Luke 6:27-36 with Sam Anderson

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome this morning. So I will confess that usually when I come up to preach and I'm trying to figure out some personal life stories to tell to uh try to um give a little bit of life to the applicability of what I'm saying and how maybe it's been applied in my life or hasn't been applied in my life. Usually I try to pick stories that maybe don't put myself in the best of lights just because I feel like that's more honest. I feel like that's right. So we all uh as many times as we succeed, we definitely fail more. Um but I will admit that today I am picking um two stories where that are kind of more of my highlight reel. Uh and I can say that because as I was talking to my wife about it, I'm like, all right, I'm trying to come up with some stories where, you know, I loved my enemies well, or and I was like, I only had a few to choose from. So I would say that uh in all honesty, I think I fail a lot more than I succeed. But um in these couple of stories, the reason that I chose them is because I really do feel like they highlight um what God can do when we are obedient to Him. Um so the first one of those stories I'm gonna share in the I'm gonna share a story at the beginning and a story at the end. So uh the beginning story uh it goes all the way back to when I was in junior high. And uh there was a newer kid at school who, for whatever reason, all of a sudden things just didn't go well between me and him. Like didn't really know him very well, wasn't really friends with him, but all of a sudden, uh, and of course, right? So, from my perspective, and there's three sides to every story, right? My side, your side, and then the truth. Uh so uh that's one of my favorite police sayings, by the way. I tell everybody that. Uh but, anyways, so my side of it was that all of a sudden he just didn't like me. I didn't do anything to him, I wasn't mean to him. In all likelihood, I was probably unkind to him, right? I was a junior hire. I love you, junior hires, but you guys can be mean. Um so I was probably mean to him, and for whatever reason, didn't didn't go well. And so I remember one day sitting in an art class, and I think I was like painting a piece of pottery that we had done, and that's what we were doing that day, and I noticed him looking over at me with a bunch of his friends and laughing, and I was like, whatever, you know, kind of just shrugging it off. Uh, but they kept doing it, and I'm like, this is kind of weird. And then all of a sudden I saw him kind of get up and start walking towards me. And so kind of did one of those where I'm watching him like a hawk, but I'm pretending not to, like painting my pottery, but I know exactly where he is. And right as he passed behind me, all of a sudden I feel this wetness down my shirt and pants because he had dumped a whole mason jar of paint all down me. And he pretended that he had tripped. And so I kind of knew right away that he had pretended, but I also got some information from some other friends that he had said he was gonna do this, and so I reacted, right? And I accused him of doing this on purpose. And the art teacher wasn't having any of it, they were just like, Go to the both of you, vice principal's office. I'm like, all right, so I'm like, I got him, right? He did this on purpose, I have proof, I got him. And so I still remember sitting in the office of my school, and uh we weren't talking, of course. Um I had paint all over me, and uh he looked over at me and he goes, What are you gonna say? And it was kind of a weird question, right? Like, you know what I'm gonna say. Like, you're done. Like, I got you, like you're finished. And for, and this totally a God thing. Um, in my head, all of a sudden I was kind of like, I could absolutely get this guy, and he's gonna get in trouble. Maybe he'll even get like a suspension, like who knows? Like, or maybe I try to make peace with him right here and now. Maybe I decide that I'm not going to say that he did it on purpose. Maybe I'm going to say, and so I told him, I said, I'm gonna say that we were just goofing around and it was an accident, and he's like, Really? I'm like, Yeah. And so for you cynics out there, you might be like, Well, you just gave in to the bully, man. You he he fleeced you, right? So he got one over on you because this is he's just playing you, and that might have been true. Uh, in this case, it wasn't. We actually started chatting. I had never really gotten to know him. Uh, we started talking, and by the time we got into the vice principal's office, I remember the vice principal was like, What's going on here? You guys seem like you're good friends all of a sudden. And actually, he became one of my best friends for a few years before he went off to another school. And so God really worked in that and showed me how showing an act of mercy to someone when I didn't need to, and not only that, but when I like had them, right? How that affects uh and how that can be effective for the kingdom. So our passage today that we're gonna be going through uh is Luke 6, and we're gonna be going from verse 27 through 36. So I'm gonna read that out now. 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 abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to every one who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them, and if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get 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 this and you will be sons of the most high, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful even as your father is merciful. Let's open in prayer. Lord God, um, as we just approach this um wonderful piece of scripture, Lord, but a piece that is challenging to us, Lord, I pray that you would give us open hearts. Um, I pray my words would not be my words, Lord, but they would be yours. Um I pray that I would fade away and your word would shine through in what you have to teach us and your life, Jesus, you who did this perfectly, who whose every moment was a highlight real, Lord. Um let us just be more like you each and every day. Pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, let's start with our first verse. By say to you who hear, love your enemies. And we're gonna stop right there. Uh no, I think we need this is the umbrella that every that the rest of this passage is under, right? Is love your enemies. And not only that, but we don't want to skip over that first part of that verse, but I say to you who hear, so this is not just for the first century Jew, this is not just for the disciples, this is for all who hear. So this is for us. And then it says, love your enemies. And this word love that they use, this is not phileo love, this is agape love. Agape love is the highest form of love. Unconditional, sacrificial, and volitional, prioritizing the well-being of others without expecting anything in return. That's the kind of love that God calls us, that Jesus calls us to for our enemies, for those who hate us. So uh I will admit that I was I was talking to um Jared and Aaron this week, they were asking about this, and I was like, you know, this is uh a unique piece of scripture because I think it has so much applicability in our lives. There's so much direct application. I don't have to stretch any of this, but I am gonna try to ask you some questions throughout and give yourselves a heart check as I've been checking my heart this week as I've been going through this. So, that agape love, the unconditional sacrificial love for our enemies. What would that look like in this world if that was a norm in the world? What would that look like in your life? And what did that look like in the life of Jesus? Because Jesus is the one calling us to this. And I think even before we go any further, I think it's worth talking about how he demonstrated that love during his time here on earth. So let's start here. Romans 5, 10. For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by death by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. For while we were enemies, yet while we were still sinners, we were enemies of God. And so this love that God has for us, right? So this is before even Jesus came down into this world, this love that the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit and the Trinity had for us, that while we were still sinners, enemies of him, that they still loved us. And we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Let's look even further now into Jesus' time on this earth. And so one of the first things that I thought of was Jesus on the cross, um, suffering from physical torment, not just any physical torment, but as we uh remembered on Good Friday, a torture, something that we wouldn't be okay with probably happening to even the worst of the people on this world right now, something that we would call cruel and unusual, even for the worst of people. He suffered that on the cross. And he's then suffered even a worse torment, the spiritual torment of being separated from the Father as all of our sins on him were laid. And yet, as he is there on the cross, feeling that separation from the Father, feeling that physical torment, he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. Forgiveness, love for those who were killing him. And yes, maybe there were some there that truly didn't understand what they were doing, and that there were many that didn't believe that he was the Son of God. But then there were those like the high priests who had much more of an idea of what they were doing. They were the perpetrators of this, this was their plan. But he says, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And I thought of even just the practicality of that, of as we think of the Old Testament and the wrath of God, of how he removed people from this world for much smaller crimes than killing his one and only Son. And I thought of maybe, and I don't know this, but maybe there was more practicality to it of him pleading with the Father to not strike anybody down that was there. He loved us. And then when the people come to take him away, one of them loses an ear. I mean, it's an ear, right? He's okay. But Jesus miraculously healed him, the person who came to take him away to this awful torture. Again, he just loved on them unconditionally, sacrificially. And then I taking it even kind of from a bigger context to more of even a smaller context, I think about Judas. One of the twelve, called to be one of the twelve people in this world that got to be Jesus' disciple while he was here. Somebody who got to share in that, in those such important years of ministry, in friendship. One of his brothers here on this world. And Jesus knew that he was going to betray him. And he had an opportunity and did identify him at the Last Supper. And he identified him, right? The disciples are asking, who is it? Is it I, Lord? Is it I? And how did he identify him? He didn't call him out. He didn't say, he didn't call him out in such a way of like saying, grab him, get him, look at this guy, this sinner, this person who deserves your hate. No, what did he do? He dipped the bread and gave it to him. And now, this is one of those that lost in translation for us because for the first century Jewish person in Middle Eastern cultures, this meant something way different than what it meant to me, because I never even thought much about it. This dipping of the bread was a profound sign of friendship, intimacy, and trust. It symbolized a welcoming of others into one's life. In Middle Eastern culture, a host dips bread into a common dish and offers it to an honored guest as a gesture of affection. Imagine that. Who is going to betray you? And then he shows Judas the sign of peace, of friendship. Many commentators wonder if this was Jesus' one last attempt to offer this olive branch to Judas, as he was, as he had already decided, taken the silver and decided in his heart what he was going to do. But Jesus yet again was reaching out to him in love. Right? He had him. He knew that that was his betrayer. He could have called him out. He was surrounded by his closest friends. He could have had him stopped, but instead, he shows him this deep gesture of love and peace and honor and friendship. And unfortunately, Judas didn't take that. But he showed mercy. So I ask again, what would this kind of love look like in your lives? Alright, I promise we're gonna get to the rest of the verses. So uh moving on, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. I think it's cool here. So it talks about loving your enemies, agape love, unconditional love toward your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. I think that there's a way that we can do that. We can do good to those who hate us without actually, it's a it right, that's doing good. That's that's one thing, that's a that's a sign of obedience. But could we do something nice for someone but not really want it to go well with them? Not really want the best for them. And then it goes further, it says, bless those who curse you. So now it's asking us to bless those who are our enemies, who curse us, who are against us. And then finally, pray for those who abuse you. And I think I know that this is intentional by God to pray for those who abuse you, because again, I might do a nice act for someone who is unkind to me, who hates me, but prayer is so much more. It's a much deeper call to action because we are interceding with the God of the universe on behalf of our enemy. We are praying for their salvation. We are praying for good to come to them, even if sometimes their good might conflict with our own good. When we pray, that is such a deeper action where, again, I don't think we can go before God and pray like that and not be transformed, not be conformed to what Jesus is calling us into, to be different, to not be like this world, to love those, love our enemies. Moving on to verse 29. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. So we're gonna kind of take each one of these piece by piece, and I think that when we get all the pieces, right? So there might be a little bit, there wasn't my heart, a little bit of pushback on some of these pieces because they sound hard, they sound like unfair, they sound like too much. Um, I think that when we get all the pieces together, I think that we're gonna see what God is calling us into. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. So think about this, right? So this is what this is not. This is not a call to not defend yourself, okay? If someone is, this is not, right, so let's put it in first century, you know, Jewish days, right? This is strike on the cheek. This is not hit with a club, stabbed with a sword, cut with a knife. This is struck on the cheek. This is an insult, okay? So this is not a call that you can't defend yourself if you're being attacked. We're called to defend others around us, right? That's my job is defending others, right? Keeping others safe. So we are called to that for sure, but this is a slap to the face. It's not meant to maim or kill. It's meant to insult, right? Even in all our culture today, a slap on the face. It stings, kind of hurts. It's not meant to maim, kill. It's not gonna leave a permanent mark. It's an insult. So what is this saying? When we are insulted, offer the other also. Offer the other also. So again, it's not that we cannot defend ourselves. What it is calling us to is it's calling us to not retaliate when we are insulted. Right? And we think of an insult. That's to our pride, to maybe somebody dragging our name through the mud, maybe somebody calling us names, right? And so what it's the call is for is for us to trust God to be our defender. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord. Right? We don't get to decide who receives punishment, right? So how does this look like? What does this look like in your life, in your relationships, at work, as you're driving? Q groan, right? Um, but so when you are insulted, the call here is to not act like the world. And that's what we're gonna keep coming back to. It's not it's to not act as the world does. But let's keep going. From the one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Okay, again, what this is not is this is not that if somebody just tries to take something from you, you just okay. You the it's not a call against private property, right? It's not that you can't own anything or you should just let's talk about what this is. And and again, a little bit deeper look. So, under Mosaic law, it was forbidden to take someone's cloak as collateral or even when a debt was owed. So, again, we think about debts being owned, we we think about um stories in scripture, right? Imprisonment could have been part of it, bondage as a servant could have been part of it. But the one thing that you were not allowed to do was take somebody's cloak, right? That was considered such a right to have warmth, to have an outer garment to keep you warm. So it was considered this right that you had. So as we think about what this is actually saying, what it's saying is that if someone takes away your cloak, if someone were to take away my cloak, every single one of the first century Jews would have understood that that was an injustice, an absolute injustice, and one where we hold the upper hand. We could take that person, right, to a high priest, and under Mosaic law, they would be wrong. They would be wrong. But what's the call here? The call is to not withhold our tunic. And the tunic would be like, here's my, you know, so they take my jacket, hey, do you want my shirt too? Right? It's to leave you with basically just your undergarments, that's it. So the call here is that when there is an injustice to us, an extreme injustice to us, what is our reaction? Okay? Do we fight back? Do we scream and shout from the rooftops? Do we drag this person in front of a court? Let's keep going. So, again, these are pieces, but we're getting to we're getting to the end of the puzzle. Give to everyone who begs from you. Now here's the one of the three where there is no injustice happening, right? There's no injustice with giving to someone who begs. This is a call to extreme generosity. What does it say? Give to everyone who begs from you. Again, there's part of my heart that, ah, what? You know, right? And so, what this is not, again, this is not a call to give foolishly. If a Nigerian prince calls you next week asking for $10,000 and he'll give you back a million dollars once his bank accounts are freed up, take caution. Okay? Take caution. That's all I'll say. Okay, but think about this. If you were to give to someone who you thought was in need and they were manipulating you and scamming you, do you think God, your father, is up there going, well, dummy, that's your fault. Good luck. You can't outgive God. You cannot outgive God. Give to everyone who begs for me. What this is is a freedom from the consequence of being scammed or manipulated. It's a freedom to be generous with other people without having to overly worry about whether or not they are truly in need. If they look like they are in need, they're telling you they are in need. If you give to them out of obedience to God, do you think he will punish you for that? No. So it's a freedom to be generous with other people. The world doesn't have that. The world thinks that if they get scammed, if something gets taken from them, that's on them, right? Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me, right? This is not the way that it is with God, is that God is calling us to be generous with everyone who begs from us. To live differently. And finally, probably one of the hardest ones of these. And from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. Ouch. Right? What is this saying? So somebody takes from me, and I can't even get my stuff back? Like, again, here's another injustice. So I think, as I wrestled with these, there's a passage of scripture and there was there was specific wording that I think really starts to get at the heart of what this is talking about here. Okay. And that comes from Romans 12.21. And Paul says in Romans 12.21, to overcome evil with good. There is injustice in every single one of these. You get slapped, you get insulted, your name is drugged through the mud. There's some sort of injustice there. Somebody takes away your cloak, something that they should never do, that you could take them into a court of law and sue them for in modern day terms, or even in those terms, in first century terms? Someone scams you out of money, somebody takes away your stuff. How might you overcome the evil done against you with good? How might a kind act, a good act, a loving act towards that person when they don't deserve it at all? In fact, they deserve the exact opposite, what might that do for the kingdom? So this is hard. But we think about what the world might do. We think about how the world would react to some of this, not because to think that we're better, but to make sure that that's not how we're acting. And we see what the world does. If someone takes, if there's an injustice to someone, they're screaming, they're yelling, they're doing, they're suing. That's the first thing, right? You don't let anybody take anything from you because if you don't fix it, no one else will. That's not what the Bible says for us. It says that God is our defender, avenges his mind, says the Lord. So I'm not trying, what I'm not trying to say is that to each one of these, that there is a specific letter of the law that we need to abide in, in terms of absolutely you cannot, if somebody takes something from you, you just have to go, okay, okay. What I'm saying is that what does it look like if when you are treated unjustly, when there's evil perpetrated against you, what would it look like to show mercy, to show grace, to show kindness to that person in that moment? What might it do for the people around you? Maybe it's not even the person who did it to you. What if it's the people around you? God calls us to live counterculturally. God is our defender. Someone takes away your cloak, could not God provide you a thousand cloaks? If someone scams you out of money, could he not provide you more money? If they take away your goods, could he not provide for you? There's this trust, and it's hard. It's hard because the world tells us one thing, our flesh tells us one thing, that we have to stand up for ourselves. And I'm not saying that in every situation you shouldn't, but I'm saying I think that there is a seeking of God in those moments of what could we do in this moment? How might we act like Jesus in this moment? How might we show love? And then as we go on to verse 31, just because God knows our hearts so well, because he knows that we're going to rail against some of these things and have struggles with some of these things and try to find loopholes in some of these things, he says, and as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. Closes those loopholes. The second greatest commandment. Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, your strength. The second is likened unto it. Love your neighbor as yourself. The golden rule. Moving on to verse 32 and 33. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. Again, this worldly thinking, if somebody's kind to you, good to you, how easy is it to be kind or good or loving back? Now, my daughter told me specifically this week, do not mention me in the sermon, but unfortunately, then she said something just so good I couldn't pass it up. So sorry, Pip. She said, uh, she goes, see, Dad, if you just asked me nicely, I would have done what you asked, like mom did. Mom just asked me nicely, so I did what she asked. But you don't ask nicely, so I'm not gonna do it. I'm like, man, I'm glad you're sitting in on Sunday. It's easy when someone is good to us, loving to us, to do that back. That's what the world does. That's what the world does. They're good and loving. But the world also says that when somebody messes with you, you don't take that. You fight back. To those who are unloving towards you, you don't owe them anything. Someone who's not good towards you, don't be kind back. You're just going to encourage them to keep doing it. This is a call to just live, to live differently, counterculturally, but not for countercultural sake, but because Jesus was so countercultural. It's a call to live like him, to be transformed and conformed to his life, because he modeled this with his life. Verse 34, and if you lend to those with whom you expect to receive, from sorry, lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. Now it does say lend here, and there is this idea of when we say lend, that it's I give you something, you're going to give me something, right? If I lend somebody something, I do kind of expect it back. But I think this is a heart of the giver, right? How many times have you, and I and I don't maybe it's not many, but hopefully it's some, how many times have you had in your life somebody who has been struggling and you've offered them help and they said, Oh, I'll pay you back? That's fine, right? We're not gonna be like, no, you're not, okay? Right? We say, sure, that's fine. But in our hearts, I think the call there is to say, I don't expect anything back. When we give generously, so generously, counterculturally, there is no expectation of receiving back. We give knowing that this person is in need and knowing that God, our Father, will give us what we need. I don't think we're gonna give to someone and God's gonna say, Sucker, now you're not gonna be able to feed your kids this week. Right? That's not our God. That's not how he acts. And then verse 35 and 36, which I think are summary statements of what we've been talking about today. 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 is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your father is merciful. Love your enemies. Again, this is a summary statement of what we've been talking about, and this is the first time that there is a specific reward suggested, not suggested, called out. Your reward will be great. And it talks about that even a little bit in verse 32 and vertical, talking about what benefit is it to you. So there's this idea that there is a benefit to us when we do these things, when we love those who do evil against us, that there is a reward for it. And I think the reward could easily just be, and you will be sons of the Most High, sons and daughters of the King. We'll be acting in a way that brings glory to his name. We all take the name of Christ. We call ourselves Christians, so we should act like him. And so we bring glory to his name when we live like him, we bring glory to his name when we love those who do not deserve it, we show mercy, even as the Father shows mercy, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. And when I talk about this reward, I do think, and I believe, that you can't outgive God. I believe that if you give to those who are in need, that when you tithe and give to your local church, when you do, when you live a generous life, that God will take care of you. He clothes the flowers of the field, he takes care of the birds of the air, he's going to take care of you. But I also pray that that reward is not monetary. I pray it's not stuff. I pray that it's answers to prayer for you, release of sin and relief from sin in your life. I pray that there is more there. And part of the reason that I pray that is because I have experienced a great reward from living in God's calling to this. So I want to share that story with you. And if you've been around for a long time here, you might have heard part of this story before. As many of you know, I'm a police officer, and um, so I was working day shift, and for our day shifts on the weekends, we work Friday, Saturday, Sunday 12 hours each day. So by that Sunday we're pretty spent. And usually it's pretty quiet, and so I was having a nice, quiet, relaxing Sunday. And I got a call to the lobby to help out a woman who needed to report a crime. And my Sunday was ruined. As I spoke with that woman and she showed me a video of a crime that had happened, I was exposed to one of the greatest evils that I've ever had to witness. And it was rough. And we knew who the perpetrator was, and we called in a detective to come help out, and we put the perpetrator in custody, and by that night he was sitting in a jail cell. And I drove home that night. And I drove home that night and I wept. I wept and I called out to God, and I was, I hated this person. And I'll be honest with that. I had hate in my heart for this person who had perpetrated this crime, for what he did to that woman, for what he did to his victims, for what he did to me that I had to witness this. And this was now in my head. Every time I closed my eyes, I would see images again and again. And I hated him. And uh I did a healthy thing as I was struggling and weeping and had a long drive home because I didn't know how I was gonna face my family. I didn't know how I was gonna just forget everything. I do a pretty good job of trying to kind of compartmentalize my work life and home life, but I didn't know how I was gonna do that. I had gone through probably, I would say, the most traumatic thing that I've ever gone through in my life during that day. And so I didn't know what I was gonna do. So I phoned a friend. And it was interesting because the first couple people that I phoned either weren't available or didn't pick up, and I was forced to just be with God and wrestle with him over this, wrestle with what I felt in my heart, wrestle with what I was going through. But then God also, and in that moment I would say that God was there with me. My good and kind father was holding me tight. But then he also gave me some earthly relief. And so uh very thankful for Jared Beckler, who uh did call me back uh or picked up the phone, I can't remember which one, but either way. Um, and he is a person who has made himself available to me that I can share some of this stuff that goes on in my life and details, and he carried that bucket with me, and I was very and he prayed for me, and it helped a lot. And I got home and uh my wife and I have a have an agreement that I keep the details out, but there was enough there that she knew I was going through something hard. And that night was hard because, like I said, as I closed my eyes, I was still thinking about everything that was going on. It wasn't going away. The next day, the same thing, just hard, just dealing with this, dealing with the hate in my heart. And I still remember very clearly in the next morning waking up early, no one else was up, laying in my bed trying to go back to sleep. And again, the reel just started playing in my head. Struggling, hurting. And totally God. He convinced me that I needed to pray for this person. He convinced me that I needed to pray for this person who was sitting in the jail cell who had done these awful things, and so I did. I prayed for his salvation, and then I got the call. Not an earthly call, but a heavenly one. Because as I prayed and prayed for his salvation, God told me that I needed to be the one to present the gospel to him. And I felt like no more like Jonah than I could ever have described. I thought of Jonah in that moment, and how he felt going to my enemy and sharing with him the good news of that Jesus loves him. And it tested me. Did I really want him to be saved? Did I really believe that Jesus' death was enough even for him? And I won't go through every detail, but I will say that the next day I went into work and God orchestrated, God orchestrated it all. I went in, he was still sitting in the jail cell. He had not gone to court yet, so usually it's the day shift's job to do it, but we always had a guy that came in and did that. The guy wasn't there that day to take this guy to court. And I'm sitting there at roll call, and the my boss says, Who's gonna who does anybody want to take him? And I raised my hand. I said, I'll take him. And I remember exactly where I was on I-90 when I started to tell this person, and I felt as I went over this again and again in my head for the last 24 hours of what I was gonna say, right or wrong, I felt like I needed to tell him how much he had hurt me. And so I told him, I said that he had hurt me, and I wasn't even his victim, but I had hurt me by witnessing this. And the reason I did that is because I wanted him to know that I wasn't untouched by this, and that what I was sharing with him meant more than that, because what I shared with him is that no matter that it even with what he did, I told him that Jesus' death was enough to even cover that. And I told him that he was going to a dark place, he was gonna go continue to sit in the jail cell, but that Christ's death was enough, and that God still loved him, and there was still forgiveness for him. So as we conclude today, I have some questions, and I'm not gonna answer them for you, but this is for you, for your weak. Is there an enemy? And if so, who is it that God is calling you to pray for? And it may not be somebody that did something so terrible in your life. It may just be somebody that is making your life difficult right now. Somebody who is speaking out against you, somebody who is an enemy doesn't have to be a mortal enemy. It's just somebody who is not treating you well. As we talked about these calls to live differently, to overcome evil with good, is there one that really spoke out to you today? Turning the other cheek, not withholding your tunic also, giving generously, and overcoming evil with good? What is God putting on your heart today? And finally, and I think we all, this one is one that we all can probably answer, whether it's ourselves, whether it's our spouses, our kids, our people that we work with, who do we need to show mercy to? Who is it in our life that deserves something that we're not going to give them? Deserves bad and we're not going to give them bad. We're going to give them good. Who do we need to show mercy to as your father was merciful to you, that yet while you were still sinners, Christ died for you? Let's pray. Dear Jesus, I thank you for showing us the way. I thank you that we have such a high priest that is not unable to empathize with us, with our temptations, with our sin. You saw it all. You lived it perfectly, Lord. You were tempted but did not sin. You showed us the way. You showed us how to live, how to love those who do not love us, but in fact hate us, who do evil towards us. Let us live more like you every day. And thank you, Lord, that you do not preach vengeance, but Lord, that you preach showing kindness to others. You preach showing doing good works to overcome evil. And we thank you, Lord, for that. I pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.