True Christian Love part 3

Well, if you would take your Bible and turn back to Matthew 5, we were there earlier in our scripture reading. We've been here for quite a few weeks and that might have surprised you what I said earlier that we're not going to turn to any other verses. I think I go back and forth between just staying where we are and then also turning to other places in scripture. I don't plan any of that. It just kind of happens that way. But I'd like to let you know how we're going to progress through the message. Now, I'll go ahead and tell you, we're going to start back at verse 43 and go on down to verse 48.

Although I will not be exhausted with verse 48. We'll finish up this section, really this major section, not just this last lesson. We'll finish up with verse 48 next week. Now, this morning we're finishing up the last lesson in these six lessons. And that starts, or the lesson started back in chapter 5 verse 21. I think most of you know that. And I have said several times that the six lessons starting in verse 43, it is the biggest of all of these lessons and it really is the most important of all of these lessons. Now, all of these lessons that we have studied are important.

And we need to see and we need to understand how the Jews in Jesus' day, really for generations, how they had altered God's word to accommodate their personal sin and to perpetuate. It was to perpetuate their false external religious system. And we need to see how Jesus is describing the true Christian life in each of these lessons. And really we see contrasts in every one of them. Now, question, why is the lesson here in verse 43 to 48, why is it the most important? We need to ask that question. The previous lessons that we have studied certainly do describe the true Christian life. They do describe true Christian behavior.

I'll give you an example, take divorce. We took quite a bit of time studying this lesson on divorce. The religious leaders taught that it was okay to get a divorce for any reason. As long as you just had that official certificate of divorce. For generations, they had abused what Deuteronomy 24, 1 taught on divorce. And they would literally put their wives out for any trivial reason. And as long as they had that official certificate, I'm being rather sarcastic there, they saw themselves as okay. Now, what were the results? What were the ramifications? Divorce and unbiblical marriage was everywhere in Jesus' day.

And it meant that there was adultery everywhere. Jesus explains God's true standard for marriage, and that was life. The true standard for marriage from the beginning was for life. He does explain that there are certain specific exemptions for divorce, but nothing like the Jewish leaders had taught and lived really for generations. So we need to understand that the previous lessons illustrate for us the true Christian life. They do describe how God expects his people to live. If you do some study, you'll run across this language. Scholars call this the true Christian ethic, the true Christian ethic.

But this teaching, verses 43 on down to verse 48, it explains that which is at the center of God's heart, that which is at the center of God's character. And that is love for man. And if we truly live what is taught here, we will be anchored to that which is at the center of God's heart and character. And I thought about it like this this week. What a place to live. I mean, think about it. If we're living what's taught here, we're living at the very center of God's heart and character. And what a place to live. You see why this is the most important lesson? Now, remember our anchor illustration from the past two weeks?

Remember our example of the merchant royal shipwreck of 1641? Remember, I shared with you how they had discovered the old anchor from the shipwreck, but yet they had discovered the $1.5 billion treasure. I think we all decided that they could put the anchor in a museum and we'll take the treasure. I made the comment last week that I could pay off my house and buy a few things. I didn't mention that I could tithe off that. Maybe I was seeing the way I described that. But let's make sure we remember that this teaching here is that permanent anchor. Let's keep that in our mind.

This teaching here is that permanent anchor and that keeps us attached to that which is at the center of God's heart and God's character. And that is God's love for man. Don't we see this in John 3 16? We know this verse. For God so loved the world that he gave his only son that whoever believes in him should not perish. But have eternal life. Now I will share with you as I have the past few weeks how we're dividing these verses. And you see the what I call the major truths in the outline of the message. We've already studied truth number one and truth number two.

What I mean by that is in part one, we looked at the standard, the Old Testament standard. Jesus goes all the way back to what the Old Testament standard was. And then he explained or we saw how the Jews had perverted that Old Testament standard. And then we started the major truth last week, major truth number three. And this explanation by Jesus starting in verse 44, Jesus begins to explain how God expects his people to live concerning their neighbors, concerning even their enemies. He explains who God expects his people to love. And how he expects them to love. Now there's quite a bit of information with this third major truth.

I'll go ahead and share that with you just like I did last week. And this is Jesus explaining how he expects his people to live. So this morning in our part three, we're really picking up with where we started in truth number three, the explanation by Jesus. Now we should know by now that Jesus is explaining here starting in verse 44, the true meaning of the Old Testament standard. This would be God's standard. He is explaining how he wants his people to live, how he expects them to relate to neighbors and enemies and how they are supposed to love. And again, he's contrasting what he expects with how they have been living for generations.

Now remember what I said last week. We have five points of instruction here. And I explained that I see these verses as two glorious mountain peaks, really with great teaching in between. In the first part of verse 44, Jesus calls his people to love their enemies. And then in verse 48, Jesus calls his people to be perfect as God is perfect. And listen, folks, if you really meditate on what I've just shared, those are impossibilities. We can't climb those mountains. I've shared this before, but it just comes back to my mind. I remember when I went with a friend of India, I have a friend that does some missions work in India.

He doesn't do as much missions work in India anymore because he's been pastoring. And when you pastor, you can't travel like you once did. But I'll never forget when we were traveling in the north of India, if you know your geography, India is basically triangular. In the northern border is Nepal. And if you know what Nepal is famous for, it's for the Himalayan mountains. And so we're flying there in the state of Bihar there on the Himalayan border. And he says, look out the window. And I looked out the window and there the Himalayas. And he didn't register at first. He said, notice their eye level. Their eye level.

Those are very high mountain peaks, the highest in the world. And listen, honestly, we can't climb the mountain peaks of what we have here in these verses, especially the mountain peak of loving our enemies and the, especially the mountain peak of being perfect as God is perfect. So let's examine this teaching here and we will ultimately see how we can live these verses. So number one, love your enemies. You see that before you love your enemies. That's at the beginning of verse 44, but I say to you, love your enemies. Now last week, we really took some time to try to fully grasp what Jesus is saying here. We really asked two vital questions.

What is this love that he's speaking of here and who is the enemy? And that what we see in the first part of the verse, what is this love and who is the enemy? Here, Jesus is calling his people to the greatest and the highest of loves. This love is greater than a love than even for the closest earthly relationships. And that would be family. That would be family. The love Jesus is speaking of here is a love of the will. It's a love of the choice. And this love may be even divorced from feelings or emotions. You know, those feelings and those emotions we have for a husband or for a wife or children or grandchildren.

Now it's vital to see that this love can never be produced by man. You need to get that. This love that Jesus is speaking of can never be produced by man, although it could be made known in a man and through a man. You really need to get first John chapter four. Remember those passages? First John four, starting in verse seven, going on down to verse 12. What do we see in those verses? God is the source of this love. This agape love. God is the source of this love. God demonstrated or manifested this love in his son, Jesus.

If you want the perfect example of this agape love, just study everything Jesus said, everything Jesus did, even his attitudes, everything about Jesus. And then God in parts or he gives this love to those who are his, those who are born of God, born of the spirit, the spirit of God comes within them. And God in parts and plants this love into their heart and life. So this love is God's love within a person. It is from God. It is put in that person at regeneration and it is made known through that person as they live the Christian life. And God demonstrated this agape love through Christ perfectly.

God demonstrated this love perfectly in his son. And he continues to demonstrate this love, not perfectly, because we're imperfect through his people. But Jesus is calling his people to love with a God's love. They're enemies, not just anyone. Yes, they're enemies. Remember that we learn who the enemy is, but we learn who the enemy is from God's perspective. And that would be all of mankind.

Remember our Romans five passages, verse five, or excuse me, Romans five, verse eight and verse 10 says that while we were sinners, while we were enemies, God took upon himself the work of redemption through his son, simply God chose to redeem a bunch of enemies. God chose to redeem a bunch of enemies. God chose to reconcile a bunch of enemies by dying on the cross in their place. And remember what God's motivation was and is. Love, agape love. God chose to love a bunch of enemies. Therefore, he chose to reconcile a bunch of enemies because he loved mankind.

So here, Jesus is calling his people to love with a God love, even their enemies, not just neighbors, not just friends, enemies, the one that may hate us, the ones we may even want to hate back. Oh, but you know, we're Christians. We're really not supposed to hate. We're just really supposed to dislike people. But is that very Christian? You see, now a couple of questions and then we're going to move on. Is this possible? I mean, is this really possible for us? Can you, can we, can we love with a God like love? Can we love as God, our enemies and even our neighbors and friends? No, this is an impossibility. This is an impossibility.

But then number two, he moves on in the second part of verse 44, pray for your persecutors. You see the verse, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Not only is Jesus calling his people to love, he is calling his people to prayer. You could say that in verse 44, you really have two commandments, the commandment to love. You might say, brother Chris, we see that. And then we're seeing the commandment to pray. Now, just like when we examine love, our enemies, we need to ask two questions here as well. First, what is this prayer? Isn't that what he says? Pray. What is this prayer?

Simply prayer is communion with God. You might say, pastor, yes, that's pretty simple. And that's very accurate. Prayer is communion with God. Prayer is man or a woman coming to God for numerous reasons. One may come to God with personal problems. I think about first Samuel chapter one, the story of Hannah, a very godly woman. And she came to God in prayer because she had a personal problem. She was barren. She couldn't have children. And then also one may come to God in prayer for another. I think about Exodus chapter 33. Moses, he came to God on behalf of the nation of Israel. The Jews were in great sin against God.

And Moses comes to God on their behalf. But think about the spirit of prayer, the attitude of prayer, the heart of prayer. In prayer, true prayer, a person is coming to God in humility. Yes, they are coming with requests, but ultimately they are coming humbly, seeking God's will for a circumstance, a person or a people. Prayer is seeking God and seeking God's will. It's seeking God's mercy and grace. Prayer is seeking God's favor and God's help for self and also for another. Hannah was seeking God's favor and help for herself. Was she not? Moses was seeking God's favor and help for the nation. But then second, who are these persecutors?

We need to ask who the persecutor is. A persecutor would be anyone who would express sin and wickedness against us in word or deed. One who acts in unfairness, in ungodliness, and even acts out in hatred against us. One who may want to even physically harm us or even physically kill us. Now we need to see that usually persecution, it really is the world's response to God and the truth of God. A lost person or lost people. They may persecute us because we are Christian. You see? Maybe in our family. Maybe even in the workplace. See? We are born of God. We're a true Christian and they may hate us because they hate Christ that is within us.

A person or lost people may persecute us because we speak of Christ as the only hope of salvation. You know, we witness, we evangelize, we tell others about Jesus, and they hate the truth of Christ as the Messiah of God and they hate that we speak of Christ in their life. And then the lost person or the lost world may persecute us because we speak the truth of God's word. We present God's word. We present God's truth. And the word of God that we speak about and bring into their life, it is an affront to their sin and their rebellion against God.

If we study the life of Jesus, we do not have to read very far to see the world persecutes Jesus for his message of salvation and for how he truly declared perfectly the truth of God. Then if we study the New Testament church starting in the book of Acts, we see the very same thing. The world persecuted those early believers because of Christ in them. The world persecuted the early believers because they preach salvation and is found in Christ and Christ alone. And then the world persecuted that early church because they did what? They taught the word of God.

But this may seem strange to some of you, but some of you it'll answer some questions. Persecution can also come from people within the church. Paul was persecuted by false teachers who had crept into the church everywhere he went. As Timothy was pastoring specifically there in Ephesus, he faced heartache and persecution from certain false teachers that Paul called him to expel.

If you read 1 and 2 Timothy, Paul says, "Listen, Timothy, I've put out some of those men, but you've got to put out the rest." And Paul told the Ephesian church in Acts 20, starting in verse 28, that wolves, he calls them wolves, wolves would rise up among them and do what? Devour them, persecute them. And then 3 John, verses 9 and 10, we see diatrophies. This man was a persecutor of the apostle John and his followers and true believers there in the church. And many times in the church today, you'll have the person of diatrophies and the spirit of diatrophies, and they'll rise up and they'll act out against God's people.

They'll persecute God's people. So notice what Jesus is calling his followers to do. By calling them to pray for their persecutors. Jesus is calling them to take those who hate them to the very best of place before God. You see? That needs to be restated. By calling his people to pray for those that would persecute them, Jesus is calling his people to take those who hate them and even may want to kill them to the very best of places and that is before God.

The old English spirit in John Gill says, "This breathes out the true spirit of Christianity." John MacArthur says, "The best way to have the right attitude, the agape love attitude." Let me say it again. The best way to have the right attitude, the agape love attitude toward those who persecute us is to bring them before God. That's prayer and the most favored place. And when Jesus was hanging on the cross, what did he do? He prayed for those who were crucifying him. And what did he pray? Father, forgive them? In prayer, Jesus took his persecutors to the very best of place before God in intercession. Begging that God would forgive them.

And then when Stephen was being stoned, the first martyr there of the New Testament church, he prayed the very same thing for those who were murdering him. He took those who were stoning him to the very best of place and that was before God. Never wanting revenge, no. He was begging God to forgive them. And let me ask you these questions again. Is this possible for you and me? Can we really have this heart? Can we really pray like this? Listen, this is an impossibility. And then third, just progressing along. Number three, make your sonship known.

Look at verse 44 and verse 45, but I say to you, love your enemies and then pray for those who persecute you so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven. For he makes the sun rise on the evil and on the good. And he sends rain on the just and the unjust. Now here in verse 45, we see the results of verse 44. Notice that. If what Jesus commands in verse 44 happens in the life of a true Christian, there are certain things that will be made manifest. Certain things will happen. First of all, this reflects and is a definitive work. You need to see this. This reflects and is a definitive work.

This phrase may be that is seen in verse 45 helps us see the definitive work. Go back to the verse, verse 45, so that you may be sons of your father. Now the construction of the language here is key. It's construction does not communicate maybe like we are accustomed to. Think about it like this. Maybe if I do well in that job interview, I'll get that promotion. Oh, maybe if my trial for basketball goes well, I'll make the team. But that's not what's being communicated here. The construction of the language speaks of a once and for all and established fact. Maybe not a hope. So not a maybe. So see, there is a definitive work here.

And then second, this all reflects a distinguishable character. This is a distinguishable character. Another phrase is key. The phrase sons of your father. Go back to the verse so that you may be sons of your father. Here, this speaks to a true believers character. Now we need a little help here with Bible scholars, language scholars. You see the Hebrew language that the Jews were so accustomed to was much, much different than our English language. The Hebrew did not have many adjectives. And that's why we see this phrase so often in the New Testament, son of. When you're reading the scriptures, you'll see that son of.

Now for us in English, we would use an adjective. Now let me give you an example. Let me help you see what I mean. When we look at it in the English and the Hebrew, it would be different. The Hebrew would say a son of peace, whereas we would say a peaceful man. You see the Hebrew says the son of peace. The English would say a peaceful man, specifically Barnabas. Remember, Barnabas was called the son of encouragement. You see the Hebrew, but yet in our language, in our English, we would say, Oh, Barnabas, he's an encouraging man. So here, Jesus is saying this.

If you love with this God love, if you love with this agape love, if you agape love your enemies, you are, it's an established fact. You see, you are being God-like, you are being Godly, you are reflecting Godly character. And this is a distinguishable character trait. You see, because a person is born of God, God's love has been imparted to them and in them. And then they are able to love with a God love. And then they will even choose to love their enemies because it is God himself loving in them and through them. And that establishes the fact that they are God-like.

So when this love is being fleshed out in a believer's life, they are making their sonship known. Now question, what is this phrase about the sun and the rain and the just and the unjust? It's really simple. God is speaking of an indiscriminate, impartial love for humanity. God is speaking of an indiscriminate, impartial love for humanity. God has bestowed his grace on all, not saving grace. This is what Bible theologians call common grace. Let me show you what I mean. Simply, God himself gives life and breath, the creation, food, water, family, and so on. And God's sons and daughters love the same.

Indiscriminately, without partiality, God loves all mankind indiscriminately, and he expects his people to do the very same thing. Now here are our questions. Is this possible? Can we love like this indiscriminately, without partiality? I don't think so. I think it's an impossibility. But then number four, love better than the norm. This is from verses 46 to 47. I want you to notice that this is a series of questions. Look at the verses. "For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even 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?" Now remember the audience. Jews, mostly Jews, and oh, those Jewish leaders were there. And remember that Jesus was exposing their sinful behavior, and these questions would have definitely hit them right between the eyes. These questions would have hit them right in their pride, right in their favoritism, right into their hypocrisy. So Jesus is exposing the sin of the religious leaders here and the Jewish people. They were just like the very people that they hated the most. Tax collectors and Gentiles. See, tax collectors were traitors, traitors to Rome.

Basically, the tax collectors were Jews who had a tax franchise. That's not an inaccurate way to describe it. They had a tax franchise, and that meant that they collected taxes for Rome, but they were able to add fees on top of those taxes. And they were notoriously dishonest, and they cheated their own people. Really, it was extortion. But then the Gentiles. The Gentiles were all non-Jews, and they were seen as those outside of God's people and outside of God's plan, and they were seen as enemies of God, enemies of Israel, and enemies of God's people. And Jesus says here to the Jews, "Listen, you love just like the ones you hate.

You only love the ones you love." That's not redundancy. And they most certainly would have felt that comparison. Because that's exactly what tax collectors and Gentiles did. But remember who else is there in the audience? Remember the disciples? I've said numerous times, this was like their ordination service. There are true believers there, and Jesus was calling them to a new standard. So with these questions, Jesus was calling his followers to love beyond the norm, to exceed the Jews in loving. Who? Even tax collectors. Even Gentiles. Even enemies. Is this possible for us? I mean, can we love this way indiscriminately?

Even tax collectors and Gentiles, even those enemies that hate us, and we really want to hate right back. It's an impossibility. And then number five, real quickly, verse 48. Be like God. Look at the verse. "You therefore must be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect." Is this possible? Listen to that again. "You therefore must be perfect." You must be, not should be. You must be perfect. How perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Is this possible? Listen, folks, this is an impossible standard. But Christ commands and expects this standard of all of his people. And listen, God can't expect anything but perfection.

Otherwise, he would be lowering his standard, and he would be compromising. And if God lowers his standard, if God compromises, then God is sinning. And we know that that cannot take place. See this second glorious mountain peak? We will wrap things up next week by really getting a little deeper here in verse 48. But I think you realize that this one is an impossibility as well. Now, I want to move toward concluding the message with some direct application. I've been really meditating on this all week. Now, we must see that loving this way, we must see that loving with this God love truly makes us Godlike.

And that puts us right there at the center of God's heart, and at the center of God's character. What did we see in verse 45? Sons of God, Godlike. But we need to ask ourselves if we are trying to prove our sonship to God in the wrong way. Think about that. We need to examine ourselves and ask ourselves if we're trying to prove our sonship to God in the wrong way. Look, not that we can ever earn sonship, no. But there are many, many trust in the wrong fruit, thinking that this is proving sonship. First of all, I want to speak to our Southern Baptist world. Many of us come from a Southern Baptist background, and that's okay.

But you know, many who come from this Baptist background, many of us have been victims of what Brother Keith and I have called repetitively, often hyper-moralism. You know, we can teach our children and our teenagers hyper-moralism. It goes like this. You know, don't have sex before you get married. Make sure you go to Sunday school, read your Bible and pray more and witness to the lost. That can be like this never-ending broken record. Don't have sex before you get married. Make sure you attend Sunday school, read your Bible and pray more, witness more and more and more. And you know, you can do all those things and still not love people.

You can do all those things and still not be permanently anchored to the center of God's heart and character. You see? You can do all of those things and not be born of God. You can do all of those things and not have the love of God imparted into your life. You see? Now, there's nothing wrong with those things. No. But many people look at that hyper-moralism, those externals, and they say, "Yeah, I'm checking the list off just fine, so I must be the son of God." But some seek to prove their sonship in other ways. Some love doctrine and theology more than they love people. Some love doctrine and theology more than they love people.

And they can sharpen their sword of doctrine and theology, raise their sharp, and then they can cut you to pieces all while they think they're loving God. You can have your doctrine and theology as straight as an arrow, but still not love people. Because, listen, loving people, agape loving people comes from where? It comes from God. You can get your theology on your own, but you can't get this agape love from people or from a book or from a study. It's a supernatural work of God. It comes at regeneration. When God Himself does a supernatural work, His love is imparted unto you. I know last week I referenced Corrie Timboon.

Kind of stoked my curiosity, and I went back and did a little reading this week. Not the full account, but I went back and read portions. And I began to read where Corrie and her family were arrested. Remember the story of Corrie Timboon? Her and her family were part of the underground network, the Dutch resistance during World War II, the Nazis had taken over, and we know that they were systematically exterminating Jews and many other enemies of Germany. And they were hiding Jews and many people and preventing them from being arrested by the Nazis. Well, ultimately, they were found out. They were arrested.

Corrie and Betsy's father ultimately died in prison, and Corrie and Betsy were arrested at first, and they were taken to a prison. And then ultimately, they ended up in Ravensbruck, which was a very notorious concentration camp. I ran across a little part of the story where when they were first arrested, and one of the first German officers were being very rude, very ugly, very hateful. And it said in the book that Betsy said, "I feel sorry for him." Corrie misunderstood her. For see, that German officer was abusing a Dutchman.

And at first, Corrie thought she was talking about the Dutchman, but no, she realized that Betsy was talking about the abuser, the hater, the persecutor, and Corrie was gripped by her love for that persecutor. See, you can't get that from a book, folks. Then later on, when they were separated, Corrie was held in isolation. Solitary confinement. And she ultimately was interrogated by another German officer. And lo and behold, the Spirit of God begins to deal with this German officer, and he starts bringing her for interrogations, and he started asking her questions about her family and what was God doing.

God was softening his heart, and Corrie began to love this persecutor, this enemy, the one she should hate. And you can't get that from a book. You can't get that from a study. She began to share the love of God and why she was there, and how he could come to faith in Christ. But you know, right here is when someone will say, "I'm espousing or excusing bad doctrine or poor study." No, that's not the case. It's just that study of doctrine and theology does not prove your sonship. Loving people does. I didn't say that. Jesus did.

Listen, studying doctrine and theology, and making sure that that sword is razor sharp and straight as an arrow, it does not prove your sonship. Loving people does. Agape loving people. God's love within us, working through us, even our enemies. You know, a shorter list, quicker list. There's so many ways people try to prove their sonship, other than truly loving men. Many do it with their church membership. Say, "Pastor, I know I'm right with God. I'm a church member." I've heard that many times. Sometimes people say, "I know I'm a Christian. I've been baptized. Nothing wrong with being baptized.

Nothing wrong with being a church member." That doesn't prove that you're a son of God. I've heard people say, "You know, I was raised in a Christian home." That doesn't prove you're a son of God. I've heard this many times. You know, I do a lot in the church. I teach Sunday school. I teach Vacation Bible School. All those things are good things, but that doesn't prove you're a son of God. I've known people to try to prove their sonship by rule after rule after rule after rule. You know, I have seen this, and this has been interesting through the years.

I've even seen people try to prove their sonship by rules in area of life where Christ gives no direct command. This is the area of life where we talk about Christian liberty. I've seen people try to prove their sonship by the way they dress, by how they view makeup, by how they deal with music and entertainment, even how they educate their children. And look, I have seen people fight wars over things that come down to Christian liberty. Now, what am I trying to show you? True Christian love. It is loving people with an agape love. A God love. Not just a God love, but God within us and God loving in us and God loving through us.

And yes, even the enemies of God. And look, this only comes when God has deposited this love in you and he is working this love out through you. I want to take a step further here. I want to get real personal because inevitably there's somebody sitting here and they're saying that's not enough. What do I do? I've been hurt. I got people persecuting me and hating me. I have to deal with it every week. You haven't given me enough. What do I do? Number one, you go make a list. You go make a list. You already done that. You got a list in your mind. You've got a list in your heart.

And chances are you've been dealing with that list and you've been demanding your rights. Remember our fifth lesson? You need to make a list. And then number two, you need to begin to pray for them as Jesus did. Listen, folks, they nailed him to the cross and they stood the cross up for the world to see. And what did Jesus do? He prayed for them. He prayed God's best for them. He took them to the very best of places and he prayed that God would forgive them. And listen, folks, you make that list and you begin to take them to the throne of God every day in prayer. And you pray God's best for them.

Pray for their health and pray for their business and pray for their marriage. And pray ultimately that God would work in them and God would bring them to that place of confession and repentance. And divorce yourself. See, pray over your own feelings. That's number three. Ask God to help you to get over your rights. Remember what we studied in verse 38 to verse 42? We've got to die to our rights. Ask God to help us to die to the way we feel and pray for them. And then number four, we pray and ask God to show us how we can truly demonstrate this agape love to them in action.

I'll never forget years ago, a man in this community hurt me and wrong me. Said many ugly things and false things, untrue things about me. And I began to just pray how I felt it. And he had a business and I realized I could bless that man and love that man by going in his business and trading with him. I had a Christian friend looked at me and said, "I don't see how you walk in the door." Wasn't easy. Died to myself. And I walked right in there and I let him make money off me. And then number five, pray and wait and allow God to work. You might not ever be able to bless them, but you sure can pray for them. You see, make a list.

Begin to pray and pray as Jesus prayed. Pray over your feelings. Die to how you feel. Pray and ask God to show you how you can truly demonstrate this agape love to them. Pray and wait and allow God to work. So what have we looked at this morning? True Christian love. That is loving people, enemies, neighbors and friends with a God love, God himself. It has been deposited within us and it is working out through us and it is an impossibility without him. Let's pray and let's commit what we have studied to him and expect God to help us here. Let's pray.