back to indexBerean Community Church Sunday Service 10.15.23
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"Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, 00:06:57.560 |
"and in whichever season we may be going through, 00:07:02.560 |
"may it be our true intent and desire to bless the Lord 00:09:44.980 |
♪ Still my soul will sing your praise unending ♪ 00:11:28.900 |
As you guys know, we have our members meeting today at 1.30. 00:11:35.900 |
junior high school ministry is having a fundraiser for lunch. 00:11:51.900 |
in like in a matter of maybe about three or four months. 00:11:59.900 |
And so the funds that are being raised is for that. 00:12:07.900 |
after lunch, we'll be having our meeting here at 1.30. 00:12:14.900 |
please give us a heads up ahead of time before. 00:12:17.900 |
This coming Friday, we have all church praise and prayer 00:12:34.900 |
So please come and join us for corporate prayer. 00:12:39.900 |
and you want to find out more about the church, 00:12:47.900 |
If you sign up again on October 29th at 12.30 p.m. 00:12:52.980 |
after the second service, we'll be having lunch here. 00:12:58.900 |
Reformation Night, which is a replacement for Halloween 00:13:05.900 |
The theme this year is Sola Scriptura and John Calvin. 00:13:15.900 |
So if you are planning to bring your children, 00:13:17.900 |
you do not need to be a member of the church, 00:13:24.820 |
if you are planning to bring somebody who is not at church 00:13:27.820 |
for the purpose of witnessing or introduce the church, 00:13:31.820 |
so that they'll know exactly how many people to prepare for. 00:13:34.820 |
And so they're going to be preparing food and snacks 00:13:39.820 |
So they're asking whoever is coming to sign up 00:13:49.820 |
but they're asking you to sign up as soon as you can 00:13:51.900 |
so that they can place you in the proper groups, 00:13:56.820 |
So there's going to be a group of maybe about 20, 25 people 00:14:01.820 |
So if you sign up early, we'll be able to put you in that area. 00:14:03.820 |
Otherwise, we're going to end up having to put you in places 00:14:06.820 |
where maybe a little bit further away from home. 00:14:08.820 |
So if you're planning to and you are able to, 00:14:13.820 |
And then this coming Wednesday, there is a BAM fellowship. 00:14:30.820 |
bowling fellowship happening on December 2nd as well. 00:14:33.820 |
Okay, I think that's it for the announcement. 00:14:37.820 |
Again, if you have a physical offering to drop off, 00:14:41.820 |
And then afterwards, we'll have Nicholas Chen. 00:14:49.900 |
Thank you so much for the privilege that we have 00:14:59.820 |
where our hope and our help truly comes from. 00:15:09.820 |
Father God, of the grace that you've given us. 00:18:05.500 |
♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ 00:18:53.500 |
♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ 00:19:11.500 |
♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ 00:19:59.500 |
♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ 00:20:17.500 |
♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ 00:22:35.500 |
♪ Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light ♪ 00:23:05.500 |
♪ I am her with thee and thou with me, Lord ♪ 00:24:59.500 |
♪ May I reach heaven's joys, oh, like heaven's sun ♪ 00:26:19.500 |
My name is Nicholas Chen, and I am a senior at UCI. 00:26:24.500 |
I was born and lived my whole life in Taiwan, 00:26:29.500 |
Growing up in Taiwan, my father was agnostic, 00:26:35.500 |
Since she mostly took care of my siblings and I, 00:26:40.500 |
and she would bring me to the temples along with her 00:26:46.500 |
whose Christian friends had offered to pray for her 00:26:48.500 |
when my younger brother was suffering from a medical condition 00:26:51.500 |
that neither conventional medicine nor Buddhist practices 00:26:56.500 |
After this, my mother converted to Christianity 00:26:58.500 |
and received Christ, and started bringing my siblings and I to church. 00:27:02.500 |
Seeing both the physical changes God made to cure my brother, 00:27:11.500 |
and think that I needed Christ, that I wanted Christ, 00:27:18.500 |
and that I needed a lot of worldly, personal evidence. 00:27:22.500 |
Unprompted, I approached my mother when I was eight 00:27:27.500 |
However, I did not truly understand the gospel, 00:27:29.500 |
nor would it have meant to be saved by Jesus. 00:27:31.500 |
As a result, even though I had had knowledge of Scripture 00:27:38.500 |
I lived my life no differently than from when I was a Buddhist, 00:27:41.500 |
the only difference being that instead of praying to the gods at a temple, 00:27:53.500 |
because my standard for sin was just "doing bad." 00:27:58.500 |
I went through middle school and most of high school 00:28:04.500 |
we satisfied our worldly desires with Internet media, 00:28:07.500 |
all the while I was maintaining the image of a good Christian boy. 00:28:12.500 |
At the same time, I placed all my self-worth in the things of the world, 00:28:16.500 |
like my aides, friends, and my parents' approval. 00:28:19.500 |
As a result, when I failed one test in a subject I liked, 00:28:24.500 |
Around this time, my parents had also asked me 00:28:27.500 |
to evangelize to one of my classmates who was seeking. 00:28:30.500 |
And there, God let me feel the weight of my sin 00:28:32.500 |
when I realized that I had not been following 00:28:34.500 |
the very obedience that I was describing to my classmate. 00:28:38.500 |
Afterwards, I recognized that I needed to truly surrender my life to Christ 00:28:43.500 |
and I prayed to God confessing my sins while seeking repentance. 00:28:46.500 |
Unfortunately, due to my own rebelliousness and fear of man, 00:28:49.500 |
I was afraid to confess this reality to anyone in my life. 00:28:52.500 |
So after my prayer of repentance, I had no idea what to do from there. 00:28:56.500 |
I can't say for certain when the Lord saved me from this situation. 00:29:01.500 |
the Spirit has been working in me to sanctify me, 00:29:03.500 |
as it is written in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13. 00:29:08.500 |
My desire to be in the Word and prayer continued to grow, 00:29:13.500 |
and abandoning my pursuit of the things of this world began to feel easier 00:29:17.500 |
and less like I was giving something precious up. 00:29:20.500 |
I'm thankful that God had brought me to Berean, 00:29:22.500 |
where in the college ministry, my brothers and sisters around me 00:29:25.500 |
greatly encouraged me to continue to grow in my desire for Christ, 00:29:29.500 |
and the Bible study had introduced me to inductive reading, 00:29:31.500 |
giving me a whole new way of approaching the Word. 00:29:34.500 |
As of right now, I'm confident in calling myself a believer, 00:29:37.500 |
knowing Christ as Lord, and being eager in my submission to Him, 00:29:40.500 |
and being eager to take my next step in my submission to Him. 00:30:16.500 |
>> Do you understand when you go into the water, 00:30:20.500 |
and when you come out, you're being united to His resurrected life? 00:30:23.500 |
>> I now baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 00:30:44.500 |
>> All right, thank you, Nicholas, for that great testimony. 00:30:47.500 |
If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 6, verses 27 through 30 this morning. 00:31:06.500 |
"But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 00:31:11.500 |
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you, 00:31:15.500 |
whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also, 00:31:18.500 |
and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. 00:31:23.500 |
Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, 00:31:37.500 |
We pray, Father God, that we would not be just hearers of the Word, 00:31:42.500 |
but that we would hear your Word, Lord God, eager to apply. 00:31:46.500 |
Help us to understand not just your mind, your Word, but your very heart. 00:31:59.500 |
obviously the news was filled with what's going on in the Middle East. 00:32:05.500 |
And no matter what denomination, no matter what your background, 00:32:09.500 |
there's a universal agreement that if there is going to be a World War III, 00:32:13.500 |
that it would probably be kindled in that area. 00:32:16.500 |
And so that's a very sensitive area that could possibly trigger the greater event. 00:32:27.500 |
but obviously we are praying that the Lord would be upon this, 00:32:31.500 |
and the Christians would respond accordingly, 00:32:34.500 |
that we do not get caught up like the rest of the world 00:32:37.500 |
in thinking that as long as we're not shooting at each other, 00:32:41.500 |
as long as everybody is wealthy and live a long life, 00:32:47.500 |
Our ultimate goal is to bring Christ to the world, 00:32:50.500 |
and we pray that this situation will ultimately lead to greater spreading of the Gospel. 00:32:55.500 |
One thing that is clear, though, that obviously we've seen the atrocities 00:32:59.500 |
that Hamas, the terrorist group, enacted, which triggered all of this. 00:33:05.500 |
And I want to read to you one of their charter statements 00:33:10.500 |
that was initially developed in 1988, Article No. 13. 00:33:15.500 |
And in their purpose statement, this is what Hamas says, 00:33:19.500 |
"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad." 00:33:25.500 |
You guys know what jihad is. Jihad is a terrorist act, basically committing suicide. 00:33:30.500 |
"Initiative, proposals, and international conference are all waste of time and vain endeavors." 00:33:37.500 |
And if you read the charter, their purpose statement basically is 00:33:40.500 |
"Until Israel is wiped out, there will never be any peace." 00:33:44.500 |
And in that context, when you say, "You know what? We just gathered together. 00:33:47.500 |
Maybe we just kind of learned to accept our differences and get along," 00:33:51.500 |
again, it's a very naive statement, knowing that one side of the group, 00:33:55.500 |
the only way that they're going to find peace is if the other side is dead or wiped out. 00:34:01.500 |
And so that's why this situation is so crucial, because of what's going on, 00:34:06.500 |
and there are neighbors surrounding Israel that desire the same thing. 00:34:10.500 |
Now, the reason why I'm introducing to you, obviously because of what's going on in the news, 00:34:14.500 |
but it's to help us to understand the situation that the Jews were in when Christ walked this earth, 00:34:21.500 |
that the Jews saw the Romans in a similar way. 00:34:25.500 |
And there are different groups of Jewish communities, different sects of groups, 00:34:32.500 |
If you asked a regular Jew of the first century, "Who is your enemy?" 00:34:39.500 |
It's the Romans. They are the ones who are suppressing us. 00:34:43.500 |
They are the ones who are bothering us from religious freedom. 00:34:46.500 |
They are the ones who are taking our money. They are the ones who are suppressing us. 00:34:50.500 |
And so the method in which they were going to overthrow their enemies was different, 00:34:57.500 |
You had the Sadducees, who were the liberals, and they basically have given up on supernatural stuff, 00:35:04.500 |
and their idea of conquering their enemies is to join them. 00:35:07.500 |
You can't beat them, join them. Become one of them. Make money. Become powerful. 00:35:12.500 |
And so they were the leaders of Israel of that time, and they were the Sadducees. 00:35:17.500 |
And you had the Pharisees. They were the religious group. They were the scribes. 00:35:21.500 |
And they were the ones who thought that if they obeyed the law, 00:35:25.500 |
that God's blessing would be upon them, and if God's blessing would be upon them, 00:35:30.500 |
that their Messiah is going to come and conquer the Romans, their enemies. 00:35:34.500 |
The goal was the same, except the method was different. 00:35:37.500 |
The Pharisees believed that if they kept, especially the Sabbath law, perfectly, 00:35:41.500 |
that God would bless them, and what happened with Assyria and Babylon and the Persians 00:35:46.500 |
wouldn't happen, but their Messiah is going to come, and they're going to conquer their enemies. 00:35:51.500 |
Then obviously we have the Zealots. They were the militant group. 00:35:54.500 |
They were the ones who carried the knife, and they were willing to die. 00:35:57.500 |
Even though the Pharisees and Sadducees and other groups may not have agreed with our method, 00:36:02.500 |
they were all praised, because they were willing to give their life and their family 00:36:07.500 |
and their children's life and their future in order to conquer their enemies, which was the Romans. 00:36:12.500 |
So we would typically think that these are the guys who wanted the Romans killed, 00:36:17.500 |
and they were the enemy, so you have to understand the mindset of a Jew that Jesus is speaking to. 00:36:23.500 |
The fourth group, called the Essenes, we naturally think that they were the peaceful ones. 00:36:28.500 |
They didn't engage in battle. "I see no evil, hear no evil, do no evil," 00:36:32.500 |
so they went out into the wilderness and lived in caves, and they lived in peace. 00:36:38.500 |
That's what we typically think, but this statement, when Jesus says in Matthew 5, verse 43, 00:36:44.500 |
"You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'" 00:36:51.500 |
Now, "You shall love your neighbor" comes from the Old Testament. 00:36:55.500 |
Leviticus 19, verse 18 and other passages teach us that. 00:36:58.500 |
"You shall love your neighbor." But that second part, "You shall hate your enemy," where does that come from? 00:37:03.500 |
Well, that statement is a direct statement from the Qumran community, the Essenes. 00:37:09.500 |
Even though they were living in the caves, they adapted a part of the Old Testament saying that 00:37:14.500 |
we are to love our neighbors, but the practice of loving our neighbors is restricted to just our neighbors, 00:37:23.500 |
that our desire is, at some point, that we're going to conquer enemies, so we're going to hate them. 00:37:28.500 |
When Jesus says, "You have heard it said that this was said," he was quoting the charter doctrine of the Qumran community. 00:37:36.500 |
You have to understand the kind of hatred that they had toward Rome. 00:37:40.500 |
So when Jesus says to love your enemies, to good to those who hate you, 00:37:44.500 |
the immediate application that you and I think of is our neighbors, family, friends, coworkers, 00:37:49.500 |
maybe our boss or somebody who's slandered you, an average Jew would have thought of the Romans, 00:37:58.500 |
Every time they went to the temple, they were reminded that they had a pagan nation governing them. 00:38:04.500 |
Every time they came to collect taxes, they were reminded that their enemy was in charge. 00:38:11.500 |
So even though they had different ways of conquering Rome, their goal was the same. 00:38:16.500 |
We need to get rid of these enemies one way or the other by religious zeal, by joining them possibly 00:38:26.500 |
and gaining more power somehow, by getting into some kind of battle, 00:38:31.500 |
or just hoping that the Messiah will come and conquer them. 00:38:34.500 |
So you can see why, when Jesus gives himself up to be crucified on the cross, 00:38:40.500 |
why they were universally disappointed with him. 00:38:43.500 |
Because Jesus, to them, was the person who was going to satisfy their anger. 00:38:49.500 |
They were the ones who were going to finally, they'd been waiting for the Messiah to come 00:38:54.500 |
to satisfy the desire for vengeance against their enemies. 00:38:58.500 |
And instead of doing that, he gave himself up. 00:39:00.500 |
Not only did he give himself up, he taught his disciples to love them, to pray for them, to do good to them. 00:39:09.500 |
In Philippians 3.20, we are reminded that we're no longer citizens of this earth. 00:39:15.500 |
That the citizenship of heaven has a completely different standard. 00:39:20.500 |
And you cannot be a citizen of this world and be citizen of the kingdom at the same time 00:39:28.500 |
You cannot be a citizen of the United States and you can't be a citizen of North Korea at the same time 00:39:35.500 |
You can't even get a visa to get into North Korea. 00:39:37.500 |
The only way to get into North Korea is to get in and the U.S. embassy would never know 00:39:44.500 |
In the same way, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan has no place where they can coexist together. 00:39:52.500 |
Either you are serving God or you are serving Satan. 00:39:58.500 |
So can you imagine when Jesus says, in that context, "Love your enemies. 00:40:13.500 |
If I said right now, like, it sounds good on the pulpit. 00:40:17.500 |
You know, when we describe the love of Christ and how he loved us while we were enemies, it sounds great. 00:40:22.500 |
If I asked you to think of somebody that's wronged you, maybe right now, right? 00:40:31.500 |
As soon as you read this, like, this person? Really? Right? 00:40:35.500 |
Maybe some of you just got in a big fight with your wife or your husband or your children or your co-worker or your boss has mistreated you or somebody has slandered you. 00:40:51.500 |
Can you imagine how they must have been stirred up of all the things that Jesus has said to love your enemies? 00:41:04.500 |
Most likely, if you've ever been slandered or somebody tried to hurt you, that your wrestling was not how to love them. 00:41:11.500 |
Your wrestling was not how to do good to them. 00:41:18.500 |
If you show any restraint, that's about the level of restraint. 00:41:23.500 |
That's about the level of love that we can practice. 00:41:34.500 |
So you have to place yourself in the position of these Jews when Jesus says, "Love your enemies." 00:41:39.500 |
We looked at last week, "Love your enemies," "Do good to those who hate you." 00:41:44.500 |
And then it says, "To bless those who curse you." 00:41:50.500 |
The word for "bless" in Greek is "eulogia," where we get the word "eulogy." 00:41:55.500 |
And typically, when we think of eulogy, eulogy is someone who stands up and praises and gives thanks to the person who has passed. 00:42:09.500 |
When was the last time that somebody cursed you? 00:42:15.500 |
And wanted to hurt you by their words, and you responded in return, "God bless you." 00:42:27.500 |
There's nothing that you've been taught since you were a child. 00:42:33.500 |
You've never been taught that those who try to hurt you do good to them. 00:42:40.500 |
You would only see this in scripture. You would only hear this at church. 00:42:45.500 |
And it's a very strange thing to even try to practice, because it's so strange. 00:42:54.500 |
Romans 12, 14 says, "Bless those who persecute you." 00:42:57.500 |
"Bless and do not curse." Don't retaliate in cursing. 00:43:01.500 |
The word for "persecute" basically means to follow, to pursue somebody. 00:43:07.500 |
It's a description of somebody who is actively out to get you. 00:43:12.500 |
This is not just somebody who's annoyed with you. 00:43:14.500 |
This is not just somebody who happens to not be good to you. 00:43:18.500 |
The word "persecute" basically means somebody who is actively following to make sure that you are hurt. 00:43:23.500 |
These are people who celebrate when bad things happen. 00:43:28.500 |
He says, instead of cursing them, he said, "Bless them." 00:43:33.500 |
Again, sounds great up on the pulpit, but you go off the pulpit, and after the service is over, try to practice that. 00:43:45.500 |
Ephesians 4, 26-27, it says, "Be angry and do not sin." 00:43:49.500 |
"Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity." 00:43:56.500 |
I remember early on in marriage, I had this passage memorized. 00:44:03.500 |
Every time I got in a discussion or fight with my wife, and my wife, when she gets angry, she's usually not verbal, 00:44:11.500 |
but then when she gets angry, she gets even less verbal. 00:44:16.500 |
The first thing that she does is she disappears, and she goes to sleep. 00:44:27.500 |
I remember this one particular night, we got into something, and she was upset, and she just stopped talking. 00:44:42.500 |
I literally sat on the sofa from 10 to 3 a.m., hoping I'm going to outlast her this time. 00:44:52.500 |
I'm going to wait until she can't take it, and she's going to come back out, but it never happened. 00:45:00.500 |
I said, "Oh, my God. She's not going to come out." 00:45:02.500 |
I went in with this verse, "Don't let the sun go down on your anger," and I woke her up. 00:45:19.500 |
I got more frustrated, and clearly this isn't going to work. 00:45:23.500 |
Through trial and error, I realized that what this is saying, like literally try to apply it, and again, it would cause more frustration. 00:45:32.500 |
But I realized what it was saying was if you harbor bitterness and anger in your heart and you let it linger, you give an opportunity for the devil. 00:45:40.500 |
You give an opportunity for the devil to allow that bitterness and hatred to grow, and it bears fruit. 00:45:50.500 |
Matthew 12:34 says, "You brood of vipers, how can you being evil speak what is good? 00:45:54.500 |
For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart." 00:45:59.500 |
When you give in to bitterness and anger and you are allowing it to bear fruit, eventually where it will show is through your mouth, what you say, 00:46:10.500 |
through slander, through lies, through deception. 00:46:15.500 |
Because the first avenue of attack is through our mouth. 00:46:20.500 |
And then, every once in a while, you see somebody just lose it and get physical. 00:46:26.500 |
And if you trace back where it happened, where somebody was wrong, you've allowed the bitterness and anger to percolate in your heart, 00:46:32.500 |
you feel justified in being angry, and then once that bears fruit, it comes out of your mouth, 00:46:37.500 |
and after it begins to come out of your mouth, it destroys you and it destroys everybody around you. 00:46:44.500 |
Your family is hurt, your relationship with your children, even churches, leadership. 00:46:51.500 |
It's split because of the words, and the words come from allowing the devil an opportunity. 00:47:00.500 |
In Ephesians 4:29 it says, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, 00:47:05.500 |
but only such a word as good for edification according to the need of the moment, 00:47:09.500 |
so that it will give grace to those who hear." 00:47:14.500 |
When we think of unwholesome, we immediately think of cursing. 00:47:18.500 |
Unwholesome basically means anything that is slanderous, gossiping, lying, anything that tears the other person, 00:47:27.500 |
And that comes out because it is an avenue in which we give an avenue to express what's happening in our heart. 00:47:40.500 |
In fact, in the book of James, if you've ever studied the epistle of James, 00:47:47.500 |
you know that the primary problem with the book of James is that there was this division between the rich and the poor. 00:47:53.500 |
So the poor people envied the rich, and they were shown favoritism at church. 00:47:59.500 |
And so Paul rebukes them saying, "Do you not know that these rich people, they're the ones who are dragging you into court, 00:48:05.500 |
they're the ones who are mistreating you, why are you showing favoritism to them? Why are you coveting them?" 00:48:10.500 |
And then he rebukes the rich, saying, "Do you not know, do you not know the low position in the kingdom of God 00:48:21.500 |
And he tells them to humble themselves, but the avenue in which this division happened was with their tongue. 00:48:30.500 |
Because of the envy, because of the pride of the rich, and because of this division in the church, 00:48:41.500 |
And so in James 3, 5-10, it says, "So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things. 00:48:49.500 |
See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire." 00:48:53.500 |
In other words, consider the destructiveness of our tongue. 00:48:57.500 |
And the tongue is a fire, a very world of iniquity. 00:49:02.500 |
This small piece of our flesh, it has the power to destroy. 00:49:08.500 |
"The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body," this tiny little thing, 00:49:14.500 |
"and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell." 00:49:19.500 |
The words that come out of our mouth, the bitterness and hatred and division that we've allowed to percolate in our hearts, 00:49:26.500 |
it directs the path of our life, and ultimately it is from hell itself. 00:49:33.500 |
"For every species of embers and reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race." 00:49:40.500 |
But no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. 00:49:45.500 |
"With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God. 00:49:51.500 |
From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way." 00:49:57.500 |
I remember years ago, I had somebody ask me just a random question. 00:50:02.500 |
Of all the senses that you have, all the things that you're able to do, 00:50:13.500 |
And I thought about, is it your hearing? Is it your sight? Ability to walk? What is it? 00:50:20.500 |
And I thought about it a little bit, and I said, "It's probably my tongue." 00:50:25.500 |
And he was surprised, and he said, "Tongue? You preach for a living. 00:50:29.500 |
If you get rid of your ability to speak, you can't be a pastor anymore." 00:50:33.500 |
So I could be a pastor. I can write. I can write. 00:50:38.500 |
And so I can still communicate. But the reason why I said tongue, 00:50:42.500 |
because if you've ever tried to conquer your tongue, you know how difficult it is. 00:50:49.500 |
With the same tongue, we bless God, and we praise God, we preach the gospel, 00:50:53.500 |
but the same tongue, we curse, we hurt people. 00:51:02.500 |
And I could tell you that I have, as much as I preach the gospel for a living, 00:51:08.500 |
that as I've attempted for years and years and years, I've got to watch my mouth. 00:51:14.500 |
I've got to watch my mouth. And I'm a joker, so I like to joke around. 00:51:19.500 |
And that's not going to stop. But I need to be careful. 00:51:26.500 |
And it's not the joking that I am concerned about, because there's no evil intent in that. 00:51:33.500 |
But if you've ever tried to not to talk when you're bitter and angry, 00:51:40.500 |
when somebody has slandered you, and not to slander back, you know how difficult that is. 00:51:51.500 |
And Jesus tells us, when they curse you, to bless them. 00:52:05.500 |
1 Peter 3, 8-10, it says, "To sum up all of your harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly kindness, 00:52:10.500 |
and humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult, 00:52:14.500 |
but giving a blessing instead, for you are called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing." 00:52:19.500 |
You know, when you think about Christian maturity, we think about reading the Bible, memorizing Scripture, 00:52:23.500 |
doing an inductive Bible study, being generous and giving. 00:52:27.500 |
But then it says, "You've been called to this purpose, to be a blessing to others." 00:52:33.500 |
"You've been called to this purpose, for the one who desires life, to love and see good days, 00:52:38.500 |
might keep his tongue from evil, and his lip from speaking deceit." 00:52:43.500 |
He goes on to say, "To love, to practice this new kingdom love, 00:52:53.500 |
Praying for those who mistreat you, I mean, praying for yourself is hard enough. 00:52:56.500 |
Praying for people that you love is difficult enough, but praying for people that mistreat you? 00:53:04.500 |
It requires a surrender of everything in you, to be able to pray and ask for blessing upon people who want to harm you. 00:53:14.500 |
I remember when I was a kid, you know, we would take medicine, but in Korea, for whatever the reason, 00:53:20.500 |
everything that, all the medicine was crushed into powder. 00:53:27.500 |
And so, in order for my mom to make me take the medicine, she would always give me sugar water. 00:53:34.500 |
So she would promise me that if you take this, I'll give you sugar water. 00:53:38.500 |
And then I still couldn't drink it, so she would put it in the sugar water. 00:53:41.500 |
So every time I drank this, it was made sure that the sugar water was drunk with it, 00:53:51.500 |
Praying for people that are mistreating you is like drinking bitter water. 00:54:03.500 |
Yet, once you become, get in the habit of praying for them, you see the fruit that comes from that. 00:54:10.500 |
And the greatest fruit that you'll see are people that you've had problems with at one point, 00:54:15.500 |
turning and loving Christ and loving you and you loving them. 00:54:19.500 |
And it's the avenue in which he calls us to reconcile, to pray for them. 00:54:24.500 |
Apostle Paul writes a very difficult letter in 1 Corinthians, 00:54:28.500 |
because they were engaging in all kinds of divisions and immorality, 00:54:32.500 |
and it was causing all kinds of chaos in worship. 00:54:35.500 |
And because of his harsh letter, they were beginning to question his apostleship. 00:54:42.500 |
Who's this guy, this latecomer, rebuking Peter and Barnabas in public? 00:54:49.500 |
And they were trying to discount him, discredit him, because they didn't like what he had to say. 00:54:54.500 |
So the whole 2 Corinthians is a letter written to defend his apostleship. 00:55:00.500 |
Can you imagine how difficult this letter must have been? 00:55:04.500 |
It would have been easy for him to just kind of like, "Okay, I'm done with you. 00:55:13.500 |
I got all these other people who are supporting me. Forget you." 00:55:17.500 |
Instead, he's wrestling, and he's writing this letter. 00:55:22.500 |
And in this letter, he says 2 Corinthians 5, 14-15, "For the love of Christ controls us, 00:55:28.500 |
having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died, and he died for all, 00:55:32.500 |
so that they who lived might no longer live for themselves, 00:55:36.500 |
but for him who died and rose again on their behalf." 00:55:39.500 |
In his flesh, I'm sure he's a human being like everybody else. 00:55:42.500 |
He would have easily just shake the dust and move on, right? 00:55:47.500 |
But the reason why he's wrestling with them, the reason why he's pleading with them, 00:55:50.500 |
he says, "Because the love of Christ compels him." 00:55:55.500 |
Unless the love of Christ compels you, this sounds good in paper, 00:55:59.500 |
but you're not going to practice this. Are you kidding? 00:56:03.500 |
Unless you are controlled by the love of Christ, this is a curse upon you. 00:56:12.500 |
It's difficult to love people who are irritating. 00:56:16.500 |
It's difficult to love people who are different than you. 00:56:21.500 |
It's difficult to love people who potentially might hurt you. 00:56:26.500 |
But people who are actually out to get you, people who are mistreating you, 00:56:30.500 |
do good to them, and pray for them, that is not something that is within you or me. 00:56:37.500 |
Unless the love of Christ compels you, you cannot practice this. 00:56:43.500 |
In fact, in 1 Corinthians 13, 4, the description of love, it says, "Love is patient." 00:56:50.500 |
The word "patient" in Greek literally means "long-suffering." 00:56:54.500 |
To suffer for a long period of time. And we don't like that, right? 00:56:59.500 |
Anything that causes discomfort, you know, we have to change. 00:57:03.500 |
I don't like my job, I change it. I don't like this relationship, I change it. 00:57:08.500 |
Because we have, being rich, we have options. 00:57:12.500 |
So we don't like any kind of suffering for a long period of time. 00:57:16.500 |
So, sometimes we do that even with relationships. 00:57:20.500 |
We fall in love, and just as easy as we fell in love, we fall out of love. 00:57:26.500 |
If our marriages are based upon you falling in love, you will easily fall out of love. 00:57:33.500 |
That's why when you make a covenant, it is an unconditional covenant. 00:57:39.500 |
It requires long-suffering. It's easy to fall in love, but it requires long-suffering to stay in love. 00:57:47.500 |
And so he calls us, he said the love that he called us to is a different kind of love. 00:57:52.500 |
It is an unnatural love. To continue to persevere in love. 00:57:57.500 |
1 Corinthians 13, 13, "But now faith, hope, love abide these three things, 00:58:05.500 |
Think about that. We're saved by faith, right? By faith alone. 00:58:12.500 |
Hope is what causes us to persevere, to make it to the end. 00:58:16.500 |
And yet, of faith, of hope, and love, he said love is the greatest. 00:58:24.500 |
Because faith without love, you missed the whole point. 00:58:28.500 |
In fact, Paul says that at the first Timothy 1.5, he's instructing this young pastor to go fight for pure doctrine. 00:58:36.500 |
Instruct these men, instruct them, tell them, command them to stop teaching false doctrines. 00:58:43.500 |
And yet, as he is commanding them, he reminds them, he said, "But the goal of our instruction is love." 00:58:49.500 |
That in the context of fighting for pure doctrine, in the context of fighting for the pure church, 00:58:55.500 |
make sure that your goal is clear, that it's love. 00:59:02.500 |
Everything that we do, pursuit of holiness, has to be ultimately for love. 00:59:06.500 |
In fact, Paul says that even if you give your body to be burned, 00:59:11.500 |
even if you get martyred, he says, without love, it is for nothing. 00:59:16.500 |
Even if you give your life, you did it for self-glory, 00:59:21.500 |
you did it for whatever the reason, if it is not motivated by love, he said, it is for nothing. 00:59:39.500 |
In fact, it is because of Jesus' prayer for his enemies that you and I are here. 00:59:46.500 |
In Luke chapter 23, 34, as Jesus is hanging on the cross, 00:59:51.500 |
as he is looking at people who are mocking him, spitting on him, spearing him, humiliating him, 00:59:58.500 |
this was Jesus' prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." 01:00:05.500 |
When he tells us to pray for those who are mistreating us, 01:00:19.500 |
Now, up to this point, it's like, this is impossible. 01:00:26.500 |
If you thought this is impossible, he tells us practically, 01:00:38.500 |
I can try not to hate them and do something." 01:00:41.500 |
But look what he says in Luke 29, 30, "Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also." 01:00:49.500 |
Anybody in this room who's ever been hit, and then you turn the other cheek and say, "This one too?" 01:00:57.500 |
Most of us probably not only have not practiced it, don't remember anybody in your life. 01:01:04.500 |
And if you do, make a movie out of that person. 01:01:12.500 |
You ever wonder why he says, "If they slap you, right? 01:01:17.500 |
If they hit you on your cheek or slap you on your cheek, turn the other cheek." 01:01:21.500 |
Why he didn't say, "If he punches you or slams you to the ground." 01:01:25.500 |
The reason why he uses the imagery of being slapped or hit on the cheek is because it was an insult. 01:01:34.500 |
And the worst of the insult, if they back slapped you like that, boom. 01:01:42.500 |
It's basically telling that you're beneath me, you're scum. 01:01:47.500 |
And so when they slap you, he said it's to humiliate you. 01:01:51.500 |
It's to show whoever he did it in front of that you're beneath me, you're nothing, you're scum. 01:01:57.500 |
And he says, "When that happens, turn the other cheek." 01:02:03.500 |
So imagine somebody hearing this, like, "What? 01:02:08.500 |
Do you know what the Romans were doing to us? 01:02:21.500 |
He says, "And whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either." 01:02:28.500 |
So on Beringan Couponers, we have so many nice things, right? 01:02:36.500 |
Maybe you gained a few pounds and it doesn't fit anymore. 01:02:42.500 |
And you've got to get rid of your fall clothes because you've got to prepare for winter. 01:02:49.500 |
So we don't fully understand because we're wealthy what this means. 01:02:53.500 |
And average Jew at this particular time only had one coat and had one shirt. 01:03:00.500 |
So when he says, "If they ask you for an outer coat, and you would have been frozen if you gave them that coat," 01:03:07.500 |
he says, "Don't just give them the outer coat. 01:03:19.500 |
They didn't wear underwear back then, so it would be even less than that, right? 01:03:31.500 |
In fact, that's exactly what it says in verse 30. 01:03:33.500 |
"Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back." 01:03:39.500 |
So if we were to take this literally, after this, I come and ask you for your car, right? 01:03:55.500 |
If you were to practice this, like literally, "Oh, anybody who asks of you," and then if they take it away, 01:04:03.500 |
"If you're not going to give it to me, and I take it away," don't call the police. 01:04:15.500 |
What does Jesus mean here when he's telling them to give? 01:04:24.500 |
For people who live their whole life building their reputation, trying to be somebody, 01:04:33.500 |
and to tell that person, "If you get slapped, turn the other cheek," is basically telling them to die. 01:04:39.500 |
For people who live all their lives to try to be comfortable, 01:04:43.500 |
we compare, compete, compare with everybody else, and we're fine until we go to someone else's house, 01:04:48.500 |
and we drive in someone else's car, and all of a sudden we don't have enough. 01:04:51.500 |
And our whole pursuit in life is trying to be better than we were before. 01:04:56.500 |
And then he said, "If somebody gives to you or somebody takes away, don't fight it." 01:05:04.500 |
The things that we pursued, the things that mattered to us before we became citizens of the new kingdom, 01:05:12.500 |
he's just another way of saying, "He who wants to follow me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me." 01:05:21.500 |
The only person that would even think this is virtuous, or even attempt to apply this, 01:05:30.500 |
is somebody who recognizes Christ as a greater treasure than your reputation. 01:05:36.500 |
That you recognize that whatever treasure you have is rubbish in light of knowing Jesus Christ. 01:05:44.500 |
Only an individual who opened their eyes to see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, 01:05:50.500 |
where you see treasure in Christ more than anything else that you have valued before you met Christ, 01:05:58.500 |
can possibly even entertain turning the other cheek and losing for the sake of gaining Christ. 01:06:13.500 |
That life that we have been pursuing before we met Christ, to crucify that, 01:06:19.500 |
that desire to be better than before, the desire to be somebody in this world, 01:06:25.500 |
it is a call to die. You cannot practice this. You cannot love your enemy. 01:06:30.500 |
You cannot do good to those who are mistreating you until we crucify ourselves first. 01:06:38.500 |
We don't do that because we're more virtuous, or we're more disciplined, or we're better than other people. 01:06:43.500 |
We simply do it because Christ is better. Because we're compelled by the love of Christ. 01:06:51.500 |
That's what he's telling us to do. In 1 Peter 2, 21-25, "For you have been called for this purpose. 01:06:59.500 |
Since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps, 01:07:04.500 |
who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth." 01:07:09.500 |
There's only one person who has ever truly experienced injustice, 01:07:13.500 |
because in order to experience true injustice, you have to be without sin. 01:07:19.500 |
Christ was the only one without sin, it says in verse 23, "And while being reviled, he did not revile in return. 01:07:25.500 |
While suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. 01:07:31.500 |
And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. 01:07:38.500 |
For by his wounds you were healed. You were continually straying like sheep, 01:07:43.500 |
but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls." 01:07:47.500 |
Everything that he's been saying up to this point, basically is Jesus saying, "Follow me. 01:07:56.500 |
What you think is going to lead to life is going to lead to destruction and curse. 01:08:01.500 |
You think I'm headed toward death, but I'm actually headed toward real life. 01:08:06.500 |
He who drinks of this water will thirst again, but the water I give to you will well up in you in eternal life, 01:08:14.500 |
He who eats of this bread of this world, sooner or later you will go hungry again, 01:08:19.500 |
but the bread that I give you will satisfy you for eternity." 01:08:25.500 |
Jesus is simply telling us to follow him. Follow him. This is a path to life. 01:08:38.500 |
I probably memorized and meditated on this verse more than any other verse in my life. 01:08:43.500 |
And the reason why is because at times when everything in my flesh doesn't want to love somebody, 01:08:59.500 |
People who are the closest to me. Because the people who are not close to me, 01:09:02.500 |
all I have to do is stiff-arm them and, you know, just don't be around them. 01:09:07.500 |
They're acquaintances, but they're not people I need to love. 01:09:10.500 |
But you can't escape from your wife. You can't escape from your children. 01:09:16.500 |
So I remember early on in marriage when I'd be so frustrated and she would go to sleep, 01:09:22.500 |
I would sit there memorizing, "I have been crucified with Christ. Die. Die." 01:09:30.500 |
In order for me to learn how to love my wife, I needed to die first. 01:09:35.500 |
That voice inside of me saying, "This is not fair," needs to die. 01:09:39.500 |
That voice inside of me that seeks justice needs to die. 01:09:45.500 |
In order for me to practice the love that Christ loved me with, 01:09:54.500 |
In order to love her as Christ loved her, loved me. 01:10:01.500 |
Every time God convicts me to do something that I don't want to do, 01:10:07.500 |
I have been crucified with Christ. I am crucified. You're dead. You're dead. 01:10:11.500 |
It is no longer I who live. The I in me that refuses to love anybody difficult to love. 01:10:18.500 |
The I in me that wants to retaliate every time somebody tries to hurt me. 01:10:23.500 |
The I in me that wants my reputation to be restored. 01:10:28.500 |
The I in me. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. 01:10:35.500 |
And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, 01:10:46.500 |
As impossible as this may sound, as impossible as it may appear, 01:10:54.500 |
Christ is simply telling us to follow his steps. 01:11:00.500 |
True life, true life is found at the center of the will of God. 01:11:09.500 |
We're going to talk next week of why this is so important. 01:11:13.500 |
What are the practical ramifications of following these commands? 01:11:17.500 |
And I think it will make a lot more sense when we wrap it up next week. 01:11:22.500 |
My prayer is, sometimes even the way we follow Christ, it is to glorify ourselves. 01:11:30.500 |
Better life, better job, better friendship, better marriage. 01:11:35.500 |
We're still not dead. We just find Jesus to be an avenue to get what we were pursuing before we met Christ. 01:11:46.500 |
Until we die to ourselves, until the things that we learned, we put away, 01:11:53.500 |
you'll never fully understand when Jesus said, "I have come to give life and to give this life abundantly." 01:11:58.500 |
My prayer is that we would all know this life and be compelled by the love of Christ. 01:12:12.500 |
Let's take a few minutes as our worship team comes and leads us, 01:12:16.500 |
to come before the Lord and ask, "Lord, search me and know me. See if there's any hurtful ways in me. 01:12:21.500 |
Things that I have excused. The bitterness and anger that I've allowed to bear fruit in my heart." 01:12:34.500 |
That we would offer up worship, truly in spirit and in truth. 01:12:40.500 |
Let's come before the Lord and let the word of God richly dwell in us. 01:12:48.500 |
So let's take some time to pray as our worship team guides and leads us. 01:18:28.500 |
and the fellowship and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, 01:18:32.500 |
and the eternal powerful love of God the Father, 01:18:43.500 |
to be the aroma of Christ wherever you send us this week.