[MUSIC PLAYING] We made it to 2020. [APPLAUSE] Happy new year. Now that it's 2020, we
can see clearly, right? Well, you look all great. I hope you had a great
holiday as we celebrated the advent of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ if you were here or
you were traveling, but we're glad
you're back with us. Would you turn in
your Bibles, please, to the book of
Romans, Chapter 12? Romans Chapter 12. So there were two
teenage boys that we were talking about dating. And one said to
his friend, listen. I have a cousin. She's pretty girl. She's smart. I've set you up on a date
with her Saturday night. And his friends
said, oh, no, no, no. I don't do blind dates. No, thank you. The guy said, no, really. She's a pretty girl. She's smart. You'll really like her. I've set it up. But if something
happens where you just don't want to do this once
you see here, do what I do. He goes, well, what do you do? Well, what I do is I ask the
girl out, go to the door, when she opens the door, if I take
a look at her and go, nah, nah, I don't want to do this,
what I do is I fake like I have an asthma attack. Put your hand over your
throat and go [GASPING].. Just do that you and
you can get out of it. So the guy said, OK, I'll
go out with your cousin. So he goes over to her
house, knocks on the door. She opens the door. He takes one look at
her and she's beautiful. And for him, this teenage
boy, it's love at first sight. And so he's so pleased. But then that girl looks at
him and grabs her throat. And goes [GASPING]. Hey, let me ask you a question. Would you agree that the
word love is an overused word in our culture? In fact, Time Magazine
said it's time to change the meaning
of the word love. You know how we use love. We throw that word around. It means so many
different things. I love my wife. I love my children. I love your car. I love that color. I love pizza. Well, when I say I love my
wife, it means I care about her. I want to spend time with her. I want what's best for her. When I say I love pizza,
I don't care all that much about a personal
relationship with pizza. I don't want what's
best for pizza. When I say I love
pizza, all I mean is I like it when
I want to eat it. And when I'm done eating
it, you can throw it away, give it to the dog, put
it in the refrigerator till it gets moldy. I don't care. When a person says to you they
love you, how do they love you? Do they want what's
best for you, or do they say they love
you because really, they want something for themselves? So the next time
somebody says I love you, you might just want to ask,
at least in your own mind, is that pizza love? Or is that the real thing? According to the
dictionary, love is a profoundly tender,
passionate affection for another person. A feeling of warm,
personal attachment. In other words, the
dictionary defines it as a noun that is a feeling. That's one of its definitions. I suggest we start viewing
love not so much as a noun but as a verb. Actions we are willing to
take to demonstrate something. In fact, the very
first time in the Bible the word love is used, it
appears in the book of Genesis. So it's a Hebrew word. And the Hebrew word
is [SPEAKING HEBREW].. And the word means
an act of doing. An act of doing. It is connected directly
with action and obedience. The root of that word
[SPEAKING HEBREW] is [SPEAKING HEBREW],,
and it means to give. So now we're starting to
get the real definition, the biblical definition of love. The idea is it wants more
to give than it does to get. For years, I've enjoyed the
movie Fiddler on the Roof. I think it came out in 1971. Anybody remember that film? One of the greatest films,
in my opinion, ever. So I love it because
it's a musical. I love it because it's quirky. There's some funny parts in it. But I love the part
when the patriarch named Tevye says to his
wife Golda, they've been married a
quarter of a century. And he turns to her and says,
(SINGING) do you love me? And what he's waiting
to hear is, oh, I have this warm, fuzzy
feeling about you. But rather she says
to him, for 25 years. I've wash your clothes,
I've cooked your meals. I've cleaned the house. I've given you children. I've milked your cow. If that's not love, what is? Bingo. Love is a verb. Love is willing to
act on something. Now, we come in the book
of Romans Chapter 12, beginning in verse 9 to
the end of the chapter, with a section that really is
summed up with the word love. Paul is very practical, and
especially in chapter 12. He gives us 11 chapters
that he sums up as the mercies of God
in chapter 12 verse 1. He's saying, all that you know
of what God's plan is for you. Therefore, now, here's
the will of God for you. So chapter 12 verse 1 and 2
is the will of God generally. And then chapter 12 beginning
in verse 3 is the will of God specifically. And we come now to chapter
12 verse 9 to verse 21. Section of 13 verses. But get this. This is how practical Paul is. In 13 verses, he gives
us no less than 30-- 3, 0-- commands. 30 commands, 30 exhortations,
all dealing with love, the very heart, the very
motive of the Christian life. So what I want to
do, because we're not going to be able to cover
every nuance of these 30 commands and 13 verses,
I want to sum it up by dividing love up
into three areas. Love displayed in three areas. First of all, love in the
family, and what I mean by that is the Christian family. The body of Christ,
the family of God. Second, love amidst
hostility when we're out in the
world and people don't sympathize with us. And then number 3,
love among our enemies. When somebody is really
poised against you. Well, let's begin
with the first. Love in the family. That begins in verse 9. Paul writes, "let love
be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. Be kindly affectionate to one
another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference
to one another." "Not lagging in diligence,
fervent in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope,
patient in tribulation, continuing
steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the
Saints, given to hospitality." First thing I want you to
notice is that in verse 9, he begins with a statement
about the quality of love. When he says let love
be without hypocrisy-- I'm going to give you a
quiz right now because I know you're Bible nerds. You're Bible students. When he says love,
what word do you think he is using from
the Greek language? Agape. See, a lot of you
know that already. He uses the term agape. Why is that important? Because up to this
point, Paul has never used that term agape-- love-- for love describing
our love to one another. So far in the book of
Romans, the only time Paul has pulled
out the word agape is when he wants to talk
about how God loves us. Now he takes the
term, he is used to describe God's
love for us and says that is the love you are
to have for one another. Why? Because agape love is the
gold standard for Christian love in the Greek New Testament. It is the one thing
Jesus said, the world will be able to tell
that you belong to me. John, Chapter 13. By this shall all
men know that you are my disciples, by
the agape love that you have one for another. That's our calling card-- love. Now let me just sort of brush
up on some of these words. In Greek-- you know how I said
we have one word for love? I love my car, I love your
car, love your color, love your pizza, love whatever. My wife. We have the same word for
many different things. In the Greek language, not so. They have several different
Greek words for love. There are four principal words. The first Greek word
is the word eros. Eros is the term
where we get erotic. It's physical love. It's never found once in
the Greek New Testament. It's a word that means to grab
or to grasp because the idea is self-satisfaction. That's the first word. The second word that is used in
Greek-- it is found in the New Testament-- is the word phileo. And phileo shows up in
words like Philadelphia or philanthropy. This is brotherly love. This is affection for a friend,
a fondness for another person. A third word is the
Greek word storge. Storge is family love,
like when a parent loves a child or a child
loves a parent. It is family affection. But then there's
that fourth term, and it's used here-- agape. It's as if the writers of
the Greek New Testament wanted to come up with a
word all in its own class to describe the kind of love God
gives to us and that we in turn should give to others. So that's the word he uses. And notice what he says. Verse 9. Let love, let agape,
be anupokritos. It's one word. Anupokritos. Without hypocrisy. Hupokritos, where we
get the word hypocrite, was a word that
simply meant an actor. In the Greek stage, because
they didn't have many backdrops, actors would come
out on the stage with a few different masks on
a stick, like a happy face, or a sad face, or a somber face. And they would put the mask
on and speak through the mask so that the word hypocrite
came to mean somebody who wears a mask, or an actor. So when he says let love
be without hypocrisy, he means genuine love. Love without a mask. Not the kind of love
where you give somebody a nice, sweet
compliment, but when they leave you stab them
in the back with gossip. That's fake love. That's love wearing a mask. Church, the family
of God, should never become a stage that is
filled with fake love. I know some parts
of the country where when they say bless your
heart, that's not a compliment. It's a bad thing. I remember hearing
some people go well, I love him with Christian love,
which could be translated, I can't stand him. But if I say that, it
just sounds better. I kind of have to love him, so
I love him with Christian love. Let your love be absolutely
genuine and not feigned. Not fake. Matthew Henry said hypocrisy
is to do the devil's work in God's uniform. That would be fake love. Let me give an example of
feigned love, fake love. Judas Iscariot. On the same night
that he sold Jesus out for a few pieces of
silver, he met Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane. And how did he greet him? With a kiss. And that's so upset
Jesus that he even said, you betray the son
of man with a kiss? This signal of affection, but
in your heart, you don't love. I have much more respect
for an honest atheist than a bogus believer. Let love be without hypocrisy. But notice, it's followed
by another command. Right after he talks
about love, what's the first word in verse
9, the second sentence? What does it say? Abhor. You know what abhor means? Hate very strongly. Isn't it odd that after
talking about genuine love, he immediately talks
about hate as a command? Love, hate. I want you to love that,
but I want you to hate that. Why? Because part of authentic
love is authentic hatred. What do I mean? I mean, that's God's character. God hates evil. God hates unrighteousness. But God loves what is good. And God especially
hates hypocrisy. He hates false religion. You remember in the
first chapter of Isaiah, God through the prophet
speaks to his people. They're coming to
worship in the temple. They're bringing sacrifices. They're keeping the feast
days, the Sabbath days, the new moons, they're doing
all the religious activity. And God says, who
has required that you trample my courts like this? Bring no more vein ablation. Incense is an abomination to me. Your Sabbaths and your
feast days my soul hates. God is saying he
hates false religion. Now, I think one of the
greatest problems, one of the greatest weaknesses in
the church, is not intolerance. I think one of the
greatest weaknesses is tolerance for evil. You know, it's just
so much around us. It's in every movie we see. And pretty soon, well, you
know, that's just the world. You can't get rid of it. You and I should hate it. We should abhor
that which is evil. Paul rebuked the
Church of Corinth because they were
tolerant of immorality. Paul rebuked the
Church at Galicia because they tolerated legalism. Jesus rebuked the Church
at Thyatira, saying, I have this against you. You tolerate that woman Jezebel. She misleads my servants into
sexual immorality and eating food sacrificed to idols. Apparently one of the
members of that church was very loose morally,
and that started having repercussions
as an example with some of the
other church members. Jesus said, I have
that against you. You tolerate that stuff. You shouldn't tolerate
evil in your own life. Why? Because it is evil that
stains the fellowship, the love that we have
in the body of Christ. It brings something
foreign into it. It ruins it. In the very next verse,
speaking of this family love, he says, be kindly
affectionate to one another with brotherly love in
honor, giving preference to one another. I want to brag on you
for just a second. I get lots of letters, texts,
emails from different people, visitors of this church. You know, we have a thing
where we welcome people. What you don't always hear is
what I hear when people say, man, I just started coming
here, or I visited your church last week, and the
love that I experienced from people in your
fellowship toward one another was overwhelming to me. It made such an impact on me. One of the phone calls
I got a while back was from a man who
called to say thank you and to share this blessing. He said, he and his wife
were in the 8,000 block of Central Avenue here
in Albuquerque, which is not the best part of town. And he parked his car on the
curb, went inside of a store. He left his wife in
the car locked, parked. Went inside to do some
business in a store. And he said while I
was in the store-- this is how he put it-- for
Calvary Fellows approached the car, knocked on the window. My wife rolled down
the window slightly. Looked up at these four guys. They said, excuse me, ma'am, but
one of your tires is hissing. I think you have a flat. If you'd like, we'd be
happy to change it for you. Got the keys, opened the
trunk, jacked the car up. Changed the tire on the car. He was inside. He came out. It was already done. All he saw is there's
four guys by my car. [LAUGHTER] Only to find out they're
four Calvary fellas. And what he said was, he
said to me on the phone, he had just gotten
out of the hospital. He would not have been
able to fix that tire if he would have been
there out there with them. He said, God sent them. And so here's why I love it. Just when I get worried,
and sometimes I do-- boy, this church is getting
so big and so impersonal. And how could we ever
so love one to another? I get letters like that, and
thinking, you're doing it! [APPLAUSE] Awesome. Thank you for being
such a great family. Now, look at verse
11, because I see verse 11 as the motive
for this family love. When Paul writes, not lagging
in diligence but fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. That's the key. Because we are serving the
Lord and that's our motive-- we want to please Him and
honor Him and serve Him-- it's that love for Him
and service to Him that spills out in loving others. If we love the Father, we
love the Father's children. The New Living Translation
renders verse 11, never be lazy in your
work but serve the Lord enthusiastically. I love seeing
enthusiastic believers. I love it when you
sing enthusiastically. I love it when you
serve enthusiastically. But have you noticed
maybe in your own life-- I have noticed it in my life-- there seems to be seasons
of our spiritual walk? We come to Christ. We're so excited. We're so on fire. We can't wait to pray. We can't wait to
read our bibles. We'll spend hours doing that. We want to talk to
people about the Lord. And then something happens
somewhere along the line. We just sort of lose
the wind in our sails. The spark is gone. The fire subsides. We're not as fired up about it. That's why I love
Luke chapter 24 when Jesus spoke to those
two guys on the road after the Resurrection,
the road to Emmaus. And after Jesus left, one
guy turned to the other guy and said, did not our
hearts burn within us as He spoke to us along the way
and open to us the scriptures? It is that burning
of heart that should mark our enthusiastic
service to the Lord. Now I know we live in
a day and age where we have lots of knowledge. But our passion should
match our knowledge. I know that you can
have a zeal for God not according to
knowledge, but I think it's also bad to have
knowledge without zeal. I know some people are
a little bit afraid. I don't want to be a fanatic. I used to be that fanatic
when I was a young Christian. But now that I am old and
stale and sophisticated. [LAUGHTER] I've always found it's easier
to cool down a fanatic than it is to warm up a corpse. You can always hold
the thoroughbred back. But you get a horse
that's just lazy and it's hard to get
that thing going. It's enthusiasm for
God that should fuel our love for God's children. So this is family love. This is level number 1. This is the tightest
circle that Paul draws. Here's what I want
you to see here. This first expression of
love among God's people, among God's family,
we got to get this. Because the next two
levels are much harder. Loving a hostile world and
then loving somebody who would be considered an enemy-- how are we ever going to do that
if we can't love each other? If you can't love
the Christian family, if Christians can't get
along with each other, how in the world are they
going to face their enemies and make a positive
impact on them? So that's where it begins. Family love. Love in the family. Second level is love
amidst hostility, verse 14. "Bless those who persecute you. Bless do not curse." Rejoice with those who rejoice,
weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind
toward one another. Do not set your
mind on high things but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in
your own opinion. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things
in the sight of all men. If it is possible as
much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge
yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written,
'vengeance is mine. I will repay,' says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy
is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty,
give him a drink. For in so doing, you will heap
coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good." Beginning in verse 14, Paul
makes a very obvious pivot away from loving in
the church family to love amidst hostility. Loving the world
that is around us. Now he's writing to a group
of believers who live in Rome. Rome was becoming a very hostile
environment for believers. It was going to be hard-- it already was, but it was going
to get much harder for them to live out their
Christian belief system in the world
of Rome because it was becoming so adverse to them. So how do you show love
when you're under pressure from an unbelieving world? Well, to answer that,
let's work our way from general to specific. First of all, would you
notice in what we just read there are 4 negative commands. Don't do it this way. Four negative commands. And also for comparisons
between good and evil. Like, don't do it this
way but do it that way. So look at that. Verse 14. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Verse 17. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things
in the sight of all men. Verse 19. Beloved, do not avenge
yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. Verse 21. Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good. In other words,
our love should be independent of the treatment
we received from others. So they may curse. We will bless. They may hate. We will love. They may avenge. We will not. Now that sounds good on paper. But let me say this. That is impossible. Apart from being plugged
into Jesus Christ. If you try to do
this on your own-- OK, I'm going to
work my way up to it. I'm just-- won't work. You'll fail. But here's the good news. When you're plugged into
Jesus, you're abiding in him, you're connected to him,
you have an endless capacity to show love. You'll never get to a place
where you go, I'm out of love. It just ran dry. It'll never happen. Because Romans chapter 5 verse
8, which we already covered, it says, for the love of God has
been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. So God pours his love
into us, and that never stops, so that the love we pour
out to others can never stop. We have an endless capacity to
show love because we endlessly receive it from his capacity. Loving people who are lovely-- that's easy. Loving people who love
you-- that's easy. Loving hostile
people, people who are not sympathetic with you-- not so easy. But it's mandated. You know, I do think that we
live in a very divided world. In fact, heck, we live
in a divided country. I think right now more than
ever before politically, rhetorically, just
the language that is used daily basis on news
clips and by different parties with different candidates
and different-- it's such a toxic environment. I had one gal call me
the other day and say, I'm just so confused by this. I feel like I'm in an
emotional roller coaster. You know, we feel
like those two kids who are, two young boys who
were on a Little League team. They were both in the dugout. They're sitting
there in the dugout. One guy looks up and sees
this pretty little girl sitting up in the grandstands. And he says to his friend, you
know, when I stop hating girls, she's the one I'd like
to stop hating first. [LAUGHTER] I've got a question for you. Who is it you need
to stop hating first? A gender? You're always deprecating. Ah, that's just a woman. They drive like that. Or that guy. You know how guys people. Or a different skin color,
or ethnicity, or background, that you find in your language
you're always depreciating. Who will you stop hating
first in the hostile world that we're in? Now I said we're going
from general to specific. Now let's get specific. To be able to love
amidst hostility, Paul gives us two useful tools. The first tool is to sympathize. The second tool is to harmonize. I want to show it to you. Verse 15. Rejoice with those who rejoice
and weep with those who weep. That's to sympathize. That is, love tries to enter
in to the emotions of others. If they're up, if they're
down, if they're laughing, if they're crying, if
they're disappointed, if they're elated. Love will try to do that. Do you know what the shortest
verse in the New Testament is? If you do, shout it out. What's the shortest verse? Jesus wept. Jesus wept. See, you're so smart. Shortest verse in
the New Testament. Jesus wept. When I first read that, my
first thought wasn't, you know, that must be the shortest
verse in the New Testament. My first verse when I read
that Jesus wept is why? Why did Jesus weep? He wasn't crying because
Lazarus was dead. That's the context of it. He shows up to Lazarus' funeral. It says, Jesus wept. He's not crying because
Lazarus is dead. He knows that in
five minutes he's going to call the boy
back from the dead. Why did Jesus weep? Because Mary and
Martha were weeping. He was entering into their
emotional state at that time, and probably even weeping
for their unbelief that he saw in that crowd. But it says, Jesus wept. Now, see if you agree with this. I've found that
it's easier to weep with those who weep
than it is to rejoice with those who rejoice. Give you an example. Somebody is suffering. Somebody is crying. Somebody is in anguish. It's not a hard thing
to walk up to them, put your arm around
them, and I'm so sorry. Let me pray for you. It's going to get better,
and encourage them. It's not that hard because
you're not suffering, they are. So you come up and you
really try hard to empathize, to sympathize. That's not hard. But it is much harder to
rejoice with those who rejoice. You go, it is? Yeah. Here's an example. You're at work. You've been waiting for
a raise for five years. Your co-worker
who, in your view, doesn't work as hard as you
do, comes up to you and says, rejoice with me! I just got a
promotion and a raise! And you're going, (THROUGH
CLENCHED TEETH) praise God. [LAUGHTER] You did? 'Cause I didn't. That's harder. Or how's this one? It's the new year and your
friend sees you at church and goes, I got a brand
new car for Christmas. You're driving that beat up
Ford Fiesta that never starts. [LAUGHTER] And it's hard for you
to enter into joy. In my day, it was the Ford
Pinto and that was, like, the worst car ever made. [LAUGHTER] So that's the first
step-- sympathize. Second step is to harmonize. Look at verse 17. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things
in the sight of all men. If it is possible-- I'm glad he wrote that-- as much as depends on you,
live peaceably with all men. All men. Believers and nonbelievers. Christians and the world. If it's possible, as
much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Two qualifications to
being a peacemaker. Number 1, you initiate it. As much as depends on you. Don't sit there with
your arms folded and go, well, I'll make peace
only if they initiate it. They have to call me. They're the ones who hurt me. They got to call me. No, you reach out to them. But there's a second
qualification to making peace. Both parties have to want it. Sometimes they don't. So he says, if it's possible. Because sometimes, frankly,
it's just not possible. You initiate. You want to make peace. Let's talk this over. Let's pray together. They go, talk to the hand. Go away. Do not even want
to engage with you. You're out of my life. You're not responsible for that. You're only responsible for
your motive, for your own heart. You can control your
response, not theirs. But never let the
inability to live at peace be on your side of the fence. Years ago, there was a good
book called Irregular People by Joyce Landorf. Tremendous book. Irregular people. Just the title makes
you snicker, right? She in her book contends
that every one of us has at least one person that we
would classify as an irregular person. How does she describe it? It's the person who has a knack
of wounding you every time they see you. When you're with them, they seem
to always say the wrong thing. They ruin your day. Your emotions are
in constant coaster whenever you're around them. They are so insensitive. That's an irregular person. I know. I don't even have to ask
you to raise your hand. You're already thinking
of one or two or three. But she also writes in
her book, each one of us is also an irregular
person to somebody else. So not only do you
have them, you are one. So as much as you can,
take the initiative, sympathize, and then harmonize. So that's love in the family. Love amidst hostility. Now in the last
section of our message, I want to zero down on
something very specific, and that is love
among our enemies. I want to look at
a few verses where he gives explicit counsel
of living with and loving our enemies. Look at verse 19. "Beloved--" isn't that a
sweet way to begin a sentence? Loved ones. Beloved. Ones that I deeply love. "Do not avenge yourselves, but
rather give place to wrath." Give place to whose wrath? God's wrath. "For it is written,
'vengeance is mine. I will repay,' says the Lord." You know, I've discovered
that God is always better at vengeance than I am. First of all, he
knows the motives. My motive, their motives. He knows all of the details. My details, their details. He would never in dealing with
that person hurt them too much. I probably would. That's why the Bible
says eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. That's an Old Testament law
because our first gut reaction is you took out one of my teeth,
you're going to get dentures. All of them. You took out one
of my eyes, you're going to be blind
in both of yours. That's human nature. So God says, don't do that. Let me handle that. Therefore, verse 20. "If your enemy is
hungry--" your enemy now-- "if your enemy is
hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty,
give him a drink." Now if you actually do
that, you will blow his mind and probably annoy him. In fact, I'll get
to it, but that's sort of the thought
in the next sentence. "For in so doing, you will
heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good." Now some of you may be sitting
up right now thinking, well, I don't have any enemies. Number 1, if you say that,
you don't have a pulse. [LAUGHTER] Or you're lying
through your teeth. Because we all have enemies. Webster's Dictionary
defines an enemy as one who is antagonistic to another. Got any of those? Yeah, probably a bunch of them. David in Psalm 23
said in his prayer, you prepare a table before me
in the midst of my enemies. The midst of my enemies. Did David have enemies? He was a servant of God. Did David have enemies? Oh, he had tons of them. Goliath was an enemy. The Philistines army
was a group of enemies. The Amalekites were enemies. The Moabites were enemies. The Syrians were enemies. Those are obvious ones. David had not so
obvious enemies. His father-in-law
Saul became an enemy. His own son Absalom
became an enemy. His trusted counselor
Ahitophel became an enemy. And Jesus said, a
man's enemies will be those of his own household. Now why do we have enemies? Well, because we
are human, number 1. But number 2, because
we are Christians. And if you love Christ
with all of your heart, if you follow Him
passionately, if you serve Him enthusiastically,
which means you will be vocal about your love
for Him in this world, it's not going to go well. Paul gave Timothy a promise. All those who live
godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Do you think hell is going
to give you a standing ovation if you're an obedient,
evangelizing child of God? The minute you say, I believe
there's only one way to heaven. I believe you need to
come to Jesus Christ. That's the only way your
sins can be forgiven. When you start being that
narrow-minded and that vocal about who you are
and what you believe, you're not going to
have a sympathetic ear. And Jesus tells us why. For men love darkness
rather than light. It's like when you're
in a dark room, you become accustomed
to the dark room, and somebody turns on a
bright overhead light. You want to cover your eyes
and say, turn that thing off. So when you go into a
situation and you bring Jesus into that situation, people
will cover their eyes to their hearts and say,
turn that thing off. Great persecution is simply the
result of the great commission. Go into all the world
and preach the gospel. So what are we to do? What are we to do when
we garner enemies? When we garner the
scorn of the world? Are we to strike back? That'd be more fun. Are we to hit them harder. Are we to plot ways
to make them crazy? There's an old
Chinese proverb that says if your enemy wrongs
you, buy each of his children a drum. [LAUGHTER] Listen, I'll be the
first to admit it. Vengeance is fun. It is entertaining. It is wholly satisfying. We love it because it feeds
our flesh, our base nature. There was a housekeeper
that worked for a family for decades, and she was
fired by the homeowner without notice. Just go. You're done. Here's your last check. Go away. The housekeeper reached into
her purse, took out a $5 bill, went over to the family dog
and threw it on the floor to the dog. The owner said,
why'd you do that? She said, I never
forget a friend. It's for helping me clean
your dishes all this time. [LAUGHTER] You know why we laugh? Because we like it. [LAUGHTER] Yeah. Vengeance is mine. I'll admit to you,
when I'm driving, I get turned into
another person. I am not good behind a wheel. At least I have a slower
vehicle because, you know, it drives me nuts! It's like, where did all
the stupid people come from? They all moved to Albuquerque
and they're driving. And I'm driving down the road
and they'll get up, cut me off, and then slow down. Oh, I want to follow
them all over town! I've only done it
a couple of times. No, I'm just kidding. [LAUGHTER] Now why should we love that? Why should we forgive that? Why should we feed and
clothe and bless that? I'm glad you asked. I'll give you three
reasons why we should. Number 1, because
Jesus commanded it. Jesus said in the
Sermon on the Mount, you have heard that it was said
you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you
love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who
spitefully use you. Boy, that's so foreign
to our thinking. It is so radical
because it's so unusual. Nobody does that. But Jesus said to do it. He commanded it. Second reason. Not only Jesus commanded
it, Jesus practiced it. He lived it. They hurled insults at him. They beat him up. They put a crown of
thorns on his head. They pinned him to a cross. And when he was
hanging on that cross, did he go, Father, nuke them. Did he turn to
the crowd and say, I'm coming back in three days. I'm going to hunt you down. [LAUGHTER] He said, Father, forgive them. First word out of his mouth. Father, forgive them. They don't know
what they're doing. Peter in describing Jesus
in First Peter chapter 2 wrote, when they hurled insults
at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered,
he made no threats, but he entrusted himself
to him who judges justly. So here's why we should do it. Jesus commanded it. Jesus practiced it. Here's the third reason. People will notice it. When you do that, people
will sit up and notice it because nobody does that. He just blessed him. He just gave me a gift. He was nice to that guy. Nobody does that. People will notice that. That's the gist of verse 20. Look at it once again. Therefore, if your enemy
is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty,
give him to drink. For in so doing, you will heap
coals of fire on his head. What does that mean? It's an illustration. It's a reference to an old
Egyptian custom in antiquity. When a person wanted to
demonstrate public contrition, put a cloth on their head for
insulation, and on the cloth put a little pan of burning
coals to represent burning pain and shame of guilt.
It's like a way of saying, I'm really sorry
about that and I want you to see how sorry I am. That's what all that is about. So what Paul is saying in using
this illustration is when you love your enemy, when you don't
retaliate, when you feed him, when you bless him, we
shame him for his hatred. People are going, man, I was
really rotten to that guy. He was so nice to me. You want an
illustration of that? David and Saul. Saul tried to kill David. Saul hunted David. One day, Saul went into a cave. David was there. Saul didn't know it. David's buddy said, kill him. This is the Lord. God delivered him
into your hands. David said, no. He's the Lord's anointed. I won't touch him. He cut a little piece of
cloth off of his robe. When Saul left, David was on
the other side of the valley. He started waving
that little cloth around saying I
couldn't killed you, but I didn't because
you're God's anointed. I love you. It says when, Saul saw that
and heard that, he wept. And he cried out
to David, saying, you are more righteous than I
am, for you repaid me with good and I repaid you with evil. That's heaping coals
of fire on one's head. Now, we're closing. And I just want to say
something to some who will be able to relate to this. I feel some people,
because they've been hurt, they guard their hearts
so tightly, so much. They don't want to be
hurt anymore by others. They will not give their
love away to anyone, because every time they
do, they get burned. They get hurt. So they build walls
up and they isolate. They're imprisoned. They don't want to
be vulnerable anymore I'll be honest with you. I have had my own heart
broken hundreds of times in public ministry. And every time, God
says, love them again. Be vulnerable again. Again, again, again. That's what we just read. C.S. Lewis in his book The Four
Loves writes, to love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart
will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken. If you want to make sure
of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to
no one, not even to an animal. Wrap it up carefully round with
hobbies and little luxuries. Avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or
coffin of your own selfishness. But in that casket, safe,
dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken. It will become unbreakable. Impenetrable. Irredeemable! The only place outside
of heaven where you can be perfectly safe
from all the dangers of love is hell. It's the worst
prison in the world to be so isolated because people
have trampled on your love. The love of God is still being
poured out into your heart. Receive it afresh and give it
a fresh so that the world goes, man, that guy showed love to
me when I showed hatred to him. They'll notice it. Jesus commanded it. Jesus did it. People will sit up
and take notice. Father, thank you for your love. It is like no other. And that's the love
we can tap into. As an act of will, as
an act of obedience, whether we feel like
it or not, eventually, because we obey you,
we're going to feel it. It's going to feel really good. Even when our hearts
break because they've been trampled on. Because we know at
the end of the day, we have lived to please you. [MUSIC PLAYING] May we be known by our
love to one or another. Our love amidst a hostile
world and our love even among enemies. In Jesus' name, amen. Let's all stand. Hey, we're going
to sing the song. But as we close, I
needed to say something to you at the beginning of
this year as your pastor. I love you. I love you deeply. [APPLAUSE] During my stay in the
hospital and this recovery from back surgery,
I felt so loved and encouraged and
carried, buoyed, really, by your prayers. And I just want you
to hear it from me. I love you. And it's not pizza love. [LAUGHTER] It's the real deal. Let's sing together. How will you put the truths
that you learned into action in your life? Let us know. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
