[0:00] Beautiful day. All right, today we're going to be talking about a Bill of rights with a higher call.! Luke chapter 6 is where we're going to be, beginning in verse 27.
[0:11] ! We're going to go through verse 36. Luke 6, 27-36. We're in what is Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount.
[0:26] In Matthew's Gospel, it's known as the Sermon on the Mount. Luke's Gospel, you might call it the Sermon on the Plateau. It's still in a mountain.
[0:38] They've come down. There's a large group of people here. Probably, it could be as many as a thousand or more people that are gathered around that he is teaching.
[0:49] He's got his disciples there. His apostles are there. Lots of onlookers. Lots of people curious. And what he delivered 2,000 years ago with this message, this sermon, is something that cut through years, centuries of religious tradition.
[1:09] It highlighted the idea that our motives, our attitudes, what's in our heart, is given a much higher priority than any of the rituals or any other of the religiosity, the religious stuff that we can get caught up in.
[1:31] And it really is a series of bombshells, just one after another. What Jesus does in much of this sermon is what is known as stringing together pearls.
[1:46] In Jewish tradition, this was a type of their teaching where they just took short, pithy sayings and just strung them together like one would string together a series of pearls.
[1:58] What he said was shocking. It was uncomfortable. And certainly, some of what he said could even be considered quite bizarre when you can compare it to the world's standards.
[2:16] Now, some people have compared what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount to our Constitution, the Constitution in the United States, particularly in what we know as the amendments and the top ten of the amendments, the first ten, known as the Bill of Rights.
[2:35] And this is, for us as Americans, a cherished document, something that we would hold dear. These amendments are protections that we have against a human government that at one point in history might have very good intentions and desire to serve God in a way that would honor him in terms of how we do governing things.
[3:02] And then other times it may not. So we have this Bill of Rights, First Amendment. The idea of us being able to gather like this is a welcome thing. It's a necessary thing.
[3:15] The Second Amendment, which kind of protects all of the others, all of these rights that we have are something that we should be familiar with and something that we should hold dear as Americans.
[3:31] However, what Jesus presents us in this Sermon on the Mount, this Bill of Rights for Citizens of Heaven, if you can call it that, are much less about rights that we have and more about surrendering ourselves to other people, demonstrating the kind of love that Jesus demonstrated when he was ministering here on earth.
[4:00] These are expectations for citizens of heaven. And our text really kind of elevates what our expected behavior is as citizens of heaven.
[4:17] Some would have called it something along the lines of trying to shoot for or climb Mount Everest. Have any of you climbed Mount Everest before?
[4:27] Any mountain climbers at all? At all? A little bit, right? A little, a little, gotten near Mount Everest? No. Okay. All right.
[4:37] I've got a few other mountains we're going to talk about too. But Mount Everest is quite tall. And when I was trying to figure out, the number is like 29,031 feet, which numbers don't mean anything to me.
[4:59] So I don't know. Is that tall? Yeah, I guess it's pretty tall. Let me show you by comparison how tall Mount Everest is.
[5:10] This is the world's tallest building. This is known as the Burj Khalifa. It is located in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
[5:21] It was built in 2009. And it stands at 2,700 feet high. That's pretty tall.
[5:32] But in comparison, Mount Everest, another view of it, is 10 times higher than the tallest building we have ever built.
[5:49] 10 times higher. And for people who are maybe a little bit more old school, the Empire State Building, Mount Everest is 23 times higher, taller, than the Empire State Building.
[6:06] Mount Everest is the tallest of all the mountains in the world. This graph shows all the tallest mountains on every continent. And you can see that it's quite above what is the second tallest mountain that I cannot pronounce in Argentina.
[6:22] But there it is. It is a tall mountain. And here's the route up the mountain in case you're interested in climbing Mount Everest.
[6:34] You're just out of base camp. You're going to climb up the north column into Camp 2, Camp 3, and finally you're going to get to the summit. Anybody with me? We're going to go climb Mount Everest? Yeah.
[6:45] Yeah. I'm with you on that. Yes. And yet this is the expectation for us as believers. If we would consider the Sermon on the Mount, Mount Everest, in terms of our behavior, the expectation is that we would live up to that expectation, that we would climb that mountain, if you will.
[7:09] So what I want to do is I want to start by reading our text today, and then we're going to go back and we're going to learn some guidelines for how to interpret a text like this because it's tough.
[7:23] It is. Some of the things that we're going to hear, that we're going to read today, are difficult for us to imagine putting them into practice. And yet, again, that is the expectation for those of us who are citizens of heaven.
[7:39] So Luke 6, beginning in verse 27. Jesus is speaking to this crowd, and he says, But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, but bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you.
[7:59] This is radical thinking. These are radical demands that Jesus is placing on his followers. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also.
[8:15] And from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you. Think about that, just that statement alone.
[8:29] To everyone. There's no exceptions in that statement. Give to everyone who begs from you. And from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back.
[8:44] And as you wish that others would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you?
[8:56] For even sinners love those who love them. Makes sense, right? And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you?
[9:07] For even sinners do the same. That doesn't require any extra above and beyond. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?
[9:21] Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. That's not anything that's over and above expectation.
[9:33] Verse 35, but love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. And your reward will be great. And you will be the sons of the Most High.
[9:46] For he is kind to the ungrateful and to the evil. And to kind of sum it all up, verse 36, be merciful even as your Father is merciful.
[10:01] Now, to add insult to injury, in Matthew's account of these statements, remember Luke's version is quite a bit shorter than Matthew's account.
[10:13] But Matthew kind of sums up and gives us a bottom line here. The last verse of Matthew chapter 5, verse 48 says this, You therefore must be what?
[10:28] Perfect. As your heavenly Father is perfect. How you doing? How am I doing? I mean, how many of you are passing the test?
[10:43] How many of you are getting an A plus on the scorecard? No one is. Even for those of us who would say, Yes, I am a believer in Jesus Christ.
[10:57] He is my Lord and Savior. I follow him. I still have to admit, I fall short of this standard.
[11:08] And yet this is the standard that Jesus holds us to. Ouch. This is hard for us to digest. And some of the statements that are given in here are hard for us to put into application because how?
[11:28] How does anyone get past some of the difficulties involved in putting into practice what Jesus demands of us here? So I want to start off by doing a little bit of laying some groundwork here in terms of how to read and understand a passage like this.
[11:50] And that can help us go forward in terms of how to understand this passage. So on your notes here, guidance for understanding Jesus' teaching.
[12:03] The first thing is to look at what Jesus taught compared to the totality of Scripture. Now remember, Scripture does not contradict itself.
[12:15] Some people might say, Well, wait a minute. Actually, I'm going to share with you something that might seem a little contradictory. But it only seems that way. It's not contradictory.
[12:27] But it does help us to hold in balance some of what Jesus taught. For instance, I highlighted as we went through that passage, part of the phrase that said, Give to everyone who begs of you.
[12:44] Give to everyone who begs of you. But when you compare that to some of the other teaching in Scripture, you kind of put it in balance and you have to question, Okay, how do these two fit together?
[12:58] For instance, 2 Thessalonians 3.10 tells us that if anyone is unwilling to work, they should not get to eat.
[13:09] Okay? It's a biblical principle. If you're not willing to work, you don't get to eat. Biblical principle. How do we balance that, you don't work, you don't eat, to give to everyone who begs from you?
[13:26] Now that's a good question. And we're going to explore that as we go forward. But just understand, these two passages are held in tension against each other.
[13:38] And both of those ought to then inform us in terms of how we handle any given situation that we come across. Okay? So, for instance, you're driving away from Walmart or Meijer and there's someone on the corner begging.
[13:58] And they're holding a sign and they're asking for help. Put that in the context of Luke chapter 6 and it's give to everyone who begs.
[14:12] But then you also have the instruction if someone's not willing to work, they shouldn't be able to eat. And so how do you handle a situation like that?
[14:24] I'm not going to give you a convenient answer. Okay? Because a lot of that is going to come down to where you're at in your relationship with the Lord and how you determine the Holy Spirit's leading in any given situation.
[14:41] But the heart of who we are, the attitude, the motives behind it ought to be this mindset of I want to be a generous, giving person.
[14:55] If I'm going to err on one side, let it be on that side of the equation. Let's go forward. Another way, another guideline for us in terms of understanding content like this is that we have to look at the context of the passage that you're studying.
[15:11] Now, the context just means you can't just pull a verse out and then separate it from everything else that was said. Like next week we're going to be talking about do not judge.
[15:25] Lots of folks in our world today, particularly in the area of politics, love to pull that verse out of context and make it say something it doesn't mean in context.
[15:37] So you have to understand a passage like do not judge in the context of actually we're called, we're commanded to judge. Just be careful how you do it because the same measure that you use to judge someone else, that same measure is going to be used on yourself.
[15:56] So we have to be cautious about that. So make sure that when you are looking at a passage of scripture that you're considering the context. What has been said before it?
[16:08] What is being said after it? What is the total teaching of what the author of the text or in this case Jesus is saying here?
[16:19] We have to make sure that we keep it in context in that way. So understand that. And then particularly when it comes to the teaching of Jesus, in order to understand the words of Jesus, look at the way he lived.
[16:34] Okay. He asks us to forgive others who have wronged us. Okay. That's a constant part of his teaching. Let me ask you a question.
[16:44] In the way that Jesus lived, did he demonstrate forgiving others who wronged him? Of course, the answer to that is yes, in a very big way.
[16:55] He said as he's being nailed to the cross, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing. So Jesus demonstrates what he teaches.
[17:05] So the expectation for us to forgive is very valid because Jesus himself demonstrated, and he demonstrated these principles as well in the way that he lived.
[17:18] And then number four here, and this is key. Boy, this is key. Look at your own heart and apply the spirit of what Jesus is teaching.
[17:30] Not the law of it, but the spirit of it. What Jesus is teaching, if Jesus tells, give to everyone who begs of you, but yet there's also the biblical principle of if you're not willing to work, you shouldn't eat.
[17:49] How do you apply that teaching? Well, it gets to the spirit of it. What's in the heart? Is my heart looking for opportunities to be giving, to be generous?
[18:02] And perhaps if we're coming across someone who does demonstrate a lack of wanting to work, maybe the best thing that we can give them, I was going to say something that I'm not sure is quite right for me to say.
[18:22] If someone is not willing to work, maybe what they need is a kick in the pants. Encourage, let's say it this way, encouragement to get a job and earn their keep.
[18:34] Okay? That's a better way of saying it. But sometimes, you know, this is the better thing that a person like that needs. That's the kind of generosity.
[18:47] And maybe it means offering them a job, providing for them a job. Maybe it means saying, hey, what kind of skills do you need? Can I help you with that? It's more than just the kind of brash, hey, you know, get a job, you guy.
[19:02] No, that's not appropriate. But the idea that we can encourage people to do that. See, I tell you, I don't measure up. You just saw it firsthand. Now, apply the spirit of what Jesus taught to yourself, not others.
[19:21] And this is where the judge not becomes kind of a key thing here. Because I need to take what's being taught here in the Sermon on the Mount and apply it to me, not to you.
[19:35] It's easy for me to look at someone else's life and say, oh, you're not measuring up. It's not my role. It's not your role to do that. Not your responsibility to do that.
[19:47] Your responsibility is for yourself. How do you measure up to these commands that Jesus gives? So this is what we're called to do.
[19:59] This is how we take passages of Scripture like this and we look at it. Again, in the context of give to everyone who begs of you versus if they're not willing to work, they don't eat.
[20:17] The context of the one, the Sermon on the Mount, is idealistic, what we're shooting for. The context of the other, 2 Thessalonians 3.10, is practical instruction for how to carry out your life.
[20:34] So we have to understand, again, the types of literature, what's being taught, and compare it to each other, hold them in balance.
[20:46] So, now what we're going to do is we're actually going to go through these again verse by verse and take a look at these individual instructions and see if we can apply some of what we learned here to understanding what Jesus is telling us to do here.
[21:00] So, verse 27. And you can see the way, the different way I've highlighted these things is just to highlight the different hits. These are just quick phrases that he gives.
[21:14] So, I say to you who hear, love your enemies. In other words, you may have heard it's to love your neighbor, Jesus would say, but I'm telling you, go beyond that and love your enemy.
[21:28] Okay? The world standard is, love your neighbor. God's standard. Your heavenly father's standard is to love your enemies.
[21:39] to do good to those who hate you. That's, that's a new standard. It's, it's easy to do good things to people who do good things to you.
[21:52] Right? If someone does something nice for you, it's not hard to do something nice for them. You almost feel like, well, they deserve it. It's got to be reciprocal. And, and, and Jesus says, no, no, no.
[22:05] To the person who wants to harm you, who wants to do you no good, do good for them. Bless those who curse you. Right?
[22:17] Our natural response, if someone curses us, we're going to give it back to them. Think of social media. We're going to give it back to them as good as they've given us or even better.
[22:29] And our calling is higher than that. Pray for those who abuse you. Um, again, this is, this is a higher standard than, than what we're used to.
[22:41] Someone abuses me. Um, the last thing I want to do is be nice to them. And the Lord calls us to say, Hey, Lord bless this person.
[22:56] Pray for them. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And again, there are different ways of looking at this. In Matthew's gospel, it's, it's, it's, it's a, like a, a backhanded blow, like a, maybe of a, of a threat or an insult as, as not so much a physical blow as in you want to put up your, your arms and defend yourself.
[23:20] It's more of an insult kind of a thing. Again, that, that may be true. And that's where I am inclined to go to think about this, but Luke doesn't call out that distinction.
[23:31] Luke just says, if someone strikes you on the cheek, let them do it again to the other side. And again, the standard, the measure gets raised in terms of how we let other people treat us and how we respond to that.
[23:49] And from the one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic as well. Now, the tunic was kind of considered the undershirt of their garments that they would wear.
[24:01] The, the robe was the outer, tunic was the inner. It was something that would go almost to the floor. Some, if they were working or if they were going into battle, they would gird their loins.
[24:12] That was actually to take the tunic and bring it up underneath their legs and then tie it in kind of like under their belt so that they could move more freely.
[24:22] This, this tunic was a core part of, of how they dressed. And Jesus said, if someone takes your cloak, give them your tunic.
[24:38] How, how do we, number one, how, how do we understand? I don't, any of you got a tunic on? I, I don't know of anybody who's wear a tunic. We don't wear tunics anymore.
[24:49] Maybe we don't wear tunics anymore so that we don't get caught up in this particular command. Well, I don't, I don't have any tunics. So, but the idea here is, am I willing to do that for someone who makes the demand of my cloak, my outer shirt?
[25:08] Am I willing to give up my t-shirt for that person? Give to everyone who begs from you. And we've kind of focused on, on this one.
[25:21] From one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. Wow. And the standard gets raised. And how do we, how do we live in obedience to this?
[25:38] Now, these are commands of the kingdom. This is what would be the expectation in the kingdom of God. how do we live like this when the rest of the world is not living like this?
[25:56] Granted, this will be easier when Jesus is on the throne during his millennial reign on earth, when he comes again. This will be easier when everybody is living by these standards.
[26:08] But we're living in a day and age where it's the opposite of this. Not only am I going to harm somebody who wants to harm me, I'm going to harm them before they can harm me.
[26:26] I'm going to insult them before they can insult me. I'm going to get in the first dig. That's how our world operates today. And Jesus says, no, no, no, no, no.
[26:37] For those of you who are saying you're a follower of Christ, the standard is different. And so when it comes to the application, the higher calling of Christ's love, and this is what we're commanded to do and to be.
[26:54] I would say this is more about who we are, our being, as more as it is about doing. Christ's love requires responding to wrongs with favorable service to the wrongdoer.
[27:08] However the wrongdoer may treat us, we are to do the opposite. That is our calling and not retaliation.
[27:21] is that hard? I mean, I feel like I'm standing up here as like a hypocrite asking all of you to behave in such a way that I struggle with.
[27:44] but I think the truth is we all struggle with these kinds of commands because we want to do the right thing and yet we struggle with what that right thing, the calling that we have on our life.
[28:02] Take a look now at this next verse. This is verse 31. This is what's known as, it is the so-called golden rule. You guys might be familiar with the golden rule.
[28:14] As you wish that others would do to you, so do so to them. Okay? The way that others want to be treated, you want them to treat you.
[28:29] how they want to be treated, you want to treat them in that same way. So, Jesus is teaching this golden rule that Christ's love requires treating others as we wish to be treated ourselves.
[28:50] But let me say this about this golden rule. How golden is it really? Because I would say from what Jesus is teaching here, this golden rule is a minimum requirement.
[29:09] Like, this is the floor level. You can't go below this golden rule. It's not a golden rule up here. It's more of a golden rule down here in terms of expectations of how we treat each other.
[29:26] It is simply the minimum requirement. Why would I say that? When you look at what he teaches next, you realize it really is just the minimum.
[29:39] Look at what he says. Verse 32. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? Everybody does that.
[29:49] Even sinners love those who love them, right? We get that. But love someone who doesn't love you. That's what we're called to do.
[30:02] To love people who don't love us. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that?
[30:13] The implied answer here is there's no benefit to that. Because even the pagans do that.
[30:25] The worst of the sinners do that. People in the mob do that. Someone does good to you? Yeah, it's easy to do good for them.
[30:38] But if they don't, if they do bad to you, we're called to still do good for them. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, expect to receive back, what credit is that to you?
[30:55] If you give, if you let someone borrow some money and you expect to be paid back in full, what's the big deal? Everybody does that. That's not a, that's not, but if you just give it to them, don't lend it, just give it to them.
[31:14] That's the calling. So is it, for a Christian, again, I ask, is it ever wrong to lend? No. So how do you deal with expectations here?
[31:28] And I think it gets down more to the core of our attitude, our motives, the way our heart operates, how we operate, how we think about this, this life.
[31:44] So what we understand from what Jesus is teaching here is that his love exceeds the world's standards of love. It goes beyond anything the world calls for.
[31:59] The world says, ah, if you love those who love you, that's great. If you do good for those who do good you, that you're, that's, you're responsible. You're treating other people the way that you want to be treated.
[32:11] That's, that's wonderful. And Jesus says, no, let's, let's raise the bar even higher. It's uncomfortable, isn't it?
[32:23] It's difficult. It's difficult to hear. And then he kind of sums it up this way. Love your enemies, do good to them, lend, be willing to lend, expect nothing in return, and your reward will be great, and you will be the sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and to the evil.
[32:48] And, and we get that. We, we know that God demonstrates his love for us in that he sent his son to die for us. Even though we were sinners, Christ died for us.
[33:01] we get that Jesus almost has to love unlovely people. Jesus has to love and treat well those people who were against him.
[33:14] Because that's who he is. But don't expect that of me, Jesus, is kind of our mindset. That's too much to ask, Jesus. And Jesus says, no, here's the standard.
[33:33] We're going to elevate the way that we live. And how different would that be in our world? How different would that be in our world if this is how we lived?
[33:48] How we carried ourselves in, in this world? And again, to be merciful, even as your father is merciful. Summary statement, after the summary statement.
[34:00] So what, what Christ's love does and the love that we're called to display, to put on display, is the same as his. Christ's love shows the true nature of God to people who desperately need him.
[34:20] And this is what we're called to do. Now, I want to share with you an illustration that, I don't know who the originator of this illustration is, but I've seen it in multiple places.
[34:38] So just so that you know, it's, it's not my illustration. but I want you to imagine being in a relationship, a husband and wife relationship.
[34:50] And I want you to tell me how you think this relationship would go. Okay? So, my wife, let's say, and this is all pretend, this didn't really happen.
[35:01] My wife comes to me one day and says, oh honey, I'm really tired, would you mind doing the dishes? And I said to her, no, I really don't feel like it either.
[35:18] Not my responsibility. And she says, but honey, come on, I'm really tired, and the dishes need to be done. Well, let me ask you a question then.
[35:30] Is this a divorce issue? Are we going to get divorced over this? Well, of course not. It's just the dishes.
[35:41] Okay, then. Well, I don't want to do it. How do you like that? Particularly you ladies, I want to hear from you. How do you like that?
[35:54] And then, and then, and then, so she comes to me and she says, honey, I've got to work over time.
[36:06] and can you handle the laundry? And I say, no, I'm not interested in that. Oh, come on, honey, we've got so many dirty clothes and can you do that?
[36:21] Well, let me ask you a question. Is this a divorce issue? And she's probably going to say, at least so far.
[36:36] No, it's not a divorce issue. What are you talking about? And I'm well, if it's not a divorce issue, no thanks. I'm going to pass. Well, honey, can you take care of the kids tonight?
[36:48] I want to go out with my friends and spend some time with them. Can you feed the kids dinner and put them to bed? Nah, not really into that.
[37:02] Well, come on, honey, why don't you do that? Well, let me ask you a question. Is this a divorce issue? Now, I feel like some of you are really starting to get against me.
[37:22] This is 10. well, if it's not a divorce issue, then nah. How long do you think a marriage like that is going to last?
[37:47] I heard a little bit of that. I heard the word murder. Isn't that how we treat God?
[38:09] God says, here's the expectations for how you ought to live. And our question is, is that a salvation issue, God? Is that a salvation issue?
[38:25] God because I'm saved, thank you very much. Got that. But this expectation, no thanks. You want me to love people who don't love me?
[38:39] I'll pass. You want me to forgive someone who hasn't asked me to forgive them yet? But that's how Jesus lived.
[38:52] that's what the expectation is for us. But since it's not a salvation issue, okay, God, you know, I feel like I'm good enough to be in.
[39:08] I'm good enough to know that I'm saved. I'm putting my faith in you to save me. But I don't know that I have enough faith to live the way that you called me to live.
[39:32] Now, I don't tell you a story like that because I feel like this is what I've done. I've put this huge guilt trip on you. That's not the point.
[39:44] The point of the Sermon on the Mount is to drive us to our knees. to help us to recognize I can't.
[39:58] No matter how hard I try, even if I put my mind to it, even if I commit myself to it, and dedicate myself to this is how I'm going to live my life, and yet how often do I fail?
[40:15] maybe not necessarily on the outside, but what's my first reaction to when someone mistreats me? When someone does me wrong?
[40:31] When someone acts toward me in less than a loving way? What's my first response?
[40:45] And hopefully, when we recognize just how broken we are, when we recognize how I could never be perfect, as Jesus calls me to be perfect, Jesus, I can't.
[41:09] That's the point. and it brings me to my knees, and it gets me to the point where I say, Lord, I can't.
[41:24] And if I'm ever going to get close to climbing this mountain, to living to that high standard, it's only because I'm going to live my life surrendered to you.
[41:40] it can't come in my strength, I won't do it, I can't. It's more than I won't, it's I can't do it in my own strength. And even when I feel like, oh, I'm doing pretty good, man, you know, that person cut me off, and I just waved at him, and that person really forgot all about me in my time of need, and I blessed them instead.
[42:10] I'm all of a sudden bragging about me again, about how good I did, and I'm right back to the place where I'm driven to my knees and recognizing, Lord, even when I try to do good, I try to take the credit for it.
[42:27] What is wrong with me? And that's when I think Jesus smiles and says, now I've got you where you need to be.
[42:41] Now I can do something with you. Now when you recognize your own brokenness, that's when I can work in your heart.
[42:55] That's when I that's the aha moment. Rich, you can't do it. You just can't. None of us can.
[43:08] The only hope that we have, just as in the day that I got saved, just as in the day that you trusted Christ as your Savior because you recognized you couldn't do it.
[43:22] You couldn't earn it. You couldn't be good enough. You couldn't obey enough. So the only hope you have is to confess, Lord, I can't.
[43:34] And so I trust you. You're my only hope. And that's my prayer. That ought to be my prayer every day.
[43:49] I can't live this day in my own strength, Lord. I can't do it. I can't follow these commands, these outlandish, bizarre.
[44:00] I don't even have a tunic. So the only hope I have is in Jesus.
[44:14] And that's the point. And then that gets us to the point of the last thing on your notes. While ordinary men live ordinary lives, Christians are called to a higher standard.
[44:34] Because we're called to live supernatural lives. And anytime we live in this life in a way that models Christ, in a way that follows after Christ, make no mistake, that is not natural, it is not ordinary, it is supernatural for me to live in the way that Christ calls me to live.
[45:12] That is above and beyond any of the world's expectations. And now you're soaring the heights, you're climbing Mount Everest, you're making it happen.
[45:24] but again, it's not you, it's Christ in you. This is what we're called to do.
[45:39] Frustrating, difficult to put into practice, difficult to even know how to put it into practice, difficult to balance some of the other instruction that we receive in in the scriptures.
[45:57] But that's where the growth happens. When you start to, all right, how am I supposed to treat this particular person given these circumstances?
[46:10] May the bent of my heart be to do good, to be good, to love, to forgive. may that be how we live as believers in Jesus Christ.
[46:26] Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much again for your word. Thank you that even though today this word is hard to understand how to put it into practice.
[46:49] How do we live this way? And yet, Lord, this is what you're calling us to. This is how you've commanded us to live.
[47:00] faith. And, Lord, we recognize not just that it's hard to understand or how to apply it, but it's hard to do.
[47:18] Help me to recognize it's impossible for me in my strength to apply religion to my life and make me behave better.
[47:35] To put structure in place in my life to make me behave better. That's not real. Help us all to recognize that we need a heart transplant.
[47:54] Because my heart is wicked. desperately so. And I need the heart of Christ beating in my chest.
[48:13] To be able to think and have the mindset and have the attitudes of the way that Jesus taught, the way that Jesus lived, Lord, I know I'm going to fail.
[48:36] And that's okay. That's a part of the whole growing process. Help me to accept that. The frustration, the tension, it's all a part of it.
[48:51] and we'll walk three steps forward and fall back two steps. sometimes it's two steps forward and five steps back.
[49:07] Lord, as long as we are continuing to grow, continuing to understand that all of this comes from you.
[49:19] Living the Christian life is not something we do in our own strengths. It comes through our relationship with you. I'm daily surrendering my mind and my heart and my will to you.
[49:38] Letting you have control. And when there is victory and when there is success to recognize that it's you, Lord, not me.
[49:56] So, Lord, do your work in my life, in our lives. Have your way in us. Help us to live these lives, these Christian lives, these principles how to live, how to love according to your way, according to your design.
[50:28] Let us live lives that are in contradiction to our own human nature. nature. I don't want to live according to my nature any longer.
[50:47] So, help me surrender daily to you. Lord, we love you and we praise you today.
[50:59] You are so good to us. we ask all of it in Jesus name and all God's people said amen. Guys, thanks for coming. Have a great week.