If you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 12, we're going to be reading from verse 17 to the end of the chapter. Romans chapter 12, verse 17 to the end of the chapter. We're continuing our series, our seventh series on qualities of biblical love. Verse 17, reading out of the ESV, "Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible, so far as depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God. For it is written, 'Vengeance is mine, and I will repay it as the Lord.' To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

For by doing, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." Let's pray. Father, we pray for your blessing over this time. May your word go forth and not return until it has accomplished its purpose. We pray for soft hearts and open ears, Lord God, and a committed will to follow all that you have given us.

We entrust this time to you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. How do you measure maturity? I think if we were to pose that question to different people in this church, or even outside the church, you may get various answers. So if you're in certain circles, they may answer that question by saying, "Well, true maturity are people who really care for the poor." And so based upon how much time and effort and money they give to the poor and serve for social justice, that's how we measure Christian maturity.

Some people may say about evangelism, that if we're making disciples and we're preaching the gospel to the lost, that that's the measure of maturity. Some people will say that you can only measure maturity by how much scripture they know. Do they know the scripture? Can they dissect the word of God?

How much theology or how much theological books have they read? Now we don't have to guess, even though there might be discussions as to how to come to this conclusion, we don't have to guess because Jesus made that very clear. He said that the measure of a believer is his love.

The world distinguishes us and the non-Christian world with love. He doesn't say theological accurateness, and all of these things are important things. These are overflow of things that we ought to have. But at the backbone of Christianity is love, and not just any kind of love, because the whole world practices love.

Even the worst of criminals, they practice some kind of love. He's not talking about any kind of love. He said, "If you love as I have loved you, specifically agape love that we've been talking about, that's the measure of maturity. That's how you know if someone is truly a believer or not believer." In fact, one of my favorite books, if not the most favorite book that I've ever read, is the book from Jonathan Edwards called Religious Affections.

The context of that book is there was a great awakening that happened with his preaching and George Whitefield's preaching, and a revival was breaking out all over the United States. It caused a lot of debate whether that was genuine or not, because even in Jonathan Edwards, a committed Presbyterian preacher who is known to be giving dry sermons with just heavy theologically based sermons, and people would break out into singing and praising, maybe sometimes even in convulsion.

There was a lot of people who were looking at that and saying, "That's not genuine." There was a debate going on whether this awakening was a true awakening from God, or was it just hysteria. Jonathan Edwards writes this book, Religious Affections, to deal with that matter. He begins the first half of the book identifying false affection.

In identifying that, he dissects like a surgeon that you can be at church and give a lot and have false affection. You can read the scriptures and be theologically astute, all for the wrong reason. He just goes down the list of everything that we can imagine what a good Christian should do, and he says all of that can be faked.

Then he begins to rebuild what a true Christian looks like, and at the backbone of his argument is affection. You can tell if someone is a genuine believer in Christ, and if this revival is real, it will ultimately lead to true affection for the Lord, which will lead to theological astuteness, which will lead to serving the church, but at the backbone is this agape love?

Is there evidence of this agape love? This morning when we're looking at verse 17 to 21, there's three things that we are told not to do in describing what this religious affection, this true affection for God looks like. First one, we're taught not to repay evil for evil. Not to repay evil for evil.

Our natural inclination is to retaliate, and it's not just some people, all of us. I realized early on in my marriage with Esther that both of us have something in common, and that commonality was we loved movies with vengeance. We loved that. You know what I mean, where somebody is oppressed, and you get bullied, and then at the end, they rise up, and then they overthrow these bad guys, right?

There's some satisfaction you get when coming out of those kind of movies. I think that's why some of you guys may remember the Rocky movies, the series of Rocky movies. Yeah, that movie. Maybe some of you guys watched it, didn't watch it, but that movie was always about the underdog who was oppressed.

They didn't get the fair chance, and they're going against a giant, whether it's a heavy champion or whether it's a Russian guy, and they're all mocking him because he has no chance, and then he gets beat up for half the round, and all of a sudden, he wakes up, and he beats them.

And basically, that's the premise behind every single movie, but every single movie, we know what's going to happen, but it's awesome. At the end of the day, when the little guy beats up the big guy for bullying him. Now that's our natural inclination, but for God to say, "When you are repaid evil, to not to repay evil," it goes against our very instinct.

There's a satisfaction of repaying somebody who did you wrong, but he says not to repay for it. In fact, he goes even further than that. He says, "But give thought and do what is honorable in the sight of all." Not only to not to repay, but to carefully consider.

In James chapter 120, it says, "Anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God." How often do we give full vent to our anger because we think that we have righteous indignation. You are wrong, and I am right, so therefore, you deserve this. So in James chapter 120, it says, "Our anger does not produce the righteousness of God." He goes even further than that in verse 18.

He says, "If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all." It's important that you recognize that verse when he says, "If possible," meaning that there may be certain situations that is beyond you, that you want to reconcile, but the other person does not. You are trying to do your best, but the other side does not reciprocate.

But when he says, "As far as it depends on you," he's not saying, "Do what you can, and if they don't respond, then give them your full vengeance. You're free from this obligation." He's basically saying, "Do your part." You don't have to repay evil for evil. Take time and don't react, and take some time to consider how to respond in an honorable way to live at peace with all.

That sounds like an impossible task, but there's a reason why he wants us to live this way and to practice this agape love. The second prohibition is given to us in verse 19, where he says, "Do not avenge yourself. Do not avenge yourself. Leave room for the vengeance of God, for I will repay." Those of you who've known me for a long time, you know that I've told a lot of stories.

I've been giving sermons to some of you guys for 15 to 20 years, and you've heard every single story that I can possibly tell you. Esther can literally repeat even before I say it. She probably knows what I'm going to say already right now. I used to tell a lot of stories about how I used to get into a lot of fights when I was younger.

My parents moved around ridiculously. I actually counted. I went to, I think, 11 or 12 different schools between kindergarten to 12th grade. And then after we came to the United States, being a new kid in every single year of school, almost every single year, and then being Asian, I was in the East Coast, and then lived in the Midwest, and then went to the South, went back to Korea.

We moved around a lot. So being the new kid, and then being Asian, a lot of times we were the only Asians. Me and my brothers were the only Asians in that school. And then on top of that being small in stature, you had three strikes. So everywhere I went, the way I responded to that was by fighting.

That's the only way that I felt like I needed to survive. And Esther knows, even to this day, I feel uncomfortable leaving the house with slippers on. And it's ridiculous. I mean, this is like 30, 40 years removed. And in my mind, I'm always thinking, what if something happens?

That's my thinking. So what if something happens? I need to be ready. I need to have proper shoes on. And so the reason why I stopped telling these fight stories is because I recognize how much I enjoy telling them. And the reason behind it-- so I'm going to tell you one story today, OK?

Because it fits the context. So every single year, I would start out-- somebody would always start something, and then I would fight back, and then I would make bad friends. And then that's usually how it was until we moved to another school, start over. I remember this one particular place that was even more than normal.

And it was in Atlanta, Georgia. It was fourth grade. And we went there, and it's back down in the South. There's no other Asians there. And right off the bat, from the first day, that taunting, the racism, and just started in your face. Being a new kid, you try as hard as you can to kind of hold it in as much as you can.

But I remember this one kid who kind of was an outcast in that class. He befriended me. And I really appreciated his friendship, because he was the first one who came to me, and we became good friends. But I remember one day during-- I believe it was lunchtime-- I was walking out to see where he was, and I saw a group of kids, maybe about three kids, who was surrounding him, pushing him around and bullying him.

And so obviously, he's a good friend of mine. So I was starting to go over there to see what was going on. And then as I got close, they pushed him to the ground. So I snapped. So I went over instinctively. I went over there, and I pushed one guy.

I punched another guy, and I grabbed the other guy. And fully thinking that I'm going to get jumped, too. That I'm going to get jumped. We're both going to get beat up. But I think that they're watching a lot of kung fu movies. Maybe Bruce Lee was really popular.

They got afraid. So they backed off. So I rescued my friend, and it felt good for a minute. So me and him, we're walking back into class. And then those three kids got the biggest friend that they had, and they decided to come and get me. So we're walking back, and he's, oh, this is the kid who did this.

This is the kid. And as I'm walking, a huge crowd started to form behind him. And as I'm walking, he's, you dumb chink, what are you going to do now? What are you going to do now? So he's poking me at the back of the head, pushing me, poking me, taunting me.

I'm trying my best to hold it in. And this is a big guy. I didn't even think I could reach him if I was to swing. So I'm trying to hold it in and hold it in, and he just pushed me too far. And so as I was walking in, there was a step that I needed to take to get up to the classroom or to the building.

And it was just enough. And as I was stepping up, he poked me in the back of the head just one too many times. And I just snapped, and I turned around, and I punched him as hard as I could. And in my mind, again, I wasn't calculating. I wasn't thinking.

I just like, he just pushed me too far. And I hit him, and of course, behind him, the whole school's standing behind this big kid thinking like, I'm going to get killed today, right? But after I punched him, you could see in his eyes that there was fear. So instead of punching me, there was like a dead silence.

As soon as I punched him, there was a, "Oh," like you're going to die, right? And then as soon as I punched him, he paused for a second, and he looked at me like, "Maybe this kid's crazy." And he just walked away. That was one of my favorite memories of childhood.

I have a lot of stories, but that's my favorite. I probably told that story to Esther at least once every month when we first met. She's like, "Okay, you hit him, and he went, "Okay, we get it." So the reason why I share that story with you today is because it's very satisfying because he was clearly in the wrong, and it was a bully that got hit and embarrassed, and he walked away.

Doesn't that make you feel good? That's why we watch vengeance movies, right? Our very nature... Again, this is part of the reason why I stopped telling these stories is because I get too much satisfaction thinking about vengeance. Our very nature requires we want justice. Even the perception that somebody wronged us, we want justice.

And it is our very nature. In fact, the world will celebrate it if you did it. If somebody wronged you and you went and you took vengeance out on them, they would celebrate you. So for God to tell us not to repay evil for evil and not to take vengeance goes against our very nature.

But the reason why he says you need to leave room for God's vengeance, there's four things that I want to share about why that's so important. Number one, because God is the only one who can truly have right judgment. 1 Samuel 16.7, "But the Lord said to Samuel, 'Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.

For the Lord sees not as man sees, but man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.'" You and I only have the ability to see what we see with our eyes. We don't know what's happening before, we don't know what happened after, we don't know what that person is going through.

All we know is you did something in my view was wrong, and I'm going to take vengeance out on that. But God says we don't even have the ability to know who that man is. He said, "Well, God looks at the heart." You and I don't have the ability, we don't have that omniscience to be able to know.

So how much of our vengeance and anger is a perception of what we think may have happened? Or even if it is the right thing, we don't know the context. All we know is what we see. Imagine if every single movie was just the trailer. I mean, if you look at the trailer, every single trailer is a hit movie.

You know that's not true. That's them presenting the best and trying to sell themselves to you. You know that's not true. You have to wait until it comes out and you see the reviews and you know what it's really like. But you don't judge movies by the trailer, but that's the problem.

You and I only have the ability to know the trailers of people, of circumstance, what we see on the outside. So he says, first and foremost, we don't have the ability to make right judgment. So he says, leave room for the vengeance of God. How many times have you made a judgment and later on found out to be wrong?

Maybe even righteous indignation, so angry, and then as time went by, a year went by, two years, three years go by, and you realize you were wrong. I tried to sit down and jot a list of things that I was wrong in my 50 years of life, and I wanted to share them with you, and I ran out of paper.

How often we have so many things that we just think that we're right, and then when you see the bigger picture, you realize that that wasn't the case. So first, he says, to leave room for the vengeance of God, because only God is completely omniscient. Only God can see the whole circumstance, past, present, and future.

Secondly, only God is righteous without fault, who is able to bring judgment. Only God is righteous without fault, who is able to bring judgment. Even if what happened is clearly wrong. The only way that you and I would have the right to take vengeance is if we are guiltless.

The scripture says in Matthew 7, 1-5, "Judge not that you not be judged." And I'm not going to read the whole passage, and you know that passage where it says, "How do you point out the toothpick out of someone else's eyes when you have a log in your own eye?" And everybody who is tainted by his own sin, everybody who is struggling with his own pride, everybody who is easily offended when somebody says something that they don't want to hear, automatically is tainted in their vision of being able to determine right and wrong.

And he is in no position to judge. So if you remember, in John 8, 1-11, there's a story of how these men bring this adulterous woman and lay her before Jesus. Basically they put him in a trap. The Mosaic law basically says that this woman needs to be stoned.

The Roman law says that they don't have the right to bring capital punishment. So anything Jesus says would have trapped him. So it was a disingenuous question. But Jesus, being God, looks straight through that, and he tells them, "He who has no sin, let him cast the first stone." He doesn't say, "You can't cast a stone.

She's not deserving of this." He doesn't say that. He says, "Are you in a position to judge her? He who does not have any sin, you cast your first stone." And they turn around because they knew that he was right. One, God is the only omniscient God. Second one, he's the only pure and holy, holy, holy God who's able to judge, who's able to sit in the seat of judgment.

Thirdly, ultimately all sin and evil are rebellion against God. That's why in Psalm 51, verse 4, where David says in repentance about adultery and about murder that he carries out against you, "And you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment." He's not saying that he didn't sin against Bathsheba.

He's not saying that he didn't sin against Uriah. He's saying in the grand scheme of things, every sin, every rebellion, every adultery, every murder ultimately is a rebellion against the holy, holy, holy God. And he recognizes that. And that's why it says in Romans 5, 9, "Therefore we have now been justified by his blood.

Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God." Our salvation ultimately is protection from his own wrath because he's the one who's offended. He's the one we rebelled against. He's the one who have every right to be angry. He's the one, the scripture says, who has wrath waiting for us if we're not covered by the blood of Christ.

So ultimately, every sin is a rebellion against him. And fourth and finally, leaving room for God's vengeance is evidence of true faith. Only an individual who truly believes that a righteous judge will ultimately punish sin can leave room for his vengeance. In Nahum 1, 2-3, it says, "The Lord is a jealous and avenging God.

The Lord is avenging and wrathful. The Lord takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, great in power, and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty." If there's any vengeance or judgment that needs to be carried out, God will do it and he will do it perfectly without prejudice.

But the reason why he calls us to do that in verse 7, it says, "The Lord is good. By stronghold in the day of trouble, he knows those who take refuge in him." Ultimately, leaving room for God's vengeance is taking refuge. Not that we're like a doormat being stepped on, not that injustice is just going to go free, but if there is justice to be carried out, the one who knows all things, the one who is guiltless, the one who was ultimately offended, he will carry it out perfectly if that is the case.

And so we take refuge in him. It is not saying, "Well, we're going to be a doormat and be stepped on." He said, "No, we delay in it." He said, "If I made any kind of judgment that's wrong, leave it to him. But if anything needs to be done, he will do it much better than we can do it." So the question we have to ask ourselves, do we seek vindication from man or from God?

That question will answer for us if this is even possible, if this is even something that we would even entertain. Do we seek vindication? Do we seek to be justified before men's eyes? Or are we ultimately seeking justification from him? Do we take refuge in him or do we give full vent to our anger when we think or feel that we've been wrong?

But he goes even further than that. He doesn't just say, "Don't do this." He goes even further and says, "To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink." I mean, it's one thing to not to celebrate vengeance. It's another thing to withhold your anger, but to go even a step further and he says, to feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. That passage that he's quoting is coming straight out of Proverbs 25, 21 through 22. Solomon first says this. He's not specific, at least in that context. He's not talking about the gospel. He's just talking about his observation in life. He says, "There's no way to win your enemy.

The best way to win your enemy is to feed them and to, if they're thirsty, give them something to drink." Now, that sounds beautiful. That's something that we would all look at and say, "Wow, that's something to celebrate." But to actually practice that, think about if you've ever been bullied or somebody took advantage of you, how often you fantasize about feeding him.

I was given that opportunity again. I would just give him some drink. Have you ever fantasized about that? I'll bet you, you stay up late at night. Every once in a while, something will trigger. It's like, "Man, if I went back there." You go to the gym and you're working out and your muscles are bulked up.

You look in, everybody's like, "Dude, you're yoked." You go home thinking like, "Man, I wish I was yoked in seventh grade." Because I remember that kid and thinking like, "If you give me another chance." How we fantasize about taking vengeance out on people who have wronged us, but to take us this far, not only to not to take it out on them, but to consider to feed them.

If we don't have any power to do it, it's frustrating. It's like telling a kid who's maybe five feet three, "If you want to play in the basketball team, you have to dunk this ball." He's in the gym every day, trying hard and jumping up and down. He was about two feet away.

Now he's 23 inches away. The hardest he's worked and he's building up his calf muscles and he comes no closer than maybe another inch or two inches. It's a cruel, cruel joke to think that we're called to pride. Who does this? Who even thinks about this? Who even considers when somebody is wrong to go home and think like, "I got to do good to this person." We don't.

And the reason why he calls us to do this, he says in verse 20, he says, "For by so doing, you will keep burning coals on his head." You may look at that and say, "Well, it sounds like, well, take some coal, shove it up his head and throw it down and give it to him." It's like, obviously that's not what it's saying.

It doesn't fit the context. He said to be merciful, feed, to be gracious, and then he says, "And then burn coals on his head." Right? So obviously that's not the meaning of this text. It's a very cultural word. It's an idiom of that time, an Egyptian idiom. Basically it's to demonstrate public contrition.

So an individual who a public sign of repentance would carry on his head a plate of burning coals to represent that he has been shamed and he is repenting. So in other words, what Paul is saying is when your enemy comes to attack, show him kindness in reverse and shocking him to repentance.

That's basically what he means. And the reason why he is doing this ultimately is not so that you can be a good person, although obviously this would be a very virtuous person, but ultimately he's showing us a way to win the world. Because the natural instinct in our flesh is eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

And you guys know that law, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth in the Old Testament is given in the context of civil law. He's trying to restrain people from going too far. If you know the laws of the cities of refuge, the cities of refuge, God creates six cities scattered all throughout Israel, and they're on the top of the mountains, on the hills, and all the best roads in Israel all led to the cities of refuge.

And ultimately, obviously, it points to Christ. But the reason why the cities of refuge was created is in case an Israelite kills somebody by accident, a deliberate murder would not be allowed into the city. Only somebody who commits a murder by accident, maybe working, you're swinging an axe and you hit somebody, and that person, assuming his family members are going to take vengeance on that person, to protect somebody who killed by accident, to run to the cities of refuge, and all these cities were protected by the high priest, ultimately pointing to Christ.

So we come to the New Testament, and obviously it clearly points to Christ being our refuge, the high priest, where we take our comfort and refuge from. But all of this law was given because there was an innate understanding that even by accident, people are going to take vengeance on that person.

Because that is our fleshly nature, that is our natural nature, this is what the world practices. They practice love when somebody deserves it, and they practice vengeance when they are wronged. But Christ comes and breaks into this darkness, and he does something completely the opposite. And even the Jews could not comprehend it.

When Jesus kept on telling his disciples he's going to the cross to die for sins, even they couldn't comprehend it. Because they could understand a Messiah who would go and take vengeance upon the Romans, upon these pagans, upon these tax collectors, upon these adulterers, who are ruining families. But for him to give himself to feed them, to give them water to drink, that's what he means in the third and final one, it says not to be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Every single one of us, even in this room, are overcome by something. You're overcome by fear that if you don't have enough money you won't be able to take care of your family. You're overcome by temptation of the things that you've seen around us, and your thoughts and your heart is down that.

You're overcome by some sort of a hope that if you keep doing this, that you're going to keep going down this path. All of us are overcome by something. But when it comes to evil, he says do not be overcome by it. The theologians, or even a common debate that we have is, which emotion is stronger, hatred or love?

Theoretically, we're Christians so we'll say love. But in practice, is it? And let me give you a scenario, just so that we can kind of deal with it realistically. Let's say if somebody wronged you, and wronged you really bad. And I'm not even going to give you the context because I believe that most of you can think of a context where you've been wronged.

You or a family member or something. And you get this one opportunity to make it right. Only one opportunity. And God's not going to judge you, he's going to look the other way. Hypothetically, hypothetically. You got this one opportunity to take out your anger upon it and show him what's up.

And you've been dreaming about, fantasizing about this. You got this one opportunity. And then on the other hand, at the exact same time, you have this person that you love and you can go on a date with that person. But it's only one time. Which would you choose? I know the answer you're going to give to your Christian friends.

Of course love. But in reality, you know what it feels like to have this anger burning inside of you. You know what it's like to want vengeance taken out on somebody who's wronged you and hurt you so deeply. The answer to that question of which emotion is stronger, hatred or love, really depends on what you have been overcome by.

What is overcoming your thoughts, your heart, your life, your fantasy? Do you dream about taking out justice against people who have wronged you? In 1 Peter 2, 20-24, it describes this agape love that you and I don't see in this world. In fact, it's even rarely seen even in the church.

1 Peter 2, 20-24 says, "For what credit is it if when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure, but if when you do good and suffer for it, you endure? This is a gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. He himself bore our sins in his body and on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

By his wounds you have been healed." See, the gospel message, sometimes we hear it, repeat it so often that we just assume certain things. God loves us, we are sinners and he died for us, but think about the core of the gospel message. There is nothing like it in this world.

In fact, that virtue isn't even understood. Why would he do that? Why would a holy God empty himself and come and take the punishment, not for his future children but for enemies? Christ breaks into this dark world with the very thing that he commands us. He says, "You are going to be characterized by the love that I practiced with you.

While you were yet sinners, I came and pursued you. While you were blaspheming my name, I fed you. While you were cursing and rebelling against me, I gave you water to drink." And that's why he tells us, "You want to come follow me, you need to pick up your cross and follow me as well." You can do Bible study in the flesh.

Because if you do a lot of Bible study, you get a lot of attention in the church. You can even give to the poor in the flesh. You say, "I'm a generous person, I'm just that type of a person. I'm very virtuous and generous." You can lead and do what I'm doing up on the pulpit in the flesh.

Just like you want in the world and in the church, you use the pulpit to disseminate and get attention from people. All of these things can be done in the flesh. But you cannot practice agape love in the flesh. You can't force yourself to love your enemy in the flesh.

Until you are compelled by the love of Christ. When injustice comes into your life, or seemingly injustice, or even a miscommunication and a misunderstanding, it's all it takes to compel us to bring justice. That's the world that we live in. That's how it functions in our world. That's how it functions in politics.

That's how it functions in the business world. It is in this world Jesus breaks in. That's why Apostle Paul, he's writing the letter to the Corinthians, who he sacrificed possibly his life to come in there and preach the gospel. People basically were telling him to shut up. They didn't like what he had to say.

He's calling out their sin. You guys are divided and you guys are acting fleshly and you're allowing all kinds of sin into your church. How can you let this be? Shall I come to you with a whip or in love and in gentleness? And they didn't want to hear it.

So basically they said, maybe that guy's not an apostle. Basically they were telling him to shut up. Your word sounds strong, but your appearance is weak. Shut up. In that context, our natural instinct is, Paul, shake off your dust, go somewhere else. They don't deserve you. You're risking your life.

You're being beaten and you're going in there to share the gospel with these people just so that they can be saved. And eventually you're going to be beheaded to get the gospel to people like them. Why? Shake off the dust and move on. And it is in that context and it is in that letter to that church where he says, the love of Christ compels me.

That's not something he mustered up in himself. It's not something because he was more virtuous than the next guy. It wasn't because it was a logical move. It wasn't because he calculated. He just simply said, I do what I do because the love of Christ compels me. A Christian cannot live his Christian life until the love of Christ is compelling him because at some point in your walk with God, something is going to happen to you.

Whether true or not true, something is going to happen to you to trip you up. And then you're going to say, this is not worth it. Only way that we can persevere is if we are compelled by the love of Christ. The love of Christ grips your heart, grips your mind, and grips your life in such a way that even when hardships, even when injustice comes into your life, you look to Christ and you remember what he did for you.

That you were that enemy. That you were the one who was hungry. That you were the one who was thirsty. And you came to him in need and he forgave you and made you his only son. Co-heirs with his only son. It is only then we can persevere in our faith.

That's why we can talk about Bible study and discipline and discipleship and we can do all of that, but all of that can be easily done in the flesh. And that's why Jesus says, "They shall know you by this love. If you have love for one another as I have loved you, then they will know." This morning I want to show you a video before I finish.

Let me set up here. A lot of you guys probably saw this because I put this on Facebook a couple years ago. And let me give you a context of this video before we start it. A few years ago, during Palm Sunday, a bunch of terrorists tried to break into this Egyptian church and the lady who was being interviewed is an Egyptian Christian whose husband was blown up because he was guarding the door.

And in order to prevent the terrorists coming in, he grabbed him and then he blew himself up so he saved the church but he died. And so obviously in Egypt, the majority are Muslim and there's a Muslim newscaster with a Muslim, what do you call it, a television announcer, news somebody.

Anyway, so she was there interviewing her and that's the context about what happened to her and trying to get the news. So let's just watch this real quick. in this dark world. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.