This is the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast. Brought to you by Living on the Edge. In this podcast, you'll hear Chip's teaching unedited and from beginning to end. Chip title today's message: How to Overcome the Evil Aimed at You.
Well as we get started, I want to ask you to go to a place that you may not really want to go. But I'll tell you in advance, it'll be worth it. I'd like you to lean back just a little bit, be reflective. And I want you to answer this question in your mind. Feel free to even close your eyes for just a moment if it's helpful.
Of all the people in your life to date, that you would say have hurt you the most. Who comes to your mind? Who's wounded you? Who's lied about you? Who's walked out on you?
Who's taken your money? Who's gossiped about you? Who sexually or physically abused you when you were younger? Who's been ungrateful and humiliated you? in front of a group of people.
Who said things at a Bible study or even at church that? produced incredible pain and disunity. And you were made to be the person. Who was at fault? Who's betrayed you?
Have you got it? I I don't mean to pull off a scab. I don't mean to conjure up things. For many of you, some of these things are pressed down pretty deeply. I want you to Follow along and I want to read.
to you what I think are the most radical words that have ever come out of any person's mouth. that has walked on the earth. They're familiar to some of you. which is unfortunate because they lose their power.
So, as I read these, I want you to think about who wounded you, but I want you to think about what it would be like if. You were living in an occupied country. and your possessions were being taken away from you. And you were being rejected by family members, all because you believed that this itinerant preacher was, in fact, the Messiah, the God-man that came to save the world. and you knew you needed to follow him and as a result of that Everything from the persecution being walked into the Colosseum.
To being excommunicated from your Jewish family. This is what Jesus would say. to them. And here's what he's saying to us. Matthew chapter 5 in the Sermon on the Mount.
You have heard it said Love your neighbor. and hate your enemy. But I tell you, love your enemies. And pray. For those who persecute you.
And then it gives the reason why. That you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes the sun to rise on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, What reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? B Perfect. The word is teleos. That's our word for mature.
Has the idea of something or someone fulfilling its ultimate design. Be mature, be perfect, even as your Heavenly Father. is perfect.
Now, as you pull out your pen and pull out your notes, I want you to write something down because you need to really get this. It is not hard. To be a Romans 12 Christian. Get that out of your mind.
Some of you think it's really, really, really hard, and you're thinking it's been, I mean, surrendered to God and separate from the world's values. It is not hard. It is Impossible. Write that word down. It's impossible.
Because if you don't think it's impossible, you'll try to be one. And you'll try to be one out of your self-effort, and your flesh, and your energy, and your personal discipline, and your willpower. And the people that get good at it are called Pharisees. And Romans 12 was never written to help you in your power or my power. to have a stronger moral code.
It was a profile, it was a picture, it was a snapshot. of what happens to a person. When they experience the mercy and the grace Of Romans chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. It's a faith response. Notice in your notes, Romans 12 Christians focus on relationships.
Not rules. Or religious activity. It doesn't mean there aren't any rules, and it doesn't mean as a follower of Christ there aren't some religious activities. But the focus of any rule or any religious activity is to cultivate my relationship with God and my relationship with people. Even my relationship with myself.
in a healthy healthy way. In fact, you could summarize Romans 12 Christians, their highest aim, our highest aim. is love. You know, when Jesus was asked, what's the greatest commandment? Do you remember what he said?
Love the Lord your God. How? With all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And what else? And love your neighbor as your Self.
You know, if you took everything that's in Romans 12, as we do just a quick review here. 'Cause 'cause what happens, you know. Pretty soon you forget what we talked about. Two or three or four sessions ago. Really, Romans 12 is a snapshot of, in my mind's eye, It's the Apostle Paul taking the Sermon on the Mount.
And the Apostle Paul, out of his conversations with the resurrected Christ in Arabia. And Jesus told them to love God, love themselves, love others. And Paul's a very brilliant, didactic guy writing to a Roman audience. And he knows it's got to get real practical. And so he says, let me show you.
what it looks like to love God in everyday life. It means on a certain day, at a certain time, after you've received His grace and been born spiritually, that you say to God, I surrender all, I'm all in. Because that's the spiritual service God desires. And that's what it means to love God. And he says there's a competition for that love.
Remember the world system that wants to seduce you? And tell you through the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of life that real significance and real success and real power and real happiness is going to come. And he says, You have to refuse the love for the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. And then in verses 3 through 8, he talks about Loving yourself.
Looking not just in the mirror and saying, I'm fearfully and wonderfully made, but looking in the mirror of your soul through the lens of God's Word and saying, I'm forgiven, I'm adopted. I have the spirit of the living God inside of me. I've been sealed. I have spiritual gifts. I'm the object of his affection.
I am in Christ. God the Father now looks at me in the same way that He looks at His Son Jesus. I am righteous in His eyes. That's a sober self-assessment. And yet in a fallen world.
And it goes from loving God and not loving the world and loving yourself to loving the family, the body of Christ, radically serving one another. And then finally, we're going to talk in this session. What's it look like practically to love your enemies? Open your Bibles, if you will, to Romans chapter 12.
Okay. He begins to clearly tell us how to respond. to the evil aimed at us in verse 14. In verses 14 to 16, he's going to give us a positive command. This is how you respond to that person that came to your mind that I started.
This message worth and ask you to think about. And he's going to say, here's how you respond to that person.
Now I'm going to warn you it's going to sound ridiculous and impossible. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. And mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony.
With one another. Do not be proud. but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. He's going to say you need to bless them and that's how.
Then he gives a negative command, the temptation when our enemies and people have hurt us, there's a temptation. And he's going to hit it right between our eyes. Verse 17, Do not repay evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live or be at peace with all men.
Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it's written: It is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, Here's how you're to treat that person that is in your mind. If your enemy's hungry, feed him. If she's thirsty, give her a drink. In so doing, you will heap burning coals upon their head, and that doesn't mean God will blow their brains out.
We'll learn a little bit what that really means. And then there's a supernatural result. There's this saying that when you act the way Jesus acted toward his enemies, because Jesus lives in you by his Spirit, and you do it in the power of his word and authentic community, he says, do not be overcome. by evil. And it's an evil world.
But he says there's something more powerful than evil. Overcome evil with Good.
Now what I want to do in the remainder of our time is I want to I want to break down very specifically and practically what it looks like. To bless those who persecute you. That's the first and positive command. And the command is this. Bless them that persecute you.
That's what you're called to do. In verses 14, 15, and 16, he's going to give you three specific ways to bless them. The word bless, by the way, this is not like, you know, someone sneezes and you go, oh, bless you. This is not that, okay? This word literally means to desire the salvation.
Another person. It means to desire and long for God's blessing and favor to be upon them. I mean, it's like for that enemy that actually their life would work out well. That if they're married, their marriage would get deeper. If they're a parent, their kids would do well.
If they have a job, they would do well. I mean, it's a blessing. That's what you're praying. And when it says the people who are cursing you, these aren't people that are just using curse words at you. The idea of this word, bless those who curse you, it's people who socially ostracize you because of your faith.
It's people who verbally humiliate you because of your faith. It's people that in the first century, in many places around the world, people who undercut you and actually persecute and want to kill you because you're a follower of Christ. He's saying, what I want you to do is bless them. And there's three components here. The first component of blessing others is forgiving them.
This is hard. forgiving them. I mean, if you're to pray for, and blessing is for their salvation, if you want God to forgive them, guess what? You got to forgive them. And you know that little section, sort of in, we call it the Lord's Prayer?
Forgive us our sins just as we Forgive others. See, the premise is going to be And this is the key to loving your enemies. You and I have to come to the point where we really grasp how merciful and God has not given us what we deserve. And there's part of it where it's a dark place you need to go, and you kind of need to look at your motives and some things that you've done, and some stuff that you have begged God. Oh, God, please, please don't let me get the consequences of that one.
Oh, God, pick me up and cleanse me. And he has. And then what he's going to say is, I want you to do for that person what I have done for you.
Now people get very confused when it comes to forgiveness because They tell me things like, well, My husband walked out on me. He's not paying any child support or You know, my boss sexually harassed me, and you know, I went to HR and you know, they kind of glossed over it on this one. And so I'm living with this, and every time he makes some sort of comment, I'm forgiving him, but I feel very angry. And well, I'm forgiving him, but so how do you square this forgiveness? One of my folks sexually abused me and I've forgiven him, I think, 144 times and Then the phone rings, and it's a certain time on Sunday afternoon, and I think it's going to be them, and I get knots in my stomach, and this anchor.
Forgiveness has three phases. Jot these down, please. Phase number one is a choice. Two. It's when you, it is not emotional, it has nothing to do with your feelings, it is a choice.
By the end of our time together, many of you will open a section in your Bible and you will say, I forgave blank today, and you'll put a date because it's a choice. The second is the forgiving process.
So you forgive, and then it's forgiving. That's a journey. And that journey is where your emotions catch up with the choice that you've made. Because you can forgive, and you do that, and you say, and the word means to release or to loose. In other words, I'm going to take back my desire for them to get paid back, and I'm going to release them from that like God has released it.
And so I'm not going to say anything negative about them. I'm not going to wish negative for them anymore. I'm going to release them to God and I'm going to forgive them the way God's forgiven me, freely. And so it's a choice, but then You know when they drop off those kids and They've kind of poisoned the kids against you, and then you get this letter in the mail, and you hear about this guy that stole a bunch of money from you, and he's vacation in Hawaii, or you read about him in Forbes, and you just go, Does it mean you haven't forgiven? No.
It means you're on the journey. And the journey means when you bless, you begin to pray for him. is the journey. You pray for him. When I first experienced this, I got betrayed in a tremendously hurtful, painful way.
And I got stuck and I couldn't get out of it. And I had a good friend walk me through this passage and teach me how to do this. And so I started to pray. And my prayers honestly start out like this. Dear God, Give that sucker what he deserves.
I'm serious. You know, like, Heavenly Father, take him out, you know. And. And as I continued to pray, the Holy Spirit was making evident that that was not exactly what blessing was all about. But you know, part of it too is you need to be real with your emotions with God.
I think some people think God has a sanitized room. I got news. He can handle whatever you can bring. And what he appreciates is authenticity. And sometimes it's painful and it's raw.
Read the Psalms. And then I got to where, oh God. Would you just help him see how wrong he is and bring him And I mean, I had to pray. Every time I heard something about him, the anger would come up. No, I've forgiven him, but I've got to keep processing.
And you know, it was two or three months later: God, would you bless his marriage? Yeah. But you And I began to pray. And then for me, I just decided every Lord's Supper, I would never take the Lord's Supper until I prayed honestly and from my heart to bless this man and his life and his marriage and his kids. And all I can tell you is that over time, what And he moved out of state.
He didn't change, I don't believe, but I did. But see, there's poison in your soul when there's bitterness and you've been wounded. And as someone wisely said, when we refuse to forgive, it's like we drink poison and think the other person's going to die. Can I just make a comment? Because I think there's a lot of confusion about forgiveness and emotions, and well, I don't feel like I've forgiven him.
Forgive is a choice, and then you bless them. You pray for them. We're going to learn in a minute, you not only pray for them, but you start doing good things for your actual enemies. Like if they're hungry, you feed them, if they're thirsty, and there's specific ways that you do good things for people who don't deserve it. But I'd like if you would think about Jesus in the garden.
Mm. He died. to forgive you. And to forgive me. And sometimes we make this, you know, Jesus loves me, this, I know.
Can I let you in on a little secret? He didn't feel like forgiving you. Do you ever think of that? He's in the garden. He's sweating.
like drops the stress like blood coming out of his pores. And he's fully God, but he's fully man. He didn't die with some S on his chest, like I'm going through the motions as a man. He could die, but as God the Son, he knew that when he was going to get on that cross, your sin and my sin, and the sin of all people of all time, would be placed upon him. He became our sin offering.
And when the moment sin came upon him, the father would turn away, and for the first time in eternity, The Father and the Son would be separated, and he would experience that isolation and the price of sin. And as that was coming, let alone getting beaten within an inch of his life, and let alone being humiliated and stripped naked in a crown of thorns and being public displayed, we think that's the big deal. That's the small stuff, and it's horrendous. And do you remember what he prayed? Father, let this cut pass.
You know what he's saying? I don't want to do this. I don't feel like doing this. Forgiving and loving isn't doing what you feel like, it's choosing. to give another person what they need the most.
when they deserve it the least. at great personal cost. And when God says to forgive this person, all we're doing is we're stepping in the same path of Jesus. And we're doing for this person, they don't deserve it. Of course not.
Neither did I, neither did you. And so the process of forgiveness is a choice. Second, forgive, forgiving is a process And then forgiven. Is it's done. And here's how you know when it's done.
You can spontaneously rejoice at blessing in their life. I've been praying. This is my first real battle with this. I've had multiple ones since. I guess the older you get, the more betrayed and difficult things you get in your life.
In this particular situation, it had been about nine months since I went through this betrayal, and I was hurt and angry. I'm taking the Lord's Supper, and I'm praying for this guy every day. I'm praying for him more in my mind, you know? Because the anger fantasies would come up, and every time they would, I'd start praying for him and blessing him. And so I was right before I was supposed to speak, and a guy thought it would be a positive comment, I suppose.
He goes, Oh, did you hear about so-and-so? This really good thing happened to him. And I did the good Christian thing, like, oh, wow, great. And my insides were going, oh, yuck. That stinks, that is so unfair.
After what he did here, and he got blessed over there.
Well, see, I'm not done. Two. Two years later. I don't know why this always happens to me in church. Two years later, I'm in church, and a guy walks up to me.
Did you hear about so-and-so? I said, No. He said, This, this, this, and this happened to this guy. And before I could think, before I could process joy, I said, Oh, that's great. And I meant it.
I stopped praying before the Lord's Supper. I was done. I was done. Forgive choice, forgiving process where your emotions go up and down. As I bless and pray, forgiven.
It's done.
Some of you are going to get out of prison today.
Some of you have been pushing this down, and that's why you're depressed.
Some of you eat when you're not hungry because you've been pushing this stuff down.
Some of you have ulcers and migraines and there's lots of physical causes. But a big part of why our bodies don't work very well and why we do stuff that doesn't make sense, and you know, we have sanctified quote addictions and not so sanctified addictions. And a lot of it is rooted in this lack of forgiveness and be willing to release. these people. And you can start that today.
The final thing he says In Not only do you forgive them, but it talks about identification. And so it's not just where you mentally are doing this. I mean, this gets like from hard to crazy hard. He says, Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Christians, we usually quote that and we think it's how we're supposed to treat one another.
You don't need any commands to rejoice with people that you love, and you don't need any commands to weep with people that you love that have cancer. The context here is: this is how we bless or treat our enemies. And so your boss who ripped you off who did terrible things to you. Who Actually, you know, stole a couple of your patents, took credit for it, launched another company, went public, got mega-wealthy rich. and you lost out and you've been brewing over this forever.
Or your mate that walked out on you and married some little hottie male or female. And now as you know, on the beach. While you don't have any money and you uh is this now is this r real stuff or not? Right? And then they get cancer or they're in an auto accident.
You know what this says? You rejoice with those who rejoice, you weep with those who weep. What would happen if you walked in that hospital room? Said, you know, I know it's been five years. You can't believe how much I've prayed for you.
You don't have to tell them why. And I want you to know that I have forgiven you for what you've done. But when I heard about this cancer, I felt compelled by God to come tell you that Jesus really loves you and I would love, would you allow me to pray for you right now? Can you imagine them scratching their head? Or when something good happens to him, rejoicing with him.
You know, maybe they remarry and they burnt you, but they have a kid and they have a baby, and something happens, and you've completely forgiven them, and you're praying for blessing. What if you jotted a note? And said, I really... I praise God, I've been praying for your family for two years and... You know, it's It's exciting to see.
this blessing in your life. And for some, because here's the disclaimer: if you were sexually abused or this person hurt you or did something, there's some people you can't get involved with. But you could send them an anonymous gift. Because here's what it does, it changes you. And before you keep looking at me like this is the craziest stuff you've ever heard.
Isn't this what Jesus did? Didn't Jesus come to a planet, and those who were his own did not receive him, but rejected him?
So we Are his enemies. Paul would call us while we were still his enemies, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8. And so, why were his enemies? What did he do?
He went to weddings and rejoiced with us. He raised little kids from the dead. If you're hungry, why don't we just feed everybody right here? With Lazarus, what did he do? He wept.
See, Jesus wasn't playing Okay, when you clean up your act and when everything gets okay, then I will love you. He rejoiced with those who were rejoicing and he weeped because it is the kindness of God that leads to repentance. People will probably This is so counterintuitive. This is so bizarre. When you by His power and His grace, choose to do this, something happens.
And the grace of God works through you in ways where You know what? People start to believe maybe this Jesus is real. And so it begins with forgiveness. And then there's identification. And then notice the very last part, verse 16.
He says there's an association that you need to be very careful. He says, live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but willingly circle that word associate with people of low position. And then, as though, you know, do not be conceited. In a fallen world with evil people, and especially those that don't know Christ and are very antagonistic, the Apostle Paul is saying, we need to be people that don't just cling to our rights in the fray of life.
I mean, it's a selfish, dog-eat, dog-manipulative world. I mean, welcome to the NFL.
So, how does a Christian live that out? If possible, he says live in harmony with one another. And then here's the deal. When you're blessing your enemies, See, if you're not careful, it can be like... You know what?
I'm going to do this. I'm going to jot a card. I'm going to visit them in the hospital. I'm going to pray for them every day. You know one, I'm sort of this wonderful, spiritual, amazing person loving this scumbag of the world.
Who walk out on me? That's kind of the opposite of do not be conceited. See, this is hard for some of us. On a given day. The very thing that that person did to you in a moment of weakness and under pressure.
you could do that to someone else.
So we come not as the superiors. We come associating with, connecting with our humanity. people of low position. and we're not conceited, but it's with humility. That we bless them.
with a sense of But for the grace of God. I would be doing those things to others. D doesn't this really just sound like Jesus? Doesn't it just isn't there like a trail being blazed that we're to follow? And so that's the positive side.
Bless those and notice who persecute you. They're after you. The second command is a negative one. Don't take your own revenge. Verses 17 through 20.
Don't take your own revenge. I mean, it's just a command. Do not repay evil. For evil. And then he's kind of like in a fallen world.
He says, be careful, circle that word above it. Literally, it's take thought. New American Standard says respect. but it's right in the sight of all men. If possible, as far as it depends on you, live with peace with everyone.
And then he goes on to say, just wait a second, don't take your own revenge, but leave room for God's wrath. He's the one who's going to be the judge. He's going to mete out justice. Here's the point. Personal retaliation is a prohibited response for God's people.
Personal retaliation. In other words, they did evil to you. You get them back. They did evil to you, you get them back. They did this to you, you say bad things about them.
And if you're a Christian and you have some experience, you can do it in such passive, aggressive ways. and you add a verse to it. Throw in, it's a prayer request. It works, believe me. And you just go left-handed like this and you whack them.
Because your real goal is revenge. It's payback. You use your power, use your intellect, use your relationships, you use nuances. And you go like this. One more drink of poison, please.
It's going to kill him sooner or later. But it doesn't. Never. Pay back evil for evil. Instead, take thought and consider how people think.
Respect and realize that they don't have your values. They're not going to act the same way.
So don't, the field is not level. They're really focused on them.
Sometimes I hear Christians get all upset about non-Christians living like non-Christians. That's right. Yeah. That guy's really greedy. She's so sexually immoral.
I can't believe that, I mean, he just drained the whole company and all the employees. Oh my.
So what were we like before Jesus? was controlling the interior of our life. Take thought for how people think. It will help you live in harmony with them. Personal retaliation is prohibited for two very important reasons.
One, it usurps God's role as judge. Vengeance is mine. God says, Look, I'm just. Yes, I'm holy, I'm compassionate, I'm slow to anger, but I'm just. And the word justice is rooted in the concept.
You know the scales of justice. Justice is rooted. and a very clear concept of retribution. Retribution is simply this. When you do evil stuff, Evil consequences.
When you do good stuff, reward. Every man will get what they deserve.
So you just need to say, I need to take the ball of judgment, hand it to God, and say, I'm tired of trying to figure out all the ways in my anger fantasies and different ways to get back at my boss or my ex or one of my kids or the person who abused me. And I'm going to put that ball in your hands from now throughout eternity. And I'm going to trust that since you are just, that you will do what's right. I will never get a raw deal. But I'm stepping out.
You own it, God. I release it to you. You're fair. You're just. And either on this side of heaven or on this side of after death.
The scales will be absolutely and perfectly balanced. You can release that wound and that hurt and your desire for payback. Because he knows all things. He knows all the wise. He knows all the circumstances, and you don't.
And you can give that to him. But there's a lot of us, if you demand to be the judge, then God doesn't get to be the judge. And when you judge people, and you decide you're going to pay them back. You reap what you sow. The second reason that personal retaliation is prohibited is because it's an ineffective means of bringing about peace.
I mean Look at this passage and how many times it was about oneness and one another and live in harmony. God wants us to live in a very fallen, evil world where we're the kind of people that bring peace and we don't cling to our rights and we're the kind of employees that people say, wow, we'd like 100 of them because, you know, everyone's gossiping and doing this and that and wanting that and wanting this and they're a real hassle, but man, alive, these Christians. May they make the company smooth. They're loving, they're selfless, they're caring. They're not doormats.
This isn't peace at any price. They take a stand on principle. They take a stand on values. You don't ever run over them. But man, they're people of integrity.
They bring about peace. That you want these on your softball team. You want them in the city league. You want them helping running the rec center stuff. They're just good people, and when they get a little offended, they're not so insecure that they're always causing problems.
They kind of look at people and realize, you know, take thought for where that guy's coming from. That's not even worth the time. Paula ought to pray for him. He's going to go home and scream at that nine-year-old for probably five hours because he missed one ground ball. We're not going to mess with that stuff.
We're going to make this a great environment. Do you get it? See? When you tit for tat, evil for evil, evil for evil, you know what it's like? It's like there's a little fire brewing.
It's like taking, you know, one of those big fireman hoses and instead of water coming out of it you fill it with gasoline. Oh. And that's what people do. They do it in their families, they do it in their marriages, they do it with their in-laws, they do it at work. They did this, I did this.
We did this. Sit in some coffee shop. Just sit in a coffee shop sometime this week. This is sort of raw to say, but and listen to other people. I mean, you can't help it because they're so close, because usually you try and concentrate.
And see how many conversations, I bet it's in the 80 percentile of when people are talking. That they're talking about someone that's not at the table about your mom did that and she did that. I can't believe your sister and she did that. And you know, Bob, who's the supervisor, can you believe they're doing that at work? Right?
And then they carry this attitude. and they poison their own soul. And I would say it's really true of a lot of us. And Paul says, don't do that. It's ineffective.
In fact, he goes to the other extreme and he says: in fact, if your enemy's hungry, I mean the person who's wounded you. Help them. Give him give him some food. If they're thirsty, give them a drink. In so doing, you heap burning coals on their head.
This picture of burning coals is not, as I said, it blows out their brains. It was an Egyptian ritual. In the time. Ancient Near East. If a person in Egypt In this culture, they realized that they had offended someone, there was an argument, and they were wrong.
Then they would build a fire and they take the coals out of the fire and put it in a pan. And then they would take a towel and put it underneath the pan and they would put on their head. and they would walk through the village. Symbolizing I'm burning the bad thoughts out of my mind. I was wrong.
We would use the word, I repent. I have a metanoia. I've had a change of mind. And see, this is what you see happen in Scripture. This is when you do good for people and they know deep in their heart and their psyche that they don't deserve it.
Well, it brings about a shame, even in evil people. This is a picture of David. And David's running for his life, and all he's done is won battles and cared for Saul and cared for the king of Israel, who was Saul. And Saul really went off the deep end and he was chasing David and he's trying to kill him. Know the story?
And so, you know, he's running, running, dodging, dodging.
Well, finally, he gets surrounded and he finds himself. And there's this cave.
So he and his men are all the way in the back of this cave. And Saul's got him surrounded and it's like, man, guys, this is kind of it. We're done if they find us. And lo and behold, Saul comes into the cave, and the Bible's pretty graphic. He relieves himself.
And I don't know, maybe he took a nap afterwards. I don't know exactly how it all happens. The text doesn't say. But David's buddies, they go, hey, God's delivered him. This is it?
Nail him. And David says, See, David gets this. I'm not the judge. I will not touch the Lord's anointed. His buddies were saying, God's put him right here.
I mean, this is an answer to prayer. Knock him out. David says, no, no. But He gets close to Saul. He gets out his knife and he cuts a little section off the bottom of his robe.
Saul leaves the cave, goes down peace. There's a ravine, gets on the other side of Rheen. David steps out from the mouth of the cave. Saw!
So Why? What have I done? God brought you in this cave and He holds up. Look at your robe. I could have killed you.
And then he makes this very interesting statement. He says, let God be the judge between us. If you are more righteous than I, then I accept full responsibility. May God take me out. But what have I ever done?
See, he gave good for evil. And then, very interestingly, Saul begins to weep. It's like in this flash, in this moment, he realizes the truth. See, when people do evil things, They repress it, then they go into denial. And there's demonic stuff that happens with people that do progressively evil things to where they don't think they're doing anything evil, and it's addictive.
And in this moment of grace, Saul, he weeps and he says, David, you are more righteous than I. Unfortunately, it's a very short repentance and a temporary repentance. But can you imagine If we said, you know what, God? I'm going to forgive so-and-so. And then you started on the journey of praying for him.
And then maybe even anonymously doing something good for them to bless them. And even, you know, we tend to demonize people when they've hurt us. Have you realized that? Is it, you know, they've really hurt us, so everything they do is terrible, and everything we do is good. And we kind of reframe the whole story.
Most stories aren't quite that clear. Does it mean they didn't do something terrible? But what would happen, what would happen just where we live? If we loved our enemies. If we bless them.
If we said, God, you be the judge. If we were free.
Well, here's the supernatural result. is good will overcome. Evil.
Now I realize that what I've said so far For some of you Is there still a little bit of a You don't really understand. You can't possibly grasp what I've been through, and you know what? I don't. But some lessons you learn later in life and some early. And this lesson I learned.
as a very young Christian in a powerful way that shaped my future. I came to Christ in the summer right after high school. I went away to play basketball in a basketball scholarship. I was a freshman, and if you could do pretty well, you could make the traveling team. A guy came in, it was supposed to be the big hero, came from inner city, New York.
He'd grew up in the projects. He'd been to Vietnam. He'd been in prison some. He was supposed to be this rehabilitated drug addict and drug dealer. And the reason he came, I played at a smaller school.
The reason he came to our school was because his nervous system was kind of damaged. His reflexes were just, I mean, they weren't terrible, but they just weren't all that good. He had a 40-inch vertical leap, and he was about 6'7 ⁇ , 6'8. I mean, there's times where I thought, man, that guy's going to just knock his head on the rim. And so something happened in his life.
I don't know if it was Vietnam, I don't know if it was upbringing. But he hated Christians. I don't mean he disliked or had a... He hated Christians. And I'm like six months old in the Lord, okay?
I mean, it's we're in basketball season now. I'm just brand new. I'm just reading my Bible in the morning. I haven't even made it all the way through the New Testament. But I've decided I'm going to, you know, this is, He's my Savior.
I'm going to walk with Him. And. So this guy finds out I'm a Christian and he starts he knew a little bit of the Bible and he would quiz me on that and and and then it got to just humiliation. If you've ever been in a locker room, you know what guys talk about and all that and He liked to say my name in a way that sounded like a cuss word. Chip.
Cheap, come here. That's the way he talked to me. And then it was, I became, when you're a freshman, you have to do whatever the older guys, so I kind of became his slave.
So it was like, put my bag on the bus, and then I'd come back. You know what? I want my one shoe out of that. I'd go back, get the shoe. You know, I don't really want that shoe.
And he would just mess with me. And at the training table, go get me a Coke. Get me a second helping a meat. And then he would just ridicule, like the coach would walk out the door, like before he goes, Hey, we got a big game. I wonder if this skinny little white virgin's going to be helpful.
You know how them Christians are. And guys, multiply 10x what I just said, and you'll get to where we really lived. And I hated his guts. And so my answer was, my hero was Pete Maravich, and so I did all those drills for years and years and years and could handle the ball. And so in warm-ups and things, behind the back as hard as I could because I knew his reflexes weren't very good, bam, right through his hands, into his face, you know, and then I'd be on the brake and I'd slam on through my legs and I'd watch it come right up and the coach would yell at him and, you know, no look pass.
You know, it was really fun. 'Cause you know. And he was humongous. I mean, I hated him so much that. I mean, honestly, I would have done this like...
Hey Jare. Come on. You want some of this? But it was like, it would be like a three-second moment. And I'm smarter than that.
So let me finish the story, because there's a major point where I learned about this passage. 'Cause it gets real serious. I'm coming in from the gym. And here is a is a room. And across the hall from mine, and I just crossed to get to mine, and the door's a little bit open, and there's all this smoke, you know, greenish-blue smoke coming out of it, and everyone's smoking dope.
And he's in there.
Well If he gets caught even s smoking grass, He's on probation, he'll go back to prison. And I didn't think of that, but I just walked by and I was unlocking my door, and I felt this one back of me. And he turned me around, and he grabbed me underneath the neck, and he lifted me up against the wall.
So I could be up where he is. And he got about this close to me, said, if you tell anyone, What you just saw. I will kill you. And I've killed a lot of people and it's not that big a deal. Do you understand?
And you know, I'm 18 years old. I just came to play basketball in college. And I'm scared to death 'cause there was no bluff in this guy. And I started getting like ulcers in my stomach, and I couldn't sleep at night, and I had anger fantasies. Yeah, you know, I mean anger, like really Yeah.
You know, like doing something that you would regret the rest of your life. And it dominated my life. I went to my uh There was a guy that was making disciples and I was in a Bible study and I just shared the whole story. He said, do you want help? I said, are you kidding?
Yeah. He says, well, what I'm going to tell you is really hard, but I guarantee it'll work. I said, man, I'll take anything. He grabbed a Bible. He opened to Romans 12.
He read verses 14 to 21, and he explained what I just explained to you. And I looked at him like Are you on drugs? Bless this guy, I'm going to shoot him. I said, you said you're willing. And he said it's not a feeling, it's choice.
So at this table right now, you need to forgive him. Because God wants to forgive him. I said, I don't think God, okay, yeah, okay, I'm sure God really does want to forgive you. I just don't. And I willfully chose to forgive him.
And he says, now you need to bless him.
So I prayed for him every day. And then Jerry, for the next four months of our season, never had to ask for anything because I got his bag. Jerry, you want this on the bus? Jerry, you need anything else? Jerry, you need another Coke?
Hey, huh? What can I do for you, Jerry? I mean, I'm here for you. When he would go in the shower, his all his dirty clothes, you had to put him in this mesh bag, and I took all the sweaty stuff, gave him to the trainer, took his clothes, folded them, put his shoes next to it. Didn't say a word.
I just blessed him and blessed him and blessed him and blessed him, and when he said stuff to me, I just By the grace of God, I didn't say anything back. No more behind-the-back passes, no more no-look passes. Jerry, good shot. And after, you know, like after a month or so, he's going. You trying some Christian trick on me?
I said, no, I'm just, you know, Jesus said. that I'm to love everybody and I'm just doing my best. Chip. Disgust.
Well, I'd like to say, you know, this is one of those stories where two and a half months in, he walked into the locker room, knelt down, oh, Jesus, please forgive me. That story ain't going there.
Okay, because that's not this story. Two months, three months, nothing changed. He just ridiculed me all the time, except one thing. About a month into it, I changed. My hate was gone.
My fear was gone. I got out of prison. I actually saw a wonder, I mean this guy was brilliant. He used to wear this skull cap. He was an amazing artist.
And I actually got to where I could say, I wonder what happened to this young man, where he came from and where he's been. He'd take his shirt off. He had a scar that went from here all the way around to here. I had no idea what he'd been through. And I had no idea how other Christians treated him.
All I knew is I got to the point where. I actually cared about him. Yeah. Why? I blessed him.
I prayed for him. I did good. And when you do that, God does something in you. We closed the season and we always closed with a big tournament in a major city and at a big Coliseum and all the teams in our conference would come and you'd play a bunch of games and we were eliminated and I mean you gotta remember this is like Mid-seventies and So it's uh Jerry and I, you know, I'm only six foot tall, so I've got my platforms and my Blue leather jacket and my apple hat, and you know, I'm sort of strutting. And Jerry is, you know, he's like 6'7, 6'8, so he's got his platforms and his fro and his hat.
So he's like 7'2, you know.
So this was just the world we lived in. And it was real windy, and I remember him, I just, you know, those images that in your mind sometimes? I remember him. Taken his leather coat because it was windy and put it up here. He turned to me, he goes, Chip.
That's it. Yeah. He said, you know, there's only two people I respect. and this whole team. I've been messing with these guys' minds.
They are so punks. He said, me, because I am evil and I know it, and if there's a hell, I'm going there. And you. Because I disagree with everything you stand for, but you actually live it. And I would never ever want to be a Christian.
But if I ever even thought about it I'd be one like you. And he said, you know what? I'm done with you. It's no fun to diss you anymore.
So you're done, kid. Get out of here. Cheer. Yeah. And here's what I want to tell you.
God wants You to love your enemies. For your good. and for his glory. This is Living on the Edge Chip Ingramgram. Friend, for over 30 years, Living on the Edge has been committed to one mission, helping believers understand what it truly means to follow Jesus.
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Well, that wraps up today's episode. Don't miss the next Bible teaching message coming up here on the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge. Um
