OK, if you have a
Bible, 2 Kings chapter 6 is where we're going to be. 2 Kings chapter 6. We talked last week, if you
didn't hear the message, about how to get a grip. About what to do in life
when you feel like, man, I'm losing my grip. What I'm carrying is too
heavy, it's slipping. We used the analogy of
this man whose ax head went into the water. He lost his grip on
something, and God helped him to get it back. He can help us
all to get a grip. And we continue in the
same text this week. And we're going to
talk today, about how to get rid of your enemies. How to-- you have to
rub your hands together when you say that. I want to teach you how to
get rid of your enemies. It's not what you
think it means. You sinners. You were so excited about that. Here's the cool thing. And I kind of set this
message up last week. It really is a two part, if
you didn't listen to last week, check it out on
YouTube at some point. I told you at the very end
that once you have a grip, you will be able to
help others get theirs. And that's where we come in. How to get rid of your enemies. 2 Kings chapter 6
starting in verse 15, "And when the servant
of the man of God arose early and went
out, there was an army, surrounding the city
with horses and chariots. And the servant said to
him, 'Alas, my master! What shall we do?' So he answered, 'Do not fear.'"
We said that that phrase appears 365 times in the
Bible, here and 364 others. So every single day of
the week you have reason not to fear, no matter
what you're facing. This man was staring into
the face of something that made him afraid, and the
man of God said, do not fear. Why? "For those who are
with us are more than those who are with them." Someone say that
doesn't make sense. That doesn't make sense. Because there are two
people standing there. Two people on a team. And the man of God says
there's more on our side than on our enemies. Staring at an entire
army, chariots, horses, the whole deal. There's more on our
side than on theirs. This is the point at
which the man of God has clearly lost his mind. Because the servant's thinking,
I'm not great at math, but one plus one is two and
there's a whole freaking army over there, bro. He says no there's more on
our side than on their side. He said all right cool,
maybe I miscounted. One, two. All right, thousands. What in the heck are
we to do with this. "Do not fear those who are
with us are more than those who are with them." Verse 17, and "Elisha prayed,
and said, 'Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.' Then the Lord opened the eyes
of the young man, and he saw. And behold, the mountain,'
behind the soldiers, "Was full of horses and chariots
of fire all around Elisha. So when the Syrians
came down to him," presumably to attack them,
"Elisha pray to the Lord, and said, 'Strike this people,
I pray, with blindness.' And He struck them
with blindness according to the
word of Elisha." That's where we ended last week. And I will have you note, in
passing, that the angels didn't fight the Syrians. The angels gave Elisha the
strength to fight this battle. So the knowledge of
the heavenly reality of God's help, it didn't
cause him say all right go ahead angels, attack them,
knowing that the angels were there gave him confidence
to obey the Lord here in the situation. So having God in
your life isn't going to mean that you're going to do
less, but based on His power, He's going to give
you the strength to do what He needs you to do. Now let's continue verse
19, "Elisha said to them, 'This is not the way,'"
it's like The Mandalorian, but he botched the line. "'Nor is this the city. Follow me, and I will bring
you to the man whom you seek.' But he led them to Samaria." 12 miles, by the way,
the journey to Samaria, the capital city of
the nation of Israel. "So it was, when they had come
to Samaria, that Elisha said, 'Lord, open the eyes of these
men, that they may see.' And the Lord opened
their eyes, and they saw; and there they were,
inside Samaria!" And they started
wetting their pants like the servant had
previously, because now they're surrounded by the enemy. They had come to
kill this one dude and they saw him all alone
with just a little servant. So they thought easy. Next thing they know
they're standing there surrounded by the
entire army of Israel. Now when the King of Israel saw
them, like fish in a barrel, he said to Elisha, "My
father," look at this, "Shall I kill them? Shall I kill them?" He repeats it twice because
he's really excited. "But he answered, you
shall not kill them. Would you kill those whom
you have taken captive with your sword and your bow? Set food and water before them,
that they may eat and drink and go to their master. Then he prepared a
great feast for them" and they ate and they drank
and after "he sent them away and they went to their master. So the bands of Syrian
raiders came no more into the land of Israel." Let's quite our hearts for
just a second together. Jesus we want you to speak
to us through these words. We know that we're going to
face troubles in this life and deal with difficult people. We pray that you
would help us to do what Elisha knew would fix the
fear in his servant's heart and what he asked for
you to do for his enemy as well, that blind
eyes would be opened. So that's what we
want to happen. We pray over ourselves, Lord
open our eyes so we could see. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. I googled my title this week. I came up with the
message title, "How To Get Rid of Your Enemies." And I was like I'm
going to Google that, just see what comes up. Just curious what would
come up if you googled, "how to get rid
of your enemies." And I kind of was worried that
it might come up like a Wile E. coyote website, like acme
bombs, and you can mail them or whatever. But I was laughing
so hard because when I googled "how to get
rid of your enemies," I hadn't even finished
it, when Google started auto filling in the page. And it turns out,
there's a lot of things people want to get rid of. I mean there's hiccups, there's
fruit flies, there's gnats, there's bedbugs there's flies. Turns out people have a lot of
insect issues in their lives. There's canker sores. There's earwigs. I had to do a sub Google
search in a new tab, I didn't even know
that was a thing. That's terrible and disturbing. And then I was laughing
because I was like, well I'm going to find out what
YouTube has to say about it, because the auto-fill thing
is just such a journey. Here's where YouTube
tells people to-- people are going to YouTube to get rid
of pimples, and double chins, and hickeys, and dandruff, and
stretchmarks, and acne scars, and the fruit flies are back
people, and dark circles under their eyes. You see the reality is we have
a lot of times in our lives when we're like, man,
how do I get rid of this. And whether it's the
double chin, that's all about camera
angles by the way, that's what that's all about. Find your light
and hide the chin. But the reality is, we
oftentimes do find ourselves in situations where
we feel like we have enemies coming against us. So how do we get rid of enemies? We first of all,
I think we start by acknowledging
the obvious truth and that is that to some extent
it's going to be impossible. Meaning, that we don't have
the absolute say in the matter, but we can control our part. So I can't decide whether you're
going to view me as an enemy, but I can decide if I'm going
to reciprocate and view you the same way. And that's why I love
the advice that's given to us in
the book of Romans chapter 12 verse 18 when
it says, "If," look at it, "If it is possible, as
much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men." Don't you love the fact
that God is letting you off the hook of
having the final say in the situation of the
hostility you're up against. If it is possible,
meaning, God saying you're going to do everything you
can do but you won't always be able to end the animosity. And that's not even the
goal at the end of the day because we know that when
we're doing it right, good things are going to
happen to us for sure, but there are also going to
be difficulties that arise as a result of following Jesus. Paul put it this way in
his letter to Timothy. He said Yes and all who desire
to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. So what am I trying
to get you to see? I'm trying to get you
to see the enemies are a part of the equation
of following God. Hostility, difficulty, people
that are difficult to handle, they're going to seemingly
come out of the woodwork the more you follow Christ and
do what he's called you to do. So it is a bit like what
Elbert Hubbard said. I love this quote. I used it in my book, I Declare
War, "To escape criticism," here's the formula, "do nothing,
say nothing, be nothing." So if you don't want
to get criticized, if you don't want
to have enemies, if you don't want to have
people who are mad at you, and angry at you, and
hostile towards you, there is a way to get
rid of your enemies. Yeah, just do nothing,
say nothing, be nothing. But as you follow
Christ, you are going to have people who
are talking crap about you. In fact, Jesus said view that
as a compliment that you're doing something right. He said, I love this
verse, he said woe to you if all men speak well of you. If every single person has
nothing but positive things to say, there is something that
you're probably doing wrong. You should ask
yourself, what's wrong? Like how am I not doing
what God called me to do, because it will invite
some persecution and complexity in my life. So we have to
acknowledge that there's our part that we can play. And my sermon in a
sentence is that having enemies is inevitable, but
choosing to be an enemy is optional. We can choose to get
rid of our enemies by just choosing to say, well
you might look at me that way but I refuse to see
you in that light. And this text, I
believe, provides us some principles that
can help us to navigate the hostility that we are in. The times in which-- now
of course it's different, Elisha had this entire army
trying to kill him, right? So that's likely to
not be something that's waiting for you tomorrow. I hope it's not. But we can find
principles that will help us dealing with the
difficult people in our lives. And the first is that
we need perspective. We always must first
come back to perspective. Come back to vision, which is
the primary kind of emphasis of this story. Because Gahazih is freaking
out in this situation because his perspective is
based on human understanding and human wisdom. We always get into
unnecessary heartache when we only look
at what's there and we don't look at
what God says is there. So the lens of scripture, the
lens of what God has spoken, must always be applied. Like when you're
at the optometrist getting your annual
vision examination. Lens A or lens B? Lens C or lens D? And I always-- anybody
else get like, I don't know can I see D again? I'm not sure. Like I can't remember how
it felt to see through C. Go back to it. Like am I abusing the
go back to this thing? And I'm just like I don't know. I feel like I've such
a need to please you. Right? Is there a right answer
in this situation? But we have to put that
lens of scripture in place. And so will almost-- I find myself like three days
a week like Gahazih panicking at a situation and
forgetting, oh that's right I have to put that
lens of faith in place. Because we don't walk by
sight, we walk by faith. If we want to have the
unflappability of Elisha, we have to remember
the unseen realm. Because you can't see angels. Duh. You can't see God. You can't see what he's up to. You can't see his plan. And oftentimes when it
seems like he's absent, it's when He's doing the most. And so you have to
take God's truth and put it in front
of you and then look at your same situation
through that lens. And then you'll have the calm. And I also want to point
out, that the angels didn't fight the battle for Elisha. Elisha, based on the strength of
knowing the angels were there, then had the confidence
to take action. So the angels
didn't do the work, the angels bolstered him to
remember, oh that's right, I'm not alone. God has more power
than the enemy does. So now I can do
what I need to do, because there are angels there. And so it is for you. When you remember the
perspective of, I'm not alone, God's here. Right? OK, so now how does
this translate over to difficult people
in our lives? I think very well, because of
the intentional overlap of what Elisha does in response. OK, so the servant
is freaking out because he's staring
at the soldiers, and God wants him
to lift his eyes and look beyond the soldiers
to the army of God behind them. That he thought I'm surrounded,
and God wanted him to see no, no, they're surrounded. They're surrounded. OK? So then, the band of soldiers to
whole-- all their chariots, all their horses, all the King's
men get brought into the city. And they're all like just
standing there blinded and obviously they're-- now they've got an army of
Israel's soldiers around them. And the King rushes in
like, can I kill 'em? Can I kill 'em? Can I kill 'em? Can I kill 'em? Can I kill 'em? And Elisha, now, wants
the King to look, not beyond the soldiers,
but inside the soldiers. God wants the King to
look inside the soldiers and to ask the question,
what's potentially there? I know they're hostile. They've chosen to be my enemy. But God wants us, in those
situations, just as much as when we're afraid we have
to look beyond the enemy, the people that are being
mean, the people that are being nasty, the
people that are being rude. I believe in the
situations where we feel like people
are just rubbing us the wrong way God wants
us to look at the unseen inside of them, the fact that
they were created in His image, that they're a person. And I think that's what's
hard about our impersonal age of comment, were it's easy
just to snipe, and to be mean, and to be cruel online, and
to say things quite frankly, that in many situations we
would never say to someone face to face. So when we look within
we see this is a person. This is a person who
admittedly is acting badly. Now, none of this
sermon is meant to say that the rude,
and the cruel, and evil, and the sinful, and the
treacherous, and that's, oftentimes, even perhaps illegal
or immoral things are excused. But when people are acting
out when we look within we're saying what's behind that? We're asking the
question, how can I get to compassion on this person? Because it's easy to just
get to anger at this person, but when we see
the unseen now, we see they were created
in God's image. God has a plan for this person. He has things he wants to do
through them that don't involve how they're currently behaving. We then ask the
question, how can I be a part of them
getting to where God wants them to be here
and not get distracted by this bad behavior. So when we have
vision we look within and we remember that the
greatest thing we can ever do to get someone to where they
need to be is through love. In fact, Jesus put it
very clearly Luke 6:32, "If you love those who love you,
what credit is that to you?" Notice this, "For even sinners
love those who love them." Now I usually have thought
about this verse in relation to the first part, it's easy
to love those who love you, duh, right? But then I thought
about the second. He's giving us a
clue, even sinners love those who love them. Sinners love those--
sinners love-- sinners love those
who love them. So at times when
we're angry at someone it's because they've
sinned against us. How can we help that sinners
love those who love them? It makes it easy for them
to take a step towards what God has for them when we show
them love despite the fact that they have chosen to sin. How do we get to that
empathy for them? I believe it starts with
empathy towards ourselves. I really do. Obviously, we can love
ourselves too much. Right? We can fall into
the narcissism, we can fall into self obsession,
but I think a lot of us, we have a different issue. And that's that we
don't show kindness. We don't show love to ourselves. And we don't realize
at times that there is a root underneath the
fruit of our own bad behavior. And when we can have kindness
and see our own selves through the lens of
someone that God loves, someone who's been
damaged, someone who's made bad decisions, and
when we start with sympathy towards ourselves,
we can get to a place where we're more easily capable
of showing love to those who have sinned against us. What I'm trying to get you
to see, and this just for me maybe you have a
different story, is that I often treat people
that I should be loving, but instead I'm being unkind
to, in the way I feel about me. Often times I'm cruel
to others but it's because I'm unhappy with myself
and I'm disappointed in myself. I'm frustrated with me and
so I'm lashing out at you. And sometimes I'm
hoping that you'll treat me, because of how I treat
you, as bad as I feel about me. And so when we start to
ask the question what's under our bad behavior? What's the sin under the sin? What's the emptiness here
we're trying to fill? What's the thrashing
about that we're doing because of the insecurity
inside we're harboring? And we start to have empathy
on ourselves, and kindness, and then medicate that
with the love of God and not with anything
else, that will never work, that will just numb
it for a moment, but then it'll come
back with a vengeance. Right? Like it's easy when
I get a canker sore, like to answer this
person's question, I have had canker
sores my whole life. Anybody else have canker sores? It's terrible. Right? It's easy just to grab Kanka,
which is a numbing antiseptic. All it does is-- not antiseptic,
it's just a numbing agent. Just numbs it for me. It basically tells
your brain to ignore the problem for a minute. That doesn't help it though. You know what helps it? Listerine. But you know what
that feels like? Not great, right? That which actually will
help it, feels horrible. That which does nothing to
treat it, feels wonderful. Just takes the pain
away for a minute. So when we start to move towards
empathy, towards ourselves, and realize when we make
the mistake of treating other people badly,
oftentimes it's because of something we're
wrestling with in here. And then we can jump
to the leap of well that's probably true in
their situation as well. What's underneath
this that's causing them to be an enemy to me? So perspective,
perspective is number one. Just that vision. What I'm trying
to get you to see is there's more going
on than meets the eye. When someone is
being cruel to you, we ask the prayer that
Elisha prayed twice, God open my eyes to see what's
actually happening here. The second thing
I want you to see, is that prayer is essential. The very fact that Elisha
prays twice in this story should clue us to that. And I'll have you noticed,
he prayed the same prayer for his friend as he
did for his rivals. He prayed the same prayer for
the person who was on his side as he did for the person
that was against him. That is to say, the same thing
is needed in both situations. That you can confront
two situations, but the same cure
is needed here. So often times we're
up against this, the answer is God open
my eyes that I may see. We're up against that, it's a
completely different crisis. It's a completely
different difficulty. Speaking to hurting
people on the phone, it's something that
I do as a pastor. And you know what? When I talk to the
person who I know has just had to
bury his daughter, and I'm talking to them
because I can relate on some level to what
they're going through, not every level because
every situation is unique, every pain is very personal,
every pain is very different. When I'm talking to that
person, my prayer in my heart is for talking to God
I pray you would open his eyes that he might see. And I'm talking to
the person who's in a terrible fight with a
person they started a business with, and I'm encouraging him. When I'm praying,
I'm praying God open his eyes that he may see. The point is, when we
can see the invisible, regardless of the storm, we will
be able to do the impossible. But that's the heart
of this prayer. But I want to just
encourage you in the fact that Elisha, in both of these
situations, chose to pray. So when he was up against
enemies and difficulty, he prayed. The King chose to slay. Elisha chose to pray. A lot of times we will
choose obliteration when God wants us to
resort to intercession. We will want to just rain
down fire on our enemies and God wants us to have
a heart of compassion. One of the most convincingly
relatable, text to me in all of the Bible is Luke chapter 9. When Jesus sent the
disciples out to find a place for him to stay. And the Samaritans, who
he was going to stay with, no one would let
Jesus stay there because they were in rivalry
and there were difficulties and they were
fighting and all this. So the disciples went to
try and find an Airbnb. They tried to find
a [INAUDIBLE].. They couldn't find nothing. They were like nope,
this seat is taken. You can't stay here. The disciples came
back, notice this, this is Luke 9:54,
the disciples, James and John learned
of it, "they said Master, do you want us to call
a bolt of lightning down out of the sky and incinerate them?" They said this
like dead serious. Oh my God. I finally found my people. And Jesus turned
on them and said, look at this, "Of course not!" Of course not. Like if you've ever thought the
disciples were holier than you, wrong. These are people. These are humans. And listen I'm not preaching
this message to you from the ivory tower of
I've got it together. I think, if anything, God gave
me this message because he knows how badly I need it. I have had two middle aged women
scream at me in the past month. Scream at me. OK? And I neither time
handled it well. I just want to confess
this to you, in church. Aren't you supposed to
do confession in church? The first time I was in an art
gallery and a frozen yogurt shop. It was confusing. It was an art gallery
over here, a frozen yogurt shop over there. My daughter wanted
frozen yogurt. I didn't want art or yogurt. But I'm a good dad, It's who
I am, a good good father. I'm joking. OK, so, I said, let's
get you some yogurt. And so we went in
and the mask mandate had been lifted in the
state I was currently in. And so there was a big sign
that said masks required, but I knew that had been lifted. So we went in with no
mask and my daughter went up to get frozen yogurt. And no one had masks on
in the frozen yogurt shop. And so I'm just standing there. I don't want yogurt, so I'm
just like doing an email while I'm waiting for her. And all of a sudden I hear
this voice over and over again, you have to have a mask on! You have to have a mask on! I'm like who's that
being yelled at? And I realized it was me. There's a woman in the art
gallery screaming at me. And I was like,
Oh it was lifted, the governor lifted
the mask mandate and no one has the mask on
anywhere that I can see. There was no one in the art
gallery but me and this woman. And I was like Oh I don't
have to, I don't think. And she's like, you have to have
a mask on in my art gallery! And I'm telling you,
one inch of my shoulder was in her art
gallery I realized. I was on a column
writing this email and I swear like half
of my rotator cuff was in her art gallery. But my mouth wasn't
in her art gallery and she's 30 feet away
behind a Plexiglas penalty box, shielded on every
side, wearing two masks and screaming at me, you
have to have a mask on. And I was like, I pulled my
rotator cuff out, and said, I'm not in your art
gallery anymore. And that made her furious. And she came charging out
of the art penalty box with a can of Lysol,
spraying it at me. And got within five feet
of me and I held my ground. And then I backed away
and what came out of me, God will have to forgive me for. I said, you are a psychopath. I said that to her. And her response, she stopped
spraying and she said, you don't know what
my life is like. And I was like I
can't argue with that. I really can't. But what I said was, I
think I have some idea. And then I left the
art gallery, OK? Now look, I'm not going to
tell you the second story because it makes me look
worse than the first one. But both times walking away, as
my heart started coming down, I heard the Holy
Spirit just doing that thing he does, that we
hate so much, that we wish he would stop immediately doing. And it's just
asking the question, why am I so easily provoked? And why is it that my mind
doesn't naturally gravitate towards, God bless them. Curse me. You know, it's
more like God, this would be a great time
for a bolt of lightning to incinerate her
stupid art gallery and her dumb can of Lysol. I think that's actually
assault what she did, God. And how dare she,
and all the rest. All I'm trying to
get you to see is if you feel like you're more
prone to slay, slay, slay, than pray, pray, pray,
then congratulations, you're a human being. But you, and me, and every
other dysfunctional person who doesn't have a
halo on, we are just in need of God's grace,
in need of God's help. The point is, it's not easy. Doing this is not easy. Loving people who
love you is easy. The girl in the frozen
yogurt shop was so nice. And she was like, I'm so sorry. I was like I'm sorry
you have to work alongside crazy Lysol lady. So we gave her a nice tip and
encouraged her in her day. She was easy to love,
the other person wasn't. Now in your life,
and in my life, this isn't a the COVID sermon,
this isn't a mask message, this isn't even a
Lysol advertisement. It's just-- although I
don't think your supposed to spray it in someone's
face, I'm just saying. But what I am saying is
that loving the unlovable isn't easy. Which is why it's
something to aspire to. Which is why it's something that
God has to do deep work in us to get us to. And I would submit to
you, it is third point, an act of defiance. It's an act of defiance. Because we live in a
world full of scripts. There are scripts
lying everywhere. And the scripts that are in this
world, here's what they are. They are tit for tat. They are eye for an eye. And we walk around and the
moment someone hits an eye, our response is
to go for an eye. And in fact to escalate, right? You do this, I'll do that. And I think the world we're
living in not one more level, and just one more level, and
just I'll go for the jugular. And that's the world we live in. We walk around with all
these scripts lying around. You can't see them, but
it's like on a movie set where there's a script. You have it in your hand. Here is what
supposed to say here. Here's what I'm
supposed to read here. This is what I'm supposed
to say in this situation. And so we get into instances and
situations where we're provoked and the natural thing to
do is to respond in kind. But all that does is cause it
to escalate, escalate, escalate, escalate. And when we feel like we've
been unjustly provoked, that's when we become indignant. And I think we're the most
dangerous and the most capable of missing an opportunity to
love the unlovable then when we know we were provoked wrongly. And when someone goes-- OK I'm going to tell you the
second story just because some of you are using
your bad imaginations and you think I'm
worse than I really am. I'm bad, but not that bad. All right, whatever
you're imagining. I was dropping my
daughter off at work. Yes, I have a
daughter with a job and that's stressful
on its own level. But I was dropping
her off at work and so I just pull in front
of where she works and stopped the car so she could get out
just real quick and I go on. I didn't need to park
because I wasn't parking. I was just stopping,
hopping out, it's a thing we do at
times in life, right? I'm making a case for why I
was right here in this moment already. Like our little
internal litigator it never ceases to
amaze us, right? And I hear a honking
horn behind me. How passive aggressive is that? It's not even passive,
it's just aggressive. I'm like ah, this person doesn't
like that I'm stopped here. And I'm like it's just a
quick second, door is open, young girl is
getting out of car, clearly going to be moving
on in just a minute, right? But this person has somewhere
to go and people to scream at. And so she pulls by me and
shows me with one of her fingers that she doesn't appreciate
my daughter going to work. And then she-- so I
literally roll down my window I'm like just
stopped so she get out. And she starts mother
f-ing and da da ba da. I was just like, what's
the matter with you, is what I said. It's 9:30 in the morning,
and you've used two bad words already at a perfect stranger. And you know what
my tone did not do? Pacify the situation. I didn't curse. I didn't flip her off, but now
I had matched her energy level with my statement
and so she needed to go one level-- so
she grabs her phone and starts filming me. I was like, what are you
going to do with that video? And I drove away. It was an opportunity for
me to love the unlovable, and I failed. I didn't curse her
out, but I didn't de-escalate the situation. And I think we are all the time
confronted with opportunity. Now look I get it. I was well within my rights
to be frustrated at this woman here, but what I
miss the chance to do was to realize that
in the kingdom of God we don't have to speak
the lines written for us that we find lying
around in this world. We get to write our own lines. You don't have to say what
they put on the prompter as you stand in
front of the camera. You get to choose to
speak your own lines. That's what's so disruptive
and counter-cultural about the upside-down kingdom. That's what's so
powerful about the Sermon on the Mount, which was not
written for to guide and inform how we, as a nation,
handle escalation, but how we, as
individuals walking around dealing with personal
one on one transgression, would respond in a way
when we're provoked. Think about what Jesus said. You've heard it said to
love those who love you, but I say to you
love your enemies and do good to
those who hate you and bless those who curse you. Oftentimes I'm
pleased with myself if I just don't curse
those who curse me. But Jesus is saying no. That's just the
scratching the surface. That's good, don't get me wrong. That's good some days, right? But could we aspire
to get to a place where based on
compassion and empathy we could actually
love those and bless those who curse you, to pray for
those who spitefully use you. I wrote it down this
way, light bulb, you don't have to play
the part you were casted in in someone else's story. That's a light bulb moment. That's a realization. I don't have to play the part
that you have me type set in, that you have casted for me. I can choose the defiance
of responding in a way that I choose based on the
prompting of the Holy Spirit. And you know what? When you do that,
it throws people off because they're expecting you're
going to match their energy, you're going to do
this, they're going to do that, you're going to do
this, they're going to do that, and it's just going to
provoke-- and then they're going to feel
justified for doing whatever is in their heart. Or going home feeling smug about
however they chose to live. But I believe it throws people
off in the best possible way. This is that whole thing
about showing kindness to the person who hates you
and putting coals of fire down upon their head that's
so confusing and cryptic. But I love how another
translation helps us to see it. This is Romans 12,
"Our Scriptures tell us that if you see
your enemy hungry, go buy that person lunch, or if
he's thirsty, get him a drink. Your generosity will
surprise him with goodness. Don't let evil get
the best of you." Look at this, "get the best
of evil by doing good." Because my kids do jujitsu
I can't help but see that in this scripture. Because the momentum of the
person who is coming at you, using it against them
to where what they think is going to attack you, using
that to actually disrupt their energy. And I just love that God
has given us the ability to be nimble enough on
our feet to see a script that we have in
our hands, and just before we're about
to belt it to realize this isn't what I want to say. What I want to say
is actually going to be something that's going
to show kindness to you and destabilize you in
the best possible way. Number four, we're
almost done here today, if this has not
helped you I'm sorry but it's helped me to get
some of this off my chest. I believe that the
fourth thing that can help you to get rid of
your enemies is generosity. Generosity. The King is told to give the
soldiers bread and water. He says we're not
going to kill them bro. I'm going to pray that God
opens their eyes because they need the same God
that Gahazih needed. They need the same
God that I need. I'm going to pray for them. So you go get them
some bread and water. And I love this. This is not a good
King by the way. When you read the
rest of the story, he does not come off
well at all, all right? Trust me. But when I look
at this moment, I find something to praise in him. And that is that he's told
to give his enemies bread and water and the text tells
us he threw them a feast. The text tells us that
he threw them a banquet. And I just love-- I see the gospel in that. I see what God has done for me. I know what I deserve from God. I know how many times
I've ruined it, right? I feel like I've been the
Prodigal Son 1,000 times as a Jesus follower in moments. And I've just so many times
mess up, and get it wrong, and don't handle the chances
God's given me to show grace, and to be kind. And I drive away with
remorse and I just see I see the kind of version
of me that I want to become, that I know the Spirit's
trying to shape me into being. I know what it could
look like if we were a people just who
are aware of the fact that when we were at our
worst, God threw us a party. When we didn't deserve anything,
much less bread and water, God's like I'm going
to throw you a table, and kill the fatted calf, and
put the ring on your finger, and the robe on your shoulders. When you've been handed
that kind of love that you don't
deserve, it makes you a kind of person who's capable
of being generous with people who don't deserve it. And I just love it. I love that this is
what Jesus said to do. He said if anyone wants
to sue you and take away your tunic let him
have your cloak also. Whoever compels you to go
one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you and
from him who wants to borrow, do not turn away. You've seen ExtraMile
gas stations before. ExtraMile gas stations,
you're driving of course they're like if you fill up you
won't run out of tank-- run out of gas we're driving. But that whole concept
of the ExtraMile comes from this verse. In the Roman Empire a
soldier could touch you with the end of his
staff, any person, and you had to carry
his burden a mile. Exactly one mile,
no more, no less. And so it was
customary in that day, if a soldier did make you
carry his gear a mile, to get exactly to that mile. You would count the
steps in your mind, and when you got to the
exact last step of the mile, to throw it on the ground and
not be willing to do any more. Meaning do only as much as
you technically have to. This is the thinking behind,
how much do I have to forgive? Is seven times enough? Jesus said no, not seven,
it's 70 times seven. It's having that sense
that God forgive you what you never could have
worked off in 1,000 lifetimes. So don't just do exactly what's
needed, exactly what's right, exactly what's fair. What he's saying-- and by the
way the Sermon on the Mount was not given for
us to walk around like here's my list
of things to do, here's my list of things to do. The Sermon on the
Mount was given to discourage people who
thought they were good with God. You think you're good with God? Here's what it actually
would take to live. You've got to live
this way all the time. And you think just
because you've never had murdered someone, if you've
ever hated someone that's bad too. So the Sermon on the
Mount, by the way, was not given so you
and I could walk around like all right, here's
what we got to do. We got to love our enemies. All right, God's going to--
the Sermon that was meant to make us feel like, oh crap. Well none of us are
good, but God's good and he gave us a feast
when we deserve nothing and therefore, it
makes us want to do the kind of things embodied
within it because we've been freed by grace. And we've been just
completely destroyed by God's goodness in the
face of our not deserving it. All right, so it would just
make us a generous people if we could be that way. And what is the response
of these soldiers? What is the response
of these soldiers? Well we read it in the text,
the raiding bands of Syria came into Israel no more. I love it, because a raiding
band, many commentaries agree, was built of soldiers when
they were on the clock. When they weren't on
the clock these soldiers would get together
and come into Israel and steal, and
plunder, and raid. And these soldiers had a job. And as jobs, they
responded to their King. And if you even just
read the next verse, Josephus tells us that
the next verse is actually several years away, but
just one verse down there's another act of aggression based
on the King of Syria's part. And he sends all of his
army, and if you read more you're going to really
get freaked out. People are eating
donkey's heads and stuff. But let's just stop
here for a moment. These men should
have been killed. They weren't killed. They were instead
given a feast and sent home and the rest of their lives
they went into Israel no more. Meaning when it
was their choice, they no longer were the enemies. When it was their
choice, they no longer wanted to take something
from the Israelites. Here's the sentence
that wrote this message. Matthew Henry said it, "The most
glorious victory over an enemy is to turn him into a friend." How to get rid of your enemies. You show them the love
that they're not expecting and that they don't deserve. This is what has made our
16th president so many of our favorites. "With malice toward
none," was not just a sentiment in the
second inaugural that would inform how the nation
would treat those in the South after the Civil War. It was also a part of how
he formed his cabinet when he became the president
in the first place. Lincoln famously
built his cabinet out of a team of rivals, men
who had ran against him, men who had opposed him. He just said the question,
who would do the best job. Not who's on my team, who
can do something for me, who can do the best job. And he had it in his heart to
get the 13th Amendment passed. He had it in his heart
all these things. Who is the best? Who's the most tactically
best team to build together? So he, to borrow a
phrase from a book that was written about him in this
regard, built a team of rivals. He took enemies, and
made them friends. One person who betrayed him
even after that, and in response to his betrayal, he
still was the best man Lincoln saw for a unique job. Lincoln appointed him to
be Supreme Court justice. After Lincoln's death
he famously said, Lincoln is so magnanimous
it's almost supernatural. Meaning I don't deserve that,
but he still chose to give. That's greatness. We all recognize
it when we see it. But in the moment when
we need it the most, it's often the most
counterintuitive thing there is because it is so
natural to be eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I love here the
spirit of what-- these Syrian bands
of raiders they never forgot the feast
they had the day they should have been executed. All right 3 things
and we're done. 3 things and we're done. The alternative to
trying our hardest to turn enemies into friends is
to be poisoned by bitterness. That's just like a take away. Just so you know,
the alternative to trying to turn enemies into
friends, not that you'll always be successful, but the
alternative to trying is to be poisoned by bitterness. Jot this reference down to
read on your own Hebrews 12 versus 14 through 15. Second thing I want
you to write down is that you'll never be ready. Being generous with
people who are jerks, you'll never feel ready. I love what Wilbur Wright said
when he was asked why do you and Orville personally try and
fly the planes that you built. Just get a test pilot. You're risking your whole life. He said, look, there's two
ways to learn to ride a horse, bucking Bronco. One way would be for you to
sit and watch the horse buck. Study its movements
from the fence. Write down everything it
does and then go and find a comfortable chair and
ponder all of these things. And then, and only when, you
feel like you have formulated the proper plan of attack,
then you approach the horse and begin to attempt to ride it. He said, the other way is
just to get on that sucker and hold on for dear life. And that's what my brother
and I are trying to do and that's why we ride
the planes we build. He explaining that, in a further
elaboration put it this way, "It is very much the same
in learning to fly a flying machine; If you are looking
for a perfect safety, you will do well to sit on
a fence and watch the birds; but if you really wish to
learn, you must mount a machine and become acquainted with
its tricks by actual trial." Loving the unlovable, you got
to get on that sucker and ride. You'll never feel ready. Third, good news, it's
impossible on your own strength but you don't have to
rely on your own strength. That's the third and final
thing you've got to know. It's impossible on
your own strength, but you don't need to
rely on your own strength. Because this chapter begins
with an iron ax head floating. Oh, so we're not dealing with
just strict possibilities here because so far as I
can tell ax heads don't do the backstroke baby. Right? God made the iron float. When? When the tree was
thrown in the river. When the tree branch was torn
down and thrown in the river, then the iron floated. God's solution to
every situation seems to be about the same. Throw a tree in it. Translation, the cross,
the tree that Jesus was hung on for
us has the ability to make the unfloatable
all of a sudden unsinkable. This is Ephesians,
this is what Paul said, we're going to close with this. And be kind to one
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another. How? Even as God in
Christ forgave you. And so father, we ask today
for you to help us get a grip. To get a grip on
what you did for us. And it is out of the overflow
of that we have to remember how to treat other people. And so we pray for you help. This is a hard message. There's a lot of messages
I'd of rather preached today that would be far less
convicting for me personally, but I believe this is
how we change the world. It's these small
little deaths to self. To show kindness to
others out of compassion. Knowing we didn't
deserve your favor. And so I pray your
spirit would help us. If you're with me, and
this is a hard message, but I want the ax head
to float in my life, could you just raise up a
hand to God just saying, God I want you to help
me to love the unlovable. Because even sinners
love those who love them. So thank you Jesus
for your help. Thank you Jesus that were
not in this on our own. Thank you Jesus for your
power, mighty in us. You can put your hands down. If you're here today and
you haven't trusted Christ for salvation, today's the day. Now's the time. It's as simple as
asking him to save you, asking him to be your friend,
asking him to forgive you. You could do that right now
in the quiet of this moment. So father I pray you'd bless
us as we seek to be a blessing. We pray this in
Jesus' name, Amen.
