Sermon on the Mount: Loving Your Enemy. Healing Your Heart.

Jesus calls us to the most challenging command of all: love your enemies. In this message from Johanna Kelly, we look at Matthew 5 and the parable of the Good Samaritan, which invites us into a radically different way of living - one rooted in mercy, accountability, and self-reflection - where love breaks cycles of harm and builds a kingdom of reconciliation. Discussion Questions: 1. When you hear Jesus say, “Love your enemies,” what emotions or resistance surface in you, and why? 2. Who or what have you been tempted to label as “the enemy” in your own life (people, groups, systems, or ideas)? 3. How does the parable of the Good Samaritan challenge your understanding of who belongs inside God’s kingdom? 4. Have you ever had to set a boundary that felt unloving at the time but was actually an act of love? What did that look like? 5. How does accountability play a role in loving someone who causes harm, without excusing or enabling that harm? 6. Where might God be inviting you into deeper self-reflection to notice “the enemy within?” 7. What does it mean to you that love is an action, not just a feeling, especially when love feels costly or uncomfortable? 8. Can you think of a time when someone you least expected reflected God’s mercy or compassion to you? 9. As you reflect on the Lord’s Table, who might God be inviting you to see, include, or extend radical compassion toward?