Super Natural love

Call to worship:

Exodus 15:1–2 NKJV

1 Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord, and spoke, saying: “I will sing to the Lord, For He has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! 2 The Lord is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.

Offering

Exodus 23:19 NKJV

19 The first of the firstfruits of your land you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God. You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.

Today’s Text:

Matthew 5:43–48 NKJV

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

1. Jesus teaches us about love that comes straight from heaven.

Matthew 5:43 NKJV

43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’

Leviticus 19:18 NKJV

18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord.

The Law never ever, anywhere teaches that you should hate your enemy.

The old testament does talk some about the enemies of God.

I think what tends to happen us because we have a personal relationship with God through Christ Jesus, we think of God as ours personal, and he is but he is not ours exclusively ours.

This happens to people religiously and politically.

politically people think their side is the side of the angel because they care about what God cares about. so then it stands to reason then if you don’t care about what I care ab out then you don’t care about God, then if you hate God … its okay, even reasonable to hate you back. How long is it then before i’m just hating you first?

sometimes this happens in church as well. you don’t like me and God loves me. So, then if you don’t love me then you don’t Love God. Humf.

2. Next we have a for pronged approach to loving our enemies.

Matthew 5:44 NKJV

44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,

1. love your enemies, 2. bless those who curse you, 3. do good to those who hate you, and 4. pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you,

Love your enemies.

all though I try not to have enemies, there are those who don’t like me, it’s hard to not have Feelings about people who seem to want to work against me.

Now i’m supposed to love those who want to cause harm to my character or cause or things that I have given my life too.

Bless those who curse you.

there are people who will curse you. like last week, (turning the other cheek.) we are to bless those, the way I practice this is I ask God to give them their greatest physical need whatever it is.

Do Good to those who hate you.

those who hate you are apt to do bad things to you. Jesus says when someone does bad to you. out of hatred, do good to them out of God’s supply.

Pray for those who spitefully use you And Persecute you.

there are some things that have so much venom that there is nothing you can do but pray for them.

sometimes this is the case when you are working a job and your boss, you cant fore the boss. sometimes the spitefully use you. a lot of times you will get the short end of the stick when it could be other than that.

3. Remember we are on God’s team He is not on ours.

Matthew 5:45–48 NKJV

45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? 47 And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

sometimes we need to be reminded that it takes to people who to be in a conflict.

we are sons of our father when we take his part and do his bidding.

tax collectors where often Hebrews who where working for the Roman government so, they where considered traders to their kin and countrymen.

we are nice to our brothers.. how are we any more spiritual than others when we do that.

when we are perfect in love… especially toward the unlovable.