00:00Hello everyone, my name is William Chambers. It is good to be here with you all today with people that
00:05love to hear the Word of God.
00:07That being said, today we're going to talk about love your enemies even when it hurts.
00:15Oh, I got a lot to talk about today, so I'm going to have to move fast. This is a
00:18massive topic.
00:19So we all know that hurt people, hurt people, it becomes a vicious cycle.
00:25But Jesus introduces a power that stops this cycle.
00:31And it's not revenge, it's not avoidance, but it is love.
00:38And not just any kind of love, but love of our enemies.
00:44But I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you,
00:52and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.
00:58This is a radical command from Jesus to love your enemies.
01:05This text is telling us that love is a choice and not a feeling.
01:12It is the decision and an act of goodwill.
01:17This text tells us to love our enemies, which forbids us to go after revenge on our enemies.
01:25It forbids us to have quiet satisfaction when we feel that our enemies are suffering or doing bad.
01:31Now this text defines loving our enemy in four ways.
01:35So we don't have to guess at what that is.
01:38Oh, let's look at this.
01:39It tells us four things to do.
01:41It says, bless them that curse you.
01:44It's telling us how we should respond to their words.
01:48When somebody curses you, they're cursing you with their mouth.
01:51This text, meaning that they're verbally attacking you or they're lying on you in some way.
01:55They're insulting you or misrepresenting you in some way.
01:59This text tells us that when people speak harm towards us, that's what a curse is.
02:05When they curse us, we are to speak good to them.
02:09We are to bless them when they are cursing us.
02:12So if they're speaking bad against me, I speak good against them.
02:15So the text is defining it even further.
02:17It says, do good to them that hate you.
02:20This is going deeper.
02:22This is going away from words.
02:24Now going to attitudes.
02:25This is how we should respond to their attitude of hate towards us.
02:31When they hate you, we are to respond kindly.
02:36Do good to them that hate you.
02:40Meaning my attitude towards you is going to be one of goodwill.
02:43While your attitude towards me is bad.
02:46You can hate me, but you ain't getting no hate back.
02:49Goes further than that.
02:51You can hate me, but you will get love back from me.
02:56He's defining what love looks like.
02:58He goes further and says, pray for them that despitefully use you.
03:05This goes further.
03:07It's how we should respond when we're taking on personal injury.
03:10When someone injures us.
03:12When we're talking about despitefully using us, we're talking about intentional mistreatment.
03:17They intentionally done you wrong.
03:19They knowingly took advantage of you.
03:22They did you wrong and they know what they did.
03:25This text is telling us to pray for them.
03:29Oh, you did me wrong, so I'm going to pray for you.
03:32Why does it say pray for them?
03:33Because it's difficult.
03:35Hear me clearly.
03:36It's difficult to hate someone that you are praying for.
03:40What I mean by that is when someone hates us, we should bring their name before God and ask for
03:47their good.
03:48Lord, bless them.
03:50Lord, I want you to shower your blessings and kindness over them.
03:53When they hate you, you're supposed to bring them before God and speak and ask for good towards them.
03:59Not ask for evil towards them, but ask for good.
04:02It is difficult to hate someone you're praying for.
04:05Prayer has a way of reshaping our hearts.
04:08So if someone does you wrong, get to pray.
04:12And it goes deeper and it says, and persecute you.
04:15So when they despitefully use you and they persecute you, pray for them.
04:21What is persecution?
04:22When they are in persistent opposition towards us and it doesn't stop.
04:28They just keep on doing it.
04:30Keep on doing it.
04:31God is removing the final excuse.
04:33Even if they keep on doing what they're doing towards you, the command still stands to love your enemies.
04:40You are consistently to respond with good.
04:43You are not to grow cold.
04:45You are not to grow bitter.
04:47So this is what this text is telling us.
04:50Jesus keeps on moving deeper and deeper each time.
04:53When they curse you, it's only words.
04:55When they hate you, it's feelings now.
04:57That's deeper.
04:58When they despitefully use you, that's actions taken against you.
05:02When they persecute you, that's a pattern of actions taken against you.
05:06In each case, God is saying, love your enemies and show you how to do it.
05:12Help us today.
05:14God cares about what's going on on the inside, not just what's outside.
05:18What is your heart condition like?
05:22Help us.
05:23Help us to govern our spirit in love, Lord.
05:26Now, this type of living that Jesus is talking about right here, I'm not going to even act like it's
05:31easy.
05:31This is a supernatural lifestyle.
05:34This passage is impossible to do without transformation of the spirit.
05:40You might be able to do it once or twice, but to consistently do it, you're going to need the
05:44help of God.
05:45Loving our enemies is evidence of God's work on the inside of us.
05:51The benefits of loving our enemies is that it breaks cycles of bitterness.
05:56Hate must feed on itself, meaning they did you wrong, you do them wrong.
05:59You do them wrong, you do them wrong.
06:00And it feeds on itself.
06:04However, when you love someone, it breaks cycles of hate.
06:08Ah, Lord.
06:09And it reflects God's character.
06:11God is good to his enemies.
06:13And he wants us to resemble that.
06:15I want you to resemble what I look like by loving your enemies.
06:23When bitterness, resentment, anger, and revenge is sitting up in you, it shapes your thoughts.
06:30It shapes your tone and ultimately your life.
06:33This command is protecting you, protecting you from being in response to the actions of other people.
06:43It frees you from being controlled by how people respond to you.
06:49We can only love our enemies by faith in God, meaning God will repay men.
06:55You don't have to fix it.
06:56You don't have to win and vindicate yourself.
06:58Leave that up to God.
07:01Lord, loving our enemies may not change the situation, but it will change what's happening on the inside of you.
07:10It will show up in your speech.
07:12It will show up all in your actions.
07:14It will show up all in your life.
07:16Loving our enemies will protect us and it will break cycles of bitterness and hatred.
07:21Lord, help us to trust you and love our enemies.
07:25In Jesus' name we pray and say, amen.
07:31Be right back.
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