- Live peaceably with them.
- Leave judgement to God.
- Love them with the gospel.
Hebrews 12:14 - Strive for peace with everyone,and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
1 Peter 3:14-16 - But even if you should suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled, but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:00-00:03
Open up your Bibles to Matthew chapter 13.
00:08-00:27
Hey, here's an interesting question for you. Is God in control? I hear the Jeopardy music playing. Is God in control? You know, some people would argue that.
00:28-00:47
Some people would argue it from the standpoint of, "Pick up a newspaper, or turn on CNN, and look at some of the things that people are doing to other people." Is God in control, is the question.
00:48-00:52
Well, He absolutely is.
00:53-01:06
In fact, every chapter of human history, there is some facet of God ruling the earth through His people.
01:06-01:10
I mean, study your Bibles. We go through the Old Testament.
01:11-01:16
God created Adam to rule the world through Him.
01:17-01:23
And we can go through the periods of the patriarchs and the monarchs and the priests and the prophets.
01:23-01:29
And ultimately, the promised King comes, Jesus Christ.
01:29-01:43
And as we talked about last week, Israel's King came to be with his people, and Israel rejected the King.
01:45-02:39
So the question is, how is God ruling the earth now? Because we have a King who is very alive but is absent in a sense. And that's what we're looking at in Matthew chapter 13 we started last week. In this chapter, Jesus gives some parables, some stories about a particular period of history. You see in the Old Testament, the promise was the Messiah is going to come and the Messiah is going to suffer and the Messiah is going to reign over all the earth. Do you see that in the Old Testament? Read the prophets. It's over and over and over and over. He comes and He suffers, Isaiah 53.
02:40-02:41
He suffers.
02:42-02:53
Zechariah talks about, you know, "They will look on me whom they have pierced." The Messiah comes, the Messiah suffers, but there's so much talk about the Messiah reigning over all the earth.
02:56-03:53
But there's a period of history that the Old Testament never talks about, and that's the period of history between the suffering of the Messiah and the global reign of the Messiah. And you're like, "Why are you telling us this?" You know why? Because you live in that period, right? Don't we live in between the advents of the Christ, His first coming and His second coming? Well, that's why Matthew 13 is such a significant chapter in your Bible, because in this chapter Jesus is revealing something for the first time. Here's what life is going to be like between my rejection, my atoning ministry, and my coming to reign over the entire earth. So the question is, is God in control? How is God ruling the earth?
03:53-04:44
Understand, this is so cool. You are living, and I am living, in a very unique period of history, because during this age, God is ruling the world by living in his people. You understand that? You are citizens of the kingdom. But for those who have received Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, it's not as if our King is absent and hopefully someday maybe he'll come back to check on us. He is going to come back personally, but understand the New Testament teaches very clearly that the King during this period of history lives inside you and that's how he's ruling the world until he comes back for total domination.
04:46-04:49
And that's where Jesus was going with these parables.
04:49-04:58
The first one, the parable of the sower we talked about last week, the question Jesus was answering was, Well, how are people going to respond to this message?
04:59-05:05
Okay, you suffer, you die, you raise from the dead, you ascend to heaven, and then you're coming back.
05:05-05:07
Okay, we learned that part.
05:10-05:13
But in the meantime, how are people going to respond to this message?
05:14-05:15
And Jesus tells a story.
05:15-05:17
Here's how people are going to respond.
05:17-05:17
You remember?
05:19-05:23
Parable of the sower, four soils, four responses.
05:25-05:28
Some people are going to be hard-hearted. The message of the gospel is going to go out.
05:29-05:30
Hard-hearted. I'm not going to hear it.
05:32-05:33
I don't want to hear it.
05:34-05:40
Some people are going to be shallow-hearted, meaning there's no root, meaning they made a superficial decision.
05:41-05:47
"Yeah, that sounds great. That sounds exactly like what I need." And like in two weeks, in a month, in six months, they're gone.
05:49-05:51
I really wasn't into it that much.
05:51-06:00
that's checking it out, but never really making that commitment when persecution or tribulation comes, they fall away.
06:01-06:10
And Jesus said some people were going to be like the seed that was in the thorny ground, that the cares of the world choke it out.
06:10-06:21
And some people, they wanna make a commitment to Christ and they wanna follow Christ, but my job, but I gotta make more money for this and I gotta have that and I'm worried about this.
06:22-06:26
And they never fully surrendered to Jesus Christ.
06:26-06:30
They let the stuff of the world, the busyness of the world, choke them out.
06:30-06:32
And then there's the good soil, right?
06:32-06:47
Jesus said, you know when the seed falls on good soil because it multiplies, a hundred fold, 60 fold, 30 fold, some more, some less, but you know, because it multiplies.
06:48-06:52
I asked a couple of volunteers to come up and just to sit on stage with me today.
06:52-06:55
Amanda Kaler and Chris Grooms, I want you to come up.
06:55-06:57
This is what you call VIP seating.
06:58-06:59
OK?
06:59-07:03
Now I asked for volunteers, and these were the two people that volunteered.
07:06-07:10
And I have a feeling by the end of the sermon, I might have to put the chairs on opposite end of the platform.
07:12-07:13
All right?
07:14-07:15
So this is VIP seating.
07:17-07:25
So the question that we're going to be looking at today, turning your Bibles again, Matthew 13, we're gonna pick up in verse 24.
07:28-07:33
Now, this is, like I said, this is Chris Grooms and this is Amanda Kaler.
07:34-07:46
And they both been very faithful in planning this church and working very hard with the ministries every week that the Lord's called them to.
07:46-07:50
but today we're going to pretend, all right?
07:52-07:56
We're going to pretend that these are non-believers.
07:57-07:57
All right?
07:59-08:03
We're going to pretend, I know it might be hard, but I want you to pretend these are non-believers.
08:04-08:11
Now, Chris, he's one of those non-believers that just mocks Christianity.
08:12-08:18
He's the guy that he's not afraid to make a smart comment on Facebook.
08:18-08:23
Somebody posts a scripture verse and he might make some pseudo perverted response to it.
08:23-08:25
Making fun of the Bible, making fun of the gospel.
08:26-08:28
He's gonna be that kind of Christian.
08:28-08:33
And Amanda, she's going to represent for us sort of that.
08:33-08:39
I'm not really like against Christianity and I've been to church, but you know what?
08:39-08:40
I'm just kind of busy.
08:41-08:44
I'm starting my new job tomorrow, right?
08:44-08:45
And I'm getting married.
08:45-08:46
What is that?
08:46-08:47
August 5th.
08:48-08:50
I know, I'm doing the wedding.
08:50-08:52
I just give, yeah.
08:52-08:53
That's all right.
08:53-08:55
They have TD Jake's on backup for that, right?
08:57-09:00
But she's not against the gospel.
09:00-09:20
She's not like spewing venom maybe at times or making fun of it at times, like this non-believer, but she just kind of goes about her business And dead in sin, yes, unredeemed, yes, but just sort of goes with the flow.
09:21-09:29
Well, here's the question that Jesus is answering when we get to Matthew 13, picking up in verse 24.
09:30-09:54
You know, the disciples, if you can put yourself in their position, you're hearing, okay, hard-hearted, shallow-hearted, crowded hearted and, "Oh, okay, so I'm gonna fall on good soil and reproduce." But you said that three of them, okay, three out of four in your story, Jesus, three out of four are going to reject the message in one way, shape or form.
09:55-09:59
So you can imagine what the disciples were thinking at this point.
10:00-10:04
Jesus was anticipating the question and he answers it with the parable.
10:04-10:06
And here's what we're going to be talking about today.
10:07-10:08
What do we do about these people?
10:10-10:13
Okay, these unbelievers, what do we do with them?
10:16-10:21
And the reason I asked them to come up on stage, I'm not gonna embarrass them or, you know, put stuff on their face or anything like that.
10:21-10:22
There's no tricks here, guys.
10:23-10:24
But here's why I brought them up.
10:25-10:39
We can talk about unbelievers sometimes and think of it as sort of, yeah, I think maybe I know a couple unbelievers and we sort of kind of put the concept as a, maybe a faceless idea in our minds.
10:41-10:44
But we're talking about real people here, okay?
10:45-10:47
And the question is, what do we do with them?
10:47-10:49
They're real, right?
10:49-10:50
They're real.
10:53-10:57
And chances are, we're going to encounter them, right?
10:58-11:07
Wouldn't it just be so smurfy if we could lock the doors and just all hang out with other believers forever and never have to face the big bad world.
11:07-11:08
But guess what?
11:08-11:11
As soon as you walk out of the door, you're going to run into these people.
11:14-11:15
What do we do with them?
11:16-11:17
And you're like, "Come on, Jeff, really?
11:18-11:19
That's the sermon today.
11:20-11:21
Like that's a hard one, really?
11:22-11:30
Like that's something we haven't figured out yet what to do with unbelievers?" Well, you would think it's obvious.
11:32-11:37
But the question about what to do with these people has been an issue throughout history.
11:41-11:46
Remember the Crusades, anyone? The Crusades? 1095 to 1291?
11:48-11:49
Like, yeah, I was a kid then.
11:49-11:56
They were religious wars that were blessed by the Pope to restore Christian access to the holy places near Jerusalem.
11:57-12:05
Actually, the Byzantine Empire called on the Catholic Church to help fight the expansion.
12:08-12:14
It was headed by the Muslim Turks. So the church was actually called to fight.
12:16-12:41
And that term "Crusades" was also used in a general sense for religious campaigns between between 1100 and 1600, listen to this, against pagans, heretics, okay, so like these people, pagan, heretic, the excommunicated due to religious, economic, and political reasons.
12:41-12:45
We're going to fight against those people was the stance of the church.
12:48-12:51
So understand that the church hasn't always understood this.
12:51-12:52
What do we do with these people?
12:54-12:59
You know, you can look at radical/fundamental Islam.
13:01-13:06
What's their stance when it comes to dealing with people of a different faith or a non-faith?
13:07-13:08
Well, there's three options.
13:09-13:26
Convert, you know, join up, or kill, or, be subject under a dominant influence of Islam for the rest of your life.
13:26-13:30
That's a third option. You don't hear a lot about that one, but that's one of the options.
13:34-13:37
So that's an option. Or, you know what else we could do with these people?
13:39-13:42
We could take the Westboro Baptist Church approach, right?
13:42-13:45
Have you heard about that church out of Topeka, Kansas?
13:45-13:46
Have you seen these people?
13:47-13:51
They're the people that show up at, and they pick at all these different events.
13:51-13:52
I was on their website.
13:52-13:54
I don't recommend children get on it.
13:56-13:59
I thought it was a joke, honestly.
13:59-14:02
I got on their website and I thought, is this actually their website?
14:03-14:11
Because it was so over the top with hatred and some of the language that's used in there.
14:11-14:12
I thought this has to be a joke.
14:12-14:13
I'm in the wrong website.
14:13-14:15
and I went to different spots.
14:15-14:18
I'm like, no, this is actually what these people were doing.
14:18-14:23
But these are the people that picket funerals of soldiers.
14:24-14:26
Praise God for one more dead soldier.
14:28-14:31
They also have a lot of signs, God hates, fill in the blank.
14:32-14:36
God hates, and I'm not gonna use some of the words they use, but God hates, God hates, God hates.
14:38-14:39
And they picket.
14:41-14:42
So maybe that's what we should do with these people.
14:43-14:49
Maybe we should just show up and tell them how much God hates them and how they're heading to hell.
14:50-14:52
That's their whole ministry, by the way.
14:53-15:00
Just to show up and inform people, "You're going to hell." Maybe that should be our approach.
15:02-15:05
Just to let them know, "We're in the right.
15:06-15:12
You guys are such losers. You're in the wrong." Maybe that's what we should do with these people.
15:12-15:20
Or for the pacifists here, maybe we should just be Amish, right?
15:22-15:25
You know, the Amish actually teach a separation.
15:25-15:27
So maybe this should be our approach.
15:27-15:40
It's like we go about our business like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa." There, that's much better.
15:41-15:42
Maybe that should be our approach.
15:45-15:47
I'm not gonna deal with them, okay?
15:48-15:49
I'll deal with you.
15:51-15:52
I'm not going to deal with them.
15:55-15:57
The Amish have always intrigued me.
15:57-16:10
When I worked at Walmart up in Butler years ago, this is like back in '94, '95, we get a lot of Amish people come through and I would always try to strike up conversations because their culture fascinated me and everything.
16:10-16:11
They would not talk to me.
16:11-16:13
None of them at any time ever would talk to me.
16:15-16:21
And even places I was working in Ohio where I'd encounter some Amish, I'd always strike up conversations, try to, they would not talk to me.
16:23-16:27
And I think maybe some of this is the reason why.
16:27-16:30
It's the separate mentality.
16:32-16:34
Maybe that should be our approach.
16:34-16:46
You know, like maybe some of those Eastern Orthodox monks, Let's just go up in a mountain somewhere so we don't have to deal with these people.
16:48-16:49
So what do we do with them?
16:50-16:59
Well, at this point, you thought I was gonna tell you to go back to your seats, but I want you to stay up here.
17:01-17:05
Let's look at the parable, Matthew 13, verses 24 through 30.
17:07-17:12
Okay, so we got three out of four in the first parable rejecting, what do we do with the unbelievers?
17:15-17:24
It says, "He put another parable before them saying, the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field.
17:26-17:33
But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away.
17:36-17:42
So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also.
17:44-17:53
And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, 'Master, did you not sow good seed in your field?
17:55-18:10
How then does it have weeds?' He said to them, 'An enemy has done this.' So the servants said to him, then do you want us to go and gather them?
18:12-18:17
And he said, no, lest in gathering the weeds, you root up the wheat along with them.
18:19-18:21
Let both grow together until the harvest.
18:23-18:40
And at harvest time, I will tell the reapers, gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned but gathered the wheat into my barn." So a couple of words of explanation about what's going on here.
18:40-18:41
What are these tares?
18:41-18:48
Well, actually it was a plant that's called a darnel, which is a weedy grass.
18:50-19:01
And you'll find this interesting, but during the first century, did you know that the Romans actually had a law against this type of act?
19:01-19:03
because it was commonplace, it was vandalism.
19:04-19:08
You know, in our day, it might be breaking a window or spray painting or whatever.
19:09-19:11
It was a common act of vandalism in this day.
19:12-19:26
You go to somebody's farm or garden or whatever where they're actually trying to grow something and you just take like a handful of weed seeds and just like start dumping them all over their ground.
19:26-19:27
It was vandalism.
19:28-19:29
And then you get such a kick out of it.
19:31-19:35
I kind of laugh because that's not very much like an instant gratification vandalism thing, you know?
19:36-19:48
Not that I'm into vandalism anymore, but at least when you spray paint, you can sit back and be like, "Yeah, I did." But that's sort of like, I'm dumping weeds all over your garden, and this is gonna be really funny in about a month.
19:50-19:54
Okay, but Romans actually had a law against this.
19:56-20:05
Now in the parable, obviously you're going to expect some weeds in the garden, but the servants were shocked to see how many weeds have grown up.
20:07-20:09
And they're like, "Well, we got an idea.
20:09-20:14
"Let's just go out and pull the weeds." But here's the problem.
20:16-20:26
With these Darnell plants, they look exactly like wheat as they're growing.
20:27-20:28
That's the problem.
20:29-20:31
they look exactly the same.
20:32-20:36
In fact, when they're fully matured, the darnel actually takes on a grayish hue.
20:36-20:42
So they're much easier to distinguish that from the wheat, but you have to wait until it's fully matured before you can do that.
20:44-20:47
So the servants are like, well, hey, let's just go try to pull the weeds up.
20:47-20:50
And the master said, no, no, no.
20:50-20:54
If you pull the weeds, what's gonna happen?
20:55-20:57
You're gonna pull the wheat too, right?
20:59-21:06
you might be real diligent and careful at first, but then it's gonna be easy to start plucking up anything.
21:06-21:11
And you're gonna start pulling up the stuff that I just intended to plant, let them grow together.
21:11-21:20
And at harvest time, we're going to be able to tell one from another, and then we'll make the separation.
21:22-21:24
So like, what's this story all about?
21:24-21:26
Well, look at verses 37 through 39.
21:27-21:35
We're going to be, actually verse 36, we're going to be coming back to the parable of the mustard seed in 11 next week.
21:37-21:38
But let's look at the explanation.
21:39-21:46
It says, "Then he left the crowds and went into the house." Some people think this was actually the apostle Peter's house that they went into.
21:48-21:56
"And his disciples came to him saying, 'Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.'" They were like, "Okay, we need you to explain it.
21:56-21:57
We don't get that story.
21:59-22:07
Well, Jesus answered, verse 37, he answered, "The one who sows the good seed is the son of man.
22:08-22:15
The field is the world." Circle the word world in your Bibles.
22:16-22:20
Reason being some people take this parable and think that this is about the church.
22:20-22:22
Like in the church, there's believers and unbelievers.
22:22-22:25
True, there are, but he's not talking about that here.
22:25-22:28
He's talking about the world, very important distinction.
22:29-22:33
And the good seed is the sons of the kingdom.
22:36-22:39
The weeds are the sons of the evil one.
22:40-22:44
And the enemy who sowed them is the devil.
22:46-22:53
The harvest is the close of the age and the reapers are angels.
22:54-22:58
Okay, so Jesus was just like, here's what all of these symbols are.
22:58-22:59
Did you catch that?
23:00-23:06
Verse 40, "Just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age.
23:06-23:17
The Son of Man will send his angels and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace.
23:18-23:21
In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
23:23-23:26
then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father.
23:28-23:31
He who has ears, let him hear.
23:32-23:37
And understand when we read parables, we don't wanna take the analogy further than it's intended.
23:39-23:44
You know, for example, some people take this parable and they say, well, it says that the men were sleeping.
23:44-23:53
So maybe the reason that they're sinners in the world is because the church is too busy sleeping and they go off on this tangent about that.
23:53-23:56
And I think you're missing the point of the parable, right?
23:57-24:01
Or some people say, well, this parable's about what we should do in the church.
24:02-24:05
No, Jesus said this has to do with the world, right?
24:08-24:11
So don't take the analogy further than it's intended.
24:11-24:15
Look at the main teaching that Jesus is trying to communicate here.
24:15-24:16
Not trying, he did communicate.
24:18-24:19
The Lord is sowing children.
24:20-24:33
Satan is sowing children and the world is going to be inhabited by subjects of the king and subjects of the enemy.
24:34-24:36
The world's going to have both.
24:38-24:41
This co-mingling has been happening since the fall.
24:42-24:47
And I don't mean last September. I mean, day six of creation, right?
24:48-24:50
After everything was very good, God rested in the seventh.
24:51-24:55
And then sometime after that, we don't know how long, but man fell into sin.
24:58-25:06
But understand this, Jesus is teaching a day is coming when the commingling is going to be over.
25:08-25:12
Right now, we're going to be encountering these people.
25:15-25:16
And let's be honest.
25:17-25:24
I mean, we talked about the Crusades and other religions and the Amish, but can we be honest in church this morning, can we?
25:26-25:26
Y'all for that, Sam?
25:27-25:27
Let's be honest in church.
25:28-25:29
All right, he's all over that.
25:30-25:34
We are knuckleheads sometimes when it comes to dealing with unbelievers.
25:34-25:35
Is that true or not true?
25:36-25:37
It's true.
25:37-25:45
Sometimes we act like they're from another planet or something, like I don't know what to say.
25:46-25:55
And I've had people tell me, and I'm not criticizing, I know evangelism, it's something the Lord grows us in, right, but sometimes people, I don't know.
25:56-26:03
I work with this guy at the country club and he's not a believer and I don't know how to share the gospel with him.
26:05-26:06
Does he speak English?
26:10-26:10
I think.
26:11-26:18
Or, you know, they just hired this new lady, You know, she's a dietician at the hospital and she's not a believer.
26:18-26:21
And I just, I really don't know what to say to her.
26:24-26:26
Have you tried talking to her?
26:27-26:28
I don't know what to say to her.
26:29-26:34
You know, I'd like to share the gospel with her, but I don't know what to say.
26:37-26:38
Well, let's get to that.
26:41-26:50
One word here though, Jesus said here at the end of the age, there's going to be a harvest, right?
26:51-26:59
And the weeds are going to be gathered up and burned, and the wheat is going to be gathered up and taken to the barn.
26:59-27:03
And he's talking about two eternal destinations.
27:07-27:08
There are two options.
27:10-27:24
If you've received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Bible says you are born again, that you've gone from being dead in your sins to being alive in Christ.
27:25-27:34
You go from being children of wrath to being children of God, and your best days are ahead of you.
27:36-27:48
And for those who have not received Christ, You know, here the Bible talks about hell as, it describes hell as being like fire, and that's a common thing throughout scripture.
27:48-27:59
And actually in a couple of weeks, we're gonna talk a lot about hell, because Jesus really explains it and goes into some more detail in a later parable here.
28:00-28:09
But just to say this, just as Christians, we are heading to a real eternal destination.
28:09-28:09
And you know what?
28:11-28:12
So are these people.
28:14-28:18
Just as you have an eternal soul, guess what?
28:20-28:21
So do these people.
28:22-28:31
And the Bible says someday you're going to get a new, resurrected, glorified body that you're going to enjoy in heaven for eternity.
28:31-28:33
Do you know what the Bible says about these people?
28:34-28:44
They're going to receive a body is going to suffer eternally apart from the presence of God.
28:48-28:50
This isn't a faceless concept.
28:51-28:52
These are people that we encounter.
28:53-28:56
These are people that we go to school with.
28:57-28:58
These are people that we work with.
28:59-29:01
These are people that we do business with.
29:01-29:03
These might even be people that we're related to.
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And there are two destinations.
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Well, the first question is, which one are you on?
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And the second question is, if you're an adopted child of the King, looking forward to the big family reunion, what do you do with these people?
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Well, here it is, jot these things down.
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Until Christ returns, the message goes out, Some receive and multiply, many reject.
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What do we need to do about the rejecters?
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Jot these three things down.
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Number one, we live peaceably with unbelievers.
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We live peaceably with unbelievers.
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For a season, I had to share a bedroom with my little brother.
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I did not enjoy that.
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Not that little brother, my younger brother.
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I did not enjoy that.
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But you're talking about sharing the world with these people?
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We have to share the space.
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But here's the problem.
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The problem is tolerance has been redefined.
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I remember way back in the day, tolerance used to mean this. You know, I don't agree with your beliefs, but that doesn't affect how I treat you, right? Isn't that what tolerance means? Right?
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Anybody else? No? Another definition? Okay, I see a couple people nodding. Isn't that what tolerance means? I don't agree with you, but that doesn't affect how I treat you, right? I'll still hold the door for you, you know, I'll still use my manners, please and thank you. I'll still be courteous and say hello just like I would any of you. But it's okay that I don't agree with you. Well here's the problem. Now tolerance means if I don't agree with your beliefs, by nature I am intolerant. You remember a few weeks ago when we were in the cafeteria, Remember I made a comment about church.
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We're going to be seeing more and more a surge from the homosexual movement, and we need to be equipped on how to handle that.
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Do you remember me saying that? Anybody? Okay.
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Good.
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We need to be prepared.
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We were talking about Jonah, and he had a demographic that he hated, and sometimes that creeps into the church.
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God help us.
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Well, that night on the news, that same night we were in the cafeteria talking about be prepared.
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I don't know if any of you saw this, but there was a church in the Pittsburgh area that had a marquee up that said, this is what the marquee said, "Marriage God's way, one man and one woman." That's what the marquee said.
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And there were people outside of the church protesting, saying that that sign had to come down.
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And they tried to reach the pastor and he was unavailable for comment.
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Did anybody else see that?
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Okay, Bob, did anybody else?
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Just Bob and I watched the news that night.
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All right, Bob, I'm so glad you're here.
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Like you can validate this, right?
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But do you remember, Bob, that at least the news program I watched, they had this young lady on there, they interviewed her.
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And she said, "One of these people going to realize that we have rights too.
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And I was like, wait a minute.
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At what point did the church impede on her rights at all?
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Did you see that same interview, Bob?
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I'm like, how did the church impede on their rights?
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It's like, look, here's what I believe about marriage.
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And this unbeliever is like, well, I don't believe that about marriage.
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Okay.
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We have different beliefs.
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But now it's turning into, "Well, if you're believing differently than me, now you're intolerant and you need to change and you need to take your sign down." Does anybody else see a problem here?
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This was a sign that the church had on their own property.
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You're going to be seeing more and more of that type of behavior, that type of picketing, that type of protesting, even to stand up and say, "Here's what the Bible says about a particular sin," you're going to have backlash from that.
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It's coming.
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But you see, the church didn't show up in these, you know, protesters' yards and place the signs.
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Live peaceably.
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We have a tendency to get angry at the world, right?
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We see stuff like that. I know, I was just like, "That bothered me." I'm just like, "Who does she think she is? Nobody's bothering her. Just let the church alone." If they believed—and I was like mad about that.
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But we can't blame the world for acting like the world.
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They're dead.
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We can't blame them for acting like dead people that are lost, alienated from Christ.
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How do we expect them to act?
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Our job is to live peaceably.
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So many verses about this. Hebrews 12, 14 says, "Strive for peace with everyone." Strive for peace with everyone.
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This guy's obnoxious. I don't like talking to this guy. He makes fun of the Bible.
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Sometimes I just want to smack him right on the tooth.
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Strive for peace with everyone.
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He's dead and he's lost.
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She's much easier to get along with.
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Strive for peace with everyone.
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All right, live peaceably with unbelievers.
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Number two, this is what Jesus was teaching.
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Co-mingling is going to happen, but here's a big lesson.
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Number two, we leave judgment to God.
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We leave judgment to God.
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You see, when Jesus was sharing these parables and at different times in Jesus' ministry, you can see the disciples were ready to get the sickles out.
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And let's start cutting down some tares.
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I love that graphic.
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Sammy made that.
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And when he first made it, he's like, "What do you think?" And I said, "I really liked that." And he said, "I don't know, it looks kind of creepy.
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Like Michael Myers is standing back there." I said, "Well, I didn't really think about that until you said that." Then we decided to go with that image because that's sort of what the disciples were thinking.
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Okay, we got a field here and we got some weeds there, let's get to work.
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And Jesus was saying, "No, we leave judgment up to God." We've been so enraged at some of the blasphemous things that are said in Hollywood, some of the stupid anti-religious political things that have been said, or some of the things that blasphemous or ignorant coworkers have said, and we get angry and we get offended, and we say to hell with them.
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But is that really what we mean?
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I've been told this many times because I have a problem.
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I'm always trying to do stuff that's not my job.
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I'm just so used to that.
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I was an associate pastor for 11 years.
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I didn't think for those 11 years, I just did.
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Do this, okay, do this, okay, I need you to do this.
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Okay, I need you to organize.
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I was so used to doing, and I have brothers and sisters here that there are times that I start doing something that they're like, "Jeff, that's not your job.
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"Your job is to pray and your job is to prepare the message "and your job is to meet with the leaders, "but that's not your job." And you see, that's why Jesus is teaching this parable.
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Like, these people have rejected the king, let's take him out.
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Jesus is like, "That's not your job." But he doesn't know you, and look at the mockery he's making of God.
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Let's just take him out.
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Let's take him out right now.
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Jesus said, "That's not your job.
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"That is not your job." We love, we evangelize, we bless, but we don't reap.
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That's the angel's job.
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So leave judgment to God.
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Leave judgment to God.
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So, like, what do we do in the meantime?
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Well, this is at number three as we wrap up.
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We love with the gospel.
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So we live peaceably, we leave judgment, but we love with the gospel.
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Wasn't that the good seed of the last parable?
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And interestingly, the New Testament never gives a step-by-step on how to evangelize.
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don't see that. There's not like a 2nd Peter chapter 6 out there somewhere that's like, "Here's how you share the gospel with someone. Step one, step two, step three." You do not see that anywhere in the New Testament, but the New Testament says much about what a transformed life looks like. And understand that's the platform for sharing Christ. Do you understand that? I Again, a lot of people seem intimidated by that.
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There's no reason to be intimidated because the platform comes from people seeing Christ in you.
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That's your platform.
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You see, if I come up to these unbelievers and don't know them, like, "Hey, let me tell you about Jesus. Is there anything wrong with that?" Of course not.
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But the first thing he's thinking is what?
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What's the first thing you're thinking?
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Who is this guy, right?
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Like, who is this guy?
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Why is he telling, why is this guy, why should I listen to what he's going to say?
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Why should I care about what he's going to say?
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Oh, look, we have this new lady working at Passovan.
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Hi, do you know Jesus?
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Like, does he work in the third floor?
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Like, what are you talking about?
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But look in your, I think I have it on your outline.
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1 Peter 3, this is what Peter's talking about here.
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Even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed, have no fear of them, nor be troubled.
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But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope is in you. Yet do it with, what are the next three words, do it with gentleness and respect. Do you catch that? Gentleness and respect. Having a good conscience so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ maybe put to shame. A couple things I want to point out about loving people with the gospel. First of all, in order for people to ask, they have to see it, right? That's a no-brainer, right? When people see Christ alive in you, they are going to ask. Like, man, it seems so hectic around here, but you You seem so calm and you seem so joyful.
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And I just saw that that person treat you like garbage and man, you really handle that stuff well.
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And God's like, "Eh, open door, right?" Or you have this joker, "Gentleness and respect." You know, he starts slinging some mud at me and I start shooting back at him and he tries to belittle me so I insult him.
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That's not gentleness and respect.
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Gentleness and respect is, you know what man, obviously we're in very different places about what we believe about the Bible.
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I believe that the Bible is true and obviously you don't right now.
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And you know what?
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That doesn't change how I feel about you, man.
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We're cool.
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See, taking that approach is going to shame him when he's still slinging the insults.
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That's what Peter's talking about.
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When Christians act like obnoxious jerks, and then that's pointed out by unbelievers, we're totally missing what Peter's communicating here.
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But when we share with gentleness and respect, and still the slander comes, what did he say? "Those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame." That's on you now, buddy. I didn't stoop to your level. But understand this, we do love people until they ask us why, but people are not projects. You know sometimes it's like, "Hey, this guy doesn't know the Lord. I'm going to make it a point to bring him to the Lord by, you know, I'm gonna give myself 15 days. I'm gonna bring him to the Lord and all of a sudden he's your project and I would I'd like to invite you over so I may give you a presentation of the gospel and he's my project now.
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Do you like feeling like a project?
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No, Amanda, no.
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Do you wanna be somebody's project?
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Well, guess what?
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Nobody wants to be your project either.
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So what I'm saying is your love for people has to be genuine.
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There are people that won't evangelize, but then you have people clear on the other end of the spectrum that it's like a cold mechanical thing.
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I met a guy just recently that was like that.
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He had this checklist and he could tell you how many people he shared the gospel with.
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It was just so mechanical to him.
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Just like, share the gospel with him, boom, share the gospel with her, boom.
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It has to be genuine.
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It has to be genuine.
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As we close, I want you to turn to Romans chapter 12.
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I want you to see that all of these things, all of these things are here.
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What do we do with these people?
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Romans chapter 12, picking up in verse 14.
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What do we do with unbelievers?
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What do we do with like Chris, the nasty unbelievers?
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Bless those who persecute you.
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Bless and do not curse them.
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Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep.
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Live in harmony with one another.
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Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly.
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Never be wise in your own sight.
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Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
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If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.
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As much as it depends on you, what was point number one today?
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We live peaceably, right?
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And what was point number two?
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Leave vengeance to God.
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Look at verse 19, "Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, 'Vengeance is mine.' 'I will repay,' says the Lord." And what was point number three?
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Love them with the gospel.
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Look at verse 20, "To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
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If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
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For by doing so you will heap burning coals on his head.
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Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good." When I was a young Christian and read that, it talked about heaping burning coals on the head.
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Here's what I had in mind.
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When these people mistreat me and I do something nice to them, it's like Sodom and Gomorrah all over again, like burning coals on their head, their faces are on fire, and I'm like, "Oh, I can't wait to do good to someone and just light them up." Then I did a little Bible study.
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Do you know that's not what that means at all?
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When Israel would show repentance, what were the signs?
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We say in our house all the time, don't we, Aaron?
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What were the signs of Israel's repentance?
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Sackcloth and ashes, right?
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Sackcloth and ashes, sackcloth and ashes, right?
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Brooke, I know you've had to be there a few times, didn't you?
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Sackcloth and ashes.
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Well, the Egyptians had a different sign for repentance.
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A different sign.
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they would do is they take an insulated pot and they'd fill it with coals and they'd walk around with that pot on their head and that was their way of telling people I'm repenting. I know it's weird I didn't make it up I wasn't at the meeting when they were trying to decide what are we gonna do for repentance any ideas any ideas? Coals in a pot? Anybody else got anything? But that That was the sign for repentance.
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And this is Paul's point.
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You can bring people to a place of repentance.
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Obviously only the Holy Spirit can work in someone's heart, but here's your part.
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In my interactions, when I'm concerned more with, I wanna love these people, I wanna bless these people, I want these people to be glad that I'm around.
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I want these people to see Christ alive in me.
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When that is my goal, and God is doing the work in here that only he can do, they're gonna come to that place of repentance.
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And that's why, yeah, there's gonna be hard-hearted, there's gonna be shallow-hearted, and there's gonna be crowded-hearted.
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But we overcome evil with good.
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That's how it happens.
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So I want to thank Amanda and Chris for coming up.
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You're going to be leaving here very shortly.
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And you're going to be running into these people.
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What do we do with them?
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Strive for peace.
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Leave judgment to God. Oh, by the way, wheat, you were a bad weed once too, right?
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Weren't you? Only by the transforming power of Christ did you turn from a weed to wheat anyways.
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We'll leave that stuff up to God. We're going to love them in the meantime.
Small Group Questions (Whole Group):
Read Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43
Breakout Questions:
Pray for one another.