Loving Our Enemies

[0:00] This morning's scripture passages are taken from Psalm 27 and Matthew 5, 43-48.

[0:15] ! So we'll be reading those two passages, Psalm 27, Matthew 5, 43-48.

[0:27] ! Psalm 27. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?

[0:44] When evil doers assail me to eat up my flesh, my adversaries and foes, it is they who stumble and fall.

[0:55] Though an army encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war rise up against me, yet I will be confident.

[1:07] One thing have I asked of the Lord, that I will seek after. That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.

[1:20] To gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in his temple. For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent.

[1:35] He will lift me high upon a rock. And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me. And I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy.

[1:49] I will sing and make melody to the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry aloud. Be gracious and answer me.

[2:01] You have said, seek my face. My heart says to you, your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me.

[2:14] Turn not your servant away in anger. O you who have been my help, cast me not off. Forsake me not, O God of my salvation.

[2:27] For my father and my mother have forsaken me. But the Lord will take me in. Teach me your way, O Lord.

[2:38] And lead me on a level path because of my enemies. Give me not up to the will of my adversaries. For false witnesses have risen against me.

[2:50] And they breathe out violence. I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

[3:02] Wait for the Lord. Be strong. Let your heart take courage. Wait for the Lord. And then Matthew chapter 5, beginning at verse 43.

[3:17] You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

[3:29] But I say to you, love your enemies. And pray for those who persecute you. So that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven.

[3:42] For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good. And sends rain on the just. And on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?

[3:56] Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

[4:15] You, therefore, must be perfect. As your heavenly father is perfect. Good morning, brothers and sisters.

[4:25] Good morning. Good morning.

[4:56] Thank you. Christian psychiatrist. And the Christian man said to the physician, he said, he said, I'm having problems with my wife. He said, I'm really having serious problems with her. I just can't deal with this. And so the physician said to the man, he said, well, the Bible says that you ought to love your wife. Love your wife.

[5:35] And so the man says, well, the truth is, I don't love my wife. He said, I really don't love her. And so the doctor said to him, well, why don't you just rent a house next door and that way you'll be her neighbor. And the guy said to him, why is that? Doctor said, well, because the Bible says you should love your neighbor. And then the man comes back and he says, man, listen, I really don't like her at all. I despise her. So there's a great deal of enmity between the two of us.

[6:22] Doctor says, oh, that's a good thing because the Bible says you should love your enemy. Right? And so guess what? The man did not return for another session. But that's it.

[6:37] that we're told. Have you heard this one before? That the Bible tells us to love our neighbors, but it also tells us to love our enemies.

[6:58] Someone has suggested that that is probably the case because generally they are one and the same people. Some of you will get that. I don't need to say that again.

[7:18] But we have all struggled with loving those who hurt us. And this command that we have that Jesus gave to his disciples at the time and by extension to us, it truly is one of the hardest commands. How do we do that? How do we love our enemies?

[7:43] It just seems like a contradiction. Love and enemies, they just don't seem to go together. Why am I asked to do something that seems and is so unnatural?

[7:56] Where is the sweetness in loving one's enemy? Where is the joy? Don't I have a right to express my anger and perhaps seek revenge?

[8:10] God wanted me to love my enemies. Why didn't he just give me a chip to do that? God wanted me to love my enemies. Why didn't he just give me a chip to do that? I think that those are but few of the questions perhaps you, like me, have when we consider this subject before really getting to the meat and understanding what Jesus says. Let's pray.

[8:34] Father, we look to you in this moment. Lord, we declare our unpreparedness and our inadequacy. We declare, oh Lord, that we are not even a good example.

[8:54] Father, we ask that you would do with your word what you will. Father, we pray. That you would cause hearts to be transformed.

[9:07] That indeed, Lord, that as we hear your word, that we would be eager to obey your word, to live it out. So help me, oh Lord, as I declare your word today.

[9:24] In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen. No doubt as you consider the topic that is before us today, loving our enemies, you have questions similar to those that we just posed.

[9:47] I want us, though, to examine how Jesus's listeners heard these words.

[9:59] But I don't want to spend too much time there. I really want to spend a lot more time because I think it's really important for us to consider how we hear these words. How we hear them.

[10:11] Jesus really gives two instructions. He says, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Let me look at the passage that was read in Matthew, Matthew chapter 5.

[10:31] I believe that the main point that Jesus makes is that believers should love their enemies as evidence that they are God's children.

[10:50] Believers should love their enemies as evidence that they are God's children. And so today, I want to approach the texts that we read in Matthew and Psalm from three perspectives.

[11:14] Firstly, I want to consider the context. That is to say, what's going on in our lives and what was going on in the lives of those who heard Jesus speak?

[11:33] I'm really looking at it from a broad perspective. Not only the circumstances prevailing at the time Jesus gave those instructions, but the wider backdrop of personal, social, and environmental factors then and today.

[11:55] What is the context? What's the prevailing circumstances? What is the context? And then next, I want to consider the command itself.

[12:08] What is it that Jesus actually said? What does it mean? And then finally, the cause.

[12:22] And by this, I want us to consider, why must we live this way? What's the reason? The reasons we must live this way.

[12:36] The context, the command, and the cause. Let's now consider the context. The text. This teaching that we see in Matthew chapter 5, beginning at verse 43, in which Jesus teaches his disciples, says, You have heard it said, you have heard it said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

[13:13] But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. We can go all the way back to Leviticus.

[13:30] Leviticus chapter 19, where we find these words. You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.

[13:50] You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people. But you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

[14:04] I am the Lord. Here is the Lord giving commandments or commands to his people.

[14:16] The Lord giving commandments or commands to his people. Yet, it seems like over time, the view seemed to have been that one must love one's neighbor and not one's enemy.

[14:40] They got it twisted over time. Because while the scriptures never taught us to hate our enemies, with the passage of time, people began to interpret this real simple command to love one's neighbor as also meaning that the opposite must be true for one's enemies.

[15:07] Well, if they say love one's neighbor and they are silent with respect to enemies, that it seems natural that we must hate our enemies.

[15:25] That, perhaps, was the thinking. But if people were careful to consider the word in the Old Testament, there are many passages that contradict that thinking.

[15:38] Indeed, Exodus chapter 23, verses 4 to 5 is one such example. And this is what it says. If you meet your enemy's ox or his donkey going astray, you shall bring it back to him.

[15:57] If you see the donkey of one who hates you lying under its burden, you shall refrain from leaving him with it.

[16:09] You shall rescue it with him. This shows a duty to act justly and kindly even towards those with whom one has conflict.

[16:23] Now, I don't want to lose you today. I wanted you to make sure that you understand what it is we are seeking to do here this morning.

[16:36] What we are seeking to do here is to understand the command that Jesus gave to his disciples and by extension to those of us today who are his disciples.

[16:50] Jesus calls them to do what is unnatural, what is unusual, something that the world would think to be foolish.

[17:04] Jesus called them to love their enemies. He calls us to love our enemies. Our natural instinct is to hate our enemies, to render evil for evil.

[17:21] But Jesus says, that's not the way you and I ought to live. And he says in the passage that we have just read, he says, one of the reasons we do this is because we demonstrate that we are sons of God.

[17:48] But what's the, as we consider the context in which Jesus made this statement, Jesus is talking to people who had a history.

[18:04] They had a religious history. They had a history with other people. They had a political history.

[18:17] So what were some of the other circumstances? What was the context? What was the environment, the prevailing environment? What was the environment? From a political perspective, the people to whom Jesus spoke, they lived in a place that was occupied by the Romans.

[18:45] They did not have political independence. So I want you to think about this for a moment. Jesus says to these people who had a misunderstanding, we can see already, of the scriptures.

[19:04] This is a context. That they are living in a political environment where they are being ruled by an external force, an external group.

[19:18] And the Romans were very harsh with them. And not only that, some of their leaders collaborated with the Romans.

[19:33] Imagine for a moment that you and I lived in an environment like that, where others ruled over us. And someone says to us, love your enemies.

[19:47] That's the point I'm making. That's the context that I want you to see. Jesus says to them, despite the political environment, you ought to love your enemies.

[20:03] Because you know how you and I are. Some of us, when even our political party in the Bahamas loses the election, we hate the other party.

[20:17] I mean, talking about if another country, another government from outside of the country were to come in. But what else? What else? What other observations might be made here about what they were going through?

[20:38] There were religious divisions. Multiple, many. You know, they didn't have as many as we do today.

[20:49] But they did have their divisions. There were the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the Essences, who had different interpretations of the Old Testament.

[21:02] Those were divisions in and of themselves. But we have them too. The point is, what I'm trying to get us to see, is that just like them, we have reasons, if you will, from a human perspective, to have enemies.

[21:25] Context. Then there were these economic circumstances that prevailed. There were few wealthy people. And many poor people. Many, many poor people.

[21:37] And many people were overtaxed back then by the Roman authorities. You know, just like we are overtaxed today here too.

[21:50] I tell you, man, somebody stopped me just on Friday and he said, Listen, I'm getting out of business because the government is making more money than I'm making. And I thought about that, you know, I hadn't thought of it just like that before.

[22:04] But I thought about it and I said, You know, he is right. He is right. They are really making a lot of money. So they felt overtaxed. And there was this exclusive club of wealthy people, as it were, taking advantage, it would seem, of the poor.

[22:24] But here's another reason. Here is another important context that we should consider that prevailed at the time.

[22:36] The Jews considered themselves to be exclusive people. They were proud and viewed themselves as God's chosen.

[22:49] And everyone else was beneath them. You tell me that we ought to treat them like we treat everyone else. We ought to treat them as if they were our neighbors.

[23:09] But those are just the broad, the macro reasons, the macro things that give rise to the context about which we are considering.

[23:23] Perhaps at an individual level. When you consider books about getting ahead, they don't teach about loving one's enemies.

[23:40] Today, if you read a book that's written by a non-Christian, a motivational text, about ten steps to getting ahead, they don't tell you anything about loving your enemies.

[23:56] They talk about crushing the enemy, destroying the competition. Five ways to destroy the competition. I read a lot of those books. I'm trying to remember, but I read a lot of them.

[24:10] You know, how you can, there's a word that, you know, stealth strategy. You know, quite a number of strategies that one might use to really destroy the competition in business.

[24:24] And I had an employee who just gave me a stack of books to read in that direction. One's enemies must suffer because they cause me to suffer.

[24:42] That is the natural instinct of an individual. I'm talking about context, the way we feel naturally, the way we are.

[24:55] Loving someone who hates you is just not natural. Indeed, one might put forward the view that it could lead to more abuse.

[25:13] One might even say that it could make one more vulnerable. makes us seem weak, might be the position of some and limit the scope of our vengeance.

[25:36] What then is the context of this command? Not just to the disciples of Jesus' day, but to us.

[25:48] What is the condition, the environment of your life and my life? How do you hear this command that Jesus gives?

[26:06] What's the circumstance of your life? Let's summarize it. fallen, fallen human race, you and I.

[26:22] Loving our enemy. It goes against our political, goes against our religious, our economical, our cultural, our psychological, and our pragmatic instincts.

[26:37] that's the overarching context that existed and exists today in the face of Jesus' command.

[26:50] Let's consider the command. Jesus says in these few verses that we have read, Jesus says, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

[27:15] to you. It's interesting. If you consider very thoughtfully the command that Jesus gives about loving one's enemy, something jumps out at you.

[27:36] The first thing that jumps out is that we will have enemies. Implicit the point that we will have enemies.

[27:48] Right? Jesus says, love. We've got to love our enemies. That's implicit. The next thing that is really apparent is this, that loving our enemies does not necessarily make them non-enemies.

[28:17] Just enemies we love. That's all it does. Let's say that again. Jesus said, we ought to love our enemies. Jesus doesn't suggest, Jesus does not say that they become non-enemies.

[28:36] just enemies we love. Jesus' command is simple, love our enemies and pray for those who use us.

[28:52] Notice that we are not to be indifferent towards them or merely tolerate them. How many of you know what I mean when I talk about being indifferent?

[29:04] Listen, when you are indifferent towards something or someone, it just doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. That's the worst feeling in the world when you're around someone who's just completely indifferent towards you.

[29:21] But Jesus doesn't say that that's what he wants believers to be, indifferent towards our enemies. calls us to love them.

[29:35] He calls us to pray for them. He calls us to demonstrate it. But how do we love our enemies?

[29:48] How do we love our enemies? enemies? We're called to demonstrate what's called agape love towards our enemies.

[30:11] Agape love describes God's love for man and our love for God and man which is unconditional.

[30:23] It's God's covenantal love for man and our reciprocal love for him which we extend to others.

[30:36] That's the love that Jesus calls us to have for our enemies. love for our enemies expressed.

[30:56] The scriptures tell us that we ought to do good for those who hate us. There are people out there, you know this, many of us know this, the people out there just don't like you for one reason or the other.

[31:13] people out there who say, you know what, I don't know anybody like that. And maybe, maybe that's true, maybe it's true that you don't encounter people who you think don't like you.

[31:31] But I bet you, if you think deeply, if you think about those who believe that some of the views you have are archaic, and that the fact that you have these views, that you should perhaps be condemned, or maybe for being present here in a setting like this, where certain views are exposed, imprisoned, then perhaps you'll have a different view.

[32:05] I want to suggest to you that everyone in here who names the name of Christ, that we've got lots of enemies. We're called to bless those who curse us, those who speak ill of us, of our future.

[32:35] We're supposed to speak blessings upon them. We're called to pray for those who abuse us, to petition God on their behalf.

[32:49] But can I tell you, can I tell you, and for this, borrow some words from Charles Spurgeon. Loving one's enemy does not mean that someone who has done wrong escapes justice.

[33:12] justice. Nor does it mean that you ought to feel mushy towards that person. That's not what we're called to do.

[33:23] It doesn't mean that the person escapes justice. It doesn't mean that we're going to go out and have coffee with the person or invite them to our house or call them up on the telephone or send them a birthday present.

[33:37] That's not what it means at all. Justice demands that I set my face against an evildoer, but not my heart.

[33:55] That's the difference. not my heart. And here I've got a real confession to make.

[34:08] As I was considering this message and what I would share today, I thought that this was an area that I didn't have a problem in.

[34:24] And then I thought deeply. And I realized to my shame that there is a group that I really have a problem in.

[34:40] And I really got to pray. I got to pray. Lord, the Lord's got to help me. I always knew that I had a problem with them, but I didn't realize how deep it was.

[34:58] I confess there is a group in this country that takes advantage of the poor that I have a major problem with.

[35:09] I got to pray for them. Lord, help me to pray for them. Lord, help me to pray for them. To pray that they, yes, to pray that they would receive justice, but also to pray that the Lord would bless them, that the Lord would be gracious to them, that the Lord would be kind to them in their pursuits, that the Lord would protect them.

[35:39] perhaps you are like me. Perhaps there are people or groups of people that you regard as your enemy and you haven't prayed for them and you wished calm would come to them.

[36:10] I want to encourage you to confess that before the Lord as well. Jesus doesn't require us to change the label of enemy to friend.

[36:33] He doesn't require us to do that in order to love. He doesn't require us to change the label from enemy to friend.

[36:44] He just requires us to love. Loving your enemy means showing them grace regardless of whether they remain an enemy in terms of their actions or intentions.

[36:58] You still act in a way that reflects God's love. But you're not blind to the reality of conflict.

[37:11] You can love someone while still regarding them as an enemy because love is about how you choose to act and respond.

[37:28] Not about pretending that the conflict or opposition does not exist. so you can still love someone who you regard as an enemy.

[37:42] Lord, help us to love our enemies. Recognizing someone who genuinely hurts you or who hurts others as an enemy is realistic.

[38:11] But love is a deliberate choice you and I can pray for love in such individuals.

[38:23] Love isn't about feeling affection. It's not about pretending that enmity does not exist.

[38:34] It's a deliberate choice to respond with kindness, forgiveness, and goodwill. Got to be able to do that.

[38:45] Lord, help us to be able to do that. Let's now move to the cause.

[38:59] The cause. Why should we do this? Why should we follow this command? Why should we love our neighbors?

[39:12] I've given you the answer already. The answer is because it's our Lord's command. That's it.

[39:29] But before we get into that, can I say something to us believers? hear what I say today.

[39:44] You and I as believers, we're different from the world. We've got to be. If you and I are the same as the world, then what's the purpose?

[40:03] If the same things, the same constitution that governs the world, governs you and me, then what's the difference?

[40:19] I'm not saying that we ought to be perfect. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying that you and I are under a different standard. That we have a different standard.

[40:32] We have a different constitution. What does that mean? That means that the things that they would teach to the world, you and I should find bitter most times and vice versa.

[40:54] The things that we hear in church, for example, what we're talking about now, loving one's enemy, the world would regard this as nonsense and that's okay.

[41:10] That's okay. So you and I have to come to a place in our lives where we are expecting and accepting of this reality.

[41:26] We are God's children. Ultimately, we are not of this world. We are traveling to a city whose builder and maker is Christ himself.

[41:43] We ought to be different. We ought to be different from the world. We ought to be mindful that we will be pulled by the flesh, the world, and all that it offers.

[42:06] We ought to resist it. more than we need. We than we need. We need to than we need.

[42:19] must embrace! That the Lord is sovereign, that he's over all things.

[42:30] And we ought to accept his lordship, the lordship of our God. Either he's sovereign over all things, or he is sovereign over nothing.

[42:44] The Bible teaches us that the natural man understands not the things of God, to him their foolishness.

[42:57] Jesus was issuing a command to his disciples of that day and to us, those who are his disciples.

[43:13] That's why we ought to follow it. That's why we ought to take it seriously. That's why we ought to do introspection. So we can't leave this place without doing introspection.

[43:31] And as difficult as it is, and I know how difficult it is, to love the unlovable.

[43:48] But guess what? Here's the unlovable talking about the unlovable. Yet I know practically how difficult it is.

[43:59] Yet we are called to do it. Do we have an option to keep or not keep Jesus' commands?

[44:11] Here's what Jesus says in John 14, 15, love for love for him. If you love me, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Jesus tied love for him, not to what we say, or what we think, or even what we give, but rather in keeping his commandments.

[44:34] love for us. When we love our enemies, Jesus says of us, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven.

[45:11] Imagine that, brothers and sisters. What a motivation you and I have today. What a motivation. You and I can leave this place with glad hearts, knowing that we can consider the context that prevails.

[45:31] and despite the difficulty, we can say, I love him, not because of my strength, but because of what God's done for me and because of what he instructs me to do.

[45:48] And in so doing, I am like my father in heaven. Jesus says of him to make the point, to amplify the point, Jesus said, guess what God does.

[46:02] Now, Jesus could have said a lot more than this. Now, don't be mistaken here. Jesus could have written a zillion books about God's love right here, but he just makes two little points.

[46:17] Jesus says, God's love love God's love God's love God's love He makes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends the rain on the just and the unjust.

[46:32] Brothers and sisters, think about it for a moment. Think about a holy God who is blasphemed, who is lied on.

[46:42] people say that he is evil and he does not exist. He is a holy God.

[46:56] Still, he sends the rain on the just and the unjust. And Jesus makes the point that if he does this, think about you and I who are always sinning in deed and in action, in deed and in thought.

[47:20] We can't forgive our enemies. God who is perfect can be merciful.

[47:42] What do you think about us who often contribute to the treatment we receive? Here's another reason why we ought to follow this command.

[48:04] It's a Christian distinctive. or a distinguishing characteristic of Christians to love, especially to love our enemies.

[48:15] It sets us apart. It makes us different. love love.

[48:26] We're called to a higher standard.

[48:39] Jesus says to his disciples, he said, if you just love your neighbor, if you just love somebody who loves you, that's not a big deal, he says, but if you love the one, if you love your enemy, that's different.

[48:57] That's different. That's what sets you apart. I want to suggest something to you. I want to suggest to us that every man, woman, boy, and girl, it's God's creation.

[49:21] God's creation. And you and I don't know whether God has set his love on that person from the foundation before the foundation of the earth.

[49:36] You don't know whether this person who is mistreating you is going to be among those chosen like you and I.

[49:49] So when God tells us to love, perhaps loving somebody you want to see on the other side of Jordan.

[50:02] But what an amazing witnessing tool that you and I can have when we love our enemies, when we love those who harm us.

[50:16] And others can observe that. Jesus' perspective, which must be our perspective, was not on the temporal but heavenly things.

[50:36] Jesus was not concerned about earthly things when he gave this instruction. These instructions demonstrate, really, they demonstrate Jesus' low value that he placed on the temporal.

[50:50] It demonstrates where Jesus was casting his eyes. Jesus was not concerned about reciprocity.

[51:08] He was not concerned about the one who is your enemy, returning love to you, just to love. love. When we do this, Jesus calls us to love because he understood that a little bit of hate can just mushroom and grow and grow and spread throughout our bodies and just spread throughout our disposition and just create a big problem.

[51:43] Jesus understood that compartmentalization, love. He's not going to be good for those who follow him. Why do we live this way?

[52:09] Listen to what Paul writes in Romans chapter 12. Paul writes, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

[52:27] Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

[52:42] If he is thirsty, give him something to drink, for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

[52:57] Scripture tells us, if our enemy is hungry, feed him. And we ought to leave space for God.

[53:09] We ought to leave vengeance to the Lord. Let the Lord fight our battles. We ought to be witnesses for Christ. Because anger and vengeance and bitterness, they cloud the soul.

[53:26] love the psalm that was read earlier. Psalm 27.

[53:40] Why are we? Why are we to follow this command? the psalmist says in verse 1 of this psalm, the Lord is my light and my salvation.

[54:03] Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? The psalmist here sets the stage at the beginning.

[54:15] the psalmist says, your enemy? Who is my enemy? I'm not concerned about that because after all, the Lord is my light and my salvation.

[54:28] He is my stronghold. And because of that, I have nothing ultimately to be afraid of. And so perhaps you are at a place where your enemy is causing you to be afraid and perhaps causing you not to live out this command.

[54:51] The psalmist reminds us that the Lord is our stronghold and we ought not to be afraid. And he is our refuge and our strength.

[55:06] As you place your trust in him, you're free to love boldly, knowing that he is with you, guiding you every step of the way.

[55:17] Let love be our response and let God be our victory. When a Christian does not love his enemies, it may reveal a lack of trust in God's command to forgive and to show grace.

[55:37] A lack of trust in God. It can suggest that he is holding on to bitterness. allowing pride and fear and anger to dictate his actions. David tells us in this first verse in Psalm 27 that God is the foundation of our lives.

[56:06] And when he is, we need not fear those who oppose us. He helps us to see that loving our enemies does not make us vulnerable.

[56:17] It makes us strong because our security is rooted in God, not in the approval or the actions of others. You're loved because God is your salvation and refuge and no enemy can shake that.

[56:34] David continues in this Psalm, though an army encamps against me, my heart shall not fear, though war rise against me, yet I will be confident.

[56:48] What a beautiful Psalm. He writes in verse 14 of the Psalm, wait for the Lord, David says. Be strong and let your heart take courage.

[57:02] Wait for the Lord. Loving your enemy requires a heart that is taking a hold of God's timing and strength. It's not a passive act, but an expression of courage, knowing that your ability to love, it doesn't come from you, but it comes from God's.

[57:24] strength in you. As you depend on God, you are empowered to rise above bitterness and resentment. You reflect God's grace, becoming a vessel of his peace.

[57:39] But guess what? At the end of the day, the truth is that you and I lack the ability to genuinely love our enemies as we should.

[58:00] And even when we do our best, we do it imperfectly. we need God's Holy Spirit. We need his help.

[58:14] Perhaps you're a believer and you're saying that I'm struggling with that in so many ways. I think many, if not all of us are.

[58:28] so the first thing I want to say to you is that you are not alone. The second thing is that your remorse is perhaps evidence that the Holy Spirit is working on your heart already.

[58:45] And the next thing I would recommend to us is that we pray about it. And then finally, I would suggest that you be intentional about extending love to those who hate you.

[59:04] And then trust God's justice. The greatest love that was ever displayed in human history for one's enemy was displayed by Jesus himself.

[59:24] Romans 5 and 10 tells us that while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son.

[59:42] We were his enemies, reconciled to God. And guess what? Let's not fool ourselves. The truth is we constantly sin. And a holy God continues to love us, continues to love us.

[59:59] So yes, his son, while we were enemies, he bore the wrath of God for us. And even now, he intercedes for us.

[60:16] and we go to him every day asking for his forgiveness and he forgives us.

[60:28] And he calls us to be like his father who causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

[60:43] what a privilege you and I have today that we can be like our father.

[60:55] Let us pray. Oh, Lord, our hearts are convicted as we consider your command to love our enemies.

[61:20] Lord, we confess that often we have been indifferent. We've been casual in this regard.

[61:32] And sometimes, Lord, we have been overtly hateful. Oh, Father, we ask that you would forgive us.

[61:45] What arrogance we have displayed. Oh, Lord, have mercy on us. Have mercy on us.

[61:59] Lord, our desire, our desire today is to have the character of God who causes the rain to shine, the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.

[62:21] Our desire, oh, Lord, is to pray for those who are our enemies. Lord, we pray for our enemies in this moment.

[62:33] O, Lord, we ask, Father, that you would bring them to our remembrance. O, Lord, and even, Lord, we must do it in tears because it's true, O, Lord.

[62:49] O, O, O, what do you who cause harm to the poor, who destroy lives.

[63:50] Have mercy, O Lord, on them, who knowingly, in the light of day, break up families.

[64:08] And have mercy, O Lord, on those who permit them to do that. Cause, O Lord, their eyes to be open. And let your grace be their portion today.

[64:25] In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen. Amen.