FBC Daily Devotional – November 29, 2021

Well, good Monday morning to you. Hope your weekend went well, and you were able to gather together with God's people, enjoy some good worship service, and capping off, I trust, for you a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend.

Perhaps it had some challenges, some things you had to get through, and I trust the Lord brought you through those difficulties as well. Today, I'm reminded in our reading in Acts chapter 10, I'm reminded of a situation I ran into in a church almost 40 years ago.

It was back in 1984. I was being considered as a pastor at this church, at a church down south. It was outside of the city of Memphis. I had gone to college in South Carolina. I went there for six years in university, and also worked in a church in South Carolina while I was down there, a couple different churches actually, and never ran into what I ran into at this particular church.

Again, outskirts of Memphis. I attended the church, was there asked to preach and be considered as a pastor, so I preached in the morning service. What struck me though, when we drove into the community, was it seemed that everywhere I looked, I saw black people, African Americans.

I thought, hmm, okay, there's got to be a lot of African Americans in this area, in this community. But then on Sunday morning at church, there were probably a hundred and I'd say twenty-five people in attendance, and all white, all white.

I thought, hmm, that's kind of odd, especially given the nature of the community. So that afternoon, I had a question-and-answer time with the Board of Deacons, and of course, I had to, the pulpit committee, and I had to pass through that grid, if you will, if I was going to be considered by the church.

So that was like step one. I'm gonna be asked questions by them, and then later, if appropriate, by the church and so forth. So anyway, the deacons, they asked me some questions about doctrine and church and all this kind of stuff, and I answered their questions.

They said, well, do you have any questions of us? And I said, yeah, actually I do. I said, I'm kind of interested to see that in the community, when we drove in, I saw all kinds of black people, but at church, I didn't see any.

And I said, what would be the response in the church if, you know, a black family came to visit? And the chairman of deacons wasted no time in answering my question. He said, and I quote, we figure they'd be up to no good.

And I said, well, why? And then he went on to say some other derogatory things, and I said, well, you know, what if we said something about, well, you know, they all have their churches. They don't need to come to our church.

If they came to our church, they'd be up to no good. They'd just be wanting to cause trouble. So I said, well, okay. I said, but you know, I come from the north and churches up there, they're integrated.

There's, you know, black and white all worshiped together. No problem. What if a black family from a church up north who was used to worshiping with white people and enjoyed the integration of the cultures and so forth, what if that family came and wanted to visit the church?

Nope, we figure they're up to no good. Wouldn't want them here. Let them go to their own churches. And I said, oh, okay, well, I wouldn't agree with that. Needless to say, I didn't get asked back there, and I wouldn't have gone if I were, if I had been asked back.

Like I said, I'd served in churches in the south and so forth, and I never ran into that kind of prejudice. But what struck me as I read our passage today in Acts chapter 10 is I wondered, I wonder how much ministry is rejected, it's not engaged in because of our preconceived notions, because of our prejudices or because of our peccadilios, you know.

So Peter had this prejudice, he had this peccadilio that he would not go into the home of a Gentile. As a Jew, he would not go into the home of a Gentile. And the Lord gives us in Acts 10 the story of how, you know, he had to send this vision to Peter of a sheet coming down from heaven and a bunch of unclean animals going up and down the sheet, and the Lord telling him to eat, to kill and eat, to get one of those unclean animals and eat it.

And then Peter said, oh, no, no, I can't do that. I've never eaten anything that was unclean. And the Lord said to Peter, what I've cleansed don't call common. Don't call it profane. So the message that Peter got, that occurred three times, and then right after that these emissaries showed up from the Gentile, Cornelius, asking Peter to come with them back to the Gentiles house.

And he had, he'd been sent by an angel of the Lord to come get him. And so Peter interpreted that vision to say, okay, I need to go. And he went, and he went to Cornelius's house, and he went into Cornelius's house, and Cornelius said, you know, an angel of the Lord appeared to me, told me to call you and bring you here and to give us whatever message you have for us.

And Peter got the point. He got the message. And he said, yeah, I had this vision, and all my life I would not go into the Gentiles home. But now I realize that God is not a respecter of persons, and you are, the gospel is available to you, and should be ministered by Jews and Gentiles alike.

It doesn't matter. And he got the message, and he went and preached the gospel. I wonder, I wonder if we have some peccadilios that keep us from sharing the gospel with people, because we don't think, we don't think they deserve it, or we don't think we should have anything to do with them.

I would suggest that's an errant way of thinking. Acts 10 brings that out. The gospel is for everyone. The gospel is for everyone. We are not to be a respecter of persons, because God is not a respecter of persons.

So if we have some kind of rules or standards or whatever that say to us, I can't, I can't relate to that person. I can't have anything to do with that person or that kind of person, because they are like this.

Then, then that rule is in the way of the gospel, and it needs to be overcome. Acts 10 bears that out. So let's be careful. Let's be careful about our preconceived notions, our peccadilios, our prejudices, and not let them get in the way of being able to minister to anyone.

That God would bring across our path. So, all right, Heavenly Father, I pray that we would just have a heart for people, regardless of, regardless of their skin color, their background, their lifestyle, or whatever.

Father, the gospel is for them. And please, Father, don't, let's not allow us to have our little idiosyncrasies and peccadilios keep us from communicating the gospel to anyone that you would bring across our path.

And this we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, have a good rest of your Monday. Hope your week gets off to a great start. God bless.