Southpoint Sermon
May 29-30th, 2004
What do you say to God when… you’d rather kill your enemies than love them?
Intro:
Anyone can tell you, whether they’re a Christian or not, that Christians are supposed to love their enemies. We’re supposed to be nice to everyone, not hate our enemies. But that’s kind of a cop out- does that mean that because I’m a Christian people don’t make me mad? Does that mean that as a Christian I am supposed to be happy when someone constantly makes fun of me or beats me up?
Just saying, “love your enemies” doesn’t get rid of those feelings that we have about some people that are, let’s face it, just plain evil sometimes.
I remember growing up, there were two brothers that lived on my block that were the biggest jerks. I’ll never forget their names, Brian and Keith. They made some of my summer days miserable during grade school and junior high. Keith was the one with the mouth on him, he was a year older than me, but he was scrawny. I wasn’t the biggest kid growing up, but I could have taken Keith down easily. But his older brother Brian was tough, and beat a couple of the kids up on the block more than once. I never physically fought them, I knew Brian would kill me, and I knew if I touched Keith, Brian would kill me again… but they just changed everything. I remember going home one day after something happened just wishing they would die. I know that’s an awful thing to say, but it’s how I felt at the time. They were the closest things I’ve ever had to real enemies. There are some people I don’t get along with now, but no one has ever been in that category of mine where I’ve had feelings like that towards them.
Of course, I was in grade school and junior high back then. But listen to the way David talks about some of his enemies in his Psalms.
Psalms 109:8-15, 20
“May his days be few; may another take his place of leadership.
May his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
May his children be wandering beggars;
May they be driven from their ruined homes.
May a creditor seize all he has;
May strangers plunder the fruits of his labor.
May no one extend kindness to him or take pity on his fatherless children.
May his descendants be cut off, their names blotted out from the next generation.
May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord;
May the sin of his mother never be blotted out.
May their sins always remain before the Lord,
That he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
Vs. 20-
May this be the Lord’s payment to my accusers, to those who speak evil to me.
Psalms 137:8-9
O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, happy is he who repays you for what you have done to us—
He who seizes your infants and dashes them against the rocks.
Psalms 3:7,
“Arise, O Lord! Deliver me, O my God! Strike all my enemies on the jaw; break the teeth of the wicked.”
When you first hear those words, the first thing that might come to your mind Is that it was written by someone who needs some anger management, not a man of God. That sounds nothing like the Biblical, “love your enemies,” does it? The comforting thing is that even God’s chosen king, “David” the one he called “the man after my own heart,” struggled with these harsh feelings towards his enemies. That makes me feel a little bit better. So I know David had the same feelings sometimes, so what did he do about them? Remember, David lived before Jesus came to earth, so he didn’t have the “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” speech from Jesus.
1) David went to God with his feelings
Maybe this is giving us some insight on why God referred to him as being after his own heart. The Psalms are like a spiritual journal. They’re a look at the most intimate feelings of David. When he felt like God was far away or hiding, when he felt that God was being unfair, and when he wanted his enemies and their families to die, he talked to God about it. He was honest with God. How many of us are really careful when we talk to God… maybe we use language we don’t normally use, and maybe words we don’t really even know what they mean. I think one reason why God called David a “man after his own heart” was because David was completely honest with God. You can tell from those passages, he wasn’t hiding his feelings from God. He wasn’t trying to be someone he wasn’t. But he went to God first.
He didn’t go right out and retaliate and act on emotions. Instead, he laid his problems with people out in front of God. Instead of taking matters into his own hands, he allowed God to be the judge and take any action.
There’s an idea. Usually the last thing that comes to my mind when someone hurts me, even if it’s only with words, is to hold my tongue. But when you think about it, going to a judge is the most logical thing to do. If you had a legal problem with someone and wanted to get your money or whatever back from them, you’d go to court and tell the judge. Why wouldn’t we take our problems with people who hurt us emotionally or in any other way to the ultimate judge? Don’t you think he’ll be more fair?
Separate your feelings from your actions.
If you take a look at David in action, he differs quite a bit from his prayers in Psalms.
David had a lot of problems with King Saul, who he was going to replace as king of Israel.
Saul was jealous of David because he was going to be the King and the people loved him. They used to say, “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.” Saul was jealous.
Saul tried to kill David on many different occasions. In 1 Samuel 24, David is given his chance to end it. Saul has heard that David was hiding out in the desert, so he takes 3000 men with him to find David and kill him. As they’re out searching for David, Saul stops at the closest rest area, a cave, for a bathroom break. He doesn’t realize that it’s the same cave that David and his men are in. David’s men see this all unfolding in front of them and try to convince David to take this chance and get Saul.
Instead, David manages to sneak up on Saul and without him knowing, he cuts off a corner of his robe, and then he feels bad about it. After Saul had flushed and left the cave, David goes out of the cave and yells back at Saul and addresses him as, “My lord the king!” David realizes that even though this man is trying to kill him, he has still been anointed by God to be King. David bowed down in front of Saul and said,
“Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my master, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’ See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. Now understand and recognize that I am not guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you.” (1 Samuel 24:9b-12)
David spared the man who was trying to kill him. When David was praying those angry and vengeful words in Psalms, it was his emotions. But he was able to separate the two.
Notice Saul’s response: he weeps and says, “You are more righteous than I… may the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today.”
At least for now, Saul thinks clearly and realizes he’s in the wrong.
2) How are we to treat our enemies?
We probably already know how we’re supposed to treat our enemies—here’s just a quick look at what the Bible says-
Matthew 5:44-46-
Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.- If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
Luke 6:27-
Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
Luke 6:35-
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
Proverbs 24:17-
Do not gloat when your enemy falls; when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice.
Proverbs 25:21—
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.
Something to notice in these passages is that they’re not just saying we should be passive with our enemies. The idea is not that we just sit back and let everything roll off of our shoulders. We’re supposed to be pro-active, but, pro-active with love. And kindness. And mercy.
Notice the actions in these passages: love, pray, do good, bless, lend, give! Sometimes those things are hard enough to do with people we like. But God says, you be the better person. Seems to me that it would be hard to have enemies at all if that’s how we treated them. Maybe that’s the point. See, we can’t control how other people act, but we can control how we act.
So the third, and I think the most important question is the “why”? I think this is always the most important question because we can talk about the how’s and the what’s and all that all day long, but without the why, we have no reason to follow through. So…
3) Why should we love our enemies?
a) God will reward us.
Matthew 5:46
If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that?
Luke 6:35
But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked.
Proverbs 25:21
“If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.”
God promises that we will be rewarded if we treat our enemies like we should. I think that implies that God knows it’s not easy, but I’m sure God is going to make it worthwhile. We are to be kind to our enemies, because thats what being God-like means.
But this isn’t the only reason. We shouldn’t just love our enemies because we’ll get something in return.
b) It may lead him to repentance
Proverbs 25:21—
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat; if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head, and the Lord will reward you.
What in the world does this passage mean? That sounds more like revenge to me, that doesn’t quite go with the other passages. Does that mean we’re supposed to be nice to our enemies and that’s the way we can get them back?
I’m going to be so nice to you so you’ll know what a jerk you are! Would God have us act with those motives? I don’t think so.
There’s another place in the Bible where burning coals are mentioned, and I think it has a lot to do with this passage. It’s the famous Isaiah 6 passage, where Isaiah sees the Lord. Isaiah is in the presence of God, and here’s his response:
Isaiah 6:5-7—
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Then one of the Seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
The second reason we are to love our enemies is that it may lead them to repentance.
When Isaiah saw God and realized how unworthy he was, and worshiped God, he was forgiven by God. It says his guilt was taken away and his sin was atoned for. Remember Saul’s response when David spared him and treated him with love?--
“You are more righteous than I… may the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today.”
That should be our main goal. How we treat our enemies is another opportunity to show them God. Hopefully they will see God through us, and that will lead them to repentance. It’s hard to show someone God in our lives when we’re just returning evil for evil.
And lastly, the most important reason we have to love our enemies is this:
c) We were God’s enemies once.
The truth is, I was a lot worse than my enemies Brian and Keith. Everyone in this room was. We killed our Savior. We beat him unrecognizable (Isaiah passage) and then put Him on a cross. And all of this because he loved us.
Romans 5:10—
For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
We were God’s enemies! And yet, God sent his son to die for us and to give us the opportunity to be reconciled to us. If you can think of the worst thing someone has done to you, it doesn’t compare to what we have done to our Lord, and sometimes what we continue to do. That’s why we have no right to hold anything against anybody, because we’re no different, and we’ve been forgiven.
Conclusion:
Remember whose job it is to judge:
There will be times when it seems like people are getting away with unfair things. But God says,
Deut. 32:35, “It is mine to avenge; I will repay.”
God will make everything right someday. He’s promised to.
And when?
Revelation 6:10-17
If you read Revelation, you’ll see that God will indeed bring judgment on the world, and wrath comes with a lot of that. When you read the things that will happen, we shouldn’t wish that on our worst enemies. Our goal is to save everyone we know from having to experience the wrath of God.
So right now, if there is anybody here that is still living as an enemy of God- if you’ve never taken that first step and made peace with His Son Jesus, this is your chance.
Or maybe you had at one point taken that first step, but since then have fallen away and have been living as an enemy of God and you need to re-commit your life to Christ, now is your chance for that.
Some of you in this room have enemies, and maybe you need to change how you treat them because of how God has treated you, I encourage you to talk to God about it and ask Him to help you treat them with love from this point on.
If you have any of those decisions to make, I encourage you to come down as we sing our decision song or after the service.
Let’s pray.
