A House Divided Cannot Stand

well good morning got to kind of settle my soul watching our crew minister to us like that in any time you're asked to address an ethnic group you're forced into some generalizations that I'm not sure ultimately that it's helpful so so what I want to do having gotten and I remember the emotion I felt when I opened up the email and it just said hey we would love for you to discuss the council is confident in your ability to discuss the inconsistencies in white evangelicals on the issues of race and the way forward oh and you have 30 minutes so here's here's how I think I can serve us I don't want to talk about fools today I just don't I don't have the time nor the inclination to discuss foolishness so what I want to do is I want to talk to you about a group of people that God has knit my heart to I am the pastor of the village church in Dallas Texas it is a predominantly white congregation situated in a place where more than likely we will always be predominantly wide I don't feel an impulse to need to apologize for that or feel bad about that that is the reality of God's call on my life that's where I've been placed it's the ministry that God has given me an i deeply love the men and women of the village church I have for 15 years wept with them buried them married them they have wept with me they have visited me in the hospital I have visited them in the hospital they are my people and God is our God that is the context that I find but here's here's something I noticed and this gets me into our journey these this people I love that this people that that support me and applaud me and encourage me and through their tithes and offerings pay my bills would operate in some inconsistencies that were discombobulating to me if I preached a sermon out of the Book of Isaiah on justice my inbox would fill with their glee that I would broach the subject but if I applied it to the subject of race then then all a sudden I was a Marxist or I'd been watching too much of the liberal media if I spoke on abortion I was applauded as courageous and a ferocious man of God and yet when I would tackle race I was being too political if I quoted the great reformer Martin Luther never and I've done that hundreds of times over 15 years never did I get an email about his blatant anti-semitism but let me quote the great reformer Martin Luther King jr. and watch my inbox fill with people asking me if I'm aware of his moral brokenness don't be careful cuz these are people that I love these are people who love the Word of God they are crazy but like if I I finished like a year and a half through the book of Exodus and I did a topical series and I started getting questions about when we were gonna start preaching through the books of the Bible again these are people who pray and worship and evangelize and love Jesus and yet there were these inconsistencies around this topic that we're confusing to me and again I'm not talking about fools 300 fools left when we first broached the subject and there weren't there wasn't any lament in our elder room about that other than the normal lament that you lament concerning a fool so I want to try to explain as best I can the inconsistencies in the white evangelicals that I have been called to lead a round race i I think there's a cascading effect and it starts with ignorance and let me chat about ignorant I think what I'm talking about on ignorance is they don't know what they don't know and they are a part of a system that encourages there not knowing let me just lay this before you I am a public school kid my kids are public school kids and here's here's what I've done leading up to this guy have asked thirty white men and women that I know and love to tell me who they learned about during Black History Month among the 30 plus men and women starting at age 12 all the way up to 60 I was given seven names Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad Frederick Douglass Rosa Parks Martin Luther King jr. George Washington Carver Malcolm X if this is all we know then intellectual innovative creative african-americans aren't anomalies they are not normal these brothers and sisters are outliers they are not what I should come to expect in my interactions with African Americans there's nothing about the great migration how can you understand the layout of the United States of America without knowing about the great migration how can you understand ghettos without understanding the great migration nothing I mean nothing about Benjamin Banneker who laid out Washington DC I don't need to keep going here but the list is long and extensive and we don't know it we don't know about housing disparity because we're snuggled in affluent suburbs where no one will lay that data in front of us and even if that data is in front of us our education has taught us that's not on us that's on y'all and being careful cuz I love these people I love them then as we move to world history I am taught nothing of Africa they would lead me to believe that Africans were not just running around the jungle with no homes houses cities architecture or culture they are wearing leaves I have Spears they are basic and uneducated I am NOT taught about their architecture engineering although I will be taught about the pyramids but we want to make sure that northern Africa is not the same thing as Africa I am not taught that in Zimbabwe and Mozambique there are massive stone complexes that were hubs of great cities and civilizations I know nothing of a 270 yard long 15,000 ton curved granite wall I know nothing of architecture I know nothing of system i I don't know that math was birthed in Africa so there is now nothing and how the majority of white men and women are educated that would lead us to believe that Africans and African Americans are intellectual innovative or creative except a couple y'all in sports and entertainment I'm also taught that racism is unleashing dogs and spraying with hoses so I certainly cannot be a racist there is a seed of doubt sown in the mind of whites that blacks have a work ethic or the capacity to help us it's why even when white men and women of good heart engage it can oftentimes come across as paternalistic that y'all need our help I cannot I have lost count of the number of young gifted godly beautiful african-american Latino Asian church planters who have tried to partner with white churches who have tried to do the things that we have heard from this stage and have been treated like children not co-laborers I can only imagine how such an educates and whines I can only imagine how such an education to quote King helps create ominous clouds of inferiority in the mental skies of African Americans so surely now if we move to how Christians are and by the way I just talked about pod and say a word about private school I'm not going to talk about it let me stop for a second I don't hate my people you save daddy you don't have to send me that email about how I hate my folk cuz I don't hate my folk my Christian education seems to have jumped from the book of acts to the Whittenburg door Thomas C Odin I think I saw that brother dinner ID fanboy doubt I couldn't even go introduce myself he said cut Africa out of the Bible and Christian memory and you have misplaced many pivotal scenes of salvific history it is the story of the children of Abraham in Africa Joseph in Africa Moses in Africa Mary Joseph and Jesus in Africa and shortly thereafter mark and Petula and Athanasius and Agustin in Africa the theological developments in North Africa laid the hermeneutical foundations that brought clarity to the Trinity Martin Luther and the Ethiopian Church is just now being douve into two Luther the Church of Ethiopia had more fidelity to Christian tradition than the church in Rome it was his relationship with the Deacon Michael of the church in Ethiopia that led to the Reformation to begin with this ignorance has led to immaturity and immaturity it talks when it should listen and it's silent when it should speak this ignorant has led to immaturity this immaturity has led either to hostility or withdrawal hostility in that I cannot be a racist because I am not unleashed a dog on you I have not sprayed you at the fire hose and I am not in any way trying to hold you back from success apart from systems I cannot see in a history I do not know so it makes me angry when you take a knee because you don't have an intellect play ball shut up do what you're paid for makes me hostile and then when met with data I get discombobulated so I would draw so where do we go from here I and I hardly slept last night not cuz I was afraid to give this talk but because I understood what I was gonna be asking why pastors I need to chat with you you have got to say something now hold up I here's why I didn't sleep I know what I'm asking man I am NOT going to be fired for saying these things I'm not you might be and as I laid in my bed last night I was like oh Lord like a thought of you and your family and your children real people made in the image of God being bullied and beaten and shoved out the door I thought of your opportunity to join the community of those who have suffered at the hands of that same nonsense as both a blessing to you but also a painful blow I know what I'm asking you've got to sit there is no way forward if white pulpits won't talk this king or said this rightly in the end and you've heard this quoted multiple times we will be remembered we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends so let me let me help I've learned some things I don't think your first sermon should be a sermon on white privilege I mean if you want to go out in a blaze of glory just preach that but I would pre-pack [Applause] so what then brothers this is where your Bible will help you ethnic harmony is one of the great themes of the Bible it is not isolated to Ephesians 2 and is not isolated to the book of Acts Genesis 12 says all nations of the earth will be blessed in Revelation 7 shows people from every tribe tongue and nation on earth this is the refrain of the Bible over and over and over again let the nation's be glad that the nation's be glad that the nation's be glad is not about a group of white folk in English singing songs that many of my good friends would call melancholy Jesus consistently confronted broken thinking around ethnicity and I think we miss it because we blow through our Bible too quickly and read it like we're reading a blog no you got a steep in it John 10:16 Jesus looks at a crowd and says I have other sheep that are not of this fold and I must bring them also and they will listen to my voice that there will be one flock and one Shepherd and I'm just telling you that his inbox on Monday was full don't you know we're the chosen people don't you know the Bible Jesus don't you know Moses and the law don't you know about the tabernacle Luke 10:25 through 37 and behold a lawyer stood up to put him to the test saying teacher what shall I do to inherit eternal life and he said to him what is written in the law how do you read it and he answered you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbour is yourself and he said to him you have answered correctly to Charlie's point he's got his orthodoxy down jesus replied well actually but he desiring to justify himself my white brothers and sisters that sentence is huge but desiring to justify himself he said to Jesus and who is my neighbor and jesus replied a man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among robbers who stripped him and beat him and departed leaving him half dead now by chance a priest was going down that road and when he saw him he passed by on the other side so likewise a Levite when he came to the place and saw him passed by on the other side so now what's happening in this a you've got this story that's taking place and you've got kind of the Hebrew Mount Rushmore you got hebrew tom brady going on right here what the Levite surely the Levite who knows the law is gonna act upon the law what the priest oh man the priest knows what God's charge surely the priest is gonna know look who Jesus makes the hero but a Samaritan as he journeyed came to where he was and when he saw him he had compassion and he went him and he bound up his wounds pouring on oil and wine then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him and the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper saying take care of him and whatever more you spend I will repay when you come back which of these three do you think proved to be the neighbor of the man who fell among robbers and he said the one who showed him mercy wouldn't even say it he couldn't say the Samaritan and Jesus said to him you go and do likewise and don't let it don't miss on the fact that the first person that Jesus reveals that he is the son of God - as a Samaritan woman at the well who was exchanging sex for rent let's not forget that one so you got to say something I wouldn't start with white privilege but you start a lot of different places in the word you should should say something you'll find if you just stay at the high level of unity your people will just applaud you you will need to over a period of time begin to peel back the layers so after that first sermon on unity goes so well take heart brothers fast pray gear up dig some more lead your people into what is true number two on the way forward is not just that white pastors must say something regardless of the cost but I think a lot of this is gonna hinge on relationships and then I want to clarify something I am NOT asking you to find the black person that agrees with you [Applause] becoming friends with the african-american the group agrees with everything you say isn't helpful to you as a white evangelical and probably has that african-american trying to win approval or position is the brokenness in each of us fight like an unpacked kind of how I'm trying to cultivate this in acts 29 Doug Logan Brandon Washington Eric Mason Leon scrump Dwayne Bonjour Jerome gay and many others have become a sounding board for me as I tried to reach out for clarity when I get confused or don't understand something I do not agree with these men on everything their blackness does not make them right it is a voice that I need to hear because I do not know or understand so I need to figure out how to understand so I go to voices who love the Word of God like I love the Word of God are passionate about Jesus like I'm passionate about Jesus who can help me understand history background and the development of thinking that I'll need to faithfully steward what God has entrusted to me this also enables me to champion their voices without being paternalistic or participating in a type of tokenism that would wash away a foundation that we most desperately need see white brothers and sisters let me try to help us you you finding and I love he maced blew up a little bit on this last night if you find an african-american brother or sister who can't do it and you put them up there because of their color you have put us behind not a head and this is my african-american I like I have been in multiple rooms with tears streaming down faces we're brothers and sisters like I don't know how much longer I can do it but let me say as a white man if it weren't for the the hanging in there of dr. Eric Mason and Leon scrump and Dwayne bond and at the village church Rob Daniel and Mike John if it weren't for the hanging in their nests my african-american brothers and sisters there would be no way forward for us as a white congregation I think it has to be more than struck or more than relationships though because I'm not sure that my relationships are going to live on after me so structures must change I've used education as the system that I'm poking at and by the way I think just a revision of textbooks is the most low lying fruit we've got everything else gets far more complex but that that seems a little easy but what do I know I'm a pastor an educator legitimate seats at the table with real power and voice must be called out and developed there must be space four voices to be heard without fear or fear of repercussions and acts 29 this means board positions and network director positions it means we do not want to put on events where Anglo communicators outweigh people of color we want to make sure our assessment coordinators understand that we are oftentimes coming from different contexts and from different cultures and will need to understand those to assess most completely it means at the village church we are going to be serious about seeking and finding gifted godly ferocious persons of color for legitimate power preaching and seats of not just voice but shaping of culture at TBC this has not been easy it has not been quick we have failed often we have stumbled forward often times with bloody knees and tearful eyes to give an illustration of this just most recently the the village church is in the process of rolling off our multi-site campuses to be autonomous churches another talk for another day but we feel this has been robbed by the Spirit of God through a lot of prayer and seeking the face of God it's not a slight on that that ecclesiology it's just we feel like the Lord's want to do something different with us and we we have struggled to find men who can be a campus pastor for a season and lead into being the pastor of an autonomous church down in Dallas and out in Fort Worth and so we we've been looking and having conversations and I have called every african-american man I know and went who you got I mean here's what I need wait how do I help me right they got a lot of white friends a lot of but what I would love to just say here's here's 2000 people in an 11 million dollar building go lead them and so one of the firms that's helping us find men said let me out skew a question pastor Matt if if we find an Anglo eight and an african-american seven which one do you want I said I want the african-american seven and he said what if we find an Anglo eight in an african-american six and then I said then give me the Anglo eight because the african-american six will look and feel to our people like the kind of tokenism that I'm preaching against it's another opportunity for us to find and give power away in a way that's not paternalistic but man we see in you the capacity to lead and love and shape and we want you to go now I I have preached on this subject enough to know that I need to say some things here at the end specifically to my white brothers and sisters you do not need to email me a picture of your child social study book that has one paragraph on the Great Migration you just don't need to do that you don't need to ask me why I hate my people I don't hate my people I dislike fools I am proud of my white heritage I am saying nothing today out of white guilt I do not feel guilty for how I was born for how could I serve anyone if I shook my fist at the heavens that determined to make me a gangly white man with a loud voice I am NOT a political man but I am a gospel man in Galatians 2 11 through 14 where we see Peter who should have known better drift back into his foolishness the Apostle Paul confront him with these words but when Cephas came to Antioch I opposed him to his face because he stood condemned for before certain men came from James he was eating with the Gentiles but when they came he drew back and separated himself fearing the circumcision party and the rest of the Jews acted hypocritically along with him this again I would point to what Jackie taught us your people are watching white pastor white parent but when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel when I saw that their conduct was not in step with the truth of the gospel when I saw that their conduct the way they were behaving was out of step with the truth of the gospel to Paul this issue is not political it is tied to the finished work of Jesus Christ and there's a behavior that is out of step with that gospel of Jesus Christ and Paul a Jew among Jews a super Jew is not afraid to confront another Jew about a behavior that is out of step with the truth of the gospel so I'm here to lovingly point out some steps that are out of step with the truth of the gospel and call us by the grace of God to gospel faithfulness in our day I am not without hope I am so encouraged this week like I man I've just been thinking minute what kind of white people come to a conference like this like I that wasn't a joke I don't know why y'all are giggling cuz if you look at Twitter it looked like they know white people in the fight and then Here I am standing I mean how how could my heart not be filled with hope will bleed together brothers and sisters and God will make the way my hope just as I close is that as african-americans you might understand more fully not the fools but I think the men and women that dr. King wrote that letter from a Birmingham jail to well-meaning Bible loving Jesus loving prayerful godly folk who just are ignorant and that's led to some immaturity and immaturity leads to at times hostility but most of the time withdrawal I'm not saying it's it's right I'm trying to help you understand why it's there and then white pastors I'm again I I am not naive to the cost of what I'm asking but there is no way forward if you don't say anything just simple straightforward this is God's heart and if you get fired for biblical fidelity now you just joined a hold you you found yourself in Hebrews 11 you got fired for biblical fidelity let me pray for us father my heart is full help us pray for my white brothers and sisters right now motivated by love for you rooted in the gospel saturated in truth give us courage if if nothing else confront us in our fears that we might love something more than you we don't want to be afraid of men wouldn't be fearful of you and your holiness pray as we finish day two as we head into what's next that you would in your mercy and grace slowly but surely as we play the long game break things down and build things up I do pray for relationships between white churches and black churches that are not per turn allistic but an environment where we might learn from one another build one another up in love pour into one another with no strings attached to other than our brotherly sisterly affection for one another I thank you that I'm not asking you to do anything that would be difficult for you so I pray that you would break bondage yet again spiritual bondage intellectual bondage you'd grant us wisdom for the way forward and it's for your beautiful name I pray amen god bless you

Channel: The Gospel Coalition

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Rating: 3.6681128 out of 5

Keywords: the gospel coalition, the gospel, gospel, coalition, pastors, pastor, minister, ministry, Christ, Christian, Christianity, church, churches, faith, reformed, reformation, bible, biblical, evangelical, Jesus, God, spiritual, spirit, Holy Spirit, preacher, preaching, teaching, mlk50, matt chandler, acts 29, race, racism

Id: -wmj0i1oH1Q

Length: 33min 21sec (2001 seconds)

Published: Fri Apr 20 2018