Tony Evans - Grace To Race

February 15, 2026 | 27:29

Dr. Tony Evans is known as a relevant expositor and is a pastor of pastors and a father in the faith.

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Dr. Tony Evans | Tony Evans - Grace To Race | February 15, 2026
  • ...
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  • Tony evans: when you come to christ,
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  • God is not trying to fix something old.
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  • He's trying to make something new.
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  • He calls it one new man.
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  • He does not mean by this you lose your identity.
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  • What he is saying is your previous identity
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  • Is no longer your point of reference.
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  • The life which i now live,
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  • I live by faith in the son of god--
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  • That he is my point of reference.
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  • ♪♪♪
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  • Tony: one of the most daunting issues
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  • That we've had to grapple with as a country and as a culture
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  • Is the issue of race.
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  • The problem of race has dominated us
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  • From beginning to end,
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  • And every day, in one form or another,
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  • It hits us in the face.
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  • We wonder often is there ever going to be
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  • A solution to this problem that lives in infamy
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  • In our minds, in our hearts, and in our relationship?
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  • One of the things that has divided people
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  • Along political, social, cultural, and class lines
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  • Is the issue of race and the sin of racism.
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  • I'll never forget my first confrontation with racism
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  • At about ten years old,
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  • When my father was driving me in baltimore
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  • Past a white tower restaurant.
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  • And i asked my dad about getting a hamburger.
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  • And he informed me we couldn't go in there to eat,
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  • Because they didn't allow negroes, as he would say then,
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  • Into the place.
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  • Confused, i wanted to get a little clarity on why,
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  • And he began to give me my basic orientation
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  • To the problem of race, to the problem of racism.
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  • It became more amplified growing up in baltimore
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  • When i found out that there were some...
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  • Quote-unquote, "evangelical" churches
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  • That we could not visit or go in
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  • Because of segregation and illegitimate divisiveness.
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  • So that began a journey for me to look at this subject
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  • Not only culturally but bibliocentrically
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  • And theologically.
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  • The issue of race is not new or unique to us.
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  • It was replete in biblical times as well.
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  • For example, in numbers chapter 12,
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  • There was an interracial marriage
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  • Between moses and an african woman.
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  • Twice in verse 1 she's called "the cushite"--
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  • The african woman that moses married.
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  • This caused a sibling chaotic abandonment
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  • Of their brother and spiritual leader
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  • Of the nation because of the interracial marriage
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  • To a black woman.
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  • So incensed was god at their racist mentality
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  • At the institution of marriage that he himself had established,
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  • That god came down and he judged them--
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  • Particularly miriam, his sister,
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  • Turning her skin white
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  • Until she repented of her racism.
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  • What exactly is racism?
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  • Racism is a conscious or unconscious belief
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  • In the superiority of one race over another race
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  • That manifests itself in the use of power or influence
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  • Or resources or communication used to reject or repress
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  • People of another ethnicity.
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  • And it has imbibed itself not only in individual hearts
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  • But in structural realities
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  • So that whether it's economic or social structures
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  • Or political structures or educational structures
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  • Or medical structures, they filter themselves through
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  • So that whether known or unknown,
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  • It becomes just the way people accept
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  • As normal ways to operate.
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  • What makes it worse is when this attitude and/or action
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  • Finds its way in the life of god's people.
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  • And the reality is that unless we can fix it
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  • In the church house,
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  • Why would we expect it to be transformational
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  • In the culture?
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  • So rather than skip the issue, since god doesn't skip the issue
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  • And since we are continually in this mirage and this mix
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  • Of racial confusion and calamity,
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  • Why don't we appeal to the word of god to understand
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  • How we are to relate to one another
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  • In the church house
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  • So that we can bring transformation
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  • All the way up to the white house.
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  • Because when god's people can get it right,
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  • Then we have something to offer the culture.
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  • When writing to the church at ephesus,
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  • Paul spends the first half of the chapter
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  • Talking about the magnificent grace of god.
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  • He tells us we are saved by grace through faith.
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  • He tells us that, in the ages to come,
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  • God wants to manifest his grace.
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  • He comes in verse 10 and he says it's because of this grace
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  • That we are now workers.
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  • We need to get to work and get the job done
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  • Now that we've been redeemed by jesus christ.
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  • But curiously, when he finishes talking about grace,
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  • He goes to race.
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  • He moves from grace to race.
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  • And he says that the first work of saved people,
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  • Of people who named jesus christ,
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  • Ought to be the work of racial reconciliation.
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  • He says that the very first thing--
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  • Because in verse 10, he tells us about our work,
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  • But then beginning in verse 11
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  • All the way through verse 22, he talks about race--
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  • That grace should lead to fixing the problems of race.
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  • Or to put it another way, if you aren't, if i'm not,
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  • If we're not fixing the problem of race,
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  • It's because we haven't fully understood the glory of grace.
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  • And he comes and he opens it up to the biggest racial problem
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  • In the new testament.
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  • It was the problem between the jews
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  • And the gentiles.
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  • Therefore, based on the grace of god
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  • That ought to produce the work in the people of god,
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  • Remember that you formerly the gentiles in the flesh,
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  • Who are called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision,
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  • Which is performed in the flesh by human hands.
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  • The uncircumcised were the gentiles,
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  • The circumcised were the jews,
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  • And like the berlin wall that separated nato from warsaw,
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  • There was a division not to be crossed.
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  • The jews rejected the gentiles. they were not racially pure.
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  • They were not religiously acceptable.
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  • And there was a divide between the two.
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  • But now both were claiming the same faith.
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  • Paul speaks into this calamity and he says,
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  • "now that you're saved, you got to fix this."
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  • The problem of race that leads to racism and other form
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  • And all of its form of inequities
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  • Is because we bring our histories with us.
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  • The gentiles only knew how to be gentiles,
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  • And the jews only knew how to be jewish.
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  • But yet they find themselves sharing the same faith
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  • And now belonging to the same church.
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  • But they brought their past with them.
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  • You and i know it's not easy to let go of yesterday,
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  • Especially when you're used to it
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  • Or maybe there's pain in it,
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  • But yet now you're this new creature in christ
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  • And how do we fix this rather than have it go on
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  • Year after year, decade after decade,
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  • Century after century?
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  • And so it was that these jews and gentiles--
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  • Or, to put it in everyday language,
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  • Black and white or hispanic and black
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  • Or whatever the group is--
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  • Yesterday can be so confining to how you were raised,
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  • What you were taught, what you experienced.
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  • He says, "but now in christ jesus,
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  • You who formerly were far off have been brought near
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  • By the blood of christ,
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  • For he himself is our peace, making both groups into one,
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  • And broke down the barrier of the dividing wall
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  • By abolishing it in his flesh,
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  • Which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances
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  • So that in himself he might make the two
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  • Into one new man, thus establishing peace."
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  • Now, these are christians he's writing,
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  • But they weren't at peace.
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  • They were in conflict with one another.
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  • Four times between these verses up through verse 17,
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  • He uses the word "peace," "peace," "peace," "peace."
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  • And he says that this peace comes with an understanding
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  • Of what you are now.
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  • Christians across the racial line,
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  • Color line, culture line, and class line
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  • Have not understood the root of what has happened
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  • When you come to jesus christ.
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  • We bring all of that stuff and fight over it
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  • Because we're not going back to the root.
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  • He says when you come to christ,
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  • God is not trying to fix something old,
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  • He's trying to make something new.
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  • He calls it one new man,
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  • Not fixing two old racial people.
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  • He does not mean by this you lose your identity.
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  • What he is saying is your previous identity
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  • Is no longer your point of reference.
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  • Let me say that again.
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  • He's not saying jews aren't jews and gentiles aren't gentiles,
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  • Because he talks about jews and gentiles
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  • Throughout all of his letters.
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  • What he is saying is that this new thing,
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  • This new relationship,
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  • Is your starting point for everything else
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  • In your experience with one another
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  • And how you are to view yourself.
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  • The moment that this new relationship in christ
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  • Is not the starting point for your racial identity,
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  • You will forever live in racial conflict
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  • And confusion and debate and crisis, why?
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  • Because you're starting at the wrong place.
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  • He says, "he himself is our peace."
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  • In galatians 2:20, paul says, "i'm crucified with christ.
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  • Nevertheless, i live, yet not i. christ lives in me.
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  • The life which i now live,
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  • I live by faith in the son of god,
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  • Who loved me and gave himself for me."
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  • You know what paul is saying?
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  • I'm christian first--
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  • That he is my identity and he is my point of reference.
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  • Now, you know when he said that?
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  • He said that in the midst of a racial problem
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  • Because peter stopped eating with the gentiles.
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  • He found out that the gentiles could cook.
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  • He started eating with the gentiles,
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  • And so he started eating with them
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  • Until his boys from the 'hood showed up.
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  • Beginning in galatians 2, verse 11,
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  • When his jewish brethren showed up,
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  • He left the gentiles
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  • Because his jewish brethren wouldn't accept the gentiles,
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  • And he didn't want to lose acceptance in his own race.
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  • And paul says, "when i saw that he was not acting in concert
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  • With the truth of the gospel,
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  • I confronted peter before them all
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  • Because he was embarrassing the cross.
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  • I don't care what his background was.
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  • I don't care what his racial identity was.
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  • He was messing with jesus christ."
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  • What we have not discovered
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  • In our racial conflict and confusion
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  • Is that we're messing with jesus christ,
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  • Because he is our peace.
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  • He is our point of reference.
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  • He is the one who has established one new man.
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  • Or, to put it in everyday language,
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  • You are christian first,
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  • And your color, your culture must adapt to that.
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  • My color and culture-- i don't lose it; i adapt it.
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  • I adapt it to my relationship with jesus christ,
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  • Which means he overrules it.
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  • That's why you can't say, first of all,
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  • "i'm a black christian" or "a white christian,"
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  • Because then you make black and white an adjective.
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  • You make "christian" a noun,
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  • And it's the job of the adjective
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  • To modify the noun.
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  • So if you've got christianity in the noun position
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  • And your color in the adjectival position,
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  • You've got to keep adjusting the noun of your humanity to--
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  • The noun of your faith
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  • To the adjective of your humanity.
  • 00:14:25.757 --> 00:14:27.625
  • You've got to put christianity in the adjectival position,
  • 00:14:27.625 --> 00:14:30.662
  • Your color and your culture in the noun position.
  • 00:14:30.662 --> 00:14:33.131
  • So if anything changes, it is the noun of your humanity
  • 00:14:33.131 --> 00:14:37.602
  • And not the adjective of your faith.
  • 00:14:37.602 --> 00:14:39.570
  • Until black christians, white christians,
  • 00:14:39.570 --> 00:14:41.472
  • Asian christians, hispanic christians decide
  • 00:14:41.472 --> 00:14:44.509
  • "i am christian first and i must ada--
  • 00:14:44.509 --> 00:14:47.645
  • I don't have to lose my culture,
  • 00:14:47.645 --> 00:14:49.847
  • I don't have to give up my culture,
  • 00:14:49.847 --> 00:14:52.083
  • But i must submit it to the authority of christ
  • 00:14:52.083 --> 00:14:55.453
  • When it comes in conflict with him."
  • 00:14:55.453 --> 00:14:57.455
  • You say, "how can we all get along
  • 00:14:57.455 --> 00:15:00.258
  • With all of these differences?"
  • 00:15:00.258 --> 00:15:02.760
  • He says, you know, oil and water doesn't mix.
  • 00:15:02.760 --> 00:15:07.665
  • Their makeup doesn't allow them to integrate.
  • 00:15:07.665 --> 00:15:11.636
  • Their makeup doesn't allow them to unify.
  • 00:15:11.636 --> 00:15:16.074
  • And as soon as you force 'em together,
  • 00:15:16.074 --> 00:15:18.509
  • They gonna go back to their own political isle
  • 00:15:18.509 --> 00:15:21.612
  • Social isle, you know.
  • 00:15:21.612 --> 00:15:23.281
  • I get mayonnaise because of emulsification--
  • 00:15:23.281 --> 00:15:26.517
  • That even though oil and water can't get along,
  • 00:15:26.517 --> 00:15:28.553
  • When i introduce the egg, i have created something new
  • 00:15:28.553 --> 00:15:32.857
  • Without oil becoming less than oil
  • 00:15:32.857 --> 00:15:35.393
  • And water becoming less less water,
  • 00:15:35.393 --> 00:15:37.095
  • But i've created something brand-new.
  • 00:15:37.095 --> 00:15:39.097
  • It is time for the church of jesus christ
  • 00:15:39.097 --> 00:15:41.432
  • To create something new,
  • 00:15:41.432 --> 00:15:44.402
  • To create something that the world has never seen,
  • 00:15:44.402 --> 00:15:48.172
  • To create a brand-new church
  • 00:15:48.172 --> 00:15:50.108
  • Under the lordship of jesus christ
  • 00:15:50.108 --> 00:15:52.677
  • Without us losing our uniqueness
  • 00:15:52.677 --> 00:15:54.379
  • But creating something new because jesus is our peace.
  • 00:15:54.379 --> 00:16:00.018
  • He is the one who establishes a whole different way
  • 00:16:00.018 --> 00:16:04.255
  • Of operating.
  • 00:16:04.255 --> 00:16:05.790
  • One new man.
  • 00:16:05.790 --> 00:16:09.127
  • And he uses this concept, this truth,
  • 00:16:09.127 --> 00:16:13.197
  • To let us know that, verse 16, he might reconcile both
  • 00:16:13.197 --> 00:16:19.203
  • In one body to god through the cross.
  • 00:16:19.203 --> 00:16:23.574
  • Jesus christ wants to reconcile. these are two races.
  • 00:16:23.574 --> 00:16:29.947
  • He wants to bring harmony, unity, togetherness,
  • 00:16:29.947 --> 00:16:37.755
  • And he wants to do it through the cross.
  • 00:16:37.755 --> 00:16:39.857
  • See, the cross is not a 2000-year-old relic.
  • 00:16:39.857 --> 00:16:44.128
  • It is a contemporary reality.
  • 00:16:44.128 --> 00:16:46.497
  • Why?
  • 00:16:46.497 --> 00:16:48.132
  • Because the cross was established--watch this--
  • 00:16:48.132 --> 00:16:53.905
  • To deal with sin.
  • 00:16:53.905 --> 00:16:56.607
  • Did you hear that?
  • 00:16:56.607 --> 00:16:58.943
  • We spend our time wanting to talk about skin.
  • 00:16:58.943 --> 00:17:04.082
  • The cross was established to deal with sin.
  • 00:17:04.082 --> 00:17:10.088
  • But we want to spend all of our time
  • 00:17:10.088 --> 00:17:12.924
  • Talking about skin.
  • 00:17:12.924 --> 00:17:15.326
  • And if you spend all of your time
  • 00:17:15.326 --> 00:17:17.095
  • Talking about skin, you're gonna miss sin.
  • 00:17:17.095 --> 00:17:20.031
  • Because the only reason there's a problem with skin
  • 00:17:20.031 --> 00:17:22.366
  • Is because we won't address the sin.
  • 00:17:22.366 --> 00:17:25.103
  • You don't reconcile by simply saying,
  • 00:17:25.103 --> 00:17:27.105
  • "let's all get along, let's meet together,
  • 00:17:27.105 --> 00:17:29.574
  • Let's have kumbaya services together."
  • 00:17:29.574 --> 00:17:31.776
  • No.
  • 00:17:31.776 --> 00:17:33.444
  • You must identify the sin, apply the cross,
  • 00:17:33.444 --> 00:17:36.781
  • Address the sin through repentance
  • 00:17:36.781 --> 00:17:38.850
  • So that the reconciling work of jesus christ can be ignited.
  • 00:17:38.850 --> 00:17:45.189
  • Oh, we mention the cross,
  • 00:17:45.189 --> 00:17:46.991
  • But the cross is not the final say-so.
  • 00:17:46.991 --> 00:17:52.630
  • And that's why he says, "having been built together,"
  • 00:17:52.630 --> 00:17:57.201
  • He says in verse 20,
  • 00:17:57.201 --> 00:17:58.836
  • "on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets,
  • 00:17:58.836 --> 00:18:02.473
  • Christ jesus himself being the cornerstone."
  • 00:18:02.473 --> 00:18:06.878
  • The cornerstone was the alignment stone
  • 00:18:06.878 --> 00:18:10.214
  • That you lined up all the other stones with.
  • 00:18:10.214 --> 00:18:12.216
  • It lined things up.
  • 00:18:12.216 --> 00:18:14.585
  • Like a surveyor lines things up, the cornerstone lined things up.
  • 00:18:14.585 --> 00:18:19.524
  • And he says, based on--watch this--
  • 00:18:19.524 --> 00:18:22.093
  • The apostles and the prophets.
  • 00:18:22.093 --> 00:18:25.062
  • Now, the apostles and the prophets
  • 00:18:25.062 --> 00:18:27.865
  • Were set up for the writing of the word of god.
  • 00:18:27.865 --> 00:18:33.237
  • So when he talked about the prophets and the apostles,
  • 00:18:33.237 --> 00:18:36.240
  • They're not just people, they are biblical authors.
  • 00:18:36.240 --> 00:18:41.512
  • So what is he saying?
  • 00:18:41.512 --> 00:18:43.848
  • He is saying if you're gonna align with christ,
  • 00:18:43.848 --> 00:18:46.284
  • You have to align with the word of god.
  • 00:18:46.284 --> 00:18:50.721
  • But what we've got people doing, christians, is going secular
  • 00:18:50.721 --> 00:18:54.792
  • And then have the audacity to judge the sacred,
  • 00:18:54.792 --> 00:18:59.630
  • The inerrant, errorless, perfect word of god
  • 00:18:59.630 --> 00:19:03.668
  • By their secular university or by their secular--
  • 00:19:03.668 --> 00:19:07.004
  • The bible calls it human wisdom, man's thoughts.
  • 00:19:07.004 --> 00:19:10.107
  • No, you don't get to have man's--
  • 00:19:10.107 --> 00:19:12.376
  • That's why all this edumacation we got
  • 00:19:12.376 --> 00:19:15.713
  • And we still haven't solved the racial problem--
  • 00:19:15.713 --> 00:19:17.582
  • You know why?
  • 00:19:17.582 --> 00:19:18.916
  • Because we're starting in the wrong place.
  • 00:19:18.916 --> 00:19:20.918
  • We're not starting with what god says about race.
  • 00:19:20.918 --> 00:19:24.188
  • Black is beautiful when it's biblical.
  • 00:19:24.188 --> 00:19:26.157
  • White is only right when it agrees with holy writ.
  • 00:19:26.157 --> 00:19:30.828
  • And until you start there, then you will not be seeing
  • 00:19:30.828 --> 00:19:33.931
  • The emulsification of jesus christ
  • 00:19:33.931 --> 00:19:36.601
  • And the power of the cross to deal with the sin of racism
  • 00:19:36.601 --> 00:19:39.904
  • So that there can be bibliocentric reconciliation.
  • 00:19:39.904 --> 00:19:45.476
  • He says we're reconciled through the blood.
  • 00:19:45.476 --> 00:19:50.314
  • In acts 17, verse 26, paul says there's only one race--
  • 00:19:50.314 --> 00:19:54.685
  • Many ethnicities, but there's only one race.
  • 00:19:54.685 --> 00:19:58.089
  • See, we even got the concept of race all mixed up.
  • 00:19:58.089 --> 00:20:01.359
  • God expresses himself in a multiplicity of ways,
  • 00:20:01.359 --> 00:20:04.495
  • But he says, "unless you understand
  • 00:20:04.495 --> 00:20:06.264
  • Where i am in this process
  • 00:20:06.264 --> 00:20:09.233
  • And that i have set this thing up
  • 00:20:09.233 --> 00:20:11.168
  • For there to be differences
  • 00:20:11.168 --> 00:20:13.271
  • So that the whole body can benefit
  • 00:20:13.271 --> 00:20:15.373
  • From the differences, you can argue your point,
  • 00:20:15.373 --> 00:20:17.942
  • Somebody's going to argue their point,
  • 00:20:17.942 --> 00:20:19.510
  • And you will never have reconciliation,
  • 00:20:19.510 --> 00:20:21.612
  • Because you won't create something new."
  • 00:20:21.612 --> 00:20:23.214
  • So important is this issue of reconciliation,
  • 00:20:23.214 --> 00:20:28.586
  • So important, the bible says in romans chapter 16, verse 17,
  • 00:20:28.586 --> 00:20:33.824
  • "watch out for folk who bring division in the church,"
  • 00:20:33.824 --> 00:20:38.296
  • Not in accordance with the teaching of christ.
  • 00:20:38.296 --> 00:20:42.133
  • Watch out for racists in the church.
  • 00:20:42.133 --> 00:20:45.136
  • No, because you don't come into the church of jesus christ
  • 00:20:45.136 --> 00:20:47.405
  • And bring your secular rules.
  • 00:20:47.405 --> 00:20:49.373
  • You come into the church of jesus christ
  • 00:20:49.373 --> 00:20:51.142
  • To get the teachings of christ and to adjust to that.
  • 00:20:51.142 --> 00:20:56.047
  • And if anglo pastors would have taken their stand
  • 00:20:56.047 --> 00:20:59.350
  • And say, "you don't bring white culture into the church
  • 00:20:59.350 --> 00:21:03.087
  • And deny people equal opportunity,
  • 00:21:03.087 --> 00:21:05.156
  • Equal access to worship the living god.
  • 00:21:05.156 --> 00:21:06.857
  • You don't get to do that
  • 00:21:06.857 --> 00:21:08.592
  • In the church of the living god"--
  • 00:21:08.592 --> 00:21:10.795
  • Now, maybe there were some problems,
  • 00:21:10.795 --> 00:21:12.596
  • Maybe there were some inequities,
  • 00:21:12.596 --> 00:21:13.964
  • Maybe there was some pain.
  • 00:21:13.964 --> 00:21:16.100
  • Yes, we must show empathy.
  • 00:21:16.100 --> 00:21:18.469
  • We must say, "i see you were hurt,
  • 00:21:18.469 --> 00:21:21.605
  • I see you were struggle,
  • 00:21:21.605 --> 00:21:23.574
  • And we will walk with you in empathy,"
  • 00:21:23.574 --> 00:21:25.676
  • But you don't let empathy change the rules.
  • 00:21:25.676 --> 00:21:28.713
  • You don't say, "because i'm being empathetic,
  • 00:21:28.713 --> 00:21:30.715
  • Christ no longer has the final say-so.
  • 00:21:30.715 --> 00:21:32.850
  • We love you to the teachings of christ."
  • 00:21:32.850 --> 00:21:35.453
  • He says watch those who would divide the church, why?
  • 00:21:35.453 --> 00:21:40.458
  • Because as the book of john chapter 17, verse 24, says,
  • 00:21:40.458 --> 00:21:47.398
  • "perfect them in unity so that they will see my glory."
  • 00:21:47.398 --> 00:21:51.402
  • You know why the church isn't seeing god's glory?
  • 00:21:51.402 --> 00:21:53.938
  • It's because we're illegitimately racially divided.
  • 00:21:53.938 --> 00:21:56.374
  • We use our culture and our race as an excuse not to reconcile.
  • 00:21:56.374 --> 00:22:02.012
  • And as a result, the world doesn't have a model to look at.
  • 00:22:02.012 --> 00:22:07.651
  • So we're fighting in here, and they're fighting out there.
  • 00:22:07.651 --> 00:22:10.588
  • We just sanctify our fight with a little jesus on top.
  • 00:22:10.588 --> 00:22:15.393
  • I love the way the scripture puts it.
  • 00:22:15.393 --> 00:22:20.197
  • The scripture says in colossians 1, verses 19 to 23,
  • 00:22:20.197 --> 00:22:25.970
  • That if you want to see god,
  • 00:22:25.970 --> 00:22:27.304
  • You better focus on reconciliation
  • 00:22:27.304 --> 00:22:29.306
  • Because christ came to reconcile people.
  • 00:22:29.306 --> 00:22:31.909
  • Reconcile people vertically to him;
  • 00:22:31.909 --> 00:22:34.178
  • Reconcile people horizontally to one another.
  • 00:22:34.178 --> 00:22:37.047
  • It's time for racism to end.
  • 00:22:37.047 --> 00:22:40.651
  • It is time for the racists to confess their sins.
  • 00:22:40.651 --> 00:22:44.522
  • It is time for those who refuse to forgive
  • 00:22:44.522 --> 00:22:48.125
  • To confess the sin of unforgiveness.
  • 00:22:48.125 --> 00:22:50.928
  • No justice, no peace. got that.
  • 00:22:50.928 --> 00:22:53.030
  • No forgiveness, no peace. you better get that.
  • 00:22:53.030 --> 00:22:55.699
  • Both must be simultaneously true for the one new man, why?
  • 00:22:55.699 --> 00:23:02.506
  • Because of this scripture in 2 corinthians chapter 5.
  • 00:23:02.506 --> 00:23:08.112
  • Listen to what he says.
  • 00:23:08.112 --> 00:23:11.048
  • He says, beginning in verse 16,
  • 00:23:11.048 --> 00:23:14.919
  • "therefore from now on,
  • 00:23:14.919 --> 00:23:17.688
  • We recognize no one according to the flesh."
  • 00:23:17.688 --> 00:23:22.293
  • Oh yeah he did.
  • 00:23:22.293 --> 00:23:24.295
  • You don't judge people by their earth suit.
  • 00:23:24.295 --> 00:23:28.566
  • You don't judge people by the color of their skin,
  • 00:23:28.566 --> 00:23:30.401
  • Their flesh, their physical humanity.
  • 00:23:30.401 --> 00:23:33.003
  • He says, "we know no man.
  • 00:23:33.003 --> 00:23:35.339
  • We don't judge anybody by their whiteness
  • 00:23:35.339 --> 00:23:37.842
  • Or blackness or brownness.
  • 00:23:37.842 --> 00:23:41.712
  • We don't--well, that's not where we start.
  • 00:23:41.712 --> 00:23:45.216
  • We don't look at people like that.
  • 00:23:45.216 --> 00:23:46.917
  • That was the old life.
  • 00:23:46.917 --> 00:23:48.452
  • That's how hell looks at people first.
  • 00:23:48.452 --> 00:23:51.188
  • He says, "now that you know jesus christ,
  • 00:23:51.188 --> 00:23:53.457
  • That's never the starting point."
  • 00:23:53.457 --> 00:23:55.593
  • He says, "but now," he says, "if people are in christ,
  • 00:23:55.593 --> 00:24:00.998
  • They are a new creature."
  • 00:24:00.998 --> 00:24:02.333
  • Now look at verse 18: "now all things are from god"--
  • 00:24:02.333 --> 00:24:05.603
  • That's our new reference point--
  • 00:24:05.603 --> 00:24:07.605
  • "who reconciled us to himself through christ and gave us"--
  • 00:24:07.605 --> 00:24:14.111
  • Here it is--"the ministry of reconciliation,
  • 00:24:14.111 --> 00:24:18.349
  • Namely, that god was in christ
  • 00:24:18.349 --> 00:24:20.751
  • Reconciling the world to himself,
  • 00:24:20.751 --> 00:24:22.653
  • Not counting their trespasses against them,
  • 00:24:22.653 --> 00:24:25.189
  • And he has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
  • 00:24:25.189 --> 00:24:28.492
  • Therefore, we are ambassadors for christ."
  • 00:24:28.492 --> 00:24:31.462
  • You know what an ambassador is?
  • 00:24:31.462 --> 00:24:33.197
  • An ambassador is somebody who goes to another country
  • 00:24:33.197 --> 00:24:36.534
  • On behalf of their country
  • 00:24:36.534 --> 00:24:38.102
  • To represent their country on foreign soil.
  • 00:24:38.102 --> 00:24:41.438
  • He says you are an ambassador for heaven.
  • 00:24:41.438 --> 00:24:45.809
  • You're on earth-- that's the foreign country--
  • 00:24:45.809 --> 00:24:48.112
  • But you are an ambassador from heaven.
  • 00:24:48.112 --> 00:24:50.180
  • And what's your ambassadorship about?
  • 00:24:50.180 --> 00:24:53.350
  • The ministry of reconciliation. so you should be healing folk.
  • 00:24:53.350 --> 00:24:58.556
  • Black people should be healing black people
  • 00:24:58.556 --> 00:25:00.324
  • And connecting them over here,
  • 00:25:00.324 --> 00:25:03.460
  • White people should be healing white people,
  • 00:25:03.460 --> 00:25:05.095
  • And then vice versa.
  • 00:25:05.095 --> 00:25:06.463
  • Everybody ought to be healing somebody else
  • 00:25:06.463 --> 00:25:08.866
  • Through correcting the sin
  • 00:25:08.866 --> 00:25:10.801
  • And providing the opportunity for forgiveness
  • 00:25:10.801 --> 00:25:13.370
  • And embracing and then serving together
  • 00:25:13.370 --> 00:25:15.773
  • To make a difference for the kingdom of god.
  • 00:25:15.773 --> 00:25:18.909
  • Don't get so high and mighty that you forget
  • 00:25:18.909 --> 00:25:22.079
  • You're an ambassador for another country
  • 00:25:22.079 --> 00:25:24.481
  • And you and i and we
  • 00:25:24.481 --> 00:25:26.517
  • Should be agents and ministers of reconciliation.
  • 00:25:26.517 --> 00:25:30.788
  • There ought to be healing.
  • 00:25:30.788 --> 00:25:32.122
  • You ought to be healing stuff wherever you go, why?
  • 00:25:32.122 --> 00:25:34.658
  • Because christ forgave you.
  • 00:25:34.658 --> 00:25:36.961
  • So you've got to help folk forgive each other
  • 00:25:36.961 --> 00:25:39.430
  • So that we can-- addressing the sin,
  • 00:25:39.430 --> 00:25:41.332
  • Not skipping the sin,
  • 00:25:41.332 --> 00:25:42.800
  • But going toward the reconciliation as the goal.
  • 00:25:42.800 --> 00:25:51.408
  • Let me tell you something as we wind down.
  • 00:25:51.408 --> 00:25:55.179
  • John said in revelation chapter 7, verse 9,
  • 00:25:55.179 --> 00:25:58.182
  • He looked up in heaven and guess what he saw?
  • 00:25:58.182 --> 00:26:00.317
  • He saw people from every nation, every tribe, every kindred,
  • 00:26:00.317 --> 00:26:03.220
  • And every tongue, and he said he saw them.
  • 00:26:03.220 --> 00:26:05.656
  • So there were visual differences.
  • 00:26:05.656 --> 00:26:07.458
  • So whate'er you are is what you forever are gonna be.
  • 00:26:07.458 --> 00:26:13.397
  • So anybody who doesn't like who they are,
  • 00:26:13.397 --> 00:26:18.002
  • You have insulted god.
  • 00:26:18.002 --> 00:26:19.336
  • You don't have the right, if you black, to want to be white;
  • 00:26:19.336 --> 00:26:21.939
  • And you don't have the right, if you white, to want to be black.
  • 00:26:21.939 --> 00:26:24.441
  • Because you are who you is
  • 00:26:24.441 --> 00:26:25.776
  • And what you're ever going to be,
  • 00:26:25.776 --> 00:26:27.211
  • Because god has set it up for eternity
  • 00:26:27.211 --> 00:26:29.880
  • To operate that way.
  • 00:26:29.880 --> 00:26:32.149
  • In the meantime, you and i are supposed to be modeling
  • 00:26:32.149 --> 00:26:37.521
  • What is going to be there
  • 00:26:37.521 --> 00:26:39.857
  • By how we're working it out down here.
  • 00:26:39.857 --> 00:26:42.693
  • "thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth
  • 00:26:42.693 --> 00:26:46.864
  • As it is in heaven."
  • 00:26:46.864 --> 00:26:48.599
  • Folks, you see a little bit of reconciliation now?
  • 00:26:48.599 --> 00:26:51.869
  • Because forever we're gonna be reconciled up there.
  • 00:26:51.869 --> 00:26:56.306
  • So let's get it on. let's get it on.
  • 00:26:56.306 --> 00:27:01.111
  • And let's give the world something to see
  • 00:27:01.111 --> 00:27:04.314
  • That overrides racism, that overrides evil--
  • 00:27:04.314 --> 00:27:08.719
  • Whether it's individual or structural--
  • 00:27:08.719 --> 00:27:11.555
  • And that demonstrates what the kingdom of god looks like
  • 00:27:11.555 --> 00:27:14.224
  • When people are held to that standard,
  • 00:27:14.224 --> 00:27:16.093
  • Which will fix the things that are wrong in their lives
  • 00:27:16.093 --> 00:27:19.897
  • Because now they're not trying to please another race,
  • 00:27:19.897 --> 00:27:21.965
  • They're trying to please the king of kings
  • 00:27:21.965 --> 00:27:24.068
  • And the lord of lords.
  • 00:27:24.068 --> 00:27:24.068