Boast In Our Invisible Race (1 Thessalonians 2:14-20, Jeff Kliewer)

Was the pain, His life was the cost. We stood meet the dead, we were four. Stronger than darkness, our sins they are, mercy is more. Our sins they are many, His mercy is more. Say, at the sound, at the sound, at the sound, His soul, at the sound.

All the praise and all the glory, Jesus.

Opening Prayer for a Glimpse of the Coming Kingdom

All right, as we go to open God's Word, let us pray and seek His blessing on our time in His Word. So Father, this morning as we go to open your Word, we pray that we would get a glimpse of things to come.

Lord, I picture from the book of Revelation, the lion and the lamb who opens the scroll, and every tribe and tongue and language and people fall down and worship and sing, worthy is the lamb who was slain.

We're looking forward to that day when all the peoples, that the world would be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Lord, we look to that day and this morning we pray that we would get a glimpse of this seen here in your church, in the local gathered assembly, as people gather in the name of Jesus, would you come and dwell with us?

Fill us with your Holy Spirit. And I pray for myself as I teach from 1 Thessalonians 2, 14 to 20, some controversial matters. Lord, I pray for myself that I would handle the Word rightly, rightly dividing the Word entrusted.

And I pray for us, Lord, that we would receive well. And Lord, let your gospel call go forth to those who are not yet belonging to Christ. We pray that they would come and belong to the church, the assembly of the firstborn.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen. The gospel is not ethnic. The gospel is colorblind. The promise of John 1 12, but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.

To become a child of God is not at all dependent on the color of one's skin. It is an offer made to all on every continent and regardless and without reference to anything outward. Man looks on the outward, but God looks on the heart.

We understand these things hopefully from the scriptures, that God is offering the gospel to all without looking at the color of skin. But sadly, this clear biblical teaching was not always clearly taught.

In fact, there was a cult that formed, an offshoot of Christianity which was no longer Christian, called Mormonism. Have you heard of it? The Book of Mormon was produced in the 1830s, early 1830s, and it taught to the people of Utah and the surrounding indigenous population that were they to come to Christ, their skin would become more and more white and delightsome.

That's a horrific doctrine. Horrific. But sadly, it didn't exist only on the frontier in Utah. This kind of teaching permeated the American church for the first hundred years of this country. Not all churches, in fact there were many who withstood such such a horrible teaching, but some taught what was called the curse of Ham.

Now we know that Ham was cursed in Genesis 9 and it was said of him, a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers. But those who mishandled God's Word began to look on outward appearance and they began to apply that to people with darker skin.

So the curse of Ham was applied to people from Africa and therefore many people justified man-stealing in the enslaving of people which is clearly condemned by the scripture. So these things were prominent in the church, but thanks be to God a bloody war was fought to set the slaves free and from that point in time the struggle based on the color of skin continued in this country.

In 1892, a man named Homer, not Homer Simpson, Homer Plessy was his name, tried to get on a train in Louisiana and he had one great grandparent who was of African descent, seven great-grandparents who were of European descent.

So he was 1 8th dark-skinned and 7 8th light-skinned. The coach in which he tried to sit was reserved for whites only in Louisiana law. So he was told he couldn't sit there because the doctrine was that if you have just one drop of African blood then that makes you African.

Well Plessy challenged this and he sat there and willingly let himself be arrested to challenge this doctrine in the courts. And the case that we now know as Plessy versus Ferguson in 1896 came from this travesty and the court ruled separate but equal was in fact legal.

Can you believe it? Plessy was told because he had just one drop of African blood he could not sit in the whites only coach. That was the ruling of the Supreme Court in this country. On a side note if the Supreme Court rules wrong in 1973 in Roe versus Wade that should be overturned just like Plessy versus Ferguson was in due time.

And I think this year in 2022 Roe versus Wade will be overturned. Glory to God let's pray that that happens. Plessy versus Ferguson was a travesty and here's what it did. It separated people based on the color of their skin and it was such an arbitrary thing because people even at that time were mixed in race.

So do you remember when Elizabeth Warren tried to claim that she was an indigenous person because she had just one drop of Indian blood? Well I have the same thing I have Cherokee in me from the Wagner side so I guess I'm indigenous by that kind of logic.

Which of course is nonsense because to judge people based on the color of their skin and these kind of doctrines is completely foreign to the scripture. Now in Plessy versus Ferguson there was one righteous judge.

His name was Judge Harlan and he looked at the situation he said the Constitution is colorblind. Repeat after me colorblind. And he was right. The Constitution and the biblical approach to people is colorblind.

Martin Luther King Jr. would come later and say that he dreamt of a day when people would be judged not by the color of their skin but by the content of their character and he was right. Brown versus the Board of Education in 1954 overthrew Plessy versus Ferguson.

The Civil Rights Act in 1964 established equal rights and got rid of the so-called separate but equal because that doctrine is what gave us Jim Crow. All of that came crashing down in the 1960s and good riddance.

But in 1965 Lyndon Johnson, president of these United States, began what was called the Great Society. And in that he began to push separate but equal in different terms. It's what we call affirmative action.

Now people are to be separated based on the color of their skin and favored or disfavored based on melanin in the skin. And this continued to grow, this movement. In 1973 the Supreme Court upheld affirmative action.

And in 2003 the court saw it again because it wasn't working. And so what did they decide? On one side was Sandra Day O 'Connor taking the Plessy side of the debate. On the other side was Clarence Thomas.

Of all the Supreme Court justices that we have right now, Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito are the only trustworthy ones. And here's what Clarence Thomas said. Judge Harlan was right. The Constitution is colorblind.

And he argued that we also must be colorblind. Not looking at the color of people's skin but judging people individually by the content of their character. Sadly his view failed. And Sandra Day O 'Connor and the court once again upheld this unjust law in Bollinger, the University of Michigan case in 2003.

Fast forward to 2022 and according to the Sandra Day O 'Connor side, 25 years later we should be able to move past this. Rather what we have seen is a virtual or uncivil race war in America. Things have not gotten better, they've gotten worse.

The University of Michigan case, Sandra Day O 'Connor, has been proven wrong. A new doctrine emerged beginning in the 1960s in Harvard and then developing the 1990s also at Harvard and then popularized in the media with the writing of many books and that is called critical race theory.

The concept of critical race theory is that you are and you must look at the color of people's skin to redress grievances from the past. You must be obsessed with the color of skin and take a critical approach to the world in which we live, critically assuming racism often where none exists.

The point of this is to say that the world is fascinated with the color of skin. Church, we have something better. Man looks on the outward but God looks at the heart and I want to introduce you to a passage of scripture you might not be familiar with but it deals with the subject of race.

Guys, I didn't want to talk about race today, Paul made me do it. Here's what I do as a preacher, when the text goes to a place that's where I go. The last time we looked in 1st Thessalonians 2 it talked about economics so we spoke against Marxism because Paul in 1st Thessalonians 2 verse 9 says, remember brothers our labor and our toil we worked night and day that we might not be a burden to any of you while we proclaimed to you the gospel of God.

The text brought us there. Today turn with me to 1st Thessalonians 2 14 to 20 and Paul will address the issue of race but unlike the critical race theorist and Sandra Day O 'Connor and the Ferguson side of Plessy versus Ferguson, Paul does not cling to his ethnic identity and form his identity there.

Rather, Paul places his identity in Christ and with the people of God, that is to say the church. He sees that the dividing wall between Jew and Gentile has been torn down in Christ and he identifies not with his own ethnic people, the Jewish people, but he forms his identity with Christ and the church.

This is a very important teaching for the day in which we live because just as it was in the 1800s, churches today are being swept up in an unbiblical movement seeking to favor people based on the color of skin and the Bible knows nothing of it.

So let's read it 1st Thessalonians 2 14 through 20. For you brothers became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen as they did from the Jews who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets and drove us out and displeased God and opposed all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved.

So as always to fill up the measure of their sins, but wrath has come upon them at last. But since we were torn away from you brothers for a short time in person not in heart, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face because we wanted to come to you.

I, Paul, again and again, but Satan hindered us. For what is our hope or joy or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy. So the big idea this morning is that we live in a world that is obsessed with man-made constructs of race.

Constructs that don't actually exist, they're man-made. Whereas the world runs after these identity groups, we are in Christ. And standing in Christ we form our identity in the church. In Galatians 6 14, Paul will say far be it for me to boast except in the cross of Christ through which the world is crucified to me and I to the world.

He's made a break with the world and his boast is in Christ. In Christ. Remember that phrase. We'll come back to it. In Ephesians 2 19 to 20, he identifies that he is part and a member of the household of God.

He forms his identity in the church, not in his ethnicity. In Hebrews 11 25, we learn that Moses chose not to be identified with the Egyptians who raised him, but rather to be identified with the people of God.

And in Acts 11 26, we learn for the first time we were called Christians at Antioch. The big point being, you'll see it in two parts, we must make a break from loyalties that are only skin deep and create a bond and join this bond that is the church.

The church is something more than a Sunday morning gathering. It is an identity. You are part of a household when you are in the church. A family. We'll see this language. So let's look at the first part, the break that Paul makes from the Jews because when you read these words, I didn't write them, they sound harsh.

What is Paul doing here? Let's look at verses 14 to 16 first. For a Christian, identity is not to be found in ethnicity or race. You'll notice in this section, Paul speaks of himself and them. There's an us them, but it's the church, the brothers, and the them, in this case, are the Jews.

Now, what ethnicity is Paul? Jewish. And yet, for you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea. For you suffered the same things from your own countrymen. These are Greeks in Thessalonica.

When the Thessalonians came to Christ, the Greeks rejected them. And this is in keeping with what happened in Jerusalem. The churches were established in Judea, and the Jews rejected them. They're rejected by their own, by their own world, their own culture.

Now, notice how Paul speaks of the Jews in verses 15 and 16. He describes them as having killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and displeased God, and opposed all mankind by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles.

Is this anti-Semitism? Remember, Paul is Jewish. He is not speaking to them according to their melanin, according to their descent, according to ethnic markers. He is speaking based on the content of their character.

He's speaking to their behavior, this generation of Jews in particular. There are times when the Jewish people in history are the victims of a holocaust. But this generation of Jews, to whom Paul is referring, is opposing all that is right and good.

Look at verse 15. The first thing they do is the worst thing that was ever done in the history of the world. They killed Jesus, and that was in keeping with what they had been doing. When prophets came foretelling the coming Christ, they killed the prophets.

They sought Isaiah in two. They threw Jeremiah in a dungeon, Daniel in a lion's den, and drove us out. Paul himself went to preach the gospel in Jerusalem, and they tied him up, and they arrested him and sought to kill him.

It was only the Romans that rescued him. He appealed to Caesar and was sent to Rome. But time and time again, we read in Paul's letters that he was rejected by his own people. Five times I received from the Jews the 40 lashes minus one.

The 40 lashes was the harsh punishment of being whipped with a cat of nine tails. The punishment of 40 lashes would be reduced by one because if you actually killed the person and were charged with giving more than the 40, you could be held liable.

And so they would back that off one, just to play it safe, in case you counted wrong, 39 lashes on the back. Paul received that punishment from his own people five times. He was driven out of Jerusalem.

Then he goes on to say, they displease God and oppose all mankind. Now why do they oppose mankind? Verse 16. Or how should, how do they do it? They hinder the gospel being taken to the Gentiles. Here the Jew has a descent from Abraham and takes pride.

He boasts in his ethnicity over against the Gentile dogs. You can read about it in Philippians 3. The Jewish person has been specially chosen by God for a purpose, which are described in the book of Romans in chapter nine, supremely that the Christ would come through them.

But they begin to boast in themselves, in their ethnicity over against Gentile people. And the rest of mankind is to them a pack of dogs. And they stop Paul even from taking the gospel to them in verse 16, by hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles that they might be saved.

Now Paul says, so as always to fill up the measure of their sin. See, Paul is judging them based on their own behavior. And he says, but wrath has come upon them at last. Notice the word them. Paul disassociates from them.

He sees a different kind of us. Who is the us in this section? Look at verse 14. For you brothers. He's referring to the church. Paul identifies himself with his brothers, the churches of God in Christ Jesus, whether they be in Judea or in Thessalonica.

Nowadays, we live in a culture where people are obsessed with the color of skin. And people seek to form identity in ethnic background. I even saw a meme come across of, anybody see the new Spider-Man?

The new Spider-Man? Some of you like that. There's a new character in it who plays MJ, the girlfriend of Spider-Man. And she has darker skin. And some Christians produced a meme that shows the former MJ and another one who were both white.

And this MJ has darker skin and they place over it, embrace tradition, reject modernity. What does that mean? It is a sad, pathetic attachment to ethnic heritage in which this current MJ is rejected because of the color of her skin.

That is alive and well in churches across the land. Not many. It's in a certain small circle of the evangelical church that embrace a doctrine called kinism. Have you heard of kinism? A kinist believes that people should only marry people of their same ethnic background.

They'll say that, it doesn't make one superior to another, but that those from European descent should only marry those from European descent and those of African and Asian, et cetera, et cetera. It is a pernicious doctrine, but that's not the only appearance of this in our culture.

It's everywhere. You find it in churches of various stripes. I once worked for a couple of years at a church that was seeking to establish a new church that speaks English. The church that was launching this church was all Vietnamese people.

They didn't even speak English, many of them, so they preached in Vietnamese. Nothing wrong with that. But they wanted to establish an English speaking church of the younger generation. And so as we began to preach the gospel in the many people started to come.

There were the Vietnamese young people, but there were also people of lighter skin and darker skin. And the church grew to more than a hundred people. Many were getting baptized and the church began to become very multi-ethnic.

Do you want to know what the mother church did? They pulled the plug on the entire church plant, took the building back, fired the pastor I was working with because the church was no longer Vietnamese.

You see, their identity was in their ethnicity rather than in Christ and in his church. You will find manifestations of this all throughout society and it is pernicious. Paul refutes this. Do you see it in verses 14 to 16?

Here is a Jew judging his own ethnic people not by their ethnicity, but by their behavior. It's a righteous judgment, not a loyalty based on ethnicity. And he says the same of the countrymen in Thessalonica.

You're rejected by your own. Don't look at the skin color. I'm giving you a new identity. Now do you want to see the good news? Verses 17 to 20 provides us with something far more valuable, something that's true and real and lasting, eternal.

Look at it. It is the church. Look at the language Paul employs in speaking of the new identity that we have in Christ. This is a beautiful thing. We don't appreciate it as we should. For the Christian, identity is found in Jesus and in the many who belong to him.

He says, but since we were torn away, that word torn away comes from the Greek orphanos. Orphanos, what does that sound like? An orphan. To be torn away is to be orphaned from some. Now remember, earlier in chapter two, Paul has employed paternal language.

He was a father to them. And maternal language. I was a mother to you, caring for you like a nursing mother. Now he uses a similar language, torn away. Orphanos, I was ripped from you. And he says, we were torn away from you brothers for a short time.

In person, not in heart. Notice, Paul had been in Thessalonica for three weeks preaching in the synagogue, maybe a couple weeks beyond that, but he had already established a bond with these people, like a father to his child.

A depth of love that the world knows nothing of. A real bond. Where does this come from? How does this form so quickly, in a matter of weeks? It comes in Christ. Because these people, the Thessalonian believers, are blood-bought, even as he is.

And so he'll go on to say, we endeavored the more eagerly and with great desire to see you face to face. Because we wanted to come to you, I, Paul, again and again. But Satan hindered us. So you see, he has this strong desire for them, a fatherly love, a motherly love.

But he's been torn from them. This is his people, the church. He loves them. He's willing to do anything he can. However, there's a spiritual war going on. Satan hindered them. Now, does Satan get the last word here?

Of course not. We're reading 1 Thessalonians. It was God's plan that we would have this book. Because he was separated from them, he then writes two letters, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, so we would have this as part of the Bible.

So Satan is only an instrument that God is using. He's a secondary cause, but it's a real war. Satan is resisting at that point. But then he goes on verses 19 and 20, and here is the joy, the good news.

This is what we should take away this morning. This is what's offered to you in the church. So much better than I ever realized. The joy is the church. We have a visible expression of an invisible race that was known from before the foundation of the world.

For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of boasting before our Lord Jesus at his coming? Is it not you? For you are our glory and joy. We belong to Christ, and therefore we belong to each other. Christ is coming, and when he does, he's going to rapture from the earth every genuine believer on the planet at his coming, at his appearing, and we will delight in one another for all eternity.

This is lasting. This is real. This is the church. Now look at the world around us. They have nothing to belong to, nothing lasting. I mean, if we're just stardust evolved from apes, and we're all dying, there is no purpose.

There's nothing transcendent. There's nothing to belong to. And so what do you do if you're just a descendant from apes, originally stardust and returning to stardust? What do you do? You search and you clamor for meaning.

You look to establish some identity, some identity somewhere that will make you belong to something better. Do you feel unnatural attractions? Well, form a community with the LGBTQIA plus whatever wants to be thrown into that.

You see, it's a person that's clamoring to belong to something and call it a community, but there's no community in that, and very many people try to find identity in ethnicity. It's why Adolf Hitler rallied the German people to conquer Poland and try to conquer the world.

Survival of the fittest, the logic of Darwinism, his identity and the people of Germany at that time bought this lie that their identity was in being German. So why not establish that as chief among the people?

Survival of the fittest, perfect logic in a godless world. It's why Putin wants to take over the Ukraine as we speak, because there's Russian people in the Ukraine. You see, collectivism, identity politics is the root of all kinds of evil in our world.

People seeking to establish meaning, but they form collectives around what is not transcendent, what is not real and eternal and lasting. And then those competing groups of people fight for privilege, resources, to establish themselves in power and influence.

And that's what you see happening in our world. Where God is removed, people will create collectives around all manner of identity. But listen, church, Paul forms his identity here in the church. Look what he says.

This is my crown of boasting. Did you think boasting was bad? Don't you hate it when somebody's boasting? Well, the reason it's obnoxious when people brag and they're boasting about how great they are is because they're elevating something that's not worthy.

Boasting itself is not bad if it's in the ultimate and supreme value in the universe. We ought to boast in Christ. Listen to Paul's words regarding boasting. He says, just as it is written, let him who boasts boast in the Lord.

Elsewhere, he says, he who boasts is to boast in the Lord. Therefore, in Christ Jesus, I have found reason for boasting in things pertaining to God. And then Galatians 6 .14, may it never be that I would boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world.

Paul boasts in Christ and in the church. David boasts in Psalm 34 .2, my soul will make its boast in the Lord. The humble will hear it and rejoice. In God, we have boasted all day long and we will give thanks to your name forever.

Selah. Psalm 20, verse seven, some boast in chariots, some in horses, but we will boast in the name of the Lord, our God. We will boast in the ultimate value, which is Christ to belong to him and the church.

So Paul's point here is to make you boast in Christ. When I was a young man, as opposed to now, getting some gray in the beard, but 1999, my boast was in basketball. Even if I wouldn't have admitted it, that's where my heart boasted.

1999, I flew up to North Carolina for a week. And this is when I was called into ministry, this week in 1999, June, summer break. I went up there for a week to be a Fellowship of Christian Athletes counselor to the young people.

The year before my last year in college, between my junior and senior year. The first night of that Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp, I heard the preacher, Adrian Dupree, calling Christians to surrender all and to make Christ everything, to make Christ our boast.

And I realized at that time that my life was devoted more to secondary things than to Christ. And instead of the teens alone going forward at that altar call, we used to have altar calls. Remember that?

You go to the altar. Of course, the cross is the only altar. There's nothing sacred about space up here, which is why we don't do that. But in that context, it was good for me. I myself went forward and I laid down on that stage and I confessed my sin and I surrendered my life to Christ fully.

A few days later, he worked powerfully in me in that I began to witness and share the gospel with the kids that I was working with. One of them named Ryan, he didn't get saved on the last day of camp.

And so we were leaving and as I was walking out, I was alone in this field and I began to pray and ask God, why didn't you save him? And before long, I started to cry and then I was just overcome by this deep guttural weeping for his salvation.

My heart was broken that this young man had not come to faith at camp. If he couldn't come to faith at Fellowship of Christian Athletes camp for a week and he's going back to the inner city, how is he ever going to come?

And my heart was breaking and I was weeping, but I never felt so close to God in all my life. He gave me a heart for the lost at that camp and he called me into ministry. And so on the flight back from North Carolina to Tampa, there was going to be a layover in Atlanta.

I got on the plane and as I was walking up the aisle, I was determined to share the gospel with whoever I sat next to. I mean, this guy was going to be held captive from Charlotte to Atlanta. I was ready to go.

And the guy sitting in the middle seat, I'm on the aisle, he was bigger than me, much darker skin, gold teeth, and I reached into my bag to grab a Bible. And as I did, he pulled his Bible out. He was a member of the Invisible Church.

Couldn't see it, but I would discover soon enough, he opened that Bible. And I'm telling you, every page from Genesis to Revelation was underlined and starred and highlighted with notes. This guy had spent time in the Word.

And he said, young man, let's look at the book of Ephesians. And so for that flight, he opened the book of Ephesians with me and he told me, listen, you need to underline everywhere you see in Christ.

In Christ. It was 27 places in the book of Ephesians and 165 places in the New Testament. In Christ. And Quentin Williams taught me on that flight what it means that I am in the Beloved. That he has saved me.

Who am I? And what has he called me to do? I have identity in union with the Lord. And there are people all over this earth who likewise believe in him, who are united with him, and we are united in one body.

We are in Christ. That's my new identity. So going back to Tampa, even before getting on the second flight, Quentin Williams and I were walking to our next layover flight. He was going to Dallas, I think, and I was going to Tampa.

Right there in the airport, he laid hands on me and prayed over me for 10 minutes. Just praying God's blessing on me in ministry. The power of God that I would know who I am in Christ. So I shared the gospel on that flight and the next week I went to real estate class.

I became a realtor. That was what I did over the summer. My parents were in real estate. So I got my real estate license, but at lunch I shared the gospel. And for the first time in my life, I led someone to Christ.

My good friend Keith, who still believes to this day. The Lord had called me to ministry. He showed me what it was to be in Christ. Brother, sister, do you know your identity? What are you living for?

Who are you living for? Do you realize the value of what we have here? For that last year of college, I didn't have a good church family. There were a few believers at Eckerd College and I found them and we would pray together.

But it wasn't until the next year when I graduated, I became a youth pastor at a Presbyterian church. And that's when I saw what a local church of believers ought to be like. And I realized I want to give every breath that I have to building up this thing called the church.

It's worthy. This is a crown of boasting. This is a joy, a hope, a glory. Something that lasts. Church, do you realize what we have here? We are a visible expression of an invisible church. Worldwide, God sees the number of the elect.

He knows who they are. And here we are a visible expression of it, a local body. This is something worthy of your time and of your life. So as we go to prayer, in closing, I want to invite you. Maybe I'm just aware there's somebody here maybe that's not yet a part of the church.

You don't know that you belong here. Guess what? He welcomes you. The gospel call is to all who would come. It is a free offer of grace. He's inviting you to come and be a part of him and his church. And it's so much better than anything that the world is offering.

Leave all the identity politics behind. Every pet cause, every other identity which is only skin deep. Come to Christ. Come and be a part of a church that glorifies the risen king. If you want to do that, pray with me.

Let's just all bow our heads. For those who have not yet come to saving faith, right now you can call on the name of Christ to save you. Repent of your sin. Believe in him. You will find him to be a perfect savior.

Pray this way. In your own heart, you don't have to say it out loud, but say, God, I am a sinner. I've sought meaning in so many other things. And they are empty. I'm sorry for my sin. But today I recognize that Christ is all.

And I pray, Lord, that you would save me, the sinner. Please forgive me of my sins. I believe that Jesus died, that Jesus rose. And I ask you, Lord Jesus, to save me from my sins. Make me a part of your church.

In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Anybody, just raise your hand if you just did that. You just prayed that prayer. Anybody pray that prayer? Confess before men, God will not be ashamed of you in heaven. Just raise your hand if you just prayed that prayer.

Okay. All right. Well, let's pray again. This time for us as a church, for the church of the firstborn, the assembly of the firstborn, that we would not look on the outward as man does, but look on the heart.

Father, in your word it says, here there is not Jew or Gentile, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free, but Christ is all and in all. We pray, Lord, that this church would always be colorblind, that we would not look on the outward, but look to you alone as you look on the heart.

Lord, I pray that our church would be unified around what matters for all eternity, around Christ, that Christ would be all here. Help us, Lord, to love the church and give ourselves entirely to building up the church.

We're looking forward to your coming and we pray that your blessing would remain on this.

Congregation in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's stand and sing. And he put all things under his feet.

And gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord.

In him, you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the spirit. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.