Loving Your Enemies: (Nov. 5. 2006)
Loving Your Enemies
Big Idea: See God in others and yourself, Jesus, and you can love like Jesus.
The story is told of man walking across… the beach and he finds a smokey bottle that’s been washed up on the beach… he pops the cork… and a genie floats out…
The genie, says “I’ve been coopled in that bottle 1400 years… I’ll do anything you want for freeing me, just one condition…. whatever you ask for I’ll give double of what you ask for to your bitter rival Frank.
So, you ask for a new Ferrari, Frank gets 2 Ferraris, you ask a condo at Whistler, Franks gets two, you understand?
The man thinks for moment and says “Scare me half to death.”
That’s not true story, but it is a “true” in the sense that people will sacrifice their self-interest to stick it to an enemy.
When I was a child enjoyed watching WWF/pro wrestling. I would get my brothers and sister to pretend to all star wrestle… tag team… me and my youngest sister and against my brother and middle sister… we’d start playing… but someone ending actually getting hit… and then they’d hit back and it would break out into a real fight… and as adults most us don’t get into fist fight, but during course of interacting with people, we may feel “you just hit me, now it’s personal I’m going to hit you back.”
It’s such so natural to say, “I’m not going to take that, I’m going to stick it to you… (Consciously or subconsciously knowing--even if it means I will more hurt in the process…”)
The way of Jesus is so counter cultural… but his counter-intuitive way is the key to life for us, for our relationships and therefore the key to world.
We’ve studying the book a book of wisdom, a book helps become competent in life.
In Proverbs 25:21 there is a passage about feeding your enemy if he or she is hungry and giving them something to drink if they are thirsty…
The apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Rome picks up on this idea and cites this text in Romans 12. Please turn to Romans 12:17ff
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." e
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
This passage speaks of not doing what we want to do… paying back evil for evil.
But Paul does not simply float this idea out there as if it were some hopeless ideal… but he gives us a reason as to why we ought not take revenge.
In vs. 19 Paul says “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, then he quotes Deuteronomy 32:5 written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.
Part of reason we don’t need to repay evil for evil is because God is avenger—God will settle the score in this life or the next.
Some of you are saying, “I can’t believe in a God who judges, I could only believe in a God of love.”
Many people think believing in a God who judges is a very primitive.
Miroslav Volf is a theologian came from war-torn Croatia, who teaches at Yale. Some of you heard him when he spoke recently at Regent College here in our city.
Professor Volf says you can only say, “I won’t believe in a God who judges and avenges, if you’ve grown up in the quiet seclusion of the suburbs…”
You wouldn’t say you’ve been with people as I have whose cities and villages have been first plundered and then burned to the ground, whose father’s and brothers have had their throats slit, whose daughters and sisters have been raped.
He says in that kind of world, the only thing that can keep a person from taking up the sword is the belief that God will take up the sword.
Volf is saying that when we believe that God will judge the wicked in this life or the next and only then, will we be able to refrain from taking up the sword of vengeance…
If you live long enough you’ll be hurt by someone or someone close to you will be screwed over.
If you don’t believe in a God who takes up the sword, and you’re unjustly hurt by someone or a loved one is unjustly hurt, you’ll be tempted to take up the sword… maybe not literally, but perhaps with your words, or perhaps as you curse them in your heart…
Then Paul quotes Proverbs 25:21
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." [e]
What in the world does this mean?
Does it that if we love our enemies… God will zap with fire?
As Bruce Waltke one the best commentators on Proverbs points out, the verse cannot mean that… because Proverbs never endorses sticking it our enemies.
So what does the expression mean?
Augustine, Jerome… more recently Waltke other great commentators pointed out that when we offer good deed in return for evil done… it can have the effect of creating “burning pang of shame.” Not that I know from experience, if you were to were to put hots on someone’s head, they’d turned red and if you show kindness to some in return for evil they may turn red with shame.
Ghandi was greatly influenced by Jesus’ teaching on non-violence. Ghandi just before he died said, “To our most bitter opponents we say: “Throw us in jail and we will still love you. Bomb our houses and threaten our children and we will still love you. Beat us and leave us half dead and we will still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we will appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”
Ghandi returned good for evil and sought heaps bring coals, i.e. “burnings of pangs of shame” in the hearts and conscience of his people’s oppressors.
Vs. 21 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
I was recently with my good friend Chris Woodhull who works with African American gang members in the hood of Knoxville Tennessee. Chris says, “If you’re walking in down alley in hood and you come across a group of violent gang members… you’re best bets in terms of your survival is probably to walk toward them, and ask for some kind of help, may be directions. They may say F you. But if they can see your face and that you a human being, they’re less likely to kill you.”
You may what if I have a black belt in Karate or a gun… I could take those punks out.
There is a saying in the “hood” that you can’t kill off your enemy… you kill your enemy, their uncle, their brother, homeboy will come after you.
The only way you can overcome evil is with good…
So how do we become people who live in this counter cultural, seemingly counter human way? How do become like Ghandi and Jesus who loved their enemies…?
Some of you may say…hmm… interesting… but I have no enemies… there’s no one in my life that I’m fighting with…
You may not be fighting with anyone…. but do you have someone in your life who has hurt you or loved one in some way or someone that you envy and so in your heart perhaps--you hope they will not succeed or won’t be really happy or perhaps you secretly hope will be humiliated in some way.
Anyone that you have ill will toward, Biblically speaking… is a kind of enemy…
How do we learn to people who love our “enemy”?
How do we become who overcome evil by good?
One way is by seeing people as made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27 tells us that human being uniquely bear the image of God).
But when someone is our enemy we tend not to see them as people who bear in the image of God…
We tend to caricature them.
Like a political cartoonist we tend to exaggerate their faults and minimize their virtues.
If some one has a big nose or big ears we blow up that part of them.
(show cartoons of Stephen Harper and George Bush).
We do that in our mind…
There’s some who made agreed to do something for me 3 times over the course of a day and bailed each time… I got really mad… I’m said, “In effect you broken your word, you’re lying.”
When we feel like some is lying or not being straightforward we tend think, this guys a liar, liar!
But, if someone suggests we’re lying… we’re like… oh, no, I’m lying, I’m just more complex and mysterious I’m more like the Liberal Michael Ignatieff than the conservative Stephen Harper, I’m more like John Kerry than George Bush…
We tend to give ourselves, but not out enemy the benefit of the doubt…
When we see people as those made in the image of God… we’re less likely to caricature their vices and just write them off… When we see see God we’re more likely to see their virtues…
If we can see the ONE love in the eyes that hardest to like, we’re more likely to love them.
See God in you enemies and you can love them, see God in yourself and you can love those heard to love with strength and grace.
When we see that we are made in the image of God, we’re more like to relate to our enemies with strength and grace.
Jesus knew who he was, he knew he bore the likeness of God, as God in human flesh, so he was able to respond to his enemies with great strength and grace.
When Jesus stands before Pilate not long before being sentenced to be crucified… when Pilate asks him if he’s a King, Jesus says “I am… but my Kingdom is not of this world…” When Pilate says, “Don’t you realize I have power to free or crucify you?” Jesus says, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”
Jesus face to face with the one who will sentence him to an unjust death, responds with great strength and grace.
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison as political prisoner on Robben Island. While in prison, he ignored any guard if he was referred to by his prison number or racial slur. He acted as if he didn’t hear what was said. He’d say, “I have a name, my name is Nelson Mandela.” He quietly demanded the guards call him by name by not responding if called by anything, but his name. Over time, the guards began to call him by name. They came to have respect Mr. Mandela. As guards came to respect Mandela, he began to exert great influence over the prison.
Nelson Mandela, though a prisoner intuitively recognized that he was made in the image of God, he responded to his enemies with strength and grace.
Dr. Dan Allender a respected Christian psychologist who teaches and practices in Seattle who for a number of years worked closely with Dr. Larry Crabb who spoke here in May, tells the story of a woman…. who strongly suspected her husband was having an affair in different city. For several years he had a habit of spending a couple of extra days in a city after his business meeting claiming he could do more work from his hotel room than at home. She had never flown on her own and had never stayed in a hotel alone, but she flew out to the city and got a room near his suite and watched until he arrived late one night with a woman on his arm.
When they went to breakfast the next morning she waited until they were seated. She spoke warmly to her husband and graciously introduced herself to the woman the other, her “enemy.” She said, “We have a great deal to talk about, but this may not be the appropriate time or place. If you prefer we can talk in private or schedule another time to do so.” Please talk about that between the two of you and I’ll wait in my room for a response. She was in great pain, but she was not hostile. Her husband came back to the room alone, and his wife made it clear that there marriage was over unless he did something radical to deal with the violations of their marriage covenant.”
She didn’t roll over and play dead, she not would tolerated being abused any longer in her marriage, but she acted with strength and grace because she knew she bore the image of God..
See God in others and yourself and you can love your enemy…
Last month, a troubled milkman named Charles Roberts barricaded himself inside the West Nickel Mine Amish School, and murdered five young girls and wounding six others. When police arrived on the scene, Roberts committed suicide. It was a dark day for the Amish community of West Nickel Mines, but it was also a dark day for Marie Roberts—the wife of the gunman—and her two young children.
On the following Saturday, Marie experienced something truly countercultural while attending her husband's funeral. That day, she and her children watched as Amish families—about half of the 75 mourners present—came and stood alongside them in the midst of their own blinding grief. Despite the crime the man had perpetrated them, the Amish came to mourn Charles Carl Roberts—a husband and daddy.
The world needs more than kind of love.
When Nelson Mandela was freed after spending 27 years as political prisoner on Robben Island, he was considered by many to be most powerful person in South Africa, and white Afrikaners were afraid he would use his power… he declared forgave people falsely accused him at his trail, all prison guards who had abused him, all people who had destroy him.
When the South African team the Springboks played the All Blacks in the World Cup Rugby final at Ellis Park in 1995, Mandela as president of South Africa strode onto the turf wearing a green Springbok jersey… controversial because blacks associated the jersey as symbol of a white power… harkening back to the days of apartheid when blacks could play on same teams whites…
The crowd most of whom were white Afrikaners… erupted with cheers…
Mandela realized that white Afrikaners would be feeling sore knowing that they had lost political power and were afraid of losing more of cherished symbols… so Mandela wore the jersey… because… wanted to send the message he was going to stand in solidarity with all South Africans…
When this happened, South Africans say that something palpable changed in the air…
We need more than kind magnanimous forgiveness of our enemies in the world.
Most are us not those Amish of West Nickel mines or like Nelson Mandela, but would want to a little more like and so change our world.
So how do we become like this?
By looking to the life one who said in the Sermon on the Mount, "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor [h] and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”
Jesus not only preached about this, he modeling in his living and in his dying.
As Gospels, as the movie the Passion of the Christ powerfully portrays, when Jesus was being nailed to the cross, he kept crying out… “Father forgive them because they don’t know what they’re doing! Father forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing!”
When we realize that Jesus died on the cross so that the enemies of God, which according the Scriptures we all were at one time or another, could be reconciled to God, we can become people who love our enemies.
See God in your enemy, in yourself, and in face of Jesus Christ and you can love Jesus.
The night before Jesus was crucified, he took bread and broke it… and said, “This is my body given for you…and he took the cup and this is my blood for pour for your forgiveness… I will take the sin and the shame of mine enemies upon myself so the enemies can reconciled to God, experience homecoming…
Whether or not you’re member of this church, if you commit yourself to following Jesus Christ and his way… please do partake of this meal…
As you do… feed on your Christ in your heart by faith and ask him to come and live his life through you making into a person who can love their enemies.
Instruct… (gluten free)
Benedictions:
People friends taking first eve communion, if you decided Jesus and you’ve never been baptized consider following Christ in this of obedience and blessing…
Prayer person in the balcony too.
(The sermon can be heard on line at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
Big Idea: See God in others and yourself, Jesus, and you can love like Jesus.
The story is told of man walking across… the beach and he finds a smokey bottle that’s been washed up on the beach… he pops the cork… and a genie floats out…
The genie, says “I’ve been coopled in that bottle 1400 years… I’ll do anything you want for freeing me, just one condition…. whatever you ask for I’ll give double of what you ask for to your bitter rival Frank.
So, you ask for a new Ferrari, Frank gets 2 Ferraris, you ask a condo at Whistler, Franks gets two, you understand?
The man thinks for moment and says “Scare me half to death.”
That’s not true story, but it is a “true” in the sense that people will sacrifice their self-interest to stick it to an enemy.
When I was a child enjoyed watching WWF/pro wrestling. I would get my brothers and sister to pretend to all star wrestle… tag team… me and my youngest sister and against my brother and middle sister… we’d start playing… but someone ending actually getting hit… and then they’d hit back and it would break out into a real fight… and as adults most us don’t get into fist fight, but during course of interacting with people, we may feel “you just hit me, now it’s personal I’m going to hit you back.”
It’s such so natural to say, “I’m not going to take that, I’m going to stick it to you… (Consciously or subconsciously knowing--even if it means I will more hurt in the process…”)
The way of Jesus is so counter cultural… but his counter-intuitive way is the key to life for us, for our relationships and therefore the key to world.
We’ve studying the book a book of wisdom, a book helps become competent in life.
In Proverbs 25:21 there is a passage about feeding your enemy if he or she is hungry and giving them something to drink if they are thirsty…
The apostle Paul in his letter to the church at Rome picks up on this idea and cites this text in Romans 12. Please turn to Romans 12:17ff
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." e
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
This passage speaks of not doing what we want to do… paying back evil for evil.
But Paul does not simply float this idea out there as if it were some hopeless ideal… but he gives us a reason as to why we ought not take revenge.
In vs. 19 Paul says “Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, then he quotes Deuteronomy 32:5 written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.
Part of reason we don’t need to repay evil for evil is because God is avenger—God will settle the score in this life or the next.
Some of you are saying, “I can’t believe in a God who judges, I could only believe in a God of love.”
Many people think believing in a God who judges is a very primitive.
Miroslav Volf is a theologian came from war-torn Croatia, who teaches at Yale. Some of you heard him when he spoke recently at Regent College here in our city.
Professor Volf says you can only say, “I won’t believe in a God who judges and avenges, if you’ve grown up in the quiet seclusion of the suburbs…”
You wouldn’t say you’ve been with people as I have whose cities and villages have been first plundered and then burned to the ground, whose father’s and brothers have had their throats slit, whose daughters and sisters have been raped.
He says in that kind of world, the only thing that can keep a person from taking up the sword is the belief that God will take up the sword.
Volf is saying that when we believe that God will judge the wicked in this life or the next and only then, will we be able to refrain from taking up the sword of vengeance…
If you live long enough you’ll be hurt by someone or someone close to you will be screwed over.
If you don’t believe in a God who takes up the sword, and you’re unjustly hurt by someone or a loved one is unjustly hurt, you’ll be tempted to take up the sword… maybe not literally, but perhaps with your words, or perhaps as you curse them in your heart…
Then Paul quotes Proverbs 25:21
"If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." [e]
What in the world does this mean?
Does it that if we love our enemies… God will zap with fire?
As Bruce Waltke one the best commentators on Proverbs points out, the verse cannot mean that… because Proverbs never endorses sticking it our enemies.
So what does the expression mean?
Augustine, Jerome… more recently Waltke other great commentators pointed out that when we offer good deed in return for evil done… it can have the effect of creating “burning pang of shame.” Not that I know from experience, if you were to were to put hots on someone’s head, they’d turned red and if you show kindness to some in return for evil they may turn red with shame.
Ghandi was greatly influenced by Jesus’ teaching on non-violence. Ghandi just before he died said, “To our most bitter opponents we say: “Throw us in jail and we will still love you. Bomb our houses and threaten our children and we will still love you. Beat us and leave us half dead and we will still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we will appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process, and our victory will be a double victory.”
Ghandi returned good for evil and sought heaps bring coals, i.e. “burnings of pangs of shame” in the hearts and conscience of his people’s oppressors.
Vs. 21 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
I was recently with my good friend Chris Woodhull who works with African American gang members in the hood of Knoxville Tennessee. Chris says, “If you’re walking in down alley in hood and you come across a group of violent gang members… you’re best bets in terms of your survival is probably to walk toward them, and ask for some kind of help, may be directions. They may say F you. But if they can see your face and that you a human being, they’re less likely to kill you.”
You may what if I have a black belt in Karate or a gun… I could take those punks out.
There is a saying in the “hood” that you can’t kill off your enemy… you kill your enemy, their uncle, their brother, homeboy will come after you.
The only way you can overcome evil is with good…
So how do we become people who live in this counter cultural, seemingly counter human way? How do become like Ghandi and Jesus who loved their enemies…?
Some of you may say…hmm… interesting… but I have no enemies… there’s no one in my life that I’m fighting with…
You may not be fighting with anyone…. but do you have someone in your life who has hurt you or loved one in some way or someone that you envy and so in your heart perhaps--you hope they will not succeed or won’t be really happy or perhaps you secretly hope will be humiliated in some way.
Anyone that you have ill will toward, Biblically speaking… is a kind of enemy…
How do we learn to people who love our “enemy”?
How do we become who overcome evil by good?
One way is by seeing people as made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27 tells us that human being uniquely bear the image of God).
But when someone is our enemy we tend not to see them as people who bear in the image of God…
We tend to caricature them.
Like a political cartoonist we tend to exaggerate their faults and minimize their virtues.
If some one has a big nose or big ears we blow up that part of them.
(show cartoons of Stephen Harper and George Bush).
We do that in our mind…
There’s some who made agreed to do something for me 3 times over the course of a day and bailed each time… I got really mad… I’m said, “In effect you broken your word, you’re lying.”
When we feel like some is lying or not being straightforward we tend think, this guys a liar, liar!
But, if someone suggests we’re lying… we’re like… oh, no, I’m lying, I’m just more complex and mysterious I’m more like the Liberal Michael Ignatieff than the conservative Stephen Harper, I’m more like John Kerry than George Bush…
We tend to give ourselves, but not out enemy the benefit of the doubt…
When we see people as those made in the image of God… we’re less likely to caricature their vices and just write them off… When we see see God we’re more likely to see their virtues…
If we can see the ONE love in the eyes that hardest to like, we’re more likely to love them.
See God in you enemies and you can love them, see God in yourself and you can love those heard to love with strength and grace.
When we see that we are made in the image of God, we’re more like to relate to our enemies with strength and grace.
Jesus knew who he was, he knew he bore the likeness of God, as God in human flesh, so he was able to respond to his enemies with great strength and grace.
When Jesus stands before Pilate not long before being sentenced to be crucified… when Pilate asks him if he’s a King, Jesus says “I am… but my Kingdom is not of this world…” When Pilate says, “Don’t you realize I have power to free or crucify you?” Jesus says, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above.”
Jesus face to face with the one who will sentence him to an unjust death, responds with great strength and grace.
Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison as political prisoner on Robben Island. While in prison, he ignored any guard if he was referred to by his prison number or racial slur. He acted as if he didn’t hear what was said. He’d say, “I have a name, my name is Nelson Mandela.” He quietly demanded the guards call him by name by not responding if called by anything, but his name. Over time, the guards began to call him by name. They came to have respect Mr. Mandela. As guards came to respect Mandela, he began to exert great influence over the prison.
Nelson Mandela, though a prisoner intuitively recognized that he was made in the image of God, he responded to his enemies with strength and grace.
Dr. Dan Allender a respected Christian psychologist who teaches and practices in Seattle who for a number of years worked closely with Dr. Larry Crabb who spoke here in May, tells the story of a woman…. who strongly suspected her husband was having an affair in different city. For several years he had a habit of spending a couple of extra days in a city after his business meeting claiming he could do more work from his hotel room than at home. She had never flown on her own and had never stayed in a hotel alone, but she flew out to the city and got a room near his suite and watched until he arrived late one night with a woman on his arm.
When they went to breakfast the next morning she waited until they were seated. She spoke warmly to her husband and graciously introduced herself to the woman the other, her “enemy.” She said, “We have a great deal to talk about, but this may not be the appropriate time or place. If you prefer we can talk in private or schedule another time to do so.” Please talk about that between the two of you and I’ll wait in my room for a response. She was in great pain, but she was not hostile. Her husband came back to the room alone, and his wife made it clear that there marriage was over unless he did something radical to deal with the violations of their marriage covenant.”
She didn’t roll over and play dead, she not would tolerated being abused any longer in her marriage, but she acted with strength and grace because she knew she bore the image of God..
See God in others and yourself and you can love your enemy…
Last month, a troubled milkman named Charles Roberts barricaded himself inside the West Nickel Mine Amish School, and murdered five young girls and wounding six others. When police arrived on the scene, Roberts committed suicide. It was a dark day for the Amish community of West Nickel Mines, but it was also a dark day for Marie Roberts—the wife of the gunman—and her two young children.
On the following Saturday, Marie experienced something truly countercultural while attending her husband's funeral. That day, she and her children watched as Amish families—about half of the 75 mourners present—came and stood alongside them in the midst of their own blinding grief. Despite the crime the man had perpetrated them, the Amish came to mourn Charles Carl Roberts—a husband and daddy.
The world needs more than kind of love.
When Nelson Mandela was freed after spending 27 years as political prisoner on Robben Island, he was considered by many to be most powerful person in South Africa, and white Afrikaners were afraid he would use his power… he declared forgave people falsely accused him at his trail, all prison guards who had abused him, all people who had destroy him.
When the South African team the Springboks played the All Blacks in the World Cup Rugby final at Ellis Park in 1995, Mandela as president of South Africa strode onto the turf wearing a green Springbok jersey… controversial because blacks associated the jersey as symbol of a white power… harkening back to the days of apartheid when blacks could play on same teams whites…
The crowd most of whom were white Afrikaners… erupted with cheers…
Mandela realized that white Afrikaners would be feeling sore knowing that they had lost political power and were afraid of losing more of cherished symbols… so Mandela wore the jersey… because… wanted to send the message he was going to stand in solidarity with all South Africans…
When this happened, South Africans say that something palpable changed in the air…
We need more than kind magnanimous forgiveness of our enemies in the world.
Most are us not those Amish of West Nickel mines or like Nelson Mandela, but would want to a little more like and so change our world.
So how do we become like this?
By looking to the life one who said in the Sermon on the Mount, "You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor [h] and hate your enemy.' 44 But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”
Jesus not only preached about this, he modeling in his living and in his dying.
As Gospels, as the movie the Passion of the Christ powerfully portrays, when Jesus was being nailed to the cross, he kept crying out… “Father forgive them because they don’t know what they’re doing! Father forgive them, because they don’t know what they’re doing!”
When we realize that Jesus died on the cross so that the enemies of God, which according the Scriptures we all were at one time or another, could be reconciled to God, we can become people who love our enemies.
See God in your enemy, in yourself, and in face of Jesus Christ and you can love Jesus.
The night before Jesus was crucified, he took bread and broke it… and said, “This is my body given for you…and he took the cup and this is my blood for pour for your forgiveness… I will take the sin and the shame of mine enemies upon myself so the enemies can reconciled to God, experience homecoming…
Whether or not you’re member of this church, if you commit yourself to following Jesus Christ and his way… please do partake of this meal…
As you do… feed on your Christ in your heart by faith and ask him to come and live his life through you making into a person who can love their enemies.
Instruct… (gluten free)
Benedictions:
People friends taking first eve communion, if you decided Jesus and you’ve never been baptized consider following Christ in this of obedience and blessing…
Prayer person in the balcony too.
(The sermon can be heard on line at: http://www.tenth.ca/audio.htm)
posted by Shigematsu at 11:53 AM
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