Goodbye To Vengeance - Goodbye (Week 3)

All right.

You didn't know we had moonwalkers among us, did you?

So fun to have that special blooper edition of that video for the last week of our series called Goodbye.

And speaking of that, next week we are going straight into a new series called Made New.

You saw the video for that, but I just want to encourage you.

Jesus, before he ascended to heaven, one of the last things that he said that he told all of his disciples was go and make disciples of all nations.

And this idea of making disciples is something that we as mid-cities take seriously.

And so for the next eight weeks, we are going to be discovering what does that mean?

What does it look like for us as a church to make disciples?

What does it look like for you as an individual to make disciples?

So let me just encourage you, let me challenge you, be here on Sundays for the next eight weeks.

Get into a group, because if you're not in a group, you're not going to get the most out of this series.

But I promise, if you do those two things, you engage, you plug into those two things, you're going to grow leaps and bounds over the next eight weeks.

But today, we are closing out our series called Goodbye.

And just this last week on Monday, I saw on the news and I was reminded of an event that happened several years ago.

On the news, they were talking about and remembering and honoring all of the families, all of the people that were affected by what happened on August 31st, 2019.

One of the darkest days in the history of the Permian Basin.

On that day, August 31st, 2019, a madman who was intent on wreaking as much damage as he could on people started shooting on I-20 and made his way through Odessa, turning half of the city of Odessa into a crime scene.

It was really devastating for all of us.

Many of you probably remember that day.

If you were here around that time when I said August 31st, you already knew where I was headed because you remember that day.

Some of you may not have lived here at the time, but maybe even you saw it because it did make national news when it happened.

But it was devastating to all of us to see evil expressed in such a way and to such an extreme in our otherwise uneventful cities.

Some of us were angry, some of us were sad.

Many of us didn't know what to think.

Me personally, I was there was part of me that was grateful for my near miss.

I was actually in one of the areas that he was shooting just minutes before he came through.

But even for me, even though I was grateful, I was also devastated and torn apart by what had happened in our community.

For others, some people that actually are part of this church, the Davis family, no relation to me, but the Davis family, Garrett and Kelby, were sitting in their car on 42nd and Parkway on that typical Saturday afternoon when a bullet shot through their car, hit something, the bullet exploded, and Shrapnel went into their 18-month-old daughter, into her abdomen and into her face.

Of course, they sprung into action.

Shock set in, they grabbed little Anderson, and miracle after miracle happened, including an ambulance being flagged down and got Anderson to the hospital as quickly as possible.

She underwent surgery and survived.

Today she's a healthy eight-year-old little girl.

But that day changed their family in a huge way.

And even though it was traumatic, they were still grateful because there were seven families who didn't have that story.

Evil reared its ugly head in the form of a madman that day.

A man intent on inflicting as much damage as possible, took something from seven families that can never be replaced.

And it deeply affected our West Texas area.

But here's the question that we're answering today.

How do we deal with real evil?

What do we do when someone causes us harm in such a significant way?

What do we do when everything inside of us wants to seek vengeance against someone who has wronged us?

Two weeks ago, we fleshed out Paul's challenge for us to have genuine love for one another.

This was already a challenging word.

It's hard.

We talked about genuine, authentic, agape style love that we are to have for one another.

This was already challenging enough.

Now we're asking the question: what does this genuine love look like toward people who wish us harm?

Today we're going to say goodbye to vengeance.

And here's the truth: most of us don't experience this level of injustice.

We don't experience this level of evil.

And even if we do, it's not an everyday occurrence.

This is kind of a dramatic far side of the evil or the injustice that we might experience in our life, but we really do experience real injustices all the time.

Maybe our kid doesn't make the team when we know she was better than the person that did make the team that just so happened to be related to the coach.

Maybe there's a coworker who talked bad about you, talked bad about your performance in front of your boss just so that he could get ahead.

Maybe you have a client who you've been over backwards for time and time again, and they still fire you and then go around telling everybody that you don't deliver results.

Maybe it's simple that someone who you consider a close friend doesn't invite you to their birthday party.

Or maybe someone cuts you off in traffic.

We all drive in Midland and Odessa.

This is a normal occurrence.

Maybe it happened even today on your way out to church.

You're driving along, chilling with your family, somebody cuts you off.

There's something that arises inside of us, you speed up, you get beside them, you give them the look, you know, the mean look.

You might gesture to them.

Of course, it's a church appropriate gesture, gesture.

We wouldn't be doing non-church appropriate gestures in here.

But 30 seconds ago, you were just chilling, listening to worship music on your way to church, and now you feel personally responsible for enforcing traffic laws.

Why?

Why is that?

It's because there's something inside of us that says you can't do that to me and get away with it.

And here's the second level of truth.

Even though there are real injustices that happen to us all the time, are you ready for this one?

I hope you brought your thick skin.

You might want to pinch yourself and just say, hey, I'm gonna have thick skin today.

Even though there are real injustices, many of us are reacting to perceived injustices.

You think something's been done wrong to you, and you don't really even know.

They disrespected me, they ignored me, they intentionally left me out, they were trying to embarrass me.

Maybe they were, maybe they weren't.

We don't know.

And many of us in this room react to perceived injustice in the same way that we react to real injustices.

We actually live in a culture where rage bait is common.

We figured out how to monetize anger, we figured out how to monetize outrage.

Our feeds are full of stories, the situations that make us angry.

The social media algorithms have figured out how to get people to click and watch and look at things.

And so our feeds are filled with these stories, and and we get this idea that the angrier someone is, or the louder that they are, the more right they must be.

Right?

The angrier you are, the more righteous you must be.

But let me tell you, anger does not equal righteousness.

In fact, you can even be right about something and wrong in the way that you respond to it.

So, in all of this culture that we live in, what does the Bible say?

If you would, please turn in your Bibles to Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

We're gonna find out today, and if you would, also rise to your feet if you're able, as for the reading of God's Word.

Romans 12, picking up in verse 14, says this Bless those who persecute you.

Bless and do not curse them.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.

Live in harmony with one another, do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.

Never be wise in your own sight.

Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceful peaceably with all.

Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

For by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This is the word of the Lord.

You guys can be seated.

Well, just like what we've said throughout this study of the book of the chapter 12 of Romans, Paul is outlining what it looks like to practically live out the theological implications that he lined out in Romans chapter 1 through 11.

Romans 1 · chapter mention

It's dense theologically.

All of those chapters are very dense.

He's outlining all of these theological, uh, he's unpacking these theological concepts.

And in Romans 12, he starts getting real practical.

And he starts giving us not just a list of commands, but really a whole new way of living, a whole new operating system, if you will.

And he's writing to a distinct culture that's not much unlike our own, and he's contrasting this idea of the way of the world versus the way of the gospel.

And today we're going to look at the way of the world is seek vengeance.

The way of the gospel is bless those who persecute you.

Let's first take a look at the way of the world.

The way of the world is we don't have to really be taught it.

We just need to be shown it in our culture.

Movies, TVs, TV shows, books, other cultural influences, they all try to convince us that the way of the world is accurate, that the way of the world is true.

And it makes for some great movies and it makes for some great books.

One of my favorite uh movies of all time, The Count of Monte Cristo, Edmund Dontes has everything taken from him.

He comes back from nothing, from prison, gets out, and eventually takes his vengeance on those who had harmed him.

You see Gladiator, another amazing movie.

It seems so satisfying to watch Maximus, Decimus, Meridius just take his revenge on Commodus, one of the most hated villains in all movies.

You see the movie taken, and all of us guys want to be Liam Neeson in this movie.

I will look for you, I will find you.

There's this emotional satisfaction when we see him just obliterate all these guys that are trying to harm his daughter, isn't it?

We see the funny side in the princess bride.

Hello, my name is Enigo Mantoya.

You killed my father, prepare to die.

He had rehearsed this speech over and over.

His life goal was to take his revenge on the person who had killed his father.

Then you see John Wick, who kills thousands of people just because someone hurt his dog.

They made four movies, and I heard that they're making a fifth.

But listen, while the vengeance plot line makes for some awesome movies, and I must admit, it makes for some awesome movies, it doesn't work that way in real life.

The promise that vengeance offers is never really fulfilled.

We think and are promised by the culture that it should look like this.

Evil happens to me, I get my vengeance, and now I'm righteous.

Or evil happens to me, I take vengeance on the person who hurt me, and now I'm happy.

Or now I'm satisfied.

But that is not the way it works in real life.

Spoiler alert: the Bible is true and the way of the world never fulfills on its promise.

It's really more like the greatest TV show of all time, The Office.

There's an episode where uh when Michael decides to date Pam's mom and then subsequently dump her on her birthday, Pam decides the best way to get vengeance is to get to punch him right in the face.

And there's this funny scene where she does just that.

She gives him a good slap, and while Michael has meat on his face trying to recover from the slap, there's this poignant moment where Jim and Pam are walking to the car, and Jim asks Pam, Well, do you feel better?

To which she replies, No, you were right.

This is really what vengeance looks like.

It never fulfills on its promise.

So other than being a mirage, other than being a lie, why is it a problem for us as believers?

Why is the way of the world a problem for us as believers?

Number one, vengeance puts us in the judge's chair.

It looks like this someone hurts me and I climb into a judge's chair.

If you just imagine a courtroom, the judge sitting, we climb up into that chair ourselves.

We say, I know what you did.

We say, I know why you did it.

I know what you deserve, and I know when and how you should pay.

But there's a problem when we step into the judge's chair.

The problem is that I'm a terrible judge.

You are a terrible judge as well.

Here's the deal: we don't know everything.

I don't completely know your motives.

I don't completely understand their circumstances, and to be honest with you, I don't even understand my own heart in the situation.

Many of the times we don't understand this easy to know but profound truth.

That vengeance is actually doing something inside of me.

Vengeance actually does something to me while I seek to carry it out.

And this is why I love the way that N.

T.

Wright puts it.

He says, Vengeance is too dangerous for humans.

God has reserved that for himself.

We're gonna talk more about this later, but I want you to remember this quote when we do.

Vengeance is too dangerous for humans.

God has reserved it for himself.

The next issue with vengeance is that it doesn't seek justice, it seeks payback.

And this is where it's important for us to draw a quick distinction.

Vengeance is different than justice.

God is a just God.

He loves justice, he is a just God, but justice is not the same as vengeance.

And before you start quoting Old Testament scriptures, uh, well, what about an eye for an eye, or a tooth for a tooth, or a life for life?

Isn't that encouraging vengeance?

What's the difference here?

Well, we find those scriptures in Exodus 21, Deuteronomy 19, Leviticus 24.

It's all listed, an eye for an eye, this principle.

But what we don't understand many times when we quote this is that it's actually meant to restrain vengeance, not encourage it.

It's actually a limit to the amount of vengeance, a limit to the justice that should happen.

If you take my tooth, I can't go kill your whole family.

It's introducing this idea of appropriate, proportionate justice.

But sometimes what we call justice is actually vengeance.

We think justice is I want them embarrassed, that's vengeance.

We think justice is I want them exposed, that might be vengeance.

We think I want them to lose, I want them to hurt, I want them, I want people to discover all of their flaws, I want them canceled, I want them to experience what I experienced or feel what I felt.

We confuse justice with vengeance, and instead of desiring just to see justice fulfilled, we want to take it into our own hands and exact our own vengeance.

The next thing the vengeance does is that it creates a cycle.

And this is a big problem.

When we return evil for evil, when we seek vengeance, we create a cycle of evil.

Early church father John Christostom, when commenting on Romans 12, he argues that when we return insult for insult, we've actually been conquered.

Not merely by the other person, but by our own anger, by our own evil.

He says, if their evil toward me makes me evil, their evil one.

Their bitterness has made me bitter, their gossip makes me gossip, their coldness makes me cold, their hatred makes me hateful.

And that's what it means when Paul writes, do not be overcome by evil.

It's not just what someone else's evil does to me, it's what it can do within me.

What it can do in me, and how then it affects me, how it affects my relationships.

In marriage, it looks something like this.

You hurt me, so I'm going to withhold affection from you.

In friendship, it can look like this.

You didn't include me, so I'm going to exclude you.

In work, it looks like you didn't recognize me, so I'm going to make sure people see all of your mistakes.

On the road, you endangered me, so I'm going to endanger both of us to prove to you that you were wrong and to teach you a lesson.

Vengeance begets vengeance, and the result is destruction in the lives not only of those who are receiving that vengeance, but also destruction in the life of the person that's trying to seek vengeance.

So vengeance creates a cycle.

How do we break the cycle?

This is where Romans 12 comes in, and we see Paul outline how do we break the cycle.

And the way we break it is through the way of the gospel.

He starts right out the gate and he says, Blessing is what breaks the cycle.

Romans 12, 14 says this bless those who persecute you.

Bless and do not curse them.

He's interrupting the cycle.

They curse you, and naturally the next step would be that we curse them.

This is what culture tells us.

This is what culture told the Roman church at the time, and not much has changed since.

We get cursed, we want to curse back, but Paul says, no, no, no, no.

And notice he doesn't just say don't curse them, he says bless them.

The gospel response isn't passive.

It's not fine, I won't retaliate.

The gospel response is actively desiring and seeking the good of someone who hasn't sought yours.

It's actively desiring and seeking the good of someone who hasn't sought yours.

And this should sound familiar because Jesus said it in Matthew 5, and Pastor Daniel just read it to us as we prayed for those who were persecuting our brothers and sisters around the world.

In Matthew 5, 44, Jesus says, Love your enemies and pray.

He says, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

Paul is building upon the teachings of Jesus when he's writing Romans 12.

The opposite of vengeance is not non-vengeance.

The opposite of vengeance is blessing.

You curse me, I bless you.

You hate me, I pray for you.

You seek my harm, I seek your good.

That's how the cycle gets broken.

The next thing Paul writes to us, he says, Pursue peace, not payback.

Romans 12, 17 and 18, it says, Repay no one evil for evil.

We see this cycle.

He's describing the cycle of vengeance, repaying evil for evil.

He says, Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

He says, Don't pay repay evil with evil.

And then he goes on to say, live be honorable and live peaceably.

And this is kind of a side note, but not really.

A few weeks ago, Pastor Andrew preached a message called Goodbye Individualism.

And I love the use of Paul in here.

See how many times he uses the word all, just in this one verse.

He says it twice.

And that wall, that all actually means everyone.

It doesn't just mean people in the church.

It doesn't just mean it's actually all the word could be translated as all mankind.

So what he's saying is this Christianity, this living out our faith is not an individual endeavor.

It's a team sport.

How we interact with one another is very important.

But then he says, do what is honorable in the sight of all.

And he says, live peaceably with all.

And I love the realistic tone of Paul's words here.

It's uh, I don't know.

When I read the Bible, I just kind of imagine Paul writing this, and he's I could see him just kind of starting by with a command saying, live peaceably with all.

And then thinking, wait, hmm, now we're probably gonna need a qualifier on that one.

Okay, so if possible, live peaceably with all.

And then going, okay, wait, no, I'll probably need a second qualifier.

If possible, as long as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Why?

Because he understands something.

There are some relationships that may not be reconciled.

There are some people who won't reconcile, there's some relationships you can't fix.

There are apologies that you can't force.

There are people who may continue to under to misunderstand you, and there are even people that you need to have healthy boundaries from.

But living peacefully does not mean pretending everything is okay.

Living peaceably means I've done what is mine to do.

I've owned my part of it.

I've apologized.

Some of us in here need to apologize.

I've forgiven.

Living out this Romans 12, 14 through 21 is impossible unless you can experience true forgiveness.

And that could be its own whole message.

I don't have time to dive into all of that, but it's enough to know that living peaceably with all is going to require forgiveness on your part, whether or not it's asked for and whether or not it's accepted.

I've refused retaliation.

I've pursued reconciliation where it's wise and where it's possible.

And now I can release the outcome.

The outcome is not mine to control because I've done what I need to do to live peaceably with all.

You may not be able to control whether there's peace between you, but by God's grace, you can refuse to let their hostility destroy the peace within you.

The next thing that Paul tells us to get out of the judge's chair.

We talked about the problem of vengeance, puts us in that judge's chair.

Paul is telling us to get out.

Romans 12, 19 says, Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.

For it is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

And I love this because it's really answering the elephant in the room question that all of us struggle with, even as I'm talking, you're thinking in your mind, yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah, but you don't know what they did.

And if I don't make them pay, then how will there ever be consequences for their actions?

So I put myself back into that judge's chair.

I hop back into that judge's chair because I don't know if I don't handle it, if they will ever experience the consequences that they deserve.

But here's the thing: vengeance is God's.

And this is not something that Paul just made up.

He didn't make it up out of thin air to put in the middle of Romans.

He's actually quoting Deuteronomy 32, 35.

He's quoting Scripture saying, Vengeance is mine, says the Lord.

The Bible doesn't say there's no wrath, it says to leave room for God's wrath.

Remember Inti Writes quote, Vengeance is too dangerous for humans.

He's reserved it.

God has reserved it for himself.

He's the one that can carry it out.

The gospel says, get out of the judge's chair.

Get out, let him sit where he goes.

Not because there isn't a judge, but because there is a perfect one.

And he's better at it than you are.

He knows exactly what happened, he knows their motives, he knows your motives.

He knows what was intentional, he knows what was misunderstood.

He knows what justice requires, and he is ultimately the perfect judge.

And stepping out of that judge's chair is ultimately a measure of how much we trust God.

Do you trust him?

Do you trust God enough to handle something that I desperately or that you desperately want to handle yourself?

And the hard question that goes even a little further than that is what if you never even see the justice that occurs?

What if they never apologize to you?

What if they never admit that they were wrong?

What if everybody believes their version of the story?

What if you never get vindicated publicly?

What if you go to your grave without seeing God settle the score?

Do you trust that God is still good and that he is still a perfect judge?

Can you trust him in this?

You see, the Christian understanding of good, uh of God is that God is still good and he is still the perfect judge.

And our understanding of the hope regarding injustice and evil in the world is that ultimately all evil will be judged completely.

There will be an account.

It's what we believe as Christians.

But that takes faith sometimes, especially when we don't see it.

It takes faith to know this.

God saw it, God knows, God is just, and God is your defender.

The next thing that Paul does is he ups the ante even more, as if that's not hard enough already.

What we're talking about is not challenging enough.

He goes on to say you need to serve your enemy.

Romans 12 20 says, to the contrary, your in if your enemy is hungry, feed him.

If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.

This is where it gets really uncomfortable because when we see in verse 9, don't make them pay.

It's like, okay, cool.

Gotcha, Paul.

I can work on that.

Now serve them.

Ugh! Wait, you want me to actively pursue their good?

Paul isn't satisfied with I no longer want something bad to happen to them.

Genuine love moves forward and it moves toward, I actually want God's good for them.

It's a completely different heart.

How do we actually want God's good for someone who means us harm?

And if you remember, in the opening in 14, he says that we are to bless.

This is why Paul's opening word in verse 14 is bless.

He starts there and he comes back to it.

And actually, right here he's he's giving flesh to, he's giving actions to.

What does it look like to bless?

If your enemy's hungry, feed him.

If he's thirsty, give him something to drink.

And again, it's important to draw a distinction between vengeance and justice.

Seeking vengeance or releasing vengeance or seeking their good, it's okay to also release justice, to understand that we can want godly justice in a situation.

Blessing your enemy does not always mean restoring access.

Forgiveness and trust aren't identical.

Reconciliation requires two people.

Boundaries can be appropriate.

Reporting a crime can be appropriate.

This isn't what we're talking about.

In fact, Romans 13, immediately after this passage, Romans 13 starts with acknowledging a legitimate government role for restraining evil and bringing justice.

You can read that next passage for yourself.

But even when justice and boundaries are necessary, I don't have to hate you.

You don't have to hope for someone else's destruction.

I don't have to become what hurt me.

I can ultimately desire God's best for you.

I can ultimately desire God's redemptive work to take place in you.

And just like genuine love wasn't passive in the first half of Romans 12, loving our enemies isn't passive either in the second half.

Paul is building on Jesus' teachings to love your enemy.

When in fur in verse 14 he says bless, in verses 16 through 18, he's telling us to pursue peace.

In verse 20, he tells us to feed and to give and to serve.

And in verse 21, where we'll land today, is he says to do good.

In fact, he says to overcome evil with good.

Romans 12, 21 says this do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Not ignore, not excuse, not release evil, but overcome evil.

And I love this, and here's why.

Because overcome is victory language.

Overcome evil with good is victory language.

When our culture would tell us and show us and teach us that not seeking vengeance, that blessing someone that curses us would be actually weakness.

Our culture would say that doesn't make for a great movie.

If the Count of Monte Cristo and Menontez gets thrown in jail and he blesses the guy that put him there, roll credits, doesn't sell millions to millions of tickets, does it?

Doesn't seem as interesting.

It seems like weakness to the culture, but it's not weakness.

Paul is literally saying, this is how we overcome, this is how we win, this is how victory happens.

Overcome is victory language.

Paul wants evil defeated.

And the world might say, well, we want evil defeated too.

The question is, how does evil get defeated?

And the world would answer, evil happens, vengeance occurs, then we're righteous, then we're happy, then we're satisfied.

We know that's not how it plays out.

We know what actually happens is evil happens, vengeance happens, more evil happens, more vengeance happens, more evil happens, more vengeance, evil, vengeance, evil, vengeance.

You get the idea.

We've seen it more times than we can count in history.

You're not likely to point to many cases throughout history where you say, Well, look, here's what happened, and everybody was happy, and the person was satisfied because it doesn't work.

The Bible is true.

Here's what Paul says: evil is overcome by good.

Evil is overcome when we bless those who persecute us.

Evil is overcome when we do what Jesus said and pray for those who persecute us.

This is how we win.

I'm reminded of Dr.

Martin Luther King in January of 1956.

During the Montgomery bus boycott, someone threw dynamite on the front porch of his house.

His wife, Coretta Scott King, was inside along with their infant daughter.

Somebody had through thrown dynamite and bombed their house, trying to kill his family.

Now, Martin Luther King at the time was not at home, but he rushed home.

By the time he got home, there had already a huge crowd had gathered on his front lawn, people who were mad, they were angry, they were armed and ready to retaliate against those who wished harm on his family.

But Dr.

Martin Luther King, understanding this teaching, referencing Romans 12, stood up on that porch that was blown up.

And he's even quoted as saying this we want to love our enemies.

I want you to love your enemies.

Be good to them.

He said, We're not going to retaliate, we're not going to return evil with evil.

We're not going to return hate with hate.

Months later, King reflected on that night in an article called A Walk for Freedom.

You can go read it if you want.

That's Romans 12.

He understood something.

The only way to overcome evil is with blessing and with love.

Vengeance continues the chain, but blessing breaks it.

And listen, overcoming evil with good doesn't mean we stop confronting evil.

Martin Luther King continued to confront the evils of racial injustice until he passed away.

It means we refuse to let evil dictate the kind of people we become in the process.

Their anger doesn't determine mine, their bitterness doesn't determine mine.

Their hatred won't determine mine.

Their character won't determine mine.

Listen, Jesus does.

Jesus determines that for me.

I won't let their evil determine the kind of person I'm going to become.

And this passage of Romans is extremely challenging.

I get it.

It's counter-cultural, it's counterintuitive.

It fights against everything that our flesh wants and desires.

It's as antithetical to our culture as it was when it was written to the Romans 2,000 years ago.

It's antithetical to everything in our culture.

I get it.

And if you're thinking I can't do this, you're right.

And you're not alone.

And it's the whole reason that we need Jesus.

You see, Jesus was no stranger to blessing those who persecuted him.

It's not just something that he said on the Sermon of the Mount.

Jesus actually lived this out, he embodied this passage.

He was falsely accused, he was beaten, he was mocked, he was spat upon, he was stripped, he was crucified.

And from the cross, he cries out, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

He blessed and asked for forgiveness for those who were persecuting him real time.

He did not repay evil with evil.

And at the cross, justice and mercy met.

You see, God doesn't say that injustice doesn't matter.

He doesn't excuse it.

In fact, sin is so serious that it demands a spotless sacrifice.

But grace is so great that Jesus took it for us.

And this takes me out of the judge's chair.

Why?

Because I look at the person who hurt me and I say, they deserve judgment.

But the cross reminds me, so do I.

Because of my sin and because of all of our sin, we all deserve God's wrath.

But for those who trust in him, Jesus took it for us on the cross when he lived out everything I've just taught you.

It's good news for everyone, but it's good news in this situation because it helps me see those who hurt me in a different way.

Actually, this week I was able to talk with Kelby Davis, the one who was affected by the shooting in 2019.

And I just asked her, how do you process this?

How did you deal with this?

How did you not want to just seek vengeance?

She said, Chris, you know what's so weird?

Even though I was in shock, and even as I held my bleeding child, and I didn't know if she was going to live or not, honestly, I didn't know what was going to happen.

My mind and my heart went out for somebody who could actually do something like this to someone else.

My mind broke, my heart broke for him, and my mind went to his family who are gonna have to deal with the questions and the shame and the guilt of this situation for years to come.

And yes, I was worried about Anderson, and but I couldn't help but think about what would drive someone to do something like this.

How do you have that kind of response in the wake of somebody causing so much harm to your family?

It's only possible when you understand and receive the grace and mercy you've been shown to see people through God's eyes.

Even those trying to harm you.

So today, here's my questions.

Who are you trying to make pay?

Who comes to mind when we're talking about all of this?

Who's living rent-free in your head, even as I'm speaking right now?

Who are you still arguing about even when they're not in the room?

Whose failure would you secretly love to see?

Who are you withholding affection from?

Who are you waiting to see them get what they deserve?

Maybe today Jesus is asking you to get out of the judge's chair.

Not to declare them innocent, not to excuse what they did, or abound in healthy boundaries, not to prevent legitimate authorities from pursuing justice, but honestly praying, Jesus, I'm giving up my right to make them pay.

I'm blessing them because that's what you've called me to do.

Let's pray together with our heads bowed and eyes closed.

Jesus, thank you for your word.

We thank you that it challenges us, it doesn't leave us where we are.

And even in moments that it speaks against something that's so ingrained into our flesh, so ingrained into our culture, Lord, we trust that you are perfect, that you are the perfect judge.

And if you're in here today and you're dealing with this, you as I was asking those questions, there's faces that came to mind.

Maybe there was one face, maybe there's multiple people that came to mind.

Today we're gonna release this.

And listen, it's only possible in view of God's mercy.

Romans 12 actually starts the very first verse.

Paul writes, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, the only way that any of this is possible is to understand the mercy that he has shown us and be able to show that same mercy to people who wish our harm.

So today we're gonna do that.

If that's you and you have somebody on your mind that you need to release, you need to trust, and you need to bless.

I want you to just in an act of just a physical act of what's happening in your heart, I want you to just kind of put your hands out in front of you, palms down, and we're gonna say something together.

And as we say it, I just want you to turn your palms over.

The first thing we're gonna do is we're gonna release.

We're gonna release vengeance.

And I want you to say this after me as you turn your palms to the sky.

I want you to say this.

Vengeance is God's.

Vengeance is yours, God.

Now we're gonna trust God.

Which is, like we said, it's hard to do, but we're gonna trust him.

And I want you to just tell him, I want you to repeat after me, God, you are a way better judge than I am.

And finally, we're gonna do the hardest part.

Maybe the hardest part.

We're gonna ask him, and we're gonna bless those who have meant us harm.

And I want you to just kind of stretch your hand forward as if you're praying for someone.

And I want you to just ask God in this moment show me what it what seeking their good looks like, God.

We thank you for the work that you're doing.

We thank you that this word is challenging, but it's not impossible.

It's only possible because of the mercy that we've received from you.

Without that, it is impossible.

But with you, through you, with your help, God, you empower us to do the impossible, to release vengeance, to trust that you have it under control and to bless those who persecute us.

God, I pray that as we walk out of this place, it would not just be a moment that happened right now, God, but that it would be a lifestyle that we live out.

God, that we we know that life is going to happen, that circumstances are gonna happen.

This is not the last time that we're gonna have to do this.

Um, Lord, I pray that we would be reminded that it's your will for us to bless those who persecute us, to pray for them.

Lord, we thank you for the work that you're doing.

Continue to move in our lives and challenge us in Jesus' name.

Amen.