WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.799 Well we're back in Matthew chapter five. 00:00:02.879 --> 00:00:05.519 So this is the core of Jesus' teaching. 00:00:05.599 --> 00:00:07.040 It's a sermon on the mount. 00:00:07.200 --> 00:00:10.080 Last week we talked about cycles of retaliation. 00:00:10.160 --> 00:00:15.039 So if you missed last week, you missed a thrilling sermon everybody looks forward to on divorce. 00:00:15.279 --> 00:00:17.679 That's always the sermon you wake up and come to church for. 00:00:17.760 --> 00:00:32.960 But out of that came a section of text about let your yes be yes, your no be no, and then it went into a section of text about breaking cycles of retaliation and what that means for us this turning of the other cheek. 00:00:33.520 --> 00:00:48.640 So we know what that feels like because we either do that aggressively, we sort of want to react back at somebody, not turn the other cheek, or we do it passively, sort of mark the person, and then sit secretly kind of wait to make sure they get payback in time. 00:00:48.880 --> 00:00:50.159 What we said is we said this. 00:00:50.240 --> 00:00:53.679 This is our final point, just to review, set us up for this week. 00:00:53.840 --> 00:00:56.479 We said this was point number four, last point from last week. 00:00:56.719 --> 00:01:04.560 As we are affirmed and secure in Christ, we can extend compassion against reason. 00:01:05.359 --> 00:01:12.480 So as we are affirmed and secure in Christ, we don't need revenge, we don't need retaliation, we don't need it. 00:01:12.640 --> 00:01:15.120 Our identity doesn't need it. 00:01:15.519 --> 00:01:18.879 Which is insane because, like I said, it's against reason. 00:01:19.200 --> 00:01:21.760 Because I like to hit back, right? 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:24.319 Like I mean, either fight or flight, right? 00:01:24.560 --> 00:01:39.920 But Jesus teaches us a third way that we can be people of strength, people of backbone, people of bravery, and at the same time, people of compassion, and people who can break cycles of abbreaction and retaliation. 00:01:40.079 --> 00:01:44.560 So if you're here last week, you remember we talked about uh the Newton cradle. 00:01:44.640 --> 00:01:45.680 You remember the Newton cradle? 00:01:45.760 --> 00:01:51.439 Maybe it was on your boss's desk or your desk or something, and it started out with five marbles uh last week. 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:55.840 And and the reason we talked about it is because we know how it works. 00:01:56.560 --> 00:02:07.120 He says something, so I say something, she does something, so I do something, she does something, so I do something, and it's back and forth, back and forth, back and forth until, right? 00:02:07.920 --> 00:02:12.400 Until you break the cycle of back and forth. 00:02:13.039 --> 00:02:21.360 And that's who we get to be as Christians, is we get to be people who break those cycles of retaliation. 00:02:23.520 --> 00:02:27.439 So the setup here is a passage on divorce. 00:02:27.599 --> 00:02:32.960 Let your yes be yes, your no be no, turn the other cheek, and then just when you think, that's enough. 00:02:33.199 --> 00:02:34.560 Like, I'm good. 00:02:34.719 --> 00:02:37.599 Like that's enough for me to even attempt to do. 00:02:38.400 --> 00:02:45.199 Then Jesus says, Oh yeah, also love your enemy. 00:02:46.000 --> 00:02:51.039 So let's work our way through this passage of text, Matthew 5, 43 through 45. 00:02:51.439 --> 00:02:55.439 You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. 00:02:55.680 --> 00:03:02.240 But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those to persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. 00:03:02.560 --> 00:03:09.840 For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 00:03:10.000 --> 00:03:17.599 So point number one is this Christ heightens the call to love friend and foe. 00:03:18.400 --> 00:03:19.520 Friend and enemy. 00:03:19.680 --> 00:03:23.680 Last week at a football game in Iowa, a high school football game, maybe you saw this picture. 00:03:24.000 --> 00:03:25.680 I saw it online, I think, somewhere. 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:28.879 A player went down, was cramping badly. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:39.759 The opposing player sees the guy cramping, goes over, and begins to stretch the guy out until the trainers can get out there. 00:03:41.199 --> 00:03:44.400 Here's what the guy says, the the compassionate guy here. 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:45.439 This is what he says. 00:03:45.599 --> 00:03:48.080 I said I saw it all happen in the play. 00:03:48.240 --> 00:03:52.000 I'm running from the far end to get over there, and I just see him go down. 00:03:52.159 --> 00:03:56.479 At first I was running to high-five my teammates, but I saw him grab his calf. 00:03:56.639 --> 00:04:00.080 I saw him go down, and I didn't see anyone go over there to help him. 00:04:00.240 --> 00:04:05.599 I know how this feels, and wanted to help him get through this cramp until someone came over. 00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:10.719 It's a beautiful image of empathy toward opposition. 00:04:11.759 --> 00:04:21.199 Because yesterday, as a Georgia Bulldog, when we were playing Arkansas, I didn't feel any of that ever. 00:04:21.439 --> 00:04:22.000 Ever. 00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:27.120 I mean, fourth quarter, you know, they still have zero. 00:04:27.279 --> 00:04:28.639 It doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. 00:04:28.800 --> 00:04:29.759 I have none. 00:04:30.079 --> 00:04:30.639 None. 00:04:30.959 --> 00:04:36.079 Like if anything, I'm like if anything, it's like like maybe like nobody's looking. 00:04:36.160 --> 00:04:37.839 Kick them on the way to my sideline. 00:04:38.079 --> 00:04:39.839 Like that's what's in me, right? 00:04:39.920 --> 00:04:41.759 That's what's in me most of the time. 00:04:42.000 --> 00:04:43.199 Or act like I don't see them. 00:04:43.279 --> 00:04:46.079 Like it doesn't really need help, you know, and head the other way. 00:04:46.240 --> 00:04:48.560 Like that's what's typically in me. 00:04:49.279 --> 00:04:50.639 We all have enemies. 00:04:50.720 --> 00:04:59.360 Um, people have different political or uh religious opinions, and I just think they're so ridiculous, right? 00:04:59.439 --> 00:05:01.680 Like I do, I just think they're so ridiculous. 00:05:01.920 --> 00:05:03.920 Because I love my opinions. 00:05:04.319 --> 00:05:05.040 I really do. 00:05:05.120 --> 00:05:06.079 That's why I have them. 00:05:06.319 --> 00:05:08.160 I have my opinions, I love them, right? 00:05:08.319 --> 00:05:09.040 And that's the saying. 00:05:09.120 --> 00:05:13.040 Like, if you didn't love your opinions, you would change them, and then you would love your new opinions. 00:05:13.279 --> 00:05:18.480 So, of course, other people's opinions just seem so ridiculous to you, or else you would have those, right? 00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:28.000 We have enemies like that other people group or that other country that threatens you. 00:05:28.079 --> 00:05:32.959 Um the neighbor, the neighbor that is just so difficult. 00:05:34.720 --> 00:05:36.000 Or the family member. 00:05:36.720 --> 00:05:38.800 Like maybe even one that lives in your house. 00:05:39.519 --> 00:05:42.319 That's just so tough. 00:05:44.319 --> 00:05:55.519 And Jesus is teaching us it's easy to see or form an enemy and just forget the call that we have, which is to love even them. 00:05:56.879 --> 00:05:58.639 Remember Jesus' point. 00:05:58.800 --> 00:06:09.360 We talked about it last week, that we don't have to use the biblical call for societal justice as our personal plan for revenge. 00:06:09.600 --> 00:06:10.800 We don't get to do that. 00:06:10.959 --> 00:06:12.560 These are two different things. 00:06:12.800 --> 00:06:20.399 The biblical call for societal justice is separate from the call for us as people relationally to love our enemy. 00:06:20.560 --> 00:06:27.120 The context of Matthew 5 is Jesus actually correcting inappropriate teaching that was going on at the time. 00:06:27.279 --> 00:06:30.319 He's referencing back to Leviticus 19. 00:06:30.399 --> 00:06:37.439 And the teachers of the law of the time, they were taking Leviticus 19, and they were taking into a lesser law of love. 00:06:37.600 --> 00:06:39.439 Here's Leviticus 19. 00:06:39.920 --> 00:06:42.879 Start in verse 9, and then we'll jump down into verse 17. 00:06:43.120 --> 00:06:56.560 When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest, and you shall not strip your vineyards bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. 00:06:56.720 --> 00:07:00.639 You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner. 00:07:00.800 --> 00:07:02.000 I am the Lord your God. 00:07:02.160 --> 00:07:05.759 Verse 17, you shall not hate your brother in your heart. 00:07:06.079 --> 00:07:07.360 Isn't that interesting? 00:07:07.600 --> 00:07:08.959 You shall not hate your brother. 00:07:09.040 --> 00:07:13.120 It's interesting because Jesus says something else there in that Matthew passage. 00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:19.360 But you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him. 00:07:19.519 --> 00:07:25.360 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. 00:07:25.600 --> 00:07:27.120 I am the Lord. 00:07:27.839 --> 00:07:36.879 So the Pharisees have taken this passage, twisted it, into love your neighbor, hate your enemy. 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:38.560 That's what Jesus cited. 00:07:38.879 --> 00:07:42.079 But Jesus wasn't referencing a biblical ethic. 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:47.120 He was referencing what they are hearing, which was twisted. 00:07:47.279 --> 00:07:51.360 It was not the biblical ethic of love, which is provide for the stranger. 00:07:53.920 --> 00:08:00.480 The biblical ethic of love is don't hate, be fair, don't take personal vengeance. 00:08:00.639 --> 00:08:02.560 Love your neighbor as yourself. 00:08:03.360 --> 00:08:05.680 Nowhere do we see this hate your enemy. 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:07.199 But they were hearing that. 00:08:07.279 --> 00:08:09.279 That's what they would have been told by their teachers. 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:10.959 And Jesus says, no, like that. 00:08:14.319 --> 00:08:16.079 Love even your enemy. 00:08:17.199 --> 00:08:22.240 Then Jesus says, verse 46, for if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? 00:08:22.319 --> 00:08:24.399 Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 00:08:24.560 --> 00:08:26.079 He's just saying, you're different. 00:08:26.399 --> 00:08:27.600 You're different. 00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:31.759 And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? 00:08:31.920 --> 00:08:34.799 Do not even the Gentiles do the same. 00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:42.000 Point number two is this our neighbors are people of any race, rank, or religion. 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:43.600 I stole that from John Stott. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:44.480 I didn't make that up. 00:08:44.639 --> 00:08:47.360 I couldn't do those three R's like that so cleanly. 00:08:47.600 --> 00:08:50.559 Our neighbors, people, any race, rank, or religion. 00:08:50.720 --> 00:08:58.320 The word love comes from the word agapio, meaning to welcome, to be fond of, to love dearly. 00:08:58.480 --> 00:09:01.600 It's unconditional, limitless love. 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:05.440 Here's a contemplative practice for us. 00:09:06.159 --> 00:09:10.720 I think perhaps a practice that would create some conviction, some growth and grace for us. 00:09:10.960 --> 00:09:21.919 Do we reserve our welcome and fondness for those who only look like us, live like us, and believe like us? 00:09:22.960 --> 00:09:35.600 Or am I growing in limitless love toward those who don't look like me, don't live like me, and don't believe like me? 00:09:36.320 --> 00:09:39.200 And then at the end of that, I know for me I did those two questions. 00:09:39.360 --> 00:09:41.600 Oh no, oh no, uh oh, uh-oh. 00:09:42.080 --> 00:09:44.159 I think we'll all just need to pray. 00:09:44.480 --> 00:09:46.240 Lord, forgive me and help me. 00:09:46.559 --> 00:09:48.159 Forgive me and help me. 00:09:48.559 --> 00:09:55.440 Now in Luke chapter 6, Luke is recording the same teachings that Matthew is in chapter 5. 00:09:55.679 --> 00:10:04.559 And Luke writes about the same calling, and when he writes about it, he writes for us to not judge and to be merciful. 00:10:04.960 --> 00:10:10.639 Adam Netter, professor of theology at Whitworth University, he says this about that Luke chapter 6 passage. 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:15.440 The command not to judge is a command not to condemn. 00:10:15.600 --> 00:10:20.080 When you judge someone, you set yourself up as judge and jury. 00:10:20.240 --> 00:10:23.039 You weigh the evidence and declare someone guilty. 00:10:23.200 --> 00:10:27.279 You close the book on that person or on a whole group of people. 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:31.360 And once you do that, there's no reason to keep listening to what they say. 00:10:31.519 --> 00:10:32.720 Your mind is made up. 00:10:32.960 --> 00:10:38.639 This person or group of people is beyond redemption, invincibly ignorant, hopelessly lost. 00:10:38.879 --> 00:10:48.000 When Jesus commands us not to judge, he commands us not to reach that conclusion about anyone ever. 00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:54.879 So the call to love is a call to decline judgment, that kind of judgment. 00:10:55.120 --> 00:11:03.360 And to refuse condemnation and to extend mercy to your enemy, which would be to people that don't deserve it. 00:11:04.399 --> 00:11:14.000 Point number three is this as we come alive to God's limitless love for us, we come alive with increased love to those around us. 00:11:14.159 --> 00:11:16.080 Those things will go together. 00:11:16.399 --> 00:11:21.360 There's this story where Jesus is asked a question by a lawyer. 00:11:21.679 --> 00:11:25.600 He's a guy performing in the Jewish religion and in his religion. 00:11:25.759 --> 00:11:27.679 He's trying to test Jesus. 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:31.759 And he asks Jesus, he said, What shall I do to inherit eternal life? 00:11:31.919 --> 00:11:34.480 And so Jesus tells this parable many of us are familiar with. 00:11:34.720 --> 00:11:38.799 He says, Jesus says, Hey, there's a man down dying in the street. 00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:42.879 Priest walks by, sees the man dying. 00:11:43.120 --> 00:11:44.320 The guy needs help. 00:11:45.120 --> 00:11:48.480 The priest sees the man, crosses to the other side of the street, walks by. 00:11:49.200 --> 00:11:53.840 A Levite comes, that'd be a priest assistant, sort of a priest type person. 00:11:54.960 --> 00:11:57.600 Sees the man dying, needing help. 00:11:58.799 --> 00:12:01.519 Crosses the other side of the street and keeps walking. 00:12:03.759 --> 00:12:05.360 Luke 10, 33. 00:12:05.440 --> 00:12:12.080 But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. 00:12:12.320 --> 00:12:15.759 He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. 00:12:16.000 --> 00:12:19.759 Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. 00:12:20.000 --> 00:12:28.159 And the next day he took out two dinero and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back. 00:12:28.799 --> 00:12:30.080 Which of these three? 00:12:31.120 --> 00:12:33.279 Jesus asking this guy, which of these three? 00:12:34.879 --> 00:12:43.200 So religious guy, religious guy, and a Samaritan, an inferior race that these in terms of these other two guys would think. 00:12:43.679 --> 00:12:46.320 And he says, who do you think? 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:53.440 Proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers, and he said, The one who showed him mercy. 00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:57.200 And Jesus said to him, You go and do likewise. 00:12:57.360 --> 00:12:59.200 So here's the kicker with this story. 00:12:59.360 --> 00:13:00.399 We can read right over it. 00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:13.679 Is the lawyer would have known that most likely, good chance, we don't know the full motive of these first two religious guys, but good chance these two guys weren't necessarily fully being heartless. 00:13:17.120 --> 00:13:19.919 They were being Torah-abiding people to some degree. 00:13:20.080 --> 00:13:21.440 They were religious performers. 00:13:21.519 --> 00:13:27.039 They needed to perform to the Torah, to the law of what it meant to perform unto holiness. 00:13:27.200 --> 00:13:32.080 In Numbers 19, 11 through 22 says dead bodies spread in purity. 00:13:32.320 --> 00:13:38.399 And if these guys want to be godly and pure, then they need to maintain their performance. 00:13:38.559 --> 00:13:41.120 They can't get close to this guy. 00:13:43.279 --> 00:13:45.759 So of course they walk by this guy needing help. 00:13:45.919 --> 00:13:47.279 They're religious. 00:13:48.480 --> 00:13:52.879 They couldn't risk love, the inconvenience and the mess. 00:13:53.120 --> 00:13:58.559 And then for them, the actuality of maybe they're not holy or right with God. 00:13:59.440 --> 00:14:02.000 And Jesus is just dismantling that. 00:14:02.080 --> 00:14:06.240 He's dismantling performance faith as unloving. 00:14:08.399 --> 00:14:12.399 And he's showing them, he's showing us the law is never enough. 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:15.840 The law is never enough because it breaks us. 00:14:16.080 --> 00:14:18.399 We cannot maintain all of the law. 00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:21.360 We can't perform our way into acceptance with God. 00:14:21.759 --> 00:14:23.200 We need a gracious God. 00:14:23.279 --> 00:14:25.440 We need Christ's fulfillment of the law. 00:14:25.519 --> 00:14:29.440 And Jesus' name, get over yourself, get over yourself. 00:14:30.720 --> 00:14:35.360 Allow me to be the fulfillment of the law for you and love people. 00:14:35.519 --> 00:14:39.919 Christian spirituality at its best is faith expressed, is love. 00:14:42.000 --> 00:14:45.039 So you're a conservative and they're a liberal. 00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:46.639 You're a liberal and they're a conservative. 00:14:46.720 --> 00:14:48.240 You're fundy and they're liberal. 00:14:48.399 --> 00:14:50.399 They're liberal, you're liberal, they're fundy. 00:14:50.480 --> 00:14:56.000 You're white, they're black, you're black, they're white, you're Asian, they're black, you're Middle Eastern, you're white. 00:14:56.240 --> 00:14:57.919 You're private school. 00:14:58.399 --> 00:14:59.360 They're public school. 00:14:59.519 --> 00:15:02.000 You're a public school, they're private school. 00:15:02.639 --> 00:15:03.919 They're new age. 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:06.320 You know, they're a woo-woo, you know. 00:15:06.559 --> 00:15:07.919 You're Christian. 00:15:08.799 --> 00:15:11.919 You're chilies, and they're applebees, and those don't cross. 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:13.440 We know they don't cross. 00:15:13.919 --> 00:15:24.559 Nobody said, nobody ever said that we need to look alike or have to agree with each other to love each other. 00:15:26.080 --> 00:15:30.000 And nobody also said that you can't have boundaries along the way. 00:15:31.360 --> 00:15:38.720 And then Jesus just puts this story out there for us where a guy needs love, and it would have been a real inconvenience to love. 00:15:39.679 --> 00:15:43.360 And it would have really threatened performance faith. 00:15:44.559 --> 00:15:50.080 It really would have required somebody to understand God's grace to them that God is enough. 00:15:50.320 --> 00:15:54.240 I'm secure in him, and I can risk love. 00:15:55.759 --> 00:15:58.799 The implications of being secure in gospel identity. 00:15:58.960 --> 00:16:02.159 So when I say gospel identity, I mean this. 00:16:02.240 --> 00:16:09.039 We're accepted by God through Christ's righteousness, not our religious or moral performance. 00:16:09.279 --> 00:16:18.080 So our delight in Christ is growing, and the call to love becomes a delight to us. 00:16:18.320 --> 00:16:20.480 That would be secure gospel identity. 00:16:20.639 --> 00:16:24.000 And then implications of that, I think, would be this: a couple ideas. 00:16:24.159 --> 00:16:37.360 Number one, another's belief in lifestyle, including their actions, and color of skin, doesn't threaten you anymore. 00:16:39.519 --> 00:16:41.679 Wouldn't that be relieving? 00:16:43.039 --> 00:16:52.159 Number two, because the core of your identity is secure, you can disagree and love. 00:16:52.639 --> 00:16:55.279 You can disagree and pray for that person. 00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:58.240 You can disagree and serve freely. 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:03.919 Now, all of that sounds great until we think about the passage. 00:17:04.480 --> 00:17:06.880 And that Jesus says enemies. 00:17:09.599 --> 00:17:13.279 Like, how can I, like, what does that mean for me to understand that? 00:17:15.359 --> 00:17:17.680 Like, I love that I'm loved by God. 00:17:18.880 --> 00:17:31.759 I love that if something horrible happened and I had one too many drink, and I get in my car and I make a horrific decision, and I try to drive home, and I accidentally, you know, being under influence, I get in a wreck and a child dies. 00:17:32.000 --> 00:17:39.759 I love at the end of all of that just horrifying actions, I love that I'm still loved. 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:57.680 But if that's my child and you had one too many drinks or five too many drinks, and then I find out that you've been drinking a lot, and then I find out that before you left the party, your friend said, no, no, you can't, you can't drive. 00:17:57.839 --> 00:18:06.720 And then you took the keys, anyways, and you forced your way out the door and into your car, and then you wrecked into my car, and then you took my child. 00:18:09.119 --> 00:18:11.440 And now I'm supposed to love you. 00:18:13.839 --> 00:18:25.119 And I have to embrace that God loves you limitlessly, and this is Christian, and that's really hard. 00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:32.079 See, this is more than human love, this is divine love through us. 00:18:33.359 --> 00:18:34.559 Here's the last verse. 00:18:34.799 --> 00:18:37.519 I think this is why this heads toward this verse. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:43.759 You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. 00:18:44.319 --> 00:18:45.279 Point number four. 00:18:45.440 --> 00:18:51.599 We are called to love perfectly as we have already been perfectly loved by God. 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:57.920 Now, before we become exhausted perfectionists, the parallel verse is in Luke 6, 36. 00:18:58.079 --> 00:18:59.119 It sheds some light on it. 00:18:59.200 --> 00:19:06.799 And here's how Luke says this be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:12.240 Now that takes us away from our perfectionist tendencies and back toward love. 00:19:12.400 --> 00:19:19.359 John Stott says this the word perfect is more understood as all embracing. 00:19:19.519 --> 00:19:21.519 Love, all embracing. 00:19:23.440 --> 00:19:24.799 Here's what Stott says. 00:19:24.960 --> 00:19:34.319 We are called to be perfect in love, that is, to love even our enemies with the merciful, the inclusive love of God. 00:19:37.039 --> 00:19:41.359 Luke 6, 35, one verse before the 36th verse. 00:19:42.240 --> 00:19:51.359 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. 00:19:53.680 --> 00:19:58.400 For he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:03.279 For he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:10.160 In July, England lost to Italy in the Euro 2020 final. 00:20:11.039 --> 00:20:12.240 I don't know anything about soccer. 00:20:12.400 --> 00:20:13.440 Somebody sent me this in a text. 00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:15.519 That'd be a good sermon illustration. 00:20:17.599 --> 00:20:24.079 After the game, the coach of England embraced one of his players. 00:20:24.880 --> 00:20:26.079 Here's a picture of it. 00:20:26.240 --> 00:20:27.039 This is after the game. 00:20:27.839 --> 00:20:29.279 His players just lost the game. 00:20:29.920 --> 00:20:31.279 These are the losers. 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:39.119 Just like the image before we saw is a beautiful image for us to contemplate how we love our opposition. 00:20:40.079 --> 00:20:50.319 What an image this is for us as we're guided and equipped by the Holy Spirit to love, yet we love imperfectly. 00:20:51.680 --> 00:20:52.720 We don't live up to this. 00:20:53.680 --> 00:21:02.400 Yet, more amazingly, more amazingly, he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. 00:21:03.519 --> 00:21:07.440 And I am so happy and I rejoice with you. 00:21:07.839 --> 00:21:17.680 We are so joyful to be included in the ones who are taught by Jesus and also saved and rescued by Jesus. 00:21:17.920 --> 00:21:19.039 Let's pray together. 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:29.440 God, we are grateful that you call us to this heightened call of love, and at the same time that you perfectly save us in your love. 00:21:29.839 --> 00:21:45.440 And out of that love, help us to grow as we become more and more alive to how lavish and full and securing your love for us is, how good Jesus is for us for the complete forgiveness of our sins, all the righteousness we ever need. 00:21:45.599 --> 00:21:46.720 We are fully secure. 00:21:46.880 --> 00:22:02.319 May our identities only become more rooted and enriched in you that we might begin to love not just our neighbors, but even our enemies. 00:22:02.799 --> 00:22:04.240 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:22:04.640 --> 00:22:05.039 Amen.