Collierville First Baptist Church

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Well, I was asked a few moments ago. Basically. Am I going to step on toes tonight? I'm not stepping on anybody's toes. I'm. I'm teaching the word of God. Okay. You know who's going to step on our toes, including mine, tonight. Jesus, Jesus. And I promise you this. If he steps on our toes, he steps on our toes for a good reason.

00;00;32;02 - 00;00;56;15
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Because he wants us to live holy and pure lives. He wants us to bring honor and glory to him. He wants us to produce the fruit of righteousness in the way we live. And I pray that that you will not put up your guard tonight, that you will remove your guard and allow the Holy Spirit to take the Word of God and use it in our lives tonight.

00;00;56;17 - 00;01;37;07
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Tonight's message, the title is When love is tough. When love is tough. Now turning your Bible to Matthew, chapter five, verse 43 to 48. By now you know the pattern that is obvious in the sermon on the Mount. Jesus said multiple times, you have heard, but I say to you now when he says you have heard, he refers back to the Old Testament Scripture, and he takes the Old Testament truth to a whole new level.

00;01;37;09 - 00;02;36;17
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And Jesus has the authority as the son of the living God, to speak authoritatively into our lives. And, our job is to listen and to obey. All right. In this text tonight, Jesus took the concept of love and stretched it to its fullest meaning. I remember when I was a little boy, I would take my old bicycle inner tubes, and I cut them up in strips and I would find, a branch had a fork, and I'd make a slingshot and I'd find rocks or something, and I'd pull that thing back, stretch it as far as I could to get the maximum force from that little rock.

00;02;36;20 - 00;03;13;28
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And that's what Jesus does here. On the subject of love. Now, if I were to do a survey here tonight before we ever start with the Word of God, and I ask you about your concept of Christian love, I wonder what you would say. I wonder if our concept that we is our default position. I wonder if our concept would come close to what Jesus has emphasized here tonight in our text.

00;03;14;00 - 00;03;44;20
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Love. When love is tough. Normal religious people will never buy into these demands that Jesus is mentioning here. Nor would normal religious leaders ever make these kind of demands. The Pharisees didn't make these kind of demands. The Sadducees didn't make these kinds of demands. The the priests didn't make these kind of demands. This came from the son of the living God.

00;03;44;23 - 00;04;09;27
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Now, most people who read our our text tonight. Hey, have you ever done this? Have you ever had a big meeting in the morning? And let's say it's a 7:00 meeting and you set your your clock. You set your alarm clock ahead half an hour to make sure you're not going to be late for that morning appointment. You ever done that?

00;04;09;29 - 00;04;36;06
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I've done that. I've done it. I don't have that problem anymore because I'm much older and I wake up real early in the morning, real early in the morning. So now listen, we're going to dive into this scripture. We're going to examine this concept of Christian love. And the first way I want us to look at is the examination of love.

00;04;36;07 - 00;05;14;06
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Look at verse 43. Jesus said, you have heard that. It was said again, he's going back to the Old Testament. You've heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. Now Jesus quoted from Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18. Where the Bible says, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But I want you to see how the religious leaders, booger that up, okay?

00;05;14;07 - 00;05;47;10
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They really bug booger did up. The compromise that they, that they inserted here, they left out the two words as yourself. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. That's what it says in Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18. They left that out, and then they inserted something. You shall love your neighbor. You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.

00;05;47;12 - 00;06;09;15
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That's what they inserted. That's what they were teaching. The only problem with that is it's not biblical. Can I can I just be honest with you? When you take the Word of God and you start deleting things out of the Word of God and inserting things in the Word of God, you can you can paint yourself into a corner.

00;06;09;19 - 00;06;37;29
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Have you ever painted yourself into a corner? You know, you paint, paint, paint, and then you look up and realize that you all the wet paint is out here in front of you, and you're in a corner, and there's no way to get out without messing up. Paint. Don't ever paint yourself in a corner by deleting something from the Word of God that doesn't quite suit you, and inserting something in there that's more palatable to you.

00;06;38;01 - 00;07;06;28
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That's what they did. And then the command of the master. So Jesus said, but I say to you, now, do you see what Jesus did here? Jesus put him at the same level himself at the same level as God, by the way, he has every right to do that because he is God. Jesus is fully God. Jesus is fully man.

00;07;07;01 - 00;07;43;19
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And so he comes and he says, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Can you imagine again? I imagine being there at the sermon on the Mount by the Sea of Galilee, beautiful Sea of Galilee. You're surrounded by, the beautiful scenery of Galilee.

00;07;43;19 - 00;08;25;11
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And and Jesus is teaching. And suddenly you hear him say, love your enemy. How do you think that went over? I bet there were some folks whose mouth dropped wide open, whose eyes got very big, because that's totally contradictory to what the religious group was teaching. We're so prone to love only those who are like us. Those who were prone to only love, those who love us and not those who don't do not love us.

00;08;25;13 - 00;08;47;11
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To be a follower of Jesus. Let me make this very clear. To be a follower of Jesus. You and I have to do what he tells us to do. We have to live in obedience to him, and sometimes he he asks things of us is hard. And I'm not going to lie to you. What we're going to look at tonight is hard.

00;08;47;13 - 00;09;15;06
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It's hard, but it's biblical. In John chapter 13, verse 34 and and 35. The Lord Jesus told his disciples, just before he is crucified, a new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I've loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.

00;09;15;07 - 00;09;57;13
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So how does anybody know that we're a true disciple of Jesus? According to John 1334 and 35, people know that we're true disciples of Jesus is if we really, truly love people, even people that are not like us, even people that don't love us back. Even people that get on our ever loving nerves. We're to love them. In his book, The Gospel According to Jesus, Chris, he mentions a profound lesson he learned from his father.

00;09;57;15 - 00;10;25;16
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Back in the days when the Houston Astros played in the Astrodome. Remember the Astrodome? Remember those colorful uniforms the Astros wore? Well, Chris, say, dad, when Chris was a little boy, took him to, the Astrodome to watch Astros play a lot, and they set up in the outfield high seats because they were the cheapest seats, because they didn't have much money.

00;10;25;19 - 00;10;54;19
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And those cheap seats were the place, place where, people would buy the cheap seats so they could have more money to buy beer. And after a few innings, they were drunk. And by the time the seventh inning stretch rolled around, there were peanut shells and spilled beer all over the stands. And there would be a brawl.

00;10;54;22 - 00;11;38;10
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Always a brawl out there in the outfield stands. And as a kid, Chris learned that they were sitting with the bad people. There was one consistent drunk fan out there. His name. Nickname was Betty Bob. Betty, Bob and Betty. Bob wore a colorful Houston Astros color type wig to the game, and he would lead the cheers or slur the cheers during the game for the Astros.

00;11;38;13 - 00;12;14;15
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And one time, his dad went and sat and talked with Betty Bob, and he sat with him the whole game. And after the game, Betty Bob walked out to the parking lot with Chris and his dad, and his dad invited Betty Bob to come home with them. And his dad invited Betty Bob to spend 2 or 3 days with them to get back on his feet.

00;12;14;17 - 00;12;47;27
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And it taught Chris a profound lesson. Betty Bob couldn't do anything for them, but they could certainly do something for Betty Bob. And Chris, Chris's dad, showed him what Christian love really is. And it was a profound lesson that Chris never forgot. Now, I don't want you to miss this. Jesus has issued a command to everybody in this forum.

00;12;48;03 - 00;13;18;16
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If you're a born again believer, you are not exempt. If you're going to heaven, you are not exempt. You are to love your enemies. Love your enemies. Say it's hard. Jesus never said it was easy. In fact, Jesus made a lot of demands upon those who are believers that are hard. You know what Jesus said? He said, if anyone wishing to come after me.

00;13;18;19 - 00;13;55;01
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Luke 923. If anyone wishing to come after me, let him deny himself. Take up his cross daily and follow me. Now that's not easy, is it? But that's what we're to do. We've seen other things here in chapter five that are very difficult for us, like forgiving people. A lot of things here in chapter five of these, these you've heard it said.

00;13;55;01 - 00;14;00;05
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But I say to you.

00;14;00;08 - 00;14;24;24
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Now, I want to dig a little deeper into this concept of love and look, number two at the expression of love. Look at Matthew 544 again. Let's just dig into a little deeper. But I say to you, love your enemies. Now the word love there, there are different great words for love. But this Greek word is a word agape.

00;14;24;27 - 00;14;59;21
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Now, Jesus is not referring to the love you have for a friend. That's a totally different Greek word. He's not talking about the kind of sexual love a husband and wife shared together. Not talking about that kind of love. He's zeroing in on a supernatural kind of love that is unconditional. It's unconditional. This kind of love defines who God is, and it defines who the followers of Jesus Christ are.

00;14;59;23 - 00;15;48;19
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I want you to look at First John chapter four, verses 7 to 12, and I want you to take out your pen or your pencil, and I want you to circle every time in first John chapter four, verses seven through 12, that the word love is you. Just circle it for me.

00;15;48;22 - 00;16;24;15
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Okay, now count it up and tell me how many there are. I got 13. If you count, beloved, you can say it's 40 to 40. So now remember, one of the the principles of Bible interpretation is that when you see a term or a phrase repeated multiple times, it's like the Spirit of God is saying, you remember the old railroad tracks when you were growing up.

00;16;24;22 - 00;16;59;11
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I remember when I was growing up, they didn't have those arms that stopped looking. Listen. Remember that. I think that's what it means when we come across a term or a phrase that's repeated multiple times. It's like the Spirit of God is saying, stop. Look, listen. That's what he's saying to us. If you want to know how important Christian love is in the kingdom of God, there's your answer right there.

00;16;59;13 - 00;17;16;18
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It's very, very important. And then there's the manner of love. Love is an action verb. Take your Bible and just flip over for just a moment to first Corinthians 13.

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First Corinthians 13.

00;17;22;21 - 00;17;58;08
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I always do this when I'm doing premarital cancer. In fact, I got a premarital counseling appointment tomorrow and I've already gone over this this section with this young couple. And the thing I want you to notice is that these are, the uses of love is its action. Notice verse four. Love is patient, is patient. Love is kind.

00;17;58;10 - 00;18;34;08
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Love is not jealous. Love does not brag and is not arrogant. Love does not act unbecoming. It does not seek its own. Is not provoked. Does not take into account a wrong suffered. Love, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. And my favorite one of all is this one love never fails.

00;18;34;10 - 00;19;17;13
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It never fails. This is a gap I love this. This is love that God expects out of those who are believers now. And in Romans chapter five verse eight, the Bible says, but God demonstrated his love toward us, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. That's the action of love, God's kind of love. And notice what what Jesus says in this verse say, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

00;19;17;16 - 00;19;50;18
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Pray for those who persecute you. Following Jesus will guarantee you at some level, that you will face some type of persecution in your life. It could be low level persecution, or it could be like that, that that that American pastor in South Africa that was abducted during a church service he'd been missing for days. And I guess it was last night or something, or today, early morning or something.

00;19;50;20 - 00;20;13;26
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But the the authorities found him, found the guys who took him. And this pastor was in the car with these guys, and they stopped him, and there was a hail of bullets, and they killed 2 or 3 of their abductors. And this pastor's in the same car and doesn't even get a neck from a bullet. How do you describe that?

00;20;13;28 - 00;20;53;10
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How do you explain that? That's God, that's God. So following Jesus will guarantee you that you will face being ostracized. You'll be. You may face losing out on a job or a promotion, or you may even be like this pastor who is abducted, or you may even become a martyr for the faith. Now, your persecutors or enemies may not be those who kill your family or steal you blind.

00;20;53;12 - 00;21;00;24
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They could be simply be mean spirited. If you have been around a mean spirited person.

00;21;00;26 - 00;21;20;11
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Have you ever been around a person that's hard headed, or spiteful or bitter or self-righteous or full of pride? Hey, they may be members of your own family. You may play golf with them. You may work with them. You may even go to church with them.

00;21;20;13 - 00;21;27;07
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People say, well, I don't go to church because much hypocrites there.

00;21;27;09 - 00;22;03;20
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Let me tell you, the church is a place where saved sinners congregate. Amen. We're not perfect. We're in the stage of sanctification. Okay. And what amazes me is people who use that excuse not to come to church. They'll go to target. Tell me they're not hypocrites. Target. They'll go to Kroger or Costco. You tell me they're not hypocrites at Kroger or Costco.

00;22;03;23 - 00;22;42;00
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Hypocrites everywhere. You know why I come to church? I come to church to worship Jesus. That's why I come to church. I don't care if I'm surrounded by hypocrites. I'm coming to worship Jesus. Amen. In the 19th century, missionaries traveled to to Africa to share the gospel with a group of people who were cannibals. You know what a cannibal is, don't you?

00;22;42;03 - 00;23;02;04
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You know. And his name was Bishop Hammington. He went to Uganda. He shared the gospel with them. And they they killed him. And they ate him.

00;23;02;06 - 00;23;30;24
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Do you know what his two sons did? His two sons went to Uganda. Found the group that killed and ate his dad. Their dad. And they shared the gospel with him and poured their heart into him. And those guys were saved. They were saved. They were trained. And here's what. Here's what the Ugandans who ate their dad said.

00;23;30;27 - 00;24;05;02
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So when he was being led to his death, here's they said that Bishop Hammington kept repeating over and over and over again. Love your enemies. Love your enemies. Could you do that? You know. I'm not sure we can sit here and say, 100% sure would do that, because I believe that God gives grace for those kind of moments.

00;24;05;04 - 00;24;17;05
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I honestly believe that God gives martyrs grace to people who are willing to die for their faith. I believe that.

00;24;17;08 - 00;24;54;07
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But it's very important that we don't ignore what Jesus is teaching here. There are people in your life right now. That most people might say they're your enemies. But Jesus says, I want you to love them. And I want you to what? Second thing, what does he want you to do? Pray for them. Pray for them. I guarantee you, Bishop Hamilton's sons spend a lot of time praying before they went to Uganda.

00;24;54;09 - 00;25;25;19
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And you know what? Prayer may not change them, but prayer will change you. It'll change you. Here's what I've discovered. If I want to avoid a spirit of bitterness toward somebody that had done something to me, the smartest thing I can do is get on my knees and pray for them every day. I promise you this. You cannot have bitterness towards somebody or unforgiveness towards somebody that you pray for regularly.

00;25;25;21 - 00;25;54;18
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And it keeps them from becoming your enemy. It's an expression of your love for them. And then thirdly, I want to look at the excellence of love. Now the Bible says God is love. Okay. Let's look at first John four verses 16 to 20 and 20. We've come to know and have believed the love which God has for us.

00;25;54;20 - 00;26;20;05
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Now look at it. You ought to underline this, that God is love. God is love. And the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. If someone says, I love God, boy, everybody is quick to say, I love God.

00;26;20;07 - 00;26;54;17
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But the Bible says, if you say that you love God and hate your brother, you are a liar. I didn't call you a liar. The scriptures call you a liar. If you say that you love God and you hate your brother, the Bible says you're a liar. I hope and pray you wore your steel toed shoes tonight because the Lord Jesus is doing some stomping on our toes, isn't he?

00;26;54;19 - 00;27;20;16
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But this is the Word of God. This is what he expects out of us. Now look at this. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. For the one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. Now that makes sense, doesn't it? Does your life just look at your own life?

00;27;20;17 - 00;27;38;08
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Does it reflect the nature of God? Does it reflect this kind of love? Remember, by this all men will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another.

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Who can argue with that?

00;27;43;21 - 00;28;19;06
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Look at the measure of love. Verses 45 to 47. For he causes his son issue. And to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. That's what God the Father does, he? Look, he doesn't just provide rain for your garden. He provides rain for the most evil man in Kabul.

00;28;19;09 - 00;28;56;27
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And he goes on to say, for if you love those who love you. What reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You see, when he mentions tax collectors and Gentiles, he's talking about people who would be considered enemies by the Jewish people.

00;28;57;00 - 00;29;14;25
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Enemies. And Jesus is saying to the Jewish people, to the Jewish religious leaders, I want you to love tax collectors, and I want you to love Gentiles.

00;29;14;28 - 00;29;46;04
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God's love is indiscriminate. As disciples of Jesus, we are required. We are required to demonstrate a kind of love that goes beyond normal human parameters and leaches over into the supernatural. Have you ever got down on your knees, confronted by the Word of God about loving people that are tough to love? And you get down on your knees and you say, and you're just honest with the Lord.

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You say, Lord, it's hard for me to love that person.

00;29;53;02 - 00;30;23;17
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But Lord, I ask you that through your Holy Spirit that you would help me to love that person. Lord, I can't do it, but I believe that you can do it through me. That's the kind of prayer that God honors. That is a legitimate prayer for us to pray. When we come up against somebody that's tough to love.

00;30;23;19 - 00;30;58;13
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George Wallace Sanders said this. He said the master expects from his disciples such conduct as as can only be explained in the terms of the supernatural. Like we just talked a few minutes ago about something supernatural happened. We talked about this missionary that I know. I've been praying. We've been praying as a church. I know that people all over America, I've been pray who are Christians have been praying for this missionary, this pastor.

00;30;58;16 - 00;31;05;12
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And bullets are flying everywhere. He doesn't even get a nick.

00;31;05;15 - 00;31;47;24
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In it's supernatural. But beyond bullets. It's supernatural. When you and I choose to obey Jesus and ask for the Holy Spirit's help in loving somebody, that's really tough to love. That's supernatural. Jesus didn't save us. I spoke to the seniors in here last night, and I talked about how Christianity has has devolved into what I call, Nerf ball Christianity.

00;31;47;27 - 00;32;15;26
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It's soft and makes low impact. And I tell you, I told the seniors, I said, listen, Jesus didn't go to the cross and spill his blood for you. So that you could be a Nerf ball. Christian. Soft and low impact. So he died for you so that you would deny yourself. Take up your cross daily and follow him.

00;32;15;29 - 00;32;50;18
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We had a great time in here last night. So let's go back just a moment. You. I'm going to tell you a story. It's a story that goes back to the apartheid days in South Africa. It was a dear, godly family, African-American. And the, a group of white policemen.

00;32;50;21 - 00;33;33;11
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Took the son. Of this dear Christian woman and killed him, then took the husband. And killed him. And the last thing he told his wife was forgive them. Forgive them. Can you imagine? And there was, a hearing. And at the trial, as a judge wrapped up, he asked this godly Christian lady what she wanted in the way of punishment for this.

00;33;33;14 - 00;34;08;17
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This police officer who instigated this. And here's what she said. She said, I want three things. So I want Mr. Van De to take me to the place where my husband died. And I want to gather up the dust and give him a decent burial. Number two, Mr. Van de broke took all my family away from me. And I still have a lot of love to give.

00;34;08;20 - 00;34;21;01
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So twice a month, I would like for Mr. Van Broke to come to the ghetto and spend a day with me so I can be a mother to him.

00;34;21;04 - 00;34;52;10
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Number three, I would like for Mr. Van to Broke to know that he is forgiven by God and that I forgive him. Two. I would like for someone to lead me to where he is seated, so I can embrace him, and he can know my forgiveness is real. And somebody took this dear lady by the by the arm and brought her to this police officer.

00;34;52;12 - 00;35;13;11
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And she threw her arms around him, and she told him that she forgave him. He killed her son. Killed her husband. How do you explain that?

00;35;13;14 - 00;35;51;02
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That's what Jesus say. That's supernatural love. When this woman went to this police officer, threw her arms around his neck, expressing the forgiveness of God in her own forgiveness for him. Somebody in the courthouse, in the courtroom started singing amazing Grace. And it was in no time to. Everybody in that courtroom was singing amazing Grace. And that's what it was.

00;35;51;05 - 00;35;57;18
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It was a display of the grace of God.

00;35;57;21 - 00;36;05;12
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I don't imagine that you and I will ever have to.

00;36;05;15 - 00;36;13;29
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To practice that kind of tough love. I hope and pray we don't.

00;36;14;01 - 00;36;49;24
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But we've got to practice it at our level. Because everybody in this room, if we're honest, there are people that's tough for us to love. It could be an ex-husband or ex-wife. It could be a boss. It could be, a friend that stabbed you in the back. It could be a lot of different things. But Jesus says to love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.

00;36;49;26 - 00;36;59;16
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And if we obey him, we have his favor in our lives.

00;36;59;18 - 00;37;36;03
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I know that for many of us, we would say, well, that's just impossible. It's impossible. What that woman did. How did she do it? We'll look at Romans chapter five, verses one through five. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we exalt in hope of the glory of God.

00;37;36;06 - 00;38;03;04
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And not only this, but we also exalt in our tribulation, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance, proven character and proven character, hope and hope does not disappoint. Now look at this. Don't miss this last phrase, because the love of God, what kind of love it is. Not talking about sexual love between a husband wife, not talking about friendship love.

00;38;03;04 - 00;38;32;27
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He talking about agape love, unconditional love. Because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. Listen, if you're born again believer, understand this the Spirit of God indwells you. Your body has become its temple. And when the Holy Spirit made your body his temple, the Holy Spirit brought the love of God.

00;38;33;00 - 00;39;03;05
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Now, we don't have the ability to do that. But I'm telling you, if we ask the Holy Spirit to help us to love people who is who are really tough to love, he releases that supernatural agape love that he brought with him to the temple, which is your body, and he allows you to do the impossible.

00;39;03;08 - 00;39;24;17
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I want, I want to finish with Matthew chapter five, verse 48. Therefore you are to be perfect. As your heavenly father is perfect. If you ever struggle with that verse. Are you perfect?

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What does it mean? Well, the word perfect means to reach an intended end.

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Let me make sure you understand it. To go to heaven. To go to heaven. When you die, you got to be perfect.

00;39;50;16 - 00;40;18;19
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So how in the world is ever going to heaven? Well look at Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 21. He made him that God the Father made Jesus who knew no sin, to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Do you know what Jesus did on the cross? I can't wait Friday night I'm doing something I've never done before.

00;40;18;19 - 00;40;41;19
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My entire ministry. I've been in ministry now 41 years and Friday night, that's a good Friday service. I'm going to take the seven last words of Jesus from the cross, and I'm going to share the seven last words of Jesus from the cross. And then we're going to observe the Lord's Supper. It's going to be a great night.

00;40;41;21 - 00;41;15;09
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Friday night, I encourage you to be there. Invite people to come with you. So what I want you to understand is that when Jesus died on the cross, God the Father took all of our. Let me just use coach as an example. He took all of coaches sinned past, present, and even the one he'll commit in the future once you commit in the future.

00;41;15;11 - 00;41;45;01
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He took all of those sins and he placed them upon Jesus 2000 years ago. And Jesus became sin for us. The Bible says in first Peter 224 that he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. For by his wounds you were healed. And Jesus became sin for us.

00;41;45;03 - 00;42;12;00
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Why? So that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Do you know what the Bible says? The Bible says, When Jesus died on the cross for our sins, and we placed our faith and trust in him as our Savior and Lord, that at that moment every sin in our lives are forgiven and separated from us. As far as the East is from the West, and we receive the imputed righteousness of Jesus.

00;42;12;03 - 00;42;26;06
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Do you know how Chuck Aaron's going to heaven when he dies? He's not going to heaven because he's a pastor. He's not going to heaven because his good works outweigh this bad word.

00;42;26;08 - 00;42;59;25
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He's going to heaven through the righteousness of Jesus that was imputed to him when he trusted Jesus as the Savior and Lord. We go to heaven on Christ's righteousness, not ours. So when the father looks at us as believers, as Born-Again believers. Even though the devil likes to remind us of our past sins. But when God the Father looks at us, you know what he sees.

00;42;59;28 - 00;43;23;04
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He sees the perfect righteousness of His Son. He doesn't see our sins are forgiven. They've been cast into the sea. And God has chosen not to remember them. That's amazing.

00;43;23;06 - 00;43;50;21
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And so when the Bible says here, therefore, you are to be perfect as your heavenly father is, the only way we can be perfect is to be perfect in Christ by trusting Jesus as our Savior and our Lord. I hope and pray that you've trusted Jesus as your Savior and your Lord. I tell you, he loves you. He loves you.

00;43;50;24 - 00;44;15;01
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And the Bible says that nothing can ever separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. But he expects us to love others, even people who are hard to love. And I don't want you to walk out of here and say that I can't do that. Yes you can. If you're a believer, you can.

00;44;15;04 - 00;44;49;28
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You can. But you got to choose to obey Jesus. And trust the Spirit of God to give you the power to do what is impossible in and of themselves. All right. So we have officially finished chapter five. All right. So next, next week we'll we'll start with chapter six. Okay. Let me pray. Father, I thank you so much.

00;44;50;00 - 00;45;15;27
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That Jesus bore our sins in his body on the cross. That we might die to sin and live to righteousness. For by his wounds we were healed. Lord, I am looking so forward to Friday night as we go into our Good Friday service. As we end the service by observing the Lord's Supper as we worship with great choir music and in congregational singing.

00;45;15;27 - 00;45;43;12
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Lord, I can't wait. Lord, I pray that you would be honored and glorified Friday night. And Lord, I can't wait for Sunday morning. 845 and 1045 as we celebrate the fact, Lord Jesus, that you were raised from the dead and you won the victory over Satan, sin and death. Lord, we bless you and praise you, and I pray that you would bless us and you would help us.

00;45;43;12 - 00;46;02;18
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Lord Jesus, help us to love people even when it's tough. In Jesus name, Amen. Thank you.