WEBVTT 00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:05.040 Said my name is Drew Henley and I am from Redeemer Community Church down in Atlanta. 00:00:05.120 --> 00:00:08.800 And you guys, whether you all know it or not, have been graciously supporting us. 00:00:09.119 --> 00:00:10.400 We are very thankful for that. 00:00:10.560 --> 00:00:24.879 Our staff sends their just appreciation for a church that's willing to give to help a church that is very mixed socioeconomically, be able to love, have the finances available to love our neighborhood and our church well. 00:00:25.280 --> 00:00:29.039 So thank you so much for having me up here, and thank you to Pastor Russ. 00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:31.039 Say a few words about your pastor. 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:32.799 We get together for lunch. 00:00:32.960 --> 00:00:37.759 He's, I think, supposed to check in to make sure we aren't like embezzling money down in Atlanta. 00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:44.240 And I have there's two things that I've taken away from much be uh taken away from those lunches. 00:00:44.399 --> 00:00:48.640 One is that your pastor walks through life with such wisdom and conviction. 00:00:48.799 --> 00:00:55.359 I know you probably see this, um, but it is so um helpful and encouraging uh to me as a younger pastor. 00:00:55.520 --> 00:01:00.479 Um second, uh your pastor loves his people, loves you so much. 00:01:00.719 --> 00:01:03.119 Um becomes out in the lunches that we have. 00:01:03.200 --> 00:01:09.040 And so uh be blessed knowing that you are being cared for well, um, and we are very thankful for you. 00:01:09.200 --> 00:01:17.519 Uh the sermon this morning is gonna come from Ephesians 2, verses 11 through 22, and uh it's gonna pop up on the screen. 00:01:17.680 --> 00:01:18.879 Boom, look at that. 00:01:19.040 --> 00:01:24.000 Um, and I'm gonna read this, pray, and then dive into the text together. 00:01:24.640 --> 00:01:36.480 Therefore, remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands. 00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:57.040 Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 00:01:57.359 --> 00:01:59.519 For he himself is our peace. 00:01:59.840 --> 00:02:00.480 Amen. 00:02:01.439 --> 00:02:09.280 He himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. 00:02:09.520 --> 00:02:19.840 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. 00:02:20.080 --> 00:02:26.080 And might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 00:02:26.319 --> 00:02:31.840 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near. 00:02:32.159 --> 00:02:37.199 For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. 00:02:37.680 --> 00:02:58.960 So then you are 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 the prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in which the whole structure being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord. 00:02:59.199 --> 00:03:05.199 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. 00:03:05.360 --> 00:03:07.520 This is the word of the Lord. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:08.639 Let's pray. 00:03:08.879 --> 00:03:29.280 Father, we are so thankful for your word, thankful that we stand under it, uh, looking to it as authoritative in our lives, that we submit to your word as both a guide for how to live life, but even more so reminders and truth of how you treat us as your children. 00:03:29.520 --> 00:03:32.879 May your gospel be preached this morning. 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:37.759 May we grow and may we be convicted of sin and led back to the cross. 00:03:37.919 --> 00:03:39.360 It's in Christ's name we pray. 00:03:39.680 --> 00:03:40.319 Amen. 00:03:41.120 --> 00:03:49.759 In 1986, there was a peace march that began in LA but prematurely ended with bickering and argument. 00:03:50.000 --> 00:04:01.919 After going about 120 miles, half of the 1,200 marchers got so fed up with each other and the bickering that they simply left and went home. 00:04:02.560 --> 00:04:11.360 Those in this peace march peace march that remained quickly polarized because some were determined to walk, others insisted on riding in cars. 00:04:11.520 --> 00:04:16.399 They also fought over the proper dress code for the marchers. 00:04:16.720 --> 00:04:25.439 They decided to hold an election at near the end to decide these kinds of matters, but they couldn't agree who should be allowed to vote. 00:04:25.680 --> 00:04:30.240 So finally, they agreed to allow everyone to vote, even the children. 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:38.240 They hold the election, published the results only to have it declared invalid by a separate faction of marchers. 00:04:38.480 --> 00:04:46.639 Many ended this peace march, P-E-A-C-E march, not speaking to each other. 00:04:47.199 --> 00:04:52.720 And we may laugh and shake our heads at this story, but honestly, it's so relatable. 00:04:52.959 --> 00:05:04.160 If there's a theme to the last few years in our country, our city, and even our churches, and our local church communities, it could be sadly described as the theme of division. 00:05:04.399 --> 00:05:16.399 We long for peace, love the idea of it, may even want to participate in a march about it, but actually living out peace alongside our brothers and sisters is oh so hard. 00:05:17.120 --> 00:05:26.560 This text from Ephesians 2 reminds us that the church has been dealing with this issue since its inception, but also gives us hope for what true peace can look like. 00:05:26.879 --> 00:05:41.439 Ephesians 2, 11 through 12, up on the screen, the thing to notice in verse 12 is that to be separated from Israel, Paul speaking to these people, is to be separated from Israel is to be separated at that time from Christ. 00:05:41.600 --> 00:05:45.199 It says, separated from Christ, alienated from Israel. 00:05:45.519 --> 00:05:52.399 See, God, as you know, revealed himself first and foremost to the Jewish people, the nation of Israel. 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:59.600 The other nations didn't know God, and if they wanted to know God, they entered in through the Jewish people. 00:06:00.240 --> 00:06:05.439 Now, what is being said in these first two verses is crucial to everything else. 00:06:06.000 --> 00:06:21.680 Paul is reminding them that they were people, the Ephesians were people, the Gentiles were people, you and I, unless you are of a Jewish and Jewish ancestry, were people who were outsiders without hope. 00:06:22.079 --> 00:06:25.920 Before Christ came, before the gospel came, people were grafted in. 00:06:26.240 --> 00:06:36.160 You see, uh in the Old Testament, a few people here and there, but the hope comes in the gospel and him breaking down that wall of hostility. 00:06:36.560 --> 00:06:40.560 This perspective is to form how they look at all their relationships. 00:06:40.720 --> 00:06:43.759 Those two words, therefore remember. 00:06:44.560 --> 00:06:54.720 When the gospel was first preached to the church in Ephesus, Ephesians was written, our people, our ancestors were the farthest people from God. 00:06:55.519 --> 00:06:58.800 And sometimes we tend to forget that. 00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:11.360 When Jesus and the apostles talked about taking the gospel to the uttermost parts of the world at the end of the book of Matthew, he's talking about taking the gospel to you and I. 00:07:12.879 --> 00:07:18.639 And there's obviously in this text a class of cultures in the church in Ephesus. 00:07:19.040 --> 00:07:24.879 Paul acknowledges that there are dividing walls of hostility between these two peoples. 00:07:25.040 --> 00:07:31.439 The Jewish people and the Gentiles, which is just simply non-Jewish people, were not getting along. 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:39.040 The Jews had a literal wall on the outside of the temple with a little sign on it that said, No Gentiles. 00:07:39.360 --> 00:07:49.920 And that the Gentiles would only have themselves to blame according to the Jews if they walked past this and were sentenced to their death for coming into the inner courts. 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:59.199 This wall separated in the Jewish mind the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, the Jews and the Gentiles. 00:07:59.759 --> 00:08:05.600 Jewish people literally referred to Gentiles as the uncircumcised. 00:08:06.800 --> 00:08:14.079 But our tendency as we look at this and say, what a fascinating issue 2,000 years ago. 00:08:14.720 --> 00:08:19.680 But the reality is that all cultures have walls. 00:08:20.079 --> 00:08:28.560 Every culture has a way of defining itself within the walls and saying, inside these walls we are good, and those on the outside are bad. 00:08:28.720 --> 00:08:40.000 But Jesus looks at this and says, Paul looks at this and says, Jesus tore down these cultural walls 2,000 years ago, and he's calling us to do the same thing today. 00:08:40.639 --> 00:08:58.399 Before we planted the church in Vine City, which is just west of the Mercedes-Benz Stadium in downtown Atlanta, I can honestly say without a shadow of a doubt that this gospel that breaks down walls was the motivation for the church plant. 00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:25.039 Being in a neighborhood that is predominantly African-American, that has a history of being overlooked by the city of Atlanta, coming in and saying, what does it look like for us to be a neighbor in this community, to learn from people who have been here and the gospel's been here long before we came, and to have a church that welcomes people into the four walls and does our best to break down those walls of hostility. 00:09:25.519 --> 00:09:26.720 And how do we do this? 00:09:26.879 --> 00:09:30.559 We do it the same way as the why through the gospel. 00:09:31.200 --> 00:09:41.360 A few years ago, one of the guys at the church was getting married, and before he did, he a bunch of the guys got together and kind of took him out for a night to kind of celebrate kind of a bachelor night. 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:56.799 And for some reason they asked the pastor to do some of the planning for this, which is usually not uh the case, but we were good friends, and so one of the guys was involved, was tasked with planning the dinner, and I was tasked with planning the after dinner activity. 00:09:56.960 --> 00:10:07.360 And this guy enjoyed bowling, so I said, Cool, like we'll call the local bowling alley and see if we can get a deal to get 12 of us to go down and bowl for a while after dinner. 00:10:07.519 --> 00:10:16.000 So I am super frugal and I knew we had kind of some a range of incomes in the group, so I said, How can we get this for as cheap as possible? 00:10:16.159 --> 00:10:19.279 So I call the bowling alley and I say, We've got a group of 12 come in. 00:10:19.519 --> 00:10:20.720 Can we reserve some lanes? 00:10:20.879 --> 00:10:21.840 Do you have any deals? 00:10:21.919 --> 00:10:32.720 And the lady very kindly said, Well, you can, if you'd like to, you can reserve the lanes for$25 a piece, and then that money you don't get back, it's just for the reservation, then you pay for the bowling. 00:10:33.039 --> 00:10:35.120 And I said, Well, is there any other deal? 00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:39.759 Like, that doesn't seem like a great deal since we're losing that money just to kind of reserve the spots. 00:10:39.919 --> 00:10:45.120 And she said, Well, your option number two is an all-inclusive, like dinner and bowling. 00:10:45.200 --> 00:10:51.360 And I said, No offense, like the dinner at the bowling alley is like probably not gonna be for us. 00:10:51.679 --> 00:10:54.480 So, like, is there any deal for just the bowling? 00:10:54.639 --> 00:11:01.840 And the lady had like a long pause on the phone, and she says, Well, there is a free party. 00:11:02.960 --> 00:11:09.039 And I swear I I reacted just like you did of like that's not a real thing. 00:11:09.200 --> 00:11:16.080 And so I like catch my breath and I said, Excuse me, like it sounded like you said there's a free party. 00:11:16.240 --> 00:11:18.799 And she said, Sir, it's not complicated. 00:11:18.960 --> 00:11:26.080 Like, if you come, if you come, we will send you, if you agree to this, we'll send you a contract. 00:11:26.320 --> 00:11:36.240 You show up anytime you want after six, stay as long as you want, and your 12 friends will have three lanes to bowl as long as they want. 00:11:36.480 --> 00:11:39.919 So I said, ma'am, that sounds perfect for us. 00:11:40.000 --> 00:11:41.679 And so she sent this contract. 00:11:41.759 --> 00:11:44.720 At this point, I'm like, surely this is not real. 00:11:44.960 --> 00:11:53.200 Sends this contract, emails it over, I print it out, and just like she explained, she said, You can get here whenever you want. 00:11:53.360 --> 00:12:02.799 After six, stay until we close, and then in like a highlighted, like what you owe at the bottom was a dollar sign 00.00. 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:11.039 And so I say, you know, tell all the guys, I'm like, you're never gonna guess this, but there's a we're we're headed to bowling and it's on me. 00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:14.399 Like, I will cover it totally on me. 00:12:14.720 --> 00:12:17.679 And so I said, no, just kidding, like there's this free party. 00:12:17.759 --> 00:12:19.679 They said, You're an idiot, this is not real. 00:12:19.759 --> 00:12:24.799 And I said, just be ready to pay, but like I promise they this is what they said. 00:12:24.960 --> 00:12:33.919 And so we pull up after dinner, all of us together, and it dawns on me that I have left the contract on the printer at the church. 00:12:34.080 --> 00:12:56.240 I reprinted it right before, left it at the church, and so I walk through the double doors, muster up as much confidence as I can, walked up to the desk, took a deep breath, and said, Ma'am, I'm really sorry, but I'm here for the free party, and I left the contract on the printer, fully expecting her just to laugh in my face. 00:12:56.399 --> 00:12:59.279 She looks at me and says, like Hidgenazi says, Mr. 00:12:59.360 --> 00:13:02.080 Henley, we have been waiting for you all night. 00:13:02.240 --> 00:13:04.480 We're so glad that you're here. 00:13:04.799 --> 00:13:05.919 Waves us all in. 00:13:06.080 --> 00:13:09.120 I then turn full confidence, wave all the buddies in. 00:13:09.200 --> 00:13:11.519 I'm like, you're welcome, you're welcome. 00:13:11.759 --> 00:13:15.200 We head to the shoes, get our shoes, head to the lanes. 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:19.200 One guy shows up late and I'm like, you're gonna mess this up for everybody. 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:22.720 He gets there, they wave him right on back as well. 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:30.320 And to be honest, at no point in the night, maybe up until the last 30 minutes, did I actually think this was going to work? 00:13:31.120 --> 00:13:33.360 We got our shoes, one of the guys arrived late. 00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:40.000 I just assumed at some point along the way a bill would come, and that was totally understandable, but it never happened. 00:13:40.159 --> 00:13:43.759 And on the way out, they said, We can't wait to see you again. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:46.080 I said, You definitely will. 00:13:47.440 --> 00:13:55.279 And so, in that party, which I promise is 100% exactly how it went down, in that party, how did I get to the party? 00:13:55.440 --> 00:14:10.080 It was simply a gift of this lady in charge, or she just didn't understand how it worked, one of the two, or she thought the theory we came up with was that she thought I was some big celebrity, and like bringing me in was gonna bring more people to the bowling alley. 00:14:10.240 --> 00:14:16.639 Maybe that worked, uh, probably didn't, um, because my you know, social media followers are in the 90s, I think. 00:14:16.799 --> 00:14:28.000 So, but deep down I realized that so similar to the gospel, the whole night my deepest fear was that I would get found out. 00:14:29.039 --> 00:14:33.279 At first it was a contract she sent, and it was like, okay, great, now I'm in. 00:14:33.440 --> 00:14:36.240 When I got to the door, I thought this is too good to be true. 00:14:36.320 --> 00:14:38.480 I'm gonna get found out, waves me through. 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:43.279 I get to the shoes, which they usually charge, that's where you pay for the shoes separate than the lanes. 00:14:43.440 --> 00:14:48.960 I was like, surely they're gonna find us out and charge us here, waves us on through at any point in the night. 00:14:49.120 --> 00:14:54.639 I said, we are going to get found out and have no real defense for this. 00:14:55.600 --> 00:15:00.559 And brothers and sisters, this is the same fear as every one of us in the church. 00:15:01.200 --> 00:15:09.600 The same fear that we will get found out, that when we are fully known, we will not be fully loved and accepted. 00:15:10.080 --> 00:15:22.480 A quote from Tim Keller, which I'm sure some of you have heard before, to be loved, but not known is comforting but superficial, but to be fully known and truly loved is well a lot like being loved by God. 00:15:22.720 --> 00:15:25.919 It's what we need more than anything. 00:15:26.240 --> 00:15:35.600 And this vertical love we talk about from God, and you hear the gospel, you receive it when you take communion, that you are loved 100% because of what Christ did for us. 00:15:35.759 --> 00:15:41.759 But that vertical love from God has to change our horizontal love for one another. 00:15:42.159 --> 00:15:54.159 The good news is we are loved and accepted not because we are lovable, but because we or because we decided to march for peace, but because he himself is our peace. 00:15:55.679 --> 00:15:58.320 For he himself is our peace, Ephesians 2 says. 00:15:58.399 --> 00:16:04.159 He has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility. 00:16:04.960 --> 00:16:08.000 Friends, this is the power of the local church. 00:16:08.240 --> 00:16:11.039 We're the physical representation of this love. 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:16.639 God's gift for God's people at communion is the physical representation of the atonement. 00:16:16.799 --> 00:16:21.039 Preaching is the physical representation of God speaking truth into your life. 00:16:21.279 --> 00:16:28.080 Community is the physical representation of God saying, I see you, I love you, and you have value. 00:16:29.120 --> 00:16:33.600 And brothers and sisters, for our church in Atlanta, this is why we do what we do. 00:16:33.759 --> 00:16:55.919 There's all sorts of extra activities we do with job training, with youth sports, uh, partnering with a local school that serves our neighborhood well, uh, partnering with a nonprofit that runs out of our church that helps victims of sex trafficking with a two-year residential program, uh, working with a nonprofit gym that operates out of the church where the sanctuary turns into kind of a fitness center during the week. 00:16:56.080 --> 00:17:03.039 Those are because we want to be able to communicate the love of Christ, that you are loved and you have value. 00:17:03.759 --> 00:17:10.720 And the beauty of this calling is that our church, it is a beautiful place, but it is a messy place as well. 00:17:10.960 --> 00:17:17.519 About a hundred people kind of file into a building every Sunday morning, 50% white, 50% non-white. 00:17:17.680 --> 00:17:25.200 Uh, there's a few, the majority of the non-white are black, a few Hispanics, Asians, and Middle Eastern men and women sprinkled in there. 00:17:25.359 --> 00:17:30.720 And it is this beautiful picture of the kingdom, but it's also all these cultures clashing together. 00:17:30.880 --> 00:17:33.519 We have women, two women at our church who are deaf. 00:17:33.680 --> 00:17:46.079 We have women and men that are reading on a third grade level compared to men and women who have PhDs all sitting next to each other, and you're like, oh, this is so incredible, but it's also so also very hard. 00:17:46.480 --> 00:17:48.960 And I'm sure you experience some of that the same way. 00:17:49.119 --> 00:17:58.480 There's differences at our church on everything from how to parent, uh, differences on where to send your kids to school, differences on how to give birth to a baby. 00:17:58.559 --> 00:18:12.079 People have strong feelings about this at times, but also at our church and at a lot of churches as well, when there are racial instances, racial events in our country, those differences come out. 00:18:12.319 --> 00:18:20.720 When Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Tamir Rice were killed, we saw that that hits us at our church differently. 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:27.839 For my kids, I don't ever worry about them being uh being mistreated based on the color of their skin. 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:36.240 But my brothers and sisters have that same thought go through their mind every single day with their young black and brown children. 00:18:36.559 --> 00:18:42.880 And these differences are not to be ignored, but they're an opportunity for us to come together as a church. 00:18:43.039 --> 00:18:54.160 We can't let them define us or divide us, but they are an opportunity for us to understand each other because understanding each other helps us know how to love each other well. 00:18:54.880 --> 00:19:04.880 See, our poor, our less, our lower income brothers and sisters in the church, they face a housing crisis in the city of Atlanta that our middle to upper income people don't face. 00:19:05.839 --> 00:19:11.519 But we look at that and we say, how can my excess help fill in your need? 00:19:12.240 --> 00:19:19.039 Our people of color face racial discrimination that our white people simply do not have to deal with in the same way. 00:19:19.200 --> 00:19:24.559 But we look at that and say, how can my privilege be leveraged for your need? 00:19:25.519 --> 00:19:38.240 Our women face catcalls or gender discrimination that our men are often oblivious to, but instead of saying that's your problem, how can we as men live a life where we say we see you, we value you? 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:41.599 How can we come alongside to care for you well? 00:19:42.480 --> 00:20:00.240 And not only is this our deep fear in all of us that will a person who looks like you accept a person who looks like me, but the deep socioeconomic divides look allow our lower income men and women at Redeemer, at our Redeemer, to look and say, Do I even have value here? 00:20:00.640 --> 00:20:11.519 When they drop money in the offering plate, sometimes it's loud because of the coins compared to the checks that the low that middle and upper income people write, and they look at that and say, I know there's a difference. 00:20:11.599 --> 00:20:13.519 How do I have value here? 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:19.440 But we have the opportunity just simply by being the church to name that value. 00:20:19.599 --> 00:20:35.279 There's a woman that a few years ago we had our kids' ministry was exploding, and we kind of created this policy to where if you're at Redeemer, you have to serve in the kids' ministry at least four times a year to keep kind of eight people from just rotating in there every week. 00:20:35.440 --> 00:20:49.759 And I came to this lady because somebody canceled uh the Sunday morning because she got sick, and I came up to this lady, Miss, we'll call her Miss Stacy, and I said, Miss Stacy, like next, we're gonna have somebody for this morning, but next week we I'd love for you to start helping out with the kids. 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:52.400 We need to do a background check on you, all the things that we do. 00:20:52.559 --> 00:20:55.119 And Miss Stacy just broke down in tears. 00:20:55.279 --> 00:20:58.240 And I looked at her and I was like, Miss Stacy, you don't have to do this if you don't want to. 00:20:58.400 --> 00:20:59.599 Like, I'm really sorry. 00:20:59.680 --> 00:21:02.079 Uh I don't know what's going on. 00:21:02.319 --> 00:21:13.200 And she broke down in tears, and it dawned on me, and I knew some of this story already, but she broke down in tears and explained, like, I thought you would never ask a woman like me. 00:21:13.599 --> 00:21:23.039 When Miss Stacy was 21, she lost her kids to the defect system because of some poor decisions that she had made, and she walked through life with that shame. 00:21:23.119 --> 00:21:33.599 And at 33, us asking her to simply hold babies in the nursery was us looking at her saying, you have value and worth. 00:21:33.839 --> 00:21:36.640 There's another woman at our church, we'll call her Miss Jane. 00:21:36.880 --> 00:21:40.480 Miss Jane has been struggled with addiction her whole life. 00:21:40.640 --> 00:21:45.440 She's 46, and on December 28th, she celebrated a year of sobriety. 00:21:45.519 --> 00:21:50.559 It's the longest she's been sober since she was 17 years old. 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:58.000 She's very public about her battle with addiction, and we asked her if she would share her story, her testimony the following Sunday. 00:21:58.079 --> 00:22:02.799 And she looked at me and she said, No, no, no, Pastor Drew, that's your job. 00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:11.200 And I looked at her and I said, Jane, you have more to teach us about grace and forgiveness than I could ever teach these people. 00:22:11.839 --> 00:22:17.839 And we hand her the mic, and I know when you hand her the mic, just like Russ knows right now, you can't get it back. 00:22:19.599 --> 00:22:28.319 When you hand her the mic, I'm saying, I trust you to speak to our people from the Holy Spirit's work in your life. 00:22:28.640 --> 00:22:32.640 And when we do that, it's an opportunity for us to simply be, there's nothing special. 00:22:32.799 --> 00:22:37.599 We simply get to be the church and live out Ephesians 2, 17 through 19. 00:22:37.839 --> 00:22:43.599 He came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 00:22:44.240 --> 00:22:48.319 For through him we both have access in one spirit to the Father. 00:22:48.640 --> 00:22:55.759 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:23:03.359 The whole point that Paul is making here is the way that God has treated you will fundamentally affect how you relate to others. 00:23:03.440 --> 00:23:15.519 Or as one of my favorite pastors, Tony Evans, says, the reasons we have racial, ethnic, gender, and class divisions in the church is that we have not fully understood the cross. 00:23:17.200 --> 00:23:25.839 Church, I pray that we would grow in our understanding of the cross and may that change how we view each other and those who are being welcomed into our body. 00:23:26.000 --> 00:23:26.640 Amen. 00:23:27.200 --> 00:23:28.000 Let's pray. 00:23:28.319 --> 00:23:42.799 Father, I pray that we would heed, learn, be convicted from the story in Ephesians, and from Paul's words to the people in the church in Ephesus. 00:23:42.960 --> 00:23:51.839 May that be used to change us, to convict us of sin, and to give us hope for us to display peace to a divided world. 00:23:52.240 --> 00:23:53.599 In Christ's name we pray. 00:23:53.920 --> 00:23:54.400 Amen.