James Merritt - Perfect Love
I came across an online article with the title, «10 Tips for Life’s Greatest Challenge». And those kind of things always intrigue me. And so I thought, «Okay, what does this person think is the greatest challenge that we face in this life»? Now, you may have a different opinion than what this man said, but I think you would agree it has to be right up there at the top. Do you know what he said life’s greatest challenge is? He said it in three words, «Love your enemy». Can you imagine telling a family who lost a loved one in 9/11 to love Osama bin Laden? Can you imagine telling the parent who lost a first grade child in a school shooting to love the murderer? Can you imagine telling a woman who’s been sexually abused and assaulted to love the abuser? Can you imagine telling a now single mother of four young children to love her ex-husband who just walked out on her and left her for a younger woman with no source of income?
Let’s be honest, that’s tough. That’s just Marine level hard. That’s Navy Seal stuff, and it is different, which is why we’re in a series on the Sermon of the Mount we’re calling «Get Used to Different». I was talking to a pastor buddy of mine, he called me from Florida this morning. We were talking and he asked me what I was preaching and I was telling him about this series and I said, «Man, I’m gonna tell you something». I said, «The more I get into this and the deeper I get into it,» I said, «The more I realize it’s impossible to live the Christian life without Jesus. You cannot do it». And what we’re going to hear today from the mouth of Jesus doesn’t get much more different at all. And let me tell you why, Jesus says, «Love your enemy».
That’s one thing to love a friend. It’s one thing to love a best friend. It’s one thing to love a relative. It’s an all together different thing to love your enemy because I’m gonna tell you something that’s true about every one of us in this room, it’s not easy to love the unlovable. It’s just not. There was a man in the neighborhood and he was always bragging about how much he loved all the kids in the neighborhood. Well, one day he was pouring a new driveway of cement, and while it was finished drying, he thought he’d go out and run some errands. So while he was gone, some of these little kids that he said he loved so much came running through his yard, they ran right through that freshly poured driveway. Some of them even stopped and wrote their initials and their names in it.
Well, the time he got back, the cement had hardened with all those footprints, all those initials, all those names, he realized he was gonna have to break the whole thing up and do the whole thing all over again. Well, this man went ballistic. He was screaming, he was walking back and forth. He was yelling at the top of his lungs. I mean, he was about to pull his hair out. You could hear him all over the neighborhood. So one of his neighbors rushed over and he said, «Man, what happened»? And he told him, he said, «Wait a minute, I thought you said you love all these children». He said, «Now, well, I love them in the abstract, I don’t love them in the concrete».
Now, it’s hard to love the unlovable. And you know what would be easy? It would really be easy if Jesus had said, «Hey, just love the people you wanna love, just love the people you choose to love. Just love the people that love you back». I mean, that would be great, but that’s not the world we live in. And so Jesus is about to tell us something about love that you don’t hear in Hollywood, you won’t read in most romantic novels, you won’t hear it from most psychologists. Jesus says, «Real love is perfect love». And let me tell you how I know that. The Bible says, «God is love». Well, if God is love and God lives in you, then your love ought to be perfect. Real love will be.
So let me tell you what we’re gonna learn today, and it is not an easy lesson, it’s not easy for me, it won’t be easy for you. Those of you watching online on TV right now, it will not be easy. But here’s the lesson, perfect love loves everyone perfectly even the most imperfectly unlovable. Perfect love loves everyone perfectly even the most perfectly unlovable. So if you’re gonna love others the way God loves others, oh by the way, if you’re going to love others the way God loves you, you’re gonna have to take some radical steps. Here they are. The first thing you’re gonna have to do if you’re going to love the way Jesus loves, you’re gonna have to embrace your foes. You got to embrace your foes.
Now, Jesus begins, we’re in Matthew 5. Jesus begins with those familiar words. He’s been saying over and over and over. It was what was commonly taught that day. Matthew 5:43, He says, «You have heard that it was said». We keep hearing Him say this over and over and over, «Love your neighbor and hate your enemy». Now the first half of that statement is actually found in the Old Testament. In Leviticus 19, we read these words, «Do not seek revenge or bury a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself, I am the Lord». You say, «Well, what’s the problem»?
Well, once again, the Pharisees that come through like champions, I would really say losers, because they had distorted what God had said about who we ought to love and how we ought to love them. Here’s what the Pharisees were teaching. They interpreted that verse to mean, «Okay, I know we’ve gotta love our neighbor, or say everybody gotta love your neighbor. But if you have to love your neighbor, that means you also get to hate your enemy». That’s what they were teaching. «If someone is your neighbor, you love them. If they’re your enemy, you hate them».
Well, the first problem with that interpretation is hating your enemy is never even found in the Bible. You won’t find that said one time. But the second problem was, the problem with what they said was they totally misunderstood what the word neighbor meant. Because when they said, «Love your neighbor,» here’s what they meant. Your neighbor’s someone that you like, your neighbor’s someone that lives close to you, your neighbor’s someone that does you good, your neighbor’s someone that’s on your side. So they were talking about a friend, or a relative, or someone you like that live right next door to you. And of course it included every Jew.
So the first question we have to ask, when the Bible says, «Love your neighbor,» there’s a question, first of all, we’ve gotta answer, «Well, who’s my neighbor»? Well, guess what? Good luck, good news, Jesus actually answered that question. If you remember, there was a lawyer that came to Jesus and he asked this very question, listen to what he said. «But he wanted to justify himself. He wanted to justify himself, asked Jesus, 'And who is my neighbor? '» He thought he had Jesus. He thought he had pinned Jesus against the wall. «Okay, bud, You say love your neighbor, who’s your neighbor»? Well, you may know the story, Jesus, let me tell You a story. It’s the story of the good what? The good Samaritan.
Let me tell you about, Samaritans were to the Jews then what a Nazi soldier would be to a Jew in 1945. Get that in your mind. Jesus said there was this Samaritan and he’s walking down the road to Jericho and he got mugged and he got beaten and he got robbed and he got left for dead. And He said this priest came by. He walked on the other side of the road and this Levite came by and he walked on the other side of the road. But then Jesus said this Samaritan came by. This Jewish man who had been beaten, this Jewish man that was beat. He takes this man to a place of rest, tells the man, «I’m gonna pay for this man. Don’t charge him anything. Here’s some money to pay up front, if he still owes, I’ll pay you when I get back». And everybody’s breath was taken away because what was the moral of that story? It was very simple. Jesus was saying, «Everybody is our neighbor». Say that out loud, everybody is our neighbor. Everybody’s our neighbor. Everybody is.
See, you can choose the neighborhood that you live in and you can sometimes choose who you decide you wanna live next to. But at the end of the day, I got news for you, you don’t really get to choose your neighbor. As a matter of fact, you don’t have to choose your neighbor. God has already chosen your neighbor for you because everybody is your neighbor. Not just your family, not just your friends, not just your best buddy. Yes, even your foes, even your enemies, they are considered to be a neighbor. Now the mistake was, the mistake they made, they just assumed, «Well, since we’re only commanded to love our neighbor, we don’t have to love our enemies. And if we don’t have to love our enemies, the alternative is to hate our enemies».
So let me just make this real simple. What the Pharisees were teaching is what we used to teach kids. And that is, it’s okay to be bigoted. It’s okay to be prejudiced, if you’re not Jewish, if you don’t speak the same language, if you don’t have the same color of skin, if you don’t use the same type of accent, you may be an enemy, but you are not a neighbor. And then Jesus comes along and says, «No, even if someone is your enemy or you think they’re your enemy, you are to love them as a neighbor».
Now, that’s hard enough. That’s enough right there to just make you want to gag. But then Jesus says, «Oh, by the way, while I’m in the neighborhood, let me tell you how to love your enemy». So He says this, «But I tell you,» remember what I’ve told you? You better buckle up when you hear Him say that, «But I tell you». I was telling this pastor friend of mine today, I said, «I can imagine every time Jesus said, 'You have heard it said, ' every Pharisee was going, 'Here we go again.'» And then when Jesus said, «But I tell you,» everybody buckle their seatbelt. «But I tell you, love your enemies».
Now watch this, «And pray for those who persecute you». You mean I don’t just tolerate them? Nope. I don’t just ignore them? Nope. I don’t just leave them alone? Nope. I don’t just do them no harm? Nope. Jesus says, «No, I want you to be proactive. I want you to pray for those who persecute you. When they curse you, you bless them, when they hate you, you do good to them. When they go low, you go high». Now let me just stop and help you out on something, clarify something. And this gives me comfort, to be honest with you. There’s a big difference between liking people and loving people. And I don’t know about you, that comforts me because Jesus never commanded that we like our enemies. He did say we love them, that’s a big difference.
See, liking somebody, that’s an emotional response, right? Some people you like, some people you don’t. Listen, Will Rogers, you know the famous comedian famously said, «I never met a man I didn’t like». He only probably only met two, 'cause I met people I don’t like. Listen, I don’t care how nice you are, I promise you, everybody in this room, you know somebody you don’t like. I know people I don’t like. Okay, you’re a Florida Gator, it’s hard, it’s just hard. That’s a joke, but it’s serious.
Now we all have people we don’t like. That’s an emotional response. And if you like someone, you can let them know it. And guess what? If you don’t like someone, you just don’t let them know it. You just don’t say anything, you can fake it. But Jesus says, «Love is not like like. Like is an emotion. Love is an action. You can’t fake love». I may not like everybody, I’m commanded to love everybody whether I like them or not. That’s what perfect love does. So if you’re going to love perfectly the way God loves you and the way God loves others, first thing we’ve gotta do, and it is so hard, you’ve got to embrace your foes, you’ve gotta love them if they hate you, you’ve gotta pray them when they don’t want good to happen to you. You’ve got to go before the Lord, you’re to bless them when they curse you. You have got to embrace your foes, not easy. But Jesus said, «Here’s the good news, when you embrace your foes, you will emulate your Father. You’ll be just like your Father».
Jesus said, «Here’s the motivation to do what I’m asking you to do». Here’s what He said. He said, «That you may,» that is if you love your enemies, «That you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, He sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous». Now Jesus makes a very simple statement. Do you really wanna be like God? Do you really wanna be godlike? Do you wanna really be godly? Oh yes, I do. He said, «Okay, if you’re gonna be like your Father, you’re going to love your enemies. Because when you love your enemies, you’re acting just like your Heavenly Father».
Now get this straight, Jesus is not saying that what gets you into the family of God or what gets you to become a child of God is loving people. Because frankly, in that day when people would speak about other people, they’d rarely use adjectives like we use today. For example, instead of saying about someone, «He’s a peaceful man,» the Jews would say, «He’s a man of peace». Instead of saying, «Well, she’s a kind woman,» they would say, «She is a woman of kindness». So when Jesus was saying, «Hey, if you’ll love your enemies, you’ll be children of your Father,» here’s what we say. He was saying, «When you love who hate you, and you bless those who curse you, you pray for those who persecute you, you are a child of the Father. You are Father-like, like father, like child. You’re emulating your Father».
So get this straight. You are not like God, you’re not like your Father in heaven because you love other people. You love other people because you’re like your Father in heaven. And oh by the way, Jesus said, «You do know that God loves everybody every day». And they didn’t believe that. Jesus said «No, He does, oh yeah, He does». The sun shines on Russia and China just like it shines on America. It rains in North Korea just like it rains in America. God gives air to the Muslim just like He does to the Christian. God sent Jesus to die for the terrorist, just like He sent Jesus to die for the diplomat. You know, we have this saying that we love to say, «God is good all the time. God is good all the time,» that’s true, but it’s better than that.
God is good all the time to all people everywhere. God is good all the time to all people everywhere. God loves those, guess what, God loves those who don’t love Him. God loves those who don’t believe in Him. God loves those who don’t want Him. God loves those who live every morning of their life against Him. That’s why Jesus goes on to say this. And this is so, I mean, this is stinging what He says. He says, «Look, if you love those who love you, what reward will you get»? Anybody can do that. Anybody can love somebody that loves them back and you’re with me and I’m with you. They’re the easiest people to love. They really are. He says, «Look, what reward does that get you? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that»?
Now you talk about insulting these religious leaders, these Pharisees, because they didn’t despise anybody any more than they did tax collectors or pagans. And Jesus said, «Look, if you just love people that are lovable and people that love you back, well, you know what? You’re no better than the tax collector. You’re no better than the pagan. You’re no better than the atheist. You’re no better than the unbeliever». And listen, here’s what God’s all about. Just as the Father wants to turn sinners into saints, He wants us to turn our enemies into friends. And there’s only one way you can do that, only one, you love them. That’s the way you do it.
I wanna tell you a story. And it’s a story I came across it about a month ago and I had to read it twice 'cause the first time I read it, I said, «I don’t believe that». Elizabeth Morris was a woman from a small Kentucky town. Two days before Christmas, a few years ago, she was waiting for her son Ted to come home from his job at a shopping mall. He had just completed his first semester at college. He had come home to make some money to buy Christmas gifts. Well, at 10:40 PM that night, she got the telephone call that no parent wants to get. She was told her son had been in an automobile accident. She had to rush to the hospital. As it turned out, another young man who had been driving drunk, in fact, his blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit, had crossed the center line and hit Ted’s car head on. And Ted Morris was dead. She and her husband Frank devastated because Ted was their only child.
All the hopes, all the dreams, all the things they’d envisioned for him to get married, give them grandchildren, help them in their old age all gone. He was a son that never gave them any trouble. He was a straight A student. He loved the Lord. He was a wonderful young man. He had a bright future. The 24-year-old man that hit him and killed him showed absolutely zero remorse. And the coup de grace was when the judge only gave him probation. Her anger went to DEFCON 4, rage and anger and bitterness consumed her like an alcoholic’s thirst for liquor. She would sit in a chair and she would fantasize how she could kill Tommy Pigage, that was his name, the man who killed her son. She would think about how, «Maybe I could find him on a highway and I’ll run into him and I’ll pin him against a tree, and I’ll watch him writhe in agony before me and suffer a slow death».
She would begin to think about other ways. «How can I kill this kid and get away with it, and nobody ever find out about it»? She actually started spending time following him. He didn’t even know it. She was trying to catch him in some kind of a violation so that he would violate his probation, she could send him back to prison. She’d go to bed thinking about him, get up thinking about him. She’d eat dinner thinking about him. She was so full of rage, so full of anger. And one day, the Spirit of God broke through her heart and made her realize that her Heavenly Father had also lost His only Son. And not only had her Heavenly Father lost His only Son, but it was her sin that killed His only Son, and yet that God forgave her. And that’s when she knew that she had to do something that she could only do by the power of God.
So she and her husband reached out to Tommy Pigage, to his shock and to his amazement. And they began to build a relationship with Tommy Pigage. They began to love him and show him the love of Christ. They began to share the gospel. And one day he got on his knees with them and he surrendered his life to Christ, turned his life completely around, got on his knees and begged them for forgiveness. Now that in and of itself is an unbelievable story, but the story doesn’t end there. Her husband was a part-time pastor. So the next Sunday, he baptized Tommy, and a year later he performed Tommy’s wedding and he now attends that church every Sunday listening to the father of the son he killed preach the gospel. I just wanna ask you a question. How do you explain that? I’m a dad. How did she do that? I’ll tell you, only by the power of Jesus can you do that. Can I get an amen to that?
Only by the Holy Spirit of God can you do that. Only when you realize, only when you finally realize, nobody can ever do to you anything worse than you did to Jesus. Only when you understand that can you see what Jesus said and understand like Father, like Son, perfect love loves other people the way God loves them. Perfect love sees everybody as our neighbor. Perfect love loves everyone perfectly even when they are imperfectly unlovable. So, if you’re gonna exercise perfect love, you gotta embrace your foes. When you embrace your foes, you emulate your Father, just like Him, like Father, like child. And when you emulate your Father and you embrace your foes, here’s the benefit for you. You elevate your faith.
Now, I want you to watch this. This is so good. Jesus has taken the letter of the law and He’s raised it to the spirit of the law. And what He’s showing us is, «Look, God’s law is not just a matter of making sure that you do what’s right on the outside, dot the I, cross the T, go to church on Sunday, read your Bible, check off the list». He said, «It’s more than what you do on the outside». He said, «The spirit of the law is make sure you’re right on the inside». And so as we get to the end of chapter five, Jesus makes one of the most breathtaking statements. I remember reading this when I was about 11-years-old and I remember the first time I really read it, it took my breath away. I thought, «That is impossible,» because listen to what He said. He said, «Be perfect, therefore,» in light of everything I just told you, «Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect».
Now I wanna stop and ask you a question. What does that mean? I mean, we know two things are true, right? I mean, two things are absolutely true. Number one, none of us are perfect. None of us. I’ve told people who’ve been critical of churches at times and trickle of a church, I pastored at times. I told 'em, I said, «You know what your problem is? You’re looking for the perfect church». I remember one couple one time, I was pastor at First Snellville, First Snellville, I remember a couple came and they came for a while, but they just certain things they didn’t like. And I was talking to 'em and I said, «You know what your problem is»? I said, «You’re looking for a perfect church». They said, «Yeah, we probably are». I said, «Okay, would you do me a favor»? He said, «Yeah». I said, «If you ever find it, don’t join it, 'cause if you join it, you’ll ruin it».
People looking for the perfect church. Well, none of us are perfect, that’s fact number one. Fact number two, we know is that none of us can be perfect in this life. None of us are perfect. None of us can be perfect in this life. Well, I got news for you. Statement number one is true. None of us are perfect. Statement number two is only partly true. So I want you to you hear what I’m about to tell you, this will radically change the way you think. We cannot be perfect all the time, but there are times we can be perfect. So let me put it to you this way. None of us can perfectly obey God all the time. But there are times we can perfectly obey God. None of us can perfectly obey God all the time, but there are times we can perfectly obey God. So when you truly love your enemy, when you love those who hate you, when you do good to those who spite you, when you pray for those who persecute you, in the eyes of your Heavenly Father, you know what He says? «You are perfect».
So no, we’re not perfect and no, we will not always be perfectly perfect in this life. But I’ll tell you one of the ways you know you have a real heart for God, you want to be perfect. Can I ask you a question? Just be honest, don’t raise your hand, just tell the truth, do you wanna be perfect? I do. I don’t wanna wait to get there, I wanna be perfect. Now, I know it’s a goal that I’ll never really completely reach. But can I be honest? Every day I get up, I get up with a desire, «Lord, today, can I just go one day without sinning»? I usually don’t make it. «Can I just go one day without sinning»? I desire to be perfect, which is why Jesus said, «Be perfect, therefore, as your Heavenly Father is perfect».
I talked about Dr. King last week and I gotta talk about him one more time. Now to be clear, Dr. King had his faults. Dr. King had his failures. Dr. King had his oral moral issues. We get all that, I know that, we all do. But I’ll tell you something about Dr. King. God gave that man a lot of opportunities to practice this principle of loving your enemy probably as much as any man I’ve ever read about in my lifetime. So Dr. King is sitting in jail in Montgomery, Alabama. He’d been beaten, he’d been arrested, and all he was doing was boycotting a busing company because they segregated seats on the bus. He wasn’t breaking a law. He was peacefully demonstrating, peacefully protesting, but they beat him and threw him in jail.
So while he’s in jail, he wrote a sermon and he entitled it, «Loving Your Enemies». And what he says is so profound, I want you to listen to what he said. He said, «To our most bitter opponents, we say, 'Do to us what you will and we shall continue to love you. We cannot, in all good conscience, obey your unjust laws. Because non-cooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as it is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail and we shall still love you, bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead and we shall still love you. But be assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. For one day we shall win freedom, not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory.'»
Yeah. I’m your pastor and I’m gonna tell you, I don’t know that that’s what I would’ve written in jail. I’d been writing something, I’m not sure it would’ve been that, and say whatever you will, that’s the Spirit of Jesus. That’s what it’s like to be like your Heavenly Father. So I have some, call it bad news, I just call it reality. I don’t care how nice you are, I don’t care how sweet you are, I don’t care how mild-mannered you are, I don’t care how good you are. If you truly live for Jesus the way you ought to live for Jesus, you are going to make enemies. The worst thing I’ve ever heard said about anybody, and I’ve done funerals, and I’ve heard this said about people, «He didn’t have an enemy in the world».
What a sad thing to say, what a bad thing to say. If Jesus didn’t get out of this world without enemies and He lived a perfect life, why should you think you will? Why should I think I will? There are people in this room, I’ve been your pastor for 39 years this year, 39 years I’ve been your pastor. You can give testimony, I made some enemies. I have made some enemies. I’ve got my anonymous mail. I’ve left people, I’ve had people leave the church 'cause they didn’t like the way I preached. I’ve got some, I’ve kept some of these letters, not the anonymous ones, they’re not worth it, but the ones that at least sign it, I’m telling you, I’ve got some letters that would curl your hair, and I don’t say that to brag. I don’t mean it that way at all. But if you’re looking for an easy, no briars, all roses, all smooth, no bumps, all friends, no enemies.
If that’s the way you’re looking to serve Jesus, check out. It doesn’t work that way. Not in this world, not in this culture, not in this atmosphere, not in this environment. Because when you stand up like me and you say, as I said this week in a tweet, «I would no more vote for a pro-abortion candidate than I would vote for a pro-slavery candidate in 1865». You think I got some heat? You think I got some vile comments? You think I had some people block me? Absolutely. And I’m not saying this to brag and I’m not trying to be a martyr, but I’m telling you, the more I read my Bible, the more I read this New Testament and the more I read about how Jesus wound up not in a fancy hotel, not with a gold watch, but on the cross, the more I realize, but if I’m gonna stand for Jesus and I’m gonna preach the truth and I’m gonna tell what I believe God says is right, I’m gonna make enemies. So are you.
So the bad news is if you live long enough, you stand for Jesus, you’re gonna make enemies. It may be the boss at work who mistreats you. It may be somebody who spreads vicious lies about you. It may be a family member who abused you. It may be somebody just simply opposes you because you follow Jesus. And what I’ve learned is I can’t control who my enemies are. I cannot control how they treat me. But I’ll tell you what I have learned, by the power of the one who died for me, and who, by the way, died for my enemy, by the grace and the power of the Spirit of God that lives in me, and the power of the one who came back from the grave and wants me to forgive my enemies, even as He forgave ours, I can always respond with perfect love because that’s what a child of the Father does.
And I want to tell you something… what a difference. Can you imagine the difference it would be in Washington DC if everybody just decided, two things, number one, we may disagree to the hilt, you’re not my enemy, you’re my neighbor. And number two, I’m gonna love you just as much as I love myself. What a change, what a difference. That’s why I’m so in love with the Bible, so in love with Jesus, 'cause let me tell you something, I’m gonna say this and we’re gonna pray. What I told you today, this stuff works.
Some of you know this quick story and I can’t even go into the details. Theresa and I saw one of the greatest miracles we’ve seen ever in the last year of our life, we turned two bitter enemies. Bitter, who we drove down the street, wouldn’t even look at us. We turned two bitter enemies into friends because we decided we were gonna do what Jesus told us to do. Just love them, just pray for them. Just bless them. So who’s your enemy today? Who’s that person you go to bed today thinking that, you know, if they fell off a cliff wouldn’t bother you a bit? That husband that walked out on you, that boss that’s trying to do everything he can to get you to leave the company, that uncle that sexually abused you. You can’t control what they do to you, you can control how you respond to them. It’s different, but it works.
Heavenly Father, the Bible says that one time I was Your enemy. When I was in sin, I was Your foe. But You embraced me. You sent Jesus to die for me, I thank You for it.
With your heads bowed, with your eyes closed, if you’re here today and you’ve never trusted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, can I just be honest with you? Until you do that, you’re an enemy of God. That’s what the Bible says. You’re enemies with God. But good news, He loves you. He’s praying for you. He died for you. He wants you to be a part of His family. He wants to turn you, listen to this, not just from a friend, an enemy into a friend, He wants to turn you from being an enemy to being one of His children. But you gotta pray, you gotta give your heart to Christ, to do that, you’ve got to admit you need a Savior. If you’re watching right now online or you’re in this room and you’ve never given your life to Jesus Christ, you have never trusted the Lord, why don’t you do it right now? Why don’t you say something like this?
Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me even when I was Your enemy. Thank You for dying for me even when I was Your foe. And I thank You right now that You’re turning me into one of Your children because I’m giving You my life today. I confess You as my Lord. I believe in my heart that God raised You from the dead. I trust You right now to save me. Thank You for giving me eternal life. Thank You for forgiving me of all of my sins. And now, Lord Jesus, I forgive everyone who has ever done me harm, who’s ever done me wrong. I have no enemies, I only have neighbors.