Love Creates Justice | Whose Neighbor am I?

My oldest son Joey, who's working the welcome desk in the

back, wants to remind all of you that we have vintage, his word,

Munster church mugs.

So feel free, and he put them there free.

So thank you, Joey.

But if you want to take those at the end of the service and fill

your coffee cup, for some reason he would like to get rid of

those today from the welcome table in the back.

And it's interesting, Joey wasn't going to be named Joey.

I don't know how many of you, when you are in the process of

having kids, you think about names and whether or not you and

your spouse can agree on one.

And again, care is not here this morning, but it is true as the

day is long, we could not agree on a girl's name to save our

life.

And God answered our prayers, gave us three boys, so we didn't

have to worry about that ongoing fight, resentment, all that kind

of stuff.

But we both loved the name Micah.

We both knew Micah's growing up, that just there's something,

you know, it's a prophet in the Old Testament, that Micah, just

beautiful, beautiful name.

But the Micah's that we knew in our life were more of the olive

colored skin, dark, you look a lot like Daniel Walters.

So Daniel, if you want to stand up, right?

No, just kidding, you don't have to stand up.

But that's, I mean, he's the epitome of Micah.

Now, I'm not saying his parents are wrong in naming him Daniel,

but I think Micah would have been a better fit.

But then Joey came out transparent with red hair.

And we thought to ourselves, you're not a Micah.

And so we're like, well, let's take the names of our dads.

That would have been Jack Daniel.

We're like, no, you're the old, you're redhead, you're pastor's

kid, that's three strikes if your name's Jack Daniel.

So we went with his, with her grandpa's name, Joey, or her

dad's middle name, Joseph, right?

And I still love the name Micah, and where you might be going,

where in the world are you going with this?

And the prophet Micah actually sums up this entire sermon

series in three verses.

And I want to open with Micah chapter 6.

Micah 6 · chapter mention

So Micah chapter 6, he has told you, O man, what is good, and

Micah 6 · chapter mention

what does the Lord require of you?

But to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly

with your God.

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, with 10

thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my

body, for the sin of my soul?

He has told you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord

require of you?

To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly

with your God.

Now that is the Old Testament, right?

That is obviously messianic prophecy towards Jesus, but in

the Old Testament, though they had the sacrificial system, and

that was how they built and developed their relationship

with God, kept their relationship with God, it came

down to three things.

To do justly, to love mercy, or love kindness, and to walk

humbly with your God.

We've talked through what does loving kindness look like.

This is all predicated on being humble in our walk in

Christianity, because the opposite of that is pride or

arrogance, and when believers walk that out, that turns off

everybody unless you like that because you are in of yourself

prideful and arrogant.

Arrogance tracks arrogance, and they usually get in fights, but

this section today we're going to look at is what does it mean

to do justly, or to live out justice?

And Jesus was all about justice.

Now, you may think of justice, you may think of law, you may

think of people getting theirs, you may think of, you know,

something else, maybe the Justice League or whatever comes

to mind.

The idea of justice in the Bible is action, that it takes

that mercy, which is also action, that humility, which is

also action, that love that we have, which is also action.

So, justice is action just like all the rest, because it says,

what is required of you?

Person at Munster Church here this morning, what is required

of you to walk out a relationship with God is to be

someone that does justice, that lives a just life.

And Jesus gives a couple sermons in his time on earth.

We call them the Sermon on the Mount, we call them the

Beatitudes.

He gives many different teachings, but in Luke 20,

Matthew has one that we looked at a couple years ago, but Luke

has a very similar one, though worded a little differently, and

we pulled this from Luke 6, and I want to dive in here this

morning.

Luke 6, and he, Jesus, lifted up his eyes on his disciples and

said, bless are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom

of God.

Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be

satisfied.

Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.

Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you

and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the

Son of Man.

Rejoice in that day, leap for joy, for behold your reward is

great in heaven, for so their fathers did to the prophets.

But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your

consolation.

Woe to you who are full now, for you, excuse me, you shall be

hungry.

Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.

Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their

fathers did to the false prophets.

Molly, you can leave that up.

Matthew doesn't go there.

Matthew goes right into, after the Beatitudes, goes right into

being the salt of the earth.

But Luke camps out here, and I think here is a little bit of

the difference, and here, you know, when we, how many people

remember, what does the word blessed mean here if we kind of,

if we define it in English terms?

Does anyone remember from a couple years ago?

Blessed means what?

Congratulations.

So reading, well done, that was a while ago, that was a deep

take, thank you so much.

Understand that this is the reward you get.

Congratulations to you who are poor in spirit, who are poor.

Congratulations to you because you understand what life is

really about.

What about this?

We don't get this in Matthew.

We get told, congratulations, you've made it, way to go.

Now go be the salt of the earth.

Go walk out what you just got congratulated about.

But Luke camps here.

But woe.

So what is the opposite of congratulations?

Anybody?

This one's kind of, this one's weird.

Anybody?

Nobody?

What?

Despise?

Interesting, but no.

Condolence, say more about that, Sam.

Oh, you're so close.

You're so close.

What?

You pity them.

You're right there.

You're right there.

Someone help them out.

Sympathy, where is that, up from the balcony?

You know, sympathy, so sympathy and pity somewhat put together.

Wow, you missed it.

No, that's not you two, you both got it.

No, that was me, that was, you know, don't step on my words, Max.

So understand, sympathy and empathy together,

it's that understanding of, whoa, you missed it.

It was right there and you didn't get it.

The answer was right there.

I liken this to a couple, you can go on YouTube

and watch some of these, you know, people that are on,

spin the wheel, Pat.

Wheel of fortune, thank you.

I don't know why that did, I even had wheel.

That it's literally right there, like everybody would know what

that is and they just guess it with all the confidence in the world

and they get it completely wrong.

And if you're in the studio audience, you're probably just like, ah, oh.

Like almost like a disgust, like how do you get that wrong?

That's similar feeling to this.

This word, whoa, means heavy stuff.

This isn't like, ah, shucks, I didn't get it.

Or, ooh, B plus, not an A minus.

Or, no, this is, it was right there and you missed it.

Because one of the things we also read, but, whoa, to you, oh, Jerusalem.

So when Jesus compares himself to a mother hen is when he talks about,

whoa, to you, Jerusalem, you had a prophet.

You had the prophet.

You had the son of God right there and you missed it.

So that radically, for me at least, changes how I read this section of Luke.

Jim, you missed it because you were too busy being rich.

You missed it because you were never hungry.

You always satisfied yourself.

You missed it because you took a position over a group of people,

over a subculture, over a whatever and thought yourself, haha, I am so much better.

Or anybody that, the movie Dodgeball comes to mind, Ben Stiller's character,

like, hey, here at Global Jim, we're better than you and we know it.

That's what that is.

Probably the first and last time the Bible will ever be translated

by the movie Dodgeball.

Elders, I'm sorry.

Whoa, to you, you know, man, you missed it because all you did was live a life

so people would speak well of you and not in a hardworking kind of way,

but in a positional kind of way.

Friends, when I read that this way this week of Luke, man, it wrecked me.

It wrecked me because do we not all try to do this?

Don't we all chase wealth?

Don't we all chase food, nourishment, comfort?

Don't we all go, man,

I've been without a meal for like six hours and I'm not even intermittent fasting.

Like all of these things, we, Jesus is saying something drastically different here.

He is saying your priorities are wrong.

Congratulations to those who understand the depth of my love in such a way

that you need to be reliant on me for every aspect of life.

But woe to you when you think you have it all together to the point where Jesus

doesn't really come into the equation.

Sure, when we're devastated, we cry out to Jesus.

When we have everything we've ever wanted, even if you've worked for it and it's all good.

But we rarely thank God for all of that because something takes over when it's like,

hmm, no, I got this.

Isn't it funny how those first four commandments speak all to that?

Because we make ourselves our own successes in our own name,

wanting to be a name that is well thought of in this society.

Again, there are good reasons for that.

We want Munster Church to have a good name.

But what name is that?

You as a believer want to have a good name, but what name is that?

Well, hopefully, Munster Church, when people see Munster Church, they say,

there's an organization that does justly, that loves mercy,

that walks humbly with the God that they believe in.

I think the same would go for your life.

And maybe you're here and you don't fully have that relationship figured out.

Maybe you're here and this understanding of Jesus is new and you don't really know how it

works.

That's okay.

Keep asking questions.

If you want to get the whole story, join a BSF class because you're going to have 30 weeks.

We're only doing 13 here.

They're going to do 30 weeks in this love letter from a sovereign God in the book of

Revelations.

And again, a revelation, it's one.

Understand, there's scary stuff in there, but it's good stuff.

It's stuff that we need to understand.

So this understanding of justice, to live as a just person, I don't live this way.

To live as a just person, then really I should churn that and go, blessed are those who can

help other people become rich.

Blessed are those who can fill other people.

Blessed are those who can lift up other people.

Blessed are those who talk well of other people, who try to lift up other people's understandings

of themselves.

Man, does Jesus say a lot here because he's basing it on Matthew.

Right?

And Matthew, we talked about it.

We're going to show a couple of them.

Matthew, right, and he opened his mouth and taught them saying, blessed are the poor in

spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

He adds a couple more that Luke doesn't have.

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be satisfied.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Blessed are the peacemakers, not peacekeepers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others revile you, persecute you, and utter all kinds of evil against you,

falsely on my account.

Rejoice, be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.

For so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Same stuff.

This is the sermon that Jesus is giving to say, you want to be my disciple, do these

things.

Do justly.

Here we go.

This is how you live, to be a person of justice.

And if you go through all of those things, that is a clear-cut checklist of how you're

doing in that.

How are we loving mercy and walking humbly?

We did that with 1 Corinthians 13.

And some of you are like, wait, the Bible works that way?

I can look at it and just kind of put myself in there?

Yes!

That's exactly what we're called to do.

Jesus is teaching them, this is the beautiful thing about Jesus, and the sovereignty of

God.

He's also teaching you today, and he's teaching me.

Here's the thing, he doubles down in an amazing way in Luke.

So we did Luke, we jumped to Matthew, we're going to go back to Luke because it's so worth

going through.

And we're going to go with verse 27.

But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those

who curse you, pray for those who abuse you, to the one that strikes you on the cheek,

offer the other cheek also, and from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your

tunic either.

Give to everyone who begs from you, and from one who takes away your goods, do not demand

them back.

And as you wish that others would do to you, do also to them.

If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you?

Even sinners love those who love them, and if you do good to those who do good to you,

what benefit is that of you?

For even sinners do the same.

And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you?

Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount.

But love your enemies, and do good, and lend expecting nothing in return, and your reward

will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful,

for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil.

Be merciful even as your father is merciful.

Molly, leave that up there.

When I got here on Wednesday, the thing that really kind of blew my mind, but love your

enemies, we've heard that, great, and do good, and lend expecting nothing in return.

And I thought to myself, Jesus, why in the world would you accept, you know 2024, you

know our culture, you know our financials, you know where we are compared to where they

were in the first century.

And so I think knowing that he's not getting to the specifics of some of that, he's getting

to the heart of some of this.

Because what happens if you lend somebody something, man, this is uncomfortable, and

they don't give it back to you, or they don't give it back to you in the timetable you have

in your mind.

What goes on in us?

Huh?

Resentment, that's more toward the end, okay, that's a great answer.

Frustration, what else?

What?

You're going to write them off, we're getting there, that's really good.

Someone else said something else.

Disappointment, that's kind of where it starts.

I think it starts there, and that seed grows, it's a seed of resentment, but it doesn't

start with resentment.

Like if someone doesn't, if you lend someone to something and the next day it's not back

to you and you go, I can't stand this person, I wish they were off the face of the earth,

that's a you problem, that's not a them problem.

That's something you probably need to talk about, come to my office, we'll talk that

through.

But it builds, and it grows.

It builds to lack of trust, it builds to they're less of a person than I am because they're

not giving me it back.

And I know, I struggle with this verse, and I know that there are some of us that are

struggling with this verse because you have given much in your life and it's not been

credited back to you.

And Jesus is saying, he's not saying tough, like that would be, I think that would be

harsh for Jesus to be like, deal with it.

No, but he's saying, are you finding your identity in the returns being brought back

to you?

Is that justice?

Or is it a complete revamp of what we believe about ourselves and about our situations that

you know what?

Maybe I don't need that anymore.

Maybe that person needed it more than I did.

So perfect example, my first year here, we had an individual come and unfortunately we

found out through Love, Inc., a partner ministry we have that this individual had gone to like

five or six other churches.

And I'm going to use the word cond because that's in fact, that's exactly what he did.

But had a whole story about being part of the military, brought someone who he claimed

to be his son.

I remember sitting right down here, I believe where Sarah and Andrea are, and I gave him

a Bible, we as a church gave him some cash, we gave him some gift cards to get down to

Fort wherever he was going, I forgot the name, you know, all of that stuff, prayed with him,

all of those things.

And literally maybe 36 hours later found out he did it to eight, six or seven other churches.

And I remember just sitting in the sanctuary livid.

I was livid at him, and you know, you always maybe go through those situations, you go

if I would have just, like there was something up with the kid that he brought that he was

just physically uncomfortable being there.

And I'm like, man, my spidey senses were going off and I didn't go into it because guess

I believe the guy's story.

And I remember sitting there and just angry.

And in a day and a half, I resented this guy.

Like how do you take advantage of the church this way?

Like oh man, all of a sudden sin came in and I started thinking real bad thoughts, thoughts

I had to confess, thoughts that I was like, why am I so bad?

It wasn't even my money.

Like I didn't give him it out of my pocket.

Yet I own that situation so personally.

I think this is what Jesus is getting at.

That we are called to live just and merciful lives, not expecting those to be lived back

to us.

It's not going to happen that way all the time.

That there are going to be times that we give and we do not get back.

And Jesus is saying, good.

Half of us are like, oh, Jesus and I, we're in conflict now.

Because we live in a culture that's kind of eye for an eye.

We live in a culture that, oh, and not only, if you're not going to give it back to me

after a month or so, guess what I'm going to charge you?

Interest.

Because I now expect, because I don't have it in me right now, what you took from me

are really what I gave you.

And if I don't get it back to satisfy who I am to make my balance sheet zero, I'm going

to charge you interest to where you're giving more than what I actually gave you.

This is what Jesus is doing here.

Jesus is throwing our understanding of finances, our understanding of giving, our understanding

of help, and he's turning it on itself.

Because I think he's saying, where your treasure is, your heart is also.

He's calling out our heart.

He's calling out our heart not only for people, but for situations when we help people.

Situations that are different than us.

Because if we can and if we're honest, we love that kind of relationship when we really

have the upper hand.

They hurt me, they owe me, they walked away from me.

We're really good at pointing that finger, right?

We're really good at saying, no, no, no, no, they need to come back and beg for forgiveness.

They need to come back and make it right.

They need to come back and own that to me.

But what does Jesus even say in Matthew 18?

I'm going a little bit off book.

But what does Jesus say in Matthew 18?

If someone hurts you, go and show them their fault.

Yet there are a lot of times we get hurt and we just sit a little bit on our stoops and

we just go, when are they coming?

Oh, it's not today.

I'm going to hate them a little bit more.

It's not this month.

I'm going to hate them a little bit more.

I see them on Facebook.

Their life's going well and I'm here mad.

I'm here angry.

I'm here hurt and they don't seem to care.

And then where do we ultimately end?

Who said resentment?

Someone said resentment over here.

Where does that resentment ultimately end up?

Hatred.

So the person you gave to, the person you tried to live justly to, the person you showed

mercy to, however long that takes, you can end up going, well, I hate them.

That sounds like a strong believer, Pastor Jib said sarcastically.

And I think this is what Jesus is saying when he talks about doing, or what Micah is saying

and what Jesus then kind of builds upon of what it means to do justly.

We cannot have all the cards.

We're not meant to hold all the cards.

We're meant to live lives that are meek.

We are meant to live lives that are poor in spirit, recognizing the greatness, the grandness,

the gracefulness of God in my life that has been extended to me, the chief of sinners,

that I'm supposed to extend to other people.

Now there's a fourth of you that are thinking, well, Pastor, you're just asking me to be

a Christian doormat.

Just gonna, you're just telling me to have people walk all over me.

No, there's something about being smart about this and being good stewards about this, but

it's about the heart.

That if you're not ready to give, you need to figure out why.

Or and the scripture talks about this, right?

You see that person on the street, and we've talked about this many times, half of us grew

up with, if I give them money, they're only gonna buy drugs and alcohol, right?

We're assuming all homeless, hungry people are addicts.

Now the statistics hold to some of that, but are we supposed to find ourselves in that

or the opportunities that we're given day in and day out to give?

Because the other half is you've been given this opportunity to give, okay?

When you give to someone on the streets, you walk downtown Chicago, wherever you are, and

you give someone $5 or whatever, how many of you go, I better get that back?

No.

Yet you lend a family member a couple hundred bucks for something or you're helping them

out in a certain way.

For being honest, for the rest of your life, until you get that back, possibly with interest,

you're gonna put that seed of distance between you.

Same thing goes not only with giving, with hurt, with pain, with people that are different

than us, when people who are, especially people who are different than us, wrong us, we hold

on to that.

We put it in our back pocket and we invest on the, what could be hatred of what that

person is, who that person is, what that person has done to us, and what Jesus is saying.

In Luke 6, we're gonna continue, but then I'm gonna jump, we're not gonna do all of

Luke's, the last part of Luke 6.

Judge not, and you will not be judged.

Condemn not, and you will not be condemned.

Forgive and you will be forgiven.

Give and it shall be given to you.

Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, runneth over, will be put in your lap.

Or with the measure you use it, it will be measured back to you.

Just leave it there, Molly.

Because here's where we go.

We talked about disappointment, we talked about anger, we talked about resentment, we

talked about hatred.

What we're doing is we're judging that person.

Now this verse, oh, it gets used out of context all day, every day.

Judge not, lest ye be judged, yet lest be fair.

We love to, we love to judge.

Now we may not verbally do it, we just might mentally, emotionally, spiritually do it.

Oh, this person, mm, mm, mm.

But what is Jesus saying here in Luke?

What Jesus is saying here in Luke is when people do things to you, you have a choice.

You can forgive them.

You can let that yoke go.

You can forgive them regardless if the relationship ever gets fully fixed.

Because what Jesus is saying to you here is in that middle part, forgive and you will

be forgiven.

Given it will be given to you.

It may not be given back to you in the same way that you gave it.

Oh, I struggle with that.

But if I give $1,000, I'm out $1,000 and I want my $1,000.

And if I put 8% interest on that, you all know I can't do math, after a year, Jeremiah,

what is that?

$80.

I want my, so you just add that on to the thousand then?

Yeah, then I want my 1,080 bucks.

We start making people calculations in our mind.

That's not what Jesus is saying.

Jesus is saying and it will be given you good measure, pressed down, shaken together, runneth

over.

What is he talking about?

He's talking about a time and a place where $1,000 doesn't matter.

Because what if that person took that $1,000 that they needed and that money changed their

life?

What if that whatever you gave was needed, it changed and transformed their life and

the kingdom of God was used through those donations?

Now I would love to then turn this and go, and this is why we need to build our new building.

No, that is complete and utter junk from the pulpit.

But this is in our everyday life.

Now what Jesus is doing, he is telling us how to be people of justice because of who

we are.

We should be a giving people.

We should be a giving church.

Oh, I so want to get to John 8, but you know what?

I'm going to use it next week because we're going to camp here.

We're going to end here.

Go to the next, can you go to the next after the Judge Not?

He also told them a parable, can a blind man lead a blind man?

Will they not both fall into a pit?

A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who he has fully trained will be like his

teacher.

Why do you not see the speck in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log in your own

eye?

One more.

How can you say to your brother, brother let me take the speck that is in your eye when

you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye?

You read it together, hypocrite.

First you take the log out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to take the

speck that is in your brother's eye and we'll land here.

This will bleed into next week, it has to as we close the series.

We are really good at spotting planks in other people's eyes, but is that the justice thing

to do?

Jim, the Bible says we are supposed to teach, we are supposed to correct.

He doesn't say condemn though.

We are supposed to teach, we are supposed to correct, we are supposed to hold accountable.

We are supposed to walk alongside and go is your life matching up with the life of this

book?

We are not supposed to hit people with it, we are not supposed to drive by and go you

are going to hell and then continue to leave.

No, but what we are really good at is pointing out where everybody else's flaws are.

When what he is saying, oh man, oh woman, what is required of you is to do the work

inside first.

What does Jim look like as a justice oriented person?

What does Jim look like who is someone who attracts himself and wants to live out mercy?

What does it look like for Jim to walk humbly?

I guarantee you it is not to demand anything back, but it is to come alongside in meekness,

in patience, in grace.

Having a relationship with someone, I had it happen to me last week.

A friend pointed out something I did.

I could easily have gone on the offensive and we love the offensive.

You want to bring up my junk?

Is that how we are supposed to do it?

When is the last time someone brought you an issue that you caused, a hurt that you

gave, something that you were in the center of the wrong?

And you sat on it and you sought the Lord and he answered, we are just saying about

it.

You go, is there an offensive way in me here?

If you had the heart of it, guess what the answer is?

Yes.

Yet we go, well, they are going to get theirs.

If I am getting mine, they are getting theirs.

That is not how the kingdom of God works.

The kingdom of God in your life, in the church, is we own it when we fall short and we walk

alongside to bring about restoration.

Friends, that is justice.

That is what it means to be a just person.

And we are going to see this in a tremendous way starting next week.

Let's pray.