Strength Through Weakness Matthew 5:38-42

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Whenever one wrongs us in some way, there is a tremendous temptation to respond in anger.
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Another way to say it is to pursue payback. The sinful nature which resides in each of us knows no other way other than to respond by repaying one for the harm done to you.
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You hear people say, you hit me and I will hit you back. You hit me with sewer treatment and I will respond with you by going to the sewer because that is what you deserve.
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What we must understand is that our world sees retaliation as a noble thing.
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As an action performed by one who is strong in order to even the score.
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But our culture has it wrong. And we should not borrow it from them and think that it's somehow righteous to respond with retaliation.
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Most of the time, when one wrongs us, we should not respond, but rather take it.
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And this is so hard to do. This is what Solomon said in Proverbs 26, verse 4.
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He said, Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest you be like him yourself.
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But then he writes in the next verse to make this confusing. He says, Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.
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Did you get that? Sounds like he's contradicting himself. But of course, the
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Bible never contradicts itself. So we need to ask, what in the world is he saying here? I think what
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Solomon is saying is most of the time, let a fool be a fool and do not respond.
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It's not worth the time of day because what happens when you respond to a fool is that it gives them credibility to even engage in such a conversation.
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But then in the following verse, he says there are times when it is appropriate to respond.
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But those times are not as frequent and one needs wisdom to know when to respond.
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You cannot let the fool go with no response forever, but let the responses be few.
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So as a rule, we should not join the foolish in the sewer. And when this happens, the foolish may think that they are strong and the one who does not respond is weak.
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But in fact, the opposite is true. To take whatever trash one might throw at you, whether through word or deed, without responding, is to show an enormous amount of strength, even though the watching world will look on and see weakness.
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As Jesus preaches the Sermon on the Mount, He touches on the topic of retaliation. And He agrees with what
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Solomon says. As a rule, do not respond, but take whatever is thrown your way.
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And we will see why He can say this and how in the end, those followers of Him who live a life of non -retaliation will be vindicated in the end.
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So this time, I encourage you to turn in a Bible with me to Matthew 5.
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We'll be looking at verses 38 -42. If you're using a red
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Bible in the pews, it's on page 963. This sermon is titled,
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Strength Through Weakness. And we will begin by reading this text together.
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You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil.
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But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
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And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
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And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
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This is what the sermon is calling you to do today. It's calling you to resist the temptation to retaliate.
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That's our big idea. Resist the temptation to retaliate. And we're going to see four areas in our lives where this might come up.
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And these four areas come right from the words of Jesus. And I will introduce those as we go into the sermon here.
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Let me give you a little recap of last week's sermon before we jump into our text today. We're always coming from somewhere and then going to somewhere next week.
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In fact, it was two weeks ago because I wasn't here last week. Two weeks ago, we looked at verses 33 -37 of Matthew 5 where Jesus preached on oaths.
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What we learned then is that we are to please God by having a trustworthy mouth.
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What we saw is that this is accomplished in two ways. By refusing to be a person known for swearing falsely and aiming to be known as a person of your word.
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The God that we worship always tells the truth and we must be those who are of the truth and not falsehood.
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There are some people's word you can never trust since they have proved themselves unreliable.
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On the other hand, others do have a trustworthy mouth, largely speaking. And I say largely speaking because no one this side of heaven reaches perfection.
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Every Christian should be known as one who has a track record of keeping one's word.
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As we have seen since we started the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus covers many topics. And the topic today, like all of them, is something that we need to hear.
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And I think especially considering the times that we live in, the topic of retaliation is something we need to know.
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What in the world do we do in this crazy world that we live in? And thankfully, the
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Bible gives us an answer like it does for everything to live the life of faith.
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So let's begin with verse 38. We already read the text, but I'm going to zero in on verse 38.
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We're going to take this verse by verse. So Jesus said, you have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.
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Throughout the Sermon on the Mount, as we have seen, Jesus has been correcting the false understanding of the
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Old Testament and the false teachings of the Jewish leaders of His day. The rabbis of His time, they were the ones who taught the people.
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And Jesus comes on the scene and what He's telling these people is they got it wrong. This is what the
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Old Testament really says. They inserted their own understanding on the text and they didn't pull from it what it really said.
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These Jewish leaders, they had a tradition that contradicted the Old Testament. But as we saw two weeks ago, in some of these sections,
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Jesus quotes the Old Testament passage, not correcting it, but He sets the stage for what
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He wants to address. And this is what Jesus is doing here. He's not correcting, but He's setting the stage.
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And He sets the stage by quoting from Exodus 21 -25.
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And that was the passage that I read in the call to worship this morning. And let me read that again.
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When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine.
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But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.
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Now the law gives the example here of two men fighting. As they fight, they run into a pregnant woman who because of the force is forced to give birth early.
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Harm had been done. But if the baby is not harmed, then the text says that the man shall pay a fine for the trouble caused.
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So that would be a light sentence here. Just a fine. That's it. However, if there is harm done to the child, then the punishment is more severe.
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This is why the law said life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc. Now, we should take this literally, obviously.
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If someone does it wrong, you don't take their tooth out or burn them or whatever it might be.
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You don't take their eye out. What this passage describes is the degrees of punishment based on the crime committed.
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What Scripture teaches is that if one takes a life, then the murderer's life should be taken.
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So yes, the Bible does support the death penalty. That's a big debate in our world.
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But Scripture does support it. If you take a life through premeditated murder, then your life should be taken.
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That's the appropriate measure of justice. Scripture also teaches about manslaughter in Deuteronomy 4 .42.
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And what the text tells us is that the guilty party would be protected from the family of the loved one wanting to accuse the man of premeditated murder.
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He would be sent to a city. In fact, they were called sanctuary cities. And what that meant in the
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Bible means something completely different than what is used today in our world. He would be sent to a city to be protected from receiving a punishment greater than the crime that he or she committed.
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So what Scripture teaches is that severe crimes mean severe punishment, while lesser crimes mean a lesser punishment.
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As we think about it, this topic is very relevant as we think about the
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George Floyd case. And by the way, whenever we're talking about the George Floyd case, it's a very sensitive subject, and I understand that.
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But it doesn't mean we shouldn't talk about it. And obviously, if you say something that someone doesn't like, you're in danger of getting backlash, severe backlash.
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But what I'm going to say here is I'm going to say as carefully and as biblically accurate as I can, and I leave it up to the
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Lord. He is my judge for everything that we say. So this case has received a ton of attention, and everyone has an opinion about it.
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People are rightly calling for justice, as there should be justice since George Floyd was wrongly killed.
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And that's universal, right? Everyone agrees with that. It's obvious that he was wrongly killed on the streets of Minneapolis.
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However, what we also see going on is an attitude of revenge coming from people who are very angry.
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And there is righteous anger, but if you don't control your righteous anger, what happens is sinful anger comes from that.
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And what sinful anger leads to is irrational conclusions. Justice is biblical, but revenge is not.
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I've heard people say that Derek Chauvin, the man who committed this crime, should be charged with first degree murder.
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Maybe you've heard people say that too. In Minnesota, this would mean life in prison. In other states, this would mean the death penalty.
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First degree murder means that what he did was premeditated. In other words, he planned to take his life when he went to work that day.
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To say that is to say a lot. And people need to be careful. Wisdom is to be slow in judgment, not quick.
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His side of the story needs to be heard before people rush to judgment.
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All the facts need to be out there to make the proper judgment, and to say that should not be controversial.
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There is a big difference between manslaughter and premeditated murder. And my concern is that people are saying he is worthy of the most severe punishment even before all the facts are known.
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We must also think of the other three cops involved. I've seen people in the world, and even Christians, say these men who did not stop
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Derek Chauvin from putting his knee on George Floyd's neck should also be charged with a very severe punishment.
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Something along the lines of accessory to murder. What we must understand is that two of these cops, did you know this?
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This is their first week on the job. These are rookie cops.
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And if you go through the academy, I've heard people say this who are reliable. What they say is they teach you to follow the experienced officer, the one who's in charge.
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And this is what they were doing. Derek Chauvin was a 19 -year veteran. And two of these cops, this was their first week on the job.
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Should there not be a consideration of grace shown to these two rookie cops?
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It's not popular to say that, but imagine if this was your son who was on his first week on the job.
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You would want someone to say that, would you not? And it could have been your son who was on the job.
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Now as Christians, we should pray for the proper justice to be applied to Derek Chauvin for the crime he committed against George Floyd.
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But it is not virtuous to get the pitchforks out before the man has a fair trial.
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Nor is it virtuous to treat the other three cops like they are the greatest villains in the world. They could have done better, yes, they could have done better.
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But in a lot of ways, they were in the wrong place at the wrong time, following the wrong man.
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We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. If God forbid we ever did something as bad as that, we would want others to get all the facts before they reach conclusions.
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And as Christians who live under the Word of God, we should always desire to have the proper measure of justice applied, whatever that is.
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If it's premeditated murder, the highest sentence. If it's manslaughter, then it'll be many years in prison.
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But they're not the same thing. We are to love our neighbors.
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Even when someone commits a crime, we are to love them. And our society has gotten the pitchforks out, and even
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Christians have. And that is shameful. True justice is the appropriate punishment applied, not excess punishment.
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So Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount affirms that proper justice be applied to the crime when
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He says, life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Now the focus that Jesus has in verse 38 is civil authority.
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It has society as a whole in mind, and the government that rules over society.
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The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 13 -4 that He, which is the government, is
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God's servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for He does not bear the sword in vain, for He is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out
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God's wrath on the wrongdoer. So Jesus in the
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Sermon on the Mount here, in these verses, in verses 38 -42, He starts with corporate punishment for crimes committed, but then
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He moves to the personal, which is the crux of the matter, which is really what He wants to get after here.
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So He's using this as a springboard to get to what do we do when someone wrongs us personally?
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So He just dealt with society. This is what the court of law does, but what do we do? Do we take things into our own hands?
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Or do we leave it up to the authorities to give the proper measure of justice?
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So this is where we are. And we have four areas, as I mentioned, in our lives where we need to resist the temptation to retaliate.
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And the first area is when you receive a personal insult. That's the point number one.
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When you receive a personal insult. Verse 39. Let me read this again.
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Jesus says, I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
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And you don't have to be a Christian to have maybe heard this saying before. People say it's in society in the mainstream.
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And as I already mentioned, what Jesus is talking about here is the personal side of things. If someone goes after you personally, do not retaliate yourself.
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Do not bring justice upon yourself. Leave it to the proper authorities if what the person did to you violates the law of the land.
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But in so many cases, it doesn't violate the law of the land. And so that's the question that Jesus is answering here.
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Jesus gives the picture here of someone slapping you on the cheek. And then telling the person, you know what?
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You slapped this cheek? Well, slap this one now. And what
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He says here is so uncommon that it's so bizarre.
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Why in the world would you not respond right away and slap the person right back?
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Now it is important to mention here that we are taught in Scripture to defend ourselves if we or our families are at risk.
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Exodus 22 verse 2 tells us, if a thief is found breaking in and is struck so that he dies, there shall be no blood guilt for him.
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One of my friends who lives in Minneapolis, my friend Scott, he's been to this church before. When all of the riots were taking place, they were taking place very close to his house.
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And he has a wife and two kids. And I called him when it was in the heat of it. When everything was very intense.
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And what he told me, he said, my family is locked upstairs and I'm sleeping on the couch tonight with my gun loaded.
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Because he was saying, if someone walks into my house, then I will defend my family.
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And Scripture tells us we should do such. We should defend ourselves if we or our family is at risk.
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And when I say at risk, I mean serious risk. There's serious harm that could happen.
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Now, there are times when you can't defend yourself. And this is where Christians down through history have been martyred.
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They are put before an unlawful court or overtaken by a mob and they die for their faith in Christ.
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But self -defense and being martyred for the faith are not what
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Jesus is talking about in this passage. What Jesus is forbidding here is personal revenge.
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He is commanding those who would follow Him not to get even with someone who has wronged you.
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What Jesus specifically addresses in verse 39 is when one disrespects you in some way.
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This may be spitting on your face, calling you names, slandering your name.
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And it might even be light physical contact like shoving or slapping you on the face like the example
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He gives here where self -defense would not apply. In fact, Mark and I were talking about this the other day.
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If you are at serious risk for your life or even serious injury, that is when self -defense is appropriate.
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But if it's an insult, if it's a light slap on the wrist, that is what
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Jesus is talking about here. He's saying do not respond because if you respond, it's revenge.
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If it's self -defense, it's not revenge. You're just protecting yourself. And I think here, the primary focus of this passage is that this is a treatment that comes from your enemies.
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The people that you don't like. I say this because the following passage, the one we'll look at next week, focuses on how to treat your enemies.
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And one bounces right off the other. But we can also apply this when a loved one treats you poorly.
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This happens. And in those cases, we should not aim to get even with them also. If a loved one says something bad to you, you don't need to respond by saying something bad in return.
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Just take it. You don't need to get even. To receive harsh treatment hurts a lot.
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And every part of us is going to want to respond in revenge. But Jesus tells us don't do it.
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He tells us to turn the other cheek. And we very much need to hear this passage in the world we live in right now.
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Look at the landscape of our country. There are insults, name -calling, attacks on people's character, and we should not join the hostility.
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2 Corinthians 10 .5 tells us that we destroy arguments, not people.
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Arguments. Horrible ideas that insult the name of God. That's what we destroy.
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We don't destroy people. It is our calling as followers of Christ to engage in a respectful manner as well.
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The ones who do it right are those who speak the truth and do it with gentleness and respect. In the men's group yesterday, we talked about this.
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And even those who may largely agree with you politically often argue in such a way where it resembles retaliation.
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And frankly, it is retaliation instead of respectfully pointing out the folly of disastrous ideas.
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There are some guys that I listen to and they say the same thing. The content is the same. But I'm thinking this guy does it in an honorable way and this guy doesn't.
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I don't like listening to the guy who does it in an insulting way and laughs at his opponents. We need to treat people with respect.
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These are God's image bearers. And we need to treat them as such. 1
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Peter 3 .15 says, Always be prepared to give an answer for the hope that you have, but do it with gentleness and respect.
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We should do our part to follow Christ in this area and do what is right from which our country will benefit if people see our example.
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What we should not do is descend to the sewer of society where one looks for revenge rather than respectfully showing the folly of unbiblical ideas.
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Most of the time, we should treat another with respect even if we are treated poorly. And I say most of the time because we are given permission in Scripture not to treat
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Satan and his demons with respect or even false teachers.
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Those who blaspheme the name of Christ. According to 2 John 10 -11, anyone who is a teacher and teaches
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Christ falsely should not be greeted or welcomed into your home. This does not mean bash the person excessively, but it does mean warn others about this toxic false teacher.
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And it's interesting too, in the New Testament, Jesus calls Herod a fox.
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And sometimes people say, well, Jesus called someone a fox. That means I can use insulting words toward others. But Jesus was a prophet.
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And only prophets, the apostles of the New Testament and Christ and the prophets of the
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Old Testament, only prophets could publicly call someone an insulting name and have it be okay.
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Exodus 22 verse 28 says, You shall not revile God, nor curse a ruler of your people.
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Nor should we. So what Scripture teaches is that only on rare occasions would we not treat someone with respect and that is consigned to two groups.
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Satan and his demons and false teachers. Jesus says later in our passage next week in Matthew 5 .44,
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to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. How different this is from the world.
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When others attack your dignity, everything in us wants to fight back. And yet Jesus tells us not to retaliate, but to turn the other cheek.
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So what we have seen in verse 39 is that Jesus tells us not to retaliate. But there are three other areas where you might be tempted to retaliate.
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The second area we might be tempted to retaliate is when you cross the line legally.
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In other words, when you do something illegal and you're caught for it, you might respond this way.
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Verse 40, And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well.
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Now a tunic in the first century was a full body undergarment. The cloak was worn over the garments.
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And what Jesus is saying is if someone rightfully sues you, and the key word is rightfully, if they rightfully sue you, then let them have what they want.
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Let me give you an example of where this could happen to a Christian. I went for a run with a friend at William O 'Brien
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State Park across the river down by Scandia a while back. And the friend who
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I ran with told me to park in the south entrance. And so I did. And after my run,
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I got to my car and I saw this little slip of paper in the window. And so I grabbed the slip of paper and I see here that they say you need to pay the cost for how much it is to park here and if you don't, you will receive a citation.
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And at this time, and you have to understand, when this was going on, this is when all the riots were happening and people were burning down buildings and everything.
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And I'm thinking, so the law applies to me? This is a place
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I'm probably never going to go to again. And I get this silly little notice saying
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I need to pay $7 and if I don't, I'm going to get a ticket for this. A parking ticket.
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And it's interesting, I was studying this passage that week when this took place. I guess how much
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I had to pay. It was $7. That's it. No big deal. And so I paid it.
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And what Jesus says here is even if it's petty, even if you cross the line legally, you need to pay.
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The state's park rule is that everyone needs a pass and I am not exempt to that rule even if I go there once in my life and I'm there for a handful of minutes and I leave.
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We should be willing to pay more if need be for the wrong we have done. This shows love on our part that we want to go above and beyond to make up for the wrong we have committed.
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In hindsight, I probably should have paid more than $7 if I was being fully obedient to this verse.
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Now if someone wrongly sues you, that is a different story. If someone wrongly sues you, then you have the right to defend yourself.
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But in these cases, and I think what Jesus has mostly in mind here, is if we do something so petty, if you get caught speeding, you should pay the tickets.
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Maybe even give them a tip. That's what He's telling us here. We don't want to be the shame of society or shame on the name of Christ because we fight petty things.
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And how often do we do that? We say, you know what? This is no big deal. Why do I really need to do this?
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As Christians, we should be the most law -abiding citizens that there are. So, refuse the temptation to retaliate.
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The second area is when you cross the line legally. And you may have noticed the first point is really long today, and the next three points are very short.
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I know it's warm, so just so you know that. The third area we are to refuse the temptation to retaliate is when your
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God -given freedoms are taken away. So, this is going to hit us very hard as Americans.
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This is our birthright. Freedom. Verse 41, Jesus says, And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles.
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In the Roman Empire, in the first century, there was a Roman law that said a soldier could have a civilian carry his pack for a mile.
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This was to help relieve soldiers when they were in battle. But this law became abused when
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Roman soldiers were having citizens carry their pack outside of combat.
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But what Jesus is telling His Jewish listeners who lived in Roman territory is to do it anyway and don't retaliate.
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Do not make a big fuss. As long as they are not making you sin, go along with it.
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What's the big deal? This shows up in the New Testament with Simon of Cyrene.
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When Jesus was going towards Golgotha, the soldiers told
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Simon of Cyrene to do what? Carry the cross of Christ.
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And Simon of Cyrene, what did he do? He faithfully listened. And he obeyed the words of Jesus as we see in verse 41.
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What this law in the Roman Empire did was take the liberty of citizens away. Now liberty is a good thing in a nation.
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And we know this as Americans. Liberty is the birthright of our country.
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We are the land of the free. And this verse is very relevant to what we just went through during COVID -19.
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It probably was unconstitutional for state governments to not allow churches to meet for the length of time that was mandated.
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In America, we have the law that gives us separation of church and state.
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The control the government has over government jobs and even private businesses, they do not have over churches.
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However, we decided to obey what the government said.
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And in the process, we sacrificed our liberty. Once the government said we could meet, then we resumed.
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And what we experienced during that time was a societal shutdown. And I'll admit that it appeared there were agendas being pushed.
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There were people who liked the fact that churches were not able to meet.
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They don't like the First Amendment. And so this was an opportunity to say, well, let's let these people not meet for maybe a little bit longer.
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I think there were probably people out there like that. But it was not the time to rebel against the government authorities and say, no, we're not going to listen to you.
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We're going to start meeting. It was not the time. Now, Acts 529 says that we should obey
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God rather than men. But that passage was clearly persecution. If our society singled out churches and said you guys can't meet or you guys can't preach the
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Gospel, you know what? We're not listening to that. We would meet. And even if there were severe consequences, we would still meet.
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And so I think Christ was pleased with how we and other churches handled this as we did not meet, as the text tells us.
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We gave up our liberty and the world looks on and sees that Christians are not unruly and rebellious people.
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We submit to the authorities that God has put over us.
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We are willing to lose our liberties to shine brighter for Christ in our communities. As one author notes, in so doing, we are obedient to our
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Lord and testify to His righteousness, knowing that in Him we have a dearer freedom that the world cannot take from us.
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Namely, the freedom that we have in Christ. That He has set us free. And we are free from our bondage to sin forever.
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And so, we should follow the example of Simon of Cyrene when he carried the cross of Christ.
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Was it a bogus law in the first century that the Roman authorities had these people just carry their stuff because they were lazy?
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Yes, it was a bogus law. But Jesus is saying, if they make you go one mile, go with them two.
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And frankly, we have experienced some things that I would describe as pretty bogus. But it doesn't reach the level where we are being completely singled out.
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And it's interesting, I think the government was getting close to that point. Especially in Minnesota, when businesses were allowed to have 50 people, but churches were only allowed to have 10.
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It's like, okay, it looks like we're being really singled out here. In those cases, it's time to have a conversation.
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Well, should we meet? But in Wisconsin, we were never at that point. And thankfully, we can meet now.
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And what a blessing that is. So, refuse the temptation to retaliate. And the third area is when your
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God -given freedoms are taken away. And here's the fourth and final area this morning where we must refuse the temptation to retaliate.
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And that is, when you are faced with relinquishing personal property. Verse 42.
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This is what Jesus says, Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.
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So, in a similar fashion, Jesus mentions property rights here. And it is true that we have personal rights to property.
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In the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20, 17, it tells us that one shall not steal.
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And the Ten Commandments also tell us that one shall not covet. And what those imply is that there is personal property that is good for the world to have.
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But what we must understand as Christians, and this is what I pray every week when we do our morning offering, the
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Lord owns the cattle on a thousand hills. He owns everything that we have.
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That's from Psalm 50, verse 10. And since everything that we have is His, then we should be generous with what
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He has given us. Jesus commands us to be generous with our personal property. And specifically what
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He mentions here are those who are in need. The beggar described in this passage is not the lazy person.
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There are times when it is right not to give to someone. This is when the person can provide for themselves.
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They are able, but they are too lazy to do so. As 2 Thessalonians 3 .10
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says, the one who does not work shall not eat. However, there are times when people are truly in need and they need help.
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And in those times, we should be generous. I love what Mark says.
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This is a quote I heard from him. We should give people a hand up and not a hand out.
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Big difference there. Last summer, Brianna had an expensive procedure to help with headaches and dizziness and different ailments that she has.
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And the church generously helped us out during that time. And that would be an example of a hand up. And we are very grateful for the help that this church gave us.
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And over this last year, we also set up a benevolent fund for this church to help those who are truly in need.
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And we did that because it's our aim to be obedient to Christ and to obey a verse just like this.
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Now, if we are selfish and say about our personal property that this is mine, then we are disobedient.
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God calls us to be good stewards of what He has given us. Generous people are not selfish people.
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So we wrongly retaliate to one in need by telling them no and saying to them, you know what, this is my personal property.
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This is rightly mine. If someone is truly in need, you know what God is telling you? Well, you know what, it's mine and you should be giving it to this person because you're supposed to be a good steward of what
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I have given you. And everyone here in this room who is generous, and I know many of you are, knows the joy of generosity.
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Jesus said in Acts 20 .35, it is more blessed to give than to receive. And the word blessed means happy.
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It's more happy to give than to receive. Brianne and I were watching a video that went viral.
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Maybe you saw this. There was this family that wanted to bless the pizza delivery guy. And so he came in and they had a bunch of cups.
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They had about 20 cups with bills under them. And under each cup was a different bill. So some of them had $1 bills.
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Some of them had $20. Some of them had $100 bills. And he was able to turn over four of them.
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So I'm thinking, if this guy gets four $1 bills, that would really be a bad deal. But he got a lot of money.
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And as he was walking away, they were like, you know what? We're going to give you all of them. And so they played the game with him.
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But then they gave him every bill that they had. And you could see the joy on the faces of the people who were doing this exercise and who were generous to this delivery guy.
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And the guy was in tears. It was such a sweet picture. Do not deny yourself of that by being selfish.
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There's so much joy in being generous. And I think a lot of times too, when we think about those who are in need, and I think we do this in order to justify ourselves, in order to be tight with our personal property, what we do is we say, you know what?
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They really could help themselves. And like I said, in some cases, it's obvious that they can help themselves. But in some cases, we don't know.
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And in those cases, God is telling us, you know what? Leave it up to Me. They may have the wrong motives, but you don't know that.
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Still be generous. We should always aim for that and not have this tight grip on our possessions and say these are mine.
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So Jesus says here, do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. Do not retaliate by saying, no, this is mine, not yours.
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Okay, so here's a summary of our sermon today. What we have seen is that we are to refuse the temptation to retaliate.
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And we have seen four areas in our lives this morning. When you receive a personal insult.
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When you cross the line legally and it's petty, but you should pay for it. When your
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God -given freedoms are taken away. And when you are faced with relinquishing personal property.
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As I mentioned in the introduction, it takes strength not to retaliate. To resist takes strength and the strength comes from the
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Holy Spirit. It's fitting that some of my college friends, we're friends now.
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We didn't know each other that well in college, but Seth and Kristen are here today. And we went to Crown together and I had a roommate when
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I was at Crown that really got under my nerves. I'll be honest with you. I had two roommates.
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One of them, we got along fine. The other one, he got under my nerves. And we had some people who lived across the hall.
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And a lot of things he did, he was insulting me and doing things like that.
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And it wasn't just annoyances. He was attacking me. And I would get so angry.
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And an older roommate across the hall said to me, he's like, Seth, be the bigger man. And as I was preparing the sermon,
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I was like, that's good. Be the bigger man, right? You're going to look like you were defeated if you don't respond, right?
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This person wins, right? I look like the weak one. I didn't respond. I didn't retaliate. Because we think that strength is
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I need to get back. But really, strength is I don't need to get back. And we can say this because God is a
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God of justice. He will right every wrong. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 12 and 19, to never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine.
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I will repay, says the Lord. When we don't retaliate, what we are saying is,
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Lord, I trust You. I trust You that in the end, You will make this right. And I don't need to be the one to make this right.
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That is up to You. God is all knowing and He's all powerful. And He will make it right in the end.
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Every wrong is righted either at the cross of Jesus Christ when He pays the penalty for our sins, or in hell forever.
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Those are the two places. And we must leave it up to God to right every wrong. And when we don't retaliate, this shows our deep reverence and our trust in the
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Lord. And our world most often does not live this way. We live in a world of retaliation.
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And yet, Jesus calls us in John 17 to be in the world, but not of the world. We need to be different.
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We will stand out like a sore thumb when we live this way.
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And so not only does it show our trust in God when we live this way, but the world looks on and says,
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I've never seen anything like that. This person was just insulted. I'm going to close with this final quick story here.
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There was a church in New York. Grace Baptist Church in New York where all these people, there was a mob that was coming upon them.
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And the men formed a human wall. And the women and children went inside the church for protection.
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And they stood their ground. And the people were spitting on them, blowing horns, and uttering all kinds of insults at them.
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And they didn't fight back. They just stood their ground. And they just took it. What an example.
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What a Christ -like example. So if that ever happens to our church, that's what we must do. We must not retaliate unless it leads to the point where our lives are at risk.
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But otherwise, we take it and we leave it up to God to make it right in the end. And may God be glorified through our witness in this world.
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Now next Sunday, we will look at how we treat our enemies, which will piggyback off of what we looked at today with retaliation.
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Let's pray. Father in Heaven, what a wonderful God You are that You make everything right in the end.
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And we don't have to be the ones to do so, Lord. You want us to be the bigger men, to be the bigger women, or boy or girl, when we are faced with insults of any kind.
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And so may we do that, Lord. May we live this out. May we not retaliate. May we turn the other cheek.
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May we pay, Lord, whatever might seem so petty.
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May we give up our God -given freedoms. And may we be generous with our personal property.
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Not judging the motives of others, but being generous with what we have. And so help us fill this out,
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Lord. We can't do this on our own. We need the help of Your Holy Spirit. And so may He give us this help this day.