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[3386.78 --> 3393.40] and do all the good you can. Again, it's not saying be a doormat or a pushover and don't remain in those |
[3393.40 --> 3402.26] toxic relationships, but don't simply just do no harm. Do good. Live righteously. Let the ultimate |
[3402.26 --> 3405.08] judge rule over your life as you live this way. |
[3405.08 --> 3414.02] Jesus doubles down on this message in the next chunk of text because he calls us to love our |
[3414.02 --> 3419.70] enemies. Now, I don't think Jesus pulls any punches here. He's very clear. Listen to what he says in |
[3419.70 --> 3425.62] verses 43 to 48, and I kind of summarize a little bit here. He says, I tell you, love your enemies and |
[3425.62 --> 3430.32] pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of the Father in heaven. If you love those |
[3430.32 --> 3435.72] who love you, what reward will you get? If you only greet your own people, what are you doing more |
[3435.72 --> 3441.12] than the others? Don't even the pagans do that? He's saying rather boldly, everyone loves those who |
[3441.12 --> 3448.16] are good to them. Everyone loves those who loves them back. If you're loving those who love you, great. |
[3448.40 --> 3454.48] Like, keep doing that. But also, kind of, who cares? That's not a very high bar again. |
[3454.48 --> 3462.08] Jesus is telling you, love your enemies. Pray for them. Pray for their well-being, their lives, |
[3462.40 --> 3467.24] the things that they are going through. That's the bar of holiness that Jesus is setting. That's the |
[3467.24 --> 3475.94] bar that we're to aim to here. So when we go, that's where it means. We are to go to our enemies, |
[3476.36 --> 3481.58] to live selflessly with those who we call enemies. Now, this isn't the only time Jesus calls for this. |
[3481.58 --> 3484.96] We actually did a whole sermon series in the summer, if you recall, on the parables. |
[3485.52 --> 3488.44] And one of the parables we talked about was the parable of the good Samaritan. |
[3489.06 --> 3493.84] Now, there's a lot in that parable, but one of the key points was that it was the Samaritan |
[3493.84 --> 3498.64] that saved this beaten man. It was the Samaritan who was the enemy |
[3498.64 --> 3507.14] who saved this man. The enemy was the neighbor. The enemy was the one who cared. |
[3507.14 --> 3513.10] That's who we are called to be, the one who cares for those who are our enemies. |
[3515.08 --> 3522.44] But it begs the question, doesn't it? Who are our enemies? As Christians, who are our enemies? |
[3525.10 --> 3529.40] Now, again, for some of you sitting today, you might have some very clear ideas about who your |
[3529.40 --> 3533.90] enemies are, and I am not here to minimize that. Maybe it's someone who has wronged you or treated you |
[3533.90 --> 3538.50] unfairly in the past. Maybe it's someone who's taken advantage of you or abused you. Some of you |
[3538.50 --> 3545.26] have real enemies. Enemies we need to turn the other cheek and remove ourselves from, as we discussed |
[3545.26 --> 3551.78] earlier. Enemies we need to find help so that we remain safe. And yet also, enemies that Jesus calls |
[3551.78 --> 3560.26] us to pray for, as hard as that may be. Some of you have lived through wars. Some of our older members |
[3560.26 --> 3565.42] here might remember World War II and have lived through the horrors of that day, of that season, |
[3565.56 --> 3572.56] sorry. Watching evil rain down on people. Real tangible enemies. We've helped refugee families |
[3572.56 --> 3578.28] in this church. Families who've lived through similar horrors. I mean, right now, there's stories of |
[3578.28 --> 3583.92] Christians around the world who have enemies persecuting you. They know who they are. A quick Google |
[3583.92 --> 3589.32] search found stories of Ukrainian Christians helping wounded Russian soldiers or Christians praying |
[3589.32 --> 3596.38] for peace in Myanmar amongst sort of the ongoing war happening there. Or Christians feeding those |
[3596.38 --> 3601.72] who persecute them in Nigeria. You can get stuck in an internet wormhole hearing these stories. We know |
[3601.72 --> 3609.70] they're happening. We hear it all the time. Christians serving their enemies when war rains down. |
[3609.70 --> 3619.88] But who are our enemies here? Like for many of us here today, we're pretty blessed. As Christians who |
[3619.88 --> 3624.46] have lived in Canada most of our lives, even for some of us lived in this Fraser Valley most of our |
[3624.46 --> 3631.10] lives, if not all of it. Who are our enemies? We don't really have any, do we? |
[3631.10 --> 3638.48] The thing is, we do. Because you see, what's happening in our culture, and this isn't just |
[3638.48 --> 3644.32] Christians, though we as Christians are as included in this group as anybody else, but in our culture, we |
[3644.32 --> 3650.94] create our enemies. We've been taught by the world around us a bunch of lies. We've been taught that if |
[3650.94 --> 3655.62] someone thinks differently than you, you must fear or hate them. Or if someone disagrees with you, you are |
[3655.62 --> 3661.66] intolerant, and then they must hate you. Or we're taught, if you don't submit to my views on social |
[3661.66 --> 3667.20] matters, or identity politics, or hot-button issues surrounding political affairs, or human rights, or |
[3667.20 --> 3674.88] pandemic restrictions, if I dare say, you must be my enemy. See, we're so polarized in our culture right now. |
[3674.88 --> 3679.12] If they don't think or act like we do, we isolate from them. |
[3679.12 --> 3687.76] If we disagree with a stance, we remove ourselves from the equation. Actually, we're told that if, |
[3688.42 --> 3694.84] we're not told, sorry, to remove ourselves from the equation, we are told to remove them from the equation. |
[3696.12 --> 3703.08] If internet message boards have taught us anything over the past five to ten years, we go on tirades over articles |
[3703.08 --> 3705.90] that we actually never read, or videos that we actually never watched. |
[3705.90 --> 3713.58] And instead of turning the cheek, we see headlines of issues that we disagree with, and out comes the |
[3713.58 --> 3722.76] keyboard warrior in all of us. Before you disagree with me, I see it happen a lot, over and over again |
[3722.76 --> 3728.00] on Facebook mostly, but Instagram as well, with members of this church, and people I know beyond this |
[3728.00 --> 3735.32] church too, with issues that quite frankly, just don't need engaging online. And instead of turning that |
[3735.32 --> 3740.76] proverbial cheek, we lean into our screens and we damage our keyboards or our phones because we're |
[3740.76 --> 3750.60] typing so hard. We just go at people. Because if we disagree, we've got to fight for our truths, for our |
[3750.60 --> 3760.04] views, for our beliefs. But you don't have to fight, especially online. We need to discuss, not fight. The |
[3760.04 --> 3765.08] problem is, not only do people engage these discussions poorly, without tact and without |
[3765.08 --> 3771.96] love, but we're also now starting to not engage these things at all. We're becoming so polarized as a |
[3771.96 --> 3781.40] culture that the algorithms that are used to feed you the information online are just pumping you stuff |
[3781.40 --> 3786.28] that you already agree with. Because that's what matters online, is your engagement. That's how the |
[3786.28 --> 3791.00] internet works. It gives you what you want to read. It's why when you start watching like a cooking video, |
[3791.32 --> 3795.66] or you watch like four of those in a row on Facebook or on Instagram, guess what's going to be in your |
[3795.66 --> 3801.96] feed the next three weeks? Cooking videos. The thing is, that's happening with the political articles you're |
[3801.96 --> 3807.24] reading, and it's happening with the pandemic news you're receiving the past few years. It's happening |
[3807.24 --> 3814.68] with everything. You're not getting both sides of the story. Just one very loud side that you already |
[3814.68 --> 3821.08] kind of agree with and lean towards. So confirmation bias, no matter what side of the argument you're on, |
[3821.08 --> 3826.28] wins out. And echo chambers start ringing very loudly, and that creates a massive problem, because |
[3826.28 --> 3834.92] the other side of the argument has now become your enemy. We're so polarized already as a culture, |
[3834.92 --> 3840.52] and we're creating false enemies that, and we don't even know because we don't ever really |
[3840.52 --> 3849.48] meaningfully listen to the other side. Craig Turnbull, in an article titled The Anti-Fragile |
[3849.48 --> 3855.76] Christian, speaks to this truth when he's discussing how we have become a culture that creates |
[3855.76 --> 3857.88] our own enemies. He says this, he says, |
[3857.88 --> 3866.12] Intolerant of differences, words are viewed as violence, debates as toxic, and disagreements |
[3866.12 --> 3872.92] as assaults on self-sovereignty. The concept of trauma is bloated to now include anything that's |
[3872.92 --> 3878.60] done against individual truths. And the obsession with eliminating threats, both real and perceived, |
[3879.16 --> 3882.60] celebrates the title of victim whenever it is convenient to do so. |
[3882.60 --> 3889.48] Now again, just stepping away from this for a second, there are real victims out there. There is |
[3889.48 --> 3895.88] real trauma out there. Some of you have experienced both or are experiencing both, and to you we want |
[3895.88 --> 3900.60] to help you. Please understand that we know that there are real people hurting, real victims out there, |
[3900.60 --> 3902.84] and real trauma that exists. And yet, |
[3902.84 --> 3913.32] those real situations are minimized by exactly what Craig is saying here. That we are celebrating |
[3913.32 --> 3919.32] victimhood to the point that we are creating enemies out of good, well-meaning people who might just think |
[3919.32 --> 3925.80] differently than you. We don't actually have enemies, but we create them every day because our world is |
[3925.80 --> 3932.68] divided on everything. And one last thing, if you're sitting here today thinking, oh man, I really hope |
[3932.68 --> 3937.32] the left-wingers are hearing this, or I really hope the right-wingers are, or I hope the pro-choice |
[3937.32 --> 3943.40] people are tuned in, or the pro-life folks are, or the anti-this or the alt-that or the other side of |
[3943.40 --> 3948.52] the argument is listening very clearly, you are emphatically proving my point. |
[3948.52 --> 3957.56] If you are thinking the other side right now, wishing them to understand this, you are guilty of |
[3957.56 --> 3965.00] victimizing yourself right in this moment and making an enemy of the other side. Because that is how |
[3965.00 --> 3972.60] polarization works. You see, the majority of us don't really have enemies. But we live in a culture that |
[3972.60 --> 3977.08] sure likes to create them for us. And we are guilty of following that culture. |
[3981.88 --> 3988.76] And so those enemies, or more accurately, to those people who might think or act differently than you, |
[3988.76 --> 3999.08] or have different opinions than you, Jesus gives this command. Love them and pray for them. But don't |
[3999.08 --> 4008.04] just love them. Go above and beyond for them. Walk the extra mile for them, or with them. Give them |
[4008.04 --> 4015.64] your coat. Serve them. Be with them. Don't fight back. Whether you're online reading some dumb Facebook |
[4015.64 --> 4023.16] article or stepping into an actual physical altercation, don't fight back. Be the bringer of peace. |
[4023.16 --> 4031.56] Please engage the conversation with love. Jesus is our example here. He led in this way. Jesus not only |
[4031.56 --> 4039.64] led in this way, he lived this way. And he died this way. Read 1 Peter with me. 1 Peter 2, 21 to 24, |
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