Joel Levi - The Challenge to Distinction - Sunday, July 5, 2026

A few weeks ago, I uh had the opportunity to do kids' church.

We all take turns to do kids' church here, and the passage um love has been the focus for for a while, and the passage this time was Matthew chapter 5, verses 43 to 48, which talks about loving your enemies.

Matthew 5:43–48

And we all just assume, I mean, I grew up in the church, so and I assumed that I know this passage.

And uh there was a story, and I read the story to the kids, and we sort of discussed it a little bit, and as I was discussing with them the gist of the story and bits of the verses that was sort of intertwined in the story to get the scripture across to the kids, I started to get a revelation of loving your enemies.

And I realized it is not possible to love your enemies as humans.

In all honesty, we can just all say, oh no, no, no, no, we we can.

But in all honesty, when someone says something bad towards you, when someone behaves in a negative way towards us, when some when we hear about somebody talking negatively about us, let's be honest, our response is not, how can we love them?

If it is, you probably don't need to listen to this message.

And honestly, and it was a personal revelation to me that we do not know how to love our enemies.

I want to get into this verse, Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

The thing about Matthew chapter 5 is I've been dwelling on in that part of the scriptures for a while.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

Now, the Lord just keeps bringing me back.

There are different bits of it that the Lord keeps bringing me back.

It's part of the Sermon on the Mount, what we call the Sermon on the Mount.

Now, how many sermons did Jesus give on the side of a hill?

Many.

Many.

Most of his sermons, I would imagine, were either on the side of a hill where there was a nice grassy patch to sit on, probably some sort of you know, shade.

So it was it was angled in such a way that the sun wouldn't come in the Mediterranean heat, the sun wouldn't come there, and people could sit comfortably all day.

So it would be on a side of a hill, or there are some instances where he spoke on a beach, where he went and climbed into somebody's boat, asked them to take it in further into the water, and he took it into the water, and then from there he would speak to the people.

So those were the two places, pretty much, and marketplace in the synagogue.

But how many messages did he give along the side of a hill?

Many.

But this one is known as the Sermon on the Mount.

Why is that?

Because there is something different about it.

There is something different about it.

And if you read the whole Sermon on the Mount, which goes for about two and a bit chapters, if you read the whole thing, you realize that the nowhere in this whole process of his message, nowhere do people ask something for themselves.

So the people were there just to listen to him.

They just, for some reason, the atmosphere happened.

That's what I can see, where people just came and all they wanted to do was listen to him.

And that changed the atmosphere.

When we come to the Lord and we always bring our personal needs, there's nothing wrong bringing personal needs.

I mean, he provides our needs, but there is a special place when we come to him sometimes.

And we say, Lord, we are here just for you.

Just for you.

Something is different in that atmosphere.

Not that the Lord will love you more for doing that.

No, he loves us the same, whether we keep going in his presence, asking for this breakthrough, that breakthrough, breakthrough in our finances, heal our bodies, do this, look after my brother, look after my children, pray for our husband and wives, and it's all fine.

But if we find those places where we just come into his presence just for him, it is different.

And I think this, Matthew chapter 5 onwards, is one of those moments.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

That is why we recognize is something as something different.

No other sermon is seen so unique than this one.

Matthew chapter 5, verses 43 to 48, five verses.

Matthew 5:43–48

Matthew chapter 5, 43 onwards.

Matthew 5 · chapter mention

And it says, You have heard that it was said, You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But I say to you, Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

I mean, that's as far as you can take.

That you may be sons of your father in heaven, for he makes his son rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust.

For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?

Do not even the tax collectors do the same.

Now, why the tax collectors?

Um in that time, tax collectors were people who would buy rights to collect money from people who owed money to the Roman government, Roman Empire, and they would buy rights from the Roman Empire that look, we will collect the money for you.

Because if you don't have anybody to collect the money for you, you will probably never gonna see that money.

Or maybe only see 20%.

You authorize us, we will go and we we will collect 75%.

And we'll give you 75% of money that's owed to you, and we'll keep 25%.

But these people were also then most of the times they would charge more than what was you, they would put interest on top of that, and oftentimes put extreme pressure over people, put extreme load over people, put burden on the people to pay the taxes, and they would then transfer 75% and keep 25% or whatever the deal was for themselves.

So therefore, the tax collectors were often looked at really badly.

They were looked at people who persecuted the the Jews, people who were uh aligned with the with the ruling forces, the enemy that's come in and ruling over us, the Roman Empire, they they're part of them, and they're not us, they're not helping us.

So they were seen as people who would persecute and and and use and pressure and and burden the Jewish people.

So that's why Jesus is saying, for if you love those who love you, what reward have you?

Or do do we do do not even the tax collectors do the same?

And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others?

Do not even the tax collectors do so.

Therefore, you shall be perfect, just as your father in heaven is perfect.

That means that if we can learn how to love our enemies, it takes us into the zone of perfection.

That's pretty incredible, I think.

Because there's not a lot of things in the scripture that talks about in this manner that if you want to be, the only other place I can think of where Jesus says is when the rich young ruler came to him.

I just thought of it, I don't have the reference of it.

When the rich young ruler came to him, he says, What shall I do to inherit the kingdom of heaven?

And and Jesus goes, Do this, did this for the law, and you'll be fine.

And he goes, I've been doing this since my childhood.

And then Jesus, having fondness in his heart for him, says, If you want to be perfect, leave everything and follow me.

So those are the only two places I can think of right now where Jesus, in his own words, says, You can step into perfection if you can do this.

One is leave everything and follow him, the other is this loving your enemies as yourself.

Why is that?

Notice the fact that in this passage he goes it he goes to define certain characteristics of the nature of God.

He says in verse 45, he says that your that you may be sons of your father in heaven.

Love your enemies so that you may be sons of your father in heaven.

Notice the fact, grammar is very important in this, in these types of, you know, when you want to understand scripture, the way the sentence is structured, the grammar around it, the wording is crucial.

Notice the fact over here, it does not say that if you love your enemies, you become the sons of God.

It says, when you love your enemies, that you may be sons of your father in heaven.

That means there is a calling on our lives.

There is a purpose that heaven has put before us, and when we step into that purpose, we we be the sons of God.

We be, we, we get to become, we get to fulfill the purpose that we have been called for.

For his son rise on the evil and on the good.

He sends his reign on the just and the unjust.

So God loves everybody.

We are to be like him.

And only when we be like him that we can love our neighbors.

Because it's in his nature to make the sun shine on the evil and the and the good, it's in his nature to make the rain fall on the just and the unjust.

We can't do it unless we be the sons of the Father in heaven.

Does that make sense?

I'm gonna break it down even more.

Let's see how far we can get into it.

In verse forty-four it says, So he reads the commandment, which is you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

But Jesus says, But I say to you, Love your enemies and bless those who persecute you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

What's he saying?

He's saying, remember the fact that Jesus said at one point, he says, I have come to fulfill the law.

A while back, I figured out that most of the law was doable.

Not everybody bears false witness, not everybody commits adultery, not everybody kills people, not everybody lies.

You know, those are things that are pretty extreme in human terms.

So it was pretty easy to follow most of the law.

What was difficult, or in my opinion, was impossible before the cross was the first two.

Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul.

That was impossible without a renewed soul, without a restored nature, without the work of the cross, that was impossible.

And of course, the second one, which was love your neighbor as yourself.

We cannot love the people around us unless we learn how to love ourselves.

And we can't love ourselves until we have been washed by the blood of Jesus, until we have been restored into the kingdom of heaven, until we get to know the love of Christ, we cannot love.

So most of the law was fulfillable.

Apart from the loving one, because you needed a renewed nature, we needed a transformed heart to be able to love Him.

There were people in the Old Testament, men and women, who managed to form an opinion, form a relationship with the Lord, with God, and they had a unique and amazing relationship.

And for good reason, because it wasn't easy.

And Jesus is here telling us that yes, you are to fulfill the law, but I say to you, you fulfill the law and more, which is yes, love the Lord your God, but also love your enemies.

I'm pushing the bar even higher.

And what's the motivation?

What's the motivation?

Why do we want to do this?

Why is Jesus requiring this of the people that he sees sitting but all around him, this crowd that's sitting around him?

He somehow figured that I can share some different things with them today, and it's gonna seep into their hearts and they're gonna be changed and transformed.

He wanted to change that people, and he required them to come a little further.

The motivation is that in those opportunities, in those places, we get to be the children that we are of our Father in heaven.

It's not that we become, we already have the renewed work of Christ working in us, every one of us who knows Jesus.

And there is a purpose that heaven has declared over our lives, but when we step into that place, when we get his heart, in that moment we be the Son of the Father who is in heaven.

And I'll tell you why it is so important to learn this lesson.

And it's one of the probably one of the hardest lessons that as people we would learn.

Jesus found a moment, and he shares us with this crowd in an atmosphere that was different, a sermon that stood out and still stands out.

And the call is into perfection.

The call is to perfection.

And if we can learn how to do this, we will be perfect.

Just as your father in heaven is perfect.

He didn't say that you'll be perfect in heaven, he says you you can live in perfection here.

And there are a handful of things that I've identified, and I won't go into all of them just now, but there are a handful of things I've identified that it is impossible to step in unless there is a renewed nature in us, unless there is a change that happens in us.

I must point out, to love your neighbor to the enemies in this fashion, you're not required to be changed.

The Lord is not calling us into a place of transformation and change, he's not calling us to to to to become somebody else or change our nature.

He's just calling forth the nature that's already in there to be the Son of the Father in heaven.

And suddenly the Holy Spirit says to me, Remember the fact that um Jesus says in the same, in the same um Sermon on the Mount, in chapter six, somewhere, or maybe later here in chapter five, even he says that to him who there are there are promises in Revelations to the church in Revelation chapter three to the to the church in Loedesia, he says, who was a lukewarm church, by the way.

They couldn't decide whether they want to be on fire for God or not.

He says to them that if you overcome, I will give you access and I will allow you to sit on the throne with me and rule and reign.

That is an amazing, incredible, incredible promise.

And I feel like there is a that sort of gave me this sense that there'll be tribes and tongues of every nation that will be before the throne.

But there is this place to sit on his throne is for a few.

And the few are who live with a mentality, who live with a mindset that I know who I am on this planet.

Because if we live here with a princely attitude, we will become kings.

Princes become kings.

We get to sit on the throne.

Because I feel like there is levels of closeness and intimacy.

Not everybody who's saved, who gets saved, will sit on his throne.

I think.

Because we have to live with a certain mindset on this planet, live with this knowledge that I am who I am.

That's what God said.

When people asked him, What is your name?

He says, I am who I am.

And I feel like if that godly nature in us, we know who we are.

And there is this call on us to be the sons of our Father in heaven.

There is no limit, by the way, on his throne.

How many people are going to say, sit on his throne?

I'm not about, you know, the 144,000 foolishness.

I'm not talking about that.

But I am talking about a level of closeness and intimacy that if we stand on it on this planet and live with that mindset that I am who I am and I will be who I am.

And I'm not gonna change from this nature.

I'm telling you, you are the ones who will reign and rule with him in heaven.

You are the ones that he will make room to sit on the throne with him, on the throne of his father.

Well, the question then is how do we get from here into that mindset?

How do we move from unable to love our enemies to a place where we truly, with all the honesty in our hearts, and we don't have to answer to anybody, only we can answer ourselves, and only we ask ourselves, can we actually love the people who are against us in every possible perceptive form?

You know, in the worship today, Ruana made mention of this God who loved us before the world even began.

There is this concept in the Bible who which is called the prevenient grace of God, the grace that comes before we deserve it.

Before we are found worthy.

He finds us into Colossus Chapter Three.

Sitting at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on these things, not on things on the earth.

For you died, and if your life is hidden with Christ in God, when Christ, who is our life, appears, then you shall, then you also will appear with him in glory.

So this verse, these these bunch of verses, they transcend, they sort of overarch from our life here on this earth into our heavenly glory.

So they go, they go, they're they're they're they're arching over our entire lifetime from the moment we get saved until the point we see Christ face to face and are changed into his glory and in his image.

But there is a call while we are here on this planet in this verse, and it says, if you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on those things, not on things on the earth.

If we can align ourselves, if we can get into that place in moments like what we've had earlier today in worship, in our own times with the Lord at home, in prayer, in our own places, in our own moments of desiring God, if we find ourselves in that place that, Lord, I just want you.

I just want you.

I'm putting my heart on you.

There's a whole myriad of things that I could pray for, Lord, but I'm choosing to just come to you today.

I would encourage you to create those types of spaces in your life where you just sometimes or have a defined time in the week or every day, whatever works.

Where this time you don't bring anything else.

Just come into his presence and just ask him, Lord, I'm here just for you right now.

Try and create this Sermon on the Mount atmosphere in your own lives.

Try and create that attitude in your heart, try and create that hunger for him.

And I'm telling you, that prevenient grace is gonna find you in that moment.

Because I've labored with this with this past passage for a while, and I've I've thought about it over and over and over.

There is no formula, there is no principle, there is no teaching that can bring us into that place.

We have to choose it.

We have to choose him.

That's what Jesus required of the people.

In doing so, you be the sons.

That means he's requiring us to come into that place.

You be the daughter that you are, you be the son that you are.

And in that moment, in that moment, we touch something really, really amazing.

It changes us because we suddenly found that moment, that place where it's all about him.

All of us are about him, and we will learn how to how to give all.

We sing songs like that.

I give my all to you.

What does it how does it work?

Well, this is one practical way of doing it.

Is we find those places, we either find those moments where we come into his presence, we go, Lord, I'm here just for you.

Just for you.

There's nothing I'm going to ask for the next 20 minutes, half an hour, whatever it is, however long.

But I'm here for you, and start to cultivate that that attitude in our lives.

And Jesus promises that when we do that, we enter into this place of perfection.

Because those are the people who have that princely mindset.

Those are the people who think royal of themselves.

There are heaps of verses you can bring up, and I'm sure many of you probably think of that verse where you know we have been called a royal priesthood, a holy nation.

You know, yes, how does it work?

It's a choice.

And when we move into that place, we hit perfection, we become.

Again, the word become is probably the wrong word because there's no change that happens.

We just step into who we are.

We be the sons and the daughters in that place.

We be the princes of heaven, we be the princesses of heaven.

And if prince, then we will become kings.

Let's read that portion again from Revelation, and then I'll close with that.

Revelation chapter three twenty-one is what I wanted to share.

But chapter three talks about starts in verse fourteen, talking about the lukewarm church and the angel, and to the angel of the church of the Lodicians, right?

Lukewarm church, lukewarm church, he's calling them into a place of more a heart that is more zealous for the Lord.

He's calling them into a place of greater brightness.

In verse 21, he says, To him who overcomes, overcome what?

That nature that I'm talking about in from Matthew chapter five.

That nature, those pressures of life, that nature to to retaliate, that nature to speak back, that nature to behave in a certain way, that nature to pull away.

Oh, I'm not friends with him anymore.

Oh, we don't.

That nature.

To him who overcomes, I will grant to sit with me on my throne.

This is a huge promise.

This is a huge promise.

I will grant to sit with me on my throne as I also overcame and sat down with my father on his throne.

Learning to love is the key.

God loves every person on the planet.

When we step into to be the son or the daughter of the Father in heaven, in that place we have the capacity to be like him, to love all.

That means, what do you mean, hang all the law and the prophets?

That means the law cannot function unless it is pivoting on this one point of love.

The prophetic, the prophets, the prophetic, hearing God's voice, all of that, it cannot function in its full capacity if it's not hanging on this concept of love.

And what is law in the prophets?

Well, law sets us right with the Lord.

The prophet steered a whole nation into the purposes of God.

Even the prophetic right now, it steers our hearts into the things of God that God is calling us into.

All of these things hang on this one concept, which is learning how to love.

And they couldn't say anything to him.

And I feel like this is an issue of perfection.

This is an issue that if we can somehow grasp it, we're moving into perfection.

And I know it's not possible.

You know, one would argue with me, well, it's not possible to be perfect.

Yes, it's not possible to be perfect.

But it is very helpful to have a great target that is unachievable, but we are working towards it.

We have something to chase after, something to run after, something to look forward to, something to keep going at it until we see him face to face.

And then it doesn't just stop there.

We get to sit on the throne.

And it's not about the throne, I guess, by that time.

Because we won't be, we won't be, you know, we won't be thinking this way when we're in heaven.

You know, the desire sometimes we have of being known, being famous, being popular, being loved, being liked.

But we get to display his goodness, his greatness.

We get to display his power, his dominion.

And there is a call from heaven right now to be the sons of God, to be the daughters of God.

And I want to call you into that place.

There are practical steps we can take to work towards it.

There is this promise of the strength and the grace of God that will find us in those moments.

If we feel, if we honestly, if we feel that, Lord, I want to come into your presence just for you, be sure that that prevenient grace is already working in your heart.

It's already working in your lives, it's already drawing us into that place.

Let's pray.

So, Father, we we honor you, Jesus.

Father, we exalt you in this place.

Father, I ask that you may reveal your Son Jesus to us in a new and clear way.

God, that your grace may find us in a way that Jesus suddenly becomes so much more real.

And in those moments, all we do is to offer our all to you.

Every pressure we set aside, every cry we set aside, every prayer we set aside.

Every desire, every other desire we set aside, every other need we set aside, except for this one that we are coming into your presence just for you, Lord.

Just for you.

Teach me how to be a son, teach me how to be a daughter.

Give me that renewed mind.

Yes, a renewed mind functions in so many different ways, but one of the ways it functions, I believe, it gives us a mindset that I am a son of the living God in heaven.

That I am a daughter of the God in heaven.

And Father, I pray that you give us that realization.

Get us into that place that we may touch perfection and be like you while we live on this planet.

Help us, Lord.

Holy Spirit, come and do your work in our lives.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

By the way, um, by the way, it's it's not that when we get his mind, we get magical powers or anything.

We don't become God, but we get a realization of who we are in him.

Thank you all.

If you need prayer for anything, just come forward and we'll pray for you.

Um the thing about prayer is we never want to give up.

We want to pray, every time you approach prayer.

I heard it uh many, many years ago, somebody say this, and and I really liked it.

It's not my original thing.

I wish it was, but it's not.

And what they said about prayer was every time you come for prayer, every time you approach God for a need, for a breakthrough, or anything, personal, physical, emotional, whatever, you approach as if you're going for it for the first time.

Because then you don't have the burden of past, possible, didn't say anything, that that kind of stuff.

So none of that really is on you then.

Just Lord, I'm here.

Forget about whatever happened in the past.

How many times you've been had prayer for this subject?

You just come and you just go, I'm here, Lord.