WHBC
05/12/2024 - Bro. Kason Kuykendall - Luke 6
All right, if you have your Bible, let's go back to the book of Luke, chapter six. The book of Luke, chapter six. And before us today, I'll be honest with you, again, it is a tough, tough scripture. It's a scripture that summarizes the attitude of a Christian which is so counter-cultural, that it's almost hard to even fathom. The scripture represents the most powerful testimony that we can have as children of God. We're looking today at the scripture that tells us to love our enemies. Love your enemies, even when you hear those words, it makes you pause and wonder, can this even be possible? Because the words themselves seem to contradict each other. There are times in my life when I read the scripture, and I stop and I begin to wonder, can I really apply this to my life? Because I feel like I am too weak. I feel like I am too sinful. I feel like, honestly, I'm not strong enough to apply these principles to my life. As we study the scriptures, and not just today, as we study the word of God, it becomes more and more apparent that the life that we are called to is not an easy life. Amen? The life that we are called to is difficult. It is tough, and that is most apparent as we come to this text before us and the sermon on the plane and the gospel of Luke. Now, let me remind you of the setting. As we have seen in our study of Luke, the reputation of Jesus is growing, and it's growing, and it's growing, and because of this, the crowd is getting larger and larger. Lots of folks are coming every chance they get because they want to see Jesus. They want to behold his power. They want to listen to him preach because he preaches like no one they'd ever heard before. They want to see the way that he heals diseases because they hear all these stories about these sick folks who come to Jesus and they are healed, and that sounds amazing. They hear about the demonic possessions where the demon is driven out, and the crowd says, I want to see that, I want to behold that, that is amazing. I want to experience the power of this man, Jesus, because it could be, in the back of their mind, they're thinking it could be that this is the Messiah. No one has ever done anything like this before, and so the crowd is growing, is growing, is getting larger and larger, and there's a great sense of excitement amongst the heart of the people. They can almost taste the political power. We're gonna be something in this kingdom. He's going to set up this kingdom, and there's gonna be power, and there's gonna be wealth, and there's gonna be all these good times, but Jesus comes in this sermon, and he does not meet their expectations. The message that Jesus gives, it has nothing to do with power, but rather it has to do with weakness. They want to hear about man and what man can have, and what man can accomplish, and what man can gain, but that's not what Jesus speaks of. Jesus comes and he says, my kingdom is not of this world. And what he's really saying is this, if you want to be in the kingdom of God, and this applies to every one of us this morning, if you want to be in the kingdom of God, then you've got to live your life differently than everybody else. If you want to be in the kingdom of God, it's not gonna work the way the world operates. So many people are working, and they're running, and they're chasing after the things of the world, and because of that, they are let down time and time and time again, and they are totally exhausted. And so Jesus looks out at this great crowd of people. He looks out as far as the eye can see, there's people, and they have this anticipation and this longing in their heart, and they keep coming up empty over and over and over again. And so Jesus begins to speak truth into their life, and he says, let me tell you how you can live the blessed life. Let me tell you how you can make your life count. And when they begin to listen, it's not what they want to hear. He begins as we looked at in our last session. So he lifted up his eyes to his disciples, and he said, blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Verse 24, he said, but woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. And I remember when we preached about that thinking, that is really, really tough, but I'm convinced that today we have a scripture before us that is even more difficult. A scripture before us that is going to change our life if we can really begin to try to put it into our life, the idea of loving our enemies. And some of you already are thinking, this is good, I'm gonna listen for a few minutes, but there's no way I can apply this to my life. Can I tell you, if we're not gonna take the word of God and apply it to our hearts and let it change us, then we're wasting our time this morning, amen? This is the word of God. We must receive it as the word of God. We must guide our life by this book, by this word. Not what a man thinks, not what people think, but by what the word of God says. And as men and women who are seeking to honor the Lord, it's something that we must take seriously. In Leviticus 18, verses two and three, it says, I am the Lord your guide, you shall not do as they do in the land of Egypt where you lived. There's a different standard for us. Now, put your seat belts on, I feel like I say this every week, we've got a lot to cover and we've got a short amount of time, okay? So are you ready, everybody, give me a head nod. All right, you're ready, okay. Luke six, look at verse 27. We're gonna look at it piece by piece, try to cover as much as we can. Luke six, beginning in verse 27. He says, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies and do good to those who hate you. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who begs from you and from the one who takes away your goods, do not demand it back. Let's go ahead and stop right there for a moment. So the question before us this morning is simply this, how do we love our enemies? It's a good question, right? How do I do that? I see I'm commanded to do so, but how do I apply this to my life? How do I live in such a way so that I love my enemies? I'm glad you asked. Number one, we must differentiate truth from lies. Look back at verse 27. He says, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies. You'll notice there's a contrast, but I say to you this, it reminds me of what Jesus says in the sermon on the Mount back in Matthew five. He says, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. That's what they were living by. They had developed this system. They had devised this plan to where the first thing you've got to do is decide who is your neighbor. And once you decide who your neighbor is, then you can hate everybody else. And so if you define your neighbor as your spouse, as your children, as your family, as your best friends, then it becomes somewhat easy to love them in the way that you love yourself. We all know what it's like to love ourselves. We look out for our own interests, don't we? We wake up in the morning and we try to make our life easy and our life happy and we realize that when we love someone, we are looking to do the same thing for their life. And so they understood that I am to love my neighbor as myself, but then they went a step further and they decided, but everybody else, I can hate. Now, they don't find that in the Word of God. That's not in the Bible. Nowhere in the Bible doesn't say that, but it was their perverted way of thinking. They said, if I'm to love my neighbor, then I can hate everybody else who doesn't fit in that category. Now, the Pharisees would teach this in this day. This is what the Pharisees would say. If a Jew sees a Gentile falling into the sea, let him by no means lift him out, for it is written, "Thou shall not rise up against the blood of thy neighbor, but this man is not thy neighbor." If he's not your neighbor, you don't have to help him. They would say if you see a Gentile drowning stand there and enjoy it because he's not your responsibility. And so in the day that Jesus is speaking, the Romans would charge the Jews with the hatred of the human race. In other words, they were not characterized by love. And so as this mindset is all around in this massive crowd and Jesus comes up and he begins to speak and he says, I know what you've been taught, but I'm telling you, you must love your enemies. That would have totally blown their mind. Jesus is calling us to love people who are not like us. Amen? He's calling us to love people who have different political views than we do. He's calling us to love people who don't look like we look. They don't dress like we dress. He's calling us to love people. This work gets really hard to love people who have really hurt you in life. Anybody here been really hurt in life? You don't have to raise your hand. I know you have, we all have. That's part of life, isn't it? Anybody ever been hurt by someone that you really care about in life? Again, that's most of us. And there's a lot of us in this room and we've got this baggage that we're carrying around with us because someone hurt us and it's hard for us to push through on that. Those are the people that Jesus says that we are to love. I think there's folks who go through their life and they feel a disconnect between themselves and God. Have you ever felt like that? I have. And so what do you do? You say, well, I'm gonna be faithful in church and so you come to church. I'm gonna read my Bible more often. So you start reading your Bible. I'm gonna develop a greater prayer life. And so you go to the Lord and you begin to pray. But it seems like nothing that you're doing is working. You know, it could be that the reason that your spiritual life is short-circuited, the reason that in your spiritual life, it seems like there's a disconnect between the Lord and you is because you've not been able to forgive someone and love them in your life. The Bible makes this very clear. You try to fix it. You wanna fix it, but it seems like nothing you do is right. And so I wanna tell you the truth this morning. The truth is you know something isn't right. And deep down, you know what it is, but the idea of loving the one whom is your enemy, it scares you to death. And I want you to seek the truth from the Lord today because a lot of times we justify how we feel. We justify our actions and we think for some reason, this doesn't apply to me. For some reason, this doesn't apply to my enemy. You don't know what they did to me. You don't know how they hurt me, but you'll see there's no exemption within this text. So we've got to see what the truth is and differentiate that from the lies. But number two, we've got to discern Jesus's calling in our lives. Look back at verse 27 again. But I say to you who hear, love your enemies and do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If we're to love even our enemies, that means that we're to love absolutely everybody. Now, in our English language, we use the word love in a variety of ways. We love our spouse, we love our dog. Many of you love your dog more than you love your spouse. That's a different sermon, we'll get to it. We love pizza, we love good food. We love to go outside and enjoy the day. We talk about love in a variety of ways, but when you get to the New Testament, it's written in the Greek language, and in the Greek language, there are four main words for love. So we're going to do a little word study real quickly. The first one is the word fileo, fileo, okay? Fileo is a brotherly love. You know, the city of Philadelphia, what's it known as the city of brotherly love? And so fileo would show the love of close friends. It's a personal, it's an emotional type of love. Then there's the word eros. Eros is where we get the word erotic from. It's talking about a romantic or a sensual love. It's talking about the love between a husband and a wife, falling in love, being in love. And then there's the word storgae. Storgae refers to that deep love that is between family members. You've got kids, you've got family members that you would do anything in the world for. That is a storgae love. But the love that is used often in the New Testament, the love that we know most is the word agape and agape love. Now, it is a love that is more than the quality of regarding someone else. It is where you put the interest of someone else above your own. Agape love is an unconditional love. Agape love is a sacrificial love. Agape love is the love that God is. First John says God is love. It says God is agape. Agape love is the love that God shows. The Bible says that God shows his agape for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Agape love is a love of choice. It's not a love that is earned. It's not a love that is deserved. Agape love is a selfless love. It is the highest form, the highest quality of all the loves that we could consider. When you get to 1 Corinthians 13 and there's that great chapter on what love is, it's talking about what an agape love is. Agape love is not natural. It's not normal, but rather it is imparted by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans five, five says, but God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. This agape love is the standard of the calling for all who were children of God. And so when we read in Luke six, we read where he says, you are to agape your enemies. You're to love your enemies, not because they have earned it, not because they deserve it, not because they treat you well, not because they make your life easier, not because they even make your life pleasant, but you are to agape, you are to love your enemies because that's what the Father has shown you and called you to do. Now, I'll say this, you can't do it on your own. If you're not bought by the Lord Jesus Christ, if you're not indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, this will be too much. It'll be too hard. You will never be able to do this, but when you are walking in the Holy Spirit of God, you will find the power through him to love your closest friends to your deepest enemies. So he says, love, but then he says, love your enemies. So what is an enemy? We said what love is, what about enemies? You'll notice the word is plural. He doesn't say love your enemy. He says love your enemies, which means you will likely have more than one in your life. In your life, you'll have many folks who fit this category. Now, you may be here and you may not come out and say I have an enemy. You might not come out, but deep down, you know what they are and you know who they are. What is an enemy? Obviously, it's someone that you hate. It's someone that you feel hostility towards in your heart. It's someone that you have animosity for. The word enemy means someone who is not a friend. It's someone that deep down, you would feel pleasure if something bad happened in their life. It's someone that this morning, as we're going through church, if they walk through this front door, all of a sudden your blood pressure would go up and you would begin to feel uneasy. It's someone that you hold resentment towards in your heart because maybe they've wronged you in the past and you can't seem to get over it. If someone who has control over you and you would not like to admit it, but you think about this person more than you should, they have a power over your mind. They have a power over your emotions. Enemy is not a neutral word, but rather it's active. It's something within you that is boiling up. Is there someone in your life who fits these qualities? Think about it for a moment, be real for a second. Is there someone in your life that if you were honest, you would say they fit the category of an enemy. Many of us, if we're honest, we would agree that there probably is. Jesus has the audacity to command us to love those people. Now, you'll notice it's in the present tense. It means that you choose to love them today and you're not gonna wanna love them tomorrow, but you will choose to love them tomorrow also. And you will choose to love them the next day and the next day. And again, this does not come natural. And some of us were already making these excuses. Well, he just doesn't know, I don't know. I don't have to know. Do you know what I'm giving you this morning? I'm giving you the word of God. If you don't like it, take it up with him. Don't take it up with me. I'm giving you the word of God. It's what he says, love your enemies. We come up with these good reasons why we're exempt. I was hurt too badly. I was treated too harshly. The person doesn't deserve my love. What about my rights? What about me? What about what I deserve in life? But there's no exemptions to the command when he says love your enemies. He doesn't say love unless your heart really hurts. He doesn't say love unless it's really hard because the wording itself makes it clear that loving your enemies is one of the most difficult things that we could ever do in life. It says in first John chapter four. If anyone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. So we differentiate the truth from lies. We discern the calling of Jesus in our lives. But thirdly, we dictate our actions by our calling. See, so some of us is what we're gonna do. We're gonna come up with an excuse and we're gonna say, well, I will love them in my heart. You just may not see it. You ever notice that we're good at manipulating things and we're gonna say, well, I love them, but I don't have to show it. Well, I think the Lord knows that we will justify ourself and so that's where he goes next. Look at verse 27. He says, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Listen, bless those who curse you. Pray for those who abuse you. To the one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also. And from one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Do you see what he's calling us to? When someone hates you, do good for that person. That's a word of action, do good in their life. When someone curses you, we're called to bless them. When someone abuses you, pray for them. When someone insults you rather than getting even or trying to defend yourself, you just allow them to insult you again and again. When someone cheats you or someone does something wrong to you, seek their good in life. Be generous, love your enemies. And there's no ulterior motive. Love them because you haven't a gape love towards them. Love them because you want what is best for them. Live in such a way so that you are so selfless that the world sees you and they see that you're distinct, they see that something is different about you. Do you remember Jesus right before his crucifixion? Right before the crucifixion of Jesus, it says in Luke 22, 34, and Jesus said, father forgive them for they know not what they do. Who was he praying for? He was praying for those who were beating him. He was praying for those who were gonna put the nails in his hands and his feet. He was praying for those who were laughing and insulting and seeking to humiliate him. Do you remember Stephen in the book of Acts? Stephen is there and he's got a strong witness for the Lord and all of a sudden they get angry and they start to stone Stephen. They were stoning Stephen and the Bible says that Stephen cried out and he said, "Lord, do not hold this sin against them." Can you imagine that? Someone's trying to kill you. They've got the biggest rock they can find and they're trying to slam it against the back of your head as hard as they can. And you pray, father, please don't hold this against them. That's the kind of love that we're talking about. And you think, well, why is this so important? You seem like this is important. Why does this matter? If we learn to love like this, if we truly apply this principle to our life, it will manifest that we belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. It will be a powerful, powerful testimony to everyone else. Look at verse 32. If you love those who love you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what benefit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to get back the same amount, but love your enemies and do good and lend expecting nothing in return, but your reward will be great and you will be sons of the most high. For he is kind to the ungrateful and to the evil. Be merciful even as your father is merciful. It says in John 13, "By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you come to church every Sunday." That's not what he says. "By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you read your Bible five minutes a day." That's not what he says. "By this all people will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another." And so what I'm asking you to do is I'm asking you to do something that's really difficult, something that's really hard in life. I'm asking you to pray and say, "Lord, I realize this is your word to my life." It's hard, but I realize that you expect something great out of my heart and out of my life. And so Lord, I'm asking you to show me people that I don't love, people who are my enemies or people who I'm just neutral towards. Lord, I'm praying that you will give me the power to love them. You see, the way that we will win the world around us is if we share the love of Jesus. We're gonna close with, I've got a video, it's about a minute and a half long, and many of you have seen it before, but it just proves this point so well. And it shows what it can do when we love in this way. This is the video of a court trial of a young man, and he is on the witness stand, and his brother was shot and killed. The police officer went into his brother's apartment, and his brother was sitting on the couch eating ice cream, and the police officer went into the apartment, thanking it was her own apartment, but it was not. And she went in and she actually killed this man as he sat on the couch in his own apartment. And so she was on trial, and I want you to see just a little bit of what took place. I can speak for myself, I forgive you, and I know if you go to God and ask him, he will forgive you. And I don't think anyone could say it. Again, I'm speaking for myself, not even bad for my family, but I love you just like anyone else. And I'm not gonna say, I hope you rot and die, just like my brother did, but I personally want the best for you. And I wasn't gonna ever say this in front of my family or anyone, but I don't even want you to go to jail. I want the best for you. Because I know that's what, that's exactly what both of them would want you to do. And the best would be, give your life to Christ. I'm not gonna say anything else. I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing that both of them would want you to do. Again, I love you as a person, and I don't wish anything bad on you. I don't know if this is possible, but can I give her a hug, please? Please. Yes. And so this goes on and they embrace each other. And I just want you to see, that's the calling right here. That's the call, that's the agape love right here. This woman went in and killed his brother. His brother did nothing wrong and he is there on that stand and he's calling out that I want what's best for you. And what's best for you is for you to give your life to Christ. He says, I love you and he wants to hug this lady who has done nothing but brought bad things into his life and into the life of his family. And you know what it shouts? It shouts out Jesus. It shouts out Jesus, the goodness of God. We have experienced the love of Jesus and we did not earn it, we did not deserve it, but he still loves us. And when we receive so much of that, then we will be quick to show that love to others. And when we live like that, when you go to your job and you love people that don't deserve it, everybody's gonna take notice. Young people, when you go to school and you love kids who are mean and disrespectful towards you, all your classmates will notice. When we go and we are people who are characterized by love, we will change the world around us. It doesn't mean it's easy, but that's the way that we show what we are. So I wanna ask you to close your eyes. And I want you to ask yourself, Lord, what are you calling me to do today? Lord, what do you want out of me? When you go back to the beginning of the text that we have studied, he says this, "But I say to you who hear." See, there's a lot of folks who will hear this text and they will hear it, but they won't really listen to it. I'm talking to those of us that will hear it and apply it to our life. What do we do? What do we apply it? We say, Lord, who in my life am I not loving well? Maybe I'm holding a grudge, maybe I'm resentful towards, maybe they have done me wrong and it's hard for me to get over. Lord, would you show those folks to me? And Lord, by the power of your Holy Spirit, would you impart that agape love so that I can love everyone, even my enemies, and so that the world around me will see your power in my life. So maybe for you today, there needs to be a phone call. There needs to be a text message. There needs to be something done to show love that hasn't been done in a long time. Maybe for you, you hear about that agape love and you realize the Lord loves you like that and you need to surrender your heart and your life to the Lord Jesus Christ. Maybe you're looking for a church home. Lord, I pray that you have challenged us this morning. We thank you for your goodness, Lord. Pray that you've shown us what you want, what you expect out of our lives. And I pray, Lord, that we will be obedient. We will hear your words even when it's not easy and we'll apply those to our life and we'll live in such a way that brings you great honor in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Stand and let's sing together. ♪ God sent His Son ♪ ♪ They called Him Jesus ♪ ♪ He came to love ♪ ♪ He'll end for again ♪ ♪ He bled and died ♪ ♪ To buy my pardon ♪ ♪ An empty grave is there to prove ♪ ♪ My Savior lives ♪ ♪ Because He lives ♪ ♪ I can face tomorrow ♪ ♪ Because He lives ♪ ♪ All fear is gone ♪ ♪ Because I know ♪ ♪ He holds the future ♪ ♪ And life is worth a living ♪ ♪ Just because He lives ♪ ♪ How sweet to hold ♪ ♪ A newborn man ♪ ♪ And feel bright ♪ ♪ And joy He hears ♪ ♪ But greater still ♪ ♪ The calm assurance ♪ ♪ This child can face uncertain days ♪ ♪ Because Christ lives ♪ ♪ Because ♪ (gentle guitar music) (gentle guitar music) (gentle guitar music) (gentle guitar music) (gentle guitar music) - Amen, you can be seated just for a moment. And again, thank you for being here. This is a good, good crowd. My problem is some of you like to sit in the back. And so one of these days, we're gonna get you up here in this front section and tell me that'll be a good day, won't it? All right, thank you so much. Hope you have a great, great day. Now remember, we've got a special time for our ladies right after this, and that's in the grand hall right behind us. Great food, great breakfast, and an encouraging word from Miss Tammy Whitehurst. I say breakfast, I know it's more like brunch/lunch at this point, but it's going to be really, really good. So ladies will be there, men, we need you to help, be there, and serve. And if you're looking for a Bible study, a life group for the Greg Stewart is still gonna be teaching his life group, and he does a terrific job. And so if you're looking for more Bible study, that class will be going on, and they would love to have you with them. No activities tonight except for our 445 Life Group with Brother Robert. So be here for that. That's gonna be a great, great time. Regular activities on Wednesday. Let me see what I'm missing. Hill Toppers Tuesday at 11, and the next Sunday evening is Life Group Connect. And so get with your Life Group, find out what's going on, and be a part of that. And this morning we have Trent. Trent, come on up, and y'all come with him. Trent is a student in our Academy, and has been a great blessing, and he has accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior. Amen, we're so proud of you Trent. Sarah is his teacher. There's a great job investing in these lives, and so we're so excited about what's happening. So we're gonna pray, and then after that, come and shake his hand, let him know that you'll be praying for him, and then we will move along, and I hope you have such a good, good day. All right, well, let's pray together, okay? Tommy, would you pray for us, please? 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