The power of God’s love is that it changes us from the inside out and then flows through us, even toward people who oppose us. In this message, the speaker teaches that a personal revelation of how much the Father loves us, as much as He loves Jesus, grounds us so firmly that we can obey one of Christ’s hardest commands: love your enemies. She walks through Luke 6 and Matthew 5 and shares seven good results the Lord showed her that come from choosing love over hatred.
Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the sermon, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps you can take this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This message was preached at NTC Ministries and posted on February 4, 2025. The speaker opens by reading the first verse of an older worship song, “The Power of Your Love,” which the church used to sing: weaknesses will be stripped away by the power of His love. That line sets the theme for everything that follows.
The sermon moves in two parts. First, she explains why we need a personal, growing revelation of God’s love rather than head knowledge. Then she applies that love to the most difficult relationships we have, using Jesus’ teaching, Bible stories and modern testimonies of believers who loved those who hurt them.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Not named in the recording (a woman minister at NTC Ministries) |
| Series | Stand-alone message |
| Main text | Luke 6:27–36 and Matthew 5:43–48 |
| Key theme | Knowing the Father’s love empowers us to love our enemies |
| Length | About 65 minutes, ending in prayer |
The Power of God’s Love Changes Us
We can read about God’s love and hear sermons on it, the speaker says, but we need a personal revelation, and we can receive a fresh one again and again as we draw close to Him. Paul prayed that we would comprehend the width, length, depth and height of that love (Ephesians 3:17–19), because it changes us. When something is grounded, it is not easily moved or shaken.
None of us deserves this love or has done anything to earn it. God gives it freely because He is love, and when He looks at us He no longer sees our failures; He sees Jesus. The apostle John wrote that we have known and believed the love God has for us (1 John 4:16). The apostles were transformed, she says, not because they were great theologians, but because they knew that love by experience and relied on it with their lives.
Coupled with the Holy Spirit, God’s love sent them into Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth, bold as lions and unhesitating in obedience. Receiving God’s love, she teaches, changes how we see ourselves and how we see others. She asks the congregation to repeat after her: “My Father God loves me as much as He loves Jesus” (see John 17:23). When that sinks in, His love becomes a refuge in every storm and gives us security and boldness as His children.
Even the children’s ministry, she notes, was learning Jeremiah 31:3: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” That is how each of us came to Christ; His kindness drew us and led us to repentance. His love is everlasting because He is eternal, and it never changes because He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13:8).
Communion is a chance to pause and focus on God’s love, she says. As a mother of four, she cannot imagine willingly giving one of her children to die in someone else’s place, yet that is what the Father did. Most amazing of all, He loved us while we were still His enemies, opposed to Him and set on our own way (Romans 5:8–10).
Love Your Enemies: Jesus’ Hardest Command
It is easy to love those who love us. In Luke 6:32–33, Jesus says that even sinners do that. A few verses earlier He gives what the speaker calls a very difficult command for the flesh: “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you” (Luke 6:27–28).
She reads the passage in the Amplified Classic translation to show how much it requires. To do good means to treat well and act nobly toward those who detest you. Acting nobly, she explains, means behaving as someone of high birth and rank would. Born from above as children of the King of kings, believers have that rank and should act like it.
The enemy described here is not someone glaring from a distance. It is someone who actively pursues you with hatred. She shares that her husband, a social studies teacher, has been threatened by students, and the family later found that his brakes had been tampered with. Still, she says, you respond in love and look past the surface to a heart that desperately needs Jesus. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution (2 Timothy 3:12); it is not a question of if.
The word bless, she teaches, is the word from which we get eulogize. At a funeral we say all kinds of good things about a person and give thanks for them. That is what we are to do toward those who curse us. She tells of a neighbor who angrily berated her after she mentioned that the neighbor’s child had been swearing. Her flesh wanted an apology. Instead the Lord told her to buy the woman a bouquet of flowers. She did, apologized for upsetting her, and peace returned between the two households.
Agape: The Love Only God Can Supply
Loving enemies would seem impossible, the speaker says, if the love of God had not been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5). There is no greater witness to unbelievers than unconditional love in the face of hatred, and that takes the power of the Holy Spirit, because our flesh wants to strike back and feel justified.
Stephen, the church’s first martyr, not only forgave those stoning him but asked God not to charge them with that sin (Acts 7:59–60). Natural love cannot do that. Drawing on a definition from another Bible teacher, she describes God’s agape love as love known only by the actions it prompts. It is not natural affection or attraction, and it has nothing to do with whether the other person deserves it. It has everything to do with the love poured into our hearts.
Agape, she continues, is a choice and an act of the will. It actively seeks the welfare of all, believer and unbeliever alike, does no harm to anyone, and actively looks for opportunities to do good without partiality. As we have freely received God’s love, we are to freely give it (Matthew 10:8). Love your enemies is the general command; doing good, blessing and praying are how we carry it out in each situation.
Both Testaments say to love your neighbor as yourself. It was the Pharisees, she notes, who added “and hate your enemy.” So in Matthew 5:43–48 Jesus corrected them: love your enemies, so that you may be sons of your Father, who sends rain on the just and the unjust.
The same tension, she suggests, explains the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30–37). Yet when a man lay beaten and robbed by the road, the priest and the Levite, his own countrymen and the religious leaders of the day, walked past. It was the Samaritan, an enemy, who chose good over evil and love over hate.
Seven Good Results of Loving Your Enemies
While preparing the message, the speaker says, the Lord pointed out to her seven good results of obeying Jesus’ command to love our enemies. She weaves them through the rest of the sermon. The table gathers them in one place, with the Scripture or story she attaches to each.
| # | Result she gives | Scripture or example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | We act like sons of our Father | Matthew 5:45 |
| 2 | We become mature and whole, more like Jesus | Matthew 5:48; Corrie ten Boom |
| 3 | Our hearts stay tender toward God and others | Proverbs 4:23 |
| 4 | We leave vengeance to God | Romans 12:19; David and Saul |
| 5 | Our faith works and God’s plan is fulfilled | David waiting for God’s timing |
| 6 | Our enemies may come to repentance and to Christ | Proverbs 11:30; Daniel 12:3; Sabina Wurmbrand |
| 7 | We receive a great reward | Proverbs 25:21–22; Luke 6:35–36 |
The second result, she explains, does not mean never making mistakes. Being perfect as the Father is perfect means becoming mature and whole as we choose love in the face of hatred. She illustrates with Corrie ten Boom, one of her heroes of the faith, who was sent to a Nazi concentration camp for hiding Jews. When a guard beat her sick sister Betsie in the field, Corrie picked up his dropped baton, ready to attack him. Betsie stopped her and urged her not to hate, and Corrie handed the baton back.
Later, after Betsie had died and Corrie had been released, she was preaching forgiveness when that same former guard, now a believer, came forward and asked if she could forgive him. Remembering the cross and her own undeserved forgiveness, she took his hand and said yes. We overcome evil with good (Romans 12:21), the speaker says. Sometimes we need another person to help us choose love.
The third result is a tender heart. Proverbs tells us to keep our heart with all diligence (Proverbs 4:23), and choosing love over hate is one way to do it. As royalty, hatred is beneath us. Love and forgiveness are acting like our Father and taking the high ground, which is the place of victory.
The fourth and fifth results show that to love your enemies is also to trust God. Both come from David. King Saul pursued him with hatred for years, and David had more than one chance to kill him, with his men urging him on. He refused to touch the Lord’s anointed (1 Samuel 24:6) and left vengeance to God, who says, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay” (Romans 12:19). David trusted that God was with him in the valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23:4) and would never leave him (Hebrews 13:5).
She quotes Kenneth Copeland: “Without faith you can’t walk in love and without love you can’t walk by faith.” If David had taken revenge, she believes, he would have stepped outside God’s timing and plan for making him king. By trusting God, he let that plan be fulfilled when and how it should be.
Joseph, David and Enemies Close to Home
Even after Saul’s death, David went looking for a chance to do good to Saul’s house. He found Saul’s grandson Mephibosheth, restored all of Saul’s land to him and gave him a seat at the king’s table for life (2 Samuel 9:7). He returned good to the family of the man who had hated him.
Jesus warned that a person’s enemies may be those of his own household (Matthew 10:36). The speaker saw this during a summer in Japan as a student missionary. Many young people who received Jesus as the only way to the Father were disowned by their families, especially once they were baptized.
Joseph is her longest example. Ten older brothers hated him because he was his father’s favorite, because of the special coat and because of his God-given dreams. They planned to kill him, then threw him in a pit and sold him into slavery. In Egypt he was falsely accused and imprisoned before God raised him to second in command.
When his brothers came to buy grain, they did not recognize him after so many years. He tested them and found their hearts had changed. Instead of revenge, Joseph chose kindness, bringing the whole family to Egypt and providing for them in Goshen. He saw that what they meant for evil, God meant for good, to save many people alive (Genesis 50:20), including the line of the coming Messiah.
Love That Wins Even the Worst Enemy
The sixth result is the ultimate goal: when you love your enemies, it can lead them to repentance and to Christ. Her example is Sabina Wurmbrand, who with her husband Richard founded the Voice of the Martyrs. In Romania both were beaten, tortured and imprisoned for years for their faith, yet they chose to love even their captors, praying for their salvation and speaking well over them. God’s strength, she says, was made perfect in their weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).
God’s love in them, she stresses, was not passive endurance but positive, active good in the face of great evil. We are to abhor what is evil and cling to what is good (Romans 12:9), hating the sin but loving the sinner, because we do not wrestle against flesh and blood (Ephesians 6:12). Jesus looked at the crowd crying “Crucify Him” and prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Luke 23:34).
Sabina’s whole Jewish family had been killed in a Nazi camp. During the war, Richard met an SS officer who had served near where they died and who bragged about the Jews he had killed. Richard invited him home to hear piano music, then told him that if he woke his wife and told her this man had killed her family, she would not curse him but would make him the best food in the house. He did.
As the speaker tells it, Sabina came out silently, embraced the officer and told him that the heart of the Gospel is forgiveness: Christ forgave her, and He could forgive him too. The man broke down, received Christ and later served alongside them helping others. The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise (Proverbs 11:30); those who turn many to righteousness will shine like the stars (Daniel 12:3).
The seventh result is a reward. If your enemy is hungry, give him bread, and you will heap coals of fire on his head, which she explains brings conviction, not harm, and the Lord will reward you (Proverbs 25:21–22). Luke 6:35–36 adds that your reward will be great and you will be sons of the Most High, who is kind to the unthankful and evil. Jesus never asks anything He has not already done and empowered us to do, which is why she urges every believer to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Living the Power of God’s Love This Week
The speaker closes in prayer, thanking God that Christ died for us while we were His enemies and asking for grace to love those who choose to oppose us. These steps follow directly from the message:
- Say it until you believe it. Repeat daily: my Father God loves me as much as He loves Jesus.
- Love your enemies by name. Ask God to bless the person who opposes you, and pray for their salvation.
- Speak well of them. Bless means to speak good things about someone; refuse to join in cursing them.
- Do one deliberate good. Like the bouquet of flowers, look for an active way to treat an opponent nobly.
- Let God handle vengeance. When you are wronged, hand it to Him rather than taking matters into your own hands.
- Ask for the Spirit’s power. Depend on the Holy Spirit for the love your flesh cannot produce.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:01 The Power of Your Love song
- 1:15 Comprehending the width, length, depth and height
- 2:30 The apostles knew and believed God’s love
- 3:49 He loves you as much as He loves Jesus
- 5:12 Jeremiah 31:3: an everlasting love
- 8:01 He loved us while we were His enemies
- 9:26 Luke 6:27-28: love your enemies
- 11:11 Act nobly: you are a child of the King
- 12:50 2 Timothy 3:12: persecution will come
- 14:23 Bless means speak well of
- 15:38 The neighbor and the bouquet of flowers
- 18:08 Stephen and God’s agape love
- 21:29 Matthew 5:43-48: sons of your Father
- 24:11 The Good Samaritan
- 25:26 Results one and two: like our Father
- 27:05 Corrie ten Boom and the guard
- 33:14 Result three: a tender heart
- 34:55 Result four: leave vengeance to God
- 36:21 Result five: faith works
- 37:51 David and Mephibosheth; enemies at home
- 39:13 Joseph and his brothers
- 47:10 Sabina Wurmbrand’s love for her enemies
- 58:01 Result six: enemies come to Christ
- 59:40 Result seven: a great reward
- 1:01:06 Luke 6:35-36 and closing prayer
Frequently Asked Questions
Does loving my enemies mean I just avoid them?
No. The speaker is clear that avoiding or ignoring people who oppose you is not what Jesus commanded. Agape love is active: it seeks the other person’s welfare and looks for opportunities to do good. In her own story with an angry neighbor, the answer was not distance but a bouquet of flowers and an apology, which brought peace between the two families.
Does loving an enemy mean approving of what they did?
No. She teaches that we are to hate evil and cling to what is good, hating the sin while loving the sinner. Seeing past the person to the spiritual forces driving them, as Jesus did on the cross, lets us pray for them without excusing the wrong. Vengeance is left to God, who judges justly and righteously.
What if I cannot feel love for the person who hurt me?
The speaker says agape love is not a feeling but a choice and an act of the will. It does not depend on emotions or on whether the person deserves it. The ability comes from God’s love already poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is why she urges believers to depend on the Spirit’s power rather than their own strength.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Luke 6:27–28 — love your enemies
- Luke 6:35–36 — your reward will be great
- Matthew 5:43–48 — sons of your Father in heaven
- Jeremiah 31:3 — an everlasting love
- Ephesians 3:17–19 — the width, length, depth and height
- Romans 5:5 — love poured out by the Holy Spirit
- Romans 12:19 — vengeance is Mine
- Genesis 50:20 — God meant it for good
- Proverbs 25:21–22 — coals of fire
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
Watch More Messages
If this message helped you grasp how much the Father loves you, there are hundreds more teachings from NTC Ministries waiting for you. Browse the full sermon archive and keep growing in His love.
