Well, it's been an exciting day for the United States. If you haven't been tracking the news, which God bless you, big week in our country, big week at the White House. This guy, Alba Rueda, who is an Argentinian political activist, got invited to the White House by your president and mine, and he got invited there to celebrate International Women's Day because this 250-pound dude was given the Most Courageous Woman Award by the First Lady of the United States. Isn't that amazing? So it looks like he could bench press her, and there he is getting the award for most courageous women of the year. Obviously, all the women behind him are very excited for him, especially the gal in the middle.
Nothing says, "Women, you suck," like giving your award to a man, right? I mean, it's like who knew? This guy's been a woman for three years. He's already doing it better than you. Wow, so encouraging. So that's what happened this week, which is pretty cool. And that's our Secretary of State standing next to this dude, giving him the Most Courageous Woman of the Year Award. I'm just pointing out their names and faces, so you know who not to take seriously as an adult in relationship to who's leading our country. Now because of that, I had my own brainstorm. I have my own nomination I'd like to make for Cat of the Year. I've already submitted it to the White House, and this is my submittal. So I just want to be consistent with their line of reasoning. And so I want to play too, but I actually submitted three. This was my other Cat of the Year, and this was my third, my favorite. So there it is. I'm hoping they'll include me in their diverse and equitable handing out of awards.
And therein lies the problem, we are asking ourselves throughout this series what it means to be a Jesus-filled church. And I have an answer for us. Each sermon is kind of an answer to that question, and I haven't answered this morning, but because of the world we live in, it bears out explanation. And you're like, "Well, it's not very nice to make fun of people. That's not very Christian, is it?" It is if they're idiots. It is if they're foolish. Read Elijah, "pray louder"." Maybe he's asleep, maybe he's taking a long lunch." Ha, ha, ha. There is a prophetic edge to mocking godless foolery, right? When it takes over a nation, and so this morning in the sermon someone said, "Should we pray for our leaders?" Yes, we should pray that they repent of their idiocy before they continue making it fool themselves on a global stage.
And so when we come to this morning's topic, how to be a Jesus-filled church, the answer is from Acts 10, we need to preach the gospel of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Now, I am taking that from the text. Unfortunately, because of the day we live in, I have to draw some distinctions in relationship to those definitions and categories because those are no longer merely gloriously and wonderfully biblical truths. This is now a dog whistle for a completely different worldview. Diversity, equity, and inclusion has become the unholy trinity and the doctrinal foundation of the new state religion of wokeism. And so when I come to you and I want to say, "We should celebrate the good news of the gospel that is diverse, equitable, and inclusive," I find myself in the awkward situation of having to explain what it's not because of what you might think it is.
In fact, when I read that, some of you threw up in your mouth. I apologize. We'll try to fix that. You're saying, "Now, is this sermon getting more political or is this sermon getting more cultural?" No, no, no, no. Understand, politics are getting theological, okay? So politics and sociology and culture and the whole thing, they're moving into theological lanes. There is a religious zealousness they have. There is an evangelistic zeal that they have in promoting and pushing this agenda, the agenda of diversity, equity, inclusion. Maybe you've been living under a rock and have no idea what I'm talking about, let me explain what I'm talking about.
I googled this and I should have used when Wenatchee Valley College or U-Dub or WashU because they all have them. I googled definition of DEI, my computer explodes, and this was the first thing that came up. Understand this language is not in the few of the radical left wing, progressive wing nut colleges, this language is in almost every university in our nation. It's being adopted and absorbed into almost every major business in corporate America. It is being pushed into legislatively, almost all government schools, i.e, used to be known as public schools, government-funded, government-run schools. This is happening from high school down to elementary. If you can find the university where this isn't embraced, email me, I'll send them an award. They are a unicorn.
Now, obviously there are some, but there are not many. This is everywhere. Let me read it to you. And I wanted to read it not for the sake of bashing anything or anyone because there are good impulses here. I want us to think critically about what's underneath this new heresy, that is the state religion being pushed by the administrative state almost across our nation. There are good impulses under this, and I want us to see them and identify them so we can discern biblically and then respond wisely in how we handle this. So I'm going to read this and I read probably 50 last night, and then I just got too sick to my stomach and I stopped, but they all say some version of this thing.
"At the University of Michigan, our dedication to academic excellence for the public good," on board so far, "is inseparable from our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion." There it is. This is not something they're tagging on the periphery of their school. This isn't some tertiary value. This is built-in and woven into the fabric and the very being in the center of this organization. This isn't just appeasing the woke mob, this isn't a full embrace of, an immersion in, not the biblical definitions of diversity, equity, inclusion, but the demonic counterfeit and the delusional wokeism worldview that those three buzzwords represent. "It is central to our mission as an educational institution to ensure that each member of our community has full opportunity to thrive in our environment," got no problem with that. "For we believe that diversity is key to individual flourishing," I wouldn't even have a problem with that depending on how we define our terms, "educational excellence and the advancement of knowledge," that's preamble to their definition of diversity.
Remember, arguments one are lost in categorical definitions. "Diversity, we commit to increasing diversity," which is not true by the way, "which is expressed in myriads of forms including race and ethnicity, gender and gender identity," now they're losing me, "sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, language, culture, national origin, religious commitments," which is not true, "age, disability status, and political perspective." We invite and we're committed to increasing diversity as long as it's not Judeo-Christian worldview, okay? Let's not be gaslit here by what's happening. They're open to every idea out there except the Jesus idea, okay? So that that's their definition of diversity. Notice how they include objective categories that we would all 100% get on board with subjective categories that the Bible would have serious problems with and they put them together. So it's hard to sometimes pick out like, "Well, yeah, I like the..." Okay, and then we eat it.
Definition number two, "Equity, we commit to working actively to challenge and respond to bias, harassment and discrimination," which is a total crock because the irony is this worldview actually creates bias. It actually inflicts harassment, and it is relentlessly discriminating. The impulse is let's work against systemic racism. The irony is systemic racism did not exist in the United States until it was codified into the systems by wokeism doctrine. "We commit to working actively to challenge and respond to bias, harassment, discrimination," which is a crock. "We are committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability," see what they did there? They put the Argentinian dude who just won the Most Courageous Woman Award next to my daughter in a wheelchair, that bothers me.
That's an insult to disabled people. It's an insult to women. Where's the feminists when you need them? You know what I mean? It's like, "Women, do you see what they're doing? They're saying men are better at being women than you are. Go get them." Shake up a feminist and let them get it. It's like where did they go when you need them? Equal opportunity. All persons that will not discriminate against on the basis of religion unless you stand up and say, "I'm a follower of Jesus," and then you get shot in the face. "Height, weight or veteran status," now they're playing on my patriotism. You see what they're doing here? You mix a little crap into the brownie mix. Like pastor, I'm used to say, "Just a little bit, bake it up, want some?" That's what they're baking, and that's what they're selling nationwide.
How about inclusion? "We commit to pursuing deliberate efforts to ensure that our campus is a place where differences are welcomed," that's funny, "different perspectives are respectfully heard," unless you're anyone speaking from a Judeo-Christian biblical perspective, then we will shout you down. We will picket you away. We will rally and protest and burn things and destroy things because we don't want to hear what you have to say because we're busy being inclusive. This is the epitome of the emperor wearing no clothes, and no one's pointing it out. This is wildly moronic irony that's happening in our nation. We welcome different perspectives. They're respectfully heard, hard to even take this seriously and where every individual feels a sense of belonging and inclusion. Now, that bugs me because you were made to belong.
Have you ever not belonged? You feel that, don't you? How many of you on the playground first captain, second shoes, second captain, first shoes picking teams and you were the last one to get picked? Don't raise your hand. We don't want to shame you. We can probably tell who you are. No, I'm kidding. It's no fun, is it? It's no fun not to get picked. It's no fun to feel left out. Everyone has experienced that because we were made by our creator to belong. And when we don't belong, we feel isolated. We feel rejected. We start disintegrating at the psychological level. We were not made for rejection. And so when they say things like, "We're going to create a space where you are loved and belong and included," that's appealing to the desire of every human heart because that's preaching a gospel.
"We know that by building a critical mass of diverse groups on campus and create a vibrant climate of inclusiveness, we can more effectively leverage the resources of diversity to advance our collective capabilities," that is the three-legged stool of the state religion of wokeism that is unraveling the greatness of America. It's perverting the good news of the gospel, and it's disintegrating the foundation of western civilization, and we do not have a whole lot of time left. Fearmongering much? No, talking about facts and reality. Men and women much smarter than me that actually read real history books about what's actually happen in humanity without bringing weird and warped biases to the table, to rewrite them to fit their own propaganda, agenda, look at history and say, "The foundation's folding," and the Christian Church is largely silent.
Like a great philosopher said, "I never understood the greatness of America until I traveled its lands and heard righteousness thundering from its pulpits, and therein I discern the secret of America's greatness. America's great because America is good. If America ceases to be great," excuse me, "if America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great." And rather than righteousness thundering from the pulpits, we have milk toast, mellow sermons about trying to love people. And friends, in this hour, there is a need for a prophetic word to be spoken to the church, not in an angry sense to go out and beat up the world, but in a clarifying sense as a clarion call to return to the truth, less the judgment of God that is already here upon us, sweep us away as well.

Right.

God is calling us. God is calling us to humbly submit ourselves to the word of God. What I'm saying is you need to be more discerning tomorrow than you were yesterday. You need to be more wise in the things of God tomorrow than you were yesterday. You need more courage tomorrow than you've needed today. You need to be men, better men than you are right now. You need to grow, you need to learn. You need to humble yourself. You need to pray. You need to weep. You need to cry out. You need to show up. You need to raise your hands and sing and open your word, the word and read and open your life and learn with each other because God is ready to send out a remnant of better men. He's raising up an army of stronger men to send out into the culture to rescue and redeem it with the diverse and equitable and inclusive gospel of Jesus Christ.
So what's the problem with what I just read through, and this is what I spent time thinking about this week because, again, it's baby in the bathwater. There are things in there that we would all get on board with, therein lies the danger. It's not the pastor who wears red horns, who's the danger? It's the pastor who never raises his voice or preaches the prophetic text of the word, that's the danger. And so it's not as if every word in those sentences, I'm like, "Yuck." I'm like, no, I could get on board with a lot of them except a few of the things that they kind of slipped in there and made foundational like we're going to... Okay, so what is the problem then? So let's think carefully about the problem that they're trying to solve with the doctrine of diversity, equity, inclusion.
And I'm saying this because if you haven't run into it, well, buckle up. You will. It's in all the universities that's getting increasingly pushed into the schools. It's in many workplaces that you find yourself in. It's at our hospital, in our schools locally. It's in many of the large businesses as even some of the small businesses. It's tough to go get an education and find a job and anywhere America right now where you will not run into this. And you need to know not so much what you think about it. You need to know what God thinks about it because what God thinks about it is infinitely more important than your opinion on it. And that's what this morning is about, it's getting clarity on what God thinks about this new doctrine being pushed across our land aggressively by the way, not as one option and many to choose from, but as the only option or you're out.
The woke doctrine of diversity, equity, inclusion, attempts to create a... These are my words, my attempt to understand where they're coming from and then draw lines of delineation and clarification, biblical lines, so we can think about it rightly. Again, this is all set up for Acts 10 that I believe is the original DEI policy statement. The woke doctrine of DIE attempts to create a sense of love and belonging based on the most shallow and superficial attributes of a person rather than the intrinsic value of the imago dei God has stamped on every man and woman. Did you see it? Woke day is undermining imago dei. How's that for my mill? Woke doctrine comes along and says, "We want to ascribe value and make you feel loved based on the most shallow and superficial thing about you, namely either the color of your skin or how you feel about yourself in that particular moment and whatever orientation that might lead you to embrace that day."
Rather than basing the intrinsic value of humanity in the spoken word of God that says, "A man or a woman is valuable because I say they're valuable because they were made in my image, the imago dei." So what you need to understand is the woke day is a demonic attack to delude and counterfeit the imago dei of Genesis 1:26. You need to put on your calendar show up this fall. This fall, we are going to roll out and unleash the most sadly controversial and wonderfully and wildly exciting campaign we have ever done to take the most critical steps I believe in our culture today to make the most profound and helpful difference in our communities as God's called us to as a church. You're not going to want to miss it. We're going to unpack Genesis 1:26 that woke DEI theology is attacking. The doctrine of woke day undermining the beauty of the imago dei.
So the woke doctrine of DEI attempts to battle bias and discrimination, yay, by attributing value and word to a person based on what they say about themselves and how they define themselves rather than on what God says about them and how God defines them, which means it's destined not to work because what finite men say matters nothing in relationship to what the infinite God says. What you say about yourself is not the final word. What God says about you is the final word, and if you live under the delusion that your word is the final word, you are running down the road to destruction. And the diverse, equitable and inclusive gospel exists to bring a true awakening in your life as to rescue you from the hand of your own destruction.
So it's time to take our words back by looking at Acts 10, which I believe is the first DEI policy statement in history of the world. Let's check it out. Acts 10:1, let's read it through. We're going to read the whole chapter together. I'll read, you read along in your bible or read along in the screen, and we'll get the God's word out in front of us. I'll say this as a final preparatory remark. As a pastor, you get tired, you get weary, you get busy. You get worn out, lots going on like all of you, and you come to the word and you're like, "This makes no sense." I mean, I get it theologically, but I don't get how it relates to us culturally today. And it's dry and it's boring, gentile inclusion. Oh, my gosh, snoozer ville. And I study, study, Thursday night. Sharon text me, "Where are you at? You haven't come home."
I'm just in the parking lot licking my wounds, deciding if I should change jobs or not. Oh honey, why? Because I just laid an egg because I preached a sermon that would've put me to sleep because I was bored with the story because I couldn't see the glory of God on it. I don't know if I'm tired or losing my touch. I don't know, and I'm this whole thing. And I'm like, "I don't understand. I get it, but I don't whatever." And Friday morning, I woke up and the Lord said, "Preach it again." So, I want to preach it again. I mean, I'm sure that God wrote all the Bible. Does that mean I got to preach all of it? Can we just skip some parts? The God said, "Preach it again." Keep Lord, keep praying. All of a sudden, holy smokes, maybe the most relevant text in all of the Book of Acts to our day-to-day, and I almost missed it.
Acts 10:1, "At Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion, in what was known as the Italian regimen." So get this, he's a Roman citizen, who's working for the Roman military, and he's a dude. He's in charge of a hundred Roman soldiers, makes six times as much as a normal line soldier, has influence and affluence. Verse two, "He and all his family were devout and God-fearing. He gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly." So what's Luke, the author, pointed out? Luke is saying, "Here's a Roman citizen. He is not a Jew. He is not from the line of David or the seat of Abraham. He is not a part of the ethnic people of God. He is a Roman citizen. He is an ethnic gentile, meaning non-Jew, but he's practicing the Jewish religion." And one of the primary ways to practice it, alms of the poor and the faithful prayers. So he's a devout man practicing Jewish religion, but he's not one of them by a country mile.
They won't talk with him, recognize him or hang out with him. He's on the outside. He's left out of the plan. He's second class, and there is deep bias toward him and discrimination toward him from the, quote, unquote, "people of God," the Jews. Verse three, "One day at about three in the afternoon, he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God who came to him and said, 'Cornelius.' Cornelius stared at him in fear. 'What is it Lord,' he asked. The angel answered, 'Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God. Now, send men to Joppa,'" which is about 31 miles away, so we're talking like Quincy like walk to Quincy, "'to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter. He is staying with Simon the tanner whose house is by the sea.' When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants. He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa."
Here's what's happening. This text is the Gentile Pentecost. What do I mean by that? If you miss the sermon, go back and listen to Acts 2, 3, the sermons in there where we have Pentecost, where the spirit of God is poured out on the people of God, and what happens there in that story? I'm skipping ahead, but I'm over the map anyways. We're not going to get to my sermons, so just hang with me here. When the spirit of God is poured out at Pentecost and tongues of fire and everyone's speaking in tongues, it's not about the fire or the babbling in tongues. It's about God's spirit being poured out and filling all men and women and then them speaking the good news of the gospel in their own native tongue.
What was the point of that? Here's the point of that, the point that was for God to say there is no primary race or ethnicity that is my chosen folks and every other race is derivative. Imagine if the gospel would've been preached for the first time in one language. Well, that language would've been the superior language and all other language would've been second class JV citizens, derivatives of that first language. However, rather, God pours out a spirit and the gospel is being preached and the praises of God are going up to heavens in dozens and dozens and dozens of different kinds of languages because what God's demonstrating is I am a God who loves all people. My family is a diverse family from every tribe and every nation and every tongue. I'm making a new race, a new people that's not drawn by ethnic lines or racial lines but by the bloodline of Jesus.
And so that happens in Acts 2, but then it happens to all of the Jews, and so they don't quite get it. And so God is now preparing for almost a second Pentecost experience, a Gentile Pentecost so that they understand, "Hey, just so you know, my gospel is radically diverse beyond anything you could wildly imagine." The gospel is diverse. Secondly, we see that the gospel is equitable, looking 10:9, "About noon the following day as they were on their journey in approaching the city," so that's the scene on the guys that are walking through the city. Move camera, scene two, "Peter went up on the roof to pray." You got to love Peter. Peter, he's the foundation of the church. "Upon this rock, I'll build my church," Jesus said, and then the cool thing is Peter is a lot like Wenatchee, just blue collar drives an old beat up truck. He and Mike would've been good friends, just redneck farmer, and Peter goes up to pray. And then Peter has the same problem Mike and I do when we pray, he became hungry and wanted something to eat.
Don't you love that? Just as little human, it's like going, "Lord Jesus, man, I could use a burger." It's like that's Peter. He goes up to pray, and he wants him to eat. And while the meal was being prepared, he falls into a trance. He sees heaven open and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. It contained all kinds of four-footed animals as well as reptiles and birds. Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter, kill and eat." If your Bibles like mine, those letters are in red because that's Jesus talking to which Peter you think would respond, "Thank you, Lord. I was just mentioning how hungry I was and You brought take in. This is awesome." Instead, Peter says, "Surely not, Lord." Peter replied, "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean in my life." What's happening there?
Peter is saying, "No, no, no, no. I'm obeying the rules. I'm religious. I know what I can and can't do. I've read Leviticus, and the food laws say I can't eat that stuff, and so I got to keep winning my salvation by doing all the stuff, which means I'm going to separate myself from unclean things of which that basket is full of." I can still see the picture of my mind. My dad read a Bible to my brother and I every night, and the picture was... It was this yellow tarp that was being lowered like the four corners were held tight and in a big swell in the bottom, and it was being lowered from heaven and picture like the Seattle zoo exploding out of it, right? But what you would think is not so much zoo as bacon because that was the big deal. I'm telling you that's all...
When I get to heaven, Peter go, "Josh was right. That's all I can see, bacon." I looked up, I'm like, "Bacon, bacon, bacon, bacon. Lord, help me." No, no unclean. Man, I wish I could, but I love bacon, but I hate bacon because God... Oh, I can't do it. Look what God says, "The voice spoke to him a second time, 'Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.'" Now, here's the power. This story is not about God saying, "Bacon's awesome," even though it is. He's going to use this lesson to teach Peter a deep and profound truth about the nature of God, not in so much as it relates to food, but as it relates to people. Because in a few moments, God's going to lead Peter to a situation where he would say, "No, no, no, I don't do that," and he's going to remember, "All right, I am not to call unclean that which God says is clean," and the lesson that Peter's going to learn from God is that don't you dare call any man or woman unclean because I made him.
There was a racial and ethnic superiority and bias and discrimination that Peter had toward everyone else who wasn't a Jew, that God is in the midst of crushing right now because the gospel is a gospel of equity, meaning every man and every woman equally loved, valued, cherished by God because they've been made in his image and every man, woman, child standing equally and rightly in danger of being judged by the God who will come to judge the quick and the dead because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That is the gospel of equity that all of us are equally loved and all of us stand equally damned in our sin unless something changes that status. The gospel of diversity, I love everyone. The gospel of equity, each has distinct value and each stands condemned and don't you dare call unclean that which I've called clean. Verse 16, "This happened three times because Peter is thickheaded. And immediately, the sheet was taken back to heaven. While Peter was wondering about the mean of the vision..."
I love this because most the time you and I are like 19 steps behind God, what could it possibly mean? Ding-dong. While Peter was wondering about the mean of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon's house was and stopped at the gate they called out asking if Simon, who was known as Peter, was staying there while Peter was still thinking about the vision... Double rainbow. The spirit said, "Bro, go downstairs. I got the answer for you." Spirit says, "Simon, three men downstairs, go check it out." Verse 21, "Peter went down and said to the men, 'I'm the one you're looking for. Why have you come?'" Really welcoming there.
Verse 22, "The man replied, we have come from Cornelius to Centurion," i.e, the non-Jew Roman soldier, "He is a righteous and God-fearing man," to which Peter thinks in his mind, don't care, "Who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to ask you to come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say. Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests. The next day, Peter started out with them and some of the believers from Joppa went along. The following day he arrived at Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends. Cornelius was an evangelist before he got saved. As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence. But Peter made him get up, 'Stand up,' he said, 'I am only a man myself.'"
Every once in a while, Peter gets it really right and you just love him. Good move, Peter, because you're not the man. Verse 27, "While talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. He said to them, 'You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with or visit a gentile.'" So what's he saying there? He's walking and saying, "You realize I've never been in a room like this before. You realize this is new for me. You realize my bias has not let me be in these kinds of rooms. You realize this is awkward for me, or at least it would've been before Jesus spoke to me. You realize that we're crossing lines here." Speaking of courageous awards, we're crossing lines here that just don't get crossed.
And then he says, "Why? But God has shown me that I should not call anyone impure or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?" Peter's beginning to understand the inclusivity of the gospel, the diversity of it in its beauty, the equity of it, and the inclusivity of it. Verse 30, "Cornelius answered, 'Three days ago, I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon in fact, suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me and said, 'Cornelius, God has heard your prayers and remembered your gifts to the poor. Send to Joppa for Simon who has called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner who lives by the sea. So I sent for you immediately, and it was good of you to come. Now, we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us.'"
This is a precious moment. This is a sweet, Holy Spirit arranged moment. See, this is the longest narrative of a conversion in the New Testament, longer than Paul's. And what God is doing for us here is He's given us all the details, so there's no question who's orchestrating the events of crossing lines that had never been crossed before, lines of diversity, lines of equity, lines of inclusion. God's orchestrating it with probably the subconsciously racist and biased and discriminating Peter and God to orchestrating it with the one who is being discriminated against to bring them together under the banner of the diverse and equitable and inclusive gospel of Jesus Christ. Peter recognizes he's in a holy moment. Why am I here? Cornelius recounts the events. Luke includes the recount of the events that we already know to say to us again in a repetitive fashion, "See, God's doing this, God's doing this."
We're here waiting with bated breath on the edge of our seats to hear what God would command you to say, "Deliver the goods. We're ready." What a moment. Peter doesn't take a swing and miss. Peter hits it out of the park. He steps up and he says, then Peter began to speak, "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism." There it is the gospel of inclusivity. God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right. The bias was so ingrained in the DNA and the psychology of Peter that even after having been filled with the spirit, he still needed a vision from heaven to bait him with bacon, to get him to get how inclusive the gospel really is. You know the message God sent to the people, now he's preaching to the people of Israel, announcing the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.
You know what has happened through the province of Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism of John preached how God anointed Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit. Side note, you should color God as Father, Jesus as Son, and Holy Spirit as helper in different colors and what you'll see is this beautiful tapestry of the Trinity everywhere in the Book of Acts. God fired purple for me, Jesus is red, Holy Spirit's green. Purple for royalty as God the Father, red for the blood of Christ, and green for growing things. That's a dumb reason. What is my Bible? Figure it out, but it's everywhere. How God anointed Jesus Christ with the Holy Spirit, how the Trinity worked out, the salvation of fallen man and power and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil because God was with him.
See how Peter categorized people who needed to be saved. They didn't have spiritual old ankles as we noticed a few weeks ago. They were spiritually dead. They were under the domain of darkness. This is where Paul says, "Our battle is not against flesh and blood," which is why the church must never lose her prophetic voice because it's the prophetic voice that speaks to the dry bones and brings life. It's not good teaching. It's not four steps to self-help. It's the prophetic word from the throne of heaven that speaks life to that which was dead. And Peter's saying, "That happened so that those who were under the domain of darkness, aka, the devil. They were under the deception and darkness of the devil so they could be set free."

Amen.

We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed Him, Jesus Christ, by hanging Him on a cross, but God raised Him from the dead on the third day and caused Him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people but by witnesses whom God had already chosen by us, who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. What's Peter doing? I'm validating with firsthand eyewitness account that which you've heard as rumor. And you can disbelieve it if you want, but I saw it with my own eyes, and I am willing and in fact will die for it. I saw Him. I can't pretend I did it. He's alive. Jesus is alive. And if Jesus came back from a most assured death, the Roman centurion ensured by thrusting a sword into the side of Jesus Christ. If he came back from the dead, He's the only man whose opinion matters in the room.

Amen.

He's the only man who has seen what is on the other side of death and come back. He's the only man who gets to say, "I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life." Any other way or truth or life that sets itself up against that way and that true and that life is wrong. It is from the pit of hell, and it is to be rooted out, identified, and shot down to the glory of God. To buy into that doctrine, to buy into that heresy because it also throws kids with wheelchairs in there is fool heartedness and folly, and it's gaining traction largely in corporate America and universities and our government schools and everywhere else because the Christians have lost their voice.
If the pulpits cease to thunder, righteousness, America will cease to be great because she will no longer be good. But it's not just the pulpits, it's the people who leave the pulpit and then live out the glory that the pulpit proclaimed the rest of the week. And you're saying, "But it might mean, but it might mean, but it might mean friend since when did Jesus ever promise following him would be easy or safe?" Evil is being allowed to run because it is not meeting any resistance. Peter is talking here about the risen Christ and he's saying, "You can write me off as a winglet if you want, but I saw with my own eyes. And I can't deny what I know to be true, that the men killed God. God raised God, He wins. I'm with him."
He continues, "He commanded us," Jesus commanded us, "to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead." We can't lose sight in the celebration of the God whose gospel is diverse and equitable and inclusive, that He's also the God who will judge in the end all mankind equitably. He will be wildly diverse in His judgment. He will be equitable in His judgment. He will be inclusive in His judgment. Everyone included, no one gets left out, and I'm going to judge you based on one question. Are you or are you not in Christ? In preaching the equitable love of God, we cannot leave off the equitable judgment of God.

That's right.

In proclaiming the inclusive invitation of God, we cannot not talk about the inclusive judgment of God that is coming to all who reject the inclusive offer. This is the gospel of diversity, equity, and inclusion as first preached to the Gentiles in Acts 10, that is today being contorted and counterfeited and distorted and diluted and then put on a platter, and humanity is lapping it up with the lace of poison already in the mix. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. How many? Everyone. How inclusive is the gospel? Wildly inclusive.
Now, I love his part, "While Peter was still speaking," meaning Peter hadn't even got to his main point yet. Peter was in his introduction like, "I am right now and God's like, 'That's great, you're done. I'm doing my thing now.'" But Lord, I got another analogy. I got a great point. He's like, "Yeah, okay. You're done." But Lord... Peter, shut up. But Lord... Peter. Holy Spirit falls, and Peter's like, "You know what? I should end the dust probably a little sooner." A great text for long-winded preachers like Adam. I'm kidding.

[inaudible 00:44:29].

Like me. Oh, I thought he was gone. Oh, he's here. He's here. Okay, okay.

Preach.

Preach.

Preach.

Preach. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit interrupted him because he was going... He was long-winded, and he came on all who heard the message. The circumcision believers who had come with Peter were, what's the word?

Astonished.

Astonished. Why were they astonished? Because they had an intrinsic conviction that they were better, that's why. They had an intrinsic bias and discrimination against the JV people who will let them practice the alms and the prayers, but they'll never be one of us. They're astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles. So what? Circumcised believers over here. We got the full mill deal and then the full mill deal gets given to the uncircumcised, and they're astonished. I'll tell you exactly why they're astonished. They're going, "You mean we could have had that not been circumcised?" That's exactly why they were astonished. At least that's why I'd be astonished. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Through fire and blood and trial, we made it in, and they get in for free. I want my money back. You know what I mean? It's like dang.
For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God, there it is again. The nature of conversion goes to our deepest core because until what you worship has changed, you have not truly been changed. And now, they're praising God and they're speaking in tongues, not mindless babbling. They're preaching the gospel in their native tongue. What's God saying? It's a secondary passover. He's saying, "See, there is no superior race or ethnicity. There is one race, the human race, there is one people, God's people and don't you ever again, ever, look down on anyone because of their ethnicity or race or nation of origin." So when I read those statements I'm like, "Hey, University of Michigan, they're on board with God and now they're not."
Then Peter said, "Surely no one can stand in the way of their being baptized with water. They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have." This is equitability here. No, 100% portion, 75% portion, 60% portion. Everyone and anyone, man, woman, child receives the Holy Spirit who calls upon the Lord, so he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they ask Peter to stay with them a few days. So this is what I want us to see, that diversity, equity, inclusion is God's idea. It's God's idea. The entire book of Galatians is written to explain the relationship between the Jews and the Gentiles, which is the ethnic people of God in the Old Testament and now everyone else.
And in Galatians 3, Paul is summarizing what happened in Acts 10 here and he says it this way, "So in Christ Jesus, you are all children of God through faith." How many? All. "For all of you were baptized into Christ have clothed yourself with Christ, there is neither," now, here's the key, "Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, nor is there male or female, for you are all one in Christ." This is a beautiful, glorious text proclaiming the diversity and the equity and the inclusivity of God that is being taken and perverted and turned on his head and weaponized to undermine and attack Christianity. This verse is being used by, quote, unquote, "Christians" to say, "There's the verse, see? No male, no female, anyone can be trans. Anyone can be whatever they want to be that day." If you want to be a 250-pound dude that can bench press 300 pounds and change your mind and get the Courageous Woman Award, go right ahead. I'll recommend Fido for Cat of the Year Award, and we all be happy because the gospel obliterates distinctions.
Is this from political? No, no, friends, theological because politics are weaponizing theology against the church, and we're not figuring out fast enough. What this does not mean is that the gospel obliterates our God-given distinctions. What it means is that the gospel obliterates our attitudes of superiority or feelings of inferiority regarding our distinctions. You see the difference? It's everything. You have to get this. The gospel's not obliterating our... God made our distinctions and they're beautiful, and they're part of created order. You are man because you are not woman, and you are woman because you are not man. And those distinctions are good and beautiful and of his created order because we're made at his image. And then the woke gospel of diversity, equity, inclusion comes along, and it contorts and counterfeits and distorts and destroys that true gospel and says, "No, no, you can be remake yourself in your own image and then we will all accept that and you can belong." It appeals to our innate desire to belong and then it perverts the way.
The gospel does not obliterate our distinctions. The gospel obliterates our attitudes of superiority or our feelings of inferiority because of the distinctions. The woke DEI attempts to attribute sacred value to mankind as we remake ourself in our own image. Whatever you want to be today, that's you, and we'll celebrate that. The gospel attributes sacred value to mankind because we were made in God's image, full stop. So DIE is God's idea. Listen to how this philosopher put it, "It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter. It is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor." This is CS Lewis and his essay, Weight of Glory, speaking to this issue of how we should view each other through the lines of our distinctions. The load or weight or burden of my neighbor's glory should be laid daily on my back.
A load so heavy that only humility could carry it and the backs of the prowl would be broken. See, underneath the DEI agenda is we need to accept everyone by valuing them as important to which the Bible would say, "Oh, close everyone is infinitely valuable because they've been made in the image of God, and you should carry that weight upon your shoulders and never forget it." CS Lewis goes on, "It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities. It is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them that we should conduct our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics." Question, if everyone could somehow possibly adopt the Christian worldview that views everyone as made in God's image, perfect, no mistakes, question, would it increase the quality of our lives and how we treat each other? Or would it decrease the quality of our lives and our relationships?
The question's obvious, if we walked around with the value of divinity attributed to the humanity around us, we would instantly treat everyone better, which is what DEI is going after in the woke world. The irony is because it lacks God and because of a counterfeit demonic worldview, it actually reaps just the opposite. It actually breeds destruction wherever it goes. So while there was no systemic racism, there is certainly now as it's been foisted and baked into our systems in the name of eradicating it, the moronic irony of demonic worldviews that promises one thing but delivers another, healing, belonging, acceptance, and what it delivers is brokenness and pain and suffering. Belong, separation, come be welcomed here by us at the expense of being shunned by God.
CS Lewis continues, "There are no ordinary people. You have have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts civilizations, these are mortal and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat, but it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit." CS Lewis is going after the bias and discrimination that says, "I'm superior to you because of X, Y, Z distinction." He says, "No, no. The gospel says no deal. We are all one in Christ." Next to the blessed sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your sense. Try that on for size when you go to work tomorrow, would that change how you love your neighbor instead of being siloed into different categories and then weaponized to hate each other?
There would be a kind of love that would supersede distinctions not because of personal opinion and I've been made in my own image, but because you are made in the image of God and he did not make mistakes. And I will love you in Jesus' name and there's an inclusive offer to repent and turn to Christ and be welcomed into the family and belong to God if you would only take it up in Christ. God's idea founded this nation. And here's what I wanting you to see, this is all introduction by the way. So sorry, we're not going to get to the sermon. This is the introduction. I want you to see this because our nation has benefited greatly from a biblical worldview put into the foundation of our value system.
One of my most favorite... My mostest favoritest paragraphs in the English language up outside the Bible, read as follows, "When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station," okay? There's diversity, equity, inclusion going on here, "To which the laws of nature and of nature's God..." There's recognition that the foundation for this argument is God's word, nature's God's entitled them... Nature's God entitled them a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the cause which impel them to the separation. We hold these truths to be self-evident that... How many men?

All.

All men were created equal by God, that they're endowed by the creator with certain and able rights that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. Oh, if we could remember those words today. Friend, you're not a victim. They work for you. Which when one man runs over an entire complex local government system, the centralized power into one man, it is not only evil and unhealthy and unjust, it isn't unconstitutional. And listen to this, what makes America or has made America great is not the wonderful virtue and character of the founding fathers, it was the ideas that they articulated in this document that came from this book. Get that.
Their ideas that articulated a biblical worldview unraveled and undid and eradicated some of the world's greatest evil in the issues of slavery and racism in ways that has never happened in any nation before. And it came not because the men were great or virtuous because there was hypocrites among them all just like there are among us, just like everyone in this room but because they built it on the ideas of greatness, namely coming from the mind of God himself. So what can learn about conversion? The band can come out because that was my introduction. This is my sermon. I got to stop here. The band can come out. I'll give you one bone. I'm going to give you one point in my sermon. Wait, your appetite for next week. So sorry for the long prologue, their introduction. We'll get to the sermon next week.
Here's the one thing we can take away from conversion, about conversion from this text. I got five. We'll get in the four next week. I'll make this point. I'll pray. We're going to worship and respond, take communion together. What can we learn about conversion? Because this text is the longest narrative account of conversion. And here's what's so interesting about the word conversion is that conversion is what happens when God changes a heart. And that word is under attack in our state. September 7th, 2022, just a few months ago, legislation was passed, and then it was argued in the Ninth Circuit upheld the legislation that said it is illegal for a state licensed medical provider including a counselor or therapist to try to talk a youth out of being transgender. It is illegal.
So here's the situation. A godly counselor has a practice. A kid comes in, they're cutting. They're depressed. They're discouraged. They're considering suicide. They're confused by their gender. Oh, I don't know why, maybe because the government funded state school is pumping their precious, undeveloped, vulnerable brain full of toxic and demonic ideas and it's everywhere in the culture. They come in, "I'm confused. I feel like this. I feel like that." It is illegal for the counselor to say, "Well, here's why you might be confused. God made you a boy, and that's a good thing. And you shouldn't hate that and you shouldn't war against that. You can step into that and embrace that as a God's good plan," that is jail worthy stuff, that is lose your license.
You're like, "How come there aren't any counselors in town? Because they're all moving, because no one wants to be a counselor in this state where your licensed and job and reputation are on the line if you try to do your job. Conversion therapy as they're calling it is illegal. Our governor, who is an evil man, should we pray for him? Yes, pray he turns your repent, or God removes him any way means possible. Our state attorney general, who is worse have said these things, "It is unsafe to think of an environment where a youth could have conversion therapy thrust upon them. We must protect them from that." I was like, "You lying weasel." You are legislating conversion therapy in what you're requiring schools to teach everywhere in our state. So you can promote your conversion therapy and turn your mic up, unplug everyone else's mic and then criminalize it.
You're confusing kids. And then when they come for answers, you're hamstringing all the adults that would help them. Legislation passed two weeks ago. Adam showed this to me through the Senate going to the house. School counselors can take kids who are confused about their gender to a gender... A therapy center without the consent of their parents. And a parents call asking, "Why didn't Johnny come home?" The school can say, with the law behind them, "We can't tell you." State-funded kidnapping of our youth to go to gender therapy centers where they can be converted and then encouraged to make life-altering decisions where surgeons are allowed to mutilate their bodies with scalpels, but it's illegal for a therapist to say with words, "Are you sure it's what you want to do?" That's the state you live in.
So what can we learn about conversion? Conversion, friends, at the heart of the gospel. We do conversion therapy. Every Sunday. We're pleading with you to turn from the foolishness of your sin to the good news of the gospel that you might be converted and changed and made new from the inside out and have confusion replaced with clarity. What can we learn about conversion from this text? Number one, it will be done. Conversion reveals the inadequacy of sincerity. And here's what I want us to hear as we prepare for communion, look at the text. Chapter 10, "Cornelius and his family were..." What's the word? Devout and God-fearing, they gave generously and they prayed to God regularly. The only thing they were missing was salvation.
Do you get it? They were sincere in their beliefs, but they were wrong because it wasn't anchored in Jesus, and they needed converted. The great lie that Harrison Ford is pushing in our culture. You're like, "Now, you're going to pick on Harrison Ford." I know I love him too. Great actor, great guy. Oh man, I love him. Did anyone see the new Indiana trailer? I was like, "Yeah, Indiana Jones." Woo. All the fields, all the callbacks, all the Easter eggs, all the sentimental whatever, and the whip and the crack and the hat. Oh, I'm loving it. And halfway through this slick edited Spielberg trailer, and the old tune with the minor cords. I mean, all the stuff has brought me in at the center, at the God, the kind of zenith of this trailer. He says, "I used to think that it was what you believe that mattered." And I'm like, "Oh, Harrison. Don't go there, my man. I love you, buddy. You work great in Air Force One, don't do this."
Music stops, I've come to realize it's not so much what you believe. It's at whatever you believe. You believe the heart. And I'm like... (singing). It's like, "Oh, my gosh. You're so frustrating, so frustrating." You have to take your biblical discernment lens to the movies. You know that, right? Because it's just the... No matter how many cuts and splits and green screens and awesome cinematic music swells they put behind it doesn't make it right and true. It absolutely matters what you believe because sincerity is inadequate. It's not enough to believe something really hard. Are you believing the truth?
Friends, there will be many, many, many sincere people who will die close their eyes and wake up to see the God of the universe, ready to judge them with one question. Are you in Christ? And they'll realize Indiana Jones was wrong, but the gospel of diversity, equity, inclusion comes to you today and says, "No matter who you are, where you've come from, what you've done, the offers on the table for God so love the world that he gave His only-begotten son, that whosoever should believe in him no matter how screwed up or messed up where they are right now, might have eternal life." Put that inclusivity in your pipe and smoke it, that's beautiful. That's glorious. That's the good news. That's the gospel, and we will not allow it to be co-opted and perverted. We will keep it pure and true by preaching it clearly and passionately.
And so Father in heaven, as we come to this table where we partake of the bread and drink of the cup, we're reminded again that though the gospel is a free offer, it is not a cheap offer, that it costs the son of God's life. Father, thank you for being a diverse God, inviting out of every nation, tribe, and tongue, children to be yours. Thank You that You love each of us as Your own made in Your image and Your heart breaks when we mutilate and destroy ourselves with toxic ideas. And thank You for the reminder again, Father, that we all stand equally before You in our sin as sinners by nature and choice.
And thank You that that gospel is not just diverse, not just equitable, it's inclusive, and that all who would place their faith in Christ can be forgiven, not through self-expression or self celebration, but through self-death. Not through awakening to the glory of our own opinions, but awakening to the glory of Christ and placed in our faith in the finished work of Jesus. Thank You, Father, for this moment where we can respond to the good news of the gospel by celebrating the cross and the resurrection in the banquet table of communion as we worship and lift our voices to You as we come and partake in the communion elements. Would Your spirit attend this time and strengthen the hearts of Your saints? We ask in Jesus name, amen. [inaudible 01:06:34].