Don McClure emphasizes the importance of allowing Jesus to remain in control of our lives, as illustrated in Matthew 5:38-42. He explains that the Sermon on the Mount is a cohesive message about surrendering our pride, anger, and desire for revenge, and instead embracing love and humility. McClure highlights that true happiness comes from letting go of our rights and serving others, even when it feels unjust. He encourages believers to reflect on their attitudes towards others and to choose love over anger, thus keeping Christ enthroned in their hearts. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a deeper commitment to living out the principles of the Beatitudes in everyday interactions.

Matthew chapter 5 verse 38 and if you'll stand with me together well I'll just read these few verses out of it and ask you just to kind of follow along. You have heard that it hath been said, Matthew 5 38, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, but I say unto you that she resists not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him too. Give to him that asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee, turn not thou away. Let's pray. Father we thank you and we praise you for your word and Lord we thank you that your great desire, your great longing, the longing of heaven is to fill our lives, to bring every one in the world, but most obviously of all every child of yours that you have redeemed into a full experience of who you are. Lord we pray that would be our longing too, that we would not want to miss anything of you. Jesus I thank you for this wonderful sermon that you've given to us. Lord I ask that you would make it alive to us. Your Holy Spirit just to lift it off the page and into our heart in such a way as the things Lord that we ought to really be longing for in our life, the victories that you want to give to us and the battlefields that we have around our lives Lord that we would see them and understand them and Lord our lives would enter into greater blessing, greater fullness, greater joy. Father we ask it in Jesus name, Amen. You may be seated. Here once again and I'm making it as brief as I can but a few things just to remind ourselves. The Sermon on the Mount is one message, one flowing message. It doesn't change topics, it doesn't go from here to there and jump around. There is a tremendous flow to it. Sometimes we look at it and we just take bits and pieces of it and it's almost like Jesus just giving us a little shopping list of different things that come up in his mind. Oh yes and I don't want to forget to tell you this and then another thing and another thing but every one of these they're in a sense almost to me like dominoes you know that that one is to follow the other the other. It begins of course in the Beatitudes which is simply the the story laid out very simply of the exchange of my life for Jesus Christ. They're realizing I was born a sinner, I've lived the life of a sinner, I run my own life, I have this nature within me that wants control, it sits on the throne and I'm finally tired of it. I'm longing for God to take over. I wish that he could just come and oftentimes how many of us say Lord I just wish you could just come and take my life and you can have it and please and and we give it to him and maybe we have some wonderful experience but it doesn't last but here in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells us the secret of a lasting on how when it's exchanged if it's exchanged through a a poverty of my own spirit a longing and a realization I'm poor you're rich mourning over my sinfulness producing a meekness of it in my heart God would you please come and fill me take over my life I give it to you and then as he does he fills it with his life his love his spirit and the evidence of it again is the next domino would fall is that there's somebody that is now merciful and they're pure in heart and then that they're a peacemaker and he is just taking a you know person and through the beatitudes I am just surrendering my life and I'm giving it to him now so often we can come to church we can you know pray and we can seek the Lord and we can have that and he'll fill us and he'll do many wonderful things but yet immediately after that there's a number of things that just simply reverse the whole process take us right back to square one and here Jesus he did knowing that as our nature as he continues the Sermon on the Mount he tells us there there's some things you're gonna have to deal with if you want to keep me enthroned it's one thing to get me enthroned within your life to make me the Lord of your life to make me the master of your life but there's other things that you can turn right on around and do and I'm not gonna fight you I'm gonna let you do it and if you want to go and do it don't be surprised when you win where'd he go you turn around and you're right back on the throne Jesus is a wonderful gentleman the ultimate one and if he is asked to step down because I want to take over he'll do it he's there by invitation he's there by love he's there by choice he's there by desire and if I desire something more he says have it and thus he goes on and he says there you have heard that I have been said by them a whole time thou shall not kill and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment but I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother is in danger of judgment here Jesus said one of the things will dethrone me quicker than anything else is that when you have a different heart towards people than I do you look there I'll God has he loves the world that Christ died for our sin not our sins only but for the sins of the whole world the Bible tells us there's not a person that the love of God isn't isn't desire of capturing in there when when I you know you give him my life sit on the throne take over I've ruined it I've made a mess of it and then I walk right out and there's somebody I am angry at there's somebody I look at is a worthless fellow there is somebody that I just write off and say that person's a fool and at that point it has this little way of just nudging him off I'm taking over all solve this problem and then I'm wondering what went wrong and here she's saying it's one thing to get me enthroned it's another thing to keep me but if you want to keep me in the right place you've got to come to grips with the fact that I love and I love the world and I want to use you as a vessel through which I will love them you are to be salt and you are to be light as he has said earlier that we there he said if you want to be salt you want to be light and you wanted me to be enthroned and you want to truly blessed happy life then you got to let me love through you let me let your life be a vessel through much my love will flow in as soon as you take over and and your anger and your hatred there's a whole dimension of our nature that just writes off a whole bunch of the planet then he goes on you have heard that have been said by them all time now should not commit adultery but I say in you that whosoever looks at a woman with lust after is committed adultery with her already in his heart there's this you want to know another way just to take me off the throne another way just to remove me another way to where you just take over all you've got to do is either start off or there's a whole bunch of the world you write off and you're done with or there's another part of the world that you can't live without that your passions and your love and your lust or your desires or your covetous heart it's your you're gonna run your heart and if it's angry it's gonna be angry and if I want something you're gonna go get it and here he says if you want me to be enthroned it isn't gonna work you're in an amazing how many times we come and God does wonderful things and we don't know what went wrong when we find ourselves you know mysteriously without his power and without his presence well the old thing what feel far from God gets a mood we're the we move by by our heart our heart moves away and then he said you know you have heard that if a man put away his wife let him give her give her a riding a divorcement and you know but I say to you that if any man put away his wife saving for the cause of fornication he caused her to commit adultery he looks there and he says the next thing there you want to know how to get me off the throne you want to know how to take it over yourself either you're right off a whole segment or you grab another segment of the world that you can't live without or else you make commitments and relationships and you build them and then you don't want to maintain them years there's a world in a life of commitments out there and and that when you're committed to them it takes your heart and you just don't casually just kind of enter in and walk away from them their covenants and the word of God you know it's yay and amen there's no shadow of turning in a minute doesn't lie and when there's a commitment there that has been made in this body on which he is on sits on the throne of it he takes it sincerely and he says you hold on to those relationships you build them you maintain them you take them casually you write off people you're gonna be in trouble and you're gonna be alone you know very quickly you have heard that thou shalt not forswear thyself but I say and you perform thy nose he looks there and he says every time you open your mouth every time that you speak let your yay be yay and your nay be nay not just sometime when you're taking us an oath and a solemn thing he says all the time every time you speak as David said let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in thy sight O Lord he looked there and he says God I want everything that I say to be something that people can look at it is a sign sealed and delivered commitment that it's a yay just because I said it and Jesus said if you say something you don't mean it you say something and just solve the problem for the moment honey I'll take care of it don't worry about it it's all done consider it finished only to get honey off your back let me tell you honey you'll come back and you'll be looking for Jesus again you know you'll be are these are the things that life is all about these are the things there that with a simple and yet profound things in life the battles of life these are the real trials so often of the Christian that we really have to fight we think you know that the travel that the battles of these huge issues of of health and the world and finances and those are all part of it but there is a much greater daily battle that goes on to maintain the throne the kingdom of God within us and that is where Jesus is King when I'm opening my mouth when I'm building relationships when I'm looking at people whether to write them off or to draw them in into lust after them these are the things he says there were the where the battles really are and he says you want to keep me in throne the he knows us fully well he knows exactly what he's talking about he's watched nobody has seen himself come and go I suppose more than Jesus it's amazing what a gracious gentleman he is how many times is he come back and forth on the throne of our life you know you think there's one point you just say listen listen we've been through this at least a thousand times by now the longer you're a Christian the more times you know Jesus please I'm sorry forgive me now come back and sit down and I'm gonna make it up to you you know or whatever else and then we got all these things and then immediately we get our peace back in our joy this is so wonderful you know and this is this is so great then somebody walks by and there's that idiot that there's that idiot goes by somebody else there's the there's the whatever you know but the and all of a sudden we're drawn in and out he is I it's wonderful to you that I'm not him for everybody's sake I'd sit there and give you one or two shots at it and then I'd slap you silly and say forget it I'm done with you I'd pick you up I'd bounce you off the wall and throw you around and you know just flick you to China just once maybe or something and then maybe I'd get some obedience or some surrender instead of all the time quiveling over if I get to be master but he is so patient he is about a journey that is more important even more important than than mastering our lives he is about the business of mastering our heart he is looking there to where he allows me to go through this and fail and go through this and fail have all these trials and temptations or struggles or burdens or open my mouth and blow it or make a commitment and not maintain it and have what he'll allow all these things that go on because one thing is that more I grow and the more I learn they realize Lord without you I can do nothing without you or that you on the throne every every time I open my mouth the moment you're not on it I'm in trouble and that when we begin to realize Lord they discernment amount is this wonderful sermon that if we really listening to it and longing for it ought to be something that every time we go through it Lord this is an area I long to see you bring me into victory in and here when he turns now in verse 38 and he says to us you have heard that it has been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth but I say to you that she resists not evil and here once again now we have the fifth area that he's looking at where he easily just gets dethroned gets driven out we take over and that he says in the and here's where the Pharisees each one of these things they they they turned it around all of them and but if and if they stay turned around he's you'll be dethroned if I just live by an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth hey that's what the Pharisees told me that's what that church told me well as he's gonna be dethroned I'm gonna drive him out if that's how I think and he so here he's always clarifying the misinterpretations of the Pharisees but here's the fifth one now that he looks at and he says you have heard that have been said an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth now actually here he is just to give you the the verses that Moses that he's referring to and they're referring to the Pharisees Moses did in Exodus 21 24 he said an eye for an eye at a tooth for a tooth a hand for a hand and a foot for a foot Leviticus 24 20 says breach for breach I for I tooth for tooth as he has caused a blemish in a man so shall it be done to him again you just brew somebody you know bruising in a sense Deuteronomy 1921 and I and I shall not pity but life shall go for life I for I tooth for tooth hand for hand and foot for foot and here once again the it's the same issue that Jesus has been dealing on you know previously with the misinterpretations of Moses Moses at the time that he gives these things in Leviticus or Exodus 21 he is speaking first of all to the judges he is speaking to those in authority there same thing as well in Leviticus 19 those are given to us you know Moses is actually speaking there to the leadership he is and and he is not dealing with life in its in the ideal way when Moses is talking he's looking over here at the judges society is in chaos people are hurting people and wounding people and there there's all sorts of chaos and of struggles and he's establishing some parameters for the judges there that he's turning over the Lord the leadership and the judgment of people when they abuse people when they hurt people when they take advantage of people when they kill people or they whatever it is that they may do here is is telling the judges how to judge justly and righteously is telling them in a sense that whatever you measured out he measured back he's an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth he's telling them that you know you just can't go out and and and do something that is out of balance that when somebody does things and borrow some money and they don't pay it back you don't go down and you blow his house up it's not you know you don't there's there's a fair system of judgment when human beings fail and this is what you know what Moses is dealing with you know everybody and when you get hurt there's always kind of you get offended or somebody does something wrong to you there's a kind of a knee-jerk reaction that we all have get even vengeance immediately when somebody does something wrong there is all of us in nature for wrath or anger hostility that just our own nature that says that isn't right somebody's got to deal with them somebody's got a hand you know go out and do something who in the world did this to me and Moses he's dealing with a chaotic environment and he's just giving laws there for the judges to just rule over sinful people that are living rebelliously he's not talking about how people ought to be living he's talking about the outside parameters that when somebody is living rebelliously all right you got to step in you got to do something then this is how you'll do it there'll be an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth and a hand for hand and a foot for a foot he's telling them how to execute judge you know judgment and justice he wants crime and punishment to be in an equal balance secondly also you need to know I mean he's not speaking here of how people ought to be living he isn't telling somebody by the way this is the way that you need to be living no this is judgment that when people aren't living the way that they ought to be and secondly also notice that Moses he's not giving these laws to individuals I mean when he is giving them back in Exodus and Leviticus he is giving these to the judges he is telling the judges what how they are to handle this was to stop people from taking the law into their own hands this was they were to go and he's laying out to the judges there in Exodus in the Leviticus how they are judged now the problem what had happened is the Pharisees had basically taken and they had ignored entirely the real line that Moses was dealing on and the outer perimeters here of behavior when it's gone wrong this is what you got to do to solve it in the end then what the law commands that you do now to deal with the thing this isn't how people are to live ideally this was again not for the individual but the tragic thing is the Pharisees had taken this and made it to the individual and they had taken it and they had spiritualized it to the degree that that essentially there that if something has gone wrong God is a God of law and he's a God of justice and if somebody has done something wrong to you you aren't even spiritual if you're not dealing with it it is an eye for an eye and it is a truth for truth and if somebody has done something to you you're you don't have the courage to stand up for the law and what's right if you don't follow it through it's almost like you they found a way to just be so angry and be so hostile they did this to me then I've got the right to be there and so it's almost as if you with the Pharisees that if somebody has done something make sure it happens that's one extreme that's what they had done with it interestingly enough in this very context as well I just need to hit it for a moment I suppose because it's been misunderstood I think is that another issue here Jesus tells us in the text here he says resist not evil as he tells us I say and you resist not evil and and this too has been taken out of context just like the Pharisees in the Old Testament I mean took out the Moses's law and they abused it this verse is famous where a lot of Christians and have taken this to the degree when it says resist not evil they want to say you know no soldiers no police no judges you know or something no prisons or some may say well prisons and police are okay but no war no you know no nation should go to battle whatsoever no capital punishment and the variations of this thing and people be over this become conscientious objectors there may be evil happening but I'm not to resist it and I'm not going to get in part of the war issues but that also here has nothing to do with with what Jesus is talking about Jesus here is not he's not speaking to nations he's not speaking to governments he's not speaking to cities he's not speaking to groups of people that by law God gave the law there for nations and for governments to hold and maintain and establish to protect their people to provide a stable peaceful environment and so that the law does lay out for these things he isn't speaking now you know in the Old Testament Moses was speaking to the legal matters not to the individual but here in the New Testament Jesus is speaking to the individual but he is not speaking nationally he isn't telling the nation how this is he's talking here to a person that's been through the Beatitudes a person that wants Christ to made me enthroned a person that wants that daily walk and that communion with God in their relationship how to maintain it and their attitudes towards God and towards other people personally but he's not speaking you know people go out and they want to say Jesus said resist not evil and they're anti you know anything that has to do with law and and when law even tries to deal with anything that's unlawful or immoral or evil as soon as law stands up they said resist not evil it's not the Christian thing to do that's not what he's talking about here at all but any rate here he is talking here to the person in the context of the Sermon on the Mount is poor in spirit they mourn over their sin they've asked Christ to be enthroned I want to walk with you I don't I don't want to drive you out by my anger towards other I don't want to drive you out by my covetous lustful heart towards others I don't want to drive you away from the throne of my heart because the fact I I make commitments I don't keep them I open my mouth and I and I say words and don't mean them and now he is he is now taking it on to another personal level within our own life and on how you know in that daily walk in communion with him and he's not talking here even about me as a citizen if there's something that has been happening to me if the IRS comes along and tells me I own a bunch of money and I don't know to him there's no problem going with it you know to fight it if you don't know it and there's no problem you know that it did Jesus here isn't talking about that he's not talking about you know my dealings with the government or dealings you know in a broader scale he's talking about my heart my fellowship with God and with man in the attitudes of my heart and this is what he is dealing with here and essentially here now in the second the section we're in here he simply has one issue almost though it he comes at it from about three different illustrations of verses and that is essentially now not only what my attitude towards people I don't like people of attitudes I shouldn't like and do in the wrong way or things or the world that I'm covetous or lustful about or commitments that I won't maintain that I've made or words that I take lightly now he looks at now what is my ongoing attitude towards myself and the best way to find out what your attitude towards yourself is is just to find out how it responds when other people how other people deal with it best way you can more you want to find out anything of what kind of a person you really are don't ask yourself and don't ask your mother you know they are something and you know in but here you ask the people that you struggle with just look in a sense it's your own life and because here now he looks and he says to us there he says I send you the resist not evil but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to him the other also and he gives us four little you know things here that he tells us on how to examine your own heart how do you think and you know about other people essentially and the first one is what do you do when somebody puts you down that's essentially what he's saying and you know you've heard you know that that I send you resist not evil whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek turn to him the other also now this by the way just to put it in context here what Jesus talking about is somebody you know you know he walks up to you on the street and hauls off and just slugged you because they want to rob you and give me your wallet and then you turn there well excuse me we got a little piece of scripture to finish first man turn the cheek you know something here so you can hit me again you know what this actually the concept here that he's talking about there is not against somebody protecting you know in a physical sense that's not what he's talking about here this is when he talks about you know turning the other cheek maybe you remember it's like some of the old swashbuckling or three musketeers type of stories you know or d'artagnan you know and you know and there where they'd go and they'd challenge somebody and they take their glove off and they would slap somebody in the cheek I mean it's humiliating you know sort of a thing and and there when when somebody does something that puts you down and somebody there humiliate you because now when they do that that's the way that they challenge you to a duel when somebody there wants to you have a sword fight or we're gonna watch you know that 15 paces or whatever and turn around and I'm gonna kill you but in order to do it we have to have a duel I want to take you down I don't like you or whatever else and they so they come up and they slap you and now you there's that just any self-respecting human being is now forced to do I mean now you're you're not a man any longer you've you you've given up your masculinity you're a wimp you know you're a fool in everybody's eyes and you don't look good and here at this point you know if you turn the other cheek there now you know you're a wimp and so you now have to when they do that everybody's looking at you and and so all right pick your weapon you know or whatever else and we're going to battle and this oftentimes has been misunderstood I heard a story of a fellow one time he's sharing Christ with a friend or somebody and probably not a friend obviously but he told him he's a Christian the guy says you're not a Christian he said I'm too Christian he says you're not and he said yes I am he said why do you say that he said well I have a very simple way to test it and he says what's that and he says do you mind if I do it he says no go ahead he hauls off and he slugs and the guy says the Bible says that you're to turn the other cheek he looks at him for a moment turns the other cheek guy hauls off slugs him again the fella starts rolling up his sleeves down he says hey what are you doing he says after that my Lord my Lord gave no further directions and but the but this is a challenge though this is when somebody's pride is being attacked when it's being when it's being put down and here Jesus is simply saying there that one of the things there about a man who supposedly is poor in spirit he mourns over his own sinfulness he hates his ego he hates his pride he hates his self-sufficiency he hates his self-respecting nature anyplace he's lost in God he wants to give his life fully over to him he has no identity he wants to protect supposedly anyway that's the life that Jesus is enthroned in and so now when somebody comes and they do something that just would get to you something there that just kind of smacks at your pride and and it can be you know they they put you down and something inside would want to rise you realize wait a minute Lord because even as that rises the throne goes Lord I don't want that I want you to stay on the throne more than I want my pride to be defended I want you to stay in power and enjoy and in peace within my heart more than I want to put them down you know in return more than I want to deal with them and when we realize that that is what it is that we ought to want so often something happens and we can just get so offended and everything in us rises up and we got to deal with them remember one time I was in college and I was coming home from Cal Poly Pomona on the 10 freeway and I had my little Volkswagen I'm driving along and I must have been daydreaming or something I don't know what I was doing but all of a sudden I hear this horn an 18-wheelers horn no less behind me that just I shocked me and I looked in my rearview mirror and there seemed like right on my bumper was this grill you know as I'm looking through my rearview mirror this great big 18-wheeler I don't know where he came from and the first shock was is when you see that you don't know if they're about to hit you or where they come from and you got one second before you're dead you know and then after I realized after a moment no he had control of his truck he just didn't want me in front of him and he didn't need a Volkswagen in front of his 18-wheeler well after I did a moment later I got you know I sat there and thought of that made all of a sudden that made me mad and I'm there sitting there so I decided you know I all right I don't I mean just stupid no justification for it but I just saw so I would just slow up a little and then I'd speed up a little and I kind of slow off and just let this guy then he's just little his lights in his horn everything's going I'm just having the greatest time getting back at him you know sort of a thing there you know you want to ruin my day I'm gonna ruin your day and then the next thing the lights are blinking horn and then he's sitting there and he's waving pull over pull over you know and stuff he wanted to take me on and I so then I decided at that point all right we'll do that and I wait back pull over so he starts to pull this is on the 10 freeway distance to San Marino so he pulls I pull off and I was really I was by this time I was so mad I was so living I why I was you know I don't know whether he what he thought was in there but I'm I'm a college guy and I'm tough buddy and you're gonna you know or something whatever I thought but I'll never get I get out of my car and I'm walking back and his truck is there and this 80 the door opens up and you know I was waiting for this guy to step down but he didn't step down he just stepped out I mean this guy was so huge he didn't he didn't come down he just I just well foot went down and I'm saying this guy I'm I'll never forget this because I'm there you know at least I'm getting in the first blow or something all I looked at this as soon as I saw that how big I turned right around got my books why I went off this I made some gesture probably to let him know that I wasn't afraid of him but I was gone but but me but pride gets us into these stupid things all the time we and and somebody and then but but the great cost of it isn't just that isn't just the fact that the blessing of the beatitudes oh how happy the happiness goes the throne goes the salt of the earth loses its savor the light of the world is about to get its own lights punched out you know or something in there you realize everything that I longed to have in my life has just been in the last you know five minutes on the freeway destroyed and then you drive it home and all the time you're explaining to somebody or whatever it is or you're nobody's there but you're going through it all in your mind in your own misery and here Jesus says this is precisely what happens to people somebody comes along and some little thing all the time and I think nor you they put you down or they don't feed your ego or something happens and you find yourself in trouble and in here and you know Jesus looks and he says these are the battles these are the issues they confront everyone not just you this is written two thousand years ago hundreds of millions of people that are made exactly the same as you and me have the same struggles and Jesus knows the battle and he says here's the plan here are the issues that the Christian looks at these are the battles I want to fight and I want to win not the ones on the road and not the ones with other people they don't I'm tired of even thinking I might have won some of those because every one of them cost me the life and the power and the flow of my Lord reigning as King and then he says if any man will sue thee at the law and take away thy coat let him have that cloak also now back then a lot of people they wore what were almost two coats or two new garments one was you know a kind of a fitted inner vest which is called a coat here and then there's the cloak which is more of you know an outer garment and in here do what happens is is that somebody comes along now and they sue you at the law in a sense and I don't think necessarily that Jesus talking about somebody actually filing suit although it definitely could be that as well but essentially somebody wants something that you have the right to have by all legal rights by all of what it is it is yours and somebody comes along and they infringe upon your rights on what you know to be your rights that are your space whatever it is it belongs to you and and they have no right to it at all but they're going to get it they're gonna come along and you look and there's somebody that they that they do something and and there an injustice is happening again right then something comes up within us that we just gotta make it right that is wrong that is dead wrong there's no way in the world I mean any self-respecting human being is to let people like this live like this and do this sort of stuff you know way in all a world I'm gonna stand by and let that happen in here Jesus essentially looks there and he says when somebody finds there that they did that they so desperately think they need your rights your space your something and that's gonna make him happy he looks at it and he says as a matter of fact give him more and give him your cloak also he wants your shirt give him your jacket when there is somebody there that comes along in a sense of rather than saying but you don't have it's not your shirt to my shirt and but here you know the thing is he looks there when somebody's gotta have some that isn't what made you happy hopefully having it what made you happy was the Beatitudes what made you was the life of Christ in throne what made you happy was having him rule and reign and now you found a greater happiness oh you used to have to have all that stuff you used to have to fight for your rights and I want this I want that and I'm gonna get this thing and you did that never made you happy you were the same way that they were to you but now he said when somebody is that way because you're salt and because you're light because you're happy and because your joy is doesn't even require that space or this thing and somebody's gotta have it give it to him you don't need it you don't need it at all I think the most wonderful thing that can ever happen to a Christian is when they come to our Lord I don't need anything for but you that's it and to have you in throne that's what I want and to have you there is King within my heart within my life and and we live in a day and age now where anything goes wrong anybody infringes on your rights just so you know sort of a thing and and that'll get their attention you know in fact the weirdest thing today I went home and there's in my mailbox there's a letter from an attorney and and it just had my address on it and I open this thing up I wonder what it is well there's an attorney down the street that had written a letter to all the neighbors and they're having water problems at their house and they don't know where it's coming from but anybody this is kind of gradually up the street they're serving them warning you better turn off your sprinklers and because there's damage being done and who knows who it's coming from and every I read that thing and something inside of me says you know I haven't killed an attorney all week you know I mean the first thing I mean that it can happen there I mean I'm said where's an attorney why didn't the guy come over and knock on my door I am your neighbor I got a water problem can you help me but instead you know on their legal paper they're just suggesting I mean it was written in such a way between the lines though you didn't have any problem figuring out what they want in you say well sue all through the world all through the neighborhood and you wanted to say boy would you I'd love you to come to our next block party you know or something because we need a block like you you know or something almost the immediate response I looked at that thing and instead I walked down knocked on the door and in find myself Lord this I said hey I see you have what you didn't I can do to help you and he said well where do you live I said just a few doors up here and I said I don't know what could be going on if there's anything I can do or with anybody you know I'd sure love to just see us all do great he ended up being the nicest guy all of a sudden and for at least a few minutes till he finds us coming from my house but the which I don't think it is but the he said well you're probably too far away but the thing some happens today soon just soon and you know you slip on a banana just get an attorney just get one will you will just start with Chiquita bananas you know we'll get the banana farm we'll get the banana fold both you know we'll get them you know the the dock workers will give the guys that delivered the bananas to the grocery store will sue the grocery store and the box boy they put the banana and your trunk is somebody there is going to be responsible for your problem and and when we have that type attitude that anything goes wrong I'm gonna find somebody that's the world we live in and here Jesus saying essentially there that when you're around people like this disarm them disarm them find out what you can do to help them in this that in he says you'll find also I'll remain in throne I'll give you the words to share with them I'll help you through these difficult awkward times and and you'll be salt of the earth you'll be the light of the world and you'll be happy when when when you're done with it when you walk away from it and but when we finally can learn these things when not to say you never in court and you know I'm a I'm things I know he's talking about relationships here my own heart he goes on in verse 41 he says whose service shall compel thee to go a mile go with him to there's something once again inside of us there Jesus saying you want me enthroned these are the things that happen to you all day long somebody put you down somebody wants to take advantage of you somebody wants to come along you got your agenda you got your plans somebody comes along infringes in your your space and says hey take this for me under Roman law back there at that time any you know Roman authority could come up to you centurion you just come and and compel you to carry a stuff for a mile for him no matter what you are what you're doing minding your own business whatever else he could just come right up you carry this and that the Jews were very bitter about that they were so angry you know this whole thing and maybe they would do it but they sure had one miserable mile walking with that guy and that guy sure had a miserable mile walking with him and they would make that no and here Jesus said you know when somebody takes advantage of you when somebody comes along and uses you and they mess up your agenda and they mess up your plans how do you react are they just an intrusion in your life saying hello what are you doing here you know I don't need you and I'm trying to he said right then as soon as this happens there's this you can just sense the throne being vacated you can just senses you know in the Jesus just saying okay you want to run it you go run it and you know the thing that he looks at us that because as far as Jesus concerned he loves doing stuff for people he loves you know you look at him all day long wherever he was people coming up and grabbing and in pushing and shoving and and where the disciples said stay away leave him alone and they're shoving off the kids and everybody and here Jesus he just looked there his life he just people relationships friendships they were so so wonderful dad to have and when we stop there and we realize there and you know that we're here for people a lot of times they don't seem to be here for us but a Christian ought to be here for people where you going what are you doing how can I help you a couple weeks ago I went into the DMV needed to get my address changed for my license and things and I walked in there and found my way around to the information booth and I work my way up to it and there's a lady sitting there at a desk and I come up and so I'm just I stand there and she's looking down but I knew she could see me but she kept looking down and I'm and I could see well I wanted to hello yeah I just come but I just well wait here for a moment she may be busy with something but I didn't know whether she was what she was doing maybe a little quiet time you know or something but anyway she's there and I knew she knew I was there and I just had this feeling that I don't know if they get very much but what they don't get in money they get in power you know sort of a thing and they make up your wages with authority you can make people wait you know or them so I just thought well I'll wait here you know and so I waited I just wonder how long until and I'm just kind of having this little thing going on within me so I'm gonna outwait her you know and sort of a thing here and and then finally after a little while she looked up and she had that look on her face like all right you outweighed me big deal you know or something what do you want you just and I just said I just need to know what I got to do to change my address I'm new down here and she points over and she says there on this thing over there you know you there's and there's the forms and I saw thank you that's so wonderful you that did not in and I just kind of smiled and she she almost smiled it was this kind of it but I'm sitting there and realizing I actually thought about what I'm standing there thinking you know something your own heart is you'd like to just sit there and just pick up the desk and just roll you then she'll turn it over oh excuse me I didn't know you know there's something or you want to sit there and say you know I'd like to change your address you know or something they're going but you sit there and just realize Lord is this worth the price is it worth the price because the price is is the witness is gone just my luck she goes here you know or something but the no I don't know I'm just I mean I'm just saying that would be my but here Jesus Jesus simply say life can be so simple if you want me in throne if you really want me as king he says give to him that ask of thee when somebody wants to borrow some just do it he looks there and here because he says if you really want me to be king you can handle any of these other things anyway you want to but the cost is always the same you'll lose my Lordship and if you're willing to pay that price then go ahead and let your eyes chase after that cute little gal or that thing you gotta have and you covet this or you you don't care that much if I'm king and Lord and you care more about it being hostile and angry then be hostile and angry until you're tired you know one of the wonderful things about life is getting old it's really a wonderful thing I honestly I think some people think I'm weird about this but I like getting old I really do and I find a lot of things that I used to have the energy you know to do dumb stuff about I'm getting you you know you just figured out Jesus this is not worth it used to be worth it somehow another I'd blow a whole day you know on this thing and my fellowship with you but I'm done I'm getting too old you know for this I and I just want to stay in communion with you I just want to stay in fellowship with you isn't worth it to me Lord forgive me and help me these are the battles these are the real issues of life when somebody is looking there and saying Lord in Jesus he loves he didn't know I don't if he loves but he doesn't mind the competition he looks there and he says I'm willing to compete with your heart whether you want it to hate or you want it to love and I'll let you choose and whether you want to lust and covet or whether you want me and whether you want to make really commitments and keep them and or or or and forget them or you want my presence and power to help you keep those commitments and if when you open your mouth you want to speak the truth or you want to make up stories or you want me these are the issues that so often we are constantly making choices and when I sit there and say Jesus I want you as my king and I want it so bad I don't want to hate anymore I want it so bad I'm so sick and tired of coveting and lusting I wanted so bad I'm tired of making commitments and not keeping them I'm tired of opening my mouth and just saying stuff that isn't true and I know it but I'm just buying myself some time and then when I I want it so bad that when somebody puts me down that this pride that ought to be dead anyway Lord help it stay dead and when somebody wants some space let him have it let him have it when these are the things that we want most of all this is the sermon of the mount this is the battle of life these are the battles you and I are fighting day by day and as Jesus lays it out he simply looks he says what do you want because once I'm enthroned if you want to keep me enthroned these are the things that get me off these are the things that remove my my power my spirit the flow of my love these are the battles every one of us ought to be longing to fight and win the victory in Christ amen father we thank you for your word Lord we thank you for your wonderful love for us and that you see these battles Lord that you look at us and then you tell us this is exactly what the Christian life is all about these are the real battles and Lord I pray that if tonight maybe we have something about us that are just pride are somebody just couldn't say some little thing that puts us down somebody doesn't acknowledge us and all of a sudden we're picking weapons we're ready to duel it out Lord may we realize it isn't just the friend that we've got or the enemy or whatever else that we're dueling in with we already really lost the battle with you we already just set you aside said I'll take over or Lord when somebody comes into our space steps in line in front of us in the store and for whatever reason instead of having to defend or what do you think you're doing or maybe I'll just look and smile and opportunity just a smile and say how are you give him the space and then also Lord give him something extra give him some love give him some peace give him some joy give him a word from you being able to say that's all right I'm not in that big a hurry just love to have a moment tell you how good God's been to me have a great day Lord that in the sense of having to protect and defend our life and our image and our identity Lord that we can just look and say Lord everything I am belongs to you help me learn just to see that my life is being poured out given away surrendered to others Lord that we can truly be salt and light and that we can have the continued blessing of you being enthroned within our lives in Jesus name