If you sue God on his promises, if you sue God on his promises, you'll survive the inconveniences and injustices of this fragile, fleeting kingdom. I work this a little bit. So, let me say this one more time. If you sue God on his promises, you'll serve the in uh you'll survive rather the inconveniences and injustices of this fragile, fleeting kingdom. I'm going really big right out of the gate if you if you see what I'm doing here.
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And then uh how Jesus cuts us right to the heart. It's very practical. Cutting us to the heart. And then lastly, I want us to see the transformational love of Jesus because that's the only way we'll ever be able to to lean into these uh commands that Jesus is giving us here is if we if we know him intimately and trust that he loves us the way he says he has, will we be able to live out what he's teaching us here to do.
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So on its services is incredibly simple to understand but we'll literally spend our entire lives learning the have enough faith to actually live this out. So so the restraining gift of the law uh the scholars would refer to this idea you've heard it said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. It comes from Leviticus 24. You could also find the same thing repeated in Exodus and Deuteronomy but we'll read it from Leviticus today.
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This is Genesis 4. You could read it tonight. I say this every week. Uh Genesis 4 after sin has entered the world. Um you have Cain who kills his brother in a jealous rage. And then lament comes along in Genesis 4 and he says, you know, Cain killed a man. I killed a man just for wounding me. And he says, if Cain's uh if Cain's justice was seven times what the offense was, well, mine will be 77 times. That's that's human nature, right?
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And and in some sense, this was to be carried out not necessarily by individuals as much as this was kind of for the courtroom. We have some folks here who study law, others who practice law. And this is this is helpful if you're in that sort of position to say uh let the let the punishment fit the crime, so to speak, or let the the retribution The original offense in the Old Testament goes into detail on this many times.
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Jesus is challenging us to say, "If you're a citizen of my kingdom, maybe your entire posture should change where you're we're not trying to lean on your rights that much." He wants to change your whole posture. Uh you know the answer to this, but but who's who's the stronger person? The person who can give a really hard punch or the person that can take a really hard punch?
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It's so easy for those of us, even those of us who call ourselves followers of Christ to to slip into this mindset of fear, right? We we go into a scarcity mindset thinking, "Oh, somebody has wronged me. There's just there's not enough resources in the world for me to to survive, to have the things we long for, peace and security." And so we want revenge when we are wronged or or even inconvenience.
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But a Roman soldier could come and say, "I need you to carry my stuff for one mile." One mile, by the way, at the time as a thousand steps. So, not quite as much as we might think today. But, I need you to carry my stuff for one mile. In in addition to being inconvenient, also very humiliating. Think the very tools by which I will be subjugated, I'm now being asked to carry for one mile.
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But Jesus says, uh, that's it. That's the end of the law. That's their right. But if you're a a follower of me, if you're part of my kingdom, what if you doubled that? say, but but I'll actually go twice that for you. What if that was your posture? He gives another example of if if somebody were to sue you, by the way, the big idea is you should sue God for his promises.
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If somebody slaps you and and obviously in addition to the the physical pain, uh it's embarrassing as well. It's humiliating. If somebody slaps you right cheek, this would be a backhanded slap in those days. Uh try to hit your left cheek as well." There's a very practical aspect to this, by the way. There's a practical aspect to all of them, but when it comes to to being slapped, if that's not happening very often in our day, right?
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There's a practical aspect of this where you could perhaps stop the offending party in their tracks by just reminding them, you know, that's this is being wise as serpents and swift as doves as Jesus tells us to to be. Uh so there's this example of slapping and then he just he he kind of opens it up for for everybody. He says, "Give to the one who asks you and don't turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you."
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If you're a a citizen of God's kingdom, you recognize there is there is one who sees all and he will make all things right. It takes faith to believe this and to to leave justice vengeance in the hands of the Lord. He goes on to say, "Because it is written, vengeance belongs to me. I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. For in so doing, you will be keeping fiery coals in his head. Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.
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But if you know the love of Christ, if you bask in that, you could be an unflapable person. You you could go the extra mile because you know that Jesus went to the cross for you. They spat in his face and beat him. Others slapped him. After crucifying him, they divided his clothes by casting lots. You see how how he treats people when they slap him, when they take his clothes.
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When you see Jesus laid down his rights for you, you'll begin to lay down your rights for others, but sue God for the rights he's promised to us. Okay. Uh I'm But well, just in closing, when I when I say that, understand there's a way you could take that to mean that I want God to give you promises he's never actually made, right? He's never promised you'll be healthy and wealthy, per se.
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But, uh, those who would tell you if you just pray really hard, you know, your debts will be forgiven or you'll, you know, you get a check in the mail. I'm sorry, Jesus never said that. Or that, you know, you won't get sick. It's part of living in this in this fragile kingdom. But his kingdom is coming and there all those those things actually will be true. It's just not quite there yet.
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But here's a promise you could you could sue God on. This comes from John 1. I I love the scandalousness of it when I'm saying lay down your rights. I mean with other people but with God sue him for your rights. Here's here's John 1. You maybe know this says he was in the world and the world was created through him and yet the world did not recognize him.
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