So are you having any difficult decisions you're having to make in life right now? Anything difficult? Maybe something with your family or something at work? Maybe something with your health? Maybe something with your taxes? Maybe one of the most difficult things you're working on right now is whether or not you should buy the squeeze bottle or the jar of Duke's mayonnaise. I mean, it's a big choice. It's a big decision. And, and you know, listen, with all due respect to the noble work of culinary philanthropists and, and philosopher Richard Hellmann Dukes is actually the only real mayonnaise. So when it comes to decisions, yes, great. How about that? We've got some Amen man. The sermons only going down from here. Right? Oh man, I know a couple of your Hellmann's people and, and I'm really sorry. You know, I hate to say it, but you know, the word hell is in the word, I mean. You know, come on. You know, I'm just saying maybe your difficult decisions are different. Uh, maybe you're facing some difficult decisions during the rest of this day. You know, maybe maybe sometime this afternoon you're going to be struggling with whether or not you should have that second cup of coffee or that seventh cup of coffee, You know, maybe those are the decisions you're in today. Maybe you're thinking today, man, should I get my valentine again gift or should I just upgrade my sofa? Maybe that's all I need to do today, You know, or maybe you're in that place where you're thinking, hey, do I need to sit down to not watch the Super Bowl halftime show or do I need to lie down to not watch the Super Bowl halftime show? When in reality we'll all end up watching it anyway. No matter what we think at least for a few minutes. And then the ultimate decision that we hope none of us will ever have to face Fountain of youth or fountain of Bacon. It's a tough one. I hope. I hope none of us ever come to that crossroads. More than 200 years ago, there was a group of people that had a difficult decision and they had a meeting where they were in this discussion about what to name their town and the meeting was going a little long. And finally, one of the guys in the meeting said, you know what, why not name the town? Why not? And let's just go home. So they did. That's why we could get in our car, leave the church and drive 100 and 58 miles a little bit, uh, northeast and we could go to why not North Carolina? Yeah, that's the name of the town. Why not north Carolina? It's kind of a funny story. But the truth of the matter is when it comes to big decisions in life, did you know that it is very possible that one of the most important questions you could make for all the biggest decisions in life. In fact, for some of the biggest decisions that you have every second of every day could all come down to you asking the question why not? What does that mean? Well we continue our series this morning called Higher and we're looking at a day in the life of Jesus where he was talking to his closest friends, teaching them some truth. We're going to look at what he was teaching them in the very last part of Matthew chapter five, Matthew five verse 47. And as we look at these words from jesus today, for the good of our lives and also for the good of the lives of the people around us, we will discover something very simple and that is, we're going to find hello and so our sermon today is called higher hello. And what we're going to find in a sense in these words from jesus is one of the most important reasons, the best reasons that an evening given time all day long, we should be asking the question why not? And we're going to see what that means. By looking at Matthew five verse 47 Jesus says this and if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Right before Jesus said this, he gave his disciples a calling. It was a difficult and decisive and demanding and dynamic calling and it wasn't just a calling for them, it's a calling for all of us who call ourselves christians and that calling is this love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you Now again. At first glance at first hear that, That sounds a little bit crazy and it sounds a lot a bit impossible, but it's not and here's three reasons why it's not impossible. The first reason is because Jesus did it. Jesus loved his enemies. He prayed for those who persecuted him, he prayed for those who executed him. The second reason is not just because Jesus did it, but because Jesus has called us to do it, it's not a not a suggestion to a mandate that we have as christians to actually love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. And the third reason is is because Jesus is with us, Jesus did it, Jesus called us to do it, and Jesus is with us. It's hard for us to put into human terms, but but our salvation means that Jesus is living and working within us, he is helping us even to do something that feels as impossible as loving our enemies. Jesus gave a mandate, not a suggestion and he takes his mandate and he pushes and presses towards his disciples with this truth with a question. And the question he asked them is what, how do you greet people? Well, that just sounds silly, right? I mean what in the world does how we greet people have to do with anything? Well, it seems that how we greet people, How we say hello, seems to determine what's going to happen to us after we die. What does that mean? Well Jesus is going to help us look at the next part of verse 47 even the gentiles, do they not do the same? So jesus is saying look if people who don't follow God, okay people who are who are not christians, not followers of jesus, if those people say howdy and hello to their family and their friends to to the people they hang out with on the weekend to the lady in the mall that has the same cute clutch that she has, oh I love your clutch or or you're in the grocery store and you see some guy with your favorite team's logo on his that hey man go team or the steps of the state capitol, you know standing there with people who share your political or social views, if people who don't follow God say hey how you doing? Hello howdy, hey nice to meet, you don't have anything holding them back from greeting people that they have some type of familiarity with. How much more should people who have been rescued from sin and death and hell and separation from God forever. How much more should those people greet anyone they come in contact with to be saved to know, Jesus Christ is a calling from jesus to always do something that we're not prone to do, but we need to do and that is a meme higher, We always need to be aiming higher with how we do things, especially with what we do with our hellos? We don't just greet the people that we like. We don't just greet the people that are like us, we would greet anybody anywhere at any time. And why would we do that? Well, mostly because of one stunning reality, don't miss this reality. The reality of why we should greet everyone is simply because of this. The greatest hello in the universe, Found us. What's the greatest Hello in the universe? Well, it sounds like this behold I bring you good news of great joy, which will be for all the people for today in the city of David, there has been born for you, a savior who is christ the Lord See this just isn't the christmas story, this is the story, this is the story above all stories. The last page in the book of everyone's life is sin and death and hell and separation from God forever. Unless we have this christmas story, unless we have this good news of great joy and this good news of great joy proclaims that jesus was born not just to be a baby, but jesus was born to die, Jesus was born to be the perpetuation for us. That's just a super cool sounding word, that means that jesus substituted himself for our sins, He bore his our sin and his own body. Why did he do that? To make the only way? The only path for things to be right between you and God? To make the only way? The only path for you to be truly satisfied to make The only way, the only path for you to be truly happy. Now, somebody might say, I don't need God to be happy, I'm good. You know, I'm happy with my family, I'm happy with my friends. You know, I'm I'm happy when I'm working in the yard, I'm happy when I'm shopping, I'm happy at work, happy with my job. I'm happy when I'm hunting. I'm happy when I'm golfing. I'm I'm happy when I'm shopping. I'm happy, you know, when when I'm at the journey concert, you know, I'm happy at christmas and I'm happy at at easter and I'm happy on valentine's day and I'm I'm happy on homecoming. I mean, I'm happy on holidays. I'm happy when I have a plate of bacon. So, so why do I need God? You know, why do I need God? Well, none of those things I mentioned are bad or evil by any means, but none of those people places or things can give you the guaranteed promise that jesus gives? And what is that guaranteed promise When Apostle Paul describes it by starting with a question Romans? Chapter eight, beginning with verse 35 Paul says this who will separate us from the Love of Christ, Who who will separate us from the love of christ. And then he begins to keep asking the question will tribulation. No well, trouble, no persecution, no famine, no nakedness, no danger, no sword, No. And then he goes on for I'm convinced that neither death nor life nor angels nor Principalities nor things present nor things to come nor powers nor height nor depth nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God. That is in christ, jesus, Our Lord. Here's the promise of jesus. Perfect everlasting death, define eternally satisfying love. But that's the promise of jesus. Your family and your friends cannot truly give you that promise, your your best day and your favorite team cannot truly give you that promise. Journey can't give you that promise. A plate of bacon can't even give you that promise. It gets close. But it can't even give you that promise. Why? Well, they can make the promise anybody can make a promise. You know I mean? The journey made some good promises in their songs right there faithfully going to be ours with open arms forever and ever and ever. Right. But but they can't write because none of those people places and things. They've they've never been executed from my sin and your sin and they've never been raised from the dead to conquer death by the power of the one true living God. This is the promise that we have this good news of great joy. And if the good news of great joy that's found in Jesus Christ? If that news has said hello to you and by the grace of God, you said hello back then that means there is absolutely nothing that can separate you from the love of God that is in christ, jesus including your enemies, in fact especially your enemies, do you catch what Jesus is doing? He's, he's pressing them higher, he's pressing us to aim higher, aim higher than than just what we were taught by our parents or our grandparents aim higher than just our, our personal opinions and our personal preferences aim higher than just our religious traditions or contemporary church meth aim higher than just our social opinions or our political views aim higher aim higher aim higher. What Jesus is doing is telling us, I need you to press on to aim higher for a love that can only really be defined by me, a love that can only be defined by jesus. On another day, Jesus said this in John Chapter 13 by this, all people will know that you are my disciples. If you have love for one another and not just love for one another, but love for people outside of one another. Because if all we do is just love one another. If all we do is just greet one another. If all we do is just tell one another hello, then people will actually not know that we are disciples of jesus, why? Because they won't see in us, what they saw in jesus and what did they see in jesus? When the people saw jesus praying for his enemies, the people saw Jesus loving his enemies. The people saw jesus looking out on his enemies and saying father forgive them for they have no clue what they are doing. I can't say this definitively, but I'm pretty confident Jesus would never go on social media and attack his enemies. Pretty sure he wouldn't go down in the comments section after somebody posted something and called him a name or called him an idiot because in his moment of death and dying for us, he prayed for his enemies again. This is not easy to do. Alright, this isn't, this isn't pie in the sky stuff here. It's not easy, it's it's hard. But you know what will make it a little easier is if we as christians begin to remember, oh wait a minute. The greatest hello in the universe found me the highest. Hello found me so so I can aim higher with my hellos. The love of christ has found us. We can never be separated from his love. If the love of christ has found us, we can never be separated from his love. And what does that perfect, everlasting death define eternally satisfying love. What does it produce in us? Well it produces happiness, it's been credited to G. K Chester sin that he said this, Jesus promised his disciples three things that they would be completely fearless, absurdly happy and in constant trouble. That's pretty good outline. He kind of nailed it. What about that middle part there, how we doing as christians that being absurdly happy now look that doesn't mean being silly or funny or ignoring things happening in the world, right? I mean there's nothing christian about waking up in the morning and and seeing a headline that says more than 23,000 people have been killed in a devastating earthquake and we go I'm still just absurdly happy about that and that that's not what we're talking about. No, it was believers when when we see headlines like that as christians, we should mourn, we should grieve and and we should we should give, if you're looking for a way to invest, you can go to Sin relief dot org or Samaritans purse dot org where those two groups a massive christian gospel effort to invest in the people of Turkey and Syria right now. So yes, there's there's grieving and there's mourning, there's giving, there's praying over the hardest things in life. But to be absurdly happy in the love of jesus, it just means this that whether you die from natural causes, whether you die from old age, whether you die from a car accident, whether you die from cancer, whether you die from a devastating earthquake in the moment of death, you are completely confident that you are living in the perfect everlasting death defying eternally satisfying love of Jesus Christ and at the moment after death you will permanently and fully and completely and extravagantly live in the perfect everlasting death defying soul satisfying love of jesus. So the question is, do we believe that? Do we really believe in the love of Jesus Christ that we can't be separated? And if so then the question is this why not love our enemies? That's why not for any moment of the day, no matter who you're looking at, whether it's somebody that you know is your enemy or whether it's a strange homeless person walking through the parking lot or or whether it's your neighbor that never cuts their grass or or whether it's your best friend that there's just not a moment where we as christians would not say I cannot be separated from the love of christ. So why not say hello to this person? Why not greet this person? Why not love this person? I mean what can your enemies really do to you? I mean paul said to live as christ and to die is gain. So that means the most your enemy could ever do to you is kill you. They could take your life and yet that would actually be gain. Talk about ticking your enemies off right? I mean at any given moment you can look at them and go, hey, sorry man, I mean I win either way, you know, I mean, I win either way, no matter what happens because if I live then then I stay wrapped up deeply wrapped up in the protective and awesome love of Jesus Christ and if you kill me, if I die then I just gain that love in amazing ways. I just get it full and free and forever. We can love our enemies because we cannot be separated from the love of christ, that kind of love, it can't help but producing us a sense of absurd happiness, we can be absurdly happy in jesus. So here's the question for us as christians, are we absurdly happy in jesus, are we absurdly happy in jesus? Or if you look at the church in America or the church in the western world in general, Do you see a lot of professing christians that are absurdly angry or absurdly afraid or absurdly obsessed with so many different things and and angry and obsessed and afraid and worried about politics and gas prices and hospital rules and political issues and social issues and, and weather balloons. Look, I'm not saying that means that we should just ignore everything happening in the world and just sit in the kitchen and and eat plates of bacon and and watch youtube videos on cute kids or funny animals or or the latest life hacks you can find in your iphone, but it does mean this that no matter what's happening in this world right now, we cannot be separated from the love of christ. No, I'm going to need us to marinate on that for just a couple of more seconds. Okay, whatever politician you're mad at, whatever economic issue you're freaking out about, Whatever religious or theological issue you don't like, whoever you're mad out at home, whoever you're mad at at work, whoever you're mad at at school, whoever you're mad at at church, whoever you're mad out in the community, whoever you are mad at, or angry at whatever you are upset about. If you are a christian, can you answer this question, can any of that separate you from the love of christ? And if the answer is no, then that should change our pillows, it should change how we greet. It should change how we talk, it should change how we love to know that we cannot be separated from. The love of jesus, christ means that we should be some of the hap hap happiest people that anybody ever runs into now, that doesn't mean that life is perfect. It doesn't mean that if we're absurdly happy in jesus that that we are going to struggle in life, okay, doesn't mean that we're not going to have moments of depression doesn't mean that we're not going to have moments of stress, it doesn't mean that we're not going to fail a test or or that, you know, we're not going to fail our families, it doesn't mean that we're going to lose a job or or it doesn't mean that we're going to lose, not lose a battle with sickness? It doesn't mean that we're not going to be angry. It doesn't mean that we're not going to cry, doesn't mean a lot of different things. It means that life is difficult and life is is hard. It just means that if the greatest hello in the universe has found you, it changes everything, everything, it changes how we sell it, say hello, it changes who we say hello to. Have you ever had a glass sitting next to you? And and it had just a little bit of water in it. I mean just, you know like two or three sips, you know, and you accidentally knock it over? What happens? What happens is suddenly for some reason the hoover dam just came into the room, right? I mean those two or three sips of water, they get on everything in the room and just how in the world did this happen? I'm sorry, I get so frustrated with. It drives me nuts. How where did all this water come from? And I'm, you know, paper towel after paper tower and there's still water. I find it five days later. You know what if we would take that frustrating reality and flip it around a little bit, what would happen if two or three christians in this church were absurdly happy in jesus and it spilled over and to everybody else in the church. What if two or three churches in our community were absurdly happy in jesus? And it and it spilled over into the community? What what happened? Some people say nothing, It wouldn't make a single difference. This world's already off the rails, so it wouldn't do nothing. Maybe, but our king of Kings and our Lord of Lords commanded us to love, He commanded us to be happy in him. And if you're a christian, remember we know the one who has the final say over the world and he has already told us that he has overcome this world once and for all, you know what that means. He's already overcome the next election. He's already overcome the next health issue in our life, He's already overcome the next world war. He's already overcome every single thing that will ever happen in the universe. And that king, that Lord never has a moment where he sees something happening or he sees a headline and says, whoa, I did not see that one coming now, our jesus, our King, our savior has already said that he has overcome the world and you know what that means for me as a christian, it means there's not a millisecond of my life that I will ever be separated from the love of jesus. It can't happen no matter how awful things maybe in my life there is never a moment where I can be separated from the love of christ Is that your confidence is that your hope? Is that what wakes you up in the morning? Are you absurdly happy in jesus? Again? I'm not talking about you know, being silly, but are we absurdly happy in jesus? Are are we able to say you know what? Because I cannot be separated from Jesus's love. That's going to change my hello, It's going to change who I say hello to. It's going to change how I greet people. It's actually going to change whether I love my enemies or not. And so again, because of the love of jesus, the question is fear, why not? Why not love my enemies? Why not? Why not be the one that God uses to maybe help them here? The greatest hello in the universe, why not be the one that helps someone gets transferred out of the Kingdom of Darkness and into the Kingdom of light? Look, I don't mean this offensive, but it's not your job to bring those people to me. I'm not the Pope of Holland avenue. We all are pastors, we all are ministers. We all are christians, we all have the hello of the Gospel and we can make a difference in this world. Again, not pie in the sky. Just the commands of jesus. That's all we're talking about 123 years ago. Actually, more than that J. C. Ryle said this, it is a positive misfortune to Christianity when a Christian cannot smile and he goes on a merry heart and a readiness readiness to take part in all innocent mirth, I mean cheerfulness or laughter are gifts of inestimable value. You can't even put a value on the smile of a christian in the world, You can't put a value on the merry cheerfulness of a christian in the world. And then he said this, that merriment, that smile, they go far to soften prejudices, to take stumbling blocks out of the way and to make way for christ and the Gospel. They go far to make way for the Gospel. Look, none of us are perfect. Okay, we all have extremely difficult decisions that will face in life. We all are surrounded by troubles and trials and tragedies every single day. But even in the midst of all of those realities, it doesn't change the mandate of jesus. It doesn't change that we still can be absurdly happy in jesus because we can't be separated from the love of jesus, So dear christian? Not silly, not funny, Funny, ha ha! But are we absurdly happy in jesus? Is that seen in our life? Are we making a way for the Gospel around us and how we live and what we say and and what we do are we making a way for people to find jesus listen, if you're not a christian. If you do not know jesus, then we just wanna graciously say to you that that christians are not perfect, we're not and and we are so sorry if our sins, our our failures have caused you to be disinterested in jesus or reject jesus. But from our Brokenness and from our weakness and from our imperfection, we still want to say hello to you. We still want you to find the greatest hello in the universe. We long for you to repent and turn to jesus and to receive this perfect, everlasting death, defying eternally satisfying love that you will never be separated from. We we long for you to come to jesus. And if you're a christian And you think man, I cannot be absurdly happy in Jesus, I would simply say this, this this one verse from the end of Matthew Chapter five. At the very least it is Jesus telling us our Hellos matter. Sir. If the curse of sin has lost its grip on you, why not, why not love your enemies, why not say hello and greet anyone and everyone to make a way for the Gospel. And why should we do that? Why should we try to make a way for the Gospel? Here's just one simple reason why we should try to make a way for the Gospel. And that's this. There was a day, dear christian that someone said hello to us