudden, he wakes up, 00:06:07.360 |
And basically, that's the premise behind every single movie, but every single movie, we know 00:06:15.680 |
At the end of the day, when the little guy beats up the big guy for bullying him. 00:06:22.120 |
Now that's our natural inclination, but for God to say, "When you are repaid evil, to 00:06:31.960 |
not to repay evil," it goes against our very instinct. 00:06:37.960 |
There's a satisfaction of repaying somebody who did you wrong, but he says not to repay 00:06:44.960 |
He says, "But give thought and do what is honorable in the sight of all." 00:06:49.720 |
Not only to not to repay, but to carefully consider. 00:06:53.240 |
In James chapter 120, it says, "Anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God." 00:06:58.160 |
How often do we give full vent to our anger because we think that we have righteous indignation. 00:07:03.040 |
You are wrong, and I am right, so therefore, you deserve this. 00:07:07.960 |
So in James chapter 120, it says, "Our anger does not produce the righteousness of God." 00:07:15.200 |
He says, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." 00:07:20.240 |
It's important that you recognize that verse when he says, "If possible," meaning that 00:07:25.280 |
there may be certain situations that is beyond you, that you want to reconcile, but the other 00:07:31.000 |
You are trying to do your best, but the other side does not reciprocate. 00:07:36.920 |
But when he says, "As far as it depends on you," he's not saying, "Do what you can, and 00:07:42.000 |
if they don't respond, then give them your full vengeance. 00:07:52.400 |
Take time and don't react, and take some time to consider how to respond in an honorable 00:08:03.780 |
That sounds like an impossible task, but there's a reason why he wants us to live this way 00:08:11.960 |
The second prohibition is given to us in verse 19, where he says, "Do not avenge yourself. 00:08:20.000 |
Leave room for the vengeance of God, for I will repay." 00:08:26.760 |
Those of you who've known me for a long time, you know that I've told a lot of stories. 00:08:31.560 |
I've been giving sermons to some of you guys for 15 to 20 years, and you've heard every 00:08:40.400 |
Esther can literally repeat even before I say it. 00:08:43.920 |
She probably knows what I'm going to say already right now. 00:08:46.600 |
I used to tell a lot of stories about how I used to get into a lot of fights when I 00:08:56.440 |
I went to, I think, 11 or 12 different schools between kindergarten to 12th grade. 00:09:01.200 |
And then after we came to the United States, being a new kid in every single year of school, 00:09:06.600 |
almost every single year, and then being Asian, I was in the East Coast, and then lived in 00:09:12.600 |
the Midwest, and then went to the South, went back to Korea. 00:09:17.400 |
So being the new kid, and then being Asian, a lot of times we were the only Asians. 00:09:23.440 |
Me and my brothers were the only Asians in that school. 00:09:25.960 |
And then on top of that being small in stature, you had three strikes. 00:09:30.160 |
So everywhere I went, the way I responded to that was by fighting. 00:09:35.720 |
That's the only way that I felt like I needed to survive. 00:09:37.880 |
And Esther knows, even to this day, I feel uncomfortable leaving the house with slippers 00:09:46.720 |
And in my mind, I'm always thinking, what if something happens? 00:09:58.720 |
And so the reason why I stopped telling these fight stories is because I recognize how much 00:10:08.400 |
And the reason behind it-- so I'm going to tell you one story today, OK? 00:10:19.200 |
So every single year, I would start out-- somebody would always start something, and 00:10:24.920 |
then I would fight back, and then I would make bad friends. 00:10:27.240 |
And then that's usually how it was until we moved to another school, start over. 00:10:31.240 |
I remember this one particular place that was even more than normal. 00:10:39.360 |
And we went there, and it's back down in the South. 00:10:42.840 |
And right off the bat, from the first day, that taunting, the racism, and just started 00:10:49.680 |
Being a new kid, you try as hard as you can to kind of hold it in as much as you can. 00:10:55.040 |
But I remember this one kid who kind of was an outcast in that class. 00:11:00.920 |
And I really appreciated his friendship, because he was the first one who came to me, 00:11:05.940 |
But I remember one day during-- I believe it was lunchtime-- I was walking out to see 00:11:11.920 |
where he was, and I saw a group of kids, maybe about three kids, who was surrounding him, 00:11:20.840 |
And so obviously, he's a good friend of mine. 00:11:22.240 |
So I was starting to go over there to see what was going on. 00:11:24.880 |
And then as I got close, they pushed him to the ground. 00:11:35.080 |
I punched another guy, and I grabbed the other guy. 00:11:40.120 |
And fully thinking that I'm going to get jumped, too. 00:11:45.280 |
But I think that they're watching a lot of kung fu movies. 00:11:56.240 |
So I rescued my friend, and it felt good for a minute. 00:11:59.800 |
So me and him, we're walking back into class. 00:12:02.920 |
And then those three kids got the biggest friend that they had, and they decided to 00:12:11.060 |
So we're walking back, and he's, oh, this is the kid who did this. 00:12:15.140 |
And as I'm walking, a huge crowd started to form behind him. 00:12:19.720 |
And as I'm walking, he's, you dumb chink, what are you going to do now? 00:12:23.400 |
So he's poking me at the back of the head, pushing me, poking me, taunting me. 00:12:30.520 |
I didn't even think I could reach him if I was to swing. 00:12:34.080 |
So I'm trying to hold it in and hold it in, and he just pushed me too far. 00:12:38.120 |
And so as I was walking in, there was a step that I needed to take to get up to the classroom 00:12:46.480 |
And as I was stepping up, he poked me in the back of the head just one too many times. 00:12:50.560 |
And I just snapped, and I turned around, and I punched him as hard as I could. 00:13:01.680 |
And I hit him, and of course, behind him, the whole school's standing behind this big 00:13:06.760 |
kid thinking like, I'm going to get killed today, right? 00:13:11.440 |
But after I punched him, you could see in his eyes that there was fear. 00:13:21.000 |
So instead of punching me, there was like a dead silence. 00:13:23.320 |
As soon as I punched him, there was a, "Oh," like you're going to die, right? 00:13:27.040 |
And then as soon as I punched him, he paused for a second, and he looked at me like, "Maybe 00:13:38.160 |
That was one of my favorite memories of childhood. 00:13:43.840 |
I have a lot of stories, but that's my favorite. 00:13:52.280 |
I probably told that story to Esther at least once every month when we first met. 00:13:57.040 |
She's like, "Okay, you hit him, and he went, "Okay, we get it." 00:14:03.920 |
So the reason why I share that story with you today is because it's very satisfying 00:14:11.600 |
because he was clearly in the wrong, and it was a bully that got hit and embarrassed, 00:14:24.880 |
Again, this is part of the reason why I stopped telling these stories is because I get too 00:14:37.360 |
Even the perception that somebody wronged us, we want justice. 00:14:44.360 |
In fact, the world will celebrate it if you did it. 00:14:46.840 |
If somebody wronged you and you went and you took vengeance out on them, they would celebrate 00:14:53.200 |
So for God to tell us not to repay evil for evil and not to take vengeance goes against 00:15:00.600 |
But the reason why he says you need to leave room for God's vengeance, there's four things 00:15:05.520 |
that I want to share about why that's so important. 00:15:08.240 |
Number one, because God is the only one who can truly have right judgment. 00:15:14.760 |
1 Samuel 16.7, "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height 00:15:22.640 |
For the Lord sees not as man sees, but man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord 00:15:29.040 |
You and I only have the ability to see what we see with our eyes. 00:15:33.080 |
We don't know what's happening before, we don't know what happened after, we don't know 00:15:37.480 |
All we know is you did something in my view was wrong, and I'm going to take vengeance 00:15:43.520 |
But God says we don't even have the ability to know who that man is. 00:15:49.760 |
You and I don't have the ability, we don't have that omniscience to be able to know. 00:15:54.560 |
So how much of our vengeance and anger is a perception of what we think may have happened? 00:16:01.120 |
Or even if it is the right thing, we don't know the context. 00:16:07.040 |
Imagine if every single movie was just the trailer. 00:16:12.160 |
I mean, if you look at the trailer, every single trailer is a hit movie. 00:16:17.600 |
That's them presenting the best and trying to sell themselves to you. 00:16:21.240 |
You have to wait until it comes out and you see the reviews and you know what it's really 00:16:25.800 |
But you don't judge movies by the trailer, but that's the problem. 00:16:28.880 |
You and I only have the ability to know the trailers of people, of circumstance, what 00:16:36.080 |
So he says, first and foremost, we don't have the ability to make right judgment. 00:16:40.380 |
So he says, leave room for the vengeance of God. 00:16:43.280 |
How many times have you made a judgment and later on found out to be wrong? 00:16:48.320 |
Maybe even righteous indignation, so angry, and then as time went by, a year went by, 00:16:53.000 |
two years, three years go by, and you realize you were wrong. 00:16:57.740 |
I tried to sit down and jot a list of things that I was wrong in my 50 years of life, and 00:17:04.520 |
I wanted to share them with you, and I ran out of paper. 00:17:09.540 |
How often we have so many things that we just think that we're right, and then when you 00:17:14.680 |
see the bigger picture, you realize that that wasn't the case. 00:17:18.640 |
So first, he says, to leave room for the vengeance of God, because only God is completely omniscient. 00:17:23.820 |
Only God can see the whole circumstance, past, present, and future. 00:17:27.600 |
Secondly, only God is righteous without fault, who is able to bring judgment. 00:17:32.900 |
Only God is righteous without fault, who is able to bring judgment. 00:17:41.040 |
The only way that you and I would have the right to take vengeance is if we are guiltless. 00:17:46.080 |
The scripture says in Matthew 7, 1-5, "Judge not that you not be judged." 00:17:49.960 |
And I'm not going to read the whole passage, and you know that passage where it says, "How 00:17:53.360 |
do you point out the toothpick out of someone else's eyes when you have a log in your own 00:17:58.980 |
And everybody who is tainted by his own sin, everybody who is struggling with his own pride, 00:18:05.980 |
everybody who is easily offended when somebody says something that they don't want to hear, 00:18:10.360 |
automatically is tainted in their vision of being able to determine right and wrong. 00:18:18.120 |
So if you remember, in John 8, 1-11, there's a story of how these men bring this adulterous 00:18:30.120 |
The Mosaic law basically says that this woman needs to be stoned. 00:18:34.280 |
The Roman law says that they don't have the right to bring capital punishment. 00:18:37.760 |
So anything Jesus says would have trapped him. 00:18:44.240 |
But Jesus, being God, looks straight through that, and he tells them, "He who has no sin, 00:18:58.560 |
He says, "Are you in a position to judge her? 00:19:02.340 |
He who does not have any sin, you cast your first stone." 00:19:06.900 |
And they turn around because they knew that he was right. 00:19:12.900 |
Second one, he's the only pure and holy, holy, holy God who's able to judge, who's able to 00:19:21.180 |
Thirdly, ultimately all sin and evil are rebellion against God. 00:19:26.860 |
That's why in Psalm 51, verse 4, where David says in repentance about adultery and about 00:19:32.580 |
murder that he carries out against you, "And you only have I sinned and done what is evil 00:19:37.900 |
in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment." 00:19:44.300 |
He's not saying that he didn't sin against Bathsheba. 00:19:46.460 |
He's not saying that he didn't sin against Uriah. 00:19:48.680 |
He's saying in the grand scheme of things, every sin, every rebellion, every adultery, 00:19:54.460 |
every murder ultimately is a rebellion against the holy, holy, holy God. 00:19:59.420 |
And that's why it says in Romans 5, 9, "Therefore we have now been justified by his blood. 00:20:04.340 |
Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God." 00:20:09.700 |
Our salvation ultimately is protection from his own wrath because he's the one who's offended. 00:20:18.620 |
He's the one who have every right to be angry. 00:20:21.020 |
He's the one, the scripture says, who has wrath waiting for us if we're not covered 00:20:26.260 |
So ultimately, every sin is a rebellion against him. 00:20:30.960 |
And fourth and finally, leaving room for God's vengeance is evidence of true faith. 00:20:38.020 |
Only an individual who truly believes that a righteous judge will ultimately punish sin 00:20:47.540 |
In Nahum 1, 2-3, it says, "The Lord is a jealous and avenging God. 00:20:53.060 |
The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. 00:20:58.540 |
The Lord is slow to anger, great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty." 00:21:03.660 |
If there's any vengeance or judgment that needs to be carried out, God will do it and 00:21:13.860 |
But the reason why he calls us to do that in verse 7, it says, "The Lord is good. 00:21:17.020 |
By stronghold in the day of trouble, he knows those who take refuge in him." 00:21:21.740 |
Ultimately, leaving room for God's vengeance is taking refuge. 00:21:26.820 |
Not that we're like a doormat being stepped on, not that injustice is just going to go 00:21:31.500 |
free, but if there is justice to be carried out, the one who knows all things, the one 00:21:39.140 |
who is guiltless, the one who was ultimately offended, he will carry it out perfectly if 00:21:48.260 |
It is not saying, "Well, we're going to be a doormat and be stepped on." 00:21:52.220 |
He said, "If I made any kind of judgment that's wrong, leave it to him. 00:21:59.580 |
But if anything needs to be done, he will do it much better than we can do it." 00:22:04.420 |
So the question we have to ask ourselves, do we seek vindication from man or from God? 00:22:13.460 |
That question will answer for us if this is even possible, if this is even something that 00:22:22.460 |
Do we seek to be justified before men's eyes? 00:22:25.980 |
Or are we ultimately seeking justification from him? 00:22:30.100 |
Do we take refuge in him or do we give full vent to our anger when we think or feel that 00:22:40.380 |
He goes even further and says, "To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. 00:22:45.100 |
If he is thirsty, give him something to drink." 00:22:48.660 |
I mean, it's one thing to not to celebrate vengeance. 00:22:54.940 |
It's another thing to withhold your anger, but to go even a step further and he says, 00:23:03.480 |
If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. 00:23:07.100 |
That passage that he's quoting is coming straight out of Proverbs 25, 21 through 22. 00:23:19.020 |
He's just talking about his observation in life. 00:23:23.940 |
The best way to win your enemy is to feed them and to, if they're thirsty, give them 00:23:31.980 |
That's something that we would all look at and say, "Wow, that's something to celebrate." 00:23:37.060 |
But to actually practice that, think about if you've ever been bullied or somebody took 00:23:46.380 |
advantage of you, how often you fantasize about feeding him. 00:24:04.260 |
Every once in a while, something will trigger. 00:24:09.460 |
You go to the gym and you're working out and your muscles are bulked up. 00:24:11.860 |
You look in, everybody's like, "Dude, you're yoked." 00:24:14.980 |
You go home thinking like, "Man, I wish I was yoked in seventh grade." 00:24:17.940 |
Because I remember that kid and thinking like, "If you give me another chance." 00:24:26.020 |
How we fantasize about taking vengeance out on people who have wronged us, but to take 00:24:30.780 |
us this far, not only to not to take it out on them, but to consider to feed them. 00:24:39.580 |
If we don't have any power to do it, it's frustrating. 00:24:41.580 |
It's like telling a kid who's maybe five feet three, "If you want to play in the basketball 00:24:46.620 |
He's in the gym every day, trying hard and jumping up and down. 00:24:58.060 |
The hardest he's worked and he's building up his calf muscles and he comes no closer 00:25:08.380 |
It's a cruel, cruel joke to think that we're called to pride. 00:25:19.260 |
Who even considers when somebody is wrong to go home and think like, "I got to do good 00:25:28.660 |
And the reason why he calls us to do this, he says in verse 20, he says, "For by so doing, 00:25:38.700 |
You may look at that and say, "Well, it sounds like, well, take some coal, shove it up his 00:25:47.020 |
It's like, obviously that's not what it's saying. 00:25:49.940 |
He said to be merciful, feed, to be gracious, and then he says, "And then burn coals on 00:25:55.980 |
So obviously that's not the meaning of this text. 00:26:00.260 |
It's an idiom of that time, an Egyptian idiom. 00:26:04.420 |
Basically it's to demonstrate public contrition. 00:26:07.500 |
So an individual who a public sign of repentance would carry on his head a plate of burning 00:26:13.460 |
coals to represent that he has been shamed and he is repenting. 00:26:18.860 |
So in other words, what Paul is saying is when your enemy comes to attack, show him 00:26:22.940 |
kindness in reverse and shocking him to repentance. 00:26:31.100 |
And the reason why he is doing this ultimately is not so that you can be a good person, although 00:26:37.840 |
obviously this would be a very virtuous person, but ultimately he's showing us a way to win 00:26:47.440 |
Because the natural instinct in our flesh is eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. 00:26:52.380 |
And you guys know that law, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth in the Old Testament is 00:26:59.620 |
He's trying to restrain people from going too far. 00:27:02.780 |
If you know the laws of the cities of refuge, the cities of refuge, God creates six cities 00:27:10.500 |
scattered all throughout Israel, and they're on the top of the mountains, on the hills, 00:27:15.860 |
and all the best roads in Israel all led to the cities of refuge. 00:27:19.700 |
And ultimately, obviously, it points to Christ. 00:27:22.580 |
But the reason why the cities of refuge was created is in case an Israelite kills somebody 00:27:28.660 |
by accident, a deliberate murder would not be allowed into the city. 00:27:35.500 |
Only somebody who commits a murder by accident, maybe working, you're swinging an axe and 00:27:41.260 |
you hit somebody, and that person, assuming his family members are going to take vengeance 00:27:47.500 |
on that person, to protect somebody who killed by accident, to run to the cities of refuge, 00:27:53.660 |
and all these cities were protected by the high priest, ultimately pointing to Christ. 00:27:59.040 |
So we come to the New Testament, and obviously it clearly points to Christ being our refuge, 00:28:03.460 |
the high priest, where we take our comfort and refuge from. 00:28:06.980 |
But all of this law was given because there was an innate understanding that even by accident, 00:28:13.660 |
people are going to take vengeance on that person. 00:28:17.000 |
Because that is our fleshly nature, that is our natural nature, this is what the world 00:28:21.620 |
They practice love when somebody deserves it, and they practice vengeance when they 00:28:28.900 |
But Christ comes and breaks into this darkness, and he does something completely the opposite. 00:28:39.520 |
When Jesus kept on telling his disciples he's going to the cross to die for sins, even they 00:28:45.780 |
Because they could understand a Messiah who would go and take vengeance upon the Romans, 00:28:49.660 |
upon these pagans, upon these tax collectors, upon these adulterers, who are ruining families. 00:28:58.220 |
But for him to give himself to feed them, to give them water to drink, that's what he 00:29:04.940 |
means in the third and final one, it says not to be overcome by evil, but overcome evil 00:29:12.860 |
Every single one of us, even in this room, are overcome by something. 00:29:20.700 |
You're overcome by fear that if you don't have enough money you won't be able to take 00:29:26.340 |
You're overcome by temptation of the things that you've seen around us, and your thoughts 00:29:31.940 |
You're overcome by some sort of a hope that if you keep doing this, that you're going 00:29:41.820 |
But when it comes to evil, he says do not be overcome by it. 00:29:46.260 |
The theologians, or even a common debate that we have is, which emotion is stronger, hatred 00:29:54.500 |
Theoretically, we're Christians so we'll say love. 00:30:01.820 |
And let me give you a scenario, just so that we can kind of deal with it realistically. 00:30:07.780 |
Let's say if somebody wronged you, and wronged you really bad. 00:30:11.860 |
And I'm not even going to give you the context because I believe that most of you can think 00:30:22.700 |
And you get this one opportunity to make it right. 00:30:29.180 |
And God's not going to judge you, he's going to look the other way. 00:30:34.820 |
You got this one opportunity to take out your anger upon it and show him what's up. 00:30:39.980 |
And you've been dreaming about, fantasizing about this. 00:30:43.340 |
And then on the other hand, at the exact same time, you have this person that you love and 00:30:58.340 |
I know the answer you're going to give to your Christian friends. 00:31:04.500 |
But in reality, you know what it feels like to have this anger burning inside of you. 00:31:10.740 |
You know what it's like to want vengeance taken out on somebody who's wronged you and 00:31:19.260 |
The answer to that question of which emotion is stronger, hatred or love, really depends 00:31:28.380 |
What is overcoming your thoughts, your heart, your life, your fantasy? 00:31:34.340 |
Do you dream about taking out justice against people who have wronged you? 00:31:42.580 |
In 1 Peter 2, 20-24, it describes this agape love that you and I don't see in this world. 00:31:51.140 |
In fact, it's even rarely seen even in the church. 00:31:54.780 |
1 Peter 2, 20-24 says, "For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, 00:32:00.340 |
you endure, but if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure? 00:32:06.180 |
This is a gracious thing in the sight of God. 00:32:09.300 |
For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you 00:32:13.340 |
an example so that you might follow in his steps. 00:32:16.900 |
He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. 00:32:19.620 |
When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. 00:32:22.080 |
When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges 00:32:27.580 |
He himself bore our sins in his body and on the tree, that we might die to sin and live 00:32:35.860 |
See, the gospel message, sometimes we hear it, repeat it so often that we just assume 00:32:44.860 |
God loves us, we are sinners and he died for us, but think about the core of the gospel 00:33:02.540 |
Why would a holy God empty himself and come and take the punishment, not for his future 00:33:13.140 |
Christ breaks into this dark world with the very thing that he commands us. 00:33:16.260 |
He says, "You are going to be characterized by the love that I practiced with you. 00:33:21.700 |
While you were yet sinners, I came and pursued you. 00:33:25.260 |
While you were blaspheming my name, I fed you. 00:33:28.260 |
While you were cursing and rebelling against me, I gave you water to drink." 00:33:33.100 |
And that's why he tells us, "You want to come follow me, you need to pick up your cross 00:33:44.940 |
Because if you do a lot of Bible study, you get a lot of attention in the church. 00:33:51.500 |
You say, "I'm a generous person, I'm just that type of a person. 00:33:57.980 |
You can lead and do what I'm doing up on the pulpit in the flesh. 00:34:02.420 |
Just like you want in the world and in the church, you use the pulpit to disseminate 00:34:08.740 |
All of these things can be done in the flesh. 00:34:11.940 |
But you cannot practice agape love in the flesh. 00:34:18.900 |
You can't force yourself to love your enemy in the flesh. 00:34:24.380 |
Until you are compelled by the love of Christ. 00:34:28.660 |
When injustice comes into your life, or seemingly injustice, or even a miscommunication and 00:34:34.860 |
a misunderstanding, it's all it takes to compel us to bring justice. 00:34:47.180 |
That's how it functions in the business world. 00:34:51.740 |
That's why Apostle Paul, he's writing the letter to the Corinthians, who he sacrificed 00:34:58.960 |
possibly his life to come in there and preach the gospel. 00:35:02.220 |
People basically were telling him to shut up. 00:35:11.300 |
You guys are divided and you guys are acting fleshly and you're allowing all kinds of sin 00:35:18.620 |
Shall I come to you with a whip or in love and in gentleness? 00:35:24.700 |
So basically they said, maybe that guy's not an apostle. 00:35:31.620 |
Your word sounds strong, but your appearance is weak. 00:35:38.940 |
In that context, our natural instinct is, Paul, shake off your dust, go somewhere else. 00:35:47.780 |
You're being beaten and you're going in there to share the gospel with these people just 00:35:53.540 |
And eventually you're going to be beheaded to get the gospel to people like them. 00:36:02.380 |
And it is in that context and it is in that letter to that church where he says, the love 00:36:10.020 |
That's not something he mustered up in himself. 00:36:13.980 |
It's not something because he was more virtuous than the next guy. 00:36:23.060 |
He just simply said, I do what I do because the love of Christ compels me. 00:36:27.980 |
A Christian cannot live his Christian life until the love of Christ is compelling him 00:36:32.260 |
because at some point in your walk with God, something is going to happen to you. 00:36:37.420 |
Whether true or not true, something is going to happen to you to trip you up. 00:36:42.580 |
And then you're going to say, this is not worth it. 00:36:47.540 |
Only way that we can persevere is if we are compelled by the love of Christ. 00:36:56.300 |
The love of Christ grips your heart, grips your mind, and grips your life in such a way 00:37:03.060 |
that even when hardships, even when injustice comes into your life, you look to Christ and 00:37:20.220 |
And you came to him in need and he forgave you and made you his only son. 00:37:29.980 |
It is only then we can persevere in our faith. 00:37:37.460 |
That's why we can talk about Bible study and discipline and discipleship and we can do 00:37:41.220 |
all of that, but all of that can be easily done in the flesh. 00:37:44.980 |
And that's why Jesus says, "They shall know you by this love. 00:37:52.060 |
If you have love for one another as I have loved you, then they will know." 00:37:59.300 |
This morning I want to show you a video before I finish. 00:38:05.340 |
A lot of you guys probably saw this because I put this on Facebook a couple years ago. 00:38:09.820 |
And let me give you a context of this video before we start it. 00:38:13.980 |
A few years ago, during Palm Sunday, a bunch of terrorists tried to break into this Egyptian 00:38:21.020 |
church and the lady who was being interviewed is an Egyptian Christian whose husband was 00:38:32.580 |
And in order to prevent the terrorists coming in, he grabbed him and then he blew himself 00:38:38.460 |
And so obviously in Egypt, the majority are Muslim and there's a Muslim newscaster with 00:38:44.660 |
a Muslim, what do you call it, a television announcer, news somebody. 00:38:50.100 |
Anyway, so she was there interviewing her and that's the context about what happened