 Anyway, we're in Matthew chapter five. We're gonna be looking today at verses 43 through 48. And so let's read those verses together as we continue our series here in Matthew. And we've arrived at the portion of scripture that has been classically referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. And so we've been going through the Sermon on the Mount now through several studies. So we've arrived at verse 43 and I'll begin reading at verse 43 here in Matthew chapter five. I'll read up to verse 48 and we'll look at this particular portion of scripture. Now scripture that Jesus commands us to love our enemies. Beginning at verse 43, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. That you may be sons of your father in heaven. For he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good. Sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect. I say let's not even look at this passage. Let's do something else. So what are we doing now? We're studying a portion of scripture referred to as the Sermon on the Mount. And I was reading in preparation for this particular message today and I found something that I'm gonna use as a quote to introduce our subject today where somebody wrote the most famous sermon in the history of mankind was an exegetical outline of the Old Testament law and 10 commandments. What was provided in Matthew was not a word for word account of Jesus's sermon, but an outline from which you can see how he was working his way through Mosaic law. So what you have here in chapters five, six, and seven are not the complete sermon. Sometimes we think that it is. We think this is all that Jesus said concerning this topping and these things. But the fact is you can read chapters five, six, and seven within four or five minutes. You can read right through that. So nobody would argue that Jesus had all these people seated there as he taught and he only spoke for five minutes. So what we have is an outline. We have an outline of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking concerning certain things that his hearers would be familiar with. And what Jesus is speaking about concerns the interpretation that the religious leaders of his day had given to scripture and the most paramount, the ones who were best known at that time for their interpretations were those who were referred to as Pharisees. And as I've mentioned to you, because you read your Bible and if you read your New Testament, you will see the name Pharisee. As I've mentioned to you, there were three basic groups of people at that time that Jesus dealt with and you'll see them repeatedly in scripture. You see the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and on occasion you'll see another group called the Herodians. So the Pharisees would be what we today would refer to as the most conservative of all of the theologians of his day. Sadducees could be referred to in today's contemporary form of communication as being those who were more inclined towards liberalism and then the Herodians were really more a group of people who were politically inclined. The ones who had the great influence were the Pharisees. And the Pharisees, though they were small in number, had tremendous influence and they had their teachings that had been disseminated amongst the people and the people had heard the things that Pharisees said and so Jesus is speaking concerning that which has influenced the people in their theological understanding. He's speaking, in other words, concerning the conservativism that had led to Phariseic, what we call legalism, where it's what I do or don't do that matters, not the motives of my heart or the attitude, but rather my physical activities and all. You know, it's that old saying, I don't smoke and I don't chew and I don't date girls who do. It's that kind of attitude that I am better than the average person and that really found its way out and was worked out in the attitude and the teachings doctrine of the Pharisees during the time of Christ. So Jesus has been dealing with that and as we've been looking at the Sermon on the Mount, we've recently looked at various topics that the Pharisees had been teaching on. So they had taught on the subject of murder and they had taught on the subject of adultery. They had spoken about divorce and taking oaths and retaliation. So these are things that the Lord Jesus is addressing and that's why he says, you have heard it said. In other words, you have been taught this. This doctrine has permeated and you know what is being said concerning these things and these interpretations are originating through the traditional teachings of those who are referred to as the separated ones or the Pharisees. So Jesus is establishing what would be called a contrast and he has been contrasting the Pharisees' self-righteousness with true righteousness. You see, if there's anything lacking in legalistic self-righteousness, there's one thing that would be omitted in legalistic self-righteousness that Jesus is now about to address and that thing that would be missing in legalism, that thing that would be missing in legalistic self-righteousness is the quality of love, especially the love of God. So his teaching is would-be disciples about what the true mark of a genuine believer in God is and that's what he's been doing as he's been going through this. He's speaking now concerning the love of God. That is the mark of a believer. You know, I've attended schools and played on sports teams. I've been in the military. I've been in a workers' union and all of those organizations had one thing in common. Loving one another was not required. You don't have to love one another to be in a union. You don't have to love one another to be in the police force or to be a firefighter. You don't have to love one another to be in the military. You don't have to love one another to be on an athletic team. You don't need to love one another. It's not required. I mean, when you're going to become, we'll say somebody who's involved in firefighting or law enforcement and all, you don't write down some contract where you say, I will love my fellow firefighters. If you're in a fraternity or a sorority or whatever, you don't have to sign a document that says, I will love the people who are involved in my fraternity sorority. I'm gonna love my fellow union workers. You really don't have to do that. That isn't something that's necessary for you to be part of that organization. It just isn't. It's not required. But to be a Christian requires love. It requires love. It's something that God expects and even commands us and says that it's the earmark of one who really follows him. We're completely different. It's the one institution, the church, that as a primary requirement for involvement, it has the requirement, a command even, to love one another. And we're not commanded to simply love those whom we get along with. We love one another. It's so important that Jesus made it clear that love is the birthmark of one of his followers. Now here we go. I always share this. Some of you have heard me say this, but I learned lessons through experiences that helped to get a grasp of so that's what you mean in your word, God. And so Jesus said, a new commandment I give unto you that you love one another as I have loved you, by this, by this, shall all men know you are my disciples if you have love one for another. By this, shall all men know. You mean it's not the amount of prayers? You mean it's not the amount of giving? You mean it's not the amount of fasting? No, he said, by this, you shall be known if you have love one for another. Love is the birthmark of the believer. So my mother and I are having a conversation when I'm a little boy and I'm telling her I don't belong to the family because my family, if you saw me in the midst of my family, my blood relatives, you would wonder who that kid is amongst all those other people because I was the, what we used to say, we used to call it the fly in milk. I stood out because all of my relatives, all of my relatives, except for a couple aunts, they were blondes with blue eyes, but all of them, black hair, dark complexion, and then me. And so I felt that I wasn't part of the family because I didn't look like anybody in my family, and so there were times when I was four or five years old that I would cry and I'd tell my mom, I don't belong to you. You found me on the street corner and you brought me home and you've been raising me as your little boy. You see, I had red hair and real light complexion and I have blue, green eyes and my brother, little chocolate bar. And so you put us together and they would say this, they would say, oh, you know, your son speaking to my brother, Frankie, oh, he's a cute little guy. Who's the little boy that your baby's sitting? So I got that in my head. I must not belong to this woman. She found me and I would tell her that. This is a true story. I'm not making this up for you, but it's real. And it is funny now, but at that time, oh, it was devastating. I'm just a little boy. You found me on the street corner. You must have seen me outside of a liquor store. You picked me up and brought me home and you're raising me. My mom would sit there and she'd patiently listen to me as I went on and on and on about that. Because I really believed it. I mean, I got that point where I thought, no, I do not belong in this family. I mean, everybody looks entirely different than me. All of my cousins, all of my uncles, not one of them looks like me, not my complexion. There's something different about me and my mom would sit there patiently and then she'd say, you're my baby. And I'd say, no, I'm not. And she'd say, yes, you are. And we'd have an argument. And then she always did the same thing. She'd say, look, and she would lift up her blouse and she had a birthmark right here and she'd show it to me. And then she'd say, lift up your shirt and I would lift up my shirt and I have a birthmark right here. And she'd say, you see that mark on you? That's the mark that I have on me. So I had the mark of the beast from a very early age. But, and so that would soothe me. You know, that would, I'd say, and she'd say, you have my mark. You belong to me. You have my birthmark. Well, my daughter, Corinne, is born. And I'm there in the room when Marie gives birth to Corinne and after they fainted and woke me, after I fainted and they woke me up, they brought the baby to me and I still remember that as they brought this beautiful little girl and handed her to me. And I still remember just looking at her and all and then thinking, I wonder and I unwrapped her and right here on her rib cage is a birthmark, my birthmark. I said, all right, she is mine. No, I thought. And Marie's not gonna be happy about that. Just kidding. Okay, so she gives birth to Josiah and I go and I hold my grandson for the first time. And she said, look at his chest daddy. I unwrapped my grandson right here in the same place is a birthmark, a birthmark, a birthmark, a birthmark. Birthmark, the mark of the believer. You have one. Don't be lifting up your shirt looking. I'm talking about something else right now. Love, by this shall all men know. By this, not the amount of time I stand on street corners and pray, not the ostentatious way that I can take money out of my pocket and drop it into some kind of a copy box. Not the way that I walk around fasting and people know that this is a very spiritual, religious man because he does those three things which are earmarks of a religious person during the time of Christ. No, by this shall all men know. You belong to me if you have love one or another. Why? Well, because love reveals your heavenly parentage for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Because God loved us, we as his children are to love one another. And so love is the mark, it's a demonstrable mark of the believer. In 1 John 4, verses seven and eight, dear friends, let us continue to love one another for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is born of God and knows God but anyone who does not love does not know God for God is love, an essential quality of God. John gave us three distinguishable attributes of God. He said God is spirit, God is light, God is love. Those are defining attributes of God that John gives to us in the Gospel of John as well as 1 John. He who loves not knows not God, he says. Why? For God is love. If a man says I love God yet he hates his brother, John told us in 1 John 4, he says, he's a liar. How can a man love the invisible God, God whom he has not seen and hate his brother whom he has seen? So love is the mark of the believer. It is the distinguishable attribute, it is the birthmark that Jesus Christ gave to the church. There was a lawyer by the name of Tertullian. He lived between 100, 165 AD. And Tertullian was an apologist who subscribed to the view that the best defense is a good offense. His treatises to the Gentiles and apology directly attacked pagan beliefs and practice as superstitious and immoral and argued that the Christian life as taught in scripture and practiced in the church was morally superior. He imagined pagans looking at Christians and saying, behold, how they love one another. For pagans hate one another. And how they are ready to die for each other, for pagans are readyer to kill each other. Love is the distinguishing attribute of somebody who knows God. So Jesus gives the sixth and the last illustration intended to correct the teachings of Pharisees. Again, the Pharisees were guilty of self-righteousness and Jesus is revealing true righteousness. And the most obvious and basic difference would be the concept of love. Now, when you look at the Pharisees, you can see the absence of love in their teachings. In Matthew 23, verse four, Jesus speaking of Pharisees said, they bind heavy burdens hard to bear, lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. In Matthew 23, 14, he said to them, you devour widow's houses and for a pretense make long prayers. So they didn't know how to love. A great example is found when the woman who was caught in adultery was brought to Jesus. And they said to him, Rabbi, we have caught this woman in adultery in the very act is how they said it. And they said to Jesus, Moses in the law said, such should be stoned, but what do you say? And so you get to see how the Pharisees looked at human beings in the way they treated this woman who was caught in the very act of a very, very immoral thing. You see, they knew that he would act in mercy and they knew that he would react with love. And so they're actually using a person in sin as a snare to catch him. They wanted a theological debate with Jesus. They wanted to argue technicalities in the law of Moses with the Lord. Somebody wrote, Jesus was not concerned with winning an academic dispute about an interpretation of Mosaic law, but his goal is to save a soul and reveal that salvation is only found in God's love. This is why he came down to the earth and this is why he was to die on a cross. And this is why the father was to raise him on the third day. And so as they brought this woman to Jesus and Jesus began to deal with them, ultimately the accusers did not charge her. And neither did Jesus. And he revealed to us how love acts. Now before we get the idea that committing adultery is something that he just closes his eyes to, we need to remember that this passage clearly teaches that Christian forgiveness is not synonymous with mere tolerance but implies something more demanding. It does not mean overlooking evil or even worse denying it. God teaches us to distinguish the evil act which must be condemned from the person who has committed it to whom he offers the possibility of changing. While man tends to identify the sinner with his sin, closing every escape, our heavenly father instead has sent his son into the world to offer everyone a way of salvation. That kind of behavior towards us, that kind of activity reveals God's love. It shows us the love that God had for sinners during the time of Christ and it reminds us that he still has that kind of love for us. The Bible tells us there's none righteous, no not one. The Bible reminds us that is appointed unto men to die but once and after that the judgment. The Bible says that we are born altogether in sin and that the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. We read Romans 5.8 which very clearly says God demonstrated his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners or still sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus Christ came to seek us out. Luke 19 verse 10 says the son of man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. And so that's demonstrated in the activity of God towards us. Yes, I'm a sinner indeed I am. Yet my God who knows my sin also has an ear so that when I repent and cry out to him, he hears and he forgives. Cleanses me of all my sin and he makes me brand new. That comes through faith in Christ and as a result of that there's gonna be an evidence that I've come to know the love of God and that's gonna be the love that I have within me for other people. So as we look at this passage here in Matthew chapter 5 and we look at verse 43, again notice how Jesus says you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. So Jesus begins by saying you have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor. Now that was a popular teaching many had heard it, many had embraced it, many acted upon it, but it was wrong, it was a wrong teaching. The teaching again you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Now how did they justify such a way of living while calling themselves people of faith? Well as is common today, that comes by misunderstanding as well as misinterpreting what the Bible has to say. On the one hand in the Old Testament God commands us followers to hate evil. Now it says in Psalm 9710, you who love the Lord hate evil. It also gives us insight that there would be a sense that you would have towards those who are committing evil in an unrepentant fashion where the psalmist makes a very powerful statement in Psalm 139, verses 21 and 22, when the psalmist said, do I not hate them, oh Lord, who hate you, do I not loathe those who rise up against you? And went on to say, I hate them with a perfect hatred, I count them my enemies. The word hate means dislike, dislike that has been purged, dislike that has been purged of personal malice. I hate the activity. I'm not malicious towards a person, I hate the sin and the continuation in it. But Jesus softened this feeling in regards to people by bringing them under a higher law. The law he brings believers to is called the law of love, a law of love for people. You still hate evil, but you don't hate the people. We don't wanna do them malicious evil, we don't wanna do them harm, we do treat them properly. It's like what it says in Romans chapter 12, verses 20 and 21, if your enemy hungers feed them, if you thirst give them a drink, for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So somebody says, of course I'm gonna feed and give them something to drink. I'll just give them food with poison and poison the water, makes sense to me. But no, he says no, overcome evil with good. Now remember this, during the time of Christ, some rabbis were teaching love for neighbors and hatred for enemies. What they were doing is they were reducing the command to love to what would be humanly attainable. It's always easier to love those who love you, isn't it? I mean, if they love you, they become your friends. If they really love you, you might even marry them. If they love you, then it's easy to love them in return. It's always easier to love those who love us. And so on the one hand, love your neighbor. On the other hand, hate your enemy. What they did there is they added their own interpretation. They said, if you're loving your neighbor, then there's a corollary and that would be, you will hate your enemy. You love your neighbor, but you hate your enemy. But is that God's heart? Here's a question for you, is it? The answer is no, that's not his heart. Ezekiel 3311, as surely as I live, says the sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live, turn, turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel. Why should you die? So the Bible makes it very clear that God's desire is for all to turn from their sin and be saved. The Lord is not slack, as some men count slackness, but as long suffering to us were not willing that any should perish, but that all, but that all should come to repentance. But there are people who hear the message of the gospel, perhaps were even raised with that message in the home. Their mom and dad believed it. Their grandmother believed it. And they were raised in a home that was built on the foundation of the gospel. They went to church as children. They heard the message, but their hearts were never turned to the Lord. They preferred their own way of life. Jesus in John 3.20 speaks of it this way. He says they hate the light because they want to sin in darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they'll be punished. People like to sin and they sin in darkness. That's the whole point. They don't come to the light for it to be exposed. They don't want their real life to be seen. And when you share with them, when you share the gospel, when you tell them, listen, God has a work he could do. He can forgive you of your sins. He can cleanse you. And that person will say, well, that's good for you. And I'm glad that you've embraced that. And I have no problem with that on a personal level. If you want to be a Christian, that's fine. But just please stop shoving it down my throat. I don't need to hear that. I'm fine the way that I am. They love the darkness. They don't like their sins being exposed. Well, Jesus is saying this, your rabbis have taught you to love those whom you prefer. How did they do that? How did that happen? Well, they began with the Old Testament law, a law that related to loving your neighbor. It's found in Leviticus 19, verse 18 in the Old Testament. It says, 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. And so that's what Jesus is speaking of when he says, you shall love your neighbor. That's found in the Old Testament law, Leviticus 19, verse 18. So here's the question, how can I get out of that, loving everybody? Who is my neighbor? Who am I being commanded to love? How can I actually love everyone? There's got to be somebody that I can hate. So they interpreted the word neighbor to mean your Jewish neighbors. The rabbis interpreted the word neighbor to apply only to fellow Jews. So that meant that all non-Jews, the Gentiles, could be natural enemies. And so there's a rabbi who wrote, if a Jew sees a Gentile fall into the sea, let him by no means lift him out, for it is written, you shall not rise up against the blood of your neighbor. But this is not your neighbor. So seeing that Gentiles were their enemies, it made perfect sense to hate them. You know, it's natural for us to look for loopholes so that we can do what we're most inclined to do. It's natural to do that. We like people of our own race. We legitimize hatred for those of another. We love even simple things like our own sports team. And then we'll beat up somebody who roots for a different team. We love our family, even to the point of siding with them when they're wrong. Because that old saying, blood is thicker than water. We love people of our own religious faith. And we can actually hate people of a different faith. So Jesus is not teaching us to have good feelings towards our enemies. He is teaching us to desire to do good to those who hate us instead of hating them in return. That is difficult. That is, isn't it? That is difficult. There's no doubt about it. Romans chapter 12 verses 17 and 18 says it like this. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. In 1 Thessalonians 5.15, the apostle Paul said, see that no one renders evil for evil to anyone. But always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all. And so we're actually called to a higher standard. Incidentally, one that we without God's help could never, ever attain to. And so on the one hand, it says, love your neighbor. On the other hand, they said, this is their teaching. Hate your enemy. But that would be their judgment because they're adding to the scripture their interpretation. God didn't command this. In Leviticus 19 verse 34, it says, the stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you. You shall love him as yourself. For you were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God. The stranger who dwells amongst you, you're to love. This command to love your neighbor is repeated nine times in scripture. And it reveals God's standard for human relationships. I think one of the portions that gives us great insight is Romans 13 verses 8 through 10, where Paul said, oh, no one anything except to love one another. For he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, you shall not commit adultery. You shall not murder. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not covet. And if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. And he goes on to say, love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Love. Love is revealed in action. And an activity of love has been a standard from the beginning. You know, it's easy to talk about love, isn't it? It's easy to write about it. When I was a hippie, that's all that we ever really spoke about. Love, love, love. That was a real big thing. As a hippie, love each other. And we would use that. We'd call each other brother and sister and all of that. But in reality, it was all superficial. It was all just on the emotional level. It was not real because many of my friends, including myself, we like to speak about love, but we weren't loving to one another. Especially, some of you will understand this illustration, especially for those of us who abused alcohol and drugs. When you abuse alcohol and drugs, you get high and you can begin to tell her, oh man, I love you, bro, man, you're my number one partner and this and that, man. And then he walks out of the room and he's got something there that you want. Man, you just put it in your pocket. And you still are. I did that more than one time. You know, yeah, I love you, man. Oh, I'd love to have that more. They walk out, bang, it's in my pocket. Man, where'd that go? I don't know. My dad used to say it sprouted legs and walked away. I don't know. So the love that I grew up as a hippie, the love that I grew up with, that definition, was really speaking of emotion. It was speaking about feelings for the moment. I love you right now, man. We're having a great time. We're doing some cool things or listening to a great band. We're high on whatever and yeah, man, I love you. But when I was no longer higher, I was not in that environment and it came down to it. I was gonna take care of myself long before I was gonna take care of anybody else because you have to look out for number one because if you don't, nobody else will. And that's how I thought and that's how I defined love and that's how a lot of people do. The kind of love that God has for us was exhibited through the giving of his son, Jesus Christ. And so Jesus is saying your rabbis have taught you to love those whom you prefer. That's what you call a selective love and it caters to human carnality but genuine love runs much deeper because God's kind of love has an element of empathy and compassion for others. So he says, I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless those who curse you and do good to those who hate you. So that reveals that God's kind of love can be demonstrated in at least three basic ways and I want you to notice all of them are proactive and positive which reveals the decision that we've made to love. One, he says, bless those who curse you. Bless those who curse you. What do you mean bless those who curse you? Speak well of those who wish you evil. Resist the temptation to retaliate. Let's speed it up to 2015. Don't be writing things on your social media, Facebook, about how much you hate certain people. You know, Facebook could be, I use it every day. I use it often. I post things, scriptures, various things, songs that God has used to touch my heart. I use it as a ministry tool. Sometimes there are people who go on Facebook who also use it as a way to get even with somebody and they say evil things about things or they just spout their opinions about various things in it and it can get kind of just wrong. The attitude is wrong. So and so did me harm and you need, and they go off on those kinds of things and I usually hide and sometimes when it's bad I delete. I lose friends every once in a while too. But that's the bottom line. We have to learn to bless those who curse us. We need to resist the temptation to rip people apart. Now here's something, for you many people think that if somebody has said something about you and if you don't respond to the personal attacks, they will think that you must be guilty. Now I learned a long time ago and this is something that perhaps some can learn today. You can defend your own honor or you can trust God and others to do that on your behalf. You don't have to always be explaining yourself so that people understand your heart and your motives. My pastor Chuck said this to us one time. I've never forgotten this Chuck Smith. He said, he said, I can either defend myself or I can ask God to be my defense. He said, now I haven't always won every battle I've gone into but God has never lost a battle he's gone into. He said, so the choice I've made is to go with the one who's undefeated. I don't have to, you don't have to stand up and defend yourself and I'll be honest with you. You may not know this and perhaps you do but maybe you don't that there are many people in my life when I give the word of God who are actually looking to see me fail so they can say see, you're no better than us. And the fact is I know I'm no better. I've never stood up saying that I am, even though I am. No, I've never done that. Anytime I think I'm good, all I need to do is talk to my wife and she'll bring me down to earth. That's the way it is. She's seen me with the anointing on and the anointing off. She knows me. So don't think highly of yourself. Just allow God to work in you. Be very careful that you don't feel that you have to get even just because somebody has said something about you. Leave it alone. 99.9% of the time it's just not worth it. It really isn't. I've been speaking to my granddaughter and one of my granddaughters, and I said to her just this week, I was talking to her and she was having a little bit of a situation in all as babies do and we continue having them until we die. She was having a little bit of a situation and I said to her this, I said there's gonna be one question that you've gotta learn to answer for yourself. One question that if you learn this answer, you'll be okay. So she looks at me and what is the question I found of wisdom and I said to her, was it worth it? Was it worth it? That's a question I asked myself. If I retaliate, if I respond, was it worth it? And I have to tell you, most of the time it's not. Most of the time it's not. It is not worth it. The repercussions, the hurt, the anger, the various results of defending myself, it wasn't worth it. So you'll learn that. If you learn that, ask yourself that when somebody's bothering you, when you're in the midst of having one of those conversations with your husband or wife that the volume seems to be going up a little bit, ask yourself, is it worth it? Where we're going right now, is it worth taking that trip? Or shouldn't I learn to bite my tongue, leave it alone, allow God to work, settle the emotions, and then we'll work it through later? You know, I don't lie to you about things. I do my best to be open with you and as my kids were growing up, my kids sometimes would just not be doing what they should be doing and frankly, it's because of their mother. But anyway, her nature in them. No, it's just human nature and sometimes people think, oh, pastors, kids, they're perfect kids. No, pastors, kids have human natures too. And they make decisions that are not good. And a long time ago, a long time ago, I learned the lesson, sometimes you need to bite your tongue. I actually got into the physical activity on time. So when one of my kids was wrong about something and I didn't like where they were going in that conversation, and I would literally, this is the truth before the Lord, I would literally on purpose, I would bite my tongue physically, not because I get great pleasure in biting my own tongue. But it was a physical way to remind myself it is not worth it, leave it alone right now. You'll have opportunity later on to clarify this. And I literally would do this. I would bite my tongue because it is not worth it. Learn that, ask yourself the question, was it worth it? Was it, to be right, was it worth it? To get even, was it worth it? 99.9% of the time you're gonna say it really wasn't, paid a huge price or something that didn't last. So we need to learn to bless those who curse us. Proverbs 26, verse four, do not answer a fool according to his folly lest you also be like him. Instead of giving in to anger, learn to pray, learn to pray that God might move in their lives because in reality, they are most miserable. Now Jesus is a great example of this in 1 Peter chapter two verses 21 through 23, the apostle writes to this you were called because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps. He committed no sin. No deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. Bless those who curse you. Do good to those who hate you. Instead of seeking ways to harm your enemy, find a way to do good. So Jesus is in the garden. Judas has brought a detachment of officers to arrest him. The apostle Peter reacts the way he seems to often in scripture draws his sword and lops off a portion of the ear of a man by the name of Malchus. And Jesus reaches over and heals Malchus' ear. That is a great example of what he's speaking about. Do good to those who hate you. Pray for those, he says, who use you and persecute you. Especially pray that the Lord might open their eyes to see Jesus and his salvation. Again, Jesus is the example. In Luke 23, verse 34, Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. Why would I do that? Well, he says to us in verse 45 that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. And he goes on to tell us, he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same. And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? Therefore you shall be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect. Why should I do this? Well, that I might reflect that I indeed am a son of my Father. God shows impartial love. So should his children. Sunshine and rain are mentioned here. Those are showered upon all mankind. Even the good and the evil receive rain. Rain is a symbol of grace in scripture. He speaks concerning the tax collectors. They were the ones who collected taxes for the Romans and they were hated by their fellow Jews. They often abused the system. They lined their own pockets by exploiting their fellow countrymen. So Jesus said even tax collectors love those who love them. So what virtue is there in that? Loving those who would harm you is a greater kind of love. How can I do that? Isn't that what we're really wanting to know? How can I learn to love those who have treated me in this way? How can I have a love without malice towards people in general? And then every day I get up in the morning, I go to work. I go to the store. I go to the gas station. Every day in general, how can I, I have family members who sometimes are unkind. How can I love them? How does this work? You see Jesus is closing the door in self-righteousness by the way. He's making it very clear that you aren't, I am, we are not going to make it in our own works by virtue of our own goodness. That's why he closes in verse 48 by saying you shall be perfect just as your father in heaven is perfect. You wanna enter into heaven on your own moral standards and your own abilities, then okay, perfection is the standard. Can you reach that? The answer is no. So that means you need some help, right? How do you do that? So my daughter, Corinne, I'll speak of her once again, was a month old or so, and I was holding her. And you may not know this about me, but I love my kids. And I was holding my baby, my first born little, little girl in my arms. I was having one of those moments, a daddy-daughter moment. And this new thing in me, this father's love for a baby, was a brand new thing. Obviously, I'd never had a child before. This was my first baby, you know? I'm just overwhelmed by it. I'm amazed that I could feel these deep feelings for this little thing there. This little, little girl. My girl. And so I'm having that moment, as some of you have had, and I'm holding this baby, she was small, and I still remember looking at her little face as I held her head in my hand, and I was just looking at her, and I was speaking to her. Of course, she didn't listen then, even as she doesn't listen now. And as I was speaking to her, I was saying, baby, I love you. Daddy loves you with all of my heart. I love you with all, and I would lift her up and I would kiss her little face and put her, you know, I was just having that. And I just, I was allowing myself to feel intense and deep love when my sister-in-law walked in to the room. And I still remember as I was gazing in the face of my daughter that I lifted up my eyes and I gave to Rose my sister-in-law the same look that I was giving to Corinne. Now, from the time I'd been saved, and let me personally illustrate this, there was one thing I wasn't good at, and that was love. My upbringing is similar to many in that my mom was ill from the time I was four or five years old. And as a result of her illnesses and the medications and the frustration that my mom started going through, they took away her driver's license when she was 26 years old. She couldn't drive because she had epilepsy. Began going through some serious health issues from the time she was 26 that she got frustrated. And when my mom started getting frustrated, her anger started coming out of her. And so there were occasions where my mom could be very abusive. And there was a season in my life as a little boy that I can still remember that my mother said I hate you more than she ever said I love you. And my mom could be physically abusive. I still remember her throwing me on the ground and kicking me in the ribs and things. My mom could be very abusive when she was very angry and on occasion, she went ballistic and so the kids suffered through that. So I didn't know what love was when I grew up. I just didn't know I had a mother who said I love you but a mother who could get angry and physically hurt you. So now I'm 20 years old and I'm invited to go to a church. And I walk into this place called Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa. It's a small little building, a small chapel, a few hundred kids on the floor and in the pews. And I experienced something there. I'd never experienced before. I'm in a church but I'm feeling something different and I don't know at that time what it is. And then later on I realized after getting saved what I was experiencing is what I'd been wanting and it was the love. It was God's love in the presence of God's people. I had never experienced that in my life. So now I know how to pray and I start saying God. And I still remember I was in the military. I was stationed at Fort Bragg. I used to run every day, three miles a day, through a forest. And I was walking by myself and I was praying. I did this five days out of the week. I would do this particular routine and I would pray. And my prayer, I can tell you it word for word. Father, teach me to love. Father, teach me to love. That was my prayer. I don't know how, I don't know what it means. So I would ask God, teach me to love. I have been praying that since I was 20 years old. That one prayer, I pray it all the time. I still do. Father, teach me to love. I don't know how. I don't know how. Teach me. And I've been praying that. That's what I want. I wanna be a man who loves. That is a mark of a Christian. That's what I want in my life. See, so I pray that. I pray that. So I'm looking at my daughter and I look at my sister-in-law and the Lord speaks to my heart and says you've been asking me to teach you to love. If you look at me the way you're looking at your daughter, you will look at others the way you're looking at your sister-in-law. Look to me first. When you look to me, you'll learn to love others. I've been asking God for that for many, many years. Teach me to love. Why? Because Jesus said by this shall all men know you are my disciples. If you love one another. That's Christianity in its essence. But God, I can't. That's why he says I sent my son. I demonstrated my love toward you in that while you were still my enemy, a sinner, Jesus died for you. When you look at him on the cross and he prays, Father forgive them for they know not what they do. That's the full extent of his love. When he kneels down and washes the feet of his disciples, you call me master and you call me Lord. You say rightly for that is what I am. If I then be in your Lord and master have washed your feet, you ought to wash the feet of one another. So you mean love is sacrificial? Yes, and you mean that love is serving? Yes. I died on a cross and I washed feet. You wanna be great in the kingdom of heaven? Be the servant of all. Die to yourself. Stop trying to get even with people who hurt you, learn to bless them, pray for them and seek before them. The way that I did for my mom and my mama got saved and my mama served the Lord and changed to her dying day because God's grace took a mama who didn't know what love was and taught her this is love. And my mama, she would cry, her last year of life before she went home to be with Jesus, my mama would tell me this. She'd say to me, I still remember her little voice as she spoke. She'd say to me and she said it before she died. She said, David, thank you for bringing Jesus to our home. Thank you because Jesus changed her life from somebody who had an abusive heart to someone who prayed for me constantly. Her life changed because God's grace does that. God forgives sin and God transforms and you can be born again and have the love of God to love others even as Jesus loved you.