The Messiest

Intro

Life is messy. Not always the perfect, clean, linear, always better and better every moment that we hope for.

What is the messiest moment that you can think of?

(pics)

Mine.. I was at my first job. Fast food. Cleaning out the grease at the end of the night. Poured all over the floor.

Took all night to clean.

As I think about life, one thing wins the messiest award, hands down.

It is our interconnectedness and interactions with other people, AKA: Relationships.

Relationships are messy. Can be difficult, unpredictable..

But our lives are made up through a combination of relationships,

There is no missing this mess.

We’ve all experienced the mess of relationships at some point. We’ve even been a part of it.

The hurt, disappointment, don’t look the way you thought or hoped.

The conundrum is that the messiest part of life can also be the greatest part of life.

Often, to shield ourselves from the mess, so many of us build of walls so that most relationships, not even your closest, go much farther than the surface.

But to avoid the mess is the miss the depth of life that real relationships give our lives.

So we wind up missing way more than messiness, we really miss life itself.

What is the answer then?

Continue looking in Luke 6 (Sermon on the Plain)

Jesus gives us the formula for how to act toward others.

I’ll summarize and then read.

4 Things he says.

Love. Do Good. Bless. Pray.

How are you doing so far?

Now lets read.

Luke 6:27–28 (NLT)

“But to you who are willing to listen, I say, love your enemies! Do good to those who hate you. Bles those who curse you. Pray for those who hurt you.

Notice the object of the sentence.

Love - Enemies

Do good - Those who hate

Bless - Those who curse

Pray - those who hurt.

Now how are we doing?

My letter grade just went way down.

Jesus isn’t just trying to shock everyone into a deeper point. Being dramatic.

This is the point.

This is how to treat people.

how to “relationship” well.

Jesus never avoids the mess. He guides us as we walk through it.

Jesus teaching on how to treat people and live in relationship with others is drastic.

Even more dramatic for the hearing audience than for us.

Jesus instruction on how to interact with others doesn't begin how to treat those closest to you, the easiest to love and care for, and then go out from there.

No, his baseline for connection is how you treat those you don’t like and don’t like you and then relationships grow from there.

Loving those you’d rather hate, caring for those you’d rather dismiss.

All of other relational capacity is based from here...

what I find challenging is that so many of us don’t even treat those closest to us they way Jesus says we should treat those furthest...

Then Jesus begins to break down what this kind of life looks like.

Now he begins to use hyperbole. using extreme ideas to illustration a message.

Like, “I’ve heard that story 1000 times”

I slept like a rock.

I have a million things to do.

These aren’t necessarily do and don’t laws, but attitude examples.

Luke 6:29–30 (NLT)

If someone slaps you on one cheek, offer the other cheek also. If someone demands your coat, offer your shirt also. Give to anyone who asks; and when things are taken away from you, don’t try to get them back.

Slaps you on the cheek - Insult, demeaning, disrespectful, humiliated

How do we respond when insulted??

This isn’t just hurt physically, but hurt pride which is even deeper.

How do you act when insulted?

Honestly my definition for insulted is even pretty loose, you disagree with me or inconvenience me..

I feel insulted when sees that the 2 lanes are coming into one and the zip in front of me at the last minute.

What does this point to?

Relationships are Risky, take the risk

If someone takes your coat, don’t withhold your Shirt.

Shirt = Tunic. Long garment next to skin. Their undergarment!

We’d be standing there naked!

Relationship take effort, often uncomfortable, uneasy, Make the effort

Give and don’t ask for it back.

Relationships have a cost, it’s worth it

Jesus is not calling for us to be abused, overlooked, doormats.

Bible also makes it clear that we fight against evil and injustice...

If someone breaks in my home they don’t have free reign to hurt my family or take my things.

But it’s about the attitude in how we treat people.

Nowadays, everything is polarizing, insulting, hate filled.

In a culture that thrives on conflict and contention.

If you disagree with me on a shot then you don’t deserve my respect...

(you choose the hot topic of the day)

Jesus calls us to a different, better way to live.

Jesus sums up his thought in the next verse.

Famous verse we will all know!

Luke 6:31 (NLT)

Do to others as you would like them to do to you.

Golden rule.

Something like this rule is found in almost every culture and every religion.

Even in Jewish history a similar command is found, but it’s in the negative form.

“That which you hate yourself, do not do to others.”

Jesus flips it to a positive.

It’s easy to say, you don’t want to be punched so don’t punch.

But a little harder when you say, you’d like an ice cream so bring them a Sundae.

Don’t reciprocate, initiate

Do to others, before they have ever done anything to deserve it.

Change places with others and ask how would I want to be treated,

Do that. First. regardless of who they are.

Luke 6:32–34 (NLT)

“If you love only those who love you, why should you get credit for that? Even sinners love those who love them! And if you do good only to those who do good to you, why should you get credit? Even sinners do that much! And if you lend money only to those who can repay you, why should you get credit? Even sinners will lend to other sinners for a full return.

The baseline isn’t how we treat our best, but how we treat the worst.

The reality is that most of our relationships are pretty selfish in nature.

I’m good when things are.

I treat how I’m treated.

Quid Pro Quo.

Think about even your closest relationships.

How often do you initiate. Do you give to give. Love to love.

What happens when we don’t live this way?

Have you ever heard a bad apple spoils the bunch?

If we only life to reciprocate and retaliate, the result is bitterness, anger, resentment, spite.

These bleed into every relationship that we have.

The hurt from the bad will destroy all of the good.

And then we become closed off and isolated.

Jesus doesn’t have an easier way, a less messy way, but a much better way.

Luke 6:35–36 (NLT)

“Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked. You must be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate.

The Reward.

Great.. (doesn’t say)

Not just in heaven, but from heaven.

Living this way is worth it!

Imagine your a kid, walking down the mall, the owner of a candy stores stops you and say will you do me a favor? After you do this I’ll give you a reward.

We’d be all over it!! Our assumption would be the reward would be sweet because he’s the owner of lots of candy, his resource is candy.

In the same way, we can assume the owner of everything, with unlimited resources, rewards really well when we Do what he says.

we never realize the reward unless we take the risk.

It’s easier to retaliate, reciprocate and isolate. It’s just the worst way to live.

The Result.

Not vindication but transformation.

We become more like God.

Romans 12:2 (NIV)

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

He didn’t love us because we are lovable.

He died for us before we ever chose him.

Love. Do Good. Bless. Pray.

The way to live.

Formula for being unoffendable.

Love - Agapao

Verbe tense of Agape.

Selfless, God love.

Can only give what I’ve gotten.

Only possible through the Holy Spirit - otherwise an impossible order.

This is not a “feeling” love, but choosing to treat people with care and compassion no matter what.

Do Good

Pretty self explanatory. Do Good.

We can’t control what others do, but we can control us.

Bless

This means to speak favorably.

Uhhh what!!

Don’t blast, bless.

Be a person whose words are used for blessing not curses.

Everyone in your life. Bless them. Speak it out.

Pray

Pray for them.

For their well being.

Every person, is a person God created, longs for and desires.

It’s risky, it takes effort, it can be uncomfortable and not easy, it has a cost.

It’s messy.

Choose the mess.

Love, Do Good, Bless, Pray.

Life groups are coming up, take the risk.

CONCLUSION

Very first verse said, to you who are willing to listen..

It IS messy.

The messiest in fact.

Baseline isn’t how do I treat those I like and love, how do I treat those I don’t want to be around.

That’s the test.

So, how are we doing?

I have some work to do, but it’s such a better way to live.