Alright. Are you ready to get into YAH's Word
today? I am as well. I want you to open your bibles with me to first John chapter 4, we're going to
begin reading with verse 7 and I have a special message today I think you'll find the title
interesting the title is, "The Power of Blessing Your Persecutor." You know Yeshua taught us that
we are to bless those who persecute us and so that's what we're going to talk about today and
as we lay the foundation, we first want to take a look at Elohim's love because His love according
to Scripture is the model that we're to follow. All right so first John chapter 4 starting with
verse 7 says, "Beloved ones let us love one another." Yeah, it's going to be one of those messages, you
know where we just kind of bored down into what it means to love each other, what is the love
of Elohim, how does it play out in our lives, how should we interact with our brothers and
sisters, and this is the first command of the first verse in this message that we are to love
one another and it's not an earthly type of love it's a love that comes from Elohim. Alright it
says, "Because love is of Elohim and everyone who loves has been born of Elohim and knows Elohim
so this is a kind of a litmus test, if you want to find out who really has been born-again, who
really knows Elohim, and look at the lives of people and love ought to be one of the fruit it's
the fruit of the Spirit, is it not? And we ought to be able to see that a person who is truly born
again is loving like Elohim loves. Alright. Verse eight "the one who does not love," Implying does
not love like Elohim. "does not know Elohim for Elohim is love." Elohim is defined by selfless
love, we're going to see that the love of Elohim is defined by an event and that event is Yeshua
dying on the tree for us and for our sins and He humbles Himself, He takes the sin of the world
upon Himself, He suffers on our behalf He dies in our place, He pays our death penalty, He's buried
and raised from the dead and then He tells us that we are to love each other like He has loved us. So
again, a selfless self-sacrificing love that is the love that defines us as believers, as those who
are born again and who know Elohim. "The one who does not love does not know Elohim for Elohim
is love." How does Elohim define Himself in this verse? He defines Himself by a selfless type of
love. "By this the love of Elohim was manifested in us," Or you could say toward us. "that Elohim has
sent His only brought forth Son into the world in order that we might live through Him." So Elohim's
love is selfless, it's a love that is sacrificing and because of the great, selfless, sacrificing
love of Elohim life has been extended to us, so again this is the example that we have there's
no other example of how we're supposed to live. We're supposed to be selfless, we're supposed
to be self-sacrificing, we're supposed to give of ourselves so that others can have life, amen.
So we're benefitting others by our willingness to give of our selves. Verse 10 "In this is love,"
Or this is what true love is. "not that we loved Elohim but that He loved us and sent His Son
to be an atoning offering for our sins." And so the love of Elohim for a lost world is defined by
an event. As a matter of fact, whenever you read in scripture about the love of Elohim for the lost
it's always in the past tense, it's for Elohim so loved the world. It doesn't say, for Elohim so loves
the world, it says, so loved the world. Why is that? Because the awesome unconditional love of Elohim
is defined by an event, it's defined by His Son dying on the tree for each one of us. So that's how
He displayed His awesome love for the world, He sent His Son to die on the tree for us. "In this is
love not that we loved Elohim," Why? Because before He loved us we were not in any condition to meet
any righteous conditions. Think about it, before He loved us before, He died in our place, before He
made available the the Set-apart Spirit were we in any condition to meet any righteous conditions? No, He had to love first and so we see the verse that says we love Him because He first loved us
and that love was an unconditional love and He acted first on our behalf. Alright verse 11. "Beloved
ones, if Elohim so loved us or if He loved us in this way," Here it is. "we also ought to love one
another." In the same way, is the implication. So if He set the bar, if He has given us the example
then we need to be prepared to firstly embrace and grasp and get an understanding of what kind of
love Elohim has and how He has given of Himself through the expression of His Son who took the
sin of the world upon Himself and died in our place so that through belief in Him we might have
life. So the question is, do you think that over a period of a lifetime, following Yeshua, that we
will have opportunities to give of ourselves to selflessly lay down our lives, so to speak, for
the benefit of others? Should not we be prepared for that and realized that that is really
definitive of the walk that we have with Yeshua? Did He not say follow me? Are you excited
about ending up where He ended up? Yes, but do you realize the journey went through the tree? See,
everybody wants the goodies but they don't want to go through the suffering but we're
perfected by our suffering, amen, and when He said follow me, He didn't say follow me in the easy
way, He said follow me the whole way and so we need to be prepared as well. And there are verses,
you'll see that in a moment, there are verses that charge us and say that just as Yeshua gave
His life for the brethren we also ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.
Have you ever gotten to that place that that thought that you'd may at some point be required
to lay down your life for your brother your sister? You know, I tell you, if you ever meditate
on that you'll get over the petty stuff, amen? I mean, if you get to the place where you feel
like by the power of the Spirit you could actually lay down your life for your brother, your sister
in Messiah then that really does do away with a lot of the pettiness that we see, amen? That's love
at a whole new level, can you say amen? Verse twelve "No one has seen Elohim at any time if we love one
another," With self-sacrificing love that gives life to others. "Elohim does stay in us," So He stays in
us if we love the way He loves. Elohim does stay in us it says. "and His love has been perfected in
us," In other words, we reveal Elohim to others by loving them as He loved us. We're an example,
we're letting our light shine. "by this," By loving like He does. "we know that we stay in Him and He
in us because He has given us of His Spirit," Isn't that what the scripture says? We receive the love
of Elohim through the Spirit that's been given to us, amen. So this is a supernatural love, the only
way you can get it is by the Spirit. Again, it's not an earthly love, it's not a humanly love, it goes
way beyond that. We received the love of Elohim when we received His Spirit, and so that's what
this passage tells us. No one has seen Elohim at any time if we love one another, with this kind
of love, Elohim does stay in us and His love has been perfected by this, by loving like He does, we
know that we stay in Him and He in us because He has given us of His Spirit and we have seen and
bear witness that the Father has sent the Son, Savior of the world. "Whoever confesses that Yeshua
is the Son of Elohim Elohim stays in him, and he and Elohim. And we have known and believed the love
that Elohim has for us." What is that love? That He sent His only Son to die in our place. "Elohim
is love and he who stays in love," Or loves like Elohim. "stays in Elohim, and Elohim in him."
This is another one of those litmus tests that we find in the scripture. You want to you want
to know really what your condition is? What your spiritual condition is? Are you loving the way
Elohim loves? Are you prepared to lay down your life for your brother or your sister? These are
heavy things, heavy concepts but it's definitive. We know that those early emissaries, the ones called
apostles, did they not lay down their lives for the believers? And the world was reached with the
Good News of Yeshua because there were those who actually followed these words and lived according
to these words and I realized this is deep stuff and heavy stuff, but it's something that we all
need to consider because it is a litmus test. You know what I mean by that? If you ever, did you
ever study chemistry? The litmus was a little strip of paper that you stuck into a chemical determine
whether it was alkaline or acidic and it tell the story, you didn't know until you stuck the paper in
there and then you knew - and so loving the way Elohim loves tells the story about who
we are. How many of you believe the body Messiah would be a much better place if we started loving
like Elohim loves? And opportunities come our way when we least expect them, the question is, are
you prepared for them? Well I believe we will be. Amen? Verse 17. By this, this act of selfless
love, love has been perfected with us or toward us, "in order that we might have boldness in the
Day of Judgment, because as He is so are we in this world." In other words, we now demonstrate His
love in this world. There is no fear or no terror in love but perfect love casts out fear I cast
out terror because fear holds punishment, and he who fears has not been made perfect in love. In
other words, we don't obey because we're terrified of the death penalty, we obey because we love the
One who paid our death penalty. That is a radical new approach. Under the original covenant, it
was this is what you do and by doing it you prove that you love me and if you don't do it
and there were some things that you could sin against the Almighty unwillingly and you offer
up sacrifice, there were some sins that you know they were sins that didn't lead unto death
but there were many, many prohibitions that had death penalties associated with them, nine out
of the ten words, Ten Commandments, have death penalties associated with it and so people were
terrified of the death penalty. Well fortunately, Yeshua came and paid our death penalty and He
took the death out of the law for believers. So now we obey not because we're terrified, we obey
because we love the One who paid our death penalty and our motive now is love and that terror has
been removed. Now there needs to be the fear of YAH. You know, some people they lose the fear of
YAH, they take a real approach and they forget about the Word and they start you know
trespassing the commandments- nah, you know He'll forgive me, may premeditate their sins and come
back and apologize. You know? There's nothing in scripture that says repentance is an apology, it's
a returning to the Almighty in obedience. Teshuvah means to turn back to Him in obedience
so that's how we repent, we turn back to Him, we embrace Him and His ways and we repent of our
shortcomings of where we've missed the mark. Amen. Verse 19. "We love Him because He first loved
us." There it is. He loved us unconditionally because we were in no condition to meet righteous
conditions. Verse 20 "If someone says I love Elohim and hates his brother, he's a liar. For the one
not loving his brother whom he has seen, how is he able to love Elohim whom he has not seen?" Now
that's wonderful biblical logic. If you cannot love your brother, the one that you've seen and
interacted with, how are you gonna love Elohim whom you've not seen, and Yohanan makes it very
clear here that if you say you love Elohim but you hate your brother you're a liar and in
other passages we find out that hatred of our brothers and sisters equates to murder,
it's spiritual murder that we literally can murder our brother and sister just by mistreating
them, or treating them with hatred, or having ill intent, or some motivation that doesn't line up
with Scripture, and what needs to be taken very seriously is that it's human nature that we fall
into that trap and we slip over into hatred and we slip over we're into thoughts of ill intent,
we meditate on those things and we are very very close to murdering our brother or our
sister when we do that. Alright. Verse 21 "and we have this command from Him that the one loving
Elohim should love his brother too." There's that commandment that I was mentioning a moment
ago that if you say you love Elohim then you need to love your brother as well. Amen. You can't
say you love Elohim and not love your brother so again, what kind of love are we talking about?
A selfless self-sacrificing love that produces benefit for our brothers and sisters, laying down
our lives for our brothers and sisters. John 3:16 and 17 pretty much sums it up. Yeshua was said, "For
Elohim so loved the world that He gave His only brought forth Son," It's giving. Elohim's type
of love is giving and not giving something small, giving your best. It was nothing more valuable
to the Almighty than His only brought forth Son and He gave His best not to a world that would
receive Him and worship Him and follow Him but to a world that would criticize Him, and mock Him,
and beat Him, whip Him, and nailed Him to the tree. Now I'm a human father, a natural father, but I
can't imagine giving any of my children to an angry mob, for any reason, but that's the love of
our Abba - He was looking at the bigger family and fortunately, we have a wonderful Messiah Yeshua
who was willing to lay down His life for us, amen? "For Elohim so loved the world that He gave His
only brought forth Son so that everyone who believes in Him should not perish but possess
everlasting life." In other words, the sacrifice springs life. You know you're loving like
Elohim when your sacrifice brings life, when your sacrifice brings healing to others, when your
sacrifice brings people together and not separates them. "For Elohim did not send His Son into the
world to judge the world but that the world through Him might be saved." Salvation is a part of
His love to save a relationship, to save a family, to save a life. So we see Yeshua displayed the love
of Elohim through His selfless sacrifice for us. We read this in Philippians chapter 2 picking up with
verse 1, it says, "If then there is any encouragement in Messiah," If you can be encouraged in Messiah.
"if any comfort of love," Or if there's any comfort in Messiah's love for us. "if any fellowship of
spirit, if any affection and compassion make my joy complete," This is Sha'ul writing here. "by being
of the same mind," Coming together in the same mind. "having the same," What? "love," What kind of love? The
love of Elohim, been shed abroad in our hearts by the Set-apart Spirit. "one in being and of purpose,"
So we're to come together in being in purpose. "doing none at all through selfishness or
self conceit," Thinking too highly of yourself. "but in humility consider others what better than
yourselves." Now that's definitely supernatural for the human race because we have a tendency to
want to size everybody up based on what we think about ourselves - is that person as good as me? Is
that person less than me? And very few times but maybe occasionally, there's somebody that's
a little better than me - I'm being facetious. All right? But that we have a tendency to judge
others based on our own view of ourselves but this says that we are to consider others better
than ourselves. It says each one should look out not only for his own interest but also for the
interest of others. Isn't that exactly what Yeshua did? I mean He could have gone a different route if He was looking out for His own interest but He was looking out for our interests and when
you look out for the interests of others that dynamic itself will shape the course of your
life. If you want to take a really interesting, challenging, but beautiful and wonderful course of
life then see yourself as someone who's been sent by the Almighty to look out for the interests
of others and see where that takes you. We know where selfishness takes us. You know? Some people
get everything that they want and they're still horribly unhappy because it's not about stuff, is
it? But if you dare to love like Elohim and dare to love like Yeshua and dare to care
about other people and discover the needs of others and be willing to meet those needs you will
go on one incredible, marvelous, wonderful journey and it can start today before you leave this place.
How many of you think there might be somebody that needs some encouragement here or some ministry, and
fortunately, by the Spirit we have gifts. The Spirit of the Father gives us gifts for ministry. Some
people say, well I have the gift of such and such and they limit themselves by saying they just have
that one gift - no, the gifts are given as ministry opportunities, make themselves available. You have
the gift that Abba gives you by the Spirit that relates to the ministry opportunity that's before
you. So if you just say well I just had this one gift that really limits how you can be used. If you
say all of the gifts of the Spirit are available to me based on the need that presents itself
then there's no limitation, amen? That's exciting. Hallelujah. Alright, look at verse 5. "For let this
mind be in you which was also in Messiah Yeshua," People often will say, well I want the mind
of Yeshua, you know, He must have had a really clear mind, I want a clear mind. He must have
must have been really intelligent, I want lots of intelligence. You know, He must have just been
really really sharp, I want that mind - and there's really nothing wrong with saying I want to have
a similar mind as Yahshua, but if you take the context here, what is the mind of Yeshua? It is a
selfless, self-sacrificing mind of service, that's the mind, is everybody so ready to take that
one? You know, why did Yeshua wrap Himself with a towel and wash the feet of the disciples?
Because their feet were dirty and none of the other disciples even bothered, can you imagine?
Maybe He came in last and those disciples have been sitting around for a while waiting on it, they
all have dirty feet. Why? Well there wasn't a slave or somebody of lower status around to do the foot
washing and, you know, I'm too great to wash feet - that's what a lot of them might have been thinking -
so what does Yeshua do? He sets an example. You say, why did He do it? Because they had dirty
feet and it needed to be done, so the greatest one amongst them became the foot washer. So the
question is, are we going to follow Yeshua? If so, we're gonna be washing feet that's where that
leads us to. Amen. Let this mind be in you which was also in Messiah Yeshua. "who being in the form of
Elohim," Or He was the perfect representation of YAH on the earth. "did not regard equality with Elohim
a matter to be grasped," So He wasn't grasping up, He wasn't trying to make Himself equal with Elohim.
What was He doing? He was humbling Himself. Why? Because up in the Kingdom is down, if you want to
be great in the Kingdom you go down, you wash feet. You don't get to start at the top, you start at the
table. You think about Stephen, and some of those other disciples had great ministries and they
were wonderfully prophetic and did miracles and all that, where did Stephen start? Did he start at
the top? No, he started at the table. He was a deacon, he was serving people. So if you want to have a
powerful ministry that Elohim could actually use and have miracles and the like to help people and
to bring people the truth, where do you start? You start at the lowest position. Yeah. Some people
say, well that, cleaning restrooms that's just too low - why did Yeshua humble Himself all the way
down to the position of a slave? Because He was executed as a slave, as a common criminal. Why did
He go all the way to the bottom? Because He didn't want anything to be too low for Him to reach. Once
you've reached the bottom all your ministry's up. There's nothing too low that you're not willing to
do. Man, and that will get you because some people will - I'll do this and I'll do that but that, I'm
not doing that, that's too beneath me - well, Yeshua came and ministered and gave us an example and
there was nothing beneath Him because He took the lowest position. It's like the parable of the guy
that shows up and thinks all that about himself, you know, he came to the wedding and he comes and
he sits down in the front row and you know, the master of the event comes and asked him to head on
back a few rows - that's a wake-up call, is it not? And what did Yeshua say? He said, when you come
into an event like that sit on the back row, why? Because when the master of the event comes along
and sees that you're sitting on the back row then he'll honor your humility and bring you forward.
The first will be last and the last will be first. It all depends on how you position yourself, can
you say amen? So what does the scripture say? It says, if we judge ourselves will not be judged. He says,
humble yourself beneath the mighty hand of YAH and He will exalt you in due season. So you don't
start at the top, you start at the table, you serve to where there's nothing beneath you and if you're
willing to serve where there's nothing beneath you then your master, at some point, will exalt you
and so why would we do that? Because Yeshua did it. We're reading it right here. Let this mind be
in you which was also in Messiah Yeshua who being in the form of Elohim did not regard equality
with Elohim a matter to be grasped, that wasn't His mind but emptied Himself, He humbled Himself,
taking the form of a servant like a slave to the Master. He served YAH to the point of
death on a tree and came to be in the likeness of men, in other words, He was tested in all points
like we are, yet without sin and having been found in fashion as a man, in other words, He was a human
being, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, death even of a stake. A common criminal,
a common criminal. That's the kind of death a common criminal gets. So He lowered Himself to
where there was no one or nothing beneath Him and all His ministry was up, He didn't start at
the top He started at the table He started at the bottom at the lowest place and what happened? We
just talked about it. Let's look at it here. Verse 9 "Elohim therefore," Or because of what He did, the
fact that He sat on the back row in the wedding. The fact that He lowered Himself to the lowest
spot the fact that He was willing to serve like a slave, the fact that He was willing to set an
example of washing feet which is what how slaves did and Yeshua, the Master, did it for His disciples
because none of them would do it. "and having been found in the fashion of many humbled Himself,"
It says. Okay? "and became obedient unto death, death even of a stake. Elohim therefore has highly
exalted Him and given Him not a name but the Name which is above every name that at the name of Yeshua
every knee should bow of those in heaven of those on earth and of those under the earth." In other
words, love has power in three worlds. Service can impact three different worlds. Loving like Elohim can
impact three different worlds heaven earth and under the earth. It says, "and every tongue should confess
that Yeshua Messiah is Master to the esteem of Elohim the Father." So how did He get so high? How
was He highly exalted? Did He labor to get highly exalted? Did He positioned Himself at the top? He
positioned Himself at the lowest position and ministered up from there, and because of that His
willingness to do that, to do what others weren't willing to do, to die a common criminal with the
sin of the world upon Himself, then YAH highly exalted Him and gave Him not a name but the Name,
which is above every name and you only do that when you have the love of YAH in your heart. If
you're thinking I'm a workout formula, yeah, I'm gonna go you know work in children's ministry for
a while, why? Because I want to be highly exalted. You're gonna be working there for a while because
the attitude is not you do what you do so you can be blessed, the attitude is you do what you do
because you want to bless others. Your selfless sacrifice brings life to others just like Yeshua's sacrifice brought life to us, amen? If you get that attitude then the Almighty will exalt
you. Alright. First John chapter 3 starting with verse 14, this tells us that we're to love our
brothers just as Messiah loved us. "We know that we've passed out of death into life because we
love the brothers the one not loving His brother stays in death everyone hating his brothers
a murderer and you know that no murderer has eternal life staying in Him. By this we have
known love because He (Messiah) laid down His life for us and we ought to lay down our lives
for the brothers." Pretty clear there. "But whoever has this world's goods and sees his brother in
need and shuts up his tender affections from him how does the love of Elohim stay in him?
My little children let us not love in word or in tongue but in deed and in truth." Again it's
not about what you say, it's about what you did. We know that Ya'aqob, or James, also talks about this.
He says if you say that that you have belief but not works, he says, your belief is dead and he
talks about someone that comes in that's naked and hungry and someone that's all religious,
you know, religious minded, not service minded. You know they speak words over them, be filled
and clothed go in peace and Ya'aqob says, what what good is that, why not give the person what
they need, the clothing and the food, and be an example of the love of Elohim? So we've got to
be careful because in religion, we see that happening a lot, people just speaking well let
me speak a blessing, why don't you be a blessing, amen. Speaking a blessing simply means that
you're going to say ok I'll do it, what do you need? Now you just spoke a blessing and then
go and do it. Amen. All right quickly, let's go to Leviticus chapter 19 and let's look at a biblical
definition of love from the Torah and you'll see that this passage is where a lot of these
verses that we're reading out of the Apostolic writings come from, this foundation in
Torah. So leviticus 19:9 says, "And when you reap the harvest of your land do not completely reap
the corners of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest," Why? Because YAH cares about
poor people and strangers that are traveling the roads and He knows people are going to
be hungry and have needs so He builds in to this agricultural system that He's allowed for
that you as a farmer, when you harvest your field, you get all of it except for the four
corners and you're supposed to leave it, you just leave it in the field, why? Because poor people
are going to come out, travelers, strangers who were on the roads, they're gonna stop and pluck
some grain, amen. And so He has concern for the poor and for the stranger. Verse 10 "and do
not glean your vineyard or gather every grape of your vineyard leave them for the poor and the
stranger," That is loving your neighbor, having a concern for the poor and the stranger. "I am YAH your
Elohim. Do not steal." Well, if you don't steal from him that's a sign that you're loving him. "do not
lie, do not deceive one another," Again, these are all things that would denote that you are loving
your neighbor by not doing these things to them. "and do not swear falsely by my Name," And so profane
the name of your Elohim, I am YAH. "do not oppress your neighbor or rob him, the wages of him who
is hired is not to remain with you all night until morning." So YAH said, look when you hire
people for a day's wage, you pay them when they're finished with the work, you don't tell them to come
back the next morning and you'll pay them then, why? Because they're going to take that wage,
money, and they're going to go buy food for their family. The Almighty doesn't want that family, those
children, going hungry overnight so He's concerned that they get paid, the workers get paid that very
day. This is an interesting verse, verse 14. "Do not curse to death," Let me ask you this, if you curse
to death you think the death is going to hear you? Don't speak a curse over the death. All right. And what else does it say? "don't put a
stumbling block before the blind," So what's this talking about? Well the deaf is
not going to be able to hear your curse but YAH hears it. The blind persons not going to be
able to see that stumbling block you set in front of him or her but YAH does, so what is the lesson
to be learned? Don't mistreat your brother, don't mistreat your sister. You may think that others
won't see it or maybe you can do something to your brother or your sister that'll benefit you
and they'll never know about it, but it's taking something away from them, doing harm to them and
this just tells us YAH sees everything and He's especially watching out to see if we're gonna love
like He loves because that defines us as a people that we love like He loves. He goes on to say, don't
do that, don't speak a curse over a deaf person or put a stumbling block before the blind, "but fear
your Elohim. I am YAH." Remember, I'm watching. "Do no unrighteousness and right-ruling," In other
words, always rule rightly concerning all people no matter if they're rich or poor, influential
or not. "do not be partial to the poor a favor the face of the great, but rightly rule your neighbor
in righteousness." All right. "Do not go slandering among your people," Do I need to slow down on that
one just a little bit? Do not go slandering among your people. Here's the reality, the more you do for
Elohim, the more opportunity that other people will have to slander you. It's just going to happen.
The reality is it shouldn't happen if you're truly a brother or sister but slander is not on
the one being slandered, slander is on the slanderer and the Torah says, do not go slandering
among your people. "do not stand against the blood of your neighbor." In other words, don't put
your neighbor's life in danger. "I am YAH. Do not hate your brother in your heart," Again, hatred in
your heart without a cause Yeshua said is murder. "reprove your neighbor, for certain, and bear no
sin because of him." That's a little cloudy. In other words, chastise your neighbor for his
sake and do not engage in or hide your eyes from your neighbor's sin. All right so, chastise
him for his sake, for his benefit and don't engage in his sin and don't hide your eyes from your
neighbor's sins. "do not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the children of your people. And you
shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am YAH." So there's the phrase that we're very familiar with
that we read in the Apostolic writings, love your neighbor as yourself, and many people in religion
don't realize that love your neighbor as yourself is actually rooted in the Torah, it's not new. Love
your neighbor as yourself, I am YAH. Yeshua taught us to be peace-makers, okay? In Matthew chapter 5 and
verse 9 Yeshua said, "Blessed are the peace-makers because they shall be called sons of Elohim." Those
who engage in making peace, those who pursue peace, amen, are blessed. "Blessed are those persecuted
for righteousness sake because theirs is the reign of the heavens." And they will persecute you
for righteousness sake and the greater the impact that you're making for the Kingdom the greater
the persecution that arises. It just happens. The thing is, if you're not a slanderer then I would
encourage you also not to receive slander and actually question those who are slandering and
ask them, do these little cups on the side of my head look like trash cans to you? Do you really
think that the Torah allows for me to receive from you this slander? Let me love you by saying
you need to be very, very careful about what you say about other people, especially because the
Torah tells us that those who bear false witness the very pain that a false witness was going
to bring to someone else if that witness was believed. In other words, if you go to lie in court
and your lie brings the death penalty to the person you're lying about then what's the punishment? Once
it's found out that you're bearing false witness what's the punishment to the one who's
bearing false witness? The exact same thing that their lie was going to bring upon someone else.
Now if that law was still in effect there'd be a whole lot less tell bearing, bearing false witness,
slandering, amen? And so I want to encourage you be careful what you say about other people. By the
way, if you're going to be a witness in court your witness needs to be an eyewitness not an ear
witness. In other words, what you're witnessing to is something that you saw yourself with your own
two eyes, not something somebody told you because if you listen to slender or a false witness
and then you turn around and tell somebody else you've just included yourself in that sin, why?
Because you didn't do what the Torah said that the elders were supposed to do, which is to check out
thoroughly whether or not that witness was telling the truth sometimes it's just ear tickling to
hear it and then because wow that's something else, isn't it? You want to tell what you just
discovered some one else and you were told to lie and then you share in that when you go tell
it to somebody else? What I would say to people is, why don't we have greater vision than that?
Why do you have that kind of time on your hands? Do you not have greater vision than that? Why
do you have time to slander someone? Why do you have time to bear false witness, to be a tell
bearer? I think your prayer needs to be, all of us, show me what you want me to be busy about
so I don't have time for all this. Amen. The people that usually don't bear false witness
are people who are busy about the business of the Kingdom. Who has time for it, amen? You know
my prayer is Abba supernaturally bless my day because I know the things that I need to do
when I look at how many hours I had to do it in, I need your help. Well, you know taking half an
hour and slandering somebody's not on the list. Amen? Hallelujah. If you say amen everybody will think we're talking about somebody
that's not here in the room. All right. Verse 11 "Blessed are you when they reproach and
persecute you and falsely say every wicked word against you for my sake," How do you respond to
when people speak evilly of you? Do you go and speak evilly of them? Do you return evil for evil?
Is how that works? Is that what we're taught? So Yeshua says when they speak evil of you
then you should rejoice and be exceedingly glad. Why? Because your reward in the heavens is
great. See, if you can beat down the temptation of the flesh to return evil for evil and go speak
evil against someone that's speaking evil of you and you can just rejoice and know that your
Abba is well able to handle it and then you do the things that we're going to talk about
here in a moment, when your persecutors out speaking against you then you'll find out
that great is your reward. Great is your reward. Abba can handle it a lot better than we can.
"Great is your reward in the heavens for in this way they persecuted the prophets who were before
you. Now this is interesting, because in verse 13 we think that Yeshua changes the subject and now
He's just talking about the salt of the earth a different subject but it's not a different subject.
It's within the same context of when persecutors are speaking evil against you. Now let's read
it in that light. "You are the salt of the earth," You're not going to return evil for evil, you're
not going to lower yourself and speak evilly of people who are speaking evilly of you, you're the
salt of the earth, but in this situation if you start doing what they're doing if the salt becomes
tasteless. how shall it be seasoned? See, again, the context has not changed. It's still how do we act
when we are persecuted? Our greatest temptation is to lose our taste as salt when we're persecuted.
The scripture's implying that if we lose our taste when we're persecuted, how can we get it back?
If we were yet and return evil for evil we've lost our opportunity to demonstrate the love of
Elohim. Our salt has lost its flavor or it's lost its power. Do you remember the sacrifice of Yeshua
and His great love in demonstrating the Father's love had an impact in heaven on earth and under
the earth, and that's the kind of impact we have when we're being persecuted but we don't lose
our salt, we stay flavorful. How are we going to stay flavorful? We don't do what the world does.
People say, well it's hard to know the will of the Father, how can we know the will of the Father?
It's easy, find out what the devil is doing and do the opposite. Everybody can find out what the
devil is doing just turn on the news at night. In other words, set-apartness means don't do
what the world is doing, when your persecutors are coming and speaking all manner of evil against
you don't do it in return. That's what the devil is doing, don't do what the devil does, do what your
Father Elohim has done and is doing love like Yeshua did with a selfless, self-sacrificing love
that takes the lowest position to where there's not anything that's beneath you and love in a way
that costs you everything but benefits the other person completely. Now did Yeshua not say follow
me? So yes, if we follow Him in the humility, in humbling ourselves, in taking the position of the
servant to the point of death, what will happen after that? We'll still follow Yeshua and we'll
be highly exalted and Abba will exalt us in due season and He'll fix the problem. Now does it hurt
while that's happening? Yes. Do you feel like you want to defend yourself? Yes, but I'm going to show
you a scripture here just a moment that tells us that we're not to defend ourselves because Abba
can handle it and He'll do a much better job at it, can you say amen? All right. You're the salt of
the earth, be salt when you're being persecuted. "but if the salt becomes tasteless how shall it be
seasoned? For it is no longer of any use but to be thrown out and to be trodden down by men." And then
you're the light of the world, you're the example of our Father in the earth. "It is impossible for
a city to be hidden on a mountain. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket but on
a lampstand, and it shines to all those in the house. Let your light so shine before men," In other
words, when you're persecuted and treated evilly let your light, the light of the love of Elohim
shine before men even your persecutors, especially your persecutors. "so that they see your good
works," Acting in love according to the scriptures. "and praise your Father who is in the heavens." They
praise your Father because you are loving like Him and they recognize it. Now you've got power. Now
you've got taste. Now you've got light. Now you're impacting the world around you. Now you're postured
to be exalted in due season. Amen. Because you're willing to lay down your life and lay down the
flesh for the benefit of others and when you do that there is only reward for you. Really quickly,
Romans chapter 12 starting with verse 9, this is where we get in to bless those who persecute you. "Let
love be without hypocrisy," Don't say you love but then act a different way. "let love be without
hypocrisy shrink from what is wicked," In other words, don't return evil for evil. "cling to what is
good. Do the right thing in brotherly love tenderly loving towards one another, in appreciation, giving
preference to each other, not idle in duty ardent in spirit serving the Master rejoicing in the
expectancy or in the hope enduring under pressure which will come to us all continuing steadfastly
in prayer imparting to the needs of the set- apart ones pursuing kindness towards strangers." Notice
verse 14. How do you handle persecutors? What do you do when they're speaking evilly against you? "Bless
those who persecute you." You speak a blessing over them. You bless them. Why? Because you're like your
Father, you're like Abba. "Bless those who persecute you. bless and do not curse." In other words, don't go
down the road they're going. If you don't like what that's producing, why would you go down the same
road? Be like your heavenly Father. He gives the reign to the evil as well as the good. Amen. Bless
those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. "Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who
weep. Be of the same mind toward one another do not be proud in mind," That's arrogant. "but go along
with the lowly." With the humble. "do not be wise in your own estimation." Look at verse 17. "Repay
no one evil for evil." Repay no one evil for evil. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not
curse. "If possible, on your part, be at peace with all men." You should pursue peacemaking as Yeshua
taught. "Beloved, do not revenge yourselves," What? Do not revenge yourselves. You could say don't
waste your time defending yourself, you get in a posture of defense and you go around defending
yourselves and what happens then is you often get into the same pattern of speaking evilly against
those who are speaking against you, in defense. You think you're making a defense to someone who needs
to know the truth and so to get there you have to speak evilly of the other party, that's not what
I see in Scripture. You don't go around defending yourself and getting in that pattern of speaking
evilly against others. If possible on your part be at peace with all men, strive for that. "Beloved,
do not revenge yourselves but give place to the wrath forgive that to the Almighty for it's been
written vengeance is mine I shall repay, says YAH." So we don't even get into the attitude of - boy, you
know, so I'm gonna sic the Almighty on them - that's not even the right attitude. You know, go get 'em
Elohim - right? Because Elohim loves them and He has His way of handling things and dealing with
issues. What we rejoice in is simply the Almighty is big enough to handle it and so if we trust that
He will and we give Him that opportunity and we step away, we don't engage, He'll take care of it.
You say, well what about the people they're gonna believe the lie and do something else? I can't deal
with every person that's gonna believe the lie, I would hope people would be more mature. "Do not
revenge yourselves but give place to the wrath. For it has been written, vengeance is mine I shall
repay." I'll handle it, that's the way I see it. I'll handle it, that's what He says to me, let me take
care of it. "Instead if your enemy hungers feed him," What? "if he thirst give him a drink, for in so doing
you shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good." All
right. I have other scriptures but I'm gonna close with this phrase because it's so powerful and I'm
gonna tell you a little personal testimony. "Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good."
There is a force of power that overcomes evil and that force is good, it's not reason, it's not being
a great debater, it's not getting out there and, you know, spreading your side of the story before the
other side gets too far. You know, people go into panic mode when they're being persecuted and
they start their own little campaigns in hopes that their campaign will spread further than the
the other one. You know, thirty years in ministry who has time for that? Who has time for it? So we
overcome evil with good. Now I'm gonna leave you with with one little testimony that I pray will be
a blessing to you. When I first came to the Dallas Fort-Worth area I was invited by a local religious
broadcasting group to host a program once a month for an entire year and so I was a host and it
was something that I enjoyed doing once a month. I would go in, I'd find out who the guests
were, I'd have little interviews before the program and find out what we could talk about it, and then,
I always had a little opener and we'd sit down and then we'd talk about what was going on in that
person's life, or ministry, or whatever was going on in the world and I felt like I was suited for it
and I enjoyed doing it, so a year went by and I had hosted once a month for about a year and there was
a program that came up and they asked me, it was a special program about miracle that took place, a
tremendous miracle that took place, and they wanted me to host program I felt honored that they would
ask me to host a program but I'm different than some as it comes to miracles because of
how I was raised up in an environment of the supernatural. You know, when I hear about a miracle
I say praise YAH, you know, that's awesome and He's still doing miracles today and what He did for
this person He'll do for you and that was kind of the tone of the way I handled it, but it wasn't
what the ministry director wanted. The ministry director wanted tears, and emotion, and drama, and
all of that, which other people could have done that really well, but it's just not me. Me, it's
like, yeah praise YAH, let's do it again, let's believe all of you who are watching by television,
you know, let's pray if you need the Almighty to do something for you - now, that was the approach that I
took, so we finished up the program and during the following week I got a phone call not from the
ministry director, but the person that called me was a support staff and I had been giving of my
time and effort that for that entire year and so, you know, it would have been nice to have heard from,
you know, how it is with the human mind, you think about it been nice to have heard from the person
that you'd served, especially when they're about to fire you, can you so to speak it over a program, and
so they're the assistant called me and said, yeah you just didn't do it right and there just wasn't
enough emotion in it and we just didn't like the way that you hosted that program and so you won't
be allowed to host anymore and that was basically it. So I would like to have been able to have said,
because this was years ago, twenty-something years ago, I would like to be able to tell you that I
just I did everything right, but I didn't. I took offense, I took offense. I thought that they didn't
handle it right, that wasn't the way they should have handled somebody that served them all this
time and I took offense and every time I thought of that that television broadcasting company I
always went negative and whenever I talked to other people about it, you know, it was easy to
say they didn't do me right, they did me wrong, right? That's an easy approach. And so for a number
of months, I took issue. I had a real problem with that and I was in prayer and I was getting really
deep in prayer and really listening to the Spirit and the Almighty started speaking to me about that
issue and I said, you know, I feel really really negative and dark whenever I think about
that situation and those people and it just puts me in a dark place and it's been months now and
that offense has power over me, I'm a slave to that offense because every time I think of it, it drags
me to a place I don't want to go. It drags me into the darkness and it puts me in a wrong spirit
and a wrong attitude and it's easy, then, to talk negatively about people when you're there and so,
I was actually praying and asking, do I need deliverance from this? I need your help, I need deliverance from
this. And a lot of times the way that I hear from the Almighty, it's a conversation of questioning an
answer sometimes. He asked the question and I give the answers and sometimes I ask the question He
gives the answers, but I needed an answer, I needed a solution for this. I said, how do I get set free?
He said, what is the one thing that you would hate to do for this person that you just would not
want to do, the one thing that would make your flesh scream if you did it? I said, this was easy,
send them money. The one thing that my flesh did not want to do was send them money, and so I was
thinking, okay so if I send them money I'll be set free from this, I can do that and then I thought
how much am I going to send, and I thought, you know, I'm gonna tell you the numbers just because I need
to tell you the numbers to get the point across. I thought, I'll send them a hundred dollars, so I'm
about to write a check for a hundred dollars and and I felt like the Spirit said, now how does that
change you on the inside? I thought about it and I thought, yeah it didn't really change me at all, I'm
gonna send them a hundred bucks and I'm still gonna feel bad about this whole thing and so He said,
well you need to give them more money then, and so you know, I started going up in increments from 100
to 500 to 700 to 1,000 and each time the Spirit kept saying, so how do you feel about that on the
inside? And I'm like, yeah, I still feel bad about this whole thing I still have that offense
I'm holding on to it and what I heard from the Almighty was, the power of the good that you want
to do to overcome the evil has to be greater than the power of the evil. And so, I'm not going to tell
you the final figure but I'll tell you it was more than 1,000 dollars that I sent, it was several
thousands of dollars when I finally reached that amount, when I was thinking, I'm about to send
this amount of money to these people that hurt me and offended me, and I held on to that offense for
a long time, for several months and had power over me - when I said, okay I'll send them this
amount and and then I heard, in the Spirit, now how does that make you feel? I busted out loud laughing,
I mean there was a breakthrough in me. I broke out laughing because this was so against what the
flesh wanted, I mean, if the flesh could muster up a hundred dollars - that was about as far as it could
go, right? I got to the place through this exercise that I reached that number several thousands
of dollars that broke the power of that offense off of me and I laughed out loud, I laughed and joy
re-entered into my life and I sat there at my desk after writing that check and I just laughed and I
had so much joy and so much peace. Never again did I ever go to that dark place after that and you
know what's wonderful, is that not too many weeks went by and I got a handwritten letter thanking me
for my gift and I could only imagine what kind of impact it might have had, although that wasn't what
I was thinking. I wasn't thinking, I'm gonna write to check to have an impact on them, I was gonna
write the check to have an impact on me but it had an impact on them. Several years later, I had
an opportunity to speak into the life of the next generation, the son of those who were in charge
of the ministry earlier. I received a prophetic word and I delivered it to that young man who
then went and did what the Spirit was saying and something really supernatural transpired
and the reality was, had I not have dealt with that offense I would have not been posture for
that later ministry, so you never know what you are giving up, what you're being disqualified from
in your future when you won't do the right thing in your present. So the power of the good has to be
greater than the power of the offense, the evil. So you can ask yourself, is what I'm about to do is I
can have any impact on me? Is it going to change me at all or is it okay with my flesh? If it's okay
with your flesh there's not enough power there. It has to be radically against your flesh to where
when you do it it brings so much joy because it's so opposite of what the world would have done and
it's a dagger in the heart of Satan when you do that - and that power, the power of the good, will
set you free from the offense. Amen Hallelujah.
