We're going to begin
in the book of Jonah. If you have a copy
of the scriptures, Jonah 4 to be precise. And I believe it's a passage
of scripture that not only is appropriate for our day, but
prophetic for what I believe needs to happen inside of
us to be properly postured to minister in our day. Now, of course, when
you think of Jonah-- and I'm sure many of you
did not see that coming-- OK, so you're going
to speak to race, and speak to discrimination,
and give a message that is hopefully going to help
make us of these events that we've been seeing. And to do so, you want to
talk about a guy swallowed by a whale. It's a stretch, pastor. Actually, I want to talk about
what happened after that. And I want to talk
about even what happened after what happened after that. You see, because Jonah
famously did not obey God. And yes, he was
swallowed by a whale. And then he was
spit out on a beach. And then the word of God came to
him once again to do something. And this time he did it
and was obedient to do it, even though it still
wasn't his heart to do it. And so when he finally
did do that thing, which happened to be preaching
the Gospel in what was then the most significant
city in the world. And by all standards
of comparison, the equivalent would need to be
preaching in the middle of New York City in our day. Except that city, New
York City, was populated by people who hated Jonah
more than anybody on the earth and had probably, in a
cruel and vicious fashion, put to death people
that Jonah loved. And so Jonah, begrudgingly, but
eventually did go to Nineveh and preach. And historians and
students of the Bible have declared what
happened next to be, if not the one of, the
biggest revivals that have ever happened in history. As the some 600,000 person
city, nearly to a person, repented at the word
of God and trusted in the God of the Bible. And I want to talk to you
about what happened next. For scripture says
that Jonah was angry when he saw the people repent. So he "went out of
the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter
and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what
would become of the city. And the Lord God
prepared a plant and made it come up
over Jonah that it might be shade for his head to
deliver him from his misery. So Jonah was very
grateful for the plant. But as morning dawned, the
next day God prepared a worm. And it so damaged the
plant that it withered. And it happened,
when the sun rose, that God prepared a
vehement east wind. And the sun beat on Jonah's
head so that he grew faint. Then he wished death
for himself and said. It is better for me
to die than to live.' Then God said to Jonah, 'Is it
right for you to be angry about the plant?' And he said, 'It is right for
me to be angry even to death.' But the Lord said,
'You have had pity on the plant for which you have
not labored nor made it grow, which came up in a night
and perished in a night. Should I not pity Ninevah, that
great city in which are more than 120,000 persons who cannot
discern between their right hand and their left
and much livestock?'" I want to give to you a message
beginning here in Jonah 4 that I'm calling The Upper
Hand, The Upper Hand. It's a phrase that has
helped me to understand, as I've been looking,
and studying, and seeking to understand,
the events of our day, the anger of our day
that has led there to be, across the nation and now even
spilling out into the world, protests both
peaceful and violent, both those who are full of
pain, and those who are seeking to exploit, in
the midst of this, a free TV, or a
free pair of shoes, or whatever but
the anger and pain, the grief and the
agony that has captured the attention of our
world has at its roots an understanding
that has been exposed of those within the black
community in our country that they matter less,
that their lives aren't as important, and are not
valued by the system that exists in our country. And when we talk
about systemic racism, and when we talk
about white privilege, and when we talk about the
Black Lives Mattering or not mattering or should we, then,
argue that all lives matter, this instantly causes
everything to tighten, causes everyone to
become defensive. When we speak about
race and there's the accusation and the
insinuation then of racism, and when we bring
these subjects up, there can be the
immediate locking down. I've seen it. I watched it. I saw in one post 1,000
people unfollow my Instagram page for me simply
and succinctly saying what I stand by. And that is that
Black Lives Matter, not that other
lives don't matter or that Black lives are
the only ones that matter. But my statement, what
I do believe here today is that Black Lives Matter,
black people matter. They should matter to you. They matter to God. They matter. And that posting of that
image caused instant fighting, and anger, and accusation. One person told
me because I said that, every thing I've ever done
for God does not count anymore. And every book I've ever
written does not count anymore. And they will never
listen to my ministry again, because I am
obviously a false prophet for saying and stating
that Black Lives Matter. Now, when we feel the tension,
and feel the anger, and watch people just begin to-- what are we are seeing? The same forces at work that led
to the deadliest war the United States ever fought. Not World War I, the trenches
and the no man's land strewn across Europe. Not World War II,
and Japan and Germany at the same time
descending upon England, descending upon the
United States soldiers. The deadliest war,
the deadliest conflict in our nation's history
was the Civil War where we fought with
ourselves over the treatment of Black lives. And we are quick,
many of us, to argue how much has changed
as we fight and tear one another apart over the
treatment of Black lives. And those wanting to rush in
and talk about how police lives matter, too, and-- look, yes. And if I posted
Police Lives Matter, I think I would hope
that as a Jesus person, you would say, yeah, they do. And if I posted that Eskimo
Lives Matter, my hope and heart would be that you would be
like, well, of course they do. Eskimos are
meaningful before God. If I said that people who
love football matter, my hope, my heart, would
be that all of us would have the spirit to
say, of course, they do. Everybody has-- but
the singling out one group that's hurting to
celebrate, to honor, to grieve with should by no means
make us feel defensive. But why do we feel that? Why do sometimes the
reactions come out that way? I believe that the words
that explain it well, for many and not most, many but
maybe not all, is, in fact-- I know it's true for me-- an idea that we need
to come to terms with and that is white privilege. Now, I realize even
using buzz words, there's a whole Google
search that's done and associations that are made. But I heard Miles McPherson,
a pastor in San Diego, put it beautifully when he said
that if you're left handed, you live in a world
that, for the most part, was catered to
right-handed people. So there's an
automatic disadvantage to being born in this
nation left-handed. You find many things are clumsy
for you that are not clumsy for a right-handed person. If you're right-handed
like me, you're privileged just by
virtue of being born in this world the way you were. To understand and to come to
terms with the concept that is being communicated,
that to me rings true of
experience, and that is to say that in this
country being born Caucasian puts you
at an advantage, puts you at a place where
you have certain things that are going to be easier
for you that you never have to think about. And now in saying
that black people are at a disadvantage
in this country, that's not to say that there
aren't white people that have disadvantages nor is it to
say that any other groups don't have disadvantages. I think there's lots
of different groups that can be disadvantaged
in this country. But to be born black in America
does put you at a disadvantage, does starts you out on first
base where being Caucasian may put you on third base. And that's a fact. And the data bears that out. It's not a level playing field. That is what is meant by
the idea of white privilege, that whites have the upper hand. Being white, there's
an upper hand you have an education, in the
schools you have access to, the neighborhood you are
likely to grow up in, the rates of being
put into prison, the ability to
access certain jobs. And you're saying to yourself,
well, what about, what about, what about? The there's exceptions
to every rule. But the rule is in this
country to be born black is to be at a disadvantage. It's to be withheld
at the starting line while other people, while
others get a running start. That's what this pain is over,
a system that rewards whiteness in our country. And that should break our
hearts to think about it. That should cause us to not feel
BAD but to let that sink in, to be aware. And what I want to
talk to you about today is not whether or not
you have privilege. You need to look into
that on your own, think about that on your. Look into some of
the things that I mentioned and so many
resources that exist. What I want to do
is tell you that you should pray about what God wants
you to do with your privilege. That's what this message is. This isn't trying to
argue you into telling you you have privilege or
don't, because you might be black and have privilege. Really, if you think about
it, being born in America, regardless of your skin color
does put you at an advantage. It does put you into
a privileged place. You could have been born
into the slums of Nepal. So we're privileged not just for
being white, if you're white, there are people
watching this broadcast and you're not
Caucasian, but you're privileged in different ways. If you have a good family,
if you have been shown love, if you've had good friends
around you, if you're healthy, we all have privilege. And I want to say that God
wants us to think differently about how we use our privilege. That's what this
message is about. I want to encourage you
to leverage your privilege for others and for
the kingdom of God. I want to encourage you
to utilize your privilege, to not feel ashamed of it,
to not be territorial of it, but with an open hand
to steward the privilege you have to bless other people. My friend Dr. Dharius Daniels
said that so many of us are scared of the
conversation because we think that the goal is for
us to lose our privilege when really the goal is for
us to use our privilege. And the world of the generous
gets larger and larger, but the world of a
stingy just gets smaller. So instead of
holding on to it, I think we should
steward it, and use it for good and not for evil. My four points that I
hope you'll jot down-- and the first is that
justice matters to God. I want you to understand that
when we talk about oppression, when we talk about racism,
when we talk about people being taken advantage of, or
people not being given a fair shake in a country
where we celebrate the idea of liberty, that is
not equitably given to everyone. But justice matters to God. It is not just what He
does, it is also who He is. Yes, God, is just. It's one of His attributes. But it's also His name. God is-- Psalms tells us-- He is a defender of the widow
and a defender of the orphan. Who is God? A father to the fatherless. That's who He is. It's literally in His name. Moses said, What's Your name? Who do I call you? What am I supposed
to call You, God? And He said, proclaiming His
name, My name is the Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and
gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love
and faithfulness-- this is still His name-- maintaining love to
thousands, and forgiving wicked, rebellion, and sin. Yet, He does not leave
the guilty unpunished. He punishes the children
and their children for the sins of the
fathers to a third and the fourth generation. It's a very long name. So God does not just
act just, He is just. It's who He is not
just what He does. So justice matters to God. Isaiah 58:6-9. "Is this not the kind of
fasting I have chosen?" I preached on this at the
beginning of the year. God's repulsed by fasting if
it's not mixed with justice. "The kind of fasting
I have chosen is to loose the
chains of injustice and untie the cords of the
yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke. Is it not to share your
food with the hungry, to provide the poor
wanderer with shelter? When you see the
naked to clothe him and not to turn away from
your own flesh and blood? Then your light will
break forth like the dawn and your healing
will quickly appear. Then your righteousness
will go before you and the glory of the Lord
will be your rearguard. Then you will call and
the Lord will answer. You will cry for
help and He will say, here am I. If you do away
with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger,
and malicious talk." So first point--
justice matters to God. Second point-- reconciliation
is an ongoing assignment, ongoing to the present day. What do I mean by that? I mean when Christ,
on the cross, paid for the sins of the
world and perished, and then rose from the dead, what He
unleashed was reconciliation. That's powerful to reconcile. But the effects
have to be carried about by change agents called
His church and, ultimately and eventually, His
spirit which will breathe that reconciliation
of all things unto Himself, this planet, this
world, this universe, it all will be reconciled. Between now and
then and the tension that we live in the
already but not yet, it's already been
unleashed by the cross, but the effects of
it-- we're meant to be the agents of
that reconciliation, to reconcile all things. This is what is
meant in Ephesians 2 when he says, Paul does,
"And you He made alive--" through what? The cross-- "who were dead
in trespasses and sins." Now, we're like,
yeah, I'm saved. It's great. I've been reconciled. But we are meant not only
to stop at salvation, but to start at salvation. To let that salvation
that gave new life to us spill over into everything,
including into relations with other races. Which he continues, if you
just jump a few versus ahead in Ephesians 2,
"Therefore, remember that you were once
Gentiles in the flesh who were called, mockingly,
uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision
made in the flesh by hands--" what's that? It's a slur--
"that at that time, you were without
Christ being alien from the Commonwealth
of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise. You had no hope and you were
without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus,
you who once were far off have been brought near
by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace." What did he do? He made both into one. The outcast and those
who were the insiders. "And He's broken down the
middle wall of separation having abolished in His
flesh the enmity that is the law of commandments
contained in ordinances so as to create in Himself one
new man from the entity. That one new man from the
two, thus making peace. And that He might
reconcile--" What is it? Reconciliation--
"them both to God in one body through the cross,
thereby putting to death the enmity. And He came and
preached peace to you who were a far off into
those who were near." The races that we
know of today where a curse that came from Babel. It was just one mankind. Different colors,
different shades, for sure, but just one
humanity, one mankind. But the sin, and the
pride, and the idolatry led to what we know of today
as the discord of races. But the act of the cross
began the end of that. And you saw a glimpse
of it on Pentecost. Peter preached. And when the Holy
Spirit fell, and all these different languages, they
all spoke one tongue again just for a moment, a reversal
of Babel, an acting of one made out of many. Now that was where it
all began at the cross. You're like, well
that's good then. It's all done then. Well, not at all. Because flash forward just
a couple days and Peter doesn't want to go preach
the gospel to a Gentile. Acts 10, Peter in his dream
doesn't want to eat bacon, because he's still
holding on to his culture, holding onto his stuff. And God had to tell him
in no uncertain terms, eat the bacon, Peter. In Acts 10, Peter said,
"Now, I know for certain that God does not show
favoritism with people but treats everyone
on the same basis." Well, that's good then. Peter learned that the hard way. He opened the door of
salvation to the gentiles using the keys that Jesus
gave him in Matthew's gospel. It should be fine then. Except reconciliation is
an ongoing assignment. Because that same Peter,
who is now I know. Galatians 2, when
Peter came to Antioch-- this is after Acts 10-- "I opposed him," Paul said,
"to his face, because he was clearly in the wrong. Because when certain men
would come from James, he used with the Gentiles. But when they arrived, he
began to draw back and separate himself from the Gentiles--"
Discrimination, prejudice in action-- "because he was afraid
of those who belonged to the circumcision group. The other Jews joined
in in hypocrisy so that by their hypocrisy,
even Barnabas was led astray." Peter as a leader allowed
a system which profiled and treated differently those of
a different ethnic background. So he had to have,
lovingly, Paul get into his face to remind
him, this is not right, that we are moving
towards reconciliation. And we have to fight for it. What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say that
racism hasn't gone away. It's just gone underground. In our day, it's easy
to think-- and I've thought it-- man, that was crazy
that we used to have slaves. It was horrible and awful. I can't believe that you read
a biography of Jefferson, or George Washington, or you
read even a Christian author like Jonathan Edwards and you're
like how did they have slaves? How did they-- that
seems like so long ago. But it wasn't that long ago. It was three people ago,
if you think about it. Three people ago, three
lifetimes stacked together ago, people owned people
in our country. What about when the
slave trade ended? Well, slavery endured. They had the sense to get
rid of the slave trade, but slavery endured. What happened? Racism just changed. It didn't go anywhere. It just morphed. It just adapted. What about when slavery ended? Well, black people were
still not considered human even after slavery ended. Well, what about when the
Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth
Amendment gave way to the Fourteenth Amendment. And then by black people had the
status of being human beings. Yea for us, America. We decided that black
people are, lo and behold, actual human beings,
thus not property. Well, then it got,
arguably, uglier for black people than ever. In the Jim Crow South,
subjugation, and being lynched, and being burned, and bombs
blowing up in churches, exploding Sunday School
classes, being imprisoned, slaves in all but name. Entrapped and arrested
under minor, petty offenses, treated horribly. Yeah, but then Dr. King
marched and the nation rallied. I saw Forrest Gump. And then in '64, Johnson
signed the Civil Rights Act. And he put into
law that you can't have a colored water fountain
and a white water fountain. And the black people don't have
to sit at the back of the bus anymore. So thank God we
sorted all that out. And to think that
it hasn't been 70 years from a sign
over a water fountain that says "Whites Only." And for you and I to go, but
racism is a thing of the past, we're beyond all that. Racism will never
disappear until heaven. It will always just
adapt and find a new way. And what's being exposed, and
what's being spoken about, and what's being
righteously protested is the fact that in our day,
the ugliness, the evil that began at Babel, that worked
its way all through history, including our history, is still
very much happening today. And black people
in America do not have the same rights
and privileges that Thomas Jefferson spoke
about as being rights, God given rights, for every
single person that He created. And in our day, there
is unfair treatment. And we have watched
it with our own eyes now as it's being filmed, as
there are cell phone cameras everywhere. When these videos
started coming out, it wasn't as though
this began happening. It was just being documented. And we all have to ask
the question, what's not being documented? And as I've been talking to
my friends who are black, and asking them, and trying
to understand this more, my heart's been broken. And I think that's how
we, hopefully, all feel. And it's caused us
to need to realize if it hasn't gone
anywhere and It's just adapting, where is it
showing up in our day? In biases, and prejudices,
and discriminatory systems that hold certain people
back, it's gone covert. And somethings
always the deadliest when you don't
know what's there. And so I think Jesus
people have an obligation to be continual
agents of the cross, speaking the reconciliation
into the world that He's called us to,
exposing the lies, especially when they're sneaky and
crafty and deflecting. I think about Moses. It's not commonly
known that Moses married a woman from Ethiopia. And his sister and
brother did not like this interracial marriage. No brother of ours should
marry a black woman and defile and all that. Only what they chose to do
was craft their objections in veiled, spiritual-ese. And I want you to
read numbers 12:2 when they began to argue
about whether or not God has spoken through Moses. So their actual issue is who
he married, a black woman. But what they chose to do is, is
Moses really speaking for God? You see how crafty that is? They don't want to just
all and all outright say they don't
like the marriage, so they found some other
thing to complain about. The Lord heard what they said. In verse 10, it says,
"The cloud departed from above the tabernacle. Suddenly, Miriam--" Moses'
sister-- "became leprous, as white as snow. And there she was, a leper." She got what she wanted. I want a white wife
for my brother. I want a white wife
for my brother. God said, what you want white? I'll give you white. Her skin became deathly white. And that's what happens when
something manifests itself in our lives in a way that we
don't acknowledge it, pretend it's not there, explain
away, rationalize. It leads to death,
which is why we need to believe
that God called us to be a part of putting to death
these sinful things in our day through the power of the cross. Number three-- God
is going to do this. He will work with or without us. So whether or not you choose
to be a part of the solution or a part of the problem,
whether you choose to fight for the oppressed,
which is in God's heart or not, the church of Jesus Christ
throughout all eternity, giving Him praise and glory, will be-- Revelations 5-- "from
every tribe, and language, and people, and nation." That's the future. Equal, not separate, just
equal before the throne. All bought with the blood
of Jesus Christ that was shed for them on the cross. That's God being glorified. Every tribe, skin color,
eye shape, body shape, every hair texture,
all bringing God glory. Beautiful and perfect, as He
intended them to be before Him. White isn't normal. That's the problem
us white people have. We tend to think white,
thus default majority. Other things are different. We're normal. But there is no normal. There's just
everything God created. That's where it's heading. And that's where it's going. The question is, will you
and I be a part of it? Take part in it. For make no mistake, as
Mordecai spoke to Esther, "If you remain
silent at this time, relief and deliverance
for the Jews will arise from another place. but you and your father's
family will perish. And who knows but that you
have come to royal position--" or you could say he said
you've come to royal privilege. Don't argue whether you
have privilege or not, ask how can I leverage my
privilege for other people? Esther didn't go,
I'm not privileged. She lived in a palace. She had privileges. Mordecai says it's not even
bad that you have privilege. You don't need to
lose your privilege. Use your 300-thread count sheets
and take your bubble bath, honey, just use your
privilege for other people. If you don't act, God's
going to get it done. Sure, Fresh Life,
if we don't rise up to be agents of
reconciliation in our day, God will get it done. But who knows if He didn't
give you your privilege for such a time as this? When we were
preparing to do work on the building I sit in
now, the historic Liberty Theater in Kalispell,
Montana, we were looking how to best restore
this 100-year-old theater to its original glory. Exposing brick,
maintaining the aesthetic from the street,
the curb appeal, we had architects who were
doing lots of work in records, and newspapers, and
archives to find any photos we could
from 100 years ago of what the facade looked
like before it was altered so we could bring it back to
its former glory to flourish it. So we could flourish, return
it to its former glory. And one of the images-- that I'm going to show you in
a moment that they sent to us-- turned my stomach over. For it revealed-- as was
advertised in the newspaper-- an event that was
coming up to be hosted in this building where
I sit even at this moment. And here's what was sent
to us by the architect. "K. K. K. Dr. HW Evans of
Atlanta, Georgia, Imperial Wizard of Knights
of the Ku Klux Klan will give a lecture
on Americanism at the Liberty Theater,
Kalispell, Friday, August 1, 8:30 o'clock PM, children
under 15 years of age not admitted, admission free." And the part that made
me sick to my stomach. "Don't miss it." This is Dr. HW Evans in his
outfit as the Wizard of the Ku Klux Klan. The highest rolls registered
included 5,100 members of the Klan in Montana. Who is this HW Evans? He led a group of Klan
members in Dallas, Texas, for a while that
included, as his tenure as leader, the
kidnapping and torture of a black man while
his time there. But when he became
the Imperial Wizard, he discouraged publicly any
vigilante actions for fear it would hinder his political
influence nationally. He presided over the
largest Klan gathering in history attended
by over 200,000 people and organized a Klan
march of 30,000, the largest Klan march in the
history of the organization. And the stage I stand on,
that man stood upon and gave a talk of vitriol, and
hatred, and racism, about what in his
warped, sinful mind it meant to really
be an American. And as much as I hate
that it happened, it is with profound
gratitude that I stand here today on the same
stage, in the same building, and actually want to proclaim
true liberty for Americans and want to speak
the love of Jesus to heal and touch wounds
caused by such things. That still have not
gone away but exist in our day, in systems,
in disadvantageous forms of policing and forms
of corporations, and way neighborhoods are
shown by real estate agents, and the access to
schools, access to loans, access to food, in
our day by populations that are supposedly equal, but
find a very different quality of life in our day. We are called to be
soldiers of the cross, not guarding our privilege, but
using it for the good of others and for the kingdom. Make no mistake. Not only will He work without
us but-- listen to me-- we are all accountable
for what we do with what we've been given. We will all stand before God-- one talent, two
talent, 10 talents. I'm not arguing and I will
not argue with you about whether or not you're privileged
to be white in our country. I think the data makes that
pretty useless to even discuss. It's clear that there is
privilege and I have it. And I'm aware and I hope you are
that we will stand before God and give an account of what
we did with any privileges we were given. There is, in history,
no people that seem to have such an upper
hand as the Babylonians. They became this great, fierce
nation devouring other nations. They were corrupt. They were evil. In the book of Habakkuk, they
were given five woes by God. God spoke woe to this
nation with the upper hand that was using it for
evil and not for good. I want to read a couple
of the woes to you. "Woe to him who
piles up stolen goods and makes himself
wealthy by extortion. Woe to him who builds
his realm by unjust gain to set his nest on high. Woe to him who builds
a city with bloodshed and establishes
a town by crime." But this oppression was
mixed with idolatry. And the outcome of idolatry
is often oppression. Because you steal
to get, but then you have to do even more
evil to keep what you stole. And it's because
you're worshipping other things other than God. That's what's behind any
oppression, idolatry. So woe, the final woe, is
"woe to him who says to wood, come to life, or a
lifeless stone, wake up. Can that thing you've
made give guidance? Is it covered with
gold and silver? There is know--" don't miss it-- "breath in it." None of the idols
that we would worship that would cause us to want
to oppress others, to gain, can help us. For there is no breath in them. The only time we break any
of the Ten Commandments is because we broke
the first one already. We would never take a life. We would never take
something that's not ours. We would never tell a lie. We never covet our
neighbor's wife if we weren't first breaking
the first commandment. So these woes on
oppression all are driven by the heart of them
worshiping the wrong God. And the woes, woe, woe,
woe to those oppressing who aren't listening. Woe, woe, woe. The prophecy came to
fruition in Daniel 5, when at the helm of the nation
was a man named Belshazzar. And Belshazzar are not
only oppressed, and not only stole, and not only
murdered, and plundered, and worshiped false
gods, but he actually defiled the temple in
Jerusalem and brought back to Babylon all of the
gold and silver, and all these other vessels
that were used in the temple in
the Old Testament. And he threw a raging orgy
and used the holy vessels from God's temple as a way
to cheers his false gods who have no breath in them. And in that moment,
Daniel 5, we're told that as he began
to lift up his glass to the false gods, a hand-- severed from its wrist-- began to show up on the
wall above his throne and began to write on
the wall above his head. And when the king saw
it, he began to tremble and began to fear,
not understanding this hand, this upper hand,
that showed up in this moment. He thought he was the top dog. Turns out there
was someone higher. And as God spoke
and wrote, the king quickly called for someone
who could decipher it. And his mother said,
get Daniel, get Daniel. From the lion's den? Yeah, get Daniel. Daniel came in. [MUSIC PLAYING] And he spoke this. "Belshazzar, you have
not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. Instead, you have set yourself
up against the Lord of heaven. You have had the goblets
from His temple brought to you and to your nobles. Your wives, your concubines,
they drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver
and gold, of bronze and iron, of wood and stone which cannot
see, or hear, or understand. But you did not honor the God
who holds in His hand your life and all your ways. Therefore, He sent the hand
that wrote the inscription. This is what was written
mene, mene, tekel, upharsin-- which means God has numbered
the days of your reign and brought it to an end. You have been weighed on the
scales and found wanting. Your kingdom is divided
and given to others." "And that--" verse 30-- "very night, Belshazzar, King
of the Babylonians, was slain. And Darius the Mede took over
the kingdom at the age of 62." Belshazzar thought he
had the upper hand. And he worshipped a
god with no breath and ignored the God who
held his breath in His hand. And the oppression in our
day, which has come to a point while we watched an
unjust system that allowed us to see a man
whose breath was smothered from his life before our eyes. We are seeing the outworking
of oppression in our day. And the solution is
to look to the One who put the breath into our lungs
and to remember that regardless of what we've been given
or not given to steward, He is the one with
the upper hand. And He wants us to
use what's in our hand to extend a hand to our fellow
men, to extend that grace and to extend that care, and
empathy, and kindness to those who are not like us, and to
make their fight our fight, and to care as
though they were us. For they are our sister and
they are our brother, knowing we will be accountable for how
we treated our neighbor. As CS Lewis said,
"This does not mean we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must
be of that kind which exists between people who
have, from the outset, taken each other seriously,
no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. Next to the blessed
sacrament itself, your neighbor is
the holiest object presented to your senses." And of course, we know our
neighbor is not just the person who lives next door. And that is oftentimes, in our
day, people just like this. Our neighbor is anyone who
needs help from us that we have the capacity to give help to. So Fresh Life, what do we do? What do we do? I wrote down a few things. We, number one, ask ourselves
difficult questions. What are my prejudices? We all have them. To say I'm not
prejudiced is a lie. I'm prejudiced. We all have certain prejudices. What are my biases? How has this happened
to my family? How has this worked
out in our day? What have I seen? What have I tolerated? What have I laughed out? What have I forwarded on? What have I reposted that
breaks the heart of God? Number two, repent
where there is sin. Repent where there's
oppression in your own life. Number three, have
brave conversations. Conversations with people
who aren't like you so they can help you see
life through their eyes. Brave conversations to
confront the subtle racism that pops up in
conversations with family members at the dinner
table or wherever you see it-- brave conversations. Number four, educate yourself. Read. Look into these things. If something I've read
has piqued an interest, you want to read about
the Jim Crow South, read about the slave trade,
read about these things, read about the Civil
Rights movement. Don't just post a little
meme on Martin Luther King Day, read speeches he
wrote in their entirety. Read and look into these things. The empirical
evidence that has come from many different universities
to support the things that we've referenced here today
are not just one slanted news source or another. But I think in a
day of hummingbird across the internet, we need
to read books, read things, read deeply, inform
ourselves on these things. Then take action,
pray, which is action. Protest, which is action. Vote, which has action. Reaching out, which is action. Speaking UP which is action. Volunteering, which is action. You can't do everything,
but we can all do something. Is there someone we can mentor? Is there someone we can help? Is there an organization
we can serve? How can we help at-risk
youth in our day? We as a church are committed
to reaching into the prison systems, not just in Montana,
but beyond because so many minorities have
been-- some justly, some unjustly-- incarcerated. And regardless, we want
to show the love of Jesus to them and their families. Proverbs 31 says "Speak up
for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights
of all who are destitute." All of these things
that I've mentioned-- and this entire sermon-- is uncomfortable. I should have started with that. Just letting you know, I
didn't want to tell you from the beginning though. It's uncomfortable. Anything that we're going to
do that's going to move us forward is going to
be uncomfortable. Here's why-- because it takes
courage and willing to be uncomfortable to change. And that is the
point of Jonah 4. Jonah, who didn't care about a
half a million people he hoped would just die and go to
hell, cared about a plant that gave him shade. So God sent a worm. Ee-er, ee-er, ee-er,
ee-er, ee-er, ee-er. That's Lennox's favorite noise. He asked for it every
night at bedtime. The plant was
destroyed by the worm. And Jonah was more
upset about the plant than about the loss of life. And I'm concerned
for some of you who have been more angry
about a comment on Instagram than about someone's
life being snuffed out. And that the issue
you want to talk about is about your comfort
at the end of the day. Can we just get back to
everything being comfortable? Can we just get back to normal? Can we just get
back-- but what if God doesn't want us to get
back to what's comfortable? He wants us to endure
being uncomfortable and have the courage to
encounter that so that, things can change. So that we can be compassionate. Not about our little plant
coming back up over our head, but about the souls
of men and women, boys and girls, who are
not experiencing liberty, but God has blessed us
so we can bless them. The Bible doesn't tell
us what Jonah did next. And what I tell Lennox
every night at bedtime is we don't need to know
what Jonah did next. It ends with a question. Do their lives not matter? All you care about
is your plant. All you care about
is your comfort. Do their lives not matter? The point of the
book of Jonah is not what did Jonah do,
it's what will we do? The Holy Spirit of God sent
me to preach this message, in part, because of me reading
that many white pastors in 1963 urged Dr. King, not to stop his
crusade, just to be reasonable, they said. Stop marching, stop protesting. This is all so crazy. I don't want to
see it on the news. Let's just get back to life. They said, we like
what you're doing. We know it's important,
just trust the system. It'll take time. Vote. The laws will change. No. He understood that "the
reasonable man," as Shaw put it, "bends his
will to the world. But the unreasonable
man conforms the world to his will." And so Dr. King was
willing to be unreasonable because "all
progress," Shaw said, "depends on the
unreasonable man." And I don't think God's
calling us to be reasonable. Just-- just-- let's be cool. Everybody calm down. There is a time to
be righteously angry. There is a time to
raise your voice. I'm not talking about anarchy. I'm not talking about
chaos and looting. I'm talking about a
time to not settle down, a time to speak up, a time
to care, a time to confront, and a time to be courageous
enough to change. One step at a time,
one day at a time, for all that is necessary
for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing. So Jesus, find in us the
unwillingness to do nothing. Fix our hearts. Change our minds. Heal our land. We want it to be
true, what wasn't true when it was written, and
what still isn't true today, that there might be, in this
nation, liberty and justice for all. And I pray we would be a part
of the reconciliation You unleashed at the cross.
