Worship call 0719 Loving the obnoxious

Romans 8:31-32 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? When Moses sent out the 12 spies to report on the condition of the land of “milk and honey”, ten of the spies brought back a bad report. They focused on the giants, and the great obstacles in their way. They walked with eyes set on the physical realm and said within themselves, “We are but grasshoppers in the sight of these giants!” [Numbers 13:28-33] However, Joshua and Caleb came back with a different perspective. They didn’t ignore the giants or the obstacles or pretend they didn’t exist, but rather focused on their God who had performed miracles upon miracles, from the series of ten plagues to the parting of the Red Sea, to the miracle of “daily bread” – manna from heaven! Giants, however large or dangerous they might be, would not prevent Israel from taking the land – at least not in the faith-filled opinion of Joshua or Caleb. If the God who had disarmed Pharaoh was for them, it was His enemies who should be trembling. So it is with us! If there are “giants” everywhere – “fortified” strongholds – the enemy would love for us to focus on how insignificant and powerless we appear to be, but don't we also have God's miracles to look back on? Salvation from our sins, to begin with...But how many times has the Lord answered your prayers since then? We need more than ever to remember His grace and intervention in our lives. Those memories will inspire the faith to face the current giants and their apparent threats. Friends, “if God is for us, who can be against us?” It's not an idle word or an empty epithet. Our God really is a giant slayer. We only need to remember what He has done before to maintain faith in what He can and will do now. Your family in the Lord with much agape love, George, Baht Rivka, & Obadiah Baltimore, Maryland

And this is another fine day in the Lord

Loss of power last night

Matthew 5:46–47 (NASB95) — 46 “For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?

38.14 μισθόςb, οῦ m: a recompense based upon what a person has earned and thus deserves, the nature of the recompense being either positive or negative—‘reward, recompense.[1]

In the realm of Kumbaya there is peace in harmony. Everybody loves everybody. There are no challenges. Each one is free to love the other on the basis of mutual respect.

The challenge comes in dealing with the less attractive. The most hated people in society the lowest of the low life’s were the Jewish Tax Collectors. It was not just that they collected taxes but they were working with the Romans and were in habit of extorting money from their own people.

The second most hated people were probably the Samaritans, half breeds part Jew and part something else, which was the historical plan to breed out the Jewish race leaving these despised people.

And then of course there were the Romans themselves.

Loving any of these groups takes one outside of one’s area of comfort. As noted in the previous lesson we are not dealing with sentimentality when we are dealing with Love, but in respect to virtue

From 1 Corinthians

Love is

1. Patient

2. Kind

3. Not Jealous - inordinate competition and resents another’s success

4. Does not brag exalting oneself above another

5. not conceited in self admiration

6. putting down the poor.

7. Does not keep a record of wrongs refusing to forgive others

8. Upholds the gospel for the gospel demonstrates God’s love

9. Endures difficulties that another brings

10. Hope in all things is standing on the word of God with confident expectation, loving on the basis of who God is not on the basis of what the person is.

11. Endures all things including persecution and hardships.

This is what going the extra mile with, and turning the other cheek and loaning money to the poor, loving your enemies, in reference to what Jesus is speaking of on the sermon on the mount.

Loving your friends is not a challenge to the spiritual life. It does not require application of the word of God. there is not an obedience attached to it. and no witness for the Love of God is in view.

None of us should take for granted the opportunity that is laid before us when God places the unlovable before us, the hateful, the arrogant, the boastful, the one who clashes with our own personality, those that hate us, do us wrong, done our family wrong.

This love requires work. It requires being outside of our comfort zone. It is a love that inconveniences, placing us in circumstances where we have to deal for whatever reason with those whom we dislike.

Thank you, Lord, for this lesson.

I recommend that we keep a check on our situational awareness and by the end of the day an after-action report.

Situation awareness – am I in or out of fellowship with my Lord in dealing with this person?

Having dealt with this less desirable individual even he being my enemy, is my own integrity intact have I broken the boundaries of animosity for this person treating him unkindly or even in my mental attitude holding hatred in my heart.

The biggest act of Love that Christ performed was dying for those who hated him. Dying for those who are the lowest of the lows. Might it be that as Christ imagers our greatest challenges is how do we deal with our enemies?

Matthew 5:47 (NASB95) — 47 “If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same?

Gentiles are non-jews. Jesus is speaking to the Jewish audience. In the Jewish mindset there only two kinds of people in this world. if you were not a Jew, set apart by God as Abraham’s chosen ones, you are part of everybody else.

IN the Church age there are three classes of people, Jews Gentiles and the Church which is Abraham’s spiritual seed.

How do I love the unlovable?

Love God more.

Having trouble loving your enemy?

Check your personal relationship with your Lord.

1 John 4:20–21 (NASB95) — 20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also.

Matthew 5:48 (NASB95) — 48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

88.36 τέλειοςa, α, ον: pertaining to being perfect in the sense of not lacking any moral quality—‘perfect.’[2]

Stepping through the door of Salvation where our sins are forgiven, is not the end of the journey, but the beginning of the Journey. Such as the Journey of Abraham. He stepped from a place where he was familiar with and went to a place where the Lord said.

Hebrews 11:8 (NASB95) — 8 By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he went out, not knowing where he was going.

Is the account of Abraham about a man who lived the straight and narrow?

No, of course not. It was a journey of many failures. Abraham would take one step forward and two steps back sometimes. But then it was that the Lord put Abraham’s faith to the test when he told Abraham to take his only uniquely born son to the mountain and take his life.

We know the story. Abraham succeeded in trusting and obeying the Lord.

Note where that testing took place. not at the beginning of the journey but when Abraham was older.

Many dismiss the Christian way of life for whatever reason. They think lightly of their own sins knowing that the sins were paid for at the cross and they take it that since Christ did it all that there is no responsibility on the part of the believer. We are saved by grace in the age of grace and live by grace.

If that is you, then you have the wrong or no view of the Christian way of life. You have taken your Salvation for granted and your life will be lived in vain lest there be a change of mind (repentance)

Christian responsibility to live the life that is worthy of our calling is highlighted in this verse.

Matthew 5:48 (NASB95) — 48 “Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

In the Hebrew the equitant to Teleios is תָּמִים [tamiym /taw·meem/] adj[3]

Genesis 6:9 (NASB95) — 9 These are the records of the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blamelessתָּמִים [tamiym /taw·meem/] adj[4]in his time; Noah walked with God.

Sometimes this gets a little confusing for preachers as they attempt to explain away Noah’s drunkenness later on.

Completeness is having integrity living a life of righteousness heart directed to God.

But we also have to live in a body of corruption. A battle between the spirit and the flesh. Completeness or maturity is not the absence of the sin nature but the subordination of the flesh under the spirit. Peter tells us that we must be on guard. It is certain that the mature believer would be big game for Satan to pounce upon at any opportunity.

The measurement of one’s dealing with people outside of one’s personal affection is a gauge to where you are in your own spiritual life and Love for God.

[1]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 490). United Bible Societies. [2]Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 745). United Bible Societies. [3]Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship. [4]Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.

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