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Happy Lord's Day. Psalm 66, verse 20, it reads, "Blessed be God, who has not turned away my prayer, "nor his loving kindness from me. "As we remain prayerful over what's going on "in the world today, "and in whichever season we may be going through, "and even as we come before the Lord today, "may it be our true intent and desire to bless the Lord "with all of our heart, soul, and mind." And yeah, so we will begin our service.
(soft music) (soft music) ♪ The sun comes up ♪ ♪ The sun comes up ♪ ♪ It's a new day dawning ♪ ♪ It's time to sing your song again ♪ ♪ Whatever may pass ♪ ♪ And whatever lies before me ♪ ♪ Let me be singing when the evening comes ♪ Bless the Lord.
♪ Bless the Lord, O my soul ♪ ♪ O my soul ♪ ♪ Worship his holy name ♪ ♪ Sing like never before ♪ ♪ O my soul ♪ ♪ I'll worship your holy name ♪ ♪ Rich in love ♪ ♪ Rich in love ♪ ♪ Angels soar to the heaven ♪ ♪ Your name is great ♪ ♪ And your heart is kind ♪ ♪ So your goodness I will keep on singing ♪ ♪ 10,000 reasons for my heart to find ♪ Bless the Lord.
♪ Bless the Lord, O my soul ♪ ♪ O my soul ♪ ♪ Worship his holy name ♪ ♪ Sing like never before ♪ ♪ O my soul ♪ ♪ I'll worship your holy name ♪ ♪ On that day ♪ ♪ On that day ♪ ♪ When my strength is failing ♪ ♪ The end draws near ♪ ♪ And my time has come ♪ ♪ Still my soul will sing your praise unending ♪ ♪ 10,000 years and then forevermore ♪ ♪ Bless the Lord ♪ ♪ Bless the Lord, O my soul ♪ ♪ O my soul ♪ ♪ Worship his holy name ♪ ♪ Sing like never before ♪ ♪ O my soul ♪ ♪ I'll worship your holy name ♪ ♪ Your holy name ♪ ♪ Bless the Lord, O my soul ♪ ♪ O my soul ♪ ♪ Worship his holy name ♪ ♪ Sing like never before ♪ ♪ O my soul ♪ ♪ I'll worship your holy name ♪ ♪ I'll worship your holy name ♪ ♪ Lord, I'll worship your holy name ♪ - Welcome to Breen Community Church.
As you guys know, we have our members meeting today at 1.30. And so along with that, our high school, junior high school ministry is having a fundraiser for lunch. They're having pulled pork and very expensive drink along with that. So it's gonna be for $8, and they'll be accepting cash or Zelle.
So if you go out, please help them. Our youth group has doubled in size in like in a matter of maybe about three or four months. And so they have a retreat coming up, I think in February or January, February. And so the funds that are being raised is for that.
So please stick around and grab your lunch. And if you are members of the church, after lunch, we'll be having our meeting here at 1.30. So please stick around for that. And if you can't make it, please give us a heads up ahead of time before. This coming Friday, we have all church praise and prayer that's taking place at 7.30.
So we don't have a regular Bible study, but we'll be meeting here at 7.30. So please come and we'll take some time to pray for corporate stuff. And there's a lot of things to pray for. So please come and join us for corporate prayer. Newcomers lunch. If you are new to the church and you want to find out more about the church, meet some of the leaders in the church, ask them questions about what's going on.
This is a meeting for you. If you sign up again on October 29th at 12.30 p.m. after the second service, we'll be having lunch here. So please sign up for that. Reformation Night, which is a replacement for Halloween for our church and children. That's taking place October 31st. The theme this year is Sola Scriptura and John Calvin.
So there's going to be a light teaching and obviously fun and games. But they are asking you to sign up. So if you are planning to bring your children, you do not need to be a member of the church, but you can come to that. Because of space, what we're asking is if you are planning to bring somebody who is not at church for the purpose of witnessing or introduce the church, please sign them up as well so that they'll know exactly how many people to prepare for.
And so they're going to be preparing food and snacks and candies and all that kind of stuff. So they're asking whoever is coming to sign up and if you're going to be bringing friends, please sign them up as well. Thanksgiving Regional Dinner. I know it's in November 19th, but they're asking you to sign up as soon as you can so that they can place you in the proper groups, hopefully near your home.
So there's going to be a group of maybe about 20, 25 people divided into homes. So if you sign up early, we'll be able to put you in that area. Otherwise, we're going to end up having to put you in places where maybe a little bit further away from home.
So if you're planning to and you are able to, please sign up for that as soon as possible. And then this coming Wednesday, there is a BAM fellowship. If you're in the singles ministry, there's a bowling night that's happening in the middle of the summer. That's a great place to study.
And then FAM 245. If you are a regular member of the FAM 245, there's also a fellowship, bowling fellowship happening on December 2nd as well. Okay, I think that's it for the announcement. I'm going to pray for us. Again, if you have a physical offering to drop off, we have a box in the back.
And then afterwards, we'll have Nicholas Chen. He's going to come up and give his testimony and be baptized this morning. Let's pray. Thank you so much for the privilege that we have to be able to come worship you. Help us, Lord God, to lift up our eyes, to truly be able to know and to believe where our hope and our help truly comes from.
Help us to understand who you are, that our worship, our giving, may be an overflow of thanksgiving, Father God, of the grace that you've given us. May your offering be given joyfully, cheerfully, Lord God, as an act of worship, and be multiplied 30, 60, 100-fold for the sake of your kingdom.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Let us all rise. And continuing on from last week, let's spend a few moments just to greet our neighbors around us. ♪ When the enemy surrounds ♪ ♪ And my heart grows faint within ♪ ♪ When the darkness overwhelms ♪ ♪ And my fears are pressing in ♪ ♪ I will trust in you, O Lord ♪ ♪ In the silence I will wait ♪ ♪ I will stand upon your Word ♪ ♪ You're my solid rock and my salvation ♪ ♪ My steadfast hope that won't be shaken ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪ In stronghold and my sheath ♪ ♪ In the midst of every threat ♪ ♪ Though the wicked will ever lead ♪ ♪ He will vanish like a breath ♪ ♪ Yes, I know the outcome's sure ♪ ♪ Satan's evil plans will fail ♪ ♪ In your power I'm secure ♪ ♪ You're my solid rock and my salvation ♪ ♪ My steadfast hope that won't be shaken ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪ You're my comfort when I feel forsaken ♪ ♪ My refuge and my sure foundation ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪ This is love I can't explain ♪ ♪ This is mercy unreserved ♪ ♪ Through your sacrifice so great ♪ ♪ I have peace that's undeserved ♪ ♪ For the battle has been won ♪ ♪ And I fear no shame or loss ♪ ♪ Now the sting of death is gone ♪ ♪ You're my solid rock and my salvation ♪ ♪ My steadfast hope that won't be shaken ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪ You're my comfort when I feel forsaken ♪ ♪ My refuge and my sure foundation ♪ ♪ My soul will wait, my soul will wait for you ♪ ♪ Pouring out our hearts before you ♪ ♪ We will trust in you ♪ ♪ Perfect Savior, strong defender ♪ ♪ We will trust in you ♪ ♪ Pouring out our hearts before you ♪ ♪ We will trust in you ♪ ♪ Perfect Savior, strong defender ♪ ♪ We will trust in you ♪ ♪ Be thou, be thou my vision ♪ ♪ O Lord of my heart ♪ ♪ Naught be all else to me ♪ ♪ Say that thou art ♪ ♪ Thou my best thought by day or by night ♪ ♪ Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light ♪ ♪ Be thou my wisdom ♪ ♪ Be thou my wisdom and thou my true word ♪ ♪ I am her with thee and thou with me, Lord ♪ ♪ Thou my great Father, I thy true son ♪ ♪ Thou in me dwelling and I with thee, one ♪ ♪ Riches I need not, riches I need not ♪ ♪ Nor man's empty praise ♪ ♪ Thou mine inheritance, now and always ♪ ♪ Thou and thou only, first in my heart ♪ ♪ My King of heaven, my treasure thou art ♪ (gentle music) ♪ My King of heaven ♪ ♪ My King of heaven, my victory won ♪ ♪ May I reach heaven's joys, oh, like heaven's sun ♪ ♪ Heart of my own heart, whatever befall ♪ ♪ Still be my vision, oh, ruler of all ♪ ♪ Heart of my own heart ♪ ♪ Heart of my own heart, whatever befall ♪ ♪ Still be my vision, oh, ruler of all ♪ - Amen, you may be seated.
(bell tolling) - Hello, everyone. My name is Nicholas Chen, and I am a senior at UCI. I was born and lived my whole life in Taiwan, coming to the States for college. Growing up in Taiwan, my father was agnostic, and my mother was a devout Buddhist. Since she mostly took care of my siblings and I, we all had a Buddhist upbringing, and she would bring me to the temples along with her to pray and burn incense.
I first learned of Christ from my mother, whose Christian friends had offered to pray for her when my younger brother was suffering from a medical condition that neither conventional medicine nor Buddhist practices could explain or cure. After this, my mother converted to Christianity and received Christ, and started bringing my siblings and I to church.
Seeing both the physical changes God made to cure my brother, but also the spiritual change in my mother, it was really easy for me to accept Christ and think that I needed Christ, that I wanted Christ, but not need him, and that I needed a lot of worldly, personal evidence.
Unprompted, I approached my mother when I was eight and asked to be baptized. However, I did not truly understand the gospel, nor would it have meant to be saved by Jesus. As a result, even though I had had knowledge of Scripture and understanding of the existence of sin and how Jesus saved me from it, I lived my life no differently than from when I was a Buddhist, the only difference being that instead of praying to the gods at a temple, I would pray to God at home.
This was my incomplete understanding. Despite knowing that I was a sinner, I never felt the weight of my sin, because my standard for sin was just "doing bad." I went through middle school and most of high school living no differently than those around me. Like most of the boys my age, we satisfied our worldly desires with Internet media, all the while I was maintaining the image of a good Christian boy.
At the same time, I placed all my self-worth in the things of the world, like my aides, friends, and my parents' approval. As a result, when I failed one test in a subject I liked, my entire worldview crumbled. Around this time, my parents had also asked me to evangelize to one of my classmates who was seeking.
And there, God let me feel the weight of my sin when I realized that I had not been following the very obedience that I was describing to my classmate. Afterwards, I recognized that I needed to truly surrender my life to Christ and depend on Him, and I prayed to God confessing my sins while seeking repentance.
Unfortunately, due to my own rebelliousness and fear of man, I was afraid to confess this reality to anyone in my life. So after my prayer of repentance, I had no idea what to do from there. I can't say for certain when the Lord saved me from this situation. I think that in the years since that time, the Spirit has been working in me to sanctify me, as it is written in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 13.
My desire to be in the Word and prayer continued to grow, and abandoning my pursuit of the things of this world began to feel easier and less like I was giving something precious up. I'm thankful that God had brought me to Berean, where in the college ministry, my brothers and sisters around me greatly encouraged me to continue to grow in my desire for Christ, and the Bible study had introduced me to inductive reading, giving me a whole new way of approaching the Word.
As of right now, I'm confident in calling myself a believer, knowing Christ as Lord, and being eager in my submission to Him, and being eager to take my next step in my submission to Him. Thank you. >> Do you understand when you go into the water, you're being united with Christ's death, and when you come out, you're being united to His resurrected life?
>> Thank you. >> I now baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. >> All right, thank you, Nicholas, for that great testimony. If you can turn your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 6, verses 27 through 30 this morning. Luke chapter 6, 27 through 30.
"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." Let's pray. Father, we pray for understanding. We pray, Father God, that we would not be just hearers of the Word, but that we would hear your Word, Lord God, eager to apply.
Help us to understand not just your mind, your Word, but your very heart. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. If you've been following the news this week, obviously the news was filled with what's going on in the Middle East. And no matter what denomination, no matter what your background, there's a universal agreement that if there is going to be a World War III, that it would probably be kindled in that area.
And so that's a very sensitive area that could possibly trigger the greater event. So we don't know exactly how this will end, but obviously we are praying that the Lord would be upon this, and the Christians would respond accordingly, that we do not get caught up like the rest of the world in thinking that as long as we're not shooting at each other, as long as everybody is wealthy and live a long life, that somehow we have found peace.
Our ultimate goal is to bring Christ to the world, and we pray that this situation will ultimately lead to greater spreading of the Gospel. One thing that is clear, though, that obviously we've seen the atrocities that Hamas, the terrorist group, enacted, which triggered all of this. And I want to read to you one of their charter statements that was initially developed in 1988, Article No.
13. And in their purpose statement, this is what Hamas says, "There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through jihad." You guys know what jihad is. Jihad is a terrorist act, basically committing suicide. "Initiative, proposals, and international conference are all waste of time and vain endeavors." And if you read the charter, their purpose statement basically is "Until Israel is wiped out, there will never be any peace." And in that context, when you say, "You know what?
We just gathered together. Maybe we just kind of learned to accept our differences and get along," again, it's a very naive statement, knowing that one side of the group, the only way that they're going to find peace is if the other side is dead or wiped out. And so that's why this situation is so crucial, because of what's going on, and there are neighbors surrounding Israel that desire the same thing.
Now, the reason why I'm introducing to you, obviously because of what's going on in the news, but it's to help us to understand the situation that the Jews were in when Christ walked this earth, that the Jews saw the Romans in a similar way. And there are different groups of Jewish communities, different sects of groups, but one thing was universal.
If you asked a regular Jew of the first century, "Who is your enemy?" the answer would have been universal. It's the Romans. They are the ones who are suppressing us. They are the ones who are bothering us from religious freedom. They are the ones who are taking our money.
They are the ones who are suppressing us. And so the method in which they were going to overthrow their enemies was different, but the goal was the same. You had the Sadducees, who were the liberals, and they basically have given up on supernatural stuff, and their idea of conquering their enemies is to join them.
You can't beat them, join them. Become one of them. Make money. Become powerful. And so they were the leaders of Israel of that time, and they were the Sadducees. And you had the Pharisees. They were the religious group. They were the scribes. And they were the ones who thought that if they obeyed the law, that God's blessing would be upon them, and if God's blessing would be upon them, that their Messiah is going to come and conquer the Romans, their enemies.
The goal was the same, except the method was different. The Pharisees believed that if they kept, especially the Sabbath law, perfectly, that God would bless them, and what happened with Assyria and Babylon and the Persians wouldn't happen, but their Messiah is going to come, and they're going to conquer their enemies.
Then obviously we have the Zealots. They were the militant group. They were the ones who carried the knife, and they were willing to die. Even though the Pharisees and Sadducees and other groups may not have agreed with our method, they were all praised, because they were willing to give their life and their family and their children's life and their future in order to conquer their enemies, which was the Romans.
So we would typically think that these are the guys who wanted the Romans killed, and they were the enemy, so you have to understand the mindset of a Jew that Jesus is speaking to. The fourth group, called the Essenes, we naturally think that they were the peaceful ones. They didn't engage in battle.
"I see no evil, hear no evil, do no evil," so they went out into the wilderness and lived in caves, and they lived in peace. That's what we typically think, but this statement, when Jesus says in Matthew 5, verse 43, "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.'" Now, "You shall love your neighbor" comes from the Old Testament.
Leviticus 19, verse 18 and other passages teach us that. "You shall love your neighbor." But that second part, "You shall hate your enemy," where does that come from? Well, that statement is a direct statement from the Qumran community, the Essenes. Even though they were living in the caves, they adapted a part of the Old Testament saying that we are to love our neighbors, but the practice of loving our neighbors is restricted to just our neighbors, that our desire is, at some point, that we're going to conquer enemies, so we're going to hate them.
When Jesus says, "You have heard it said that this was said," he was quoting the charter doctrine of the Qumran community. You have to understand the kind of hatred that they had toward Rome. So when Jesus says to love your enemies, to good to those who hate you, the immediate application that you and I think of is our neighbors, family, friends, coworkers, maybe our boss or somebody who's slandered you, an average Jew would have thought of the Romans, the soldiers, Caesar himself.
Every time they went to the temple, they were reminded that they had a pagan nation governing them. Every time they came to collect taxes, they were reminded that their enemy was in charge. So even though they had different ways of conquering Rome, their goal was the same. We need to get rid of these enemies one way or the other by religious zeal, by joining them possibly and gaining more power somehow, by getting into some kind of battle, or just hoping that the Messiah will come and conquer them.
So you can see why, when Jesus gives himself up to be crucified on the cross, why they were universally disappointed with him. Because Jesus, to them, was the person who was going to satisfy their anger. They were the ones who were going to finally, they'd been waiting for the Messiah to come to satisfy the desire for vengeance against their enemies.
And instead of doing that, he gave himself up. Not only did he give himself up, he taught his disciples to love them, to pray for them, to do good to them. In Philippians 3.20, we are reminded that we're no longer citizens of this earth. That the citizenship of heaven has a completely different standard.
And you cannot be a citizen of this world and be citizen of the kingdom at the same time because they're in complete opposition. You cannot be a citizen of the United States and you can't be a citizen of North Korea at the same time because they are enemies. You can't even get a visa to get into North Korea.
The only way to get into North Korea is to get in and the U.S. embassy would never know because there's no relationship with them. In the same way, the kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan has no place where they can coexist together. Either you are serving God or you are serving Satan.
That's what the scripture tells us. So can you imagine when Jesus says, in that context, "Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you." If I said right now, like, it sounds good on the pulpit. You know, when we describe the love of Christ and how he loved us while we were enemies, it sounds great.
If I asked you to think of somebody that's wronged you, maybe right now, right? My guess is you don't have to think long. You already have somebody on your head. As soon as you read this, like, this person? Really? Right? Maybe some of you just got in a big fight with your wife or your husband or your children or your co-worker or your boss has mistreated you or somebody has slandered you.
Love your enemies. Is this even possible? Can you imagine how they must have been stirred up of all the things that Jesus has said to love your enemies? To do good to them. Most likely, if you've ever been slandered or somebody tried to hurt you, that your wrestling was not how to love them.
Your wrestling was not how to do good to them. Your wrestling was not to hurt them. Right? Not to take vengeance. If you show any restraint, that's about the level of restraint. That's about the level of love that we can practice. Most people won't even do that. If you slap me, I slap you back harder.
Make sure that you never mess with me again. So you have to place yourself in the position of these Jews when Jesus says, "Love your enemies." We looked at last week, "Love your enemies," "Do good to those who hate you." And then it says, "To bless those who curse you." Bless those who curse you.
The word for "bless" in Greek is "eulogia," where we get the word "eulogy." And typically, when we think of eulogy, eulogy is someone who stands up and praises and gives thanks to the person who has passed. That's where we get the word "to bless." To give praise and thanks.
When was the last time that somebody cursed you? Slandered you? And wanted to hurt you by their words, and you responded in return, "God bless you." It's beyond our paradigm. There's nothing that you've been taught since you were a child. Most likely even your parents. You've never been taught that those who try to hurt you do good to them.
You would only see this in scripture. You would only hear this at church. And it's a very strange thing to even try to practice, because it's so strange. "Bless those who curse you." Romans 12, 14 says, "Bless those who persecute you." "Bless and do not curse." Don't retaliate in cursing.
The word for "persecute" basically means to follow, to pursue somebody. It's a description of somebody who is actively out to get you. This is not just somebody who's annoyed with you. This is not just somebody who happens to not be good to you. The word "persecute" basically means somebody who is actively following to make sure that you are hurt.
These are people who celebrate when bad things happen. He says, instead of cursing them, he said, "Bless them." Again, sounds great up on the pulpit, but you go off the pulpit, and after the service is over, try to practice that. You know how difficult that is. Ephesians 4, 26-27, it says, "Be angry and do not sin." "Do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity." I remember early on in marriage, I had this passage memorized.
Do not let the sun go down on your anger. Every time I got in a discussion or fight with my wife, and my wife, when she gets angry, she's usually not verbal, but then when she gets angry, she gets even less verbal. The first thing that she does is she disappears, and she goes to sleep.
I'm exactly the opposite. If I get upset, I'm activated. I need to duke this out. I remember this one particular night, we got into something, and she was upset, and she just stopped talking. That would drive me crazy. I said, "Okay, I'm going to control myself." Then she just went inside.
I'm waiting outside. I literally sat on the sofa from 10 to 3 a.m., hoping I'm going to outlast her this time. I'm the one always pursuing her. I'm going to wait until she can't take it, and she's going to come back out, but it never happened. It was 3 in the morning.
I said, "Oh, my God. She's not going to come out." I went in with this verse, "Don't let the sun go down on your anger," and I woke her up. I said, "We need to figure this out now." Obviously, it didn't work. She got more tired and then went to sleep.
I got more frustrated, and clearly this isn't going to work. Through trial and error, I realized that what this is saying, like literally try to apply it, and again, it would cause more frustration. But I realized what it was saying was if you harbor bitterness and anger in your heart and you let it linger, you give an opportunity for the devil.
You give an opportunity for the devil to allow that bitterness and hatred to grow, and it bears fruit. Where it bears fruit is with our mouth. Matthew 12:34 says, "You brood of vipers, how can you being evil speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that which fills the heart." When you give in to bitterness and anger and you are allowing it to bear fruit, eventually where it will show is through your mouth, what you say, through slander, through lies, through deception.
Because the first avenue of attack is through our mouth. And then, every once in a while, you see somebody just lose it and get physical. It's like, "Where did that come from?" And if you trace back where it happened, where somebody was wrong, you've allowed the bitterness and anger to percolate in your heart, you feel justified in being angry, and then once that bears fruit, it comes out of your mouth, and after it begins to come out of your mouth, it destroys you and it destroys everybody around you.
Your family is hurt, your relationship with your children, even churches, leadership. It's split because of the words, and the words come from allowing the devil an opportunity. You allowed it to bear fruit in your heart. In Ephesians 4:29 it says, "Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear." Unwholesome.
When we think of unwholesome, we immediately think of cursing. Unwholesome basically means anything that is slanderous, gossiping, lying, anything that tears the other person, anything that's destructive. And that comes out because it is an avenue in which we give an avenue to express what's happening in our heart. And we've allowed that to happen.
In fact, in the book of James, if you've ever studied the epistle of James, you know that the primary problem with the book of James is that there was this division between the rich and the poor. So the poor people envied the rich, and they were shown favoritism at church.
And so Paul rebukes them saying, "Do you not know that these rich people, they're the ones who are dragging you into court, they're the ones who are mistreating you, why are you showing favoritism to them? Why are you coveting them?" And then he rebukes the rich, saying, "Do you not know, do you not know the low position in the kingdom of God that because of your pride..." And he tells them to humble themselves, but the avenue in which this division happened was with their tongue.
Because of the envy, because of the pride of the rich, and because of this division in the church, they weren't able to tame their tongue. And it was causing all kinds of division. And so in James 3, 5-10, it says, "So also the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.
See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire." In other words, consider the destructiveness of our tongue. And the tongue is a fire, a very world of iniquity. This small piece of our flesh, it has the power to destroy. "The tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body," this tiny little thing, "and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell." The words that come out of our mouth, the bitterness and hatred and division that we've allowed to percolate in our hearts, it directs the path of our life, and ultimately it is from hell itself.
"For every species of embers and reptiles and creatures of the sea is tamed and has been tamed by the human race." But no one can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. "With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in the likeness of God.
From the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be this way." I remember years ago, I had somebody ask me just a random question. Of all the senses that you have, all the things that you're able to do, what is one thing that you would get rid of?
And I thought about, is it your hearing? Is it your sight? Ability to walk? What is it? And I thought about it a little bit, and I said, "It's probably my tongue." And he was surprised, and he said, "Tongue? You preach for a living. If you get rid of your ability to speak, you can't be a pastor anymore." So I could be a pastor.
I can write. I can write. And so I can still communicate. But the reason why I said tongue, because if you've ever tried to conquer your tongue, you know how difficult it is. With the same tongue, we bless God, and we praise God, we preach the gospel, but the same tongue, we curse, we hurt people.
Because we allow what we have in our hearts. And I could tell you that I have, as much as I preach the gospel for a living, that as I've attempted for years and years and years, I've got to watch my mouth. I've got to watch my mouth. And I'm a joker, so I like to joke around.
And that's not going to stop. But I need to be careful. And it's not the joking that I am concerned about, because there's no evil intent in that. But if you've ever tried to not to talk when you're bitter and angry, when somebody has slandered you, and not to slander back, you know how difficult that is.
It kills the very being of who you are. And Jesus tells us, when they curse you, to bless them. Man, that is impossible. 1 Peter 3, 8-10, it says, "To sum up all of your harmonious, sympathetic, brotherly kindness, and humble in spirit, not returning evil for evil, or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead, for you are called for the very purpose that you might inherit a blessing." You know, when you think about Christian maturity, we think about reading the Bible, memorizing Scripture, doing an inductive Bible study, being generous and giving.
But then it says, "You've been called to this purpose, to be a blessing to others." "You've been called to this purpose, for the one who desires life, to love and see good days, might keep his tongue from evil, and his lip from speaking deceit." He goes on to say, "To love, to practice this new kingdom love, praying for those who mistreat you." Praying for those who mistreat you, I mean, praying for yourself is hard enough.
Praying for people that you love is difficult enough, but praying for people that mistreat you? It requires a surrender of everything in you, to be able to pray and ask for blessing upon people who want to harm you. I remember when I was a kid, you know, we would take medicine, but in Korea, for whatever the reason, everything that, all the medicine was crushed into powder.
I hated that bitter taste. And so, in order for my mom to make me take the medicine, she would always give me sugar water. This is out in Korea. So she would promise me that if you take this, I'll give you sugar water. And then I still couldn't drink it, so she would put it in the sugar water.
So every time I drank this, it was made sure that the sugar water was drunk with it, because I had such a hard time. Praying for people that are mistreating you is like drinking bitter water. It's bitter. It's difficult. And you strain. Yet, once you become, get in the habit of praying for them, you see the fruit that comes from that.
And the greatest fruit that you'll see are people that you've had problems with at one point, turning and loving Christ and loving you and you loving them. And it's the avenue in which he calls us to reconcile, to pray for them. Apostle Paul writes a very difficult letter in 1 Corinthians, because they were engaging in all kinds of divisions and immorality, and it was causing all kinds of chaos in worship.
And because of his harsh letter, they were beginning to question his apostleship. That guy may not be an apostle. Who's this guy, this latecomer, rebuking Peter and Barnabas in public? Who is this guy? And they were trying to discount him, discredit him, because they didn't like what he had to say.
So the whole 2 Corinthians is a letter written to defend his apostleship. Can you imagine how difficult this letter must have been? It would have been easy for him to just kind of like, "Okay, I'm done with you. I got so many other villages to visit. I got the church of Ephesus.
They love me. I got all these other people who are supporting me. Forget you." Instead, he's wrestling, and he's writing this letter. And in this letter, he says 2 Corinthians 5, 14-15, "For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died, and he died for all, so that they who lived might no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf." In his flesh, I'm sure he's a human being like everybody else.
He would have easily just shake the dust and move on, right? But the reason why he's wrestling with them, the reason why he's pleading with them, he says, "Because the love of Christ compels him." Unless the love of Christ compels you, this sounds good in paper, but you're not going to practice this.
Are you kidding? Unless you are controlled by the love of Christ, this is a curse upon you. This is not a blessing upon you. It's difficult to love people who are irritating. It's difficult to love people who are different than you. It's difficult to love people who potentially might hurt you.
But people who are actually out to get you, people who are mistreating you, do good to them, and pray for them, that is not something that is within you or me. Unless the love of Christ compels you, you cannot practice this. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 13, 4, the description of love, it says, "Love is patient." The word "patient" in Greek literally means "long-suffering." To suffer for a long period of time.
And we don't like that, right? Anything that causes discomfort, you know, we have to change. I don't like my job, I change it. I don't like this relationship, I change it. I don't like this neighborhood, I change it. Because we have, being rich, we have options. So we don't like any kind of suffering for a long period of time.
So, sometimes we do that even with relationships. We fall in love, and just as easy as we fell in love, we fall out of love. If our marriages are based upon you falling in love, you will easily fall out of love. That's why when you make a covenant, it is an unconditional covenant.
It requires long-suffering. It's easy to fall in love, but it requires long-suffering to stay in love. And so he calls us, he said the love that he called us to is a different kind of love. It is an unnatural love. To continue to persevere in love. 1 Corinthians 13, 13, "But now faith, hope, love abide these three things, but the greatest of these is love." Think about that.
We're saved by faith, right? By faith alone. Our whole salvation is based upon faith. Hope is what causes us to persevere, to make it to the end. And yet, of faith, of hope, and love, he said love is the greatest. Because faith without love, you missed the whole point.
In fact, Paul says that at the first Timothy 1.5, he's instructing this young pastor to go fight for pure doctrine. Instruct these men, instruct them, tell them, command them to stop teaching false doctrines. And yet, as he is commanding them, he reminds them, he said, "But the goal of our instruction is love." That in the context of fighting for pure doctrine, in the context of fighting for the pure church, make sure that your goal is clear, that it's love.
Because without love, it means nothing. Everything that we do, pursuit of holiness, has to be ultimately for love. In fact, Paul says that even if you give your body to be burned, even if you get martyred, he says, without love, it is for nothing. Even if you give your life, you did it for self-glory, you did it for whatever the reason, if it is not motivated by love, he said, it is for nothing.
Jesus practiced this love with us. And that's why you and I are here. That's why we worship him. That's why we give him glory. In fact, it is because of Jesus' prayer for his enemies that you and I are here. In Luke chapter 23, 34, as Jesus is hanging on the cross, as he is looking at people who are mocking him, spitting on him, spearing him, humiliating him, this was Jesus' prayer, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing." When he tells us to pray for those who are mistreating us, all he's telling us to do is to reflect him, to follow him, do what he did.
Now, up to this point, it's like, this is impossible. If you thought this is impossible, he tells us practically, "Okay, that's great, I can pray for them. I can swallow this bitter pill. I can try not to hate them and do something." But look what he says in Luke 29, 30, "Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also." Anybody ever practice that?
Anybody in this room who's ever been hit, and then you turn the other cheek and say, "This one too?" Most of us probably not only have not practiced it, don't remember anybody in your life. You know what I mean? And if you do, make a movie out of that person.
Because it's just not done. You ever wonder why he says, "If they slap you, right? If they hit you on your cheek or slap you on your cheek, turn the other cheek." Why he didn't say, "If he punches you or slams you to the ground." You know what I mean?
The reason why he uses the imagery of being slapped or hit on the cheek is because it was an insult. It wasn't just for pain. And the worst of the insult, if they back slapped you like that, boom. It wasn't just to hurt you. It's basically telling that you're beneath me, you're scum.
You're not worth my time. And so when they slap you, he said it's to humiliate you. It's to show whoever he did it in front of that you're beneath me, you're nothing, you're scum. And he says, "When that happens, turn the other cheek." So imagine somebody hearing this, like, "What?
Do you know what the Romans were doing to us? Do you know what my boss is doing to me? Do you know what my neighbor is like? Turn the other cheek." He goes further than that. He says, "And whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt from him either." Now you and I are rich, right?
So on Beringan Couponers, we have so many nice things, right? One, because maybe it's outdated. Maybe you gained a few pounds and it doesn't fit anymore. Simply because it's fall, right? And you've got to get rid of your fall clothes because you've got to prepare for winter. And usually, I mean, that's where we're at.
So we don't fully understand because we're wealthy what this means. And average Jew at this particular time only had one coat and had one shirt. So when he says, "If they ask you for an outer coat, and you would have been frozen if you gave them that coat," he says, "Don't just give them the outer coat.
Give them your shirt also." You know what that means? You know what that means? He has no clothes. He's to walk around in his underwear. They didn't wear underwear back then, so it would be even less than that, right? I mean, think about that. It's like, "What is he saying?" Actually, give him everything.
In fact, that's exactly what it says in verse 30. "Give to everyone who asks of you, and whoever takes away what is yours, do not demand it back." So if we were to take this literally, after this, I come and ask you for your car, right? You're supposed to give me your car.
All right, let's pray. If you were to practice this, like literally, "Oh, anybody who asks of you," and then if they take it away, "If you're not going to give it to me, and I take it away," don't call the police. Just be a good Christian. Like, suck it up, right?
Reflect Christ. What does Jesus mean here when he's telling them to give? He's basically calling us to die. For people who live their whole life building their reputation, trying to be somebody, and to tell that person, "If you get slapped, turn the other cheek," is basically telling them to die.
For people who live all their lives to try to be comfortable, we compare, compete, compare with everybody else, and we're fine until we go to someone else's house, and we drive in someone else's car, and all of a sudden we don't have enough. And our whole pursuit in life is trying to be better than we were before.
And then he said, "If somebody gives to you or somebody takes away, don't fight it." He's basically calling us to die. The things that we pursued, the things that mattered to us before we became citizens of the new kingdom, he's just another way of saying, "He who wants to follow me, let him deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me." The only person that would even think this is virtuous, or even attempt to apply this, is somebody who recognizes Christ as a greater treasure than your reputation.
That you recognize that whatever treasure you have is rubbish in light of knowing Jesus Christ. Only an individual who opened their eyes to see the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ, where you see treasure in Christ more than anything else that you have valued before you met Christ, can possibly even entertain turning the other cheek and losing for the sake of gaining Christ.
It is a call to die. It is a call to die. That life that we have been pursuing before we met Christ, to crucify that, that desire to be better than before, the desire to be somebody in this world, it is a call to die. You cannot practice this.
You cannot love your enemy. You cannot do good to those who are mistreating you until we crucify ourselves first. We don't do that because we're more virtuous, or we're more disciplined, or we're better than other people. We simply do it because Christ is better. Because we're compelled by the love of Christ.
That's what he's telling us to do. In 1 Peter 2, 21-25, "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." There's only one person who has ever truly experienced injustice, because in order to experience true injustice, you have to be without sin.
Christ was the only one without sin, it says in verse 23, "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 were healed. You were continually straying like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls." Everything that he's been saying up to this point, basically is Jesus saying, "Follow me. Follow me. Follow me. What you think is going to lead to life is going to lead to destruction and curse.
You think I'm headed toward death, but I'm actually headed toward real life. He who drinks of this water will thirst again, but the water I give to you will well up in you in eternal life, and you will never thirst again. He who eats of this bread of this world, sooner or later you will go hungry again, but the bread that I give you will satisfy you for eternity." Jesus is simply telling us to follow him.
Follow him. This is a path to life. Galatians 2.20, let me conclude with this. I probably memorized and meditated on this verse more than any other verse in my life. And the reason why is because at times when everything in my flesh doesn't want to love somebody, and you know where that started?
With the people who are the closest to me. People who are the closest to me. Because the people who are not close to me, all I have to do is stiff-arm them and, you know, just don't be around them. They're acquaintances, but they're not people I need to love.
But you can't escape from your wife. You can't escape from your children. So I remember early on in marriage when I'd be so frustrated and she would go to sleep, I would sit there memorizing, "I have been crucified with Christ. Die. Die." In order for me to learn how to love my wife, I needed to die first.
That voice inside of me saying, "This is not fair," needs to die. That voice inside of me that seeks justice needs to die. In order for me to practice the love that Christ loved me with, I needed to first learn to die to myself. In order to love her as Christ loved her, loved me.
I have been crucified with Christ. Every time God convicts me to do something that I don't want to do, I have been crucified with Christ. I am crucified. You're dead. You're dead. It is no longer I who live. The I in me that refuses to love anybody difficult to love.
The I in me that wants to retaliate every time somebody tries to hurt me. The I in me that wants my reputation to be restored. The I in me. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
As impossible as this may sound, as impossible as it may appear, Christ is simply telling us to follow his steps. True life, true life is found at the center of the will of God. We're going to talk next week of why this is so important. What are the practical ramifications of following these commands?
And I think it will make a lot more sense when we wrap it up next week. My prayer is, sometimes even the way we follow Christ, it is to glorify ourselves. Better life, better job, better friendship, better marriage. We're still not dead. We just find Jesus to be an avenue to get what we were pursuing before we met Christ.
Except Jesus is an easier path. Until we die to ourselves, until the things that we learned, we put away, you'll never fully understand when Jesus said, "I have come to give life and to give this life abundantly." My prayer is that we would all know this life and be compelled by the love of Christ.
Let's pray. Let's take a few minutes as our worship team comes and leads us, to come before the Lord and ask, "Lord, search me and know me. See if there's any hurtful ways in me. Things that I have excused. The bitterness and anger that I've allowed to bear fruit in my heart." That God would reveal these things to us.
That we would offer up worship, truly in spirit and in truth. Let's come before the Lord and let the word of God richly dwell in us. And His word bear fruit. So let's take some time to pray as our worship team guides and leads us. (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) Let's all stand up for the closing praise.
(Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano 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 powerful love of God the Father, rest, restore, empower, and compel us to be the aroma of Christ wherever you send us this week.
Amen. (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (Piano music) (upbeat music)