WEBVTT 00:00:00.479 --> 00:00:03.040 So we're making our way through the book of Acts. 00:00:03.120 --> 00:00:08.400 We'll probably work our way through about halfway through the book of Acts before taking a break and heading somewhere else. 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:11.599 So last week we talked about Acts chapter 6 and 7. 00:00:11.679 --> 00:00:12.640 We talked about Stephen. 00:00:12.720 --> 00:00:17.679 We talked about service, but we kind of cruised over something that's so easy to read. 00:00:17.839 --> 00:00:29.280 It's one of those things that are in the Bible and you're reading the Bible and it just pops out and you almost don't even see it, and you keep reading, and you just move right on, and you don't ever stop and go, What was that? 00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:37.039 There was a disagreement between who and who, the Hellenists and the Hebrews and what happened, but it was just one verse and off it went. 00:00:37.119 --> 00:00:38.880 And so you just off you went as well. 00:00:39.039 --> 00:00:42.479 So we're gonna stop and we're gonna dig into that a little bit uh today. 00:00:42.640 --> 00:00:52.479 So I read an article this week where a psychologist in the 1980s was asked to counsel a group of Cambodian refugees. 00:00:52.560 --> 00:00:55.600 So this was a group of people who had recently arrived to the states. 00:00:55.679 --> 00:01:05.680 Uh you couldn't get a group of people that were more socially, economically, or culturally different than uh Western Anglo-Americans. 00:01:05.920 --> 00:01:11.439 Not to mention these people have been through socially, uh, economically uh horrible, horrible things. 00:01:11.599 --> 00:01:19.439 A genocide had occurred, their communities had broken down, starvation, murders, and then dangerous boat rides basically to the United States. 00:01:19.519 --> 00:01:54.560 And the psychologist said, and here's what's interesting, the psychologist said, once you got in front of these people and then you talked to them, then you talk to them about their trauma and about the horrors they went through, and you talked about all that, at some point stuff like this would pop up where the person would say, So I met this guy when I was living in the refugee camp, and we fell in love, and I thought he really loved me, but then we were separated on different boats, and he took up with my cousin, now he's married to her, but he says he really loves me, and he keeps calling me, and I know I should tell him to go away, but I still love him and I can't stop thinking about him, and I don't know what to do. 00:01:55.439 --> 00:02:00.560 Now, until the the last part, everything seemed quite different from your life, right? 00:02:00.879 --> 00:02:04.799 Like, I mean, you're thinking, well, here's a group of people I've I have so little in common. 00:02:04.879 --> 00:02:08.000 I mean, from the other side of the world, I mean everything about their culture is different than me. 00:02:08.080 --> 00:02:09.919 I mean, their background, what they've been through. 00:02:10.000 --> 00:02:12.240 I mean, this is they're so different than me, right? 00:02:12.319 --> 00:02:19.039 I mean, they they don't sip sweet tea and talk about how the azaleas are blooming, they don't drive through Chick-fil-A four times a week. 00:02:19.199 --> 00:02:22.159 I mean, we're so different, right? 00:02:22.639 --> 00:02:47.280 We probably dress differently and eat differently and talk differently and even believe differently, and then you hear about love and you hear about heartbreak in a refugee camp and on a boat, and you go, oh, oh wow, like so we look different, and we do a lot of stuff different, but we're really, really the same. 00:02:47.599 --> 00:02:49.680 And there's there's the glimpse. 00:02:50.400 --> 00:02:52.479 And we've all felt it, haven't we? 00:02:53.360 --> 00:03:00.479 We we felt at times incredibly different than someone, and we think we're incredibly different. 00:03:00.560 --> 00:03:03.120 Oh, we're so different, they're so different. 00:03:04.560 --> 00:03:08.960 And then in a blink of an eye, we finally understand them, right? 00:03:09.199 --> 00:03:18.240 Past the things that either confuse us or make us feel afraid, past those things, and we realize we're not all that different. 00:03:18.960 --> 00:03:23.039 So if you haven't figured it out yet, we're talking about race this morning, right? 00:03:23.199 --> 00:03:29.759 Big issue Sunday at Christ the Redeemer, child abuse during the welcome, and now uh racism during the sermon. 00:03:30.400 --> 00:03:31.840 All in one week. 00:03:32.159 --> 00:03:33.919 So let's start with the obvious. 00:03:34.080 --> 00:03:38.639 Uh, you probably remember the story, Genesis 1, Genesis 1, 27 and 28. 00:03:38.719 --> 00:03:44.879 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him, male and female, he created them. 00:03:45.039 --> 00:03:46.639 Now let's be clear. 00:03:46.960 --> 00:03:50.000 These were not Americans being created. 00:03:51.280 --> 00:03:53.520 America had not been created. 00:03:54.159 --> 00:04:00.800 Uh, Europe had not been created, Westerners had not been created, these were just humans. 00:04:01.599 --> 00:04:02.000 Right? 00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:05.599 They are you and they are them. 00:04:06.400 --> 00:04:13.039 Whoever to you them is, these are them and these are you. 00:04:13.439 --> 00:04:18.480 So point number one is this we are all the same in dignity and worth. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:26.000 When you get under these costumes and the colors of our skin and the textures of our hair, we're people. 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:30.800 Even the culture you don't understand, maybe the culture you don't like. 00:04:31.839 --> 00:04:37.120 That person is equal in dignity and worth before God. 00:04:37.439 --> 00:04:46.959 See, you cannot exempt dignity and worth from a group of people because you're afraid of them or because you're ignorant about them or their culture. 00:04:47.120 --> 00:04:48.319 You deal with that. 00:04:48.560 --> 00:04:50.399 You have to go deal with that. 00:04:51.040 --> 00:05:02.480 But know that if that person is a person, that person is created in the image of God as you are and deemed worthy by God as you are. 00:05:04.079 --> 00:05:08.720 So obvious point number one, we're all created equal in dignity and worth. 00:05:08.879 --> 00:05:16.720 Obvious point number two, we're all the same, yet we are different, beautifully different. 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:25.680 Years ago, I went to Ghana, Africa, and I ministered in a remote village, a village that had a white man had not been in that village in years. 00:05:25.920 --> 00:05:30.959 So none of the children had never seen a man with white skin. 00:05:31.519 --> 00:05:33.360 I was the strange person. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:37.759 I was I was the anomaly, I was the minority. 00:05:39.040 --> 00:05:44.079 My clothing, my habits, my language didn't make sense. 00:05:44.240 --> 00:05:55.759 No one was wearing long shorts, no one was wearing vans like I was, no one was worried about reapplying sunscreen like I was, and oh, that's 35, I need a 50, I need a 50 for my face. 00:05:56.399 --> 00:06:08.639 The always quotable Mark Twain said, travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. 00:06:08.879 --> 00:06:19.759 Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime. 00:06:20.319 --> 00:06:24.079 And what he's saying is, well, is what happened to me, right? 00:06:24.319 --> 00:06:31.279 I sit down in this remote village to have dinner with a family, and I look for a chair. 00:06:32.399 --> 00:06:33.759 There's no chairs. 00:06:34.240 --> 00:06:35.759 They sit on the floor. 00:06:36.959 --> 00:06:40.160 I look for a fork, there's no fork, they eat with their fingers. 00:06:42.560 --> 00:06:44.560 And these things aren't right or wrong. 00:06:44.720 --> 00:06:46.319 They're just different. 00:06:50.720 --> 00:07:00.800 And then we go to worship, and I want to sit, and then I want to stand when we sing, and if I'm feeling real spirited, I might sway. 00:07:02.879 --> 00:07:03.839 Maybe. 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:07.519 Maybe it's a stretch for me. 00:07:08.319 --> 00:07:19.759 And they have hankies and they dance in lines, and it is fantastic, and I, the reserve westerner, am too uptight to even participate. 00:07:19.920 --> 00:07:23.120 I don't know what to do with this, but it's fantastic. 00:07:24.319 --> 00:07:43.040 And then we we start to talk, and if we can get past barely being able to understand each other, we find out we have so much in common because we have joy in common and loss in common, and we care about peace around us and peace in us and peace in our family, and we care about our kids, and we care about respect and we care about provision. 00:07:43.360 --> 00:07:49.199 See, we are the same even while we are beautifully different. 00:07:50.240 --> 00:07:53.519 Months ago, we we were in Acts chapter 2. 00:07:54.160 --> 00:08:02.079 Acts chapter 2 is this little moment in church history where you see amazing unity occurring. 00:08:02.319 --> 00:08:05.839 And you read it and you go, oh wow, this is amazing. 00:08:06.000 --> 00:08:07.519 Look at this early church. 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:08.959 Let's read that early church. 00:08:09.439 --> 00:08:15.680 It's like a utopia, which apparently lasted for about 30 seconds because we're in Acts chapter 6 and we have a problem. 00:08:17.279 --> 00:08:21.120 Arguments begin and divisions begin, and they never stop, never will stop. 00:08:21.279 --> 00:08:22.720 Problems will always exist. 00:08:23.680 --> 00:08:34.480 What's wonderful about what plays out here in this Acts chapter 6 is the problem exists and it's a nasty, horrible problem, and it is raised to the leadership, and they immediately deal with it. 00:08:34.559 --> 00:08:36.080 And that's fantastic. 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:40.879 So this Acts chapter 6, verses 1 through 4, I'll read that again that Jill read for us. 00:08:41.039 --> 00:08:56.639 Now, in these days, when the disciples were increasing in number, so the church is growing, a complaint, a complaint by the Hellenists, that's one group, one culture, one race, arose against the Hebrews, another culture and race, because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution. 00:08:56.879 --> 00:09:04.320 And the twelve summoned the full number of disciples and said, It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables. 00:09:04.480 --> 00:09:11.360 Therefore, brothers, pick out from among you seven men of good repute, full of spirit and of wisdom, whom we'll appoint to this duty. 00:09:11.679 --> 00:09:16.399 So, hey, we're gonna we're gonna appoint some people, go fix, go fix this. 00:09:16.639 --> 00:09:18.080 We have to fix this. 00:09:19.200 --> 00:09:21.840 But we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. 00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:30.240 So, point number three is this problems always exist, and this particular problem here was racism. 00:09:30.879 --> 00:09:34.720 So apparently the people in charge had some sort of distribution problem. 00:09:35.279 --> 00:09:39.120 Now you could say maybe this was a mistake, an oversight. 00:09:39.600 --> 00:09:50.960 I sincerely doubt it because it's two groups of people that have historically hated each other and had racist views toward each other, demeaned each other, belittled each other. 00:09:51.440 --> 00:10:05.759 But the problem is now they're in a new way of living, a new way of thinking, where all are created in the image of God, all are broken in sin just the same, and all are brought to salvation and oneness in Christ. 00:10:06.000 --> 00:10:13.919 This God is not the God of one race and tribe, which is how all other nations thought of their gods. 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:22.639 This God broke free of that limiting view and said, He is the God of all people, created all people, and loves all people. 00:10:23.120 --> 00:10:26.240 This is what God's been trying to teach from the beginning, from Genesis. 00:10:26.399 --> 00:10:29.440 All humanity is created in the image of God. 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:31.919 Everybody, from the very beginning. 00:10:32.159 --> 00:10:38.559 And then we see other hints throughout the scriptures, not just in the New Testament teaching, there's stuff in the Old Testament. 00:10:38.639 --> 00:10:40.799 There's this book named Ruth. 00:10:41.039 --> 00:10:43.840 We talked about it in our Sunday school class a few weeks ago. 00:10:43.919 --> 00:10:45.919 There's this family in Bethlehem. 00:10:46.159 --> 00:10:58.720 There's a mama and there's a daddy, and the mom is Naomi, the dad is Elamelech, and they have two sons, and in Bethlehem, a drought begins, the food dries up, there's nothing to eat, this family, they don't know where to go, they have to go where there's food. 00:10:58.879 --> 00:11:00.000 Well, there's food in Moab. 00:11:00.080 --> 00:11:04.559 Well, this is a problem because the Moabites don't like the Hebrews. 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:07.840 And this family is Hebrew, but they gotta move to Moab for food. 00:11:07.919 --> 00:11:10.480 So they move to Moab, which is a risk. 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:12.480 They don't like each other. 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:16.960 And they get there, and Elamelech, the dad, he dies. 00:11:17.440 --> 00:11:20.240 So now you're down to mom and two boys. 00:11:20.879 --> 00:11:25.840 The two boys end up marrying two Moabite girls, Orpah and Ruth. 00:11:25.919 --> 00:11:28.399 So one race marries another race. 00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:34.639 They live there for 10 years, never a grandchild, no grandbabies, no heirs, and then the sons die. 00:11:35.120 --> 00:11:39.200 So now we're at Naomi, Ruth, and Orpah. 00:11:40.159 --> 00:11:42.720 So then food comes back to Bethlehem. 00:11:43.279 --> 00:11:48.480 The rains, the rains return, and so Naomi says, it's time for me to go home, it's time for me to move back. 00:11:48.559 --> 00:11:52.879 And she looks at her daughters-in-laws and says, Hey, girls, y'all stay here. 00:11:53.600 --> 00:11:57.039 There's a chance, at least there's a chance here that you could remarry. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:05.600 But your chances of remarrying back in Bethlehem because you're from a different race, you're Moabite, they're not gonna like you, is very, it's not gonna look good for you. 00:12:05.759 --> 00:12:06.639 You should stay here. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:09.759 And Orpus stays, but Ruth goes with Naomi. 00:12:11.200 --> 00:12:13.440 This is a huge risk for Ruth. 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:19.519 She would be one race in a land of another race, the chances of marrying again are incredibly slim. 00:12:19.679 --> 00:12:25.200 But then a man enters her life, this man named Boaz, which means Redeemer. 00:12:25.440 --> 00:12:29.759 And this Redeemer marries this girl from another country, from another race. 00:12:30.000 --> 00:12:33.440 And Ruth and Boaz go on to have a son named Obed. 00:12:33.679 --> 00:12:35.440 Obed has a son named Jesse. 00:12:35.679 --> 00:12:42.159 Jesse has a son named David, who is King David, who is the lineage of the Jewish Messiah, Jesus. 00:12:42.320 --> 00:12:43.440 What's the point? 00:12:43.840 --> 00:12:48.159 Well, the point is a Moabite is in the line of the Jewish Messiah. 00:12:48.559 --> 00:12:57.440 The entire time God is trying to get us to see he is not the God of one group of people or one race or one culture. 00:12:58.159 --> 00:13:06.960 God is breaking down the walls of an ethnocentric view of God, and he's breaking down racist views of each other that we hold. 00:13:07.519 --> 00:13:10.080 And here's the good news: point number three. 00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:16.879 The gospel dismantles racism because identity is received from God. 00:13:17.440 --> 00:13:24.879 The gospel dismantles racism, our racism, because identity is received from God. 00:13:25.039 --> 00:13:35.600 The gospel says you are beloved before what you look like, where you are from, or what you do, because God deems you beloved because of Jesus. 00:13:37.360 --> 00:13:43.679 It means you're not first a southerner or northerner, Midwesterner. 00:13:44.639 --> 00:13:51.120 It means you're not male, female, white, black, conservative, liberal, eastern, western, whatever. 00:13:51.200 --> 00:13:53.279 You're dominantly using for your identity. 00:13:53.440 --> 00:14:01.519 The thing that is dominantly your identity is that God has deemed you worthy and important as an individual, a human being. 00:14:02.720 --> 00:14:09.039 By him we are children of God, all of us, despite and all of our beautiful differences. 00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:10.879 Galatians 3.28. 00:14:11.200 --> 00:14:19.600 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there's no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 00:14:19.840 --> 00:14:26.399 In other words, stop splitting people, belittling people, and demonizing people by these differences. 00:14:27.919 --> 00:14:35.279 You are absolved and accepted, redeemed into an identity that's given to you, not earned by the work of Jesus, not your word. 00:14:35.840 --> 00:14:43.039 And this is where you become secure enough that you can look at another culture, a person so different than you, and you know what? 00:14:43.120 --> 00:14:43.840 It's fine. 00:14:44.080 --> 00:14:45.759 You're not afraid of that. 00:14:46.000 --> 00:14:48.799 Even if you're ignorant of it, it's fine. 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:52.399 You don't have to belittle them to make yourself feel more important. 00:14:52.639 --> 00:14:59.200 It's actually when we cease to know this God and this gospel, when we're insecure people. 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:03.360 And then we will belittle people. 00:15:04.639 --> 00:15:10.720 And we will demonize people that are different than us as to feel secure and important. 00:15:11.200 --> 00:15:12.879 This poison is racism. 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:27.600 But gospel people are free from this poison as we're already deemed secure and important, and even absolved of the ways in which we have used racism to feel important and secure. 00:15:29.279 --> 00:15:46.080 It's the truth of this gospel that takes away the sorrow of our mistakes, our society's mistakes, our parents' mistakes, our grandparents' mistakes, our community's mistakes, and begins to create a new way to relate to each other out of our belovedness and out of God's love of all people. 00:15:46.480 --> 00:15:53.039 This is what enables the people in Acts 6, when the problem arises and surfaces, they so quickly deal with it. 00:15:55.039 --> 00:16:00.159 And maybe you are here and you grew up thinking whatever about whatever group of people. 00:16:00.799 --> 00:16:05.759 And you did this because you were told this by your family or your community. 00:16:06.720 --> 00:16:08.960 Or maybe you're simply afraid. 00:16:09.840 --> 00:16:11.840 Or maybe you're just ignorant. 00:16:12.320 --> 00:16:14.159 Or maybe you're insecure. 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:18.320 But the good news is you don't have to live that way anymore. 00:16:19.279 --> 00:16:22.399 Not in that sort of insecure, unloving manner. 00:16:22.559 --> 00:16:24.480 You are God's beloved. 00:16:25.360 --> 00:16:33.840 And in that, you no longer have to belittle or demonize other people as to feel or be important and loved. 00:16:34.960 --> 00:16:41.279 This means you ain't no better than the black person or the white person or the brown person or the rich person or the poor person. 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:47.519 You don't have to split them off and belittle and demonize them as to feel more important yourself. 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:51.679 They don't have to be less for you to be more because you're already fine. 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:54.159 You already have everything you need to be in Jesus. 00:16:54.320 --> 00:17:03.440 You are not ultimately your skin color or cultural habits or even your weight or even the clothes you wear or the car you drive. 00:17:03.759 --> 00:17:12.559 My brothers and sisters, you are secure in a rich love that forever deems you worthy. 00:17:13.119 --> 00:17:15.519 You were created in the image of God. 00:17:15.759 --> 00:17:17.279 Let's pray together. 00:17:17.759 --> 00:17:23.759 God, thank you for your good news that all people are created in your image and deemed worthy. 00:17:25.200 --> 00:17:30.240 Not by what we look like, not by what we do, but because we are yours. 00:17:30.559 --> 00:17:37.920 For forgive us for all the ways that we have belittled and demonized other people as to feel important ourselves. 00:17:38.640 --> 00:17:41.039 It is a very small way of living. 00:17:42.799 --> 00:17:45.039 Would you increase our trust in you? 00:17:45.279 --> 00:17:52.079 Help us to see how worthy and important and loved we are in you. 00:17:52.319 --> 00:18:00.480 And out of such security and belovedness of absolution, would we be able to love all people? 00:18:01.200 --> 00:18:02.559 In Jesus' name we pray. 00:18:02.799 --> 00:18:03.440 Amen.