1. "Competition is great when the goal of what you're doing is winning. But in other contexts, competition can just distract us from the actual goal. When the actual goal is not winning, the truth is in relationships, competition poisons everything. Competition is a cancer that can spread to every corner of our heart and kill off the love that we would have for that person."

2. "My sanctification, my growth in Jesus is not mainly some kind of self-improvement plan where I can be the best me. It doesn't just have to do with me. It has to do with the glory of the God that made me and the souls of other people who need to know him."

3. "Sometimes we think people are drawn to Jesus because we seem perfect to them. Sometimes when we're trying to seem perfect, it pushes people away from him because they think if that's what it takes to know Jesus, I could never be that person."

4. "Our entire eternity and joy and hope is built on us not getting what we deserve. The things that we come to rooms like this to sing about and exalt in—how there's this merciful, gracious God who hasn't treated us according to what we deserve. And then we have the nerve for somebody to wrong us and say, but that's not what they deserve."

5. "We love receiving grace. We love to sing about receiving grace. We love feeling better about the grace of Jesus. And then we receive so much grace and we don't want to share any of that grace and mercy with anybody else. In any other scenario, we would call somebody like that greedy. Do not be greedy with grace."

6. "A lack of charity is just evidence of an abundance of pride. An unwillingness to give that charity to somebody else just shows the pride in your own heart."

7. "Some of us live our whole lives thinking we've got to go around and settle every score. That's a burden you're carrying with you that you don't have to, especially when there's a perfect judge who's already said, 'I got it. Give me that.'"

8. "We can convince ourselves that the times are so dire that love can be put to the side because of how important it is for our side to win. I want to encourage you, there is no cultural climate that means we can throw love overboard."

9. "When Jesus calls us to overcome evil with good in the way that we live our life, Jesus is saying, I want you to live as if what I've already done has actually happened. I want you to live as if I actually died on the cross and resurrected. I want you to live as if you know I'm coming back to make all things right."

10. "We think about being on the right side of history—I can't think of a better side of history than to be with the one, the good, just, holy Judge who overcomes evil."

Observation Questions

1. According to Romans 12:17, what two instructions does Paul give regarding how believers should respond when evil is done to them?

2. In Romans 12:18, what qualifier does Paul include when he commands believers to live at peace with everyone, and what does this suggest about the nature of peacemaking?

3. What reason does Paul give in Romans 12:19 for why believers should not take revenge, and what Old Testament quotation does he use to support this command?

4. According to Romans 12:20, what specific actions does Paul instruct believers to take toward their enemies, and what result does he say this will produce?

5. In Romans 12:14-16, what contrasting behaviors does Paul command regarding how believers should treat those who persecute them and how they should relate to one another?

6. What is the final command Paul gives in Romans 12:21, and how does it summarize the entire passage's teaching on responding to evil?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why do you think Paul emphasizes being "careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone" (v. 17) in the context of responding to those who wrong us? How does our response to mistreatment affect our witness for Christ?

2. What does Paul mean when he says to "leave room for God's wrath" (v. 19)? How does understanding God as a perfect judge free us from the burden of seeking our own revenge?

3. The sermon emphasized that "competition poisons relationships." How does the passage's teaching about not repaying evil for evil challenge our natural tendency to turn every interaction into a competition we want to win?

4. How does the phrase "if your enemy is hungry, feed him" (v. 20) demonstrate that Christianity is not a barter system? What does this reveal about the nature of Christian love compared to worldly reciprocity?

5. The sermon connected this passage to Jesus's work on the cross, stating that "Jesus was overcoming evil, literally." How does Christ's example of loving His enemies while dying for them inform our understanding of what it means to "overcome evil with good"?

Application Questions

1. Think of a current relationship where you feel wronged or where conflict exists. What would it look like this week to actively "pursue peace" rather than waiting for the other person to make the first move?

2. The sermon warned against being "greedy with grace"—loving to receive it but reluctant to give it. Is there someone in your life you have rationalized withholding forgiveness from? What specific step could you take to extend grace to them?

3. How do you typically respond when someone cuts you off in traffic, criticizes you unfairly, or slights you in a small way? What would it look like to pause and remember God's grace to you before reacting?

4. The sermon mentioned that in polarizing cultural times, we can convince ourselves that "love can be put to the side" because the issues are so important. In what area of cultural disagreement do you need to guard your heart against vitriol and recommit to loving those who oppose your views?

5. Consider someone you would describe as an "enemy" or a difficult person in your life. What is one concrete act of kindness or service (like feeding or giving drink) you could do for them this week, regardless of how they have treated you?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Matthew 5:38-48 — Jesus teaches His disciples to love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them, providing the foundation for Paul's instructions in Romans 12.

2. 1 Peter 2:18-25 — Peter describes how Christ responded to suffering and insults without retaliation, entrusting Himself to the righteous Judge, which the sermon directly referenced.

3. Romans 5:6-11 — Paul explains that Christ died for us while we were still sinners and enemies of God, demonstrating the ultimate example of loving one's enemies.

4. Genesis 50:15-21 — Joseph refuses to take revenge on his brothers who sold him into slavery, trusting that God meant their evil for good, illustrating the principle of overcoming evil with good.

5. Luke 23:32-43 — Jesus, while being crucified, asks the Father to forgive those killing Him and promises paradise to a repentant criminal, showing how He loved His enemies even in death.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Opening: The Danger of Playing a Different Game

II. Pursue Peace (Romans 12:17-18)

III. Don't Take Revenge (Romans 12:19)

IV. Do Good to Your Enemies (Romans 12:20-21)

V. Closing: Jesus Overcame Evil Through the Cross

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Detailed Sermon Outline

Good morning. Good morning.

How y'all doing this morning? Good. Who's this over here? God bless you. You're so responsive.

We're going to be friends today.

Good morning. It's really good to see all of y'all. When Mark said it was 10 years ago that I came on staff here, I grieved a little bit because I didn't realize I'd lost that many years in between then and now. But I'm really, really grateful to be here. It's been longer than I thought it had and I think that's in part because I feel the effect of this church on my life and my family and the way that I serve other people so much still and so just, you know, this feels like home in a lot of ways.

And so I'm really grateful to get to be here with you today and to get to preach God's Word and I want to just pray one more time and then we'll read and ask God to help us understand what he has to say. Father, we come before you again in Jesus' name. Father, we thank you so much for this opportunity to listen to you and your word. Father, we ask that this would not be, that this wouldn't be a time of man's opinions being thrown around, Father. This wouldn't be a time to pat ourselves on the back for hearing a good message, Father, that this would be a time for our hearts to hear from you, Father, that you would speak to us, Father, there's no There's no way for me to say anything that will change someone's heart.

The only thing I can do, Father, is lay out what you've said and ask that your Spirit would do that work. So, Father, we pray you would do that. We pray you would be worshiped, you would be glorified, and that we would be more like you. And we ask in Jesus' name, amen.

I'm going to read the text. Romans 12:1-2.

Starting at verse 14. This is what God's Word says. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice.

Mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil.

Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. That's God's word.

I happen to be a sports fan. I love sports. I love watching sports. I'm very good at watching sports. I'm not very good at playing them, but I'm very good at watching them.

And as I pay really close attention to sports, especially basketball in particular, you see things that athletes do, things they're allowed to do, things they're not allowed to do. Playoffs so far, there have been some very strange flagrant fouls called. And it bothered me so much that it came up in a sermon just now. But there are rules that athletes have to follow. There are things that athletes are not allowed to do because it would be considered cheating, right?

They can't take steroids. You can't try to injure a player from another team. And apparently in the NBA, you can't breathe on anybody either.

Another kind of cheating that's very different, but it's still not allowed is gambling on the game if you're on one of the teams. You're not allowed to do that in any league, in part because if you gamble on these games, it can change your motivations in how you play. So you could have players who bet on their team to lose and then go out and throw the game, right? Pete Rose, a baseball player, was banned from the sport forever for gambling on the games. And you can see why it would be a big deal because it's not just that that player losing the game.

You have teammates who are working hard, you have fans who come to play and watch two teams try to win, makes a sport look bad, all of that. And part of why it's bad is that you thought there was a goal, there was the team winning this game, but then you had one person who was okay to lose that main goal because they were playing a whole different game over here.

And it's impossible to be trying to lose and be trying to win at the same time. It's a conflict of interest. There is a kind of conflict of interest that can show up in our own lives as well. Because there is in our world, of course we serve a good God, but there's of course also evil in this world. And in our particular days and in our particular interactions, we have opportunities to think about what it looks like for us to represent the cause of the God of the universe who will win all things.

But there are other things that can creep up and make us begin to play a different game altogether. And when we begin to compromise in that way, pointing to the good and the glory of this good God, you know, can start to become secondary. And there's a lot at stake with this too, because we're not just talking about you giving into evil in a particular moment. We're also talking about the way it reflects on that God that you call your Father. We're talking about the way that it reflects on the rest of God's people, God's witness in the world.

So it matters that we don't get caught up in some extra game, that we don't get caught up in some kind of different goals, different motivations. And this is one of the things Paul is talking about in this text, right when he says, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. If you just walk away with one sentence today, I want you to walk away with that one, overcome evil with good. I wonder if y'all have ever had to encounter any conflict with difficult people. Of course you have.

All of us have to deal with conflict, especially with difficult people. You can't avoid it. You have to deal with difficult people at work. You have to deal with difficult people when you get home from work. Some of y'all are thinking, I'm sitting next to a difficult person right now.

Just blink twice if you agree.

And, you know, the conflict that comes in relationships is something that is just going to be true for all of us. If I was to ask you even, you know, what are some of the hardest things in your life right now? A lot of those things you bring up would be related to difficult relational conflict. You know, there can be a work situation that feels like it's going really well, and relational conflict can really sour that. It can be a sweet season in your family.

Relational conflict can really sour that. And that's just going to be a reality of our life. Here's the thing that's really interesting though.

We're tempted to respond to conflict. We're tempted to respond when we feel we're wrong by doing wrong back to somebody. That's how we're tempted to respond right away. I remember I saw somebody on social media with a shirt that said, I'm saved, but you can still catch these hands. And I thought, I looked for it in Romans.

I didn't see it. That is not how Jesus calls us to respond to being wrong, though we're tempted to, even if we're not trying to throw hands. Even if we're not trying to box somebody, which I say even if, hopefully we're not trying to box somebody. If you're trying to box, let's talk after, because there's a lot to talk through. But what Jesus calls us to is to respond in a completely different way, and of course it can all be summed up by love.

So in this chapter of Romans, chapter 12, if you read the book of Romans and you know how Paul writes his letters, he'll go through and he'll lay out this huge, big gospel, the incredible grace of Jesus, what God has done our need for a savior. He's done that here in Romans. And then what happens when it gets to verse 13? Verse 12, as he starts to in very specific ways help us understand how should we live in light of all of this incredible gospel truth, we're justified by faith in Jesus, right? How should we begin to live now?

There's no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus, all of these things. And what he'll often do is when he begins to tell us how we're supposed to live, he'll talk about how we interact with one another and how we interact with other people in the world. You'll see these kind of love commands. Popping up, and that's exactly what he does here in chapter 12. And not only that, not only for how they should interact with one another, but also for the hostile world around them.

What does it look like when people wrong us? What should our faith in Jesus do? And we're gonna focus mainly on verses 17 to 21, but you know, when he's right there in verse 14, he begins to say things that sound a lot like what Jesus has said about the way that we should interact with people. You know, verse 14, Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Right, that sounds a lot like Jesus saying, but I tell you, love your enemies.

Pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. Not only that, he says, rejoice with those who rejoice, mourn with those who mourn, live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, be willing to associate with people of low position, do not be conceited. One of the things we see right away is that the way that we interact with other people is not finally decided by how they've interacted with us.

If we're to be followers of Jesus, the thing that we mainly consider and how we interact with people is not just going to be what they've done to us, that there's a completely other way that God has called us to do this. Curse doesn't mean you curse back. So we're going to look at three ways to overcome evil in this passage, and we're going to start with this first one. Number one is pursue peace. Pursue peace.

And as we go through these, I think these apply in some broad ways and in some very specific ways in relationship. So Paul's saying in verse 17, do not repay anyone evil for evil. Show me the right away. Paul knows what our temptation will be when evil is done to us. Sometimes it's the first thing that pops into our mind as soon as somebody, you know, says something or does something crazy to us.

We want to do it back. It can even be small stuff. Like you text somebody and they don't text you back right away. And then when they do text you, you might be looking at your phone, but you're like, I'm not going to respond right back. They took a long time, but they think they're more important than me.

And we can just begin to do these strange things in our mind very easily. And part of it is, we're always creating these little competitions in our own soul for the way we want to win. There's something about human nature and the way that we interact, we turn every interaction into a competition. I mean, one of the ways I see this most clearly is with my kids, who can literally turn any interaction into a competition. You know, who finished their food first?

You know, it's like, It's like, Dad, I already ate all these wings. And I'm like, Son, I don't care. I don't say that. But I think that's not the goal of eating. Or, you know, who gets to bed?

Who brushes their teeth faster? Even when they get in trouble, they're quick to point out how the other one should have gotten in trouble. They want to come out on top of all the situations. But let's not limit that to children. You know, we could be driving in the sense of competition will come out.

You could be just driving, and then somebody decides, to pass you. It's like, you're just gonna pass me? That's what we're doing? Oh, I'm driving too slow for you? And so then, and I don't know you, but I know you've done this.

When they do begin to pass you, you try to just very slightly, like you don't want them to see you gassing it, but you want just not let them so that they get stuck behind that other car. And then they have to get back behind you. And then for 10 minutes, you're driving like a NASCAR driver for no reason at all. This person doesn't know you, they don't care about you, they don't know y'all are having this race, they're just trying to get somewhere else. But what happens is there's just this sense of competition in us that wants to come out on top of all kinds of interactions even when there's no competition present.

And a lot of times we leave ourselves feeling foolish at the end of it. But here's the thing, competition is great when the goal of what you're doing is winning. If you're playing a pickup basketball game, competition is great. You're playing a board game, that's fine, though that can go bad too.

But in other contexts, competition can just distract us from the actual goal. When the actual goal is not winning, the truth is in relationships, competition poisons everything.

Competition is a cancer that can spread to every corner of our heart and kill off the love that we would have for that person. There is no way in scripture where we are instructed to try to win an interaction with somebody, to just come out on top. We can seek somebody's good, we can try to persuade somebody. But you cannot be committed to the good of others if your main goal is beating them in something. Because then you're just self-interested.

Right? So he says, do not repay evil for evil. And that word repay means just what it sounds like. It's to give back, to return. Because what we want to do is we want to make a trade.

Okay, you've done that to me. You gave me that. And we turn it into a weird transaction. And, you know, it could look a lot of ways. It could look like a co-worker, you know, talking about you, talking about your performance, and so you do the same thing.

It could look for you feeling persecuted for your faith, and so the way you respond is to attack that person who's persecuting you for your faith. It could look like your spouse being cold to you, and so you're going to be cold and return to your spouse. It could look a lot of ways. But this is precisely what he's telling us. Not to do.

And he gives us one of the reasons why we shouldn't do that. He says, Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. Now, be careful tells us that this is something that we need to give a lot of thought to. Right? This doing what's right in the eyes of everyone is something that should take up time in our prayer and our reflection and the way we think about interacting with people.

And when he says, to do what's right in the eyes of everyone, it may sound like an impossible command. It's hard to do something that makes everybody happy. Just ask whoever's in charge of music on a road trip. You can't make everybody happy.

He's not telling us we should be people pleasers. That, you know, when you go to work tomorrow, you should just go around the office, you know, just taking a poll of what everybody thinks of you. Any decision you make, you should be like, hey, how would this feel to you? Right? We're not supposed to turn ourselves into little politicians always trying to get our approval numbers up.

That is not what he's calling us to do. What he is calling us to do is to live in a way that reflects well on our savior. To live in a way where we can be above reproach, where people can't point to a bunch of ways that we've dishonored God. He's calling us to, it kind of reminds me of what Peter says in 1 Peter 2, where he says, Dear friends, I urge you as foreigners, exiles, to abstain from sinful desires which wage war He says, Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us. He's telling those Christians, Hey, live such good lives that even though you're a believer and they know that and they would love to use that as a strike against you, they can't find anything bad to say about you and instead they glorify God.

One of the things that reminds me of is that my sanctification, my growth in Jesus is not mainly some kind of self-improvement plan where I can be the best me. It doesn't just have to do with me. It has to do with the glory of the God that made me and the souls of other people who need to know him. So when he says, Be careful to do what's right in front of everyone, he's saying, Live your life in a way that says good things about the God that you say saved you. And this comes into, I mean, this is even more clear when it comes to personal conflict than with other things.

Of course, you don't want, when you interact with other people, even if they've wronged you, you don't want them to remember you as the man or the woman or the boy or the girl who responded to a slight by trying to hurt them back. He's saying, don't repay evil for evil. Be careful to do what's right in the eyes of everyone. So one of the things that I want to say is that if we are to live in this above reproach way, we need each other to do that. One of the things that we need is we need other brothers and sisters to encourage us to conduct ourselves a certain way.

This means it's okay for you to say to somebody like, hey, I saw how you responded. You responded very defensively in a way that wasn't super helpful. That's a good thing to do. We need each other to do that because if we are as the body of Christ gonna be a collective witness to the goodness of Jesus, and we all know that we're kind of limping through this thing together, then sometimes we need to help each other to limp to the goal. Y'all following me?

Okay. Now this could get out of hand and turn into people pleasing, right? So I'm not encouraging you to do that. I want you to check your motives. I don't want you to just think about your reputation in terms of your reputation.

I want you to think about your reputation in a way that it testifies to God. Now obviously, I think part of our reputation is that when we do do things that do not honor God, we don't pretend it never happened. We actually say, yes, this is actually the reason I need to say you've heard me talk about. We shouldn't think, oh, I messed up in public and now I am just lost, my witness is gone forever. One of the ways that we show people what it's like to follow Jesus is that we acknowledge when we mess up and we turn around and we continue to try to follow Jesus.

And a side note that I'm going to regret later because I have too many things to say is this. Sometimes we think people are drawn to Jesus because we seem perfect to them. Sometimes when we're trying to seem perfect, it pushes people away from him because they think if that's what it takes to know Jesus, I could never be that person. The kind of honesty and transparency and repentance that says, actually I am a mess and that's why I need Jesus, is one of the things that shows people how incredible His grace is. This is what he says in verse 18.

Paul says, if it's possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. One of the things I love about what Paul says is, Paul lives in the real world. The Bible speaks to the real world. You are not going to be best friends with everybody.

And there will be some times where you seek peace with people and you're not really able to do it. Now, I will say this, that it made my life easier in some ways. Easier is maybe not the word. It helped me to be more at rest when I realized that there were going to be some times when my relationships with people weren't great.

Or that people would feel badly about me, but that how they felt wasn't necessarily just running parallel to how well I had loved them. And so that what I had to do when I thought about my faithfulness to God is think, did I love them in the way that Jesus called me to? If I have not, and that's the reason they feel that way, then I have some work to do. But if I have and they still feel that way, then that's okay. I remember one time talking to a brother and saying, hey, whenever we spend time together, I just feel like really judged by you, bro.

And, you know, and I've talked to a few other people and they, they, you know, feel similarly. And he was like, I don't think so. We had a long conversation and it kept ending with I don't think so. And to me, I went to him because I felt burdened, like I feel a strange way towards you and I want to work through that. And either I didn't say it well enough or he just wasn't ready to hear that yet, but what I felt like I had done was I had tried to be faithful to seek peace with my brother.

And it's okay sometimes. So this is why he says, As far as it depends on you. Now here's the thing, that doesn't mean you get to just accept that and don't try. That doesn't mean it's like, well they probably won't hear me if I try to pursue peace with this person.

It's still an active peace that we have to pursue. Now living at peace doesn't just mean we're not fighting or screaming at each other. It means we are removing the barriers between us. There's been some reconciliation. Just because we're not best friends with everybody doesn't mean we get to let conflict sit and build and stay in a way that doesn't honor God.

So here's what I encourage you not to do. And spouses do this often. We'll think like, oh, well, I'm good if they're good. But we already know they're not good. And so we kind of tell ourselves, it's okay.

I want to encourage you to be intentional, to take initiative at seeking peace with other people. And one of the reasons I think that's Christ-like is because that's literally what Jesus did. We sinned against God. We were separated from God and God in his love, though he was not the one who did the offending or who did any wrong. He came after us and he made great sacrifice and he came to get us and we tried to run away from him and he kept showing his grace to us and wooing us and dragging us to himself.

If we want to be like Jesus, it doesn't mean we just sit around and hope that peace happens. What Jesus calls us to do is to go after peace, to seek peace. Jesus says, Blessed are the peacemakers. Scripture calls Jesus the Prince of Peace. We have peace in Jesus.

Jesus that should show up in our relationships. A couple things I'll say before we move to point two is I want to encourage you not to be, so we may be like thinking of someone who's a difficult person and we want to pursue peace with, I want to encourage you, don't be the person other people are thinking about. Don't be the person who's doing evil to someone that they have to keep trying not to repay you with evil, to think about how you're interacting with others. And I also want to encourage you not not to blame all of your issues on the conflict of other people around you. Sometimes we think about this, we're like, oh, they always bring up conflict, they're always doing evil, and we never take a moment to look at ourselves and we wonder why so many of our relationships are in shambles and we're the common denominator.

So it's a good thing to inspect our own hearts and ask people around us because we have blind spots. First thing is we need to pursue peace. First way to overcome evil with good. Number two, is don't take revenge. Don't take revenge.

Revenge is something that we, as a concept, all of us are familiar with. It's the plot of countless movies. Some movies, that's the whole plot. Something terrible happens in the first minute. It's like, you killed my father.

And then for the rest of the movie, you're like, When are you gonna stab him? Is it now? Is it later? When are you gonna get him back? And the way these movies tell the story, it makes you, like, rejoice in that revenge that happens.

Like, you got him. That is not how Scripture encourages us to think about being wronged. To spend the rest of our lives finding a way to get that revenge. This is what he says in verse 19, Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, It is mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord. Revenge is assessing the damage somebody did to you and then trying to find a way to do that exact same damage to them.

And it's not always grand or drastic and of course we want to. Sometimes the reason why we want to do that is because have you ever felt like I can't just let them get away with that? Ever trying to forgive somebody for something they did to you and thought, but I'm the one who was hurt and then they just get to go on with their life like nothing happened that doesn't feel fair. That feels unjust.

Well, what Paul is telling us here is that we shouldn't think that way like, oh, but I can't just let them walk and feel okay. That's not what they deserve because we of all people should understand that sometimes people are not responded to in the ways they deserve. Our entire eternity and joy and hope is built on us not getting what we deserve.

The things that we come to rooms like this to sing about and exalt in and sing scriptures about how there's this merciful, gracious God who hasn't treated us according to what we deserve. And then we have the nerve for somebody to wrong us and say, but that's not what they deserve. All the while Jesus is saying, I want you to think about what you said a little bit. Scripture is always saying, forgive because you've been forgiven. Be merciful because you've been merciful.

You know, we love receiving grace. We love to sing about receiving grace. We love feeling better about the grace of Jesus. And then we receive so much grace. Thank you, God, for your grace.

Thank you, God, for your mercy. And then we don't want to share any of that grace and mercy with anybody else. In any other scenario, we would call somebody like that greedy. Do not be greedy with grace. Don't be happy to receive it and then reluctant to ever give it out.

And one of the things we'll do is we will rationalize every time we've ever wronged somebody. We'll be like, yes, did I trip him when he came in? Yes. But, you know, I was starting to get a little cold. I wasn't feeling and we'll come up with all the excuses and we'll rationalize.

And then if somebody wrongs us in even the slightest way, we turn into fake activists. Like, no, but injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. It's like, we need to apply that same grace to others that Jesus has given us. And what it's gonna require is, you know, we'll think all deeply about all the reasons that we wronged somebody, but we will never take a moment to think about what's behind what somebody may have done to us. You notice sometimes asking yourself why somebody may have done something will help you to be more gracious with them.

It'll help you not to demonize them. It'll help you not to assume the very worst of their motives so that even if what they did was wrong, this is a human being made in the image of God who deserves grace and mercy like you do. A lack of that charity, a lack of charity is just evidence of an abundance of pride. An unwillingness to give that charity to somebody else just shows the pride in your own heart. In verse 16, Paul had said, you know, live in harmony with one another.

Do not be proud. Be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. And it feels very connected to this conversation about not repaying evil for evil. Sometimes we think, I can't let them get away with that because we think we're such important people.

One of the most helpful things I read early on in my marriage, in a book was, When your spouse sins against you, their first and foremost almost sinning against God.

And that helped me not to overly personalize every time I was wrong because I was reminded, oh, one of the roles of me and my spouse's life is to help them honor and serve God more. I want to seek her good. I'm not just thinking about the way that, you know, my feelings were hurt in this situation. It's not saying my feelings don't matter. But one of the reasons we can't let stuff go is because we are conceited, because we are proud.

And the same heart that would say I can only associate with important people is the same heart that would say how dare you commit a wrong act against an important person like me. Now this is not to say we just let people walk all over us and let people wrong us and we never care about anything, but it is to say we don't repay evil with evil and we seek peace.

This is what it says verse 19 leave room for God's wrath for it is written it is mine to avenge I will repay One of the things Paul is saying to us is, hey, y'all stay in your place. Play your role. God literally says it is mine to avenge. We are not the judge. We may be a victim in a particular situation.

We are not the judge. We are out here trying to do vigilante justice, take justice into our own hands. And one of the problems with that is we are bad judges. We're not very good at it. You know, ask any, you know, friends who like to do a lot of pranks, somebody always takes it way too far.

Or there's this story I remember reading a while ago. Auburn fans, Auburn football fans had taped a Cam Newton jersey on a statue on Alabama's campus. And they were furious about this. And so one Auburn fan decided, okay, I'm going to get them back. And there was this beautiful tree in the center of Auburn's campus.

It was hundreds of years old. And it was like just the center of their community life. And so what he does is he goes there every morning in secret and he poisons that tree a little bit. And of course that tree dies and it's a horrific thing. And it's a big deal, it's a crime.

And to that you would say, bro, they taped a jersey on a statue. Like that is way overboard. And the way and he ended up getting that $800,000 fine in three years in prison. He got caught because he called into a radio station bragging about it. He was like, you,'re not even good at this.

You shouldn't be good at revenge, but he was not good at revenge. But here's the thing, it's like, okay, something happened that offended him, but we're not good at deciding what kind of judgments always belong for particular things. But then there's a God who is a perfect judge. There's a God who sees all things. We're talking about the God of the universe who doesn't have to gather evidence to understand what's going on.

We're talking about a God of the universe, a perfect judge who does not need lawyers to come in and plead someone's case. A God who can't be removed from the bench. A God who doesn't need oversight. A God who is an absolute perfect judge and yet we say, no, God, let me do that. And God is saying, that's mine.

That justice is mine. We should not try to rob God of what he says He will do. Scripture is clear that even as we read that passage earlier in Psalm 94, you know, the Lord is a God who avenges. Rise up, judge of the earth. Pay back to the proud what they deserve.

I've been reading the Psalms lately, and it's just over and over again. You see David in the Psalms just rejoicing in the judgment of God that will come, that God will make all things right. Especially when we think about how evil our world seems when on a regular Saturday someone goes and they shoot nine people at a mall for absolutely no reason. And there's sometimes where it seems like, man, is evil actually winning? Is evil gonna win this fight?

I think one of the glories of knowing the God of the universe is the hope and the joy and the glory and the fact that God will absolutely win. That evil will not win. That God is a perfect judge with perfect justice. No one's ever had to look back at his cases and see if there was any corruption And I think that should give us some cause to rejoice and to hope. But the way he's talking about it in this passage, it should also give us a freedom to not feel like we have to avenge every wrong ourself.

And I want you to know there's freedom in that. Some of us live our whole lives thinking we've got to go around and settle every score. That's a burden you're carrying with you that you don't have to, especially when there's a perfect judge who's already said, I got Give me that. We don't have to walk around with that bitterness. We don't have to walk around trying to repay.

God has already said, Give me that, that's mine. And one of the amazing things about not doing this revenge is God's not just saying, Give it up just because it's the right thing to do, though of course he can say that. He's saying, Give it up, and that doesn't mean there won't be any justice. It means there'll be better justice, and you can free your heart and mind and soul of it. God is saying that vengeance It's mine.

God is a perfect judge. And all of us will have to stand before God. All of us will have to give an account. Scripture says every word will have to account to God for. And it'll be the same for every person that we interact with.

Jesus, or it talks about Jesus in 1 Peter. And this is what Peter says when they hurled the insults at him. He did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

Firstly, if Jesus, the Son of God, who is being murdered and insulted by those who he created, and he can entrust God with that judgment, then I think we can as well. We're to overcome evil with good. Last way, number three is to do good. Do good, pursue peace, avoid revenge, number three, do good. And this is where some people want to get off the boat, where it's going too far.

Verse 20, he says, On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. An enemy is somebody who is on the opposite side God of us own something.

And he's saying, not only do you not do revenge, you actually do good to them. And one of the reasons is that Christianity or following Jesus is not a barter system. We don't only do good to others when they do good to us. So not only do we not repay evil for evil, but we also don't repay good for good. When we interact with people, we don't think, all right, but hold on, should I help him move?

Let me think about your track record. Nah, you ain't speak to me last week. Let me think. And go through the scripture to decide if we're gonna do good. That's actually not how Jesus has called us to interact with others.

He's called us to love our neighbors. So it's not, if you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours. It's even if you stab me in my back, I'll scratch yours. Even though that seems counterintuitive to feed your enemy if they're hungry, and to give them something to drink if they're thirsty. This is not boxing.

We're not trying to counterpunch and make the enemy weaker. When we make this competition out of everything, Right? Have you ever been so mad about something that it just clouds your entire judgment? One of the things that comes with trusting Jesus with that justice is we can focus on loving people. We can focus on loving them, seeking their good.

And one of the things that makes me think about this, because even in the book of Romans, these Roman Christians, they were in a culture who was very much much opposed to people following Jesus. There was a lot of persecution that they were feeling. And one of the things about this time and our culture is some of us may be at a place where we feel like our culture is increasingly hostile to anything that seems Christian. That people want to excommunicate any view that sounds anything like something Jesus would say. And they seem to be getting increasingly aggressive about it.

Maybe that's how you feel. And so one of the things I want to ask you is how should you respond to what I know from this text is that the answer is not responding with more aggression. And I think in a time like ours was, you know, super polarizing and everybody's mad all the time, being mad at somebody is our favorite national pastime. It's surpass baseball.

We can convince ourselves that the times are so dire that love can be put to the side. Because of how important it is for our side to win. The culture, the issues we're talking about are so important that that love stuff is a thing of the past. Oh, we don't have time for that. That's not how the other side fights.

This could be in all different kinds of cultural issues. I want to encourage you, there is no cultural climate that means we can throw love overboard. There's no cultural climate that means we no longer need to be like Jesus in the way that we interact with people. In fact, instead of responding with more aggression, Jesus calls us if the enemy is hungry feed him, if he's thirsty give him something to drink. So this means when there's somebody who seems on the opposite side of something to us and something bad happens to him, we don't rejoice in somebody's downfall.

We should not become so desensitized to the joys and sorrows of other people, right? He talks about mourning with those who mourn, rejoicing with those who rejoice, feeding those who are hungry, We can't excuse what Jesus has called us to. So this is one thing I want to say. We have to guard our hearts against the kind of vitriol against the stuff in our culture that feels polarizing, that we can still love those. So that means guarding our heart in conversations.

If I'm having conversations with people and I always leave more mad, I should ask myself, I should keep having those conversations. If people leave conversations with you more mad, you ever seen somebody so mad about what someone has done to them and you're like, like, I want to be on their side. I want to encourage you it's okay sometimes. And God has called us to help each other, to love our enemies in particular issues, even in really heated cultural issues. There's no cultural climate that overtakes our obligation to love.

And I just want to remind you, love is the victory we should be chasing. They're looking like Jesus is the victory we should be chasing after. Here's what he says in verse 20 here. He says, In doing this, the feeding and the giving something to drink, you will heat burning coals on his head. This, I'm sure for some people was like, I'm waiting to get to this verse because I don't know what that means.

I don't even have any coals at the house.

Well, I will say this, that scholars are a little torn on what exactly he means. It could mean some acts of kindness that increase someone's guilt and shame. Like I'm so loving and kind to them they feel shame at what they've done or, you know, coals of fire, there were some ancient rituals where those coals of fire really like symbolized someone's mind being changed because of a deed of love. We don't know exactly what he means by the burning coals. We know it's okay if you don't have coals at the house.

It's not literal in that way. What we do know is he's talking about in the midst of this responding to evil with good. Continuing to seek the good, the well-being, even of those who've offended you. And the last thing he says, verse 21, Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. This entire passage is a reminder to us of the way God calls us to interact with one another and with those in the world, no matter what the situation is.

And I just want to say this, if you're here today and you don't know Jesus and you're And you wonder whether or not Jesus and the God of the Bible is vindictive towards his enemies. I just want you to know this. Jesus, in this passage, calls us to love his enemies. And what he's calling us to do is to reflect what he's already done. Jesus is the greatest example of loving enemy.

There ever has been, I mean, scripture is really clear. There's no greater love than someone dying for his friend. But scripture is also really clear that Jesus laid his life down even for his enemies.

Right, Romans says one would barely even die for a good person, but God shows his love for us and while we were still sinners, while we still opposed them, Christ died for us. When Jesus, the eternal Son of God, who needed absolutely nothing, decided to be born of a woman who he created and to become a baby, Jesus was loving his enemies. Right, when Jesus, the absolutely perfect God man, right, decided to begin this ministry and to preach the gospel, right, to call disciples to himself, to put up with all of their mess. Jesus was loving his enemies. When Jesus goes to the cross and is crucified for our sins, Jesus was loving his enemies.

Right, when Jesus is on that cross between those two thieves and he says, Today you will be with me in paradise. Paradise he's loving his enemies. And I think one of the things we don't really always remember is At the cross, when Jesus substituted himself, when he stood in the place of sinners, of everybody who would trust in him, when he took our sin on himself, Jesus was overcoming evil, literally. That Jesus was saying, look, there is an evil called death that is unnatural, that comes for everybody that you can't defeat on your own. Jesus says, I got that for you.

There is sin, there is opposition to God, there is evil that has corrupted your soul, and you can't defeat it on your own. Jesus said, I got that for you. There's evil in the world. There's Satan, evil spiritual forces coming for you. Jesus says, you can't get that on your own.

I got that for you. Jesus has overcome evil. And when Jesus calls us to overcome evil with good and the way that we live our life, Jesus is saying, I want you to live as if what I've already done has actually happened. I want you to live as if I actually died on the cross and resurrected. I want you to live as if you know I'm coming back to make all things right.

And the incredible news is, He is. You know, that's how the Bible ends. You know, if you haven't got to the end yet, spoiler alert, Jesus wins.

Everybody's sitting at His feet, knees are bowing, tongues are confessing that He is who He said He was. He's overcome evil. You know, we think about being on the right side of history, I can't think of a better side of history than to be with the one, the good, just, holy Judge who overcomes evil. And He's called us to live our lives in the same way. Again, if you're hearing you're like, I don't really know where I am with Jesus.

Well, I want you to know there's a Savior who loves His enemies. There's a Savior who said, I've overcome evil. And I want to invite you into this marvelous light. This day there will be no more evil. I want you to be with me.

We can know Jesus as Savior or we can know Him as Judge. And Jesus is saying, Come on. There's no evil. Come with me. So my prayer is that the Lord would help us to rejoice in that and to live our lives in light of it.

Let me pray.

Father, we come before you in Jesus' name and we thank you for what you've done in your son, Jesus Christ.

Thank you, Father, so much for being kind enough to speak to us in your word. Father, we thank you so much for dealing with evil on our behalf, Father, and we thank you for your spirit that helps us to follow hard after you. Father, I pray for my brothers and sisters who have conflict in their life right now, and they're thinking about how to seek peace. Father, we pray you would give them grace to do that. God, and we pray that your grace to us would be a reminder to us every day of what that looks like.

We ask in Jesus' name, amen.