(soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) (soft piano music) - Good morning, church family.

Happy Lord's Day. We're gonna go ahead and begin our service. (soft music) (soft music) (soft music) ♪ Wonderful, merciful Savior ♪ ♪ Precious Redeemer and friend ♪ ♪ Who would have thought that a lamb could be so kind ♪ ♪ Rescue the souls of men ♪ ♪ Oh, you rescue the souls of men ♪ (soft music) ♪ Counselor, comforter, King ♪ ♪ Spirit we long to embrace ♪ ♪ You offer hope when our hearts ♪ ♪ Hopelessly lost, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, we hopelessly lost the way ♪ ♪ You are the one that we praise ♪ ♪ You are the one we adore ♪ ♪ You give the healing and grace ♪ ♪ Our hearts always hunger for ♪ ♪ Oh, our hearts always hunger for ♪ (soft music) ♪ Almighty, almighty infinite Father ♪ ♪ Faithfully loving your own ♪ ♪ Here in our weakness you find us ♪ ♪ Falling before your throne ♪ ♪ Oh, we're falling before your throne ♪ ♪ You are the one that we praise ♪ ♪ You are the one we adore ♪ ♪ You give the healing and grace ♪ ♪ Our hearts always hunger for ♪ ♪ Oh, our hearts always hunger for ♪ ♪ Whichever you are ♪ ♪ You are the one that we praise ♪ ♪ You are the one we adore ♪ ♪ You give the healing and grace ♪ ♪ Our hearts always hunger for ♪ ♪ Oh, our hearts always hunger for ♪ - All right, welcome to Breen Community Church.

Let me jump to our announcements before we get started. First of all, if you are in the college department, today there's a welcome lunch that's being hosted for you. If you have questions about the church or college ministry and what kind of activities that we have, the college ministry staff and the people are gonna be joining the welcome lunch.

It's gonna be held right across the courtyard where the youth group meets, so the cafe, to the right of the cafe, there's a room there, and that's gonna be taking place at 1245, and again, lunch will be provided for you. Women's ministry tea time is happening this coming Saturday at 9.30 a.m., I'm assuming it's in the cafe.

So if you haven't signed up for that and you wanna participate, sign up for that, and that's taking place this Saturday. And then next Sunday is members meeting, and it's at 1.30, okay? So we're gonna grab lunch and then come right back into this room, and there's gonna be a service fair where we're gonna have all the different service teams in our church that's gonna be spread out out there, and you'll be able to go visit.

Some of them are gonna ask for help, and so you can join that. And then some of them are just gonna be presented so that you'll know what's going on at church, so please come visit. And then along with that, so that you don't have to go out and eat lunch, there will be a fundraiser lunch from our youth group that's taking place before the members meeting, so on the courtyard before 1.30.

So you can grab your lunch there, and the money that they're gonna be raising is gonna be going to help support the retreat that they're having early next year, okay? So that's next Sunday. And then newcomers lunch in October 29th at 12.30, so if you are new to the church and you have questions, and again, this is non-college students, and you wanna just come and meet some of the leaders there and ask some questions, that lunch is for you, and that's taking place on October 29th.

And then one last announcement. For Thanksgiving dinner, that's taking place on November 19th, so if--I think they have enough host homes, so if you are planning to sign up and participate that day, if we can ask you to please sign up as soon as possible, because we need to set where people are gonna go, and the later you sign up, the less possibility of you joining the area that you live in, okay?

So if you live in Irvine and you sign up too late, we're gonna have to send you to Diamond Bar or to Cerritos or wherever it's available, okay? So please sign up as soon as you can so that we can put that together sooner than later, okay? Did I miss something?

That's everything, okay. All right, this morning, after I pray for the offering, our brother Joshua's gonna come up and he's gonna give his testimony and be baptized this morning. If you have a physical offering, again, we have a physical box as you're leaving, okay? Let's pray. Father, we thank you for today.

Thank you for your blessing that you give us, Lord God, where we are able to be in a situation where we can honor you, we can take care of our children. We thank you, Father, for living in a free country where we can worship you, Father God, and gather together without fear of harm.

But in the midst of all of this, help us, Lord, not to take for granted what we have, that we may return it back to you, Father God, that it may be used for your glory. Help us, Lord, to give cheerfully. Help us to give in a way that honors you, glorifies you.

May the offering we give be multiplied 30, 60, 100-fold for the sake of your kingdom. We thank you, Father, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Church family, let's all stand together. And I did something in first service. I don't want to deprive you, but we haven't done this in many years.

Why don't we just take a minute to turn around, say hello to the people who we are worshiping with. We'll give you a minute or two just to say hi, greet one another, and we will get started here. Hello, everyone. My name is Josh Choi, and I'll be giving my testimony today.

From my earliest memories, I was a part of two homes. One was the embrace of my family, my mom, dad, older and younger brother. The other was the church, an anchor introduced to us by my mother, who ensured our regular attendance every Sunday. In my elementary and middle school years, I walked and grew in the church alongside my peers.

Whether in the praise team, church orchestra, body worship team, or youth group, the church was my second home. Back then, I loved my brothers and sisters, and I wished to walk with them, at least until high school graduation. But things took a turn when my church experienced a schism.

The schism stemmed from sin within leadership disagreements, which escalated into legal disputes, lawsuits, and assaults. The church, which I had once perceived as an emblem of love and unity, was now marred by conflicts. The most discerning aspect was witnessing friends, including my youth pastor, distance themselves from me in fear of the schism.

I felt the brunt of the aftermath, though I had played no role in the conflict's inception. Consequently, my heart grew cold against God, and my depression and anxiety at the time worsened. From a young age, I faced challenges in connecting with others, perhaps rooted in deep-seated trust issues and an instinct to rely heavily on myself, all rooted in sin and the fear of rejection.

These struggles manifested in forms like insomnia during elementary school, and later as depression and anxiety. In the quest for solace, I often found myself delving into worldly desires of lust for pleasure, worship of academic achievement, and selfish tendencies to cling to comfort and security. However, this worldly water left me wrecked and thirsting for more than before, and I reached a breaking point where I was left in bed, desperate, and calling out to God to save me.

And by his grace, the Lord drew me to his bed. And not going to lie, it was kind of funny thinking back. I opened the Bible app, even though I barely read the Bible. I don't even know why I had the app. But the first thing I saw on the app was a reading plan for anxious people.

Reading from the plan, I read passages and sermons that helped soothe my anxiety. My favorite was Philippians 4, 6-7. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Though this verse didn't instantaneously cure my ailments, it was a beacon, drawing me back to the Bible and teachings of the gospel. Then, over the few years, including my first year at UCI, I committed to attending church and reading his word. During this time, I learned of God's loving and powerful character, but I also learned more about my sinful nature and the harsh reality that I previously loved God only for what he offered to me.

For the longest time, I went to church either to find a community or to help aid my life problems. Like back in middle school when I went to church to seek after a community, or back in high school when I leveraged anxiety and Bible plans as a coping method for my mental illnesses.

I perverted Christianity to serve my own needs. I indulged in sin while deceiving myself that I was a Christian. After all, it's easy to pose as one, especially when the benefits far outweigh the costs. All you have to do is say that you love this God that Christians speak of.

After that, you immerse yourself in the moral teachings of the Bible, which objectively benefits anyone reading it. And best of all, proclaiming this love will secure love and support from a community of Christians. And to add a cherry on top, picking up positions like praise team or some form of servant team will further bolster the respect and love you receive from your community.

And it can also inspire a self-feeding feeling of meaning and purpose in life. It's almost like an all-in-one deal for someone who wants to capitalize on an avenue of a morally good life. I could have easily continued simply going to church like this, growing up benefiting from the church, and probably more so during adulthood when I have kids whom I would also send to church in hopes that they would also lead moral lives.

However, this past life of mine was void of God. Matthew 7, 21-23. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, do we not prophesy in your name and cast out demons in your name and do many mighty works in your name?' And then I will declare to him, 'I never knew you.

Depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'" Reading this verse, even after a lifetime of going to church, I felt a heavy conviction that changed my paradigm of faith. And I began viewing my walk with heavy scrutiny, discovering more and more ulterior motives I had in the past coming to church.

I felt the overwhelming sin running through my veins. However, with each and every sin in the past, I saw God faithfully working in my life, even using my sins to draw me close to him. And to this I repent. Ephesians 2, 4-5. "But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, we are now living this life together in Christ.

By grace, you have been saved." God has saved me from sin, and I am here today because the Lord has allowed me to. It is through his redemptive power that I can stand and live to see every day. Despite my sins, the Lord has shown me mercy and grace from time to time, and I am grateful.

I desire to live a life that is surrender to God, and I strive to give worship that is pleasing to him. And with that, today I proclaim that the Lord my God is my Father, Lord, and Savior. >> Now, should you understand when you go into the water, you're being united to Christ's death, and when you come out, you're being united to his resurrected life?

>> Yes. >> I baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. >> All right, thank you, Joshua, for that great testimony. And he did say he was a middle child with three boys, right? He did, right? Yeah. So I'll have a special heart for him.

I understand you. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke 6:27, and we're going to read up to 36, but the main text that we're going to be looking at is in the first two verses. Luke 6, verse 27 and on. "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also, and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back. Treat others the same way you want them to treat you.

If you love those who love you, what credit is that for you? For even sinners love those who love them. If you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. If you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners in order to receive back the same amount. But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he himself is kind to ungrateful and even evil men.

Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Let's pray. Gracious Father, give us understanding, give us moldable hearts, thoughts, lives, that we may give to you a living sacrifice. We pray for your Holy Spirit's empowerment, guidance, directing and sanctification through your word. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. I think many of you know that in the earlier part of our church, because we didn't have enough finances in the church, and they did a lot of odd jobs in order to provide for the family.

And one of the things that I had to do was I became an ESL teacher, where I taught citizenship to Korean grandparents, who were like 70 and older, and every week, literally I had one lesson that I taught for five years, because they would keep forgetting. And literally every single day, it's like, "Today is Monday, October 3rd, 19 something something," and then they would just repeat it after me.

So in one sense it was frustrating, but in another sense it was easy, because I never had to prepare. I would teach the same lesson like it was brand new, every single day. But one of the joys of the class was watching the older ladies become citizens and how excited they were.

And I remember going through the citizenship course and just helping them to answer quick, "Who is Francis Scott Key?" "When did the Declaration of Independence happen?" And so as they're going through, I had to figure out, like, these are the things that are necessary. You have to have a visa for five years, and you have to live in the United States, and you have to apply and do this and that.

And then when they finally did become a citizen, just an elation, right? Because many of these ladies came from--like went through the war. They were older than my parents, and so they went through the war, and they knew what it was like to be raised during the Japanese occupation of Korea, also through the Korean War, experiencing poverty, and for them, being a citizen of the United States was kind of like-- almost like going to heaven, almost, you know, for them.

And so I remember very distinctly just how happy they were when they became the citizen of the United States. Can you imagine the elation, right, for Christians experiencing what it was like? And I think every single person that has genuinely met Christ knows what it was like before we met Christ.

And then to become the citizen of the kingdom of God. You know, last couple weeks, we've been talking about the Beatitudes, and Beatitude basically is the entrance into the kingdom. These are the things that causes us to come into this kingdom. He says, "Blessed are those who are poor, for theirs is the kingdom of God." He's not simply saying those who are financial, who has lower economic status, that for theirs is God's kingdom.

Obviously, he's talking even beyond that, right? That in order for us to enter the kingdom of heaven, we need to recognize our spiritual poverty, which leads us to hungering and thirsting for righteousness. He says, "Those who hunger will be satisfied." And then those who weep, right? Those who--again, if we were to read that in that context, those who weep are the ones who are repenting.

They recognize their poverty. "For theirs is then my hunger, which causes them to repent and weep." And then it says, "Blessed are those who are hated, because now they are part of the new kingdom, that the people of the old kingdom will hate you, because these two kingdoms are in conflict." Before we were enemies of the cross, now we are enemies of the world.

And as a result of that, he says, "Those who you were a part of, now they hate you." And he said, so that was the entrance into the kingdom of God. What we're going to be talking about for the next few weeks, maybe even a few months, even though it's a short text, that now that we are citizens of the new kingdom, what is the central character of the citizen of God's kingdom?

We already know what the passage says. The Scripture tells us that the central aspect of who we are is love. In 2 Peter 1:4 it says, "For by these he has granted to us the precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature." The divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

You notice here, salvation isn't simply somebody who deserved punitive penalty, and Jesus paid the penalty, and so therefore, you will no longer be punished. And many people think the gospel is that. We're not going to be punished. So therefore, we're going to go to heaven and experience eternity. Well, that's part of it.

He said that our very nature changes. That we are partakers of the divine nature. So he didn't just save us from the penalty, but he also saved us from the result and the life that comes with this sin. Our very nature has changed. We were children of darkness, now we are children of the light.

And in that divine nature, the central character of that divine nature is love. Central character of that divine nature, of the new citizen, is love. Colossians 3.14 is beyond all these things. Beyond everything else, he says, "Put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity." And then again, Romans 13.10, he said, "Love does no wrong to a neighbor.

Therefore, love is a fulfillment of the law." When Jesus was asked, "What is the greatest commandment?" The Pharisees and the scribes were constantly debating with one another because they were OCD about obeying the law. And they were dissecting every single law. Which is the greatest? Who's the most holy?

Who's keeping the law most perfectly? And so they asked Jesus, "What's the greatest law?" And Jesus says, "All of the law is summarized in these two commandments. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and then love your neighbor as yourself." Those two laws summarize all the laws.

Everything that God has taught the nation of Israel, everything that God has taught us as Christians, are summarized by these two laws. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself. Now why--when we talk about this, about the love, we can easily think, "Well, that's easy." Being holy is hard, right?

Not do this and do that, don't touch this, don't watch this. And so oftentimes we think that being spiritually mature means that we need to practice holiness, and we need to be moral, and there's things we need to do, things we don't need to do. And the Bible does give us instructions to do that.

But he says all of the things that he has said is summarized in these two commandments. Love God and love your neighbor. There is nothing more sanctifying than the practice of biblical love. There is nothing that kills your natural self than practicing this biblical love. There is nothing more humiliating, there is nothing more humbling, there is nothing more emptying than the practice of biblical love.

Matthew 16, 24 says, "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself, take up the cross, and follow me." Nothing requires the picking up of the cross and denying of yourself more than the practice of this love. Now some of us may say, "Well, I practice love.

I love my mom, I love my dad, I have a lot of friends. I have a lot of friends. I love my church people, I love my grandparents, I have many friends. So I practice this love, so I'm good." The scripture tells us, and the text that we're looking at, it says if you practice, if your love is limited to that, it says even the sinners practice that.

Tell me somebody who doesn't practice that. Tell me somebody who doesn't love their mom or dad. I'm generalizing, but that's not unique to Christians. Who has friends? That's not unique to Christians. The kind of love that he tells us to love can only be understood and practiced if God has changed your divine nature, if your ears are open.

That's why verse 27 begins by saying, "But I say to you who hear." Is there somebody here that doesn't hear what I'm saying? I mean, everybody has ears. He's not talking about those who are not deaf. And he would often say, when he would say something important, "He who has," what?

"Ears, let him hear." Was he looking at the crowd and saw some people without ears? And saying, like, only those who have physical ears can listen to what I'm saying. Obviously, that's not what he's saying. He's saying, if your heart is not bent toward Christ, if you're not interested in what he has to say, you're not going to not only, not only are you not going to understand it, you have no intention of applying this.

Because what he calls us to do as Christians in our natural state is impossible. In fact, it's ridiculous to even expect this. The world will not look at somebody who practices this as somebody wise. You're a fool. Somebody who's trying to harm you, somebody who has a history of hating you, and then you're deciding to love them, let alone not retaliate?

The love that he calls us to love can only be understood if there was already the Holy Spirit, this divine nature that has been given to you where your ears became open, and you understand why he's saying this. He says, he begins by saying, "Love," who? He doesn't just say love.

He says, "Love," who? Your enemies, right? Now, you have to understand who the enemies are. The enemies are not people who are irritating, right? It's hard to love people who are irritating. They say things that you don't want to hear. It's hard to love people who are different than you.

It's hard to love people who are not responsible. It's hard to love people who are weird. But that's not who he's talking about. He's talking about your enemy. An enemy is somebody who is willfully out to hurt you. They rejoice when bad things happen to you. That's an enemy.

An enemy isn't just somebody that you have a hard time relating to. An enemy isn't just somebody whose speech is difficult to swallow. He's talking about somebody who is willfully trying to hurt you. So think how difficult it is to hear this. I mean, think about it. Jesus is speaking, and in his disciples, there was a zealot among them.

And remember we talked about Simon the Zealot. The zealots prided themselves of willing to die in the context of killing their enemies. And that was their virtue. And the person who was willing to do more harm than anybody else, that was your leader. That's a zealot. Now, that wasn't unique only to the zealot.

Israelites believed that when God came, that he's going to punish their enemies. He's going to wipe them out. These Romans who have come and suppress them so that they can't have a good life. They're second-class citizens. If God comes, he's going to wipe them out. And that's why they were waiting for the Messiah.

Not only that, remember, there was Matthew the tax collector in their midst. And you have the fishermen who this guy was taking advantage of and taking their money. And this is money coming out of their pocket, money that they could have used to take care of their children. And that guy is sitting in their midst.

So imagine when Jesus says, "Love your enemies." I think there was an immediate practical application even among his disciples. That even among them, he's not just talking generality, he's talking to something specific within them. That if you want to be my disciple, you must practice this love. Easy to say, right?

Easy to be up in a pulpit and say, "Love your enemies." It sounds great. It sounds noble. But if you've ever even attempted to love somebody that is trying to harm you, you know how impossible that is. Because we don't wrestle with loving our enemies. We wrestle with not taking vengeance.

We wrestle with, if they harmed us, oh man, I want to teach them a lesson. I want to teach them a lesson so bad. So to even think that we're going to move from that to love them and care for them, is unimaginable because it's rarely practiced. The love that he calls us to love is an agape love.

The Bible uses many different words for love, but the love that he's referring to is a covenantal love. And the closest thing that you and I can think of as a covenantal love is when a husband and wife get married, you make a promise that I'm going to love and respect, sacrifice, in what?

Enrich her for poorer, sickness and in health, till death do us part. Good or bad. Not, I will love and honor and support and sacrifice as long as they deserve it. And that would be an honest confession to how we practice love. Right? In most circles. I will love and honor and sacrifice as long as you don't tick me off, as long as you do your part, I'll do my part.

But that's not what we say when we enter into this covenant relationship. When we enter into this covenant relationship, it says when things are good and when things are bad. When we're poor or when we're rich. We make this covenant relationship meaning that I'm going to love you, whether you deserve it or not.

And two people enter this covenant relationship. And that's what a covenant, that's what he calls us to love. He says to love, but not just anybody, not just your wife, but your enemy. In John 13, 34-35, he tells us that that central identifying mark between a non-Christian and a Christian is what?

Not what you do or don't do, not if you do quiet time or not what church you belong to. He said the central identifying mark of a Christian is what? Love. A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.

By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another. Now he says that this is a new commandment. Now how is this a new commandment? Because we see something similar in the Old Testament. In Leviticus 19, 18, he says, "You shall not take vengeance nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord." Was Jesus not aware of Leviticus? Did Jesus forget that this was already said in the Old Testament? Why does he say this is a new commandment? He says the new commandment in the stipulation that makes this a new commandment, he says that love as what?

As I have loved you. That's what makes a new commandment. It's not just any love. It's not loving people who are deserving. It's not loving people who are easy to love. It's not loving people who reciprocate. But he says, "As I have loved you." And what is this love?

Sagape, covenantal love. Despite love. Natural love will not love anyone that's difficult. Think about it. We don't have to search the scriptures deeply to know this. Look at our own lives. If they're difficult, especially if you're a Christian, there's Christian-y things that we say to make what we do godly.

We can't be friends with everybody. And so it becomes like, these are friends and these are acquaintances. So friends are people that we love, we care for, we invite into the house. Acquaintances are people that we don't get along with. We've got to stiff-arm them. And so natural love will never practice love to love people who are difficult.

Natural love will not love anyone that won't reciprocate. I can practice love for a while, but if you don't reciprocate, if you don't appreciate what I'm doing, eventually you become an acquaintance. I'm not going to pour my life into it. I've done that, but you didn't reciprocate. And at some point, so I'll tolerate for a while, for a month, for two months, or maybe even a year, but you never reciprocate, so you don't deserve this love.

Natural love will never practice love to those who don't reciprocate. Natural love will not love anyone that's different. And that's why we gather around ourselves people who are like us. They speak like us. They talk like us. They're financially like us. And so we surround ourselves with people that are easier to love.

And so we practice love the way the rest of the world loves, and so we think that we're practicing the biblical love. The natural love, if it's difficult to do that, will never love your enemy. Every fiber of our being will fight against it. In fact, it almost sounds like, "Jesus could not have meant that." Enemy?

I can't even love people who are difficult. If there's a possibility that you might hurt me, that's enough. That's enough for me to stiff-arm you. Many of you have come from churches where you've been hurt. And as a result of that, you have a defense mechanism. "I can't be hurt again." So as a result of that, you have made lines.

People that I can love, people I can't love. If there's a possibility that you might hurt me, I can't practice this love. You can be my acquaintance, but I can't practice this love. Loving your enemy challenges that. It challenges that. Because he didn't just say, "Hey, take a risk." He said, "No, the people who are already hurting you to love them." Naturally speaking, this is ridiculous.

It must be a hyperbole. God doesn't really expect us to practice this. Not only does he expect us to practice this, he says, "This is the identifying mark of a Christian." There's nothing more that surprises the secular world than when they see God's people practice this love. Because they don't see this anywhere else in the world.

This is supernatural. This is something that you cannot practice. You will not practice. They won't even praise you if you practice it. This love is not of this world. In fact, Paul even himself says, "God demonstrates his love in this agape love." Romans 5, 6-11, "For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for us." While we were yet helpless.

Verse 8, "But God demonstrates his own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Verse 10, "For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son." While we were helpless, while we were sinners, and while we were his enemies.

We were created to be image bearers of God. And when Adam and Eve and all their descendants rebelled against God, how does the Bible describe our fall? All have sinned and what? Fall short of the glory of God. God's glory will no longer shine on sinners. We no longer reflect who God is.

So when Christ comes and he restores that glory, now we are back to what God intended to be his image bearers. And what is the image that God desires us to bear more than any other image? It's his love. His love. When we reflect the cross, we bear his image.

In that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. There's nothing more sanctifying in life. There's nothing more humbling. There's nothing that breaks us more than to even attempt to practice this love. He begins by saying, "Love your enemies." And then he tells us what that's going to look like.

So what he says from verse 27 down about what you ought to do, you will never see it anywhere else. You'll never see it anywhere else. You'll see like other religions that the good balances the bad or fight against your enemy and how to conquer them and how to receive blessing.

But to love your enemies, to turn the other cheek, and this is what he did for us, he says. So we are to reflect his glory and say, "Oh, you know, like spiritual people are people who know the Bible. Spiritual people who are disciplined. Spiritual people who bear fruit.

Mature people are the ones who have know-how and are the disciples." That's not what the Bible says. All these things are important things, but the central thing that God looks at, that he wants us to reflect more than any other character, is to love our enemies, to love difficult people, because there's no benefit to you.

You're not doing it because they're going to reciprocate one day. You're not doing it because somehow there's benefit or glory that comes to you. We simply do it because he did it for us, because we're his image bearers. First thing that he says to us, just in case we superficially says, "Oh, yeah, yeah, I love your enemies." And oftentimes what we think of loving our enemies is not hating them.

I'm not going to hate them, and I'm not going to go and slash their tires, and, you know, so I'm loving them. Well, he explains to us the application of this. First place, he says, "To do good to those who hate you." Like I said, if you've ever tried to love anybody, if you've ever tried to be around, even be around somebody who you feel like were against you, your struggle wasn't to do good for them.

Your struggle was to not to hit them back. They harmed you. Your struggle wasn't like, "What good can I do for them?" Our struggle was, "How do I let them know that they're not going to get away with this? How do I do this?" That's what we struggle with.

And if you're self-controlled enough, and if you're godly enough, that I'm not going to harm you the way you deserve, because you're a righteous man. You're a holy man. You're a godly man. But his love calls us beyond that. And I've mentioned this before, the distinction between justice, mercy, and grace, because you and I have a hard time in our flesh to practice even justice.

If somebody smacks me on my left cheek, right, he said, "Turn the other cheek." Are you kidding? Turn the other cheek? I'm going to learn some MMA and put you in an arm bar. I'm not going to let you tap out. Once I break your arm, I'm going to break your neck, break your knees, break your-- Was that too violent?

You know it's true. Because that's what we struggle with. We struggle with this. If you slap me, I'm going to make sure that you know what you did was wrong. I'm going to put you in your place. I'm going to try not to kill you, but I'm going to harm you enough so that you never do this again.

And I need to do this so that you don't go around hurting other people, so I'm actually doing God's work. Because that's what we struggle with. That's justice. In the Old Testament, God restricts our justice because it is our natural inclination to go beyond justice. You hurt my daughter, I kill your family.

You bomb our village, I destroy your nation. So he says eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. So he puts justice--so that you can practice justice. The next level is mercy. Mercy is even though you are wrong, you don't retaliate at all. Mercy is not giving back what we deserve.

So even though they may deserve justice, you choose to withhold and not to harm them. That's mercy. Even though you're a good man, a self-controlled man, a truly religious man, you may do your best to practice mercy. But what he calls us to do is beyond that. Grace is receiving what you don't deserve.

God is perfectly in his place to practice justice, and if he practiced justice with us, you and I wouldn't be here. He is perfectly just to destroy every single human being who rebelled against him. So that would be perfectly just, to send all of us to hell. Who are we to question a sovereign God?

And what--even if you think it's unfair, what are you going to do about it? He's God. The very reason why you and I woke up today is because he allowed enough oxygen to come into our nostrils. And if he chose not to do that, if he stopped sustaining the universe, all he had to do was just stop, and you and I would die.

And he would have been perfectly just. He would have been perfectly merciful without bringing justice. And to say, "You know what? God could have destroyed them, but he's not destroying us. He's just allowing us to live." But he calls us to practice grace. Not only did he forgive us of our sins, he says he has made us his adopted children.

We're co-heirs with Christ. We have been adopted into his family, and he calls us to enter this throne of what? Throne of justice? Throne of mercy? Throne of grace. That in times of struggle to come, seek him out. People who are rebellious, people who are helpless, people who are sinners, people who are enemies at one point.

He practiced this grace, and this is what he calls us to do. Now, I want to qualify here, because whenever we talk about the idea of grace, we practice a worldly understanding of grace. So people think that practicing grace means that when people are sinning and do whatever they want, we turn the other way, and we sweep it under the rug, and we think that that's grace.

You would never do that to somebody you truly love. If somebody, your mother, father, brother, sister, and your children are headed toward the path that's going to harm them and destroy them, you don't say, "You know what? I want to practice grace. And I'm not going to say anything.

I'm just going to let them be." Would you say that that's gracious? No, that's indifference. That's not grace, because you would not do that to somebody you truly love. I don't want to get my hands dirty. I don't want them getting mad at me, because I know if I say this, that they're going to say I'm a jerk.

So let's just practice grace. That's not grace. That's indifference. Sometimes practicing grace means to say difficult things. Sometimes practicing grace would cause them to dislike you even further. Sometimes practicing grace means to speak the truth in love. Nevertheless, he calls us to practice this grace in Romans 12, 17-21.

"Never pay back evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men, if possible, so far as 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 heap burning coals on his head. Do not overcome evil, but overcome evil with good. Do not be overcome by evil." Not only to not hate them, he said to feed them.

Not only don't retaliate, he said give them a drink. He said repay their evil with good. Tell me that that doesn't stir you up. If you've never made an attempt to even practice this, you're just going to hear it kind of like, "Nah, this can't be serious." Because you know how difficult this is.

This will destroy you. Loving somebody that is trying to harm you will destroy you. It will eat you up. You can't sleep at night. Even the thought of doing good to somebody who is actively wanting harm in your life, and to even contemplate, "How am I going to do good for them?

How can I feed them? How can I care for them?" It will kill you. But that thing that dies in the context of trying to kill, in the context of trying to love somebody who hates you, must die. And that's exactly why he calls us to do it. That thing which causes us to stiff-arm people, to hate people who hate us, must first die.

So when Jesus says, "He who finds this life will lose it." He who practices love like the rest of the world, that love people who are lovable, who are easy to love, eventually, if that's the only kind of love you practice, eventually you will see what that does to your marriage.

You will see what that does to your children. You will see how long your friendship will last. You will see how long the church will go. You will see what kind of children that you will bear. You will see what kind of church fellowship you will have. If you only practice this love that the world practices.

Because eventually, they're not going to be lovable. Eventually, you will say they don't deserve it. Eventually, you're not going to be satisfied in the way that they're responding. So the practice, this worldly kind of love, lasts for a period because it's self-centered. The love that he calls us to practice will kill us.

It will humble us. It humiliates us. And it drives out any personal ambition that we hold on to. Any personal pride. Any desire to be recognized. Any desire to be seen. Any desire to be somebody will be killed. I remember years ago, while we were engaged in homeless ministry, when we first started engaging, God ignited a compassion in me.

And I remember having conversations with the homeless and thinking, "That's somebody's brother. That's somebody's sister. That's somebody's son. That's somebody's daughter." And I began to see them with compassion. Because God allowed me to see them as people. At one point, they were somebody's beloved child in somebody's arm. Something happened in their life.

At some point, they were somebody's brother that they played baseball with and soccer with. They got caught up in drugs. Something happened in their life, and they're out on the street. And God allowed me to have compassion for them. So I went out, and I tried to, you know, "Let's go.

Let's go out and rally people to go out and help them." But after a while, that compassion started to dwindle away. Because as I started going out, and the money that I had to use -- I mean, at that time, my full-time pay was $1,300. And every challenge every week was, "How can I feed 100 people with $50?" And I remember very specifically, you know, when we first started going out, it used to be called Price Club.

Now it's Costco. And they used to have these Farmer John hot dogs. And these Farmer John hot dogs, you can get 50 of them for $4.95. And then I can get another can of hot chocolate that I can make a whole hot chocolate thing for another $4.95, right? So I bought enough of them, so $50, we were able to do that.

It wasn't delicious, but it was just not for them to be hungry. And then I remember a lady in our church wanted to help, and so she would go collect old donuts, right? Before they throw it away, she would get a whole bucket of it. So that's what we fed every year for years and years, right?

Farmer John hot dogs, hot chocolate, and stale donuts, right? And then I was like, "Oh, you know, winter is coming around, so it's going to get cold." So I started to collect used clothing that people would typically donate or throw away. So I started collecting that, and I would start laying it out.

And that's when I really got into trouble because it started attracting a large crowd, and we would always run out of food. And then not only would we run out of food, we would run out of clothes. So all the good clothes, they would come and get it first.

And then once it ran out, the benevolence would turn to frustration. And every week I went out, you would have the people in the front saying, "Thank you for coming, thank you for coming," but at the end, I would always get cussed out before we leave. And so every day we'd pack up our stuff with somebody cussing us out because we didn't have enough.

And my compassion started to dwindle into bitterness. And at that time, even though it was $200, my full-time pay was $1,300, so $200 at that time was a lot of money for me. And I said, "Man, I'm sacrificing all of this to come out, and they're cussing me out." And then on top of that, the more time I spent with them, a lot of these people were not nice people.

They're drug dealers. Some of them talked about raping girls like it was fun. And I'm sitting there listening to their conversation. The longer I was out there, I mean, these aren't good guys. And this is dangerous. And I see young teenage girls get hooked on drugs. They come out, blonde hair, blue eye, like a high school cheerleader, and then six months later, you could see how their physical appearance was completely wrecked because of drugs, and they would have to sell their bodies just to stay safe and to get drugs.

And I'm watching this, and I'm serving these people. And as more time went by, love went away. I had no compassion. But I had to keep doing it because I'm committed, because I got other people to come out with me. So I can't quit now. But I remember as I was wrestling with this, thinking, "If I do it for them, I would have stopped because my love for them wasn't enough." If I went out thinking like, "Oh, I feel good.

I feel like I'm doing something good," that also dried up. After the initial period, that also dried up. And I remember wrestling through that process where every time I would come before God and pray, I said, "Love them as I loved you." Man, every fiber of my being fought against that.

Every fiber of my being. Now, I share you that because that's what I experienced out on the street. But to be more real, I struggle with that as a pastor. And that's the biggest struggle that I struggle with more than anything else as a pastor. I don't know how many times I tell myself, "I don't want to deal with this anymore." If I wasn't a pastor, I don't have to deal with this.

So through the years, I wrestled with that thought. If I wasn't a pastor, I don't have to deal with this. Why do I have to deal with this? Why do I have to keep doing this? And every time I wrestle with that, I said, "Love them as I've loved you." When I think about loving people in my flesh, I don't have it in me.

I don't have it in me. There's nothing deep inside that if I tap into it, somehow love is going to come out. The only way that I can practice this love is if the love of Christ compels me. If I'm not compelled by the love of Christ, you can't pay me enough.

And I realize that this is not a call because I'm a pastor. This is a call to every single child of God. I'm not excused if I get off this pulpit that I don't need to practice this anymore. This was not a unique calling for the pastorate to love.

It's every child of God. And I can tell you, when I got saved in 1983, December 26, 11 p.m., right? That's how distinct my salvation was. I would like to tell you that God showed mercy to me and grace up to that point because all the things that I did in ignorance because I didn't know Him, but God showed grace and mercy to me.

And so since then, I've been preaching the gospel, bringing people to Christ, and thank God that I got saved so that I can save all these people and bring people to Christ. I wish I could tell you that that's how my life went. My greatest regrets and embarrassment in life wasn't before 1983.

It's since 1983. Considering I know what I know, considering that He's called me to the pastorate, memories of my failures, and to know that the only reason why I'm here is because God practiced this grace with me, because He was gracious with me. Sometimes we think of God as an it.

He's an emotionless being who's just all-powerful and sovereign, and He just kind of dictates and does whatever He does. But we have emotions because He has emotions. The Bible tells us He grieves. When Jesus came, He wept. If you do not practice this love, you will understand the Word of God, but you will never be able to relate to the heart of God because you can explain logically.

You could try to explain logically why Jesus came, but it makes no sense. Explain to somebody why He would send His only begotten Son, logically, because it's not logical. It doesn't make any sense. Why would a holy God put up with enemies to send His only begotten Son who won rebellion?

It is not logical. There's no amount of apologetics that can explain what Jesus did. Because it's not logical. Because it's unnatural. Until we understand and embrace this love and attempt to practice this love in our lives to reflect what He's done, you will never understand the heart of God.

You will never understand why He came. You will never understand how He loves you. And you will never understand why He sends us to get more. Because He loves us. He loves enemies. And you and I, at one point, were enemies of God. So He calls us to practice what He did for us.

I don't know about you, but that's mind-blowing to me. Why would a holy God do this? Humanly speaking, it is so sad what our God has to put up with. It is so sad that even among His children, we don't understand Him. Even when we sin, we grieve over what it does to us.

But very little do we think about what it does to Him. Despite that, despite that, He promises us that He who began a good work in you will carry it unto completion, unto the day of Christ. Doesn't this God deserve our praise? Doesn't this God deserve our love? Doesn't this God deserve our worship?

Let's pray. Father, help us to see the depth, the length, the width, the height of Your love. That every single person in this room will be overwhelmed by this grace. That we would live our lives being compelled by this love. That this love would cause us to love as You love.

That we would obey Your words. That it would not be burdensome. But to walk in Your path, we'd be joyous. I pray, Father God, that You'd open our eyes, brighter and brighter, that we may see the glory of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That what we desire more than anything in this world is to please You.

To thank You. To obey You. And to ultimately love You. For that end, may Your word bear fruit, Lord God, in our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Let's all stand up for the closing praise. (guitar music) ♪ Peace and peace ♪ ♪ Oh, how can this be ♪ ♪ For lawbreakers and thieves ♪ ♪ For the worthless, the beasts ♪ ♪ You have said that our judgment is dead ♪ ♪ All eternity without hope, without rest ♪ ♪ What an amazing mystery ♪ ♪ What an amazing mystery ♪ ♪ That your grace has come to me ♪ (guitar music) ♪ Peace and peace ♪ ♪ Peace and peace ♪ ♪ Oh, how can this be ♪ ♪ The matchless king of all ♪ ♪ The bloodthirst for peace ♪ ♪ The martyr man ♪ ♪ What atonement you bring ♪ ♪ The vilest sinner's heart can be cleansed ♪ ♪ Can be free ♪ ♪ Oh, what an amazing mystery ♪ ♪ What an amazing mystery ♪ ♪ That your grace has come to me ♪ (guitar music) ♪ Peace and peace ♪ ♪ Peace and peace ♪ ♪ Oh, how can this be ♪ ♪ The songs of gratefulness ♪ ♪ Temporized never seen ♪ ♪ Loved by God and called as a sinner ♪ ♪ My heart is satisfied in the riches of God ♪ ♪ What an amazing mystery ♪ ♪ What an amazing mystery ♪ ♪ That your grace has come to me ♪ ♪ What an amazing love ♪ ♪ Oh, what an amazing love I see ♪ ♪ What an amazing love I see ♪ ♪ That your grace has come to me ♪ ♪ Oh, what an amazing love I see ♪ ♪ What an amazing love I see ♪ ♪ That your grace has come to me ♪ (guitar music) (guitar music) ♪ Oh, what an amazing love I see ♪ ♪ What an amazing love I see ♪ ♪ That your grace has come to me ♪ (guitar music) - Let's pray.

Now the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the fellowship and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the eternal deep, deep love of God, sanctify us, crucify us, encourage us, challenge us, and build us up. That we may be the reflection of Christ's love and the aroma of Christ wherever you send us.

In Christ's name we pray, amen. (guitar music) ♪ They called him Jesus ♪ ♪ He came to the earth ♪ ♪ He'll end the world ♪ ♪ He lives in power ♪ ♪ To by my power ♪ ♪ An empty grave is there to ♪ ♪ My Savior lay ♪ ♪ Because he lives ♪ ♪ I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because he lives ♪ ♪ All fear is gone ♪ ♪ Because I know ♪ ♪ He holds the future ♪ ♪ And life is worth the living ♪ ♪ Just because he lives ♪ ♪ Worthy of every breath he could ever breathe ♪ ♪ He'll live for you ♪ (gentle music)