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
- 00:12:05.517 --> 00:12:08.787
- And confusion and debate and crisis, why?
- 00:12:08.787 --> 00:12:13.191
- Because you're starting at the wrong place.
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- He says, "he himself is our peace."
- 00:12:15.426 --> 00:12:21.132
- 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.
- 00:13:03.975 --> 00:13:06.778
- 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.
- 00:13:14.686 --> 00:13:18.089
- I don't care what his background was.
- 00:13:18.089 --> 00:13:19.457
- I don't care what his racial identity was.
- 00:13:19.457 --> 00:13:22.727
- He was messing with jesus christ."
- 00:13:22.727 --> 00:13:25.496
- What we have not discovered
- 00:13:25.496 --> 00:13:27.232
- In our racial conflict and confusion
- 00:13:27.232 --> 00:13:29.200
- Is that we're messing with jesus christ,
- 00:13:29.200 --> 00:13:32.003
- Because he is our peace.
- 00:13:32.003 --> 00:13:33.805
- He is our point of reference.
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- He is the one who has established one new man.
- 00:13:37.242 --> 00:13:40.745
- 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.
- 00:13:46.618 --> 00:13:52.423
- My color and culture-- i don't lose it; i adapt it.
- 00:13:52.423 --> 00:13:56.628
- I adapt it to my relationship with jesus christ,
- 00:13:56.628 --> 00:14:01.065
- Which means he overrules it.
- 00:14:01.065 --> 00:14:04.903
- That's why you can't say, first of all,
- 00:14:04.903 --> 00:14:07.338
- "i'm a black christian" or "a white christian,"
- 00:14:07.338 --> 00:14:09.474
- 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.
- 00:14:14.612 --> 00:14:15.980
- So if you've got christianity in the noun position
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- And your color in the adjectival position,
- 00:14:18.483 --> 00:14:20.518
- 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.
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- You've got to put christianity in the adjectival position,
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- 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
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- And not the adjective of your faith.
- 00:14:37.602 --> 00:14:39.570
- Until black christians, white christians,
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- Asian christians, hispanic christians decide
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- "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
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- When it comes in conflict with him."
- 00:14:55.453 --> 00:14:57.455
- You say, "how can we all get along
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- With all of these differences?"
- 00:15:00.258 --> 00:15:02.760
- He says, you know, oil and water doesn't mix.
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- 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