Matthew 5:38–42Scripture
Everybody, turn your Bibles this morning to Matthew. Shocker. We've been here a while and we will be here a while. So, we're going to look at Matthew chapter 5 and we're going to look at verse 38-42 this morning.
I've had the opportunity and those of you who are involved in a small group have already had the opportunity to do your personal devotionals on this text. You have met with your small group and then Sunday then becomes a conclusion not a conclusionary statement maybe on the text at least from the way that I see it.
Many of you God has been speaking to your hearts already and he will continue to do so this morning. So, we're grateful for that. For those of you who are not in a small group does not mean God cannot speak to you. He of course can and he will. And so we are grateful that you're here this morning as well.
So Matthew chapter 5:38 says this. See what does it say? I'm on the wrong page. You have heard that it was said, "An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.
And if anyone would sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who begs from you and do not refuse the one who would borrow from you. That's a lot right there. And honestly, it's contrary to the way that we naturally respond to people who come against us.
Introduction
The real the reality is we have in our nature the natural inclination to retaliate, strike back. Some kids today might say clap back, but it is we would strike back. And that's kind of our natural reaction. Jesus is calling us, particularly those who are disciples of his, to not be like this. It isn't that you can stop how you feel in the moment of somebody perpetrating something against you.
It is that you take those thoughts captive and you do what Christ would do in that moment. So he's calling us to live a different kind of life. Now you need to know that he's moved on. Now currently we are talking about how the Pharisees in the day basically were guilty of taking the law and using it to justify bad behavior.
Some might call it particularly God would call it evil behavior. So here right side right inside the walls of the church you had leaders in the church who were using the law to do evil things against other people.
Jesus is coming at that and he's saying you missed the whole heart of what I'm trying to say when I gave the law.
Basically, I have called you to live righteous lives to be different than the world. Earlier he basically called disciples to be salt and light in the world. How do we do that in the church? If we strike back like the world, when the world comes against us and they perpetrate things against us, we're not like Christ, but we're like the world.
How then can we be light and salt in the world? So he's challenging us to not take the law and use it for your benefit, but to understand that the way of a Christian life comes with much surrender.
The rights you think you have, you really don't have. Can I just be honest with you for a second? We want justice. We say we want justice. We say that. But justice doesn't just come to the person to your left and to your right. Comes to you. And if it's what justice is what you want, it's justice you'll get.
Do you understand what I'm saying? And we need to begin to get some perspective about the this idea that Yeah. Yeah. People have done some horrible things against you. People have mistreated you. People have been unkind to you and all of that. And it is terrible and it doesn't please God that happens and it doesn't please him. But it doesn't give us then the right to behave and return evil for evil.
He's called us to a different way of living. Now my subject today and I think this kind of summarizes the whole idea of what he's trying to accomplish here. Not only is he trying to help us understand that we shouldn't take the law and use it for our benefit. However we please to justify however we want to live.
And today in the church, we have people that take Scriptures out of context so that they can live however they want to live. It's not much different today in the church. We there are a lot of people that are guilty of taking Scripture and twisting it and bending it around their wants so they can live sinful lives.
Jesus is attacking that. He's saying don't be like that. Don't use Scripture to do evil things. This is you miss the whole heart of the law completely. That's number one. Number two, a disciple's life is a sacrificial one. So he's trying to get you to the heart of it. This is not about you. This is about me. And when you look at me, what do you see?
And when you look at me and you compare me to you, what do you see? Do you see yourself reflecting the image of Christ in the way you talk and the way you walk and the way you live in your home? Do you see when you get a glimpse of yourself in your life at your workplace by the how you function in the dark places of your life in the shadows where no one sees what you're doing?
Do when you get a glimpse of yourself and what you do in those places, do you see a reflection of Christ or do you see something different?
We are and maybe not you. I am and have a tendency to be selfish.
You're really quiet. Maybe none of you are, but your pastor has some selfish problems. I have some problems with that. I think about myself a lot. I think about myself a lot.
It isn't that you think highly of yourself. It's that you never stop thinking about yourself.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:17
That's the problem. That's the problem. So, the subject today is following Jesus cost you.
That's it. Following Jesus cost you want to find life, you find it on the other side of death.
Death to your rights, death to your wants, death to those things.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 7:42
Let me tell you know why a Christian can do this is because getting receiving God is infinitely more valuable than fighting for self.
Life is on. How many of you know that some of your greatest problems come from you? It's why we die to self. Because your greatest roadblock oftent times in your life is not another person. Your greatest roadblock to life is you. You know what I mean? I mean, let's just talk about January 1, right? Where everybody does the New Year resolution and the gyms are infinitely full for a week.
We have new resolutions. We're going to eat better. We're going to live better. We're going to work out better. Let's just talk temporally here for just a moment. We have all these commitments and we do it. But you know what's going to stop you from being at the gym at the end of the year versus the first of the year?
You. Not your brother, NOT your schedule, NOT your house, NOT your paycheck. None of that's going to stop you from getting physical and getting healthy. What's going TO stop YOU is you. And you can blame all those things and they will. And you could point fingers at all the problems of why you didn't keep your commitment. And people will.
They'll excuse themselves. They'll blame others. They'll blame situations. They'll blame. Let me tell you,
At the end of the day, it's not a them problem. It's a you problem.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:13
And the real the way we become the light and the salt of the earth is not by getting in the way. Not by willing oursself to do it. We've proven WE can't will oursself to even keep a New Year's resolution longer than a week, but it's to die to self.
If we could remove self, God could do a work.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 9:41
And I've often said this and you can believe it or don't believe it, whatever. I it may be theologically correct. It may be theologically correct, but I not correct but wrong. It may be theologically wrong, but I will say this when often times, and I'm maybe not all the times, but I kind of have a tendency to believe that when we put our hands on a thing, God takes his hands off a thing.
It's why we got to get the gospel right. Yeah. So, we have to help people understand it's not about you initiating yourself to do it, but it's it's you getting out of the way so that he can do it.
Following Jesus cost you. How many of you know that the moment that you became a believer in Christ, everything kind of got turned upside down, right? And then you began opening Scripture and like this cost a lot. I thought it was free. It cost you. That's what it cost. Now, we read this Scripture. We talk about an eye for an eye and tooth for tooth.
He tells us to turn the other cheek. He tells us if they take your tunic, give a cloak. He says if anybody asks you to go a mile, go two miles. The everything that he is saying here is attached to a specific law. That it actually is talking about what you have legal right to and what your enemy has legal right to.
There were an issue of legal rights here and fighting for your legal right and actually what Jesus is giving counsel to in each of these points is he's saying release your legal right to it.
This is not about your rights. Right? This is about demonstrating what the grace of God is with a life that has lost self.
This is not about your rights. At the end of the day, we're all guilty. That's right. According and under the law, all of us. The one who is do your enemy and you're both guilty.
So, at the end of the day, before God, ain't nobody have a legal right to nothing.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 12:01
You're all guilty and accused. Okay? Now, that helps us a little bit when we begin to embrace this text to understand I if I fight for my rights, I fight from a perspective that says I'm innocent, they're guilty.
He's trying to disarm you from that to help YOU understand we're ALL guilty. Even the leaders in the church were guilty of using Scripture to justify evil behavior. You're guilty. Now, one of the things we can do here is we can extrapolate one part of the text out and say, "Turn the other cheek and then we justify that as a reason." And so before I go into talking about how we how we lay our life down for the sake of Christ and for the sake of being salt and light in the earth and being an image of Christ in the earth and honestly Jesus isn't calling us to anything he didn't already do or he's going to do.
All right? He is laying a depiction of what he is doing with his life as he starts his ministry and he goes to the cross. He did all of this.
And if anyone had rights to come off that cross, it was him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:25
If anyone had rights to not turn the other cheek, it was him.
He could have split the earth and swallowed everybody up the first time somebody smacked him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 13:32
He had rights. He had legal rights.
Point 1What Jesus is not saying
We don't. Okay. So, but what I don't want us to do before I talk about what these things are turned the other cheek, I want to talk about what it's not saying.
I think that's really important because this is not necessarily saying that you should put up with abuse.
That's not what it's saying here. So, let's do this. And I'm going to go through here. Here. And I don't I didn't There's so many Scriptures. I didn't even put them on slides because I'm lazy. But listen, I don't want us to be misunderstood. Jesus is not saying to not resist evil. He's saying don't resist people who do evil against you.
They're two totally different things. Later in the Bible in James 4:7, the word resist here is actually a warfare word. It means to go to war against, right? Later in James 4:7, it uses the same words resist here as it uses in Matthew. Do not resist. We're commanded in James 4:7, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you. It's the same word that Jesus uses, resist.
Resist in Matthew 5:39. But I say to you, do not resist the one who is evil, but if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn him the other also. It's also used again in 1 Peter 5:8-9. Be sober minded, watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him. Same word in the English and same word in the Greek.
So the devil is the author of evil and the Bible makes clear we're to resist him.
So Jesus is not saying don't resist evil. Number two, he's not saying don't hate evil. You should. Romans 12:9, abhore what is evil and hold fast to what is good. Romans 12:9. Jesus also not saying don't oppose evil. Galatians 2:11, Peter was who also known as Cphus was not acting in a way that was consistent with the gospel. So Paul writes this in Galatians 2:11.
When Cphus came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned.
This sounds like a contradiction from what we're reading in Matthew, doesn't it? That's why we have to get context in here.
Do you know there's some times in the church we should have difficult conversations with people.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 16:38
So Jesus is not saying don't oppose evil. He's not saying don't call out evil. This is a good one because I heard this one and in and some of the conversations floating around a small group and whatever.
I can do evil things and mean things and you can't ever say anything about it. You just got to eat it. That's what the scriptur is saying, right? Starting even with our brothers and sisters in Christ. Later in Matthew 18, Jesus tells us, "If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you've gained a brother.
If he does not listen, take one or two others with you that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. This is how he's teaching us how to deal with conflict inside the walls of the church. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. If he refuses even to the church, let him be to you as a gentile and a tax collector.
Somebody said in one of the small groups this week by the way, Matthew was a tax collector. So he was outing himself and putting himself as somebody that was the least of these. Somebody not deserving even to be in the presence of Christ. You know why? I'll tell you why. Because followers following Jesus cost you.
The you went to school for, the you had an education for, the you were trained to be, the you've invested your whole life in.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 18:08
He calls that and says, "Let it die. He's not calling. He's not saying don't call out either. And Paul later tells the church in 1 Corinthians to do exactly that to address evil inside the church. And then in 1 Timothy 1, Paul calls out two people that his that this happened to by name. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith among whom are Herminius and Alexander is what he says whom I have handed over to this is what Paul says handed over to Satan.
This is extreme that they may learn not to blaspheme. Jesus is not saying don't call out evil which leads to the next one. Jesus is also not saying don't separate from those who do evil. He's saying, "Don't return evil for evil." If they smack you on the cheek, that's evil. Don't do evil for evil. You're not evil. Are you with me?
It doesn't mean don't go have a conversation. If somebody insides the church does something evil, doesn't mean you shouldn't call them out for doing something evil. You just don't smack them back. You don't do evil back. The Pharisees were using the law to do evil back at the same level that they did evil, which made them evil.
Making sense? Jesus is not saying don't separate from those who do evil. The Bible actually teaches to separate from some people who are doing evil. Titus 3:10-11. As for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him. That didn't sound very loving, knowing that such a person is warped and sinful and he has self- condemned.
Romans 16:17, I appeal to you, brothers, watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine that you've been taught. Avoid them. Verse 18 goes on to say, "For such a person does not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites." You can't serve both. And by smooth talk and flattery, they deceive the hearts of the naive right inside the walls of the church.
Jesus is not saying, "Don't protect others from evil." In the church, Acts 20, God calls the elders to responsibility. Protect God's people from evil. And we have that responsibility for all people. If someone is hurting another person, we should protect that person.
Psalms 82:3, give justice to the weak and the fatherless. Maintain the right of the afflicted and the destitute. Rescue the weak and the needy. Deliver them from the hand of the wicked. That's the command. I'm almost done. He's not saying don't practice justice in government. In Romans 13, which I mentioned earlier, when we are praying, God gives government. Listen, to promote good and to protect from evil.
Verse three talks about government leaders. And it says this in Romans 13:3, "For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. But you have no fear of the one who's in authority. Then do what is good, and you'll receive his approval. For he is God's servant, the government, for your good. But if you do wrong, you should be afraid.
For he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God. Notice it doesn't classify whether he's a Christian or not. He's in government. He's appointed by God, established by God. He serves God. Whether or not he believes in him or not, he serves God's poor purposes. Can I Amen. He's done this since the beginning of time.
You know how many med evil leaders lived in Jesus' day and they served God's purposes? He is getting what he wants. Listen, all of you that are flapping around like a fish out of water, panicking about who's in charge in the government and all the stuff happening in the government.
They serve God's purpose AS IN THE government shall BE ON HIS shoulders. That's the news.
God gives government to promote good and to protect against evil.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 23:14
Jesus is not saying don't pursue justice for others. And this is the last thing we could quote many places in the Bible where God calls us to do justice. Pursue justice for others.
Isaiah 117 would sum them all up. And I'll close with this and what it's not. Learn to do good. Seek justice. Correct oppression. So all of this to say when Jesus says do not resist the evil one, he's not saying any of those things we just talked through.
He's not saying that. He's trying to teach us what the heart of Christ is like. He's trying to teach us how to not use the law to do evil oursel because that's not what disciples do.
They deal with evil differently than the world deals with evil.
See the world returns evil for evil. Christians don't. They do something, they respond differently.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 24:17
And this different response then in the world becomes salt and light.
We talk about evangelical exploits within the walls of the church with friends and family in conferences in boardrooms. We talk about what kind of trappings we can develop in the life of the church to not just draw people into the life of the church but keep them in the life of the church.
How do we bring people into the life of the church?
And I would propose to you there ain't no program that does it better than you following Jesus and laying down your life in the world.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:09
Because following Jesus cost you. That's better than donuts on Sunday morning. Okay, track with me. It's better than dropping 10,000 Easter eggs out of a helicopter.
Because when you're a light in your job, that's better evangelism than an egg falling from heaven.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 25:42
Oh, wh when's the church going to need an event? Got to do something. Sean, do something. You be Christ. Just be Christ. Be What manner of man is this?
When people see you, do they see a reflection of Christ?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 26:17
Because if they see a reflection of Christ in your places of work and in your places out in the world, they will begin to ask themselves the question because you're hidden in him.
What manner of man is this? If they don't, they may not see a reflection of him. They may see a reflection of you. And that is a problem for effective disciplehip and evangelism because following Jesus cost you so they can see him.
That's what he's trying to do. You see it? You see what he's trying to do? The church is faithful with Listen, I'm I'm off my notes. We're We're doomed. We're doomed. Listen to me today. There are certain responsibilities in the church that a pastor and the elders and the leaders of the church, the staff of the church, they have.
We take seriously and we manage those things well and we care about them. When tithe comes into the church, we have a responsibility. The Bible actually says that tithe doesn't come to us first. It ascends to the heavens and then it's dealt with by men. So any mismanagement of those funds, guess who's held accountable for that? It's serious business.
But can I just say something? Tithe is important. We should manage tithe in the church. God's giving, generous giving, whether it's tithe or whatever, generous giving in the church. God wants us to be managers of that for the sake of the kingdom, for those that need help. We and we do that here. And we care about that here.
And that's very important.
But sometimes we give tithes so that we don't have to be giving in the rest of our life.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:02
Come on now. Listen to me. In America, we could end homelessness in America just by the storage units we have.
Amen. They've run the numbers in our surplus. We can end homelessness with our storage units and our garages. You have ways to give to those in need.
Why does the church have to create a program when you could just love your neighbor?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 28:40
That's right. Well, I mean, I wish we were a giving church. Me, too. Are you with me?
See, that goes back. See, it goes back because there's people in your life that I'm not connected to that only you can give to.
Give and see if I don't open the windows of heaven and pour out a such a blessing in your world that it can't be contained.
The bummer of that is you're the window. So you just want like quarters to fall from the sky, right? Open the windows and quarter. It comes through you.
We're giving because the you we fight to save is the you that needs to die so the window can be open.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 29:33
All right, that wasn't on my notes. That's just a bonus.
Listen, he's trying to get you dead. That's what he's trying to do. And some of us should I kind of celebrate now. I was like, thank goodness because I got some problems. Yeah. Like I need me to get dead so that God can get through me and be a light to the world around me. The world lives at a time where we are trying to get people.
We're obsessed over self.
Find yourself. Protect yourself. Discover yourself. Express yourself. Be your true self. Your self is so awesome.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 30:09
But Jesus says something completely different. Jesus is trying to teach us how to deny self so that people can see Christ. Yes. All right, I'm going to give you five points really quick. I know that was the longest introduction in the history of mankind.
I promise I will not go as I have a stopwatch and I'm doing good. I'm just saying this is going to be quick. Don't freak out because I have five of them. Don't don't panic. It's going to be quick.
Point 2Refuse the instinct to strike back
Refuse the instinct to strike back. That's the first thing he teaches us on how to get dead. This is going to cost you something. I like striking back. When somebody mouths off, I got a quick quip. Matter of fact, I have them cataloged. Part of my journal is quick quips to sting back at somebody. Some of you think that can I just say sometimes it isn't just actually getting pummeled physically.
Sometimes it's a joke that's really an underhanded slight, right? And some of us just give an insult through a joke back.
The way you show love to your neighbor is not to insult them through jokes.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 31:41
And see, it's it's simpler than you think. Somebody mouths off to you and insults you mouth off and you insult back and you joking.
You know what I mean? He's saying don't return that kind of stuff. Be Christ in that situation. What would happen? What would happen if somebody's just like a professional joker and constantly under underhand underhanded being rude to you all the time through jokes and whatever and this is the behavior and they said something like insulted you being bald like sometimes my kids do.
What happened if you complimented them back? It just kind of makes the joke not no fun no more.
See, Christ followers change environments. They don't throw gasolines on them. They're thermostats. So when insults come, they adjust the temperature in the room.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 32:45
You feel what I'm saying? You have the ability to shape the room. You have the ability to do that.
He's saying it's saying don't be like the world. Refuse the instinct to strike back. Let me tell you know the fact that he's telling you to refuse the instinct to strike back. You know what he's You know what that lets me know? There's going to be an instinct to strike back. Now, he's speaking to his disciples here.
So, be encouraged.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 33:33
The feeling doesn't indict you. The response does. If somebody, if your kid comes up to you, they have a hammer and they wham their hammer. No, they hit their finger with the hammer and they feel pain, would you yell at your kids for feeling pain?
If they didn't say a cuss word or insult their mama or whatever else that people do when they're hurting. If they would you reprimand them for the pain they felt or would you only reprimand them for how they responded in the midst of the pain?
Jesus is saying the reason he tells you to take your thoughts captive is because response your physical response is always attached to what you do with your thinking. That's right.
Some of you don't take your thoughts captive. Your thoughts take you captive.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 34:28
Track with me here. Now, if you take a thought captive, can that thought yell through jail cell bars?
Notice that a thought being captive can still be noisy beyond the moment and even beyond you not retaliating. That thought still may last and yell for weeks, but either you're going to take the thought captive and behave a different way than the world, or it's going to take you captive and you're going to respond like the world.
Are you with me today? Do not be guilty. Listen, do not be guilty of retaliating. Refuse the instinct to strike back.
Point 3Offer the other cheek
Number two, offer the other cheek. If somebody slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other. Also, I how many of you just for kicks because we did this in some of our small groups and it was really fascinating because some people were like, "I don't have any enemies." And I'm like, "I want to be you when I grow up.
Really truly want to be you. I can't think of any enemy that I have that was has ever come after me kind of like, you know, Saul did with David.
But I've had some of those. And how many of you here, you've had somebody come at you and not stop, right? Like five of you guys are then there's a few more like I don't should I people are looking somebody actually asked the question if I don't have any enemies at all that makes me wonder if I'm living for Christ and I don't think that's necessarily a statement that's an indicative statement that if you haven't had any enemies that you're not living like Christ but it does say in the Bible that you will be an offense to men when you're like him so it's an interesting kind of conversation I don't think that always is indicative, but I've had some enemies.
How many of you don't have to raise your hand, have had enemies right inside the church? Be encouraged because the leaders of the church were evil. Are you with me? Yeah. That's so adorable. I might just cry. Leaders in the church are evil. Not everybody who comes to church every single week and all the small groups is a believer regardless of what comes out of their mouth.
Because some people come to church and they go through the motions and they look like Christians, but they use the law to do with to do evil in the world and in the church.
It's sad. That's what he's speaking to. And you know what? I had a and I've really just debated whether I want to tell the story or not, but it's it's really this is a thing that I just couldn't get off my mind. I was actually confessing to the to our one of the groups we meet with our leadership group for all the leaders who lead small group.
And I was talking to them and I was telling them that today, now today, back when I was younger, back when I was younger, I had this innate ability to keep my mouth shut.
I don't know if it's you get older and you get more witty and you got bit more comebacks like piled up or if you or if you feel this you feel like you now have rights to defend yourself more.
But can I say, you know why he wants us to turn the other cheek? I think he's trying to teach us that I will come to your defense. Yes, that's right. Like I got it, man.
If you will get out of the way, I will defend this situation. It's putting us in a position to trust God to deal with that person.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 38:43
That's right. It's hard to trust God. Can I just be honest with you? It's hard to trust God because sometimes I don't even feel like he hears my prayers, much less answers them. Like it's always opposite day for God when I have a request for him. Feel me? It's like God do this and he does the opposite. I'm like he answered it on opposite day.
That's the way I feel because we don't even know what we want. The Bible says he knows what's better for you. And sometimes his retaliation takes longer than I would like. Sometimes it comes never, right? At least that I can see. But this is not my job. I'm not the judge. He is. So what is this teaching us?
This is teaching us to step back. Let him be Lord and let him be judge.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:47
There are times where a retort is not necessary and a clap back is not necessary and a striking back is not necessary. He will strike when it's time.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 39:54
I had somebody one time that was attacking my character, saying all kinds of lies about me, and I refused to defend myself.
It was affecting me from getting a job in the church. It was bad. I thought I was just going to be a steel worker the rest of my life. And I was quite honestly I was content with it. One night Brooke calls me at work. You can't call at my job. I get fired for that. Like we were working 80 hours a week.
Getting a phone call from your wife at this kind of job is bad. It was bad. My boss somehow or another through maybe through my work ethic or whatever did not fire me. He was not happy. And he was scary. He was basically like a gorillick that could he could scratch his shins without bending over. He was a weird.
It was just It was scary. Like an ape just I have to been way down. He could just I mean it was crazy. Scary men. She calls me and she says, "Hey, there's this pastor that called and he's interested in talking to you." And I said, "Babe, don't call me at work. And then also, I'm not interested in talking to anybody to be in ministry.
My days of ministry are over." Because I was under attack to the degree that I could not get a job and I just gave up.
The next day, I think it was, he got on the phone with Brooke, then figured out how to get on the phone with me. And here's the first, this is so long ago. I don't even know why I'm upset. But he said the first thing he said on the phone was, "How are you doing? Are you remaining encouraged?"
I chuckled. Something like, "Huh?" I think I feel more grateful for that question now than I did then because I was kind of like jaded but silent hurt.
No retaliation hurt. Didn't strike back. Didn't defend myself. I would go into interviews, people would say something that was being said and I would just walk out. Did you know that God's got you? And it took time, folks. It took time. And let me tell you, it was a rough year. Rough. Then he said, "Are you being encouraged?" And I laughed.
And then he said, "My your wife said that you refuse to say anything at all, whether positive or negative, about the man who you've been pursued by.
I just want to let you know he was my Sunday school superintendent. And I know what you dealt with." That was really crazy. He said, "So, I would like to talk to you about the job without talking to you about your enemy."
Now, not all your situations are going to work out that way, but I had this ability when I was younger to remain quiet and let God come to my defense.
The longer you live with God, the longer you serve him, the longer you sacrifice for him, the quicker you feel he should come to your defense.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 43:18
And matter of fact, sometimes you feel like you're righteous enough to defend yourself. This is where prayers like this come from. God, how would you allow this to h Why would you allow this to happen to me? You don't know what I've done for you. You don't know that I've served you. You don't know that I've been faithful to you.
Have you forgotten that I love you? That's where prayers like that come from. You feel a little such muty the longer you walk with him. And let me tell you what it does. It causes you to strike back when you shouldn't. It causes you an and an air of superiority from your time walking with God causes you to strike back when you should turn the other cheek and let him fight your battles for you.
Point 4Let yourself be exposed
Offer the other cheek. Point three, let yourself be exposed. Track over me here. Listen, this is wackadoo. If somebody in court, notice you're in court because you're guilty. You're in court and the person is coming to take your tunic because you're in court for doing something wrong. And they're going to win because you were wrong AND because YOU were guilty.
You're guilty. He says, "If they take your tunic," and I think we have a picture.
I hope they got it. It was in the same folder. Yes, you could use that one. There you go. Okay. Now, I'm going to come over here. Good luck to the camera, man or woman. The inside part, the white part. They're both Are they both white? You see the sash thing? Not that thing. That's the cloak. The inside part, the robe part is the tunic.
Now, get a visual here. If they take your tunic, are you with me?
Guilty. Now imagine with me for a moment and leave that picture up there. Imagine for me for a moment when Eve takes the apple and Adam eats the apple and they were naked and they realized they're guilty.
And God comes walking and said and he what does he do? He fashions clothes to cover their exposed state. Track with me here. You can somebody could take your tunic and you can still use your cloak to not be fully exposed. And this is the most dangerous way to live inside the life of the church, to be partially exposed before God and before men.
To live like Christ, to look like Christ, to look like you have it all together, to be unexposed. BUT IN THE private recesses of your life, you're evil. At church, you're holy and you're cloaked. You're guilty before GOD. SO THE tunic's gone, BUT YOU GOT A cloak. YOU HAD legal right TO your cloak in the day. You had legal right to keep your cloak even if you lost everything else because it helped you from being fully exposed.
God's saying it's best for you to expose yourself completely because although you're cloaked with good deeds and cloaked with good works and cloaked with good vernacular and cloaked with good Jesus talk and cloaked with good actions and cloaked with good teaching and leading inside the church and serving inside the church, you cloak all of your private stuff with those things.
It's best for you to be fully exposed so you can know you're guilty so that you won't get in the way of me being God.
Man, a cloaked individual is an individual that prevents God from shining his brightest light through you.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 48:16
People get a diminished version of what holiness looks like when you live cloaked lives.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 48:26
Guilty before him. He's saying just get exposed. Let yourself be exposed.
Point 5Release your right to control
Oh man. Number four, release your right to control. I believe this. I'm going to do these two points really quick. I'm out of time. I believe this.
Every problem you will face in your life stems from the issue of control.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 48:52
Think about it. Every issue you will deal with your life, even relational ones, personal ones, have to do with you wanting to be in control of everything.
I've been married long enough to know that don't exist. I don't get to control Brooke. As much as I want to, I don't get to do it. And she has learned she cannot control me. But some of our greatest arguments have come from our desire to do so. And just like our relationship of is 27 years now. 278. It doesn't even matter.
We quit counting. It doesn't even matter. It's so many. Right? I was talking to a guy yesterday. We were playing basketball and basically I realized that if I did not stop my heart would explode and everybody would get knocked out by the debris in the gym. It was bad. And so I sat down and I was breathing deep and a 27year-old walked up to me and said, "Oh man, I'm I'm I'm so out of shape.
It's so hard when you we're getting old." And I went, "I hate you." Now that was my thought. And I did not say it out loud, but I did think it. And I looked over Brooke and I went, "Really? Oh, really? Yeah. I said if he's old, if he's old, I'm dust. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. I don't even know what I was talking about there.
I just totally lost it. I just You can't You can't control You can't control everything. You know why guys have men have midlife crisises? They're losing control. They're not what they used to be. You know why people have a hard time praying? Because they realize really quickly after their first two prayers that they're not in control.
See, prayer is not prayer, the point of prayer is not to change things.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 51:11
The point of prayer is to change you. That's the point of prayer. And that's why people don't like hanging out there very long because they like the way they are, man. Like we just got comfortable with that. All right. All right. Release your right to control. And if anyone forces you to go a mile, go with him, too.
Just go with him, too. Well, legally, I don't have to go two. A Roman soldier could ask me to go one, but I don't have to go too. Just go with them, too. Release your right to control the situation and not be not do more than enough.
You know the problem with the church today is we don't we can't do more than enough.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 51:54
We just have to do just enough. Just enough to get in just enough. Just enough. Can I do these sins and still get to heaven? It's wrong heart. CAN I cuss AND still get to heaven? Can I do drugs and still get to heaven? Can I be mean and still get to heaven? Go the extra mile, folks. Go the extra mile, folks.
Who wants to be in a relationship with somebody who does the bare minimum?
Pastor Shawn Gray · 52:27
Who wants that? Go the extra mile. You know, when Brooke feels loved, NOT when I PUT my dish in the dishwasher. That's expected, man. Nope. It's expected. It's when I do all the dishes because she cooked all the dinner. That's going over and above. Do I have to do it?
No. I do it because I love her. Do I like to do it while I doing it because I love her? No. Do I like to sweep? No. No. DO IT because I love HER. Do I like to go hiking? NO. Do it because she likes to go hiking.
You know what Jesus did out of love? He laid his life down for you. And you just want to do the bare minimum. Just tell me what's required, Sean. I'm just going to do just that. That's the heart of the Pharisee. Just enough. Just enough to squeak into heaven.
You'll never do enough to squeak into heaven. You get into heaven because he did enough and you believe in him.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 53:50
Point 6Open your hand
All right, last point. Open your hand. Have an open hand kind of life. There's a story and you probably have heard the story and I'm concluding with this. You've heard the story. I'm sure. There was this young girl and she had this string of pearls that her daddy got her. We say daddy in the south that her daddy got her and it was a plastic string of pearls.
Oh man, she loved those pearls. She thought those were the best thing and she would wear them all the time and she would sleep with them and she would play with them and she would always have them on. She he could not even get her when they gave her a bath to take off the pearls. Those pearls were always with her because she always wore them and she never took them off.
Those pearls began to flake. The plastic and the paint began to flake and to mess up and she still loved those pearls. She cherished them. She didn't care that they flaked. Her daddy had given them to her and she loved them. One day, daddy came into the room and he said, "I want you to give me your string of pearls."
And so, he began to take off the pearls and she grabbed them before he could get them away. And she held on to them as tight as she could. And he began to try to pull and tug to get the pearls away from her. And she was asking, "Why are you taking these from me?" And he finally softly said to her, "Let go of the pearls."
So she let them go. And he took and he put a real string of pearls on her neck.
See, some of you can't get and obtain what God has for you because you won't get out of the way.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 55:46
You don't live a life with open hands. He gives and he takes away.
But it's his right to ask for anything because anything you possess came from him anyway.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 56:03
We know what a beggar that asks because it says a beggar will ask and don't just give them one thing but give them be generous in your giving towards a beggar.
When it says that, what is he teaching? He's saying live a life of open hands.
A beggar is like a litmus test for your life of whether it's an openhand life or a closed hand life.
Pastor Shawn Gray · 56:31
And FYI, in case you were wondering, God in the Bible says that sometimes he will send angels unaware to test your open-handedness.
He will send angels as beggars to see if you live an open-handed life. That's crazy. How many angels have you driven by?
Well, go get a job. You know what? You know what that statement does? You see a beggar, they're asking, "He's probably just going to use it on drugs AND alcohol. GO GET A JOB." I'm not saying you should give to every beggar. That's not what I'm saying. Just listen to me though here for a second. He probably going to use it on drugs and alcohol.
Go get a job. You know what you're saying? I have a job. I'm better than you. And that's what Jesus is trying to eliminate. He wants you to be thoughtful. Listen to me. He's wanting you to be thoughtful about your heir of superiority. Why? Because followers of Jesus, followers of Jesus, they do something I forget. Following Jesus cost you.
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