The Crisis | Pastor Jim Cymbala | The Brooklyn Tabernacle

[Music] I want to talk to you this morning about the crisis we're going through the borough of Brooklyn the city of New York the country the world I want to focus on just one aspect of this crisis as many times when you combine things people use the combinations to lessen the focus we should get on any one point I just want to talk about one point and that's the match that set a lot of things on fire and that's the murder no other word for it but the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis which everyone now probably has seen that murder was done by yes someone with a uniform with a gun with a badge but that was murder that person was going nowhere could do no one any harm that was a murder and beneath the surface of the tape and the uniform there was an arrogant hateful loathsome human being who seemed to be enjoying the fact that he was putting someone to death and leaning there and with can you imagine with phones taping it and with people begging along with the victim I can't breathe i I mean if you're a human being with a head and a heart you know that you're witnessing a murder of the phallus kind despicable again I'm no expert on jurisprudence I am NOT a lawyer I don't know how Union were laws work in Minneapolis with the police and all that but how that person was not in jail that night that night is totally befuddle until that if I would have been there and they filmed me I would have been rightly so in the slammer that very evening let's pray and hope that full justice is done in repayment of a murder I usually don't refer to notes but I want to be sure of my words today so I will refer as most speakers do to notes I've been trying to do it without it for quite a while but I really want to be careful today so what does God think about that murder let's just start with just the murder well in numbers the Bible says anyone who takes a life must pay with their own life the murderer is to be put to death numbers 35 16 that's for all murders any murder no matter who does the murder the murder the murderers shall be put to death I'm a Christian I'm speaking to you congregation and people watching this I'm gonna peel first obviously as a Christian I'm not trying to reason as the world reasons I'm trying to reason as a Christian I'm confined to the Word of God and the calling on our lives to be like Christ but that's murder Jesus said in Matthew 19 verse 18 you shall not murder you shall not murder anyone who's not outraged who condones what we saw in that video anyone who lessens is evil everyone who excuses it in any way is not only devoid of humanity you're not human I don't care who you are I declare to you in the name of the Lord you can watch that and not get sick something is very troubling about you but you're not only devoid we're not only devoid of humanity if that doesn't deeply affect us we become in league with Satan murder and Satan go hand in hand just talking about murder now let's forget the riots forget everything else just for now let's talk about one particular thing Jesus said speaking about Satan he was a murderer from the beginning anyone who abets excuses comes alongside and says well you know anyone who does that now you're walking hand-in-hand with Satan himself I don't care if you're a preacher I don't care who you are you really have lost your way I want to declare that to you with the full authority of scripture from the first murder of Cain slaying able to George Floyd and anyone else who has died since George Floyd for any reason murdered senselessly you are now walking with Satan he provokes murder he's a murderer the thief comes to steal kill and destroy she said I have come to give you life so when life is taken away we are now colluding with Satan no matter what outward show of religion we seem to have the Bible tells us that no one has a right to murder anybody else that cop that was leaning police officer leaning on George Floyd he didn't know George Floyd he didn't know when he was born he didn't know his parents he doesn't know his aspirations he doesn't know things he went through in life how can someone when you don't know someone how can you take their life under the guise of police work or any other guise of justice for all you can't take someone's life God hates that he's for life now you might look at it and say well George Floyd died for nothing there was no reason behind his murder and on the surface of it you're right there is no reason for that ah but you don't get it there is a reason why he was killed and that's hate that is hate on that man's face was not fear was not perplexing thoughts like what should I do there was hate now this hate of racism has been in our country from the very beginning racism looking down on people of color has been part of the American experience look look I'm not a conservative I'm not a liberal I'm a Christian and I went to college and I've read enough about history to know that when the country was founded and they said all men were created equal they didn't mean all men and women were created equal they meant the white folk that were in the country that's just the fact has American done other good things as America is America country people want to get to I got that but I'm not going to forget the the racism that it was born in and all through its history although it's been slowly tamp down and laws have been passed and a civil war was made happened because of slavery and racism it still remains though today in many people's hearts not everybody not everybody not every white person is a racist and not every racist murders but every racist poisons the society that we live in how in the world can you look down on someone for the color of their skin how ignorant is that and if you're a Christian you're not I hope to prove that to you if you look down on people and dislike people because of the color of their skin and you don't know them that's a sick little puppy so the Bible tells us that hatred is the thing behind almost all murders and all Christians everywhere need to understand listen can you please understand this don't you understand that based on the history and and not just this event it was the thing in Georgia where they hunted two men hunted down this other young man and then all the other things that have happened and not every time was hit the police for I'm not sweeping with a broad brush don't don't paint me in some extreme corner okay there's times when there were a criminal they were a perp and they did something and the police felt threatened and other times we know it's racism and hate but every Christian has to know now how people of color could feel easily that they're hunted that they're marked out there honey they got they got a target on their back you can't feel that if you can't feel that come come to Brooklyn okay and you'll talk to very lovely wonderful men and women who are Christians okay and you could talk to them and and let them share their heart with you a very life experience different than your life experience listen do you think I get nervous when any police offer police officer approaches me never never I don't care if the officer is white black Hispanic Asian when they approach me in New York oh we get in a dialogue I am NOT tense or nervous that's not true for people of color now you say yeah but every cup is not a bad cop I got that to overwhelming majority of cops just want to do their job and go home at night but there's enough bad ones that have made a reservoir of fear fear people are living in fear don't you get that can't you see that maybe you don't live in a diverse area and maybe you've been surrounded by an all-white culture or your life my wife and I I thank God have been in the inner city for more than four decades and we love where we are and there's problems but what we love about it is there are people from every race every background in our Church and by the way that's what heaven is going to be like if you don't want to be with certain people why would God punish you by sending you to heaven why would you go to heaven and be with every nation every tribe in every tongue that's sick that is very sick racism is a thing that's horrible there's hatred underneath it and at the hatred that leads so many times to murder feeling marginalized unequal honest beautiful people that God created I can name a Sioux of people listen there's enough a pastor on our staff African American and pastor Floyd Johnson he's NYPD retired now he's a pastor on our staff he's told the pastors listen I get nervous when I'm stopped he carried the shield he doesn't know what that officer has in his head when he sees the man's color you don't understand that now no don't go to riots don't go to riots we'll get to riots that's another message for another time but don't you see don't what both sides of this equation use other factors to mitigate what's wrong about their position I don't want to do that I want to look at this the way Jesus does I do I'm nobody special but I want to be a Christian and Christians love love all people you know you better be very careful pastors out there and everyone who rationalizes their hate and their subtle racism in the Old Testament God had two chosen people did you know that he had Israel oh I know that pastor I know my Bible no everybody had another chosen people in a way over and over again read the books of the law Moses the widow the father lets the orphans and the stranger the alien God said they are vulnerable if you my covenant people take advantage of them if you get over it on them you beat them you cheat them and they go back to their homes at night and they cry to God like why is this happening I will come for you God says that's my paraphrase but read it God says I will hold you to account who are you to take advantage of marginalized people when I've had mercy on you I could have struck you in a moment for all your sins white and black and every other race but I didn't I had mercy and patience and gentleness and now you're gonna pound people who are down already that's very sick very evil that's called hatred the opposite of who God is so anybody with a mind and a heart how can you not weep over this injustice the tragedy the racism that kills some but wounds all racism just kills some people but it wounds everybody and what's saddest about this in many ways I'm talking freely we're doing real talk is the church the Church of Jesus Christ you know why a lot of people don't believe in Jesus because of Christians you know why a lot of people in the world who see no attraction of of the of the model of Jesus Christ is because they look at churches just think in the 1830s 40s 50s on the abolitionist movement was gaining strength prior to the Civil War hmm preachers down south we're pounding the Bible to defend slavery and the beating of slaves I mean how twisted can you be you're pounding the Bible and talking about Jesus and over your pulpit that God is love and now you're justifying slavery that would make anybody paranoid and now it's a lot more subtle but look I'm gonna do never done this before I'm gonna give you a little bit of my life experience only as it comes to this but I don't want it to be about me because I am the least person to be referred to in the midst of what we're going through I traveled around enough you know I grew up in Brooklyn playing basketball on the playground my wife and I started with less than 20 people in the inner city okay by the grace of God and I thank God that I grew up in a home where there weren't racist remarks or rate a feeling of racism but I went in the ministry and then as things happen I began to travel some and invited I wrote books etc I can't tell you the shock and the sick feeling going back to a hotel room after preaching and being in a minister's conference or visiting a church and preaching after what I heard in the green room or what I heard over a snack after the meeting the the racial jokes with the racial overtones and racial words like make me to drop my fork and look and think to myself like what world do you live in what Bible do you read are you for real you're a disgrace I'm thinking that like how in the world can you get up in front of people and talk about Jesus Christ you have no right to do that he died for everyone he wants no one to perish the Bible says but you don't want to be with people he loves and died for run that by me again you don't want to be with people that he died for and we're going to be in heaven maybe you won't be in heaven maybe there's only a tiny remnant of people who really belong to Christ everything else is just mental doctrine or culture I want to get to that in a second but those are the experiences I've had that have just totally turned me off listen when God fills you with his love you don't have a negative thing to say about any race well are you nuts that's sick that's racist that's so wrong aren't you ashamed if you're like that well everyone's had their experiences with that but some unfortunately have joined in with the crowd you know oh let's just talk about target groups yeah that's a big word now when churches want to grow what's your target group but listen they used to call it different in the 70s yeah church growth came up with churches grow best when they're homogeneous and I had people tell me no didn't you get the books out of California Church growth what you can't do what you're doing downtown here with everybody being from everywhere churches grow best if they're homogeneous what's that mean that people like to be with their own kind hey I got that that's very human but it's also very carnal that means the Jewish believers would never been with the Gentile believers but the New Testament boasts in the fact that God broke down that barrier and Jew and Gentile we're together because it didn't matter anymore so here's your target group anyone who's breathing I don't care what age because age prejudice is ugly - oh you want upwardly mobile middle-class and all of that and and nobody who is you know like other oh yeah that is just beautiful you preached Jesus and tell me how that works out you'll have a form of religion but you will not have the power and presence of the Holy Spirit with you because God's heart is open to everyone homeless lawyers millionaires poverty-stricken every color target group that's just another way of saying come on it's the old thing about all the churches that are in a certain area and when the area changes why are they moving why are they moving oh listen I've been in all kinds of those over these decades and the pastor tells me well you know their neighborhood change we weren't there people there no but you know our folk wouldn't want to come if there is that not evil is that not sick so now you're gonna move further and further away from you know integrated neighborhoods because the congregation doesn't like it doesn't pastor if you're listening to me doesn't that speak to the kind of pastor you are and preacher you are that the people don't even have a scintilla of love for all people no you don't understand our culture and our state I don't want to understand your culture I don't understand your that racist mindset I do not want to understand I want to have my mind fill with the word of Christ and his love for all people I sometimes wonder really I say this my wife and I talk I mean where are the real Christians where are people who just want to love just want to love everybody the greatest men and women who have ever lived for God they didn't care about those things and today we live in a I want to say like almost fake Christianity fake fake its fake so much of it is fake I'm telling you I've traveled this is my best discernment and the praise and worship is going on and and and the doctrine five point Calvinism no my Pentecostal distinctives I got to tell you about the charismatic blessing but if you don't love what's the sense what are you doing are you that deceived so let me just leave this verse with you everyone who hates his brother is a murderer and you know no murderer has eternal life abiding in him first John 3:15 listen escuche everyone who hates his brother that means you don't love him is a murderer and John says you know no murderer has eternal life in them remember what Jesus said you've heard it written you've seen it written thou shalt not kill but I say unto you you hate that guy you measure like that you're a murderer you are a murderer pastor don't take that so literally no I will take it jesus said it got murderers everywhere sitting serving communion possibly in the pulpit and you know when you find out you don't find out arguing about doctrine and and and what's the mark of the beast and and you know once saved always saved that doesn't tell the true colors just put them in the world that God made and you find out who's real otherwise it's just make believe religion having a form of godliness but strangers to its power the power of love so just think of that Judgment Day pastors Christians when we stand before God and we have not loved we haven't even wanted to love we've justified our lack of love we got excuses on every side of the fence look don't don't go off on me here some of you thinking yeah but look what they're burning down to the right and I talked about riots right what are riots more violence more murder more hate and will bring about nothing but more destruction I got that I got that okay but I'm not talking about that now I'm talking about when will Christians stand up and say that is wrong I don't want in my church I don't want in my life and god I was raised around that so God deliver me from racism and give me your heart that loves everybody I have a grandson it's adopted by my daughter from Ethiopia he's 10 I love all my grandkids for a number of reasons I have something special in my heart toward him because of the way he came into my family he could have been on that gutter he could have been with somebody's knee on his neck because of what nothing that he did he didn't do anything he wouldn't harm a fly because of this hatred this racism God has to really control me with these things because it's so I hope I'm righteously indignant but I got to be careful that I'm angry and I don't sin because this is so wrong so wrong so ignorant and when it comes from Christians it's the grossest kind of hypocrisy okay so I want to say something to brothers and sisters in my congregation and all of you all of you that have been especially affected by this you got to get to Jesus don't look I have no formula for you I really I prayed I've tried I have nothing but listen to what I do have you got to understand that Jesus knows how you feel oh that's some platitude no listen Jesus knows how you feel because he was murdered you might not be murdered yet but here's how his murder happened in John 15 he's telling his disciples goodbye and he says all these things are going to happen which will fulfill Scripture they hated me without a cause Jesus died for obviously for our sins on the cross but the human dynamic was this they hated me without a course I hadn't done one bad thing to them never said a bad word to them healed their sick hell the children bless everyone I could but they hated me without a cause the only cause he said that they could have hated him was he testified that their deeds were evil and you know the way we are the human race you tell us we're wrong on something boom you're out of here we don't like to be corrected that's what Jesus said I have to be hated because I testified their deeds are evil but he in the fuller sense he was hated without a cause he didn't hurt anyone never did harm to anyone so to be hated you know to be hated it's a terrible thing I've been hated I've been around people who hated me I've had to deal with situations where someone had it deeply into me I have no idea of that kind of racial animus that my brothers and sisters in our church and elsewhere go through but it's terrible to be hated but sometimes if you had done something terrible and someone hates you back if you hated them and you knocked them down and they hate you back you can at least understand it like you know but without a course when you haven't done anything wrong and you're still hated like Jesus was like people are often because of their color you got to get into Jesus presence the healing that we all need are you especially my brothers and sisters of color only he can heal you if I could I would I say that let God knows I'm speaking the truth if I could do something personal inside of you I would do it I can't wait to get back and see you diddle for my wife and my family we want to be with you and hug you and be together like we always are but you got to get into the presence of Jesus and ask for directions of what you should do you know there's peace of peaceful protests which everyone has a right to do under our Constitution and which I validate obviously you can go out there but then there's rioting and you don't want to get trapped into writing and destruction which is the same spirit of the guy who killed George Floyd no difference but peaceful protest is one thing what you should do how you should pray we are calling a prayer meeting for tomorrow night June 8th listen everybody got this straight tomorrow at 9 o'clock where I am I am going to bow my head and pray from 9 to 10 you want to go later with me you pray you go up to midnight we are going to pray for our country for this plague cancer of racism of God show us what to do I don't have answers if I had answers I would give them but I want to say cheap things but I'm telling you that we're gonna pray tomorrow you got it Monday June 8th 9 o'clock that is mañana a la noche 8 9 o'clock get everybody quiet get rid of the phone and we're gonna pray and the Holy Spirit will direct us one last thing I want to leave with you sorry for such a long sermon here's what I'm most concerned about this is the deepest concern I have jesus said in Matthew 24 a lot of things about what it'll be like before he comes again a lot I totally can't clarify in my mom not sure what that means exactly but this one I know he said before I come again the days will become so evil that the love of most people will wax cold listen in the end times there'll be so much evil hate violence animosity friction explosions he's talking now to his own people he's not talking about guys and girls in the street who are white or black or whatever he's talking about his own people it'll get so evil that the reservoirs of our love will be tested and the love of most will be law I ain't loving anymore I don't want to know about love I'm tired of love I'm tired of this Jesus love agape love where you love even though it hurts and he said that about his own people and he doesn't say you know the love of a few the love of most will wax cold who knows that the remnant that'll be left when Christ comes will be only the remnant of all races who are really filled with love and everyone filled with anger and hate if God is love hate is anti love which is Antichrist Christ is love hate is Antichrist how in the world are we going to be rewarded if we're living with Antichrist attitudes in our heart and that's what he warns us it's what I'm concerned about among all races people are gonna say later look and they'll find justification oh yes they will oh yes they will the flesh always finds justification to hate or to throw away love I ain't gonna do this anymore jesus said that not me read about in Matthew 24 verse 12 the love of most will grow cold so please listen before I pray we can't give in I'm not giving in gonna give in by the grace of God my wife and I my family the Brooklyn Tabernacle we will not give in we're gonna love does it mean a lot of things Jesus are gonna have to figure out and heal us and help us and direct us yes but look at the look at the option here the love of most of his own people are going to grow coal but listen what follows but he that endures she that endures to the end shall be saved endure what endure all that wicked and the evil and not lose your love that's what's happening today you got angry preachers you got angry Christians you got an angry Democrats angry rip everybody is angry and hateful I have no hope for anything in this society except Jesus some revival some baptism of love where we can shine for Jesus Christ would you join me no listen if you're angry and you're angry at me and you don't like me because of my color or whatever and I'm the man whatever I have just appealed to you I'm gonna sleep tonight knowing I tried my best to appeal to you from the Word of God in a reasonable way and if you look at me and say oh you're an apologist for crime and all that whatever feel what you want God knows my heart when I what I detest and what's wrong if it's wrong it's wrong but I don't decide what's wrong the Word of God decides what's wrong so let's get back to Jesus let's get back to love what will that change what will that do I don't know I don't know and I know it's the right thing to do it's the only thing to do what I'm going to do throw away my love the love of Christ I'm a Christian today because he loved me because I was nice oh come on he loved me despite how ugly my life has been let's pray Lord our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name thy kingdom come thy will be done thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven forgive us today our sins our trespasses our lack of love our anger God heal this country our country the America that we live in we're so happy that in the end it's not our country we're going to be with you we are a holy nation with you but God heal the land we have a right to pray that not only stop the vile and stop the hate stop the racism stop everything god that's not of you let the church arise and make more converts because people who really know you don't hate if they hate that means they don't know you no matter who they are we have no hope and any politician any office holder any political party we have no hope in any of them our eyes are on you please God God of love baptize us with your love please God heal the pain of my brothers and sisters who are going through anguish I don't understand please God do that [Music] and help us to remember that verse that we heard in that song they will know they will know we are Christians by our love baptized us in that love and keep us walking in love in Jesus name Amen [Music] remember tomorrow night 9 o'clock 9 o'clock tomorrow night we are going to pray wherever you are it's not going to be via the internet or anything like that is going to be just alone with God he said when you pray go into a closet shut the door get alone shut the door and we're gonna call on God and believe that he's going to do something awesome thank you for listening to me today god bless you [Music]

Channel: The Brooklyn Tabernacle

Views: 7,954

Rating: 4.8993711 out of 5

Keywords: Race, Racism, Brooklyn Tabernacle, The Brooklyn Tabernacle, Jim Cymbala, Police, New York, Brooklyn, George Floyd

Id: 8U8JIL1GadM

Length: 37min 49sec (2269 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 07 2020