In Christ - Built Together

What if the deepest divides in your world aren’t political or cultural, but spiritual—and what if they’re already defeated? In Built Together, part of the In Christ series, Mark Medley walks through Ephesians 2:13–22 to show how the gospel doesn’t just reconcile us to God; it kills the hostility between us. He traces Paul’s two-word pivot—“but now”—from the bleak reality of alienation to the bright certainty of peace in Christ. From a literal stone barrier in the Jerusalem temple to the stony barriers in our hearts, Mark reveals how pride, law-keeping, and long habits of suspicion separated Jews and Gentiles—and how the cross fulfilled the law, tore down the wall, and created one new humanity.

Mark makes the theology tangible. He describes the Temple inscription that warned outsiders under threat of death and then points to the deeper boundary of the “law of commandments” that became a badge of superiority. Against that backdrop, he declares Paul’s good news: Jesus himself is our peace. By his shed blood we’re brought near to God; by his broken body we are made one. Communion becomes more than a ritual; it’s common union, a table where the ground is level and no one stands taller than grace. With Christ as the cornerstone, the church rises as a living temple—fellow citizens, members of God’s household, being fitted together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

He also names today’s termites—prejudice hiding in polite language, curated feeds that inflame contempt, snap judgments we baptize as wisdom. Laws and force can’t fix what is wrong in us; we need new hearts. Mark calls us to be born again into a different way of seeing, to invite the Spirit to search and free us. He offers practical steps for clearing the ground in our hearts: remember who you were and who you are now in Christ; confess prejudice as sin; starve the inputs that reward outrage; sit at diverse tables and listen long enough to love; honor the image of God in those you’ve counted as opponents; speak peace where your world trades in poison.

Unity isn’t a slogan. It’s a miracle secured at Calvary and stewarded with humility, repentance, and hope. If you’re hungry for a wider table and a stronger foundation, Mark’s message will help you live as a citizen of a kingdom that overrules every wall. Share it with someone who needs the courage to make peace.

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Chapters

• 0:00 But Now In Christ
• 2:45 Sin’s Ruin And Christ’s Remedy
• 6:40 Jews, Gentiles, And Ancient Hostility
• 10:35 The Dividing Wall Explained
• 14:20 One New Humanity Through The Cross
• 18:20 Living Stones, Not Dead Temples
• 22:10 The Termites Of Prejudice
• 26:00 Let The Spirit Search Our Hearts
• 30:00 Renewed Minds, Gospel Worldview
• 33:00 Level Ground At The Cross
• 36:00 Clear, Level, Set The Cornerstone
• 40:00 A Table Big Enough For All
• 43:00 Invitation To The Kingdom And Peace

Transcript

Mark Medley: 0:02

I am really, really happy to open the word of the Lord with you this morning because Jesus has done great things in my life. And I know that a lot of you, He's done great things in your life too. And one thing I know is that there's always more to Jesus. There's always more than more of who he is that I don't know yet, more of what he's done that I haven't become aware of yet. And that's what happened this week as I'm studying this in Ephesians 2. So if you want to turn there, Ephesians chapter 2, 13 through 22. Let's look and see what Jesus did, okay? But now, in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and broken down in his flesh, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were afar off, and peace to those who were near. Through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. So then you're no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God 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. Father, thank you for your word. We treasure it this morning. We thank you that you're a God who speaks and you don't leave us without knowing what to do or without revelation of yourself, but you disclose yourself through your scriptures. And so this morning, Lord, we pray, show us more of who Jesus is, more of what Jesus has done. Lord, let your word divide the parts of our heart that it needs to. Soul and spirit, joints and marrow, thoughts and intentions of our hearts, Lord. Come and do your work, we pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. So we're making our way through Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus and been doing it for quite a few weeks now. And we're at this section where Paul is reminding them that they aren't who they were. At one time you were this, but now you are this. And it starts out, this passage starts out, but now, but now, in Christ Jesus. There's a difference that's been made here. And this is the good news of the gospel. This is what was preceded by the bad news of the fall of man. So you understand God created man in his image. He made us able to fellowship with him, able to walk with him, to hear his voice, to commune with him. And sin changed all that. So we were one thing, and then because of sin, we're not what we were. Sin changed everything. It affected our relationship with God. We were friends and now we're enemies. We were near, now we're separated from God. It even changed our relationship with other people too. Because it broke, it built this wall between us and other people. This is what Paul's talking about here. So we focus on ourselves and therefore we're not able to play well together. We don't love very well. And there's these jealousies, and there are these insecurities. So there's factions and there's rejection and there's war and all of this. And sin brought physical death, which never was part of the plan. And sin brought physical death, spiritual death, which was not part of the plan either. That separation from God. And if you come to physical death, being spiritually dead, it means there's an eternal death. It's the opposite of eternal life. There's eternal separation from God. We aren't who we were, who we were when God created us. But then Paul is saying, here, okay, that's who you were. God created us this way. We fell. We aren't who we were. But then we became this because of sin. But now because of Christ, we're not that anymore. We're not who we were with the effect of sin. There's a change here that Paul's talking about. Now in Christ Jesus, you aren't who you used to be. We were far off, but now we're brought near. We're reconciled. You were without hope in the world, but now you have hope in Christ. You were strangers and aliens, but now you're fellow citizens in this household of God he speaks of. So now, now in Christ Jesus, we aren't the broken people we used to be. This is where, this is the part of Ephesians, this is where we're at. This little part where he's saying, although you were dead in your sins, but God has made you alive again. You're not who you used to be. So your relationship with God has been mended. Your relationship between people, even your enemies, has been mended. And so live like that. Paul is saying, live like that. So he goes on from the in the from here in the rest of the book, and he talks about how to live like that. Now, I've come to realize that remembering is really important. The scripture speaks about remembering who we were and who we are. That we were once dead in sin and now we're alive to God, that we were once without hope and now we have hope. It's really important to remember that. Because remembering stirs us to love and gratitude. Remembering makes us humble. Remembering causes us to live our lives with the right perspective. It changes everything when we remember who we were and who we've been, who we've been made. So, do you feel distant? You feel like your love for Christ is growing cold? And maybe you've forgotten. And maybe you need to remember who he is and what he's done. At one time you were this, but now in Christ Jesus, you are this. This is the good news of the gospel, right? And it's also a great way to share your story with other people. It's really super simple. So this is who I was, this is who I am, and the difference is Jesus. And all of us who are in Christ have that story. This is who I was, this is who I am, and Jesus made the difference. Very simple. So these are gospel truths we need to remind ourselves daily. But Paul is pointing something out that's much deeper. He's teaching us through this letter to the Ephesians. And so, in order to understand what he's writing to them, we have to kind of put ourselves back in their shoes. There's some things we need to know about the early the church of Ephesus and that culture. So if we were to transport ourselves back to the first century in the Middle East, we would see two groups of people who had been separated by centuries of hatred and suspicion. Actually, in the 21st century, we still see that. We still see it, right? And this, but this was affecting the church. And Paul's point here, he's speaking to people. He's speaking to people in Christ. So he is actually making a point. In the church, this is happening. There's an effect in the church between there's a problem between Jews and Gentiles here. So remember the very first church was made up mostly of Jews, who Jews who believed in Jesus. And therefore, uh, when the Gentiles were added in, it was a big deal. They were like, what are we supposed to do with this? It wasn't even on their grid, and they had to deal with that. They had a church council that talked about that. You can read about that in both in Acts 11 and Acts 15. You can read about that. So it was a big issue when Gentiles were added to these Jewish believers. But now in Ephesus, it's kind of the other way around. In Ephesus, which is not Jerusalem, in Ephesus, it was mostly Gentiles who were part of the church, and there were some Jews added into that mix. Okay, there's Jews, there's Gentiles. There's a there's a separation there. There's two different people groups. And Paul writes that these Gentiles were at one time outside of the covenant that God made with the Jews, and so they had no way of getting to God. They were aliens. He uses the word aliens. And many of us maybe can relate, you've had relatives in the past that came here from another country and they became American citizens. And it was, but it was different when they came here. They were they were viewed as outsiders, right? You're not from around here. And and maybe you felt that as well. If you moved to a new city or a new job or to a new school, you you feel like, I don't know, I don't feel like I'm a part of this. I'm I'm I'm not from here. Well, from a Jewish perspective, those non-Jews were aliens. They were outside, they don't belong in the covenant of God. Now, the Greek and Roman people in their big cities, impressive cities, thought that people outside those cities, and especially Jewish people, were below them. They thought themselves superior to them. But the Jews did exactly the same thing. They saw themselves as superior. Because in the Old Testament, we see that God had a plan for the Jews. He chose a people, right? And the whole idea was that they would serve God, they would shine the light of God to the nations. That's what the plan was. Instead, though, they had they developed this arrogant attitude, this pride, this nationalism, this racism in their own hearts toward the people who were non-Jews. They built walls. They built walls that kept them from showing God to the world. They built walls that kept them from showing God to the world. And many of the Jews in Paul's day had an immense hatred for Gentiles. In fact, I learned that it was not lawful for a Jew to assist a Gentile woman in childbirth. Because we don't want another Gentile, do we? If a Jew married a Gentile, the funeral of that Jew would be held because his family considered him dead to the family. Even to enter a Gentile house made a Jew unclean. And even it was even said by some that Gentiles were created by God to be fuels for the fire of hell. It's pretty hateful, isn't it? So they were separated by hearts filled with hate and racism and nationalism. Of course, this doesn't apply to us at all today. None of this happens today in our culture. But this had been so deeply reinforced by centuries of their customs and their culture. So what can penetrate this kind of hatred and this kind of division? You can't change it through laws, you can't force it from the outside. The problem's in the heart, there has to be a change in the heart. You must be born again. So in our text today, Paul's telling us that God provided the solution for this hatred and the division through the work of his son. The answer is the gospel. This is what look what Jesus has done. He's provided an answer. He's broken down this wall. It says, He himself is our peace. And he who has made us both one, both of them one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of the hostility. Okay, so the Jews would certainly understand what he's saying there, because in Jerusalem, in the temple, there was a wall between the temple proper and the outer court of the Gentiles. And you can kind of see it, maybe you can see it a little bit. There's a wall of separation. You can go this far, but you can't go any farther if you're a Gentile. There was a literal stone wall there. In 1871, they were excavating that uh temple area, and these archaeologists found this tongue, this stone there. The stone was written in Greek and in Latin, so you could make sure everybody could understand it that wasn't Jewish. And you can see it there. You can't really read it, can you? But they say it says that no foreigner, it's a warning, no foreigner should go into the sanctuary. Anyone caught would be responsible for his or her own death. That's what it says. I don't know if it means by God or by people. I'm not sure what that means. Don't go past the wall. There's a wall here. So there was a literal stone wall separating Jews and Gentiles, people of God, people who are not yet in covenant with God, insiders and outsiders. But that's not all. There was other things separating them too. Paul was pointing out that there was another wall between them, and it was the laws and the man-made rules of clean and unclean. Not only a literal stone wall, but these laws, the the wall of laws. I mean, I think, I think probably all of us can understand that. We've either ostracized people or been ostracized ourselves by what we do or don't do. We don't meet your, I don't meet your standard, and so I'm judged by you. But these are these were laws of God or traditions of the elders. So these are not just man's opinion. This is God's opinion, and you're not, and you're unclean. You can't be the people of God. You don't keep the law. So the Jewish people call the Gentiles the uncircumcision because they didn't bear in their body the mark of the covenant of God, and we are the circumcision. And then that the problem with that attitude, that pride attitude that they had is that that was disqualifying them from acting like the people of God. He they weren't representing God at all. They were not representing his nature or his purposes at all. So here's the situation: Jews and Gentiles, insiders, outsiders, separated by a literal stone wall and stony hearts. Which is more difficult to deal with than a stony wall. You can break a wall down, but what's going to break your stony heart down? Well, the answer is the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what Paul does. So Paul helps him to see that Jesus demolished the wall in his flesh. He canceled the details of the rules of the law so he could uh create one new person out of the two. He Jesus Himself said, I came not to do away with the law, but to fulfill it. He fulfilled the law and he broke that wall down so he could bring the two together. It's the power of the cross. The power of cross is the power, one of the powers of the cross is to break down walls that separate us from other people. But these believers here in Ephesus were either not aware of this yet or they weren't willing to live like that. So Paul deals with the divisions in the church by going through an understanding of what Jesus did on the cross. He said, He said he tore down that wall in his flesh. So we're brought near to God and to one another by the blood of Christ, and we're, and he made Jews and Gentiles into one new man by the breaking of his own body. Now, I never saw this before. I've read this so many times until this week I never saw it. But this is this is literally a reference to the Lord's Supper. This is communion. Communion, which means common union. It's like we're together. Communion. It's the Lord's Supper here that Jesus, by his own shed blood, brought us near to God. By his own broken body, he brought back together the two into one. He broke himself to bring them back together again and to make one new man. So that all those who believe in Jesus by faith have access to God. All of them, Jews and Gentiles. You and the people you hate. You and the people you think don't think are worthy. Look what Jesus has done. This is good news. Between God and man, he broke down the wall. Between man and man, he broke down the wall. In fact, the Spirit continued to lead the church. If you read there in chapters, uh the chapters of Acts, the middle chapters of Acts, as the gospel is going out, they're dealing with these problems. Acts 11, Acts 15. You know, what do we do? These Gentiles are coming. Do they need to keep the law? Do they not? I don't know. What are we gonna do? I don't understand. God's doing the same thing with those people we don't like that he's doing with us. The same thing. Apparently, God has a different opinion than we do. I know. Surely that's not true. Surely he thinks like us. But now everyone, they find out, everyone has access to God under the condition of repentance and faith. And so Paul paints a picture. He uses a picture here. The picture he uses is a picture of a temple or a building that God is building. God is building a temple. So he's using this imagery of a temple or of a house, and it's a dwelling place he's building for himself. He's using Jews and Gentiles. And this temple is being carefully constructed using different kinds of people who are united in their faith in Christ. So he says this. Let's read this again, verses 19 to 22. You are fellow citizens. Okay, this is a corporate you. This is not you personally, this is you, like I'm speaking to the church. You guys. You guys are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and the 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 are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. And we all say, Amen. As long as it's the people we like, as long as they worship the way we do. It can't be the Baptists. Can't be those old staunchy people or those old crazy people on the other side over there. You know, Lord, oh God, thank I thank thee that I'm not like them, oh Lord. For I know the true way of worship. Wow. It's funny and it's tragic, isn't it? So Paul's helping us see the heart of God and the eternal plan of God is building this building. He's emphasizing right here, starting in this point of the letter, all the way through the rest of the letter, he's emphasizing unity. It's a brand new thing, unity. He talks about you all. He talks about it in the plural form. He talks about keeping the unity of the faith. There's one Lord, one hope, one baptism, one God and Father of all. Strive to maintain the unity that you've been given. He's already given you unity. Maintain it. He gives fivefold gifts for the unity of the church. He talks about one another is over and over and over and over. Oh, one another, one another, one another. All of us together. Here we are. And this church has Jews and Gentiles. Okay? But they're worshiping together. Do you see? When they took communion, and Paul is brilliant because he's talking about, he's talking about the body and the blood of Jesus. When they sat together, they took communion regularly, and they sat together with each other in their differences, and everything was level. And the wall was broken down because the ground is level at the foot of the cross. And they all saw we have a need. And they all saw God gives salvation to all of us. And they all saw that we all have access to one God through his son Jesus. And Paul's reminding them, and he's giving them a picture of it, right? Wow. So the Holy Spirit, now, why is this important for Paul to write this right now? This was written maybe around 660 AD, something like that. And Paul probably could not have known what was going to happen in 10 years. But within 10 years, the temple in Jerusalem would be a pile of rubbles. Just stones. In fact, Jesus said, not one stone laid upon top of another. And Roman armies came in under Titus and they leveled the temple. That little stone wall that was saying, keep out, they literally destroyed it. Along with the whole temple. Their place of worship, their identity as Jewish people, their reference point for knowing God, for following God, for worshiping God. It was all destroyed. Ten years from this letter. From the stone temple in Jerusalem to the new temple that Jesus was building. Temple that wasn't made of dead, inanimate stones, but living stones. As Peter said later in chapter 2 of his first letter, as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, speaking of Jesus, but in the sight of God, chosen and precious. And then you yourselves, like living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. God is building something brand new in a brand new way. It's not like it was. It's not in a certain place at a certain time, in a certain way, it's in Christ for all nations. So as I was studying that this week, I I remembered something that I saw years ago. It came to mind. Is there any Lego enthusiasts here? Oh, come on. This is great. I love it. This is all for you, right here. Okay. So there was a okay, so it was a guy years ago, and he built this. I know you can build, you can get these um these kits and build churches. Lego churches are pretty impressive, but this guy, this guy was a computer programmer. So we know he wasn't crazy. He built, he built a Lego church. 75,000 pieces. Took about a year and a half to plan it and to build it. It seats 1,372 Lego people. It's big. It's big. Well, they're little people, but it's relatively big. It has 3,976 window blocks. You see that? It has a foyer, a balcony, stairs up to the balcony, restrooms, it has bathrooms, coat rooms, mosaics, a baptistry, an altar, a crucifix, a pulpit, and it has an organ that's made up of 2,500 pieces. Man, what kind of person does this? That's what I really want to know. He's a computer programmer, he can't be crazy, but he's like gotta be a little eccentric. And for what purpose? Why do you do that? I don't know. Well, so I read this reviewer, this uh tech reviewer, and he said about the guy. He said, This is one of those people that I'm very happy to have seen on the web, but are too scary to meet in real life. Oh, you Lego enthusiasts, you know what he's talking about. Okay, it's impressive, right? It's impressive, but it's not alive. It can't grow on its own. It's Legos, it's plastic pieces. That's all it is. Jesus said, I will build my church. And it didn't take a year and a half. He's been he's been working on it 2,000 years plus. He's been working on it, right? And he's using a far superior building material. People like you and me, Jews and Gentiles. People with different gifts, every tongue and tribe and nation. It's an organic building capable of growing together. The scripture says it grows together. He fits you together, and you grow together into a house where God truly lives. You understand the church is special? This is not the Kowanas or the Lions Club. This is the church of the living God. We are the body of Jesus Christ on earth. And God dwells in our midst. And it's built on, it's built by God on the foundation of his son through his torn body and his shed blood, wholly set apart by God for the purpose of showing him to the world. And this church includes Hispanics and Asians and Africans, and Ukrainians and Russians, and Jews and Palestinians, and even us. God breaks the wall. He breaks the wall in the flesh of his son. He's broken the wall down. Look what Jesus has done. From the heart of the Father, who purposed to have us as sons and daughters, through the work of his son, who justified and redeemed and forgave and included and paid for us by the activity of the Spirit who baptizes us into one body and gives us gifts for the common good from all nationalities and groups. Jesus continues to build his church to this day. Today he's building it, and we're part of it. But in Ephesus, something is threatening to destroy what Jesus is building. There's these silent but industrious little termites eating away the foundation. What's the danger Paul's warning about? It's prejudice. Prejudice. In the heart of people. Can we do some business this morning? Can we allow the Holy Spirit to do some work? I know we came we all came here to to to be blessed, I know. And here's something encouraging. But maybe God wants to do something in our hearts to take away the stuff that is hindering us from being encouraged and being blessed. Maybe he's trying to rip some things out so that he can build something. Can we allow the Holy Spirit to do business in our hearts? Here in Ephesus, it was racial prejudice, it was ethnic prejudice. My race is superior to yours. My nation, my nation is superior to yours. That's what he was dealing with. And prejudice divides and it steals and it kills and it destroys. It is the happy continual work of the devil. This is what he does. Just build a wall. Build a wall. Literally, the definition of prejudice is a Pre preconceived and often negative opinion about a person or a group that's formed without knowledge or consideration of facts. It literally means prejudice means to judge before you know. I don't have to know you and I can judge you. Because that's the nature of the old man. It's the nature of the fallen man. And we prejudge based on a lot of things, not just race or nationality, uh social status, economic status, religion, gender, education, personal convictions, weight or health issues, age, spiritual maturity, and all of it is a way for insecure, orphan-hearted people to say, I'm better, and so you are less. I am more and you are less. Thank you. It's that we're an abomination to the Lord. He will not allow it. And assuredly, it says He will it will not go unpunished. And when we separate ourselves from each other, we're separating ourselves from God too. And I so I'm, you know, of course, this week I'm I'm looking into this mirror of the word myself, and I'm seeing in my, you know, in my life, it looks like ultimately it comes down to this. I, in in very practical ways, every day, I judge everyone as either worthy of my love or not worthy of my love. And that's a little bit devastating to me to realize that I still do that. This person's worthy of my love. This person, but this person is not worthy of my love. And maybe you even say, Oh, yeah, but but he's talking about people in the church here. He's not talking about people outside. And I feel like, you know, it's like that guy who came to Jesus and said, I know, I know, love your neighbor, I know, but who is my neighbor? Who, okay, tell me exactly who I have to love. So I can love them. So I can hate the other ones. Wow. Well, there's a Samaritan. Oh. Or fill in the blank, right? Scripture says really clearly the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous, right? I am really keenly aware that my judgments are not true and righteous. I find myself judging a person solely by their appearance. They can walk into a coffee shop or something, and I can, you know what? I can size them up like that. What? An antichrist spirit. You know. I mean, what a horrible thought. God looks on the heart, man looks on the outside. I'm not thinking like God. I'm not understanding, I'm not discerning the body of Christ that was ripped so that we could be one. He could tear down the walls. I'm not discerning that. I'm not I'm not thinking correctly. I'm easily blind to the prejudice that's working in me. And my prayer is that God will convert my heart more and more. More and more. And by thinking would be like His that I can see people through His eyes. The Holy Spirit searches our hearts. This is a good thing. If you care, if you want to do what's right, your conscience and the Holy Spirit are the greatest gifts you have. One of the greatest, some of the greatest gifts you have. If you don't want to do what's right, it's a plague. Your conscience is a plague because it's always bugging you. And the Holy Spirit's a bother. But if you want to do what's right, the Spirit will convict. He will show you what's right. He will take you out of the ways that are that lead to destruction into the ways of life. So are we courageous enough to ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts? That's the question. Could we be prejudiced? Who are you better than? What people are you superior to? What people do you hate because you think that they think they are superior to you? And I find that without diligence, I'll just be caught up in the culture of my of the current of my culture, right? And there's racial prejudice and national prejudice. Alive and well in our culture, loud and long in our ears day by day, in subtle ways and blatant ways, and it runs on both sides. This is the thing, the person doing the hating is often equally hated by the people on the other side. Because hate begets hate. And it has no place in a Christ follower's heart. I can get my worldview from the right or from the left, and both views are often short-sighted, self-serving, and sometimes just wicked. But there's another worldview, and here Paul is giving it to us. We're translated into a different kingdom. And there's a worldview here that includes the gospel. Our hearts have to be changed by the gospel. Our minds have to be transformed by truth, and through the lens of the gospel, we are able to love everybody as God loves them, to think about everybody as God thinks about them. We can be transformed by the renewing of our mind. Alexander Sotsunitsyn was a Russian author, and he spent a lot of years suffering in a Soviet gulag for no real crime at all. And he understood some things about hatred and suffering, and he wrote brilliantly on those subjects. But here's something he said that gets to the heart of it, which is what Paul is getting to. He said the line separating good and evil passes not through states, that means nations, nor between classes, nor between political parties, but right through every human heart. The line of good and evil, evil passes right through your heart and my heart. Our hearts have to be changed by the gospel. And God wants to build us together with people who are not like us. Brothers and sisters, this is important for us individually, for our families, and for our church. God's growing our church. And we've got to deal with this. We've got to be like Christ in this. If we surround ourselves only with those people who are just like us, we become poorer and poorer people. If we only have people who echo back our own opinion to us, that's called inbreeding. And inbreeding causes all kinds of defects. But God gave the apostle John on the Isle of Patmos a glimpse of what the kingdom of God looks like. Let's read this. After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and palm branches were in their hands, and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. It's a new kind of kingdom that we're brought into. It's a new culture. And it's a kingdom that overrules all kingdoms on earth, all mindsets, all institutions, all cultures. It's the kingdom of God. And we're brought into this kingdom. And Jesus broke down the walls, and it's a finished work. And when we rebuild these walls in our hearts, we're nullifying the work of the cross. If you hold on to your prejudice, you either don't understand the work of Christ or you willingly turn your back on it. One of those is ignorance, one of those is wickedness. And God wants to fix it in my heart. In our hearts. One blood. One blood? Me and my son-in-law from Ghana? Me and my friends from Russia, me and my friends from that are here from the Philippines. One blood. One blood. So what causes divisions among us? Well, deception, lies, accusations, that's the enemy, that's the devil. That's part of it. Could be our culture, because we grew up thinking some things, we've learned things a certain way, and we need to unlearn them and relearn. That's possible. But can I say it one more time? It might be your algorithm. What's your algorithm feeding you? If you're only hearing the feedback of your own preferences, which might be wrong, by the way. Well, I mean, where where are you going? If I click and if I click on a post of someone who's mildly prejudiced, my algorithm will feed me more and more of that, and even feed me people who are more prejudiced. And it gets darker and darker and darker. And if I'm not careful, if I'm not proactive, which means I don't click and I don't even linger for literally half a second. Literally a half second. If I don't, if I'm not careful, then I'm being preached to. I'm being inundated. I'm being brainwashed. My algorithm is teaching me. But I already have a Lord. And his name is Jesus. It's not the algorithm. There has to be a healthy fear of the Lord here, guys. There has to be. Will I stand before God with the stain of racism in my heart? And if I do, what will happen to me? When he made of one blood all the nations of the earth, when he shed his son's blood to break the wall, what will happen to me? There has to be a healthy fear of God in this. We have to get rid of this, guys. We have to. And I believe people are so tired of this. They're so weary of the hatred. And they're looking for an answer, and we've got it. These are real problems. And somebody needs to show the world that it's possible to love beyond these shallow and carnal judgments. And church, this is where we shine. Because we've been given new hearts. We understand that we needed the mercy of Jesus, that Jesus has given us all equally this mercy, that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. We understand it. I'm not better than you. You're not better than me. In Christ, we're infinitely valuable. This is what it means to be in Christ. This is what he started with. But now, in Christ Jesus, here we are. One new man. We're enabled by the gospel to love all people. We can declare and we can live out this truth. Jesus killed the hostility. Look what Jesus has done. Jesus has killed the hostility. So let it be killed in me. Let it be killed in me. God, take it out of me. Let me live worthy of what your son has done, Father. I can't fix everything, but I can ask God to put a governor on my heart and convict me and fix my attitude. And I can light a candle in the dark places where He's put me in my sphere of influence. Well, we've got to end somewhere. So how do we end? Maybe we can ask a question. How do you how do we make sure that we're clean of these things? You know? And you know, when you're building, if you're doing building a building or you're building a temple, which is the metaphor here, right? There's some things you have to do before you even start building. Part of building happens before you literally start building. You're building when you're doing things to the foundation. So you have to clear the ground first, you got to dig up the roots, you got to level the ground, you got to set your pins of reference, your points that you refer back to so everything stays straight and plum. So how do you build correctly? I've got three thoughts. First of all, we clear out the roots and stumbling stones of racial prejudice by the work of the gospel. Okay. What have I been taught that's not biblical? What ideas have I held on to that are not like Christ? Who am I judging? And what even makes me think I have a right to judge them? What condition is my heart in? How have I had a victim mentality that's hindered me from loving everyone and moving forward in my life? Clear out the roots. Number two, we level the ground. We're all equal in this kingdom. One blood. Ground is level. The cross is leveled at all. This is the promise of the prophets, the new covenant. Every valley will be exalted, every mountain will be laid low. This is a promise. This is a new covenant. So are there ways I need to humble myself in terms of my understanding of me versus others? My race, my nationalism, my denomination, my political party. Oh Lord, some of you are tracked with me until just then. Yeah, I'll I'll accept somebody from another nation. I will not accept a fill in the blank political party. Oh man. Search our hearts, Lord. Does it go that far? Yeah. It does. In what ways do I need to exalt those that I've thought less of? Every valley will be exalted. Oh, help us think like Jesus. Last thing is, we need to acknowledge our strong foundation, the person in the work of Jesus. The gospel is an answer. This is the gospel issue here. This whole thing we're talking about is a gospel issue. It's answered by the work of Jesus. Jesus died to reconcile me to God. Amen. He dialed to reconcile me to others. Amen. Okay, good, thank you. We all have access to God through his shed blood and his broken body. We all stand firm together on the foundation that God has laid. Jesus Christ. And he is our reference. He is our reference. We set our reference pens on him. We build straight by referring to him. He who, though in very nature God, released his rights and humbled himself. So that he could give his life. There's our standard. There's our standard. There's our reference point. Well, I'll just end with a story. Years ago, boy, it must have been over 20, maybe 25 years ago. I was a part of this church, of course, and I was at this men's men's breakfast, but it was in a house. One of the brothers had opened up his house. And so we went there and we had piles of bacon and piles of biscuits and gravy. And, you know, one thing that'll unite people is biscuits and gravy. I know that. So we're there, but I'm I was a pretty I was a relatively young Christian, but I was I was looking around. I learned something, and I and I still think back to that day. I can still get a picture in my mind of the room I was sitting in, and I was looking around that room. And we're all together in this man's house, and there were blacks and there were whites, and there were younger and there were older, and they were upper middle class and lower class. There were Germans and Jews in that room. There were even people from Alabama and Tennessee in that room. I know. You were tracking with me till then, too, weren't you? Hey, I'm telling you, it works, okay? I mean, I'm we we made it. We we were married six months before the game, uh, between Alabama and Tennessee, and we figured if we make it through this game, we'll probably be all right. And we did. Well, I think we're gonna make it. And if you're okay, if you're if you'll track with me, there's even people in that room from Powell and Halls. Okay, so some of you understand that, right? You know, Panthers and Red Devils. What is a red devil? Who wants to be a red devil? I'm sorry. Spoken like a true panther. But I'm looking in this room and I'm thinking, how big God is, and how big his kingdom is. And all of us, we weren't just united over the gravy. We you we were united in Christ. It wasn't big biscuits, it was the broken body. The broken body. How big is his kingdom, and how good it is for brothers to dwell together in unity. And I never forgot that. I thought, wow. He shed his blood for all of us. Can we live? Can we pray that God will help us to live worthy of the work of Jesus? Look what Jesus has done. He he demolished, he killed the hostility, he broke the wall down. It's not if it's there in our hearts, it's not there because of him or because of the gospel. He did everything he could to break it. God has done the work. We gotta we gotta receive that. We gotta let him change us. Can you stand with me? And let's pray. I don't know how to apply this except to let the Holy Spirit apply it and do what he wants to do in our hearts. But I want I do want to extend an invitation into a kingdom today. Whether I'm a religious person or a stony-hearted sinner, the only way to a relationship with God is through Christ. I can be a rule follower or a a lawbreaker. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. We both need the cross. And he has broken down the wall between us and God through his shed blood. And he's inviting you. It says that we are citizens in a new kingdom. We're citizens in the household of God. God has given us, he's given you, if you don't know the Lord, he's given you a path to citizenship. There's a path. The path is his son, the work of his son, the blood of Jesus. The path is Jesus, he is the way. And when you're a new citizen, you have rights. And God will give you a new identity this morning. He'll give you a new passport to heaven and to the kingdom of God on earth. He'll give you one thing you get as a citizen is you get a right to a fair trial. You know what he does one better? He justifies you through his blood. He calls you not guilty. One thing you get as a citizen is you get freedom over, you get new rights, you get freedom, freedom over sin he gives you. This is in this new kingdom. So, Father, I pray for anyone who doesn't know you, that you've made hungry this morning. I pray, Lord, that they see the beauty of Jesus, what you have done to bring them to you. That they by faith come to you and say, I long for you, God. I want to know you. I want to be in this kingdom. I want to be part of this household. I don't want to be an outsider. By the work of Jesus, accept me, Lord. Accept me. If you pray that, he's faithful to answer that. But also he reconciles us by his body to one another. And he wants us not to just tolerate one another, he's made us one. He's made the two into one. It's way beyond toleration. It's understanding that we are one in Jesus, in his body. And then he calls us to break down the wall of our prejudices. And where we go to bring peace and not poison. This is this is who Jesus is, and this is the way of walking with Jesus. So, Father, thank you this morning. We just stand before you and ask you, whatever it is that is causing us to walk unworthy of what you've done through your son. Whatever it is that is causing us to see other people differently than you do, Lord, would you forgive us? Would you wash us clean with that precious blood of Jesus? Would you make the fullness of what He died for become real in our lives, Lord? And would you break the chains of prejudice? Break the chains of racism and of nationalism and of elitism of all kinds, and judging because of outward appearances, judging because of laws and rules. Lord, would you take the wall? Would you would you bring into reality in our lives what you've already done, Lord? Would you break the walls down so we can be free? We thank you for that, Lord. So just we could take maybe just a minute and just allow the Lord to speak to us, to point things out. If there's something He brings up, just confess it. He's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. Thank you, Lord. Oh Father, we just look at what Jesus has done and we marvel at it this morning. Thank you. Thank you, Lord. Bring us into that place of freedom, we pray in Jesus' name. May the Lord bless you and keep you. May He make His face shine upon you. Be gracious to you. May the Lord lift his countenance upon you. May He give you peace. In the name of Jesus. Amen.