A.R. & Jamaal Bernard | "BLM & Justice: Part 2" | Christian Cultural Center

hallelujah lord hallelujah lord thank you so much for who you are what you are and as we humbly approach the throne through prayer we ask that you just give us a sense of security as we move forward as we trust in you as we follow you lord lord we ask for the courage to do so not just to sing it in a song because the lyrics are nice but something that we start implementing in our lives so we ask for a touch of the vision of the direction that you have for us as we submit and you lead guard guide and govern these paths that you have set up for your people so react that you have your way anoint this afresh to move when you say move anointers are afresh to to have the courage to stop when you say stop because sometimes when we're moving it looks good and we don't want to stop so we actually have your way in our lives we surrender submitted to you totally we submit our spiritual aspect our mental aspect our emotional aspect glory our financials lord we submit to you surrender so that we can move forward on a path that you have set forth because a path that you have set forth is set forth with your supplies with your riches and lord as we walk we act as you set us up to glorify you that our decisions will glorify you our statements will glorify you our motives will glorify you our thoughts will glorify you lord even as we navigate this world react the jew be glorified in jesus precious name amen amen amen if i could add to that because um what's her name maxine gordon yes someone who posted it on facebook about her sister yes that's just a word of prayer father we just thank you right now for access to the gifts of healing that you pour out on those who are sick and afflicted to help us deal with this temporary situation of fallen humanity we pray first from maxine that you will give her confidence in your presence in her life and in the life of her sister especially in that hospital room we pray that you'll manifest your divine healing in whatever way you choose and for anyone else out there that is suffering physical illness that they'll experience a manifestation of your love your life your light through their physical bodies heal father we know that that's what you do that is the children's bread and we are your children so we thank you and we bless you for her healing in jesus name amen amen you know as you were praying i was thinking about the language that we use and take for granted you talked about we you said we we come to your throne and too often people take that literally so it's like this throne and god sitting there and i'm walking in you know but but the the the throne is is is language that symbolizes his power his ultimate authority so when you say about coming to the throne of glory you know or has thrown that we might have trained mercy in the time of need what we're saying is we're approaching god's ultimate power that he is the one supremely in charge and he has final say-so on whatever happens in america in american society yeah and in the world right in the universe yeah the universe but especially here in america where we're challenged by so many things during this particular season and everything is being politicized the politicization of race politicization of religion and those two things really are at the forefront right now in the american conflict social conflict yeah and and it's true because when i was listening to a lot of the individuals whether they're posting uh sending me messages on instagram facebook and things like that uh one of the things they said was thank you because you helped them with the conflict that they were dealing with and i didn't realize how many christians uh both black and white uh that were dealing with the whole idea of black lives matter uh so you gave them the language you gave them to understand the understanding okay there's a philosophy and then there's the movement and how can we navigate the one the conversation and to our stands because yes we believe that black lives matter so that helped out a lot yeah and you know there's a difference between a a philosophical revolution and an ideological revolution a philosophical revolution seeks to find universal truth principles that apply across the boards and out of those principles and order of things natural order of things we should come up with best practices but an ideological revolution is the the idea someone has an idea and they don't want to talk about it they simply want to impose it and that's what we're seeing people have all these ideas on what things should be like how society should be ordered who should be empowered and they're not looking for a conversation no they're looking for you to simply accept what they have to say their perspective so it's really trying to shove it down your throat they're imposing yeah yeah you know and and the sad thing about is when you do start having that dialogue and that conversation uh you you start cracking holes and what they believe and then they get an uh aggressive and frustrated with you where you know you they start trying to demean you as an individual and start going after whether you're it's your religion whether it's your your world view and or because they couldn't stand up to the questions and that is an indicator that it's their personal idea because they're taking the criticism personally if it's a universal principle then it's outside of you it transcends you and we could look at it talk about it and see how do we apply it mm-hmm that's what i tell people i said did you argue with the truth exactly throw it back yes so that distinction between the philosophy of black lives matters versus the institution and its values and its beliefs was was helpful yep it was very helpful we can subscribe to a philosophy yep and an institution can have a set of core values that we may disagree with but in this specific area you know it's like when organizations that we may disagree with uh decides to pour money into something that's good whether it's to help the poor you know feed hungry hungry or whatever you know hey i i can deal with that i don't want them to suffer or continue to be without because i disagree with some philosophy if you're going to put money into that which is good then i can support that people don't make those distinctions people just get up from the table no i don't want to do it now you know from apologetic apologetic standpoint uh we say that there are all religions all philosophies tend to speak some type of truth but that doesn't make make the philosophy or the religion itself truth yeah you know so some of the ideas might be true uh some of the statements might be true but that doesn't make it the the whole institution true in itself right right right and that's important that's that's jesus's distinction he said i am the way not anyway the way i am the truth not a truth but the truth uh i am the life so he exalts himself to a place where i'm ultimate truth this is where it all this is where truth all comes together this is where it stops right here with me and there are those who you know reject that notion they say well no i don't i don't believe that that's okay that's a beauty of of of free will yep you can choose whatever you want and you will experience the consequences or benefits of those choices so true yeah so you know me growing up you know one of my tensions i used to run with is saying that's not fair oh yeah right where's the camera that was him that's not fair that's not fair i i would get mad especially if i'm the one who got caught uh retaliating towards something that i didn't start but i was finishing it i was getting trouble i was like you know you know you didn't start but you were finishing yeah i was finishing it okay okay i got that and i get in trouble like that's not fair or we both end up getting uh a child we're grounded or or whatnot i was like but i just started it was not my fault but no we both and i'm like it's not fair so let's talk about this whole idea of justice and at the core of justice and and you know what is at the core of justice where uh do can we say biblically speaking with justice and uh you know because i i i still say that certain things are not fair but well life is not fair no uh that's the reality it's like you should tell me i'm like oh why not no no no um because of the fallen human condition you know we were talking about economics last week and the equitable distribution of resources and management of resources and justice comes into play with that so if we were to define justice um we'd have to call it equity fairness but in the broader sense of the word very broad sense of the word it means the principle that everyone receive what they deserve okay that's the broadest principle that everyone this receives what they deserve so i wrestled with that definition well the the problem is the word deserves yes who determines yes who deserves where is the deserving standards that's it that's why justice has to transcend us because it's an objective determination we're subjective yep we try to be as objective as possible impartial not allowing our personal biases and opinions and feelings and emotions to come into the decisions that we make but the fact is that there's still that degree of influence only god is objective so true justice can only come from god and and that's wha once again apologetically speaking that is one of our stands for a person to seek justice and ultimately you're seeking god yeah you know because cs lewis says for me to say that there's no there's no injustice i mean that there's injustice in the world i first had to understand what justice was right he said so that's like i want i don't know a qriket line unless i know what a straight line is you know i don't know a a a fault line or a line that's messed up until i know a perfect line you know so for me to say that there's no justice i have to understand what justice is and then it takes us back to god yeah yeah because there has to be an ultimate fully objective source of justice so how did injustice come into play well if god is ultimate fairness ultimate equity justice and we were made in the image of god that made us holy and it is out of that holiness in relationship to god that justice flows so the moment that relationship with god was broken all right justice was affected okay in humanity but prior to that just injustice and justice was already at play with satan see me and saying we got problems but you gotta understand yes because if you go back to the biblical text now we're into our spiritual warfare yep um because there appears this this this creature it's called a serpent all right but it's upright it's talking so we have to get away from thinking that it's a literal snake standing up that doesn't make sense well please please because a lot of the viewers are watching this and they have been christians for years a very long time yeah and he still picture a snake that's a serpent like this the curse a snake with legs right two legs like that no no no no the language there speaks of a being and cunning and crafty and serpentile uh is is the imagery of that cunning of that that subtlety all right so it's really describing the character of the individual and we have language today you know that guy's a snake you can't trust him what do we say there's deception that comes through that and the snake has become a symbol the serpent has become a symbol in cultures throughout history um some used in a positive way who are without yahweh the revelation of yahweh but this being enters who can speak who can interact eve is not afraid you know so this is not shocking to her this is not new it's a norm so it's a familiar exactly it's familiar it's the norm and she's having this conversation and i think he butted her up like prior to this conversation it was other conversations it's possible my mind starts going yeah yeah we can speculate that you know there had to be a degree of familiarity and comfort to have that kind of a conversation and also for him to make that kind of accusation against god and she doesn't challenge it all right she just flowed right with it the scripture says that she was deceived but the fact that she could flow with that kind of conversation without any apprehension uh without challenging him at all uh i would i would suspect that there was a lead up you know there was something that led up to or things that led up to that conversation but uh notice the objective of this serpent which revelation reveals him as that old serpent the devil the the objective is to break the relationship undermine the relationship between adam and eve and and god so evidently there was something wrong with his relationship with god wow so injustice was at play there was something wrong because he approaches eve in a way that he is challenging god's character god's justice yep god's integrity yeah yeah you understand so in other words god's holding out on you he's keeping back from you he knows that if you eat you know you're going to be advanced so basically you deserve more than what you have right now exactly so he was putting himself in the position of god is saying you're deficient yes things are not being dealt with fairly here in other words he was making a statement there's injustice so that's where it really begins in the biblical context biblical story you know you're messing a lot of individuals up right now so injustice was the feeling already released in that one particular being all right and then the the biblical narrative says that that began to affect other beings yes who who agreed and that was the genesis of of rebellion you know but again he enters the garden in that fallen state in that state of injustice and and and animosity against god yeah right that's good that's good so injustice now enters um humanity because when adam sinned adam and eve sinned they broke that relationship with god so they separated themselves from that holiness out of which that justice would flow so now so we say that again so they separated themselves from god from the holiness the holiness exactly and out of that holiness that's just based upon the relationship justice would flow that's great because remember be fruitful multiply have dominion there's a difference between dominion and domination yes the dominion seeks to implement justice domination doesn't care about fairness or equity no it's a certain of superiority it's about dominating yeah i'm superior to you so i can dominate you exactly so that's what the dominion mandate became it became domination you just changed my whole mindset on how i looked at that conversation between adam eve and the serpent uh wow it just how conniving satan has been from the beginning yeah absolutely yeah that's what jesus said you're a murderer you're a liar yes you're the father of lies which means you birth deception into into humanity yes all right and to say he birthed it he didn't create it it simply came out of that fallen condition that he himself was in you know it's beautiful in the book of job where it says that even his angels he has charged with sin you know so it puts us into that reality that that sin existed prior to humanity yeah creation of humanity all right but it bled into human society through adam's you know obe disobedience yeah so so the the theme of justice it runs throughout scripture you know and justice is about fairness it's about equity it's it's about uh who deserves what and understand that word deserve because it's not just talking about who deserves resources but who deserves what in response to violations so now we get into the justice system yes right so if a person commits a crime all right what punishment do they deserve yes so deserve is not just give me give me give me it's no what should you experience as a result to the point where they put it in the amendments i think it's the sixth amendment it says no you know it talks about the of of treatment so that there's no cruel and unusual punishment yeah yeah so justice is important because it regulates all human relationships wait say that again because i think that's like the principle for today's message justice is important because because it regulates all human relationships yes because justice is an attitude i want to look at look at the scripture that's so good you know you never look at it just in basic human relationships yeah it regulates all human relationships think about it what's just and fair and equitable between us regulates our relationships and that's true because even when like you know thinking about christmas birthday gifts like that you start governing what you buy and how much you spend based on that relationship and this person deserves x compared to this person deserving why yeah we're making judgments of yes fairness and equity on a continuous basis that's that's the reality another thing about justice it requires that every person should be free to enjoy what they deserve not just to receive what they deserve but free to enjoy it because if i can receive it but i can't enjoy it then that's not fair so i can receive freedom but now i can't enjoy it exactly there you go so justice regulates selfishness it regulates unselfishness because you could be unselfish and wanting to give but then you have to think about the fairness in that given all right i'm generous i'm of a generous spirit but i don't want to go overboard because i'm an enabler you become an enabler you may leave yourself in a place of destitute destitution and you have to beg so just that's all about justice it regulates human relationships and regulates our activities in terms of what we give and receive i've never looked at justice like that [Laughter] so it's justices treating others with fairness and equity and that's why and remember what i said when adam sinned adam and eve sinned they broke relationship with god because god is ultimate justice so connecting to him all right his justice and fairness and equity flows through us and out from us to others because it has to be objective it has to be transcended yes that's why there has to be a moral universal moral standard by which we judge each other's actions and attitudes you know so justice plays a very important role and and and it's something that's so inside of individuals like you were a kid you didn't know philosophically or psychologically issues of justice or theologically it was justice you just knew that there should be this thing of fairness there should be this equal exchange and that is an important word there's a wonderful passage of scripture in second corinthians um chapter 5 verse 19 right and it says god was in christ reconciling the world to himself right and that greek word in in in in the text god was in christ reconciling the world to himself that greek word is catalaso and catalaso means a mutually agreed upon equivalent exchange [Music] got it uh and a mutually agreed upon equivalent exchange mutually agreed upon equivalence yeah so god gets into an agreement that's why the old testament is about covenants yeah he's a god of covenant he's a covenant keeping god a covenant is an agreement so god enters agreement with humanity and he entered agreement with humanity throughout scripture yeah the the the rainbow you know symbol of his covenant with noah there is the noah covenant the the abrahamic covenant the davidic covenant the mosaic covenant there are all these different covenants throughout scripture it is simply where god makes an agreement right and that agreement has to be mutually agreed upon mutually accepted all right so he says to abraham i will bless you if you follow me leave your family follow me let's enter a relationship and agreement so and god was in christ reconciling or presenting an agreement with humanity all right that if they embraced the sacrifice of christ his own sacrifice remember he offered himself a sacrifice all right to satisfy god's the equivalency it's not the satisf when here we're going to get into the theological yes i know right now the calvinist is coming up you know it was not to satisfy god's wrath as though god poured his wrath out on an innocent person his son no it was to satisfy the offense all right we offended god when we sinned against him and that's why he's a peace jesus is the peace offering yes so he offered himself a sacrifice but notice it had to be equivalent so it had to be equivalent to the offense the sin and the only one in the universe that had that value it was jesus jesus but uh it's ironic that here in the west is difficult for us to understand that because of the culture so when you read the bible from a western lens you can miss out on the significance of responding so if i offend you i'm i'm sorry then you're good right but in the eastern culture you know middle you know age of minor no there has to be an equivalent exchange right you're offending me that so that's why you know uh um if your eye offends you pluck it out that's no that's an equal exchange you know if you if your hand offends you you know cut it off yes yes yeah so we miss it out we miss out on it from this western lens because with our entitlement mentality you get a sorry usually we should be happy with that that's good enough right yeah let's take that walk yeah seriously but but yeah i i mean you know and that's the beauty of this passage that god was in there in christ right working this mutual the agreed upon so as many as received him jesus gospel of john to them gave the authority to become the children of god so he makes this offer all right and if you receive christ now we we mutually agree yes all right that your offense against god has been satisfied that's why it takes faith yes all right because you're not seeing anything tangible in that but you it you we mutually agree that the orphans have been satisfied that's why there's therefore now no condemnation to those who are in christ jesus why because the offense has been satisfied through the sacrifice of christ now you begin to live in a way that that that reflects that that satisfaction has been made but if you don't understand that you're going to continue to live under condemnation and guilt even as a christian yes wondering if god is mad at you if god still loves you if he's upset with you are we okay today and that's a crazy relationship can you imagine on a human level living in that way where you have to wake up with the person you love and wonder whether they love you or not how they feel about you today well put it this way let me help you god is not sensitive like that he understands humanity he created us so he understands how we are god is not sensitive he doesn't wear his emotions on his sleeve amen amen amen and see this is why and again all right justice flows from god just like love life light god is the source of all of that not us and and i'm sorry you just you've just triggered so much and my thinking and then what i'm seeing is because we believe that god is just when somebody is a recipient of evil that tends to draw the tension well if you're such a just guy there you go and why are you letting me get away am i going through this why is this why is xyz happening if you suggested attention with with people being able to accept this god uh the tension with being able to say i believe in this god and yet there's so much evil uh well where's the justice where is his justice but you see that's it justice to be truly justice has to be an objective response yes it can't be based on your feelings yes your emotions thank you you're short-sighted god is seeing yep the whole thing at a glance yep all of time he sees in a glance yes he doesn't go through a process right yes so we are short-sighted we have limited vision so his response are always going to be based upon the big picture say it again please his response is always going to be based on the big picture so again but the the idea that we're always crying out that's not fair you know i want justice we feel inside of us that there should be this this recompense whenever evil is perpetrated against us or against someone else that we observe and our righteous indignation rises up and we say no something's got to be done about that so think about our whole system jews of jewish prudence our right of law our whole legal system is about striving for justice yes see justice is not just there you have to get it it has to be realized it has to be strived for that's why it's called a court of law not a court of justice you go to the court of law in order to get justice because the reality is that broken and wounded individuals human beings create these laws so there can be unjust laws so when we look back in american history there were laws against helping slaves runaway slaves yup all right slavery was the law so there are unjust laws created by broken and wounded human beings who are driven by greed or force or ambition etc now we have to go into the system all right our legislative system and we have to change those laws that's advocacy in terms of the six approaches to dismantling broken and wounded social systems uh advocacy says okay that that law is not right it's not just so we now have to fight for it that's why we have a lower court higher courts a supreme court you know and and it's because of civil rights that the supreme court has gotten involved in making decisions on a federal level as to justice and what that should look like and how it should be meted out yes yes especially for people yeah you know the involvement it's it's so when we look at justice and we talk about justice as individuals are watching this how do we respond to a person who's broken hurting and pain because they've been the recipient of a lot of injustice and how do we respond because sometimes we don't know what to say okay so we have to do an analysis yes of where the source of the pain all right because often we do something that creates a situation that's painful but we don't take responsibility for that choice we want to blame external sources well if it wasn't for this that that person this situation i wouldn't be in the mess that i'm in but you made a choice yeah that got you into that situation and now you become servant to the choices that you make so you ha because if you don't do that first all right then you'll keep making the same choices yes and you'll keep experiencing the same thing and feeling oppressed feeling the victim and wondering why got it so let's examine what's the source of the pain yes what role did i play in the pain first of all all right because we got to deal with the enemy within as well as the enemy without yeah so first what role did i play in the pain what role did others what were the external sources of the pain because if i just change the external and not the internal i'm going to be back in the same situation yep you understand so it's in relationships you know you're in pain because of a relationship but you chose that relationship so are you going to blame the person oh they're not acting right wait wait they came like that you understand and too often if we go into a relationship thinking that it's a construction project then you know you're the general manager then you're going to think that you could make a person change people change because they want to change yes that's the bottom line it would change because it wasn't yeah so you have to think about first what's my and that should be a rule in life first examine yourself right and then begin to examine what's external and that's that is key because you know how many people don't want to examine themselves you know going back to that michael jackson song you know yeah the man in the mirror that's right in the mirror how often are we truthful with dealing with the man in the mirror yeah yeah now here's an interesting thing faith everything works through love truth faith justice all of that and very very important because as we continue the conversation because i'm i'm i'm feeling the clock here we're about to run out of time we have to talk about how justice functions we have to talk about justice and rights because everybody feels they have this right yep you know and america behaves based upon rights yes we that's how we conduct ourselves if we feel we have the right yep all right then we're going to react accordingly i did was there was a movie uh and the the trailer to the movie you see a dustin hoffman i think it's urban cowboy maybe i don't know maybe i got it all messed up before your time anyway he's walking across the street right and it's it's in the crosswalk and the a cab is there and the cab is beeping like hurry up and he turns and he bangs on the hood of the car he says i'm walking here that's comes out of right i have the right to be here and you gotta wait because in the law that's true you have the right of ways yes so in america it's all about rice yup no it is so true it's so true but i like how you you brought in the whole idea of love and justice you know because i we we say that you know love is the governing factor for justice and that's that's important so and again notice reconciliation it's the disconnect from god that brought in justice right so what do we have to do reconnect us to god in order to begin to influence humanity towards justice yeah because love says okay i'm gonna give you some leniency i'm not gonna give you what you deserve even though you deserve x i'm gonna give you why well that's grace yes grace yes says you deserve this but i'm going to offer you yeah this yeah this is good we got to stop you you know i'm trying to stay focused but my mind sometimes goes to so many different places as i start connecting certain texts certain scriptures right uh teachings uh and and then also certain cries and and that people have have had pertain to all of this injustice yeah and think about it when we when we go into the book of exodus which is a story that many people have used over time who've been oppressed and they identify with the oppression of the hebrews in egypt and the whole exodus story you know that has been a story that many people especially african-americans in american history we identified with them you know but as you look at that story you know it says that their cry had come to god but they had been in that situation for quite a long time and now god shows up we question why are you showing up now all these people have died and suffered for 100 years why are you showing up now where were you back then and yet his justice has to be objective so he will you'll find things in the scripture that says the sins of the amorites have not yet been completed it's like whoa he's waiting for them to accumulate certain charges against them and then he moves in but it's just like think about it think about it fbi all right if if they want to bring a case against someone they'll let them continue doing wrong for five years while they investigate while they observe and build a case and then five years later they pull the trigger why because when they go to court they want to make sure that it sticks the charges stick and it can go through the whole system go through the process you got it so even with us we go through a process in order to affect justice wow that's good we got it we got to wrap up man wow the family i pray that you've enjoyed this message uh any closing out remarks pastor they're so good man a lot a lot to talk about next sunday yeah next time we get around right yes but yeah and you know we we are right now in a climate where justice is a big issue across the board when it comes to racial injustice uh uh economic injustice we're all looking for equity for fairness in how resources are managed how opportunity is given all of that and unless we turn to god who is the ultimate source of true justice not subjective but objective justice we're not going to see things change the way we want them to in our society this is still one nation under god and that's why we can wrestle through and challenge and hold america accountable to its values because we have declared that god is present in america so keep hope alive yeah what jesse said yes keep hope alive and as we close uh what's been on my heart and even for my prayer you might not know how to navigate you might not know how to uh really have these conversations even within your anger your response allow it to glorify god if you're representing christ if you're unapologetic an unapologetic christian then even your actions need to glorify god lend room for god to get the glory how do we respond how do we you know interact and and and deal with these situations no matter there's no cookie cut away there's no ironclad uh option that we have here it's okay do x y and z and you'll have this uh but ultimately he's okay wherever i do let god be glorified and let that be the governing factor yeah and remember the principle we shared uh a anger yes is not a call to action it is a call to prayer yes then prayer will govern your actions that's so important we get caught up in the emotions emotions provide passion but intellect directs actions so that's very very important that those two things come together especially in these volatile times in our nation hey good stuff man boom no boom boom this i'm his dad [Laughter] till next time yes until next time uh you want to pray out how do you want to end this yeah lord thank you for this platform yes lord thank you for the opportunity to speak into the lives of so many people thank you holy spirit as you continue your ministry of building the church convincing the world of the the the futility of sin and the greatness of righteousness thank you that you have dealt with the evil one as well so lord let us continue to grow deepen our knowledge our understanding our relationship with you thank you that we can always always depend upon the fact that you are here you are present what's going on is not a surprise to you and you have it all under control so as we obey your voice our obedience to you is is your only protection for us because we have free will so lord let us learn to obey you and submit to your commandments to your word so that we can indeed experience that abundant life that jesus came to bring amen we ask you bless you and thank you in jesus precious name jesus name amen amen amen all right until next time let's leave this place forever god bless and enjoy the rest of your sunday

Channel: Christian Cultural Center - Brooklyn Campus

Views: 7,464

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Keywords: #church, #A.R. Bernard, #Jamaaal Bernard, #Christian Cultural Center, #church online, #love, #Bible, #fatherandson, #BlackLivesMatter, #BLM, #justice

Id: G4qzCszJfIQ

Length: 42min 11sec (2531 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 26 2020