This message was given at Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. At the end, we will give information about how to contact us to receive a copy of this or other messages. If you have your Bibles, let's open up to the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke chapter 6. We'll be picking up in verse 27. I originally intended to preach through significantly more than what I'm going to get through today, but the first two verses and I just couldn't get any farther, so. Luke chapter 6, picking up in verse 27. But I say to you who hear, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. This is the reading of God's word. Let's begin in prayer. Our Father, it's a command that feels like way more than we can handle. Love your enemies. Father, we pray that you would help us today. Help us to hear your word, to hear it truly. Strip away from us our pretenses and our defenses. Lord, we want to hear you. Even if your word brings great conviction to us today, we want to hear you. We pray for the help of your Holy Spirit. Even the children of God have no hope at a passage like this without the Holy Spirit. Please help us, we ask this in Jesus' name, amen. Verse 27, first half, I read it again for you. But I say to you who hear, love your enemies. Love your enemies. We hear a command like this and we have what I've made up a label for. I call it the surely reaction. Surely reaction. What's the surely reaction look like? The surely reaction is hearing love your enemies. And then we say, surely he doesn't mean, surely he doesn't mean loving bad people. Not that kind of enemy. Surely that doesn't apply to that situation. Surely not that person. God, you know how they wronged me. Surely not that person. The surely reaction? The surely reaction is our way of ducking. When Jesus gets too close to something that really, let's just be honest, we refuse to change. We know that Jesus was pretty radical in his teachings. If someone asked you, was Jesus radical? You'd say, sure. Absolutely he was, but surely he wasn't as radical as that teaching sounds. Sometimes we take Jesus's radical teachings and we strip them and we transform them and we rework them until we can call those radical teachings sensible. Now that makes sense to me. That's what he must have meant. We want sensible, small ideas that we can fit into our current lives. We don't want radical teachings that make us reassess everything. We really don't. But that's what Jesus brought. Jesus said, love your enemies. enemies. In three words, Jesus completely upended how the world thinks. Imagine that sentence, but just with a blank at the start. Fill in the blank, blank, your enemies. What is the word that the world wants to put in there? Hate. Hate your enemies. That makes sense. Kill, kill your enemies. That also makes sense. Fight, okay, fight your enemies. Contain, contain your enemies. Silence, yeah, silence your enemies. Ignore, yeah, ignore your enemies. That makes sense, right? Fear, flee, flee from your enemies. Okay, I get all of those reactions. None of those are the word that Jesus uses. Love your enemies is the last possible word that we would have gotten to. We would have gone through the whole dictionary. Before we came to love, the surely reaction is strong here. Surely when he says enemies, he doesn't mean enemies. He does. And for future reference, right, don't call me surely. Turns out when he said love your enemies, he absolutely meant love your enemies. The only way to do justice to a teaching like this, it's straight on. Straight on. Dodging this teaching is dodging God. Redefining this teaching I present to you, that's opposing God. So here we are left with love your enemies. Now what did Jesus mean by that? Well, he goes on to illustrate this principle in several ways. First off, second half of 27, do good to those who hate you. Do good to those who hate you. So you start off someone who really dislikes you, someone who is outright hostile toward you. What's the natural response? That's to hate them back. You hate me, I don't care, I hate you. Natural reaction is to harm them. Or maybe your natural reaction is just to avoid them. Jesus says, do good to those who hate you. And Jesus won't settle for refraining from hurting them, as if it's good enough that you didn't go punch the person in the face. He won't settle for telling you what not to do to your enemy. Jesus calls you, child of God, Jesus calls you to do good to the worst, ugliest, prickliest, most offensive people around. He says, do good to them. He continues illustrating the principle. Verse 28, he says, bless those who curse you. when someone speaks against you, whether they did it behind your back or they did it to your face, what do you typically want to do? You wanna dish it back. You wanna lash out. It's almost automatic, like a law of nature. You hurt me, you bet I'm gonna try and hurt you. And ideally, I hurt you worse than you hurt me. That way you know not to mess with me. I hurt you right back. But that's not what Jesus is teaching, is it? When someone curses you, you are to bless them. You are to bless them. In other words, ask God to show them favor in response to their curse. Is it starting to agitate you? It should. To drive the point even further, the second half of 28, pray for those who abuse you. You notice that in each illustration, the hostility level has escalated. We've gone from someone who is hostile in attitude, to someone who is hostile in words, to someone now who is hostile in actions toward you, actually harming you, treating you in a despicable manner. Jesus says, for the one who abuses you, pray to God for their good. I think it's this third illustration where the point starts getting really upsetting to us. Maybe we can handle bad attitudes. Maybe we can handle bad words, but at the point of abuse, we feel like Jesus is pushing us too far. The evil of abuse is really its exploitation. The abuser takes advantage of a weakness, a weakness in physical strength, a weakness in circumstances. When we hear of abuse, it should offend us. It should horrify us. It is a perversion of goodness and justice. And so the reaction again, so natural as you say, you want me to pray for people who abuse me? That's what you're calling me to? For some, let's be real here. For some, the subject is very personal because some have actually experienced abuse. And even then, actually, especially then, the Lord calls his people to pray for their abusers. Let's be clear, what we are not saying, if you have been abused, if you are being abused, the abuse is never, not for one second, right. You do not deserve to be abused. The abuser has no right to abuse you. So when you are called to do good to your enemy, in this case to pray for your abuser, that does not mean perpetuating the abuser's ability to sin against you. It does not mean that. The good of an abuser is to be brought to repentance. to have to own up to that sin. It is not the good of anyone for the abuser to be able to continue in their path of destruction, yours and theirs. Jesus is not calling you to be abused. What Jesus is teaching on and what we need to obey is the way we respond to abuse. Pray for the one who abuses you. Pray that the Lord would graciously, mercifully save your abuser from their sin. Pray that the Lord would bring repentance. Pray that the Lord would turn their hearts from the path of destruction. Pray that they would find forgiveness for their sins because they are grievous. Pray that the Lord would transform them. Pray that the Lord would welcome them into the family of God. Pray for the one who cursed you. Pray for the one who has hated you. Pray for the one who has abused you. Love your enemies. How do we love our enemies? You love them tangibly. You love them with tangible actions. Some of us, we hold ourselves back and we end up just being good intentions people. We think that having a soft heart, having a kind intention is all that we're called to. But the Bible doesn't believe in heart attitudes that do not lead to actions. You should doubt your heart if it never leads to actions. Do good to your enemies. Do something positive for the good of your enemies. Do something tangible for the good of your enemies. Do something observable for the good of your enemies. Do something verifiable. Do something unmistakable for the good of your enemies. Now some enemies there outside your ability to do good to, at least personally, could be by circumstance. It could be by way of wisdom. What I mean by that is there may well be someone that you absolutely should not be near. So what are you left with then? What option is left to you to do good to someone that you cannot really interact with? Well, prayer. God is not bound by your limitations. Pray for your enemies. Pray regularly. Pray fervently. Pray for their good and not their destruction. Brothers and sisters, when was the last time you prayed for your enemies? When? Can you even think of it? You may well know of people who don't like you. Do you pray for them? When they lash out at you with their words, their actions, their attitudes, what do you do? The convicting truth might really be, the question is not how often you pray for your enemies, the question may well be if you have ever prayed for your enemies. if you have ever obeyed Jesus and prayed for your enemies. Has someone harbored hatred toward you? Pray for your enemies. Pray for the one who has hated you ever since that one betrayal, ever since that one misunderstanding, ever since that one falling out. Pray that they would find the love and the forgiveness of Jesus Christ. Has someone gossiped about you? Has someone torn down your reputation and assassinated your character? Pray for your enemies. Pray for the ones with the poisonous tongues. Pray for the ones who burn bridges as a matter of practice. Pray that they would be built up in Christ and not destroyed like they deserve. Has someone outright harmed you? Would they even do it again if they had the chance? Pray for that violent and destructive person. Pray that they would find grace. Pray that they would find help in the Savior who saved you. Pray for your enemies. Another way that we can duck teachings like this is we say, well, that person's not my enemy. I don't have any enemies. So-and-so doesn't count as an enemy. I don't have to do this for them. You all tried it, didn't you? Yeah. John's not an enemy. Phew. You can't get away that easily. Jesus's teachings cannot be derailed by loopholes. When Jesus teaches us about our behavior toward enemies, it ends up having the force of saying, treat all people like this, even your enemies. This command, and it is a command, this command applies to how you treat all people, however you want to label them. So brothers, sisters, Pray. Pray for the politician that you cannot stand. Pray for the president who you think is evil. Pray for that neighbor, that literal neighbor that you think is reprehensible. Pray for the colleague that you think is lazy. Pray for the acquaintance that you think is dishonest. Pray for convicted criminals who have done terrible things. Pray for liberal political groups advancing an agenda that is disastrous. Pray for abortion doctors. Pray for ISIS. You ever prayed for ISIS? When we pray, we're not praying for the success of any of their agendas, but pray for the good of their souls and pray for the glory of God. Love your enemies, brothers and sisters. Love your enemies. If you have soaked in this teaching even just a little bit, then at this point you should be overwhelmed by what Jesus is calling us to. You should hear in these words a standard that your tainted heart cannot even imagine reaching. You should feel in those words a weight that would crush you if you were to stand underneath it. The truth is we do not love our neighbors. We hardly love our loved ones, like God would call us to. And we do not love our enemies. We hear the command to pray for our enemies, to pray for those ones who have hurt us, to pray for those who most threaten us and threaten to harm us again, and we cry out, how could you call me to this God? How can I possibly do this? How could you ever ask me to? Jesus' answer, and it is Jesus' answer, this is the form it came in. Forgive them for they know not what they do. 2,000 years ago, the son of God hung from a cross. 2,000 years ago, he hung bleeding after they had tortured him and falsely accused him, his back shredded by who knows how many lashes. When you're crucified, the real struggle is breathing. In order to breathe, you have to push yourself up. In order to push yourself up, you have to push that shredded back up against that gnarled cross. You picture the son of God barely able to breathe, gasping, the ragged breaths, gasping. And with those dying breaths, he prayed. If ever there was one who faced hatred, it was him. If ever there was one who faced cursing, it was him. If ever there was one who faced injustice and abuse, it was him. If ever one suffered under enemies, it was him. And yet he prayed as he died, Father, forgive them. for they know not what they do. Not only did he pray, he gave his life to do good to the enemies of God. Love your enemies. This was the crushing standard that Jesus took upon himself. We ask, how, how could we possibly love our enemies after what they have done to us? And the answer is found in the Savior who did the very same thing for us. Jesus Christ loved his enemies. And by enemies, child of God, I mean you. I mean us. Now I say child of God, because if you haven't trusted God, if you haven't found forgiveness in Christ, you are still His enemy. You still need the forgiveness that is only found in the Savior. You need the forgiveness of the Savior before you can stand on the work of the cross. But it's a forgiveness He is eager to give you, if you will just receive it. but for the believing child of God. He commands you to love your enemies because surely he loved you. Because surely he died for you. On the cross, he paid for all your evil. He accomplished the work that transformed you from a sinner to a saint, from a criminal to a member of the family. When loving enemies feels undoable, when praying for them seems impossible, then cry out to the Savior who did this for you. Cry out for the help of the Holy Spirit who will help you to do what God commands. Brothers and sisters, love your enemies because Jesus Christ loved you. Let's pray. Our Father, thank you for loving us. We thank you that while we were yet enemies, you sent your Son to die for us. of people like us, we thank you that still you are patient with us. I mean, look at our hearts. Look at all the evil still to be conquered. Look at all the corruption, all the rebellion. And yet you count us as yours. And yet you work in us. and yet you forgive us, and yet you show us grace and mercy. Father, help us. There are people who we simply do not want to love. When we try to pray for them, the words are empty. There is no heart behind it. Father, help us to love our enemies. Help us to do good to our enemies, even today, even tomorrow, when we go back to work or to whatever real life holds. Help us to honor you, to trust you, and to obey this command. I pray this in Jesus's name, amen. We hope you've enjoyed this message from Grace Community Church in Minden, Nevada. To receive a copy of this or other messages, call us at area code 775-782-6516 or visit our website gracenevada.com.