Loving Above and Beyond

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0:00Floris, you're in here today, and I'm glad that you are. It's great to see your faces. I've been praying for you, including you, that God would impact you today as well in this sermon. We have started Jesus's Sermon on the Plain. You may not be familiar with that. Luke has Jesus's Sermon on the Plain. Jesus probably preached the same sermon sometimes in different places to different groups of people. In Matthew, it's called the Sermon on the Mount because that's where he was, but here he's on a plane. He's probably repeating material. He's allowed to do that. He's Jesus. That's right. It's important. This is the Sermon on the Plain. Today, Jesus is talking about loving our enemies. Seekers and explorers, kids. Kids of all ages, really, but particularly, seekers and explorers, four-year-olds through fifth grade. Take a look at this picture up here. Okay. Everybody see it? So, what do you think is happening in this picture? Kenan, what do you think is happening? Helping the deer? That would be, I hope so.

1:18Avery? Love? Love? And cuteness. Oh, go ahead, Tyler. It's been through. Angela's been through some stuff. The cheetah's like, they're there. Cheetah's like, it'll be okay. Just count how many teeth I have. Oh, too much, too much. Adam, Adam, what do you think is happening here? About to eat the deer? So, let me ask you this. How do you think that, whatever that thing is, a deer, a gazelle, I don't know, an antelope, how do you think that, we'll call it an antelope, how do you think that little antelope feels right now? Scared, yes. Like it's been through some stuff.

2:10I mean, do you see its big old eye? It's just like, it's, it's terrified. What, what do you think that little gazelle is, is thinking right now? Help? He's going to eat me? Yeah, I'd, I'd run, but I'm too paralyzed. Get me out of here. Get me out of here. Okay, so here's why I'm showing you this picture. Just like this gazelle, there are some people in our life that we would just rather keep far distance from. This gazelle feels like I'm getting a little too close here. He's putting his arm around me. There's people that we would just rather stay away from, and we certainly don't want to do anything for them. Surely Jesus understands that, right? There's just some people that we need to need to not be around, and we don't want to have anything to do with them or do anything for them. Surely Jesus understands that, right? He wouldn't actually ask us to love those people. Woody, let's read from Luke. It's in your bulletin. Turn to it in your Bible or whatever app you prefer. Luke 6. This is God's word for us today. It's a good thing that this is coming from Jesus because, and it's coming in God's word, because if it wasn't in God's word and it just came from my mouth, you might just get up and walk out of the room. Maybe you won't do that because it's in the Bible. Let's find out. Chapter 6, verse 27. But I say to you who hear, love your enemies.

3:40Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you. And from one who takes away your goods, do not demand them back. And as you wish others would do to you, do so to them. If you love those who love you, what benefit 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 benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount. But love your enemies and do good and lend. Expecting nothing in return, and your reward will be great. And you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. Pray with me. Jesus, you said some hard things sometimes.

5:20I think I speak for many when I say that my old self would rather just skip this passage. And yet, Lord, you do want us to think about this, to receive it, to be changed by it and by you, to look more like you. So would you please help us? Keep us patient and still as your Spirit works in us through this text. Do great things among us, Lord. Work in our hearts and our minds. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. The title of my sermon today is Loving Above and Beyond. The main point of this text is, this is the way I would put it, those who received costly, undeserved love should love the undeserving at great cost. Those who received costly, undeserved love should love the undeserving at great cost.

6:25This is a challenging part of Jesus' sermon. No doubt about it. To help us receive it and interact with it, I'm going to take us on a particular path through this text. Let's start here. Let's start by understanding the full scope of what Jesus is saying. Let's take it all in. So what kind of love is Jesus calling for? Here's the first thing. It is active. Jesus calls his people to do something. These are active verbs. Do good. Offer. Give. Lend. Do not merely withhold something negative, but offer something positive. Don't just withhold retaliation and revenge. Offer good. Offer love.

7:08Verse 31 is oftentimes called the golden rule. The church called it that many, many centuries ago. There's many examples of this so-called golden rule in other cultures outside the Bible, but they're always stated in the negative. Here's an example. Rabbi Hillel, which is, he lived just before Jesus' time. He said this. I meant to put this on a slide, but I didn't. Here's what he said. He said, what is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor. But Jesus states the rule positively.

7:49Actively. As you wish others would do to you, do so to them. This is a much greater call than just not doing something that you don't want done to yourself. Here's the second thing about this love. It involves our words. Bless those who curse you. In this part of the country, you might hear someone say, oh, bless their heart. Sometimes that's a way of saying, I'm biting my tongue about how I really feel. Other times it means, oh, aren't they a hot mess? And we all know it. Either way, it's not really a desire for someone to be blessed. Jesus said his people should bless. This means to speak well of them.

8:38To let them know that you want God to do good things for them. To tell them. It isn't an approval of what they're doing. It's not what blessed means. It doesn't mean that you approve of what they're doing to you or to other people. But it is a genuine hope that God will work in their life.

9:04Let's keep going. It also includes our thoughts. One of the action words here is pray. To go to God in prayer on behalf of those who hurt us. He doesn't tell us what to pray, but we should pray. So, just to summarize so far, Jesus, working backwards, Jesus calls us to ask him to ask him to be at work for good in their life, to tell them about it, and to actually act to fulfill it. It's all ready. All that by itself would be hard enough, but who are we supposed to be doing this for? Towards our enemies. Towards people who, quote unquote, don't deserve it. Your enemies. Those who hate you. Those who curse you. Who abuse you. Who strike you.

10:10We're called to love the bullies. The jerks. The antagonists. People who wish us harm and actually cause us harm. The last people that we want to. But the list goes on. It includes the swindlers. People who cheat you. People who lie to you and steal from you. People who only see you for what you can give to them and give nothing in return. These are the people that Jesus calls us to give to, to offer more to, to not make demands of.

10:56I'm sure you've heard the phrase, random acts of kindness. We're going to do the random acts of kindness scavenger hunt in just a few weeks. A random act of kindness is a nice thing done completely out of the blue to a stranger, right? Well, Jesus is saying that our acts of love are to be directed, not randomly, but to people who were at the very bottom of our list. If a random act of kindness is paying the toll for the person behind you in line, then Jesus is calling you to pay the toll and fill up the gas tank of someone who cut you off, screamed obscenities at you, and tried to run you off the road. It's not random at all. The Old Testament law said, love your neighbor as yourself. A neighbor was someone in the community of faith. You had certain expectations of one another.

11:57Jesus is taking things further. He's extending things further and saying, the people who were hostile and cheat, I want you to love them too. Now what happens when we do this? It is costly. This cost touches us in all kinds of ways. Jesus says about our money, he says, don't use people to build up wealth. Use wealth to build up people. This turns a loan into a gift. It turns theft into an uninvited act of charity. But to give without expecting anything in return, to allow things to be taken without asking them back, but rather offer even more, what does it make us? It makes us an easy mark.

12:55We get taken advantage of. Now this doesn't mean we shouldn't use good judgment. If you suspect a scam, then be wise. That Nigerian prince who emailed you should not get your bank account information. That's not a good application of this text. Here's what it does mean. It means that we shouldn't close our hearts to people around us who are in need. Just because we might get exploited, just because we have been exploited. Even if it was they themselves that exploited us, we shouldn't close our hearts to them. When you give more than you receive, when you love in the face of scorn, eventually you start looking pretty foolish. You feel like an idiot. People might call you a sucker, a doormat.

13:57It's humiliating to do what Jesus says to do here. Our pride is stung and it's not just our pocketbook and it's not just our pride that is threatened. It's an act of vulnerability to keep offering ourselves and remain available and love even after we've been wounded and hurt. It's unnatural to us. If all of this sounds outrageous, it means you're paying attention.

14:40This is not the usual way people treat each other. It isn't the way of the world. Just like Jesus says in verses 32 through 34, the world operates transactionally, quid pro quo. Or if you don't know Latin, I don't know Latin. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. That's normal for the world. What he's calling us to is completely different. It runs counter to every fiber of our being, every way you've been taught, every way you've been trained. So how is this possible? How could it happen? By this point, we should all be feeling pretty humble. If you're still sitting here and thinking, no, I think I got a shot of doing this. I promise you, you're not listening. You can't do it.

15:38You can't. This ethic, this way of treating people in thought, word, deed towards people who harm and cheat and steal, it is too difficult for us. It's beyond our ability. This is what should happen when you see the commands of God and you see them in their full scope. You should acknowledge, I can't do it, God. I don't have the strength. I don't have the will. And the next thing that should happen is you turn to him in need. And you say, oh God, I see now what your law requires. I see how great you are because it comes from you and your heart, but I can't do it. I'm crying out to you in mercy.

16:31And what you see when you turn to God with that kind of posture is glorious fulfillment and total righteousness in someone other than yourself. Seekers and explorers, I probably lost you by this point. Dial back in. Listen to me. Who is the one who loved his enemies? Jesus. I want you to say it, but say it louder. Who is the one who did good to people that hated him? Jesus. Who blessed the people that cursed him? Jesus. Who was struck over and over and over and didn't turn away? Jesus. I've got a verse, seekers and explorers, that I want you to read. Okay. I want you to read it with gusto. Okay. One, two, three. We were reconciled to God by the death of his son. Romans 5, 10a. Seekers, explorers.

17:46Jesus is the one who loved above and beyond. He's the one who did it. He fulfilled this. He accomplished it. We could not, but he did. He gave his life to save enemies and to show them mercy. Everything that's in this passage, he did it first and he did it best. That's the place to start. You've got to go to Jesus first and say, I can't do it, but I know that you did and you did it for me. I was your enemy. I cursed you. If I had been alive at that time, I would have participated in what the crowd did, putting you up on that cross, or I would have run away and hid like the disciples. Either way, Jesus, I would have abandoned you, but you did it for me. Without active faith in Jesus, this passage will be nothing but an oppressive burden or a lofty ideal. That's all it will be. But when you trust in his work, it's a whole different story. The first thing is your greatest enemy, the greatest enemy that you have. Death has been defeated. Nothing can separate you from the love of God. What can man do to you? That's step one in this. You're thinking, okay, my greatest enemy is defeated, so all these other enemies that I have in my life are much, much, much lower than that. Jesus has taken care of that one. Second of all, what can they do to me? Even if they hurt me, even if they steal from me, what can man do to me?

19:34I have been brought in. I'm a child of the king. And you've been made new. Jesus is living in us now. You have new resources, new strength, and a new future. You have a new love to offer because we are abiding in his love. Christian author and faith hero Corrie ten Boom said this, when he tells us to love our enemies, he gives, along with the command itself, along with the command, the love itself. He gives you that love. And this woman knows what she's talking about.

20:15I can't wait to meet her. Our own love runs short, but his love is abounding, and that's what we have to offer. Those who have received costly, undeserved love should love the undeserving at great cost. That's the call. Now listen, the details of how this has worked out for each one of us, they're going to vary. The context, the leading of the Holy Spirit, the wisdom and the counsel of other people, those are all important. There are other passages of the Bible that you need to read and understand to know what it means to actually love someone and do good for them the way that God and Jesus intend. Don't define love and good for yourself. Look to the Bible to see what love is and doing good is. So I'm not going to get into details about this. Maybe all these questions are coming up for you right now. What about this person? What about this situation? What do I do? Do I do this or this? Those are great conversations. Those are the ways that you should talk to other people and read your Bible and pray and see how the Lord leads you. But I want to go just a little further and close with three things that we see in this passage. Three things that Jesus says about loving above and beyond that I think help us as we take the love that's been given to us and take it outward towards people who don't deserve it.

21:43Here's the first one. It requires setting aside our rights. The right to get back what is borrowed, the right to have a thief arrested, the right to defend yourself. These are rights that we usually invoke to protect ourselves. Now we Americans love our rights, don't we? To have a right and intentionally not use it, it runs counter to our whole national ethos. It feels downright unpatriotic. We've got to exercise those rights. Meanwhile, in this time of culture wars, Christians are on high alert for any kind of unfair treatment.

22:28Religious liberty, that's the rallying cry of today's evangelical. Now listen, religious liberty, it's good when we have it. It ensures fairness. It's an advantage. It's a protection. But here's the thing. Listen to me. We don't read anything in the Bible telling Christians to fight for our civic advantages and protections. We don't. What God does tell us is that we will be persecuted in this world. We will be hated for Jesus' sake. And here in Luke 6, we read we are not to fight back, to protect ourselves, but rather we're to pray and to bless and to give and to offer those who persecute us. What would happen today if Christians focused more on following Jesus' commands here than strategizing on how to protect our legal religious liberties? What would happen if we were to spend more time following what Jesus says and less time strategizing on how to ensure our ongoing legal protection? Everything would be a lot better. And we would probably suffer quite a bit more. Both. Right? Thanks for answering that question. Loving in this way will feel profoundly unfair because it is profoundly unfair. But then again, when Jesus saved enemies like us, was it fair?

24:17Is our salvation based on fairness? No, it's not. Look, here's the second thing. It leads to our blessing. When Jesus speaks of the way people ordinarily treat each other, he says, what benefit is that to you? What credit is that to you? The implication is that there is a credit, a benefit when we love above and beyond. He says, your reward will be great. He said that here. What is this blessing? Well, it releases us from bitterness, first of all. The old saying is true. Bitterness is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die. But loving and doing good, blessing instead of returning curses, it uproots bitterness and it sets us. And it sets us free. Kids, you don't have to raise your hands. But has anyone here been bullied? Me too. What's that, Avery? You've been hit in the face? Did you fight back or did you, what happened then? You just told the principal? That's fair. Not fighting back, that takes a lot of courage, Avery. You look like Jesus. When I was in early high school, I was bullied. And I was so angry.

25:45I hated them. I retaliated. And I felt terrible. Eventually, I decided, what the heck, I'll try this thing that Jesus says about praying for them. And wouldn't you know it, I felt better. Another way of being blessed when we love the way Jesus instructs us is that we begin to see the log in our own eye. We realize, you know, I take advantage of people. I've treated people poorly. There's been malice in my heart. In the case of me and those bullies, I began to realize I had a part in creating the issues there. But listen, I'm going to close here. Here's the biggest blessing. And here's the third thing I'm going to point out that Jesus says. When we love this way, it shows our resemblance to God.

26:36Jesus says when we love above and beyond, you will be sons of the Most High. Loving our enemies, it doesn't make us adopted children. It shows that we are his adopted children. It shows our new family relationship and who we belong to. We begin to look like our father. Kids, raise your hand if you've ever been told that you look like one of your parents. Yeah? Did you know that there's another way to look like your parents? When you do what they do. That's another way that you can resemble them. Imagine this. Imagine a five-year-old child at home. He's looking out the window. He's watching his dad pull weeds. After a while, dad comes in and while he's getting cleaned up, the boy goes outside.

27:32Dad comes into the living room, looks around, doesn't see his son. Then he looks out the window. He sees his son out in the yard. Dad goes outside and he says, son, what are you doing? The boy goes, look dad, I'm doing it like you. Dad looks around and he sees a couple of weeds pulled and some flowers. The mulch is scattered. The yard is a mess. The boy is completely filthy. And the dad looks at him and he says, I'm so proud of you, son. That's your father looking at you.

28:15When you try to love the way Jesus loves, when you try and do this, it's not going to go perfectly. It's not going to go great. You're going to be like that kid, but you'll look like your father. And he will look at you and he will say, well done. Well done. Keep at it. That shows that you belong to me. If you've received costly undeserved love, then love the undeserving at great costs. You won't do it perfectly, but you will show who you belong to. And you'll have the father's blessing and you'll have his well done resting upon you. Let's pray. Lord, thank you for this word. We say thanks because Lord, we need to be called out of quote unquote normalcy. We need to be called out of our old self in the way that we just usually love people out of our flesh in a way that's transactional, in a way that's looking to get back what we gave. We need to be called into new living, the new life that you have for us.

29:38God, will you please get much glory in us as we try and we stumble, as we try to love people, love our enemies the way you've commanded. And every step of the way, God, help us to give thanks to you because you loved us first. We were your enemies and we were reconciled by your death. Jesus, do great things in us. Help us to cling to you. Thank you for loving us first. In your name we pray. Amen.