All right, good morning again, everybody. Please take your Bibles and open up to Matthew chapter 5. And as we turn there, I just want to say just a word of thanks for all the volunteers, people in different service teams, helping out and making things happen. We've had a bunch of changes going outdoor, indoor, and then changing media things and stuff like that.

And I realize there's so many people involved in making things go. So I'm very grateful. I'm also grateful because I realized I totally missed the session, a season of preaching outside. Pastor Peter had to take the bulk of preaching in the hot sun. I got to be inside in the nice AC.

I was like, "Oh, darn." I was like, "No, it was good." As we take a look at this passage, what I'd like to do first is read verse 38 down to verse 48. And I will be, for the sake of time, focusing on just that first paragraph from verse 38 through 42, and then highlight just an element of the next section.

Let me read for us. It says, "You have heard that it was said. An eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth. But I say to you, do not resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also.

Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

For he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the task collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?

Do not even the Gentiles do the same? For you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. Let's take a moment to pray. Our God, we really do ask for your spirit to move through your word and convict our hearts. We recognize, Lord, that your truth is so powerful.

And God, oftentimes your truth also is repetitive in your word. But sometimes, God, we are hard of hearing. Sometimes we're forgetful. And sometimes, Lord, our hearts resist your word. But I pray that, God, you would soften us, you would teach us, Lord, and we would humbly receive. It's in Christ's name we pray.

Amen. As we take a look at this passage, the context of Matthew chapter 5, if you take a look, just kind of skim with me for a brief second to just get the context here. You know, this is that famous Sermon on the Mount in chapter 5. And then in chapter 5, verses 1 through 12, you have the section that is famously known as the Beatitudes, right?

So if you look at your Bibles, you'll have this long list of blessed are those, blessed are those. And what we see is Jesus teaching an incredible sermon, defining for us and telling us who is actually truly blessed, right? Who is truly blessed of God. And it is so contrary to what is the norm.

It is contrary to what we believe. It's contrary to what is societal expectations and standards. Because society believes those are truly blessed who are educated. Those are truly blessed who have skill. Those are truly blessed who are rich and have resources in their lives. Here Jesus is telling them, no, blessed are those who are able to mourn over sin.

Blessed are those who are poor in spirit and blessed are those who are able to make peace, and so on, right? So what we have, as I'm emphasizing, is a massive contrast between what people are perceiving versus what the reality is. And he continues to do that. If you take a look, verses 13 and down, he talks about how the disciples should be salt and light of the earth.

He is giving an expectation that is breaking what is normative. And I'm repeating that because he's going to continue to do that through the entire chapter. The normative way we sometimes think about life, and sometimes, again, in good intention, when non-Christians try to teach us, they tell you, "Don't be strange.

Don't be weird, because that ruins your chances of excelling in life. As a matter of fact, if you had it your way, the best thing to do is work the system, be a leader, and come out on top in this world." God says, "No, you're to be radically different.

You're to be salty. You're supposed to shine as so different from what is normative in this life." And so likewise, continuing on that theme of compare and contrast, Christ highlights these things. "You thought you knew. You thought you had the Old Testament law, and you thought you had an understanding, but let me tell you what is real.

What is real godliness. What is true spirituality. What is actually in the nature of God." One example of that, the first one, he says in verse 21, Matthew 5, 21, he says, "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'You shall not commit murder, and whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court.

And whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court. And whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell." Wow. If you think about it in contrast, on an external superficial level, if you just say, "On this boundary, do not murder," the vast majority of us will say, "Good, I'm done with that one because I am not killing anybody these days." But Christ says, "You think you knew what God was trying to get at.

You think you knew what it meant to be righteous. And those Pharisees, the religious looters, they think they're setting the bar. Let me radically challenge the normative that you think is acceptable." And what he does is he points to the internal heart and says, "But you have anger in your heart.

You have this arrogance in your heart. You have this viciousness in your heart where you're willing to call somebody good-for-nothing. You fool." And I don't want to do a mini sermon in a sermon, but that alone is so convicting, right? How many times have we in recent days watched articles, heard the news, saw what people were doing, da-da-da-da-da, and you just felt this rage in your heart?

Jesus is pointing that out, right? Jesus is highlighting all of that. And so what I like to say is the passage that we're coming to is this compare and contrast of you think you know. Yes, you have the Old Testament, but maybe in terms of the normative that you thought was acceptable, let me teach you what God expects in terms of the internal heart.

The transformation of the insides, both your perspective, your attitude, your desires, and all the stuff that's the working of your insides, God wants to radically transform to purify. And so my proposition and the main thrust of the sermon is going to be to transform a particular element, which is the heart of retaliation for the grace of God.

To transform the heart of retaliation through the grace of God. Just from the overview reading of the passage, you saw that Christ was tackling a heavy element, a specific area of sin in the life of the disciples. And what he says, I'm going to present this as a command, the first point I want to highlight is to correct what you thought you knew about the law.

Correct what you thought you knew about the law. When you take a look at this passage, Matthew 5, verse 38, he says, "You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.'" And what he's doing is he is highlighting and pinpointing something that is commonly rehearsed, reiterated, quoted within the community, and he tackles that as you think you understand, but let me tell you what's up.

Now this specific verse, you recognize it is a direct quotation from the Old Testament. It comes from Exodus chapter 21, verse 23 through 25. I'll read it for us and it says this, "But if there is any further injury, then you shall appoint as a penalty life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, and hand for hand.

Foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, bruise for bruise." Now this law God gave to the people, essentially to govern the people. He gave to Moses as a civil law, not as necessarily how you're supposed to treat each other one to one, but as a civil law to govern the people.

And in other cultures, other historical nations and governments, this law exists to this day, right? In Latin it's called lex talionis. Essentially they quote eye for eye, and the thought there is when there is injury, the consequence and penalty should be of equal value, right? And essentially that's what exists.

But we have to ask this question, why did God give this law to the people? Well the first answer is very obvious and clear, it is because God himself is a fair God who is a God of law and order. God himself is a God of justice. God himself is a God where the punishment is of appropriateness.

He is not a Greek God who is on a whim, who happens to react impulsively. And should you just catch him on a bad day, he ends up just eradicating everybody. Now someone might say, "But, but hasn't God in the Old Testament, hasn't he eradicated many people? Even immediately after Moses receives the law, didn't he split open the ground and cause people to die?" What I'm going to say is, every judgment in the Old Testament that you see, no matter how severe you think it is, was always appropriate.

Because sin against the Holy God, sin against the Almighty, it is devastating. We even recognize degrees of punishment based on who we sin against. It is different when you sin against somebody who happens to be your friend, it is different if you transgress an American law against a president or a sitting official.

There's difference of penalty. I'm just saying that to say, the reason why God gives this law that there should be equal and appropriate kind of punishment, even amongst person to person, is because God himself is always just and fair. That is his nature. Now I think what's more obvious is he gave this law because people needed it.

There is such a propensity, there is such a habit in the heart of man. When you feel like you've been hurt, you've been dishonored, disrespected, you've been attacked, to just come out with this retaliation, "Oh really? You're going to feel the full force of my wrath!" Retaliation is so like a knee-jerk reaction in the sinful heart.

What I'm going to say then is the scriptures teach us that this law was given to restrain our sin. Take a look at a passage in Deuteronomy chapter 19. We recognize that this command was given in multiple contexts. It was given early on in the book of Exodus. It was also given later on in the second Deuteronomy, with the people in the wilderness.

Before they went into the land of Cana, after 40 years, they have reiteration of this law. And what he says is in verse 18, this is Deuteronomy 19 verse 18, "The judges shall investigate thoroughly and if the witness is a false witness and he accused his brother falsely, then you shall do to him just as he has intended to do to his brother." And then look what he says, "Thus you shall purge the evil from among you." What God was desiring was to prevent more wickedness.

God designed to govern the people that there would be a cap on this stacking up of hitting each other, hurting each other, and ultimately destroying each other. But you notice what is the bent of the human heart. And I'm highlighting this because when there is a law given, it is not because God happened to be this exacting mean God of the Old Testament.

There are people, Christians, who actually write that in commentaries, that God had this exacting nature to him. God has this exacting nature even to this day. He says in the New Testament, "Not even a single careless word will go unpunished." What it is is actually God restraining more sin.

And the problem is, God gives good laws and the people are so sinful that when they're hurt, they exaggerate. Why do you think there is this case? You know when a brother gives false testimony? You know what's false testimony? Someone hurts you and you're like, "That guy, he has it out for me.

He wants to kill me. He wants to get rid of me. I think he actually made a mistake." Exaggeration is a false testimony, and we do it all the time. Why? Because our hearts retaliate. When we feel offended, we have this knee-jerk reaction to want to hurt back, to make sure, "Don't you dare ever do this to me!" And that's what we're talking about.

But what I like to highlight is, in summary, God's law, even here in the Old Testament, both Exodus, Deuteronomy, it comes from his governing grace. Amen? I want to highlight that because sometimes people have this weird false dichotomy. Anything that reeks of harsh judgment, consequences for sin, is like, "God is so OT," like Old Testament.

No, no, no, no. This is God's mercy on the people to cap and restrain them. You need this. And the law regularly shows us, "It's you!" That's what I'm talking about. But historically, then, when God gives good laws, how did people understand it? How did people take it? And this is where I want to find conviction, is because I realize this is in us.

This is in me. As I read this passage and asked the question, "Why does God give these laws, and how do people receive them?" And when Jesus says, "You have heard," he is not only highlighting the fact that it was written in the Old Testament, but he's highlighting your perception of it.

This is your normative. This is what you think is acceptable. This is what you thought was the command of God. How did people take it? I think what's clear is people take it as though the law of God gave them a right. Let me explain what I mean by that.

The law of God says, "Eye for an eye." And he says, basically, "You shall not inflict excessive penalty." It's in the American law, Eighth Amendment, right? "There will not be a cruel and unusual punishment, and you shall not induce a cruel, overreaching penalty, whether for parole or whatever it may be.

You shall not do that." But rather than thinking of it as a cap to restrain them, they thought of it as, "I have a right to make sure you know you never, ever treat me like that. I have a right. If you're going to treat me like that, then I get to treat you like that.

Eye for an eye." It became a right and excuse to enact it. You see what I'm talking about there? And so in that way, I would like to move to my second point. In order to have this transforming of the inner heart of retaliation, we have to repent of that inner desire.

And the way I'd like to make sense of it to you, I'm going to rephrase my second point, is repent of the little gangster in your heart. We all have the little gangster in our heart. Some of you guys know my background. When I was in high school, I thought it was so cool to be in a gang, and so I joined the gang.

And we thought we were so tough, and we thought we were so hard, and all the guys, they had this mentality. It's like, "If you even look at me, you're going to get it." Come on, we all have that little gangster voice. It even has a little accent. It's like, "No, dog." And some of you even snap your fingers.

You have the thing you do with your head when you bob and you're mad inside. And some of you guys, laughing hard, that's not really an internal thing. It comes out outside too, right? You kind of change your voice when you get into this mode where you say, "No.

If you hurt me, I'm going to hurt you back." Right? Where your heart says, "You hurt me? It's my turn." That exists, and we recognize it. And I want to say this. There is a perversion of the logic of the law. There is a perversion where the law of "I for an I" was given as a consistent standard of God, and it is appropriate for us to uphold the consistent standard of God, versus you want to uphold you.

You want to avenge you. You want to make sure that you are the judge, jury, and executioner. You better respect me. You better recognize. Right? Like, the gangster comes out of you, and it speaks like that. And that part of it needs to be repented of. There's a passage in Leviticus chapter 24.

Turn in your Bibles there. Leviticus chapter 24, verse 19. It shows to us the rationale behind this law. And he says, "If a man injures his neighbor, just as he has done, so it shall be done to him. Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, just as he has injured a man, so it shall be inflicted on him.

Not just the one who kills an animal shall make it good, but the one who kills a man shall be put to death. There shall be one standard for you. It shall be for the stranger as well as the native, for I am the Lord your God." He wanted that standard because of his objective righteousness.

And he's not a respecter of people. He doesn't have this, "da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da, this is on this day, that day." He wants an objective standard and we as Christians have to uphold it. What's false and erroneous is we twist that as a justification for my vengeance. To avenge me. But who's gonna make sure he knows how much he hurt me?

Who's gonna make sure that he actually respects me? And that is two entirely different things, but sometimes so, so muddy. Now as I want to give examples of this, there's a clear example of retaliation in Scripture. Turn your Bibles to Genesis chapter 4. So early on in the history of man, there was a sinfulness already ingrained into his heart.

Genesis chapter 4 verse 23, it says this, "Lamech said to his wives, 'Ada and Zillah, listen to my voice. You wives of Lamech, give heed to my speech, for I have killed a man for wounding me, a boy for striking me. If Cain is avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.'" I presume if the secular world read this, they would think, "Oh man, that guy's gangster.

You don't mess with him." The weird thing is, that heart, he's bragging about how in his arrogance, no one's gonna mess with him. He wants them to hear about it. "You don't mess with me, because I'm a gangster." I don't want to overdo it, but that part's in there.

And let me give you an example of case scenarios. It comes up in everywhere. On the court, I confess to you, there have been times, you play basketball, some guy does a dirty move, and all of a sudden, your gangster voice comes out, and you're like, "Oh, we're gonna play like that, huh?" You're gonna play dirty?

And you almost want to retaliate, like, "Now it's my turn." In the car, someone cuts you off? I mean, road rage is like a classic example of retaliation. You want to make sure, it's like, "Oh, you want to know how it feels? You drive all fast, go in front of the person?" Of course, I've never done that.

But in the car, do you ever start screaming? "You need to get off the road! You don't deserve to drive!" Does it happen in marriages? It's like, "Oh, you can talk to me like that, with no restraint? You want to know how angry I can be? You want to see me mad?" It happens in marriages, relationships.

It happens in so many different scenarios. And that all to say, again, it's sometimes so deceptive, the heart is deceptive. We think that doing that is the right thing to do. We think doing that is actually the right way to make sure the sin is dealt out with. No.

This passage is so convicting because it tackles, again, your preconceived notion of what is normative for the righteous person. Yeah, "I" for an "I." And what Jesus does is point very directly into the heart and says, "Your insides, that needs to be transformed." So, I move now to point number three, where Jesus commands.

Jesus instructs. And as a summary of what He instructs us to do, He instructs us to give even more and more. Excuse me. Hold on. He instructs us to give even more and more. Let's take a look at the passage once more, right? He says, after saying, "You have heard." Verse 39, "Do not resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on your cheek, turn the other to him also.

If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat also. Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you." Wow. If you take a moment to not read that as just like, "Yeah, these are just lofty things Jesus says," right?

Would you meditate on that? It should cause you to be like, "Wait, wait, what? Did you say the evil person?" You know what makes it so hard sometimes to hold your tongue is when you see wickedness, right? And then part of you, like, I'm almost like trying to share with you my personal reaction when I was working through this passage in my devotions.

Like, I had weird reactions. Initially, I was like, "Oh yeah, you just got to read the context because there's got to be more than that." Like, he's got to be qualified. There's got to be some caveats here, right? And then you read him say like, "Even to the evil person." And then you start thinking of the other passages like, "No, Scripture says expose them.

Scripture says to not walk with them." Well, clearly, yes, Jesus is not telling you to condone the evil man. But what he's telling you is to not resist with retaliation and what's more, to give generously. And part of me just reacted with like a, "This can't be." I'm not sure if ever you guys have had that moment.

You're reading the Scriptures and you're like, "Huh, it doesn't make sense." Of course, we're going to stand against the evil person. Of course, I'm going to defend myself. Of course, if he falsely accuses me, I'm going to give a defense. And again, I want to challenge you. Jesus is going to regularly ask us, "Are you going to do exactly what everybody else does?

How then are you any different? You're going to say the exact same thing? You're going to do the exact same thing? How much do you have to give?" And so I want to walk through this a little bit because he says, "If you are slapped and someone slaps you on your..." It's interesting, right, that he actually specifies on the right side of your cheek, right?

But I want you to think about that because you know, I mean, even when me and my brother, when we were young and we were fighting, we just knew, "You don't touch the face." We could punch each other all we want. We could wrestle. We could do all kinds of crazy stuff, but you don't touch the face.

Why? Because absolutely disrespectful. And what Jesus is doing is he's highlighting one of the elements that to us is so difficult to just hold our tongue, to just not retaliate, is in the moment of disrespect. And there's part of it that's going to be like, "Don't we have a right to that?

Don't we have a right to dignity? Don't we have a right? I should be respected. If you're a father, I should be respected in this home. If you're a boss, I should be respected in this job." We feel like we have that right. There's more. He says, "If someone wants to sue you and take your shirt," it's also very interesting that he describes the difference between taking your shirt and then taking your cloak.

And you guys have heard probably that this idea of the cloak, a lot of people at that time, they just had one. That's all they had. So to a worker, Jesus says, "If you have one of his possessions as some kind of collateral, make sure you give it back to him by the end of the day." Why?

Because he has nothing else. And then he says, "Give it to him." What? Our natural tendency, if you're sued and accused, you're going to have this tendency to be like, "What? I have a right to be defended against stuff like that. I have a right to not be falsely accused of stuff." Yes?

And it would be to you this feeling of right to protections and security. And then he goes on and says, "Whoever forces you to go one mile, go with him two." It's like, "What? Mind-blowing stuff." Back then there were Roman soldiers. Legally, Roman soldiers could grab all the material, give it to a civilian, say, "I'm going to take my stuff and walk." Right?

"Carry the burden, you donkey." Like that's pretty much what it was. And so you can imagine the civilians, they hated Roman soldiers. It's like, "Oh my goodness, these people." Right? "Making me carry all their junk." He says to them, "Go with him the extra mile." That's what we get with proverbial statements.

"Go the extra mile." Right? Question, how much do you have to give in you? Because what Jesus is doing is highlighting for the kingdom citizen, for the sons of God, sons and daughters, you should have through your relationship with God this wealth. That yes, even in the midst of persecution, even in the midst of suffering, we many times we find ourselves, we're the ones in need.

I'm in suffering. I need help, but you're taking from me? Jesus is going to call out and say, "Even in those moments, through the gospel, through Christ and the completeness that we have in him, how much do you have to give?" And lastly, he says, "If someone asks you, do not turn him away." You know, some of the most annoying things in life are people who are prideful and people who are free birds.

If you've ever had that guy in your life, the friend in your life who is just always like, "Can you spot me here? Can you spot me there?" It's like, "Wait a minute. You have all this stuff. Why are you asking me for stuff when you have it?" Now, I am not saying that no matter what the circumstances are, just give.

Just give, give, give, give, give. Because that is not true. But clearly, we understand Jesus' command here. He is telling us that, yes, you may have your right, but if you are going to say, "I have this right, and therefore I'm going to exercise my right, and never, ever will you take advantage of me." He's asking you.

It sounds to me like then all you have is your life in this world. Don't you have more to give as a Christian? As a kingdom citizen, don't you have more to give? Take a look at Apostle Paul's attitude and mentality here. First Corinthians chapter 9. Please turn in your Bibles there.

First Corinthians chapter 9. And he asked these questions. He says, "Am I not free? Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord? Are you not my work in the Lord? If to others I am not an apostle, at least I am to you. For you are the seal of my apostleship in the Lord.

My defense to those who examine me is this. Do we not have a right to eat and drink? Do we not have a right to take along a believing wife, even as the rest of the apostles and the brothers of the Lord and Cephas? Or do only Barnabas and I not have the right to refrain from working?

Who at any time serves as a soldier at his own expense?" See what he's talking about there? Turn in your eyes to verse 12, and he says, "If others share the right over you, do we not more? Nevertheless, we did not use this right, but we endure all things so that we will cause no hindrance to the gospel of Christ." Yeah.

You know what's normal? I got a right to be here. I got a right for you to respect me. I've got a right for protections. Eye for an eye. And Jesus is going to say, "As a kingdom citizen, we regularly lay down our rights. We regularly hold our tongue, even in the midst of persecution.

And we know Jesus Christ set this model for us to follow." Turn in your Bible to 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 21 through 24. Such an important passage for this topic. He says this, "For you have been called for this purpose, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example for you to follow in his steps.

Who committed no sin, nor was any deceit found in his mouth. And while being reviled, he did not revile in return. While suffering, he uttered no threats, but kept entrusting himself to him who judges righteously. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.

For by his wounds you have been healed." The rationale and logic of the world, it makes sense to retaliate. The rationale and logic of the gospel says, "You must have already died to this world, died to yourself, and you must be rich in the spiritual blessings of Christ." To be able to be reviled, to be stretched and whipped, and yet not revile in return.

Now I would like to say this, moving to point number four. We recognize that Jesus is commanding us to give, give, and give, just like he has modeled, just as he has shown us. But I want to make sure that we understand that we have to, in this way, uphold the righteousness of God.

Because some people misinterpreted this passage. Some people have this misunderstanding. To be eye for an eye, to be tooth for tooth, is all Old Testament exacting punishment stuff. But to be a New Testament believer, gracious, you don't do this. And some people actually use this ideology to say we should be pacifists.

Some people use this ideology and they get kind of scared. Somebody commits a sin and you're like, "Well, what do we do? We just got to forgive." No, no, no. We uphold the righteousness of God. You see, what we understood was that God gave the Old Testament to purge sin.

But what's happening is, in our sinfulness, we just stack sin for sin. So what does Scripture say? Regularly, you commit evil in the face of evil. Sin breeds more sin. Their evil now inspires your evil and all you're doing is saying, "My turn for evil." And what God is saying to us is, "Do not repay evil for evil." But rather, accomplish the righteousness of God by giving good, by giving grace, by giving love.

You see, we're not trying to mimic this passage. Some people are like, "Oh yeah, maybe this is kind of in line with the stuff of Gandhi. This is in line with the stuff of the passive resistance stuff." No, it is not. This is very, very different. We absolutely uphold the justice and standard of God because every institution has been given by God to do so.

Governments, churches, families, parents, all of these institutions have been given a stewardship of authority and they must enact justice. And consequences must be given for breaking of the law. However, for us on a personal level, what we are doing is accomplishing the righteousness of God by our character in this.

So turn your Bibles over to Romans chapter 12, verse 16 through 21, and look at what he says. He says, "Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone." And then he says this, "Respect what is right in the sight of all men." See?

But what's more, it says, "If possible, so far it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine. I will repay,' says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him a drink, for in so doing you will keep burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." The challenge for us is to actually garner greater righteousness. Do not be so weak as to have your senses elicited that when evil is done for you, it becomes a temptation.

Me too. No, no, no, no, no. For us, God is calling us to recognize in wisdom, every sin and transgression is going to be judged. Either already on the cross through the sacrifice of Christ, it will be judged thoroughly, or in hell, where God's wrath will be enacted, it will be judged thoroughly.

You understand that. And so knowing that, you can have this kind of paradoxical understanding. "I uphold the righteousness of God, but I need not retaliate to vindicate myself. But rather I have this opportunity to give grace. Rather I have this opportunity to show love. Rather I have this opportunity to be like God." And so this is my next point.

What the Lord is doing in this passage, yes, He is giving you parameters and He is doing this surgical number. "Oh, you think you have the right to protections? You think you have the right to respect? You! You think this is your norm?" And then He corrects all that stuff, right?

But what He's also doing is He's giving these commands so that we would be. And so this is what He says. Take a look at Matthew chapter 5 now verse 43, and until the rest of that paragraph, verse 48. And He says, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.

For He causes His Son to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, then what more are you doing than others?

Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Therefore you are to be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." Brothers and sisters, earlier I said when I was reading this passage and kind of meditating, my reactions were varied. Initially it was like, "Whoa, these are extreme statements." And then there was this, "Well, there's got to be exceptions, you know?

These aren't absolute statements." And that's true. Because this doesn't mean that everything wrong just be like, "Oh well, what can you do?" Like that is not what God is saying. At all. Right? People should obey laws. There should be justice. Okay? But my other reaction was, "I don't know how to apply this." Have you guys ever read the scriptures and just felt like that?

You almost have this like, "Malfunction in my brain." And you want to ask God like, "Lord, I think you're going to need to give greater parameters, more instructions." And some of you guys are, your mind is geared like that. It's like, "Wait a minute. Maybe you guys are like the engineers.

You need the written code." And you're like, "I just need to follow the lines. What am I supposed to do then? What if there's a guy who's just selfish and he's asking me stuff? Do I give now? Do I not give? What do you do?" And some of the stuff, yeah, when he even brings it up, it's not like, "Is that sin?

If someone sues me because they think I did something wrong, do you see what I'm saying?" I almost have this like, "Malfunction in my head." I'm like, "Wait a minute. You got to give me more. God, why are you not as clear as can be here, right? You got to give me more parameters." But I want to give you a challenge.

And this is something I realized. This is just my immaturity. When God is giving us these commands, He is not trying to give you the minutia so that all you have to do is do a logical mind flow, a logical standard operating procedure so that you can go, "Oh, if A then B, then I can go here." Do you understand what He says?

Imitate your father. Be like him. And for those of you guys who have had parents who are wise and godly, so when it was time to be compassionate for those who are weak, they were so meek and compassionate and they were humble in heart, but when it came down to make sure that they laid down the law and they were strict and they made sure that people knew, "You can't do this stuff underneath our house because that's sin." And you looked at them and you realized, "Oh my goodness, there's wisdom in that.

There's part of you that wishes there was a manual book for that." But more so what you're doing is you're trying to emulate your wise father. If you had that in your life, blessed, you're blessed. If you didn't have that in your life, you have the Lord Jesus Christ.

So strong, He knew the heart of men. So strong that He would not back down. So strong He spoke with authority. So strong He silenced people. So strong He took a court of whips and chased the marketeers, the money makers from the temple. And yet so humble. Talk about dignity.

Talk about slapping in the face. Have you ever thought about being spit on in the face when you are the Lord of the universe and not saying anything back? Think about being forced, being forced to carry a beam, being forced to be stretched out then whipped. People asking you, "Why don't you do this, Jesus?

Why don't you throw yourself down? Why don't you do this, Jesus? Why don't you feed all of us? Why don't you do..." Have you thought about that? When Jesus is saying those things and the death to which, you recognize He's done all that. You have a wise example in your Lord.

But what's more, you have a wise example in your Father, our God in heaven, who is showing to us His incredible character where it's both, right? It's both absolute righteousness, absolute sinlessness. It is a fearful thing because God says, "I will judge everything, even the thoughts and intentions that you think nobody sees." And what He cares for is the insides, your internals, the actual content of your mind and your heart as it relates to godliness.

And what He's saying is, "Be like Me. Be like Me." And then as I thought about that, there was a part of me as I was doing my devotion and I thought, "Oh man." I regularly underestimate how sinful I am. And I think my intentions are pretty good. I make mistakes, but I sorely underestimate how sinful I am.

And when you see this and you walk down Matthew and he's talking about "blessed are the meek, poor, gentle," all this kind of stuff and he's like, "You should be salty," and he starts talking about, "You shouldn't be angry, you shouldn't lust," and like, "Fail, fail, fail, fail, fail," right?

You could have this weird sentiment, like this half rebellious, half discouraged sentiment in your heart like, "I don't know if I can do that." Have you guys ever read scripture and felt like that? Or felt so discouraged? You almost don't want to look up and then you kind of want to say to God, "I'll try.

I have tried." And I want to encourage you because you have heard it said, "Eye for an eye," and people could not keep that even, right? Historically, mankind has been so riddled with sin, even though you have heard it said, even the traditions of the old, they were not actually able to keep.

And so again, if you're looking at the law of Christ now given to his disciples, please don't be discouraged because I want to give to you something as an encouragement. Even the law of the Old Testament, "Eye for an eye," I believe came from a fatherly heart that desired to restrain the sinful children.

It's kind of like a dad. He sees these two kids just at each other's throat like, "That's mine. No, you took it. It's mine." Right? The dad jumps in and says, "Stop. You only get two minutes. You only get two minutes. That's the law. It's going to be fair." Right?

That's not him just being annoyed. He's actually preventing them destroying each other. But remember also, when you hear God saying, "Be like me," that is fatherly love and instruction for you. Because God said in his love for you, "I want to share my glory with you," which I realize he is also saying, "I'm sharing my character trait with you.

I want you to be like me in my righteousness, in my love, the depth to which, yes, you don't fully understand now, but I'm showing you. I have enemies of which you were one, and I came for you. And I fed you, loved you, even when you were rejecting me and spitting.

I want you to be like me." That is not something for us to be like, "I just can't do that stuff." Right? "I can't abide by all your rules." Think about it another way. That's for us to be like, "Thank you, Lord, for being my heavenly Father and desiring and saying in your word, 'You shall be perfect.'" That's grace upon you.

Amen? That's love for you. That's fatherly instruction to you. So we don't be discouraged when we find these things, but rather we recognize we need this in this life. A lot of us have been saying we feel persecution knocking at the door for those living here comfortably in Orange County.

We are going to have people perhaps accuse us falsely. We're going to have people try to force us to do things we don't like. And if you're going to be like, "I'm an American, and I have rights!" You do, and that's also true. But God desires us to be even more, to have such a wealth where this country is not everything to us.

And we have this fist, this tight-gripped fist, where we're like, "Don't you dare threaten the rights that I have!" But rather this heart overflowing with the love of Christ says, "I've got more to give." Why? That's just like my dad. Let's take a moment to pray. Our God, we want to again thank you so much.

We recognize, God, that by your word you're leading us, you're teaching us. And it is our prayer, God, that we would be humbled to recognize that there are many elements of this, Lord, in different facets of our lives. We do retaliate. And sometimes for us, it's even confusing. Are we trying to uphold the law of God, or are we just getting even?

And I pray, God, that you give us discernment. Discernment, Lord, God, in our homes, in our workplaces, so that, Lord, we will shine your glory, so that, Father, God, people can see the power of our Father working in us. And so I pray, Father, God, we humbly acknowledge none of the things you challenge us to do, none of the things that you have commanded us to be, is capable in our power.

So we ask of you, Lord, that you would aid us through your truth, and that you would guide us in your spirit. We thank you, it's in Christ, and we pray. Amen.