Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother
Jacque: Beautiful. Brian has taught me to wait until the last note has sung. Okay, so I do that. It was beautiful. As you are coming to get settled, I get to talk just for a moment. I just want to remind everyone that once a month, we just invite anybody from the congregation, anybody from the online congregation, anyone, everyone to come for a prayer meeting at seven o'clock. We just have a time of prayer together. It's a wonderful time. We have so many different prayer opportunities at church. Oh, Jim and Brenda, they have several; every Sunday morning praying, once a month, a prayer for family night and a women's prayer. There are just wonderful times to pray. But this one time monthly, the first Thursday of every month, we come to pray. So check that out and please consider joining us. Even if you can only stay for a little bit of the time, whatever, we just are happy to have you there.
We do have a lot of online opportunities, and just please notice those because I'm so excited because the Happiness Project is starting this weekend. I'm going to be in it. I'm so excited Rachel's doing this. It's going to be awesome. So look into that. We have Sister to Sister every Wednesday night, and whoever comes is blessed to be together and visit, so consider that. I'll stop now because you are all settled.
Brian: You don't have to stop. I'm so thankful that we are going to have a happiness project, because there seems to be like a depression object going on in the world today. So many people are just negative complaining and not handling the pandemic very well, and all of the things that go along with it. Sometimes we get so negative because we (36:00) just don't realize how blessed we are.
Jacque: The Happiness Project, Rachael is leading it, Rachel Hoppy. But it's all about really considering what the things are that make us the happiest, because we all are created differently, but what makes us the happiest, and then really being so intentional to incorporate that into our lives.
Brian: Not let things distract us from that.
Jacque: That's right. And then also, the beauty of it is just the accountability and friendship that comes with it. It's a whole year long group that meets once a month, but I know that great things are going to happen because I get to be a part.
Brian: Yes. One of the things I'm thankful for is my father, who, this May, will have been with Jesus for eight years. It's unbelievable; it was eight years ago that my dad passed away. But one of the things I always appreciated about my dad is he had a great sense of humor and he loved a good joke. Every once in a while I resurrect one of my dad's old jokes, and I'm going to resurrect one this morning.
Jacque: That's my last memory of your dad. On Mother's Day, was it? Easter. Easter.
Brian: No, it was Mother's Day.
Jacque: Mother's Day, he told the funniest joke at the table.
Brian: Your mom laughed so hard, her teeth almost came out.
Jacque: Oh, yeah. She is going to hear this.
Brian: Oh, I'm sorry, Ruby.
Jacque: Anyway. Oh, it's my happiest memory of him.
Brian: Yeah, it was great. It was great. Anyway, here is this joke that my dad said. There was this very kind of wealthy, aristocratic lady, and she wanted to get her picture taken at a studio. Kind of to say it politely, but she just was not endowed with very many earthly beauty, looks. She had a lot of money, but that was about it. She went to this photographer and had her picture taken and he did everything he could. I mean, he airbrushed the thing. He did all that he could. When they sat down and she looked at these pictures, she looked at them and she said to the photographer, "These pictures don't do me justice." The photographer said, "Well, ma'am what you need is mercy, not justice."
It's interesting how often when situations happen in our lives, we often actually want justice. When we get mistreated, we want justice to happen to the other person whom has treated us. God has a lot to say about how we are to respond to unfairness, things that are disappointing in our lives. The first scripture I would like to read today— we are going to go through quite a few of them this morning. The first one is found in Isaiah 61:7-9. Let's read that.
Jacque: The Message Bible, because you got a double dose of trouble and more than your share of contempt—
Brian: Does anybody feel like you've had like a double dose of trouble the last year? Maybe a little bit of, when I say contempt, when Eugene Peterson says this word contempt, he is really talking about real difficulties and so forth.
Jacque: So because you got a double dose of trouble and more than your share of contempt, your inheritance in the land will be doubled and your joy go on forever.
Brian: That's a pretty good reward, isn't it? Just because your dose of trouble has been doubled, your joy is going to be doubled and your benefits are going to be doubled. How is this going to happen?
Jacque: Because I, God, love fair dealing and hate thievery and crime. I'll pay your wages on time and in full.
Brian: Who is going to pay us?
Jacque: God is.
Brian: God says, "I will pay you back,” or “I will pay your wages in full," and do what?
Jacque: And establish my eternal covenant with you.
Brian: Yes. And then there is another promise that actually goes on to our children.
Jacque: Your descendants will become well-known all over. Your children in foreign countries will be recognized at once as the people I have blessed.
Brian: God has promised that if we put our trust in him, he will make right all of the unfair things that have happened to us. Now, we need to qualify that. You and I talked about that a little bit this week, because when we were talking about my message, you said when a person is, let's say abused as a child, how do you make that right?
Jacque: How do you make that right?
Brian: Well, fact of the matter is, that can't be undone, and that's not what we are looking for here: for things to be undone or for an old southern term, comeuppance, be given to the person who abused you or what have you.
Jacque: Because a lot of times people won't even admit, your abuser won't even admit, and they are not sorry.
Brian: Or what happens when that was something that was really buried, shall we say, in your life, that was kind of a self-preservation mechanism and you buried it for years and years and years, and then your abuser died. Now you’ve come to a place where you are willing to try to address it, face it and not let it govern you any longer, and the abuser is gone; they can't make it right. But God says that if we will trust him, he will take all of those injustices and basically bring something back into our lives that will be greater for us. That's really what he is talking about here. We live in a fallen world and there are people that don't believe in God. They don't believe in the love of Christ. They've never experienced the goodness of God. So wounded people wound people, hurting people, hurt people, angry people become angry with other people. Those people who have been treated angrily often become angry themselves, and the cycle continues.
God has a way to break that cycle, and God has a way to bring blessings into our lives if we allow that cycle to be broken. You may have even been cheated in a business deal and lost money. That's unfair. The fact of the matter is most of us, our initial reaction to that is "I want that guy punished and put in prison." But in reality, does that get you your money back? No. Wouldn't you rather God deal with it and pay you back, pay you the wages in a sense that could come to you? Wouldn't that be a better system than us taking it into our control to get some kind of vengeance, in a sense? Maybe somebody has lied about you and it negatively impacted your life. Maybe you didn't get that promotion that you deserve or a good friend betrayed you or used you. Maybe they borrowed your car. Maybe it could be something as small as this: they borrow your car, you just had it washed, you fill it with gas and they bring it back all dirty and with a 16th of a tank of gas left. That's not fair. It's not fair. That's unjust. It's not kind. And yet you can try to get retributive justice against them, or you can let God payback for your kindness.
Jacque: Be generous.
Brian: Be generous, yes. Obviously, these kinds of losses or injustices, they can leave scars or memories or wounds in our lives. I'm sure we could say many times a week, that's not fair. That's not fair.
Jacque: Kids start saying it the moment they can talk.
Brian: That's right. Yeah. The first word they learn is mine, of course.
Jacque: Then no.
Brian: Not mom or dad, mine. And then the next thing they learned before they say, mom and dad is, "That's not fair. Why do I have to go to bed and you get to stay up?" That's not fair. All of these things, these kinds of losses and injustices, they can result in us being tempted to hold on to our grief or our wound or our grudges. What ends up happening is, the longer we hold onto a grudge, the bigger it becomes and eventually that grudge begins to hold us. It holds us. Also, that grudge can actually govern the rest of your life, even if that grudge happened from someone who has passed away. They are governing you from the grave in essence. Western logic would say that it's okay for us to treat these people in the way that they treated us. That's kind of the world's way of thinking, you know, “an eye for an eye” type of thing. How many times have we heard this saying, "I don't get mad; I just get even"? I don't get mad; I just get even.
Jacque: That's just an ugly thing to say.
Brian: It really is, but it permeates our culture. Sometimes what happens is maybe people don't even so much declare it with their mouths, but they harbor it in their heart. Somehow I'm going to get even thinking that that is now going to make us feel better, which it never does. It never does. It even amazes me, and this might be an extreme example, but let's say a mother has a son who gets murdered, and the murderer ultimately is going to be executed, it wouldn't happen in Minnesota because we don't have capital punishment here, but there are some states still do, and when that murderer has been executed, does that mother now feel okay? No, it doesn't. They don't feel okay. Getting earthly justice, which I'm not saying we shouldn't seek justice in the earth, that the criminals shouldn't be punished. I'm not saying that at all. I believe in the enforcement of the law, because otherwise, if we don't enforce the law, the law is not law; it's just advice. However, if we are looking for inward, somehow contentment and satisfaction and payback, it will never come from justice. It only comes from God.
I want to take a look at what Jesus actually said about this very subject. So hold onto your seats here. We were kind of chatting about this and it was a little— some of these verses are little hard. I remember you said to me, "I wish maybe one of the apostles would have said this instead of Jesus; maybe I could dismiss it."
Jacque: I looked at it and said, "Who said this?"
Brian: Who said this again? Oh, Jesus said it. Jesus said it. I guess I have to really pay attention to it.
Jacque: That means I need to believe it and do it.
Brian: Yeah, the red letters. Anyways, Matthew 5:38-40
Jacque: In the Message Bible. Here is another old saying that deserves a second look: eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Is that going to get us anywhere? Here is what I propose: don't hit back at all. If someone strikes you, stand there and take it. If someone drags you into court and sues for the shirt off your back, gift wrap your best coat and make a present of it. And if someone takes unfair advantage of you use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit for tat stuff; live generously.
Brian: That's a pretty good start, isn't it? If we could just kind of land there in our lives, how much better the world would be, how much better the church would be, how much better our lives would be. An eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, that scripture is in the Old Testament, eye for an eye, but Jesus said, "I want to propose something different. I want to propose something different than that." I know that that can bother some people from a theological perspective, but for me, I don't struggle with that because I always look at Jesus as the lens that I want to interpret everything else by. He said, "I want to propose something different," and he goes into, if someone strikes you, if someone drags into court, give them the shirt off your back, et cetera, et cetera. If someone takes advantage, unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. What is a servant life? It's actually being taken advantage of.
Jacque: Giving, giving, giving, giving, giving.
Brian: Letting the master eat first; being last, not first, et cetera, et cetera. Let's go on.
Jacque: He talks about another Old Testament law. You are familiar with the old written law: love your friends.
Brian: And that is in the scriptures: love your friends. Love one another. But then what the Jewish culture did was they added to that. It was an oral tradition that began now, which was what?
Jacque: Hate your enemy.
Brian: Hates your enemy. Love your friends; hate your enemies. That became kind of one phrase: love your friends, hate your enemies. So Jesus said, "You are familiar with the written law, love your friend, and its unwritten, companion, hate your enemy," but I'm going to what, he says? I'm going to challenge that. I'm challenging that. This is Jesus saying, “I want to challenge this way of thinking.”
Jacque: I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst.
Brian: How many of you know that you have a best and a worst inside of you? How many times have we said "I could have done that better; I could have responded differently; I didn't have to be like that"? We have a best and we have a worst. Jesus is teaching us, and he is saying, "I have another thing I want to challenge you with that. I want you to let your enemies bring out the very best in you, not the worst in you."
Jacque: When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer.
Brian: What he is saying here is, when someone is giving you a hard time, if you will actually go to prayer over it, you will be what? Energized. You will be energized in your life. You will be encouraged. You will be edified. Let's go on.
Jacque: We will see it properly. We will see it from God's perspective when we go to prayer. For then you are working out your true selves when you respond by going to prayer. Your God created selves.
Brian: Because this is what?
Jacque: This is what God does.
Brian: God does this. This is how God is.
Jacque: He gives his best, the sun to warm and the rain to nourish to everyone, regardless the good and the bad, the nice and the nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus?
Brian: I do, unfortunately. Let's be honest. We are on a journey together, and our best way to be is to be transparent in this journey, right? I find myself thinking that way. I was really nice to my friend; I should get something for that. What Jesus is really saying is start being nice to people you really struggle with.
Jacque: If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect the medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that.
Brian: I like that one.
Jacque: In a word, what I'm saying is grow up; be kingdom subjects.
Brian: I think we need to pause here for a second, because we've all heard someone say grow up; oh, grow up.
Jacque: Yeah. That's how I hear it.
Brian: I don't think that's how Jesus is saying this. It's an invitation, not like a demeaning command. It's like, let's grow up. Let's grow up together. Come on, let's grow up because we are kingdom subjects.
Jacque: Now live like it.
Brian: So let's live like these kingdom subjects. Let's live like that.
Jacque: That's what Jeff said this morning. We have the treasures of the kingdom of heaven living inside of us.
Brian: If we choose to live the Jesus way, and obviously there is a lot of choices contained in here to do this right, to accomplish this, but if we choose to live the Jesus weight, then we must learn to trust God, to bring justice into our lives, to make the wrongs that have happened to us right. We have to allow God the time and opportunity to do that. Let's look at one more verse in Hebrews 10: 30 in the Message Bible.
Jacque: Vengeance is mine and I won't overlook a thing.
Brian: So God says that he will repay the ability that we want to get back at somebody. If we will allow God to be the person to get back at them, leave it to God, not hold this animosity, this animus, but really pray for these people, et cetera, et cetera, and let God take care of it, first of all, it will be done righteously, not unrighteous, but then he also says that there is a compensation that's going to be coming to you and I by allowing him to do that. The first verse we read from Isaiah talks about paying us double for our trouble.
God is just, and I do believe he will settle and solve the cases of his people. We are his people. In some respect, in this bigger, shall we say cosmic, spiritual battle that's taking place with the fallen entities of Satan and his dominions and God, Jesus and the angels and so forth, in this whole thing which we are part of, God will settle the cases of his people.
There are attacks that will come against us from the demonic realm. Usually it comes not as a direct attack from a demon, but more often from a demonic influence over somebody else, and they take advantage over us or abuse us or some kind of evil is put towards us, some kind of injustice. Our natural propensity is to want to strike back and defend ourselves. That's the natural propensity that we all have. We all deal with that. We all will probably struggle with it. I struggle with it at times, but when I take a step back, let my mind get calm, and I remind myself that God wants to be my advocate, that he wants to defend me, and that I don't have to go around trying to get even, or pay anyone back for the wrongs that they've done to me, and that God wants to be my vindicator. I much rather have God be my advocate than me be my advocate.
Even in our court system, that whole legal system said only a fool will defend himself in court. How many times have we heard people say, "Well, I'm going to be my own defense, your honor"? And every time the judge says, "I wouldn't recommend that." I wouldn't recommend that. So why would we want to defend ourselves in these situations? Why wouldn't we want God to be our defense? God is our vindicator. So let's allow God to fight these battles for us and let him settle our cases. If we will let go, he will bring justice to our lives. I do believe it takes faith and trust to believe that God actually wants to vindicate you, because the fact of the matter is most of us don't have that much of a self-esteem and that we think that God would actually want to do that. Don't we struggle with that?
We feel like, "Well, God is not going to take care of this. I’ve got to take care of it." But he actually and really does care about us. He really does. And so much of our problems, in how we deal with problems and wanting to get back at, so much of this is rooted in our own lack of self-esteem, in our own lack of value, our own lack of how we perceive, how much God loves us. I would just encourage us today: don't sink down to your offender’s level. Don't sink down to that level. That actually makes a hard situation worse.
Jacque: It's always a better view from the high road.
It is. It is. You must've run my message because that's my next point. Take the high road. Take the high road. You are in the spirit today. Take the high road. And you know what? We've been on trips. We've driven to the mountains. Probably many of you have to. Sometimes you start way down here and it's like the only thing you see as these cliffs and these walls going up and you can't see nothing and it's dark and cavernous and whatever, but eventually you get to the top and the view is much better from the top, isn't it? The view is much better from the high road than the low road. So don't sink down to those efforts, the levels of your offenders rather. Take the high road where we can watch and see what God will do. There is so much to see from up there. If we do things the Jesus way we'll come off much better than we ever were before.
I agree and I know that sometimes it feels like God is just completely unaware of our circumstances. Doesn't it feel that way sometimes? It just feels like God is, like, where are you, God. Or my favorite line from one of my favorite movies: what are you thinking, God? What were you thinking? But take this in the proper perspective, God does keep very good records, and he is aware of the things that you have suffered. He is aware of the things that you've suffered, and he is also very interested in seeing how we are going to respond to our sufferings as well. If we will respond in the ways that Jesus is instructing us to do it, then there is going to be blessings beyond our containment that will come our way. They will. Will we become negative and critical and bitter, resentful and allow that person who offended us to virtually control our thoughts from a hundred miles away?
Jacque: What a waste of our lives.
Brian: Yes. Or will we, will we turn this situation over to the Lord and trust him to make the wrongs, right. It's such an important— this is so much a part of, I believe, our daily lives. This is not just like for extreme cases because people can get offended and upset all week long, every day.
Jacque: Over the smallest thing.
Brian: Over the smallest things. That's right. When we turn this situation over to God and trust him to make these wrongs right, when we pass this test and believe me, it's a test; it's a test— by the way, some of you who graduated from high school, thinking that you never had to take another test, your whole life is a test when you become a Christian. But God can then bring blessings and promotions to us. It would be good for all of us to remember that we actually worked for God, not our employer. We work for God, not our employer. God has said that he will pay us back, that he will take care of our wages. When God pays back, he always pays back in your word for the year.
Jacque: Abundance.
Brian: Yes, abundance. He always pays abundantly.
Jacque: There is enough. There is more than enough for everything everywhere with God.
Brian: There is. There is. I liked this Psalm, Psalm 75. This is actually not a Davidic Psalm. This is a Psalm of Asaph: Psalm 75:1-4. I really like how— If we would just kind of read this verse, this portion of scripture, especially when we get offended, when we are upset, when somebody has mistreated us, we've been treated unfairly. If we would read this Psalm 75:1-4, I think it would really encourage your hearts. Why don't you read it?
Jacque: Asaph was a worship leader in the temple, a fellow worship leader. We thank you, God. We thank you. Your name is our favorite word.
Brian: Isn't that great? What a great way to say it. What's your favorite word? Your name, God. Jesus is my favorite word, Jesus.
Jacque: Your mighty works are all we talk about.
Brian: Wow! Couldn’t we learn something from that this past year? Your mighty works are all that we talk about. Wouldn't the church be better today if this past year, all we would have talked about were the mighty works of God? Instead of how bad the president is or the governor is, or the Senator is, or this person or whatever. Wouldn't we be better off if we talked about how good God is and all the mighty works. I really appreciate what Pastor Jeff was saying. Even though we live in a fallen world and there seems to be more chaos happening around us; that certainly is what reported. What's never reported is all this stuff that God is doing. And God is at work.
I like the Narnia books of CS Lewis where he says Aslan is on the move. Aslan is on the move. It's such a great way to talk about what God is doing. I was writing a person this past week. I've got to say, a little run down a rabbit trail here for a second. One of my frustrations is when you are texting you have all this auto-correct stuff. That happens. Virtually, all the autocorrect stuff, it seems like they are spiritual neophytes, the people who put this together. I don't mean to be judgmental, but I wrote to this one guy, I said, "Aslan is on the move" and it auto-correct it to "Alan is on the move." So I wrote back and I said, "This stupid auto-correct, they don't even know who Aslan is." But we can't look to the secular world to edify us. We have to understand that Aslan is on the move. God is on the move.
The New York Times and CBS news and MSNBC, and even Fox News, for the most part, they are not going to report on what God is doing. They are not. So we have to talk about what God is doing. When all we talk about is what the world is doing or what the devil is doing and all that stuff, if that's all we are talking about, how is the world going to know what God's doing?
Jacque: Every one of us is a news reporter.
Brian: That's right. Let's start reporting the real news on what God is doing. Your mighty works are all we talk about.
Jacque: That was good, Brian.
Brian: Oh, good. All right. I told you this is a good verse.
Jacque: I know. It's great. Okay. Your mighty works are all we talk about. You say, “I'm calling this meeting to order.”
Brian: Oh, I love that phrase. God says, "I'm calling this meeting to order." What meeting? What's going on in the world.
Jacque: I'm ready to set things right.
Brian: Yeah. What's going on in your life? I'm ready to call this meeting to order. What's going on in your life? I'm going to set things right.
Jacque: That's good. Thank you Lord. When the earth goes topsy-turvy and nobody knows what end is up. I nail it all down. I put everything in place again.
Brian: Yes. What does God say to the smart Alex?
Jacque: That's enough.
Brian: That's enough.
Jacque: And to the bullies, not so fast.
Brian: Not so fast; I like that. Not so fast, you bullies. You are not going to be bullying my people around. I'm going to take care of them. I'm going to take care of them; because God is always at work in our circumstance. The scriptures are full of examples of it. When God says that it's time for you to be exalted, all the forces of darkness will not be able to hold that back. When God says it's time for you to be rewarded, all the forces of darkness can't hold and stop that from happening. Because you know what God is? He is supernatural. God is supernatural. He is supernatural. We used to sing a song; we should probably resurrect it. I know it was one of Pastor Jeff's favorites, "Just one touch from the king changes everything." Just one touch from Jesus; that's all you need in your life.
If you are watching the day by live stream, it's all you need is one touch from Jesus. You don't need someone who has offended you and hurt you and wounded you to even make it right. You just need God to make it right. That's all you need. Just one touch from the King can change everything. His favor can make up any loss ground you may have suffered unjustly. We are all going to suffer injustices. We are. If we would just let him come to our defense.
Another song we used to sing, we haven't done it in many years, "The Lord is my defense and the holy one of Israel, my King. The Lord is my defense and the Holy one of Israel, my King."- God can settle your case. God can make any wrong against you right. He can make it right. He can compensate you for it. He can heal you. He can't unchange it. I said this even a week ago: God doesn't even have the ability to go into the past and change the past, but he can heal your past.
Jacque: Because you can think back to the situation and it doesn't hurt anymore. There is no pain connected to it.
Brian: That's right. And he can do above and beyond what we could ever ask her thing. Paul says that in the book of Ephesians, Ephesians 3:20. Just read it.
Jacque: God can do anything, you know; far more than you could ever imagine, or guess, or request in your wildest dreams.
Brian: If we could just let that truth settle into our hearts, that God is willing and able to go to do things that are beyond even our ability to imagine them. And I tell you what, we all have pretty vivid imaginations. Don't we? In fact, they are way too vivid sometimes; they just go away from us. But God is able to go above and beyond what we could ever ask, imagine or think.
Jacque: And some of us have really almost lost our dreamers and we've almost lost our imagination. They are broken.
Brian: Yeah. I think of the movie, Toy Story and the little penguin; his weezer are broken or whatever. It's just a cute little thing, right? His weezer is broken and he can't get anything out. But you know what, many of our dreamers are broken. We need to be dreaming again. Pastor Jeff did a thing on dreaming dreams with the Joy Group and it wonderful because sometimes the older you get, sometimes it's like, well, I don't have much left to live and whatever. It's like, no, we have more to live for the older we get. We have more to live for the older we get. Paul is addressing kind of this whole thing about the words of Jesus in Matthew 5. He kind of puts it in his perspective in Romans 12:17-19.
Jacque: Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone.
Brian: That's hard at times and it's challenging, but you know what, that's what we are to do. We are to try and look and find the beauty in everyone.
Jacque: We forget the grace that has been given to us. We don't see our own ugliness at times.
Brian: I think we rarely see our own ugliness.
Jacque: We see everyone else's.
Brian: Wouldn't you agree? Usually when another person points out our ugliness, it makes us even more blind to it. That's why when we try to point on somebody's ugliness it, they get blind to it, but if we will pray for them— Because when God shows us our ugliness, we usually respond to it, don't we? When God shows us how painfully ugly we might be in our attitudes and in our unbelief, and even in our behavior, when God shows it to us, there is something that accompanies that revelation from God that wants us to apologize to make it right and to change.
Jacque: He gives us grace, that divine help.
Brian: That empowerment.
Jacque: Yes, empowerment.
Brian: But when we point out someone else's ugliness, more often than not, it's in judgment, it's in finger pointing and they don't receive it at all. All they do is close up.
Jacque: Forgive us, God. Okay. Don't hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you've got it in you, get along with everybody.
Brian: I think another way he said this is "as much as lieth within you, live at peace with all men."
Jacque: Do your very best to live at peace.
Brian: I think God understands, and certainly Christ did, and the apostle Paul understood that not everybody in the world will be at peace with you. There is another scripture that says "if a man's ways, please, the Lord, even his enemies will be at peace with him." That's a proverb. If a man's ways please the Lord, even as enemies will be a peace with him. Well, that's not an absolute truth. That's a general truth. Generally speaking, if your ways please God, if you are loving your enemies, if you are just this basket full of love, even the people who don't like you will probably be at peace with you, more than likely, but there was never anybody more full of love than Jesus and his enemies weren't at peace with him. We have to understand that that's not an absolute truth. It's a general truth.
We get into trouble at times when we read the scriptures and we look at general truths and we put absolute truths on them and we don't take into consideration the freedom of the will and all that sort of stuff. But Paul, in this situation, is simply saying as much as you can, if you've got it in, you just get along with everybody; just get along with it.
Jacque: Don't insist in getting even; that's not for you to do.
Brian: That's not for you to do right. Again, getting even is not what we are supposed to do.
Jacque: "I'll do the judging," says God. "I'll take care of it."
Brian: I'll take care of it. I'll take care of it. If we try to make people pay, then we are closing the door for God to take care of it, if we try to make people pay. When we realize we don't have to fix the wrongs against us, that God has got us covered. I liked what Deb— that was the first thing almost out of Deb's mouth when she was diagnosed with leukemia a few years ago. Her words were, "God's got this." God's got this. God's got this. When an injustice happens to you— and she could have felt the same way. She had a cancer treatment from years before and the treatment that she got caused her leukemia. Now what in the world kind of medical treatment is that, but it did. That's not fair, but her response was “God's got this.”
Jacque: And he did.
Brian: And he did. God's got this, God's got this.
Jacque: We are so grateful.
Brian: Yes, we are very grateful. And you know what? He has got us covered. When injustice has happened to you, he has got us covered. When we understand that he has got this, we won't get so upset. I'm not saying that the situation of Dave and Deb wasn't upsetting or disconcerting. Obviously, the difficulties that she had to go through and the treatments, but when she knew in her heart that God's got this, there was also a peace that accompanied her during that whole time, and it gave her strength to get through. When we understand that God's got us, we can have this peace during the season.
Jacque: Dave believed that too.
Brian: Yes. So when God is released—
Jacque: And he was at the hospital.
Brian: Yeah, many days. When God is released to fight our battles, it's much easier to have a spring in our step, isn't it? It's much easier to have a smile on our face. It's much easier to have a song in our heart. It's much easier to have a confident attitude when we realize that God is going to fight my battles. Michael W. Smith wrote a song recently, and there is hardly anything to this song, except for that.
Jacque: This is how I—
Brian: This is how I fight my battles. This is how I find my battles, and it's about praising God. It's letting him do it.
Jacque: When I think that I'm surrounded, I'm surrounded by you.
Brian: Yeah. When I think I'm surrounded, I'm surrounded by you.
Jacque: Like by the enemy and by all the trouble.
Brian: It's such a great song.
Jacque: We are really surrounded by God.
Brian: Yeah. I love Michael Robinson. It was in a video-recorded session of him. Michael is right up in his wheelchair, up front. Poor Mike, he has been suffering much in his life and yet he is clapping his hands and worshiping God because he knows God's fighting his battles for him. It's such a great thing. When we leave the door wide open for God to work on our behalf, he rewards us how? What's the word?
Jacque: Abundantly?
Brian: Abundantly, yes. He rewards us abundantly.
Jacque: There is enough for everyone always.
Brian: And God will settle our case if we allow him to. Just a couple more verses. One is in Galatians 6: 9 and 10.
Jacque: Let us not become weary in doing good.
Brian: This is doing good. So let's not be weary in this kind of good-doing.
Jacque: Making these choices. Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time, we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially those who belong to the family of believers.
Brian: Let's do good to all people. I want to just talk briefly about David and then we'll be done here this morning. There is a lot that we can learn from the life of King David, even before he was king. David's failures are public and on record, and we know what happened in those situations, but there was another really good side to David. He was anointed to be king, which was basically a promise from God. Prior to that anointing, he had defeated Goliath. He became an instant national hero, overnight hero in the nation of Israel. His popularity rating soared through the roof, didn't it? Saul then began to go astray. He was rejected by God. We talked a little bit about that last week with Samuel and the issues that Samuel had. Samuel is instructed by God to go anoint David as king. So now David has a promise from God: you are the king. What ensued for the next, roughly 10 years, I believe, of David's life was nothing but hell on earth.
He was the target of Saul spears. He ran for his life for years. He lived in caves and he hadn't done anything wrong. He still honored and respected his king because one day Saul had come into the very cave that was in and had fallen asleep and David could have taken his life. Instead, he cut off a piece of his robe. After doing so, he felt deep remorse for having even cut the robe of his king. He is still honored and respected his king. He kept a good attitude. He refused to treat Saul in the manner that Saul was treating him. Because he never picked up that spear and threw it back, God honored David in a way that probably was like no other king in the history of Israel.
It's so easy for us at times when we've suffered injustice to say, "My boss is just rude and ungodly, why should I have to honor him?" Or "My parents are hypocrites. You should see how they live at home. Why should I have to respect them?" Or "My husband isn't spiritually as mature as I am. Why should I respect him?" The fact of the matter is God asks us to honor and respect the position that these people have in our lives, not the behavior. One of the greatest tests that we will ever take is when someone treats you unfairly, will you respond in such a way that you will allow God to repay and let God defend you or will you try to defend yourself?
We so quickly forget that God has promised to take that evil and turn it around to our advantage. He says that in Romans 8:28, "For we all know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him." In all things, God will be at work for you. God can turn any situation you are in because of someone else's wrongs against you. God can take that situation and completely turn your situation around. He can make it all up to you. He can, plus much more, plus much more. I would say today, let's leave it to God. Let's leave it to God. There is abundance in God's repayment plan. There is abundance in God's repayment plan.
If we so choose, he will let us try and get payment back in our meager little ways of getting justice or vengeance, or if we allow him to pay us back, we will get paid back in abundance. I don't know about you, but I would rather God sign my check than me sign my check. I would rather God compensate me than me try and compensate myself. So today, let's know that God is working on your behalf. Today, God is working on your behalf. When you are struggling with having been treated unfairly, we have a God who wants to be our advocate. Let's pray.
Jesus, you do all things well. Jesus, you know how to take care of what belongs to you. Today, we can't live in this world without offenses happening. We can't live in this world without wounds and hurts occurring, but Lord, your promise to us is if we will allow what is in us, which is your spirit, your grace, your love, your mercy, if we will allow that to come out, that you will compensate us. You'll give us double for our trouble. I just thank you, Lord. I pray that we as your body of Christ, that we as your church across this land and across this world, for everybody who watches this live stream today and in the future, that we would completely embrace with all of our hearts that you are our defense, that you are our advocate, that you know how to take care of what belongs to you, and that father in your name, you have declared that you will fight our battles. You will fight our battles.
We just need to trust you and not try and hold on to these anchors. Sometimes Lord, what we've done is we've just got a much longer rope, so we can't see the anchor, but it's still being dragged. Lord, what we need to do is we need to cut the rope. We need to cut that cable that's holding onto that anchor. When we do, when we let that go, when we release it, when we truly bless those who curse us, when we truly try and love those who hurt us, when we truly try and be like Jesus, when we do these words in red, Lord, when we do that, we can get on top of the wave, we'll be on the high road. We'll have a much better view.
Father, when we allow you to pass back through rewards, we'll go above and beyond our comprehension because your word says that our eyes have not seen our ears have not heard, neither has entered into our hearts, the things that you father had prepared for those who love you. So father, I want my portion of your storehouse in heaven to be completely emptied out when I die. I don't want one of those blessings that you have prepared for me to be left in heaven. I don't want to be a hindrance in any way, shape or form to the windows of heaven being open to me. So in Jesus name, I pray, that our hearts would release all bitterness, all unforgiveness, all resentment, Lord, all wounds to all people and allow you to be our defense and to pay us back double for our trouble.
This, we pray, Jesus, in your name and for your sake. And everybody said amen. Amen. Amen. Let's lift our hands together and let me bless you today. 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 allow the Lord to pay you his wages for your trouble. This, we pray, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen. Amen. God bless you. Have a wonderful, wonderful day.
Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 1-31-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click one of the links below.