Hey there, thanks for listening to the Greg Laurie Podcast, a ministry supported by Harvest Partners. I'm Greg Laurie, encouraging you. If you want to find out more about Harvest Ministries and learn more about how to become a Harvest Partner, just go to harvest.org. Amen. Good afternoon.
Happy Super Bowl Sunday.
So let's see who's going for the Patriots. Make some noise. Patriots? All right, handful. Seahawks.
All right, great. I see a guy in a Florida jersey back there who's at the Dolphins. You guys haven't won since like the 80s, right? That's sad. No.
How about the uh commercials? Who's excited for the commercials? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Halftime show, you know, whatever. Food?
All right. I'm excited for that. Fellowship, friendships, those were always fun.
Well, I I like Pastor Adam. I am a product of my environment. I am so thankful for this church. I'm thankful for the men and women who have poured into me over the years the wisdom that I have received through the different seasons of life. And you know, I used to really not cringe, but I didn't love the compliment when people would say to me, Oh, you've grown so much as a teacher.
Oh, you've gotten so much better. And I always thought, like, what?
So I used to suck that bad, and now what I suck a little bit less. Is that what you're telling me? But no, I do appreciate it. And the reality is, I have been able to grow and exercise my gift and make mistakes and do things because I have been planted in very fertile soil. Men and women who have prayed for me, men and women who have encouraged me and exhorted me and challenged me and given me resources and helped me along in my faith.
And I am just so thankful, like Adam. I am thankful for this church and for the blessing that you all are.
So thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to get to open up the Word of God and teach from it today. Let's open up in our Bibles to Luke chapter 6. My message title is lines in the sand. Lines in the sand. One of my favorite things about the church.
is other believers. I love the worship. I love coming on Sunday mornings. I love tithing and serving and all of those things, but I love the fellowship that you experience in the house of the Lord. And I love Sunday mornings especially because I feel like Sunday morning is kind of like coming home for family dinner, right?
The one time a week that you all get together for family dinner. Everybody goes in their different directions. My family is pulled in a lot of different directions. Our oldest is working full-time and our daughter's doing sports and practice a ton and then our youngest is well he's not really doing much of anything right now but everybody's kind of pulled in different directions my wife does small groups I do a small group and so we're kind of pulled all over the place and I love when we get to have a time together as a family and catch up And see people interact. And I love that about the church: having fellowship, having community, and again, having that resource of men and women who were wiser than me and more experienced than me pour into me and encourage me in the season that I am in.
Whether it's navigating something in my marriage and parenting, when I was going through a season of loss after losing my brother, the church was here for me. When it was time for me to lay that spiritual foundation for my family, navigating difficulties and friendships, learning how to forgive. I'm thankful for the men and women in this church who have poured into me. Honestly, I feel like it's a bit of a cheat code. It's an edge that we have on the rest of the world.
You know what a cheat code is? Basically, when if you played video games ever, a cheat code was like a certain sequence of buttons you could press on the controller and it would make you invincible, or it would give you an extra amount of lives so you could beat the level. And the reason that the developers of those video games put the cheat codes in there was so that the average player could enjoy the game that they paid for. Or as little kids, you know, you could actually get to the end of the game and actually see the storyline that the developers had worked on. And so I still remember playing Mortal Kombat 1 with my brother in 1992 and him making me cry because he just kept beating me over and over and over.
I mean, I was 22 years old, but no, I was more like six years old at the time. But I was so frustrated because he would just beat me over and over. And then I started to learn some of the combinations that I could use against him. But a lot of times I would get stuck on a level, or I'd have to fight a boss at the end of the level that I couldn't get past. And there would be a walkthrough that you could buy.
You'd have to actually go to a store and buy like a strategy guy. That's how much you could be a nerd in, right? You could buy a strategy guy that would tell you how to beat that boss. Or now you go online and there's a cheat code.
Now you have to do microtransactions. Everything costs money in games. It's terrible, right? You have to buy V-Bucks or Robux to advance in the game. You actually have to pay to play, which is kind of a bummer.
That's how they get you. But in the sense, in the same sense, the Word of God is a cheat code. It's a cheat code. It helps us advance beyond what our experience is. If you get stuck in a season of life, you can look at the Word of God and it can literally speak to where you are at and help you navigate that season.
The Word of God, the people of God, the Spirit of God can help you in that season, can help you through that trial, that difficulty in your marriage. Insights and instructions, again, that help you advance along at a quicker pace, that tells you where to find success and most importantly, how to maintain it, right? Not just have momentary success, but how to have a successful life. How to live well. How to die well, how to leave a legacy to your children and your children's children.
That is a cheat code that we all need to pursue, right? Psalm 19, verse 8 tells us: The commandments of the Lord are right, bringing joy to the heart. The commandments of the Lord are clear, giving insight for living. I love that. Insight for living.
We all need insight for living. We need to know how to live this life. I love a good insight, some inside baseball. I tell you what, if you take me to the mall and you can tell me where to find a good parking spot that nobody knows about on a crowded day, like, oh, if you park over here. It's not technically a parking spot, but nobody ever looks there, and you can park there and you can walk right in and walk right out.
Oh, tell me all day about that. I love that. Or, if you know a good restaurant when everybody else is crowded and there's a bunch of hype surrounding these restaurants, I know a great hole in the wall that's got the best enchiladas you'll ever have, or the best tacos, or the best sushi, and it's really unassuming, but it's the best. Yes, give me those insights. I love that.
I love the insider knowledge, right? But the most beneficial insights to us are those that come from the Word of God. Again, from His people, from His Spirit, and from His Word.
Sometimes those insights can come from people who have actually failed. who have made mistakes in their life. Who have gone on to learn that there's repercussions to these things. And they tell you, don't follow my path, don't follow what I did. I have learned now the hard way.
Don't follow in my example. Man, that's wisdom. That's beneficial to me. That helps.
Sometimes it comes also from a lifetime of integrity and following biblical values. Here's what has worked for me, here are the values that I've implemented in my life, and they have paid off.
Sometimes a single piece of wisdom can change the entire trajectory of your life. Just one comment. One encouragement, one piece of advice. I think back to my life before I really made a dedication to the Lord, and the piece of advice, the thing that stuck with me, was the question my brother asked me as we were driving home from church one day, and he said, Jonathan, what's it gonna take for you to give your life to Christ? What's it going to take?
That was a question. That was an insight that I wrestled with, and it ultimately brought me to the Lord.
Well, Luke chapter 6 contains words that have reshaped and continue to shape the world that we live in. Jesus is now not giving shortcuts or a cheat code, like, oh, hey, you don't have to be obedient if you enter this sequence of buttons, or if you read these verses in this order, it's going to allow you to do whatever you want and not have to worry about the repercussions. No, no. What Jesus is doing Is he actually giving us a reworking of reality? He's redefining the goals that so many of us have ingrained in us from this world and teaching us what really matters.
How to live the life of a believer, how to be a follower of God, how to make sure you're getting into heaven, and ultimately, so that we don't have to waste our lives figuring it out the hard way.
So let's read together in Luke chapter 6, starting in verse 17. It says this And he came down with them and stood on a level place with the crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea and Judea and Jerusalem. and from the seacoast of Tyre and Sidon. who came to him to be healed of their diseases. as well as those who were tormented with unclean spirits, and they were healed.
And the whole multitude sought to touch him, for power went out from him and healed them all. And then he lifted up his eyes towards his disciples, and he said, Blessed are you poor. for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now.
For you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and when they revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day, and leap for joy, for indeed your reward is great in heaven. For in like manner their prophets, excuse me, for in like manner their fathers did To the prophets. Let's pause there.
That brings us to point number one: only Jesus. Only Jesus.
Okay, this is just an amazing scene right here: Jesus going up on the mountain and then descending and preaching to the multitude and the disciples. And if these words are familiar to you, it's because they should be, they're in the Gospels, but also because they're known as the Beatitudes. Matthew records a similar version in Matthew chapter 5 called the Sermon on the Mount.
Now, it's of my opinion and other commentators that this was actually a different sermon that Jesus gave called the Sermon on the Plain. The Sermon on the Mount, we see Jesus was ascending, going up the mountain with the multitude and with the disciples, and he taught on a hillside. And here we see in Luke 6 that Jesus descended and came and taught on a level place to the crowds, right?
Okay, so just a little good piece of information. Probably two different messages, maybe not. Consequential to you? Not really, but that's good to know. This is what happens when you're a Bible nerd.
Okay, so. The first thing I do want you to notice is the crowd. The crowd that came to Jesus, why did they come?
Well, they wanted to hear him preach, right? They wanted to hear the teachings of Jesus, the wise sayings of Jesus. This is why most of us have come here today. Because we want to hear what the Bible has to say, and that's the best thing that you could do: not come and listen to what Jonathan has to say or what anybody has to say, but what does the Bible say? It's the most important question.
And the other reason they came to Jesus in that time was because they wanted to be healed. There were countless people that struggled with all kinds of things. They were sick, they had diseases, they had illnesses, things that no doctor could remedy, sicknesses that there was nothing that you could do about. In fact, they were ostracized. If they had things like leprosy, they would be completely cast out from society.
They couldn't be around. It was so infectious and so deadly that they would have to be cast out from society. And so, what did they do? They came to Jesus. And they also had unclean spirits within them.
They had unclean spirits. They were demon-possessed. This is interesting. In the book of Job, In my personal devotion recently, I've been reading through it, and it's an amazing book. And if you're familiar with the story, basically, Job was this amazing man of God that loved the Lord and was pure in heart.
And Satan himself comes and appears to God and basically says, Oh, that guy Job, the only reason he worships you is because you have protected him. You've put a hedge of protection around him. And so God says, Do your worst, right? This is why you never want God to brag about you in heaven, okay? God, if my name ever comes up between you and the devil, like, just keep me on the down low, okay?
So Satan goes and afflicts Job. His entire family is killed. His children. His livestock is stolen and killed. I mean, just he gets message after message after message, and ultimately he ends up with nothing.
Everything is taken from him. His vast fortune, everything is taken. And now, Job's friends came and they sat with him, and they actually did a first good job initially. They came and sat with him and like just encouraged him. They mourned with him.
They didn't offer any advice. But as the chapters go on, they begin to speculate: Job, we think the reason that you are being so afflicted is because, well, you must have some secret sin. You're a screw-up. God hates you. God doesn't want you.
Look at what He did to you. How could a God of love do this to you? And Job is just like, You guys are such morons. Absolutely not. I have lived a life of integrity.
And he says this in Job chapter 17, responding to his mockers, to his quote-unquote friends. He says, You must defend my innocence, O God, since no one else will stand up for me. You have closed their minds to understanding, but do not let them triumph. You have closed their minds to understanding. I feel like we are seeing that in our world today.
People who have closed their minds to understanding. They don't care what truth is, they don't care what reality is, they don't care what actually happened, they're too busy reacting to the thing that they think happened. And then, when you show them the thing that actually did happen, they're not interested in that, because they just want to be mad. They want to be angry. They want to hold on to that feeling.
You know, we've all been angry before, and it's hard to let go of your anger when you're proven wrong. You want to hold on to it, it makes you feel powerful or whatever else.
So many today in our nation are filled with a spirit of hatred. They're filled with a spirit of self-righteousness, believing they know better than even the Word of God. They're filled with a spirit of contempt, or bitterness, or vitriol. And so, what is our answer for them today? Is it to debate endlessly and offer them fact and to just go, you know, tit for tat back and forth with them?
Well, you can, and I do believe that there's importance to that for sure, but the reality is politics can restrain behavior. Influences can shape opinion, and you can lead them away from that, but only Jesus can heal the heart. Only Jesus can deliver those who have an impure spirit. Only Jesus and the words of Christ can remedy something that we never could. But now something very important happens next in our text.
Jesus directs his gaze and his words to the disciples. This is where we see Jesus now give a new framework, a new insight for living. In verse 20, Jesus says, Blessed are you, poor. For yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled.
Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and when they revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for indeed your reward is great in heaven. For in like manner, their fathers did to the prophets. And then, Jesus goes on.
In verses 25 to 26, and he gives the inverse of the, and he gives the woes, basically. Blessed are you poor? Woe to you, rich. Blessed are you hungry? Woe to you who have full bellies, and so forth.
Woe to you, rich, woe to you, who are full now, woe to you who laugh, to you who have all people that speak well of you. This is the moment that Jesus is rewriting the rules of the game. He's saying there's a different scoreboard. This is completely different than what you have been taught to believe. The world says if you're winning, you're rich.
The world says if you're comfortable, you're winning. If the world says you're laughing and applauded and celebrated and popular, you're winning the game, right? Jesus says that scoreboard is lying to you. Jesus says, What looks like a disadvantage in this world may actually be an advantage in the kingdom of heaven. the things that are afflicting you, that are causing you to suffer.
If they are causing you to depend on the Lord and seek after Him, they're actually a blessing. Could be the best thing that ever happened to you. Was that sickness? Was that death in the family? Was that hardship that you've gone through?
That thing that made you pray more? That thing that made you call out to the Lord and ask Him for deliverance and help for could be the very thing that led you to heaven.
Now, this can be a hard passage to wrestle with at face value if we're honest, but we have to see the heart of what Jesus is saying. He is not saying. You will be blessed if you become poor. And you will be cursed if you are rich. That's not what he's saying.
He is not saying that you should pursue starvation or grief or despair or give people reasons to hate you. What Jesus is saying is those experiences can lead you to a place of being blessed if it creates a dependence on God. You understand? It can lead to a place of being blessed in this life and in the next. If it causes you to depend on the Lord, it is a warning against false security.
Your money won't save you. Your abundance of food won't save you. Your laughter and abundance of social acceptance are not reasons to feel secure. Jesus is interpreting present suffering in light of future security, of future certainty. He's helping us see things from an eternal perspective, something none of us could ever do on our own.
This is what Scripture offers us: an eternal perspective. That is a cheat code. That is an insight for living. Again, he's not saying, hang in there, it's going to get all better. There's light at the end of the tunnel.
Jesus is saying, the kingdom which I am bringing will overturn the current order. The last shall be first. The first shall be last. What looks like a disadvantage in this life is an advantage in the next. Again, if If it creates a dependency on God, if it creates a longing for heaven, if it creates a holy discontentment for what the world has to offer you, then Jesus said, You are blessed.
You are blessed. You could summarize it with this statement: it is better to be a poor follower of Christ than a rich unbeliever. It is better to be a poor follower of Christ than a wealthy unbeliever. That is divine wisdom on display here. Let's continue on in verse 27.
Jesus goes on, but I say to you who hear, Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, give him the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either.
If he takes your jacket, give him your shirt. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods, do not even ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?
For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those who you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back, but love your enemies, do good and lend, hoping for nothing in return.
And your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is thankful, excuse me, for He is kind to the unthankful and the evil. Just when he thought Jesus couldn't tighten the screws anymore, he goes ahead and does that. Yeah, love your enemies. Give to those without any expectation of return. A candid moment here.
As I was preparing for this sermon and going through all of this text, you know, Luke chapter 6, my dad covered last week the 12 disciples, and he said you could do chapter 7. You could do the rest of chapter 6. I thought, oh, I'll do the sermon on the plane. Why not? It's only some of the most important words that Jesus ever spoke, right?
It's a good thing to go over. We could do a 30-week series just on this sermon.
Okay. Every one of these sayings, we could do an entire message on. And so what we're doing today is a flyover, okay? We're looking at it. We're holding these things.
And so we're treating them kind of thematically. But man, The depth of these things that Jesus is saying. It just blows our minds. That brings us to point number two: responding to opposition. This is what Jesus is really teaching us to do here: respond to opposition.
The key phrase, we see it there in verse 27: I say to you who hear, I say to you who hear, no, Jesus is not speaking now to the larger crowd that is there in attendance. He is speaking to his disciples, to his followers, not the hecklers, not the outsiders. These words of Jesus separate the big leagues from the minor leagues. The men from the boys. Love is the most foundational mark of a genuine believer in Jesus Christ.
It's love. That is what Jesus is telling us here. Love is the foundational mark. And we are to love God. Jesus said, in response to the question, what is the greatest commandment?
He said, You are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. This is the first and greatest commandment.
So we're to love God. That is a mark that we are to have. Secondly, we are to love other believers. Jesus told the disciples, A new commandment I give to you. That you are to love one another as I have loved you, that you also love one another by this.
By what? By your love. By this all will know you are my disciples. If you have love, for one another. Do you have love for God's people?
Do you pursue relationships with them? Do you like it when they call you out for the sins that you're engaging in? Are you looking for that? Or do you get in and get out as quick as you can and get back in your car and turn on Metallica full blast and speed home and cut eight people off on the freeway? Hopefully.
You love God's people. Because if you love God, you're going to love his people. You're going to be encouraged by them. You're going to be challenged by them. You're going to be able to encourage others.
You're going to be able to challenge others.
So we're to love God, we're to love God's people, and also we are to love unbelievers. That's right. We're to love unbelievers, those who are outside the faith. Jesus said in John 3, 16, Say it with me if you know it. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
God so loved the world. God so loved humanity, those that were good, those that were bad, every single person in between. He loved them so much that he sent his own son to go and die in their place so that they could be reconciled to him and we could have the righteousness of Christ in us. We are called to love people outside of the faith because, as such, were some of you. All of us were outside of the faith at one point.
All of us were destined for hell, but ultimately, Christ came into our lives, and we need to bring that same message to those outside the faith.
Now, I know this may seem counterintuitive. To love people that are opposed to Christ, Jonathan. I understand people that are maybe open to the message of the gospel, but what about those that are hardened to that message?
Well, again, back to point number one. How are we going to Conversate. How are we going to talk with these people that have hardened their hearts? How are we going to debate with them? You'll never win in a debate.
Their hearts are hardened. You have to ask the Lord. It's a work of the Holy Spirit. He must soften their heart. But we need to love those that are outside the faith.
Now, does that mean that we're to love everything they do? No. It does not mean we love the sinful worldview or lifestyle they're a part of, but that we are to love the individual. Did Jesus love his enemies? I don't think there's any greater example of someone who loved their enemies than Jesus.
But Jesus also called out the religious leaders pretty directly, didn't he? There's some ones in my head that stick out for sure. I love it when he said to the Pharisees, you know, you're like a whitewashed tomb. You're beautiful on the outside, but inside you're full of dead men's bones and decomposing corpses. Excellent.
That was like a great first century diss, right? Like on the schoolyard, that one would have landed. He called them blind guides. He called them hypocrites. He called them, he said, your father is the devil.
Like, I mean, these are insults. These are very direct. But Jesus was speaking truth. He was speaking confrontationally and truthfully to those who were opposed to him, but ultimately, Jesus still loved them. Jesus loved them.
He loved his enemies. Why? And how? Because he wanted the ultimate good. He didn't want to placate them.
He didn't want them to be on his team. He wanted them to be on God's team, right? He didn't want to be on their team, rather. Yeah, he wanted them to ultimately repent and put their faith in God and truly follow the heart of the scriptures, not the letter of the law, but yeah. Anyways, so Jesus loved his enemies because he wanted the ultimate good, not just the good that was upholding the current system.
Sometimes in our own lives. The most loving thing we can do is to tell someone the truth. And sometimes it's hard, dude. You're blowing it. You don't need to get into that fourth relationship with another girl.
Like, you're an idiot. You shouldn't be dating anybody right now. You're in a bad place. No, you shouldn't be spending any more of your money on cryptocurrency, right? You've lost it all.
This is not good. Don't be doing that, right?
Sometimes telling people the truth seriously can hurt them and it can enrage them when you say something that may be provocative, but ultimately, if you're saying it in love, this is the heart of what God is calling you to do. The Greek word for good here, do good to those who persecute you in Luke 6 is kelos. It means to do true good, not just what is superficially good, not just what feels good, right? And there is no greater good than God's definition, which is His Word. His Word is truth.
So, it doesn't mean affirming a lifestyle. It doesn't mean agreeing on something that the Bible speaks against. The goal is to overcome evil with good, not to placate it or submit to it or ignore it, and definitely not pacifism. Jesus was anything but a pacifist, right?
Some tranquil guy. The love Jesus is talking about is a sacrificial love. Paul nails this in 1 Corinthians 13. Love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy, it does not parade itself, it is not puffed up, it does not behave rudely, it does not seek its own, it is not provoked, it thinks no evil, it does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in truth. It bears all things, it believes all things, and hopes all things, and endures all things.
Now if you're like me, you're thinking, that's not normal. That's not a normal human emotion. That's not the kind of love that I want. I want to love people that love me, and I want them to reciprocate it, right? It's not natural, it's not instinctive, and it's not possible.
Outside of God. Jesus here is not giving conflict resolution tips or a strategy to win arguments. He's reframing our goals, and he's saying here: the goal is not to defeat your enemy. The goal is to lead them to God. The goal is to reflect your Father in heaven.
That's what you are to do. And conversion, that's up to me. That's a work of the Holy Spirit. Paul said, I planted the seed, Apollos watered the seed, but it was God that brought the increase. You're to do your part.
You're not there to make sure that the person's heart change or to... You know, debate them into conversion, debate them into heaven. No, your job is to love them, to reflect the love that God has shown to you. If you want to see the greatest example of these commands, you have to look at Jesus Himself, right? You got to look at Jesus Himself.
When he was hanging on the cross. And his hands were pierced. And he was naked, and he was wearing a crown of thorns, and he was. Surrounded by his friends and his own mother. and he was dying, gasping for air.
What did he say about those that were surrounding him and had put them there? He said, Father, father. Forgive them. for they know not what they do. If it was me, I would have been cursing them, calling them every name in the book, right?
Tell them my friends to start an uprising right then, right there. We're going to set, you know, we're going to settle this. Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. This is the heart. That Jesus is telling us to have.
How about the thieves that were mocking Jesus and challenging his authority, telling them to get down from the cross and bring them with him? No, he gave them the other cheek. He loved them. And what was the result? One of the thieves looked at Jesus and said, Lord, remember me when you enter your kingdom.
And Jesus told him, Today you will be with me in paradise. Buddha didn't do that. Muhammad didn't do that. Jesus Christ did that. He led people to himself, even in the midst of his suffering, even in the midst of hardship.
He knew what his purpose was. And lastly, when he was on the cross, the Roman centurion, who oversaw the entire thing, when Jesus died and the earthquake happened, the Roman centurion was recorded as saying, Surely this was a righteous man. Matthew tells us, he said, Surely he was the Son of God. He glorified God. This is the heart of God on display.
Verse 35, Luke chapter 6. He is kind to the unthankful. and the evil. Guys, I got to be honest. This is a tall order for all of us.
This is a tall order. Turn the other cheek. Pray for those who persecute us, do good to our enemies. Honestly, I find myself debating with Jesus here, arguing, really? Jesus, seriously, come on.
Like, give me some angle here. Like, this is what you want me to do? I found a great quote by Chuck Smith that summarized. Our responsibility well. He said, our job is not to argue with him, but just be willing to obey.
And in that willingness, you'll discover the secret of victory. And the Lord will give to you the capacity and the power to obey the commands that He has given. A willingness to obey. Are you even willing to love the way that Jesus loved? Or are you just like, well, first of all, I can't do that because, well, I'm me and I definitely am not in that mindset.
But also, I don't even want to do that. That's impossible. And it's also like, oh, I don't want to do that. That means I have to like deny myself. I like my anger.
I like my pride. I like feeling right. Oh, it's a good feeling when I'm right. It's a good feeling when I win that debate and I nail that person on Instagram, that Russian troll, right? Platform.
No, that's not what you're called to do. Just have the willingness. Lord, I don't have the power to do this. I can't do this. I can't love that person.
I think I've forgiven them a bunch of times. Honestly, I carry it around with me everywhere I go, but when I see them, you know, my blood pressure spikes a little bit. Are you even willing to forgive that person? That's all you're called to do. Just be willing.
Be willing to obey. It doesn't mean you have to like it or agree with it. It doesn't even mean that you have to love it. It just means you have to be willing to obey, and God will give you the power. He will give you the strength, and He'll even give you the words.
I've experienced it myself many times. Let's continue on now to our third point in this last. Block of texture. Verse thirty-six, therefore. Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put back, will be put into your bosom.
For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you. And Jesus spoke a parable to them. Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch? A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.
And why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye? But do not perceive the two by four, the plank, in your own. Or, how can you say to your brother, Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your own eye, when you do not see the plank that is in your eye? Hypocrite. First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother's eye.
For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from bramble bushes. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart, his mouth speaks.
But why do you call me Lord, Lord, and not do the things which I say? Whoever comes to me and hears my sayings and does them, I will show you what he is like. He is like a man building a house, who dug deep and laid the foundation on the rock. And when the flood rose, and the stream beat vehemently against the house, and could not shake it, for it was founded on the rock. But he who heard and did nothing is like a man who built a house on the earth without a foundation, on sand, against which the stream beat vehemently, and immediately it fell, and the ruin of that house fell.
was great. Point number three. Hearing versus obeying. Again, these are some of the wisest words ever recorded in the history of humanity from our Lord Jesus Himself. Jesus is offering us here some serious inside baseball, some serious, supernatural, eternal perspective knowledge that we could ever have.
I think this verse summarizes it well when he said, Be merciful just as your father is merciful. That is the standard. Be merciful just as your Father also is merciful. That's the standard. Not your upbringing, not your politics, not your trauma, not your life experience, or even your personality.
Your Father in heaven is the standard. He is what you were called to be like. And then Jesus goes on and he tells us: judge not lest you be judged, condemn not. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give and the same measure that you give will be measured back to you.
With the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you. This is a principle that extends even beyond the spiritual and into our everyday lives. Hey. You want people to treat you well, treat them the way that you want to be treated.
Now Atheistic philosophers have taken this and they've embraced it, but they've actually just used the negative of it, which is: don't treat others the way that you don't want to be treated.
Okay, that's fine, but Jesus takes it so much further, doesn't he? Don't just not treat them badly, but treat them well. Treat others the way that you want to be treated, right? Be respectful to those, and you will be the way that you would like to be respected. Again, This does not mean That we should not evaluate people's spiritual conditions, judge not lest you be judged.
It does not mean we shouldn't confront their sin, and this is why context is so important. Jesus, just a few verses later, goes on and says: a good tree does not bear bad fruit, right? And the bad tree does not bear good fruit. And so, what Jesus is saying here. Is don't offer harsh, critical, compassionless, vengeful condemnation of your enemies as though you were acting as God Himself, operating as judge, jury, and executioner.
No, you are called, though, to evaluate: is this good fruit? Is this bad fruit? You are called to inspect, and yes, you're even called to confront. But do it in a spirit of love to restore the person. And lead them to Christ.
That's your ultimate goal: to win them to God. Many times we will condemn certain sins more strongly than others because it conveniently is the one sin that we don't struggle with. Or we'll expect the world to operate in a pattern that we barely are operating in, and they're outside the faith completely. They don't even have the power of the Holy Spirit. It's been said that God cleans his fish after he catches them, right?
So often we want people to clean their lives up before they come to God. And God says, I'm making them a new creation from the inside out. God effectively tells us, the gospel effectively tells us, come to God and He will clean your life up. And so let's bring this to a close as Jesus again directs his words towards all of us today. He says, Why do you call me Lord and not do the things that I say?
This is a heavy question. Are there parts of Scripture that you conveniently skip over? Are there commands that Jesus gave about sexual immorality or about forgiveness or about generosity that you're conveniently skipping over? Because I don't want to get to that part yet. I'm not ready for that.
That's spirituality 102, Christianity 102, or 103. I'm not there yet. It is the mark of true faith. Obedience. and submission.
And rejecting your own human nature, denying yourself. Again, it's the willingness to obey. Are you even willing? It starts there. Be willing.
God will instruct you. He will teach you. He will bring you through it. James said that faith without works is dead. It's not enough to know the words of Jesus and even have them memorized or tattooed on your shoulder, right?
Hey, that's all great. Nice. I'm glad you have that. Do you obey them? Do you reflect the love that God has shown to you?
It's not enough to show up to church on Sunday and tithe and even serve. You have to obey Jesus' commands. A few years ago, my family and I were driving home from going to lunch, and we were on the Pacific Coast Highway. It was a beautiful day. And we had to pull off on some side street for some reason.
I don't remember why. But I saw a house as we were driving by, and I immediately just hit my brakes. I had to take a picture of this house. I'll go ahead and put that picture up on the screen. This is a picture of a house that has been built on a sand foundation, not on a firm foundation, not on a rock.
This is literally on a sandbar.
Okay, in front of it is the Pacific Ocean. Behind me, where I was taking the photo from, is a harbor. This is literally just on sand. The sand had shifted. It was built in 1938.
This is a teardown. And yet it's still listed for $2.5 million. Welcome to Orange County, people. And is this not just a picture of what happens when you build yourself on the sand? Punch in a little bit closer, and you can see the door frame.
This was my favorite part. Oh, yeah, look at that. I mean, it's like, is that like a 30-degree angle? I don't know. Does that door even open anymore?
I don't think so. Jesus says, He who hears and does nothing is like a man who builds his house on the sand, and when the storm came, it fell, and great was the fall of that house. That is what happens when you build your life on what the culture tells you to do, when you build your life on what society tells you to do, when your goals are aligned with this world, it is going to let you down. But when you have the goals that God has given to you, the goals that are outlined here in our text, you are building your life on the rock, the rock of our salvation, Jesus Christ. And so, in closing, the question is not: do you like Jesus' words?
The question is: what have you built your life on? Is it the rock of your salvation? Hey, I think all of us, if we're honest, part of our lives, even as believers, we're semi-like, some parts of our house, maybe we're allowing to be staying on that sand foundation. We need to bring all of it into alignment. We need to put all of it on the foundation of Jesus Christ.
But if you're here today, And most of you are, and you have not yet put your faith in Christ. You are building your life on a foundation of sand. It is going to deteriorate. When the storm comes in your life, the storm doesn't make the foundation, it reveals it. And when that tragedy comes your way, What are you gonna call upon?
What are you gonna depend upon? What is gonna give you comfort? Is it gonna be your things? Is it gonna be your status? Is it gonna be your success?
Is it gonna be your bank account? No, those things are not going to mean anything to you. The only thing that can give you hope, the only thing that can give you peace, is a relationship with God, is your faith in Him. And so listen, if you would like to know today that when you die, that you will go to heaven. Respond to this invitation now.
Father, we thank you for your love for us. We thank you for your words. We thank you for the challenges that you lay out for us. God, we can only accomplish them and obey them through the power of the Holy Spirit. As believers, help us to do that, Lord.
Help us to follow you. And while our heads are bowed and our eyes are closed, and we're praying together. If you would like to put your faith in Christ, if you would like to build your life upon the rock. And no. That you have a sure foundation and know that you can have hope and fulfillment and peace in this life.
Yes, you can have that. You can walk out of here today, a new creation. If that's you, pray this prayer out loud after me. Maybe watching at Harvest Riverside, Harvest Orange County, or on the island of Maui. Pray this out loud after me.
Dear God, I know that I'm a sinner. But I know Jesus is the Saviour. Who died on the cross for my sin? And I turn from that sin now. From this moment forward, Lord, would you fill me with your Holy Spirit?
And help me to have that family resemblance. I want to be like you, Lord. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen.
God bless you. God bless you. Hey everybody, thanks for listening to this podcast. To learn more about Harvest Ministries, follow this show and consider supporting it. Just go to harvest.org.
And to find out how to know God personally, go to harvest.org and click on Know God. Mm-hmm.
