Pastor Demolishes "Racism" During Sermon

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So our text we're in is actually Matthew 13, but today we're doing the implications of and asking questions

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After hearing the parables of Jesus. So now let's open the Bible to Revelation Chapter 5

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Revelation chapter 5 and let's start at verse 6 the book of Revelation not revelations

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Revelation chapter 5 and I want to encourage you if this book is strange and Seemingly cryptic to you and hard to understand.

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Hopefully we'll be able to Together be encouraged by this book because as we get into Matthew chapter 24, we're actually going to make some moves towards the book of Revelation but for today

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Revelation chapter 5 starting in verse 6 here now the words of the living and true

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God and Between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders.

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I saw a lamb standing as Though it had been slain with seven horns and with seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth and he went and Took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne

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And when he had taken the scroll the four living creatures and the lamb each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the

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Saints and they sang a new song saying Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals for you were slain and by your blood

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You ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation and you have made them a kingdom and Priests are

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God and they shall reign on the earth as far as the reading of God's Word Let's pray together as his people father

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Lord. We approach your word today The Lord humbled that we can have it

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Lord that we sit here With the word that you've preserved forever.

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Oh Lord Your word is firmly fixed in the heavens the grass withers the flower fades, but the word of our

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God stands forever God You've preserved this word Lord, you've used your people

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People from every tribe tongue nation language the Lord that you've used them Lord even at times

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Giving their sweat and blood to put this word into our hands God. So first we thank you that we get to actually

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Hear from you. We get to actually listen to your voice The very thing that is they all new sauce.

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It's God breathed Lord it belongs to us and Lord, we want to fix our hearts and minds now as your people on this word

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And we ask God that you change us because of it and Lord use Lord the proclamation of your word today

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Lord to bring transformation in the world We pray that you heal the church and Lord that you'd heal the world heal the nation's

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Through the work of Jesus and your word by your spirit God, please bless me as a minister of the gospel or get me out of the way and I pray that you would speak

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By your spirit today bring conviction Change us bless us fill us with love humility break our hearts

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God in Jesus name. Amen. So Revelation chapter 5 says something.

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It's actually an amazing Amazing text where you have this scene these a lot of by the way a lot of symbolism in Revelation.

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So get ready for it If you don't understand the Old Testament if you're not familiar with its language and its symbols

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I would say don't you dare go running off to the book of Revelation trying to interpret it sort of ad hoc and just getting your

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Interpretation and saying well, I think maybe this harlot writing a seven -headed ten -horned beast is is is this thing or maybe it's that guy

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I think that the the Beast of Revelation is Goodness people have said George Bush Obama, you know, like people just sort of are very creative with the book of Revelation so when you go to the book of Revelation You have over 400 verses in this work from the

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Apostle John who wrote it while he was in exile on an island called Patmos I believe that history can show us that it was

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Nero That sent John to Patmos where he wrote this all of the early

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Apostles were killed for their faith John was the only one not killed Nero tried to kill him sent him into exile to Patmos and you have this revelation.

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He gets all of these amazing heavenly scenes and visions and you have all this symbolism and imagery but over 400 verses in this book and over half of them are

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Direct quotations from the Old Testament or allusions to Old Testament passages now by today's standard somebody could rightly call according to today's standards the

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Apostle John a Plagiarist because he copied so much of the Old Testament and drags it into the new but yet he's shaping it now because it's the revelation

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Of Jesus Christ now to give us a picture an image of what God is doing in the world What he will do in the world history is going somewhere

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The world is going to experience redemption and salvation the message of the gospel comes out from the

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New Jerusalem the Bride of Christ inviting the world to come and drink Okay, that's all there.

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But you see this scene here at this glorious throne scene That's important to actually pay attention to because it does have them for clay implications

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If you come from a perspective a worldview that is not Scripture not founded upon the person of Jesus his message the

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Word of God Then you don't go into the world sort of with neutrality You go into the world with all the parts and pieces and baggage that you picked up along the way

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From people who are not Christ. So you see People in the world you're gonna have some idea of how they got here

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You're a human being gonna have some idea how you got here some story to explain that and then you see people of different colors different cultures different traditions

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You see them too. Now, if you're not a Christian, you're gonna have some explanation as to who's that. What's that?

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They're doing that food smells weird. That seems like a strange tradition like you got to have some way of interpreting the world but if you interpret it through a biblical lens say just this one text from Revelation and there are many

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You see the Bible tells a different story in terms of humanity where we're going and The story of us and you want you to hear this there are so many debates today so much

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Conflict both outside of the church and inside of the church related to race

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Racism you hear about white privilege you hear about You hear about all the conflict that happens on university campuses across the

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United States that are directly related to race Now if you're not looking through a biblical lens, you might adopt that it's exciting

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Maybe you have some animosity and some anger because of a past hurt or bruise or wound from somebody

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So maybe you carry some of that baggage, okay but if you look through a biblical lens you see this text before us and we think about Matthew 13 where we're at that the

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Kingdom of God is gonna grow like a seed into a tree and it's like leaven in three measures of flour

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It fills the entirety of the loaf. You see that God has an entirely different perspective in terms of tribalism

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What people today would call racism? And here's what we see before the throne of God.

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It's enough to make any racist any person who is infatuated with obsessed with tribalism

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Turn away from this revelation or try to mangle it or twist it because it actually says that Jesus was

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Slain that he gave his blood. He poured it out. He gave his life.

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He gave the ultimate price and Ransomed people took him out of their slavery for God from every tribe language people and nation that he has made them a

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Kingdom and priests to God and that they shall reign on the earth.

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And so you have a perspective from Scripture about Humanity that puts us all at a level place before Jesus and his throne and you have this scene here taking place

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Before God where you've got people of every tribe tongue people and nation all these different cultural backgrounds and colors all different preferences likes tastes distaste and you've got them all bought by Jesus Covered in his blood washed taking away out of their slavery into life all

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Worshiping the one true God and all loved by this one true

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God It's a scene that contradicts the standard narrative of our day and that's that we should emphasize

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Overemphasize our differences, right? Your differences are so very important because your identity is blackness

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Your identity is whiteness Your identity is brownness your tribe matters the most.

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It's not Jesus. It's not his salvation not his redemption It's your tribe and it's the conflict that happened in the past between your tribe and another tribe

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We ought to talk about that. We ought to bring it back up again We ought to start having conversations to drive us farther and farther apart, but you have a message here before us 2 ,000 years ago

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That completely obliterates that Destroys its meaning there isn't any ultimate meaning in it.

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None as the kingdom of God grows in the world It's a single kingdom owned by Jesus propagated by Jesus grown by Jesus that is

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Containing all these different people and here's what's I think spectacular and we miss it Here's the truth is that the gospel has grown from that seed to tree.

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It's still permeating the entirety of the loaf It's still happening in the world but we happen to live in a country in a nation that has been so impacted by the gospel and Christianity came over here and changed institutions developed institutions the biblical world be just sort of in the atmosphere and we miss so much of what other people in the world just might

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Be thinking of or their own perspective and that's that's this very important We are sitting here in this room today

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I would say the vast majority of this of us in this room have no physical lineage towards Physical Israel none.

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All of us are descendants of pagans Gentiles Gentiles who worship and serve and love the

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Lord God of Israel because of Jesus the Messiah and here We are all these different people and backgrounds

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Races as some people would say I would say tribes and here we are now worshipping Jesus in the desert about 2 ,000 years after Jesus something is happening in the world, but we often miss

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Really sort of the grand nature of the whole thing before us What are we doing as descendants of pagans worshipping

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God? Forgiven ransomed bought by Jesus with bold and confident access before God Because before this took place in 2 ,000 years of history you have

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God setting his love upon a particular people He says to them what he says not because you are more in number

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Are you are more mighty than anybody else? It's because I loved you. He did it out of sheer grace love

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Compassion he said his love on a particular people and he said you are the people I'm gonna bring my Messiah through who's gonna bring redemption and salvation to all the families of the earth and Before that Gentiles are on the outside.

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We don't have access. We don't want access either We're pagans or worshipping other gods or switching

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God for idols and yet Jesus enters the world God becomes a man and he takes on listen human flesh and he buys us

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With his own blood he brings redemption But it's it's shocking to the early

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Jews that he's not just showing concern for Israel is showing concern for Gentiles also

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Which is in fulfillment of all that God said was gonna happen You see we see Jesus coming into the world and saying kingdom of God's like this

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It's like a sower sowing seed different grounds. Only one goes into good ground and bears fruit a hundred sixty and thirty fold

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He said the kingdom of God is like this. It's like a wheat field and someone sows

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Darnel in the field. It's it's it's a weed He says it's like this. It's like a mustard seed becomes a tree.

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It's leaven in a lump of dough Now we see Jesus saying that but he's saying it on the heels of So much of what the

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Old Testament said was going to happen and here's what the Old Testament said was going to happen Go to your Bible to Daniel chapter 7

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Rather than just quoting the text to you. I want you to mark it in your Bible be ready to draw from it see that this was the perspective of The Old Testament prophets and believers

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Daniel Chapter 7 Verses 13

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Through 14. This text is powerful. Here's the verse I saw in the night visions and behold with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man

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Jesus faith his his favorite title for himself and He came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him and to him was given dominion and glory in the kingdom

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That all people's nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting

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Dominion which shall not pass away and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed

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Now first thing I'll say On the tail end of this in light of the missionary work and we're gonna be doing the next couple months

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Here's a text long before Jesus comes that says that Jesus is going to have a kingdom that is eternal

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It will never pass away and it consists of All people's nations and languages.

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They're all serving this Messiah So we know that the kingdom of Jesus which came into the world in the first century is said to never pass away

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So these cults and isms and religions that rise up that say that God's witness was taken away from the earth

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That it was destroyed and this one prophet with a personal revelation of God private experience

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He's gonna restore it Daniel chapter 7 says not a possibility cannot happen

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Jesus kingdom will last forever and though Christians may squabble and bicker and Backbite and fight and devour one another the thing that holds us together is

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Jesus by his spirit growing us Sanctifying us but look at the text

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It says that this Son of Man is going to come up to the ancient of days and was going to be given a dominion

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Kingdom of glory all people's nations. They're all serving this Messiah That was the promise and lo and behold enter

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Jesus kingdom of God seed to tree Leaven lump of dough the promise was

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Psalm 22 that all the families of the earth were going to return to worship God and That gets us

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To a pretty significant discussion First we talked about as an implication

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There's a constituent element of the Torah the law That's a part of God's work in the world to establish not just redemption and salvation, but justice

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Isaiah chapter 2 Isaiah 42 Jeremiah 31 31

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Ezekiel chapter 36 the law the Torah is a Constituent element

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God saves sinners He puts that his law in their hearts and now that law goes forth and Jesus begins to establish justice in the world

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But there's two other important discussions I think we should have related to Jesus and his kingdom and him spreading throughout the whole world with his glorious gospel one is the issue of race and the other and racial conflict and division and the other

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Has to do with personal piety us trying to establish within the church our own law and not the law of God Us trying to create in other believers people who are made in our image and not the image of Jesus Things that happen is in terms of conflict as the kingdom grows in the world

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We have tribal conflict and division within the church And we also have divisions that take place because of personal piety and preferences

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We don't send out the Torah God's holy law his perfect law and we have the answers right here

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We begin to create other standards that we expect other people to hold to we want people to look like us and when they don't

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Look like us conflict in the church Collision in the church difficulty in the church.

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So now as the kingdom goes tribes tongue people nations languages How do we deal with the issue of race?

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Well, first and foremost, I'm going to say this if you have a biblical perspective if you hold to the Word of God is the

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Standard then, you know something significant that ought to be inserted into every discussion every opportunity

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You have in this discussion. You should herald this truth. There are not many races

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There is one human race the idea of different races and categories in that respect is an old vestige of an evolutionary

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Darwinian model that separates people and and I think if you hold to that model you can

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Rightly say I'm more evolved than you. My tribe is more evolved than you.

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We're higher than you We're more developed than you and by the way, you can see it in writings that took place

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No more than a hundred and fifty years ago people applying Darwinian The Darwinian theory and mindset to lower classes of humanity blacks are not like whites

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They're not quite developed yet. You see them. They're low They're disagreeable in all their ways and all those certain that you see these in their writings wicked

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Unbiblical not righteous not good not from God and yet you have a biblical perspective that says this

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Every single person on this planet came from the same Parents There's no difference the differences happen because of environment

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Happens because of the location you happen to be in change takes place over time as creationists

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We believe that we have a creator who developed in such a way as that. We adapt to our environment and circumstances

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That's all part of the design model that we were arguing for long before Darwin But here's the thing all of us are in the image of God the

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Imago Dei It doesn't matter if you're black white Red yellow purple.

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I don't care what color you are. You have the same pappy as me the same dad all the way back and by the way, you also have the same problem as me and that Is that we are dead in our sins and trespasses by nature children of wrath

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We are non God -seeking not righteous You see before God taking his word as the reference point it obliterates

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Racism tribal conflict because what you have is all of humanity of the same blood

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No matter your color you might look different you might smell different you might act different You might have cultural traditions that are very weird to me, but you are worthy of value dignity respect honor

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Love by virtue of the fact that you are made in the image of the same God as me it's level and So now we approach this issue of racial conflict again

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It should be called tribal conflict and we recognize that there is only one human family.

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There is one human race Tribalism is the problem now.

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Here's what's this? This is where it gets really really interesting. It ain't about color. It's not about color

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It isn't because watch you can have today discussions taking place that just display total depravity

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If you don't buy into Calvinism the five points and total depravity. I invite you to look up social justice warrior on YouTube You're welcome and you see today, of course we have in university campuses and you have in the

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National dialogue the conflict between black and white and by the way There is no question in my mind.

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That is this whole discussion is introduced by those who hold to a Marxist ideology and socialist mindset and worldview you have to Destabilize a nation and you've got to do it in some way by bringing classes against one another

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They tried it with the poor and the rich it didn't work out so well over the last 50 years It's gotten them kind of close.

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And so now they have well, let's insert racial conflict Tribalism let's take blacks and put them against whites.

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Let's take brown and put them against whites. And so we insert that into the discussion Tribalism is the problem because watch

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I was just in Ireland It was a whirlwind trip it was hard I still have blisters all over my feet from the walking that we did and the pastors me we met with and The the pro -choice rally they're trying to repeal their eighth amendment to legalize abortion in Ireland It is the one of the last

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Christian nations that still has a ban on abortion and a 14 -year prison sentence if you do it

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And they're trying to repeal the Eighth Amendment which equalizes the life of the unborn with the life of the mother.

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They're fighting hard We had about 48 hours of traveling within five days and it was it was

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I'm still a mess from it I think that's part of why I'm sick today But one of the interesting things is

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I'm gonna I'm gonna I'm gonna historically mostly white nation In Ireland and yet what do we have in Ireland?

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You've got the division between the north and the south Northern Ireland Southern Ireland and you don't have to look long back into the history of Ireland 20 -30 years and see war in the streets in Ireland.

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Why it's a bunch of white people Well, I'll give you the answer because it's

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Tribalism it's Protestant versus Catholic and by the way, don't let that throw you it's got nothing to do with doctrine

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Nothing, if you ask the average person in the north who says that they're Protestant if you said well

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What's the deal with the Catholics? Why do you despise them so much? Is it justification through faith apart from works of law?

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Is it the Council of Trent? That's what's bugging you. They would say what's the Council of Trent?

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They're scum It's tribalism, it's a bunch of white people saying my tribe is better than your tribe and they're white

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And you look in the United States and you see conflict taking place here The same thing happens you have tribalism white people versus more white people black people versus black people

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This tribe versus that tribe. It is tribalism through and through And here's the problem people today want to say this

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Well, you know what this tribe in the past they wounded my family they hurt my family they hurt my people

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I don't know who they were but I heard they did and You look the same color as the tribe that did it to my tribe

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And so I want to punish you and what we ought to be doing then is we ought to be going back and saying well Let's try to unscramble the egg

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How do you do that? Well, you can't but let's unscramble the egg Let's see if we can try to maybe fix the situation and start looking back into history at white people who were enslaved by whichever

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Race or tribe and say well, how do we get stuff back from that?

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Well now we got to go down the line and see that really you know What every single tribe in the world has been victimized by other tribes in the world at a number of different degrees and levels?

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So like my friend says you cannot unscramble the egg It's done and what we have behind us is a history of sin and depravity and brokenness and conflict

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So what's the solution? Well the unbelievers tell you well the solution is the government

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Right. What's that mean? They don't know but sounds good Right or the word justice you say what's that mean justice?

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Like what is it? I like that. I'm a Christian justice Sounds good to me. What do you mean by it?

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No answers silence I don't know what that means more legislation less legislation

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We solve the problem from the top down through legislation. Maybe we punish this tribe

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Let's punish this tribe and the next thing, you know, you got ten other tribes raising their hands saying pardon me

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I also have a grievance you can't unscramble the egg and the world says this punish the tribe

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Punish this group punish that group The Bible says this all of us in all of our tribes are part of the same fallen human family

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All of us guilty before God and yeah, there are there are tragedies behind us and in justices

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What is the call of God on any member of any tribe today?

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It is this repent and believe the gospel That Jesus is on his throne now redeeming people from every tribe tongue and language and he brings them before his throne with the same blood and the same body and We walk with one another accepting one another loving one another

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Receiving one another and one of the things that's powerful the New Testament I told you is the constant conflict that has roots in the tribalism.

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Listen to this you've heard this before right the Study of the one another's in Scripture You've heard that before no study study that the term one another in the

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New Testament It just happens over and over and over and over and over and over Which by the way, it's hard to do these one another's if you're not in a local body

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Like the Bible calls you to I don't know how people who are not in a local body Govern the way God says to govern it can fulfill these one another's in the way that God lays them out

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It's assumed that you're in the body with one another Worshiping God together serving one another accountable to each other

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Here's a couple one another's Be at peace with one each other mark 950 love one another

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John 1334 love one another John 1335 love one another John 1512

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Love one another John 1517 be devoted to one another and brotherly love Romans 12 10

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Honor one another above yourselves Romans 12 10 live in harmony with one another

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Romans 12 16 Love one another Romans 13 8 stop passing judgments on one another

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Romans 14 13 except one another Then just as Christ accepted you

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Romans 15 7 Greet one another with a holy kiss. Let's start that Romans 16 16

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Have equal concern for each other 1st Corinthians 12 25 serve one another in love

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Galatians 5 13 if You keep on biting and devouring each other. You'll be destroyed by each other

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Galatians 5 15 Let us not become conceited provoking and envying each other

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Galatians 5 26 carry each other's burdens Galatians 6 to be patient Bearing with one another in love

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Ephesians 4 to be kind and compassionate to one another Ephesians 4 32 forgive one of each other

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Ephesians 4 32 do not lie to each other bear with each other Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another

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Admonish one another make your love increase and overflow for each other encourage each other

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Spur one another on toward loving good deeds. Don't grumble against each other confess your sins to each other pray for each other

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Love one another deeply from the hearts Are you getting it?

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You see that's all said in the context of a church That is a body bought by Jesus loved by Jesus being washed by Jesus That consists of people from every tribe tongue nation and language

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This is why the New Testament has to constantly remind us Outdo each other with honor forgive one another

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All these texts are there because early on we had a very difficult way about it

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We're naturally sinners. We have a propensity towards evil. We have a pride We have a heart that is not fully sanctified yet.

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And so we have greed and envy we have haughtiness we have to struggle with tribalism

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You think about for a moment? And the book of Galatians where Paul says it's on our it's on our

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Bulletin today Galatians 328 watch here it is. There is neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free

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There is neither nor there is no male and female for you're all one in Christ Jesus. Do you understand?

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How scandalous that is? No We don't understand it.

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And here's why we don't understand the scandalous nature of it because the world has been so Impacted by the gospel.

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We still have work to do But the world has been so impacted by the message of Jesus in the biblical worldview.

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We can't understand why that's scandalous No male and female distinction like there's not one over the other men and women equal before God Not in the first century what?

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There's neither slave nor free. What in Rome an epon an economic system built upon Slavery a wicked form of slavery and you're telling a church with a free man and a slave worshiping

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God together There is neither a slave nor free in Jesus. You're one think about how it makes the slave feel

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Under this kind of oppressive system in Rome. I'm one which is I'm the same as the free me

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I'm equal before God and in this one the scandalous one there isn't Jew or Gentile There isn't

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Jew nor Greek your Jewishness means nothing ultimately before the cross

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That Greek person who knows Jesus their same blood same body same

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Savior and Master as you scandalous absolutely scandalous

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That was how the message came out This is the kind of message that turns empires on their heads

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And by the way, it did and Christianity has done that in every nation It's gone to because the gospel gives us our true identity, which is in Jesus it ain't your tribe.

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It ain't your color. It ain't your cultural dip your cultural background and traditions

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It's Jesus. That's your identity and every time and It goes all the way through history

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Every time somebody emphasizes their tribal identity over Jesus it creates conflict it creates hatred it creates destruction and misery and The biblical worldview reshapes all of it when you say that my tribe

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Isn't my identity. It's important. I like it. You can love your tribe you can love your cultural traditions and you ought to but when that becomes your identity and not

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Jesus, that's where Conflict arises and you see in a New Testament in Galatians the very book that this is from the

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Apostle Peter stumbles with Tribal conflict. What does Paul do in Galatians?

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It says that he stood up to Peter to his face How'd you like to be part of that uncomfortable conversation?

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That's like being at the dinner table right and one parent hits the other parent It's like everyone just eat your food like, you know, daddy's just upset today.

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It's like I can't eat now, right? It's like that in church. The church is gathered together, right? They're eating together and here's

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Paul watching He's watching and he sees that huh?

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Peter when these Jews come he sits with the Jews and he has really nothing to do with the

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Gentiles But when these Jewish people leave over there He goes and sits with the Jews like it's no big deal Like the gospel brings us together like we're all the same in Jesus.

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And so it's in your Bible that Paul Confronts Peter he says to his face in front of the entire church

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And he says you are not walking in accordance with the gospel. You're creating two churches here

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Peter When people come here, you're like the Jewish tribe That's what matters to God and when they're not looking you sit over these

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Gentiles over here Actually living consistently with the gospel that our tribe doesn't matter.

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He says you're creating two churches You're denying the gospel Repent Peter says in the beginning of the church

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Tribal conflict and what's the message in a New Testament is that your identity isn't in your tribe

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It's in Christ He brings us together It's a powerful thing and I think it's the only transformative thing any of us could ever

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Possibly hope for I'm gonna say one last word on it. That's this racism

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Again, I think it's more proper to call it tribalism because that's the issue It's wicked

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It's wicked if you have hatred in your heart for somebody else because of their color and their tribe

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I Question whether you've ever actually met the Lord of Glory. I Do if people have a deep -seated hatred in their heart because of somebody else's tribe or color if they want to emphasize

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That tribe or color as the identifying mark as the main thing.

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I question whether you've actually met Jesus because this book It's all about obliterating those differences this book says that all those tribes tongues nations languages they come before the throne of God all bought by the same blood and They're worshiping

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God equally together before the throne. You do not see in the New Testament an overemphasis on tribe or color

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That's not the gospel and anybody who says they know Jesus and they overemphasize race

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Over Jesus. I question whether you know him. I Question whether you've been on your knees before this book because it tells an entirely different story

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It was said recently that revelation chapter 5

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The text we just read at the beginning here Makes heaven look like a white supremacist nightmare because of all the color all the differences

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Can I say this? There's a failure in Christian history, let's own up to our failures

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I got a major failure it's a major failure of missionary work and let's repent of it and never go back to it a

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Major failure of missionary work in history is where people used to go to faraway places to convert convert tribes of people and In they're converting tribes of people pointing them to the gospel.

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You have an incident like in fairly recent history the Hawaiian Islands Christians went over there

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With the desire to lead these people to Jesus to see them come to Jesus and experience his salvation and they did a great job

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They weren't perfect, but they did a great job They were faithful and they fought long and hard and they sacrificed and they sweat and bled and all that stuff

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And you know what happened within 20 years Hawaii became a Christian Kingdom within 20 years 20 years

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Christian Kingdom, how you like them apples? What how does that happen 20 years an entire place turns to Jesus and starts naming?

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The God of the Bible in their Constitution in 20 years of missionary work. Hey, great job guys except except It's clear and this has happened many times before these

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Christians went into this place. They had the message of the gospel They pointed him to Jesus and then they said this. All right

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We need to have this sanctification take place now and rather than pointing to Jesus and the Word of God is the standard of sanctification

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And being conformed to his image these people these white Christians went and they tried to now force their cultural traditions upon the

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Hawaiian people. So what they say? Well, you gotta start dressing like this now and you gotta stop doing this kind of music and you really need to start doing things

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This way, maybe you start changing and transforming your life to look more like my tribes tradition and I want to say this that is sinful

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Because when you come to Jesus from any particular tribe as the kingdom of God God grows in the world

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It's perfectly alright in Scripture for you to keep your cultural traditions and identity

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It's fine for you to love your family's tradition and history That's fine as a

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Christian saying that it's not about your tribe It's about Jesus isn't destroying the idea that you know, what

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God did a pretty great thing with my tribe Whether it was black or white or brown or red or yellow?

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I'm okay With saying as a Christian that those cultural differences actually make the world kind of an awesome place

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And we shouldn't be trying to turn people into Western American Christians, we need them to know

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Jesus with all of their cultural background intact save the idolatry

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Right repent of that stuff. But you know what your cultural traditions and your family and your background and your food is awesome

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Keep it don't change it and keep it in Jesus It's a failure when we make it about converting people to our tribe and not to Jesus Next point as the kingdom of God grows in the world as that seed becomes a tree as the leaven fills the loaf

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There's a problem you see in our New Testament, it's another car. It's another problem as a church grows It's not just tribal conflict.

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It's also conflict over our own personal preferences and likes

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You can go the far end of this to the to the far end and say and it passes like Mark chapter 7

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You've got a tradition that rose up alongside the Bible in Mark 7 next to the

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Bible that the Jews saw Essentially as like a divine deposit. It wasn't the

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Bible. They wouldn't have said it was the Bible They knew what that was, but they have the tradition of the elders and in Mark 7 they go to Jesus and they say hey

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Hey, hey, hey, how come how come your disciples are eating with unwashed hands?

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How come they're not doing following a tradition of the elders and so now they have like a rank conflict with their laws

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Versus the laws of God and Jesus handles it like this in the way every reformed Protestant would sola scriptura

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He says what mark 7 he says you say this He says Moses says the

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Word of God says this he says thus you invalidate the Word of God For the sake of your tradition.

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So watch you have that rank sort of like this is law Follow this piety follow this regulation and rule and it contradicts the

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Bible flat -out Jesus says here's the Word of God. Here's your word. You're wrong

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But it gets sticky because sometimes we don't enshrine our personal piety into code

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Sometimes you have a conflict like in 1st Corinthians chapter 8 go to it 1st

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Corinthians chapter 8 one of those classic scenes of conflict in the early church.

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You got to see it 1st Corinthians chapter 8 Verse 1 check it out. This is in Corinth Corinth is this very sort of well to do sort of city life metropolis

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You know We're the city folk, right? We have all the culture we're enculturated right and you've got all this idolatry and sexual sin

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Sort of like throughout the city and now you've got a church there people love Jesus there and it's a mixed church

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Of course people from all kinds of backgrounds and now you got a problem You've got all this stuff happening

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Around the church people are selling food in the marketplace meat that had initially been sacrificed to idols

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Now, we know how I feel about idols as Christians, right? There's only one God and these people now are sacrificing this food to idols and some people used to actually participate in that now

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They're Christians So they have a personal like problem with this meat offered to idols and here's the conflict

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Paul addresses it directly now concerning food offered to idols. We know that all of Us possess knowledge this knowledge puffs up but love builds up if anyone imagines that he knows something he does not

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Yet know as he ought to know but if anyone loves God is known by God Therefore as to the eating of food offered to idols

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We know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no God but one

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For although there may be so -called gods in heaven and on earth as indeed there are many gods and many lords yet for us there is one

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God the Father from whom are all things and For whom we exist and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we exist

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Here's the text however, not all possess this knowledge but some though formally associated

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So though through former association with idols eat food as really offered to an idol and their conscience being weak is defiled

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Food will not commend us to God We are no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do

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But take care that this right of yours is not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak

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For if anyone sees you who have knowledge eating in an idols temple Will he not be encouraged if his conscience is weak to eat food offered to idols and so by your knowledge this weak person is destroyed the brother for whom

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Christ died and Wounding their conscience when it is weak you sin against Christ Therefore if food makes my brother stumble,

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I'll never eat meat lest I make my brother stumble Here's the point. You've got standards of personal piety piety again not

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Enshrined in some book somewhere. It's just sort of like in the background

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Right to the background of the church. You all know it's there You're all thinking about it.

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No one wrote it down But it's happening people this this crew over there in a local body.

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They start setting up their own personal preferences and standards, right? Let's start making everyone look like this and follow our piety and our preferences this group over here doesn't necessarily agree

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They go the other way and now you got two groups within one local fellowship in conflict with each other It happens all the time.

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It was happening right here in 1st Corinthians chapter 8 So, how do we overcome this?

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Well, it's clear from Scripture Here's how you overcome it and there are numerous numerous instances of this

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Your personal piety and your preferences and mine do not equal the law of God You might be devoted to it.

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You might be committed to it You might really really feel strongly about it. But if it's not in the

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Word of God, I can't use that as a standard over any believer if it's not something that God has spoken to or alluded to or in the realm of something

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God has spoken to if it's a matter of personal preference it needs to remain a matter of personal preference

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You see we emphasize To glorify God the law of God not our law

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What we ought to hold as standards with one another is this ready? You should not steal That's a standard that applies to all of us.

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That's not a matter of personal preference that applies to all of us How about this one? When you hear a story about someone in the body of Christ Something that sounds a little off Somebody's say sharing information in a prayer circle about somebody else in church

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Talking about another believer in church a man talking about another man a woman talking about a woman doesn't matter who it is

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We ought to hold to biblical standards Like receive no accusation

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Unless it's on the basis of two or three witnesses That's the law of God. That's something that you hold up.

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That's not a preference That's the law of God his standards of justice and how we live together

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We ought to hold to the law of God in terms of property with one another Thou shalt not steal is the foundation of capitalism

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Thou shalt not steal is the foundation of personal property Because watch thou shalt not steal means nothing if all of our property is common property

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Thou shalt not steal assumes personal property and ownership given to you by God These are the laws we ought to uphold with each other

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But our own standards of personal piety and how we walk out the Christian faith

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Cannot become law That's called legalism. So for example, this is often the case

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We pick a particular standard of personal piety. Maybe it's in how we

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Raise our kids and what particular like rules of the house we have or maybe it's how we do family worship or it's in How we personally dress we take those standards and we now make that the image of Christ I need everyone in my church to be conformed to this image

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You know what? That's just sin It's just pride It's just haughtiness

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You know, what is the perfect image of a local body?

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It's a body with people that are so different from one another different skin tones different styles of dress different tastes in music different ways that they walk out the wisdom of Christ in their family and what we ought to do is

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Celebrate the wisdom of God being applied in sanctification in any believers life

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We can allow our personal preferences to be deep Deeply held but the moment we start swinging that as a sword against other believers in the body

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We sin against God. You see here's the standard Romans chapter 8 It says what he predestined us to be conformed to the image of his what?

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son He predestined who? Help me now us to be conformed to the image of his son so the us the differences the distinctions all

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Unified planned by God to be shaped into the image of Jesus Not one another not our personal tribe not our own culture, but Jesus that's the aim and What I ought to do is repent as a believer if I find myself imposing

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My own personal culture and preferences and personal piety on to another believer in the church

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Because what God intends for us to do is encourage one another and spur one another on to look like Jesus Not like me not like me.

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He is our identity Not any tribe He is our identity not in any personal dress

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He is our identity Not our personal culture and background and traditions

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It's Jesus and if you say oh that sounds like a t -shirt pastor Jeff. That sounds nice. But whatever does it mean?

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well We have the Word of God and his revelation before us where God actually tells us what

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Jesus is like and we have the perfect law of the Lord before us so that we know

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God's perfect standards and Righteousness to know exactly what Jesus was like He's the embodiment of all that the law pointed to And can

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I say one last word here and look at this? We're gonna be done at 515 today. What is Is happening

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I ought to get sick more often Last last word.

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This is this is important. Okay, so There's a wrong way to look at this table and that is to say turn it into cannibalism

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Which people do they say this is the literal body and blood of Jesus Well if Jesus in the gospel of John was encouraging people to eat his literal flesh and Drink his literal blood.

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He would be in violation of the law of God which Explicitly says that you are not to eat the flesh and blood of a human

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Jesus equates the eating of his flesh and drinking of his blood with listen believing in him

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He says it why are you so confused I'm speaking to you about spiritual things it's believing in me

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Taking into your body the body and blood of Jesus. Now, here's what's awesome

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Every week at Apologia Church, we come to this table. It is an amazing Divine moment.

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It is not just some you know Step by step by step tradition.

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That's meaningless the presence of God I believe it's heavy during communion and I do believe that this is a very significant

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Ordinance that Jesus gives to us and he says as often as you come together do it in remembrance of me Here's what's amazing is that Jesus gives us an ordinance

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That we do together as the body of Christ throughout the ages

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No matter where you're at in the world. No matter how diverse your body is your local body

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He gives us something That points to his humanity that his body was physically broken for us and watch the blood that matters to Jesus is

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His blood and It unites all of us

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It is his body and his blood Taken in by white people black people brown people red people

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Yellow people keep going. We are all receiving into ourselves the body and blood of the perfect God man, and We are all united by the blood that matters

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Not your tribe or your color. It's the blood of the Son of God and Every week all of these different colors and shapes and backgrounds attend to this meal

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We walk to it and we receive it into ourselves as a means of covenant renewal a reminder of being bought by the blood of God himself as a man and All watch this is beautiful every week at Apologia We come to the table and walking up to the table our people from different tribes and backgrounds and colors

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United by the same body and blood So you say man,

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I wish I was there for that throne room scene Right. I mean, I wish Revelation 5

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I could have caught a glimpse of that that throne room Scene where all those people are saying you've ransomed people by your blood from every tribe tongue nation people

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I wish I could see it well Every Sunday on the

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Lord's Day You see it every

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Lord's Day We ought to celebrate that so I want to give you the call of the gospel

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You've heard it. Jesus is God and Man, he was righteous blameless he died for sins and he rose again from the dead and He bids you to come and die and rise again

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He calls you to repent of your sins and to believe in him for forgiveness and salvation Come to Christ and live.

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Let's pray Father, I pray that you'd bless now as we come to the table what

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I know. I don't know the condition of everyone's hearts in This room.

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I just pray to God you'd grant repentance and faith to your people to your sheep I Do pray that God you would allow

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The clarity of your message to come from this body into the world to bring healing

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Where there's hurt I pray in this moment

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Lord for those of us that know you I pray that Lord whatever we need to confess And repent of that Lord you you show us

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And I pray Lord we walk to this table in Joy and Delight, I pray that you'd grant to us repentance where it's necessary and joy where it's necessary in Jesus name.