Sermon (20-Feb): Here's Your Opportunity

Scripture:

Luke 6:27-36

27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,

28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them.

30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.

31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

32 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them.

33 And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that.

34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners, expecting to be repaid in full.

35 But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.

36 Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Big Idea:

God gives us the opportunity to act, pray and love others

Introduction:

- “Love when you expect no love in return. Do good without expecting thanks. Lend when you do not hope for a return. This will make us act like the sons and daughters of the Most High.” - Henrietta Mears in Dream Big: The Henrietta Mears Story

- Wise words that can be so tough to carry out

- Here, we have Jesus, the Savior of the world sharing wisdom from God and how we are to operate in our world

- Matthew’s Gospel lays out these teachings as “the Sermon on the Mount”

- Luke’s gospel contains some of those same teachings as Matthew

- Luke’s gospel has been called by some, “the Sermon on the Plain”

- You’ll notice that Luke 6:17 says that “He went down with them and stood on a level place”

- That’s the setting of our passage for today

- We have Jesus on the plain…as He is, ready to give the disciples and the crowd wisdom about the Kingdom

- One thing we can always note about Jesus…is that He always has a purpose to these teachings “outings”

- Picking up from what Ch O’Connell mentioned last week in “Blessings and Woes”

- The disciples, largely untaught men, in Scripture wanted to know about God and His kingdom

- I imagine they also enjoyed hearing from Jesus

- Why was that?

- Jesus provoked and challenged their way of thinking and their lifestyle

- For such a short time, three years, Jesus had a tremendous impact on their life

- Think about it, day by day, they talked, laughed and learned from Him in a small group setting

- No doubt, Jesus knew them inside and out

- But, what happened, they gained familiarity of the Creator of Life, the One full of grace and truth

- I know what it means to me to be challenged while I am reading God’s Word

- But now, I am imagining Jesus there clearing up any confusion I may have

- He knows that I need an understanding of the kingdom if I have any chance of being a follower, disciple and a child of God

- As I gain an understanding, now I have what I call “the greatest opportunity”

- Like the disciples, you—me—we have the opportunity to…

1 – To Act (to do good, turn the other cheek)

2 – To Pray (for our offenders—past, present and future)

3 – To Love (the unlovely, our enemies)

Message:

1 – To Act (to do good, turn the other cheek)

Luke 6 27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If someone slaps you on one cheek, turn to them the other also. If someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. 31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

- Jesus continuing His message after His woes to the rich, the full, and the flattered

- He tells us in not so many words…Do good

- He mentions doing good to our enemies, those that curse us and then those that seem to physically harm us

- Let me point this out…Jesus is not allowing another individual to harm us physically

- That’s not what He is saying

- In the gospels, Jesus is known to use hyperbole, meaning something unthinkable to an extent, to make a point

- So what He is laying down is a command to “forgo retaliation for personal offenses,” for us not to avenge our honor

- For those that are familiar with the popular Matthew Henry commentary, on this verse, He writes,

“Suffer any injury that can be borne, for the sake of peace, committing your concerns to the Lord’s keeping.”

- Again, Jesus is not advocating placing ourselves or others in danger or in favor of pacifism

- There is still a criminal justice system that can be utilized if need be

- But, what He is saying is that same one that is coming against you; do good to them

- Can you imagine the looks on some of the people’s faces?

- And, how revolutionary this teaching must have been

- Even today, I think of the impact…

- Not responding the way most think we would respond but

- It’s been said, “Responding to hatred/mistreatment with love and ignoring personal slights display the supernatural power of the indwelling Holy Spirit and may afford the chance to share the gospel”

- Jesus was intentional and He was a revolutionary

- You’ll notice just like in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus points out what we call the Golden Rule,

31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.

- Often times, how we are treated, we find ourselves treating others likewise

- Jesus, above all others, know our hearts and hurts

- He knows when we are down to our last nerve or last straw

- Yet, He still expects us as believers to be different…otherworldly different

- He expects us to do different

- That almost seems unrealistic to ask of us

- We have an opportunity to “get even,” lash out and who wants to miss out on that opportunity

- But that’s not what it’s all about

- It’s about allowing ourselves to preach the best message about Christ that we can ever preach…through our words and our actions

- You and I have multiple opportunities to get even or to do good

- Again, I’m not talking about being a doormat

- It’s an idea contrary to what we will commonly see in our world today

Transition: And, it doesn’t end there, as believers we have the opportunity to pray”

2 – To Pray (for our offenders—past, present and future)

28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

- Immediately, when I think of this verse I think of Christ on the cross

- As He uttered, “Father, forgive them” that has to be one of the most humble statements ever

- This is the same Son that had more than twelve legions of angels (Matt 26:53) available at His beck and call

- To be willing to submit and pray on behalf of another…

- At this point, where He is hanging on the cross, says a lot

- You may be saying to yourself, “Well, that’s Jesus; God incarnate”

- Though that may be true, God and Christ has called us to follow in His footsteps

- He has promised that we would do “greater works”

- We become that living letter “known and read by all men”

- Author Philip Yancey writes,

“For the watching world, we ourselves serve proof that God is alive. We form the visible shape of what he is like.”

- That may seem like a huge task but He’s not asking us to be flat out perfect

- It’s a journey…one in which He is expecting us to make progress

- And, blessing and praying for those that offend us—curse and mistreat us—is a part of that journey

- We are called to be a “light in this world” (Matt 5:14)

- Think of it this way, we are at our best when we are obeying God and His Word

- And, here’s the thing: It will not always feel right when we are obeying Him

- There’s been many times where one would think I’d be joyful that I felt I was grinding my teeth seeking to obey

- But it seems like it begins to get a bit easier when we obey His will instead of our own

- Notice I said “a bit” easier…

- Sometimes we are wrestling with ourselves and our thoughts

- And, our will

- And, even our feelings

- It’s all a part of God transforming us into the image of His Son Jesus Christ

- Transformation—sanctification—doesn’t take one day, month or year

- It’s a lifetime calling of intentionality yielding our will to His;

- Thinking about His kingdom and even less about ours

- The idea of the gospel is to change our way of thinking from the inside to the outside

- You can be a believer for 10, 20 or 30 years and realize you still have a ways to go in your thinking and doing

- As good as it is, it’s not just about the destination

- Personally, I think God gets more out of our journey

- Because that’s when we are shifting from a “me” to a “we” and hopefully a “Him” mentality

- And, sometimes we forget that will take the rest of our lives to complete

- He has promised to complete what He has started (Phil 1:6)

- Most times, patience is not in our vocabulary

- And, at other times, the effort can be synonymous with futility like it’s getting us nowhere

- Still, little by little, we strive to make progress

- We push forward

- On bended knee, we pray…during our daily routine, we pray

- In our prayers, we choose to bless our offenders

- In our prayers, we determine to speak well of them

- Our goal is to be intercessors with God for our enemies

- It’s challenging and some would even say, mind bending, but God has determined that it’s worthwhile

TRANSITION: God doesn’t stop there; He extends the opportunity for us to love

3 – To Love (the unlovely, our enemies)

- One thing that can be pointed out in our passage, twice, is for us to “love our enemies”

- Sometimes it can be hard on and for us to “like our enemies”

- First time Jesus says it, He attaches “do good to those who hate you” which ends up being linked to the Golden Rule

- A few verses down, He mentions what will eventually make the greatest difference to us—Christ’s reward

- Also, receiving the designation as the “children of the Most High” is the utmost compliment

- Truthfully, for those that identify with Christ as believers

- We don’t do it for a reward;

- To be identified as “Children of the Most High” stands front and center for us

- Once we come to faith in Christ, as I mentioned, we trade our will for His

- We are trading our weariness and being heavy laden for His easy yoke and His burden which is light (Matt 11:28-30)

- It’s not always comfortable for us but neither was it for Christ

- Jesus has put us in the perfect position to enter the race

- Like Paul, we “run in such a way to get the prize”

- Our focus is not the prize; our focus is Christ and how God is transforming us

- Really, it’s taking the love that Christ showed to us and reflecting it to the world which happens to include our enemies

- Dr. Martin Luther King (Men of Integrity, Vol. 1, no. 1) once said,

“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend.”

- Not Twitter feuds, social media trolling, but walking and living out the love of Christ

- It’s an area that we all need work on and the help of the Holy Spirit

- Simply because we cannot do it in our own strength and power

- It would be nice if we could but if that were the case…

- Christ would not have had to die

- Maybe we should ask ourselves if “the excuses or reasons that we come up with not to love…”

- Are they a matter of pride in our lives?

- I know that some horrible things have happened to us, those we love and so many others

- Still, God gives us an opportunity to show Him in the midst of every situation we face

- None of us are perfect and have arrived;

- We are still a work in progress definitely

- But it usually takes those things that challenge us to change us

- God’s Word is challenging on so many levels

- In the midst of our journey, the challenges may not get easier but you’ll find that your spiritual resiliency level increases

- You’ll find the depth of your relationship with Christ growing and maturing—meaning your love for Him is too

- This allows it to come full circle and extend that love to others

Closing:

- As I close, I think of a quote by Joseph Roy that I read as I prepared this message,

“A true Christian is a sign of contradiction--a living symbol of the Cross. He or she is a person who believes the unbelievable, bears the unbearable, forgives the unforgivable, loves the unlovable, is perfectly happy not to be perfect, is willing to give up his or her will, becomes weak to be strong ... and finds love be giving it away.” - Joseph Roy, Leadership, Vol. 5, no. 4.

- By the world’s standards, that sounds pretty weak

- But, according to God and Christ, it makes perfect sense

- Doesn’t it sound like something Jesus would do?

- Because isn’t that what we endeavor to be…like Jesus?

- Because that’s what the Father endeavors for us to be…like Jesus

“John 14:12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.”

- Let’s never take for granted the opportunity that we have been given…to act, pray and love

- So that we can show our likeness to Christ in our journey

- Let’s close in prayer

Closing Prayer:

Heavenly Father, I ask you to forgive me for all of my sins known and unknown, I renounce them all. Lord Jesus, come into my heart. I receive you now as Lord and Savior of my life. I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He died for me and arose and sits at the right hand of God praying for me, interceding for me. Lord Jesus, I give you everything. I thank you for saving me, delivering me and setting me free, in Jesus’ name!