SPEAKER_00: Hi, and thanks so much for joining us on the Sierra Bible Church Sermon of the Week.
SPEAKER_00: I hope that you enjoy this message by Nate Milman.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks, Gail.
SPEAKER_01: I was thinking about the Romans 12 verses we're gonna read later and just how you're doing that.
SPEAKER_01: So thank you.
SPEAKER_01: Um I didn't put these in order before I got up here, so that's fun.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: Um my name's Nate.
SPEAKER_01: I again am a volunteer.
SPEAKER_02: And uh part of volunteering is Nate reaches out to me and says, Hey, will you uh will you speak?
SPEAKER_02: And he gives me a date, usually a month out.
SPEAKER_02: And so um sometimes I get to hear on Sunday and I think I am overwhelmed, and my spirit is overwhelmed, and the nature of that overwhelming is something that is wildly unpredictable that happened that week, I'm sure you can relate.
SPEAKER_02: This, however, was a totally predictable overwhelming week.
SPEAKER_02: Let me explain why for a second.
SPEAKER_02: So we are discussing, again, belonging.
SPEAKER_02: Um uh, and in we have this series going right now, and we're discussing belonging, and today we're discussing love your enemies.
SPEAKER_02: But with the idea of belonging, there's been an immense amount of belonging in my household this week.
SPEAKER_02: So if you look at the screen, you'll see that I have a child named Levi who was born on July 5th.
SPEAKER_02: So if you really quickly check notes, that was a week ago.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, not so bad.
SPEAKER_02: You could handle that, right?
SPEAKER_02: And then we had another son named Jonah on July 7th.
SPEAKER_02: So he had a birthday this week as well.
SPEAKER_02: He turned eight.
SPEAKER_02: So Levi turned five, Jonah turned eight.
SPEAKER_02: And then we had another son named Jude.
SPEAKER_02: Checks notes.
SPEAKER_02: That was yesterday, and he turned all of ten.
SPEAKER_02: And then you come to today.
SPEAKER_02: And I didn't do this first service, but my wife is gonna stand up, and we're all gonna sing happy birthday.
SPEAKER_02: First service didn't get to do that, okay?
SPEAKER_02: It's exciting.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not kidding.
SPEAKER_02: She wasn't here, you know.
SPEAKER_02: It's great.
SPEAKER_02: I told them we're gonna do the second service, they were all in on it.
SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, so what Heidi just felt right there, I'd like to point out, is a deep sense of belonging, okay?
SPEAKER_02: Um, with all of you.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, she feels so belonged, we're gonna put her Venmo up on the screen.
SPEAKER_02: And no, I'm I'm teasing.
SPEAKER_02: Um, but that's the idea of belonging.
SPEAKER_02: What's interesting is I want to start this out, and I thought, okay, this is a way to get someone to feel that they belong.
SPEAKER_02: But then I also want to tell you a contrary story.
SPEAKER_02: I want to tell you what it's like to sort of not belong.
SPEAKER_02: Um, what does it mean to not belong?
SPEAKER_02: Well, uh, number one, it's uh feels bad.
SPEAKER_02: It uh a lot of times feels like a stressful experience.
SPEAKER_02: And this was brought to me in an example.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna tell you a story about really quick.
SPEAKER_02: And so a few weeks ago, I took my family to Lake Tahoe for a soccer tournament for the 10-year-old.
SPEAKER_02: And he had a soccer tournament.
SPEAKER_02: We had an awesome time.
SPEAKER_02: But while we were there, we say this Airbnb.
SPEAKER_02: And this Airbnb was this really nice big house, a house I couldn't afford.
SPEAKER_02: We got lucky to get it.
SPEAKER_02: And uh, and so we we check in.
SPEAKER_02: We only took our older two boys who were sitting over here with Heidi, the 10 and the eight-year-old.
SPEAKER_02: And it was just four of us, small family.
SPEAKER_02: So we ended up with a slightly larger Airbnb than we needed because we left the two young ones at home.
SPEAKER_02: And so we had this four-bedroom house.
SPEAKER_02: And the house you walked up to the middle level.
SPEAKER_02: So there's a garage underneath and a middle level, then this upper level.
SPEAKER_02: And the middle level had like a family room and three of the bedrooms.
SPEAKER_02: And then the upper level had the kitchen, living room, and the master bedroom where Heidi and I could stay and hang out.
SPEAKER_02: And my boys who care about us so much, we're like, we get this whole second level to ourselves.
SPEAKER_02: Did they sleep in the same room?
SPEAKER_02: No way.
SPEAKER_02: They got their own rooms.
SPEAKER_02: And so you imagine this, you know, three-story house.
SPEAKER_02: Kids are on the middle level, dad and mom are upstairs.
SPEAKER_02: And we get home after all the soccer's done.
SPEAKER_02: We're staying the last night, and we went out for pizza, picked it up, took it to the house, ate it.
SPEAKER_02: Again, the kitchen's on the upper story.
SPEAKER_02: So we're eating pizza, and my 10-year-old says, May I be excused, like a good little son.
SPEAKER_02: And we go, sure.
SPEAKER_02: He goes, I want to go play pool by myself.
SPEAKER_02: Great.
SPEAKER_02: Heads downstairs.
SPEAKER_02: As we're joking around with our eight-year-old around the table, we hear a blood curdling, Dad, mom, a bear.
SPEAKER_02: I bolt downstairs, right?
SPEAKER_02: Because I got to see what's going on.
SPEAKER_02: I get down there and I see a white-faced nine-year-old at the time, just pale, and he's clutching a pool cue, and you can just see his muscles, you know, kind of flexing.
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, dude, what happened?
SPEAKER_02: What's going on?
SPEAKER_02: I think I saw a bear.
SPEAKER_02: You saw a bear?
SPEAKER_02: What are you talking about?
SPEAKER_02: So I say, okay, go upstairs, go upstairs.
SPEAKER_02: He runs upstairs, you know.
SPEAKER_02: So now dad's got the pool cue.
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: And and like Heidi's like, what's going on?
SPEAKER_02: Is there a bear?
SPEAKER_02: So I, you know, I'm in this pool room, and so you go around this cornerhouse hallway, and there's you know, the three bedrooms and a bathroom.
SPEAKER_02: So I go around the hallway and I I I kind of come around, I'm looking, there's no bear.
SPEAKER_02: I see that there's actually, no joke, a like a photo of a bear on the wall.
SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, I go, ah, he's he might be making stuff up.
SPEAKER_02: Like my kids like seeing stuff.
SPEAKER_02: What a weird deal.
SPEAKER_02: And so, you know, I check the first bedroom and no bear, nothing there.
SPEAKER_02: I check the bathroom in the hall, no bear.
SPEAKER_02: But another thing that was funny was on the bathroom wall, they have something, it was like a it was like a saying that said, like, have fun in Tahoe, but don't feed the bears because they'll kill you.
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, whoa, all right.
SPEAKER_02: So this is all going through my head.
SPEAKER_02: So then I got two more bedrooms.
SPEAKER_02: So I go in the one the eight-year-old had slept in, and I'm like, ah, and there's no bear there.
SPEAKER_02: And then I go in the fourth one, I go, ah, and there's no bear there.
SPEAKER_02: And as I walk into the fourth bedroom and walk around the bed, I see on the windowsill that there's black hair.
SPEAKER_02: And then if you zoom out, I noticed that the whole screen had been knocked out of the window.
SPEAKER_02: My nine-year-old had come face to face with a bear by himself and exercised his karate skills to just demolish the bear.
SPEAKER_02: Why do I tell this story?
SPEAKER_02: Because we're in a series called Narrow talking about belonging.
SPEAKER_02: For the next three hours, do you think my son felt like he belonged in that home?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: You could not find another nine-year-old in Lake Tahoe that wanted to be out of Lake Tahoe quicker at that moment.
SPEAKER_02: And do you think that they wanted to sleep in their own rooms on that story again?
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: So, what did they get to do?
SPEAKER_02: They got to sleep with mom upstairs, and guess who got to sleep with the bears?
SPEAKER_02: Dad in a twin bed.
SPEAKER_02: It was wonderful.
SPEAKER_02: I'm kind of tall, it was kind of terrible.
SPEAKER_02: But me and the bear snuggled, so it was great.
SPEAKER_02: No, but I tell you this because it's like that I think of my son, and he's here, but you know, that is the essence of feeling like you don't belong, right?
SPEAKER_02: The immense amount of stress or unease you would have.
SPEAKER_02: And and what's interesting today is we're talking about this concept of belong.
SPEAKER_02: And in the context of this, we are talking about loving your enemies.
SPEAKER_02: And I just think of my son in that moment, it's not like he hated the bear because the bear did something to him, but it's like you couldn't pay my son to stay in that house at that point.
SPEAKER_02: And the reason is there's something else in the world, right, that my son has like distinction with or anger against or fear or stress related to that relationship.
SPEAKER_02: And I wanted to tell that story because it's sort of the essence as we enter in today of like the opposite of belonging.
SPEAKER_02: To not belong is incredibly stressful.
SPEAKER_02: It's very hard, it's very sad, depending on how that not belonging came about.
SPEAKER_02: And what's interesting is when we go into this text, Jesus is going to confront us with this idea that we are to love our enemies.
SPEAKER_02: And part of belonging is realizing that an enemy appears like a bear or my son.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, my son relived the experience.
SPEAKER_02: He said the bear come in, came in, looked at him, he looked at the bear, and then the bear took off.
SPEAKER_02: And isn't this some of us, right?
SPEAKER_02: We have these people in our lives.
SPEAKER_02: If we see them in public, if we see them in private, we can't wait to get away.
SPEAKER_02: We have these feelings towards them, these things that have happened.
SPEAKER_02: And in that, it's a deep sense of sort of not belonging, of hey, they're the other.
SPEAKER_02: We might call them an enemy, we might call them someone we don't like.
SPEAKER_02: We might say we have problems with this person, and yet that's how we feel.
SPEAKER_02: We literally don't want to be in the same room as them.
SPEAKER_02: And so as we get into this, I wanted to set the stage with two very different things, right?
SPEAKER_02: My wife feels immense amounts of belonging.
SPEAKER_02: And my son in that moment felt immense amounts of not belonging.
SPEAKER_02: Don't want to stay in the house, don't want to be around the bear.
SPEAKER_02: And so, as we go through this, I want you to keep those two in your head as far as like feelings and what we do with those.
SPEAKER_02: So here we go.
SPEAKER_02: We are jumping into Matthew 5 today, and I want to give you a little context in case you haven't been here.
SPEAKER_02: We are going through a series called Narrow.
SPEAKER_02: Within this series, Nate outlined this SBC framework, right?
SPEAKER_02: And it's stewardship, belonging, and cultivating, SBC.
SPEAKER_02: So he challenged me with teaching about belonging, specifically in the way of Jesus challenging us to love our enemies.
SPEAKER_02: Now, Matthew 5 is where we find this, but within Matthew 5, in this context, we are discussing various topics that have to do with this sort of countercultural idea.
SPEAKER_02: So Nate, when introducing this series, said this quote up here.
SPEAKER_02: He put actually a slide up here that said this, and it said that the narrow way is Jesus's call to a life of intentional countercultural discipleship.
SPEAKER_02: So that's the framework we're in, and you're attending like the third Sunday of this, but the narrow way is Jesus' call to a life of intentional counter-cultural discipleship.
SPEAKER_02: So as you sit here, I want you to know that that is what we're discussing.
SPEAKER_02: This is not an easy topic.
SPEAKER_02: It's hard for me to talk about it.
SPEAKER_02: You'll understand why a little later on.
SPEAKER_02: But we wrestle with it because Jesus wants us to get away from sort of conventional wisdom or what we think is right at any given moment of the day and really challenge the foundations of how we think.
SPEAKER_02: That's the intentional countercultural part.
SPEAKER_02: So as we jump into it, I just want to set that framework that we are in this series called Narrow.
SPEAKER_02: We're talking about belonging, but specifically we're talking about love of enemies.
SPEAKER_02: So we jump into Matthew 5.
SPEAKER_02: And in Matthew 5, we have a text.
SPEAKER_02: And in the text, Jesus is going or continuing in the Sermon on the Mount, and he is going through topics of which many of us have dealt with.
SPEAKER_02: And specifically in these topics, he keeps saying the sort of same thing that there's sort of the natural or conventional perspective, and then there's his proposal for this kingdom perspective.
SPEAKER_02: So if you set that up, it's like there's this way of thinking or this way of doing life or this conventional wisdom.
SPEAKER_02: And then there's this sort of kingdom way of thinking, kingdom way of doing things that you may not have thought of and is deeply countercultural.
SPEAKER_02: And so one of these is love your enemies, but really quick, the other ones are basically the same.
SPEAKER_02: And we don't have time to get into all of them, David, but I just wanted to give you sort of the warp and woof of this, which is Jesus is kind of doing the same thing with each of these topics.
SPEAKER_02: So the six topics he addresses are anger, lust, divorce, oaths, retaliation, and then love of enemies.
SPEAKER_02: And with each of these subjects, if you look at Matthew 5, what he does, if you're looking in your text, is he goes through them starting in verse 21, and he says, This, look at 21.
SPEAKER_02: You have heard that it was said to those of old, you shall not murder.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 27, you have heard that it was said, you shall not commit adultery.
SPEAKER_02: Verse 31, it was also said about divorce.
SPEAKER_02: 33.
SPEAKER_02: Again you have heard that it was said to those of old.
SPEAKER_02: 38, you have heard that it was said.
SPEAKER_02: 43, you have heard that it was right.
SPEAKER_02: It's this warp and woof of six topics that Jesus is going through, and he's going on each one.
SPEAKER_02: You have heard, or and it was said, or it's been said, but I say, and then he's gonna give this sort of kingdom perspective, this countercultural way of belonging, this countercultural way of being really in the world that is so radical and so different than what you may experience in everyday life.
SPEAKER_02: So, specifically today, we're talking about that love of enemies.
SPEAKER_02: So let's read that part.
SPEAKER_02: Uh, go to 543.
SPEAKER_02: You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
SPEAKER_02: But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
SPEAKER_02: So that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust.
SPEAKER_02: For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?
SPEAKER_02: Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
SPEAKER_02: And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?
SPEAKER_02: Do not even the Gentiles do the same.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus challenges us in this verse.
SPEAKER_02: You've heard that it was said.
SPEAKER_02: But I tell you, and then he says, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.
SPEAKER_02: And the way he finishes is asking sort of this question that kind of lingers out there.
SPEAKER_02: He says, And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?
SPEAKER_02: Do not even the Gentiles do the same.
SPEAKER_02: And so, as we discuss this, I want you to know that this is Jesus sort of trying to flip our primary nature or our human condition.
SPEAKER_02: And again, right, Jesus is gonna die on the cross.
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna send the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: We'll talk about that.
SPEAKER_02: But at face value, Jesus is proposing something that's very radical.
SPEAKER_02: And so, point number one today is that loving enemies is not normal.
SPEAKER_02: And I I want to say that because, like, as Christians, we just think, oh, yeah, love your enemies.
SPEAKER_02: Pray for those who persecute you.
SPEAKER_02: It's pretty simple, right?
SPEAKER_02: You do it, you do it.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, no big deal.
SPEAKER_02: So easy.
SPEAKER_02: The problem is it's actually not normal.
SPEAKER_02: You know what else isn't normal?
SPEAKER_02: Kids.
SPEAKER_02: I have a kid, won't say which one, who uh used to walk around with a solitary chip in a Ziploc bag because that was his source of comfort.
SPEAKER_02: We joked around and called it chip in a bag.
SPEAKER_02: Um, another kid of mine, my two-year-old daughter last night, was coughing in bed for fun.
SPEAKER_02: And when I told her to stop, she laughed.
SPEAKER_02: I thought, that's not normal.
SPEAKER_02: I couldn't think of a worse experience than coughing for fun.
SPEAKER_02: My other kid last night uh decided to have mica's in his bed, which are candy.
SPEAKER_02: And I said, You shouldn't do that.
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Well, I really like the candy.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Okay.
SPEAKER_02: And then he goes, Dad, there's ants.
SPEAKER_02: I said, Okay.
SPEAKER_02: And then he goes, I'll just sleep with the ants.
SPEAKER_02: I'd rather have the candy.
SPEAKER_02: Again, that's not normal.
SPEAKER_02: And so you have to realize that loving enemies is like this, right?
SPEAKER_02: It's not normal.
SPEAKER_02: And and and and in fact, it's sort of deeply counter-cultural.
SPEAKER_02: Loving enemies is not normal, it's deeply countercultural.
SPEAKER_02: I have on my notes, it's counter-ego.
SPEAKER_02: You have an ego that goes out in the world, and it's counter to that because you want to be perceived as a certain way.
SPEAKER_02: If you start loving enemies, that's hard.
SPEAKER_02: It's counter-pride.
SPEAKER_02: A lot of you have a prideful disposition.
SPEAKER_02: Loving your enemies does not look prideful a lot of times.
SPEAKER_02: And last, it's counter-nature.
SPEAKER_02: And what I mean by that is, you know, from this sort of young age, right, it confronts the humanity we have.
SPEAKER_02: And and what's interesting is we all believe that we are born into a fallen world, I think, right?
SPEAKER_02: If you're a Christian sitting here, you believe that.
SPEAKER_02: But like, have you ever tried to like express that to people?
SPEAKER_02: Like, we don't express our brokenness or our um fallen nature very often.
SPEAKER_02: And when we do, people look at us like, dude, you gotta work on that, man.
SPEAKER_02: This was brought home to me um through uh sports, coaching kids teams, because I I was having this conversation with an assistant coach.
SPEAKER_02: I'll give you the I'll say the line and then I'll explain the context.
SPEAKER_02: But I said to him, I'm just really working on this season, like rooting for the kids.
SPEAKER_02: He's like, I think we're all rooting for the kids, dude.
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, let me explain.
SPEAKER_02: What I explained to him is this so this is this is me being vulnerable and expressing my sin nature.
SPEAKER_02: So just go be okay because you're gonna look at me like, dude, you you're not okay.
SPEAKER_02: So right, and I what I said to him is okay, so there's people out in the world.
SPEAKER_02: You you go out in the world and you deal with people, right?
SPEAKER_02: At the county, you may go to a board of supervisors meeting, you deal with people at work, Matt, right?
SPEAKER_02: All the time.
SPEAKER_02: You people deal with people at church, you you deal with people in classrooms.
SPEAKER_02: My my you know, uh mother-in-law came up to me after the first server, she said, Man, that was powerful because like I dealt with a ton of stuff with this teaching second grade for like 20-something years.
SPEAKER_02: And and we do this, and and what's so interesting is there's these people, and and you you find something out about them, or they they say something to you or about you in a public setting.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's at work, or maybe it's at the Board of Supervisors meeting.
SPEAKER_02: And you may not call them enemies, but there's this thing in your head that, like, that person needs to be watched, or I got a problem with that person.
SPEAKER_02: And what I noticed about myself, maybe you're not like me and you're like a good Christian, but was that sometimes like I would see their kids on like a soccer field or baseball field and be like, and I hope that kid strikes out.
SPEAKER_02: I know.
SPEAKER_02: This is me wearing my sin.
SPEAKER_02: And I and I had to tell myself, like, that this is like, why do you carry this to like their children?
SPEAKER_02: Like, think about that, right?
SPEAKER_02: Like, oh, that kid scored great.
SPEAKER_02: I gotta hear a parent of a, you know.
SPEAKER_02: And and we have these thoughts.
SPEAKER_02: And I and I realized this, I remember telling my wife this when we had this conversation, it was just about like, hey, how do we like start like kids on the other team, right?
SPEAKER_02: Their coach might be super competitive, he might be super mean to our kids and cheer when they get out on bass or whatever, right?
SPEAKER_02: But how do I like learn to like the kid hit a single, he's eight years old, he's running down to first, I'm the first base coach.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, nice hit, even though you're not on my team and I can't stand your dad.
SPEAKER_02: But right, so like you realize really quickly, like, this is one of the hardest things to do because in our heart, right?
SPEAKER_02: Now, see how you're all laughing?
SPEAKER_02: Like, when I explain this to this assistant coach, he's like, You think like I'm just and I'm thinking, well, I do.
SPEAKER_02: Like, don't you?
SPEAKER_02: Like, I and and the hardest part of it is you you don't even consider these people enemies.
SPEAKER_02: You just maybe don't like them.
SPEAKER_02: You might say it much more mildly, you know, they have arrogance, they whatever.
SPEAKER_02: And and what's interesting is like again, it's crazy the level of depravity as you think through this message and what we're talking about, that us as Christians, we say we're saved by grace, we say we have the Holy Spirit, and yet we carry into the world these things that then we extend to even like kin of these people or you know, kids or relatives, and and and it's just a fascinating thought in the human condition.
SPEAKER_02: And the God of the universe is sitting there saying, Hey, love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.
SPEAKER_02: And you know, learn to be for the kids in a sense, right?
SPEAKER_02: You it's it's it's not hard to do that, yet we have a hard time doing that because of how we think of others.
SPEAKER_02: And so when Jesus says this, I want you to know it's not normal.
SPEAKER_02: What's truly ironic is that to the God of the universe, this sort of should be normal, right?
SPEAKER_02: He is saying it like the following You have heard that it was said, but I say to you, this is kingdom living.
SPEAKER_02: And so, even though it's not normal, we're called to do it.
SPEAKER_02: Again, this is hard, it's narrow discipleship, countercultural.
SPEAKER_02: It's hard to love your enemies, it's completely not normal.
SPEAKER_02: So, one of the reasons.
SPEAKER_02: Reasons I think Christ does this is because he realizes that from a very young age, we have a tendency in our fallen nature to continue the cycle of evil.
SPEAKER_02: What's the cycle of evil?
SPEAKER_02: Well, Romans 12 speaks about it, but number two in your outline is the wise thing to do is to subvert the cycle of evil.
SPEAKER_02: So we're going to turn over to Romans 12 really quick and read there.
SPEAKER_02: But what is this cycle of evil?
SPEAKER_02: How does this occur and what happens?
SPEAKER_02: Because I think we do it with our enemies all the time.
SPEAKER_02: And part of loving them has to be subverting this cycle that we get into.
SPEAKER_02: So in Romans 12, I love Romans 12.
SPEAKER_02: I should say that up front.
SPEAKER_02: I think my kids probably know this.
SPEAKER_02: My wife definitely does, I think.
SPEAKER_02: It's 9 through 21, 21, I say a lot, which is this culminating verse.
SPEAKER_02: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good, Paul says.
SPEAKER_02: But as you read the warp and woof of 9 through 21, if you haven't ever read it, maybe read it this week when you have a minute again, because it's a it's a it's a true gem of a passage as far as Paul breaking out these concepts of the Christian experience or the Christian life.
SPEAKER_02: I think the, you know, the subtitle in your book might say something like marks of a true Christian.
SPEAKER_02: And if we're talking about discipleship in the narrow way, we got to talk about this.
SPEAKER_02: But what I love about it is Paul in here, he each little point, he kind of says something that if you really think about why he's saying it like that, it's truly fascinating.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna read it down.
SPEAKER_02: I won't go into it, but maybe reread this if you have a minute this week.
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna focus more on the second half, but I'll start in verse nine.
SPEAKER_02: So Romans 12, 9.
SPEAKER_02: It says this let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good.
SPEAKER_02: By the way, like just take the first part nine.
SPEAKER_02: You think about that.
SPEAKER_02: Let love be genuine.
SPEAKER_02: Was Paul writing that?
SPEAKER_02: And he's in communion with God and he's thinking, these Christians down the road might try to like love people fakely in a fake way.
SPEAKER_02: And it's fascinating when you start thinking like that.
SPEAKER_02: Like these words he's using are like really convicting at some level.
SPEAKER_02: Anyways, let love be genuine, abhor what is evil, hold fast to what is good, love one another with brotherly affection, outdo one another in showing honor.
SPEAKER_02: I always think about like, I don't show honor to a ton of people, but that's a hard verse to unpack.
SPEAKER_02: Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality.
SPEAKER_02: Gail is showing hospitality all the time at the food pantry.
SPEAKER_02: Bless those who persecute you, bless them, do not curse them.
SPEAKER_02: Here we go.
SPEAKER_02: Rejoice with those who weep, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.
SPEAKER_02: Never be conceited.
SPEAKER_02: Here we go.
SPEAKER_02: Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
SPEAKER_02: If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
SPEAKER_02: Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.
SPEAKER_02: For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to talk about that in a second.
SPEAKER_02: To the contrary, this is a quote from Proverbs If your enemy is hungry, feed him.
SPEAKER_02: If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
SPEAKER_02: For by doing so you will be heap burning coals on his head.
SPEAKER_02: Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
SPEAKER_02: Paul paints this picture that we're going to have enemies in our life.
SPEAKER_02: And around that is this concept of evil, right?
SPEAKER_02: Do not repay evil with evil.
SPEAKER_02: Do not be overcome by evil.
SPEAKER_02: Overcome evil with good.
SPEAKER_02: If your enemy is hungry, feed him.
SPEAKER_02: If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
SPEAKER_02: These are hard things to internalize, but the wise thing to do is to subvert this cycle of evil.
SPEAKER_02: What's interesting is I feel like Christians move out into the world.
SPEAKER_02: You'll go from this place, you'll go today or tomorrow.
SPEAKER_02: And I would ask you the following question.
SPEAKER_02: You're a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: Hey, you're a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: What do I, what do you expect to happen out there?
SPEAKER_02: Like, what do you expect?
SPEAKER_02: Like my wife and I joke about expectations all the time.
SPEAKER_02: And I told her I would not talk about expectations today.
SPEAKER_02: But you you think about the things we do in life, right?
SPEAKER_02: If you if you coach baseball and you put in a kid who's never pitched, what do you expect to happen?
SPEAKER_02: There's gonna be like four walks, a couple hit by pitches, and eventually the kids crying.
SPEAKER_02: That's what happens.
SPEAKER_02: What do you expect?
SPEAKER_02: If you drive a junky car like I do, and it breaks down, it's always out of windshield, washer, fluid, because I haven't changed my own like 10,000 miles.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
SPEAKER_02: Like, what do I expect to happen?
SPEAKER_02: Well, it's gonna end up stuck on the side of the road, something's not gonna work.
SPEAKER_02: The other day, my kids explained to my wife how like my car didn't start.
SPEAKER_02: It's great.
SPEAKER_02: But you think about this like, what do we expect is gonna happen out there?
SPEAKER_02: And what I want to say is that it's our job as Christians to subvert this cycle of evil.
SPEAKER_02: Because what we should expect out there is that people are gonna repay evil with evil.
SPEAKER_02: But it's funny because Christians, you know, the more you go through life, you like hope in other people, right?
SPEAKER_02: We're supposed to hope in God.
SPEAKER_02: And you go out and you and you think, okay, they're gonna solve this problem.
SPEAKER_02: You know what?
SPEAKER_02: They're gonna be the bigger man, they're gonna stop this tit for tat that we have going on.
SPEAKER_02: They surely can't ratchet it up from here.
SPEAKER_02: They can't be meaner to me or be more unkind.
SPEAKER_02: And and I'm here to tell you, yes, yes, they will.
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
SPEAKER_02: The Christian, Paul is saying, is not to repay evil with evil.
SPEAKER_02: And the reason is he's built this case from chapter one.
SPEAKER_02: I'll give it to you in a few sentences, but it's because you've been saved by the grace of God.
SPEAKER_02: And grace is this thing that breaks that tit for tat humanity that we all experience.
SPEAKER_02: Grace is God dies on the cross, forgives your sins.
SPEAKER_02: Once that happens in your life, you don't need to get people back anymore.
SPEAKER_02: Think about it, right?
SPEAKER_02: The God of the universe has said, you are forgiven for every bad thing you could imagine or do.
SPEAKER_02: I forgive you.
SPEAKER_02: All you have to do is welcome me, accept it.
SPEAKER_02: And then we go out in the world and we expect other people to sort of put down the sword or stop ribbing us or stop rationing up this cycle.
SPEAKER_02: And I would submit to you that as a Christian, if you've experienced grace and you're doing life with the Holy Spirit, that it is our job to subvert or undercut this cycle of evil, to be the person who goes, you know what, I put it down.
SPEAKER_02: I don't need to get back at you.
SPEAKER_02: I'm okay.
SPEAKER_02: I'm saved by God.
SPEAKER_02: I can move out in the world and be okay that there's been wrongs done to me.
SPEAKER_02: Because God's got me.
SPEAKER_02: That's a hard thing to do.
SPEAKER_02: It's a very hard thing to do.
SPEAKER_02: But that's what God calls us to.
SPEAKER_02: And it's the reason Paul can say, culminating in this verse, do not be overcome by evil.
SPEAKER_02: Because that's what happens when we keep going tit for tat.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, they did this.
SPEAKER_02: I got to do this, I got to get them back.
SPEAKER_02: It's not right.
SPEAKER_02: Justice must be served.
SPEAKER_02: I have to do it.
SPEAKER_02: And to subvert that as a Christian, is to not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good, to not repay evil with evil.
SPEAKER_02: To love your enemy, pray for those who persecute you.
SPEAKER_02: These are hard things.
SPEAKER_02: We're called to subvert the cycle of evil.
SPEAKER_02: What's interesting is I think this frees us up as Christians.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you're sitting there, you're thinking, Nate's just telling us to like do stuff.
SPEAKER_02: This is not great.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not really telling you to do anything.
SPEAKER_02: What I'm kind of as I was reflecting on this this week, I went this paragraph here.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I realized that it's like a freeing feeling.
SPEAKER_02: I tell this to my wife a lot, but like it's a freeing feeling when you can have a win in a relationship because you looked at it and said, I was not overcome with evil today.
SPEAKER_02: I intentionally didn't respond like this because I am trying to love that person.
SPEAKER_02: It's a very different way of doing life, but it cuts that cycle out and it cuts the legs out from under it, and the cycle does not continue.
SPEAKER_02: And it frees you up, right?
SPEAKER_02: It gives you this free space in your head of I don't have to do that.
SPEAKER_02: I won't do that.
SPEAKER_02: It's not what God wants.
SPEAKER_02: It's not what I want.
SPEAKER_02: And so I think I see it as that, and it's a it's a fascinating thing to think about Christ making us free to not respond to this tit for tat or evil for evil humanity we all have.
SPEAKER_02: Okay, point three on your outline, last point.
SPEAKER_02: And this one's interesting because it's just trying to make an application point, but it it the on your outline it says, enemies belong to God.
SPEAKER_02: I kind of mean that in two ways.
SPEAKER_02: In one sense, you could look at it and go, okay, enemies belong to God in the sense that we believe God created the whole world, everything in it.
SPEAKER_02: It says he made man after his own image.
SPEAKER_02: In a sense, all humanity, right, is God's children.
SPEAKER_02: And so what Jesus is doing is calling us to love them.
SPEAKER_02: In the same breath, it's what Paul's saying here, right?
SPEAKER_02: It's not your job to overcome evil with evil.
SPEAKER_02: And he says this bit, I said we come back to this, but the second thing it could mean, right, is that leave the dealing with the enemies to God.
SPEAKER_02: In the text in Romans 12, and we'll go back to Matthew 5 in a second, but it it says this, if you look at it, um, verse 16 live in harmony with one another, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly, never be conceited.
SPEAKER_02: Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
SPEAKER_02: If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
SPEAKER_02: Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And so the other sense of your enemies belong to God is the sense in which we leave it up to God to sometimes meet the injustices in the world.
SPEAKER_02: If you think about an enemy you have, if you have anyone you don't like, someone you sort of have something against, you'll realize really quickly that it's up to you to sort of either deal with it if you really want to, or you could just say, you know what, I give it to God.
SPEAKER_02: Let Him deal with it.
SPEAKER_02: That's again a very freeing experience.
SPEAKER_02: To sum up this last point, though, I want to give two application points.
SPEAKER_02: And I think it's an interesting thought process, but here it is.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to think of someone you would consider an enemy in your life.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you don't have any, maybe you have like 50.
SPEAKER_02: I have no idea.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's the bear in Lake Tahoe.
SPEAKER_02: Make that it fine.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to get this picture of this person or this circumstance or this family member, this church member in your head.
SPEAKER_02: And I want you to ask the question, you know, what would it take to give them to God?
SPEAKER_02: Like literally to in your mind go, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: God can deal with this if I don't need to anymore, and I don't need to get them back.
SPEAKER_02: Now, there's different ways the Bible has in dealing with this, and I want to talk about that for a second.
SPEAKER_02: So imagine that person is not a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: We go back to either Romans or Matthew, and what's it say?
SPEAKER_02: Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.
SPEAKER_02: Have you prayed for them?
SPEAKER_02: Am I praying for those parents?
SPEAKER_02: I know.
SPEAKER_02: Do I have them at the top of my mind as people who I should pray for that they would come to know the grace of Jesus Christ?
SPEAKER_02: Right?
SPEAKER_02: Remember, right in John 1, to all those who believe in a name, he gave the right to become children of God.
SPEAKER_02: Do we pray that over them?
SPEAKER_02: God, help them find you.
SPEAKER_02: I want them to be your child.
SPEAKER_02: It's a hard thing to do, but it's what God calls us to.
SPEAKER_02: Pray for those who persecute you.
SPEAKER_02: Second one application.
SPEAKER_02: Imagine that person you're thinking of, or that circumstance, that family member, imagine they're a Christian.
SPEAKER_02: Oh boy, maybe they're sitting in this room.
SPEAKER_02: What's the Bible say?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, if you go back to Matthew 5, Jesus says a number of things here, but in Matthew 5 specifically, before this, I would take you to the anger section, which we didn't study today.
SPEAKER_02: But in the anger section, you may know this verse.
SPEAKER_02: It's Matthew 5.23.
SPEAKER_02: It says the following.
SPEAKER_02: It's not going to come up on the screen.
SPEAKER_02: It says, So if you're offering your gift at the altar and there, remember that your brother has something against you.
SPEAKER_02: Leave your gift there before the altar and go.
SPEAKER_02: First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
SPEAKER_02: So if you imagine this sort of enemy or this person you find distinction with is a Christian, it's saying, Well, you come to the house of God to offer to God your sacrifices.
SPEAKER_02: And while you're there, you realize you're saying, God, you've got my whole heart.
SPEAKER_02: Here's stuff I've brought to you.
SPEAKER_02: And then in your mind, you think, oh no, there's this thing going on with this person.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is a little more stern about this.
SPEAKER_02: He says, actually go quickly, do it, and then come back to that.
SPEAKER_02: Because this is an important thing for brothers and sisters of Christ.
SPEAKER_02: It's important that we fix the problems we have with one another, the distinctions we have with one another.
SPEAKER_02: And so I would encourage you, if you have something like that today, this week, deal with it.
SPEAKER_02: And I know you might think, Nate, I can't deal with it.
SPEAKER_02: I guarantee you can.
SPEAKER_02: Christ died on a cross for your sins.
SPEAKER_02: You can.
SPEAKER_02: And so I just I I I speak that over you that you look at this in a way that's very practical, that you go, how do my how are my enemies belonging to God?
SPEAKER_02: What would it take for me to give them to God?
SPEAKER_02: And of course takes a thought process, but it might take an action this week or this month or today.
SPEAKER_02: In closing, I just want to say the following God calls us to be Christians who are people that look at other humanity and help them belong.
SPEAKER_02: One of the hardest circumstances that takes place in is looking at someone that you would call an enemy, someone you don't like, someone you have immense differences with or has wronged you, and being willing to go, you know what?
SPEAKER_02: I forgive you.
SPEAKER_02: You know what?
SPEAKER_02: I'm praying for that person.
SPEAKER_02: They may not like me, but I can control my relationship.
SPEAKER_02: I can take the grace of God and extend it outwards to them.
SPEAKER_02: And that's a really hard thing to do, but by the grace of God, it's possible.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_02: Lord, thank you for this time.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you for uh just uh a week and a month and a year and a life.
SPEAKER_02: I ask that people in this room would be deeply convicted.
SPEAKER_02: That sometimes we look at our humanity and we realize how how sinful and sad we are.
SPEAKER_02: Let us find freedom in you, in a grace that covers our sins, so that we can look at others differently.
SPEAKER_02: It's not normal to love our enemies, but we ask that you would allow us to, that you would encourage us to, that you would walk along our sides while we do it.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for people in this room dealing with huge problems, huge enemies in life.
SPEAKER_02: I pray you break down those walls of relationship, that they build up.
SPEAKER_02: Just tear them down, God.
SPEAKER_02: Let people leave from this room and heal relationships.
SPEAKER_02: We thank you for this series.
SPEAKER_02: We ask we would be people that walk in the narrow path.
SPEAKER_02: It says that few find it.
SPEAKER_02: God help us find it this week.
SPEAKER_02: In your name, amen.
SPEAKER_00: Thanks so much for joining us, church.
SPEAKER_00: We hope that you enjoyed this message.
SPEAKER_00: To find more messages like this, or to see where you can get connected or to give financially, please visit Sierra Bible.com.