Pastor Robert Morris– A Lack Of Understanding

so I told you that I'm not in a series this fall I'm just bringing individual messages that I feel very strongly that I need to talk about and the title of this message I have to explain it to and you'll you'll get it in a minute but it's called a lack of understanding a lack of understanding and I actually brought a form of this message at the conference and what I want to do today is address racism and talk about how the Bible addresses racism we have a problem in our country and I believe obviously all of us know Jesus is the answer but I believe the reason we still have this problem today is because of the church I don't believe the church has taken the stand that the church needs to take and I want us as a church to take a stand now when I talk about a lack of understanding let me show you a scripture Hosea 4:6 says my people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge they just don't understand I don't think that we have really understood the depth of this problem and so let me let me give you an illustration so here here's a water bottle I haven't opened it it's got water in it and if y'all if you guys could get it close up of that water bottle so everybody --steal ever campus ok so what I mean let's say there we go all right so what what do you see on that what word do you see Ozark good everyone to see that okay I don't see that I don't see the word Ozark is not on this side I see the words born naturally and then I see some words that are too small to read okay but we're looking at the same bottle right babe all right but I'll never see what you see unless I take the time to walk around the bottle and look at it from your perspective beef are you following me so we have a problem in our country mainly because white people don't understand it's really true and we need to take the time to walk around the issue and see what our brothers and sisters are seeing and see what they're feeling but we'll never know unless we ask instead of simply arguing about a protest or a demonstration or something like that why don't we set out and say what are you what are you hearing what are you seeing what do you feel and not see it as an issue or as history but as people so it's gonna be a sobering serious message but I'm gonna put some humor throughout to kind of lighten it up every now and then it says is that okay so I'm just letting you know that I think really that we're ignorant of the problem to the depth it is I think we're ignorant that doesn't mean we're stupid does it mean that we're rebellious or anything like that I'm talking little white people now I mean it's we're just ignorant so today I'm preaching to all the ignorant white people so if you're an ignorant white person just listen alright and that's me too I've been learning some things for the past several years as I've met with pastors and friends of mine to help me understand and it has now become personal to me not just an issue and I think we've got to come to place where it's personal so first of all we need to know Jesus ministered to everyone he was sent to the house of Israel and there are very specific theological reasons why grace came to where there was a foundation of law and I don't have time to go into that but he ministered to the syrophoenician woman he ministered to the Roman soldiers in the the Centurions slave his servant he ministered to the Samaritan woman that was considered interracial so but a lot of times we don't even realize where pigmentation came from pigmentation I think we all think we know what the word means it does refer to color but it refers to color of skin and it refers to a genetic DNA in our bodies that determines what our color skin is and you you can try to change it but you can't change it much it's amazing how light-skinned people want to be darker and dark skinned people want to be lighter that's amazing to me but it's simply the color of your skin so some people don't even know where it came from well we all came from Adam and Eve we didn't come from monkeys just let you know in case you have bought into that I know sometimes they'll say 98% of us are have monkey DNA it's really not true that's really not a true statement it's about 70 percent and I'm doing everything I've my wife says sometimes it's not yay in my case but it's really only about 70% but that 30% is very distinctive plus we have a soul and we were made in the image of God but we all came from Adam and Eve but then in Genesis 6 God starts all over with Noah and his family and three sons and there's something really interesting about Noah's sons and that is their names their names do mean something pastor Chad talked about it the South Lake campus names mean something so Noah had three sons ham means hot and black that's what it means hot and black lay faith means fair or light skinned sham now this one will throw you for a loop because you don't know quite what it means but I'll explain it it means name that's all it means it's name I believe Noah was prophetic in naming his sons for several reasons but one reason Shem was where Abraham came from his line house of Israel came from is like Jesus came so it's amazing that the person who got the name above all names came from name the person named name you know but why would he name one dark-skinned or black and why would he name one light or fair-skinned well because this is going and why wouldn't say something about Jim's color it's because Shem was probably brown the reason Shem was probably brown was because Noah and his wife were probably brown I'm about to throw somebody for a loop the reason Noah and his wife were probably brown is because Adam and Eve were probably brown because you can get black from brown and you can get white from brown but you can't get white from black and you can't get black from white so most theologians believe that God created Adam and Eve Brown so that we could have light-skinned people and dark-skinned people and by the way why does not the predominant race in the world it's amazing how many people believe that Brown is the predominant skin color or pigmentation in the world more people are brown than or water black so it's very possible that Noah has a dark Sun and mange him dark or black he has a light-skinned son names him fair light skin then he has one that's just his color and he says name you know it's just your name is name we get have got too many kids now can't think of anything they and yet God knew what he's doing by the way hot and black in the Hebrew that's what you say well I thought its scientific fact that a dark-skinned person does better than a hotter climate and a fair skinned person doesn't do well in a hotter climate a fair skinned person can burn skin can burn very easily and can get skin cancer much more easily a dark skinned person on the other hand many times might live in a colder region the reasons colder is farther from the Sun and so sometimes a dark-skinned person actually is recommended by doctors to take vitamin D in a colder region of the earth but my point is that God created us not to all look alike God created some of us to be lighter and some of us to be darker but God didn't create the racists and the racial divide you go to Genesis 12 and yes he created the languages but so many people believe then that he created some sort of a racial divide God did not create a racial divide he created diversity he created light skin and dark skin I was talking with a pastor a while back and he said this to me said you know in our church we tell people we're not color blind or color blessed we're color blessed so we do have dark skin we have white skin some people don't know that there are black people in the Bible just to take a few in the New Testament the man that God chose to carry his sons cross that gave that gave this man the honor of carrying his sons cross was a black man there were black people on the day of Pentecost read the nations therefrom read the North African nations that they were from in acts 13 everyone knows about X 13 when the Church of Antioch sent Paul and Barnabas the two most of Fame from the most famous most well-known apostles ever what people will know it lists five leaders in the church now I'm gonna I'm gonna show you it's amazing that again I'm telling you why people are ignorant of this they're ignorant two of the five leaders were black in the church at Antioch the church that sent begin sitting missionaries around the world let me read you the verse acts 13 verse 1 now I'm the church that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers Barnabas okay we are talking about Paul and Barnabas Barnabas Simeon who was called Niger I want to come back to the word Niger in a moment Lucius of Cyrene that's a North African nation man who'd been brought up with Herod the Tetrarch and Saul that we know as Paul so you've got Lucius and Simeon who was called Niger that this was not a derogatory term but Niger means black that's what he means look it up it means black it's what we have a country called Niger and we have a country called Nigeria and this is work by the way the sad part of this word is this is where the slang word came from from this word that means black it came from this word and it's a horrible but this is where it came from but two out of the five leaders in the Church of Antioch were black and when Paul and Barnabas left then two out of three work and again I'm saying this to help us understand that if you've come from a white world you don't understand you need to walk around the other side of the bottle and so this message is going to help you walk around the other side of the bottle sub um when we talk about interracial marriage most of time we're not talking about Asian or Hispanic we're talk about black and white this has been a plan of the enemy for many many years now to create it bide there when by the way the Bible does is does not forbid interracial marriage it forbids interfaith marriage when God told Israel not to marry with other nations it had nothing to do with them being a different race it had to do with them not being believers in the true God and that they what they were doing Israel was literally selling their daughters in marriage to enter into a business agreement with another nation and so they could do business with him but that nation God knew would draw them awake into an idol worship so he said don't do that don't don't marry don't don't do that don't give your daughters in marriage to heathen nations it had nothing to do with race had at everything he was fake and the New Testament then backs that up and says what well what what fellowship with would light have with darkness or a believer with an unbeliever when when my daughter was about three years old we used to have this couple that would come and stay with us he played basketball overseas now I'm going to there be times when I'll say this man or this person who this family was a black family the reason I'll say it is because it's pertinent to the conversation I want you to think about if it's not pertinent to the conversation you don't need to say it like this guy was talking in one time and he was another pastor and he said there was a black woman in line behind me at the supermarket and we started talking and other done he told me the conversation and at the end of conversation I said to him I said hey I want to ask you something why don't you tell me she was black well you just said there was a woman and we started talking why did you tell me she was black would you tell if she said there was a white woman behind me would you have said that he said no he said I don't know why I said that and then later about a month later he called me and he was crying and he said Robert I've been praying about that ever since and I realized when I was growing up that my that's the way my parents introduced any black person any time they talked about a black man or a black woman they always used the word black but they never used it when I talk about white friends and so I he said God's convicted me about I have prejudice in my heart by growing up from my girl let me by the way define racism and this for you all right because it's very very important to understand let me give you three definitions of racism starting from the worst to what would be what is probably more dominant predominant in our country first of all racism can be defined as hating a person because of his race and we do have races that type of racism in our nation unfortunately people hate someone because of race second is though deep believing that a race is superior or a racist inferior to other races that's racism if you believe that there is a superior race or an inferior race that's racism the third is what I think is most predominant in our nation and it is prejudice toward another race so I don't want that up yet that's alright that's okay we can go and put it up prejudice is making a judgement about someone that having all the facts now show well I love to break down words so show the word premium value word break it down pre Judas see how I broke that word down Prius prefix which means before and Judas means judgment the Judas thinks about the judicial system the the only problem with pre Judas is that you make a judgment before you have the facts our judicial system makes the judgment after they get the facts are y'all following me okay so pre pre Judas prejudice is making a judgment someone that's the racism that we have mainly in America although we do still have hate and of course Jesus is the answer because he's loved and all we do although we do have wrong thinking that there's a superior race or an infant racence completely false the Bible never back set up but most of it is is that most of us most of us have some sort of prejudice toward people some sorta we make some sort of a prejudgment even though we don't know that person so when my daughter was about three years old this family a black family they would he played basketball overseas many times he was like the MVP for the national team and he used it to witness he had a chance to play in the NBA he really felt like he was called more to be a missionary so he played four different countries overseas and you play for about six months and then he'd come home well when they would come home they would stay in our home for two or three weeks or a month until they found the house that they could rent until they went back from the next season and so they'd stay in our home so one day Elaine my daughter was playing with his son and they're sitting there playing together and the Lord spoke to me and said is it all right with you if Elaine marries the black man and I said well yes Lord it is if he's a godly man if he's a man a good character if he loves her and if he loves you yes it's okay and the Lord said this week no is it okay with you and I knew when he said that what he was saying was you still have some prejudices that I need to deal with but I can't deal with them if I can't reveal them to you so I need you to be open that you have some prejudices by the way most of you know but let me just show you a picture of my daughter and her beautiful husband and beautiful children right there so God was already preparing me because what I realized later was that I had things in my heart that I didn't know which were in my heart now y'all are being real quiet Oh y'all are you okay I mean would you agree that God has shown you that you grew up probably with some prejudice how many of you would say I grew it with some prejudice I know I'm okay well God wants to deal with that so this is gonna shock you what I'm about to tell you but I have seven points today yes it's it's amazing but I'm one of doing very quickly I'm gonna do them very quickly and I'm not gonna comment hardly at all so if you're gonna write you got to write fast I'm just gonna go through the seven points and then share something else with you all right so number one racism is pure evil it's just pure evil romans 12 9 says let love be without hypocrisy without judgment without being fake love people truly and a what is evil and let me tell you what evil is evil is Hippocratic love hypocritical love that's that's that's what love would be in other words loving some people not loving others abhor what's evil by the way when we say that racism is pure evil I don't know if you ever noticed this look at the word devil and then look at the last four letters he's the evil he's the evil he's the evil just that's free I just threw that in for you all right okay number two racism just pure self-righteousness it's pure self-righteousness that's all it is Luke 18 11 the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself God I thank you that I'm not like other men in other words I thank you I'm better than other people believing that erase the superior or erases inferior is nothing but pride and self-righteousness that's all it is number three racism violates the Great Commission racism violates the Great Commission most people know the Great Commission Matthew 28:19 I'll just use part of it go there and make disciples go therefore and make disciples of all the nations the word nations is the record ethnos it's where we get our word ethnicity from ethnic go make disciples of all ethnicities so racism would violate the Great Commission number for racism violates the great commandment not just the Great Commission but the great commandment john 13 verses 34 and 35 a new commandment i give to you that you love one another as I have loved you that you also love one another by this all will know that you're my disciples if you have love one for another this is the way people are gonna know that we're different because we love each other number five racism questions God's creation racism questions God's creation acts 17:26 and he has made from one blood every ethnicity nation ethnos every ethnic group he's made from one blood so we talked moaning all about black white and brown we just let you know no matter what color you are Dan outside all of us are red on the inside we're all red that's what color we are we're red because we come from one blood number six racism questions God's plan it questions God's plan revelation 5:9 and they sang a new song saying you're worthy to take the scroll and open its seals for you were slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation God's plan is to redeem people out of every ethnic group so racism questions God's plan and God's creations we said here's number seven raesha racism questions God just questions God and decided to put in a parenthesis defies God and even these last three where I use the word question you could put it this way five six and seven you could say racism defies God's creation goes against is what the word defy means goes against God's creation it goes against God's plan and it goes against God so how does it question God or defy God well the most famous verse in the Bible John 3:16 for God so loved the world not one race but the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life see we got it we got to somehow walk around to the other side of the bottle I can remember hearing about the Holocaust and mamo Steve you heard about the Holocaust but if you've ever visited a Holocaust Museum I've been the one in Israel and I'm also been to the one in Auschwitz I've been to Auschwitz and seen the ovens and seen all of it the Holocaust for me was an issue and an event and it was history until I went to Auschwitz and when you see shoes that belong to children piles of them piles and eyeglasses and here's the tough part hair and teeth it's not an issue anymore and it's not history anymore it's personal it's people and we've got to walk around the other side of the bottle and understand that the atrocities that had happened in our nation and around the world happened to people so I have some black pastor friends that have been helping me understand I lack of understanding helping me understand and one of them dr. Ricky temple and his wife Diana I have a picture of them they were at our conference and I asked him to share for a moment you notice that Diana's light-skinned and she shared her story that her great-great grandmother was impregnated by the slave slave owner white slave owner and had a child had a little girl and for some reason he decided to let him go free so he put the mother and the little baby girl on a boat but some like me and got angry about it and they began shooting at the boat when it was leaving the mother did what any mother would do and covered the baby and the mother was shot and died and the baby lived that's diamond's grandmother it's not an issue anymore to me it's something that happened to my friends I also asked a friend of mine dr. Ken Omer who has spoken here at the church many times so you about recognize him I asked him he shared for about 15 minutes but I'm only going to show you about three minutes because I asked him to share a story that he had shared with me now in this story you need to know something first of all dr. Omer earned doctorate is vice chairman at the Kings University great man of God teaches at Oxford in the summer just been a tremendous friend for about 20 years of mine but he's going to share a story and he uses the N word but he's sharing his story so you need to hear his story something that happened him when he was 10 years old so watch this I was about 10 years old and I was the only black piano student at an all-white music School in East st. Louis Illinois not st. Louis there is a difference trust me okay and there's a tourist attraction on the banks of the Mississippi called the Admiral big huge steamship and people come from all over America to get on the ship and they cruise up and down the Mississippi and come back to st. Louis and on this particular Saturday all of the students at the shield's music school all the students at the shield's music school where I was the only black student did a field trip and we were going out on the Hat roll and so my mother and my father took me and they hit me and I had my little suit on and my dad was on my left hand and my my mom was on my right and I was I was about ten years old and we were walking down the ramp about to board the ship and at the bottom of the ramp I see the biggest white man I'd ever seen in my life big huge guys one was dressed in all white other had like a Smokey the Bear hat on I found it later on he was a cop the other white guy dressed in white was the captain of the ship and they're standing like this the bottom of the deck bottom of the of the the ramp but getting closer and closer and closer we get to the bottom and so the captain the captain got dressed in all white said where y'all going and my mom said we were going on the honor Admiral Admiral and the captain said not the day you ain't my mom said oh no we're we're with with the shields music school and all the students are going on that on Admiral and the big cop says we don't allow on this boat my mom said no you don't understand we're with this with the CEO of music school and all the students are going going don't ride on this boat and if y'all don't leave we're gonna run you in VidCon and the white man took his finger like I said putting my dad's face and said you better leave here boy I'm almost 70 years old and I'll never forget the look on my dad's face when that white man put his finger in my dad's face and say we don't let on this boat if you don't leave boy we're gonna run you in I remember it like it was yesterday I've never forgotten and I hated white people I'm I'm a recovering racist it's hard to hear that story isn't it we'll never understand until we walk around to the other side what some people that you work with that live in your neighborhood they come to our church what they and their families have been through and it's time for the church to stand up and declare that racism is evil and the answer is Jesus Christ we're gonna end the service a little differently all the campuses I want to ask you just to stand up where you are and in a moment we'll close the service and we'll have ultra ministers at the front of every campus and if you need prayer for any area of your life we'll do that but for about three to four minutes because our hearts now have been stirred I want us to pray I wants to pray for a healing in our nation our nation needs a healing and we keep looking to Washington to solve it they're not going to solve it the church is going to solve this problem so I want us to pray for a healing raishin but here's what we're gonna do we're gonna do something little differently I want us to gather in groups of three or four or five people and I don't mean this in any way to two please hear my heart but if you're a person of color and there are two or three people of color around you would you leave that small group and find some ignorant white people and if you feel comfortable pray for us that's uh key point to a motive a current like guy right there so but I wants to take a few moments yeah God's gonna hear our prayers God hears prayer and he changes things and we want to start a change here at Gateway Church so I want you to find some people around you spread out if you need to get in groups of three four or five whatever and take about three minutes to pray for healings maybe just one person prays or voices it or two or three that's fine but let's pray for healing and then I'll pray for salt in a moment so go ahead find some people that's great [Music] [Music] [Music] if you'll just kind of begin to wrap your prayers up ever campus in the next few seconds and I want to lead us in a prayer and all of us agree so just if you're praying if you just begin to wrap it up and then let's pray together Lord we come together as one church in many locations we come together Lord as your children and God we ask you right now today in Jesus name to start a revival in our nation in this area Lord would you allow black and white and brown to come together under the banner of the Lord Jesus Christ and made into worship you and praise you and honor you and we'll give you all the glory in Jesus name Amen

Channel: gatewaychurchtv

Views: 181,165

Rating: 4.8422275 out of 5

Keywords: gatewaypeople, Gateway, Pastor Robert, sermon, Dallas, Texas, Southlake, relationship, Jesus, God, Honor, love, Robert Morris, Racism, a lack of understanding

Id: kcNXWpk7Pbw

Length: 34min 9sec (2049 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 21 2017