How to Get Alone with Almost Anyone:

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How to Get Alone with Almost Anyone

• How to Handle a Jerk

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• Jesus and Jerks 4 Strategies  
• Woe to you, Pharisees, and you other religious
  leaders. Hypocrites! For you won't let others
  enter the Kingdom of Heaven and won't go in
  yourselves. And you pretend to be holy, with all
  your long, public prayers in the streets, while
  you are evicting widows from their homes.
  Hypocrites!

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• Yes, woe upon you hypocrites. For you go to all
  lengths to make one convert, and then turn him
  into twice the son of hell you are yourselves.
  Yes, woe upon you, Pharisees, and you other
  religious leaders hypocrites!

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• For you tithe down to the last mint leaf in your
  garden, but ignore the important things
  justice and mercy and faith. Yes, you should
  tithe, but you shouldn't leave the more important
  things undone

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• Woe to you, Pharisees, and you religious
  leaders! You are like beautiful mausoleums
  full of dead men's bones, and of foulness and
  corruption. You try to look like saintly men, but
  underneath those pious robes of yours are hearts
  full of every sort of hypocrisy and sin
  - Matthew 23 (Various, TLB)

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• Some jerks need to be confronted
• For most people it takes a significant
  emotional event to bring about change in
  behavior - Dr. Morris Massey

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• Do not give dogs what is sacred do not throw
  your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample
  them under their feet, and then turn and tear you
  to pieces - Matthew 76

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• Some jerks need to be ignored
• The hope is that one day the person who is acting
  like a jerk will realize, No one is taking me
  seriously. This behavior is not effective at
  getting what I want

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• You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye,
  and tooth for tooth.' But I tell you, Do not
  resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on
  the right cheek, turn to him the other also
  - Matthew 53839

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• Some jerks need to be endured
• The hope is that once the person has spent some
  of the emotional energy that drives them, you can
  get to the root issue and work it out

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• If someone forces you to go one mile, go with
  him two miles - Matthew 541

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• Some jerks need to be served
• In effect we say to them, You don't need to be a
  jerk to get what you want. In fact, let me show
  you. I'll freely give you more than you can
  extract by this type of behavior

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• Choosing a Strategy
• Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate
  you. Pray for the happiness of those who curse
  you implore God's blessing on those who hurt
  you - Luke 627-28 (TLB)

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• According to Jesus, the foundational principle by
  which we should choose our response is this
  Which strategy is the most loving course of
  action
• Difficult people need help. In most cases, the
  reason they strive to make you miserable is
  because they're miserable. They need to become
  unmiserable

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• The Source of Strength
• The reason we don't like the idea of loving
  enemies, or difficult people, or jerks, is
  because we can't do it

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• Choosing a Strategy
• Love your enemies. Do good to those who hate
  you. Pray for the happiness of those who curse
  you implore God's blessing on those who hurt
  you - Luke 627-28 (TLB)

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• It's not natural for us to love jerks
• Do you think you deserve credit because you
  love those who love you?he asked. Even the
  godless do that! It's the natural thing to do.
  And if you do good only to those who do you good
  is that so wonderful? Even sinners do that
  much! It's the natural thing to do.

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• And if you lend money only to those who can
  repay you, what good is that? Even the most
  wicked will lend to their own kind for full
  return! It's the natural thing to do.

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• Love your enemies! Do good to them! Lend to
  them! And don't be concerned about the fact that
  they won't repay. Then your reward from heaven
  will be very great, and you will truly be acting
  as children of God for he is kind to the
  unthankful and to those who are very wicked
  - Luke 632-35 (TLB)

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• The secret lies in the assumption that Jesus
  makes Christians have the power to love a jerk
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• Even jerks matter to God!

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• That person who is such a pain to me, such a
  loser in my eyes is of infinite value to the God
  of the Universe
• It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the
  sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but
  sinners - Mark 217
• Father, forgive these people, for they don't
  know what they are doing - Luke 233435

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• I'm a jerk, too!
• All have sinned all fall short of God's glorious
  idea - Romans 323 (TLB)