Luke 6: 27- 38 The Danger of Self Preservation

Intro: In 2 Tim. 3:16 Paul declares 16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, 17 that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.

1. All scripture has been given by the Lord & is Profitable for us - several ways . It is profitable for doctrine (what is right),

1. for reproof (what is not right), for correction (how to get right), and for instruction in righteousness (how to stay right).

B) that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. That is God’s heart for His people / His Church

Today we are picking up in Luke 6 continuing to look at a sermon Jesus gave to a crowd of People - who had come to hear Him teach - be Healed - A) Sermon on Plains - ( Similar to Sermon on Mount yet different - reasons why

in our Last study ) 1^st part of study v.20-26 / pick up today v.27

2. At this point in the sermon Jesus gives to us a series of

IMPOSSIBLE commands READ V. 27-30

Something to NOTICE right away: To whom is Jesus talking

1. Because they look at what the scriptures say as being too hard, too rigid

3. All because People fail to allow God to do the work in their hearts that He

is desiring . ( Hosea 4 My people are destroyed …… )

So Jesus begins by saying I say to you who will hear

A) Because there will be those who will NOT hear because of the nature of

the command - turn their hearts away from hearing

1. There are those who will respond - LOve your enemies that is ridiculous I am not listening to that !

B) NOT everybody will listen to this command.... There are many

who will seek to MODIFY it

1. They will say/ that what Jesus is really saying

D) is that you can find something good in even the worst of people

E) What did Jesus REALLY MEAN when He said Love your enemies

1) He really meant that you should love your enemies

We can NOT modify the command

1. It is NOT NATURAL to love those who are your enemies / It is

NATURAL to HATE your enemies

B) Left to myself, I have to confess that I hate my enemies

C) Now I do NOT believe that I am weird or odd in that response to those who oppose me or set out to hurt me/ natural tendency

1) I know that I can NOT love my enemies

1. As I look at the things that Jesus is asking me to do in these verses I

simply admit that of myself I can NOT do them

1. It is NOT in me to OBEY what Jesus is asking me to do

2. Have you ever had someone flip you off or curse at you? Or have you

ever been driving - some one recklessness endangers your life

1. Be Honest / My first reaction is not - to smile & say Jesus loves you.

3. OR. Freeway - guy passes in the middle - I floored it - I want to break the

guys neck -

A) I was praying -- ( Wasn’t praying Lord - bless Him )

1. My prayers in those times tend to resemble some of David's - Lord break

B) But THAT is NOT how He intended me to pray for them

He wants me to pray for their good

1. Like Jesus did when men had just driven nails through His

3. But our natural response is to want to defend ourselves / protect ourselves

to hit back when we are hit / lash out when lashed out at !

1. But Jesus says in v. 29 "To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer

I'm afraid that in such instances that I am much like the Apostle Paul in ACTS 23:2-3 And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Then said Paul to him, God shall smite you, you whited wall:

A) His first response was NOT to turn the other cheek

1) It was the NATURAL response... the response of the flesh

B) When I am STRUCK, my natural response is SELF-defense and

1. But NOTE: THAT is the issue that Jesus is dealing with SELF-

1. SELF-preservation is that tendency to DEFEND self & PRESERVE self that keeps me from LOVING those who hurt me

1. and from giving someone the opportunity to wrong me again

2. Because My natural tendencies are to take care of me & to protect me / I react in a defensive way - choose to not be made vulnerable

C) So when Jesus says And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. "Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back.

D) I read that and say - Lord that is crazy !

E) If you came to church today and caught someone ripping off your stereo

1. Jesus is saying that our response should be: "Hey - Come back... You

F) "Cloak and tunic - Oh I can handle that... I haven't got one"

1. But when it touches things that are precious to us we find that we can't

A) These commands are NOT only IMPOSSIBLE They seem to be a joke

2. Start thinking IF I did what Jesus is asking me I wouldn't have anything

left for myself

C) But see NOW we are getting close to the whole point of these commands

1. He is getting to the truth about myself

D) The truth about myself is that I am VERY self-centered and VERY possessive of those things I call MINE

1) I do NOT want to let them go - I have claimed them as MINE

BUT - How often do we say: "Everything that I have belongs to the Lord"

1. Or Jesus take all of me - Lord you can have all of me - or Lord I want more of you & less of me in my life !!!!!

a) Do we really mean that ? the minute someone invades our space

2. - the minute someone does us wrong - the minute someone - lashes out - defenses go up / Scream - What about my rights

1) When put to the test we so often See where we are really at!!!!

C) The test PROVES how much of my life I still hold on to

The test REVEALS how much of MYSELF is still here

D) The fact of the matter is it’s hard for me love my enemies

it’s hard for me do good to those that hate me

1. it’s hard for me bless those that curse me it’s hard for me do good to those that spitefully use me

A) There is so MUCH for the Lord to work on/ That Apart from God we are

HOPELESSLY and HELPLESSLY in love with ourselves

2. But Jesus want to do a work in us of taking us to a higher level - out of the

natural realm & into the spiritual realm

3. He wants us to be people who react not in a natural way - but a

supernatural way !!!!

A) I get no credit for loving those who LOVE me/ Sinners do that

B) I get no credit for giving to those who will pay me back / Banks do that

Sinners do that... They return favors

1) MORE is required of me as a believer I am to love my enemies,

I am to do good, and lend, hoping for nothing gain;

1. Whatever you would like men to do to you... that is what you should do to them
2. But many times teachers put this in the negative. "Don't do to anybody what you don't want done to you." That's a very common thing.

1. My kids I won’t hit her if she doesn’t hit me !!! But if she hits me

4. C) Confucius, said something similar to this, Whatever is distasteful to you, and you don't want that done to you, you just don't do that to some one else,
5. But What Jesus said was worlds apart from Confucius /Because Jesus put it in a positive sense.

1. not just not hitting him because you don't want him to hit you.

E)But He put it in a positive sense." What ever you would like people to do you, do that to them."

1)How would you like them to treat you, when you've made a mistake? You want them to be kind and understanding and sympathetic.

F)Then that's the way you should be to them, when they've made a mistake, kind, sympathetic, and understanding.

1)How you would like people to treat you, that's the way you are to treat them Jesus said.

G)SO He turns it from a negative to a positive. And so it leads us into actual positive actions rather then just refraining from negative things.

1. What would happen if each of us - purposed in our hearts this week to just bless everyone we came in contact w/

8. God would do radical things - That is what Jesus is talking about !!!

1. Now is Jesus giving these commands simply to show us that we can’t do them - that the point - to show us how far we are from perfection

2. No - 2 other reasons - 1^st is to REVEAL WHO HE IS

1. See he was able to do this and to live this way - the things He is teaching here are the very things He modeled in His life .

3. 2^nd reason is to reveal that They can NOT be manifested in you or me

apart from an abiding relationship with God

A)Jesus is telling His disciples to LOVE those Roman soldiers & rulers that

oppressed them

B) Jesus is NOT talking about FALLING IN LOVE with them

1) Jesus is talking about a loving action born out of CHOICE

3. Like the love of God for the world "For GOD SO LOVED the world

D) This is a love based solely upon the CHOICE of the one loving and NOT on the MERIT of the one being loved

E) To love your enemies means that YOU.... by a choice of the will.... chose to act in their best interests

1. But It is NOT in my capacity to LOVE like that

6. But as I abide in Christ - as I lean upon Him - look to Him - He begins to produce that love in Me.

1. I can find myself - responding in ways that even surprise myself.

7. Guy cuts you off on the freeway - gives you the finger - smile - pray father forgive him he doesn’t know what he is doing -

A) IF I have to do these things to be saved, then I am lost

These commands FORCE me to TURN to Jesus and TRUST in Him

B) These commands are NOT intended to MAKE me righteous

They are intended to make me see how UNRIGHTEOUS I am

C) As we go down this list it makes me appreciate Jesus more & more For in Him I receive a righteousness that I KNOW I do not possess

4. When God sees me today He does NOT view me as the miserable selfish

wretch unable to love anyone but myself

1. He sees me IN CHRIST

E) He says I am working in you & I will be faithful to complete that work that I have begun in you - Just abide in Me!!!

1. In Him I have a HOPE to be transformed into His image

You see these are unnatural commands. They irritate me. In the flesh I find myself arguing with them.

1. Now as long as I am argue with them, I am never going to change. I'll always be trying to get even.

2. I'll always be after the eye for an eye, and the tooth for a tooth. And seeking revenge, and being eaten up by ulcers.

1. But if I just will to obey, "God I am willing to love, but you're going to have to do it, I can't do it."

3. if I am willing, I will find that He will provide for me all that is necessary for me to obey that command. My part is to be willing to obey

1). and in that willingness you'll discover the secret of victory.

4. And the Lord will give to you the capacity and the power to obey the

commands that He has given.

Example : Jesus says to Love my enemies - Pray for those who spitefully use me . I say Lord I can’t do that !!! people are wrong -

1. But in obedience I start to pray for them - guess what ? Prayer changes things - first thing that changes is me - I start to love them.

2. What is really interesting is as I begin to pray for that person I become interested in their lives - how their doing

1. often He who was my enemy becomes my friend !!!

1. Lets take them in Reverse order - 1^st We should be merciful because our Father in Heaven has been so merciful to us !!!!

2. When I see YOU blowing it towards me I can NOT condemn you or

react towards you... Bitter towards you

1. Because God has been so merciful to me/and that is how I am to be towards others

C) MERCY = Not getting what I deserve

c) IF someone is unkind towards me.... Mercy means that I will NOT give

D) So living on this higher plain begins by realizing -and being constantly aware of the grace & mercy that God has given to me .

1. Once I realize - how He is w/ me - that is how I need to be w/ others

E) Ex. 15 Waters of Marah - throw in the Tree !!! Easier to do when I am cognizant of the fact that Jesus paid price for my sins too - Mercy on Me

A) In doing so I will be demonstrating the NATURE of the Father

2. BECAUSE he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil.

3. God’s patience and longsuffering - blows my mind ! He is so patient w/ me

1. Yet I can be so impatient w/ others / so critical

4. And I have seen his patience in the lives of others - wonder why He just doesn’t wipe them out ! - Chance after / Chance / He’s done same w/ me !

So 2^nd it Validates that we are His kids - 3^rd - there is great reward

1. Every time that we respond in this manner a Jewel is added to our crown

1. Great reward in Heaven

2. But there is also the potential for reward here - we sometimes gain a friend

May the Word of God TRANSFORM us and CLEANSE us from our natural bent to condemn & to Judge & be critical to showing mercy !

May God remind ME of the mercy that I have so OFTEN needed and so often received / When I feel as though someone has wronged me or hurt me