Selfless Kingdom Living

When Jesus goes into the temple before he goes to the cross, he's gonna take tables and what? Flip them. Flip them, he's gonna make a whip, and he's going to resist the evildoer. So the question is, what is he talking about here? Here's what I think's going on. When Jesus says, don't resist an evildoer, what I think he's getting at is here, don't respond to evil with malicious intent. So if somebody does you wrong, don't try to seek revenge against someone who did wrong to you, because it's gonna be bad for you. He's not saying you shouldn't protect yourself, he's not saying you shouldn't protect your family, he's not saying you should be a pacifist all the time. And in fact, I would say part of this is almost activism in a sense, because you're making a stand and we'll see that in a moment. Welcome to the Forgotten Jesus Podcast, I'm your host, Adam French, I'm here with Robbie Gowdy, and we have a special guest with us this morning. Miss Vivian, a favorite of the podcast. Legend. Pinch hitter. Oh yeah, she starts. There we go. Home run, well, it's called DH. DH, they bring them in to hit, right? Oh yeah, that's it.

Vivian's always on go, standing on go. Vivian's ready to go, as y'all. Happy to be here. Yeah, Vivian, as they may not know. Tell them what you do here at Long Hollow. I'm the connections specialist, I help connect new here guests and people who want to learn more about the church and maybe become a member and hear stories about what God's doing in their life, bringing them here. It's awesome, it's the best job in the whole world. Yeah, and Vivian and I, every Monday, we get to share stories, she shares more with me, of people who come, travel from all over the country, they come to Long Hollow, a lot of podcast listeners, Vivian. We love hearing them, and so it's cool to hear what God's doing. What's the furthest away, if you remember? I know they come from all over, everywhere, like, I mean, Northwest, Wyoming, South Dakota, Washington State. Sunday, yeah, Michigan, Ohio, we met people coming in who either watch the sermon or watch the podcast. Which is funny, though, most people that listen to Long Hollow Sermon listen to the podcast. So if you're a podcast listener, shout out to you. Absolutely. We're grateful for you. And by the way, I always say this at the end, but I've been watching a lot of different channels.

You don't think this because you're like, oh, and I've been here before, but I've been doing this, Chris, as a courtesy to people I like. If I'm getting content, or learning, or growing, or it's a benefit to me, people don't realize that just a simple like, or a simple repost, or a simple comment, or better yet, a subscription, that does wonders to get the channel out to people who wouldn't do it. Yeah, if you say, how can I help, that's it. Or wouldn't hear it, yeah. How can I help, that's the way you can help us. Now, if you haven't, like you said, if you don't benefit, don't do it. But if you listen and benefit, man, do us a favor right now, stop right now, and just subscribe, or write a quick comment. Hey, I love the podcast, thank God for Adam French. Robbie's okay, Candy's great, Vivian's. Thank God you had Vivian, now. Yeah, thank God for Vivian. Not even, you know, just thinking about this, because I was told yesterday that someone had watched from Arkansas, in jail, and gave their life to Jesus, got saved, and start, you know, they're basically a member of our church online now. So even if you say, I listen sparingly, you commenting, or liking, or sharing, or subscribing, puts that in the algorithm to get it out to more people. So it's just another way to help people get involved.

And people incarcerated, they'll come, but we had some Sunday, they said, hey, I'm here because my son's in jail, wherever, or prison, and he told me to start watching, and we're watching, and we're here. It's like, wow. So you even sharing, if you're incarcerated, I know a lot of people listen behind bars, so share with the family. Yeah, in 2025, we had 500,000 people view this podcast alone. That's incredible. 500,000 people viewed the podcast, so thank you. Yeah, we love that. We love you. We love that. Always keep this with me, we got this, we get letters all the time. So we're just grateful for you guys. And by the way, I attempt to, I don't, I'm not gonna say I read every, but Robert and Adam will tell you, and you try to, I try to read every letter sent to me. Now, I'll tell you how I do it, just to give you my secret. I can't read, some of them are long, Vivian, you know? So I have a team that will read over them, or respond, and they'll highlight certain things so I can see, and then not all the letters are readable. Sometimes, pretty, some are out there by different people, but different, but most of them, most all of them,

I read, and try to read, and it blows me away, just how people are growing and listening. Anyway. Just include, I mean, Tommy, our prison pastor, after your team goes through them, you look over them, I look over them too, just to see if there's a way to pray over them too. Our whole staff, or our whole volunteer staff, we have a volunteer team that prays over them, but Tommy goes back through those letters again, just to see if there's any way, or anything that we can do, like an action step, if somebody was requesting material, and see if it's. if their facility receives it and so we send out your book all over the country for free to people and then we send a personal letter that you've written with your signature on it that gives them some other resources if they want to correspond so yeah you're free if you're watching this or if you're listening to it inside of a prison or a jail across the United States of America you can comment on your tablet or you can write to us at 3031 Long Hollow Pike Hendersonville Tennessee 37075 and we'll do our best to respond and send you a free copy of Growing Up and if you don't have it because people say well I wrote and you didn't write back or you didn't give me the book it's because your facility won't let it in so just know we sent it may not come but yeah that's right we send out packets that's a great word we send out packets all the time and but we're compiling a list of facilities and trying to get the reasons why so yeah we're trying to get creative even with your book where we send half of it and then the other half so we're doing everything we can to get it to you. We're trying to. All right tell us where we've been Adam real quick. So last week we talked about oh you know let your yes be yes your knows me no we talked about the value of your words and we did a deep dive all back to the Old Testament into

that I love how you everything you say this all the time everything Jesus said is connected to the Old Testament basically not everything but most things he said so I think that was fruitful if you haven't listened to that go back listen to that for sure I know we've been talking before I'm excited about what we got today though. Today we hinted at this a while back got a lot of controversy Chris when I when I teased this in the past about turn the other cheek if you get slapped so now we're gonna that was a classic we're gonna go back down that rabbit hole again Vivian Matthew 538 we're gonna have a lot of different scriptures Adam so I want you to turn already to Exodus 21 22 but Vivian let's start us off Matthew 538 to read it to the end of the section okay you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I tell you don't resist an evildoer on the contrary if anyone slaps you on your right cheek turn the other one to him also as for the one who wants to sue you and take away your shirt let him have your coat as well and if anyone forces you to go one mile go with him to give to the one who asked you and don't turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you okay that's a lot there okay so Jesus is going to teach us a couple of different things here a lot of people right out the gate will use this passage to justify pacifism right like they'll say here's here's the proof text and I'm not saying Jesus is not promoting that because he obviously is not promoting you know retaliation or avenging or revenge but I think it's more than that because I think what people miss is the little specific details that Jesus is gonna point out here and I alluded to one but I think what Jesus is saying is this you he's not saying you should never defend yourself if someone attacks you or humiliate you I think what he's doing is he's gonna interpret the law now Adam I told you to turn to Exodus 21 Vivian I want you to turn to Leviticus 24 to get ready but Jesus is interpreting something that was called the Lex talionis the Lex talionis which is basically in English the law of retaliation that's what he's interpreting okay and the law of retaliation is found and they use this all the time well look the Bible says

this and we're gonna read it I want you to hear it in context Exodus 21 22 through 25 read that for us and let's listen when men get in a fight it's interesting that says when it doesn't say if when men get in a fight and hit and hit a pregnant woman so that their children are born prematurely but there is no injury the one who hit her must be fined as a woman's husband demands from him and he must pay according to judicial assessment if there is an injury then you must give life for life offer a tooth for tooth hand for hand foot for foot burn for burn bruise for bruise wound for wound okay that's an interesting amount of things here before we read Vivian let's pull over for a moment okay what is going I got you to read the first part because it's a real example like if this happens and I want pregnant woman then you it seems like you're returning what was done to you so what is happening here at face value what what do you think's happening here what do you think's going on and would you what Jesus said or with what we just read to Exodus well would you know what I know what Exodus said first okay okay yeah let's read let's talk about excess for quote yeah you do it to me you get it back yeah right you punch me in the mouth I'm punching you back in the mouth it's kind of also saying that that there is opportunity to measure the severity of what happened so it's not like if you know let's say you you know you punch me in the it doesn't mean that you could, you know, now I can be killed. Ooh, that's good, Adam. It's funny you caught that. I didn't catch that when I first saw it. That is exactly what's happening, literally. The measure of severity, he's saying, like, you know, because I love the example of the wife, or the pregnant woman, he's saying, there's two different consequences, right? If she gets pushed or bumped and then the baby's okay,

then here's what happens. If she gets pushed or bumped and something happens to the baby, here's what happens. So there's like a level of severity. Yeah, let me say it, the way I'm gonna say it is, the punishment fits the crime, okay? So that's what he's talking about here. People are taking this literally and like, oh, look, if that was the case, everybody would have no teeth. No man would have a tooth because, or every man would be walking on bruise because you punch me, I'll punch you. You hit me, I'll hit you. You're still from, no, that's not what he's talking about in a sense. He's giving examples to show that there needs to be equal punishment in direct proportion to the crime that was committed, okay? So here's what he's saying. If a person kills another man's ox, as we'll see in a moment, he says you need to replace the ox of equal value, okay? You don't need to go kill his ox. You need to say, hey, I killed your ox. Hey, let me make it right with equal value. Does that make sense? So you compensate him for the loss that was experienced. The law actually provided civil justice in a sense for people settling these disputes.

Now read Leviticus 24, and I wanna show you about this idea of replication of loss. Starting in verse one? 24, 17 through 20, 17 through 20. Watch this, Leviticus 24, 17 through 20, yeah. If a man kills anyone, he must be put to death. Whoever kills an animal is to make restitution for it, life for life. If any man inflicts a permanent injury on his neighbor, whatever he has done is to be done to him. Fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Whatever injury he inflicted on the person, the same is to be inflicted on him. Whoever kills an animal is to make restitution for it, but whoever kills a person is to be put to death. Okay, so basically, Jesus is, I mean, basically what God's saying is, here's the deal. You need to replace what was lost, but if you get to the point where you injure, you replace with injury, but if you get to the point and take a man's life, then it seems like what he's saying is that if you get to the point where you injure, then your life has to be given, okay? Now, let's go back to Jesus. Let's go back to Jesus and let's see if we can interpret that in light of Jesus. Jesus says, you've heard it said, an eye for an eye, tooth for tooth, but I tell you, don't resist an evildoer.

Now, right away, that throws us off because what we assume here is, okay, wait, maybe Jesus is replacing the judicial system. Maybe he's redefining what, in a sense, he wrote on the first hand, like eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. He's not negating that. Remember, Jesus doesn't come to replace the law. He comes to what? Fulfill it. Interpret it. Yeah, fulfill or interpret correctly. So give an interpretation. Here's what I think Jesus is doing. Jesus is not saying it's wrong if someone kills you or comes after you to kill you. In fact, in the Jewish culture I read this morning, they have a policy if someone goes to attack you and kill you, you have a right to defend yourself, even if it means you're gonna kill them in return as they try to kill you. That was allowed in the Jewish culture, obviously, from the Old Testament. Like a stay-in-your-ground kind of thing? Yeah, if somebody breaks in your home, people will say, I don't know, gun laws, yeah. But the Jewish culture believed that. And they would use this for the nation of Israel. The other people attacking Israel, they have a right to defend themselves.

That's a big argument today in the world. Israel has a right to defend itself. We would say we would as well. But the question is, what is Jesus doing? Remember what Jesus is doing. Jesus is calling his kingdom citizens to a higher ethic, a higher standard. This is the law, right, yeah, of course, you have the right to. But just because you have the right to doesn't mean you ought to, doesn't mean you should. So what Jesus says is, here's a better way to think of it. He's not, again, I don't think he's saying passivism, totally, in all situations. I don't even think he's saying nonviolence, like don't resist, here's why. The thing that throws this off is he says, don't resist an evildoer. Now, here's the issue with that. When you study the Bible, you study passages like Paul, go to Galatians 2.11, when you have Paul, go to John 18, 19, there are a lot of passages today, but I'll show you in context. Paul is going to show us that he is resisting someone in Galatians chapter 2.11. Paul himself is resisting someone in Galatians 2.11. What do you mean? Notice who he resists, Galatians 2.11, watch what it says. Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians, there you go. By the way, if you don't know the order,

it's go eat popcorn, right? Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, or general electric popcorn. But yeah, that's what I would like. I like it. Nobody knows General Electric. I like that. That's good. Delete popcorn. 2-11? 2-11. Listen to this. But when Cephas came to Antioch, I opposed him to his face. Wait, what? I resist. That's the word. Resisted him to his face. Keep going. Because he stood condemned. Yeah. So what's happening there? This is about the food. For he regularly ate. This is because he was sort of being flip-floppy. He regularly ate with the Gentiles before certain men came from James. So he was hanging out with the Gentiles. Everybody deserves the Lord. And then when the Jews come, he's like, hold on. He steps back.

So he's getting called out for it. He's a hypocrite. So what does Paul do? He confronts him. OK, watch this one. Read this one. This is where Jesus is being opposed by the high priest. John 18, 19 through 23. 19 through 23. The high priest questioned Jesus about his disciples and about his teaching. I have spoken openly to the world, Jesus answered him. I've always taught in the synagogue and in the temple where all the Jews gather. And I haven't spoken anything in secret. Why do you question me? Question those who heard what I told them. Look what they know what I said. When he had said these things, one of the officials standing by slapped Jesus, saying, is this the way you answer the high priest? If I have spoken wrongly, Jesus answered him. Give evidence about the wrong. But if rightly, why do you hit me? Yeah, so here's Jesus himself resisting, in their mind, the pope of Israel, like the highest person. So even Jesus resists. And I'll give you another one. Jesus says in Matthew 18, when your brothers in sin resist him with church discipline.

So that's this picture of coming against, resisting his lifestyle, pushing back. The best one I have is, when Jesus goes into the temple before he goes to the cross, he's gonna take tables and what, flip them, he's gonna make a whip, and he's going to resist the evildoer. So the question is, what is he talking about here? Here's what I think's going on. When Jesus says don't resist an evildoer, what I think he's getting at is here, don't respond to evil with malicious intent. So if somebody does you wrong, don't try to seek revenge against someone who did wrong to you, because it's gonna be bad for you. He's not saying you shouldn't protect yourself. He's not saying you shouldn't protect your family. He's not saying you should be a pacifist all the time. In fact, I would say part of this is almost activism, in a sense, because you're making a stand, and we'll see that in a moment. Now, there were certain different levels of response, according to the Mishnah. Bava Kamah 8.6, if you're interested in the reference, says that when someone slaps you on the cheek, I'm setting this up, when someone slaps you on the cheek, there was a higher penalty to pay depending on what cheek they slap. I found this, essentially. So when you slap someone on the cheek, it was a form of humiliation, taunting, and disrespect.

Here's what it says. According to the rabbis, striking a man on the cheek constituted a public shaming for which the rabbis imposed two fines. This is fascinating, Ben, you're gonna love this. 200 zahs, I think that's a form of payment, 200 zahs if a man struck another person with his palm. So if I hit you with my palm, you know, front of my palm, it's 200 zahs. But if I strike you with the back of my hand, it's double, 400 zahs. So they realize, okay, even in the way you slap someone, there's a higher, because it's a different form of slapping, and this is what I'm getting to here. So let's read the text again, because this is where people miss it. Okay, before we say it, and you know the answer, but just play along if you're, act like you're new to the podcast, okay. If someone, when we read this, if someone slaps you on the cheek, turn the other cheek, what have we always been taught that means? Vivian, for you, your whole life, before you started. Just don't retaliate and let them do whatever. Yeah, whatever. Yeah, whatever. Yeah, it's like, it means take the high road, you're supposed to take it, which, you know, I think, personally, not necessarily this passage, but the,

this whole idea of how a man is supposed to act as a follower of Jesus that can be traced back to this has pushed a lot of men away from church. A lot of strong, good, hard men have left the church and don't want to hear preaching because they just think it's, they're telling us to be sissies. They're telling us to be wimps. That's why I love how you brought this passage to life because it speaks to men. There's a lot of men, farmers, construction workers, blue collar guys, who would hear this and go, okay, that makes more sense. That makes more sense of how God, because the way I'm made fits that, fits what you're saying. not what we were taught of, it's just basically, hey, because we love them, because we're supposed to love them, we're just supposed to say, just beat me up for the gospel. Yeah, I'm a doormat. Is that what he's saying? I mean, think about it. Yeah, I mean, the more I'm sitting here thinking about it, I can just see Jesus, somebody, let's say, striking him, and because he's perfect and he's love and he's compassion. Just to turn, there's something about that's almost like a, telling somebody to check their own spirit.

It's like, okay, you just did that to me, you're gonna do it again? Are you really gonna do it again? And, You put it back on them. Yeah, you put it back on them. Yeah, and what's just, I was thinking this the whole time, it's so crazy you said that, is I've been thinking about when you taught on Matthew 5, 24, when it says, first go and be reconciled, and reconciliation is saying, Jesus is saying, hold on a second. If someone has something, you go to the heart of the matter. You do everything you can to make it right. So Exodus seems like, hey, we're just focused on the action. If whatever the outcome was of the deviant spirit that caused harm, we're gonna make the action right. That's good. And it seems like Jesus is saying, no, we're gonna, like you always say, I'm still in your line here. You always say, let's get to the heart of the matter. Yeah, which is the problem of the heart. The problem of the heart. Yeah, the heart of the matter is the problem of the heart.

Jesus is saying, hey, when an evil guy comes up, don't resist him. That's a good point. Get to the heart of the matter. Yeah, that's a good. Like, and that's where you said, that's where you, just think about it. Like, think about, I think about like, if my own son, we always wrestle, and he's like, dad, you know, I think I could take you. And I'll say, son, I'd never fight. I'd never fight my son. Yeah, that's good. You know, that's hard, because you know, I had violence in my home. So it's very important. And I'll say, look, I would never fight you. Yeah, why would you wanna fight your dad? Yeah, but I think if like, if he, you know, if that ever happened, you'd be like, go ahead, just hit me again. That's good, yeah. That's kind of what he's saying. So you touched on it. Well, and that's the thing with these, you've heard it said, I've said to you, you just reminded me, just to recap, we said this early on, they were trying to follow the letter of the law.

So think of them as a head of modern day, field notes guide in their back pocket. And on the left side, they had, this is what it was here. And you, this is your ledger. This is my ledger. I'm keeping score. You did this to me. And Jesus said, no, you're missing it. You're looking at the outflow. You're looking at a symptom. I'm going to the heart of the problem, which is the heart, right? And so there was a, it was a book here. I mean, I'm thinking about this. There was a book years ago I read, I think it was called the impotent church, the impotent church. Yeah, interesting book. I looked that up, Robert. I think that's what it's called. And it's basically about the feminization of the church of Jesus Christ and why men are leaving. By the way, there's a big move today in the world of men going to Orthodox faith and Catholicism even today. And I think part of it is they, and I get what they're thinking because they see the shenanigans at times, and they're shenanigans everywhere. They see the loosey-goosey, the shenanigans,

the prophetic, charismatic games people play. And they're like, if that, I want something more stable, more structured, more, and I would never recommend that because I can tell you a number of reasons why you shouldn't do that. But I get where people are going there. And then you get the passivity of the man, man. So anyway, so Jesus is saying, listen, here's the deal. I'm not telling you to be passive. Actually, I'm giving you a way to be active in earning your respect. So what does Jesus say? If someone slaps you on the right cheek. Now, we said this before, but just for recap, if you and I are looking face-to-face, and I was looking at you, and I'm gonna slap you with my right hand, which is a right-hand dominant society, with my palm, I'm gonna slap your what cheek, right or left? My left cheek, okay, the left side of your face. The only way for me in a right-hand dominant society to slap the right cheek is to backhand you, okay? Now, some people say, I don't think that's what Jesus means. Just look, just take it for face value. Right-hand dominant society, you're gonna slap the right cheek with your backhand. And then I just read to you from the Mishnah where it quotes them saying, if you slap with your open palm on your right side,

I mean, the left side, backhand's worth double. So you pay double. So you already have credence for this. So I think what Jesus is saying is not, like Vivian said, it's not, you slap me, keep slapping me, I'm gonna be a doormat. Tell somebody who's being abused right now, that's your husband, stay in the, we'd never do that. If you're being abused and you're being belittled and you're being put down, you don't stay in that environment, right? You're not gonna be a doormat. That's not what Jesus is saying. I think what he's saying is this. Now, keep in mind, who is he talking to? I think in all three instances, you have the backdrop is the Roman Empire and the Roman soldiers, because you're gonna see it in a moment, being sued and being pushed a mile. That's something Roman soldiers did. So the Roman soldiers would regularly come down and they could do anything to the people and they had nobody to push back on them. And if they said, carry a backpack, do this, pick up trash, pay me money, whatever you had to do. And so what Jesus is saying to the Roman society, which thought they were superior and the Jews were inferior, the Jewish people, he said, if you're gonna slap me,

here's what I think he's saying, Jesus is saying, someone slaps you on the right cheek, they're saying, you're lesser than me. When you turn them the other cheek, the left cheek, and you say, no, let me offer this, it's not pummel me and beat me up, it's, if you're gonna slap me, you slap me as an equal, not an inferior. I'm not lesser, we're both made in the image of God, and you deserve me, I deserve respect. Thank you, Chris. Yeah, that's good. Thank you, Chris, yeah. You deserve, I'm gonna respect you, you respect me. You got an idea of what you're gonna say, sir? Well, I'm thinking of an episode of The Chosen, where they did this. Oh, did they? It was like the disciples are walking down the path, the Roman soldiers are forcing them to carry it, and it's said that by law, you have to carry it a mile, and then Jesus is walking along with them, and he said, carry it too. Ooh. It was a great moment. It's about dignity. That's what this is about, dignity. Treating a human being with respect. He's not advocating being in a doormat for the devil, he's advocating dignity.

Now, here's a picture of what Jesus is saying too. Another thing is, the reason he doesn't want you to retaliate is because, and I've said this before, but I'll just say it again for context, but I've always learned this, this has been like a superpower to me in the church and in the Christian life, is I'm a big wanting to fix, I'm gonna step in, I'm gonna make it right, I'm gonna fix, I'm gonna organize, and I've learned that God says, okay, you have the right to do that, it's your choice, but when you step in, God steps back, right? And any time God steps back, it never goes well for me. Like, I got this, God, and I'm gonna fix it, I'm gonna go tell, let me go talk to him, it's like, but when you step back and you say, hey, I'm not gonna avenge evil, I'm not gonna try to make a wrong right, I'm gonna trust God. You know what's cool about God? He always does what's right. Remember Abraham, could we not find 50, could we not find 10, not for five, and then God, it says, will not the judge, I love this line, will, it's a great one to memorize, will not the judge of all the earth do right? What he's saying is, Abe, listen, I got this, bro, chill, I got this, I know what I'm doing here. So, verse 40, then we have, we're almost done, but verse 40, as for the one who, what,

read that one real quick, as for the one who wants to sue. Who wants to sue you and take away your shirt, let him have your coat as well. And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him too. Give to the one who asks you and don't turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you. Okay, here's what he's saying. So, in that culture, people wore how many garments on the outside? They wore how many layers of clothing? They've been just one cloak, right? Two layers, yeah, they wore an inner and an outer garment. Right. Okay? They had an outer garment and an inner garment. If someone sues you for your shirt, which is the inner garment, what he says, give him the what? Coat. The outer garment, the coat as well. The coat was also used in that day and age. A lot of people weren't nomadic, they would travel. The coat was used as a sleeping blanket, by the way. So, the coat was more than just, oh, I'll take this jacket off. Now, here's the thing. According to Exodus 22, you don't have to read, but I'll just tell you. According to Exodus 22, it was prohibited, you could borrow someone's coat, but you could not keep it longer than-

Couldn't take it. Yeah, you couldn't take it, and you were supposed to return it, what? No longer than a day. So, if I let you borrow my coat, according to Exodus 22, you have to give it back. If someone takes your coat, Jesus says, or your shirt, I'm sorry, give them your robe, which is comfort and your provision for the world. Here's what he's saying. He's making a radical statement here against the culture and the customs of the day. What he's doing is this. If you take your inner shirt off and your outer cloak off, you are stripping down everything you have, and here's the picture. You're saying, look, if you're gonna do that to me, take it all. Take everything I have, because that's what you're doing, and you're gonna leave me standing here shirtless, empty, bare, naked, ashamed. Do you wanna do that to me? That's radically different than, oh yeah, I got an extra jacket. That's not what he's saying. It's a cultural issue. And then the final one is, I told you earlier, the Roman soldiers, Vivian mentioned this, could force you to walk a mile for funsies, just for fun.

I don't like the way Adam, I don't like that haircut Robbie has. I don't like Vivian's- To humiliate. It's just a power thing. And if you said, I don't wanna do it, what happens? He'll smack you, probably. He'll slap you on both cheeks. He'll slap you on both cheeks, yeah. With a club. Okay, so here's what Jesus is demonstrating here. Jesus is demonstrating radical obedience, not retaliation and anger. Obedience to the king, Jesus, and here's what he's saying. The zealots, who he had one in his group, would push back on the Romans. They would say, no, we're not doing this. They would defy, they would yell, they would scream. And Jesus says, no, show them, because when you do that, when you yell, kick, and scream, what does it show? It shows that they get to you. If you say, hey, I want you to pick up. I want you to walk a mile. Okay, you're punished and and you're in and Jojo says I'll walk to Like you said earlier, who where is the pressure felt? Is it on the person who's doing it or is it the person who told them to do you in a sense? It's like forgiveness. We talked about this when you forgive somebody you are giving them back It's like you playing hot potato in a sense Not the best never hot potato is I'm giving you back the potato I'm putting the backpack back on your back off of my back because I don't wear it anymore

That's what you do. If I walk one mile and you say well, who do you think you are? Why are you doing but I say no, I'll do two You're making a statement and the statement is what you have no authority over me. You're not gonna but yeah You're not powerless over it. You're not gonna break my spirit. You're not gonna beat me down So here's what Jesus is doing as we get to the end of this section Jesus is teaching the kind of living and lifestyle and ethics a follower in the kingdom has a Kingdom follower is not about getting even a kingdom follower is about getting empty Watch this You want to empty yourself of any desire for retaliation and revenge? Why because Jesus says respect people. I got this. I'll take care and do right you respect. Let me have revenge I'll avenge evil the way that we do that is We take the mindset of I'm not trying to appease you I'm trying to please Right Right peas, but please yes. Well, that's something I've been thinking I think I've seen what this morning is Lord help. Give me wisdom I was praying that Lord give me wisdom for my actions my words. Am I just my My thought process to be on am I pleasing you in my conversations? And I think you know this whole process here is these people are coming to you. They're trying to get something They're trying to get power over you all these things and Jesus is saying I want you to try to please me Don't try to appease them. Don't try to give them what they want. Please me So like you were saying it takes the pressure off of the oppression because you have a purpose For what for the cross that you're bearing, you know, so that's good You know, I'm thinking now when you and I get to heaven God is not going to Judge or grade us or honor us or give us rewards based on how we oppress people But how we obeyed him right, right So so when you get to heaven God's like man, you did a really good job, you know defending yourself online from these internet trolls No, he's not gonna say or man. You really you were you were a bad dude, Robbie, man You anybody that looked bad at you you punched him and they know he's not gonna say any of that

Yeah, he's gonna say man Let's look how many times you trusted me even when people ripped you apart in people spit on you people cursed you out People criticize you but look what you trusted me. Well done. This is hard to do. I would you preach your Message a few weeks ago. I think it's two weeks ago about Forgiveness. I had some people that I want to reach out to that. I felt like had some things against me Yeah, and you know, that was not an easy conversation and even even at the end of it, you know, I felt like They were still sort of saying hey, you know taking shots at me and everything But when it was done and I was talking to my wife, I just like man. I just feel like complete peace I just felt a sense of I Don't know like you're talking about the weightiness of like, you know When when someone tries to attack you and you feel like you're in David talk, you know, he's always like god Where you at? I'm doing the right thing and the enemies are after me all around you feel the pressure It affects our spirit because we want to do right We want to be right with all people and then when someone comes at us they confront us or they do something They shouldn't and we take that extra mile that that that's hard and it doesn't always Feel good in the midst of it and it's like you said the risk their response may not always be what we expect But when we get to the end of that there is a piece that surpasses all that understanding Everything that comes around that there's a piece that just surpasses it all I experienced it in the last couple weeks of just taking some steps towards towards it So I just want to say that because I think sometimes people are going what about this situation or what about that? They they took this from me or they did this to me and they owe me this and it's like hey if you will follow the That for you can use this for our kids because they say algebra is worth nothing. But if you'll follow the algebra equation of God God's algebra always the sum always equals, you know If you if you follow that that that equation and do it the way he says you'll do it we come out better and at peace, you know and You know, it's never easy but I tell people you're never closer to the Lord than when you're doing what Jesus Commanded you to do or what Jesus exemplified for you to do and in this case we have both not only he command us to forgive those who hurt you and harm you

and want to kill you, but he did it on the cross. You know, on the cross, you would expect him to say, and he had every right to, if the Bible was written this way, nobody would fault him. Father, these idiots know what they're doing. You know, maybe you wouldn't say that. But these people know what they're doing, decimate them. Yeah, send fireballs from heaven, and nobody would have said, what is Jesus doing? No, they're trying to, they're killing him. What does he say? No, Father, forgive them. That's so good. If there's anything that he lived out, and if you ask somebody who maybe doesn't know much about Jesus, they would know, oh, yeah, he was killed. By who? By people that hated him. You know what, too? I'm just thinking, you got me thinking, and I'll let you finish, Vivian, I promise you this is it, but I was just thinking, you know, the problem with wanting to, or not forgiving, or not seeking reconciliation, it's really a pride issue in your life because most of the time, we want to be right, and we want you to know that. Like, yeah, but you forgive me, but you need to know, no, none of that. You need to know, or I was, know that.

You just go and offer reconciliation. And here's the thing. I've learned this, and I'm still learning this, that I try to live even keel with the Lord, and we talked about this before in our discipleship group. I try to live even keel, and I'm still learning this, but meaning, I don't let the highs get overinflated, and I don't let the lows get me in the tank, right? Like, get me lower than they should. And it's hard to do this, but I try to live in the middle. Here's the line I want to give you. Don't let the praise from the crowd get to your head, but at the same time, don't let the criticism from the crowd get to your heart. That's good. So good. Say it again. Don't let the praise from the crowd get to your head, but at the same time, don't let the criticism, and what I mean is, you don't let the highs get too high, and the lows get too low because you realize, man, somebody attacks me, okay, then move on. Water off a duck's back. You're focused on it. Somebody celebrates me, yeah. So you don't go, and somebody says, was it? It was a great sermon. What did you think? Tell me more.

Yeah, yeah. What else did you like about my sermon? So when you don't do that in the line after the service or in online reading the comments from a blog or whatever you wrote, then when somebody criticizes you, you don't, you know, I used to say this about the Revival. I learned I wasn't as bad as people thought I was, but I wasn't as bad as they thought I was, and I wasn't as good as I thought I was. That was somewhere in the middle. I wasn't as good as I thought I was, and I wasn't as bad as they thought I was, yeah. So anyway, I would just say, wherever you are, just realize, if you can live in the in-between, don't elevate yourself more than you are, don't, you know, decimate yourself more than you should be, and just live in the middle. Vivian, any final thoughts on that? Forgiveness, retaliation. Just so good. And I'm reminded every time we talk about the Pharisees. I'm a firstborn. I'm a rule follower by my nature, and I would have probably made a really good Pharisee, and I'm convicted every time about rule following and should have been done this way, and gosh, he continues to do a deep work in me through all that. Amen, amen, always. Same thing.

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