July 5, 2020 | Kevin Odor | In This Together | Message

well here we are on week three of our teaching series in this together when we began thinking of this series to pursue unity together there was at least one other person I wanted our whole church to hear from Kevin odor in fact a conversation with him helped lay the groundwork for this whole series for those of you who don't know Kevin helped start Canyon Ridge over twenty eight years ago and served as our senior pastor here for 23 plus years before retiring just over a year ago after a year of rest he graciously accepted the invitation to teach us this weekend his heart has always been and still is I'm here to help Kevin has a heart for unity and for the people of Las Vegas I always learn something from Keo and I know you will too let's welcome Kevin odor [Music] [Applause] [Music] well it is good to be back in I'm honored to have the invitation to talk to you this weekend and what a season of life we are all in I mean wow this kovat 19 thing so much loss I mean not just the loss of life 131 thousand so far in counting the loss of jobs the economic impact has been so enormous the loss of major life events that have been canceled and postponed and graduations and weddings and the huge relational impact and lost when loved ones are ill you can't visit them in the hospital or in the nursing home when loved ones pass away you can't even have a service the gathering for Easter this year was canceled Easter was canceled it I know it wasn't we met together online but still it was like that's something I never saw coming vacations have been canceled trips that were booked here weeks and months in advance were canceled and then then as we started to open up and had some hope and maybe something's there that we can get back to eventually it began then that led to more division because you're opening up too slow or you're opening up too fast you're too safer you're not safe enough then mass became politicized and if you wore one or didn't wear one do you open up church do you gather not yet people are still at risk well in the middle of that pastor drew asked me back for the interview welcoming back after the year away and I mentioned in that interview my concern about division or the potential for conflict in division over kovat 19 and since then I've stumbled on the term this is free you can use it Kovach careful or Kovach casual because as people talked about kovat in the two extremes of how people respond sometimes it's divisive language in accusatory language and judgmental language and Kovach careful and Kovach casual kind of help us word who we are and who our loved ones are and how we honor each other as we go through this crisis families are divided over kovat they are and some have a co vid bubble some are totally open some parents and kids are in different pages and grandkids and siblings and businesses are divided about kovat some are essential and continuing to work and some are not and there's a loss of jobs and employees that are working or at risk there's division there churches are divided about Co vid because do you meet because we have the right or do you wait till we're safe and the vulnerable aren't at risk and that leads to division and conflict and loss and anxiety and grief and the grief is what I hear the shock and denial and guilt and anger and depression and acceptance and the anger that we feel is the frustration anger and so I I'm listening to that and I'm hearing it and in the middle of this whole kovat frustration comes May 25th when George Floyd a 46 year old black man was killed in Minneapolis Minnesota during an arrest for an allegedly using a counterfeit bill a white police officer knelt on Floyd's neck for almost eight minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and lying face down begging for his life and repeatedly saying I can't breathe and that was a spark that ignited unhealed racial wounds in our nation nation from our past history and it added to division and conflict and loss and anxiety and grief the nation seemed to erupt peaceful protests that had looting and rioting and destruction based on anger police officers who were to keep the peace and had been praised as first responders then became targets of violence themselves we were divided racially divided politically grieving over Co vid and then the kovat seems to be coming back and now what do we do and what do we feel you ever seen anything like this and people have asked me Kevin you ever seen anything like this in my lifetime and not exactly but there's some similarities to a season I do remember April 4th 1968 the assassination of Martin Luther King the Chicago riots that erupted for three days afterwards I was 11 and I remember that and June 5th 1968 the assassination of Bobby Kennedy u.s. senator brother of JFK and there was again turmoil in our nation and then August of 1968 fueled by the Vietnam protests eight days of riots in Chicago at the Democratic National Convention because Vietnam Vietnam was a divisive issue in our nation the assassination shocked us to our core it was a tough time a year later our Cultural Revolution was in full swing August of 69 Woodstock you know the counter cultural expression anti-war drugs sex rock and roll and then in 1970 that Kent State State shootings Kent State in Kent Ohio 28 National Guard soldiers fired approximately 67 rounds over a period of 13 seconds killing for students and wounding nine other our nation was deeply divided I remember that added to my perspective my life perspective is just other points of view and one is from Scripture and the bible does speak about racism and racial division I mean the Old Testament story has at the core of it when Israel was in slavery in Egypt the Hebrew nations were slaves to the Egyptians and the Jewish people were praying for a savior and Moses came and led them to the promised land and the Passover all that's part of the heritage our heritage and then the New Testament talks about the Jews and the Gentiles even that came to a head in Acts chapter 15 that almost split the 1st century Church so the Bible speaks of the challenges of racism and in its very story as a student of world history racism has reared its ugly head so many times in just looking at World War two and Hitler in his desire for an Aryan Nation and making Jews wear gold stars and singling them out and terminating six million execution the anti-semitism of that time is so extreme surely we're done with that aren't we but do you remember in 2018 in Pittsburgh that if synagogue was shot up in 2019 in San Diego another synagogue was shot up I remember also here at the ridge closer to home during The Promise Keeper emphasis on us trying to fight racism in America that we gathered as men to talk about it together and we had a Hispanic brother stand up and tell his story about how he encountered racism when he when he went home to the parents of his white girlfriend to ask for her hand in marriage they ended up getting married but the story is still a wound in his soul we heard from another brother who talked about when he was a child that he was rounded up and put it in Japanese internment camp in California during World War two and the names that he was called as a japanese-american italian-americans and then stood up and talked about the names they were called as Italian Americans and then the african-american brothers stood up and shared their story we have a long history with african-americans in America before America was a nation the European founders of our country utilized the slave trade in the Americas for economic gain and the founders of our country when it came time to break away from England and to have independence knew that they needed all 13 colonies so they put on the back burner the issue of slavery we'll deal with that another day and a day of reckoning came and it was Abraham Lincoln who said the time has come in the Civil War erupted and the Emancipation Proclamation was declared and the war was amazing it was so devastating to our nation six hundred and eighteen thousand two hundred and twenty-two Americas died to end slavery the northern slate states called the war there was the war to preserve the Union and in slavery the southern states called it all about states rights not about slavery at all in 1860 in that Civil War of six hundred and eighteen thousand people dying I was just curious how does that relate to our other wars that our nation has been in in the Revolutionary War 25,000 Americans died World War one a hundred and sixteen thousand Americans died World War two four hundred and five thousand Americans died Korean War thirty six thousand Americans Vietnam War 58,000 Americans in Iraq 4,500 Americans in the Civil War six hundred and eighteen thousand two hundred and twenty-two this July 4th weekend were celebrating freedom we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable uh D Civil War in the Emancipation Proclamation declared that all person held as slaves within the rebellious states are and henceforward shall be free the 14th and 15th amendments were added to our Constitution Bill of Rights at full right rights as full citizens for everyone the 1965 Voting Rights Acts was needed to finally ensure that every african-american kavod in 1920 just as a context the women's suffrage movement finally secured the women's right to vote hundred years ago August 28 1963 in the 60s there was a march on Washington and Martin Luther Luther King gave a speech that day that we all know about and we may know the speech and remember it he said words like this I say to you today my friends though even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow I still have a dream it's a dream deeply rooted in the American dream I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up live out the true meaning of its Creed we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal I have a dream that one day on the Red Hills of Georgia sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character this is our hope and with this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope with this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood with this faith we will be able to work together to pray together to struggle together to go to jail together to stand up for freedom together knowing that we will be free one day this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning my country tis of thee sweet land of liberty of thee I sing land where my father died land of the pilgrims pride from every mountainside let freedom ring and if America is to be a great nation this must become true as 1963 how're we doing in 2020 we're not there yet we're still aspiring to something better still struggling to make the ideals of our founding and of our great leaders of the past a reality in our presence I mean our nation seal has the phrase in it e pluribus unum which means out of many one man is that hard and that's the sad truth it's been our goal our dream to be a united nation the United States but division is way too easy fighting is way too easy hating is the easy road the low road but the high road is loving and forgiving and building bridges and coming together see unity is hard unity is challenging unity is frustrating and it's seemingly impossible our founders aspired to it MLK dreamed of it jesus prayed for it in John chapter 17 Giarrusso the dream of unity for all of us and Jesus can be our one source which he talked about John 15 last week so this weekend I thought we'd stay in John and look at John chapter 8 which will help us with some ideas of how do we get there and the title of this weekend is we fight for it we fight for unity that's a weird phrase but I want you to remember it how do we fight for unity well Jesus tells us well there's a great story about Jesus we're gonna read through and as we do we're gonna see some ways that the Heart of Jesus can help us as we move forward to fight for unity let's start reading the first few verses Jesus returned to the Mount of Olives but early the next morning he was back again at the temple a crowd soon gathered and he sat down and taught them as he was speaking the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in the act of adultery they put her in front of the crowd teacher they said to Jesus this woman was caught in the act of adultery the law of Moses says to stone her what do you say drama real-life drama and it was a tough tough deal I mean here's everyone looking at Jesus and looking at the woman saying what do we do here and one of the details of this story just so you know is usually when adultery happens it's two people and there was only one in front of Jesus something wasn't just someone fair double standard hypocrisy not equal application of the law right there in front of us another detail of the story is that the woman was known everyone knew her sin that's one of our greatest fears in it that everybody knows what we've done wrong when we say no one will ever know I'll be able to hide it when everyone knows and there's this woman everyone knew the first fight for unity that I want us to see is when we fight with myself the fight with myself in my own heart is I'm a sinner saved by grace that's the truth I've known right and chosen wrong I'm a sinner saved by grace the grace of God forgives me so that's my first fight is to remember that as I encounter other people that are conflict with me or in conflict with me corentin´s being good for my wife and I we've found several things that we enjoy that we're gonna keep but one day we got a little sideways and it was because we had a conversation with one of our family members and in the course of that conversation I threw my wife under the bus terrible phrase but you know what I mean when I made her look bad and made me look good we didn't have time to clean it up right then later when we revisited the incident and this is how her approach was very wise lady she goes as I was running in there and she goes why are you driving I want you to think about why you said what you said the way you said it and we'll talk about it when you get back and of course as I started driving I thought well what I said was right I'm justified because and it was a very defensive posture she just didn't understand why I said what I said that's all I have to do is explain it to her but then at the more I thought I thought of why I said what I said was there something deep and flawed and broken in me that led to me throwing my wife under the bus making her look bad and making me good see that battle was a battle within me it was one I had to fight with myself I had to look at the reality what if we all did that in all of these divisions that were facing why is there division conflict and hurt sin it's a challenging word because we're all flawed it's easier to say that there's a good side to us but there's a flawed side to us as well and I am a sinner saved by grace I got to remember that and when I'm standing there with a stone in my hand maybe I need to remember that I'm a sinner saved by grace as well back to the story this woman was caught in adultery and why what are you gonna say what do you say Jesus and this is what they were trying to trap him into saying something they could use against him but Jesus stooped and wrote in the dust with his finger they kept demanding an answer so he stood up again and said all right but let the one who has never sinned Thor the first stone and then he stooped down again and wrote in the dust Jesus is so smart so why so appropriate because he knew there was a question behind the question and just as a detail of the stories we look at it I'm always wondering what he wrote in the sand would it be fascinating to know that but here we're knowing that the detail behind the question is Jesus wanted us to know that we're all flawed all of us are flawed and if that's the case if I'm a sinner say by grace and I'm looking at somebody who's flawed why would I fight with them because they are fellow sinners offer it God's Amazing Grace - Who am I fighting with one of God's kids one of God's children that he made on purpose and their fellow sinners that can accept God's grace as well why would I fight with them about a four years ago or a men's group I was in were gathering for a four o'clock meeting I had an agenda ready to teach but a casual conversation before we got started was about the news and the news in Charlotte North Carolina specifically were there some riots going on and why were there rights then because Keith lamotte's Scott a 43 year old african-american man was fatally shot on September 20th of 2016 in Charlotte North Carolina and Brantley Vinson an American an african-american City police officer was the one that shot on that sparked peaceful protests that led to violent riots and one of our guys had family in Charlottesville and so somebody said well are they safe yeah they're fine and then I sense this nudge we need to talk about this so we put aside the agenda and we talked fellows we love each other we know each other we've been together for a while three of our group are African Americans five of us are white tell us white guys what we need to know when we look at the news and we don't understand the anger and the violence and slowly they started to open up their lives and tell us a chapter of their story where they have been pulled over by police because they were driving in the wrong neighborhood to have a nice car like that where they were driving in another neighborhood because their parents had received education and moved to a nicer place to raise their kids they thought and they were just stopped because of the color of their skin where one of the guys had an interracial marriage and he said that his wife worries when he goes out at night by himself if he's if he's gonna come back home and that's white white guys go our wives never worry about that it was a deep sacred conversation we heard something we learned something and we sensed the anger and we didn't understand it fully but we started to now the Bible says clearly in Ephesians 4:26 and your anger do not sin and it's not good to hurt people with your anger it's not good to her property with your anger there's all kinds of reasons not to do that that isn't just helpful but the hurt was something that we heard and God has a righteous anger when it children are violated and he's created the government to administer justice and when the government works right it does but here among brothers we talked about our personal relationships and racism with respect we talked can we do that what about them now I fight with them they're a fellow sinner offer God's grace as well back to the story when the accusers heard this they slipped away one by one beginning with the oldest until only Jesus was left in the middle of the crowd with the woman then Jesus stood up again instead of the woman where are your accusers didn't even one of them condemn you no Lord she said and Jesus said neither do I go and sin no more powerful moment fighting for them is our next fight we fight with ourselves we fight with them why we fight for them that's what it means to fight for a relationship that you do you overcome the obstacles to get there and for that to occur guess what's very helpful is if you have an empty hand if you're standing there with a rock in your hand it's hard to fight for them to build a bridge to them but when you drop the rock you can reach out one of the discouraging things of division that I've seen throughout my life is the division within the church church is divided even though Jesus prayed for unity in John 17 the church has been divided the Catholic Church split into Eastern Orthodox Catholicism in Roman Catholicism and then the Reformation came that led to Lutheran's and Pisgah pengs Presbyterians reformed Methodists Baptists congregational Pentecostals Assembly of God seventh day at Calvary Chapel nondenominational literally several hundred denominations and all Jesus said God will they just be one I've always loved at the ridge that we've fought for unity people from different church backgrounds and no church backgrounds being one simple followers of Jesus together how can we go about that with this phrase in essentials unity in opinions Liberty in all things love there are certain things that we definitely are one with and we give each other the grace to have opinions the Liberty to that's your opinion this is my opinion but we're still connected in all things we love if we can live out that creed denominations can come together and be simple New Testament Christians together and that's what we've done but guess what that formula works for all of us no matter what the division is how we can hang together see in this story that Jesus is involved with this woman I'm a sinner saved by grace you're a sinner offered grace that's an essential you have your reasons to believe what you believe I have my reasons let's talk is the opinions being shared and we can agree disagreeably and we'll love each other wow that's a great formula how do we live in unity how do we fight for unity it's this kind of principles that drive us forward and one of the things that the Apostle Paul gave us in the book of Romans is the idea of God's grace which was a tremendous book had he needed grace so much in his own life and he explains how we all get it and once he explained that you get grace God loves you and accepts you and forgives you and adopts you and gifts you how do we live now that we have that in Romans chapter 12 he goes on a riff of how we're supposed to live since we've received this grace since we are sinners saved by grace through faith this is how we're supposed to live I'm gonna read through this kind of pausing slowly allowing the words to perhaps be a mirror for you it says am i holding something in my hand is there something I need to drop is there a way I need to change how I live says in Romans 12 don't just pretend to love others really love them hate what is wrong hold tightly to what is good love each other with genuine affection and take delight in honoring each other even on social media bless those who persecute you oh don't curse them pray that God will bless them wink you know that you're growing when you can pray for your enemy that's a challenge be happy with those who are happy and weep with those who weep do you feel the pain of those who are hurt by racism live in harmony with each other don't be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people are you just gonna hang with your own are you gonna build a bridge to those that are different and don't think you will know it you know it all are you do you already know it are you still teachable never pay back evil with more evil well that's tough do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable do all that you can can to live at peace with everyone all the tennis balls are on the other side of the net because you've initiated and you've responded and you haven't gone cold dear friends never take revenge leave that for the righteous anger of God for the Scriptures say I will take revenge I will pay them back says the Lord see God is a God of justice and he wants justice to be done but he asked us to forgive personally as he takes care of justice through the government instead if your enemies are hungry feed them if they're thirsty give them something to drink and doing this you will heap burning coals of shame on their head the phrase is kill them with kindness don't let evil conquer you but conquer evil by doing good that's what we called for do we stand here with a rock in her hand or have we dropped it and is it open are we willing to love others be happy with those who are happy weep with those who weep live in harmony don't be proud don't think you know it all man those are tough phrases can we really live that out personally we forgive the government does justice I'm challenging all of us to fight for unity you know it's not gonna happen just like that it's something we have to lean into and it's something that we have a responsibility to do and if anybody's gonna do it in our culture right now who's it gonna be and just maybe it's us and that's what God calls us to this weekend in a moment we're gonna reflect and a moment gives the time of reflection you can take communion and the team is gonna sing a great song that is a really from the perspective of the woman caught in adultery which is all of ours perspectives if we're sinners saved by grace and as we take communion it's really Jesus saying I fought for you and we realize he did and when our hands are empty we realize now we can reach out and fight for unity that's our prayer this weekend on this holiday weekend that we accept that challenge and make unity real let's think on that together

Channel: Canyon Ridge Christian Church

Views: 1,560

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Christianity (religion), God, Jesus, Grace, Praise, Gospel, Ministry, Christian, Church, Canyon Ridge, God First, Lord, Holy, Ministries, Fellowship, Ridge Live, TheRidgeLive, The Ridge Live, RidgeLive.tvThe Ridge Live, Church Online

Id: 8Y47Cdc6KSA

Length: 31min 4sec (1864 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 05 2020