Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: Beautiful. Beautiful. The name of that song was "Be Exalted". I was thinking, how do we exalt the Lord? Well, we exalt him in many ways: by singing to him, by the way we live exalt the Lord. That's lifting him high for all to see. Another way we exalt the Lord is talking about him, talking about his greatness. So very simple ways. There are lots of ways to talk about him too. We can talk one-on-one and nowadays with all the beautiful images and videos and everything we have, we can exalt the Lord so easily. With just a touch of our finger, we can send something that will exalt him and lift him high.
I'm going to talk right now for a moment about the moment of hope videos again, and we are going to watch one together because this is a beautiful way to exalt the Lord. I already have one in mind that I'm going to send to somebody as soon as the service is over, because her son is really struggling, and I know that this little one minute message will encourage him.
Brian: It might even be this one because the one we are going to see today, it's called, “It's never too late." Sometimes it's so easy to think when tragedy strikes or maybe you are really messed up, maybe you have found yourself in a sense, reeling under the weight of addictive behavior, some kind of addictive behavior, or maybe some kind of sin was committed against you in your childhood, and you were never able to get over that, and it created in you, an anger or a wound that just keeps coming out and wounding other people.
Jacque: And such depression.
Brian: Yes. And then eventually, we see this domino effect with relationships falling apart and brokenness happening. When you find yourself in that place, it's really easy to think that it's too late for anything to change, but with Jesus, it's never too late. It's never too late. So that's really the title of this Moment of Hope video. I bet you, we all know people that we could actually send this little 60-seconds video to. We all know people that might be almost reeling under the weight of maybe their history and things that have happened to them. This is something that I believe can be a real encouragement to them. Let's watch this together.
Moments of Hope: I know that there are so many people, because I encounter them. They are broken, they are wounded and they are without directions. So many people are tempted to say, "It's too late for me," and I just want to say no, it isn’t. No, it isn’t. It's never too late for the arrival of Christ. It's never too late. You will never be too old to say yes to Jesus. You will never be too messed up to be able to say yes. You'll never be too worn out, too used up, too young, too broken. Will we be different than the innkeeper? Will we say yes to this Jesus? I realized some years back that God did not give me the job of screening, the applicants of those who he is inviting. He didn't give me that job to screen the applicants of all those people whose doors that he is knocking on. Just say yes.
Jacque: You can find these videos on YouTube. We have a YouTube channel, Hope does: My Hope Community. You can so easily share them; just click the share button. You can text them, you can email them, put them on people's Facebook messaging. Another thing is you can go to our website, MyHopecommunity.com, and you can sign up to get one in your email twice a week. So easy to find.
Brian: Jesus really is the answer for brokenness today. We have so many tools at our fingertips to just get that message into the hands of other people. We get it into their hands because they are all holding one of these things. Everybody is holding one of these things. Our girls in Haiti, who virtually live in poverty, have one of these things. They can text us and they send us emails through one of these things. You can get in touch with people all over the world through this device right here. These videos can be sent to any place in the world. Just sit down and make a list of people that are broken today that may be discouraged, that are wounded, who need a good dose of the love them.
Jacque: The word intentional is coming to mind, to be intentional to touch people with the love of God and to be intentional to glorify him.
Brian: Today, I want to do just a little bit deeper dive off of the message that I spoke last week. I hope we realize that there are always two roads available for all of us to take. Most of us when we think of traveling this road, we come to a fork, we can either go left or right. That's kind of what most of us think, but that's not the road I'm talking about today, not the left road or the right road. I'm talking about the correct road, of course. Rather the road is, are we going to take the high road or are we going to take the low road? Are we going to take the high road or are we going to take the low road?
I just want to tell a story. I want to go way back in our early history of hope community. When we first came out into this area, we had acquired 52 acres on the East side of County Road 116. A couple of people here, the Boils would remember that time back in those days when we did that. Jim and Brenda, and a few people that are here today would remember that. We were all excited about building a church there. We got approval from the city to do so. And then we came about three years later with our formal application before the city with architectural drawings and all of that. That process is obviously quite lengthy. We were kind of coming up to the end of our contract in the school that we were meeting in. The school district was very gracious to us. They gave us a three-year contract. We were kind of coming up to the end of that, but we had to be out of the school after three years.
We came before the city council and we showed up that night. I remember Jacque had baked this beautiful, one of my favorite cakes. We were going to celebrate getting approval from the city. We show up to city hall and 200 people are there in opposition to us. There was a leader of the opposition, a man that I had never talked to, I had never met. He had never introduced himself to me. He stood up in that meeting. He was quite articulate, and he painted the most picture of this church and of me and the blight that we were going to become in this community if they allowed us to build a church where we wanted to build it.
I'll tell you right off the bat: it's really difficult to hear those kinds of things said about you. It's hard to hear those things said about the ministry that we had loved, and still do. I was very, very tempted in that meeting to publicly strike back and use a lot of my masters because I studied a master's degree in speech and rhetoric and debate at the University of Minnesota. All of my tools were coming back to me about how to debate and how to put someone in a corner and squeeze someone, squeeze the life out of them intellectually. I was very tempted to strike back. And then the Lord spoke this very depressing verse to me, "Bless those who curse you. Bless those who curse you." I thought to myself, “that makes for a real nice theology, but vengeance would feel a lot better.” Have you ever been there?
One after another stood up that night and talked about how terrible this church was going to be in our community. At the end of the night, the vote was cast and we were not allowed to build our church. We went into a holding pattern.
Jacque: Can I say something?
Brian: Yeah.
Jacque: I think that the neighbors were afraid because we were growing and they were just afraid of the bigness.
Brian: There was a lot of fear. We went into this holding pattern as a church. We went to prayer; we sought the will of God. We had to wait. It's not fun to wait in those seasons. It's hard to wait in those seasons. What was really hard was the school district was putting the squeeze on us to get out of the school, and now we had no place to build a building. We had no place to that we were going to be able to call home. We'll share some of this at another time, but through a lot of supernatural events, this location where we are currently at today became available. It wasn't available actually, when we first came out here for three years prior to that. So sometimes you’ve got to go someplace else to get to where God is taking you.
We had entered into negotiations and we had acquired this piece of property and about a year and a half or so, a year/year and a half after this really very painful city council meeting, a knock came to my door and it was the leader of the opposition who had spoken up against me. Very humbly, he apologized to me and he said, "I really regret what I did." This may sound political to you, and at first I thought it might be, but eventually I realized it wasn't. He said, "You know what? I'm actually running for city council, and if you would give me your support, I will be your biggest advocate here in this community." I said, "You have my support.” He was elected, and he became one of the strongest advocates of this church. It's partly because of him today that we are here.
He was very deeply touched by this ministry. He actually got cancer and one of our serving council members, and I prayed for him at the end of my driveway one day. We said we believe in healing. He left that day to go down to Rochester for a big procedure and when he got there, the procedure was needed because God had healed him at the end of my driveway. Obviously, I don't believe if I would have stood up and used my speech and rhetoric skills and my debate skills and all of those things to put that man down publicly at that council meeting, I do not believe that things would have turned out the way they did.
I also don't believe that we can do as good a job at vengeance as God can or justice. We all go through situations in which we are treated unfairly. We all go through these things. The natural response is to either defend ourselves or to strike back to strike back. Our human nature wants to get revenge. We like to get even. We like to get even, don't we? I would like to read a verse from the book of Deuteronomy here that would be good for all of us to remember. It's found in Deuteronomy 32: 35, just the first half of that verse. Why don't you read it, Jacque?
Jacque: It is mine to avenge. I will repay
Brian: "It is mine to avenge," the Lord says, "and I will repay." That means that God will help make right, the wrongs that have committed against you. People lie about you and people steal from you and people abuse you and people take advantage of you. God wants to repay you for every unfairness because God is a God of justice. He is a God of fairness. He wants to repay us good for the evil that have happened to us.
God can't undo the evil that has happened to us. We can't go back into our past and undo the past, but God can bring healing to our past and he can bring great rewards into our future. God wants to have— He God wants you and I to have the last laugh. He does. I'm not laughing at that person who was the leader of the opposition because he and I actually became very good friends. We had dinner at his house. This was kind of a repeated story that happened subsequently after that. A number of people who were on the city council and in city government who opposed to us became our close friends and are very good friends of this ministry today. But I'm telling you, it's not it's because we didn't strike back. It's because we didn't try to get vengeance. It's because we tried to let God do his thing and take the high road.
I would like to read another portion of scripture by the apostle Paul, written by the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 12. We'll see what he has to say about how our response should be when we are treated wrongly.
Jacque: Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, “It is mine to avenge. I will repay,” says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
Brian: That's a lot different perspective than getting back at the people who have hurt us. We are not to avenge ourselves. We are to let God do it. We are to let God do it. You can avenge yourself or you can let God be your avenger, but we can't have it both ways. We can't have it both ways. If you take matters into your own hands, God, the gentleman he is, in a sense, will take a step back and say, "Go ahead, go ahead. You obviously think you can do a better job than me." How often don't we think that? We try and take control all the time, don’t we, of things in our lives. But if you'll stay on the high road— and by the way, there is a lot less traffic on the high road than the low road.
I like taking drives; Jacque and I like to get in the car. When we go for drives, you know where we never go? We never go driving on the freeway; way too much traffic. Where do we like to go? Way out in the country; you might not see a car for miles. Every once in a while, we'll even go down a dirt road, then we have to go get the car washed again, but that's okay.
If you'll stand the high road and not lose control of your emotions and let God be your avenger, and notice, I said, "and let,” let God be your avenger, I believe he'll show up. It might be a year later or 3 years later, or 5 years later, maybe even 25 years later. Are you willing to wait that long to let God be the one who makes things right in your life? Because God knows all the things that have happened to you that have been wrong. He knows them all. He knows them all. He sees every time you've been hurt. Every single one, he sees that. He keeps the records and he doesn't lose them. One thing God is never going to say, "Oh, I lost those records in the fire." We had a fire up here in heaven and just, they got torched." No, he doesn't lose his records.
God will be the vindicator of us, if we stay on the high road. Let's not waste our time trying to pay back those people who have hurt us. I believe that there is favor to come to all of us from heaven. I believe that God has released favor and even promotion to us when we let him be our vindicator. But it's so easy to get into the habit of becoming self-promoting and to strive, et cetera, et cetera. God has a place where he wants us to be.
He has got a place where he is trying to take all of us. Holding onto our hurts and holding onto our grudges, the only thing that that does is it keeps us from going and arriving at where God wants us to be in what place he has for us. Getting back at those who have hurt us just prevents us from arriving at the place that God has for us. I believe that we are all destined for greatness— By the way, that greatness may not be necessarily greatness in the eyes of man, but greatness in the eyes of God. I believe God has destined every single one of us for greatness in his eyes, but taking, in a sense, revenge into our own hands stops that destiny from coming.
I alluded a little bit last week to a story of David. I want to take a moment to read a portion of his life. David was a wonderful example of not taking things into his own hands to pay back evil for evil. We know the story that as a young boy, he killed Goliath. He became a national hero overnight. He was anointed to be king, actually many years before he took the throne. He was the rightful inheritor of the throne. He went through a great lengthy time of testing in his life. Do you ever feel like you are going through a lengthy time of testing in your life? I feel that at times.
During this time of testing, Saul was his biggest test. Saul was trying to kill him. It was unfair. It was unjust. David had been good to Saul. When Saul was being demonized by evil spirits, David would go in and play his harp and play music and sing, and it would bring calmness over Saul that soothed him with this anointed music. Yet Saul kept throwing spears at David, and David kept ducking and picking up his harp and kept playing more songs for Saul. That's what the response was.
Now we see this story kind of unfolding in first Samuel chapter 24. David is now on the run. He has got a handful of men that are with him. Saul is the king and, he has got this massive army and he is hunting David to kill him. That's where we find, uh, the situation of first Samuel 24:1.
Jacque: From the NIV. After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told David is in the desert of En Gedi.
Brian: And we've been there at that En Gedi. It's where the Ibex were. Streams come out of the rocks and the mountains. It's a great place. The Dead Sea scrolls were virtually found in a cave in that area. There are caves and so forth. David found himself when he sees this army coming, he and his men decided to go into one of these caves. Some of these caves are quite deep. So here is the story.
Jacque: So Saul took 3000 able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the crags of the wild goats. He came to the sheep pens along the way. A cave was there and Saul went into relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave, and the men said, "This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with, as you wish.’"
Brian: Let me stop here for a second. I remember a teacher of mine once said, "You can take your Bible and walk into a woods by yourself and read it and come out a heretic." Because we need each other. We need each other. There is a lot of things in the word of God that when not read with the right heart, the right spirit, the right revelation, the lens of Jesus that we can take incorrectly, wrongly and use it to abuse and even kill other people. That's how the crusades happened.
The Bible, the cross, put on shields was used to kill people. This is not the way of Jesus. Some of the men of David, they had read some of what we would call the Old Testament, some of the scriptures in the Torah. One of those scriptures was that I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with, as you wish. That was one of those scriptures. They see Saul come into this cave and they automatically grab onto this verse, and they say, "He is ours. We'll snuff him out right now. God has delivered him to us." But there is a deeper, Aslan would say, "magic" going on here. There is a deeper truth that we have to get to than what at times is just what appears to be on the surface. So let's keep reading.
Jacque: Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off the corner of Saul's robe. Afterward, David was conscience stricken for cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And he said to his men, "The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, or lay my hand on him, for he is the anointed of the Lord."
Brian: Can you imagine this for a second? He is calling the guy that's throwing the spears the Lord's anointed.
Jacque: Trying to kill him.
Brian: Trying to kill him, the Lord's anointed. This is my master. Later on, he calls him father, this very endearing salutation for him. But there has to been something very deep within us in our character in order to be able to do that
Jacque: With these words, David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. Saul left the cave and went his way. Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, "My Lord, the king." When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He said to Saul, "Why do you listen when men say David is bent on harming you?"
Brian: Saul was listening to a bunch of lies as well. Saul's anger, Saul's agitation was being fueled by lies. Just like a lot of the things that were said about us; they were fueled by fear, by lies of the enemy to speak into these people, but it felt real to them. It felt real to them. And this was real to Saul: David is trying to kill me. David is going after me. David wants to take my throne. These are the lies that Saul was listening to
Jacque: This day. You have seen with your own eyes, how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urge me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, "I will not lay my hand on my Lord because he is the Lord's anointed." See, my father, look at this piece of your robe. In my hand, I cut it off the corner of your robe, but did not kill you. See that there is nothing in my hand to indicate that I am guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. May the Lord judge between you and me and may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you.
Brian: Wow, isn't that powerful? May the Lord do this, but my hand will not touch you. My hand will not touch you. What an incredible amount of character that this takes. What an incredible amount of being like Jesus this actually takes in our lives. David actually had the opportunity to end Saul's life. David, in some respects, could have put an end to all of his frustrations. He could have put an end to all of his, at least on the surface, what would appear to be all of his frustrations and misery, but he wouldn't do it because he had to violate something very important in his life. That was this: He would have to take the low road to do it. He would have to get off the high road and take the low road, and he wouldn't do it.
It's no wonder that David is a champion. It's no wonder that he was promoted. He knew how to allow God to be, in a sense, his avenger. Sometimes I wonder how many people have been anointed to do something great in life. When I say night that I don't mean like in a physical sense, like David had been anointed with oil, but by that, I mean just called by God, set apart by God. I wonder how many times people have been really, in a sense, called by God; God's heart for them is to do something great in their lives, to be in a position maybe, of leadership someplace or to be in a place of honor, or to somehow fulfill even their God given dreams that they have, but they never pass the test. They just never pass the test, the character test and they took the low road. They took the low road.
They were too busy trying to pay back those people that hurt them, too busy holding on to that anchor, which kept them from being able to get up on the wake. I remember back at the gospel ranch when the founder, founding pastor of Souls Harbor, Reverend GK Peterson, he was a rather large man. Every year he tried to water ski. I remember the stories. Every year he tried to water ski, and back in those days, there just wasn't a boat big enough to pull him out of the water.
Jacque: One time they tried two boats.
Brian: They put two boats together. It was like they would just pull him through the water. They were like dragging an anchor. They were like dragging an anchor. And then there are other people that they just pop right up on top of the water and they were gone. But so many of us, when we are holding onto these grudges and holding onto the past and the wounds of the past, and these other people may have gone on with their lives, they might've even died and they've gone on and we are dragging this anchor. Sometimes we think that if we have a long enough rope where we can't see the anchor back there, it's not there anymore, but it's still being dragged. It doesn't matter how long a rope we get, how far in the past it is, we need to cut that rope off. We need to let it go. We need to let it go.
David knew how to let God be his avenger. David knew how to do that. Believe it or not, Saul was an instrument of God. The man who was in opposition to us and the whole that showed up that day at city hall and all of the city council members that voted against us, they were actually instruments of God because God actually had something better for us than what my original plans were for this church.
How many of you know that when you have a plan and God has a plan whose plan is going to be better. God's plan will always be better even though we can't see it. We can't see it. When I left that council meeting that first night in that summer, and my mom was ready to cut up cake and hand it to everybody, and I just said, "Eat it yourself." I was in a no mood because I couldn't see it. I was blinded by my own unbelief and my lack of real faith and trust in God.
Saul was an instrument of God to promote David. That's what Saul was and bring favor into his life. We need to use our time and our energy, even though our time and energy are limited. Sometimes it feels like the older I get the less energy and the more time everything takes. But use your time and energy to move toward your God-given destinies. Move towards your God-given destiny. Avoid the trap of paying back. You know what? I bet you, every week we have an opportunity to pay back. I bet you, every single one of us have opportunities, even if it's just to cut that guy off who cut us off on the freeway.
Understand that we can never ever avenge ourselves nearly as good as God can. We can never do it as good as God can. Here is what our struggle really is, and it's painful for me to admit this about myself, but here is what our struggle really is: We actually think that God won't keep his word. That's what we think. We actually think that God won't keep his word, that he will forget about the wounds that have happened to us, so we need to take over. We have to take over. As Dr. Phil says, “How's that working out for you?” How's that working out for him? Usually not very good, right?
God's ways are bigger than our ways. God's ways are better than actually our ways. He can take those who try and hurt you and take those things and those people in those circumstances, and those situations to promote you. Psalm 23:5 says it best. Why don't you read it?
Jacque: You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
Brian: He prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies. It doesn't feel like it at times, does it? It doesn't feel that way, but he will prepare a table for us in the presence of our enemies. David had personal insights into this particular Psalm when it was written. God will not only avenge you and make the wrongs to you become right, he will also, I believe, bless you in front of your enemies. He will prepare a table for you in the presence of your enemy.
Jacque: Something that I always think of too, is that God loves whoever I would call my enemies just as much as he loves me.
Brian: It's hard to think that way.
Jacque: He is at work in all of our lives.
Brian: But it's hard to think that way because our culture is so behaviorally focused. I wouldn't say that we are not, as Christians, and I'm not saying behavior doesn't matter because it does matter in our relationships; how I treat you and how I treat you and how I live in terms of my integrity— If I'm not a man of integrity, I wouldn’t be the leader of this church for very long. If I'm not a kind husband, it's going to affect our marriage. So I'm not saying behavior has no effect on our lives. It does, yet at the same time when somebody does evil to us, it's so much easier to think that they are so much worse than us and that God better get them.
In reality, it's much better that somehow God just reward us than to get them. That's a much better perspective to look at. The fact of the matter is it doesn't matter where you are in the world, God can promote you anywhere. He will even promote you in front of those people who are trying to make you look bad at times. He can do that. He'll give you favor. He'll give you honor. He'll give you recognition. One day, those people who stabbed you in the back may just watch and see you get credit for all the things that you deserve.
There is an incredibly wonderful story in the book of Esther about this with Esther and her uncle, Mordecai. Mordecai was a Jew; Esther was a Jew. Xerxes, the king wasn't really aware of all of that scenario. She had one this beauty pageant became his king, his queen rather, and the uncle became part of the workings of the palace in a smaller way. Haman was one of these local princes that had risen up in notoriety and he wanted to get rid of all the Jews. He was an anti-Semitic. Anti-Semitism has been around a long time and it's strong, and well-funded, in a sense, in our world. We need to pray against that evil.
One night, one day rather, Mordecai I uncovered a plot where two of the main guards in Xerxes palace were plotting to assassinate him. Mordecai uncovered this plot. They were found out and he saved the king's life. So later on, of course, everything is written down, it's chronicled in those days, and so one night the king couldn't sleep. So he asked someone to get the chronicles and start reading to him. Here is the story.
Jacque: This is such a good story.
Brian: It's such a great story.
Jacque: That night, the king could not sleep, so he ordered the book of the chronicles, the record of his reign to be brought in and read to him. It was found recorded there that Mordecai had exposed Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king’s officers who guarded the doorway who had conspired to assassinate King Xerxes. "What honor and recognition has Mordecai received for this?" the king asked.
Brian: So the king is just saying, "This guy saved my life. I wonder if we ever did anything for him."
Jacque: "Nothing has been done for him," his attendance answered. And the king said, “Who is in the court?” He must have heard somebody. Now, Haman had just entered the outer court of the palace to speak to the king about impaling Mordecai on the pole he had set up for him.
Brian: By the way, there is a little bit of differing of opinion; some people think that Haman had made gallows to hang Mordecai on. Other people think he made this big pole to impale him on. That's really not the issue, what was the instrument of death.
Jacque: He wanted to kill him.
Brian: He just wanted to kill him, and it was very clear that that's what Haman was trying to do. He was going to kill Mordecai. Haman shows up at this moment in time; the king is reading about man, what has been done for Mordecai. The answer to that is nothing has been done for Mordecai. Haman walks into this conflagration of things coming together.
Jacque: His attendance answered, "Haman is standing in the court." The king ordered, "Bring him in." When Haman entered, the king asked him "What should be done for the man, the king delights to honor?" Now, Haman thought to himself, "Who is there that the king would rather honor than me?"
Brian: You know, I was thinking about, I don't know if any of you ever watched Frasier, but that's what Frasier would say. That would be a conclusion Frasier would—. Who does the king want to honor more than me? Nobody. It has got to be me that he wants to honor, right?
Jacque: I'm going to interrupt you.
Brian: Okay, go ahead.
Jacque: So he answered the king, “For the man who the king delights to honor have them bring a royal robe the king has worn and the horse the king has ridden, one with a royal crest placed on its head. Then let the robe and horse be entrusted to one of the king's most noble princes. Let them robe the man the king delights to honor and lead him on the horse, through the city streets proclaiming before him, this is what is done for the man the king delights to honor.”
Brian: Haman is basically coming up with the way that he wants to be honored. That's what he is trying to do. It never crosses his mind that this honor is to be going to somebody different.
Jacque: And he is going to be the one administering it.
Brian: He is going to be the one to administrate all of this honor. So the King says what?
Jacque: "Go at once," the king commanded Haman. "Get the robe and the horse and do just as you have suggested for Mordecai, the Jew.
Brian: Can you imagine that his countenance just dropping at that moment, his heart sinking. I have to do this to this person I despise?
Jacque: That I want to kill.
Brian: That I want to kill that. Talk about vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord. Anyway…
Jacque: Do not neglect anything you have recommended. So Haman got the robe and the horse. He robed Mordecai, and led him on horseback through the city streets proclaiming before him. This is what is done for the man the king delights to honor.
Brian: So Haman had to put the robe on Mordecai. Haman had to help him get on the horse. Haman had to lead Mordecai on this king stallion around the city streets, proclaiming, "This is what is done for the man who the king delights to honor." What an incredible story on how God can look out for our best interest.
David, actually, the scripture says kept growing stronger and stronger and the house of Saul kept growing weaker and weaker as time went on. We need to be ready if we have taken the high road and over looked offences, we've not let negative words stay attached to us. If we've blessed our enemies, then we can know, I believe, that a table has been set. A table has been set. I will set a table for you in the presence of my enemies, and dinner's ready and it's supper time.
Your detractors may try and spoil the party by stealing your joy, but the dinner bell is about to ring. The dinner bell is about to ring at any moment and God's favor and God's goodness will enter your life in a greater way when we just leave all these things and give it to God; just leave all these things and give it to God. There is a great scripture in Proverbs 16:7. Why don't you read that?
Jacque: When the Lord takes pleasure in anyone's way, he causes their enemies to make peace with them.
Brian: Yeah, I think the King James Version says it this way: "When a man's ways please the Lord, even as enemies will be at peace with him." When the Lord takes pleasure in anyone's way, he causes their enemies to be at peace with them. Even your enemies, those who've opposed you, I think more often than not, will end up shaking your hand. That's what happened to us out here. I was thinking even back to the presidential days of Ronald Reagan, how the media just would be so angry to him and what have you, and he would just smile, call them by their first name, and at the end of the day, they were all patting him on the back and just loving him because he didn't try to get vengeance. He didn't try to say, "Hey, I'm the president. I have the power. I'll stick it to you."
You may have people that you are at odds with, maybe even a coworker, maybe even a family member of some sort neighbor, maybe some person in the community who has hold a grudge against you; maybe even a spouse. Maybe you are separated from a spouse and maybe you've done your best to be kind and respectful even in the face of a lot of hurt, a lot of wrong accusations, maybe even some very demeaning words. Maybe the kinder you are, the more hateful they become because sometimes that happens.
It would be easy for you to get bitter easy for you to say this isn't working, but I would just ask you to do this: Don't sink to their level. I had a teacher that used to say, "Brian, we can't afford the high cost of low living." We can't afford the high cost of low living. So as we bring this message to a close here today, I just want to encourage you, keep doing the right thing. Keep doing the right thing. God is a God of justice. He understands your wounds, your unfair treatment. He sees it. He has got a record of it and he will bring into your life, if you allow him, blessings from the curses.
He also knows how to change people's hearts. The hearts in this community completely changed towards hope community church, so much so that I was even appointed to serve on the city council here in this past year or this previous year. 20 years ago, that would have been unthinkable out here. We served this community. We took the high road. When I say we, I don't mean just me and Jacque. We all did as a church. We thought of ways, how can we serve our community?
God knows how to change people's hearts. Even if they refuse to let him change their hearts, God can change your circumstances. He can change your circumstances. Like I said, it may take more than a week; it may take more than a month. It might take even more than a year. It may take a number of years, but God promises that one day, those things that have come into your life that have been wounds and hurts to you, maybe even many of those people that have brought that hurt into your life will one day knock on your door, reach out and shake your hand.
If there is any doubt about if this works, that's why I wanted to tell you part of our story today from Hope Community Church. This is a great part of our story, and I always get encouraged when I reflect back on it. So take the high road, release all of heaven to come to your defense. Why would you want to fight and defend your own honor when the God of the universe is actually willing to do it instead?
Jacque: When we trust the Lord, when we choose the right, there is a peace and a joy that does come so deep into our hearts and so deep into our minds when we follow Jesus way.
Brian: I want to finish with just a few scripture verses here. The first is found in Psalm 27:14, where it says, "Wait for the Lord, be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord." Sometimes we have to wait for God to do these things that he is promised that he will do. And it's hard to wait. It was hard to wait for me. It was hard to wait, for this church to wait, but we did, and look at the rewards that we are reaping today. Lamentations 3:26 says, "It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of God." So when you are waiting, don't be kicking the dog and throwing things around the house, but wait quietly for the Lord. Wait quietly for the Lord. Then I want to jump to Hebrews 10:35-36. Why don't you read that?
Jacque: So do not throw away your confidence. It will be richly rewarded.
Brian: So if we really have confidence in God, what God is saying to us, let's not throw away that confidence because it will be richly rewarded.
Jacque: You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.
Brian: Yes, we will receive what he has promised. And then I like this one from Ecclesiastes: endings are better than beginnings, but only if we let God be the one who best fights our battles. Sticking to it is better than standing out. Don't be quick to fly off the handle because anger boomerangs, and you can always spot a fool by the lumps on his head.
Jacque: Good old Message Bible.
Brian: Yeah. And then let's wait— let's do this last one, Psalm 40:1.
Jacque: I waited patiently for the Lord. He turned to me and heard my cry.
Brian: Yes, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he turned to me and he heard my cry. So like I said, there will always be two roads available for us to take, not the left and right, but the high and the low. There is a road that's less traveled; not much traffic on it. It's called the high road. But at that high road, the view is so much better. It's the road where God is our defense. It's the road where we don't have to carry in our hearts and our spirits, and in our minds, all the weights of the pains of things that have been said or done to us, wounds that have created, have been done to us. We can allow the Lord to pour in his grace and his sav and his goodness, and in so doing, we can take the high road. It's a much better road to travel. It's a harder road, but it's a much better road to travel. Let's try together.
Father, I prayed today that our hearts would be encouraged to take this high road. I pray that our hearts would be stirred and our minds would remember the high road is much better. I pray today in your matchless name, the name that we sung about just moments ago, what a beautiful name, it is, the name of Jesus. We pray, in your name today, Jesus, that you would help us to remember when we are frustrated, we are angry, when we are upset, when we are dealing with rejection, when we are dealing with the things that have been done to us that hurt us and reject us and just all these areas, Lord, I pray that we would remember your words.
Your words are that you will make things right for us. So help us to trust in you. Help us not respond with evil, for evil, but good for evil. Let us be servants. Help us to be you, Jesus, on the earth. This, I pray in your name and for your sake. Let's lift our hands together, shall we?
And now may the Lord bless you, and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord turn his face toward you and give you his peace. May you find yourself always on the high road. This, we pray, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful, wonderful day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 2-7-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click one of the links below.