Truth In Love | Racism | Pastor Rob Singleton

hey welcome to church everybody how are we today let's see if you still feel that way when we get into this subject this is kind of a touchy little series in fact we used to call the untouchables uh but in all seriousness uh we changed the name for a very very good reason untouchables was because it's things people don't talk about in the church these days when if they would have i don't think our country would be in such a such a mess but it's also important that we communicate listen the truth in love so the serious name is truth and love do me a favor wherever you're at watching online or here look to your right look to the person on your right right now lovingly unless you're like stalking them then don't do that but just now look at the person on your left yeah if you're at home even if you're watching look if you're watching alone at home look in the mirror that'll work see that person the people you just looked at listen gang that is an image bearer of the living king that is someone made in god's image and that's no small thing that's not a better person it's not a worst person it's an equal one made in the image of god galatians 3 28 the message says in christ's family there can be no division there's not jew or gentile there's not slaver free and there's not male or female or said another way there can be no division in god's church in his economy due to race or anything like that among us you are all equal that is we are all in a common relationship with jesus christ in other words god doesn't show partiality he doesn't show that some of you thinking well i mean that that's one verse pastor rob well then let me give you several more deuteronomy old testament 10 17 the lord your god is listen to this one i love this one he's a god of gods lord of lords the great the almighty and the awesome god who is not partial this is how powerful that whole idea of not being partial is god is described in all these incredible ways and then something that's you know remember that game one of these things is not like the other one of these things is not then they throw in god is not partial so in describing god that's one of the things he wants us to know that he doesn't show favoritism in the new testament acts 10 34 then peter began to speak you always got to watch out with those words that peter opened his mouth but this time is good and he said i now realize how true it is that god does not show favoritism and god was showing him that now you can eat anything that you want they had some dietary laws and peter was having a hard time with this because he thought that's what separated you know part of what separated the jews from the gentiles and and god is literally saying that's because you didn't know the whole thing now i fulfill fulfilled and revealed my law romans 2 11 paul said to the romans god shows no partiality and there's more ephesians 6 9 james 2 1 there are many many and believe it or not i could i was looking at these scriptures and so many more and i thought i could end the sermon right there i'm not going to but i could it could be the shortest sermon that i've ever done except for one problem racism is as bad as ever in our country some would say it's worse than it's been in a long long time and you look at that and you think but but as we move on aren't we evolving are we getting better haven't we learned and here's the thing i think we have learned again but i think we've learned some of the wrong stuff see i think we've learned it in some ways to actually fight racism with more racism and friends that's not going to work in fact i'm going to give you the secret weapon today to fight racism i'm going to give you the most powerful weapon there is and at the risk of giving things away i'll just tell you so you can dwell on it it is the word of god it is the gospel there is nothing more powerful in fact nothing can really fight racism or anything else sinful better than the word of god so many of us have somehow learned uh a faulty way of dealing with this and i think it's because we don't even understand what it is today for example the definition of racism has changed here's a 60 year old merriam-webster definition of it let me see if you can tell the difference this in the new quote a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race now if you're thinking well yeah based on skin color no no based on a lot more than that doesn't have to be that otherwise you know you got the you got decades where the irish were fighting the english and until they speak you can't even tell them apart right so there's no skin color issue there a lot of times with palestinians and israelis been going on a couple thousand years with arabs and jews a lot of times skin color you can't tell them apart so it's not just a skin issue it actually goes deeper than that now racism new definition prejudice plus power and a system of oppression based on race so now we've here's the difference we've kind of gone from individual responsibility and looking down or judging another people group or even another individual to a system of that the problem is sometimes you can hide behind a system and think that you can get away with things because you're in a system alum bloom understood the radicals to believe that quote the study of history and of culture teaches that all the world wasn't used to be mad used to be nuts to what he said men always thought they were right that led to wars persecutions slavery xenophobia racism chauvinism so listen to what he says listen to the kind of nutty conclusion he says we must therefore change liberate ourselves not only from false opinion but from having any opinion at all okay i don't know how that works as bloom salt the reformers point is not to correct the mistakes so that they'll be right and make it right but rather to not think you're ever right at all so here's the conclusion academia's made about that and taking an honest look they said looks like the american mind has become so open that our brains have fallen out and i think i would agree in some sense wow so number one in your notes fill this in how did we get here how did we get here pastor rob can't we just live and let live remember that i'm not sure where it came from live and let live i think of a james bond movie for some reason let's live and let die but live and let live or just let people alone let them do their own thing no we can't do that especially as sons and daughters of the living king here's why james 4 17 says whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for them it is sin so if you know how to reconcile people and you know the power of it and you just say let's just live and let live god's not going to let you get away with that that's called sin so biblically speaking when god's word teaches us not to show partiality and there are 10 times as many verses as i shared with you so not to show partiality toward any group of people and we come up with an answer to sin and and racism that is sin and racism then we're not going to get away with it god's word says in fact how do we think especially as christians that that's going to work essentially that's fighting sin with sin it's fighting sin with sin some of you like who's doing this pastor because i know i'm not well gang we do this all the time when we react angrily or vengefully towards those who have maybe mistreated us maybe we even think they deserve it but we react that way this will help corey ten boom uh was in a concentration camp in world war ii nearly died most of her family did her sister did who was her best friend uh and so after the war she was known for her just her speaking to groups on forgiveness and grace it was incredibly powerful but listen to what was the most powerful experience for herself on forgiveness it was in a church in munich that i saw him a balding heavyset man in a gray overcoat a brown hat clutch between his hands people were filing out of the basement room where i had just given my talk moving along the rows of wooden church uh chairs to the exit in the rear it was 1947 so it's only two years after world war ii ended in hitler cowardly took him took his own life and i had come from holland to defeated germany with the message that i've been giving that god forgives it was the truth that people needed most to hear especially in germany in that bitter bombed out land and i gave them my favorite mental picture maybe because the sea is never far from the mind of any hollander but what i like to say is that when god forgives when we confess our sins he casts our sins into the deepest ocean and they're gone forever i loved to use that it was a great picture for me and usually when i did the solemn faces stared back at me not quite daring to believe there could be a forgiveness like this there were never questions after a talk in germany in 1947 i would give a talk she said and this is what would happen people would stand up they would gather their belongings almost as though they were shell-shocked and they would look at me then they would turn and they would all file out you could hear a pin drop nobody ever said anything it's very very somber and that's when i saw him working his way forward against the tide of others leaving one moment i saw the overcoat and the brown hat the next a blue uniform and a visored cap with its skull and crossbones and everything came back in a rush to me the huge room with its harsh overhead lights the pathetic pile of hundreds and hundreds of of dresses and shoes in the center of the floor the shame of walking naked past this man day after day i could see my sister's frail form ahead of me her ribs showing sharp beneath what was left of the parchment of her skin malnutrition body betsy i would look at her day after day she'd be in front of me betsy how thin you've become betsy and i have been arrested for concealing jews in our home during the nazi occupation of holland and this man had been a guard at ravensbruck concentration camp where we were sent i could never forget his face now he was in front of me hand thrust out a fine message for all line aren't you glad that as you said the lord casts our sins into the sea and they're remembered no more what's he asking for forgiveness and i who had spoken so glibly of forgiveness i fumbled in my pocketbook rather than take his hand i couldn't even look at him he would not remember me of course how could he i was just one among thousands of women but i remembered him and the leather crop that used to swing from his belt it was the first time since my release from prison that i had been face to face with one of my captors and my blood it just seemed to freeze you mentioned ravenbrook in your talk he was saying i was a guard in there no he did not remember me but since that time he went on i've become a christian and i know that god has forgiven me for the cruel things i did in there but i'd like to hear it from your lips for all line he had put his hand down because she wasn't reacting or looking at him but he put it back out again will you forgive me can you imagine can you imagine that and i stood there she said i whose sins had every day to be forgiven i couldn't do it i couldn't even move betsy had died in that place he had been cruel to her could he erase her slow terrible death simply by just just asking it could not have been many seconds that he stood there with his hand held out but it felt like hours and i wrestled with at that point in my life what seemed like the simply the most difficult thing i ever had to do but i had to do it and i knew that the message that god forgives has a prior condition that we forgive those who have injured us if you do not forgive men their trespasses jesus says neither will your father in heaven forgive your trespasses i knew it not only as a commandment of god but as a daily experience in my life since the end of the war i had a home in holland that i had established for victims of nazi brutality those who were able to forgive their former enemies were also able to return to full life in the outside world and rebuild their lives no matter what the physical scars it was amazing but those who nursed their bitterness remained invalids they're still at the home it was as simple as and as horrible as that and i stood there with the coldness clutching my heart but forgiveness is not an emotion let me say that again forgiveness is not an emotion i knew that too forgiveness is an act of the will and the will can function regardless of the temperature of the heart doesn't matter how cold your your heart is forgiveness is an act of the will jesus helped me i prayed silently jesus i can lift my hand i can do that much you'll have to give me the feeling i can i can lift my hand up and so she says she goes on to sleep so i woodenly mechanically i thrust my one hand out to the hand outstretch to me and as i did an incredible thing took place listen to this the current started in my shoulder and it raced down my arm and it sprang into our joint hands and then this healing warmth seemed to flood my whole being bringing tears immediately to my eyes and they began to flood down i forgive you brother i cried out loud i forgive you with all of my heart for a long moment we grasped each other's hands the former guard and the former prisoner i have never known god's love so intensely as i did at that moment i want you to think about that i had never known god's love and god's power and god's grace as intensely as i did at that moment such an amazing grace that's a breathtaking forgiveness but did you notice what cory ten boom didn't do what she didn't say she didn't scold she didn't lecture she didn't demand and clarify she didn't rectify she didn't re-educate she didn't judge none of that was there and ironically all of that is present in our culture today they say to bring unity you got to do all these things and you got to keep a list and somehow you got to get it right and yet i'm troubled immensely because god's word says the opposite it seems she knew how quickly not only she had to forgive she had to do it pretty quick because it was she was stiffening up she was freezing up her heart was going cold and the temptation to give into all those things re-educate let him know hey you know what i was there i remember you all of that she didn't do because she wanted the power of forgiveness really bad and she knew that the time to have it was was waning forgiveness alone has the power to heal and she knew it so she went for it in america today we seem to have lost focus on this truth even at churches even christians the church has lost faith in the power forgiveness and grace in favor of evening the score and blaming groups and and pitting people against each other i.e using racism to deal with racism how do we think that's ever going to work the latest evolution of this whether you know much about it or not and it seems like there'll be a tool for it coming down the pike every year things change but the latest one is crt which stands for critical race theory i've been watching this studying it kind of keeping my eye on it comparing it to god's word so i would ask that you have an open heart for the next several minutes because that's all we need to do as christian brothers and sisters no matter what our background race color gender whatever and some have accused those of us who are maybe a little bit leery of crt of creating a strong man and then labeling everything that we disagree with or even everything that makes us the the slightest bit uncomfortable we're just going to call it crt there's probably some who do that so i think so that we can avoid that today i'm not going to tell you my definition of crt i'm going to give it to you from the founders and practitioners in their words ucla luskin school of public affairs crt recognizes that racism is ingrained in the fabric and system of the american society the individual racist need not exist to note that institutional racism is for pervasive in the dominant culture this is the analytical lens that crt uses in examining existing power structures crt identifies that these power structures are based primarily on white privilege and white supremacy and white people there is an evil inherent in this wow it perpetuates the marginalization of people of color crt also rejects the traditions of liberalism and meritocracy legal discourse says that the law is neutral colorblind however we don't agree crt challenges this legal truth that says by examining liberalism and meritocracy as a vehicle for really self-interest justice is a vehicle for self-interest power privilege so that's it according to founders and practitioners of it so i was looking back to see is our country always been in the state it is now and and if you're over now 15 years old you can think back and you know it doesn't seem like it's it's always been this bad ironically when you look at polls i looked at the main one i looked at it was a gallup poll that was conducted between 2001 all the way up to 213 2013. the results showed this exactly as follows the vast majority of people of all races felt race relations were getting better and were at the time pretty good that that seems like a different world doesn't it from 2001 to 2013 roughly 70 almost 80 percent of whites and nearly 70 percent of blacks thought race relations were very good that wasn't that long ago gang now they just took this poll again about three years ago now look what it's dropped to for whites 43 for blacks 33 gang it's falling off a cliff we're going in the wrong direction something's apparently drastically changed in the last seven to ten years that seems to be fueling the tension that seems to have divided us almost like it at no other time other than like the sixties and and and the civil war what in the world got us here in so few years to this point is it some new and destructive invention or technology hey pastor i think it's social media it's zuckerberg's fault i think it's a shallow generation you notice how the generations that that think other generations are shallow are usually the one before in my day so it's what they will say i know my grandfather he walked 47 miles both ways uphill barefoot in the snow to school we all know that and then somehow the snow disappears when you go to the next generation is it something in the dna the spiritual dna the emotional idea physically i don't know now again by all observations it would appear to be less about the dna and more about the def or the definition i gave you earlier today what is considered racist is far far wider the net that that that falls under this term new racism covers almost everything but it goes about that deep that's the difference perhaps some parallel examples from scripture would help this isn't something new it's been with us for a long time how many have you ever heard of james and john raise your hand not not james john you probably know they're disciples i've heard how many of you have heard of them referred to as the sons of thunder anybody ever heard that in scripture jesus called him that i got two hands i don't know if i can catch up here biblically anybody heard of the sons of thunder jesus called him that do you know why he called them that well it's not a good reason it's kind of a bad one they were traveling through samaria and they were hungry and they needed lodging for the night and they asked around it a couple places and none of the sumerians would give samaritans would give them lodging so james and john they're brothers almost in unison they said lord let's call down thunder and lightning from heaven and kill him let's wipe them out thunder and lightning so when jesus refers to them as the sons of thunder he's not going remember that time no he's he's not but he is saying in a sense remember that time don't forget that we are one in in me we are one in the lord and when you had that attitude when you jumped to that conclusion of calling down fire i don't want you to forget that you can fall into that that's exactly the wrong way for you to go and listen crt has it's it's so listen what james and john were doing they weren't following jesus they were following the world the world didn't like samaritans the jews didn't like them they didn't like the jews jews didn't like the romans the romans didn't like the jews gentiles couldn't worship but it was just a divided world in which they all got their hatred from the world system definitely not from god and my problem with crt is that it has its source completely founded and rooted in the world system and it can never lead to true racial reconciliation because grace and forgiveness are against its very nature now stay with me so write this down your notes number two what got us here won't get us there what got us here won't get us there we got here almost the polar opposite of how corey ten boom got to the most powerful reconciliation and healing moment of her life she said that remember and now we're trying to bring unity and healing in the exact opposite way that corey temboom said happened in her life she did it through grace and forgiveness and reconciliation culture today says we'll get there through shaming punishment and cancel culture but that hasn't arrived at destination unity has it no it's arrived at destination disunity it's not working listen letter a in your notes we can't beat racism with racism and god would have us not even try we shouldn't even be attempting to do that in any way and we need to stop giving time and credence and debating with people who say listen we can beat this we just need to punish people we just need to make sure we even the score we just need to divide in order to unite like divide and conquer the apostle paul though said that will never work in fact in the church if you have people doing that don't waste your time with them he said that well here's how he said it he said it to titus who was dealing with people who were divided and here's what he said as for a person who stirs up division after warning him once and then twice have nothing more to do with them don't keep going round and round trying to bring unity through division racism is wrong even when it's being used to combat racism because we never use sin to fight sin that should be pretty obvious but it's not today crt is iniquitous mainly because it does just that it uses racism to fight racism but then burns down the bridge that it used to establish a new beachhead you know here's where we're going to be unified let me burn down that bridge and now you can't even talk to me about this that's the polar opposite about how god's spirit goes about unification let her be in your notes we can't solve a problem gang that we aren't allowed to talk about how can you if you've been in school it's kind of i mean i think we know this but it'd be kind of like your math teacher going up to the board and get having a piece of chalk in her hand and she's ready to teach math and goes listen i want you to solve this problem up here but before she writes anything all right who's going to be first i mean somebody's going to speak up and go solve what well what i'm thinking yeah but you didn't write anything yeah but you got to solve it without that because we're not allowed to talk about it you can't you can't and as i said to you before this is all through the bible several thousand years ago during the reign of judah and israel there was there's plenty of prejudice and that's by the way the biblical word for this the word racism is a fairly new word a couple hundred years old the word in the bible we see a lot is prejudice favoritism different words like that there was plenty of that going around when israel and judah split and now you've got god's people hating god's people and setting up two different kingdoms they actually went to war with each other it's like fighting to kill each other in your own family and judith hated israelites vice versa gentiles hated jews vice versa anyone with a physical disability was looked down upon as though if you were born blind or deaf or something like you were looked down upon and hated and even sometimes your parents people thought you must have been a sinner and if you were too young like if you were born that way well then your parents are a sinner or maybe your grandparents so it was a pretty messed up prejudiced culture but listen the group that was probably hated the most in those days were people that had the disease of leprosy and in this story that i'm about to share with you you get to see the uncanny the incredible the the the love and the and the the blatant way that god has of using the marginalized to bring healing to people who think they know it all have you ever noticed how god does that he uses people that we're marginalized he's like oh by the way that's the lifeguard i know you're drowning that's the one that's going to pull you out uh i don't know if i like that i don't know if i can deal with that so you got this situation and if you want to follow along um you can go to second kings six and seven i'm gonna have to i'm gonna i was told i have to move along pretty quick after the first worship experience which i just finished a minute ago pretty much it was a pretty pretty long one and and what happened was this the the the syrians came and they was one of the biggest armies assembled at the time and they're laying siege to sumeria not to be confused with the samaritans and modern or in the new testament because this is when they were more united it was before um the samaritans and the babylonians had interbred and and basically had half jewish half babylon it's a long trail to go down before that it's just a city of samaria but one of the main cities in the area and they've been laying siege to it um for months and what happened how bad was it pastor rob how divided were they how desperate were the people well the king of israel is inside the city been going on for months they're starving they said that the famine was so great as it was besieged that a donkey's head was sold for 80 shekels of silver and the fourth part of a cab of dubs dung a little bit of dung from a dove five shekels of silver to buy that in other words they're dying wow that's bad now as the king of israel was passing by on the wall a woman cried up to him and said help my lord o king and he said and this is sarcasm if the if the lord will not help you how am i gonna help you from the threshing floor in other words there's no wheat there there's no from the wine press there's no wine there if god's not going to help we're all doomed anyway but what's your trouble he's going to be sorry asked because here it is she answered this woman next to me said give me your son that we may eat him today can't make this up and will he my son tomorrow so we boiled my son and ate him i'm like are you reading the bible yeah this is in here and on the next day i said to her give your son that we may eat him but she has hidden her son i want justice how desperate do you have to get to get to this point when the king heard the words of the woman he tore his clothes and he mourned for the nation elisha the prophet was sitting in his house and the lord's taking care of him and the people at this point got desperate so they repented and cried out to the lord and the lord said i'm going to heal you because you've turned your hearts around that's why this judgment came and so he said to the to the king and to the king's right hand man hear the word of the lord thus says the lord tomorrow about this time a fine flower a bunch of fine flower be sold for just one shekel and a whole bunch of barley for a shekel as well at the gate of samaria and so they're sitting there about to die of starvation and the king's right-hand man says to him sarcastically if god opens the floodgates of heaven and manna comes pouring out that wouldn't work that's crazy we're dying and where do you get off being so sarcastic about it now some of you going that's great what do lepers have to do with that pastor rob have you lost track no look verse three now there were four men who were lepers living outside the city so you got the syrians hundreds and hundreds of thousands of an army you got the people inside the gate for months starving and you got a little leprechaun out there and they're starving too but they decide to go ahead and just march into the syrian camp and go i want some food because they figured we're going to die anyway and we're dying with leprosy besides when people see us coming and we shout out that we're unclean they'll either shoot us dead or let us in the camp and throw food to keep us away either way we're dying but as it turns out when they went to the camp the camp was empty the whole army left in the middle of the night why because the lord had heard their repentance and decided to heal their land so he brought a supernatural natural sound of an army that the entire syrian army sounded like chariots were coming from surrounding they jumped on their horses they got their chariots they left all the food and weapons and everything there and just fled in every direction and left the camp now what i didn't tell you is that elijah said to the king the king didn't say anything but he said to the right hand man who was being so so cocky he said you know what you're going to see it tomorrow you'll see that god is faithful but you're being unfaithful he said so you'll see it but you will never taste it that's kind of a weird prophecy isn't it so what happened was the lepers went into the camp started eating food and gorge themselves and then felt guilty said even though we're marginalized even though we are mistreated we still love our brethren so they went back to the city gate and yelled up there the camp is empty i know you can't see from here but they're gone there's food for everybody a mob started the king put his right hand man in charge of that mob and the mob stampeded him and he was killed so he saw that there was food but he never got to experience why he'd have faith without faith it's impossible to please god you can see what others are experienced and you can see what they're doing and you can see what they're tasting but you won't enjoy it because you yourself lack faith and grace and empathy you'll be trampled under feeling like you're stepped on walked over missing out and here's what will happen the marginalized lepers dined and the counselor the king died and the difference between them wasn't health intelligence political correctness a better idea riches power it was simply faith it was simply faith in the lord's way brought upon by repentance did you know that the lepers had a slogan a moniker they had to live by how would you like your moniker to be this unclean that's their moniker so when they got within a hundred to 150 feet of anybody and they saw people nearby they had a shell unclean unclean and people would back off because they thought you could you could get it if you were just near somebody with leprosy but i was thinking about how they had to yell that for thousands of years with this disease it was it was big in jesus day too it was big up until just a few hundred years ago actually i mean when there's a group of people marginalized yelling out unclean what do you think the superior people who don't have the disease are thinking you are unclean you're definitely unclean and i'm clean i bet you're immoral too i bet you did something to deserve that i bet that's why you have it i bet i'm better than you that's why god didn't judge me i'm so much better than the dirty dangerous downtrodden degenerate leper that's prejudice it's really racism the political and religious leaders had effectively divided the people those on the inside those on the outside and listen to what the atheists listen to what noam chomsky said he said if you want to start a revolution come up with a slogan nobody can reject like unclean hey you're better than me come up with a slogan well that's obvious you have a disease i don't you've been judged i haven't let her see in your notes the only solution to racism is the gospel no weapon has proved more potent throughout history than the word of god the word of god says about itself it's sharper than any two-edged sword unfortunately that doesn't mean it's just a great weapon for truth it's a it's a great weapon for abuse too that's why satan used the word of god on the living word of god jesus christ when he was tempting him it can be used for good it can be misused it was used i was looking at history it was used by the anglo-saxon king alfred the great to bring mercy and truth to his greatest adversary when instead of beheading king guthrum of the danish vikings i used to love to watch all the viking shows and history of that they were cruel people but when they had an opportunity in england to turn it around and and behead this king alfred befriended and baptized him instead and they built one kingdom that's how much more powerful forgiveness is than trying to even the score it was used by william wilberforce in britain in the early 1800s as he strived to abolish the slave trade he used grace like two sides of a coin the word of god has has been used in an abusive way and in a helpful way both and because it's been used in in an abusive way there's people that say well religion it brings all kinds of problems that's why i don't like it we don't need it christians are just hypocrites power-hungry politicians they use it crazed dictators they they they march under crusades pastor up what about all that stuff i don't think any real christian would argue that what needs clarification however is that the historical presence of scriptural abuse does not negate the eternal truth and power of the gospel why do we even we don't do this with anything else alcohol sex i mean those two things are abused aren't they but i don't see too many picket lines going on saying we need to abolish sex we need to abolish alco they tried it with a probe it just doesn't work but we do this with the word of god because of a few that have misused it listen all believers are adopted children of god with no more divisions between us the word of god makes that crystal clear in fact in revelation i love how it's put every nation and every tongue will stand before the throne of god and worship god as with one voice with one voice if you can't get along now you're gonna struggle in heaven immensely james 2 1 my brothers show no partiality as you hold the faith of the lord jesus christ the lord of glory if you want people to see the light and you hold partiality it's like putting your light under a covering that's snuffing it out remember noam chomsky's slogan if you want to start a revolution come up with a slogan no one can reject here's the problem today look in your notes i've changed his saying because i think it's changed i say if you want to start a revolution come up with a slogan no one can even challenge and that's why we're in the mess that we're in right now pastors aren't preaching on this stuff why because it's uncomfortable i will tell you right now we're pretty full in here but it's the quietest i've ever seen it you can can hear a pin drop because we're uncomfortable with this but up until now the solution seems to be since we're uncomfortable let's just put our head in the sand and maybe it'll go away i got a better idea let's go to god's word and see if he has a better solution and he does so let's close with this what is it is it sinners or systems before you walk out in the next five minutes you'll solve it i got three questions for you in the in the west the current trend in academia is is to go the complete opposite of the word of god the complete opposite of corey ten boom it is not the self and the self's personal choices that explains inequities it's not standing before god don't worry you don't have to deal with anything you can blame stuff it's systems all right then let's let's just see if it really is here's the three questions first one the disparity question the disparity question here's how i want to put it does our vision of race prefer damning stories to undamming facts i'll say it again does our vision of race prefer damning stories to undamming facts putting the words systemic and racism together is a lot like putting the word social and justice together there are biblical and unbiblical meanings that we can pour into these word combinations but did you know that the bible doesn't mention anything about social justice and here's why because god is just into justice biblical justice covered under that banner of holy justice from god almighty who's perfect would include social justice but when you just make it social justice a lot of times you throw out biblical justice so these word combinations are actually harmful the bible nowhere uses the word systemic but we would have to take scissors and do kind of a jeffersonian bible edit to come to the inclusion well there is no systemic racism of course there is let me give you some in the bible some of you are just cheering me on preach it pastor rob now you're ready to leave but listen to this the jews captivity in egypt wasn't just pharaoh and some slave whipping egyptian underlings treating god's people horribly that's not what it was it was also a system king darius who decreed that a person praying to anyone but him would become lion lunch what do you call that king nebuchadnezzar who decreed that anyone refusing to bow down to a 90 foot tall golden replica statue of him would become fuel for the furnace he set up an unjust system but those were pagan nations what's going to be our excuse a nation founded on biblical principles that used to be called a christian nation we're kind of anti-christian now we just are open your eyes and you'll see it what's going to be our excuse when we were founded on biblical principles and we've done things so wrong the bible's commands aren't merely for personal piety yeah we will stand before god alone and not in a group but for the church it's not just for personal piety it's to guide us to display god's justice more radiantly than the systems on this earth possibly could so people will see hope in christ and not in politics but politics are great pastor rob can't you see how republicans and democrats have come together they've seen kumbaya no they don't at all it's not working at all proverbs 24 says by wisdom a house is built and by understanding it's established by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches you have to look at the truth you can't put your head in the same second question the color question does our vision of race actually promote racial strife you got to ask that you have to because remember what james said for those who know what to do the right thing to do and don't do it it is sin black lives matter well it's true from a christian worldview perspective we can plumb even deeper than that little catchphrase that's a moniker god goes further what do you mean how far to go pastoral well black lives don't merely matter every black life was fearfully and wonderfully made psalm 139 right some of you like well what about the other lives right now i'm talking here give me a second every black life bears the divine image did you miss that part black lives are worth enough for the creator to what take on flesh endure torture execution and infinite wrath from his father do our words and actions reflect that truth how about for others [Music] what about whites i'm an equal opportunity offender what about lights here's the sense of leading leftist echemeni uwan whiteness is wicked period you can't say that unless you want to be the sons of thunder for not a good reason [Music] in the definition of whiteness says wickedness isn't it unnecessarily inflammatory christ would say so because we were all born in sin but statements such as these lead us to a problem with redefining a color to mean oppression and i can go on and on let me give you this illustration that i read this week because i think it just cuts to the quick if i insist on defining to mean french hockey player no offense but this is the illustration [Music] i shouldn't be surprised right if a room full of french hockey players is offended by my definition right kind of obvious we should choose words that convey our meaning as clearly as possible and listen as christians sons and daughters of the living king as charitably as possible right right amen i would add that anything that allows individuals to hide their own sinful culpability behind a group identity is guilty of leading masses away from salvation and toward eternal separation from jesus christ the stakes are that high is that serious ezekiel 18 20 says the soul who sins shall die the son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father nor the father suffer for the iniquity of the son the righteousness of the righteous will be upon himself and the wickedness of the wicked will be upon himself pastor rob that's old testament great here's new testament second corinthians 5 10 for we must all individually appear before the judgment seat of christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body whether good or evil you don't get to stand before god as a part of a group number three the gospel question the most powerful one i know we've gone over does our vision of race distort the best news in all of history because if it does that gang is game over how could you i'm going to give you three questions here that are super quick i'm not even going to go into them and you're going to think they're crazy but stay with me how can you become the most miserable version of yourself why would i want to just listen how can you become the most unlikable version of yourself how could you become the most anxious worrisome version of yourself i know that seem like random questions but they have everything to do with the racism question the answers are straightforward author thaddeus williams in his book about crt he said you want to become the most unhappy version of yourself here's how you do it spend all your time trying to make your three best friends me myself and i happy [Music] to become the most unlikable version of yourself spend all of your time trying to get everyone to like you to become the most anxious worrisome version of yourself spend all your time trying not to be anxious and worrisome king all three of those things describe what our culture is doing no wonder we're so miserable and divided i would add this for the church to what he said to become a relevant church the church need only spend all its energy trying to be relevant instead we need to be focused on what really matters and i'll end with this scripture because paul put it in perspective in first corinthians 15 paul states now i would remind you brothers and sisters of the gospel i preached to you for i delivered you as of first importance what i also received that christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures that he was buried that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures gang what is that what is that it's the gospel that's the gospel paul said you want the power to be unified you want the power to break through the gates of hell it's what i've been preaching all along paul landed every sermon on the same runway [Music] pastor you're just you're just upholding some european thing of the gospel you're just pushing a western man's mindset the calvin and spurgeon and all that [Music] well here's the problem with that the gospel i hold to as the first thing that brings life hope and joy is doing so today to unprecedented millions in asia africa south america the middle east it's the same gospel championed by augustine and his fellow african church fathers like clement and tertilian it's the same gospel for the reformation that's the same gospel the ethiopian eunuch brought to africa in the first century it's the gospel of the paul a benjamite jew from tarsus preached all over asia minor most importantly it's the good news that jesus hardly a white western european or american hardly proclaimed throughout the red letters of the precious word of god that's it period game over did you bow your heads god i i know that i cannot put such a troubling thing to rest lord with one sermon [Music] so father help us to remember if we forget everything else that i said god i would not want him to walk out and remember a few things about critical race theory or whatever else comes comes down the pike because that's so unimportant god help every son or daughter of you lord to know they hold within themselves the most powerful weapon for good the the widest arms that can wrap themselves around brothers and sisters of any race or background or gender or anything and bring them unified and that is the gospel that you died and gave your life to pay for our sins that we could be adopted from any background and be brothers and sisters and joint heirs with you what could be better than that lord and what could be worse than any of us walking out are signing off today and forgetting the power of the gospel help us to sear it god into our frontal lobes and into our hearts and let it start with us let it let it change for summit church lord if just one church in denver did this we'd change a whole city and that's what i'm asking for that's not too big for you lord i pray this your in your precious powerful non-partial name lord jesus and august people said amen

Channel: Summit Church

Views: 1,080

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Summit Church Denver, Rob Singleton, Racism, Critical Race Theory, What does the bible say about Racism, Truth In Love, Kingdom Minded, Summit church Colorado, Summit Church Centennial, Racial Tension, BLM, Black Lives Matter, Asian Lives Matter, Christian Living, Light of the World, Hip Pastors, Living Like Christ, Biden and Racism, Trump, Kamala Harris, Presidential policies, Racial Riots, Candace Owens

Id: vQWGccmG2iU

Length: 53min 49sec (3229 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 13 2021