Zach Peters' Podcast
A place for sermons, reflections, and general pondering on life and stuff.
Zach Peters' Podcast
Turning the Other Cheek
We unpack Jesus's challenging teaching about turning the other cheek and going beyond retaliation to radical generosity in Matthew 5:38-48 of the Sermon on the Mount.
• The "eye for an eye" principle was meant for civil justice systems, not personal revenge
• Jesus addresses misapplications of Old Testament law to individual relationships
• Four examples illustrate responding to wrongdoing with unexpected generosity
• Turning the other cheek doesn't mean accepting abuse but changing our personal response
• Jesus isn't asking us to do anything He hasn't already demonstrated through His sacrifice
• Loving enemies and praying for persecutors distinguishes disciples from the world
• Our calling is to pursue God's perfection through grace and the Holy Spirit's power
• Generosity that seems foolish by worldly standards reflects God's character
• When we respond like Jesus did, it creates spiritual impact beyond what we can see
We close with a reminder that these teachings aren't natural but supernatural, requiring divine help to live out. May we rely on the Holy Spirit to challenge our generosity and response to enemies.
We're going to continue our sermon series on the Sermon on the Mount. We're going to finish chapter 5 today. So that's the good news and the other good news, and maybe bad news, depending on what your attitude is we have two more chapters, two more chapters of the Sermon on the Mount, and we'll cover some different stuff and things like that. Who brought their Bible? Thank you, danielle. Who has their Bible on their phone? There you go. Okay, all right, I'll take the win. I'll take the win.
Speaker 1:We've talked about the Beatitudes. Raise your hand if you remember, or at least a little bit, about the Beatitudes. You don't have to remember all of them, I don't expect you to memorize them. We talked about being persecuted for being people who live by the Beatitudes. We talked about being salt and light. We are in a portion of the Sermon on the Mount where we have seen Jesus dealing with basically connecting and explaining the Old Testament in a way that matters. Okay, so that's what Jesus has been doing, and he's been doing it in a way that connects us and helps his disciples understand how are they supposed to live in relation to other people, and that's what we've been talking about. How are they supposed to live in relation to other people, and that's what we've been talking about. And what we have seen is, over time, the religious Jewish leaders have taken the commands of God, the laws that God gave Moses, and they've taken those laws, taken God's commands and created all of these various systems, and over an expansive time, they've gotten a lot of those systems wrong. They had the wrong interpretation, the wrong understanding, the wrong application, and so what Jesus has been doing is correcting some of their misunderstanding about what it meant to have God's word, to live by God's word, and ultimately, jesus pointed out that in himself, all of the law and all of the prophets find their fulfillment, they find their perfect meaning, and he reveals to us through his life and through his words that that God's word still matters and that God, god's word, is special and it reveals God's character, and we can see that in his teachings, but also in his very life. That's what Jesus is doing, that's what he's setting up.
Speaker 1:One more note before we get to our scripture. Today, jesus is talking to a crowd. I've said that before. It's a crowd full of different types of people. They're all hearing this the same but. But Jesus is directly addressing people in the crowd who call themselves disciples, like you guys. So this has special significance for us when you believe, rather than if you maybe are struggling or maybe you don't believe. It still means something for you if you don't believe, but it means something slightly different if you do believe, you do believe, and we do believe this morning. Amen, amen, all right, all that make sense. Familiar Review. Good Review over. Okay, we're going to learn how to deal with our neighbors as Christians a little bit more today. It's challenging to ingest and apply to our lives, but through grace and the power of the Holy Spirit it is possible.
Speaker 1:Matthew, chapter 5, verse 38 through 48. Let's read it together. You've heard it said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist an evil person, but whoever slaps you on the right cheek, turn the other to him also. That one, I get triggered a little bit. If anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, let him have your coat. Also, whoever forces you to go on a mile, go with him too. Give to him who asks of you and do not turn away from him. Who wants to borrow from you?
Speaker 1:You have heard that it was said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven, for he causes his son to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors, those horrible IRS members that's my translation do the same. If you greet, you can laugh later, that's fine. If you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing? What more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same. Therefore, you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Speaker 1:Challenging. I consider all of that very challenging. Well, first of all, I don't like being slapped in the face. I consider it challenging. Okay, from the top. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. You've heard this before. You've heard this before. This is called has been called by scholars and theologians for a tooth. You've heard this before. You've heard this before.
Speaker 1:This is called has been called by scholars and theologians for a long time the law of retaliation you do something and something gets done back to you in response, as a punishment, as a consequence for what you did. It's all throughout the Old Testament, all throughout the Old Testament and on top of that, this must be something that God has partially gifted all of humanity, because we find it in other ancient literature and law systems as well, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. And what Jesus is doing here is he's not condemning the law of retaliation. What he's doing is he's condemning and correcting the fact that people had taken that law and applied it to their lives in a personal manner, and they lived lives of personal revenge, because this was a law given by God in a practical way to provide justice, to provide order, to purge evil from his people.
Speaker 1:It's the basis of civil order. If you do something wrong, there will be consequences for what you do that's appropriate to what you did. If you don't have that in your life, in a community, in a society, in a church, in a home, then what you end up having is either you have authorities who are too strict and you don't want to live there, or you have people who are too free and do whatever they want to do. There is a balance to this. God gave it to us in Deuteronomy, exodus and Leviticus. Basically, god says the rest of the people will hear of this and be afraid, and never again will such an evil thing be done among you. Show no pity.
Speaker 1:Life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot. This was a governmental civil policy designed to produce justice and order. It was a good thing, a godly thing, and it was for community leaders, for small towns, it was for the elders and leaders of large cities. That's what it was for. Oh, god, bless you. I hope you're okay. That threw me off just slightly, but this was the basis of how a good town, a good city, a good region operated. And even if it wasn't followed literally like eye for an eye, there was still. It was still appropriate because eventually, what happens is and this is not inappropriate but it wasn't eye for an eye, but it was like if somebody caused you to lose your eye, maybe you don't get your eye plucked out, but maybe you now have to owe them recompense for something, so you have to give them so much silver or gold. There's still something that happens because you did something wrong. This is incredibly important to having a society that functions.
Speaker 1:The problem that Jesus is addressing is not this law, but the fact that individuals made this their personal, individual policy as they dealt with life around them all the time, with family members in the market. You're going down the street. They lived like this If you stepped on their toe, they were going to immediately step on your toe, and Jesus is saying that's not what this was designed to do. That's not what this was designed to do. That's not what this is. He's not saying that justice is not important.
Speaker 1:When civil leaders got this right, when the elders of a community got this law of retaliation good gracious, this is the word I was talking about FYI Friday night. This is the word. I should be able to say it over and over again. But I just retaliate. I've done it. Now. I've jeeped myself, I've got the yips with this word I can't do it. I can't do it. Anyways, anyways.
Speaker 1:If a community gets this right, though, what happens is that the burden of justice, the burden of revenge, the burden of feeling like, well, you did this to me, I ought to it gets taken off of your shoulders so that other people can take care of it in an appropriate and responsible way. And here's what why that matters. It matters because god and the point of god's law is so that you can grow closer to him. If you are living your life taking care of your own justice and seeking out your own revenge, guess what happens? You are not living the life God designed you. You're going to end up doing something rash and harmful to you and to others, and so you're going to be taken away from the holiness of God. So when you get this right and the community is living right and doing right and somebody else is responsible for this in the right way, it takes this burden off your shoulders. It was never designed to be your sole responsibility to seek out your own justice, to seek out your own revenge. That's not why an eye for an eye was ever meant to be.
Speaker 1:Again, jesus is not saying that justice is not important. It is. He is just trying to remind us that justice is God's and justice, through God's order and ways, has been placed in the hands of leaders and people around us, hopefully whenever it's working correctly and we know it doesn't always work correctly. We know that. We know it doesn't always work correctly, but if we take it and do this on our own, as our own responsibility. What do you think that's going to produce? If we all walk around trying to sort of get what's ours and trying to get revenge Chaos, madness absolutely nothing good comes from that.
Speaker 1:Relationally, if that's how we're living, what kind of religion would Christianity be? If the obligation of justice was on our individual shoulders? Anytime somebody called us a name, anytime you ever got into an argument, anytime something ever went wrong, you were personally responsible for doing something about it. Nothing good would happen and you have been called to love your neighbor as yourself. As we just read in here, and if you are personally responsible for trying to right wrongs in your own individual life and circumstances, chances are you're going to kill your obligation to love your neighbor and you're going to kill the chance that you have to share the gospel like you're supposed to share the gospel.
Speaker 1:But it's not easy. It's not easy at all. But it's not easy. It's not easy at all and it wasn't easy for the people who were listening to this on this mount that Jesus is preaching to them. These Jewish people, for a couple of centuries, have been under the influence and under the thumb of Romans Every part of their life. The Romans were there. The Romans were there in the marketplace. The Romans were there militarily, as they were as soldiers walking the streets at all times. The Romans were there in the financial system, in the judicial system, and oftentimes justice wasn't being done in a way that community Jewish leaders could do anything about, and so that's why it was so easy for people to take this eye for an eye thing, walk out into the streets where they're being mistreated by Roman people and think no one else is going to take care of this, nobody else can do something about this. So I'm going to take this in my own hands and do something about it, and that's why in first century, in Jesus' time, we had a series of rebellion and riots all the time in Judea. It's because people were taking matters into their own hand, and this is who Jesus is talking to. This is when Jesus is living, and in this atmosphere, in this environment, in this culture, he's looking at these people who are struggling through injustice. They're struggling through things not going the way they want them to go, and he encourages his disciples, those who follow him, to not seek justice for oneself, but instead find ways to serve, find ways to love, find ways to do things that seem counterintuitive to what you want to do on your own. Okay, that's, it's not easy. It's not easy. Let me make this clear, though. Here's what this is not saying. Jesus is not saying you can just let people walk all over you, that you can let people commit violence against you. That's not what Jesus is saying.
Speaker 1:I don't got time to walk through the other scriptures, right? There are other scriptures that tell us that we can't avoid problems. We can avoid issues. We can stand up for the right thing. That's not what this is. What this is is a conversation about your individual perspective whenever somebody does something to you, sort of on a personal, interpersonal relationship way. That's what this is all about. We see this in his examples that we'll get to in a second.
Speaker 1:This conversation about turning the other cheek, this conversation about not doing an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth it changes. When we're talking about a group dynamic. Whenever you are a leader, whenever you are in a position of influence, whenever you are a parent and you've got a family, this conversation changes. Okay, you are, you are. You have an obligation to people to stand up and do the right thing. We have an obligation, as Christians to stand up for the innocent. Okay, that's what we, that's what we do. It is an obligation, a spiritual obligation.
Speaker 1:So, just because this seems like we are to let people do whatever they want to do, we have to understand the context. And Jesus is saying on an individual, personal level, yes, we ought to seek ways to turn the other cheek, but on a practical, contextual, group level, the law of retaliation still reigns supreme. We still have an obligation to justice where possible, especially whenever we are in a very specific context. So Jesus is talking very specifically to the condition of an individual heart, to an individual situation. If you're a parent and you see injustice to your family, no, that's not a turn-the-cheek type of situation. I've got to make that clear. Okay, that's not a turn-the-cheek type of situation. I've got to make that clear. That's not what this is. We on the same page.
Speaker 1:We see this in the examples that Jesus uses. First example, and it might seem like a physical attack, but it's less of a physical attack than what you might think. But it's a slap in the face If someone slaps you on the right cheek, present to them the other cheek. Here's what that means. If someone slaps you on the right cheek. If you're left-handed, that makes sense because you're slapping that way. Most people are what Right-handed, 90% of the population right-handed, which means what was happening here is somebody was getting back slapped. That's what was happening and I'm going to tell you I don't like people touching my face, let alone back slapping me in the face. Okay, this is less about the physical. This is not Jesus saying if somebody cuts off your hand, give them the other hand. No, this is an emotional, social thing. If someone emotionally or socially harms you in this way, find a way to turn the other cheek. God is not saying if someone pulls a gun at you, go ahead and say go ahead, pump a bullet into me. That's not what this is. Context matters, context matters. If you're getting backhand, it's not about the physical, you're not going to get knocked out're getting backhand. It's not about the physical. You're not going to get knocked out by a backhand. It's not about the physical. It's about the emotional and social toll that that backslap represents. And so if you're in a situation where there is some sort of emotional and social harm, find a way to turn the other cheek and see what happens. That's what Jesus is saying.
Speaker 1:Next example is a legal example and it's slightly funny. If you understand again context Context makes this all funny Basically what Jesus is saying if someone sues you to take your underwear, go ahead and give them all your clothes Right Legally. People could sue you Back in the day. This is just strange to me. I did research on this. They could sue you and they could take all of your clothes, except for your coat, right Legally. No matter what happened. People could not take your coat Because even if you were poor, the poorest of the poor, you still had a right. It was a human right to have a way to cover up at night so you could sleep. But they could take your underwear. And what Jesus is saying if they take your underwear, give them all of it. Give them all of it.
Speaker 1:Why? Because when you do things outside of what's expected, it presents an opportunity for minds to be changed, for you to flip the situation. People expect you to fight for things. People expect you to be difficult when it comes. If they're trying to do something to you and Jesus is saying all right, give them what they want and more. That's tough. Who wants to do that? Naturally, I don't want to do that If somebody is wrongly suing me. If somebody wrongly has a problem with me, I am not naturally going to step out of my way and go out of my way to go above and beyond to give them more than what they're even asking for, if I don't want to give them what they don't deserve to begin with, and yet here is Jesus saying go ahead and give it to them, for a reason. For a reason.
Speaker 1:The third example has to do with something that might be akin to basically jury duty on steroids. Right, as citizens of the United States of America, we have a plethora of rights. If you're a man, it means that you can be drafted, if that happens, up until a certain age. Right, I'm getting past that age now, john. I think you're past that age now. I think we're good, but some of it, dave, you're right behind me, but I think you're actually still in the limits. But, all that being said, you have duties that you can be conscripted into as a citizen.
Speaker 1:The Jewish people they had a plethora of things that they had some rights. The Romans had rights. The Roman soldiers who were walking around the city had certain rights they could drag people into, and one of them was they could call anybody man, woman, child and a Roman soldier could say, hey, come with me, and you had to go with them for up to a mile, or they can make you work for like a half a day or whatever. Matter of fact, you see this whenever Jesus is dragging his cross to Golgotha, and what happens? He can't carry it. And so the Roman soldiers grab a random dude out of the crowd and say, hey, you carry this. Well, that was their right to do it. They had a right to do it, a legal obligation that the Jewish people had to follow as people who were subservient to the Roman Empire.
Speaker 1:And so what Jesus is saying here? He's saying that if a Roman soldier comes along and you already don't like Roman soldiers anyway you definitely don't want to do anything for them, because they're hateful and they're mean and they stand up against everything that you are. They serve Caesar and false gods and you're a servant of the one true God. And Jesus says not only don't complain about the one mile, you've got to go, offer to go too. Offer to go too. Don't just volunteer, don't just go to jury duty. Be excited about it, which I know. Maybe some randos are excited about jury duty for whatever reason? I never have been.
Speaker 1:But if you've got to do something for somebody, get to a place in your relationship with God and your maturity spiritually that you can go the extra mile. Why? Why is Jesus telling us to do all of these things that are outside of our comfort zone, outside of our natural responses? Go ahead and tell you Someone slaps me in the cheek. My first response is not turning the other cheek, okay, but Jesus is saying otherwise. So which one's right? My own fleshly desire to want to punch someone in the face, or Christ's command to turn the other cheek? And that's the battle, and no more. So in the final example, the final example that Jesus gives us has to do with giving. And I'll be real honest. All of these are tough and some of these will be tougher than others. Everybody's different, but for me this one's tough, it's tough.
Speaker 1:All good Jewish boys and girls understood and knew that it was great and lovely to give to the needy. They call it giving alms. You give to church, you give to people who are struggling, and as uncomfortable and as difficult as it might be to do that, it was always going to be a positive thing Always, and I think we can. We experienced that today. If you've ever given anything to somebody if you ever you know you give your tithes to church, offerings to church. You see people who are struggling and you give to the needy. You feel good. Maybe it was difficult getting to a point where you pull the money out of your pocket and you give it to them, or whatever, but whenever you do it afterwards there is this nice feeling attached to it.
Speaker 1:What Jesus does here is he goes above and beyond that. He goes above and beyond. He takes it further. The one begging may not be poor legitimately, they may not actually require charity, but give to him anyway. The one seeking a loan could be unscrupulous or even one's enemy, and may not intend to repay the loan. But don't turn her away.
Speaker 1:The parallel of this scripture in Luke explicitly indicates that disciples are to extend loans to one's very enemies Luke 6, verse 35. You can look it up yourself later when you're laughing at all my jokes. Thank you, I appreciate that With these sayings, what Jesus is doing is he's removing the obligation of judging merit. Whenever we are generous Okay. Whenever we are doing charity, whenever we are considering handing out money, jesus is basically saying to his disciples right Give without question, give without question.
Speaker 1:And I've got to tell you that seems incredibly dumb, because scripture itself is full of being negative about sluggards and people who don't repay their loans, and people who are evil and people who are irresponsible and who do things the wrong way. We know it all throughout proverbs and the old testament, even the new testament, in james, we sense that this is wrong. Well, I don't want to give to somebody who's doing the wrong thing. I don't want to give to somebody who I know is going to take my hundred dollars and go buy drugs, cigarettes and alcohol. I don't want to do that. I don't want to do that, god. I don't want to give this loan out to this person, knowing they're not going to pay me back. In which another case says you know, if you give a loan, don't expect it back. Another place in Scripture tells us we shouldn't be surprised by that, but I don't want to do that.
Speaker 1:It seems foolish, doesn't it? It seems to go against wisdom. It goes against everything I've ever thought about being responsible with my resources. And yet, and yet, and yet.
Speaker 1:Is this not exactly what Jesus did for us? Let me explain For one. Even if we come to a place in our life, whenever we accept his grace and his mercy, which to receive salvation. We got to do that. So at some point we say yes to the Christmas tree gift and we go pick up that gift and we open it up and now we are saved. Praise God for that Right. At some point we got to accept that gift. We will never, ever, be in a position to be able to pay back that gift in any way, shape or form.
Speaker 1:So Jesus has irresponsibly given to somebody who can't repay them, which, again, in a practical sense, is not wisdom, right? Do you understand what I'm saying? That was not a wise choice in a practical manner for him to give to somebody who couldn't pay him back. And it goes above and beyond that because there's going to be people who see the gift under the tree and walk right by it, and yet Jesus offers that gift anyways, meaning not only can they not repay, they have no interest in repaying that gift. And Jesus does it any way. And even though this level of generosity seems completely absurd, it seems completely taken away from intelligence and wisdom. Jesus is not teaching us anything. His very life didn't teach us.
Speaker 1:First Peter, chapter 2, verses 20 through 25. This is a bit of bonus scripture for the day. I like a bonus scripture in a sermon, a bonus scripture and the reason why I'm reading this is because it almost perfectly perfectly describes what we're talking about. And yet this is after Jesus' life, death and resurrection, and Peter is still saying the same things that Jesus taught here, which I think is special. For what credit is it if, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure, but if, when you do good and suffer for it, you endure? This is a gracious thing in the sight of God, for to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his footsteps. I might add footsteps of graciousness and giving.
Speaker 1:He committed no sin. Neither was deficit found in his mouth. Deceit was found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile. In return Turned the other cheek when he suffered, he did not threaten but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly? He didn't seek revenge. He didn't go out of his way to get justice for himself. He trusted in God to take care of justice for him, and he will. He bore himself our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. But by his wounds you have been healed, for you were straying like a sheep but now have returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.
Speaker 1:I thought I would have time to go into the second half of this scripture that I read, but I see the time, I don't got time to go into detail about this. But Jesus is not asking you to turn the cheek right. He's not asking you to go out of your way. He's not asking you to give generously out of thin air. Okay, he did it himself. First, he set the example, he set the standard. You have grace and salvation because he gave generously to you, above and beyond the wisdom of the world, because the wisdom of the world says that was stupid. But it wasn't about the wisdom of the world, it was about what was necessary. And so, as Jesus asked us to do these very difficult things, these relational things, remember, ultimately, right now we're talking about relationships, we're talking about salt and light, we're talking about how, as disciples, we relate to the world. And he's asking us to walk into the world and do things a little differently. Not easy things, but different things, different things. Listen, we don't have Calvary without him doing some seemingly stupid things. We don't have Calvary without him doing some seemingly stupid things. But whenever we respond to the world the way that Jesus responded to the world, things start happening.
Speaker 1:Do you think that Jesus's generosity is a one-time trick? No, it is an example that we follow every day, and while we are not providing salvation for the world, your generosity, your love of your neighbor, you turning your other cheek, you going the extra mile, does something in the spiritual realm, because we're not wrestling against flesh and blood, right. It does something in the spiritual realm that changes things. And so, while you might be praying for some family members, you might be praying for some friends who don't have a relationship with Jesus, and maybe they don't need another sermon, maybe they need an extra mile moment from you. Maybe you've got some enemies in your life, some people that you don't get along with, and what they need from you is not for you to attack or defend yourself, but for you to walk into the lion's den knowing that God will shut the mouth of the lions and you'll come out of there peaceful and you'll change the situation for them. Your generosity, spiritually and practically in life will make a difference.
Speaker 1:Do you understand? It's amazing. The world finds it easy to understand. Loving people who love you, that's easy. It's in your DNA. Love your family members that's in your DNA. Love the people who love you, that's fine.
Speaker 1:Something special happens, though, when you start praying for and loving the people who want to harm you, right? What if we started praying for those crazy radical Muslim people? I love them, knowing full and well that if we walked into their city proclaiming gospel, they'd probably kill us, but we love them and pray for them anyways. What would happen? What would happen if we've got a bad relationship with a friend or ex-friend or a family member and instead of just gritting your teeth and just being angry all the time about it, and what if we set it aside and love them and pray for them? I'm not saying you've got to accept abuse from them, but what if you changed your attitude and mindset towards them? What do you think would happen? Because I'll tell you what it did for you. When Jesus did that for you, it provided salvation.
Speaker 1:All of this leads to this last line of these relational teachings you, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect. You have a calling yes, amen, ivy, amen. You have a calling. Yes, amen, ivy, amen. You have a calling. You have a calling Jack. You've got a calling man. You've got a calling Carrie. You've got a calling, you get it. You've got a calling guys. You've got a calling and it's going to be very specific to you in your context, but ultimately, above and beyond the specifics, there is a general calling to pursue God and thus pursue perfection.
Speaker 1:And we get scared of that word perfection, right, rightly so. And let's remember that part of the Sermon on the Mount is Jesus is preaching to people. A lot of them think somehow they have achieved a level of perfection and I'm not saying we ever get to that place in our life and our attitude where we think we have arrived. But our goal is perfection. And what Jesus has done over the past couple of verses in chapter 5 of the Beatitudes he's used all these Old Testament scriptures and he's reclassified them and retaught them. And what he's telling his disciples if you pursue God's word, you are pursuing God, and God is perfect. You are, you are pursuing perfection, you are pursuing a standard. Now, granted, we got grace and mercy to get us over ourselves and we got the Holy Spirit to carry us forward. But as we reflect on God's Word, we are reflecting on the character of God, and the character of God turns the other cheek. The character of God is generous. The character of God loves your enemy as yourself. The character of God is all of these things as espoused by His Word. And so, as Jesus explains these things to us in the right and correct way and we apply them to our life, what we are doing is we are pursuing perfection, and the word used in NIV here indicates future perfection. So, not right now, but we are heading that way.
Speaker 1:Guys, there is a standard for our lives and it is not easy. It is not easy to be talked down to and to not snap off and make some sort of remark. Smart aleck is the word that was most often used by referees on the basketball court for me, right, okay, but these things aren't natural. Okay, it's not natural for us to turn the other cheek. It's not natural for us to avoid anger. It's not natural for us to live a life lust, free, right. Just going back to all of chapter five, it's not natural to to recognize that we are poor in spirit. It's not natural for us to think that we can make an impact in the world by being salt and light. It's not natural for us to view persecution as being a good thing and a right thing for our lives. It's not natural, but it is our calling. It's our calling and we only achieve that calling through grace and mercy and the power of the Holy Spirit.
Speaker 1:Amen.
Speaker 1:Can we pray?
Speaker 1:Let's pray together.
Speaker 1:Hope you're encouraged.
Speaker 1:I hope that this I do.
Speaker 1:I hope that you get a percentage of this, just a little percentage.
Speaker 1:I don't expect you to memorize everything that is taught or preached, but if we can get a percentage of this, it will help us out there.
Speaker 1:Heavenly Father, we love you. We thank you for everything you do for us. You're awesome and you're mighty. We thank you, we love you. We thank you for everything you do for us. You're awesome and you're mighty, and we thank you for your teachings. We thank you for your word. We thank you that you reveal yourself and your character through your word, and I pray that we would have the correct understanding of your word, that your Holy Spirit would lead us into all truth, that we would rely on people around us to help us understand what it means to be a Christian and that we would treat other people the right way, and that we would be challenged in our generosity and we would be challenged in our response to our enemies and we would be challenged in how we do things and it's challenged in our life to get rid of things that don't belong. Help us, god, as only you can. In Jesus' name we pray and we all.