Kingdom As Commonplace: Sermon on the Mount - Instructions

Good to be back here this morning with you guys.

Just thankful for uh this church community and uh just the opportunity uh had just um over the last couple weeks just to just to get a little bit of rest and uh be excited about what we're doing here at Commonplace Church.

Hope you guys are excited as well.

And uh it's just nice that we had some people come in and help us and uh kind of share the word of God, friends like uh Ryan and Steve, and hope they were blessings to you guys over the last couple weeks.

But uh I'm just pumped to be back and to share with you guys this morning from a really um pretty heavy passage, right?

You guys read through that, or Lane, thank you for that.

Uh there's a lot to unpack there.

And as a church, here's what we've been doing.

Uh, just in case you're you're you're visiting for our first time here.

We've been looking at uh the Sermon on the Mount.

It's one of the greatest, or it is the greatest sermon Jesus offers, the greatest sermon probably of all times.

And we're gonna we've been diving through it throughout the last couple of weeks.

We started uh the series by looking at our identity as blessing.

We looked at the idea of how we're to um present ourselves and and the reality of how influenced as we are uh those who are of the kingdom.

And last week Steve talked about uh the reality of just iniquities and sin and how uh we also, yes, we we struggle there, but we also have a savior who loves us and invites us to be a part of this kingdom.

And so today we're gonna go into something um just a different reality.

It's it's what we're gonna be calling uh a set of instructions, okay?

So these are these are guidelines that Jesus is gonna offer us uh as those who live in the kingdom, and he's gonna share this really simply with the hopes of this for us.

It's it's these instructions that he gives us for living out the gospel and living within uh the kingdom of God.

And so here I want to though, as I share instructions, I want to approach this a little bit cautiously and carefully because we might hear this word instruction and we might resonate with something like thinking like list of rules or or or regulations, right?

And like receive these receive these instructions almost the same way we were playing like a classic board game, okay?

So recently I introduced my middle daughter Cassidy to a couple games.

One of them was Battleship, great game.

Uh she sunk mine, but that's okay.

Um, and another one was the game of life, and those are two classic games, right?

But before we started these games, what do we do?

Well, we read the instructions.

We opened up the the, took everything out, and we said, hey, how do we play this game?

What does it look like to play this game?

Now, now the purpose for us was to keep us from, you know, one person maybe bending the rules a little bit or trying to like, you know, get an advantage, and and the the rules and instructions were there to keep us in line and check, and even to keep us, well, if we do go outside of those instructions, well, game over, right?

Get us kicked out of the game.

Now, here's what I want to share.

The instructions of Jesus are a little bit different, right?

These aren't um here to uh to teach us how to like, you know, to that we can no longer, if we break any of these things, we're no longer like able to play the game, right?

These these instructions are different uh than uh what we would see in some sort of like board game, right?

Um the instructions are provided not as a set of rules or regulations, right?

But not they're not determinations of how we get and remain in the kingdom.

It's not not like Battleship or Game of Life.

It's these instructions are this, they're directives that help us understand and remain centered, centered within the design of the kingdom, within the heart of the kingdom, right?

And and the heart of the kingdom we see is reflected through who, through the heart of God, the heart of the Father.

We're gonna talk a little bit more about that in upcoming weeks, but uh here's what I just a simple way to put it Instructions of Jesus aren't uh they're they don't they don't attempt to tell us behave better, right?

They're instructions that give us so we might reflect, better reflect our heavenly father.

That's that's the key difference here with these instructions to to point to the kingdom, right?

So so just just real quick, this this isn't a set of just rules uh to keep, right?

The point is that when we center our lives on the kingdom, we then begin to reflect the way, the ways of the kingdom.

So I just want to put that out from there because it's easy to hear words, something like instructions, and immediately we turn into like religious rules and and regulations, and we miss the greater purpose.

The instructions, they're about they're not about earning our place in the kingdom, they're they're about becoming a clear reflection of King Jesus, right?

It's it's when we reflect vertically, right?

They're not mirrors of ourselves, right?

We're not reflecting ourselves in the kingdom.

When we follow these instructions, they're reflections of this God who sits on high.

So that's our overview.

Instructions for reflection.

We're reflecting our heavenly father.

And so that's gonna be our takeaway for this portion of the Sermon on the Mount here.

And so here, let's look at three different areas of instruction this morning.

And once again, the main goal is fatherly reflection.

So here's the three we have truth, we have mercy, and we have love.

So let's go into the first one, truth, verses 33 through 37.

Here's here's just a takeaway for us.

Since we've been offered ultimate truth, right, in the gospel, Jesus then instructs us to reflect that truth through honest living.

Through honest living.

So for us to unpack this passage, we're gonna need to just do a little work and look really primarily at a key word in this in these verses.

And the the word is this it's it's this word oath.

Oath, right?

Um we don't often use that word in our culture.

We maybe use it in something maybe like a maybe more of like a commitment or a covenant, maybe like a promise, right?

Um, and and so here's what the oath was, though.

It's a kind of commitment where your word, your word was your bond.

And I like I said, I think we know that feeling, right?

Uh, even when we're trying to convince someone of that we're, you know, we're committed to this thing or that we're we're right, we we sometimes we say truth, we like, you know, we say, well, I swear to blank on this, or I swear to blank that, you know, and you can fill in whatever you want for that.

Maybe it's um the swear on my dog, my firstborn, right?

But but most of the phrases we do here is I swear to what?

Swear to God, I'm telling the truth.

And and an oath was always founded on something greater than oneself, right?

Something of significance.

It's it's something that served as what, as like a guarantee uh uh to show and reveal honesty, to reveal intentions and a commitment.

So break it down a little further.

So within the Jewish law, here's what we had: there were two categories of oaths there was binding and non-binding.

Now, what's the difference?

Well, here's the thing.

If someone made an oath by invoking the name of God, right, that meant business.

They were serious, right?

It was considered binding.

Maybe think about for our context, not the same, but maybe maybe similar, um, a wedding, right?

Where you see in the presence of God, or or maybe in a courtroom, right?

Where they put your hand in the Bible and says, you know, before you give this testimony, like swear to God, right?

And those those actions, they symbolically communicate something, they communicate the seriousness of telling the truth and honoring your word.

And so those are binding oaths.

Now, here's the thing: there's also what's called non-binding oaths.

Here's what what they would do they wouldn't swear on the name of God, but instead they would swear in maybe something like Jerusalem, something like the temple.

I swear on, well, heaven or or or I swear on earth.

Okay, so so well what what makes these kinds of oaths, right, different, right?

Instead of swearing by by God's, right, what what are the oaths trying to uh to allow for?

Well, these non-binding, they left room for things like loopholes, right?

They left room for things like negotiation.

Uh there really negotiation for doing what was most beneficial for the person making the oath.

See, you see, non-binding oaths, they uh allowed someone to do this.

They allowed for someone to shift their truth, to to treat truth as something that's just like subjective, right?

Really depending on what uh was best serving that individual in in the moment.

And so ultimately these these kind of uh these these kind of oaths that became so really incredibly common in that time.

In fact, rabbis would spend just countless hours debating, well, which oaths are actually binding, which ones are be able to kept, and which ones simply they could just get out of, right?

Here's what it did.

It created this like constant culture of a debate over like technicalities rather than like a culture of truthfulness.

It it created a sliding scale of honesty.

And so Jesus, he's speaking directly into just a corrupt system of truth telling, of accountability, like a world where truth had become, I don't know, optional, where truth only embraced when it was beneficial to the one who was speaking it.

It's this idea of like bending the truth to do this to serve an agenda, lifestyle, maybe personal desire.

But you know, as we hear from this context in history, it kind of sounds pretty similar to where we find ourselves today.

Anybody agree?

Right?

Like if we're honest, I think we even sometimes find ourselves participating in something like this.

Right?

We say one thing while knowing in our hearts we probably don't have an intention of following through.

Maybe we we claim and make an oath that we swear to you know certain values as core core convictions, and until those convictions they collide with what we actually want.

And when they do, right, those truths begin to bend a little bit.

And we find ourselves making allowances.

We interpret what we once claimed to believe, and right, that's pretty much what happens not just in our own hearts, but we see this.

I don't know if you want an example, look look no further than uh politics, right?

Through throughout our nation's history, political parties have publicly championed like certain values and ethics, only to make exceptions in those same values when it benefited maybe a particular candidate, right?

Or or maybe um helped secure power for that party.

And then that's not just our present reality, that's been the history of our political landscape for a long time.

And and now my point here isn't to criticize political parties, the point is that all of us are capable of at times bending truth whenever it becomes convenient.

And so Jesus isn't just speaking to a particular audience at that time, that's true in the first century.

We're honest, he's he's speaking directly to us as well.

Think about our own lives, right?

How many times we said, I'll never do that again.

We make that promise, where we'll change, and what?

Oh, we end up doing the very thing we said we never did.

I I know I've I've fallen into that.

I still wrestle with that at times.

And so, what's Jesus' solution?

I I think Jesus invites us into this honest honest reflection.

Right?

Honest reflection that's centered on a truth that is absolute.

And he and he's sharing, don't make grand oaths that you already know you're likely to break.

Instead, live as a reflection of truth rooted in the truth of Jesus.

That's that's what Jesus tells us that he says in Matthew and John 14, it says, I am the way.

He says this, I am the truth.

He says, I am the life.

He says, No one comes to the Father except through me.

So Jesus' call for us is to live as our lives as a reflection of what ultimately is true.

Truth this, that Jesus, for for for followers of him, are he is our only hope.

He is our only way to salvation, forgiveness, righteousness, truth that Jesus is the only one through whom we have and come to know the reality of truth.

And we're called to remain committed to this honest reality that listen, apart from Jesus, we have no true objective guide or foundation for truth.

Without him, truth, truth becomes whatever we want it to be.

It reminds me of this account uh before Jesus' um crucifixion, and this account with Pilate, right?

And Pilate, he he makes this incredible statement.

He's standing face to face with Jesus.

Picture this the one who is truth, incarnate, right?

Truth in flesh, if we will.

And Pilate says to them, What is truth?

Right?

Look at that moment.

It's an incredible picture of the human condition.

Right?

Pilate asks the defining question of humanity, truth, while standing in the presence of the only clear answer to that very question, Jesus Himself.

And so here's what Jesus is getting at as he speaks about oath-taking.

The issue isn't necessarily oath taking itself, the issue is that people have become so untrustworthy that they needed an oath before anyone would actually believe them.

But in the kingdom of God, things are meant to be different.

Kingdom people shouldn't need verbal guarantees, right?

Our reflection of the truth that should create something like this, like integrity.

And integrity should just speak for itself.

If we remain committed to the truth of who Jesus is, we'll what takes place is we begin to reflect, we reflect that truth in every aspect of our lives.

Truth does this.

Truth becomes our character when our lives are shaped by the character of Christ.

When we rest and we're abiding in Him.

So practically speaking, that means there's no need to swear on this, or in order to swear over here to convince people that we're being honest.

The desire of Jesus is instructing that the what and the how we are to speak of as his followers, and that should insist upon itself integrity.

That should come with the territory, trustworthiness.

The kingdom as commonplace includes lives that are marked by integrity.

Now, listen, not perfection.

Of course, this isn't like an expectation that we'll never fall into deception or moments of dishonesty.

I wish that was the case.

But rather, it's calling us to take a high consideration and value of what it means for someone who represents King Jesus and what it means for them to make an oath, a promise, a declaration.

And Jesus does this, he takes the reality of the witness of him into account.

He does this in here as well, right?

So when we offer our word, our commitment with the knowledge that we don't truly intend on following through or carrying out, what we're doing is we're not we're representing not only our personal integrity in those moments, but we're presenting in just an integral part of an integral part of what it means to follow Jesus, right?

The offering of truth, this idea of honesty, this idea of character.

Now, once again, will we exist perfectly in this area of pure honesty, integrity?

I I wish that was the case, but the reality is we all still battle and wrestle with struggle with sin.

But here's the thing, when we do fall short, where we find ourselves not being true to our word, right?

We don't just dismiss our shortcomings.

No, we we we we take a step as followers of Jesus and we take ownership of it, we take accountability, we walk in confession, we walk in repentance.

And what brings us to that space?

Well, we know that truth is our foundation, and whatever whenever we drift from that foundation, we understand there is a savior who wants to draw us back.

Right?

Jesus waiting and wanting to forgive us, wanting to purify us, wanting to cleanse us so we can go back and live lives of integrity so that the work of the gospel can bring us back to this solid ground.

So that's the first instruction.

Here's the second it's this idea of mercy.

It's mercy that reflects the Father over this, over retaliation that mirrors the world.

Retaliation that mirrors the world.

Look at verses 38 through 42.

Jesus, he gives this very, very radical instruction to his listeners.

It's an instruction that speaks really about two things.

Yes, about retaliation, but also about mercy.

Now, in order to see this, we got to unpack this a little bit from the Old Testament uh understanding.

Okay, so God's covenant people, they were given the law.

And we might be familiar with the law, we might recognize we have the Ten Commandments, right?

But the law also includes this civil law, guidelines for how God's people were to live together as a society.

And these laws did this, they established justice, but in this particular, they also served to restrain something like this injustice.

So what does that mean?

Well, they're placed as limits that level the that uh that limits that level of of the retaliation that civilization at that time chose to act upon.

Right?

Because here's the thing, God's law placed this incredible high value on something like this, the sanctity of life.

It's it's the the the value of the Imago Day, right?

The that we are men and women created in the image of God.

And and and so I referenced God's law, Levitical law, intentionally because they would have seemed, this would have seemed so radical compared to the ways of the pagan cultures surrounding Israel at that time, right?

How they would have approached something like an offense.

Many of those cultures, if you do historical research, they they lacked consistent moral and ethical standards.

As you go back in history of the ancient world, you find some practices that are pretty brutal.

It's like human sacrifice, child sacrifice, right?

Punishments that would were widely disproportionate to the offense that was committed.

Right?

And so in cultures surrounding God's people, retaliation did this, it often it often knew no limits.

There was no no limits.

But yet the God of the Bible, he's so different because God has a high value of life and he loves life and he desires to protect life.

So he did this, he gave his people a different vision.

It's a vision that upheld this dignity and the sanctity of every human being.

And one of those provisions was the principle we see in the law in Leviticus.

It says, if anyone injures his neighbor, as he has done, it shall be done to him.

Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, whatever injury is given a person shall be given to him.

So here's what God's doing.

What he's doing in this moment is he's bringing about uh establishing protection and also just consequence for actions.

Knowing that if someone took another person's life, that consequence would be their own life.

That communicated this, an immense value of human life.

Right?

If you got life for life, maybe you think you think twice.

And it served as both justice for the offense, also a deterrent against committing just such greater evil, right?

Because when we hear eye for an eye, tooth or tooth, it's true, from from from what's what's been given the law, that's a just consequence.

But yet it's also this, it's also an act of mercy.

Let me explain why it's an act of act of mercy.

Once again, think about these surrounding pagan cultures, right?

If someone took your eye, right, it wasn't just let me take yours, it was there was no limit to how you would respond.

You could respond, you could take that person's whole life in return.

Retaliation culturally had no boundaries.

Right?

This principle is often referred to as as a law of retaliation.

And what's important for us to understand is this God God didn't give this law to license.

Retaliation, he gave it to limit retaliation.

It's really important, important recognition.

He wasn't instructed to give people how to give people instruction how to how to seek revenge.

That's not what he's doing.

He's placing boundaries around the level of retaliation that people would feel just justified naturally carrying it out.

And so this law both upheld justice, it's incredible, and mercy.

And Jesus, he quotes this law, and the truly radical part is not that it contains mercy, right?

Because that's see that with the initial law, the radical part is the degree of mercy, right?

The degree that Jesus now calls his followers to display.

He moves from like a measured justice to this like unimaginable, this unimaginable expression of mercy.

That's what he's showing here, right?

To refuse retaliation after being struck on the right cheek, right?

That that would have been like shocking enough.

What do you mean?

Cheek for cheek, right?

But then to offerly, to just to willingly offer the other cheek as well, absolutely unthinkable.

His listeners have been blown away.

But the character of God is what?

It's mercy.

And we reflect his character to the world around us when we extend that same mercy to others, the mercy that he's given to us.

But but let's let's talk just real quick, just an important question.

When it comes to mercy in this context, well, what is Jesus actually instructing us to do?

Are we just supposed to find someone who like despises us and have them come beat us up?

Right?

Are we never allowed to defend ourselves or protect those who are experiencing injustice?

Those are really good questions.

In fact, um, a couple months ago we did a series called Where Do We Stand?

And we looked at this idea of uh many different like hot top hot topic uh issues, but we looked at one war, and uh we can't unpack that today.

If you want, you can look back at it.

But one of the things I want to point out though is just the historic Christian framework known as what's called just war theory.

And here's what it is this is the understanding that there are certain circumstances in which the defense of the vulnerable, the protection of those suffering grave injustice can be morally justified.

Right?

Think about um efforts to do this like stop genocide or or the Allied response to um the atrocities committed by Hitler in World War II.

Right?

That that's a very those that's very different from um maybe the idea of war that's driven by uh conquest or imperialism or or just personal gain.

Right?

Those motives, those motivations, though they those don't reflect the heart of God.

But there's something else that Jesus is teaching here, right?

He's using hyperbole, right?

Hyperbole is this, he's giving exaggerated illustrations to communicate a deeper truth.

And and so turning the other cheek, right?

Giving away both your tunic and your cloak, that's that's extreme.

Going, you know, walking one mile, then walking 500 more, right?

Those are nobody got that one, okay.

Those are meant to be uh like they're not meant to be wooden, like literal commands like for every every external imaginable circumstance, right?

They're intended just to reveal the extraordinary depth of mercy that should characterize the people of God's kingdom, and do that in contrast to the the retaliation that characterizes the kingdoms of this world.

There's a contrast to Jesus' painting.

And Jesus is emphasizing this contrast, and he's not inviting us to obsess over every hypothetical situation, right?

So I don't believe Jesus is calling us to go out and look for someone to just give us a beatdown, right?

This isn't a call for masochism, right?

It's it's a call just to see through the merciful heart of God and respond.

Respond in a way that reflects that heart of mercy.

So practically speaking, here's what I think it does.

I think we start with just beginning with uh with reflection, right?

Reflecting our God's sure, but also I think this also gives us a time of personal reflection as well.

Reflecting on the mercy that God has shown each one of us.

First and foremost, the mercy extended through the gospel, right?

The mercy that refused to give us what we deserve, right?

Because the wages of sin is death, yet God in Christ extends mercy that gives life and sustains life.

And so I think one of the healthiest disciplines we could develop, and I'm I'm trying my best to do this, is this regular practice of mercy reflection.

And I had a situation that made me, you know, start that discipline a little bit more often.

I so one of them a couple weeks ago, I was driving up uh 46 towards uh coming back from Hackistown Mountain, and all of a sudden, like a truck just right in my lane, like and I had to hit the gas, right?

For to avoid getting hit, right?

And and by God's merciful hand, right, I I came through and that situation, right?

I was completely unharmed.

I I pulled over, right?

First to make sure I didn't like pee my pants, but then um just the the sat there, just well aware that listen, my circumstance, that not all the the circumstances don't always end that way, right?

And and and just reflecting and overwhelmed by the mercy of God.

In that moment, reflecting on just God reminding me just how merciful He has been to me and in even ways that I I don't even see, that I don't always recognize.

And that reminder calls me to just continually do this to also extend mercy to others, others in my life.

And so today I just simply want to invite us into the practice of mercy reflection, right?

You don't have to almost get sandwiched by a semi to like experience it, right?

You just have to simply slow down.

That's hard for us, it's hard for me, but we can do it, right?

Step away from busyness, pause, right?

Pause the constant movement of life and reflect.

Reflect on the mercy that we've been recipients of.

Because I think the more we reflect on God's mercy towards us, just like he calls us to, the more naturally we'll extend mercy to others.

So that's the second one.

Mercy over retaliation.

Here's the last one.

It's this instruction of Jesus is love.

And it's this it's love without conditions.

Verses 45 to 48, it's one of the one of the most profound teachings I think Jesus gives.

And here's what makes it so profound.

Once again, Jesus, he's quoting from the law, from Leviticus, he says, You shall not take vengeance or bear grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

I am the Lord.

Okay, now, real quick, we see where Jesus refers and references love your neighbor, right?

We see that piece in the law here, right?

But but what Jesus shares in Matthew includes something else, right?

There's there's this line where he he references is called uh where it says hate your enemy.

But but that's not where does that come from, right?

This isn't that's not in Leviticus, it's not in Leviticus here.

So where does it come from?

That's a great question, right?

Because it's not there.

But here's what Jesus is referencing.

Jesus is referencing a popular add-on, an addition that had been developed by the religious culture in his day, right, by the rabbis, by the leaders, is this command that came from God, right?

Love your neighbor, right?

Well, then all of a sudden has this qualification from people, which is well, hate your enemy.

They attached a condition to God's commandment.

The Israelites had effectively added an addendum to God's command.

And ultimately, what Jesus is correcting, right, he's correcting this idea that love for neighbor comes with terms and conditions.

The people had inserted this condition into God's command about who deserve to be loved.

And Jesus is correcting that.

Right?

How often do we make maybe create conditions that that determine who we believe is worthy of our love?

I mean, isn't that what lies beneath things like injustice and prejudice and racism and classism, misogyny, right?

Even like religious hostility.

Each one of those begins with taking God's commandment to love your neighbors yourself and inserting our own personal, our own personal conditions.

That person doesn't deserve my love because they look like this, because they act like this, because they came from that place, because they believe differently than I do, right?

And Jesus wasn't speaking into the conditions that had added to God's command in the first century, right?

He's still speaking in the conditions that we still add today.

So what makes this teaching so profound is that Jesus removes boundaries of some sort of conditional love.

He removes the idea of like us versus them mentality that we so often have, right?

The divide between the good guys and the bad guys.

And that's why, as Christians, right, we have to be so aware of the enemy's primary tactics.

Yes, Satan, he wants to create division within the church.

That's very true.

Why wouldn't he?

That's Jesus' bride.

Why wouldn't he go after the church first?

But he also wants to create divisions among the very people who bear the image of God, right?

He wants to convince us that some people are worthy of love while others are not.

So, yes, Satan wants the church divided.

That's very true.

And we need to fight against that.

But he also wants humanity divided.

Not united by the love of God, but separated by arguments of who deserves that love, who doesn't deserve that love, right?

And so my concern for the church is maybe, I don't know, just the concern that we've maybe built garbage around our love.

The church, have we created these us and them categories, right?

That it's almost even at times difficult to keep track of, like who's on the right team, who's on the wrong team.

I don't know, right?

And but that's exactly the problem.

As followers of Jesus, yes, we are followers of Christ.

We're set apart, right, from this world.

That's true.

But the people of this world, that's not our enemy.

Our enemy is the one scripture says is who is presently at work in this world.

It's Satan, it's the powers and principalities working to turn people against one another, working to make hatred reign where love should.

Can you imagine the delight the enemy gets when another image bearer of God is mistreated, is rejected, is ostracized, right?

Or even some parts of the world even killed.

His strategy is just remarkably consistent.

Separate those who bear God's image.

Keep them suspicious of one another, keep them angry at one another, keep them hating one another, because division and destruction among those made in God's image is exactly what the enemy desires.

Right?

Create enemies of the created image bearers of God.

Right?

And who's got who's God to Satan?

That's Satan's enemy.

But that's not what God desires.

It's not what Jesus desires as he shares that God so loved the world that he sent his son to save, not to condemn it, right?

To rescue all humans who desire to be saved.

And what we all share as humans is this: yes, we are all created by God.

We all bear his image.

We exist then with worth and value because of the one who made us.

And so if that's true, we aren't enemies by existence.

We become enemies by choice, ultimately by sin.

You see, sin is Satan's tool for destruction, for division, for devastation.

Sin is what separates us from God and from one another.

And sin is one of the great enemies' greatest tools for bringing destruction over all this world.

Right?

So Jesus is reclaiming God's original command here.

He's removing the conditions that fallen human humanity have attached.

He's calling his people to love all people.

And so for us in the kingdom of God, we don't simply follow Jesus' instructions to love our enemy.

We follow his example.

The example of the one who lived it perfectly, even to the point of his own death.

Like, think of the cross where Jesus was being unjustly condemned and crucified.

What were his words?

Spoiler word, he wasn't like, I'll show you guys, right?

He wasn't like I hate each one of you.

He wasn't like, good luck finding a love like mine after this.

No.

For the depths of an unimaginable suffering.

I honestly can't understand how he did this, right?

Because I'm not God, it was just good.

But look what he says though.

He says, Father, forgive them.

Forgive them.

For they know not what they do.

Right?

That's that's I I don't know how, but that's his love.

That's true.

And he offers a desire for their well-being, right?

Father, forgive them.

That's a statement of love.

Father, in spite of their actions, in spite of their ignorance of the offense that they're committing, extend them love by forgiving them of this.

Offer them love by allowing them for their sins to be atoned for.

Continue to be merciful and loving to them by allowing my sacrifice, Jesus, as the way towards healing of relationship between God and man.

That relationship that sin destroyed.

And that's what Jesus is saying, practicing as he puts to into his preaching, and he calls us to set apart people.

We are called to follow in this way.

How do we do?

Well, not through loving those who are easy to love, but by removing conditions placed upon our decisions to love.

See, here's what Jesus is declaring about love: true, reflective love of the Father.

It's not based out of emotion, it's not based out of circumstance, proper criteria, it's based on this.

It's based out of volition.

It's based from a choice.

It's a choice of God to offer and extend it.

And so if love is not just an action, but a call to action, a choice, I think we just need to be honest and we need to ask ourselves this morning if the love God offers me is beyond any condition, it's rather by him just choosing to love me.

If that's true, who who might I be choosing to place conditions of my love upon?

Is there someone in my life right now I'm withholding love from?

I'm justifying the worthiness of that person or even people grouped to be loved.

And I and listen, I think if we're honest, I think we can pretty quickly imagine that person or people group, right?

Maybe it's a spouse, maybe it's a parent, maybe it's a child, right?

We'll love them once they meet our standards, our criteria.

But Jesus instructs us to choose love, even if they fall short.

Because that's what he offers us.

Maybe it's a people group, right?

Maybe we've stereotyped a community of people.

Maybe we've taken extreme examples of behaviors of an individual in that group, and we created this narrative and we place it upon the fullness of that group.

But but here's the thing Jesus' love for you is not based upon your extreme example of your behavior.

And aren't you thankful for that?

Right?

He doesn't choose to look at your worst moment and base his offering, amen, right?

Of worthiness to be loved, right?

If if if right now, I'll just be on it, like we're turning into this election season, yippee, can't wait, right?

But we're about to uh see how often we choose to withhold and we see people as enemies, right?

In the same sense, we look at how Jesus, he just sees us even in our worst, and he doesn't do this, he doesn't he doesn't take the human approach, he doesn't cancel us, right?

Can you imagine if God took on cancel culture?

That was his approach, right?

That that we'd be done, but that's not his love.

He is an unconditional loving God.

Now, yes, love includes correction, love includes includes boundaries, absolutely, but God chooses to love by creating a way towards even a greater love.

It's through Jesus, right?

Jesus gave his life to show us how to live, how to live a set apart people in this world and how to love others.

That's where we find this greatest love.

And and when we rest in this gospel truth, right, when we're invited in this way, here's the reality.

And once again, this is this is not something we can earn, this is not something we can achieve.

This is only through grace.

But look what what what we take on from there.

It says, You are from 1 Peter, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who have called you out of darkness into marvelous light.

Once you were not a people, but you now are God's people.

Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

So he's saying, We've brought us out of sin and darkness into his marvelous light.

Once we were separated, now we are brought to life.

We are set apart, we are given a place within the kingdom of God.

And I and I just want to close just by sharing the reality of like I don't know where you find yourself in this space today.

Maybe maybe your circumstances are rough.

Maybe you're questioning God's love, God's concern, his care.

And I just I can't say it in the way that God loves you.

He truly chooses to love you, and it's real.

And I get right, your circumstance might want to tell you otherwise, your pain might want to contradict that, right?

But but I just want to share the truth that listen, love is a choice, and God has chosen to love each one of you in spite, and his love passes in spite of our circumstances, in spite of even our performance, in spite of even we feel worthy of it.

God loves you because he's chosen to love you, and he calls us to do the same for others.

And I just want to leave us with this beautiful passage from uh Psalm 136.

And it's just this incredible reality of just statement of God's love.

It says this give thanks to the Lord for his good, for his steadfast love endures forever.

Don't miss that.

It's steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of God for his steadfast love endures forever.

There's a theme here.

Give thanks to the Lord of Lords for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who alone does great wonders for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who by understanding made the heavens for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who spread out the earth above the waters, for his steadfast love endures forever.

To him who made the great lights, to his steadfast love endures forever.

The sun to rule over the day, his steadfast love endures forever.

The moon and the stars to rule over the night.

Why?

His steadfast love endures forever.

It is he who remembered us, don't miss this, in our lowest state, his steadfast love endures forever.

And he rescued us from our foes, his steadfast love endures forever.

He gives food to all flesh, steadfast love endures forever.

Give thanks to the God of heaven.

Why?

Steadfast love endures forever.

Let's pray.

God, we uh we thank you for these instructions, Lord, um, on how to respond to uh to your gospel, how to respond to uh being welcomed into uh Jesus, your family, Lord, and and this kingdom that you've invited us to be part of, God.

Would you just go out this morning and remind us, Lord, of uh just the call for for just integrity in our lives, God?

Um, would you remind us the call of just mercy, Lord, in our lives, Lord?

And God, would you ultimately just remind us of your great love, God?

It's this great love, Lord, that uh this steadfast love that that does endure beyond just our current situation, Lord, our current circumstances, but as as your word tells us, it endures forever, God.

Lord, I know that's that's a hard concept for us, God, to understand, but uh even even in spite of not being able to fully understand it, it doesn't negate its truth, God, that that your steadfast love truly does endure for all of eternity.

And it's a present love that's here now as well, God.

So thank you for that, Jesus.

Lord, uh as we reflect, as we reflect your character, as we reflect on who you are, God, would you allow that reflection to include just responding in worship, Lord, to singing out your great love, to declaring, God, your truth of who you are, God, to encourage us as we go out, Lord, this week and just live on mission for you, Lord.

Live as these kids in your kingdom, God.

We love you in Jesus' name.

Amen.