Imitating Indiscriminate Love

welcome welcome welcome to woodland hills and thanks for tuning in we hope that both your both your heart and mind are inspired today and that you enjoy and that you enjoy our service here in minnesota and around the world [Music] hello oh it is so good i am giddy because i'm in the house of the lord with all of these folks and i know that you folks are joining us on there and that that makes anybody happy right just me okay no everybody well welcome we are so glad that you're here and i love worshiping the lord and i know i've said this at some time or another before several times but i truly do it is a time in which we can focus our hearts our mind our attention and just glorifying god but also in in that worship moments we get to receive what god has for us as well it's a two-way thing that happens we get to praise him but if you if you allow him to if you open your heart to it he will speak his love over you and his truth over you and so in this moment right now he is rejoicing over each and every single one of you and if you don't feel that if you don't think that to be true then open your heart and let him speak his truth about who you are and whose you are and how he sees you and how much he loves you if you're able let's stand and let's enter into this time of worship those joining online we invite you to do the same and let's just come together in the spirit to worship our beautiful lord we're so glad that you're here amen [Music] this is so good to be together in worship hallelujah get intros out the way real quick i'm beeline this is christy that's the band behind us we're so glad to be with you this morning and i just want you to just worship through this entire period hallelujah [Music] i worship you i worship you you are here you're working in this place i worship you i worship her you are here moving in a mist i worship you i worship you and you are here you're working in this place anybody know that i worship you i worship you and you are we make a miracle work promise keep a light in the darkness my god that is keeper light in the darkness my god that is [Music] you're here [Music] imagine [Applause] [Music] you are [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] that is who you are [Music] if you know that this morning let me hear you say who you are [Music] you [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] that is who [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] hallelujah yes you can give the lord a hand clap right there he's a way maker miracle worker it's who he is hallelujah i know well today we celebrate the fourth of july and it's called independence day but i need us to understand that it is not independence for everyone you know one thing in my studies one thing that i i found out was that 80 percent of our history as america has been spent intentionally oppressing people from slavery to jim crow we have spent time actively oppressing and you know god talks about liberty and he says in galatians that we we should not liberty shouldn't be for a occasion um but it be it should be for us to show love for one another i'll say it again liberty should not be for occasion but it should be time for us to show love towards one another so i want to encourage you this morning amen amen i want to encourage you this morning until i all of god's children are free none of us are free amen we should be actively working as peculiar people to fight against the injustices the racism the biases the prejudice whatever you want to name them none of them belong in the kingdom of god amen hallelujah so as you're celebrating today and i hope that you enjoy your day today i don't want us to get lost in the fact that we are free we are free in christ i will tell you that and that gives us the freedom to go and liberate others amen hallelujah we'll continue in our worship christie's gonna lead us through our next song you were the word at the beginning one with god the lord most [Music] your hidden glory in creation now reveal that you are christ what a beautiful name it is what a beautiful name it is the name of jesus christ our what a beautiful name it is nothing compared to this what a beautiful name it is the name of jesus he didn't want heaven without us so jesus you brought heaven down [Music] our sin was greater [Music] what a wonderful name it [Applause] of is christ our king what a wonderful name it is nothing compared to this what a wonderful name is the name of jesus what a wonderful name it is [Music] death could not hold you the veil tore before you silenced the boasts of sin and great the [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign yours [Music] [Applause] a is name it is the name of jesus what a christ name it is nothing can stand against what a powerful name it is you [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] what a is name it is [Applause] what a powerful name it is [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] come on let's keep this worship going [Music] it's okay to clap your hands this [Music] morning [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] kings and kingdoms will [Music] for who can stop [Music] battles [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] make way before the kingdom [Music] [Applause] hmm [Music] [Music] is [Music] [Music] who can stop the lord almighty who can stop the lord almighty who can stop the lord almighty yes who can stop the lord [Music] who [Music] come on [Music] [Music] [Applause] is [Music] is [Music] [Applause] [Music] amen uh it felt so good it feels so good to have the freedom to worship to not be afraid to cry out to god and just to exclaim his praises so thank you for doing that god breaks every chain the blood of jesus breaks every chain and so we are no longer bound we are no longer bound you know one of the things we got really good at during the pandemic was non-touching greeting and so we've learned how to smile really big even when our faces were covered with masks we can wink we can wave and so right now i invite you to greet one another in one of those ways smile wave wink not in a weird way but just greet others around you before you are seated oh i just have one little special announcement for us today um you know that we've been in this campaign to make space for our partner ministry settled and we had a goal of raising 65 000 by the middle of summer and you guys i'm so sorry we've already passed that goal so give yourselves a big hand oh my gosh i should not be surprised but i always am when when this community comes through to serve and help others and so that is so beautiful i am so excited settled is going to be so excited and more importantly those folks who will benefit from the tiny homes are going to be so blessed and that's what it's all about so thank you so so much beautiful beautiful all right we're going to finish out this beautiful amazing enriching time of worship by offering our finances to the lord if you're able and if that's what you would like to do and so we're going to do that now you can hop on the app on your phone you can hop online on our website or if you'd rather do it you know the paper and pen way or cash way you can do that as well there are boxes at the back of the auditorium on the walls let's join together in prayer let's be thankful for god meeting us on this day and what is yet to come for us all join me please father we do thank you that your blood breaks every chain i thank you lord that we are not bound we don't need to believe that we are bound because you have already set us free and so lord help us to walk in that freedom and lord if we have brothers or sisters that aren't living fully in that freedom help us to reach out to them and help them along oh god by your holy spirit i thank you for our worship this morning i thank you for your presence this morning i thank you for the folks in this building and those watching online and i pray right now that you would speak to every heart a liberating word just for them today lord we offer up our time we offer up our resources we offer up our physical bodies just to say we are here for you as kingdom people lord flow through us and the way in which you see fed oh god we trust you we know that you are a good and loving god help us to walk in that truth every day in jesus name amen [Music] amen [Music] good morning woodland hills ah so good to see you all here this morning and those that we can't see all you guys good good to have you with us either this morning whether you're in britain or in canada or in russia or in china or in new zealand uh we've got wilton hills folks from all over the globe uh which means that probably the majority of people listen to this message fourth of july doesn't mean that much to you and that's okay we're okay with that we like to celebrate freedom around here but the freedom that we celebrate is not the freedom from being under the queen or any other form of government it's true freedom it's the freedom that's found in christ amen the freedom that comes when you get your life from christ and you don't have to cling to anything that's freedom you have to clean your own life that's freedom uh you're no longer chasing craving the things of the world your your your innermost needs your innermost heart is fulfilled out of your relationship with christ that is freedom amen so let's celebrate freedom here this morning whom the son has set free is free indeed amen all right glory glory glory glory glory i uh i'm greg boyd if you're if you're new here and uh teaching i'm a teaching pastor here i just want to say i i just so appreciate all of you uh i appreciate being part of this body um it just means the world to me that um you know every time we come and we have this goal we want to raise money on top of the regular giving that you guys are so faithful at contributing and keeping this thing running uh i i thought i thought we're going to take a big crash during the cobot lockdown thing and and and uh our our giving actually went up how does that happen it's like and i just so appreciate that it it enables us to do a whole lot of good stuff and uh here we we you know we need this goal of 65 000 to be helping to create this this subtle community uh where we're inviting homeless folks to come be part of a church community and uh i just feel so good about that i couldn't do that if i'm on my own i can't do that but but together we can do that and then we're working with other churches to do that and it's just a beautiful thing um your life gets to count your life gets to matter amen and and and for it to matter the most we've got to do it together uh it takes us doing it together and i just i'm so glad i'm i'm part of this togetherness i really appreciate i'm in a season where um it's it's a rough season on a lot of different levels um but boys it feel good to have a positive and this is such a good positive this is this is an eternal positive amen i i just find that it you know the more the the worse the world dishes out to you the more precious the more precious those things become that are that are that are positive and and that that are eternal that matter and uh so i very much appreciate all of you and being a part of this this congregation uh this expression of the body of christ amen amen so happy fourth of july let's celebrate true freedom event so last week i i just want to recall victor memory this this rule this exegetical rule it comes from saint augustine and it's a good one believe it or not you know some folks asking anything good come out of nazareth and around here sometimes folks say can anything good come out of saint augustine well some things can good can come out of saint augustine and here's one he came up with this rule we talked about it last week that everything in scripture has got to point to has got to reveal love it's got to enhance our love for god and our love for one another and the ultimate expression of love of course is the cross of jesus christ so everything in scripture is supposed to point to jesus christ the the the the love that was revealed on on on calvary and jesus himself tells us that read luke 24 for example and so when the comic-con come upon things and and oh and that this this love goes against all reason because our fallen brains can't fathom the full scope intensity and quality of the love of god the love that god has for us and then the love that we're called to live out so we titled the series that we're in against all reason but sometimes in scripture and sometimes even in the teachings of jesus you'll come upon things that don't seem loving that don't seem compatible with the kind of self-sacrificial love that's revealed on the cross and those cases what i shared last week is that we have to just keep digging because everything in scripture is going to be compatible with it's going to point towards is going to reveal the love of god that's revealed on calvary and so you keep digging you look in the historical context many of those things about the the language and about the historical situation that will explain this passage or maybe we're dealing with an accommodation of god where god because he won't coerce people into believing the true things he sometimes has to accept them as they are and so some of what we find in scripture reflects not the truth about who god is but the truth about who god's people are and what they think about god but either way paul says that the cross is foolishness to the world first corinthians 1 18 and it's weakness to the world it looks so dumb that an almighty god would get himself crucified but to us he says it is the wisdom and the power of god it goes against all natural reasoning because our natural reasoning reasoning is conformed to the fullness of this world but we are to receive it and believe it and walk in it and live it and surrender ourselves to it and be conformed to the image of jesus christ in his love but when something in scripture doesn't conform to reason for any other reason it's not it's not because it's so loving maybe there's something in scripture that seems so unloving or maybe it just seems patently absurd well that's where we have to keep on digging and find a interpretation that is uh compatible with with love uh that applies to this verse here that the first person we'll be dealing with here this morning so we're going to deal with matthew chapter 5 verses 42 through 48 because that's where we left off and here's what jesus says give to everyone who begs from you and do not refuse anyone who wants to borrow from you all right so this is a a passage that i'm just kind of like a preliminary passage we'll get into the real juicy stuff here in a moment uh but i just didn't have time to get to this passage last week jesus says we're supposed to give to anyone who asked from us now um that could raise some questions everyone so are we supposed to give to every panhandler we meet on the street uh that that you know is there on the corner when we drive up to to the stoplight um what if you have reason to suspect that maybe this person might use this money for drugs is it loving to give to a person who you might just be enabling the drug abuse or what if they have reason to think that they might be wanting to get this money to buy a gun and kill themselves or kill someone else is it loving to give to a person that you think is suicidal or homicidal or jesus says give to anyone who begs doesn't qualify it so what if your child is asking for that fourth you know snicker bar i suppose well jesus says give everyone bags my kid's begging so here have no snicker bar see there's you think of course not because those aren't loving things to do so here's we we need to dig a little deeper what's going on in this passage and in in this case it's not very hard to discern maybe what what's going on and interpret it in a way that's that's loving um in in jesus is talking here to first century galilean jews right they're peasants and these folks live all of them live either on on farms they used to own but now they have to rent because the wealthy folks have gobbled up the property like i talked about last week and if they live in any kind of town at all it's going to be a small town so you have to think small town use these these little towns would be a couple hundred people if you're living in a town with a couple thousand that's a pretty big town and so in this context you see where you go about your daily business in the context of a couple hundred people you know one another maybe not by name but but you're familiar to one another so in this context when there's poor folks out there begging um you know something about them they've been around here you know joe is always on that corner begging and that blind person's over on that corner begging and that the person who can't walk is he's always stationed right here they have their spots they're part of the life of this community and in that context what jesus is saying is you know those folks that you come in contact with every day who who can't support themselves well help support them have a an outrageously generous heart and and help support the communities that come around these people and support them because they can't support themselves that seems that's really loving that's very different than the context we have here i pull up on on on dale street every time coming home from church and unless there's really bad weather there's always a panhandler there a person who's just gonna ask you for money now i don't know them they don't know me in fact in our city life no one knows anybody right so i don't know if it's loving to give this person or not maybe i'm gonna be supporting a drug habit maybe i'm gonna be helping suicide who knows what i'm supporting here and so i i can't i can't know that it's a loving thing to give to this person um and and and so what i would like to suggest is is this here's how i do it at least um i mean this passage could haunt me if i felt like i was supposed to actually give to every person who asked for me in fact if if i did that i'd be broke pretty quickly because in the city people are always asking for money but my default does not know i should give to them my default is i won't because i want my money to count and i give to causes that i know are going to be good and furthering the kingdom uh and and that's not the case here unless i feel the spirit prompting me or unless i have other reasons to think that that this person really is is in need and and and in those cases i'll give and i'll give whatever i feel like the spirit is telling me to give but otherwise i don't feel guilty about not giving because i simply don't know that that's a good investment of uh of then money's like time you know you'll have a finite amount of it so you have to use it wisely so pray about how you should respond to the people who are asking you for for money and uh and just follow the spirit on that all right so now let's turn to the juicy stuff here's what uh it says in verses 43-48 this is i'll tell you up front i think for reasons that i hope will become clear here in a moment the it is the most important and most challenging and also most uh under appreciated or uh under emphasized passage in the whole bible i mean that this is this gets to the rub of everything so listen to this you have heard that it was said you shall love your and your neighbor and hate your enemy but i say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be children of your father in heaven because he makes the sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous that's how he loves for if you love those who love you what reward do you have do not even tax cultures do that and if you greet only your brothers and sisters what are you doing more than anyone else everyone loves those who are familiar to them he's calling us to an unusual uncommonsensical kind of love even the gentiles do the same but you children of god are called to be perfect therefore as your father in heaven is perfect all right here one could say you could reason like this in fact this is how it's usually been treated a person might say well look at that's absurd obviously that's absurd um i mean love our enemies he clearly doesn't mean all enemies i mean if someone breaks into your house is threatening your spouse or your children uh obviously you're justified using any kind of violence that's necessary even killing them if that's what's required to protect those who are you're responsible for obviously so we need to dig down and find a a a different interpretation because it wouldn't be loving to not kill the person who's going to be trying to harm you or your spouse or your children it goes against reason and it does go against reason but see in this case it goes against reason for the right reason it goes against reason because it's calling for a love that we have trouble fathoming it's not absurd in and of itself it's not like a teaching like when jesus says you know if your hand offends you cut it off and cast it from you that seems absurd so you got to keep on digging and it turns out that that's a hyperbolic way of of just putting an exclamation point on a sentence back in those days you say things in extreme language no one takes it literally so but this isn't like that this strikes us as as uncommon sensical as irrational because it's so loving and whereas we have to explain passages that don't point to the love of god that's revealed on the calvary i submit to you that this passage perfectly reveals the love of god that's revealed on calvary this is the kind of love that god has for us it's a love of enemies while we were yet enemies paul says jesus christ gave his life for us and and we're called throughout the new testament to imitate that kind of love that enemy embracing kind of love that that refusal to retaliate kind of love jesus could have called legions of angels from heaven and and protected himself and he would have been justified doing it but he didn't instead he gave his life for the very people who were crucifying which all crucifying him which ultimately is all of us and paul says ephesians 5 a number of other places that we're to imitate that kind of love be imitators of god which means we're to live in love as christ loved us and gave his life for us so this passage just makes explicit but all those other passages about following jesus example our teaching and that is that we're to embrace this kind of love he literally means we're supposed to love all of our enemies that's what it means to imitate god and he says to do this now listen to this he goes live in this kind of love that you may be children of your father in heaven he makes this the criteria for being considered a christian a child of god that you may be this is how we manifest the truth that we are born from above we share the father's likeness there's a family resemblance and that resemblance is most clearly seen in how we love a capacity to love that the world generally does not have and that's how we put on display we love like the father loves and he loves the way the wrong the rain falls and the way the sun shines doesn't matter whether you're righteous or unrighteous the rain is going to get you wet it doesn't matter whether you're wicked or or holy the sun's gonna warm you up so also it doesn't matter whether you're the best human being in the world or the worst human being in the world god's love for you is invariant it's indiscriminating it doesn't pick and choose who god doesn't pick a jews who is gonna love god is love that's who he is and so there's no off button on that love and then when god transforms the life when god when we surrender to him now we his spirit is put in us and we have that same capacity to love like that indiscriminating without an off button doesn't matter whether the person is righteous or unrighteous holy or wicked doesn't matter if they're giving us a bouquet of flowers or holding a gun to our head our call is to love them and i know that sounds crazy but that is the call that you may be children of your father in heaven i almost want to say it i hesitate to do this but it's like are you saved people ask that question well are you saved and it means you believe in jesus and that's and that's that's great you need to believe in jesus but the criteria jesus gives us here is this are we living in love as christ loved us and gave his life for us that's that's the meaning of what it is to be a child of god and given its importance to how central it is it's a little bit surprising that the church since the fourth century that theologians generally have gone to extreme lengths to try to get around this verse to say that it doesn't mean what it seems to clearly mean first three centuries of church history christians lived uh the way jesus died they they they didn't cling to their life uh they were against all violence against all retaliation all vengeance against all you know killing they were against that all that but then when the church inherited all this political power in the fourth century all the thinking changed really quickly because you have to use some kind of violence if you're going to help run the roman empire and constantine invited the church to do that you got to use violence to protect the borders right you got to use violence to keep law and order inside the the the the empire and so christians acclimated themselves to violence and then began the whole game of finding ways of trying to get around these passages and the reason is because this this passage here it it's like it's like the tip of the arrow of the kingdom that pierces our heart and transforms us inside out but it hurts a little bit going in it's the typical the arrow because it goes after this goes against our basic instinct of self-preservation it goes against our basic instinct of the need to protect at all costs those that we love and it goes against our fallen instinct to retaliate to automatically retaliate and that seems to be something that we're almost born with you see the little grandkids one year old if someone hits them they hit right back and no one has to teach them that they just do it so we have this instinct to protect ourselves to protect our loved ones and to get even and this teaching goes to the heart of that says no you to follow jesus you must say no to that and on top of that on top of that it goes against what is i believe our deepest incred cultural indoctrination a conviction that we all inherit in the process of just being raised in this fallen world and that conviction is often called the myth of redemptive violence it's a foundational belief that all human beings almost all human beings throughout history have shared it's a conviction that sometimes you've got to get violent to solve problems violence fixes things the myth of redemptive violence violence will redeem us it's the conviction that if just enough of us good people us righteous people will rise up and vanquish those evil people over there well then the world would be right then the world be good then then the righteous people will rule the world we can fix things through violence one of the most i think amazing testimonies to just how fallen we are is that we are so smart when it comes to technology incredibly smart when it comes i mean we're on the precipice of sending someone to mars for chronology but this myth of redemptive violence it's been a staple of civilization for at least the last five thousand years and we could talk about the history of that if we had time but for at least the last five thousand years and never once has it worked not in the long run finding any civilization any tribe any family any group that got to power by means of violence that wasn't eventually toppled by violence there's not there's not an exception to this you you live by the sword you die by the sword jesus taught us that and history proves it and yet we keep on doing it maybe this cycle will work this is the war to end all wars this time the righteousness will really vanquish the wicked and it feels good in the short run when you're victorious but eventually he comes around and bites you and yet we keep on doing it martin luther king said well someone have with someone he's talking about the this is talking to folks before march have the wisdom to say we opt out of that stupid system it goes around and around and around and around across lives and lives and lives and blood and mayhem and chaos will someone have the wisdom he says to to our that sister to say we're gonna try something radically different and many people look stupid in the eyes of the world but it's not as stupid as doing the same thing over and over again that's the definition of insanity einstein taught us that doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result yeah we keep on doing it one of the oldest writings we uh we have uh is it's it's a a writing called the new uh enuma ellis comes from mesopotamia and it's a creation story it's it's older than the bible's creation story and in fact some scholars argue that the bible's creation story is written as a polemic against this story um the enduma ellis it means from when on high and and basically at the center of this story that's about 5 000 years old um but the story is the sexual writing is is earlier than that but it's picking up an oral tradition that predates it but uh there's a good god named marduk and an evil deity named tiamat and tiamat is this chaos monster that all ancient people believed in and there's a battle that breaks out and at one point marduk is able to like blow this air into tiamat to inflate her and then he shoots an arrow at her so she explodes and out of her body parts mardu creates this known cosmos this universe and out of other body parts he creates human beings to be the slaves of the god that serves the gods and so actually when you look at the sky it looks like a dome and and in the enumeras that's the inside of tiamat's womb the whole creation takes place inside of tiamat's womb and we're made out of out of tiamat's body parts and so what the story is saying is that the creation itself survives by violence it comes about by violence and we human beings we are made from this violent chaos being now we're made out of a good god so we have some good aspects to us but we also our our basic nature is tiamat it's chaos it's violence and so what this story is saying is that violence is totally normal in this universe it's the way things are uh it's the way things have to be one group dominating another group enslaving that group killing that group then that group retaliates and kills the that's just the way things are that's how it works in this world that is embodying the myth of redemptive violence it normalizes violence so that we don't even notice it it's like the air we breathe this is why and you find versions of this myth of redemptive violence you find versions of this throughout all cultures throughout history often they they involve a hero you know evil is getting the upper hand and and and it looks like evil is going to win but uh the hero shows up and massacres the the villain and then we righteous people live happily ever after there's always a violent solution and in all these stories whoever is the audience assumes that they're on the side of the righteous and so they feel righteous hating that villain and they feel really good when the villain gets what they do and the world is saved the tribe is saved the family is saved this is why marvel movies work so well by the way um so i i have for years had a beer beer and burger night with my my son nathan we go out every every wednesday or tuesday and um get a beer and burger well we added to that at the end of that our my wonderful son-in-law has invited us over uh to watch a marvel movie and he's got this man cave you know with the surround sound and big screen and and yeah it's awesome i i never i was never interested in marvel movies because i was in marvel comic books and i don't know anything about the avengers and those things and i just thought it was cartoonish and so i i just didn't think i'd enjoy it i'm doing it for my son right it's an act of love but you know what they're really enjoyable to watch i have to admit yeah they're violent i know it i i shouldn't but i doubt at this age it's going to turn me into a violent person and i'm just thinking i don't think it's so not i'm not worried about that but uh it works they're so good at at taking this myth of redemptive violence and and just putting on steroids you know and making it so exciting and they they draw you in so you really hate loki all that deceiving theologies and you know he's going to die the worst death you can imagine and whenever they really make an evil person evil you know that it's because they're setting up for a really good ending and the endings are always a violent extermination of the evil person and they always get their due and that's like yeah all right we righteous people once again the universe is saved by the righteous hero it's the myth of redemptive violence but it works because we're so conditioned to believe it's true we're we're it's like an archetype in our brain and what's really interesting to me is that i i taught world religions for 16 years at bethel college and i know a little bit about mythology and these these marvel movies they take ancient mythology especially from nordic mythology up in the scandinavian countries where they have odin and loki and all those gods and they take ancient greek mythology and they just modernize it they modernize it and instead of these gods having supernatural power the gods have advanced technology which is pretty clever and and so it's a technological warfare i'm not recommending you watch it i'm just saying explain why why it's it's fun to watch why it taps into something primal in us people are worried about violence in movies today and kids watching violent videos and that is a deep concern but see this is so profound so deep it's not a new thing it's not like a recent thing that we have when i grew up every day we played war that's the main game we played i i got a gun for every birthday gun for every christmas that's just that was the main toy and so we practiced shooting one another grow up learning to kill and that's how it is in most cultures why because we're breathing the air of the myth of redemptive violence and all cultures they need to raise up warriors so you got to train them a young and you get them into violence and you convince them that we are the righteous ones so that when they turn 18 they'll fight for you kill for you and do whatever you want them to do i was being conditioned by this but you see the myth of redemptive violence at work all over the place it's in what you don't notice but you will notice if you're looking for it for example this is the fourth of july and uh fourth of july is about we celebrate how america is independent we're we're not under england any longer we have a better better dental health plan or whatever but see think about this um fourth of july celebrates a time when both sides here are claiming to be christian so the american christians rise up against the british christians and apparently we're more effective at killing them than they were at us because we won right um so so now we get to be american rather than in english well that is what it is that's how the world works and it goes on and on and on but is it something that we should be celebrating and for the most part we don't even notice this that there could be any possible contradiction between what we believe about christ and about celebrating the the violent foundation of our country every every country celebrates their violent foundations and almost all countries have a violent foundation but should christians be celebrating this especially when it's christians killing other christians to to get the freedom that you're talking about here's a quote this is from this is from my favorite book the american patriots bible i'm kidding um and in most study bibles you know they have little footnotes to various verses that explain what's going on in the verse to help you be better informed well the american patriots bible and i'm sorry i just i'm going to say it straight the word of god and the shaping of america and here they weave into all these verses at some some point about american history or american ideals or whatever it is the clearest example of nationalistic idolatry that i've ever seen in my life and in this this book i'll just illustrate something in colossians chapter 2 verse 7. there's a phrase that the patriots bible wants to comment on it's the phrase rooted and built up in him jesus christ and established in the faith paul is here praying that his his congregation would be rooted and built up in jesus and established in the faith on that basis they give this quote and the quote is from john quincy adams the fourth president of the united states speaking on the 61st anniversary of the declaration of independence he says this listen to this why is it that next to the birthday of the savior of the world your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day july 4th why why why why do we venerate july 4. now he's he's assuming that every american christian is going to be venerating uh loving july 4th he's asking why is this second to christmas this is the most sacred holiday for us why is that is it not that in the chain of human events the birthday of the nation is indissolu indissolubly linked with the birthday of the savior obviously the birth of america is linked to the birth of the savior did you see that come on look at it and is it not that that that the declaration of independence forms a leading event in the progress of the gospel dismissal as the kingdom of god is going forward isn't it obvious that america is the furthest that gospel dispensation is furthering the kingdom of god of course no wonder we celebrate july 4th so it's a sacred holiday is it not that the declaration of independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the redeemer's mission upon the earth in other words is it not because our government is the first political expression of the reason for which jesus christ came to earth now there's so much that's wrong with that passage i don't know where to begin but i'll just say this this is what's this is nationalistic idolatry and there's a strand in american history that is full of this where we are the exceptional nation we are founded by god god was on our side obviously when we fought the british how do we know that because we won and paganism 101 will tell you this is an article of faith going back to the dawn of history that the way you know that your god is greater than the other gods is that you win in battle that's always the proof so obviously god was on our side i brought british brothers and sisters i wonder how you feel about this huh how does that make you feel if you're like yeah god was on our side when we when we kissed your butt back in 1776 our god is bigger than your god our god is greater than yours we win the battle so you had a skedaddle our god is greater than yours come on in the kingdom can we do better than that but see it's a matter of providence it's manifest destiny that's that's the myth of redemptive violence and the fact that john quincy adams could say that and people could be believing this shows this is how thoroughly indoctrinated we are with this it's obvious our country is better but we see it all these other ways i mean just in the assumption that whatever country you're born into you have a sacred duty a sacred duty jew to fight for that country unless it's against ours of course then it doesn't apply but just assume that whatever whatever lands you're born in where you're going to kill and die for that land even though maybe you don't know a thing about the wars you're fighting you don't know a thing about what your king is doing you don't think about whether it's justified or not but you have a duty to do it who told you that well it goes back thousand years myth of redemptive violence you see that that that the myth working when people think we're gonna fight for god in country our god and country not realizing that that's one of the oldest slogans in the book everyone fights for god and country except for the atheist but they have a different kind of a god but it's hard to motivate people to kill and die unless you there's some kind of divine purpose involved in that you see the myth of redemptive violence at work and in this illusion that you're safer if you're walking around with a gun in your pocket even though there's tons of research that shows that you're not safer in most situations if you introduce a gun you just went from playing nickel poker to life and death poker and generally speaking criminals are better at using guns and are called when using guns than you are and so it usually backfires literally but we keep on believing that oh i'm safe i got this gun you see it in all so many movies and so many television shows even in so many songs somebody even argues you can see it in sports the myth of redemptive violence especially in contact sports now we're going to obliterate them we're going to massacre them we're going to slaughter them now on the other side some folks would argue that actually sports is a great way of releasing this kind of violent inclination we have so that we don't have to actually engage in violence so it's kind of a vicarious release and if that works fine i'd rather have i'd rather have you know cage boxing than people killing each other although in cage boxing i think they do kind of kill each other but you see the myth of redemptive violence in this assumption that jesus couldn't possibly have meant what he said love your enemies the reason that sounds crazy to us is because we're so conditioned to the myth of redemptive violence the only way to get rid of enemies is to kill them you see the myth of redemptive violence at work you know widespread conviction conviction especially among conservative christians that uh some crimes you just need to kill a person for doing it yeah the death is the only way to fix this problem is to kill the person you see the myth of redemptive violence in every fist fight that's ever broken out and every verbal fight that's ever broken out in any any gunfight that's ever been fought jesus couldn't have meant what he said but see it goes against our common sense because our common sense is infused with the myth of redemptive violence but see that's the right way to go against common sense it goes against common sense because it's so loving and that's the kind of unconventional uncommon uncommon sensical thing that we're supposed to be believing and supposed to be living in but for some folks in fact for the majority of folks throughout church history after the 4th century it's just too it's beyond the pale i we can't believe that it's too impractical it's obvious that we're justified using violence when it comes to protecting our neighbor and so the way the reasoning is usually gone is like this well look since it's obvious that i should use any violence necessary to protect my spouse and my children so whatever jesus means by loving enemies he doesn't mean that obviously but if it's if i obviously should protect my family then why wouldn't i also protect my neighbor and if i'm protecting my neighbor well my neighbor why would i also then protect my state use whatever violence is necessary to protect the state and if i protect the state why not the country just makes sense obviously so whatever jesus means he doesn't by enemies he doesn't mean national enemies he doesn't mean enemies that actually threaten our lives obviously so now whatever jesus means there's going to be something pretty vanilla something pretty middle of the road uh commonsensical now jesus means oh love that grouchy neighbor of yours or that ornery mother-in-law of yours or whatever but but nothing too radical that's how their thinking has usually gone it's called just war theory and basically says this don't go to war unless you're justified going to war don't engage in violence unless you're justified engaging in violence it's profound isn't finally one example in the history of someone who didn't feel justified engaging in the violence that they were engaging in that's why you engage in violence because you feel justified they wronged you obviously and so you justify killing them so what does this just work theory do except to say hey you know how you all feel justified killing each other keep on doing that yeah that they just keep going it doesn't doesn't do anything ah i'm overstating it there are cases i'm sure where it may restrain war for a little bit war should always be a last resort but if you justify killing that's why you kill in the first place it doesn't really do very much now jesus teaching it's turned into just this little quaint teaching about be kind to grouchy people but see here's the thing jesus knows that what he's saying is radical that's why he says hey look if you loved whatever everyone else loves you don't put on display that your children are the father you love those who love you everyone does that you greet those who greet you everyone does that but when you love in a way that the world can't love now you put on display that your children are your father in heaven that you're born from above you've got the father's dna you've got that father's resemblance he knows he's saying something that's radical and counterintuitive another thing is this is that people are always looking for what enemies can i kill who do i get to hate which already is kind of asking the wrong question but when jesus says love your enemies he's talking to palestinian jews first century palestinian peasant jews and these first century palestinian peasant jews they're under roman authority rome has conquered this area they're in occupied territory and rome was brutal they ruled with terror they were terrorists the way the way they kept the pox romana the piece of rome the way they kept that was by terrorizing people into submission compliance and so sometimes they would kill innocent people just as show that they could to keep people in line it'd be a little bit like if al qaeda had conquered america and uh was imposing sharia law on us and making life miserable there'd be a lot of people who would hate them and a lot of people want to kill them but jesus comes along and says love your enemies you see in the first century when you say enemy everyone first thought in every jewish person's mind are the romans they're enemy number one like al qaeda they be enemy number one and jesus has the audacity to say love your enemies they include the worst kind of enemies you can imagine so if rome if if the romans aren't excluded from jesus teachings to love your enemies then i submit you that there are no exceptions to jesus teaching to love your enemies because it doesn't get any worse than the romans so there can't be any exceptions to this but even more importantly notice that jesus his teaching isn't based on the merits of the person that you're talking about in front of you whether they're good or evil to the contrary his teaching is based on the character of god which renders the merits of the person in front of you completely irrelevant he says love like the raid falls love like the sun shines because that's how god loves and if you want to be children of your father in heaven that's how you are to love so it's based on the character of god which means it's indiscriminating which means there can't be any exceptions you can no more pick and choose who you're going to love and who you're going to be non-violent towards you you don't get to pick and choose that any more than the rain picks and chooses who's going to get wet or the son chooses who it's going to warm up no it's just because god is that way we are to be this way even if it costs us our lives so you can't go very if you're digging deeper to try to get around this passage you're not going to have much luck if you're trying to change the word enemy who really is our enemy well obviously it doesn't mean the real nasty kind of enemies so it must mean something vanilla like love your grouchy grandmother but you can't get very far with that so maybe you could play with the word love what does he mean when he says love your enemies i mean that's kind of ambiguous and we have we are geniuses and making something complex when it's in our in our self-interest to make it complex what is love that's a tough one man we have to think a long time about that i mean i love what was he mean i could know these kind of things right and so saint augustine who is always so clever he comes up with this definition he says love does not require any particular action from us it rather requires a disposition it's about a subjective feeling a disposition so with this and augustine's writing after christianity has inherited all this power and so he's one of the main masterminds to accommodate christianity to this new power so we get to kill when it's in our interest to do so and so this is a really convenient definition because with this definition love doesn't have any behavioral implications so you can and i'm not exaggerating here you can torture someone and still claim to be loving them you can be bringing them alive and still clean of you loving them augustine was the first one to advocate this policy that torture is sometimes justified to to to keep uh society in line and and to uh preserve the orthodoxy of the christian faith so it's you're justified torturing heretics and he uses the verse in luke 14 where jesus says compel them to come into the banquet no she said compel it didn't say how so let's burn people alive and maybe that way we can elicit a a confession of faith which always struck me as the stupidest thing in the world because if you're gonna confess that jesus is lord because you're being burned to death uh how likely is that to be a sincere loving confession i just don't get it i'm sorry but see it's a nice convenient uh uh definition oh i love them i i wish them well in my heart but nevertheless i will torture them or kill them if my if my my king says that we're supposed to kill but here's the problem i mean among other things jesus he specifies action love is an action thing we do he says pray for those who persecute you that's an action that you do and that's actually tells us to have towards those who persecute us in luke in the same passage uh jesus says do good to those who who mistreat you and and bless those who who persecute you do good to them now i'm sorry but the last time i checked burning someone alive isn't doing good to them burning someone alive is not blessing them burning someone alive is not loving them but it just shows you the extent that people will go to get around these verses but the biggest problem with augustine's redefinition of love as a subjective thing is that the bible we don't get to we don't get to invent what the word love means now the bible gives us a definition of love and so it's as clear a definition as you could possibly get because it points us to a person and it points us to an event it points us to an action first john 3 16 says here's how we know what love is it's not hard folks there's not a lot of figuring out to do here this isn't rocket science here's what love looks like jesus christ loved us and gave his life for us so also we should give our life for one another love's about willing to die for another not willing to kill them loves about loving your persecuted not being the persecutor it's so love's about pouring out towards others it's always self-sacrificial it always has the well-being of another in mind whether the person is holding a bouquet of you or holding out a holding out a gun okay so let's take it back let's get real here what do you do then if someone breaks into your house and friends not just you but your your loved ones your spouse your friend or your children what do you do well here's what i recommend rather than assuming our obviousness always be paranoid about what's obvious to you uh rather than thinking it's obvious jesus didn't mean this especially since when we dig deeper we can't find anything that gets us out of this teaching that we should love all of our enemies so rather than assuming that my obvious is right so jesus must be wrong or it must mean something else how about if we start with the assumption that jesus is right and maybe there's something wrong with us if we if we don't see the morality and the goodness of something jesus is teaching maybe the problems with us and so since rarely does someone break into your house and threaten your life for the life of your your children and loved ones rather than starting with that rare event and working backwards to just war theory how about if we start with something jesus with the assumption that jesus is telling the truth and maybe if we practice that day in and day out maybe after 10 years we'd have formed the kind of character that would see the wisdom and the goodness of what jesus is teaching maybe if i practice love you by enemies in all the little ways that i can possibly love them that when when it comes to the big way i'm supposed to love an enemy when they're threatening my my wife or my my kids maybe then i won't just be thinking about a rule i'm supposed to obey maybe i have developed the kind of character where i actually love my enemies so that is a rule it's a reality it'd be like how i would reframe things if if if the enemy who broke in and threatened my my spouse and my kids or my friend or whatever if that was my son he went crazy or something and he had an axe he's going to kill everybody well you know what i will do everything i can to protect my my my loved ones because i love them but i'm also going to do everything i can to protect my son because i love him and killing him is not an option it's off the table and the minute you take violence off the table it opens up as i said last week and if you didn't hear that message last week i encourage you to tune into it but it opens up a world of possibilities that we never even consider if we're packing carrying a piece you go right for the gun the minute you go right for the gun all those options all the alternatives come to a close because now there's only one thing important important that's that you got a gun and now you're not playing nickel poker or quarter poker or dollar poker you're playing life and death poker and are that you're going to lose that that so maybe if i cultivate in little ways i actually love the person because see that sermon on the mount and this holds for all jesus teachings he's not giving us a set of rules that we're supposed to look up in the right situation okay oh someone's breaking into my house what's the rule about that now oh yeah oh i'm supposed to love them okay when someone breaks in and threatens you or a loved one you don't go according to rules you operate out of your character out of your instinct what have you been cultivating so jesus isn't inviting us to have an index of rules that we're supposed to obey he's inviting us to a new way of life a a character that we're supposed to be developing or practicing day in and day out we're supposed to be growing into christ's likeness and that involves never retaliating and involves loving your enemies i'll say this this only works it only works if you believe if you're convinced that you live in an eternal narrative not a finite one uh all of jesus teachings presuppose that we're aware that we don't live in a finite narrative if you're living in a narrative regardless of what you theoretically believe but if what's real to you is that this life is all there is then you will do everything that you have to to protect it and in that case death is the most tragic thing that could happen to you but see to be a follower of jesus means we understand that jesus rose from the dead and and that's supposed to take away our fear of death and that lacking fear of death is what allows us to love recklessly crazily outlandishly loved like the father loves because the father never dies it only works if we're living in this internal narrative yeah here's something that one of my favorite authors uh stanley howard says listen to this he says we can we cannot deny that in certain circumstances that may be necessary to watch others die unjustly there's no promise that this world of possibilities that opens up when we take violence off the table there's no guarantee that that will work you still might get killed your loved ones might get killed that's how it's been throughout history the early christians had to watch their children and spouses beside the lions before they were fed the lions before the fathers were fed that was part of their torture so that can happen and that surely is harder than envisioning our own deaths the only thing worse would be for our failing to witness to our brother and sister that god's love took the form of a cross so that the powers the principalities and powers that make our world so violent might be defeated that our death and the death of others might be required if we are faithful to the cross cannot be denied but it would only be more tragic if we died in a manner that underwrites the pagan assumption that nothing is more tragic than death itself without this eschatological conviction how the christian pacifist serves the neighbor in a violent world cannot help but be unintelligible what he's saying is that our behavior our this call to love our enemies to never retaliate it's utterly unintelligible unless you really believe that you live forever and that death is that the most tragic thing there is i really think to be a follower of jesus authentically means you commit the conviction that is better to die than to kill under any circumstance because that's what jesus teaching teaches and that's what jesus practiced jesus resurrection from the dead proves that the cross way of life is victorious jesus resurrection from the dead proves that death is not the end hallelujah jesus resurrects from the dead proves that the love of god that's revealed on calvary defeats death it defeats sin if he defeats the devil it defeats the grave hallelujah the resurrection of jesus proves that that love that's revealing calvary is the one thing that lasts forever and ever and ever it proves that what god is in store for those who love him can't be compared to the sufferings of this present world hallelujah and that is what enables empowers us to love with this reckless kind of love we don't have to cling to our life and you're never truly free until you're free from trying to cling to your life two two little pieces of advice on clothes with this number one parents i encourage you to teach your kids this really early on teach your kids this early on and talk about what would you do if an intruder broke in and talk about the beauty of the kingdom and how a kingdom response is so different from what you get out there in the world why you wouldn't resort to killing the person it's important that you do this in an age-appropriate way but see if you don't give them the right interpretation of why you're not going to violently defend them the world with this myth of redemptive violence will provide the interpretation and what it looks like to a kid if they're indoctrinated by the world is that my dad doesn't love me very much or my dad is a weak person and that's not the interpretation you want them to have explain to them why we have this conviction explain to them that they are part of a movement that that understands that uh you will never you'll never conquer hate with hate you'll never conquer violence with violence and you're never going to conquer evil with evil the only thing that can conquer evil and violence and all sin is is the love of god it's a willingness to lay on your life even for your enemies and i would encourage you to to to be teaching them really early on love their enemies who's the bully in school uh talk about that who are they who are mean kids and pray for them and and in practice having them agree with god that that person is unsurpassable worth and teach them how to notice the stranger the alien the the misfit the kid who has to eat alone so they're not just you know tied to their own little clique i know security is big for kids with social context but if you only greet those who are in your click your brothers and sisters well everyone does that we want to be raising kingdom kids i teach them how to notice how to look at the world through the radical love of of calvary and finally as i shared last week i encourage all of us as a regular discipline there ought to be a handful of people that you are continually praying for and practicing loving take out the the people in your life that are the hardest to love and then maybe it may be the taliban over in afghanistan or maybe your wife or your husband or one of your kids because sometimes they can feel like the enemy amen amen but if we don't practice it we'd never grow into it and so as a regular practice ask the spirit to show you who are you to be praying for and and and i know it can sometimes it can sometimes you have to crucify yourself to do it especially when there's somebody that is harming one of your loved ones and yet you're supposed to love them is the hardest thing in the world to do it is it goes against all reason but it goes against all reasons for the right reason and that's because only that is consistent with the character of god that we're called to manifest only that is consistent with being a child of the father in heaven amen amen embrace that practice engaging it continually all right hey if you have any prayer needs i encourage you to uh online there you can you can find a person to pray with online um or here they'll be up at the front of the auditorium i encourage you to check out the gathering groups uh where you can talk with people from around the world sometimes uh about the message and on tuesdays we have uh the muse or at four o'clock we go deeper with the message and so you can check out that as well um god bless you guys i just closed with this father teach us to love the way you love like the rain falls like the sun shines to all people at all times no if and but exception clauses or footnotes help us to love like you love in jesus name and oh god children said amen god bless you guys go out and live on your neighbor and your enemy you

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Published: Sun Jul 04 2021