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Dr. Tony Evans is the founder and senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, founder and president of The Urban Alternative and author of over 100 books, booklets and Bible studies. The first African American to earn a doctorate of theology from Dallas Theological Seminary, he has been named one of the 12 Most Effective Preachers in the English-Speaking World by Baylor University. Dr. Evans holds the honor of writing and publishing the first full-Bible commentary and study Bible by an African American. His radio broadcast, The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, can be heard on over 1,400 radio outlets daily and in more than 130 countries. Dr. Evans’ sermons are also streamed and downloaded over 20,000,000 times annually. #tonyevans #tonyevanssermon #Racism
[Music]
when you come to Christ God is not
trying to fix something old he’s trying
to make something new he calls it one
new man he does not mean by this you
lose your identity what he is saying is
your previous identity is no longer your
point of reference the life which I now
live I live by faith in the Son of God
that he is my point of
[Music]
[Applause]
reference
one of the most daunting issues that
we’ve had to Grapple with as a country
and as a
culture is the issue of
race the problem of race has
dominated us from beginning to end and
every day in one form or another it hits
Us in the
face and we wonder often is there ever
going to be a solution ution to
this problem that lives in infamy in our
minds and our
hearts and in our
relationship one of the things that has
divided people along political social
cultural and class
lines is the issue of
race and the sin of
racism I’ll never forget my
first confrontation with racism at about
10 years old when my father was driving
me in Baltimore past a White Tower
restaurant and I asked my dad about
getting a hamburger and he informed me
we couldn’t go in there to eat because
they didn’t allow Negroes as he would
say then into the place
confused I wanted to get a little
Clarity on on why and he began to give
me my basic orientation to the problem
of race to the problem of
racism it became more
Amplified growing up in Baltimore when I
found out that there were some quote
unquote Evangelical churches that we
could not visit or go
in because of
segregation and illegitimate
divisiveness and so that began a journey
for me to look at this subject now not
only culturally but biblio centrically
and
theologically the issue of race is not
new or unique to
us it was replete in biblical times as
well for
example in Numbers Chapter
12 there was an interracial marriage
between Moses and an African woman twice
in verse
one she’s called the Kush
the African woman that Moses
married this caused a a sibling
chaotic abandonment of their brother and
spiritual leader of the nation because
of the interracial
marriage to a black woman so incensed
was
God at their racist mentality at the
institution of marriage that he himself
had established that God came down and
he judged them particularly Miriam his
sister turning her skin white until she
repented of her
racism what exactly is
racism racism is a conscious or
unconscious belief in the superity of
One race over another race that manifest
itself in the use of power or influence
or re resources or communication used to
reject or oppress people of another
ethnicity and it has em bibed
itself not only in individual Hearts but
in structural
realities so that whether it’s economic
or social structures or political
structures or educational structures or
medical
structures uh they filter themselves
through so that whether known or unknown
it becomes just the way people accept as
normal ways to operate what makes it
worse is when this attitude and or
action Finds Its way in the
life of God’s
people and the reality is that unless we
can can fix it in the church house why
would we
expect it to be
transformational in the
culture so rather than skip the issue
since God doesn’t skip the issue and
since we are continually in this Mirage
and this mix of racial confusion and
Calamity why don’t we appeal to the word
of God to
understand how we are to relate to one
another in the church house so that we
can bring transformation all the way up
to the White
House because when God’s people can get
it right then we have something to offer
the
culture when writing to the church at
Ephesus Paul spends the first half of
the chapter talking about the
Magnificent Grace of
God he tells us we are saved by grace
through faith he tells us that in the
ages to come God wants to manifest his
grace he comes in verse 10 and he says
it’s because of this grace that we are
now workers we need to get to work and
get the job done now that we’ve been
redeemed by Jesus
Christ but
curiously when he finishes talking about
Grace he goes to race he moves from
grace to race and he says that the first
work of Saved people of people who Nam
Jesus Christ ought to be the work of
racial reconciliation he says that the
very first thing because in verse 10 he
tells us about our
work but then beginning in verse 11 all
the way through verse 22 he talks about
race that Grace should lead to fixing
the problems of race or to put it
another way if you aren’t if I’m not if
we’re not fixing the problem of race
it’s because we haven’t fully understood
the glory of
Grace and he comes and he opens it up to
the biggest racial problem in the New
Testament it was the problem between the
Jews and the
Gentiles therefore based on the grace of
God that ought to produce the work in
the people of God remember that you
forly the Gentiles In the
Flesh who were called uncircumcised by
the so-called
circumcision which is performed in the
flesh by human hands the uncircumcised
were the Gentiles the circumcised were
the Jews and like the Berlin wall that
separated NATO from
Warsaw there was a division not to be
crossed the Jews rejected the Gentiles
they were not racially pure they were
not religiously
acceptable and there was a divide
between the two but now both were
claiming the same
Faith Paul speaks into This calamity and
he says now that you’re saved you got to
fix this the problem of race that leads
to racism and other form and all of its
form of
inequities is because we bring our
histories with us the Gentiles only knew
how to be
Gentiles and the Jews only knew how to
be
Jewish but yet they find themselves
sharing the same faith and now belonging
to the same church but they brought
their past with
them you and I know it’s not easy to let
go of yesterday especially when you’re
used to it or maybe there’s pain in it
but yet now you’re this new creature in
Christ and how do we fix this rather
than have it go on year after year
decade after decade Century after
century and so it was that these Jews
and
Gentiles or to put it in everyday
language black and white or Hispanic and
black or whatever the group
is yesterday can so confining to how you
were raised what you were taught what
you
experienced he says but now in Christ
Jesus you who formerly were far off have
been brought near by the blood of
Christ for he himself is our peace
making both groups into one and broke
down the barrier of the dividing wall by
abolishing it in his flesh FH which is
the law of Commandments contained in
ordinances so that in himself he might
make the two into one new man thus
establishing
peace now these are Christians he’s
writing but they weren’t at
peace they were in conflict with one
another four
times between these verses up through
verse 17 he uses the word peace peace
peace
peace and he says that this peace comes
with an understanding of what you are
now Christians across the racial line
color line culture line and class line
have not understood the root of what has
happen when you come to Jesus Christ we
bring all of that stuff and fight over
it because we’re not going back to the
root he says when you come to Christ God
is not trying to fix something old he’s
trying to make something new he calls it
one new man not fixing two old racial
people he does not mean by this you lose
your
identity what he is saying is your
previous identity is no longer your
point of reference let me say that again
he’s not saying Jews AR Jews and
Gentiles AR Gentiles because he talks
about Jews and Gentiles throughout all
of his letters what he is saying is that
this new thing this new
relationship is your starting point for
everything else in your experience with
one another and how you are to view
yourself the moment that this new
relationship in Christ
is not the starting point for your
racial identity you will forever live in
racial conflict and confusion and debate
and crisis why because you’re starting
at the wrong place he says he himself is
our
peace in Galatians 2:20 Paul says I’m
crucified with Christ nevertheless I
live yet not I Christ lives in me the
life which I now live I live by faith in
the son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me you know what Paul is
saying I’m Christian first that he is my
identity and he is my point of reference
now you know when he said that he said
that in the midst of a racial problem
because Peter stopped eating with the
Gentiles he found out that the Gentiles
could cook he started eating with the
Gentiles and so he started eating with
them until his voice from the hood
showed up beginning in Galatians 2:1
when the when when his Jewish Brethren
showed up he left the G Gentiles cuz his
Jewish Brethren wouldn’t accept the
Gentiles and he didn’t want to lose
Acceptance in his own race and Paul says
when I saw that he was not acting in
concert with the truth of the Gospel I
confronted Peter before them all because
he was embarrassing the
cross I don’t care what his background
was I don’t care what his racial
identity was he was messing with Jesus
Christ what we have not discovered in
our racial conflict and confusion is
that we’re messing with Jesus Christ
because he is our peace he is our point
of reference he is the one who has
established one new man or to put it in
everyday language you are Christian
first and your color your culture must
adapt to
that my color and culture I don’t lose
it I adapt it I adapt it to my
relationship with Jesus Christ
which means he overrules
it that’s why you can’t say first of all
I’m a black Christian or a white
Christian because then you make black
and white an adjective you make
Christian a noun and it’s the job of the
adjective to modify the noun so if you
got Christianity in the noun position
and your color in the adjectival
position you’ve got to keep adjusting
the noun of your Humanity to the noun of
your faith to the adjective of your
Humanity you’ve got to put Christianity
in the adjectival position your color
and your culture in the noun position so
if anything changes it is the noun of
your humanity and not the adjective of
your faith until black Christians white
Christians Asian Christians Hispanic
Christians decide I am Christian first
and I must ad I don’t have to lose my
culture I don’t have to give up my
culture but I must submit it to the
authority of Christ when it comes in
conflict with him you say how can we all
get along with all these
differences he says uh you
know oil and water doesn’t mix their
makeup doesn’t allow them to integrate
their makeup doesn’t allow them to
unify and as soon as you force them
together they’re gonna go back to their
own political a social ows you know I
get mayonnaise because of
emulsification that even though oil and
water can’t get along when I introduced
the egg I have created something new
without oil becoming less than oil and
water becoming less than water but I’ve
created something brand new it is time
for the Church of Jesus Christ to create
something
new to create something that the world
has never
seen to create a brand new church under
the lordship of Jesus Christ without us
losing our uniqueness but creating
something new because Jesus is our peace
he is the the one who establishes a
whole different way of operating one new
man and he uses this concept this
truth to let us know that verse 16 he
might reconcile both in one body to God
through the
cross Jesus
Christ wants to reconcile these are two
races he wants to bring
Harmony
Unity
togetherness and he wants to do it
through the cross see the cross is not a
2,000 year old Relic it is a
contemporary reality why because the
cross was
established watch this to deal with
sin did you hear
that we spend our time W to talk about
skin the cross was established to deal
with
sin but we want to spend all of our time
talking about
skin and if you spend all of your time
talking about skin You’re Gonna Miss sin
because the only reason there’s a
problem with skin is because we won’t
address the sin you don’t reconcile by
simply saying let’s all get along let’s
meet together let’s have a by your
services together no you must identify
the sin apply the cross address the sin
through repentance so that the
reconciling work of Jesus Christ can be
ignited oh we we we mentioned the cross
but the cross is not the final say
so and that’s why he
says having been built together he says
in verse 20 on the foundation of the
apostle OST Les and the
prophets Christ Jesus himself
being the Cornerstone the Cornerstone
was the alignment stone that you lined
up all the other stones with if it it
lined things up like a surveyor lines
things up the Cornerstone lined things
up and he says based on watch this the
apostles and the
prophets now the apostles and the
prophets were set
up
for the writing of the word of God so
when he talks about the prophets and the
apostles they’re not just people they
are biblical
authors so what is he
saying he is saying if you’re going to
align with Christ you have to align with
the word of
God but what we’ve got people doing
Christians is going secular and then
have the audacity to judge the sacred
the in arent errorless perfect word of
God by their secular University or by
their secular the Bible calls it human
wisdom man’s thoughts no you don’t get
to you don’t get to have man’s that’s
why all this all this edication we got
and we still hav solve the racial
problem you know why because we starting
in the wrong place we’re not starting
with what God says about race black is
beautiful when it’s biblical white is
only right when it agrees with holy writ
and until you start there then you will
not be seeing the emulsification of
Jesus Christ and the power of the Cross
to deal with the sin of racism so that
there can be bibloc Centric
reconciliation he says we’re reconciled
through the
blood in Acts 17 verse 26 Paul says
there’s only one race many ethnicities
but there’s only one race see we even
got the concept of race all mixed up
God expresses himself in a multiplicity
of ways but he says unless you
understand where I am in this
process and that I have set this thing
up for there to be differences so that
the whole body can benefit from the
differences you gonna argue your point
somebody’s gonna argue their point and
you will never have reconciliation
because you won’t create something new
so important is this issue of
reconciliation so important the Bible
says in Romans chap 16:1
17 watch out for folk who bring division
in the
church not in accordance with the
teaching of
Christ watch out for racist in the
church because you don’t come into the
Church of Jesus Christ and bring your
secular rules you come into the Church
of Jesus Christ to get the teachings of
Christ and to adjust to
that and the angang pastors would have
taken their stand and say you don’t you
don’t you don’t bring white culture into
the church and deny people equal
opportunity equal access to worship the
Living God you don’t get to do that in
the Church of the Living God now maybe
there were some problems maybe there was
some inequities maybe there was some
pain yes we must show empathy we must
say I see you were hurt I see you were
struggle and we will walk with you in
empathy but you don’t let empathy change
the rules you don’t say because I’m
being empathetic Christ no longer has
the final say so we love you to the
teachings of Christ he says watch those
who would divide the church why because
as the Book of John chapter 17 verse 24
says perfect them in unity so that they
will see my glory you know why the
church isn’t seeing God’s glory is
because we’re illegitimately racially
divided we we use our culture and our
race as an excuse not not to
reconcile and as a
result the world doesn’t have a model to
look at so we’re fighting in here and
they’re fighting out there we just
sanctify our fight with a little Jesus
on
top I love the
way the scripture puts it the scripture
says in Colossians 1: 19 to
203 that if you want to see God you
better focus on reconciliation because
Christ came to reconcile people
reconcile people vertically to him
reconcile people horizontally to one
another it’s time for racism to
end it is time for the racists to
confess their sins it is time for those
who refuse to forgive to confess the sin
of unforgiveness no justice no peace got
that no forgiveness no peace you better
get that both must be
simultaneously true for the one new man
why because of this scripture in 2
Corinthians chapter
5 listen to what he
says he
says beginning in verse
16 therefore from now on WE recognize no
one according to the
flesh oh yeah he did you don’t judge
people by their Earth suit you don’t
judge people by the color that skin
their flesh their physical Humanity he
says we know no man we don’t judge
anybody by their whiteness or
Blackness or
brownness we don’t we don’t well that’s
not where we
start we don’t look at people like that
that was the old life that’s how hell
looks at people first he says now that
you know Jesus Christ that’s never the
starting point he says but
now he says if people are in Christ they
are a new creature now look at Verse 18
now all things are from God that’s our
new reference point who reconciled us to
himself through Christ and gave us here
it is the ministry of
reconciliation namely that God was in
Christ reconciling the world to himself
not counting their trespasses against
them and he has committed to us the word
of reconciliation therefore we are are
ambassadors for Christ you know what an
ambassador is an ambassador is somebody
who goes to another country on behalf of
their country to represent their country
on foreign soil he says you are an
ambassador for heaven you’re on Earth
that’s the foreign country but you are
an ambassador from heaven and what’s
your ambassadorship about the ministry
of
reconciliation and don’t get so high and
mighty that you forget you’re an
ambassador for another country and you
and I and we should be agents and
ministers of reconciliation they ought
to be healing you ought to be healing
stuff wherever you go why because Christ
forgave you so you got to help folk
forgive each other so that we can
addressing the sin not skipping the sin
but going toward the reconciliation as
the
goal let me tell you something as we
wind
down John said in Revelation
7:9 he looked up in heaven and guess
what he saw he saw people from every
nation every tribe every Kindred and
every tongue and he said he saw them so
there were visual differences so
whatever you are is what you forever are
G to be so anybody who doesn’t like who
they are you have insulted God you don’t
have the right if you black to want to
be white and you don’t have the right if
you white to want to be black cuz you
are who he is and what you ever going to
be cuz God has set it up for eternity to
operate that
way in the
meantime you and I are supposed to be
modeling what is going to be
there but how we’re working it out down
here thy kingdom come thy will be done
on Earth as it is in heaven folks you
see a little bit of reconciliation now
cuz for every
we’re going to be reconciled up there so
let’s get it
on let’s get it on and let’s give the
world something to see that overrides
racism that overrides evil whether it’s
individual or
structural and that demonstrates what
the kingdom of God looks like when
people are held to that standard which
will fix the things that are wrong in
their lives because now they’re not
trying to please another race they’re
trying to please the the King of Kings
and the Lord of
[Applause]
[Music]
lords
f
[Music]
when you come to Christ God is not
trying to fix something old he’s trying
to make something new he calls it one
new man he does not mean by this you
lose your identity what he is saying is
your previous identity is no longer your
point of reference the life which I now
live I live by faith in the Son of God
that he is my point of
[Music]
[Applause]
reference
one of the most daunting issues that
we’ve had to Grapple with as a country
and as a
culture is the issue of
race the problem of race has
dominated us from beginning to end and
every day in one form or another it hits
Us in the
face and we wonder often is there ever
going to be a solution ution to
this problem that lives in infamy in our
minds and our
hearts and in our
relationship one of the things that has
divided people along political social
cultural and class
lines is the issue of
race and the sin of
racism I’ll never forget my
first confrontation with racism at about
10 years old when my father was driving
me in Baltimore past a White Tower
restaurant and I asked my dad about
getting a hamburger and he informed me
we couldn’t go in there to eat because
they didn’t allow Negroes as he would
say then into the place
confused I wanted to get a little
Clarity on on why and he began to give
me my basic orientation to the problem
of race to the problem of
racism it became more
Amplified growing up in Baltimore when I
found out that there were some quote
unquote Evangelical churches that we
could not visit or go
in because of
segregation and illegitimate
divisiveness and so that began a journey
for me to look at this subject now not
only culturally but biblio centrically
and
theologically the issue of race is not
new or unique to
us it was replete in biblical times as
well for
example in Numbers Chapter
12 there was an interracial marriage
between Moses and an African woman twice
in verse
one she’s called the Kush
the African woman that Moses
married this caused a a sibling
chaotic abandonment of their brother and
spiritual leader of the nation because
of the interracial
marriage to a black woman so incensed
was
God at their racist mentality at the
institution of marriage that he himself
had established that God came down and
he judged them particularly Miriam his
sister turning her skin white until she
repented of her
racism what exactly is
racism racism is a conscious or
unconscious belief in the superity of
One race over another race that manifest
itself in the use of power or influence
or re resources or communication used to
reject or oppress people of another
ethnicity and it has em bibed
itself not only in individual Hearts but
in structural
realities so that whether it’s economic
or social structures or political
structures or educational structures or
medical
structures uh they filter themselves
through so that whether known or unknown
it becomes just the way people accept as
normal ways to operate what makes it
worse is when this attitude and or
action Finds Its way in the
life of God’s
people and the reality is that unless we
can can fix it in the church house why
would we
expect it to be
transformational in the
culture so rather than skip the issue
since God doesn’t skip the issue and
since we are continually in this Mirage
and this mix of racial confusion and
Calamity why don’t we appeal to the word
of God to
understand how we are to relate to one
another in the church house so that we
can bring transformation all the way up
to the White
House because when God’s people can get
it right then we have something to offer
the
culture when writing to the church at
Ephesus Paul spends the first half of
the chapter talking about the
Magnificent Grace of
God he tells us we are saved by grace
through faith he tells us that in the
ages to come God wants to manifest his
grace he comes in verse 10 and he says
it’s because of this grace that we are
now workers we need to get to work and
get the job done now that we’ve been
redeemed by Jesus
Christ but
curiously when he finishes talking about
Grace he goes to race he moves from
grace to race and he says that the first
work of Saved people of people who Nam
Jesus Christ ought to be the work of
racial reconciliation he says that the
very first thing because in verse 10 he
tells us about our
work but then beginning in verse 11 all
the way through verse 22 he talks about
race that Grace should lead to fixing
the problems of race or to put it
another way if you aren’t if I’m not if
we’re not fixing the problem of race
it’s because we haven’t fully understood
the glory of
Grace and he comes and he opens it up to
the biggest racial problem in the New
Testament it was the problem between the
Jews and the
Gentiles therefore based on the grace of
God that ought to produce the work in
the people of God remember that you
forly the Gentiles In the
Flesh who were called uncircumcised by
the so-called
circumcision which is performed in the
flesh by human hands the uncircumcised
were the Gentiles the circumcised were
the Jews and like the Berlin wall that
separated NATO from
Warsaw there was a division not to be
crossed the Jews rejected the Gentiles
they were not racially pure they were
not religiously
acceptable and there was a divide
between the two but now both were
claiming the same
Faith Paul speaks into This calamity and
he says now that you’re saved you got to
fix this the problem of race that leads
to racism and other form and all of its
form of
inequities is because we bring our
histories with us the Gentiles only knew
how to be
Gentiles and the Jews only knew how to
be
Jewish but yet they find themselves
sharing the same faith and now belonging
to the same church but they brought
their past with
them you and I know it’s not easy to let
go of yesterday especially when you’re
used to it or maybe there’s pain in it
but yet now you’re this new creature in
Christ and how do we fix this rather
than have it go on year after year
decade after decade Century after
century and so it was that these Jews
and
Gentiles or to put it in everyday
language black and white or Hispanic and
black or whatever the group
is yesterday can so confining to how you
were raised what you were taught what
you
experienced he says but now in Christ
Jesus you who formerly were far off have
been brought near by the blood of
Christ for he himself is our peace
making both groups into one and broke
down the barrier of the dividing wall by
abolishing it in his flesh FH which is
the law of Commandments contained in
ordinances so that in himself he might
make the two into one new man thus
establishing
peace now these are Christians he’s
writing but they weren’t at
peace they were in conflict with one
another four
times between these verses up through
verse 17 he uses the word peace peace
peace
peace and he says that this peace comes
with an understanding of what you are
now Christians across the racial line
color line culture line and class line
have not understood the root of what has
happen when you come to Jesus Christ we
bring all of that stuff and fight over
it because we’re not going back to the
root he says when you come to Christ God
is not trying to fix something old he’s
trying to make something new he calls it
one new man not fixing two old racial
people he does not mean by this you lose
your
identity what he is saying is your
previous identity is no longer your
point of reference let me say that again
he’s not saying Jews AR Jews and
Gentiles AR Gentiles because he talks
about Jews and Gentiles throughout all
of his letters what he is saying is that
this new thing this new
relationship is your starting point for
everything else in your experience with
one another and how you are to view
yourself the moment that this new
relationship in Christ
is not the starting point for your
racial identity you will forever live in
racial conflict and confusion and debate
and crisis why because you’re starting
at the wrong place he says he himself is
our
peace in Galatians 2:20 Paul says I’m
crucified with Christ nevertheless I
live yet not I Christ lives in me the
life which I now live I live by faith in
the son of God who loved me and gave
himself for me you know what Paul is
saying I’m Christian first that he is my
identity and he is my point of reference
now you know when he said that he said
that in the midst of a racial problem
because Peter stopped eating with the
Gentiles he found out that the Gentiles
could cook he started eating with the
Gentiles and so he started eating with
them until his voice from the hood
showed up beginning in Galatians 2:1
when the when when his Jewish Brethren
showed up he left the G Gentiles cuz his
Jewish Brethren wouldn’t accept the
Gentiles and he didn’t want to lose
Acceptance in his own race and Paul says
when I saw that he was not acting in
concert with the truth of the Gospel I
confronted Peter before them all because
he was embarrassing the
cross I don’t care what his background
was I don’t care what his racial
identity was he was messing with Jesus
Christ what we have not discovered in
our racial conflict and confusion is
that we’re messing with Jesus Christ
because he is our peace he is our point
of reference he is the one who has
established one new man or to put it in
everyday language you are Christian
first and your color your culture must
adapt to
that my color and culture I don’t lose
it I adapt it I adapt it to my
relationship with Jesus Christ
which means he overrules
it that’s why you can’t say first of all
I’m a black Christian or a white
Christian because then you make black
and white an adjective you make
Christian a noun and it’s the job of the
adjective to modify the noun so if you
got Christianity in the noun position
and your color in the adjectival
position you’ve got to keep adjusting
the noun of your Humanity to the noun of
your faith to the adjective of your
Humanity you’ve got to put Christianity
in the adjectival position your color
and your culture in the noun position so
if anything changes it is the noun of
your humanity and not the adjective of
your faith until black Christians white
Christians Asian Christians Hispanic
Christians decide I am Christian first
and I must ad I don’t have to lose my
culture I don’t have to give up my
culture but I must submit it to the
authority of Christ when it comes in
conflict with him you say how can we all
get along with all these
differences he says uh you
know oil and water doesn’t mix their
makeup doesn’t allow them to integrate
their makeup doesn’t allow them to
unify and as soon as you force them
together they’re gonna go back to their
own political a social ows you know I
get mayonnaise because of
emulsification that even though oil and
water can’t get along when I introduced
the egg I have created something new
without oil becoming less than oil and
water becoming less than water but I’ve
created something brand new it is time
for the Church of Jesus Christ to create
something
new to create something that the world
has never
seen to create a brand new church under
the lordship of Jesus Christ without us
losing our uniqueness but creating
something new because Jesus is our peace
he is the the one who establishes a
whole different way of operating one new
man and he uses this concept this
truth to let us know that verse 16 he
might reconcile both in one body to God
through the
cross Jesus
Christ wants to reconcile these are two
races he wants to bring
Harmony
Unity
togetherness and he wants to do it
through the cross see the cross is not a
2,000 year old Relic it is a
contemporary reality why because the
cross was
established watch this to deal with
sin did you hear
that we spend our time W to talk about
skin the cross was established to deal
with
sin but we want to spend all of our time
talking about
skin and if you spend all of your time
talking about skin You’re Gonna Miss sin
because the only reason there’s a
problem with skin is because we won’t
address the sin you don’t reconcile by
simply saying let’s all get along let’s
meet together let’s have a by your
services together no you must identify
the sin apply the cross address the sin
through repentance so that the
reconciling work of Jesus Christ can be
ignited oh we we we mentioned the cross
but the cross is not the final say
so and that’s why he
says having been built together he says
in verse 20 on the foundation of the
apostle OST Les and the
prophets Christ Jesus himself
being the Cornerstone the Cornerstone
was the alignment stone that you lined
up all the other stones with if it it
lined things up like a surveyor lines
things up the Cornerstone lined things
up and he says based on watch this the
apostles and the
prophets now the apostles and the
prophets were set
up
for the writing of the word of God so
when he talks about the prophets and the
apostles they’re not just people they
are biblical
authors so what is he
saying he is saying if you’re going to
align with Christ you have to align with
the word of
God but what we’ve got people doing
Christians is going secular and then
have the audacity to judge the sacred
the in arent errorless perfect word of
God by their secular University or by
their secular the Bible calls it human
wisdom man’s thoughts no you don’t get
to you don’t get to have man’s that’s
why all this all this edication we got
and we still hav solve the racial
problem you know why because we starting
in the wrong place we’re not starting
with what God says about race black is
beautiful when it’s biblical white is
only right when it agrees with holy writ
and until you start there then you will
not be seeing the emulsification of
Jesus Christ and the power of the Cross
to deal with the sin of racism so that
there can be bibloc Centric
reconciliation he says we’re reconciled
through the
blood in Acts 17 verse 26 Paul says
there’s only one race many ethnicities
but there’s only one race see we even
got the concept of race all mixed up
God expresses himself in a multiplicity
of ways but he says unless you
understand where I am in this
process and that I have set this thing
up for there to be differences so that
the whole body can benefit from the
differences you gonna argue your point
somebody’s gonna argue their point and
you will never have reconciliation
because you won’t create something new
so important is this issue of
reconciliation so important the Bible
says in Romans chap 16:1
17 watch out for folk who bring division
in the
church not in accordance with the
teaching of
Christ watch out for racist in the
church because you don’t come into the
Church of Jesus Christ and bring your
secular rules you come into the Church
of Jesus Christ to get the teachings of
Christ and to adjust to
that and the angang pastors would have
taken their stand and say you don’t you
don’t you don’t bring white culture into
the church and deny people equal
opportunity equal access to worship the
Living God you don’t get to do that in
the Church of the Living God now maybe
there were some problems maybe there was
some inequities maybe there was some
pain yes we must show empathy we must
say I see you were hurt I see you were
struggle and we will walk with you in
empathy but you don’t let empathy change
the rules you don’t say because I’m
being empathetic Christ no longer has
the final say so we love you to the
teachings of Christ he says watch those
who would divide the church why because
as the Book of John chapter 17 verse 24
says perfect them in unity so that they
will see my glory you know why the
church isn’t seeing God’s glory is
because we’re illegitimately racially
divided we we use our culture and our
race as an excuse not not to
reconcile and as a
result the world doesn’t have a model to
look at so we’re fighting in here and
they’re fighting out there we just
sanctify our fight with a little Jesus
on
top I love the
way the scripture puts it the scripture
says in Colossians 1: 19 to
203 that if you want to see God you
better focus on reconciliation because
Christ came to reconcile people
reconcile people vertically to him
reconcile people horizontally to one
another it’s time for racism to
end it is time for the racists to
confess their sins it is time for those
who refuse to forgive to confess the sin
of unforgiveness no justice no peace got
that no forgiveness no peace you better
get that both must be
simultaneously true for the one new man
why because of this scripture in 2
Corinthians chapter
5 listen to what he
says he
says beginning in verse
16 therefore from now on WE recognize no
one according to the
flesh oh yeah he did you don’t judge
people by their Earth suit you don’t
judge people by the color that skin
their flesh their physical Humanity he
says we know no man we don’t judge
anybody by their whiteness or
Blackness or
brownness we don’t we don’t well that’s
not where we
start we don’t look at people like that
that was the old life that’s how hell
looks at people first he says now that
you know Jesus Christ that’s never the
starting point he says but
now he says if people are in Christ they
are a new creature now look at Verse 18
now all things are from God that’s our
new reference point who reconciled us to
himself through Christ and gave us here
it is the ministry of
reconciliation namely that God was in
Christ reconciling the world to himself
not counting their trespasses against
them and he has committed to us the word
of reconciliation therefore we are are
ambassadors for Christ you know what an
ambassador is an ambassador is somebody
who goes to another country on behalf of
their country to represent their country
on foreign soil he says you are an
ambassador for heaven you’re on Earth
that’s the foreign country but you are
an ambassador from heaven and what’s
your ambassadorship about the ministry
of
reconciliation and don’t get so high and
mighty that you forget you’re an
ambassador for another country and you
and I and we should be agents and
ministers of reconciliation they ought
to be healing you ought to be healing
stuff wherever you go why because Christ
forgave you so you got to help folk
forgive each other so that we can
addressing the sin not skipping the sin
but going toward the reconciliation as
the
goal let me tell you something as we
wind
down John said in Revelation
7:9 he looked up in heaven and guess
what he saw he saw people from every
nation every tribe every Kindred and
every tongue and he said he saw them so
there were visual differences so
whatever you are is what you forever are
G to be so anybody who doesn’t like who
they are you have insulted God you don’t
have the right if you black to want to
be white and you don’t have the right if
you white to want to be black cuz you
are who he is and what you ever going to
be cuz God has set it up for eternity to
operate that
way in the
meantime you and I are supposed to be
modeling what is going to be
there but how we’re working it out down
here thy kingdom come thy will be done
on Earth as it is in heaven folks you
see a little bit of reconciliation now
cuz for every
we’re going to be reconciled up there so
let’s get it
on let’s get it on and let’s give the
world something to see that overrides
racism that overrides evil whether it’s
individual or
structural and that demonstrates what
the kingdom of God looks like when
people are held to that standard which
will fix the things that are wrong in
their lives because now they’re not
trying to please another race they’re
trying to please the the King of Kings
and the Lord of
[Applause]
[Music]
lords
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