Getting Even

Appears to be an attitude in our society that really grieves me deep down inside my spirit. I've had a heaviness just in my heart in general for several months now. In my prayer, I think, I think awareness of the season and the times that we are in, when I listen or watch or read or try to pay attention to where we are, what's going on, whether that's a news source or whatever the case may be, you can feel the tension, strife. There are no news organizations — they're there to make money, and they have a way of spinning things and setting music up. But just the facts in general, there seems to be a heaviness there. There's a lot of anger and frustration, disappointment, confusion, shame, and blame that's going on. Things are moving at a fast pace. And if you stop long enough to, to reflect on it, and maybe even ask the question, "God, how do you feel about what's going on right now?" — at least when I do this, I feel like, um, I'm just heavy. God's not pleased. He's not happy. It doesn't mean there's nothing good going on. There is still good going on. God's moving. It may not be catching headlines, but God's moving in the background. He's still filling people with his Spirit. He's still healing. He's still performing miracles, and, and doing what God does best. I'm thankful for that.

But how do we, how do we respond, you and I? How do we respond to it as we follow after Jesus and his teachings? How do we process all that's going on as we live in this present world? His, there's nothing new under the sun. Solomon says that in the word of God, there's nothing new there. It's, it's realities that we've been going on throughout the beginning, since the beginning of man, the garden. There's been strife. There's been tension. There's been blame and frustration. Jesus addressed this early on in his ministry. In fact, it's, it's in his first recorded sermon we see he deals with this issue. In Matthew chapter 5 verse 38, he says: "But you have heard it that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you, don't resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to him who ask you, and from him who wants to borrow from you, do not turn away." It's kind of an interesting approach, right, in dealing with adversity? It definitely doesn't seem like a natural tendency. I don't know how you are, but as I read these words, they're, they're moving to me, because these, this is what Jesus is instructing.

For a little while today, I want to preach on the subject of simply getting even. Will you help me pray? Jesus, out here moving here in such a tender way, and I know you want to do something special among us. I pray for the next few moments, God, that our hearts would be open to receive your anointed word. Got to feel you, feel you, and to know that you're, you're talking directly to us today. In Jesus' name we pray, and amen, amen, amen.

The children are having a revival next door, and I know and expect great things to be coming from that. Happy that God's handiwork is there with us. I do want to let the church know — you, many of you have probably noticed, I have a scar on my face with some stitches. Just to let you know, I did have a process where they removed some skin cancer that was there. So nothing to worry about. Anytime you say the word cancer, automatically doesn't feel good. And trust me, it didn't feel good when I got the phone call and said that's what the lab results were. But it's okay, and I thought, if I walk around, just a minute, and that, I wanted you to know that Chastity didn't do it. Some of you be like, she finally got back after all them times of, yeah, so she probably thought about it, but this, this was actually, actually a doctor getting even.

I want to talk a little bit today, and I feel this, this message is a, is a slower one, a, a heavier one to, to process. I'm gonna, I'm gonna talk a little slower today, because there's a lot going on, and I feel like this is a real direct word to the church from God. So I, I pray we receive it. I want to do something, if it's okay. Um, I want us as a group to say what often gets referred to as the Lord's Prayer. I'm going to have it on the screen here. This is Matthew 6 verse number nine. He says, "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread." Now stop. What comes next? You can't just say, you have to process. Put verse 12 on the screen: "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." How about that? Are you sure you want to say that? Let it sink in for a minute. Let's let it sit there for just a second. You just leave it up, just, just for another minute. Look at that verse there and think about it. Are, are you really saying this? Are you committed to this? Because this is what happens when, when Jesus was asked the questions about prayer, he begins to, to lay out a pattern for prayer. Not that this is always how you have to pray, but this is just the kind of prayer that you need to have. But in it, he includes this. And do we want to say this? If we, if we think about this, think about the person who has hurt you the most, someone who has infuriated you, somebody who has wounded you. I'm talking about a deep wound, something that goes way down in the core of who you are. Somebody that's broken your heart. Somebody who's aggravated you, frustrated you. Maybe it's a, maybe it's a co-worker that you have no, no choice in. They're always there. They're, they, they frustrate you. Or maybe it's somebody in your family. Maybe it's somebody that you've known a long time. It could be somebody here at this church, maybe even somebody on staff at this church, who's done this to you, who, who has hurt you. And, and what you're saying here in this prayer is, "God, I want you to think, and to act, and to feel about me the way that I think and I feel and I act towards that person. God, I want you to have the posture towards me that I have towards that person. God, forgive me. Forgive my debt. Forgive us of the debts that I have, in the same way that I'm going to forgive them," because that's what that verse says. How about you? But that's not an easy one to just breeze through. You don't just fly through that one. Not, not with the deep hurts. Not with the deep pains. Not with the ones who, who seemingly, in a lot of ways, have derailed your life, so to speak.

How do I do that? Jesus starts here with this Sermon on the Mount, and he's laying out for very specific things. He's, he's contrasting, in my opinion, what a conventional wisdom of the day with possibly a new kind of life. He refers to it as a kingdom life. The kingdom has come. The kingdom of God is at hand, and it ushers in this new way of thinking. Jesus is quoting from the book of Exodus chapter 21 verse 23: "But if any harm follows, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot." "Burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe." Why would God do this? Why would he, why would he say these things? What, what, what's going on? That doesn't quite seem right for us here in, in 2023, that the word of God says, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. If we're truly going to do that, we're going to be blind and toothless. Let's just be honest, because stuff happens. Life happens. We don't always behave the way we should. But this is the word of God. I'm bringing you the word of God. But you see that Jesus is counteracting that. It's important that you understand the back story, right. The way he describes that is the way children seem to act, right. You see one kid hit another kid, and then it just escalates. And, and if you think about it, that's what Exodus is saying. The way kids act is, okay, well, they're good, they're in the Bible, just let them go at it. Why was it there? Why was the thought of the day, if you heard me, I'm going to hurt you in the same way. You poke my eye, I'm going to poke your eye. You burn me, I'm gonna burn you. The world we live in today is for filled with these horrible events. Automobile. It almost feels like we're living in the book of Exodus right now. What's going on? Everybody seems to be doing what's right in their own sight. What would happen if there were no laws? Seems like we're slipping back that way, where laws are simply suggestions you don't have to. We're, we're slowly eroding away into a lawless society. This is something that the word of God has dealt with. Someone knocks out your tooth, it just seems right, you ought to be able to knock their tooth out. Even in 2023, that seems to be the thought of the day. Seems to be what's going on. It seems to be proportional. It seems to be the right action. It seems to be the right next step.

The problem is, we have heart issues. It's revealed in our actions. When my desire is to hurt you because you hurt me, I have a heart problem. In fact, it's not just, if you hurt me, I'm going to hurt you back. It's, if you hurt me, I'm going to hurt you back as much as I can physically do it, because I don't want you to ever hurt me again. We have heart problems. We see this, those of us who have raised children. My own daughters, I've seen this play out. One of them would hit the other one or take something, and there was always a disproportionate response backwards. It's not just my kids. I remember being the same way with my own brother. He would do something to me, and I would just crash his party real quick, let him know who the older, smarter, wiser, stronger one was. Not much stronger anymore. He's gotten bigger. I just told him I'd just shoot him, because that seems proportionate, right? That's the order of the day. Brokenness. We live in a world, you pull my hair, I pull yours. How well is it working? How well is it working? Would you say it's going good? Are you feeling optimistic? Are you feeling great about it all? Or are you like this: something's not right, something's not right, something has to change? Yes, something has to change inside of us. Something has to change.

The one reason it doesn't work well is because pain felt is always greater than pain inflicted. I spoke about this before, many years ago. Pain felt is always greater than pain inflicted. The pain that I experience always seems to be worse, right? You heard it said before, the difference between major surgery, minor surgeries, who's being operated on. A lot of truth in that. I mean, I can, I can appreciate that you're in pain, but your pain is not like my pain, because I know exactly how my pain is, though pain felt was always greater than pain inflicted. All kinds of research have done around this. There's a study, and you can, you can look this up. So many studies and things that they do try to figure out the human mind and what goes on inside of us and how we think. People were put into a study, and they would receive pressure against their finger, and they were exact asked to exert the same amount of pressure to another person. It was always greater, what they exerted, the amount of pressure, always, every time. We should try this right now. Just take your index finger and stick it out right now, make it really rigid, everybody. Now just turn around your neighbor and poke them in the eye. No, don't, don't do that. Don't do it. Yeah, it's kind of funny, because you know, you know you don't want that, right? No, no, it's all right. I'll poke myself in the eye. Don't you, don't have to do that for me, because we know you won't know how far to go. Pain inflicted is always greater than pain. Pain felt always, his pain felt is always less than pain that's inflicted. That's why it doesn't work. You can't go that, if you hurt me, I'm going to hurt you back in the same way, because we'll always go further. We'll always do more. That's why our world is broken. Eye for an eye, tooth or tooth. Jesus is saying, you can't do that. He came and says there's something new. He preaches his foundational message on the fact that you have to act and, and behave differently. It wasn't just him. This is the theme that carries on throughout the New Testament. Paul and Peter both write. Romans chapter 12, Paul is right in here, and he says, "Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of men." Peter says, in First Peter 3 9, "Not a returning evil for evil, or revivaling for violence, but on the contrary, blessings, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing."

It's hard when we wrestle with ourself. It's hard. Jesus talks about having to address your will and go contrary. Dude, somebody strikes you on the cheek, no one, no one wants to turn the other cheek. No one thinks that. Usually there's two thoughts: it's either to run, or to fight back, never to turn a cheek and stand there and say, you know what, try this side. No. Why is he doing this? And see, I feel like oftentimes people read through the scriptures, and they almost walk away with a, with a feeling that, that God's expecting you and I to be doormats. We're supposed to lay down and take it, right. To be a Christian means that I can't fight for myself, and I, I can't fight back. I just have to take it. Is that what he was saying? Is that how he's starting off his ministry? His is explaining to everyone that the kingdom way is that people can just run over you and do whatever they want, and you can't defend yourself. No, that's not what he's saying. That's not at all what he's saying. He's trying to bring back an attention that, that there's stuff going on inside of you, and if you truly want to handle yourself right, there's got to be something that rises up inside of you that says, look, I'm not going to hit you just because you hit me, that I'm to reflect love that's been given to me.

Jesus is referring to very concrete situations. The people who were listening to him would have immediately recognized what he was talking about in that day. He was saying, as you live a blessed life, blessed are you, the poor and the meek. That's how the sermon starts out. It's referred to as the Beatitudes. And he talks about all the blessings that come about being a part of the kingdom of God. So everybody's feeling pretty good, because I don't know about you, but I like blessings, when they come into my life. And Jesus is pointing out how blessed they were. Then all of a sudden, things begin to shift and change, because he starts talking about how were to respond to adversity. He says this: "You've heard it said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth." Immediately, every one of those individuals, every one of those Jews standing around him, automatically knew what the book of Exodus said. They knew what the Torah said about this. He's quoting the law to them: "You've heard it said, eye for an eye, tooth for tooth." What it means to everybody is, you hurt me, I'll hurt you back. Don't assume that this is the right way, though. Jesus starts saying, if someone slaps you, turn the cheek. And that day, slap was not merely just a slap. No one slapped with the left hand. Left hand, and that society, was considered dirty. It was the hand, it was, it was the bathroom hand, if I can put it that way. So the slap, someone, more often not, the slap was a back slap, backhanded slap to someone. So you have to think through, as he's saying, if someone slaps you, it was a slap to put you in your place. It was a slap that would happen to slaves. It was slap that would happen to children. It would slap to put people in their place. And Jesus says, if someone slaps you, then you turn the other cheek. Well, if you turn the other cheek, it's impossible for them to slap you again that way. It doesn't, doesn't line up. Someone slaps you and you turn, the backhand and slap doesn't line up. What he's saying is, you're going to stand there and say, "Look, I'm not moving until you and I can figure this out. I'm forcing your hand to deal with the situation, because what I offered you was not a convenient way for you to do it again. I'm not, I'm not returning your slap. I'm not, I'm not doing this." Everybody expects two responses. Like I said, either you're going to flee, you're going to slap them back. But Jesus says, no, you stand there and you say, "Look, I'm not going to act that way. I'm not going to fight you. I'm not going to, I'm not gonna return violence for violence. I'm gonna, I'm gonna have a conversation with you, to see, as an agent, as a representative, as an ambassador of this new kingdom, I'm here to tell you, it doesn't work this way. Grace has been extended to me, and I want to extend some grace to you."

There are all kinds of ways this thing could be illustrated. And Jesus goes on. He uses, he uses the slap. He uses the shirt. He uses a, he uses a, a walking. What does all this mean? These are all things that were representative of the day, that people would have picked up on. When he said, someone wants to sue you and take you to the law, they want to, they want to steal your tunic, give them your cloak also. Now, for us, we, we don't really go shopping for tunics anymore, for cloaks. So what does it mean? Well, basically, in those times, there was only two articles of clothing you wear. There was, there was the tunic, or the, the undershirt, uh, and, and the only thing that was under that was your birthday suit. And then there was the cloak or the coat, the outer garment. That's, that's, that was the order of the day. So if someone was to take you to the law, to the court, and they would, they would take your shirt, your cloak was still there, representative. So when he says, give them your cloak also, what is he saying? He's saying to stand there in the, in, in nakedness and say this: "Look, is this what you want? Are you wanting to shame me? Be willing to humble yourself. Be willing to humble yourself in front of them." Now the law said, they had to give the coat back. And, and Moses, Moses' law, because, because usually your coat also doubled as your comforter. And some are still doing this. You can go to Walmart and see this happen on a regular basis. They're bringing it back. It's a different mindset. He's dealing with them in a different way. He says, if, if someone asks you to go a mile with them, go too. What does this mean? Well, there was a — they were living under Roman control. Roman law said that the Roman centurion and Roman soldier was to ask you to help them carry a burden. You were bound by Roman law to carry whatever burden or thing they had for one mile. After one mile, you could drop it at the mile marker and say, "I fulfilled my obligation," and turn and walk away. But Jesus says, don't just do the bare minimum. Someone asked you to walk with him a mile, go two. Well, see, it's, it's a different mindset, ladies and gentlemen. Okay, I'm, I'm talking about what Jesus was explaining to them. In 2023, I'm, I'm speaking to the church right now, okay. There's a lot going on in our world, a lot that bothers us, a lot that should be bothering you, a lot of things that, that we seem to have no control over. You know, it seems as though it's just, it's just running faster and faster off a cliff. What are we to do? How are we to respond? How am I to live in this world when I feel like I'm being offended everywhere I go? Well, Jesus said offenses will come. I, if you think you're going to live in this world and never be offended, that's a fool's Aaron. If Jesus says you're going to be offended, guess what, you're going to be offended. But what do you do with the offense? How do you handle the offense? What, how do you process it once it's happened to you? When someone slaps you — maybe, maybe it's not a physical sign, but they slap you on social media, or they, they slap you through, through some reprimanded work — how do you, how do you process that? What if someone takes something from you? How do you handle you? How do you conduct yourself? How am I supposed to live in this world? Well, there's so much going on. Jesus is explaining, it's a different way to be, in the kingdom mindset. You don't act like everybody else. You don't behave like everybody else. "Well, I got the right." You got a whole lot of rights, sure do. You think that, yeah, no. I'm sorry. When you received his grace, when you accepted his free gift, on the other side of you receiving it, there comes obligations, ladies and gentlemen. Yes, you don't have to qualify yourself for the gift of Calvary. You don't have to. I don't care what circumstances. I don't care what sin you've committed. I don't care how you identify. God loves you. God loves you. Just come to him. Just come to him, just as you are. You don't have to clean yourself up. You don't have to, to get yourself right. You don't have to go through 95 steps. Just come. His love is free. It is there. But if you receive it, right, if you acknowledge what he did, and say, "I want your love. I want your grace. I want salvation," once it's happened to you, there are obligations on the other side. No, you don't have to do anything to get it. But once you received it, once you received it, there's a cross for you. You got to die out to you, because you're coming into a new kingdom at that moment. And that kingdom doesn't act like the kingdom of this world. It doesn't behave like the kingdom of this world. No longer are you allowed to just go with any whim of passion or feeling that you have. You have to bring those things under control. You have to bring those things into submission. Ooh, bad words. You have to be obedient . Ooh, even worse word. You can't think the way you used to think. You have relinquished all of your rights. That does not mean you're a doormat. I'll get in that in just a minute. It does not mean that you're a doormat. It means, as an ambassador for the kingdom, you have to represent the king, and the king's desires, and the king's wishes. And the king said, you turn the other cheek. The king said, you give him your coat. King said, you walk an extra mile. That's what the king said. Jesus summarizes all this at the end of that chapter, and number five, verse number 43: "You've heard it then it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemies. But I say to you, love your enemies, and bless those that curse you." Has he lost his mind? There is nothing in me that wants to bless anybody that's cussing me. I mean, I may not want to cuss you, but I don't want to sit there and bless you. But no, no, look, look: "But I say, you love your enemies. Bless those curse you. Do good those hey you. Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." "Oh, I'm gonna pray for him, all right. Oh God, bless him. Good, bless him with some hemorrhoids. Bless them with something." Verse 45: "That ye may be sons of your father in heaven, for he makes his son to rise on the evil and on the good, and since the rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have?" Man, doesn't he just have a way of getting right in here? Then he says, look, don't even the IRS agents do that? "If you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your father in heaven is perfect."

Let me ask you a question. Anybody want to guess what all the factors — whether it's physical attraction, or having a high IQ, or personality type, or, or great abilities — out of every factor, what do you guess the number one thing is to determine whether or not you're going to like a person? Somebody said looks. Yeah. What's the number one reason why, why you would like somebody? It's if they like you. Yeah, it is. Yeah, if they like you, you would like them. And if somebody out there — and there, you're gonna be somebody out there that you didn't really care for, but then you, they, you, you hear them saying something good about you, and then all of a sudden you have a turn heart, you're like, wow, you know what, you're a lot smarter and I give you credit for. You're a brilliant person. I started just to write you off, but after I heard you talk so eloquently, I'm, I realized my mistake. You, you, you are a very intelligent person. Yeah. It all has to do with whether or not they like you, and you know it's true. If they like you, more often than not, you find yourself liking them. God just loves people. And it's just getting down to where the rubber meets the road. Let's just be honest, okay. He's a lot more serious about himself than we are about him. I'll take it a step further. God's a lot more serious about his word than we are. He's a lot more serious about his commands than we are. A lot more serious about his kingdom principles than we are. See, I, if you, if you really do read this and absorb it, I don't know how you walk away without understanding, he's serious. He's serious about this kingdom life. He's serious about taking up a cross and falling after him. How do you, how do you process Calvary? How do you process that cross, and walk away from any other conclusion then he's serious about this? These are not suggestions. This is the way he, he wants us to live, to embrace it wholeheartedly. Sometimes people, that they don't understand his teaching, and they, they think it's, it's just him, as I said, wanting us to be a doormat. When, when he describes stuff like when, when you come to him, you've got to turn the other cheek, and you got to give your coat away, and you got to walk an extra mile. But yeah, he wasn't saying that if you hurt me, that I have to stay there and take it. See, it goes down deep. Yeah, I want to have the right to choose not to love you, but he says I don't get that right. Did you just hear what I said? I, I wanna, I wanna process that, that if you're not kind to me, and you hurt me, and you, and you, you use me for spide, and you mistreat me, and you abuse me, that, that, that, that not only I don't like you, I don't love you, but he says, I don't, I don't have that option. Because he loves you, I have to in turn love you. See, you and I, this is a hard one, okay. And I'm not, I'm not pretending this is an easy message to process, but I, I feel this heaviness inside of me, that somehow the church has tiptoed around this whole issue of, of forgiveness, that we don't fully process the, the weight that comes along with receiving his love, is that I have to become a conduit of that same love. Here's the reality: I don't have to like you. There's no biblical command for me to like you. But I have to love you. I don't get the opt out of the love part to figure it out. You see, to pray the Lord's Prayer is to pray, "Your kingdom come, your will be done." A kingdom of God is a kingdom of love, because God is love. And in the kingdom of God, nobody ever has the right not to love, because God is love. And I just want to say, nobody has ever loved like God. Nobody has ever loved like Jesus. There is no hope outside of him. I don't know any hope outside of the one who gave it all. The one who didn't do the bare minimum. The one who, who said, "I'm not going to do but just enough to get by," but instead was willing to wrestle with inside himself until he had the ability to say, "I will move forward and accomplish what you have asked of me."

So, ladies and gentlemen, sometimes life doesn't go the way you want it to go. Sometimes things just come your way that you would choose to opt out of, if you had the option. But you don't. But embracing the kingdom, and embracing his love, is to say, "God, no matter what comes my way, choose You, because you chose me." There, there are some people in our life that they're never just, they're never going to change. But it doesn't mean you don't get the option to say, "I don't care for you anymore, and I love." Now, I'm, I'm gonna get a little serious here in just a minute. I, I've prayed a lot about my next words I'm fixing to say, but I'm feeling very strong about this. You know, and when, in Mark 1465 — I want you to, want you to pay attention, okay, what's going on here. Jesus has been betrayed. All he wanted to do was to come and set things back the way they were supposed to be. That was it. He just simply come to love. He come to, he come to change the world through dying for every one of us. He tells us, if somebody slaps you, turn the other cheek. And then, and then, he didn't just ask you, he lived it. Look, Mark 14 65: "Then some begin to spit on him, and blindfold him, and began to beat him, and say to him, prophesy. And the officer struck him with a palm on their hands." On the final day of his life, we are told that his enemy surrounded him, and they spit him in the face, and they struck him with their fists, and they slapped him, and asked him to prophesy. We read in his words, he could have called down ten thousand angels to help him in that moment. But he goes back to something he began his ministry with: if they slap you, turn your cheek. He says, there's bigger stuff at play. Somebody takes your coat, takes the shirt off your back, offer them all that you have. Mark 15 24: "Then the soldiers knelt into the cross, and they divided his clothes, and threw dice to decide who would get it to peace." He said, if a Roman soldier come someday ask you to go a mile, at the end of that mile, you ask, can you go another one. One day, Roman soldiers come. They forced him to walk. He reaches a point where he stumbles and falls, and another is asked to carry the cross too. That was here or unbelievable what he was doing. He was saying, you don't always get to pick what life happens to you, but you do get to pick how you respond. See, you may think there's no choice. There's always choice. There's always a choice. In the garden of Gethsemane, sweat dropping like blood. Matthew 26 42: "Again, a second time, he went away and prayed, said, oh my father, if this cup cannot pass away from me, unless I drink it, your will be done." Because it was the only hope for this sorry, twisted world. This world will not be redeemed by a different economic system, or a different political arrangement, or a different president in the White House. It had to be the way of the cross. See, there are some situations you do need to remove yourself from, okay. You got to figure out, in a loving way, how you remove yourself from those situations. But there are some — even Jesus walked away from some people. He walked away from some situations. So I'm speaking right now, and I feel in my spirit to tell somebody here — like, I don't know what your every situation is in this room, but I'm here to tell you that there, you don't, you do not have to put up with abuse, right. Are you listening to the pastor? You do not have to put up with physical abuse. You don't have to put up with emotional abuse. You don't have to put up with those things. "But I gave my vow, Pastor." Yeah, you did, but they are breaking their vow now. You may not have the right to remarry, but you don't have to stay in a situation where there's abuse. If they've broken their vow, and you have tried to do your best through love, and they refuse — some situations, I know some of you a little nervous right now, I'm telling you, there's — God does not ask anybody to stay in a abusive relationship. And I say that with much prayer in the Holy Ghost. If you are an abusive, abusive relationship, then it may be time that you back out of that situation. You and I can talk more about what happens on the other side of that. But he doesn't tell anybody to stay in an abusive relationship. Turn the other cheek, yes, but not stay there and become a doormat. No, no, never, never. That's not the love of God, no.

Chances are I'm close. The musicians can come, because I feel like God wants to do something deep in us today. What, as I was praying, as I was working on this, I kept coming back to, to this feeling I have, as I begin the process, where we are right now, where we are in the world, where we are in the timeline of what God has going on. And I just, I feel heavy. I feel heavy, because I feel like some of us have justified how we can improperly respond to people we don't agree with. Just because someone is on the opposite aisle of you politically does not give you a right to hate them. Does not, you can't. For some reason, our society has decided that you and I can no longer respectfully disagree. That if I don't not only agree with you, but affirm you, then I hate you. That it's wrong. That's wrong. But I also do not get the right to not love you. I have to figure out. And this is where I feel like this attitude is crept into the church, and we have to be very, very careful. Very, very careful, when God is very plainly laid out in his word, that my own forgiveness is tied in my ability to forgive. My forgiveness is tied in my ability to forgive. That as he laid out an example of prayer, "Lord, forgive me as I forgive, forgive me." I don't know about you, but I need forgiveness every day.

So here's the deal, okay. Chances are, you're probably not going to be slapped by somebody this week. Chances are, I don't know, maybe you will, but I, I would dare say the overwhelming majority of us will not be slapped this week. Probably nobody's going to take you to court and sue you over your coat this week. Probably no soldier is going to force you to walk an extra mile this week. Those opportunities won't happen. But there may be somebody to ask you for a favor, and that person may be somebody you don't want to help. It's convicting to me, okay. We were just having this discussion a few days earlier, and I thought the irony of this conversation I was having with some guys, because I was working, trying to put this together, and we were talking about when people want to borrow stuff from you. How does that make you feel? Doesn't make me happy, because I know most of you don't care for the things the way I would care for them. I see how you treat your car, in your shoes, and your house, and I don't want you to borrow my shovel, because you might scratch it. I'm just being honest. I'll tell you that, that thought comes to me. If you come to me and ask to borrow something, just know, inside my head, I'm already evaluating you. Could be a cranky person at work, somebody that's so irritating, they just make you almost lose what little mind you have. They may come to you, but here's the deal, this could be your chance. All right, can you just say that with me? Everybody say, "This is my chance." All right, all right. This is going to happen. It's gonna happen this week. There's gonna be a moment, and you're gonna come back to this moment in this message, when this is your chance. Gonna be some situation, someone's going to make you mad. This is your chance. It could be as you're driving, somebody gets tall, traffic gets messed up, somebody's weaving out, somebody's losing control. Somebody may give you, may give you that one finger hello. And when that happens, I just want you to know, this is your chance. So some of you may be saying that before you get out of this parking lot: this is your chance. See, here's, here's what, here's what, it's important, is you need to be able to genuinely pray for that person. It's how you know. That's how you know it. You're able to forgive. See, that needs to be the test right there. Legitimate stuff. Can, can I be where I need to be with you, God? I need to forgive. If you can't pray for them yet, I've forgiven them yet. Now, let me just say this. Let me just say this, because there are some hurts and pains that have been inflicted that are monumental, and you may be emotionally at a point that, that seems like, and it may be an impossibility in this moment. And if that's the case, then I encourage you to pray, "God, help me have the capacity to forgive," just because that might be the first processes God's got to work with you, so that you can get to the moment. It's okay if that's where you are. Then I encourage you, pray that prayer: "God, help me get to where I can." Because, ladies and gentlemen, your forgiveness is dependent, it's connected to, is conditional upon, you being able to forgive. Let me put it another way: you're not going to make heaven. You're not going to make heaven if you can't live a life of forgiveness, regardless of how clean a life you live, and all the things that you do that are right. And I'm not dismissing, because it's hard to do any of that stuff. But if you do everything from A to Z, just like it's supposed to be, but you still have hate, you still have anger, you still have bitterness and angst towards a brother or a sister, and there's more I could say on the subject. Jesus goes through a whole, a whole, a whole parable about better, but man owing money, and had to pay the money off, and he gets forgiven. And then, if somebody else comes in, and they owe money, and, and then they take one by the throat. And, and then, before you know it, he's back before the king. And then, at the end of that whole parable, Jesus says, that same thing is going to happen to you if you can't forgive your brother. The, the, the, the, the gist is this: it all comes crashing back on you if you can't forgive. So it's important. Now, I don't know everybody's story here today. I don't know everybody's going through. But he said, "Forgive us our dance, as we forgive our debtors."

I'm gonna leave you with this. In the dictionary, the word for forgive means to, to give up resentment towards someone for something that they have done against you. Give up. Give up what? Give up control. Give up rights. Give up justification to the act. We want to be able to control how we treat others, but Jesus tells us that, let the control go, and think more about it. And in doing so, it carries a reward on the other side. The only way to truly have a resentment-free life is by allowing the hurts, the wrongs, the problems, and so forth, allowing them to be disconnected from us. In other words, it's only through the process of forgiveness that I let the baggage go. So I don't know where you are, but if you need the power to release and forgive, there's a God who will help you with that. He's here today. This is what I feel. I feel, I'm going to pray, and this, this altar is open, if you need. This is, this is a moment of reflection today. Now, if you need salvation, God's still here, got to pour out his spirit. But a lot of this is making sure our hearts and our minds are where they need to be. And here's what I know: this is something that affects us all. This is something that affects us all. So I don't know where you are. There, there is, there is no judgment here, okay. There are multiple reasons why one would come to the altar today. And I rebuke anybody that has any thinking about, "Oh, look at them. I'm glad they went there. They needed to go." Well, if you had that thought, you better be here too. In fact, you better beat them down here.

I want to pray, and God's going to move. Will you bow your heads with me? Jesus, God, I delivered my heart today to your church. God, I know you want us to be in a right mind, in the right heart, and the right attitude. Lord, you want us to be ambassadors for your kingdom. But God, we can't do that right, if I have ought against my brother or sister. God, I know without any doubt, there are hurts, deep hurts, and pains, and wounds that are in this room today. I pray, Lord, that that healing bomb, that oil from your very throne, to flow in this place. God, those that are struggling, and having a hard time being able to start that process of forgiveness, God, that you would work with them, that you would help them get to a better emotional place, where they can let things go. God, give us the strength, and the encourage, and the courage we need, to live that life of turning the other cheek, of walking the extra mile. Let us reflect the love that you have, Lord, for us. Let us be conduits of that love. In Jesus' name. It's prayer time, church. I think it'd be good if we'd all find a place to reflect for a little while, to make sure where we need to be. It's not about getting even. It's about being right with the king.