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🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 🎵Music🎵 You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You You Good evening and welcome to Verity Baptist Church Let's go ahead and find our seats this evening find a seat find a hymnal close to you and search the page number 164 Song number 164 We're gonna be singing crazy crazy that's all number 164 let's go ahead and sing it out on the first Oh Hi Oh It's all number 164 see it out on the second Oh See it out on the last Oh Hey man great singing welcome to the sunday evening service here at verity baptist church Glad to see everyone here this evening. Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer the heavenly father lord. We love you Thank you for everything that you've done today Thank you for everyone that's here pray that you bless the service this evening Bless the everything that be said and done lord. We love you and pray that you bless the rest of the evening We love you. Jesus name. I pray. Amen All right. Now it's time for favorites where if you're selected we will sing a stanza of a song that you pick. Oh madison. Go ahead 210 Song number 210 Wonderful grace of jesus. Let's sing it out on the first wonderful. Grace of jesus Where shall its grace begin Oh Oh All right one more i'll come back to you, um, mr. Christine, go ahead 178 178 jesus loves even me Sing it out on the first This is that the rest of jesus loves me Jesus loves me i'm so glad that jesus loves me jesus loves even me All right, um matthew go ahead 30 on the third Nothing but the blood let's sing it out on the third So That makes me white Jesus Justice 328 328 this will be the last song this evening. I want that mountain song number 328 sing it out on the first. I saw the giant Dead me no longer In the wilderness Amen great singing Amen all right. Well, let's take our bulletins. We'll look at some announcements very quickly tonight If you do not have a bulletin just raise your hand and one of our ushers can get one for you You need a bulletin. Just put your hand up. We'll get one for you the verse this week proverbs 22 7 The rich ruleth over the poor and the borrower is servant to the lender and that's a good verse there We like that if you open up your bulletin, you'll see our service time sunday morning service 10 30 a.m We had a wonderful service this morning. We're glad you're back out tonight for the evening service And then of course we do invite you to be with us on wednesday night for the wednesday night bible study We'd love for you to join us of course for church on wednesday night If you look at our sowing times our main sewing times on saturday morning at 10 a.m Then we have additional sewing times on thursdays fridays and sundays at 2 p.m And don't forget if you're a soul winner To add your salvations on the communication card if you have salvation so that we can update the bulletin If you have a map that's not finished if you finish it you can throw it away And we'll count it as done But if you did not finish it clearly mark what was done was not done And return it into the bin in the foyer so we can have our staff guys go through and we Recycle those and get those back out so that they'll get finished. And of course if you're running late Don't forget to call us to texas at the number there. 916-868-9080 Let us know your plan on being there which running late that way we can make sure we have a partner for you We of course are a family integrated church children and infants always welcome in the service And we don't separate children from their parents. We do have mother baby room. So use those as needed If you need to be baptized, please let us know we'd love to baptize you If you look at the announcements and upcoming events, of course We're going through a series called happily ever after on sunday mornings learning biblical principles for the christian home Journey with jesus on sunday nights and we're going to continue with our journey with jesus tonight, of course And then uh, we have ladies tea coming up. All the ladies are invited to an elegant afternoon tea in honor of mother's day That's saturday may 7th at 3 p.m. And I hope you'll sign up. I hope you'll go. It's always a great time for the ladies And then the next day is mother's day sunday may 8th And the children's choir will be singing and we'll have a t-shirt as a gift for all the ladies and girls in attendance So we encourage you to be with us Of course for that striving together new members class if you've not signed up if you've not gone to new members class We'd love for you to join us for that that is on sunday may 15th And you can sign up on your communication card We'll have a nice lunch for you and it'll be a good time of fellowship and we'll have a little class Of course children's choir they practice today homeschool pe class They've got a class on thursday may 5th And then there's other things there for you to look at Please don't forget to turn your cell phones off replace them on silent If you look at the back of the bulletin birthdays and anniversaries for the month of april We have miss lindsey johnson's birthday on april 25th brother Allen, courtney's birthday on april 26th and noah sweeten's birthday on april 28th and uh, james and april villa's anniversary on april 28th Praise report money matters all those things are there for you to look at and we got a special video for you to watch tonight And what we're going to do is we're going to sing a song then we're going to receive the offering And after the offering we're going to have this video So the staff guys will come up during the offering and get everything situated for that And we just hope you like it and we hope that we first of all, we want to say thank you to you For blessing us with that, but we'll get that situated And then after the video we'll have the reading of the scripture and then of course we'll get into the preaching tonight So I think that's it. Let's go and take our song books and go to page number 130 page number one three zero We'll sing yesterday today forever As we prepare to receive the offering tonight. Oh, how sweet the glorious message sing it out on the first. Oh, how sweet Yesterday today forever, jesus is the same Still he loves to save the simple heal the sick and lay Is Glory to his name Never glory to his name 130 sing it out on the second He who left the love disciple on his Stand there Glory to his name His name In english Today Good sing it out on the last Is Went away May change Amen all right We'll have the guys come up and help us with the offering at this time And let's go ahead and bow our heads and have a word of prayer emily father lord We do thank you for allowing us to gather together tonight lord We pray that you bless the offering we've asked that you'd meet with us as we open up your word And study the bible together and we do pray that this video will be a blessing to our church family in jesus name we pray amen So So So So So Amen So Hi, this is pastor roger Jimenez from verity baptist church in sacramento california last year our church celebrated 11 years of ministry And because my wife and I had celebrated 11 years as the pastor and the pastor's wife Of verity baptist church our church gave us a very special gift it started with brother joel usher Who is a contractor in our church and he has a very successful business where he remodels bathrooms and kitchens And he offered to remodel our downstairs bathroom and to do all the work for free. So our church family Raised the money to pay for all of the materials and for the things that would be needed for the remodel And they surprised us with this special gift so in this video I want to show you the before the after and also a time lapse of all the work that was done And I of course want to give a special thank you to brother joel and miss courtney usher for this very Generous gift that they gave us. I want to say a thank you to the men of our church that also came and worked on this Project thank you to brother blottie bakulczyk and thank you to brother matt taylor Thank you for brother aden rolleden and then of course, uh brother joel's team and employees that also showed up They did a great job. Everything was very professional. We were very impressed And I of course want to say thank you to the verity baptist church family It is the honor of myself and my wife to be able to serve as the pastor the pastor's wife of verity baptist church And we are thankful to you For blessing us with this remodel. So we hope you enjoy check it out So So So So So So So So So So So So Let's open us to luke six luke chapter number six So Luke chapter number six If you need a route put your hand up and i'm not sure i'll bring you a bible Luke six, we'll read verses 27 through 36 Luke six versus 27 through 36 Luke 6 speaking verse number 27 But I say into you which here love your enemies do good to them which hate you Bless them that curse you and pray for them Which despitefully use you? And to him that smite a thing on one cheek offer also the other And him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also Give to every man that asketh of thee and if him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again And as he would that men should do to you Do ye also to them likewise? For if you love them which love you What thank have you? For sinners also love those that love them And if you do good to them which do good to you What thank have you for sinners also do even the same? And if you lend to them of whom you hope to receive what thank heavy for sinners also lend to sinners to receive as much again But love your enemies and do good and lend hoping for nothing again And your reward shall be great and he shall be the children of the highest for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil Be there for merciful as your father also is merciful. Let's pray. Heavenly father. Thank you for this evening God, I thank you for your word and for our church as he pleased me with us tonight Give us a tender heart to the message. God as he pleased the other pastor strengthen him in the spirit We love you. Jesus name pray. Amen Amen Amen, all right well again I just want to say thank you very much for all of you who uh took part in that My wife and I were watching it from the side the video and it seemed uh, Glared, I don't know if that's just because we were on the side maybe on the side over there But hopefully it was clear if it wasn't clear for you then uh, we're going to post it on youtube So you can watch it again if you'd like but again just many of you were asking about oh, how's it going? And all of that so we wanted to just show you and again say thank you. Thank you Thank you. Very kind of you very very kind of you and we appreciate Your kindness to us. You're there in luke chapter number six and of course we are going through a series on sunday nights called uh journey with jesus and we are On a journey with the lord jesus christ through the gospel according to luke verse by verse chapter by chapter And we find ourselves in this passage of scripture That is known as the sermon on the plane And if you remember last week, I won't take the time to go through it all of it but we talked about the fact that the sermon on the plane is The same sermon in in one way as a sermon on the mount But it's a different sermon as the sermon on mount depending on how you look at it and what I Was telling you my position is that it's a different sermon In the sense that it's a different sermon that was preached at a different time in a different place But it's the same sermon in the sense that it's the same content that's being preached or the same outline and sometimes people will use this portion of of luke against the matthew portion of the sermon on the mount to show differences and they'll say there's contradictions like for example, When it says that he preached it on a mount and then it says he preached it on a plane But you realize that there is no contradiction when you realize that it's just two different sermons and preached at two different places In two different times, but then people will say well, what about all the similarities? I mean, it's obviously a very similar sermon and that's because it's the same sermon It's the same sermon outline and that's something that preachers do And I go places and preach sermons that i've preached here and all of that Obviously when you do that, they're not ever just word for word the exact same sermon But they're going to be differences. They're going to be similarities. But that's the answer to that question now, obviously In the sermon on the mount There's a lot of great teaching that is paralleled here because jesus is teaching a lot of the same material And in verse 27 is where we find ourselves in this portion of the sermon on on the plane And we're in luke and we're working our way through chapter six, but chapter six deals with the sermon on the plane We're going to spend a couple of weeks on the sermon on the plane And I want you to notice in verse 27 He says this but I say unto you which here and I want you to notice this little phrase that jesus says He says love your enemies. He says love your enemies and what we're going to learn tonight From the lord jesus christ as we make ourselves our way through this passage is this idea of how to treat your enemies? He tells us to love our enemies and then he goes into this teaching About how you should treat your enemies and what you should do for your enemies I'd like you to keep your place there in luke chapter six Of course, that's our text for tonight And uh, we're gonna be going through luke chapter six But just real quickly go with me if you would to psalm 139 if you open your bible just right in the center You'll more than likely fall in the book of psalms and go to psalm 139 And do me a favor when you get there put a ribbon or a bookmark or something there because we're going to leave it And we're going to come back to it psalm 139 And just by way of introduction, let me make this point That is a point that is often confused by people And it is this what jesus is teaching here is how to love Your enemies and the emphasis on your is that it's how to love your personal enemies people that you Have an issue with people that you are fighting with someone that you would consider your own personal Enemy, and I want you to understand that there is a difference because we obviously believe the whole counsel of god There are portions of scripture that we go to and we teach and preach that other people Uh won't touch with a 10-foot pole uh But sometimes people get they they look at passages of scripture that they think are maybe contradicting each other And they get confused because they don't really understand what the bible is teaching and I want to make sure you understand this Jesus is teaching to love your enemies. He's speaking to christians to believers and he's asking them to Love and how to treat their own enemies for the day You could help me just real quick. I I feel like it's just a little bit of an echo If you could help me with that, i'd appreciate it in psalm 139. We have something that may seem When you just look at it, uh, uh just Quickly like a contradiction in psalm 139 and verse 21 the psalmist says this do not I hate them Oh lord that hate thee And am not I grieve with those that rise up against thee? Now I want you to understand that there is a difference between loving your enemies and loving the enemies of god And hating your enemies and hating the enemies of god because here's the thing when it comes to your personal enemy Someone that you dislike someone that rubs you the wrong way. Here's the thing your enemy may be a brother and sister in christ Your enemy may be your spouse I mean your enemy may be related to you. Maybe your kid maybe your parent Maybe your pastor. I don't know your enemy may be Someone that is even a believer or a saved person Uh, and and that's your enemy but the bible tells us that we are supposed to hate the enemies of god And see sometimes we we preach that that the bible teaches that there are people who were supposed to hate the bible says And and people say well don't the bible say to love your enemies Well, yeah, it says to love my enemies, but it doesn't say to love the enemies of god Notice again psalm 139 do not I hate them. Oh lord that hate thee who should we hate? We should hate those who hate god Am I not grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect Hatred I count them mine enemies. So notice who are we supposed to count as enemies? We're supposed to count as enemies those that hate god and and use it, you know And again, I don't have time to go into all of this. I just want to make this point The bible is clear that the haters of god look just the normal Unsaved person that you work with just the normal unsafe person that that lives in this world Is not necessarily a hater of god, but there are people who hate god the bible calls them reprobate And those people were supposed to hate And and when we and when we say hey, I hate the reprobate and the hater of god and then people throw at us Why aren't you supposed to love your enemies? Well, yeah, i'm supposed to love my enemies, but i'm supposed to hate those that hate god and even that i'm supposed to count them Mine enemies do not I hate them. Oh lord that hate thee Am I not grieve with those that rise up against thee I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them my enemies You say well, how do you know a reprobate and i'm not preaching on the subject of being a reprobate? But let me just go ahead and make it clear Look a reprobate is someone who hates the lord a reprobate is someone whose conscience has been seared a reprobate is someone who will go into Unnatural sins. These are haters of god, uh, brother oliver in his sermon on wednesday night brought up the the disney, you know thing And I don't know if you've seen it in the news But you know these disneyland executives are openly talking about how they want to brainwash your children with a bunch of lgbtq filth Look those are enemies of god And and I hate them I hate disneyland, you know, I hate disney I hate anyone who would want to try to teach your children that that perverseness is normal and natural. So Understand this when god says love your enemies. He's talking about the people that you Have conflict with the people they might be saved. They might just be normal people, but there are wicked Reprobate who hate god who hate the people of god who want to destroy the work of god and to those people The psalmist says do not I hate them. Oh lord that hate thee Am I not grieve with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred I count them mine enemies and then sometimes people will look at this passage and they'll try to say well david was not right with god When he said this he should not have said these things Well notice it's interesting because in the same context he says under the inspiration of the holy ghost verse 23 Search me o god and know my heart Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting He makes it clear. David makes it clear. Hey, i'm right with god when I say do not I hate them Oh lord that hate thee and am I not grieve with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred the word perfect means complete whole hatred You see I don't I thought we weren't supposed to hate anybody. Well, maybe you should start reading the bible Because the bible says that god hates certain people and obviously everybody's born With the opportunity to be saved everyone that's born god loves them But the bible teaches that people cross a line with god They cross a line and become reprobates haters of god haters of the work of god and to those people we ought to hate so I'm saying that because I don't want you to get confused to say well, you know Are we supposed to hate the enemies of god or love the enemies of god? We're supposed to hate the enemies of god, then who are we supposed to love your enemy? Your enemy that you're beefing with at church Look the person that you don't get along with at church is not a reprobate and is not a hater of god in all likelihood, I mean, maybe they are but You know the the the per just the the person that you're just upset with the person you're fighting with now If if you're fighting with them because they're a hater of god, then that's a different story But if it's just because you're not getting along with them because you're having issues with them Then the bible says that you are to love your personal enemies And I want to make that clear because I want to make sure there's no confusion in regards to that And let me just say this go back to uh, keep your place there in psalms and go back to luke When it comes to this teaching about the enemies of god And about our enemies in both of these areas this is where for christianity the rubber really hits the road Because when you know when you start getting up and and and teaching I mean, it's amazing to me that today in 2020 america you get up and say hey, we ought to hate pedophiles Who literally molest and and and rape children? We should hate those people they're gonna die and go to hell and and and I hope they all die And then people are like aren't you supposed to love everyone? Are you crazy? Right You're supposed to just love a wicked filthy pedophile And but that's the culture we live in today Well, doesn't the bible say to love anyone? Maybe I ought to read your bible because god said to put them to death Jesus said it would better for them to tie a millstone about their neck and be cast into the sea Then that they should offend one of these little ones That's the jesus you never hear about That's the jesus that's never preached about So when it comes to loving the hating the enemies of god, that's where the rubber meets the road Because people get all uncomfortable, but let me tell you something when we start teaching about loving your enemies I'm talking about the enemy you're married to I'm talking about the enemy you're related to I'm talking about the enemy you go to church with not the wicked reprobate just the person you don't get along with That's where the rubber also meets the road Because what i'm about to teach you tonight is probably the hardest part of the christian life I mean tithing is easier church attendance is easier bible reading is easier soul winning is easier There's a lot of things in the christian life that are a lot easier than what we're going to talk about tonight Which is how to treat your personal enemy? Well, how do we treat them? What does the bible say? Well, let's begin There's kind of two sections to this passage tonight. I'm going to break it up into two parts. The first part Is the how? The how of how to treat our enemies? What is it exactly that we're supposed to do? When dealing with our not the enemies of god our personal enemies How do we do it? Well number one notice there in luke 627 And if you're taking notes, and I'd encourage you to take notes Number one, how do we treat our enemies? What's the how of how to treat our enemies number one? You gotta love your enemies You gotta love your enemies, but I say unto you which here love your enemies Jesus says look not the enemies of god. We hate the enemies of god do not I hate them Oh lord that hate thee am I not grieve with those that rise up against me, but my enemy i'm supposed to love Love your enemy now you say well, what does that mean exactly? Well what jesus does in this passage is the next few points He really does kind of break down for us what it means to love our enemy But let me just give you an example of loving your enemy I think this is probably one of the best examples in the entire bible Other than the examples of the lord jesus christ himself, of course And it's the example of david go with me if you would to the old testament book of first samuel first samuel 24 If you find the one and two books, they're all clustered together for a second Excuse me. First second samuel for second kings for second chronicles go to first samuel chapter 24 And while you turn there, let me just kind of set up the story for you We have david Who is running from saul? If you remember saul is the king and after david killed goliath saul became extremely envious of david And basically made an enemy out of david. David is now running for his life. He's running He's out in the wilderness and and and and he's in caves and he's hiding. He's got some men with him And saul, please understand this saul was a very wicked evil sinful man, he was Insane all sorts of things but please understand one thing about saul. He was saved The bible tells us he went to heaven when he died And saul as many bad things as he did was not a reprobate He was not an enemy of God He was an enemy of david and david was completely innocent and saul was completely in in the wrong But he was not an enemy of god Now I want you to notice because of that We see how david treated saul because remember what did david do with the enemies of god? Well, here's what he did with one of the enemies of god. He killed him. His name was goliath If you remember goliath david walks up and he says i'm going to kill you goliath Not because I have a beef with you But because you're not going to speak of the god of israel in the way that you're speaking He said the battle is the lord He says the lord will deliver you into mine hand david killed goliath because goliath was an enemy of the lord Saul however Is an enemy of david And what does david do and again? I don't have time to go into the whole story. But if you if you remember the story David is hiding in a cave And saul Is searching for him with all these soldiers? But saul has to use the restroom So he goes into a cave Without his soldiers by himself to use the restroom Without knowing that david and his men are in that rest in that cave And david has the opportunity to kill saul and he chooses not to why because saul was not an enemy of the lord Saul was his enemy 1st, samuel 24 verse 10 after this whole ordeal David comes out of the cave after saul comes out. David comes out of the cave Notice what he says to saul first time in 24 10 behold this day thine eyes have seen this is david speaking to saul He says thine eyes have seen how that the lord had delivered thee today into mine hand in the cave And some bade me kill thee David said some bade me kill thee some people told me to kill you They encouraged me to kill you, but mine eyes spared thee and I said I will not put forth mine hand Why would david not put forth his hand against saul because david was a warrior david had killed many many people and he had Slaughtered many of the enemies of the lord, but he said I will not put forth mine hand against My lord why here's why for he is the lord's anointed See david understood that though saul and I are at odds with each other though Saul and I would be considered enemies. Saul is not an enemy of the lord. He is the lord's anointed He is the lord's chosen king He said I will not put forth mine hand against saul even though saul had ran him out of town Even though saul was trying to kill him, even though saul had ruined his life You said what is it that david is doing here's what he's doing he's loving his enemy He says I will not put forth my hand against my lord for he is the lord's anointed look at verse 11 Moreover, my father see this is david speaking to saul. He says see yay see the skirt of thy robe in my hand David was so close to saul when saul was in that cave that he was able to cut off a piece of saul's robe And he's using this as evidence. He says moreover my father see ye see the skirt of thy robe in my hand For in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe and killed thee not Know thou and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in mine hand And I have not sinned against thee yet thou huntest my soul to take it and it came to pass when david had made an end of speaking these words unto saul that saul said Is this thy voice? Oh my son david and saul lifted up his voice and wept and he said to david thou art more righteous than I For thou has rewarded me good Whereas I have rewarded the evil and thou has showed this day how that thou has dealt well with me For as much as when the lord notice these words in verse 18 for as much as when the lord had delivered me Into thine hand thou killest me not verse 19 for if a man find his enemy will he let him go away Saul said what kind of a man When he has an opportunity To kill his enemy that's ruined his life. What kind of man would just let him go away I'll tell you what kind of man a follower of the lord A person who understands that we fight against the enemies of the lord and we love our enemies No matter how much they hurt us No matter how much they ruin our lives No matter how much they destroy us and seek to destroy us He says for if a man find his enemy Will he let him go well away Wherefore the lord reward thee good for that thou has done Unto me for thou has done unto me this day. So I want you to notice that the bible says that we are to love our enemies Now the enemies of the lord we fight we hate But our enemies and look don't get this idea Because i've noticed in in in our types of churches where we preach about the reprobate doctrine and we preach these things Is that people have a tendency as soon as they don't like someone they just start trying to figure out a way to make them a reprobate Because if if I can just prove that they're a reprobate then I can hate them Well, look just realize not everyone that you have a beef with is a reprobate And you need to check your own heart. Now. Look if they're a reprobate they're a reprobate If they're if they've got unnatural sins or whatever, that's one thing but if it's just you have a problem, why aren't you be david? I mean saul literally ruined his life He had an opportunity to kill them and he didn't why because david was a man after god's own heart and he loved his enemies So you say well, how do we treat our enemies? Number one. You ought to love your enemies Go go back to luke chapter 6. Let me give you the second thought this morning in regards to how to What we should do, uh to our enemies. We should first love our enemies But secondly, I want you to notice we should do good to our enemies Luke 6 verse 27 notice what jesus said, but I say unto you which here love your enemies then he says this Do good to them which hate you The bible says we ought to do good to our enemies We ought to do good to them that hate us now again If they hate the lord, that's a different story But look you and I have to be mature enough to realize not everybody that hates me hates the lord Me There's many christians who hate me They don't like me. They don't like what I preach. They don't like my stand But they're not Unsaved wicked reprobates. They're obviously misled because who could hate me You know, obviously they're they're they don't understand the bible, you know They they hear bible preaching and they don't like it because they don't understand the bible. They don't read the bible They don't comprehend the bible, but I have to be mature enough to realize hey that person they hate me But they're not an enemy of the lord So i'm going to love them And i'm going to do good to them Love your enemies number two do good to your enemies. We ought to do good to our enemies What does that mean to do good to your enemies? Well go to romans if you would romans chapter number 12 You're there in luke. You're going to go past john Past the book of acts into the book of romans romans chapter number 12 now you kept your place in psalms And i'd like you to continue to keep your place there But do me a favor and also keep your place in romans because we're going to go back and forth between these two passages And I'd like for you to be able to get there quickly romans chapter 12 You say what does it mean to do good to your enemy? Here's what it means romans 12 and verse 20 therefore If thine enemy not god's enemy thine enemy if thine enemy hunger, what do I do feed him? If he thirst give him drink For in so doing thou shalt he calls a fire on his head You know what? The bible says the bible says that we are to love our enemies, which means what it means that we don't hurt them Even when we get the opportunity even if they happen to walk into the same cave that we're hiding in and we have the opportunity to To hurt them and to slaughter them and to put them to death Loving your enemy means that you love them and you do well to them and you let your enemy go But it not only does it mean that you don't hurt them because you love them. It also means that you actually Proactively do good to them So if they're hungry you feed them you don't let them starve If they're thirsty you give them drink in exodus The bible says let's go to exodus if you would Second book in the bible should be fairly easy to find you have genesis and you have a book of exodus Because you know people like they like to teach this idea They like to say like well in the old testament god was angry and in the new testament god is nice In the old testament, you know, it's an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth in the new testament Love your enemies bless them that curse you. Let me tell you something Just like we're saying today yesterday today and forever. Jesus is the same God is the same god in the old testament the new testament The the reason that the reason that people get confused is because they don't understand That in the old testament you're supposed to hate the enemies of god and love your enemies And in the new testament, you're supposed to hate the enemies of god and love your enemies. It's the same teaching Notice exodus 23 and verse 4 doesn't this sound just like the sermon on the mount or the sermon on the plane? Exodus 23 and verse 4 notice what the old testament mosaic law says It says if thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray You say what does that mean? I mean you're going down the road and your enemy You know your neighbor that you've been beefing with your neighbor that you've been Butting heads with or that guy you can't stand him or that gal You can't stand her you're going down the road and you happen to see that your enemy's ox Your enemy's ass these are a beast of burden. These are they're like equipment They are wealth their money for your neighbor. You see that his ox got out And it's just kind of going down the street or his ass got out and it's going down the street You say what do you do because here's what our tendency our ours is like good I hope they never find them You know or you shoot them or something, right? But what does the bible say? If thou meet thine enemy's ox or his ass going astray thou shalt surely bring it back to him again You say what what My enemy their ox is going astray you grab them and you bring them back to your enemy. Hey, I think you lost this Why would I do that to my enemy because you're supposed to do good to your enemies Not the enemies of god your enemy Just the church member you're fighting with The person you're having an issue with notice verse five if thou see the ass of him that hated thee lying under his burden What does that mean it means the guy that hates you his Ass has a burden and for some it tripped or something happened and it's lying under its burden And it can't get up and it needs help You know It says if thou see is the ass of him that hated thee lying under his burden and would is forbear What does forbear mean forbear means to restrain or abstain he says and what is forbear to help him? You're like I really don't want to help this I really I just don't want to see that God says thou shall surely help with him Why does god say that because you're supposed to do good to your enemies? You're supposed to love your enemies Which means that you don't hurt them when you have the opportunity to hurt them You're supposed to do good to your enemies, which means that you actually Proactively go out of your way to do nice things for them Even though they're actively trying to hurt you Look you know why you know why people don't like this preaching is because this is it's too hard in the christian life I'd rather you know, i'd rather just tithe and go soul winning and and go to all three church services and pretend I'm a good christian now. Look i'm not minimizing that at the very least You need to go to all three church services go soul winning read your bible pray and tithe That's where you got to start. That's where we all got to start. But let me say something There's way more to the christian life than just those things Yes And you'll actually begin to understand whether you are becoming a follower of the lord Jesus christ whether you are becoming a disciple of the lord jesus christ whether you are being like Christ because that's what it means to be a follower of christ. It means you would do what he would do That's what it means to be a disciple of christ is that you would do what he would do. You will actually know That you're actually growing When you love your enemy and when you happen to Meet your enemy's ox out in the street you bring it back to him When you're good to your enemies Jesus says love your enemies He says do good to your enemies. Let me give you a third one Go back to luke chapter 6 keep your place in psalms. Keep your place in Romans We should love our enemies we should do good to our enemies For some of you this is just marriage marriage sermon number two It might just be good for you to just apply this to your marriage It might just be good for some of you to apply this to your parenting It might be good for some of you to just apply this at work You should love your enemies. You should do good to your enemies number three You should bless your enemies notice luke chapter 6 and verse 28 notice what jesus says bless them notice bless them That curse you not bless them that bless you because it's easy to bless people that bless you But what about people who curse you? The bible says to bless them now when the bible says curse you that's not what we think of like someone cussing you out Although you could you know, you could definitely make that application if you want But the bible definition of the word bless is to request of god That a bestowal of divine favor be placed upon them When you bless someone is you're praying to god that god Would bestow define divine favor upon them A blessing is when you and it's not sarcastic It's genuine from your heart where you say I pray that god blesses your marriage I pray that god blesses your health. I pray that god blesses your children and keeps them healthy and strong I pray that god blesses your business and your finances. God says you ought to bless you say who my friends Well, we do that normally that's normal, but he says you ought to bless them that curse you You say what does that mean? What does it mean to curse? Here's what it means. It means to wish misfortune or evil or doom So when someone looks at you said I hope you die And they're your enemy not an enemy of god your enemy You say I pray that god blesses you and it's not sarcastic It's real genuine I hope that you know bad things happen to you. I hope that your church dies I hope that your marriage split out and they curse you Jesus says you should bless them He says bless them that curse you go back to romans romans chapter 12 Romans chapter 12 notice what the bible says look this is real christianity right here I mean this you are no you where am I in my christian life base it off of this Romans chapter 12 and verse 14 Romans 12 14 Bless them Which persecute you? That's the same idea as curse notice bless them which persecute you Bless and curse not We are not supposed to curse our enemies Now look all sorts of verses of the bible you want to learn about cursing the enemies of god read the book of psalms I mean in the book of psalms. David is talking about like, you know Smash their teeth out of their mouths god Melt them like a snail god. He's he's he's these these imprecatory prayers Where he's praying that god would just destroy them that god would just hurt them that god would kill them Oh, you say who's david praying that to to the enemies of god? But not to his enemies To his enemies like saul he loved them He did good to them He blessed them We're supposed to bless go to proverbs proverbs 24 if you kept your place in psalm right after psalms You have the book of proverbs proverbs 24 and do me a favor Just keep your place in proverbs from here on keep your place in romans. Keep your place in proverbs proverbs chapter 24 Look at verse 17 proverbs 24 and verse 17. Notice what the bible says the bible says Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth when your enemy Who's not an enemy of the lord just an enemy of you, you know, there are pastors who are my enemies But I honestly believe that they are saved That they love the lord, they just don't like me Well, you know the bible says that when they fail When their church, you know Falters and stumbles and dies i'm not supposed to rejoice Rejoice not with thine when thine enemy falleth And let not thine heart be glad when he stumbles God says look when your enemy fails don't rejoice about it now Look at that in contrast To all the verses. I mean there's all these verses about when god destroys when god destroys babylon how the children of god rejoice And they're happy and they're cheering and look my wife and I were recently just talking about this And talking about just the wicked culture that we live in today Where people literally think that it's it's okay I mean we're going down this road where it's becoming accepted and normalized for grown-ups to have physical relationships with children And it's becoming normal. We just put a supreme court justice on the bench that thinks it's normal This is the world we live in I was telling my wife I can see why I can see why when god destroys babylon We're all like praise god Amen I mean, I just I sometimes I look at the stuff going on in this country and I think to myself whenever god destroys us It's what we deserve. It's what we should get. It's what this country deserves That's a hatred of the wickedness and the reprobates of this world, but somebody that just hates me I'm not supposed to rejoice when they falter I'm not supposed to rejoice when they fail Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth And let not thine heart be glad when he stumbles Lest the lord see it and it displeases him don't miss this And he turned away his wrath from him God says when I begin to bring take judgment upon your enemy And you start rejoicing god may see that and they might displease him and he might stop And he might turn around and start putting that on you So the bible says bless your enemies go to job job 31 You're there in proverbs if you go backwards you go past the book of psalms into the book of job job 31 If you remember if you remember job in job 31 He's having this discussion about all the bad things that are happening to him remember he lost all of his children He lost all of his wealth his his health went bad his friends turned on him. Even his wife turned on him and job is saying He's he's he's defending his integrity and his innocence And what he's saying i'm explaining this to you because I want to understand the context He's giving a list of things where he says I can understand if god was hurting me if I had done x y and z Now he hasn't done those things But he's saying if I had done this I could understand if god would destroy me or if I had done this I can understand if god would destroy me. He's saying I haven't done those things But if I had done those things, that's I I would understand god judgment upon my life That's what he's saying in job 31 verse 29. Notice what he says. He says if I rejoice at the destruction of him that hated me Or lifted up myself when evil found him He's saying look I could understand if I had Rejoice at the destruction of him that hated me if I had lifted up myself when evil found my enemy I can understand why god would be doing this to me. He says neither have I suffered my mouth to sin by wishing a curse to his soul Job says I know that i'm right with god because I had all these enemies and I never one time allowed That's what suffer means. I never allowed my mouth to sin By wishing a curse to his soul That's why job Is at a level In his faith that many of us will never know That's why david was at a level in his faith that many of us will never know Because of our unwillingness To love our enemies To do good to our enemies to bless and not curse our enemies Let me give you a fourth one go back to luke chapter 6 Luke chapter 6 We're talking about the how of how we treat our enemies What are we supposed to do? We're supposed to love them. We're supposed to do good to them We're supposed to bless them. Here's number four pray for your enemies Pray for your enemies Let me ask you a question. How much time do you spend in prayer for the person that you consider an enemy? Luke 6 28 bless them that cursed you notice what jesus says pray Pray for them which despitefully Use you Think about those words Those words have a lot of emotion if you've ever felt that If you've ever felt that somebody was just using you For their own gain for their own benefit and they were even being despiteful about it And somebody was just using you And using you to get ahead and using you to get whatever it is that they were wanting to get And and you understood that you know what god says god says pray Not not for them that you like although you should pray for everyone, but he says pray for them which despitefully use you Now the greatest example that I could give you of this is the lord jesus christ himself Go to luke 23 if you would you're there in luke chapter 6 just go to luke 23 Luke chapter 23 You say pray for my enemies, I mean people that hurt me People that that are rooting against me again. We're not talking about the enemies of the lord here Maybe you've been hurt by an enemy of the lord. Well pray god's destruction upon them If they're a wicked reprobate But if it's just your enemy they've hurt you they've stabbed you in the back. They've done wrong to you. They've cursed you What are you supposed to do? You're supposed to pray for them? Pray for your enemies This is highlighted or it's illustrated by the lord jesus christ Beautifully in luke 23 and verse 33 notice what the bible says and when they were come to the place Which is called calvary Remember what happened there? There they crucified him Jesus is literally Being put to death on the cross of calvary And the male factors one on the right hand and the other on the left verse 34 then said jesus father forgive them For they know not what they do Now here jesus specifically looking at people That are not reprobates He says they're being manipulated by reprobates But these people that are putting me on this cross. He says they don't even know what they're doing They don't even know that they're crucifying the prince of priests The lord of heaven the son of god. He says they don't know And jesus at that moment prayed for them Father forgive them for they know not what they do the people that were killing him As they were murdering him He prayed for them So jesus tells us pray for your enemies Pray for them which despitefully use you Let me give you a fifth one go back to luke chapter 6 I said number one you got to love your enemies number two You got to do good to your enemies number three. You got to bless your enemies number four You got to pray for your enemies. Here's number five Here's here's a word for you magnanimous You we ought to be magnanimous with our enemies You say what does that mean? Magnanimous here's the definition being generous in forgiving an insult or injury free from petty resentfulness or vindictiveness What does it mean to be like magnanimous? It means to be the bigger person? See in luke 6 29. Jesus says and unto him that smiteth thee on the cheek What does that mean somebody smacks you? on the cheek Unto him that smiteth thee on the cheek offer also the other And him that taketh away thy cloak forbid not to take thy coat also See the bible teaches that we should be Magnanimous that we should be the bigger person that we should be generous in forgiving an insult or injury To not be petty to not be resentful to not be vindictive. This is what the bible teaches The bible teaches look when it comes to your enemy not the enemies of christ your enemies You ought to be the bigger person You ought to turn the other cheek literally what that means is that you would get hit And not retaliate Not hit back That you would forgive them That you would say while they're injuring you father forgive them for they know not what they do Go back to first corinthians chapter 6 It i'm sorry if you kept your place in romans right after romans you have first corinthians first corinthians chapter 6 You've seen this this passage before i've showed it to you, but let's look at it real quickly See being the bigger person Means to be the more mature The more self-controlled person The more mature or self-controlled person in a situation or in arguments Even if the other person is acting childish or petty see you say how do I know? If i'm a mature christian or an immature christian, well, are you the one that's striking on the cheek? Are you the one that's turning the cheek? Because the more mature christian the more christ-like person Is the one who's being the bigger person the one who's being magnanimous Forgiving First corinthians chapter 6 and verse 6 here. We have paul dealing with people who are fighting in church Who would have ever thought of that? people fighting within church In fact, these people are getting so heated in their fighting that they're literally suing each other. Could you imagine that? first corinthians 6 and verse 6 But brother goeth to law with brother notice. These are not enemies of the lord. They're just enemies of each other His brother here is referring to a saved individual He says a saved brother in christ is going to law with a saved brother in christ and that before unbelievers What does paul say to do about it verse 7 now? Therefore there is utterly a fault among you because you go to law one with another he says why do you not rather take wrong? Why do you not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? See, what does that mean? It means to be Magnanimous it means to be the bigger person It means to say you know what? You can win. I'll lose go ahead You can have it You can sit there You can go Well, it means that you're the bigger person. You don't make a big deal. You've heard me say this before Carnal christians take little issues little problems and they make a big deal out of it And mature christians take a big deal and a big problem and they make a little issue out of it Sometimes I am told as a pastor of situations And it's and it's something that i'm just like wow what in the world? What I can't believe that and i'll go to a christian i'll say I am so sorry We need to deal with this right now and they're like pastor. It's okay. I've already forgiven it I think myself there's a mature christian and then other times we have They start on my chair and you know that I sit everybody knows I sit there And it's just kind of like good night. Really? And it's like they're ready to split the church over something stupid and I think to myself there's a carnal christian There's an immature christian Jesus says love your enemies Do good to your enemies Bless your enemies pray for your enemies be magnanimous with your enemies Here's number six go back to luke chapter six You gotta give to your enemies Give to your enemies now when when he says give to your enemies The context is that you give to your enemies when they're taking something from you So they're taking something that belongs to you and you just say that's okay. You can have it luke chapter 6 and verse 30 give to every man that asketh of thee And him that notice the context taketh away thy goods ask them not again They're taking what belongs to you. Well, a mature christian says that's fine You're gonna have it. I'm not gonna fight with you about it Let me tell you something. So one thing that i've always tried to just follow in my life in our ministry Is I I never want to fight with somebody about money Money is such a petty Stupid thing in this world. It's just such a corrupt thing that just don't just make a rule don't fight with people about money about about things Well, they said that they would just let them have it But they were supposed to break it just just Give To every man that ask of thee and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again That's real christianity That's being a believer a follower not. Excuse me. Not a believer a follower of the lord. Jesus christ Jesus said it this way in matthew on the summer of the mount in matthew 5 40 And if any man will sue thee at the law and take thy coat, let him have thy cloak also Just give to your enemies Give to your enemies when they are taken from you go back to luke chapter 6 if you're not there luke chapter 6 So we saw this first section of the of this sermon That jesus giving the how of how to treat our enemies We should love our enemies. We should do good to our enemies. We should bless our enemies We should pray for our enemies. We should be magnanimous with our enemies We should give to our enemies That's the how that's the what we do now just real quickly As quickly as we can let me give you the why? Of how we treat our enemies because you're like, okay. Well all that sounds great. But why would I want to do that? Well, jesus gives us reasons why? You should want to do What we just learned about why you would you should want to love your enemies and do good to your enemies and bless your enemies And pray for enemies and be the bigger person with your enemies and give to your enemies Why would you want to do the how why let's talk about real quickly the why of how to treat our enemies number one Here's why because we should treat people the way we want to be treated Don't miss this You say I know that okay, listen We should treat people the way we want to be treated Not the way they treat us Notice what he says luke 631 And as you would that men should do to you Do ye also to them likewise? This is what's known as the golden rule Jesus is the one who taught this it's often not attributed to him But the golden rule is this treat people the way you want to be treated But here's the thing about the golden rule that a lot of people don't understand Is that the golden rule is given in many different passages in many different ways And you really have to put them all together to get the full context So let me give you another passage that's not as well known where we get the golden rule as well Proverbs 24 if you got your place there in proverbs proverbs 24 and in proverbs 24, this is a little more of my style It's given in a negative way It's given in in the flip side So the positive side of the golden rule is and as you would that men should do to you do ye also to them Likewise now usually if you get up and preach a sermon on the golden rule That we should treat people the way we'd like to be treated. No one in this world is going to disagree with you on that Everyone's going to be like, of course. Yeah treat people the way you want to be treated You ought to treat people the way you want to be treated. Okay, but here's the flip side to that rule proverbs 24 verse 29 say not I will do so to him as he has done to me I will render to the man according to his work See the other side of the golden rule is that we should treat people the way we want to be treated Yes, but we should treat people the way we want to be treated even when they are mistreating us Because usually we want to treat people the way we want to be treated when they're treating us the way they like to be treated We're like, well we can get along with that. But what if they're treating you in a bad way? What if they're cursing you and hurting you and despitefully using you and trying to uh, uh destroy I mean, do you realize I don't know if you realize there are literally people in this world that it may Have made it their mission in life to destroy this church Now some of them are reprobates and we hate them and we pray that god kills them and i've got a whole list of those people But some of them are not Some of them just don't agree with us just don't like us What are we supposed to do we're supposed to treat people the way we'd like to be treated even if they're treating us bad Not the way they treat us say not I will do so to him as he has done to me see usually we say well They're being mean to me. So i'm gonna mean be mean back. Well, that's that's not what we're supposed to be doing We're supposed to treat people the way we'd like to be treated Even when they're not treating us, right? We're supposed to treat people the way they'd like we'd like to be treated not the way they are treating us Say not I will do so to him as he had done to me. I will render to the man according to his word Say well, why why would I Why would I do these things? Why would I love my enemies and do good and bless and pray and be the bigger person and give to them? Why would I do this because we should treat people the way we'd like to be treated not The way they're treating us, but here's number two Here's a different reason why you should go back to luke chapter six Why should we treat our enemies this way and love our enemies and pray for them? Here's why because it is commendable To do things not for personal profit I love this little section of scripture that jesus gives us here in luke 632. I want you to notice it He says for if jesus says if you love them which love you He says if you love them which love you notice this little phrase Maybe even underline this phrase in your bible What? Thank have ye Ye See the word commendable means to be worthy of praise or worthy of thanks Here's what jesus is saying when you love people that love you. There's nothing praise worthy in that There's nothing commendable in that There's nothing commendable and being nice to people that are nice to you He says for if you love them which love you what thank have ye for sinners also love those that love them Notice verse 33 and if you do good to them which do good to you what thank have ye For sinners also do even the same and if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive what thank have ye for sinners Also lend to sinners to receive as much again See when you give to people hoping they'll give to you. There's nothing think worthy in that There's nothing commendable about that. You say when is my life commendable? Here's why when when you give to those hoping to receive nothing in return When you're good to those that are bad to you When you love those that hurt you Then god says that's commendable That's think worthy What thank have ye What thank have you if you're nice to people that are nice to you. Everybody does that What here's what he's saying what's so special about your christian life when you're doing what every unsaved person does They're nice to people that are nice to them and they're mean to people that are mean to them That's no different than anyone else Says there's nothing commendable about that But he said you know what's commendable When somebody hates you and they destroyed your life And they've ran you out of town and they've taken your wife and given her to another man And they put a death sentence upon you and they put rewards upon you And you're now running for your life and you find them in a cave and you have the opportunity to kill the man That's destroyed your life And you love them That's so commendable it gets put in scripture and we talk about it thousands of years later But liking somebody that likes you everyone does that Right I mean being nice to people that are nice to you that takes no effort You say why should I do these things? That jesus is saying to love your enemies to do good to your enemies to bless your enemies To pray for your enemies to be magnanimous to your enemies to give your enemies Here's why because we should treat people the way we'd like to be treated not the way they treat us because it is Commendable to do things even if it has no personal profit for us so You say I don't i'm not really moved by any of those. Okay. How about this one number three? Why should we? Treat our enemies this way. Here's why? Because of the rewards you earn in heaven Luke chapter 6 verse 35 notice what he says he says but love your enemies and do good and lend Hoping for nothing again. Notice what he said. Don't miss it and your reward shall be great You know what the bible says? That when people mistreat you and you do good to them god says i'll reward you for that Why would god reward you because it's commendable Because it's special Go to proverbs 25 proverbs 25 We read remember in romans where we read if thine enemy hunger feed him if he thirst give him drink Well, that's actually a quote from the book of proverbs paul is quoting in romans Uh proverbs chapter 25, I want to show you what he's quoting in proverbs 25 because there's something in proverbs 25 that i'd like you to notice Proverbs 25 and verse 21 If thine enemy be hungry Give him bread to eat And if it be thirsty give him water to drink For thou shalt he calls a fire upon his head Let me tell you something When somebody's mean and rude to you And you don't retaliate You the bible says you he pulls the fire in his head and you know what you come off looking Like the mature one and they come off looking like an imbecile Do you understand that? When you see when somebody takes a jab at you and you take a jab back you both look like idiots But when somebody takes a jab at you and you refrain yourself and you love your enemies and bless them that curses you and do Good to them that hate you and pray for them which is why I fully use you You put you heat coals of fire upon their head There's actually a very famous example of this literally, uh, uh recently And I hesitate to bring this up because I don't know either one of these people and they might both be reprobates And I don't know and if that's the case, you know, whatever But there's recently this this uh story where where will smith who's an actor, you know smacked, uh Chris rock who's a comedian, you know on live tv tv or whatever and look I don't know anything about them And they might both be wicked as hell and i'm sure they are But the point is this in that instance just in that isn't even if you don't know anything about them You know who looked like an idiot the guy who slapped the other guy And you know, you know who looked like the person that had a self-restraint the person that did not retaliate That's just reality So even unsaved people when they just restrain themselves, they look like the wise person. So why don't you do it? When you're saved you got the holy spirit of god You got the word of god you got a pastor that's helping you and a pastor's wife and a family that loves you Why don't you learn to live like that? We see we get to do it see those guys I don't know if they're I mean i'm sure they're not saved maybe they're saved They just do that and look good in front of the world and die and go to hell you and I Can love our enemies and be rewarded in heaven as a result And look, let's just be honest. There's not that many opportunities for you to be rewarded in heaven. Don't miss those opportunities When somebody who's saved and they love the lord They just happen to not like you and they're mean to you or they take a jab at you or whatever and look just Here's an opportunity to earn some rewards. God bless you And and not cocky or arrogant just really I you know, i'm sorry you feel that way I don't retaliate. I don't I don't want to put that on you. I hope god does bless you David loved his enemies and god blessed him highly for it So why should we treat our enemies this way well because we should treat people the way we want to be treated not The way they treat us Because it is commendable to Do nice things with no personal profit And it is not commendable to be nice to people that are nice to you There's nothing wrong with that, but it's nothing you're not going above and beyond you're not doing anything special Because you earn rewards in heaven He says great your reward shall be great in heaven notice there proverbs 25 21 if that enemy be hungry Give him uh bread to eat if he be thirsty give him water to drink for thou So he pulls a fire upon his head and the lord shall reward thee That says i'll reward you When you love your enemies You say I don't care about that. Okay. How about this one? Go to luke chapter 6 look at verse 35 i'm giving you reasons why Why you would want to love your enemies why you want to do good to your enemies? Why you want to bless your enemies pray for your enemies be the bigger person gift your enemies Why would you want to do that? Because we should treat people we want to be treated because it's commendable because of rewards Here's number, uh number four on this list of why because of your christian testimony I mean, I hope that's a good enough reason for you Luke 6 35 but love your enemies and do good and lend hoping for nothing again And your reward shall be great. You say I don't care about that. Okay. How about this and ye shall be the children of the highest Now this verse is not saying that when you do these things You become the children of the highest because you become the children of the highest when you believe on the lord. Jesus christ When you're born again into the family of god, you say what is jesus saying? Here's what he's saying when you act this way people will look at you and say there goes a child of god You will be seen as the children of the highest when you love your enemies do good to them I hate you lend to them hoping for nothing again And ye shall be your children of the highest you say why would people if I did these things love my enemies bless them That curse me do good to them. I hate me pray for them Which is rightfully use you if I did those things? Why would people look then at me and say there's that must be a christian there goes a christian Here's why look at the last part verse 35 for he god is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil See god himself loves his enemies God himself Is kind to those who are unthankful and those who are evil and when you and I? Do that we are being like christ And people will say There goes a child of god Is any wonder that jesus on the cross the roman soldiers? The roman soldiers are killing him He says father forgive them for they know not what they do and then when he gives up the ghost the roman soldier says Truly, this was the son of god His what he saw jesus do on that cross that this must have been the son of god And i'm here to tell you when you love your enemies and you pray for your enemies people say That must be a christian That must be what a christian is supposed to be like They must be a child of the highest Go to john chapter 13 john chapter 13. We're almost done. We'll be done here in a couple of minutes. John 13 You're there in luke past. John. John 13 verse 34 See your christian testimony Should be a reason why you would want to love your enemies and do good to your enemies and bless your enemies and pray for your enemies and be Magnanimous with your enemies and give to your enemies John 13 34 notice what jesus says jesus said a new commandment. I give unto you that you love one another Here's the you say that's not new You know, it's interesting because you look at this passage And jesus says let me give you a new commandment He looks at his eyes. He says a new commandment. Give I unto you. They're like, okay jesus Let's hear it that you love one another and they'll just have everything in themselves. That's not new Leviticus tells us to love our neighbor as ourself And jesus says no, you're not yeah, you you missed it That's not the new part. Here's the new part that you love one another. Here's the new part as I have loved you He says the new part is that you love one another not your neighbor as yourself that's good But that you love one another like I have loved you because jesus says I prayed for my enemies I love my enemies. I died for my enemies He says that you love one another But now notice verse 25. I don't want you to miss this by this By what that you love one another as I have loved you by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples If ye have love one to another See you know why you should love your enemies and do good to them and bless them and pray for them and be the Bigger person and give here's why because when you do that, it's a testimony to others That you are a disciple a follower of the lord jesus christ that that is what christianity should look like Again i'm not talking about hating some wicked pedophile some reprobate I'm talking about just your neighbor your co-worker Your fellow church member Let me give you the last one. We'll finish up luke chapter 6 We talked about how the how of how to treat your enemies love your enemies do good to your enemies bless your enemies pray for your enemies be Magnanimous with your enemies give to your enemies We talked about the why of how to treat our enemies because we should treat people the way we want to be treated Not the way they treat us because it is commendable to do things for no personal profit And when you just are nice to people that are nice to you There's nothing commendable about that because of the rewards you earn in heaven because of your christian testimony And here's the last one and you say none of those convinced me pastor. He met us. None of those I don't care about any of those Well, then hopefully this last one convinces you and if this last one doesn't convince you then Go ahead and waste your life Why should I love my enemies here's why Because you were once the enemy of god You know, the bible says that That we were the enemies of god. We were at odds with god And he loved us He said why should I treat my enemies like like that my unsaved or even saved enemies here's why because of how god treats you luke 636 Jesus finishes this section of his sermon by saying be ye therefore merciful As your father also is merciful Go to ephesians if you would ephesians chapter 4 We'll finish up if you kept your place in romans you go past first second corinthians galatians ephesians ephesians chapter 4 Why should I love my enemy? Here's why because I was once the enemy of god and he loved me Why should I love my enemies because i've been forgiven much But they said mean things about me look if you were honest, you know that you've said mean things about people But they hurt me you've hurt people But they're not right you're not right Next next time we're in this passage. We're going to see next week He talks about hypocritical judgment Talks about removing the beam out of your own eye before you start making a big deal about other people And the truth is this that we have been forgiven much Say why should I love my enemy? Because of how god treats us ephesians 4 31 we'll finish up Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice ephesians 4 look at verse 32 And be ye kind one to another Be ye kind one to another I don't want to Be ye kind one to another Tender hearted. I don't want to tender hearted You know what it means to have a tender heart it's the opposite of hard Not hard not callous tender Forgiving what why would I do that? Here's why even as god for christ's sake hath forgiven you See the truth is it's hypocritical To receive god's forgiveness And to then not extend forgiveness to others It's hypocritical to receive god's mercy And to then not extend god's mercy to others It's hypocritical that god would take his curse and his wrath off of us and give us his blessing And then for us to not extend that blessing upon others The truth is the biggest motivator. I mean, I think your christian testimony should motivate you I think your reward should motivate you. I think the fact that it's commendable should motivate you I think the way we treat people should be a motivation. But honestly the biggest motivation for loving your enemy Is because god loved you And you're a hypocrite To do anything different Let's bow our heads in that word of prayer heavenly father Lord I I realize that This is probably I mean the reason that this is in the sermon on the plane. This is the sermon on the mount Is because this is the climax of the christian life. I mean this is it Bible reading and prayer time and soul winning all of that Should be leading us to this point This is real discipleship And it's so hard And lord, I pray you'd help us to learn this I pray you'd help us to learn To love not not the enemies of the lord our enemies Other safe people that we that have just hurt us and done us wrong Even unsafe people that aren't reprobates. They're just unsaved and they've hurt us betrayed us Help us to love them to bless them To do good to them to pray for them Help us to be like christ In the matchless name of christ, we pray Amen. We're not brother rj. Come up and lead us in a final song I just want to give you a couple of reminders First of all, of course We want to invite you to be with us on wednesday night for the wednesday night bible study We're going to be in the book of second corinthians chapter number 11, so we'd love you to join us Of course, we'll be back in our second corinthians study don't forget if you've not signed up yet for the Ladies t or if you've not signed up for the new members class Please make sure you do that on your communication card. And then of course, I just want to say about the video. Hopefully You guys saw it clearly. We we saw it not clearly, but I think it's because we're on the side But if you didn't see it clearly we're going to post it on youtube Uh tomorrow so you can watch it on youtube if you'd like if that's something you're you're interested in and again we're just showing this because Obviously you guys many of our church people gave towards that gift and we are so appreciative of that And we just wanted to kind of show you the result. And again, I just want to say thank you To brother joel and miss courtney usher and uh, just a very generous gift That they offered to do all the labor and and all the guys that showed up everybody did a great job And just thank you. Thank you. Thank you to all of you who gave and it was a very kind Gift and a very nice surprise and I pray that the lord blesses you Uh for it, so thank you. If there's anything we can do for you, please let us know Why brother rj come up and lead us in a final song? Amen let's grab our song books and turn to page number 304 Four Nothing between my soul and my savior let's sing it out on the first There's nothing Nothing My heart Nothing Station Though it may cost me much tribulation Nothing And nothing between son number 304, let's sing it out on the last Denial Me Brother graham, would you dismiss us with a word of prayer? Almighty god, thank you for this message Amen So You