April 25, 2024 • 27 mins
In episode 29, Those Crazy Bible Study Guys kinda "hey, squirrel" but it ends up being in good ways as they hit on multiple lessons from these 5 verses! Loving and forgiving enemies is not our human nature and is a God-level of love - just as he forgave each of us though we didn't deserve it! People see God's reflection in you when you love your enemies and God knows this is one of the most powerful ways we can reach others for Christ! The episode then wraps up with the insight that "everyone we meet is an opportunity to learn something new" as Those Crazy Bible Study Guys "hey, squirrel" moments continue to uphold the "crazy" in their name!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hey everybody welcome to episode 29 i'm jim i'm dale and we are those crazy bible study guys,
and happy day to you jim happy day.
Music.
Everybody out there listening land hope you
all are having a good day man oh man we're gonna be
(00:24):
talking about something boy you know
those movies where you get a twist like a plot twist boy
this is kind of what i think this one's going to be like it's loving
your enemies always a
tough one it is it is i
i was i was kind of skimming the first you know the first verse but you can't
we don't read these before i was just skimming the first verse i was like it's
(00:47):
like a plot twist man like it's a you know jesus coming in hot and heavy and
being like yeah what do you think you know boom reverse it scratch that reverse
try it this way like wow like.
Insights man insights so i think yeah i
think it's going to be similar to our previous study or
last episode where we're talking about retaliation where
(01:08):
we kind of talked about this like i think
the footnotes brought this out is like this takes
a god level of love to do right
our human nature to love enemies
it goes against the grain
of of just who we who we
(01:29):
are as human beings right it's that it's it's
hard to forgive forgive someone so yeah
yeah i it'll be interesting to
get into this i actually have some notes of when
i studied this before so i'm gonna integrate those
into a little bit too of bring in bring in some
(01:49):
new facts some highlights yeah yeah
so maybe i'll submit them to see
if they can get integrated into the future footnotes when they do the next revision
i'm liking it it's pretty cool like i wonder if they do that that's actually
like a fun thought like i wonder you know again maybe they have to think of
this kind of stuff like you know do they do they update that do they can survey
(02:11):
questions and survey very results.
You know, maybe we should do that. We just start a log now of,
of like all the insights that come from our study that, that.
Or no maybe that's probably not a good idea yeah
no no they'll just laugh at us be like really guys really
come on yeah yeah oh man we should probably
stick to what we do best which is just read word the
(02:33):
god's word and and read the the insights from the scholars and and hope that
god provides us some insight in the middle yeah amen so let's actually let's
let's jump in let's do that because i'm excited about this like i'm excited
to see yeah i am too you know i think
about the word just love right you know our title here is
jesus teaches about loving enemies and you think of love and i was i was actually
(02:58):
thinking of this just a second ago it was just all of the different types of
love that there is you know we always we use the word i think a lot more than
we probably realize in a day like oh i love this or i love that and oh hey bro love you
know kind of man yep yeah and so like there's there's so much different levels
of love and we We don't realize that because, again, I remember constantly hearing about agape love.
(03:24):
You were mentioning about that deep love that only God can show and then the unconditional love.
I remember growing up, it's like, sure, okay, I get it. I know what love means.
I know the heart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, man, I didn't know what unconditional
love was until the day I met my son. First time. Whoa.
(03:44):
Man, I'm willing to fight for anything I truly believe in. But like,
man, when I saw my kid, I'm like, dude, I'm willing to throw everything down for you, buddy.
Like, it's a game changer for sure. It is. It's a complete game changer.
And that's what I think, you know, is what we're going to see the Savior do
today. He's going to he's going to bring a different awareness of love that we never considered.
(04:05):
So, yeah, I'm excited to learn and grow today, man. It's going to be a good one.
So, all right. How about I open us in prayer and then we'll jump in.
Perfect. We are in Matthew chapter five. We're going to hit 43 through the rest
of the chapter, 48, so not too many verses today.
All right, so let me open some prayer. Lord Jesus, we thank you for this new day.
(04:26):
We thank you for your willingness just to coach and teach us,
Lord, the ability to grow and to do what you call us to do.
And Lord, show us those different perspectives.
It's always amazing when we do get to have that different perspective change.
So Lord, let us learn today. Let us grow today and let us apply today.
We thank you for all things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
(04:48):
All right, man. Matthew 5, 43, 48 goes like this.
You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your father in heaven.
(05:08):
He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sins reign on the righteous and the unrighteous.
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?
Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?
(05:30):
Do not even pagans do that?
Be perfect. Therefore, your heavenly father is perfect.
Oh i had a nice big pause because you
guys know how i feel when i hear therefore yeah i
got it in there man father is perfect our new sound effect the uh and can you
(05:53):
kind of remind people in case they didn't hear the previous episode about the
the three stomps after therefore that's it just real yeah yeah absolutely i
call it the mike the mike petty stomping and what that was
Mike Petty was my youth leader, amazing man.
And whenever he saw their four, there always was a lesson. There's always a key moment to take away.
(06:15):
And so to get all of us youngsters in line, he would just randomly,
crazily in the room, just stomp really hard three times and point at our attention.
And then he would hit that key message there. And that's how we always knew
something important was coming up.
Like, obviously, all of this is important, but this was like a heavy
(06:35):
hitter moment so yeah thanks mike appreciate you
out there yeah thanks mike that's gonna be a good one and i'm so
glad you paused because i did not foresee the therefore coming so i i had to
do the quick quick quick move there so yeah i i mean the first thing that's
coming to my mind is you read this was like you know it's easy for us to love
(06:58):
right like everyone Everyone can see,
and he's showing all these examples of potential,
you know, unrighteous, the tax collector, right?
That was in the day of, of Jesus day, right?
That was the most probably unrighteous person people thought of,
right? Or the tax collector.
So, you know, and even they, they love those who love them.
(07:22):
So this whole point of.
This is not normal, right? Like he says at the beginning, love your neighbor, hate your enemy.
That's, that's basically what people do, right?
That's human nature right there, right? That's the worldly view of love, right?
And as God does, right?
(07:44):
He brings out the opposites here of, but I tell you, love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you.
And these are some of my notes that i had earlier that i was telling you some
of my cheat sheets and and i they kind of really do apply here is like that process of.
(08:07):
Retaliation and loving your enemy or you know instead of going through retaliation
of loving your enemy it actually frees you right the it removes feelings that
generate sin and it creates It's an outreach opportunity,
like a connection that someone might not normally have because why is this person
(08:31):
loving on me when I so badly hurt them or I was so mean to them or, or what have you.
And God knows that, right? He wants to, you know, when you're loving like him, right?
Therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect. I mean, I always,
(08:52):
I always struggle a little bit when I say, when I see be perfect,
because I know that's, that's always something to strive for, but.
Again, my softball analogy is, is, is, you know, if, if you were perfect in
the game, the game wouldn't be fun anymore.
Right. If everyone could, could, could achieve perfection all the time and hit
(09:13):
home runs every time they got up, you know, no one would watch it.
But the goal is to have moments of perfection.
Right. Yeah. And this could be one of those moments where you are reflecting,
you know, again, just you're mirroring and reflecting and being the light of
God's love that someone has just never seen and they're going to want to know more.
(09:36):
Oh, yeah. That's why I always, I don't know where I got it from.
It might have been when I was doing lean management, you know,
like learnings and education of, you know, kind of just the whole practice of
Six Sigma. And it was that pursuit to perfection.
I remember hearing it from there was the pursuit to perfection.
Nothing will ever be perfect, you know, but the goal is to get as close as you
(09:58):
can on a consistent basis.
And that's how I always take it because it is a daily pick up your cross kind of a moment.
We're always going to fail. We're always going to fall short of the glory.
But it's like, I like that. Be perfect. Therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.
So we have the example. We have the setting. That is the perfection.
(10:18):
And we're never going to get close to that. But I mean, that's our goal is to
try to get as close as we can have.
You know, Lean Six Sigma was always 99.9997%. So you had a little room where
you just know it may not be exact, but.
You know, which I always thought that was like a perfect example.
And I heard that's like, boy, that can apply to life real easy.
(10:40):
So it's that pursuit to perfection. And I don't know how my mind can be,
man. I was thinking about the tax collector thing.
Of course, who's writing this? This is Matthew Levi.
This is this is guy who his job was a tax collector.
So I love that he throws it in there, even on a kind of like a blow to himself
being like, hey, man, we do this, you know, and I thought that was pretty cool.
(11:04):
But he used a reference that he would have known very well that others would
have really, you know, understood, too, because, I mean, they didn't like it.
You know, they didn't like tax collectors.
But, yeah, I mean, this is why I thought it was kind of a neat plot twist, right?
Because, again, Jesus comes out with a quote of, hey, you've heard this was
always said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
(11:27):
But that's the plot twist. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you. So it's a complete change of perspective.
And yeah, like you were saying, man, I mean, it takes a strong mind to overcome
and see that moment of frustration, anger, whatever it might be,
the way you have a vengeance against somebody.
(11:49):
Because it is in those moments, like you were mentioning about,
that can really change the perspective of who God is for somebody.
Because you're absolutely right. You harmed me. You did wrong to me.
Well i have every right to get angry at you i have every right
to try to get revenge back on you like we just read about in
the last episode also you mentioned about but this
(12:11):
is that moment to say you know what i'm gonna kind of
go i'm gonna throw the heaping coals on your head like i'm gonna be nice to you
you know instead of getting mad at you i'm gonna say you know
what we we quarreled okay it happened let's move on let's
take a step forward and move from this we're better from
them than this and the next thing you know like whoa like
you just completely changed the
(12:32):
course of it all and so i think it's awesome again it's it's hard persecuting
that's something that honestly i think every one of us here listening today
and us talking about it jim we've we've maybe skimmed the surface of persecution
because maybe somebody got mad to you know about us You know, or,
or we said something wrong and somebody is kind of, you know, throwing our name down,
(12:56):
but we've never, I don't think dealt with real persecution,
like a lot of people do overseas.
And so I can't fathom, you know, someone who brought extreme harm and devastation
upon your family by, you know, killing a loved one or something.
And you witnessed it to still love those. And I think about those,
(13:17):
those stories that do come out where.
It is an unfortunate event in a courtroom
where somebody has murdered a
loved one but then what do you see the family do they'll look up at the person
who committed the crime and say we forgive you that's so that's just uh it blows
my mind obviously i've never been in the situation i pray and hope i never am
(13:40):
in that situation if you have ever been a anyone listen out there i'm so sorry But I mean, what,
what a testimony to stand and say, look someone in the eye and just be like,
you know what, you brought harm,
but we still forgive you as Christ forgave us.
Like, I mean, absolutely mind blowing.
Yeah, it does. It, it doesn't take out the hurt of, you know,
(14:03):
that person being gone. Right.
That, that piece will always forever remain, but it takes away,
you know, that heart matter.
That could could and
god knows this right he knows there's two
pieces that that he brings out in this one is like if you go and and serve at
(14:27):
a you know a mission and feed people that day like you volunteer to do that
or you help out an elderly neighbor and cleaner yard and stuff you know People think,
okay, that's nice, it's cool, that's good.
But God knows the power of this outreach, right? Of like, this is at a whole other level.
(14:49):
Again, that God level of love, right?
That really, this can be a huge outreach that maybe everything else you've done
in your life, they think, oh, that person's a good person.
But this is something that is just.
This is not, this is almost unheard of, right?
(15:10):
It's, it's definitely the, the 0.1% of your 99.99% or whatever you're talking
about with six, six Sigma, right?
This is that, that small percentage that really, really can like hit someone
over, smack them over the head of, of pay attention to this.
And then the other side of the coin is what that does for us personally, right?
(15:35):
It just Just frees our heart, frees our soul of these feelings and these,
you know, like the resentment, the anger, the wanting to get even,
you know, that is not God-inspired, right? No, not at all, right.
That is, you know, that's what Satan wants is he wants that vengeance and he
(15:55):
wants us, and he wants to spark that thoughts, you know, again,
back to that common theme that we've had.
Yeah. And I know we got to jump to the footnotes, but there's definitely one
thing I was thinking about.
And of course, it's all riddled in our history of even the United States,
you know, in a shamefully way.
But, you know, looking at 47, if you greet only your own people,
(16:16):
what are you doing more than others?
And I was just thinking about that like I I'm a
people person I love people I love getting
to know people and I've always I don't know I heard it once say that you know
every person you see meet you know excuse me is it's like a book you know it's
you know you get to just like if you're going to a library today pick a book
(16:37):
off the shelf you can read the back of the cover and kind of get to know a little
bit sometimes you open the book and you read a little bit of the preface.
And then maybe you look at this chapters.
I mean, like you can see a lot about a book in a pretty quick turn.
So I don't know. I've always viewed people as, as like an open opportunity of
a really cool story and everybody's got an amazing story.
That's the thing is we don't think we do, but we do, we all have a great story.
(17:00):
And I was just thinking about our American history is again,
like how there was separation of race and, you know, and, and just,
again, people, how they were brought up.
It's like, well, you don't talk to these people of color. You don't do this. You don't do that.
But then it's like, someone finally said, you know what?
It's stupid. Like, why? Like, I've got friends, you know, and these people are,
(17:21):
you know, people are nice.
And next thing you know, walls get taken down, you know, barriers get removed. And what do we find?
Common ground, beauty. I mean, God created us all. We all believe the same color red. And.
When you take that step going forward and you greet outside of your own place,
like how much more blessing is that?
(17:42):
Like I have one interesting fact is like, you know, I love to meet people and
sometimes I meet people who don't speak my language.
But we have a common ground of a love for food and getting to be able to interact
with some people who nobody's saying welcome.
Nobody's saying, hi, come to my house, come have dinner with my family.
Let's get to know each other, even if there's some boundaries.
(18:04):
And we may not understand everything.
We can understand a smile. We can understand a laugh.
And we just grow that way.
And I know this is, of course, talking about your enemies, but that's when I
read that 47, I was like, there's an opportunity for missions right here, right there.
By and stop you know worrying just about what's in your
(18:25):
own house like open up your doors talk to your neighbors talk to
everybody even if the neighbor cut your grass on
your side a little bit it's okay let it go it's a little it's a little inconvenient
but you know what everybody deserves opportunity so i don't know that's that's
what i just thought about and i was looking at our thinking about our history
and where we are today and how people have overcome boundaries and And yeah,
(18:48):
I just, I just want to throw that message out there.
No, I, I liked that a lot because I think I was in my thirties where I kind
of came up with a life motto of everybody.
I mean, it is an opportunity to learn something new and it, it definitely provides
that same insight you're talking about. Like everyone's got a story, right?
It's like, you don't know everything and everyone's got some piece of knowledge
(19:12):
that you don't have. So, you can learn from everyone if you open your ears and your eyes to it.
And just listening to people is one of the best ways to love on them, right?
People want to know you're interested in, they want to be heard,
and it's a great way to start a conversation.
(19:35):
You know you meet up with people and it's like what
what do you do for a living you know those common jobs and then and
then do you take it to that next level to say oh tell
me about your experience living at this place or
what have you so i i like that because again it's it's it's expressing this
this whole different level of love that is just sometimes you know some people
(20:00):
just have a difficult time you know conversing with others not all not all people are like you dale.
Yeah, yeah. You know, actually, I was thinking, like, maybe we got a book opportunity here, Jim.
Maybe we can coach those, you know, some simple questions, you know,
instead of constantly, like, hey, how's the weather?
Or, oh, you know, that weather outside, you know, okay, let's ask the next question,
(20:20):
you know, like, what do you do for a living?
And then, like you said, I really
like what you said is that everybody has something that can teach us.
And sometimes it is, right? Sometimes it's a growth opportunity,
like, wow, that's actually really interesting.
I didn't know that. Or it could just be one of those moments like,
wow, I don't want to be like that person because they've gone through,
they've made some pretty rough choices and I'm going to learn what they did wrong.
(20:43):
And so like there's always, no matter what angle you look at,
there's something you can learn and apply to your own life in a good way.
I like that perspective.
So maybe we'd get a book opportunity here, man. We could write a book on how to engage in people.
Well, that's always a potential. confidential but i'm gonna go right now back
(21:04):
into the the good book the good word.
Yeah so five oh all right i gotta get aligned with what we're actually reading here so,
43 44 and then there's 48 right
48 is a big one all right so 43 44
just to go back to those verses about love your
(21:27):
neighbors hate your enemies but i tell you love your enemies and pray for
them all right so by not
by telling us not to retaliate jesus keeps
us from taking the law into our own hands by
loving and praying for our enemies we can overcome
evil with good the pharisees interpreted leviticus
19 18 as teaching that they should only
(21:50):
love those who love in return and in psalms 139 and 140 as meaning that they
should hate their enemies but jesus says we are to love our enemies if you love
your enemies and treat them well you will truly show that jesus is lord of your life,
This is possible only for those who give themselves fully to God because only
(22:14):
he can deliver people from natural selfishness.
We must trust the Holy Spirit to help us show love to those for whom we may not feel love.
And I agree there that this kind of love takes some strong alignment with God.
Supernatural, man, for sure. Yeah.
(22:38):
And then let's, let's dive into this, like this discussion, right.
Of be perfect. Right. And I was kind of using that analogy of there's moments
of perfect, like, you know, when you hit a home run and in softball,
that's a moment of perfection of your at bat.
Right. But it doesn't happen every time.
So there's just moments of those, even in, you know, there's some days where,
(23:02):
right we we feel like man i'm so aligned with god i'm doing good and other days we're like,
am i even being a christian today right you
know so let's let's see what the scholars
have to say about this because whenever i see honestly when i see that be perfect
i get slightly uncomfortable but because i just know it's it's yeah it's a god
(23:27):
level thing all right so how can we be perfect One in character.
In this life we cannot be flawless but we can aspire to be christ-like as much as possible,
two in holiness like the pharisees we are to separate ourselves from the world's sinful values,
but unlike the pharisees we are to be devoted to god's desire rather than our
(23:49):
own and carry his love and mercy into the world three in this one's going to
be tough for us in maturity.
As you guys can figure out by now sometimes yeah i'll never be matured definitely
yeah Yeah, this one's, so listen closely, Dale.
In maturity, we can't achieve Christ-like character and holy living all at once,
(24:10):
but we must grow toward maturity and wholeness.
Just as we expect different behaviors from a baby, a child, a teenager, and an adult.
So God expects different behavior from us depending on our stage of spiritual development.
That's kind of a great, I like that. That was written by a parent,
100%. Yeah, but I like that too. Two, like, you know, that, hey,
(24:33):
you don't become super Christian, right?
Right. I mean, there are those exceptions, but it's a constant growth, right?
That's why it's a daily walk, a relationship, right? It's something you're constantly building on.
And then in four, in love, we can seek to love others as completely as God loves us.
(24:55):
We can be perfect if our behavior is appropriate for our maturity level.
Perfect, yet with much room to grow. Our tendency is to sin.
Our tendency to sin must never deter from striving to be more like Christ.
Christ calls all of his disciples to excel, to rise above mediocrity and to
mature in every area of becoming like him.
(25:17):
Those who strive to become perfect will one day be perfect.
Even as christ is perfect oh man that's
like the slam dunk at the end boy that
that's that's it man and i i like that i think that's
a great i'm glad that they really did bring that in and
i think it's important like you're reading again about the maturity piece about
(25:37):
the different behaviors you know don't stay in one spot you know like that's
the important thing is constantly grow because i know i would hate for my 10
year old to still act like a toddler like a you know terrible
twos or, you know, tremendous threes, you know, you coach them out of that.
You coach them, you know, your child through those stages. And,
(25:58):
you know, just like even for us, we are coaching ourselves as we get older and
we have different perspectives because we've experienced some more,
you know, I think you're right, man.
Like it's not a superhero cape on day one, you know, it's obviously a growth
in time, but to be able to focus on making sure you're moving, you're still growing.
(26:19):
Me and yeah awesome man that was good that was
really good yeah and then the the good news of
that one day god will make us
whole again and and perfect in him so
you got a lot of work for me though man i know that he's gonna have to work
overtime that day when we show up for sure oh man oh father god thank you so
(26:42):
much again for just helping us to see that in difficult situations especially loving our enemies.
To come straight to you, Father, and tap into that strength that will give us
that guidance, that wisdom, that direction, and that ability to love like you love.
We ask and pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
(27:03):
Amen, man. I loved today, this was good. So just remember everyone,
love deeper, be a chain breaker, and just go out there and pursue Christ, give him your all.
Until next time, enjoy the gift of today.
Music.
Hey everybody welcome to episode 29 i'm jim i'm dale and we are those crazy bible study guys,
and happy day to you jim happy day.
Music.
Everybody out there listening land hope you
all are having a good day man oh man we're gonna be
(00:24):
talking about something boy you know
those movies where you get a twist like a plot twist boy
this is kind of what i think this one's going to be like it's loving
your enemies always a
tough one it is it is i
i was i was kind of skimming the first you know the first verse but you can't
we don't read these before i was just skimming the first verse i was like it's
(00:47):
like a plot twist man like it's a you know jesus coming in hot and heavy and
being like yeah what do you think you know boom reverse it scratch that reverse
try it this way like wow like.
Insights man insights so i think yeah i
think it's going to be similar to our previous study or
last episode where we're talking about retaliation where
(01:08):
we kind of talked about this like i think
the footnotes brought this out is like this takes
a god level of love to do right
our human nature to love enemies
it goes against the grain
of of just who we who we
(01:29):
are as human beings right it's that it's it's
hard to forgive forgive someone so yeah
yeah i it'll be interesting to
get into this i actually have some notes of when
i studied this before so i'm gonna integrate those
into a little bit too of bring in bring in some
(01:49):
new facts some highlights yeah yeah
so maybe i'll submit them to see
if they can get integrated into the future footnotes when they do the next revision
i'm liking it it's pretty cool like i wonder if they do that that's actually
like a fun thought like i wonder you know again maybe they have to think of
this kind of stuff like you know do they do they update that do they can survey
(02:11):
questions and survey very results.
You know, maybe we should do that. We just start a log now of,
of like all the insights that come from our study that, that.
Or no maybe that's probably not a good idea yeah
no no they'll just laugh at us be like really guys really
come on yeah yeah oh man we should probably
stick to what we do best which is just read word the
(02:33):
god's word and and read the the insights from the scholars and and hope that
god provides us some insight in the middle yeah amen so let's actually let's
let's jump in let's do that because i'm excited about this like i'm excited
to see yeah i am too you know i think
about the word just love right you know our title here is
jesus teaches about loving enemies and you think of love and i was i was actually
(02:58):
thinking of this just a second ago it was just all of the different types of
love that there is you know we always we use the word i think a lot more than
we probably realize in a day like oh i love this or i love that and oh hey bro love you
know kind of man yep yeah and so like there's there's so much different levels
of love and we We don't realize that because, again, I remember constantly hearing about agape love.
(03:24):
You were mentioning about that deep love that only God can show and then the unconditional love.
I remember growing up, it's like, sure, okay, I get it. I know what love means.
I know the heart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But, man, I didn't know what unconditional
love was until the day I met my son. First time. Whoa.
(03:44):
Man, I'm willing to fight for anything I truly believe in. But like,
man, when I saw my kid, I'm like, dude, I'm willing to throw everything down for you, buddy.
Like, it's a game changer for sure. It is. It's a complete game changer.
And that's what I think, you know, is what we're going to see the Savior do
today. He's going to he's going to bring a different awareness of love that we never considered.
(04:05):
So, yeah, I'm excited to learn and grow today, man. It's going to be a good one.
So, all right. How about I open us in prayer and then we'll jump in.
Perfect. We are in Matthew chapter five. We're going to hit 43 through the rest
of the chapter, 48, so not too many verses today.
All right, so let me open some prayer. Lord Jesus, we thank you for this new day.
(04:26):
We thank you for your willingness just to coach and teach us,
Lord, the ability to grow and to do what you call us to do.
And Lord, show us those different perspectives.
It's always amazing when we do get to have that different perspective change.
So Lord, let us learn today. Let us grow today and let us apply today.
We thank you for all things in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
(04:48):
All right, man. Matthew 5, 43, 48 goes like this.
You have heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
that you may be children of your father in heaven.
(05:08):
He causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sins reign on the righteous and the unrighteous.
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get?
Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others?
(05:30):
Do not even pagans do that?
Be perfect. Therefore, your heavenly father is perfect.
Oh i had a nice big pause because you
guys know how i feel when i hear therefore yeah i
got it in there man father is perfect our new sound effect the uh and can you
(05:53):
kind of remind people in case they didn't hear the previous episode about the
the three stomps after therefore that's it just real yeah yeah absolutely i
call it the mike the mike petty stomping and what that was
Mike Petty was my youth leader, amazing man.
And whenever he saw their four, there always was a lesson. There's always a key moment to take away.
(06:15):
And so to get all of us youngsters in line, he would just randomly,
crazily in the room, just stomp really hard three times and point at our attention.
And then he would hit that key message there. And that's how we always knew
something important was coming up.
Like, obviously, all of this is important, but this was like a heavy
(06:35):
hitter moment so yeah thanks mike appreciate you
out there yeah thanks mike that's gonna be a good one and i'm so
glad you paused because i did not foresee the therefore coming so i i had to
do the quick quick quick move there so yeah i i mean the first thing that's
coming to my mind is you read this was like you know it's easy for us to love
(06:58):
right like everyone Everyone can see,
and he's showing all these examples of potential,
you know, unrighteous, the tax collector, right?
That was in the day of, of Jesus day, right?
That was the most probably unrighteous person people thought of,
right? Or the tax collector.
So, you know, and even they, they love those who love them.
(07:22):
So this whole point of.
This is not normal, right? Like he says at the beginning, love your neighbor, hate your enemy.
That's, that's basically what people do, right?
That's human nature right there, right? That's the worldly view of love, right?
And as God does, right?
(07:44):
He brings out the opposites here of, but I tell you, love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you.
And these are some of my notes that i had earlier that i was telling you some
of my cheat sheets and and i they kind of really do apply here is like that process of.
(08:07):
Retaliation and loving your enemy or you know instead of going through retaliation
of loving your enemy it actually frees you right the it removes feelings that
generate sin and it creates It's an outreach opportunity,
like a connection that someone might not normally have because why is this person
(08:31):
loving on me when I so badly hurt them or I was so mean to them or, or what have you.
And God knows that, right? He wants to, you know, when you're loving like him, right?
Therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect. I mean, I always,
(08:52):
I always struggle a little bit when I say, when I see be perfect,
because I know that's, that's always something to strive for, but.
Again, my softball analogy is, is, is, you know, if, if you were perfect in
the game, the game wouldn't be fun anymore.
Right. If everyone could, could, could achieve perfection all the time and hit
(09:13):
home runs every time they got up, you know, no one would watch it.
But the goal is to have moments of perfection.
Right. Yeah. And this could be one of those moments where you are reflecting,
you know, again, just you're mirroring and reflecting and being the light of
God's love that someone has just never seen and they're going to want to know more.
(09:36):
Oh, yeah. That's why I always, I don't know where I got it from.
It might have been when I was doing lean management, you know,
like learnings and education of, you know, kind of just the whole practice of
Six Sigma. And it was that pursuit to perfection.
I remember hearing it from there was the pursuit to perfection.
Nothing will ever be perfect, you know, but the goal is to get as close as you
(09:58):
can on a consistent basis.
And that's how I always take it because it is a daily pick up your cross kind of a moment.
We're always going to fail. We're always going to fall short of the glory.
But it's like, I like that. Be perfect. Therefore, as your heavenly father is perfect.
So we have the example. We have the setting. That is the perfection.
(10:18):
And we're never going to get close to that. But I mean, that's our goal is to
try to get as close as we can have.
You know, Lean Six Sigma was always 99.9997%. So you had a little room where
you just know it may not be exact, but.
You know, which I always thought that was like a perfect example.
And I heard that's like, boy, that can apply to life real easy.
(10:40):
So it's that pursuit to perfection. And I don't know how my mind can be,
man. I was thinking about the tax collector thing.
Of course, who's writing this? This is Matthew Levi.
This is this is guy who his job was a tax collector.
So I love that he throws it in there, even on a kind of like a blow to himself
being like, hey, man, we do this, you know, and I thought that was pretty cool.
(11:04):
But he used a reference that he would have known very well that others would
have really, you know, understood, too, because, I mean, they didn't like it.
You know, they didn't like tax collectors.
But, yeah, I mean, this is why I thought it was kind of a neat plot twist, right?
Because, again, Jesus comes out with a quote of, hey, you've heard this was
always said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy.
(11:27):
But that's the plot twist. But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those
who persecute you. So it's a complete change of perspective.
And yeah, like you were saying, man, I mean, it takes a strong mind to overcome
and see that moment of frustration, anger, whatever it might be,
the way you have a vengeance against somebody.
(11:49):
Because it is in those moments, like you were mentioning about,
that can really change the perspective of who God is for somebody.
Because you're absolutely right. You harmed me. You did wrong to me.
Well i have every right to get angry at you i have every right
to try to get revenge back on you like we just read about in
the last episode also you mentioned about but this
(12:11):
is that moment to say you know what i'm gonna kind of
go i'm gonna throw the heaping coals on your head like i'm gonna be nice to you
you know instead of getting mad at you i'm gonna say you know
what we we quarreled okay it happened let's move on let's
take a step forward and move from this we're better from
them than this and the next thing you know like whoa like
you just completely changed the
(12:32):
course of it all and so i think it's awesome again it's it's hard persecuting
that's something that honestly i think every one of us here listening today
and us talking about it jim we've we've maybe skimmed the surface of persecution
because maybe somebody got mad to you know about us You know, or,
or we said something wrong and somebody is kind of, you know, throwing our name down,
(12:56):
but we've never, I don't think dealt with real persecution,
like a lot of people do overseas.
And so I can't fathom, you know, someone who brought extreme harm and devastation
upon your family by, you know, killing a loved one or something.
And you witnessed it to still love those. And I think about those,
(13:17):
those stories that do come out where.
It is an unfortunate event in a courtroom
where somebody has murdered a
loved one but then what do you see the family do they'll look up at the person
who committed the crime and say we forgive you that's so that's just uh it blows
my mind obviously i've never been in the situation i pray and hope i never am
(13:40):
in that situation if you have ever been a anyone listen out there i'm so sorry But I mean, what,
what a testimony to stand and say, look someone in the eye and just be like,
you know what, you brought harm,
but we still forgive you as Christ forgave us.
Like, I mean, absolutely mind blowing.
Yeah, it does. It, it doesn't take out the hurt of, you know,
(14:03):
that person being gone. Right.
That, that piece will always forever remain, but it takes away,
you know, that heart matter.
That could could and
god knows this right he knows there's two
pieces that that he brings out in this one is like if you go and and serve at
(14:27):
a you know a mission and feed people that day like you volunteer to do that
or you help out an elderly neighbor and cleaner yard and stuff you know People think,
okay, that's nice, it's cool, that's good.
But God knows the power of this outreach, right? Of like, this is at a whole other level.
(14:49):
Again, that God level of love, right?
That really, this can be a huge outreach that maybe everything else you've done
in your life, they think, oh, that person's a good person.
But this is something that is just.
This is not, this is almost unheard of, right?
(15:10):
It's, it's definitely the, the 0.1% of your 99.99% or whatever you're talking
about with six, six Sigma, right?
This is that, that small percentage that really, really can like hit someone
over, smack them over the head of, of pay attention to this.
And then the other side of the coin is what that does for us personally, right?
(15:35):
It just Just frees our heart, frees our soul of these feelings and these,
you know, like the resentment, the anger, the wanting to get even,
you know, that is not God-inspired, right? No, not at all, right.
That is, you know, that's what Satan wants is he wants that vengeance and he
(15:55):
wants us, and he wants to spark that thoughts, you know, again,
back to that common theme that we've had.
Yeah. And I know we got to jump to the footnotes, but there's definitely one
thing I was thinking about.
And of course, it's all riddled in our history of even the United States,
you know, in a shamefully way.
But, you know, looking at 47, if you greet only your own people,
(16:16):
what are you doing more than others?
And I was just thinking about that like I I'm a
people person I love people I love getting
to know people and I've always I don't know I heard it once say that you know
every person you see meet you know excuse me is it's like a book you know it's
you know you get to just like if you're going to a library today pick a book
(16:37):
off the shelf you can read the back of the cover and kind of get to know a little
bit sometimes you open the book and you read a little bit of the preface.
And then maybe you look at this chapters.
I mean, like you can see a lot about a book in a pretty quick turn.
So I don't know. I've always viewed people as, as like an open opportunity of
a really cool story and everybody's got an amazing story.
That's the thing is we don't think we do, but we do, we all have a great story.
(17:00):
And I was just thinking about our American history is again,
like how there was separation of race and, you know, and, and just,
again, people, how they were brought up.
It's like, well, you don't talk to these people of color. You don't do this. You don't do that.
But then it's like, someone finally said, you know what?
It's stupid. Like, why? Like, I've got friends, you know, and these people are,
(17:21):
you know, people are nice.
And next thing you know, walls get taken down, you know, barriers get removed. And what do we find?
Common ground, beauty. I mean, God created us all. We all believe the same color red. And.
When you take that step going forward and you greet outside of your own place,
like how much more blessing is that?
(17:42):
Like I have one interesting fact is like, you know, I love to meet people and
sometimes I meet people who don't speak my language.
But we have a common ground of a love for food and getting to be able to interact
with some people who nobody's saying welcome.
Nobody's saying, hi, come to my house, come have dinner with my family.
Let's get to know each other, even if there's some boundaries.
(18:04):
And we may not understand everything.
We can understand a smile. We can understand a laugh.
And we just grow that way.
And I know this is, of course, talking about your enemies, but that's when I
read that 47, I was like, there's an opportunity for missions right here, right there.
By and stop you know worrying just about what's in your
(18:25):
own house like open up your doors talk to your neighbors talk to
everybody even if the neighbor cut your grass on
your side a little bit it's okay let it go it's a little it's a little inconvenient
but you know what everybody deserves opportunity so i don't know that's that's
what i just thought about and i was looking at our thinking about our history
and where we are today and how people have overcome boundaries and And yeah,
(18:48):
I just, I just want to throw that message out there.
No, I, I liked that a lot because I think I was in my thirties where I kind
of came up with a life motto of everybody.
I mean, it is an opportunity to learn something new and it, it definitely provides
that same insight you're talking about. Like everyone's got a story, right?
It's like, you don't know everything and everyone's got some piece of knowledge
(19:12):
that you don't have. So, you can learn from everyone if you open your ears and your eyes to it.
And just listening to people is one of the best ways to love on them, right?
People want to know you're interested in, they want to be heard,
and it's a great way to start a conversation.
(19:35):
You know you meet up with people and it's like what
what do you do for a living you know those common jobs and then and
then do you take it to that next level to say oh tell
me about your experience living at this place or
what have you so i i like that because again it's it's it's expressing this
this whole different level of love that is just sometimes you know some people
(20:00):
just have a difficult time you know conversing with others not all not all people are like you dale.
Yeah, yeah. You know, actually, I was thinking, like, maybe we got a book opportunity here, Jim.
Maybe we can coach those, you know, some simple questions, you know,
instead of constantly, like, hey, how's the weather?
Or, oh, you know, that weather outside, you know, okay, let's ask the next question,
(20:20):
you know, like, what do you do for a living?
And then, like you said, I really
like what you said is that everybody has something that can teach us.
And sometimes it is, right? Sometimes it's a growth opportunity,
like, wow, that's actually really interesting.
I didn't know that. Or it could just be one of those moments like,
wow, I don't want to be like that person because they've gone through,
they've made some pretty rough choices and I'm going to learn what they did wrong.
(20:43):
And so like there's always, no matter what angle you look at,
there's something you can learn and apply to your own life in a good way.
I like that perspective.
So maybe we'd get a book opportunity here, man. We could write a book on how to engage in people.
Well, that's always a potential. confidential but i'm gonna go right now back
(21:04):
into the the good book the good word.
Yeah so five oh all right i gotta get aligned with what we're actually reading here so,
43 44 and then there's 48 right
48 is a big one all right so 43 44
just to go back to those verses about love your
(21:27):
neighbors hate your enemies but i tell you love your enemies and pray for
them all right so by not
by telling us not to retaliate jesus keeps
us from taking the law into our own hands by
loving and praying for our enemies we can overcome
evil with good the pharisees interpreted leviticus
19 18 as teaching that they should only
(21:50):
love those who love in return and in psalms 139 and 140 as meaning that they
should hate their enemies but jesus says we are to love our enemies if you love
your enemies and treat them well you will truly show that jesus is lord of your life,
This is possible only for those who give themselves fully to God because only
(22:14):
he can deliver people from natural selfishness.
We must trust the Holy Spirit to help us show love to those for whom we may not feel love.
And I agree there that this kind of love takes some strong alignment with God.
Supernatural, man, for sure. Yeah.
(22:38):
And then let's, let's dive into this, like this discussion, right.
Of be perfect. Right. And I was kind of using that analogy of there's moments
of perfect, like, you know, when you hit a home run and in softball,
that's a moment of perfection of your at bat.
Right. But it doesn't happen every time.
So there's just moments of those, even in, you know, there's some days where,
(23:02):
right we we feel like man i'm so aligned with god i'm doing good and other days we're like,
am i even being a christian today right you
know so let's let's see what the scholars
have to say about this because whenever i see honestly when i see that be perfect
i get slightly uncomfortable but because i just know it's it's yeah it's a god
(23:27):
level thing all right so how can we be perfect One in character.
In this life we cannot be flawless but we can aspire to be christ-like as much as possible,
two in holiness like the pharisees we are to separate ourselves from the world's sinful values,
but unlike the pharisees we are to be devoted to god's desire rather than our
(23:49):
own and carry his love and mercy into the world three in this one's going to
be tough for us in maturity.
As you guys can figure out by now sometimes yeah i'll never be matured definitely
yeah Yeah, this one's, so listen closely, Dale.
In maturity, we can't achieve Christ-like character and holy living all at once,
(24:10):
but we must grow toward maturity and wholeness.
Just as we expect different behaviors from a baby, a child, a teenager, and an adult.
So God expects different behavior from us depending on our stage of spiritual development.
That's kind of a great, I like that. That was written by a parent,
100%. Yeah, but I like that too. Two, like, you know, that, hey,
(24:33):
you don't become super Christian, right?
Right. I mean, there are those exceptions, but it's a constant growth, right?
That's why it's a daily walk, a relationship, right? It's something you're constantly building on.
And then in four, in love, we can seek to love others as completely as God loves us.
(24:55):
We can be perfect if our behavior is appropriate for our maturity level.
Perfect, yet with much room to grow. Our tendency is to sin.
Our tendency to sin must never deter from striving to be more like Christ.
Christ calls all of his disciples to excel, to rise above mediocrity and to
mature in every area of becoming like him.
(25:17):
Those who strive to become perfect will one day be perfect.
Even as christ is perfect oh man that's
like the slam dunk at the end boy that
that's that's it man and i i like that i think that's
a great i'm glad that they really did bring that in and
i think it's important like you're reading again about the maturity piece about
(25:37):
the different behaviors you know don't stay in one spot you know like that's
the important thing is constantly grow because i know i would hate for my 10
year old to still act like a toddler like a you know terrible
twos or, you know, tremendous threes, you know, you coach them out of that.
You coach them, you know, your child through those stages. And,
(25:58):
you know, just like even for us, we are coaching ourselves as we get older and
we have different perspectives because we've experienced some more,
you know, I think you're right, man.
Like it's not a superhero cape on day one, you know, it's obviously a growth
in time, but to be able to focus on making sure you're moving, you're still growing.
(26:19):
Me and yeah awesome man that was good that was
really good yeah and then the the good news of
that one day god will make us
whole again and and perfect in him so
you got a lot of work for me though man i know that he's gonna have to work
overtime that day when we show up for sure oh man oh father god thank you so
(26:42):
much again for just helping us to see that in difficult situations especially loving our enemies.
To come straight to you, Father, and tap into that strength that will give us
that guidance, that wisdom, that direction, and that ability to love like you love.
We ask and pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
(27:03):
Amen, man. I loved today, this was good. So just remember everyone,
love deeper, be a chain breaker, and just go out there and pursue Christ, give him your all.
Until next time, enjoy the gift of today.
Music.
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