Love Your Enemies: The Radical Way of Jesus

All right, Church, I got a question for you this morning. I'm going to start this way. How many of you are spontaneity people? By show of hands, you love a little spontaneity in life. Very few spontaneous people in the room.

How many of you are routine people? Put your hand. Boring. I mean, routine people. Put your hand in the air.

I'm kidding because I'm. This won't surprise any of you, but I am very much a routine person. I didn't think I would grow up that way, but I became that way. A lot of my life, most of my week, is lived in reaction to other people's stuff and what's going on and just joining in where other people's things are happening. So as much as I can, I build routines to make myself feel like I'm a little bit sane and I'm at least moving in the right direction.

I mean, I like a little bit of spontaneity. As long as we plan it ahead of time and schedule it, I'm good with it just a little bit in my life. How many of you know this? That the older we get, the harder it is to change? Yeah.

You know that, right? When we do something over and over and over again for a long time in the same way, we build these patterns, these rhythms, and we're going kind of in a route. Even our brain works that way. We build these grooves in our brain and. And we almost unthinkingly react and react and say based upon what we've done over and over and over again.

The harder. The older we get, the harder it is for us to embrace some kind of change or redirection in our life. And that's true of us, not just in general, but specifically spiritually. That's true of us. The ways that we've responded to God and had a relationship with God and the ways that we have reacted to people, the ways that we have walked out our faith in this life.

The more we've done them in one way, the harder it is for us to change and allow God to do something different in our life and to break through our routines and begin to do maybe things that only God can do in our life and through our life. And we have to be careful spiritually, that routines don't become ruts in our life. That prevents us from being able to be used by God to do some. Only God can do kind of things in our life and in this world. And I told you this a couple of weeks ago, that if we're going to Be Christians.

If we're going to be apprentices of Jesus, it's not enough for us to just have some nice thoughts about Jesus or to have some good thoughts toward Jesus. Jesus himself said, it's only enough that we become like our master, that we become like Jesus. And if we are unwilling to embrace the humility of Jesus, who didn't consider something like being like God, something to be held onto, but he emptied himself, if we're unwilling to empty ourselves and to come to the table with people who are not like us, as Jesus did, and if we're unwilling to walk in the manner that Jesus walked in our life, then guess what? We're not going to experience the joy of Jesus in our life, and we're not going to experience the peace that passes understanding. And I found the secret to being content in every circumstance.

It's not going to happen in our lives, and we're not going to be able to do the work of inviting other people into the kingdom of God until we're willing to embrace that kind of. Kind of change. You remember in First Corinthians 11, Paul said to the church, he said, I want you to imitate me because I'm trying to imitate Jesus. Remember that verse? Imitate me as I'm imitating Christ.

I found this meme this week. I want you to see this. It's like 1 Corinthians 11, 1. There's Paul saying, I want you. That's me, to imitate Paul.

Because I'm trying to. You get the picture. And. And you look at it and you go, how many of you relate to the me with the red bag on your head? Sometimes when it comes to being like Jesus, you know, like, I get the picture of where I'm supposed to be headed, Christ likeness.

But I realize when I look at him and I take an honest look at myself, I'm just so far off with that. And I don't feel like I'm closing the gap. And I've realized this in the church, and I don't mean just legacy, but like in the church, church at large, we haven't done a great job at helping people be conformed to Christlikeness. We've done a lot of stuff. There's a lot of activities, and we've learned some stuff, and we've got some good spiritual thoughts and we've got some doctrines sorted out.

Like, what I mean is, there's all these spiritual things going on. And yet when we are honest about Jesus and about our own lives, a lot of us Feel that gap. We're not becoming more like Jesus in the way that we think and the way that we live and the way that we react in this world. You know, I heard a pastor say that in our lives, experiencing transformation, it's something that's possible, but it's not something that's inevitable. It's not something that just.

Just happens. Right? But it's possible. How many of you have gone to a high school reunion before? Have you done that?

My 20th reunion was in 2020. You know how old I am. But you also realize in 2020, I didn't have a high school reunion because there's that little thing called a pandemic that we lived through. And so I didn't get my 20th reunion. But how many of you have gone to a reunion or you've gone back to someplace, some people that you haven't seen in a long time, and you looked around the room and you went, you got older, but you haven't grown up.

Have you experienced that? It's like you grew wider but not wiser. You know, you got older, you aged, but I can tell that you haven't grown, you haven't actually matured. Like transformation is possible, but it's not inevitable. And the passage we're going to look at today, Jesus is going to talk about some difficulties, some battles that we face in our life.

And sometimes familiar old battles can't be fought in old ways. They can be fought in a new way. And some of you said, I wish I came this morning wanting a positive message, and I wanted a little bit of encouragement for life. And so I got you covered. I'm positive that you're going to face some battles this week.

And I want to encourage you toward facing them in a different way than you're basically inclined to in most of your life. Is that good? All right, in Luke 6, we're going to pick up where we left off. Jesus is talking about relationship battles. And how many of you know that you've got a bunch of relationships?

You're surrounded by them, right? You're in a relationship with God, your relationship with yourself, your relationship with the people in the room, people at work, people at school. You have relationships that are in a great place, relationships that are not in a great place. Relationships can be challenging. Can I get an amen?

Relationships can be incredible, but sometimes they can also be a little bit challenging. And sometimes they can be wonderful. And sometimes, occasionally, they can be a little bit challenging, right? They can be full of pain and joy in the same minute. Relationships can be same person, same moment.

They can be life giving and they can suck the life out of you. Jesus wants to talk to us about how to deal with relationship battles. And what he does is tell us a new way or a fresh approach of facing relationship troubles. It's going to require for us some radical change in Luke 6, the passage that it's not at all unfamiliar. Even if you did not grow up around church or around church people, you're going to hear some of this and go, yeah, I've heard some of this stuff before.

Jesus is part of the Sermon on the Mount. He's looking at his disciples and he's declaring, there is a new way to treat people when you're dealing with relationship battles. And what he says here is maybe the most radical and the most ridiculous and maybe one of the most important statements he ever made about how we live our life on earth among other people. Look at verse 27. Jesus says, I say to you who heard, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you.

I say to you, love your enemies. Maybe you already know this, but there are different words in Greek for love. And Jesus is commanding one specific one here because there's a lot of things we can mean when we say the word love. And Jesus here didn't command storge love. He didn't command a love that naturally has an affection for others.

He didn't command here eros love that naturally says, I want to be with you, I'm attracted to you. He doesn't command phileo love, a friendship, I gotta be friends with everybody. But he did command here an agape love, which is a love that isn't earned. It's a love that is given without the merit of the person it's given to. All of the other three forms of love are kind of natural.

You see someone, you like them, you want to be around them, you enjoy them, you desire them, you're drawn to them naturally. But this one is unnatural. And it often supersedes what is in our nature. And it often exists in spite of what's existing in our nature at the time. Here's a definition of agape love for you.

It is deliberate love. It's deliberate love. It's rooted in the will of God, not rooted in the desire of man. It's rooted in the will of God and in the power of God. And it's exercised by choice.

It says, I will love this person by God's grace. I choose to Give love to this person in spite of them, in spite of me, in spite of feelings, I'm going to give love. And the standard that is given here is important because Jesus applies it to people that we don't naturally want to love. He says, I want you to apply this to people who you naturally don't want to love. He says, I say to you, love your what Enemies?

I want you to think for a second, like all of you in the room, who are your enemies? And maybe you go, I don't have enemies. Everybody likes me. I like everybody. But if I say, who are your enemies?

Maybe someone's face pops into your mind and you think about, there's a person who, if I saw them at the store, I would try to avoid them. I'd go to the other aisle, right? We have that. I don't want to make eye contact with this person. If they see me see them, then we have to have a come together moment.

And I don't really want that with this person. Can I tell you this? Usually, sometimes there's some psychotic situations. And we're going to say, like in normal situations, an enemy doesn't become an enemy on purpose and overnight, right? It's not something like you look at your calendar and go, what do I got scheduled today?

Breakfast meeting, lunch meeting, but I got an opening after lunch. I'm going to make an enemy today. That's not. I mean, there are some psychotic situations. In most cases, it doesn't happen like that.

You don't schedule to make an enemy with someone and destroy someone's soul. Usually what happens is something very small and seemingly insignificant happens. And with time or with proper placement, it brings a relationship to its knees. How many of you know what a pressure point is? You're old enough to know kung fu, the TV show, anybody, right?

Pressure points are these specific spots where if a pressure is applied in just the right way, it can cause a reaction that is involuntary, and it can control a person's movement in their body. Right? When I am wrestling with my kids, I'm not nice. Dad's a mean wrestler. He's kind of nasty.

And with the first two rounds of. Kids, when they wanted to wrestle with me, I'd get down on the. I was a young dad, I get down on the floor. We'd wrestle, I'd sit on top of them. I'd crush them.

I'm like, dad wins. You know, it's my job. I'm a dad. With rounds three and four, I'm beginning to be an older dad. Dad Wrestles with two fingers.

Now I don't even get off the couch. They want to fight. I grab a pressure point and I put them on the ground. Dad wins, right? Some of you are like, hey, you're really, really nasty.

You're supposed to let them win sometimes and build their confidence. But, but I'm old school, we don't do that. I'm on the decline and I know that, I'm aware of it. They're going to beat me someday, so for now I will destroy them. That's what I'm gonna do.

And I wrestle with two fingers. Two fingers. Because pressure points are these small, almost insignificant looking things that happen where you just press the pressure point just the right way and you can absolutely destroy someone. And it happens in relationships this way. There are, there are pressure points in our relationships, in our lives.

It's just the right spot and the right way. It seems like it would be insignificant, but when someone grabs it then, man, it can destroy a relationship that quickly. You have an enemy, right? I want you to think about just for a second, maybe some of these people who you've wrestled with or struggled with, maybe it's somebody who, when you think about them, immediately your heart begins to pound and your jaw begins to clench. Because when you think of them, even the thought of them begins to drive you mad.

Maybe it's someone who has hurt you at some point in your life. It could have been a long time ago. But sometimes time doesn't heal all wounds. And when you think about that person, the worst of you begins to come out. Maybe it's not even a person, you know, maybe it's somebody who just the very thought of them is like the representation of everything that's going wrong in your life or in this world, right?

Maybe it's not a personal relationship, but they are just kind of a stand in for everyone who is ruining this world and this country and my life altogether. And you go, that person is my enemy. I want you to think for just a second in your mind about a person or some persons. This is a little dangerous here, but person or persons who have offended you, if you're like me, maybe there's kind of crowded, you gotta move people around. You can only think of just one who's one person who's really offended me.

I know, here's one. Yeah, that's it.

Jesus said to love your enemies.

I'm not sure what you did, man, but from my head to this screen this morning, I think it's because you tried to dress like me. Today least because you tell people I try to dress like you, but then you showed up dressing like me. Patrick's my brother. I love Patrick. Take him off the screen.

Right. Because we don't want to look at you that much. So get silly. Get serious for a sec. You think about someone like this who has offended you, and there's something there.

And I can think of people. I mean, I'm not saying I don't struggle with this. I can think of people. And a lot of times maybe you do this, I do this. You have phantom conversations.

How many of you have had a phantom conversation with someone who has offended you? And you're, you know, they're kind of your enemy. Yeah. And you think about what you would say if you only had the chance. I know what I'd say to them.

How you cut them down to size just a little bit. You take them down a couple of notches. I think about that. And yet what Jesus says is you got to flip it on its head. And instead of thinking of that person and what you would do to destroy them or to take them down a notch, instead of think of the best thing you could do for the worst person and then just go and do that thing, think about the person who you would most likely be tempted to be nasty to or to just be cold, to just to not give them your attention at all, just to make.

Make them feel the frostiness. And instead think of the very best thing you could do for the very worst person and go and do it. That's what Jesus is calling us to when he says to love your enemies. And I can guarantee you two things if you do that. Number one, you won't feel like doing it, because no one feels like loving their enemies.

You won't feel like doing it. But I can also guarantee you this. If you will go ahead and do it in God's power by the filling of the Holy Spirit, and obedience to Jesus will change the way you feel. Okay, you won't feel like doing it. But if you go and do it in obedience to Christ, it will begin to change the way that you feel.

And church, we've talked about this. In an age of isolation and division that is growing and mounting and maybe greater, greater than any time in my lifetime where there are pressure points all over and they're like landmines. In fact, it's so hard to avoid pressure points at this point time because you don't even have to be in the same room as a person to have a pressure point applied. Right. Like they could be across the planet and post something online.

And you read it and you go, I'm mad now. Or you can drive down the road and see a campaign sign in their yard. And you go, there's my enemy, right? I think it's time that we listen to Jesus command and take seriously the command to love our enemies before we destroy each other. The thing I love about Jesus in this passage is he doesn't leave it in the.

The abstract, ethereal realm, but he begins to get practical with it. It's like if I looked at you and I said, hey, get on the highway. Somebody cut you off. This is how you react when they cut you off. Or if someone talks bad about you at school.

This is exactly how you should handle the situation and what you should say to them. Jesus does this. He gets practical. Verse 29. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also.

And whoever takes away your coat, don't withhold your shirt from him either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And whoever takes away what's yours, don't demand it back. Verse 31. Y' all read this one with me, ready?

Treat others the same way you want them to treat you. What's that called? That's the Golden Rule. We all know that. And I think for me, at least, I knew the Golden Rule before I knew Jesus said it, because back in the 80s, they had it in every classroom in public school.

Did you know that? I was thinking about that this week when I was in school, they had Jesus words on the wall in every classroom. And I was thinking, is it really true that the schools wanted me to learn from Jesus? So I asked the Internet, because that's what we do. I asked the Internet, did the public school system want me to follow Jesus words?

The Golden Rule, when I was in school and the Internet told me that Jesus didn't come up with it, but that Confucius came up with it in 5th century B.C. so I looked up what Confucius said, and I want you to see what he said. It's interesting because I think it's very different than what Jesus said said. Confucius said, what you don't want done to yourself, don't do to others. You see the difference?

If you don't want to get beat up, don't. Don't go beat people up. If you don't want people to treat you rudely, don't treat other people rudely. It's not the same as what Jesus said. Look at what Jesus said.

He said, do to others as you would have them do to you. There's a difference. One in stark contrast, it's this passive don't do. Before Jesus, everyone spoke in the negative form. Don't do to others what you wouldn't want them to do to you.

But Jesus comes in with the proactive. Do this thing with Confucius, it leads to isolation and it leads to just staying out of other people's ways. But Jesus, it leads to more. Move into the world and treat people with a world changing, life transforming love. This is the kingdom ethic that Jesus is bringing in.

One is passive and one is proactive and does something, it changes things. And I want you to remember that Jesus, when he spoke this command, it's a part of the Sermon on the Mount. And remember all the things that Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, I'm telling you all of these things to fulfill. They all together fulfill the law and the prophets and Confucius and all the Eastern tradition when they would give a saying like this, it was to fulfill yourself.

It was to actualize harmony and nobility within yourself and to have happiness within yourself. But Jesus says all of this is to fulfill the law and prophets. To love your enemies is to fulfill the law and prophets. What do we know about the law and prophets from experience and trying to accomplish them. What do we know about it?

We can't do it. I can't fulfill the law and the prophets. The Mosaic Law was there to show me there is a holy God and to show me that I can't match his holiness. And I can't live up to the standard that all falls short of the glory of God and all fall short of the glory and the holiness of God. I can't live up to the standard.

I can't treat others as I want to be treated. I can't love my enemies. And so therefore, it stands to show me that I need a savior. God calls me to something that I can't do, but he sends a savior to do what I cannot do. So even the command to love your enemies is a reminder of how desperately deep down we need Jesus in our life.

Now, some of us, I think this happens, we go, I placed my faith in Jesus. Then I received my Jesus card and I put it in my wallet next to my Discover card. And I never leave home without it. So I go through my life and on a day where I need blessing, or a day where I'm hurting, or a day where I just, I'm feeling low, I can pull out of my wallet and grab My Jesus card and say, God, I got my card. Now what?

But I want you to hear that when you place your faith in Jesus, you didn't get a Jesus card. You got the Holy Spirit. That's what you got. When you place your faith in Jesus, you got the presence of God, the Holy Spirit in your life. And he is there with you to help you, to guide you, to lead you, to empower you, not to live a so so life that's natural and like everyone else in this world except you got a Jesus card for when you need it.

No. The Holy Spirit is there to empower you to live like Jesus, to love like Jesus, to create transformation in Jesus power according to his will, in the brokenness of the world like Jesus. That's what you received when you placed your faith in Jesus Christ. And Jesus here says, you have to love like me. You have to love like me.

And the Holy Spirit says, I'm the one who helps you to do so. The new approach to the familiar old battle that Jesus calls you to is to love everyone with his love. Now, if you're a note taker, I want you to write down a few things. And if you're not a note taker, then escribe for favor. That's Spanish for write this down.

Number one. Rather than hate my enemies, love them. We talked about it. It's a choice. It's not rooted in my feelings.

It's rooted in God. It's something that someone hasn't earned from me. It's a choice I've made to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to have him lead me in all that I say and all that I do and how that I act and how that I react in this world. It's when I come up against someone who has offended me or I think has done wrong. I don't fight, I don't flight, I don't freeze, I don't fall.

And I love. I love. And I may not even like him. But he didn't say you have to like everybody. He said love them.

So I'm gonna love. And it might change them, it might not. But it's gonna change the situation and how I feel about the same situation. And it's gonna change me. It's absolutely going to change me.

Rather than hate my enemies, love them. Second thing, rather than hold on to my stuff, give it away. Running out of time. So, like, you're going to have to go back and study the text some more and ask the Holy Spirit to keep teaching you. But we saw this in verse 29, whoever takes away your coat, don't withhold your shirt from him.

Give to everyone who asks of you. And whoever takes away what is yours, don't demand it back. Verse 35. But love your enemies. So he's connecting this generosity to the love.

Love your enemies and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Maybe this is one of the reasons we're not overflowing with love in all of our relationships, is because of this. Most of us don't live like this. Maybe one of the greatest tests of our love is our generosity or how we treat stuff. Because you can't fake this stuff.

You can fake a smile, right? You can fake some kind words, you can fake peace with a person, but you can't fake generosity. Either you're holding on tightly to stuff, or you're holding loosely to stuff and giving it away. And Jesus is calling us to hold loosely of things and hold tightly to people, right? So rather than hold on to our stuff, give it away.

It's a radical generosity without any thought of how it will benefit us. Third thing to write down. Rather than focusing on what's wrong with others, see what's wrong with me. Rather than focusing on what's wrong, see what's wrong with me. And we've talked about this twice already this year in the Culture Code series, and we talked about it in the Beatitudes.

Look at verse 37. Do not judge and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Pardon, and you will be pardoned. Why do I struggle with loving my enemies?

Because I'm busy judging them, right? Why do I struggle loving a person who has offended me or I feel is in the wrong or done wrong, whether it's a personal relationship or someone who is the representation of everything that I think is evil. Why do I have a tough time loving my enemies? Because I'm full of judgment towards them. And there is not room within us to have a condemning spirit and a loving spirit at the same time.

An academic spirit will cut off the loving spirit in our life if we allow it to reign in there. So Jesus says, you got to let go of the condemning spirit so that you can love. That we have to give undeserved grace even to those who are guilty. Which, by the way, Romans 5 says that that's what God did for us, even while we were enemies of God. He sent his Son Jesus to die for us.

And Jesus says, that's what I'm calling you to even people who are guilty and the way that he says it points out that we too are guilty people, Right? Forgiven. You'll be forgiven. Don't condemn. You won't be condemned.

Pardoned. And you'll be pardoned. It's a reminder to us that we're broken too. It's not like I'm above sin. It's not like I'm above doing the wrong thing, not like I'm above having the wrong heart in the situation, right?

And so in other words, he's saying, give mercy, give grace, overflow with love. In the same way you've received love from God and you're continuing to receive love day by day from God, and that you desired ultimately to continue to have from God that mercy. I know I need for tomorrow, give that kind of love today, today, even to my enemies. Last thing I want you to write down. Rather than proving myself by doing these things, recognize I cannot do these things.

Rather than proving myself by doing these things, recognize I can't do these things. I hope that you can see this. The standard is one that we cannot leap. It would be like, who watched the Olympics? Did you see the high jump?

Those two guys that kept going back and forth, missing over and over again. I love that. That was so fun. It's the worst part of the Olympics. Other than the Australian breakdancer, that's the only credit she gets from me.

It would be like saying, here's a 20 foot high jump, go ahead. You know, loving your enemies. It would be like saying, hey, go run the marathon. You got 30 minutes, go. You know, we can't do this stuff, but there's one who can and did perfectly.

Jesus is talking about himself. He's pointing to Himself. Is he loving completely? Romans 5 says, God showed his love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Not when we earned it, not when we cleaned up our act, not when we got right and then got God.

But while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Is he full of generosity? Here's Romans 8. He, he who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us. How will he not also, with him, graciously give us all things?

If he gave His Son, won't He take care of everything that we need? He pours out generosity on us. Is he not full of mercy and full of grace in spite of our sin? Hebrews 8 says, For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more. There's only been one person who has perfectly kept this commandment.

To love your enemies. And guess what? The enemies were us. We're among them. It's Jesus.

And I'm convinced the only way for us to not just grow older, but to also grow up in Him. Not just be wider, but be wiser in him, is for us to keep coming back again and again and again to what he has done and is doing in our lives. Let me jump ahead to verse 45. How can we overflow flow with God's blessing? Verse 45 says, the good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth what's good, and the evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth what is evil.

For his mouth speaks from that which fills his heart. There's a connection between our heart and our life. There's a connection between what's on the inside and what comes out on the outside. If we're filled with anger and lust and pride and self righteousness, then we're going to come out and destroy people. We're not going to be able to love our enemies.

We are not going to be able to pour out generosity and grace upon other people's lives. The opposite of everything in this text will be like that natural person who is hurtful and spiteful and who brings pain rather than joy in our wake. But if I'm inviting Jesus to transform everything in my life, I'm truly wanting that. If I'm truly saying, fill me and change me and make me like you. I don't want to live like the old me.

I want to live like Jesus, that He will create something in you that will spill out and show you how to love your enemies. You'll overflow with his blessings.

So maybe the question isn't can I love my enemies?

Maybe the question is do you believe Jesus can love your enemies?

Think for a minute about that person. Or those people who have offended you recently. That you've held onto that anger and the very thought of them makes your blood boil. Do you believe that Jesus can love them? Do you believe that Jesus can love them through you?

And are you willing to invite him to love your enemy through you? Because that's the plan.

That's what he has said here to his disciples, those who will follow after me.

Love your enemies. And the standard is one that you can't do. It's only going to happen as I love them through you.

Do you believe that Jesus wants to love your enemies through you? And will you invite him to do so?

I end with this question. I thought a lot about this week and it's kind of getting under my skin a little bit. What do people get when they get me?

What do people get when they get me in a relationship? Is it just me with all of my hang ups and all of my baggage and my hurt and my withholding and all of my judgment? Is it just me? Are they getting Christ in me?

Because it seems like according to Jesus, the tone of relationship should be set not by what people bring to me, but by what I bring to that relationship. And he's wanting them to experience not just me when they experience me. When people get me, they should be getting Jesus, they should be getting forgiveness, they should be getting second chances, they should be getting grace and mercy when they get me. When a person gets me, they should get acceptance, they should get love. Not that I have to like and approve everything that they've done and everything they will do.

But neither did Jesus like or approve of everything that exists within me. But even while I was a sinner, Christ died for me, right? What does a person get when they get you? Do they get just you? Or if you're in Christ, are they getting Christ in you?

I think that's a challenge for us to sit on this week. And the last thing I just want to say to you, think on this question this week. What do people get when they let's pray Jesus, you gave us a standard that those of us who have been around a long time love your enemies. Doesn't sound like new language, but the idea of it, if we're being honest, it feels a little ridiculous and radical.

I do believe it's one of the most important things you said to us about living life in these days on this earth. Because if we do not know how to love our enemies, how can we be a gospel people who carry gospel into the broken world? And so I ask Holy Spirit for a filling that we would each day wake up before we are filled with that which divides and isolates, that we would be filled with that which brings together and brings healing. Holy Spirit, would you fill us? Would you make us wise for the kingdom of Jesus while we live in this world?

Would you remind us day by day of all of the things that Jesus said and called us to and the fact that we can't do them apart from your help? Would you fill our hearts with a reminder of all that Christ has done for us, that you left eternity to enter time and you left the heavens to enter the earth and you left glory to God, put on humanity, that you didn't consider equality with God something to be held onto tightly, but you emptied yourself, taking on the form of a servant. And why? So that you could do what we could not do. So that you could meet a standard that we could not meet.

So that you could give your life. So that we could have life. And that you rose. And with you you rose with glory and you rose, giving us hope that we could be different. That we wouldn't be the same year after year buried in our brokenness, but we could be raised to walk in abundant life with you.

We could be made fully alive. And Holy Spirit, that your fruit would bear in our life love and joy and peace and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control. And so we don't ask that we could in our strength love our enemies. We ask that you would bear much fruit and our life and in so doing that you would transform the way we treat other people, even those who don't deserve it because of the fact that we didn't deserve it. We pray that you would work miracles in our midst, that as we go and we love our enemies, your kindness would be seen and that kindness would turn people to you.

In Jesus name, amen.