PRAYER:
Gracious God,
In love, You created us,
and in love, You sustain us, day after day.
So it is with confidence that we bring our prayers to You,
knowing that You hear us and will respond.
We pray for the world around us,
for the many who continue to suffer and call out for help:
for those without enough to eat in East Africa and elsewhere;
for those caught up in violence and political uprisings;
for those picking up the pieces after a natural disaster;
for those desperate to find work to support their families.
We also pray for family and friends who are suffering:
those struggling physically or emotionally,
those working to overcome mental illness;
those facing challenges at home or at work;
those grieving the death of a loved one.
God, You have called us to pray for our enemies;
to bless, rather than curse, those who deliberately seek to harm us.
We bring their names before You now—
those who have hurt us, physically or emotionally;
those who have stolen from us,
or cheated us of what was rightfully ours;
those who have spread rumors about us,
or turned our friends against us.
Open our hearts so that we may see them as You see them,
and be able to respond to them with Your love.
We pray for Your church around the world,
that it would be a living demonstration of Your coming kingdom:
offering hospitality to all,
ready to help in times of need,
showing love to friends and enemies alike,
seeking to live in peace with all.
God, we praise You for Your faithful love
and for the mercy You have shown toward us.
Open our eyes to recognize Your presence in our lives.
Give us grace to hear Your call
and courage to follow without hesitation,
knowing that Your way is the only way that leads to life.
In the name of Jesus, our Savior and Lord,
Amen.
SERMON:
HARD TO LOVE: “How does your faith shape how you interact with the hardest people to love?”
The 10 Most Annoying Human Traits (medium.com)
1. Being a gloom merchant.
2. Complaining (about everything).
3. Always having to be right.
4. Interrupting others.
5. Relentless self-promotion.
6. Scattered attention.
7. Unreliability.
8. Always running late.
9. Being boring.
10. Passive-aggressive behavior.
POINT: Having a holy
“We’ll be remembered for our love. What I’ve learned following Jesus is we only really find our identities by engaging the people we’ve been avoiding. Jesus wrapped up this concept in three simple and seemingly impossible ideas for us to follow: love Him, love your neighbor, and love your enemies.” —Bob Goff, Everybody, Always: Becoming Love in a World Full of Setbacks and Difficult People
Matthew 5:43-48 NRSV
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven, for he makes his sun rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
POINT: Enemy: a person who is actively
Matthew 12:1-15 NRSV
At that time, Jesus went through the grain fields on the Sabbath; his disciples were hungry and began plucking heads of grain and eating. When the Pharisees saw it, they said to him, “Look, your disciples are doing what is not lawful to do on the Sabbath.” He said to them, “Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? How he entered the house of God, and they ate the bread of the Presence, which it was not lawful for him or his companions to eat, but only for the priests? Or have you not read in the law that on the Sabbath, the priests in the temple break the Sabbath and yet are guiltless? I tell you, something greater than the temple is here. But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the guiltless. For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath.”
He left that place and entered their synagogue; a man was there with a withered hand, and they asked him, “Is it lawful to cure on the Sabbath?” so they might accuse him. He said, “Suppose one of you has only one sheep, and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath; will you not lay hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a human being than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and restored it as sound as the other. But the Pharisees went out and conspired against him how to destroy him.
When Jesus became aware of this, he departed. Many followed him, and he cured all of them.
POINT: Brokenness for brokenness does not lead to
“Don’t get panicky. Don’t do anything panicky at all. Don’t get your weapons. He who lives by the sword shall die by the sword. Remember, that is what God said. We are not advocating violence. We want to love our enemies. I want you to love our enemies. Be good to them, love them, and let them know you love them. I did not start this boycott. I was asked by you to serve as your spokesman. I want it to be known through the length and breadth of this land that if I am stopped, this movement will not stop. For what we are doing is right. What we are doing is just. And God is with us.” —Martin Luther King, Jr. as told by Taylor Branch in Parting the Waters
POINT: Love is at the heart of God. It is
Things to be aware of in efforts to choose love instead of hate:
1. Fight
2.
3. Do good