Calvary Church
American Rights Gone Too Far
Main Idea: In this teaching we want to share the difference between the desire to retaliate when people threaten our rights versus how the Lord desires for us to respond.
Locations & Times
Calvary Church
4700 53rd St, Moline, IL 61265, USA
Sunday 8:30 AM
Sunday 10:30 AM
Two Choices When We’ve Been Wronged
1. The Principle of JUSTICE
1. The Principle of JUSTICE
A. The justice required in the law was that the PUNISHMENT must fit the crime precisely.
1) This was done for at least two reasons: to reduce CRIME and to assure FAIR punishment. But this was done in the context of civil justice. The idea of personal retaliation was NOT in view of these Scriptures.
B. The law protected SOCIETY by dealing with those who committed the crimes.
C. The law also protected JUSTICE by dealing fairly and exactly with criminal behavior and punishment.
D. What happened to this law is what happened to most of the laws of God. They were PERVERTED by people to accommodate their own sinful desire of retaliation and desire to get EVEN.
2. The PURPOSE of God
A. Jesus reveals to us that God has a higher purpose for our lives. He does not call us to retaliation, instead, He calls us to a life of COMPASSION.
B. When the Bible says do not resist an evil person, it’s not saying that we’re not to resist evil. We are, of course, to STAND against evil.
C. We’re in SPIRITUAL warfare and the reason is precisely because we do stand for truth and righteousness and we do stand against evil.
D. We’re not to take MATTERS into our own hands as if justice depends on us. If we succumb to that, we feeding the selfish and sinful desires of our own human hearts.
E. Jesus gives the SOLUTION by instructing us to turn the other cheek, give more than is required, go the extra mile, and to show mercy to the less fortunate.
1) Jesus wants us to conform to His image and to develop our character to the point where we do not assert our own RIGHTS.
2) Jesus sees people based on their NEEDS and that’s how He wants us to see others.
F. How do we respond to others? Have we become BITTER or BETTER by our response?
Talk About It
Discussion Questions:
1. How would you try to explain “rights” to people who may miss the point of our Lord’s teaching?
2. What type of development would it take for us to truly see people who have wronged us with compassion and a desire to see them as Jesus sees them?
3. How do the Lord’s people many times miss the understanding of justice as originally intended by our Lord when He gave this law in the Old Testament?
Next Step:
• What challenges you most about this message? Do you
1. How would you try to explain “rights” to people who may miss the point of our Lord’s teaching?
2. What type of development would it take for us to truly see people who have wronged us with compassion and a desire to see them as Jesus sees them?
3. How do the Lord’s people many times miss the understanding of justice as originally intended by our Lord when He gave this law in the Old Testament?
Next Step:
• What challenges you most about this message? Do you