"Is Trump a good neighbour?"

Jesus commanded us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Yet, in today’s world, it is so easy to take offense. Whether in politics, personal relationships, or national affairs, we must resist the trap of offense and instead be quick to forgive and extend mercy.... for more go to nhop.ca

Transcript

hi everybody it's Chris bber the director of the national House of Prayer coming to you today from Snowy Ottawa well we had a real huge dumping of snow over last weekend Thursday and then Saturday and Sunday uh close to 80 cm I would say maybe more summer forecasting so it was a lot of snow and uh you know I became very appreciative of my neighbor Kevin this weekend I always had a good relationship with him but I really appreciated him this weekend because he has a snowblower and I don't and he was so gracious to clear out the foot of my driveway with the big great big plowed in plow when the plow comes it just plows us right in we're on a corner so we seem to get more than our fair share

of snow in our driveway and my wonderful neighbor cleared out my driveway for me and I didn't even have to ask him how good is that don't you appreciate it when you have a good neighbor I really love good neighbors I've had good neighbors a lot of times in my life and on one occasion I had one that wasn't so good so I am very appreciative of good neighbors and Jesus said this you know in um in Luke chapter 10 he's actually uh there was this young uh young man that knew the law an expert in the law asked him um how do you inherit eternal life and Jesus asks him a series of questions and the and the young man said Jesus asked him so what do you think it is and he says well you should love the

Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and with all your mind with all your strength and to love your neighbor as yourself and Jesus said that's that's correct the first and the second are the most important that's the important things to God that we love our neighbors first love him with everything and then love our neighbors as ourself and uh you know I I can get into to reading this but also he goes on and uh and uh the the young man asks so who's my neighbor you know and I've heard things about neighbor I had a debate with a young um uh reporter one time who was all flustered about in during the season of covid and and he thought that our neighbors are

Christians brothers and sisters which is yeah they could be but didn't really see that it was those around us and I actually love this portion here at the very end of this passage in uh in Luke Luke 10: 25-37 um and uh and the expert says the expert of the law replied the one who had mercy on him the one who had mercy on that Samaritan that got robbed and beat up that was the neighbor and Jesus replied that's correct that's correct so it's it's it really makes a broad broad uh aspect of who that is who are you going to have mercy on who are you going to have mercy on is your neighbor which is very very important so so here we are in Canada and we're listening to a a

neighbor south of us right are the neighbor is Southwest is saying certain things and uh and that are causing a lot of things to be kind of FL blustery like even last weekend at a hockey game in Montreal there were those booing our neighbors national anthem and uh I don't necessarily think that's a good thing to do I don't think it's very nice to do um because you just can't paint broad pictures it's important to realize and I want to say this that the offense that offense is the easiest ship to board we can climb on that ship with no problems whatsoever and we can become into that place of offense and get into that offense and then live in that offense and that's not the place that we're

supposed to be we're supposed to carry things lightly we're supposed to forgive quickly and we're supposed to to you know just move on don't live in offense so many Christians are bound because they live in offense because this pastor did this or this person did this or this family member did this there are ways and means that we can make things right and it's important that we have clean slates before the Lord and uh so you have a fence and you're carrying a fence I would suggest you get rid of it because that's really difficult who can Ascend the hill of the Lord those with Clean Hands and a pure heart that's important that's our posture so I just want to say that about offense so so

here we are many of us not I'm not talking about you guys it's those other guys that are all a fluster and and and upset with with Trump maybe you're not me I'm going to tell you the truth I'm thankful for Donald Trump I'm thankful in the same way that I'm thankful for Justin Trudeau Justin Trudeau provoked us to prayer Donald Trump is provoking us as a nation and I really believe he's provoking our leaders in our nation to move out of teenag and be grown-ups and uh to take care of of our stuff to take care of the issues that are in our our our countries you know I had uh when I was u a young man my uncle my grandfather used to live up in Northern Ontario in a place called

the little clay belt and if you know where that is you get a gold star and uh and so he had a farm up there and he did mixed farming and uh and he had a lot of crops that he rotated and he had a Neighbor Next Door that did Dairy it was a Dairy Farmer and uh and you know one day those cows they were eyeing my grandfather's crops and they just like the smell of those crops and so their cattle the cows leaned on the fence and broke the fence and got into my my grandfather's grain and started munching away and because they really enjoyed it you know there this saying that uh fences make good for good neighbors and uh and so there was an issue and they had to fix the fence and they had to do

these things where they had to make things right so when when you have a neighbor that says hey your fence is broken you you we probably need to pay attention so I don't want to get into that I don't want to get the semantics you know but there are things that that that are being we are being provoked as a nation um that we need to grow up into and I really I appreciate that part of Donald Trump saying yes need to take care of the north North yes it's hard to believe now everybody's saying that may have been a good idea to have pop pipelines going east and west and uh yeah maybe we should have more markets and yes we should maybe not put all our eggs in one basket maybe this is a good

thing for Canada um but I want to encourage you don't stay in advance don't fall into that trap of being offended and be in the place of uh of being a good neighbor and that is where Jesus says this is those that are showing Mercy have this heart of Mercy Matthew uh 24 talks about this it talks about how you can tell that you're in the end in times and it comes out of Matthew 24:12 and uh basically it says when the hearts of many grow their love grows cold we don't want to be in that place of our hearts growing cold from love because this is this is this is what love does and you know the love chapter in cor Corinthians and one of my favorite portions on on Corinthians Is

This Love hopes all things stay in the place of of Hope because it's foundational to for love and and they are sort of ir they just just just oppose you know Love and Hope go together and it's is important that we stay in those places of Love and Hope don't move into the place of offense get out of offense keep your hands clean and do this Rejoice ever more in everything give thanks and pray without ceasing anyway that's what I want to share with you today don't be in offense stay out of offense yes do what it's right yeah sometimes we got to stand up to what we have to stand up to that's good but don't Harbor and let offense grow in your heart that is key because Clean

Hands Pure Heart ascending anyway I'm Chris Iber the director of the national House of Prayer and remember every day is the National Day of Prayer bye for now [Music]