Apologia Live - Love Your Enemies

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Jeff Durbin preaches on the Kingdom of God - Love your enemies.

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Five, Kingdom of God series, and we are just about through kind of the biggest section that brings difficulties because you need to understand the background, and a lot of times if you've opened up the
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Bible for the first time, let's say you're a new believer and you've just come to the Bible for the first time and you open up Matthew and you're not familiar with the
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Old Testament context, you're not familiar with the verses that Jesus is drawing from, it might be difficult to understand what is happening, what is
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Jesus saying, what is doing, what's the context of this book, and here's what I want to say to start before we read the passage, and you guys open your
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Bibles to get there, or you open your phones to get there, whatever you guys are doing to cheat, I want to say that one of the things that we ought to be doing as Christians is understanding the whole counsel of God.
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Amen? The whole story, the big picture, this is 66 different books and letters written over a period of at least 1 ,500 years by many, many authors, same
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God, same God, and Peter says that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, but holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the
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Holy Spirit, and so the origin of the Scriptures is the Holy Spirit of God. God gave us this revelation, and one of the things that I think is not helpful ultimately is when you have just a simple
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New Testament church. You know what I mean by that? You ever seen people hand out the New Testament kind of Bibles, right, they give you the
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New Testament, and my response is, well, there are plenty of Christian bookstores and Amazon has same -day shipping.
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You should be able to get the whole revelation, amen? You really ought to get the whole thing because a
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New Testament only Bible is a broken sword. It's a broken sword.
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And so what's important for us as you come into Matthew, I want to say there are all of these amazing just jewels right there in the text, but you may not see them and may not understand them fully and allow your heart to be full with just awe toward God.
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If you don't understand that Old Testament revelation. So for example, and I'm going to show you in a minute here,
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Matthew is thinking in Isaiah. So one of the things you can do that would make studying
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Matthew just spectacular is if you spend the time reading the book of Isaiah before you read the book of Matthew.
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Because Matthew is thinking in Isaiah, and there is so much here,
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I'm going to read the text of promise. We sat down two weeks ago and did a little radio show on our back porch, kind of on the fly because we had such a busy week with the event our church was putting on to bring the gospel into the issue of abortion nationwide.
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And we sat down in the back and we did a little radio show, and one of the things that happened is we were just talking about Matthew and we were talking about God and God weaving together this entire story with Jesus.
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And it was just like I had goosebumps running all up and back down my side because it's so utterly glorious.
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And one of the things I said when we were doing this little discussion on the fly, and those are usually the best kinds of discussions with theologians, is
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I said this, I said, atheism is stupid. When you see what
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God has done to carry along his revelation in history and give it to us, and you see what he has done just to weave this whole story together, you see that this is not humanly possible.
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It's not humanly possible to put together the story the way that God has with all the little details hanging there that most people, when they got the revelation, could not have even comprehended.
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And yet when you get to the end of the story and you see that climax, Jesus coming to conquer death to rise again and to bring salvation to his people to the ends of the earth, you see the glory of Jesus, the majesty of Jesus when you see what
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God has done in this revelation. So all I have to say, start reading your Old Testaments.
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Matthew chapter 5, the gospel according to Matthew, Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' section as he begins to unpack the law, we're at the very end actually of that little section.
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I'm going to skip for today because we've touched it a little bit, and I want to make sure that I spend the time unpacking it in a way that glorifies
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God and benefits you. I'm going to skip the first few sections before this, passages, verses, and just get to an important meaty section here for us to dig into.
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Matthew chapter 5, starting at verse 43, hear now the words of the living and true
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God. You've heard that it was said, you shall love 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 sons of your
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Father who is in heaven, for he causes his sun to shine on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
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For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?
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If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?
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Therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father. In God's word, let's pray.
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God, I want to ask you to please bless now your church. Bless us as we get into your word and bless us as we seek to know you.
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Bless us as a church. As we get into your word, I pray that you'd guard us from error. Guard us,
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Lord, from our own traditions. Bless us so that we can know you deeply.
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And I pray, God, for anyone in this room that does not know you as Savior and as Lord. I pray that you would open their eyes even today.
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I pray, Lord Jesus, that we would see your promise come to fruition before our eyes, that you said that you've come down from heaven not to do your will, but the will of him who sent me.
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And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that has been given to me.
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God, guard me and my mouth as I teach. Bless your church.
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In Jesus' name, amen. So this is big, right? Love your neighbors as you love yourself.
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I mean, I think that Jesus, what he's most known for is his love, right?
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I would say when people think about Jesus, even people who are hostile towards Jesus, when they could think about what are some of the things that Jesus said, what did he say?
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And he said, love your neighbor as you love yourself. People catch that from Jesus.
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Think about his entire life. Everything was in sacrifice for the sake of the other. So Jesus is
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God in the flesh. He takes on flesh and he lives in a world that has fallen and is suffering and is broken and he pursues rebels, right?
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He hangs out with the tax collectors and the prostitutes. He hangs out with the people that most of society said are beyond help, beyond hope.
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That's who Jesus is. And even the enemies of Jesus today will quote from Jesus in terms of, well,
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I would say this. What are the verses that say the enemies of Jesus would quote today? They would quote, number one, the very first one off their lips is what?
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Do not judge. This is awesome. Very good. See, we're all together, right? Okay. Don't judge, right?
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Lest you be judged. And they usually haven't even read that. Apparently, in its context, they understand what
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Jesus is saying there. But they know that one and they know you should love your neighbor as you love yourself.
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I think I remember one time seeing one of the famous atheists, right, of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, the new atheists, talking about an ethic that we can all agree to.
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And one of the things they pointed to is, well, Jesus said it, you love your neighbor as you love yourself. Everyone knows Jesus is about love.
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But the Bible goes further than to say that he's just loving. The Bible says that God is what?
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God is love. He is everything that love is in its full expression supposed to do and is supposed to be.
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God takes on flesh, not for the sake of himself. It says in Philippians about Jesus that he was in the very form of God, but he did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or held on to.
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But he emptied himself and he humbled himself and became a servant and he was obedient even until the point of death.
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And you have to ask the question, why? What motivates God to do that for somebody?
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Is it because the people that he comes to chase are worthy? Is it because they deserve it?
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Is it because something in them he saw and he said, I must have that or to make my joy full,
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I need to have that person around me for eternity? No, Jesus, he did really the opposite of what we would expect a just judge to do.
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He goes after the rebels. He goes after the enemies. He goes after the haters of God. People know that God is love.
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As a matter of fact, when people today want to reject God's standards and they say, well, no, not that any longer, they often fall back on that blind sort of peanut butter statements that God is love.
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But love does something and people know that God is love. They can sense it.
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They know in all of creation and in their heart of hearts, they know that God is love. He's not just love.
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He is mercy. He is just. He is holy. He is righteous. But God is love. And the text that Jesus quotes from, you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.
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That text was well known to the Jews in Jesus' day because it's a quotation directly from Leviticus 19.
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The passage is from verses 9 through 18. We're going to get to that in a second. But Jesus quotes the well -known text, you should love your neighbor as you love yourself.
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He goes back to the Old Testament as is often His course to go back to the
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Word of God. When He was in conflict with people in His day in Matthew chapter 7, there was a conflict between the
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Word of God and the traditions that they had held so near and dear to their hearts. They were considered essentially in a way sort of a divine tradition.
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Jews today, many Jews today still think that way and there are other religions that think that way. You have the Word of God and a divine tradition or the
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Word of God and this other set of divine texts right here. But Jesus, when He was in conflict with people in His day,
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He would go back to the Old Testament revelation as the standard, as the final arbiter of truth.
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And so Jesus says to them in Mark 7, Moses says this, but you say that. Their tradition they held to, they couldn't understand why
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Jesus' disciples weren't following their traditions. And Jesus goes back to the Word of God, the standard that's already there, and He says, well,
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God says this, but you say that. And He says, thus you invalidate the Word of God for the sake of your tradition.
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For Jesus, it was what does the Scripture say? Have you not read what was spoken to you by God, Jesus would say.
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Jesus points back to that revelation of God as the standard and basis for all that He was doing and all that He expected us to do.
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And so when you look at this text in Matthew 5, Jesus quotes from the Old Testament. He quotes from the
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Old Testament a couple times here, points them right to it. But then He explains it in a way that was different than they were explaining it.
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So Jesus in this text is doing something that I think is contrary to the way most people see this text today.
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People think that Jesus in this text is saying to the law of God, it's rubbish, that's done, I'm here now, it's over.
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No more harsh God, no more laws, no more of that hard standard. Now we're going to have my new law.
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But if you look at the text itself, what does it say? Go to the text. Look here. Matthew 5, verse 43.
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You should have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. How many of you guys have a modern
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Bible that has, you shall love your neighbor in quotations or in block letters to signal to you that it's a quote, but does not have the other words hate your enemy in quotations or in block quotes?
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How many of you guys have that? Your Bibles do that. Okay. Jesus here in this text quotes from the
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Old Testament in Leviticus 19. You shall love your neighbor. And then it says, and hate your enemy.
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What's interesting here is that as Jesus unpacks the law of God, after saying in Matthew 5, 17 through 19, do not even begin to think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.
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I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. When he goes to this text, he quotes part of the
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Bible and then he quotes something else. Did you know that it was not said in God's word, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
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So Jesus in his day is actually addressing as the perfect lawmaker and law keeper, their mishandling of the
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Bible. So when he deals with their laws about divorce, he confronts it directly.
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They had taken God's word and twisted it about divorce. And so he addresses it and he shows them what the standard is.
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He condemns the way that they were twisting the law of God and he brings in, this is the true meaning of the law of God.
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When it came to murder, right? You shall not murder. And the people of his day were saying, what? Well, I didn't put a knife in anybody.
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I'm not guilty. He says, no, no, no, no. That's not how the law of God works. The law, it begins in your hearts.
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If you're angry with your brother in your hearts, if the hatred is from within, Jesus says you've already committed the act.
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And when it comes to adultery, it's not just the relationship with that person. It's what begins at the very beginning.
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That's where sin has its genesis from within. And so Jesus is the perfect law maker and law keeper is explaining the
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Torah. He's explaining the law of God. And in this case, he actually addresses how they had actually distorted the word of God.
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They said, you shall love your neighbor and what? Hate your enemies. And Jesus goes right to the text to show them what the text means.
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It's really amazing. Watch this. This is so big. And I don't know if you get excited about this like I do, but it really is something that fascinates me.
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We've talked about it before, how in Matthew, Matthew is thinking on Isaiah, right? So if you know Isaiah, you get to see all that he's doing in bringing
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Isaiah in and bringing the themes in. So in Matthew chapter one, you see the genealogies of Jesus.
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Now help me out here real fast. What did the genealogies of Jesus do for us? Establishes his kingship.
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What else? It shows that God is faithful to his covenant. It shows that Jesus is a descendant of who?
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David and Abraham. These are the heavy hitters, right? Abraham, the
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Abrahamic covenant, Genesis chapter 15. Abraham is told that he's going to have a seed that's going to be the one that would bring descendants as big as the stars, as the sand on the seashore.
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There's going to be so many multiple descendants. It's unfathomable. It's incomprehensible. And then
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David is told that he's going to have a descendant that's going to be the king, not over Israel only, but over the whole entire world.
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And so Matthew opens you up now and he says, well, here you go. There's the genealogy. Jesus gets the right, the royal right to the throne.
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The genealogy is Jesus is the king. Jesus is Mashiach. He's the anointed one. And then you move forward and you begin to see in Matthew.
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Go ahead and go with me. Move back for a second so you can see this whole story start to open up. In Matthew chapter one, you now look near the end, starting in verse 18.
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It's the virgin birth of Jesus. And what's the first thing quoted? If you look down in verse 23, behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son and they shall call his name
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Emmanuel, which translated means God with us. That's from what in the Old Testament? I want to know quickly.
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Isaiah 7 .14. Isaiah 7 .14 is an amazing prophecy that talks about Messiah, but he talks about it kind of in two ways.
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There's depth to it. There's a current fulfillment in his day, but then a larger fulfillment that's to come because it's actually
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God who is with us, a virgin born son. And so you see the prophecy.
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Jesus fulfills the prophecy of the Old Testament. And you go again into chapter two, and you see the
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Gentiles are the first ones coming to worship Jesus. And what do they recognize? They recognize that this king is coming and they're coming to give him worship, right?
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And who are the first ones that come looking for Jesus? Is it Jews or Gentiles?
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It's coming to worship the king, which by the way, what do you see in Isaiah? Immediately, Isaiah chapter one talks about the failure of the people of God in that day, how they were not doing justice, how they were in sin.
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And God was saying in Isaiah one, I don't even want your sacrifices. I don't want to hear it because you won't do these things.
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You won't obey my law. And then in Isaiah two, God promises what? That all the nations are going to, what?
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Stream up to the mountain of God. That the law of God is going to go forth from Zion.
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The nations are going to come and then watch Matthew chapter two, Matthew goes, here comes the Gentiles.
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Here come the nations now to worship the king. And then it gets deeper though. You start to see now, this is all unfolding and coming to fulfillment.
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Next, you see in Matthew chapter two, the images of Moses, but yet it's
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Jesus. Because what happens in Matthew chapter two is the king wants
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Jesus head. He wants Jesus dead. And so what happens is now you have this beautiful picture of what happened to Moses.
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Pharaoh wanted Moses dead as a baby. And these people resisted the government of the day and said, we're not going to kill the babies.
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And they protected Moses. Moses escaped death. So here's Moses, this great prophet, and Pharaoh tries to kill him as a child.
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And now you see all of those images coming into Jesus in Matthew two. Who was Moses to the
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Jews? He was the one who gave Torah. He was the prophet of God. He was the one who gave the law of God from Mount what?
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Mount Sinai. And now you have Jesus, the king, fulfilling the promises of the
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Old Testament and now moving into his life. And you've got now somebody trying to kill him as a baby.
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And they escape and Jesus' life is preserved. And so you see Moses there. Then you see something really cool.
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Watch this. Go to Matthew two. Do you have your Bibles? Okay, go to Matthew two. Look at this text. Matthew chapter two.
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And if you look now in verse 13, now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, get up, take the child and his mother and flee to where?
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Egypt. Egypt. And remain there until I tell you for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.
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So where's Jesus? In Egypt. In Egypt. So Joseph got up and took the child and his mother while it was still night and left for Egypt.
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Now watch. This is where it gets amazing and big and you see the fulfillment of Jesus. And he remained there until the death of Herod.
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This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet out of Egypt. I called my son.
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And that was from Hosea 11 one. Now watch.
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Watch. Watch. If you read your Bibles and you don't just take it at face value, if you read your
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Bible and go back to that text in Hosea, who was God talking about in that text?
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Anyone know? Feel free to participate today so I know you're learning. Anyone know who
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God was talking about in Hosea? Israel. So now Matthew takes a text that was in the
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Old Testament about Israel where God called Israel his son and God called
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Israel out of Egypt. And now Matthew takes that text and he places it over Jesus and he says that was really about Jesus.
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That was a foreshadowing of what Jesus ultimately fulfills. Atheists, by the way, atheists who apparently struggle reading their
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Bibles. It's true, right? Dr. White says, he says, apparently being an atheist dramatically impacts your ability to read the
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Bible, right? They'll go to this text and they'll say, well, okay, yeah, there are some prophecies that really look like Jesus, but here's an example of New Testament authors taking a text out of its context to make
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Jesus look like the Messiah, and here's one. Hosea was about Israel. So gotcha.
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But what they don't realize is the entire New Testament shows that the Old Testament was really about Jesus. All the images, the priest, the temple,
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Israel as a people, Adam, everything ultimately was pointing towards the greater Jesus who fulfills all those things.
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And so Matthew says, Jesus, he's in Egypt. This was to fulfill what God said there about Jesus that out of Egypt God would call his son.
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Now watch, it gets deeper. Next, if you move forward now, keep your fingers in your
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Bible now. Now move forward now. What do you see in Matthew chapter three? John the Baptist promised in the
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Old Testament, the very last book of your Old Testament. Just flip over from Matthew to the last book.
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It's very, very short. Read it. You know why? It's all about Jesus.
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It's all about the forerunner coming before Jesus. And now here we go. Matthew chapter three, there's the forerunner.
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And what's he say first thing? It's what they expected. They'd repent for the kingdom of God is at hands, kingdom of heaven at hands.
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Now what happens now? John the Baptist is baptizing people. Who comes, who shows up for the baptism? Jesus shows up for the baptism, right?
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And this is powerful, by the way. This is important for you to get. John the Baptist was a priest, right? He's a son of a priest.
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He's a priest. He baptizes Jesus. I believe that that was him anointing Jesus for ministry because according to the law of God, you had to be anointed by a priest in order to take that office.
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John the Baptist is anointing Jesus. Jesus, it says, here we go, starting in verse 13, then
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Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent him saying,
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I have need to be baptized by you and do you come to me? But Jesus answering said to him, permitted at this time for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.
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Then he permitted him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him.
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And behold, a voice out of the heavens said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased.
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Okay. Moses, almost destroyed as a baby, escapes. Moses, the law giver on Mount Sinai.
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Israel in Egypt and slavery called out of Egypt. Now watch real fast.
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When Israel was in Egypt, when they got out, what was the next big event?
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They got out of Egypt. What was the next big event? They crossed through the
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Red Sea. Right? And then where did they go? Ultimately into the what?
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The wilderness. So Jesus now is that true and great and perfect Israel.
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He's the king. He is the Messiah. He's the son of God called out of Egypt.
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And then what does he do now? He goes into the waters of baptism and he comes out of the waters. And where does he go?
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It says immediately the spirit of God drove Jesus into the what? Wilderness. Do you see now?
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It's Jesus now and he's walking through all the patterns of the Old Testament.
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Everything that God was laying down ahead of time, Jesus fulfills. When someone says,
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I'm Jewish, I don't believe in Jesus. That's crazy because this is straight up, hardcore, pipe hitting
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Jewish completely. It's all Jewish. It's everything Israel anticipated.
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And here's Jesus now coming out of Egypt, going into the waters, coming out of the waters and going into the wilderness and then he does something in the wilderness.
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He does what Adam, our first parent, failed to do. He does what
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Israel, the son of God, failed to do in the wilderness. Adam and Eve were confronted in the garden with a conflict.
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God says this. The serpent says this. And what do they decide? Not to go with what
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God said in his word, but to go with what the deception was of the serpent, to go with their own hearts, the lust, right?
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The desire to go after, it looks good to me. It'll make me wise. I will be the determiner of what is good and evil.
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I will take it. And they broke covenant with God. They didn't obey his word. Israel wanders in the wilderness.
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And what did God say? It's crazy. Have you read it? Have you gone back to read that text about Israel in the wilderness?
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What did God say? He says that the reason he had them wander in the wilderness. The reason why he provided the manna from heaven and that he was feeding them by his grace and his goodness.
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The reason they were wandering wasn't to just be abusive to them. It says specifically that he wanted them to learn to depend upon his word and not the bread alone.
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It was a test. It was a test for the people of God to see if they would actually depend upon his word.
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And Jesus, the true and great and perfect Israel of God, goes into the wilderness and he does what the first Adam failed to do.
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And he does what Israel failed to do. And what does he do? Satan comes with the temptations and Jesus fights him, wrestles him physically.
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He quotes scripture. Scripture. God said to Israel in the wilderness, he said he did that so that they would learn to depend upon his word and not by bread alone.
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And Jesus now confronts him with Satan. He confronts him with the scripture. Satan goes away. Satan comes with temptation, confronts him with the scripture.
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Satan goes away. Each and every time Jesus goes back to the word of God and Satan flees and it's a glorious thing.
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Jesus comes out of that wilderness and he says what? Repent for the kingdom of heaven is what?
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At hand. And it says that he was going forth, healing the sick and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom.
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It's a powerful thing. Jesus is the fulfillment. Then you get into what?
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After the wilderness, after he's proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, this word gets big. Are you ready? Are you ready?
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Yes? Out of the wilderness, now Jesus ascends up a mountain.
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This is called the Sermon on the what? Jesus the perfect Israel. Jesus like Moses almost destroyed.
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Jesus the son of God called out of Egypt. Jesus who goes through the waters of baptism like Israel crossed the
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Red Sea. Jesus going into the wilderness and defeating Satan, doing what Israel failed to do,
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Adam failed to do. And now Jesus ascends this mountain like another famous prophet did.
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Who went up a mountain? Moses. And what did Moses deliver on the mountain? The law of God.
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Now Jesus goes up the mountain and what does he do? He pronounces not curses but blessings.
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The beatitudes, blessed are you, blessed are you, divinely happy are you. The persecuted, the meek, those who are poor in spirit,
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Jesus not giving curses but blessings to his people. And then he says what in Matthew 5, 17 through 19?
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He talks about the law and he says, don't even begin to think that I've come to abolish it. I didn't. And he says this.
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If anybody teaches anybody to break even the least of these commandments, he'll be called what in the kingdom of heaven?
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Least. But whoever does them and teaches them will be called what? Great. And now
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Jesus does what? He goes right to the law. Jesus is the lawgiver, the perfect lawgiver.
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And he fulfills the law and now Jesus unpacks the law. He confronts their misinterpretations.
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He confronts how they were handling his law. He gives us the true understanding of the law and now he goes to a significant part of the law.
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I love that it's last because ultimately it's where everything rests, right?
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Let's do it. Are you ready? Yes? Can you see that I'm excited about this? Yeah? Okay, good.
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All right, here we go. This is a big one. This is a big one. So listen, if you missed everything I said through the Sermon on the Mount regarding the law of God, I hope today it opens it all up.
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You'll get it all. I love that it's last. Here we go. Jesus says, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
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Again, first point. That verse doesn't exist in the Bible. The first part does, not the second part.
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They had learned to take Gentiles and see them as the enemies, as hostile, as strangers, as other, and they began to see themselves as more holy.
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They forgot that the reason why they were the people of God is because God loved them. He was gracious to them.
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What was in Israel that drew God to them? Was it their works?
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Was it their faithfulness? Come on. Was it something good in them? It was his grace.
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When he starts giving the law, what does he say? I'm the Lord, your God, who delivered you out of Egypt. What does he start with? Redemption.
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I did it. I'm your God. And he gives his law. It's a powerful thing. They said, well, that's an enemy of God and my enemy, so I shall love my neighbor and hate my enemies.
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And Jesus says what? He destroys it. He destroys it by telling them to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them.
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But I want you to see what he quotes from, because this is big, especially today, especially today in 21st century
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America, especially today with 21st century evangelicalism. This is important.
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It's big. You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself. Amen? We think today that love is this just simply emotional, gooey kind of response where we just sort of are gushy with people, right?
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Or we say it's love when I don't say anything. It's love when I don't confront.
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It's love when I'm not really discerning. It's love if I just speak really sweet and nice to people.
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You know what I'm saying, y 'all? I'm channeling somebody right now, okay? We think that that's love.
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Super white teeth, big old smiles, and just all grace, right? But love does something.
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In the Bible, love is descriptive of something that you do, not something you feel.
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Come on, married people, amen? All you young people, you will understand.
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Love is something you do. It's not something you simply feel. Are there emotions attached to love?
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Yes. Can you be romantic and you can be emotional? Of course. We all feel that, but that's just something that happens as a result of love being done.
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Love is something you do. Proof? The text Jesus quotes from Leviticus is descriptive of what it means to love your neighbor, and I want you to see it.
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So go there. Leviticus 19. How many of you guys spend a lot of time in Leviticus? Come on now, give me an amen.
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Come on now. Leviticus. Leviticus. By the way, really important, when you get your
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Bible, all of it is precious, all of it is pure, every word of God is true, but I would not recommend just opening your
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Bible and starting in Leviticus. A lot has happened since then, and I would say you need to understand
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Jesus and what he's accomplished in order to understand Leviticus. So, Leviticus 19, and let's start together, if you get to your
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Bibles, Leviticus 19. I want you to start in verse nine. Nine, okay?
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This is before what Jesus quotes from. So you ready? Leviticus chapter nine.
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This is the really awful, mean -spirited, grotesque law of God, as some people like to feel about it today.
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This is that really mean -spirited law, okay?
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Now when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest, nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard.
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You shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the
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Lord your God. You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another.
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You shall not swear falsely by my name, so as to profane the name of your
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God. I am the Lord. You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. The wages of a hired man are not to remain with you all night until morning.
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You shall not curse a deaf man, nor place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall revere your
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God. I am the Lord. See that? That's crazy, right? How you treat somebody else is descriptive of how much you revere
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God, the connected. You shall do no injustice in judgment.
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You shall not be partial to the poor, nor defer to the great, but you are to judge your neighbor fairly.
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You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor.
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I am the Lord. You shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your hearts. You may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him.
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See that? Wasn't that big, right? You can confront, but don't sin. He says, you shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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I am the Lord. Notice that every time God goes to how to love somebody, he reminds you who is speaking.
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I'm the Lord. I'm the Lord. Why do you do this? Because it's coming from me. I'm the
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Lord. You love your neighbor out of reverence for me. Notice something. When Leviticus says, love your neighbor as you love yourself, it's all specifically in the context of things that you are to do or not do to your neighbor.
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Did you catch that? Love does something. Love works. The law of God is all about one word.
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What is it? Love. Come on now. What's it about? Love. Jesus said, love
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God, love neighbor. The law of God summarizes what it means to love God and love your neighbor.
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In the very text where it says to you to love your neighbor, it says what you are supposed to do to love them.
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And it's a powerful thing to note that in the very text Jesus quotes from that they had added words to, that text in its context talks all about what you are to do to others.
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And what else does it say? I want you to see it with your own eyes. Go to the text, Leviticus 19, and look what it says.
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It says in verse 15, you shall do no injustice in judgment, nor you shall not be partial to the poor, nor defer to the great, but you shall be able to judge your neighbor fairly.
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You shall not go about as a slanderer among your people, and you are not to act against the life of your neighbor. I am the
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Lord. You shall not hate your fellow countrymen in your heart. You may surely reprove your neighbor, but you shall not incur sin because of him.
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You shall not take vengeance. In the very same text, the same passage talks about how you are supposed to handle even the stranger.
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And they had taken the law of God and said it works like this, love neighbor, hate your enemy. And Jesus demolishes it.
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He destroys it. Jesus shows us how the law really is. Matthew chapter 5, again,
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Jesus says in verse 17 to 19, he didn't come to destroy it, but to fulfill it. He teaches us what the law really means.
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And I want to show you the foundation. Go back to Matthew. Be ready to go to Matthew 5, I'll show you Matthew 19.
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In Matthew 19, Jesus, sorry, Matthew 22. In Matthew chapter 22,
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Jesus has a famous moment. Now, if you've read the Bible for any period of time, you know this famous scene.
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This is a popular one. This is one of those red letter moments that everyone goes to. In Matthew chapter 22,
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Jesus is talking more about the law and he does so in verses 35 through 40. So go there, 35 through 40, and watch.
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He does this discussion about the law with somebody who knows. And in verse 35, one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question, testing him, teacher, which is the great commandment in the law?
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And he said to him, these are Jesus' words now. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your minds.
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This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets. So here's the thing.
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Everything in the law is dependent upon the foundation that you love
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God and love your neighbor. What, did you catch it? Did you catch it when I said? I quoted from the portion where it talks about what you were to do to your neighbor and it does so, you're to do so out of reverence for God.
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So loving God and loving neighbor work together and the law of God is built upon love for God, love for neighbor.
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Everything, watch. You shall not steal. That's about loving God and loving neighbor because stealing lies about God's character and stealing destroys your neighbor, right?
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You shall not lie. Well, how does that have to do with God and neighbor?
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Well, because when you lie as an image bearer of God, you are lying and distorting what
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God's character truly is because what does the Bible say? It says God cannot what? God cannot lie.
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He doesn't walk that way. He doesn't live that way. And so when the Bible says you shall not lie, it's because God is not a liar.
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You're to love God and not lie. And then lying to your neighbor destroys your neighbor.
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Falsehood destroys your neighbor. Love God, love neighbor. That's how the law works. But here's an important one
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I think all of us can grab hold of and get right away because it's unpacked by Paul. So go to Romans quickly,
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Romans 13, and this is one you should have highlighted in your Bible if you like to write in your Bibles. I do.
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Romans 13. Look at Paul talk about the law and go to verse eight. Are you there? Romans 13.
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Start at verse eight, guys. Oh, nothing to anyone except to love one another.
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For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For this, you should not commit adultery.
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You should not murder. You should not steal. You should not covet. And if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.
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Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.
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There it is. So here's the thing. Something to learn from this just that we can grow in all of us and share.
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When somebody today speaks about the law of God in a harsh way, in a degrading way, know this.
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To abandon God's law is fundamentally to abandon love.
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That's it. Paul says so. All these commandments, they're summed up in this.
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Love your neighbor as you love yourself. Love is the fulfilling of the law. That's the powerful part of the law of God.
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That's what Paul says when he talks about people who are dead in their sins and trespasses. God has saved and then
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God now indwells them and he renews them and he's shaping them. He now says the law is within us.
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He points to the Old Testament, Old Covenant context, the spirit of God empowering us and now we can do now in the
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New Covenant as saved people what we couldn't do under the Old Covenant because now we're indwelt by God's spirit and empowered by God to love.
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Now here's the thing. If somebody walks in darkness and they don't obey the law of God, it means that they don't have
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God present within them and they couldn't possibly understand God because to hate God's law is to not love your neighbor.
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Did you catch that? You got to grab hold of that. If we hate God's law, we do not love our neighbor and if we don't love our neighbor, we haven't met love.
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We don't know him. That's the important part of the New Covenant transformation that takes place is
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God loves us. He rescues us. He indwells us. He empowers us to do what?
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To obey strict standards and to do a bunch of stuff. No, he empowers us to love, to love him and to love our neighbor.
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How about this? Hate your enemy. They had added that context.
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Love your neighbor. Hate your enemy. And Jesus says what? No. Love your enemy.
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Pray for those who persecute you. Do good to them. But notice something. Hate your enemy?
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Is that really something they should have gathered from the Old Testament that God would call you to hate all your enemies?
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Well, if you've seen Leviticus 19, you see that God commands against it. But here's a big one.
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I want you to see it with your own eyes so that you have it connected. Go to Proverbs 25, 21.
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Proverbs 25, 21. Proverbs 25, 21 says, if your enemy is hungry, give him a slap in his mouth.
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No? What's it say? If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat.
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If he is thirsty, give him water to drink. For you will keep burning coals on his head and the
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Lord will reward you. Here's what's awesome. Are you ready for this? Jesus is love incarnate.
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Now, get ready. Jesus is wisdom incarnate.
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How Jesus walks and lives is the way that wisdom walks and lives.
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Listen, wisdom to a Jew was not simply knowledge of stuff like you know things in your head.
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Wisdom to a Jew was skill in living. Skill in living. How do I live righteously and godly?
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And Jesus is the embodiment of wisdom. And so when Jesus speaks and when he interacts and as he loves people, all you see is wisdom with flesh on it.
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And so when Jesus talks about how to treat your enemies, he does so in the context of how wisdom walks in the world.
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Isn't that spectacular? It's crazy. It's just wild to examine Jesus' life and to see the way he touches people and he loves people.
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How Jesus acts with his enemies is crazy. Because here, watch this. This is what boggled my mind this week when
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I meditated on this. People who were Jesus' enemies, though they were enemies, people even that betrayed
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Jesus, somehow were able to still interact with him. He still welcomed them.
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They could still ask questions. He still talked to them. He still tried to reach them. Jesus spoke to them.
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Jesus confronted them. Jesus was loving even to his enemies. And here's a big one. Watch. This is what got me this week as I prayed and meditated on this.
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Judas. Did Jesus know Judas was going to betray him? Yes. It says he was the son of perdition.
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It was predestined by God that God would give Judas what he wanted. And that was his depraved mind, and he would turn
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Jesus over. So Jesus knew the entire time that Judas was going to betray him, that Judas was working against him.
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What was Judas doing with a ministry account? He was stealing from the ministry.
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They would get money people had given so they could serve and be on their mission, and Judas took it.
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He was working against Jesus the whole time. And here's the crazy thing. Do we get anything from the text that would show us that Judas didn't feel loved by Jesus?
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The whole time, Jesus knew that he was working against him. He was ultimately his enemy. Jesus knew that he was stealing from him.
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Jesus knew that he was a liar. Jesus knew he was going to betray him, and there's nothing in the text at all that shows or intimates in any way that Judas didn't feel loved by Jesus, or that Jesus wasn't loving to him and gracious to him, that Jesus wasn't respectful to him, and he knew he was an enemy.
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He knew he was turning him over because Jesus at the table even says to him, what you must do, do quickly.
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He gave him permission to betray him, and he still was gracious to him. Judas still wanted to hang out with Jesus.
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He still wanted to be a part of it. He didn't treat him like an enemy. And so Jesus is the embodiment of wisdom and love.
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Now, I want you to see this because it's big. Okay. I was trying to think of what's the best place to hang that's going to make the most impact on me first, and then our church second.
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Watch. Matthew 5. I'll let you get there because I want us to do it together.
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I'm reading from the NASB, by the way. Jesus says in verse 44, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven.
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For he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
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Here's what's powerful. Jesus connects, watch, he connects how we love our enemies and pray for our enemies to us being called sons of God.
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And in what context? He says this, God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust.
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He causes the sun to shine, not just on Christians. The sun shines every day for unbelievers everywhere.
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Unbelievers sit on beaches where the waves overwhelm them with awe.
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I have a family member who is a hardcore militant atheist, and her husband is a hardcore militant atheist, and they love the ocean.
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They love to just stand and stare at it, and they love to just get lost in it because it's so awesome.
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My wife and I love to stand and stare at the ocean for like forever because it's so overwhelming and it just should ignite within you just worship and awe.
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Here's the thing, watch this. There are unbelievers today on vacation, and they are sitting on beaches with oceans pouring in.
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They're having the sun just shine down on them. They are feeling the cool breeze. They're enjoying a meal.
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There are unbelievers who are getting all this goodness from God, all this goodness from God. Every second is
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God pouring forth speech into their life. He's just talking to them in every moment, in every delicious meal, in every bill paid, in every time there's new, there's gas to put in the car, every time there's water to put into their bellies, everything is goodness from God.
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Every child that he blesses an unbeliever with, when that child comes out with the perfect little fingers and eyes and toes, and they feel that love and that awe over that baby, every little bit of that is
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God loving the unjust. And Jesus says, you are to be sons and daughters of God in this way.
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You are to love your enemies as you love yourself. You're to pray for those who persecute you. You are to be like God is to his enemies, or you're not sons and daughters of God.
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And so what's powerful is Jesus says, love your enemies, sons of God.
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Love your enemies the way God does. That's what the
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Bible says. By the way, you need to talk about it. You need to say it. Let's talk about the elephant in the room for a second, right?
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What does the Bible say about me? It doesn't say that I'm sick. It doesn't say that I'm just a little crooked.
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It doesn't say that I'm just wounded a bit spiritually. The Bible says, Ephesians chapter two,
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I am dead in my sins and trespasses. We, before Jesus gets a hold of us, are dead in our sins and trespasses.
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Romans chapter one, keep your finger in Matthew five, I want you to see it so you can see the glory of God's love for his people.
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In Romans chapter one, famous passage, I guess it's kind of a foundation passage for this church because we talk about the gospel so much in light of it.
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Watch with me. Go here. I want you to see it. Romans one. Are you there? We there? We together, everyone?
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Yes? Romans one. Go here. Romans chapter one, after it talks about God gives people over to a depraved sexuality, it says this, verse 28, and just as they did not see fit to acknowledge
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God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice.
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They are gossips, hate God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful, and although they know the ordinance of God that those who practice those things are worthy of death, they not only do the same but also give hearty approval to those who practice them.
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Here's the deal. How many of you guys can see yourself in that text? Come on.
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Every one of us are in this text somewhere, somewhere. But here's the part.
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Ready? Getting a hold of this. It says this, haters of God. That's why it just boggles my mind when we have people that talk about, well, they're a real seeker, right?
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People talk about seeker -sensitive churches and that person's a real seeker. They're really seeking after God. I don't think so.
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The Bible says that we are insolent, haughty, haters of God.
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It says that we are dead in our sins and trespasses. In Romans chapter 3, it says what? It says there is none who seeks for God.
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And you might say, but it looks like they're starting to come around and that's not because of them. If they're coming around and they believe it's because God loves them and He's drawing them, amen?
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But we've got to understand the context. What's true of me? Enemy of God, hater of God, rebellious against God, that's who
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I am in the core of my being apart from Jesus saving me. I'm not there anymore.
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I'm not there anymore. I'm forgiven and joined to Christ and washed. But before Christ, my life's context is rebellion, right?
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And what's it say in Isaiah 53? My favorite passage in the whole entire Bible. The whole thing is glorious. Talking about Jesus, it says
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He's pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, the chastening for our well -being fell upon Him and by His wounds we are healed.
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And it says what? He was counted among the rebels. Who's the rebels?
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Well, I think that day at the cross there were rebels next to Him, but I think it's bigger than that. He was counted among the rebels.
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He was counted as though He were one of us. And what are we? Rebels. That's me.
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That's you. But there's more. If you go to Romans 5, watch this. It just gets deeper and deeper.
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You think like Paul's like, if I didn't get you in chapter 1, I'll get you in chapter 5. Chapter 5,
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Romans 5, look what it says. Chapter 5, verse 1, therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our
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Lord Jesus Christ through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exult in hope of the glory of God.
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Not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance proven character and proven character hope and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the
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Holy Spirit who was given to us. Here we go. Are you ready? Watch this. Count with me. Ready? In verse 6, for while we were still, what's the word?
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Weak or helpless. At the right time Christ died for the what? Ungodly.
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Ungodly. For one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man someone would dare even to die, but God demonstrates his own love towards us in the while we were yet what?
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Sinners. Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him for if while we were what?
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Enemies. Did you catch that? So what was it so far? It was helpless, ungodly, sinners, enemies.
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Gotcha. That's us. And so when Jesus, go back to Matthew 5 now, when
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Jesus tells you, you are to love your neighbor as you love yourself, love your neighbor, pray for your enemy, those who persecute you, do good to those who are out to get you, ultimately
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Jesus is teaching you, you love them, you pray for them because God to his enemies causes the rain to fall and the just and the unjust and the sun to rise, but a bigger context of the whole
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Bible is this, all those sons of God, all those daughters of God, everybody who's a child of God was once a what of God?
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Enemy of God, hater of God, sinner, helpless, ungodly, that's us, and what was
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God towards you? Merciful. What was he towards you? Loving.
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Loving. How could we ever say, how's it possible for someone to name the name of Jesus Christ and to say that they embrace the one who's the embodiment of love?
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How's it possible for you to hate your enemies? How's it possible for you not to give love and mercy to somebody who longs for it?
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How's it possible? If you've pled before God your own sin and your own need for him and you won't give that love and mercy and grace to another,
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I would say this, you don't know God, stop pretending. It's not possible for us to name the name of Christ and not love our enemies.
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But there's a bigger thing I think we need to grab hold of, and I want you to see it and we're done.
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If you love those, verse 46, that love you, what reward do you have?
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Do not even the tax collectors do the same. Tax collectors, by the way, in this context are the scum of society, right?
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They're the lowest of the low. They're the worst of the worst. They're the ones who extort the people of God and hook up with Rome to do so.
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They abuse their power and they hurt people, and Jesus is using now the worst possible example for them, tax collectors.
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Same thing today, by the way, but it's just the same. These people over here, look, even the scum, even they love people who love them back, and Jesus is saying, what reward do you have if you do what the worst of the worst do?
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Everybody loves people who love them back. How do you show you're a son of God?
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How do you show that you've met love, that he resides within you? If you only love the people who love you back, and this is tough, because it goes more, if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?
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Do not even the Gentiles do the same. Another example, they saw the Gentiles as forbidden, as dirty, they called them dogs, and they separated them from the people of Israel who were holy, and Jesus uses them now as an example.
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If I didn't get you a tax collector, I'd get you with the Gentiles. What is special about your life if you love people that love you back only?
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They do the same thing, and what's special about your life, if you're a Christian, and you give greetings to people who are in your clique, what's special about you as a
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Christian if you greet people who are in your little holy huddle? What's special about you if you only love people who are like you, like the things you like, part of your crew and your clique, what's special?
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What's meaningful about your relationship with God as a son or a daughter if you act like the unbelievers?
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They love people who love them back, and they only like to greet people who are part of their community, their little clique, their little faction.
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And Jesus says, what reward do you have? Even they do that. What's special about you? How can you say that you know
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God if you act like the unbelievers when it comes to loving enemies, greeting people that only meet your standards, that are part of your family, your little crew?
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There's nothing special. Guys, this is big. The church is supposed to pour out into the world in each other's lives something that's different.
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It's supposed to be different. We're supposed to have a love and affection and an action -doing kind of thing to others around us that the world can't even match because they don't know
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Him. They're not empowered by Him. They don't have His Word. We're supposed to live with each other in community in such a way that it displays to everybody something is different God's there.
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Our churches should be filled with community groups that are with black people and white people and Arabic people,
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Asian people. There should be communities that are so different because we don't only greet people that are our brothers and we don't only love people who love us back.
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We look for the other. We look for the one who is stranger, who is different, and we treat them differently.
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Amen? Our churches should not be black -only churches. That's an abomination.
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Our churches should not only be white -only churches. That's an abomination. Our churches should not only be
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Jewish -only churches. That's an abomination. We shouldn't have little groups within our communities with people that really just like the stuff that we like and are into the things that we are into because what's special about our love for people who are just like us?
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Why is that meaningful? Why does that say anything about God? That you love people that are just like you, that like the things that you like?
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How does that make you any different than the world? That's how they are. What did Jesus do?
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Did Jesus show that he was different? Jesus did everything the opposite.
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Jesus hooked up with Gentiles, loved them. Jesus hooked up with prostitutes, loved them.
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Hooked up with tax collectors, loved them. He went after the people that everybody else said no good, and he grabbed hold of them, and he loved them, and he touched them.
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And so what business do I have claiming to say that I love
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God and I'm his son if I can't love my enemies and if I can't love people who are not like me?
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Is it hard? Yeah, it's hard. It's hard to hook up with people who aren't like you.
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It's hard to love people that aren't like you, and that's the point. Because love does something, it's not just a feeling, amen?
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If you think love is just simply an emotion and a feeling, it's something that should make you feel good, you won't reach outside of your community, you won't love your enemies because you're out for yourself, because you're looking for that feeling of love.
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Love does something. First Corinthians 13, give me some. Love is what? Patient.
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Love is patient. Love is kind. Love is long -suffering. Love hopes what?
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All things. Love believes. Love never fails. Love does something.
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That's the difference. And so here's the thing. You ask yourself the question, do I only love people who love me back?
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Do I only love people who are like my brothers in my community? How do you feel about Muslims?
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When you see a Muslim on television, is your first thought, bomb them?
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When you see a Muslim on television, is your first thought something other than they need
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Christ? When you see a liberal politician, by the way, freeze.
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I'm not saying you can't confront, you know. You know. But when you see a liberal politician on television, is the only thing you think about them is how much you despise them?
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Or are you praying for those who persecute you? How do you feel when you meet a
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Mormon? I've had people tell me, well, those Mormons believe in a false God. So when they come to my door,
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I slam it in their face. I was outside the Mormon temple years ago, and I think
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Luke was with me. This was the craziest experience of my life. I was talking to a Mormon. I'm trying to love him, and I'm trying to talk to him and be gracious, and I'm pouring into their life, and I'm just like trying to love him and show him
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I love him and trying to reach him with the scriptures. And there's another guy right here claiming to be a Christian, and I went to shake the
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Mormon's hand and just tell him, thank you so much for talking to me tonight. I really appreciate it. I want to get to know you. And the Mormon goes, well,
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I really appreciate that. Thank you for being so gracious. And he goes to reach over to the other guy's hand, the guy who said he was a
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Christian, and the guy said, I don't shake the hands of non -believers. I had to work real hard on my sanctification in that moment.
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And so I said, I'm sorry, excuse me. And then in front of him, the Mormon, I went right into this
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Christian, and I condemned him for his lack of love. I condemned him for his distorting the scriptures.
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He was like, I'm not going to give him the right hand of fellowship. I said, that's not what that means. They're not even talking about that.
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You need to work on your exegesis and your love, both, okay? Two things that are wrong with you right now.
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And I said, I am so sorry for the way this guy just treated you, and I don't want you to think Christians behave that way, and that we put up with it.
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I don't tolerate it, and I think it's despicable, and this man needs to go home and read his Bible. Shame on you.
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And he was just like, but someone you see that is different and not part of your brothers, how do you treat him?
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How do you love him? People that aren't part of your clique, they don't like the things that you like. How do you treat strangers?
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How do you treat strangers? How do you treat aliens the way that Fox News tells you to treat them?
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How do you treat factions, hipster Christians?
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Admittedly, they're weird, right? But do you welcome them? Do you greet them? They're not like you.
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How do you treat rednecks? Do you welcome them?
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Do you greet them? Are they part of your clique? How do you treat black people?
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Do you love them, welcome them? Are they not part of your clique? How do you treat white people,
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Arab people, Armenians? How do you treat the psalmist -only Christians that only worship with the
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Psalms? Do you greet them, welcome them, and they part of your crew? How do you treat Sabbatarians that are very strict about Sunday and how they do things on Sunday?
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How do you treat them? How do you welcome them into your community? How do you welcome them into your life? How do you treat people who are part of the head covering movement or people who are not part of the head covering movement?
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Do you welcome them? Do you love them? Or do you stay in your clique? How do you treat people who are privy to contemporary worship?
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How do you treat people who are protective of traditional worship? Or do you love them? Do you reach out to them?
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Or do you only greet people who are part of your brothers? It's really easy to see how you love people consistently, ready, hang on, by simply looking around you.
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Who's around you? Is it people that look, is it people who are into the same things that you're in, is it people who are part of your clique?
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Or do you find yourself reaching outside of your community, outside of your circle to love the enemy, to love the one who is not like you, the one who doesn't even love you back?
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If you want to be sons and daughters of God, children of God, and show it to the world, you have to have the same love that God has for His enemies.
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He chases them, and He does for them what they could never do for themselves, and He does for them what they do not deserve.
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And that's our response. Last thing. What do we say? I can't love my enemy. They don't what?
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Deserve it. No, take a step back, and you look at yourself, and you look up at God, and you ask the question,
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God pursued me. Before the world began, He determined to save me, and He did everything necessary to do it.
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And in my own life, when I trusted in Jesus, He granted me repentance and faith. He brought me to Himself in the whole way
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I was fighting. That's the love of God. And that, watch, this is big.
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Jesus says at the end of it, now watch, I hope this blows your mind.
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He says, you must be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.
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Now, how do the cults abuse that passage? They do it every single time out of the gate.
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When they want to earn their way to heaven and think they can somehow satisfy God through their good deeds, what do they always quote every time?
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Pull up any of our videos on evangelism with Mormons. What do they always quote? God says you must be perfect even as your heavenly
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Father is perfect. This is big. What's that context? It's about loving your enemy, loving people who don't love you back.
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You must be perfect like God is perfect in His love. Jesus is saying you need to be perfect as your
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Father is perfect in the context of what? Loving your enemies, loving people that do not love you back.
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If you want to be perfect like God in heaven is perfect, it's not a list of do's and don'ts and commandments and ways that you make yourself look nice on the outside.
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It's specifically in this, love. If you love, you will be like God.
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Let's pray. Father, I pray you bless the message that went out for your glory. Help us to understand your word, to know you deeply.
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God, convict us of our sins. Even now,
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God, I pray that you would meet everyone in here in a place where they need to be touched. God, I can't see into the hearts and minds of everyone here, and all
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I can do is ask you to help. Please convict us, challenge us, free us to bring you praise.