[upbeat music] >> Well, you're here today either because it's Friday, towards the end of the semester, you've got
everything under control, papers done, good grip on life, or you're here because
you're woefully short on chapel credits. [audience laughs] I don't know. Or you're here to hear Brian Loritts. Yeah, speakin' chapel. [applause] Brian, who pastors a thriving church in Memphis, Tennessee is here because he is a new member
of the board of trustees. Brian, thank you for serving on the board. Welcome back to Biola. An alum of Talbot School of Theology from back in the 90s. Today and yesterday, the board of trustees of Biola University is here and I wanna just express my special, profound, deep appreciation for these men and women
who serve voluntarily on the board. Those of
you who don't know much about a board of trustees, this is the governing body of those who invest so much of their time, their giftedness, their expertise, their wisdom, not only
keeping Biola University financially sound but keeping
Biola University faithful to our mission and our calling to be a relevant, global university that holds true to our biblical fidelity and the work of the Holy Spirit and the cause of Christ and it's such a wonderful
board to be a part of. They have invested so much
of their time voluntarily, of their wisdom, of their
professional expertise and they've also given sacrificially to scholarship funds,
to building projects, this gym renovation, the Talbot School of Theology project,
library, McNally Campus, Kroll School of Building,
on and on it goes in so many ways and I am
really proud of this board. I want you students and friends here at Biola University to
welcome this morning the men and woman of the board of trustees of Biola University. Would you please stand, my
colleagues right over here. [applause] And now, please join me in welcoming one of your favorite chapel speakers, Torrey Conference speaker,
Philadelphia-born, Georgia-bred, Atlanta Braves lovin', Jesus following, pastor
of Method Fellowship, an urban campus, multi-cultural,
right on the other side of the Mississippi, my friend,
board of trustees member, and a lover of Biola, one of you own, Brian Loritts, Brian. [cheers and applause] >> Wow, what a rousing introduction. I oughta take you on the
road with me, Dr. Corey. You should introduce me wherever I speak. If you have your bibles please meet me in Genesis Chapter 12. Dr. Corey asked me to come and to share with you briefly, exactly 25 minutes, which to give a black preacher 25 minutes is like kryptonite. I mean it's just crazy. But we got 25 minutes to get to work. Genesis 12 1-3, again, he asked me to share with you a little bit about my heart, my passion,
out of the scriptures, for what I'm believing God for and you guys are already experiencing, to great degrees, at Biola University. My prayer is that we would continue to experience it in even greater degrees as a university. Genesis 12 1-3, hear now
the word of the Lord. "Now the Lord said to Abram, "go from your country and your kindred "and your father's house to
the land that I will show you "and I will make of you a great nation "and will bless you and
will make you a blessing. "I will bless those who bless you "and him who dishonors you I will curse." And then hear this last phrase. "So that in you all the families "of the earth will be blessed." Genesis 12 Verses 1-3. The very words of God. Amen, amen. In 1945, LIFE magazine published a pretty historic photograph. Some of us may have seen clips of it on a website or whatever, right on the cover is a soldier who is embracing
emphatically a young woman. In fact, their embrace is so exuberant, it is so close, that you naturally assume that these were long-lost friends, dare I even say long-lost lovers who had been reunited. Yet, upon further investigation, it was revealed that these two individuals who were embracing each
other so excitedly, so emphatically, were
actually complete strangers. In the background of this 1945 photo were other people embracing one another in a very emphatic, excited way. There were soldiers
embracing other soldiers and civilians embracing other civilians and soldiers embracing civilians, and again, you would naturally assume that these were long-lost friends who had a lot of history, a lot of water under the bridge with one another, and yet, again it was revealed that, for the most part, for many of them, they were just then meeting. The question on the table then is what did they hear, what happened, that would allow these strangers to embrace one another so
emphatically, so excitedly? What happened that we catch a glimpse of what seems to be true
and authentic community? Well, it's 1945 and you
know your American history. World War II was going on
and they had just received the good news that we had won the war. It was the proclamation of this good news that brought together complete and total strangers in
an emphatic, excited way. Good news brings together strangers. I think you know where
I'm going this morning. If you're a follower of Jesus Christ, I'm here to tell ya that we are recipients of even greater news than
the end of World War II. That when Jesus Christ died in my place and for my sins and then three days later was resurrected from the grave that was the penultimate good news. Yet I'm here to tell
you that this good news has not only reconciled me to Jesus Christ but the good news of Jesus Christ should cause complete strangers, dare I even say total
enemies before Christ, to come together, lay
aside their differences, and embrace one another
in a Christ-exalting, honoring kind of a way. This is what the church of
Jesus Christ in Acts experience. In Acts Chapter 2, Peter got up and preached the good news of Jesus Christ and 3000 people experienced the warmth and embrace as God adopted them into the family of the beloved. But Luke doesn't stop there. In Luke Chapter 2 towards the end he talks about how they began to embrace one another,
this multi-ethnic community, as they began selling their possessions and giving to each one as they had need. Paul would go on to model this. Whenever he would go to plant a church he would always go to the Jews first, in the synagogues, and some would come to know Jesus and then he would go to the Gentiles at the Agora. If he's in Ephesus he's
at the Hall of Tyrannus. He would preach the good news to them and then some Gentiles would be saved. Get the picture. Jews are now saved; Gentiles are saved, so what does Paul do to these people who could not stand one another? Does he start a church on the north side of town for the Jews and a church on the south side of
town for the Gentiles? No, he says now that you have come to know Christ, there is
neither now Jew nor Gentile. He's not denying ethnic differences but what he's saying is what we have in common in Christ is far greater than any differences we would ever have. Now I'm putting you together
as a multi-ethnic community. Love one another, forgive one another, encourage one another,
do life with one another. This, friends, is the
gospel of Jesus Christ. That I have been connected
vertically with him and now therefore I must
embrace others horizontally in a community of faith and yet I'm here to tell you, Biola, that this gospel is not just
a New Testament doctrine. We catch glimpses of it
in the Old Testament. We find it in Genesis Chapter 12, for example, Verses 1-3. I wanna talk this morning about my prayer for this community here
that we would be a community of faith who would flesh out the gospel in all of its dimensions, in both of its vertical
and horizontal dimensions, and in short, I wanna talk
about God's invitation to all of us to be world changers. Before I go any further, let's pray. Father, thank you for
this wonderful opportunity to be together. Thank you, Father God, for the investment this wonderful school has made in my life. I pray in the name of Jesus, Lord God, that you would speak clearly to us now, that you, Lord God, by your grace, would challenge us, would
give us a broader vision of what it looks like to follow you. We love you, in Christ's name, Amen. One of the things that we understand, and you guys know this quite well, and that is all scripture
is inspired by God, it's all important, but I
love what Tom Nelson says, pastor at Denton Bible Church, he says all Christians,
and I love the imagery, standing right here on a basketball court, all Christians should be
able to palm their bibles. That there should just be a sense in which we have a basic understanding and can navigate the scriptures well. With that imagery in
mind, I suggest to you that Genesis 12 1-3, a
passage that has come to be called by scholars to
be the Abrahamic Covenant, is one of the most important passages in the scriptures because it allows us to get a firm grip, to
palm the scriptures, to see what God is doing. One of the things that we understand is that the writers of the New Testament saw Genesis 12 1-3,
this Abrahamic Covenant, as being a foreshadowing of the gospel. In fact, in Galatians Chapter 3 Verse 16 Paul would say it this way. "Now the promises were made to Abraham, "referencing our passage,
and to his offspring. "It does not say and to offsprings, "referring to many, but referring to one "and to your offspring who is Christ." Paul, in Galatians 3, points us back to Genesis Chapter 12, this
great Abrahamic Covenant in which God says to
Abram, Abram I'm going to get a blessing to you, that I might get a blessing through you. How many people know
that God never blesses us just for us but he blesses us that he might get a blessing through us to other. If I was with a different crowd, man, that'd be a great place
to just shout right there. [audience laughs] He blesses us that we might be a blessing to other people and he says, Abram,
I'm going to bless you, you're going to be the
father of a great nation, we know it to be the Jews, and yet, I'm going to get a
blessing through the Jews to the whole world. The ultimate expression of this, Paul tells us in Galatians
3, is Jesus Christ, this Jewish God-man, who
stretched out his hands and died for the sins of the world so that, Paul says in Galatians 3, that Genesis 12, here it
is, gives us a glimpse of the gospel. Now hang in there with me, I promise you I'm coming to your neighborhood. But the question on the table now stands, what does Genesis 12 Verses
1-3 teach us about the gospel? Here again, the end of Verse 3. "God says to Abraham 'And
him who dishonors you "I will curse and in you hear it "all the families of the
earth shall be blessed.'" The Hebrew word for
families is interesting. It could mean either
clan, tribe, or races. Clan, tribe, or races. God says, Abram, I want you to know you're going to be the
father of a great nation. It'll be the nation of
Israel, it'll be the Jews, but please hear me, Abram, my heart is not just for the Jews. My heart is not just
for one particular group of people but my heart is for the world. I want to bless you,
Abram, that through you the whole world will be blessed. What we're seeing here is, God is saying, Abram, I'm writing a
story, there's something that's happening, Abram, but please don't go tunnel vision on me, I don't just care about you and your family and the Jews, I care about the whole world. Biola, this is very important for us. God has blessed our university over the last 100 years, he's
done some great stuff here, and yet I'm here to tell you, if Biola University is
to flesh out the gospel in all of its dimensions, in its vertical and horizontal dimensions, it demands that we have a heart
not just for La Mirada, not just for what happens on campus, but we have a heart for the world. Now, I need to say this
and this may get me in some trouble, this may get
my board membership revoked from me after two days. [audience laughs] Please don't do, Biola University, what the typical conservative, evangelical Christian organization has
done in generations past. [cheers] You don't even know what I'm about to say. [audience laughs] But God bless you. Come to Memphis, make me feel better. In generations past, the church,
parachurch organizations, in their heart to flesh out the gospel, they've stepped over East
LA to get to Bangkok. They've stepped over South Central to get to the Sudan. I'm here to tell you, Biola,
to be a Genesis 12 1-3 kind of a Christian means I
am just as passionate about Bangkok as I am East
LA, I am just as passionate about Sudan as I am South
Central, this is not an either/or proposition,
it is a both/and proposition that I love the world, both
in my backyard and overseas. [cheers and applause] So God is saying, Abram,
I'm writing a story in these last 12 minutes together. I'm doing something here. I'm writing a story, Abram,
I wanna invite you in, buddy. You're not the central character, I am. Will you be a part of this story? I was once asked by a
white colleague of mine, gosh, about eight years, he said to me, I love it, he says,
Brian, if you could live at any moment in world history, when would it be? He's all excited. I said as a black man? [audience laughs] Now. [audience laughs] This is good as it gets for me. Any other time I'm pickin' somethin'. [audience laughs] Nah, I'm in the house. Two of you will get that. I'm in the house. [audience laughs] Ask your black friend after chapel about that reference. [audience laughs] But that conversation
today, it still gnaws at me. I ask myself the question,
under the sovereignty of God, God, why did you allow Brian Loritts to be born in 1973 and not 1773? God, why under your
sovereignty did you allow me to be born at time when issues of multi-cultural and
diversity is such a hot topic? God, why did you allow me to be born in a home in which my parents both worked for Campus Crusade for Christ,
an all-white organization, but I went to an all-black church and my high school was half white and half black so that a part of my natural upbringing,
I just kind of learned by way of DNA to be tri-lingual and I could just kind of navigate out of different cultures. God, what's going on here. God, why is it that under your sovereignty you sent me here in 1995 to work at an all-black church
like Faithful Central but to go to a primarily
white university called Biola? God, why is it that my
wife is half-Mexican, half-Irish, all fine, but why is that? [audience laughs] [applause] Is there any coincidence that I'm leading a 1500-member, 65% white,
35% African-American church in one of the most racist
cities in the country? See, I think God is
saying, Brian, you're part of a story here. I'm doing something. I've established a history in your life and I've prepared you to work in this sort of a vineyard. Brian, I want you to understand, there's something happening
here that's beyond you. Biola, I want you to understand, you've got to get your
eyes off the bubble here, God is doing something in world history that's so much broader than here and he's inviting Biola University into the story to be an
instrument of world change. That's what he's doing. And so, you guys know
the Abrahamic Covenant, you understand what's going
on here, God's saying, listen Abram, here's how
this thing's gonna go down. Here's the deal, I'm gonna use
the Jews to change the world. I could walk you through the Bible and I could show you how this works out. Couple chapters later,
there's a Jewish guy by the name of Joseph
who blesses the world, who blesses the Gentile
nation that's in charge then, Egypt, navigates them through a famine. Couple books later, it's a Jewish guy by the name of Daniel who
blesses Gentile nations like Babylon in Persia, and
then the ultimate expression of that, again, is a Jewish God-man by the name of Jesus Christ
who blesses the world. Here we see, the Abrahamic
Covenant in motion. God using Jews to bless the world. Then God says stuff like this, and whoever blesses you,
I'm going to bless them and so I can just walk you through it. Time after time there's
Gentiles who bless the Jews and in turn they're blessed. This is the story of Rahab. She blesses the Jews by
giving them safe harbor and then the Battle of Jericho happens, she's protected, and she is included in the lineage of Jesus. Couple books later, there's a woman by the name of Ruth, a Gentile woman, who says to a Jewish woman
by the name of Naomi, I ain't gonna leave you hangin', I got your back, your
people will be my people, it's a Brian translation,
and your God will be my God, so God blesses her by causing her to marry a godly man by the name of Boaz and including her in the lineage of Jesus. Then, God ends our passage by saying, now whoever messes with
you, Brian translation, I'm gonna mess with them. That's just how it just kinda goes down. I could walk you through it. A book later, it's a guy by the name of Pharaoh with Egypt and he messes with the Jews and won't
let God's people go. Well he drowns in the Red Sea. Then later on it's the Canaanites, they mess with the Jews,
most of them get wiped off the face of the earth. Then a little while later
it's Nebuchadnezzar, this Gentile man, who messes with the Jews and all of a sudden he's driven from the empire to live for seven days. A little while later, it's a guy by the name of Hitler
who messes with the Jews and we all know what happens with that. it didn't fair to well with Hitler. See, here's the deal, if I ever run for political office, I don't know much about politics, I'll never
run, but here's what I do know. My foreign policy, real
simple, be nice to the Jews. [audience laughs] [applause] And yet when we come to the New Covenant there's a major change. See, under the Old Covenant, if you wanted to be a world changer, buddy up to a Jew. Under the New Covenant, if
you wanna be a world changer, join the multi-ethnic community of faith, the universal body of Christ, of which Biola is a part
called the Church, capital C. If you want to be a world changer, join the Church. So Biola, God is saying a 102 years, I've established a history, you're a part of the broader picture,
don't ever lose that. And my prayer, as I support Dr. Corey and the board, is that we continue to lift our eyes beyond this campus and say, God, what are you doing, how can we be a part, be
instruments, of world change. Yet, in our last seven
minutes, how does that happen? God says to Abram, listen
buddy, I want you to understand. See, if you wanna be a
part of world change, it's gonna cost ya somethin'. Leave your country. Leave your kindred. Leave your father's house. In other words, Abram, I want you to leave what's comfortable. In other words, Abram, you're going to have to sacrifice. I love Verse 4; here's what Verse 4 says. "So Abram went." [audience laughs] No conversation. No, God, what you are ya payin'. No, what's your benefits package. No, none of that, Abram says, I'm down. Sign me up. Wherever you go, God, I'm right there. If we're going to be world changers, it's going to cost us something and we don't like to hear
that as American Christians where our god is the god of comfort. I'm here to tell ya, if
Abram would've bowed down to the god of comfort, we
would never have heard of 'im. But he ends up in Hebrews
11, the great hall of faith chapter, because he sacrificed. I got a five-year-old
son; his name is Jayden. Jayden's a bruiser; he's my big kid, man. His spiritual gift is eating. [audience laughs] [applause] I got it figured out now. I know when Jayden calls me up, in his 20s hopefully, and says, Dad, I met this woman, I'm in love, how do you now if that's the one, I've already got it figured out. Jayden, when you can look into her eyes the way you look into my refrigerator. [audience laughs] She's the one, she's the one. Here's the deal. Jayden thinks he can swim but he can't. [audience laughs] And he loves to go off the diving board. Interesting, how does that happen? He gets the little noodle and he wraps it around his body and he pins his arms down over the noodle and he jumps off, it plunges him down, and
then pokes him back up. Then he dog paddles for
like two hours to the side. [audience laughs] One day, I took the boys,
our three boys, to the pool, Corey was runnin' some
errands or whatever, and we were at the pool, and I'm talkin' to this person, and all of a sudden Jayden runs by and
says, Dad, I'm goin' in. Okay, I'm thinkin' he's got his noodle. I keep talkin' to the individual. At the last minute, I look at Jayden as he's jumping off, no noodle. And man, I'm scared. Because I'm goin' how's
this gonna work comin' home with two kids instead of three and that's gonna be an
interesting conversation. Jayden sinks down, it's about ten feet, sinks right down to the bottom. I dive in after 'im. I get the little sucker. [audience laughs] And he's coughing and laughing, ha ha [coughs] ha ha [coughs] coughing and laughing. I said, Jayden, that wasn't
smart, what in the world? And he looks at me and goes,
Dad, I told ya I was goin' in. [audience laughs] I knew you'd get me. I knew you'd get me. Biola, if we're going
to be world changers, if we're going to be a part
of God's broader story, please know it's going
to cost us something. There's gonna be a sacrifice, there's gonna be a price tag, but I'm here to tell you, when we jump into the deep end of the pool, that the God we serve
will not leave us hanging. He has established a track record in this university and he's going to establish one in your lives. When I was 22 years old, I'll never forget, I'm standing out on the lawn of Philadelphia
Biblical University, I'm graduating from
college and I'm excited and I crack a joke but I'm
trying to feel my dad out. I say something to the fact,
Dad, I'm going to seminary, I'm looking forward to the bank of Crawford Loritts being open. My dad says to me, funny you
should mention that, son. This is a word for word quote. "Son, college was me, you, and Jesus. "Seminary is you and Jesus." [audience laughs] "Good luck with that." [audience laughs] He was serious. Bishop Ulmer had invited me to come out to Faithful Central. December 27, 1995, I pack
up my little Nissan Sentra, drive 3000 miles from Atlanta to LA. I had applied to get into Talbot. I had no idea how I was gonna pay for it. I had no money. I was po', not poor, po'. I couldn't even afford
the other o and the r. [audience laughs] And I'm at the deep end of the pool. I'm prayin', God, I have no idea how this is gonna work,
I know you've called me to come to Talbot, I have no money. About a week after getting here, I get a note at my little apartment a stone's throw away from Compton. It's from Dennis Gaines' office saying, Brian, you have been the recipient of a scholarship. It's for under-resourced individuals and we've got ya covered. I remember driving down. I remember driving down the 105 Freeway, and that letter was in my hand, thanking God for giving me a chance. I'm here serving you, Biola, because you gave a
22-year-old kid a chance. I'm in Memphis, Tennessee now and I was sitting down at a
Starbucks couple years ago, a 22-year-old African-American
kid asked to meet with me. His name is Chris Davis. Chris said, Pastor, I wanna work with ya and I'm wonderin', Pastor,
if you'll mentor me. My dad's been in prison
since I was two years old, only time I've ever seen 'im he's been on the other side of a glass barrier. Pastor, I wanna go to seminary but I have no money. As I'm sitting there talking to him, as sure as I'm talking to you, my mind goes back ten or 12 years to when I was 22 years old and the Spirit said, give 'im a chance. We do a residency program
in Memphis, Tennessee. It's designed for young leaders, specifically, young
African-American leaders. We pay for 100% of their seminary and these guys are
graduating from seminary, they're going to go out,
they're gonna plant churches, multi-ethnic churches,
across the South in places like Birmingham and Jackson,
Mississippi, and Chattanooga. We're being a part of a movement that's going to change the South. Where did that come from? It came from this
university, Biola University, who believed and invested in me, who had a vision that was so much broader than what happened here. Biola, I wanna thank you
because whatever God does through my life in Memphis, Tennessee, ultimately it's because
of His sovereignty, but it's his sovereign hand
through this great university. Whatever God does with your life, know that you're a part
of a broader story. Count the cost, jump into
the deep end of the pool, knowing that he'll never let you down, that we've never seen
the righteous forsaken, nor their seed begging bread. Be a world changer, let's pray. Father God, I bless you and I honor you for this great institution. I thank you, Father, for
all that she's meant to me. Thank you for the investment
of Biola University. In my life, Fellowship Memphis. God, what a privilege it is
to serve these your people. I pray that you would count me and count us faithful
to be world changers. In Christ's name, Amen. Dr. Corey. [applause] [upbeat music] >> Announcer: We hope
you enjoyed this message. Biola University offers a variety of biblically centered
degree programs ranging from business to ministry
to the arts and sciences. Learn more at biola.edu. [upbeat music]
