This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

Welcome back to our look through the book of Matthew. This is week five, day
four. We're going to look at Matthew 5, 38 to 42 today.

In fact, I'd like to begin by reading those verses. Here's what Jesus taught.
"You've heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye and tooth for tooth.

' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the
right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and
take your tunic, let him have your coat as well.

If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who
asks you. And do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

" Jesus here is talking about in verse 38, the struggle that we have with
revenge, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Our relationships become battles.
Revenge turns friends into enemies, turns marriages into battlegrounds, turns
offices into bunkers.

And Jesus points specifically to examples of things that we should determine not
to take revenge for. He says, "Do not take revenge over the calculated insult,
the slap on the cheek. Do not take revenge over the stolen right, someone taking
what is rightfully yours.

Do not take revenge over the abuse of power, forcing you to go one mile against
your will. " Now that hits home for me. I don't know about you.

That hits home. Because those are the very things that just make the anger come
up in me. I want to get back at someone.

But revenge, Jesus says, it is the attitude that will eventually destroy all
your relationships because it destroys your ability to love. So Jesus says,
"Turn the other cheek. Give him your coat.

Go the second mile. " Jesus helps us to see how to deal with revenge before it
gets started. Turn the other cheek.

"Keep your life open," he says. "If it means you get insulted again, so be it.
But don't allow their rudeness to cause you to retreat into a shell or to go on
the attack.

" He says, "Give them your coat. Give to those who'd want to take from you. Give
them a smile, your love, your friendship.

Offer yourself to meet their needs. Go the second mile," he says, "instead of
grumbling and fretting about being forced to do something you don't want to do,
see it as an opportunity to express loving service to someone else. " Now,
there's a common denominator here through all of these that Jesus is teaching.

He's teaching when other people try to gain control of you through an insult,
through a lawsuit, or through pressure, you can cut off revenge feelings at
their source. How do you do that? By recognizing God's control over you.

When someone else tries to get control over you, you recognize God's control
over you and you keep loving. You keep serving. You keep giving.

Now, in what we just talked about, as Jesus teaches about how to deal with
revenge, there are four specific actions of mercy that Jesus talks about here.
These aren't small steps. They're God-sized steps.

These aren't steps to be done by your strength. These are steps to be done by
His strength. Let's walk through these in a little bit more detail.

What does Jesus teach us to do? He says, "First, you turn the other cheek. "
Now, for many of us, that's difficult to understand.

What is He talking about here? Whenever I have problems understanding a
difficult passage, the vast majority of the time is due to my own
presuppositions or personality or cultural baggage. I just don't get it.

In that day, a slap was an insult. In Jesus' day, a slap to the right cheek was
clearly understood to mean a slap with the back of the hand, twice as insulting
as a slap with the open palm. So when He says, "Turn the other cheek," He's
saying, "Instead of choosing revenge when you're insulted, choose to love.

" Revenge slaps the other person back harder. Love turns the other cheek with
the hope that it'll wake that person up and cause them to change. But even if it
doesn't, even if they don't change, you've decided not to allow their insult to
change you into an insulting person.

You've chosen to love, to keep being like God. Jesus is here encouraging an act
of courageous mercy, not cowardice. Some people see "turn the other cheek" as,
"Oh, you're just being a coward.

You're running away. " No, you're standing there and turning the other cheek.
They can slap you again if they want to because you stay there.

He's encouraging an act of courageous mercy. Turning the other cheek isn't
pretending it never happened. It's not doing nothing.

It's clearly communicating, "I'm deciding not to trade insult for insult. That's
not what God's like. That's not what I'm going to be like.

" So let's dig in on this. What does this mean for you? Whose insult do you need
to look past to show mercy?

Now I know when I talk about mercy and having mercy towards others, there are
some of us who have an oversensitive heart with this one and some an insensitive
heart. And I have a concern for both. Those of you who have an oversensitive
heart, my concern is that that oversensitivity would cause you to go back into
an abusive situation.

Jesus is not talking about somebody causing physical abuse here. He's talking
about an insult. And if this isn't a marriage and that insult goes on and on
again, that is a kind of verbal abuse that needs to be dealt with.

And Jesus is not saying not to deal with that here. Don't let your oversensitive
heart keep you from seeing that Jesus wants to protect you in that situation.
But I'm just concerned with those of you who have an insensitive heart, who are
looking right past this thinking, "I don't care," or "I'm not even going to
think about this.

" Not being sensitive to the fact that the way you have dealt with that insult
and the way you keep getting back at people is ruining you. You don't see it.
You don't see it.

You see that moment of joy when you get back at that person, or it feels like
joy. You don't see how it's hurting your relationship with your husband or wife
or your kids or everybody else at work. Ask Jesus to speak to your heart, to
give you strength to do the right thing.

When you're insulted, Jesus said, "Don't let them control you. You keep on
loving them. " And the second practical thing Jesus teaches to do here is he
says, "Let them have your cloak.

Let them have your coat. " He says, "There's someone who wants to sue you to
take your shirt. " And he says, "Oh, fine.

Here's my coat, too. " When he teaches this, he's teaching how much he values
relationships over possessions, your heart over possessions. Now, he's not
talking here about legal cases between businesses.

He's talking about relationships between two people. He's talking about
relationships and telling us that a spirit of vengeance or bitterness, it is
much too high a price to pay for the loss of a shirt. And he's saying that the
gift of a coat is not too great a price to pay for even the possibility of a
restored relationship.

Let me say that again. A spirit of vengeance in your heart or bitterness in your
heart, it's too high a price to pay over the loss of just a shirt. Let them have
the shirt.

And the gift of a coat, it's not too great a price to pay for the possibility of
a restored relationship. Who knows what that gift might do? It changes
everything.

It changes the game. It changes the heart. Someone's cheated you out of some
material possession, and it can eat you up for years.

What should have been? What they should have done? What I'm missing in my life
because of what they didn't do?

The answer to that bitterness is mercy, expressing forgiveness to that person
when a relationship has been spoiled by things. Now, you think, what if I
forgive, but they don't receive it? What if they keep rejecting me?

They may not receive it, but then they're going to keep living with their own
bitterness. God wants to deal with the bitterness in your heart. So he says,
don't let some possession cause a bitterness in your life the rest of your life.

They're not going to last. So deal with it by continuing to be giving. You keep
on loving.

You keep on giving. Third thing that Jesus teaches practically to do is he says,
I want you to go the second mile. Now, he's talking here about a soldier of an
occupying army who in that day could come up to anyone and say, will you carry
my pack?

And you would have to carry it with them by law for one mile. And then most
people would put it down and walk off. Jesus says, when you get to the end of
the first mile, say, you know, I'm good.

I think I can go a second mile with you. Do the unexpected. He's talking about
this decision for radical mercy, a decision for unyielding love to keep on going
when others would stop.

Love above and beyond, Jesus is saying. Surprise the person with the kind of
love that you have. Not only he can strengthen you to have that kind of love.

And then he says to do a fourth thing. He says, give to the one who asks. He
talks about giving to someone who wants to borrow from you.

And we think, come on, Jesus, that one's much too simple. That's too clear.
That's too convicting.

One of the great expressions of mercy is when you have it in your power to help
someone, you help them. Whether they deserve it or not, you find a way to help
them. As we walk through this, you see Jesus has piled example after example
after example on how to deal with the revenge feelings in our hearts.

Because he knew we would have a tough time getting this concept. We like to
believe that we can take some at least small measure of revenge against a person
who's hurt us without it affecting our soul. Or we can refuse to help someone
who has a need without it impacting our hearts.

Jesus, who knows us better than we know ourselves, tells us it isn't so. You
can't help everyone in the world, but you can help the person who's right in
front of you. You can't help the person who asks for help.

In all of these examples, Jesus is teaching the same thing. When someone is
trying to take from you, take an insult, take a coat, take a mile, when
someone's trying to take from you, you decide instead to give to them. Instead
of becoming protective or vindictive, you decide to love.

Some people say, "Wait, isn't that being like a codependent enabler? Should I
let people walk all over me? " Of course not.

That's not what Jesus is talking about here. He's not talking about allowing
someone else to control you. It's the opposite.

He's encouraging you to allow God to stay in control of the situation by
choosing to act in radical love towards that person, even if they treat you as
an enemy. God did not create you to be codependent, but he also didn't create
you to be independent. He created you to be dependent on him, and that's where
the power comes from to do this.

That's where the power comes from. If you want to do these things that we've
talked about today, live this kind of way that we talked about today, you want
to choose to keep on loving, keep on giving, keep on serving. The only way to do
that is by his power.

The only way to love like Jesus loves is by the power of Jesus' love. So let's
ask for that power today. Jesus, give us your power to love the people around us
today in radical ways, world-changing ways, in the simple moments and
relationships of our lives to choose to give what no one else would give, to
choose to love what no one else would love, to choose to serve what no one else
would serve.

We need your strength to do that. Show us how. Show us that strength today, we
pray, Jesus.

In your name. Amen. Tomorrow, we're going to look at what Jesus had to say about
the power to love everyone.