So many years ago, when Natalie and I had first gotten married, we were living in the first house we had purchased, and I think it was like a Saturday, maybe, and I hear the doorbell ring. I'm not really expecting anyone, but I don't think much of it. And so I get up and I go answer the door, and as soon as I open the door, I receive a tongue lashing like I hadn't received in a really, really long time, if not ever. It was an older man, and he was just going at I mean, no, hi, let me make some introductions. I mean, he was just letting me have it. I don't know who you guys think you are, but I'm sick and tired of your dogs, and if you don't do something about them, I'm gonna get my shotgun and I'll take care of it myself. I had no idea who this guy was, never met him before, didn't know his name, and now he's standing on my front porch threatening to kill my dogs. All of a sudden, my blood begins to boil. I start to sweat. I start to notice that my fists begin to clench, and, you know, I'm thinking, Am I going to have to knock this older guy out? I mean, I can't do that to too many people, but I'm pretty sure I could take him. I found out that he was my neighbor who lived directly behind us, there was a fence that separated us. I hadn't had the chance to meet him yet, and one of the dogs that we had could jump pretty high in his head. Could get almost about as high as the fence was. He wasn't going over the fence or anything like that, but I guess it made him nervous. He got scared when he was mowing the yard back there, or maybe when grandkids visited, something had upset him that morning, and he came over to make sure that we knew that he was not happy. Ever since that day, this guy became my enemy. I mean, I shut the door and I couldn't stop thinking about him the next day. I couldn't stop thinking about him the next week. I couldn't stop thinking about him. I'm replaying the conversations that we were having, the way that he was yelling at me. I'm thinking of all the things I should have said to him in that moment. I'm thinking of all the things that I would say to him if I saw him again, the things I might do to him if I sawhim again. I'msure he thought the same thing about me. Not only was he my enemy, I was his enemy. We did not care for each other. What about you? Who's Who's yourenemy? Who is itthat makes your blood boil?Is there someone coming to mind, even right now, when you think about them, you think about all the things you'd like to say to them, all the things you'd like to do to them, all the things that they've said to you, all the things that they've done to you. Maybe it's a neighbor, just like it was for me. Maybe it's a friend or a former best friend, a co worker, a student, a teammate. Maybe it was a boss, a teacher, a principal. Maybe it's someone that you don't even know. It's just a TV personality or a politician that you don't really care for, and you view them as your enemy because they're making decisions about things in our country that are making your life miserable. Maybe it is someone that you go to church with. Maybe it's someone you used to go to church with. Worse yet, maybe it's a family member. Is your enemy. Your spouse is your enemy. Your parent is your enemy, your child a sibling. When I was studying this week, I came across a story in the 1930s of a guy who had written his will out his name was Mr. Donahue, and here's what it said unto my two daughters, Francis Marie and Denise Victoria, by reason of their unfilial attitude towards a doting father. I Father, I leave the sum of $1 each and a father's curse May their lives be fraught with misery, unhappiness and poignant sorrow, may their deaths be soon and of a lingering, malignant and torturous nature, may their souls rest in Hades and suffer the torments of condemnation for eternity. Ouch.His dad actually said that to his own daughters,guys, our enemies, can sometimes turn our lives upside down. They can consume us, cause stress and tension and anger and even us to lose. Sleep at night. So what do we do? What do we do with our enemies?How do we treat people in response to what theydo to us?Ask you to turn to Luke chapter six, so that we'd be starting in verse 27 in just a moment. It is that moment.Here's what Jesus says,But I say to you who are listening, hate your enemies. Seek revenge on those who hate you, curse those who curse you, and post ugly memes about them on social media. That'swhat we wish you would have said, right?But to you who are listening,I say Love your enemies.Do good to those who hate you,bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you,can I just go on hating them.I mean, really love them. Do good to them. Pray for them. I mean, come on, I get maybe not trying to get even maybe just leave them alone. Don't say anything bad about them, but I've actively got to try and love them do good to them. They don't deserve that.That's what I used to think, too.It's not true. Sometimes I still think that today,but in those moments, Jesus usually reminds methat I was his enemy at one time too.Romans, 510, Paul says, For if, while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more having been reconciled shall we be saved through his life? Paul reminds us clearly that we were once God's enemies. We weredeserving of His wrath,but he loved us. He did good for us, and He blessed us by sending Jesus to the cross to take our punishment for us so that we could be set free from our sins and enjoy eternal life with Him forever. So no, your enemies don't deserve your love. They don't deserve for you to do good to them. They don't deserve for you to bless them or pray for them. But neither did you deserve that from God. Youuh, some of you may be saying, okay, okay, I get that. That certainly makes sense, but I still don't think I can do it. I just don't think I can love my enemy and actually do good to them. That seems impossible.And if you're thinking that,I'd say you're right.That is impossible.It's impossible for you to do in your flesh. But here's what I know, if you're a new creation in Christ and Jesus has come to dwell in you, then you do have what it takes to love your enemies in and through him. And here's how I know that to be true, because aside from Jesus just saying this, aside from him just standing up and teaching about this kind of thing, it's what we actually see him doing throughout his earthly life. You may remember this, but when Jesus went to the cross, we see this a little bit later in Luke. We're in Luke chapter six. If you flip over a few chapters to Luke, 23 you'll see that it says this in verses 33 and 34 when they came to the place of the skull, they crucified him, referring to Jesus there, along with the criminals, one on his right and one on his left, and Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. Guys, they had just whipped Jesus with a cat of nine tails, 39 times across his back, spit on him, beaten him, put a crown of thorns on his head, mocked him, nailed to him cross, nailed to a cross, left him there naked, hanging on that cross to die a slow, painful, humiliating death.And yet Jesus prayed for them.He blessed them,and he was doing good for them.He loved his enemies.And so here's what I know to be true, and it's what we've been saying all throughout this series. If you've put your faith and trust in Jesus, then Jesus has come to dwell in. You through the power of the Holy Spirit, and then he begins to express his life through you. And so the things that we see him doing and saying during His earthly ministry will become the things that we or he does in and through us as we make ourselves available to him. And so if Jesus loved his enemies, then he'll love our enemies through us when we make ourselves available to him. The thing is, is we actually even have evidence of that? Because when you look at the other book that Dr Luke wrote, he wrote the Gospel of Luke. He also wrote the book of Acts we see that he tells us about a guy named Stephen. Stephen was a Christian. He was part of the church. He was someone that has put, had put his faith and trust in Jesus, Christ for salvation. His sins had been forgiven. Jesus had come to dwell in him. He was expressing his life through him, and as a result of that, it got him killed. They started stoning him for his faith, and as he was being stoned, we read about this in Acts, chapter seven, verses 59, and 60. It says, while they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. Then he fell on his knees and cried out, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. Does that sound familiarto you?It should, because it was almost word for word what we heard Jesus say on the cross a second ago. Why? Because, again, Stephen had put his faith and trust in Jesus for salvation. Jesus came to dwell in him. Jesus forgave his enemies, and so as a result, he expressed his life through Stephen to love and forgive Stephen's enemies. Stephen couldn't do that on his own. He didn't have that in his own power and his own strength. But as he made himself available to Jesus, dwelling in Him. Jesus empowered him to demonstrate the same kind of love that he showed to his enemies when He was hanging on the cross. What I'm trying to say is you can't do this, but Jesus in you and through you can, if you'll make yourself available to him by the power of the Spirit, you can actually love your enemies. Jesus will love your enemies through you. You make yourself available to him. Let's go on, because Jesus has more to say about this in Luke chapter six, look at what he says. Now in verse 29 he says, Listen, if someone slaps you on the cheek, turn to them the other also, if someone takes your coat, do not withhold your shirt from them. Give to everyone who asks. And if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back really. I don't know if you ever saw the movie or the musical Les Mis in it, the main character, Jean Valjean, gets, he gets released from prison and and he's trying to find someone who would help him get a job, all of these things, figure out his life after that, but no one will take him in. No one will give him a job because of his paroled status, all the above. But finally, there's this one older man, this bishop, Bishop Muriel, who treated him with kindness, and he loved him, and he served him, and he fed him, and he gave him a place to stay. Well, Jean Valjean wakes up in the middle of the night at bishops, the bishop's house, and he attempts to steal the bishop's silver. They're worth a lot of money, and the bishop wakes up in the middle of the night while he's trying to steal his silver, and he catches him right there in the middle of the act, and Jean Valjean hits him in the head, knocks him out cold, and just takes his silver anyway. Next day, the police catch him and take him back to Bishop Muriel's home. They said, Bishop, after we searched his knapsack, found him and searched all the way through, we found all of this silver, and he claims that you gave it to him, and they just start to laugh. And that's silly. Bishop Muriel looks at him immediately says, Well, yeah, of course, I gave the silver to him. But listen, Jean Valjean. Jean Valjean, why didn't you take the candlesticks as well? The candlesticks were worth at least 2000 and Franks. That was very foolish of you to leave them. Honey, go fetch the candlesticks for Jean Valjean, because he forgot to take them. Police, look at the bishop with this confused look on their face say, are you trying to tell me that he was actually telling the truth? He said, Yeah, I'm telling you the truth. I'm extremely relieved that you brought him, because I needed to give him the candlesticks too. He forgot them. Now release him, and they do release him, and they go about their own business. And there's this, this moment where John. Jean looks at the bishop and says, why this confused look on his face? Why are you doing this? Bishop says, my brother, you no longer belong to evil. With this silver I've bought your soul, I've ransomed you from fear and hatred, and now I give you back to God and this grace, this forgiveness, this love for an enemy, just Rexing, begins to transition and becomes a turning point in the movie, and eventually he turns his life around. But Jesus had said that if someone slaps you on the cheek and turn to them the other also, if someone takes your silverware, do not withhold your candlesticks from them.Give to everyone who asks, and if anyone takes what belongsto you, don't demandit back.Do Jesus sums all of this up in the next verse by saying, Do to others as you would have them do to you. Now notice what it did not say. It did not say, if you want to be treated well, then treat others the way you want them to treat you. That's what we sometimes turn that into, right? Hey, you know the golden rule, listen, if you want them to treat you well, then you need to treat them well. And sometimes, when you treat people well, they will reciprocate by treating you well. But that is not always the case. Jesus is not teaching reciprocity here. As a matter of fact, a lot of times when you treat people well, they may, in return, still treat you really poorly. Jesus is saying Love your enemies the way you wish they would have loved you, regardless of how theycontinue to treat you, andHe makes sure that we don't miss that by what he says in the next verse, look at verse 32 if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? I mean even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you or good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Again, even sinners lean lend to sinners and expect to be repaid in full. And so what we see again is that Jesus will express his love through us in a way that looks very different from the world, in the way they love others. The world loves people who love them. They do good to people who do good to them. But Jesus says, I will express my life and love in and through you in a way that leads you to love people who actually don't love you and to do good to people who actually don't do good to you. And then look at how he finishes up here in verse 35 he says, But Love your enemies do good to them and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Now we need to clear this up and make sure you understand here when he says that, then your reward will be great and you will be children of the Most High he's not saying that when you demonstrate love for your enemies, then that makes you a child of God. That happens the moment you put your faith and trust in Jesus. Go back and read John one. It's very clear and in a number of places that this happens the moment you put your faith and trust in Jesus, you become God's child. What Jesus is saying here is that when you love your enemies, you'll be acting like the children of God that you are.That's what he's trying to saywhen I began to experience that tongue lashing from my neighbor I was telling you about at the very beginning of the message. I was a child of God. At that time, I had put my faith and trust in Jesus when I was 10 years old, and been his child since that moment, but I was certainly not acting like it in that moment. I wanted to retaliate. I wanted to say some things to him. I wanted to do some things to him.But not too long after that, Jesus,through Natalie said,why don't we bake him some cookies? Whydon't we take the cookies to him? Why don't we apologize to him? Andlet me be clear, when she said we she meant me,but I knew as soon as she said it, that that was Jesus speaking in and through her and. And so that's what I did,and walked over and knocked on his door this time, andas kind and gracious as I could be, apologized. Said, Hey, my wife made cookies for you, and just again, wanted to say, we're really sorry. And just that, one act of kindness completely changed his tone, completely changed his attitude. He even invited me into his home, invited me to sit down, and we just had a conversation. I got to hear all about his life and his family and his grandkids and what he did. He showed me this old car he was trying to restore, and just like we're all of a sudden, we're buds.We never had another problem after that. Now thatcertainly isn't the way we should expect it to be every time again, not every time we treat someone with love and kindness, are they going to treat that back with that? I mean, I completely expected the guy to still be piping mad at me, to just give me another tongue lashing whenever I showed up on his porch. But he had also convinced me, through being able to catch my breath, and through conversations with Natalie and just again rereading His Word, that even if that happened, that the reward of Jesus leading me to do that and whatever I was going to experience in the way he was expressing himself in me and through me in that moment,that that would have even been enough. Andthat's the same thing he'll do in your life as well.And so when we think about what Jesus is saying here, when we see what all he says here, we've got to, again, take the next step of talking about how this specifically applies to each one of us today, and really the only way to do that isto go back to your enemy,that person earlier that was at the forefront of your Mind,one that you picture,your blood begins to boil. The things they've said to you, the things they've done to you, the things you'd like to say to them, the things you'd like to do to them again. Is it a neighbor, just like it was for me? Is it a friend who treated you poorly? Is it a church member? Is it a family member? Is it a boss, a teammate, a student, a principal, a co worker. I don't know who it is for you,but the question becomes, how doesJesus want to express his life and his love through me to love my enemies? This week, Jesus gives us three specific things, three specific ways to love our enemies. We've said them a number of times. Maybe you caught it already and wrote them down, but just in case you didn't. Verses 27 and 28 the very first ones we read, He says, But I say to you who are listening, love your enemies. And then He gives us three specific ways to love our enemies, the ways that he will lead us to love our enemies. Number one, to do good to those who hate you. Number two, to bless those who curse you, and number three, to pray for those who mistreat you. When you make yourself available to Jesus, he's going to live his life and express his life in and through you, to reveal to you ways, specific ways, that you can actually do good, steps of action to do good for your enemy. When you make yourself available to Jesus, he's going to lead you to bless your enemy, to think and say good things to them and about them, and then he's going to lead you to pray for them, not that God will make their lives miserable, but that he would actually bless them and open up their minds to receive Him if they don't know Him, and that their lives would turn around, not for your sake, but but for theirs. Before, before his death a couple of years ago, Pastor Tim Keller actually used to tell a story related to this about someone in his own congregation. Her name was Sarah. Sarah worked as marketing firm, and there was a co worker of hers who was a bitter enemy of hers. Her name was Jessica, and Jessica was just out to get her. I mean, she would do things like, like, like, Sarah would come up with ideas and stuff, and Jessica would take credit for them in meetings, like listen to this idea that I had she had heard her say it, and then she would bring it up as if it was her own idea, and not give her credit at all. She would intentionally leave her off of group emails to make sure that she wasn't copied on important information, just to make her look bad, to do things to her. She was constantly spreading rumors about her around the office and even towards other climate clients, about her, her being incompetent. I mean, this is just the tip of the iceberg, kind of things that she would do to her. For some reason, she just didn't like her, and she was out to get her. At first, Sarah was angry. She was looking for ways to get. Even looking for ways to get revenge. But then she ends up at a Bible study at Tim Keller's church. And guess what book of the Bible they were studying, Luke, specifically Luke chapter six, where Jesus is talking about loving your enemies. And she learned that day what we've seen here that Jesus would express his life through her, by leading her to do good things for Jessica, to bless Jessica with her words, and to pray for Jessica. And so she began to do just that. Every single day, she would wake up and pray for Jessica and pray for her well being, and pray for her success. She would pray about things that she could openly compliment. Oh, I love that dress, or I love that outfit. You just look so pretty today. Or, Hey, did you guys see the way that Jessica worked on this particular project? Wasn't it great what she actually accomplished in and through that? Just looking for ways to bless her with words. She offered to help her. She gave her credit for her contribution. She even looked to do little things like get coffee for her and bless her with little gifts and things like that. Well, she did this every single day for month after month after month, and nothing happened. She was still mistreating, her, still miserable, still considered her her enemy, but all of a sudden there was this high pressure project that comes up, and there was this tight deadline that they had to meet. And and Sarah noticed that Jessica was having a hard time with her portion of it, and so she actually went to Jessica and said, Hey, I know that you seem to kind of be struggling with this, and I just want to let you know that I'm available to help you if you want some help, I'm even willing to stay after work and put in some extra hours with you. And for whatever reason, she took her up on it and allowed her to help. And she stayed after work that evening, and she stayed after work the next evening, and she stayed after work the next evening, and the one after that, until they finally finished her portion of the project. Soon as it was over, Jessica came to Sarah with tears in her eyes, and finally just said, I don't understand. I don't get it. Why in the world have you been so kind to me when I have treated you so terrible? Sarah just goes right into telling her about Jesus. She was openly honest with her. Listen, I'm going to admit to you in the beginning I didn't want to, but I'm a Christian, and I learned about the way Jesus will express his life in me and through me to love my enemies, and so I've just been genuinely praying for him to love me and serve you, know you and serve you through me. And she even invited her to church. And it wasn't immediate, but eventually Jessica came to know Jesus, and her life was transformed and changed forever, all because Sarah chose tolove her enemy.This is the kind of thing that Jesus will do in and through us. Again, you notice the things that she did were related to what he said. She prayed for her. Jesus said, this is what will happen. She looked for ways to bless her with her speech. She looked for ways to serve her. All the things that we saw in verses 27 and 28 which again, are things that we should expect Jesus to do in and through us when it comes to our enemies and so again, what is it that Jesus is leading you to do in the area of good works for your enemy? What is it that he's leading you to do in the area of words to bless them? How is he leading you to genuinely pray for them? These are the questions that we ask when we come across the things that he's teaching and the ways that it might apply to our lives. Again, guys, this is impossible for you to do on your own, but in and through Jesus dwelling in you, He can do it.