""You have heard that it was said, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR and hate your

enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to
those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that
you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on
the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love
you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you
greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax
collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is
perfect." Mat 5:43-48 (NKJV)

FIRST OF ALL WHO IS AN ENEMY / RECALL HOW WE DEFINED LOVE? 5 MINS

An enemy is not someone who you hate lol!

An enemy is someone who has not responded or is not responding

appropriately to your show of love!

Not someone you do not like or hate. We are never allowed to hate because
hate murder in seed form. A hater is a murderer.

What is love?
To love is to make a decision not to judge; to raise someone above laws,
and rules and expectations and say to this person I will value you; I will
care for you; I will treasure you.

It is to give someone a judgment free place a place where it can be okay for them
to not be okay as they work on being okay. A place where they can be naked and not
ashamed.

The greatest gift you can give someone is a place where they can be naked and not
ashamed. Where they can be free to be who they really are and yet not be ashamed.

Our Father has called us to create such a place for people it is in this place that we can
be truly intimate with one another and then be able to flourish and reach our highest
potential.

BUT HOW CAN I LOVE SOMEONE WHO ABUSES THIS LOVE OR RESPONDS
WRONGLY I.E. AN ENEMY? - 15 MINS

Lets break this into 3 Categories:

Someone or people who just hate you they are out to hurt you, deliberately. They
use whatever powers they have professional, financial, political, spiritual to hurt you.
1. (LUKE 23:34) Pray for them like Jesus prayed Father forgive them, for they
know not what they are doing. Lord do not hold this against them. Help them to
come to see that they have been forgiven in Christ. Sis. Willie thought us
actually pray for their forgiveness as if we are the ones who sinned.
2. (ROM 12:17-21) Look for every and any opportunity to do good to them. When
you hear they are not feeling fine. Send them a greeting. Their birthday, send them
 a birthday greeting. Show them the same grace God showed you when you were
Gods enemy.
3. It is important to do this without an expectation of a positive response from them.
This is your response to their response not to hate back, but to love
4. What you cannot do is do back to them what they do to you. Hate them because
they hate. Dont greet them because they dont greet you etc.

Someone who takes advantage of your love and begins to misbehave. Begins
to abuse and despise that love.
1. Matt 18:15 -20 First note that Jesus puts this person in the category of the most
important in the kingdom a vulnerable brother or sister whom you are about to
lose and God is about to lose
2. [Aside: God is trading in human beings he is on a rescue mission and we
are here to partner with him on that mission]
3. In love and out of concern for that person, Confront that person get the person to
own the problem.
4. Unless the problem has an owner it cannot be solved.
5. IT IS NOT AN EFFORT TO FIX OR CHANGE THE PERSON but to put it in the
persons court to 1) identify the issue 2) own the issue and 3) make a commitment
to resolve the issue.
6. Paul said what effort, what determination - to clear yourself 1 Cor. 7:8 - 12
7. If this person does not move the person to the category of someone who has
determined to hurt you agonize in prayer for the person and keep looking for
opportunity to do good to the person yet do not expect positive response i.e.
keep the offer open
8. Example of someone who began to fail in his job because of love he was being
shown I could keep be close and friendly with you and you get fired or
you could take your job seriously and I keep loving you. Your choice.

Someone who no matter what you do does not seem to get along with you.
Often this is a peer, a colleague, a fellow leader or someone in your sub-group. This is
something you find in marriages. You find it in leadership teams. It is the passive
aggressive reaction to you. It could also be a scenario where you just do not have a
connection with someone. This is the bigger challenge you do not hate this person
but they just rub you off the wrong way! What do you do?

There was an example in the church of Philippi Philippians 4:2 3 two women who
had exactly the same problem. These were not small sisters. They were filled with the
Holy Spirit Paul called them co-laborers without them that church could not have
been planted.

They were not getting along. The solution Paul says is for you to adopt the mind of the
Lord when it comes to that person. Now if both of you adopt the mind of the Lord - you
will achieve something that is beautiful it is only in the Trinity you can find it.

But for both of you to get there you have to adopt the mind of the Lord.

What is that mind of the Lord? - Philippians 2: 1 11 this issue was probably on Pauls
mind as he was writing this,.
"If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any
difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you
have a heart, if you care then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each
other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk
your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be
obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend
a helping hand. Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had
equal status with God but didn't think so much of himself that he had to cling
to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came,
he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human!
Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He
didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a
selfless, obedient deathand the worst kind of death at that: a crucifixion. Because of
that obedience, God lifted him high and honored him far beyond anyone or
anything, ever, so that all created beings in heaven and on eartheven those
long ago dead and buriedwill bow in worship before this Jesus Christ, and
call out in praise that he is the Master of all, to the glorious honor of God the
Father." Php 2:1-11 (MSG)

WHY? - 10 MINS

Hate creates hate which creates hate endless cycle. Love terminates that cycle.
Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already
devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate
cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies
violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. So
Jesus says Love your enemies, why? So you can have dominion, and take authority
and seize control to terminate the endless cycle of wickedness.

Hate is CONTRARY to our nature. Hate distorts and it is injurious! It injures the person
who is hated but injures you who hates. If you walk in dislike and hate you are
living contrary to your nature. Hate will make you call good evil and evil good. Hatred,
bitterness and anger will make you call what is beautiful ugly and call what is ugly
beautiful. It will blind you! This is why not walking in love hurts you. Soon begins to
affect your health. You begin to gain weight. Look stressed for what? Just love!

You do not have it in you. Its not there and then when you try faking it, you start
getting hurt. Be who you are. Its like sin as Christians, sin does not take us to
hell. It brings hell into our lives!

Finally it is the only way to defeat evil. God defeated evil through love! The supreme
act of love was how God defeated evil. You do not use evil to defeat evil - you use
love! When God asked us to have dominion in the earth - he was asking us to love!
Gods version of dominion and rule - is not the way we think - it is love. When John
heard that the lion of Judah had prevailed - when he looked he saw the lamb that was
slain. It is the kindness and goodness of God - not his severity that changes
people. Romans 2:4

Story of Abraham Lincoln and Stanton he belongs to the ages

 Used every ounce of his energy to degrade him in public. Called him names. Belittled
him. Used unkind words to describe his physical appearance and constantly sought to
embarrass him.
Lincoln chose him for the most important cabinet position Secretary of War I have
looked all across the country and he is the best man
If Lincoln had returned hate for hate, both men would have gone to their graves as
bitter enemies. But through love Lincoln turned an enemy into a friend.
In the midst of the war, when bitterness abound in the North towards the South
Lincoln was known for always saying kind words about the people of the South. One
day a shocked bystander asked him how he could do this and he said Madam, do I
not destroy my enemies by making them my friends?

So we need to learn how to respond when people do not resppnd correctly.

If they hate you love them. If the despitefully use you confront them in love, to win
them. And if they do not get along with you put them ahead of yourselves

And see the power of his love work in you, for you and through you! In Jesus Name.