Enemies

Series: October Series

Message Title: The Kingdom is Available in Enemies

Author: ZP

Key: Media Scripture Slides Personal Stories

Intro.

(SP NOTE: Share a personal story of someone who you treated like an enemy. EX: a team you played against growing up, someone who liked the same girl as you. Build up the idea that “enemy” isn’t a warfare term, it’s a person you know.)

In case you don’t know this, I’m a big Texas fan! I love the university of Texas! And we have a game coming up next month against one of our biggest rivals, Texas A&M. I’m telling you at points while I was in high school I legitimately hated them. I hated everything about them. They’re a stupid little cult that is the opposite of what Texas should be known for… sorry, I had to let the hater in me out for a second. In fact one of my really good friends in high school was a guy named Chris, and he was a big A&M fan. At times our friendship was legitimately tested because of our hatred for the schools we were a fan of… come on, I know I’m not alone in this.

How many of you love a good rivalry? Get in your head who your school’s biggest rival, you love to hate them don’t you. I loved to hate everything about Texas A&M. I love to hate my enemies.

Turn.

Have you ever had feelings like that before? I’ve noticed I’ve had lots of feelings like that over my life… it doesn’t have to be just that way though, there are lots of enemies we can have in life:

Maybe it’s someone who is competing with you for that starting spot…

Maybe it’s someone who likes the same girl as you.

Maybe it’s someone from that school that you love to hate.

Maybe it’s someone who bullies you at school…

(SP NOTE: You should deliver the tension with some sarcasm and a little too much honesty about hating some enemies. Being intentionally flippant about the word hate is the purpose of the tension.)

Tension

Let’s be honest though, I like hating my enemies. Because I have a strong sense of who the good guys are and who the bad guys are… and it’s okay you can trust me I’m a pastor… I couldn’t possibly mislead you into hating the wrong people. You know what, it also feels really good to feel validated in hating our enemies.

In fact, the Bible actually gives some examples of when it’s okay to hate your enemies… I know isn’t that crazy?! The Bible completely agrees with me and how I see the world. Look what it says in Psalm 139:

Psalm 139:21-22

Do I not hate those who hate you, Lord,

    and abhor those who are in rebellion against you?

22 I have nothing but hatred for them;

    I count them my enemies.

See it’s okay to hate people, as long as they also hate God! If they want to rebel against God, not only do I hate them but God hates them! I should be able to call them my enemy. And you know what I think anyone who goes to Texas A&M, hates God… so it’s okay for me to hate them.

Setup

There are some people in life that we just love to hate… but what do we do, when it goes beyond the surface level of how we see people and it actually means we genuinely want bad things to happen to this person. Or that group of people. Or that entire country.

Truth

The truth is that in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus has made clear that his entire teaching is focused on the idea that we should repent the Kingdom of Heaven is near. Through this teaching Jesus is urging us to have a right relationship with God and right relationship with others… so when we say we love to hate our enemies Jesus has something specific to say about this idea of hating your enemy, let’s see what He says:

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[HYPERLINK "https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205&version=NIV" \l "fen-NIV-23278i" \o "See footnote i"i] and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47 And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that?”

So Jesus actually says, Love your enemies.

There’s tension in how we live, if we want to hate our enemies and Jesus says to love your enemies.

How can this be true, I thought the Bible said it’s okay to hate our enemies… that’s actually why Jesus points it out… because too often people would take passages like I quoted earlier and misapply them to people or groups of people because they wanted to hate them, not because it was actually right for them to do that.

Jesus has profound statements in this that I think are so important for us to hear… because like you’ve already heard from me, it’s so easy for me to tell myself that I know the good guys from the bad guys… I know who it’s okay for me to hate and who it’s okay for me to love… and it’s a trap that Jesus is trying to address and make simple.

Because it’s easy for me to love people who think like I do, who believe like I do, who care about the things I do…

But what Jesus does is compares that to doing the bare minimum… Jesus basically says, yeah and even the worst people you know still love people who love them… how does that make you different?

This is Jesus’ exclamation point on the whole section, that his main point is we should be filled with: “Love for one another.”

He says it’s not even just what you should do, but it’s also how you’ll be known of whether or not you are truly following me…

John 13:35 - 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

The greatest message of Jesus, is that we should be known for our love. It is the highpoint of God’s demands on his people. Which means that it’s the ultimate call of followers of Jesus that our behavior should be that we love everyone including our enemies.

What’s wild though, is that it’s not just about behavior, but heart level to love of your enemies. Not just outward obedience, Jesus doesn’t want you to just show love to people but then talk about them behind their back.

Jesus isn’t asking me here to tell you how much I love Texas A&M or go do good things that serve people from Texas A&M… it’s to actually love them.

Which hopefully by this point, you’re in the same boat as me… asking the same question that I feel so strongly… and it’s “How do we do this?”

HOW DO WE DO THIS?! If loving your enemies were easy a lot of the worlds problems would be solved, which is why we have to do things differently from the world in order to attempt to love our enemies.

Loving your enemies is hard for me, there are people in my life that I have viewed as an enemy like I mentioned earlier, and some helpful things for me have been to know that I don’t have to be their best friend, Jesus didn’t say “love your enemies and then spend every moment of your life with them, know them completely and let them know you completely”

A good way to say it is, I love everyone but not everyone has access to my life.

By loving everyone I mean I am wanting and praying for their good.

But when it comes to access to my life, that should be a select group of people that you are allowing to influence you and give you input.

So I want us to do something tonight, and it’s a little different.

We’re going to pray, and we’re going to pray for a while, that God would help us love our enemies. Like I mentioned it’s not just a behavior change it has to be a heart level change towards people that we love to hate.

So I’m going to make sure everyone in here gets one of these sheets of paper and on it is our framework for how we’re going to pray tonight!

We’re going to start by praying for our global enemies… I’m not sure who it would be for you, but let me paint you a picture of what I mean… I think we should be praying for the leaders of the political party that we disagree with… I think we should be praying for countries that we disagree with… I think we should pray for groups of people that we feel like are our enemy. And we should pray that God would turn our heart from hate to love.

Then we’re going to pray over community enemies… I’m not sure who it would be for you, but the picture I would paint is if you go to Buford you might want to pray for Mill Creek and vice versa. Not only pray for your rival school, but also pray for the people in the area that you feel in competition with, or you want bad things to happen to them… pray that God would turn your heart from hate to love.

Lastly we’re going to pray over personal enemies, and what I picture when I say this is you should pray for the person that bullies you, the girl that cheated on you, the guy that stole your starting spot, your parent that’s hurt you, the teacher that has it out for you… pray that God would turn your heart from hate to love.

So I’m going to pray and then give space for you to pray.