The Power Of Hatred Series

5. Love is a powerful force, but so is hatred. Love slowly builds up, but hatred can tear down in a moment. It can take a year to build a house, but an arsonist can destroy it in minutes.

3. Christians need a theology of HATRED

· Do you hate someone? Have you ever hated someone? Maybe that’s okay.

· Do you just get rid of feelings of hatred with a magic wand?

· Does God hate anyone (according to Psalm 5, yes)

· If you are going to get over hatred, you should not deny it by giving it a different name

· There is hatred that festers and ferments, and there is hatred that dissipates

· There is a hatred that is justified and one that is not

· Christians can love those they hate (enemies)

4. Relationship of one Hebrew word for “Hate” to “SATAN”

· Hatred is dangerous stuff

· Satan’s sin: pride, the lust for power and control, nurtured by hatred

· If we hate, it should be a temporary hatred, one that we seek to see lessen and dissipate…one that we do not act upon…

· Justice is one thing, revenge another…

5. How Christ can conquer hate: SIMON and MATTHEW

· Jesus had 12 dsiciples who shared life together on a full time basis for about 1.5 years…

· They became friends…but they were all different

· two of them probably at one time hated one another

· Simon the Zealot was part of a terrorist movement that tried to make it miserable for Rome to rule over Israel…they wanted freedom and independence

· Levi Matthew was a Tax Collector FOR Rome, a traitor to his people

· But in Christ, both Matthew and Simon left their former lives behind…

· Such is the power of Christ in our lives…

CONCLUSION

1. Hatred wins many, many battles.

2. But it will ultimately lose the war.

3. Yet God wants to bring love into your life, a love for Him and others.

4. But you have to want to know God; you have to want to submit to Him, even if you disagree with His viewpoints…He can pour out love into your hearts through the Holy Spirit…