What the World Needs Now - Radical Mercy-Givers, Part 2

Private question, with whom or what are you most angry right now? What has your blood boiling these days as you see the turmoil in our country and the world?

And then, what would Jesus say about that very issue or that person? That's today. Stay with me. Chip's our Bible teacher on this international discipleship program, and I'm Dave Druey. We're in Chip's series, What the World Needs Now, and in this program, he wraps it up with a powerful reminder about who God is and who we are as his children. As always, Chip will be with us in studio with a few final thoughts about what we've learned and where we are today.

You don't want to miss that, so in case you need to step away from the program, maybe pick it up later online at livingontheedge.org or on the Chip Ingram app. It's a great encouragement as we head into the historic days ahead. Now, with part two of his message from What the World Needs Now, here's Chip. Salvation, relationship with God is a precious supernatural gift of God, and as we step into that new relationship, he says the will of God for every single follower is to say he's the sovereign ruler of the universe, and now I want you to surrender all that you are and all that you have. You cannot be my disciple unless you deny yourself, take up your cross daily, and follow me at great cost, but with far greater reward. Underneath that, it says Jesus makes clear that personal agendas and selfish ambition have to die for a supernatural life to expand his kingdom. Write the word under that new authority. New authority. The Sermon on the Mount is about a new relationship, a new allegiance, and there's a new authority, and under that right, his word is life.

I mean, can you imagine a human being? He was fully God, but he was fully man. He's teaching on a hillside. You have heard it said, and this is what Moses said all these years, and then he says, he who hears my word and believes on my word and acts on my word will spend eternity with me and with the Father. And he who hears my word, do you hear the new authority? The new standard isn't anybody's interpretation. It's not a rabbi.

It's not a scribe. It's not religion. It's Jesus' words. I don't know about you.

That's different than what I grew up with. I learned a lot of verses that went like this. A Christian as a person is a nicer person than more people, and you try hard to be moral. A Christian as a person is a help yourself because God helps those who help themselves. A Christian is a person that's just a little bit better or at least thinks they are than the average person, and they go to used to be at least weekend services three or four times a month, try really hard. You're supposed to give some money, read the Bible, and be good, and God's usually mad at you most of the time. And the revolutionary, these things, you know why they sound so hard?

Are you ready? You can never be found until you get totally, thoroughly, and completely lost. And I believe American Christianity, much of it is a self-help mantra that the Jesus who died in your place and rose from the dead is going to make you a wonderfully happy person with a marriage that is off the charts, with all your kids, if you have kids turning out right, that will make you upwardly mobile, wealthy, and successful, and if that doesn't happen, you have permission to get mad at God. Now the fact of the matter is God is so kind and so generous and as we follow the truth of his principles, they so often come with blessing, but I believe we're living in a world where we're far more in love with the blessings of God than the blesser himself. And so the Sermon on the Mount is about a radical change that happens inside my life and your life where I realize I'm poor in spirit, if exceeding the righteousness of people that live a lot better than me, if having a deep sense of my loss and where I don't measure up, if being passionate to want to really see God, if being willing to say yes, if persecution for your name, that would be a badge of honor. If that's not my attitude, I'm not getting the message.

How you doing? I mean that. This is one of those messages that, you know, some very good, moral, kind people who are sitting on a hillside heard this message and when they, when he's, and they like Jesus and, and he was so winsome and, man, he was an awesome preacher and the miracles were awesome and often you got lunch. And when he got done with this, they were undone.

They were completely undone. And the more religious and the more moral you are, the more undone you are because we have this false notion that we're, we need God's help, but we're really doing pretty good. I mean, because we so unconsciously and consciously compare ourselves to others, you know, the people that got really excited, sinners, people that just knew I'm doing what's wrong. I don't like me. I don't think there's any hope for me.

And he's saying, if you're that kind of person, there's a kingdom waiting. I want to forgive, but I want to invade your life. I don't want to help you.

I don't want to put my arm around. I want to invade your life. And I want to draw you close to me and I want to give you a joy that circumstances can't change. I want to give you a life and a love that no matter who does anything to you ever can't take away. And I want you to know that this little thing called time really is important, but you were made for eternity.

This is the life you were made for. And the kingdom starts now when you receive and choose to follow me and there will be ups and downs and struggles and you will taste the kingdom and then you will be delivered into it forever and ever and ever. And whatever you suffer in this little thing called time for my sake will be greatly rewarded.

So I'd like you to think before I go on. Where are you in the grand scheme of your relationship with God? Do you have a new relationship and are confident that the spirit of the living God lives inside of you?

Faith. Are you presently living in such a way that your, not your words, although those are helpful, your time, your pocketbook, your words, your priorities and your passions align with He's Lord. He has an agenda. I'm here to fulfill His agenda and whatever blessings happen to come, great.

And finally, are you living in a world where when you think about what is right, what is wrong, where's true north, what should I do with my life? His word. His word is your guide and that you have an insatiable appetite for it and that you are in it not for, you know, sort of like I call it guilt relief and image management. Man, I always feel a little bit better when I read three chapters.

So three is better than four. I can't remember anything I'm saying. I think God would be very pleased with three verses that ended with, Lord, what would you have me do with these? Sure, I'll forgive my ex-mate. Sure, I'll treat my supervisor that is so unfair with kindness today.

Sure, I'll apologize to my son the way I blew up last week. And each time you take those little incremental responses to the authority of God's word, the Spirit of God changes you from the inside out little by little by little by little until your life becomes unexplainable. Jesus' life was unexplainable and the early church was unexplainable. If you would meet a Christian, you would scratch your head. Why are these foolish people giving their money away? Why do they care about these babies on the dump? Why would they be willing to walk into stadiums singing arm in arm about this invisible God who they say died and came back to life?

And just all they had to do was say, just kidding. I don't really believe that stuff. Now, I want to show you. He pushes the envelope. And the reason I wanted to go back through that is that these final things can be easily misunderstood. And what I mean by that is that we can get into where, OK, I want to each one of these little teachings, I want to seek how to follow and miss the point. His final and most outrageous teaching.

Are you ready? The law of retribution. Probably the most misunderstood and misinterpreted probably of anything in the Sermon on the Mount. Verse 38, you've heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if someone slaps you on the right cheek. Turn to the other cheek also. And if someone sues you and ask for your tunic. Let him have your cloak outer garment as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you.

If you don't know the context of this, it doesn't make a lot of sense. The interpretation is an allusion to the same verse. Exodus 21, 24 and Leviticus 24, 19 and 20.

Leviticus is probably the cleaner. It says, if anyone injures his neighbor. As he has done it to them, it shall be done unto him. Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, whatever injury he has given to a person, he shall receive. The purpose of this in the Old Testament was to limit retribution.

Some of you that have children will get this and some of you that everything from the Hatfield McCoys to tribal things is right. One of your kids steals something from the other. And so the other gets it back and then pushes him. The other comes back and pushes him and punches him in the mouth.

Then the other one punches the mouth and gets a bat. And in other words, escalating retribution. And so what these verses were, were not a right. But it was, look, if someone does something to you that's a one category, then the law teaches that you can respond with one category. If they get you with a three category, then you can only respond with a three category. But the purpose was to say, how do we limit retribution?

Are you ready? Justice. What's fair?

Because when we're hurt, we usually want a lot more back. The context is that in the Old Testament, it was in court. And so, in other words, if this happened, my eye or I injured or someone took one of my animals, I would go to the court and then the court would decide.

And this law is this is how the court will decide what's fair. The Pharisees of the day had misapplied it and taken it into private interactions with one another. So to understand this, when Jesus says, you've heard it said eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, Old Testament, I said to you, do not resist the one who's evil. This is not being pacifistic, like, oh, wow, you want to kill me?

Well, here's the whole family. Take us out. He's saying is don't take them to court. See, as you look in your notes, what the Pharisees were saying, what's the legal limits of payback and injustice?

In other words, how far can I go to exact revenge for my injury? Do you hear the spirit? This is this is what Jesus is after.

Do you hear the spirit? In other words, what does the law allow? I mean, how hard can I hit him?

How much damage can I do? I mean, what's what's the box that I can? And Jesus' new standard of righteousness literally is he gives us these four vignettes and culturally they make a lot of sense. But at first reading, it's like like every homeless person, am I supposed to give all my money? Is that what this means?

No. First of all, it says don't resist the one who's evil. His point is you don't automatically have to take them to a court and a judge. Maybe there's a way to to solve this, because here's the question Jesus wants you to ask and answer. How can I respond to injustice with mercy in order to reveal God's heart and expand his kingdom? Illustration number one, if someone hits you on the right cheek, I forget 90 some percent of all the people in the world are right handed. If you get hit on the right cheek and with the right hand, it's the back of the hand. In other words, in essence, it's an insult. Someone someone slaps you and they've insulted you. Or in our day, they cut you off in traffic. And as they cut you off in traffic, they look back in their mirror because you honk and they raise their hand. They make a gesture with their hand, usually with one of their fingers. That apparently means something to some people.

How do you respond? Vengeance. I'll get him. Oh, you know what? I'm going to get up on his bumper and I'll tell you what, he takes that exit off.

You've seen him ride on the freight and you see these two cars chasing each other. He said, let it go. The second one is someone sues you. According to the law, they couldn't they couldn't take your outer garment. That was your possession, no matter how poor you were.

And Jesus is hyperbole. He's making the point. If they want your undergarment, the tunic, they want that, give them the coat too. And they would be going, what?

So they'd be scratching. What? You know, I did the injustice and you're treating me like that. The third was government. The Roman law was at any time Romans would have their baggage, they could be in a city and they could stop in a city.

Hey, you right here. And the legal law demanded that if a Roman soldier said, carry my bag, you had to carry it for exactly a mile. It's kind of like taxes today. There's certain things that you feel like this is unjust.

This is not fair. This is how to respond from the heart to reveal God's mercy instead of my rights. And so you can imagine a Roman soldier and everyone's had a bad attitude and their role in their eyes. They're cussing him out and probably in Hebrew if he doesn't understand it. And then he meets this Christ follower and they get to one mile and he looks at the soldier and says, you know, you look very tired.

Can I carry another mile? Do you understand what he's saying? A Christian's life should be completely unexplainable. Mercy triumphs over justice. Finally, according to Jewish law, if a relative or someone came and wanted a loan, Jews were commanded to give interest free loans to one another. And so, you know, someone wants a loan.

The goal is, well, like, like how much and what's the limits? And I don't want to give too much. And Jesus is saying, what if you replace that with a heart of generosity?

What if you said something like, wow, it seems like you would vet it, but this seems like a really difficult time. And you said you needed one hundred dollars. Here's two hundred.

Let me help you on your way. And they go. You understand the early church multiplied and took the world literally and made it upside down because of these kind of behaviors. Jesus, in essence, was saying, stop demanding your personal rights and live for a different kingdom with a different set of values. The way I respond, it's not that you're a mattress or a doormat or you enable people.

There's plenty of verses and plenty of truth about it. Paul says if he doesn't work, don't feed him. This isn't giving another bottle to an alcoholic. But this is in situation saying, instead of my rights, what does the law allow me to pay back?

What might I do that would extend mercy? It goes against every human tendency in our being. And it displays God's greatness in his mercy. The final thing is the law of love, and he makes this very, very clear when it comes to retribution. He says, don't ask inside the box.

What can I do to pay people back? I want to live outside the box. What would it look like to extend mercy in this situation so they could actually see God's heart? Notice verse 43. You've heard it said to love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes the sun to shine on the evil and the good, and he sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others?

Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You, therefore, must be perfect. You might circle that as your Heavenly Father is perfect. It means whole.

It's translated sometimes mature. It means like your Heavenly Father goes beyond the legal limits, and he's kind and just and fair. The interpretation of the day was just love the people in your circle. And notice there's an omission. They leave out, love them as yourself.

And then there's an addition. You'll never find in the Old Testament hate those outside your circle. But in the Rabbinic teachings, it's, well, if you're supposed to love one another, their mindset was that means we probably should hate our enemies. And Jesus' new standard of righteousness is love those in my circle and love and pray for my enemies and persecutors. It's very, very interesting this radical, radical life that can only be lived with him living inside you is when it comes to retribution, live outside the box.

When it comes to love, love outside your circle and the people that are comfortable. And I would ask you, who would you see as enemies and persecutors? Who makes your blood boil? Who's hurt you in the past? Who's your political enemy? Who are people that hold things that make you crazy?

Who are people in your neighborhood that just make you nuts? What would it look like for you to pray for them, to do good to them, not enable, not put yourself in any kind of danger, but to live in a way that they would scratch their head and go, I've been treating this person like this and oh, good is more powerful than evil. Lord, these are not hard words. They're not even difficult words.

They're absolutely impossible. And only when we come to see that we are desperately in need and that we fall so much shorter than we think we fall and we're in desperate need of you. Lord, we don't need remodeled.

We don't need a little help. We need a brand new relationship for those that have never trusted Christ. Lord, for some of us, we need to stop allowing other things to be our God and surrender to Jesus as Lord. And Father, we would confess that apart from your word and the power that it brings by your Spirit, we are hopeless and helpless to be the men and women that cause your kingdom to come and your will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Chip's going to be back in a minute with his application, but just a quick reminder, this message, Radical Mercy Givers, is from Chip's series, What the World Needs Now.

He's in Matthew chapter 5, reminding us of Jesus' specific instructions during a time of deep hurt, turmoil, and political strife, a time all too familiar for us today. But what better comfort and encouragement than to hear from our Lord the priorities and counsel uppermost on his mind, for the people hearing him firsthand then and now for us. It's our sincere hope that you'll share this message with a friend, a family member, on social media, anywhere you can communicate with others who need wisdom and the Lord's guidance during these distressing days. To access free MP3s and series discounts, go to livingontheedge.org.

App listeners, just tap share. Well, Chip, we need to get to your application, but would you take just a second and let folks know how the ministry has not only continued to function, but has really done some great work despite the shutdowns and distancing and all the upheaval going on. Dave, thankfully, I have an office and a video and audio studio that I can keep doing work, and I don't think I've ever been busier in my life. And it's happened in ways that we never dreamed. One, we've been able to do things very specifically to help people one-on-one through something called the Daily Discipleship with Chip, where I've literally got to one-on-one coaching with people of how to meet with God and how to mentor people and literally how to experience who you are in Christ. So that's been a lot of energy and the impact has literally been probably greater than any single thing we've done as we read the emails and talk to people. And then to our delight, we have seen our friends in China take the resources that I'm not at liberty to tell a lot about, but true spirituality, how to become a Romans 12 Christian, in numbers that would just absolutely shock you in the midst of all of this, doing training in 18 different cities. And so we are so grateful for those who have given faithfully through this time that have allowed us to do what we're doing.

And now the demands are even greater. So if you have never given to Living on the Edge, now is a really great time. And if you have, thank you so much. You have allowed us to do some things globally and nationally that we never dreamed could happen.

Thank you very much. It's been humbling to see how people have continued to support Living on the Edge, even during these unprecedented days of hardship. The need for biblical wisdom and direction has risen and God's people continue to help us meet those needs. So let me include my thanks to our partners as well. If you'd like to join the team, today would be a great day to do it.

To send a gift or to set up a recurring donation, just go to livingontheedge.org, tap donate on the app, or give us a call at 888-333-6003. And let me thank you in advance for whatever the Lord leads you to do. In today's teaching, Jesus addressed two crucial issues. First, what's the legal limits on our revenge?

Right? I mean, how far can I go to pay people back? And the answer is quite different than what we assume. The second one was, how far must my love extend?

How far outside my circle does it really need to go? And we heard this radical call to respond in mercy, to injustice toward us, in ways that reveal the heart of the Father. I'd like you to think about what that looks like in your life right now.

What's that look like in your emotions and your perspective? And for those of you listening to me right now that you're a follower of Christ, you want to honor God, let me ask you, are you loving beyond your circle? Is mercy the response that's coming out of your mouth and in private conversations and your views on political issues and how you are painting other people? This is really important stuff because what Jesus helps us see is that sometimes how we go about addressing injustice or things that are actually wrong, our attitude or our way of doing it is just as wrong. In fact, he would say to his followers, but I say to you, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Is that what you're doing? For what good is it if you love those who love you?

What credit is that? Even sinners do that. But you, love your enemies, do good, lend, expecting nothing in return. And your reward will be great because you will be sons, the ideas you will be like, sons of the most high. For he himself is kind to the ungrateful and evil men. Did you hear that?

God is kind to evil men. Does he agree with them? No.

Are there consequences? Yes. Does he bring about justice and righteousness? Absolutely. But he's kind to them.

This whole series is what the world needs now. And our role at this time in history as followers of Jesus is to bring healing and forgiveness and love and not retribution in the same kind. Father, will you help us as followers of Jesus to make your agenda our number one agenda? Would you help us to do the impossible, to love our enemies, to bless those who curse us, to pray for them and even do good to those we most violently disagree with for your glory and for their good. Amen.

Powerful, Chip. Thank you. Well, just before we close, I want to remind you that we have a great resource for you that goes along with this series.

But today's the last day to take advantage of the discounts. Our completely revised spiritual warfare cards provide specific scriptures that remind us that the conflicts we see aren't just in the here and now. They're a part of a larger unseen spiritual battle for the hearts of men and women everywhere. Knowing the truth about the spiritual battle going on around us gives us the power we need to see it, to stay calm and to do battle like Jesus did with truth and grace. Whether they're for you or to give us a gift to help and encourage someone else, I hope you'll pick up a set or two while discounted supplies last. For all the details on our newly revised spiritual warfare scripture cards, tap special offers on the app, give us a call at 888-333-6003 or visit us online at livingontheedge.org. Well, that's it for this program. Until next time, this is Dave Druey saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge.