Relationships
Sermon Transcript
0:00:14.0
Good morning, everyone. Most of us as Americans will do virtually anything to protect our rights, especially if somebody threatens to trample upon our rights or take away our rights. We’ve all heard of the Bill of Rights and civil rights and human rights and women’s rights. I understand consumers have rights. So do renters and workers and patients. You’ve probably heard of the patient’s bill of rights. Today in our world even animals have rights. Now, I’m curious. How many of you recently had an officer of the law read you your Miranda rights? No, don’t answer that question. But if you did, just know that you have the right to remain silent. And you also have the right to a speedy trial. But if you choose not to remain silent, you also have the right to free speech, and you can exercise that. Our Declaration of Independence speaks of something called certain unalienable rights that are endowed or given to us by our creator. And among those are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And those words form part of the bedrock of our free society, and we consider those words almost sacred.
0:01:40.4
But, friends, I want to remind us all this morning that Jesus was not an American. And He wasn’t really all that concerned about our rights. In fact, as we work our way through the Sermon on the Mount, what we learn is that He was really interested in us living a righteous life. And He talked about the righteous standard that must be met in order to have a right relationship with God and enter into the kingdom of heaven.
0:02:05.9
But I want us to keep all of that in mind as we go back to the Sermon on the Mount, and this time to chapter 5 verses 38-42. And if you follow along, I’ll read these. Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.” Now, we’ve been working our way through the Sermon on the Mount. And in chapter 5 and verse 20 Jesus says to this crowd of people who gathered on the Galilean hillside 2000 years ago, and He says to us, “Unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the Pharisees you will by no means enter into the kingdom of heaven.” And from there He goes on to give a series of, kind of, mini sermons relating back to the moral law of God, the Ten Commandments. And He kind of raises the bar on righteousness. Or as one man reminded me, no, He kind of reveals where the bar has been all along for all of these centuries. But they missed it as we sometimes miss it today. But He reminds us of, for instance, the sixth command that says, “Thou shalt not kill.” And He says even if you have anger in your heart toward another person, you have violated that sixth commandment. He talks about adultery, the seventh commandment. But He says even if you have lust in your heart, guy, toward another woman, you’ve violated the seventh commandment. He also lands upon the third commandment, “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.” And He talks about oaths and vows and says let your “yes” be “yes” and your “no” be “no.”
0:04:14.6
But beginning in verse 38, He reaches not into the moral law, the Ten Commandments found in Exodus 20, but He reaches into the civil law or the civil code that follows. And the civil code in the Old Testament, which really begins in Exodus 21 and 22 and following, is an application of the moral law and really represents some of the more specific legalities that were part of Jewish life in the Old Testament. And He draws upon this code in the Old Testament, verse 38, where He says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’” How many of you have heard that phrase before? If you’ve been to law school you probably have heard that phrase, and you might even understand the legal background to it. But most people that I run into our common culture today, even church people, don’t really understand what this meant in the Old Testament, let alone the application for us today. In fact, I heard one guy say, “Yeah, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Those people in the Old Testament were savage, bloodthirsty people knocking out each other’s tooth, gouging out each other’s eyes.” He went on to say it’s really an example of how the God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New Testament. The God of the Old Testament, you know, is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. And in the New Testament it’s about love and mercy and grace and peace, and this is what Jesus brought to us. And, oh, how he misunderstands this law and the application of it from the Old Testament.
0:05:49.4
Actually the eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was the beginning of mercy and justice in the Old Testament. And many modern civilization, including our own, use this as the foundation for the rule of law. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth was really meant to protect an innocent person and to keep retaliation from going beyond the offense. In other words, if I knocked out your tooth, the law said you were entitled to my tooth but not my tooth plus my camel. If you gouged out my eye, the law said that I was entitled to your eye but not your eye plus your wife’s eye or your husband’s eye and your children’s eyes. This law, known as the law of retaliation, actually was the beginning of mercy. It was the beginning of justice. And it placed limits on revenge and retaliation. Because sinful nature as it is, we want to get more than what we have coming to us, don’t we. If you knock my tooth out, I want your tooth, I want your camel, I want your BMW, I want your house, I want your vacation house. And in the modern legal system, this eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth is where we get the idea of what’s called compensatory damages. I don’t know how many lawyers we have in the room, but even one makes me nervous. I can say that because my brother’s a lawyer, all right. Compensatory damages is where the law says you can recover the monetary amount necessary to replace what was lost, but nothing more. And that’s different than punitive damages, which punishes the defendant in order to deter others from doing the same thing in the future. So this law of retaliation in the Old Testament—eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth—the beginning of law and justice, the rule of law placed limits on revenge so that you didn’t go beyond the cost of the offense.
0:07:54.2
And so if you were a Jewish person living under the Old Testament law, and somebody knocked your tooth out, you were perfectly within your rights to seek compensation for the damages that were done to you. Perfectly within your rights to do that. But Jesus comes along. And He has the audacity to say, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person.” In other words, don’t haul him into court and get what’s coming to you. That’s a pretty radical way to live, isn’t it? It reminds me of my father-in-law Parks Dibble, who lived by the principles we’re gonna talk about as this passage unfolds. Cathryn’s grandmother was in her 70s or 80s, and she was ill. Had to have a kind of routine surgery. I think it was a gall bladder surgery or something like that. And she goes into the hospital, has the surgery. And by all observations, things went well. But three or four days later she died. And when Cathryn’s dad investigated the matter, they found out that the doctors didn’t sew her up on the inside like they should have, and she bled to death.
0:09:18.5
Now, what would you do in a situation like that? My older brother is a medical malpractice defense attorney in Houston. I might call him up and say, “Hey, bro, I think we got a case here.” You know what Parks Dibble did? He let it go. Fully within his rights to get what was coming to him, and in our culture maybe even a little bit more, you know, those punitive damages, pain and suffering, all of that. But he lived on what we’ll call the radical edge of generosity, living out the principle of non-revenge and non-retaliation. And he gave up his right to pursue that matter in a court of law. And what Jesus does in verses 39-42 is He lands upon a series of…I’ll just call them case studies, real life scenarios where this law of retaliation sort of plays itself out.
0:10:26.5
But before we get into that, a couple of caveats here. The law of retaliation, or what I like to call the principle of non-retaliation, does not justify, for instance, pacifism as it relates to what Thomas Aquinas called “a just war.” When Jesus says, “Resist not the evil person,” one of my questions was, how do you apply this down at the Pentagon? We need to understand that the State and the duties of the State and even the biblical understanding of the role of State is different than the individual. What Jesus is talking about here really applies to our personal relationships. This law of non-retaliation or non-revenge doesn’t mean that we should allow thugs or tyrants to get the best of us. It doesn’t mean that it’s wrong for the police or the military to show force. No, we should not encourage injustice and dishonesty and thuggery. However, John Stott, in his commentary on these verses, makes this radical statement. He says, “It is our duty as individuals, kingdom citizens, our duty to those individuals who wrong us,” he says, “is not retaliation, but the acceptance, perhaps, of injustice without revenge or redress.” A pretty radical thought here.
0:11:49.4
Let’s see how Jesus unfolds it. And let me just give you the big idea here. The big idea is that kingdom citizens generously give up their rights in order to build relational bridges to those who have wronged them. And again, a radical way to live, but Jesus is raising the bar or revealing the bar that has always been there on righteousness as we live out our Christianity within the kingdom of heaven.
0:12:17.2
There are four case studies, four real life scenarios that He develops here. And each time He is going to encourage us to let it go, to give up our right to something. And the first thing He says is to give up your right to return an insult. Look at the middle of verse 39. He says, “But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.” Have you ever heard that phrase, you know, “turn the other cheek”? It comes from this passage right here. And I don’t know how a phrase like that strikes you or how the idea of turning the other cheek, you know, sits in your heart this morning. But I know some people who say, “Oh yeah, those wimpy, wimpy Christians. Slap them in the face and they’ll just turn the other cheek. In fact, you can slap a Christian around all day. Just slap, slap, slap, slap, slap. They’re just wimpy, wimpy doormats. You can take advantage of those church people because they’ll just turn the other cheek.” Is that what this is all about? Actually, I would suggest to you that it takes a great strength and great moral courage to turn the other cheek, to resist the urge to return an insult. And that’s the idea here.
0:13:36.5
Now, let’s think about the picture here. How many of you are right-handed. I think we had more right-handed people in the earlier service than this service. Well, God bless you left-handed people, but the vast majority of people in this world are right-handed. Now, how do I slap somebody on the right cheek with my right hand? If I did that, I’d hit your left cheek. Unless, of course, I took the back of my hand and used it to slap you on your right cheek. And that’s the picture here. And the cultural implication from the 1st century is—and it’s true in many parts of the Middle East even today—to take your backhand and slap somebody on the right cheek was considered the ultimate insult. In fact, the insult was considered worse than the injury that you might inflict upon that person. And so what Jesus is saying here is that if somebody slaps you on your right cheek, kind of backhands you…maybe you’ve heard in our culture that phrase “a backhanded compliment.” You know, a backhanded compliment is really an insult. He says if somebody slaps you on the right cheek, if they insult you in some way, He says turn the other cheek. In other words, resist the urge. And oh, it’s deep inside of us, isn’t it, as fallen human beings, that sinful urge to just get some kind of a witty zinger back to the other person and return insult with insult and, you know, eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, hand for a hand, foot for a foot, insult for insult. He is saying resist that urge. Turn the other cheek.
0:15:08.8
Now, Jesus practiced what He preached, didn’t He? And if you remember in His final week of His life leading up to His crucifixion, John 18 records a time when one of the Roman officials slapped Jesus in the face. And he did so because he didn’t like how He answered the high priest. You can read about that in John 18. But Peter actually remembers that scene and has it in mind when he writes in 1 Peter 2:23, “When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.” I love that verse of scripture. Hard to live by though, isn’t it? Because every urge inside of me wants to return the insult and do so in a wittier and craftier way than the person insulted me so I can gain an advantage. I’ll just say it again. It takes great moral strength and discipline and courage to just let it go, to resist the urge. And if your purpose in life is to advance the kingdom of God and to build a relational bridge to the person who insulted you, then you’ll choose to live as a kingdom citizen who, when somebody slaps you on the right cheek, you turn the other cheek.
0:16:36.7
So, for instance, if somebody offends you this week, turn the other cheek. If somebody criticizes you unfairly, turn the other cheek. If somebody in your office puts you down as a way of trying to elevate themselves, turn the other cheek. Kids in junior high and high school, if somebody makes fun of you in front of your friends, resist the urge and turn the other cheek. You see, you’re giving up your right to return an insult. That’s the idea here, and it’s a pretty radical way to live, isn’t it?
0:17:14.8
Now, Jesus goes on in verse 40, and He encourages us to give up our right to our possessions. Listen to this. “If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also.” Interesting idea here. And in Jewish law, the Jewish law would protect the man’s tunic, but not his cloak. And so it was pretty common for somebody to take somebody else to court and to sue them and to get their tunic as part of those compensatory damages for a wrong that was done to them. And a man’s tunic was basically that undergarment. It was kind of a form-fitting, you know, bodysuit kind of garment. And it was long. And then the man’s cloak was his overcoat. And again, the law allowed you to sue a man for his tunic, but it protected the cloak. And the reason for that was because the Jews believed that the cloak was really vital to a man’s survival. It kept him warm at night. And sometimes he would roll up his cloak and he would use it as a pillow if he was traveling and sleeping outside. And so the law protected that.
0:18:30.5
But listen to what Jesus says. He says, “If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, here’s a radical idea. Give him your tunic and toss in your cloak as well.” Now, we have property rights in our culture that protect our personal property. But as believers in Jesus Christ, as kingdom citizens, we surrender our property rights. Now, hear me out on this. We don’t surrender our property rights to the State, (0:19:00.1) but we surrender our property rights in the sense that we have moved from a worldview that has about it an ownership mentality. “Everything I have in life in mine. It belongs to me. I own my house. I own my car. I own my vacation home.” You know, we have an ownership mentality. But as a believer in Jesus Christ, your worldview should, if it hasn’t already, shift from an ownership mentality to a stewardship mentality where words like “my” and “mine” don’t flow so easily from your lips. And you recognize that really nothing that you have in life belongs to you. It all belongs to God. And you understand Psalm 24:1 that says, “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it, the world and all who live in it.” That’s one of many places we could go in the scripture where the Lord God of heaven and earth declares His title deed to everything in the earth. Haggai 2:8, “‘The gold (0:20:00.1) is mine and the silver is mine,’ declares the Lord almighty.” Not a bit of it belongs to you, and not a bit of it belongs to me. And so when somebody sues you for your tunic, you live on the radical edge of generosity. And you say, “If you really need my tunic, here is my cloak as well.” Because I’m asking my Father every day, “Father, who do You want me to steward Your resources in this world today?” That’s a hard way to live.
0:20:29.3
In fact, it reminds me of something I came across years ago. It’s called “The Toddler’s Creed.” How many of you have a toddler in the house? Or maybe your grandkids are toddlers. It wasn’t too long ago that we had toddlers in the house. And, well, here’s “The Toddler’s Creed.” Tell me if this doesn’t sound like a toddler. “If I want it, it’s mine. If I give it to you and change my mind later, it’s mine. If I can take it away from you, it’s mine. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine. If it’s mine, it will never belong to anyone else no matter what.” And my favorite, “If we’re building something together, all the pieces are mine. If it looks just like mine, it’s mine.” Sounds just like a toddler, doesn’t it? Problem is too many of us have not grown out of a toddler stage when it comes to this possessive clinging to things. Something that A.W. Tozer says is one of the most harmful habits of life.
0:21:35.6
I wonder which of these worldview statements describes you best. Here is number one. “What’s mine is mine, and I’m going to keep it.” Here is statement number two. “What’s yours is mine, and I’m gonna take it.” Or how about number three. “What’s mine is God’s, and I’m gonna share it.” And so if you're gonna sue me for my tunic…ah, if you really need my tunic, you can have my tunic. And here is my cloak as well, I’ll give it to you. I’ll live on the radical edge of generosity and just steward my Father’s resources anyway He desires.
0:22:17.4
Now, there is a third thing that He says, now in verse 41. Here He wants us to give up our right to our time. Listen to this. It might sound familiar. He says, “And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two.” You ever heard the phrase or maybe used the phrase “going the second mile”? Well, it was actually a Roman law that was behind all of this. In the 1st century a Roman soldier or a Roman official could force or compel a Jewish citizen, or somebody living under Roman rule could force or compel that person to carry his burden for up to a mile. And so you remember when Jesus was carrying His cross on the Via Dolorosa toward Calvary. And the Roman soldier looked to Simon of Cyrene, and he says, “You carry it,” because Jesus had fallen under the burden of the cross and the floggings and all of that. Well, Simon of Cyrene was obligated by law to do that.
0:23:32.8
Now, the Jews resented the Romans for this law. And they resented it anytime the Romans would impose on them this “you carry my burden for a mile.” But the Jews would obey the law to the letter. They would go a mile and no further. In fact, they had exacted out a mile to be a thousand steps. And so they would mark off those thousand steps. And they could come down to 997, 998, 999, 1000, and they would drop the burden and run. Leave it for the Roman official. Jesus comes along, and He says, “If somebody compels you or forces you to go one mile,” He says, “go the second mile.” Can you imagine how a Jewish person in the 1st century might have heard that resentment in his heart toward those Roman officials? But imagine what would happen in a follower of Jesus Christ in the 1st century actually did this. And he counts off his steps, 97, 98, 99, 1000. And then he looks at the Roman soldier and says, “I’m gonna carry it the second mile.” And that Roman soldier is gonna be scratching his head, saying, “What in the world are you doing? I’ve never met a person like that before.” And as that Jewish person goes off into the distance, he says, “Yeah, the first mile was for Caesar, but the second one is for God.” And it just defines a whole different worldview and value system that clashed with the value system of the world. A second mile kind of person.
0:25:09.5
I love being around second mild kind of people. These are the people who go over and above the call of duty, who go beyond what is expected of them. And you don’t even have to ask them to do so. Love to be around people like that. In fact, I like to say that second mile people possess a truly contagious and disarming spirit of generosity. They’re generous with their time. You ask me to go one mile? I’m gonna go two, and maybe three or four miles. Way beyond the call of duty.
0:25:39.7
We have so many second mile kinds of people here at Immanuel Bible Church. But one comes to mind, and that is my friend named Phil. Phil is the first guy that I see on Sunday morning when I arrive a little after 6:00 a.m. Phil is one of our ushers. And when I walk in the door, I don’t know, 6:00, 6:15 in the morning, Phil is sitting beyond these doors on one of the pews out there in the hallway. He’s got his suit and tie on, and he’s ready to be in ushering duties. We’ve got a little routine going on. I walk down the hallway, and he stands up. And he salutes me, and I salute him back. And then we laugh, and then he just gives me a big bear hug. He says, “I love you, Pastor.” I say, “I love you, Phil.” We talk about our families. And his wife has got breast cancer, and I usually get an update on that. And you say, “Well, why would a guys, a volunteer in the church, why would he arrive at 6:00 in the morning? Be the first car in the parking lot and the first guy here? I mean, the first service doesn’t start until 8:00 in the morning.” Well, you’ve just got to understand. Phil is a second mile kind of guy. He’s going way beyond the call of duty, way beyond what we would ever expect or ask a volunteer in the church to do. And you ask Phil, and he says, “I just want to make sure that everything is in place and we’re ready to go when those first people walk in the door for the 8:00 service.” Second mile kinds of people. Living on the radical edge of generosity with their time and their effort. You never have to ask them to go the second mile. It’s just what they do as a kingdom citizen and follower of Christ.
0:27:19.7
Well, it gets even more convicting than that as we go to verse 42. This time Jesus tells us to give up our rights to our money. Listen to this. “Give, give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.” Now, this cuts pretty close to home, friends, doesn’t it? This reaches into our wallets and our purses and our bank accounts. I mean, He has the audacity to use as a first word in verse 42 the word “give.” It’s a word that makes all of us kind of get a little tight so we can cling to that thing in back of our pockets. And, you know, “That’s mine. It’s my money. It’s my bank account. I’ve worked hard for my money.” And all of that toddlerness just begins to kick in, doesn’t it. How easily we shift back to the ownership mentality when we should be living as kingdom citizens on the radical edge of generosity with a stewardship mentality. This earth is not mine; it’s my Father’s and everything in it. Jesus expects us to be ready and willing to share our money. There I go again using that…to share His money, His money when there is a real need that comes across our path.
0:28:48.0
Interesting Jewish background to this verse 42. In the Old Testament the lending laws said that after seven years all debts canceled. I’ve always wanted to go down to my mortgage lender and take that to him and say, “You know that 30-year thing that we’ve got going? No, seven years, all debts are canceled.” But that’s the way it was in the Old Testament. And what they were lending money for was not so much, you know, mortgages and home equity and, you know, second houses and all that kind of stuff. The lending system was really to help out a real need for a person who needed food or clothing. But what happened in the Old Testament was the lenders and the borrowers got smart, okay. Now, if you were in a seven-year cycle, there were some that would come in the sixth year and say, “I’d like to borrow some money.” And that’s when the monetary flow from the lenders began to tighten up because the lenders knew that anybody who borrowed money in the sixth year, you know, fat chance that they were ever gonna pay that back in the next 12 months. And so they tightened up the money supply. And Jesus says here…let’s read it again. “Give to him who asks you, and to him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.”
0:30:13.4
In other words, live on the radical edge of generosity in your personal relationships. And when a real need…we’re not talking about panhandling and things like that. But when a real need comes across your path, consider it a divine appointment. Ask the Father, “Father, I’m just a steward. I’m just a trustee. I’m just a manager of the resources You’ve given to me. Do you want me to use some of Your resources to meet this person’s need?” That’s how kingdom citizens live. Oh, you may have the right to ownership. And the State may guarantee your personal property rights. But as a kingdom citizen you surrender all of that. You adopt a whole new worldview and whole new mentality that says, “I’m a steward. I’m a trustee of what God has given to me.” And in those personal relationships lived out in your neighborhoods and your communities and your place of work and even in your place of worship, when those real needs come available, I’m gonna be the first, not the last, to step up with an open wallet and an open bank account and say, “Father, how can I help this person? How can I steward Your resources to make that happen?”
0:31:17.2
You know, in this passage of scripture there are familiar phrases like “turn the other cheek,” “go the other mile,” the second mile. I think of some familiar phrases in our culture today, like “let it go.” Just let it go. When somebody insults you, when they slap you on your cheek, just let it go. Resist the urge, give up your right to return an insult, just let it go. I think of phrases like “hold it loosely.” That’s what my father-in-law did with all of his possessions. He was a generous man, but also with life itself, it was a sacred trust but a gift from God. He held it loosely and limited his desire to seek revenge. I think of the common phrase today, “pay it forward.” That’s somebody who lives on the radical edge of generosity and realizes that…well, I think of the old phrase from the missionary, Jim Elliot. “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to save what he cannot lose,” or something like that…“to gain what he cannot lose.” That’s the person who lives on the radical edge of generosity, not clinging in an unhealthy way to his possession, but says, “I’m gonna give away those things—my time, my possessions, my money, my right to return an insult—I’m gonna give it all away to gain what I cannot lose in eternity.” What a radical, radical way to live.
0:32:49.2
And what Jesus is saying is this is the righteous standard in the kingdom. And we’ve been saying each week how much we all fall short. And that’s the whole point of Matthew 5. “Be perfect as my Father in heaven is perfect.” Who can do that? But the way we enter into a right relationship with God through Jesus Christ is by faith. And when that happens, He credits His righteousness—this Jesus who perfectly fulfilled the law, who perfectly practiced what He preached—He credits His righteousness to our account. What a generous thing of our savior to do. Imagine if somebody came and credited their bank account to your bank account, and suddenly you saw this big balance there that you never had before. And all of your debts were wiped out. When Jesus died upon the cross, Colossians tells us that He canceled the certificate of debt, this pile of sin debt that we had piled up in offense to holy God. He canceled all of that and credited our account with His righteousness. And now that we are recipients of that, how can we not live as kingdom citizens? Not demanding our rights as good Americans, but choosing as the Holy Spirit leads us to do so to lay aside those rights, to live on the radical edge of generosity for the purpose of building a relational bridge to somebody who has wronged us, to somebody who is in need, to somebody who might ask us to do more than we really should do. It’s living according to kingdom principles, isn’t it? And it’s living with the purpose that I’m here to advance kingdom of God, not to demand my rights, even as an American citizen.
0:34:48.6
Father, these are hard things for us to consider and think about. But this is truth from Your Word. And as difficult as it might be, we want to wrestle with this. And, Father, I pray for anyone here today who says, “Wow, that’s a righteous standard I don’t know that I can live up to because I don’t know that I even have a relationship with Christ.” We know that You are working. We know that You are doing Your work and drawing men and women and young people in this place and all around the world to faith in Jesus Christ. We know that today is a day of salvation. And so I pray for that one who has come to that place to say, “Yes, I am a sinner. All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. I put myself right in that verse. I acknowledge that, God. The wages of sin is death. Yes, I deserve death and hell. I’ve offended Your holiness. But the free gift is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” What a generous thing for You to do, Father. And I pray that You would give that person today faith to believe in this one named Jesus who died on the cross for his sins and rose victoriously from the grave.
0:36:04.5
And, Father, for those of us who have believed, help us to live as though we have. And when kingdom values clash with the world’s values, help us to live as kingdom citizens on that radical edge of generosity with our time and our possessions, our money, even when somebody has wronged us, Father. Help us live differently. To build those bridges. To have those conversations with people about Christ. And to be a part of Your work in winning a lost world to the savior. We pray this in Jesus’s name, amen.
0:37:04.0