Teacher's Pet Series

But here Jesus is saying – you ain’t wasting anything. In fact – if you “give (to your enemy) it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.” Luke 6:38

ILLUS: Have you ever shaken a can of pop and then opened the lid on it? (Many people nodded their heads). It fizzes all over the place and you get all wet sticky! But – aside from the wet and sticky part – this is exactly what God says will happen for us if honor God in reaching out to our enemies to do things for them. God is essentially saying that if we do this for Him, He will make your cup run over.

ILLUS: Last week we talked about Romans 12:20 which told us to give food to your enemies. One of our visitors that Sunday was convicted about that. She wrote to us: “I have a coworker and we were friends. And then, for whatever reason, something happened and she was mad at me, and there was tension for the past couple of weeks. No clue still as to what happened, but I used what your preacher said in church the other day and “fed her”. Today is her birthday and I brought in a small plant and donuts! She was so happy and thankful that I thought of her!”

It works! Maybe not always that well, but eventually it makes a difference in our enemies.

SO Jesus said: DON’T judge. DON’T condemn. But DO forgive. And DO give

Then He sums it all up by saying: “Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother’s eye.

"For no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Luke 6:41-45

You see, what Jesus is saying is this: If you sit around complaining about how others have mistreated you then you’ll REACT to that person by being all mad and spiteful toward ‘em. You’ll start talking mean about them. And IF that’s how you’re going to act… then you need to understand “no good tree bears bad fruit, nor again does a bad tree bear good fruit, for each tree is known by its own fruit. For figs are not gathered from thornbushes, nor are grapes picked from a bramble bush. The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.”

ILLUS: Last week I had Ralph (one of our church members) come out to my house to help me with my flower bed. I needed him to help me tell the difference between the weeds and plants. Yeah, seriously. I can’t tell the difference between good stuff and bad and I’d hate to pull up the good stuff. Anyway, there was this vine that had overgrown much of the garden. And this vine was covered with thorns and would yield a really useless berry. I asked Ralph if this was a good plant. Nope, he said. So we took a shovel to its roots and dug it out.