WEBVTT

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You can turn in your 
Bibles to Ephesians 2.

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Brethren, I'm ready to leave Ephesians 2,

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but not yet.

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Before we bid farewell

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and explore the wonders 
that lay ahead in chapter 3,

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I want to say a personal word.

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What I'm saying today is personal

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to me and to our church here.

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Look, I want to talk about race.

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I want to talk about 
the color of our skin.

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And you know,

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I don't know the best words to use.

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I've heard, well, if you're from Asia,

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you're offended if 
you're called "oriental."

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I've heard that blacks don't like

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to be called African American sometimes.

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Look, I hear what whites are called,

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whether it's gringo or guero.

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I don't know all the right terminology.

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So, let's just have a bit of 
thick skin among ourselves.

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I may not use all the exact right terms.

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But here's the deal,

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I don't want to leave Ephesians 2

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without really bringing the rubber

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down to meet the road.

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This is practical in my estimation.

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Really practical.

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And sometimes, it's hoped

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that when you deal with a chapter

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like Ephesians 2 -

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especially the last half

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from about v. 11 all the way to the end,

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it deals with racial issues

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at a level that is practical

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to racial issues among Christians

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anywhere at any time.

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And sometimes as I'm 
preaching these things,

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I'm hoping that people

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are making the application.

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But you know what?

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Sometimes the application 
needs to be made for us.

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It can be helpful.

NOTE Paragraph

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I want to tell you about 
the personal impact

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that Ephesians 2 has had on my own life.

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I didn't know why I had

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this picture in my mind

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of sitting at Community Baptist Church,

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and I can just see where I'm sitting -

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Pat Horner preaching up there,

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and he's probably 
preaching on Ephesians 2.

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Gospel.

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But I just have this picture 
in my mind of sitting there,

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as my mind is beginning to put together

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the realities of what the church

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should look like.

NOTE Paragraph

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I'll just tell you right off,

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some of you know this.

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I went to a church in Michigan.

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The pastor - he didn't believe

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blacks could be saved.

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He believed they bore the mark of Cain.

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Now, I didn't know that.

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I wouldn't have gone there.

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Craig and I had little brothers

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in the Big Brother Little Brother program

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we were bringing from 
the inner city of Kalamazoo.

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And he told Craig after I came down here,

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"I don't know why you 
guys ever brought them.

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You know they can't be saved."

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Ruby and I got married.

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That pastor from Michigan

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specifically told Craig he would not

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send us a card

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because I had married a Hispanic girl.

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I didn't know these things about him

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when I was there.

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I would not have gone there.

NOTE Paragraph

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I came down and I sat 
at Community Baptist Church,

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and I began to see some diversity.

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And there was a pastor 
who seemed to like that;

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encourage that.

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I remember when Charles Wilson

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came over from Japan.

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He was transferring in the military.

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So now we had Hispanics 
and whites and blacks.

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I don't remember if there were any Asians.

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Yeah, there were. The Tagawa's.

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They're kind of Hawaiian I guess.

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So, I saw this diversity.

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And the thing is I'm hearing Scripture.

NOTE Paragraph

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And really, I find nothing more impactful;

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more prominent;

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more of an extensive treatment

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in all of the Bible than I find right here

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in the second half of Ephesians 2.

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If you train your eyes on v. 21,

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notice the words: "being joined together"

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V. 21 "In whom the whole structure

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being joined together."

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That's what the New 
King James and the ESV say.

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The New American Standard:

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"being fitted together."

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The King James Version:

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"fitly framed together."

NOTE Paragraph

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That's the word that I especially want

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us to lay hold on today.

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It's one word in the Greek.

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"Fitly framed together."

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So, let's read v. 19-22,

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and just notice how this

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"fitly framed together."

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And then, a close; a similar word in v. 22

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being built together.

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"So then, you..." now look.

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If you're just visiting with us;

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you're just joining in right here,

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you need to recognize who the "you" is.

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The "you" is specifically 
speaking to Gentiles.

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You Ephesian Gentiles.

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And that's exactly what the emphasis is.

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You who are Gentiles

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who have been saved.

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You non-Jews who have been converted

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"...are no longer strangers and aliens,

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but fellow citizens with the saints

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and members of the household of God,

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built on the foundation of the
apostles and prophets,

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Christ Jesus Himself 
being the Cornerstone,

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in whom the whole structure,

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being joined together grows

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into a holy temple in the Lord."

NOTE Paragraph

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Now, notice this.

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He basically comes along and says

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almost exactly the same thing in v. 22.

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It's a lot of synonymous verbiage.

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You know what the big difference is?

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"You also..." that's the big difference.

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You see what he's doing here?

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"In Christ, you Gentiles also..."

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That's the remarkable thing to Paul.

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You're included!

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"You're also being built together

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into a dwelling place 
for God by the Spirit.

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You know what this last half

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is all about?

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It's a Jew-Gentile thing.

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That's what's happening.

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Look back up at v. 11.

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"Therefore remember that at one time..."

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Here it is.

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"...you."

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Now you see, I'm not making this up.

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What's on his mind?

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You Gentiles.

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That's specifically what he's got in mind.

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That's who he's speaking 
to whenever he says,

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"you" throughout this latter half

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of Ephesians 2.

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"You Gentiles in the flesh..."

NOTE Paragraph

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Now notice this:

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"called the uncircumcision."

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They don't call themselves that.

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That's what the Jews call them.

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It's derogatory.

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You know different races typically

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invent derogatory names

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for people of other races.

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Do you ever notice that?

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Even in our own generation?

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That's common.

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They're called the uncircumcision

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by what is called the circumcision,

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which is made in the flesh by hands.

NOTE Paragraph

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Brethren, we need to 
feel the difference here.

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Some of you who have stayed aloof -

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well, maybe that's not 
the best word to use,

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but those of you that 
stayed most connected to -

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even in the church -

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racial issues,

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you get an idea

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about the differences -

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the differences of opinion;

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how polarized these things can be.

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You don't feel that when it comes to

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circumcised - uncircumcised.

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Because we're not familiar with it.

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We don't have to deal with it.

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It's not familiar to us.

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It's not part of our experience.

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So we really don't get it.

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But let's try to get it again.

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I talked about it way back,

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but let's talk about it again.

NOTE Paragraph

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Jesus is dealing with a 
Syrophoenician woman

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and even He says the Jews are children;

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the Syrophoenician woman is a dog.

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Jesus comes to a well in John 4.

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The woman is surprised that a Jewish man

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would even speak to her.

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And she says so.

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Jews don't have dealing with Samaritans.

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Do you know that when Paul

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has to rebuke Peter in Galatians,

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in his dialogue with Peter,

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he says we are not Gentile sinners.

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That was basically the attitude.

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Gentiles are lawless.
They don't have the law of God.

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They don't have the true God.

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They're just sinners - Gentile sinners.

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That's how Paul, an apostle

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to the Gentiles themselves,

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would categorize Gentiles to another Jew.

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They're just Gentile sinners.

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Not without hope,

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but that's how he classified them.

NOTE Paragraph

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You remember how, again,

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derogatorily - here's the Pharisees.

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You want to say something 
wicked about Jesus,

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what did they say?

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You're a Samaritan.

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You have a devil. You have a demon.

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Derogatory.

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You know what?

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There was hatred between 
Jews and Gentiles.

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Both thinking themselves superior.

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Both at odds with each other.

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There was not unity.
There was not harmony.

NOTE Paragraph

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Do you know what the point

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of the second half of 
Ephesians is all about?

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It's that Christ's blood was shed

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to tear down; to destroy the barriers.

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You see that.

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Look at v. 14.

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"He Himself (this is Christ)

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is our peace

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who has made us both one."

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Ok, my agenda today is not to deal

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with Jew and Gentile other than

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how Jew and Gentile are a great reflection

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of black and white

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and any other racial 
issues that we have today.

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Listen, the same truth applies,

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that by the blood of Christ,

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black and white Christians are made one.

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That's a reality folks.

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Don't try to tear that down.

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Don't try to back away;

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don't try to wiggle your way out of it.

NOTE Paragraph

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And I'll just say this right off.

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Brethren, you know one of the truths

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that we find about Scripture,

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is that the devil comes and casts tares

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among the wheat.

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Have you ever read that?

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Anybody read that?

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What do you think that means

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on a practical level?

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You think it means we might 
have some tares in here?

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Or in the church at large?

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You think so?

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Let me ask you this.

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What color is their skin?

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The tares.

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What color do you think they are?

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If you were to examine their skin,

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what do you think?

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All colors.

NOTE Paragraph

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You know what?

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Just because someone 
professes to be a Christian

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doesn't really mean they are.

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And if they in any way speak to you

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in a way that would cause you

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to back away from this reality,

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turn it off.

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I don't care if they're white;

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they're black, they're green.

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The reality is that if we 
are black and white

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and we are in Christ, we are one.

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We are not separate.

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We are not two distinct peoples.

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Yes, you may like Menudo.

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You might like grits.

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I may prefer steak.

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Well, you probably like it too.

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But, yes, we may have those flavors.

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But you need to consider your identity

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at the deepest level.

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We are one.

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That's what Scripture says.

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One.

NOTE Paragraph

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"And He's broken down..."

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that means He's destroyed,

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"...in His flesh, the 
dividing wall of hostility."

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He tears it down. Now, I know,

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when it comes to Jew and Gentile,

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we may be speaking about

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legal realities - even realities 
from the Old Testament,

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but what I'm telling you

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is that the reality is the same.

00:15:33.112 --> 00:15:34.270
That among the Gentiles,

00:15:34.270 --> 00:15:37.089
no matter where we come from,
no matter what our background is,

00:15:37.089 --> 00:15:38.922
no matter what country 
you were born in,

00:15:38.922 --> 00:15:40.603
no matter what language you speak,

00:15:40.603 --> 00:15:42.299
no matter what color your skin is,

00:15:42.299 --> 00:15:45.065
if we are in Christ together,

00:15:45.065 --> 00:15:47.241
we are one.

00:15:47.241 --> 00:15:50.363
That is the greatest point of our identity

00:15:50.363 --> 00:15:53.994
in all the world, the universe, eternity.

00:15:53.994 --> 00:15:55.950
That is the greatest reality.

00:15:55.950 --> 00:15:59.342
Our identity is in Christ.

NOTE Paragraph

00:15:59.342 --> 00:16:05.664
Now listen,

00:16:05.664 --> 00:16:10.359
"we are made one."

00:16:10.359 --> 00:16:13.186
The reality is that Gentiles aren't made

00:16:13.186 --> 00:16:15.737
into physical Jews.

00:16:15.737 --> 00:16:17.134
There's a spiritual reality,

00:16:17.134 --> 00:16:19.123
but they're not made into physical Jews.

00:16:19.123 --> 00:16:21.574
Jews aren't made into Gentiles.

00:16:21.574 --> 00:16:23.686
What happens is this,

00:16:23.686 --> 00:16:25.134
and Paul clearly says this,

00:16:25.134 --> 00:16:29.361
all former categories dissolve away

00:16:29.361 --> 00:16:32.000
and are replaced by a new category.

00:16:32.000 --> 00:16:36.201
That's what you see right there in v. 15.

00:16:36.201 --> 00:16:40.843
"That He might create in Himself

00:16:40.843 --> 00:16:47.224
one new man

00:16:47.224 --> 00:16:48.733
in place of the two."

00:16:48.733 --> 00:16:51.032
Did you catch that?

00:16:51.032 --> 00:16:55.298
There's a replacement.

00:16:55.298 --> 00:16:58.473
The Gentiles don't replace the Jews.

00:16:58.473 --> 00:17:01.001
The Jews don't replace the Gentiles.

00:17:01.001 --> 00:17:04.293
Both categories are replaced

00:17:04.293 --> 00:17:10.601
by one new man.

NOTE Paragraph

00:17:10.601 --> 00:17:12.301
And you know what happens?

00:17:12.301 --> 00:17:15.941
All these new men; all these new women,

00:17:15.941 --> 00:17:18.636
they are collectively together

00:17:18.636 --> 00:17:23.543
in what's called here "one body."

00:17:23.543 --> 00:17:25.622
Do you see that? v. 16?

00:17:25.622 --> 00:17:27.487
"...and might reconcile us both to God

00:17:27.487 --> 00:17:30.829
in one body through the cross."

00:17:30.829 --> 00:17:33.056
Now as I said when we 
dealt with that text,

00:17:33.056 --> 00:17:35.409
that's not Christ's body.

00:17:35.409 --> 00:17:38.120
That one body idea shows up in Ephesians

00:17:38.120 --> 00:17:40.572
and in Paul's writings over and over,

00:17:40.572 --> 00:17:42.942
and he doesn't mean the body of Christ.

00:17:42.942 --> 00:17:44.738
He means the church.

00:17:44.738 --> 00:17:46.741
It's one body.

00:17:46.741 --> 00:17:49.552
Christ is the Head.

00:17:49.552 --> 00:17:53.795
One body.

00:17:53.795 --> 00:17:56.131
Do you know what it's comprised of?

00:17:56.131 --> 00:17:57.847
A bunch of people who were

00:17:57.847 --> 00:18:02.054
formerly disunified Jews;

00:18:02.054 --> 00:18:04.548
disunified Gentiles.

00:18:04.548 --> 00:18:06.262
But now they're all together

00:18:06.262 --> 00:18:10.494
in one body.

00:18:10.494 --> 00:18:11.683
And what's happening?

00:18:11.683 --> 00:18:14.127
They're being reconciled to God.

00:18:14.127 --> 00:18:15.746
We've just come away from a season

00:18:15.746 --> 00:18:19.307
where "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing,"

00:18:19.307 --> 00:18:21.745
is commonly sung:

00:18:21.745 --> 00:18:25.006
"God and sinners reconciled."

00:18:25.006 --> 00:18:28.629
But you see, Paul's point here -

00:18:28.629 --> 00:18:31.110
it's not just any sinners;

00:18:31.110 --> 00:18:34.476
it's sinners who 
formerly in their lostness

00:18:34.476 --> 00:18:37.269
were so radically divided

00:18:37.269 --> 00:18:40.217
and now in one body, 
they're brought together.

00:18:40.217 --> 00:18:44.199
They have reconciliation together,

00:18:44.199 --> 00:18:46.656
both by way of the cross

00:18:46.656 --> 00:18:47.870
and be certain of this,

00:18:47.870 --> 00:18:50.426
there is no reconciliation at all

00:18:50.426 --> 00:18:53.188
apart from the death 
of the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:18:53.188 --> 00:18:54.327
This is the church.

00:18:54.327 --> 00:18:55.456
It's reconciled.

00:18:55.456 --> 00:18:57.081
It's something absolutely new.

00:18:57.081 --> 00:18:58.798
Both Jew and Gentile.

00:18:58.798 --> 00:19:00.150
And you know what happens?

00:19:00.150 --> 00:19:02.343
The door gets thrown wide open

00:19:02.343 --> 00:19:04.132
to draw near to God

00:19:04.132 --> 00:19:06.047
for everybody in the body,

00:19:06.047 --> 00:19:08.177
and that's what you find in v. 18.

00:19:08.177 --> 00:19:10.490
We have access.

NOTE Paragraph

00:19:10.490 --> 00:19:12.263
And notice,

00:19:12.263 --> 00:19:14.649
"for through Him, we both..."

00:19:14.649 --> 00:19:16.520
Don't you like how he keeps coming back

00:19:16.520 --> 00:19:18.340
and he says, "we both..."

00:19:18.340 --> 00:19:21.099
One new man in place of the two.

00:19:21.099 --> 00:19:23.757
We both have access.

00:19:23.757 --> 00:19:25.642
And again, I'm not wanting to deal

00:19:25.642 --> 00:19:28.085
primarily with Jew and Gentile today.

00:19:28.085 --> 00:19:30.706
I want to deal with every color of skin

00:19:30.706 --> 00:19:32.756
and ethnicity that we have in this room,

00:19:32.756 --> 00:19:33.975
because the reality is,

00:19:33.975 --> 00:19:35.090
there is a people here.

00:19:35.090 --> 00:19:37.842
And it doesn't matter what 
shade of skin we have,

00:19:37.842 --> 00:19:40.440
that by reconciliation through the cross

00:19:40.440 --> 00:19:42.114
the door has been opened

00:19:42.114 --> 00:19:44.480
so that we actually have

00:19:44.480 --> 00:19:47.276
real communion with God,

00:19:47.276 --> 00:19:49.265
and we can enter before Him.

NOTE Paragraph

00:19:49.265 --> 00:19:51.738
Again, we're dealing with 
the greatest realities

00:19:51.738 --> 00:19:54.768
about our identity.

00:19:54.768 --> 00:19:59.065
Your greatest identity is 
not the color of your skin.

00:19:59.065 --> 00:20:01.641
Your greatest identity is the fact

00:20:01.641 --> 00:20:04.173
that you are one who has been paid for

00:20:04.173 --> 00:20:05.785
by this blood

00:20:05.785 --> 00:20:08.799
and the doors are thrown open for you

00:20:08.799 --> 00:20:15.710
to come right into the presence of God.

NOTE Paragraph

00:20:15.710 --> 00:20:18.168
And you know what happened?

00:20:18.168 --> 00:20:21.527
I'm out there at Community Baptist Church.

00:20:21.527 --> 00:20:22.912
I'm not a pastor yet.

00:20:22.912 --> 00:20:25.060
I don't even know if I was preaching.

00:20:25.060 --> 00:20:29.962
But things are beginning 
to formulate in my head.

00:20:29.962 --> 00:20:31.471
Thinking about that pastor -

00:20:31.471 --> 00:20:32.957
it's now been made clear to me

00:20:32.957 --> 00:20:34.367
where I came from.

00:20:34.367 --> 00:20:38.810
It's like what is all that?

00:20:38.810 --> 00:20:41.656
And I'm watching the church at Community.

00:20:41.656 --> 00:20:43.662
I'm hearing verses like come out

00:20:43.662 --> 00:20:46.688
of Ephesians and there's a picture

00:20:46.688 --> 00:20:49.061
that begins to develop in my mind

00:20:49.061 --> 00:20:50.418
about what the church

00:20:50.418 --> 00:20:52.172
should be looking like.

00:20:52.172 --> 00:20:53.798
And the thing is here

00:20:53.798 --> 00:20:55.648
Paul's not done.

00:20:55.648 --> 00:20:57.555
Paul's not done.

00:20:57.555 --> 00:20:59.682
He just keeps going on and on.

00:20:59.682 --> 00:21:02.050
He wants to drive this point home

00:21:02.050 --> 00:21:03.484
over and over again.

00:21:03.484 --> 00:21:05.747
Your identity is no longer

00:21:05.747 --> 00:21:07.253
in your circumcision

00:21:07.253 --> 00:21:08.620
or your uncircumcision.

00:21:08.620 --> 00:21:10.736
It's no longer in the color of your skin.

00:21:10.736 --> 00:21:15.047
Your truest identity is not on that level.

00:21:15.047 --> 00:21:17.289
Your identity is somewhere else now.

00:21:17.289 --> 00:21:19.565
And look at v. 19.

00:21:19.565 --> 00:21:25.751
"...fellow citizens with the saints,

00:21:25.751 --> 00:21:28.893
members of the household of God."

NOTE Paragraph

00:21:28.893 --> 00:21:32.234
But then he goes even further.

00:21:32.234 --> 00:21:35.250
The reconciled ones are all being -

00:21:35.250 --> 00:21:36.689
and here's that word -

00:21:36.689 --> 00:21:39.388
jointed or joined together.

00:21:39.388 --> 00:21:43.454
Fitly framed together.

00:21:43.454 --> 00:21:45.501
"...Into a temple for God to dwell in."

00:21:45.501 --> 00:21:47.820
And you know, the thing about it is

00:21:47.820 --> 00:21:51.769
some might wonder at that.

00:21:51.769 --> 00:21:56.330
I just said Paul goes even further.

00:21:56.330 --> 00:21:59.667
Does that even sound right?

00:21:59.667 --> 00:22:01.203
Some might wonder that I say

00:22:01.203 --> 00:22:03.569
Paul goes even further.

00:22:03.569 --> 00:22:09.952
Look, to go from family to building -

00:22:09.952 --> 00:22:13.039
it is really an escalation of imagery

00:22:13.039 --> 00:22:14.685
to go from the one to the other,

00:22:14.685 --> 00:22:16.228
but it might not feel like that.

00:22:16.228 --> 00:22:26.140
Why? Well, family seems warm.

00:22:26.140 --> 00:22:29.746
It seems loving.

00:22:29.746 --> 00:22:31.468
It's just not as nice a picture

00:22:31.468 --> 00:22:35.367
to think about building pieces in a wall.

NOTE Paragraph

00:22:35.367 --> 00:22:40.520
Is Paul's imagery really escalating here?

00:22:40.520 --> 00:22:42.714
Oh yeah.

00:22:42.714 --> 00:22:45.522
Don't think warmth.

00:22:45.522 --> 00:22:49.488
Think cohesion.

00:22:49.488 --> 00:22:50.760
What's that word?

00:22:50.760 --> 00:22:53.602
That's like glue.

00:22:53.602 --> 00:22:55.960
Cohesive. Super glue.

00:22:55.960 --> 00:22:58.335
You glue something together.

00:22:58.335 --> 00:23:00.516
Adhesion or cohesion.

00:23:00.516 --> 00:23:02.820
It's the stickiness.

00:23:02.820 --> 00:23:06.396
It's something being stuck together

00:23:06.396 --> 00:23:09.992
or built together.

00:23:09.992 --> 00:23:14.899
That's the imagery of cohesion.

00:23:14.899 --> 00:23:16.627
Being furthered.

NOTE Paragraph

00:23:16.627 --> 00:23:19.894
Is there cohesion in all 
being in the same country?

00:23:19.894 --> 00:23:20.789
To some degree.

00:23:20.789 --> 00:23:23.056
Is there cohesion in 
being in the same family?

00:23:23.056 --> 00:23:24.376
Yeah, maybe even more so.

00:23:24.376 --> 00:23:27.696
But when you're fitly framed together

00:23:27.696 --> 00:23:30.245
as a piece of construction material

00:23:30.245 --> 00:23:32.573
into the same wall,

00:23:32.573 --> 00:23:34.024
you know what?

00:23:34.024 --> 00:23:37.433
There's a truer merging of parts

00:23:37.433 --> 00:23:41.667
than even in a family.

NOTE Paragraph

00:23:41.667 --> 00:23:43.033
You say really?

00:23:43.033 --> 00:23:44.416
Yeah, you know what?

00:23:44.416 --> 00:23:47.661
One of the boards in that wall

00:23:47.661 --> 00:23:48.955
does not say,

00:23:48.955 --> 00:23:54.236
well, I think I'm going to get 
married and move to Missouri.

00:23:54.236 --> 00:23:56.651
They're together.

NOTE Paragraph

00:23:56.651 --> 00:23:59.041
You see, families - people can go

00:23:59.041 --> 00:24:00.697
different places.

00:24:00.697 --> 00:24:04.597
There is a closeness in family,

00:24:04.597 --> 00:24:08.833
but there's a cohesion in building parts

00:24:08.833 --> 00:24:11.708
that comes even closer.

00:24:11.708 --> 00:24:14.573
The idea of Jew and Gentile

00:24:14.573 --> 00:24:17.558
so closely fitly framed together

00:24:17.558 --> 00:24:19.662
into the same structure

00:24:19.662 --> 00:24:22.879
seems to be so exceptionally 
important to Paul

00:24:22.879 --> 00:24:24.101
that you know what?

00:24:24.101 --> 00:24:26.051
It's assumed that he actually

00:24:26.051 --> 00:24:29.222
invents a word right here.

00:24:29.222 --> 00:24:34.503
Now, I'm not the world's 
most renowned etymologist.

00:24:34.503 --> 00:24:38.019
(studier of words)

00:24:38.019 --> 00:24:40.838
But Lloyd-Jones says Paul invented it.

00:24:40.838 --> 00:24:42.766
He said there's no indication

00:24:42.766 --> 00:24:44.622
that the word ever shows up

00:24:44.622 --> 00:24:46.733
anywhere else in history;

00:24:46.733 --> 00:24:49.130
anywhere else outside of Ephesians.

00:24:49.130 --> 00:24:51.751
And it can't be found 
in any secular writing.

00:24:51.751 --> 00:24:54.454
It's thought that what Paul was doing

00:24:54.454 --> 00:24:58.449
was he was grasping for imagery

00:24:58.449 --> 00:25:01.286
or for a term and he was limited -

00:25:01.286 --> 00:25:03.376
limited enough in his own vocabulary

00:25:03.376 --> 00:25:05.253
that he needed to create a word

00:25:05.253 --> 00:25:07.384
to try to communicate to these folks

00:25:07.384 --> 00:25:09.242
exactly what he meant.

00:25:09.242 --> 00:25:11.172
And what he did was he basically took

00:25:11.172 --> 00:25:13.184
three separate words

00:25:13.184 --> 00:25:16.814
and stuck them all together

00:25:16.814 --> 00:25:21.772
in apparently what was 
an invention of his own.

NOTE Paragraph

00:25:21.772 --> 00:25:24.681
The three words are this:

00:25:24.681 --> 00:25:29.581
The first one is "sun,"

00:25:29.581 --> 00:25:33.459
which means "together with."

00:25:33.459 --> 00:25:37.920
The second one is "harmos."

00:25:37.920 --> 00:25:41.059
Now Jeff's going to correct me

00:25:41.059 --> 00:25:43.403
if my Greek pronunciation isn't right.

00:25:43.403 --> 00:25:45.001
You know, it's funny.

00:25:45.001 --> 00:25:46.855
As Americans we like to say

00:25:46.855 --> 00:25:48.944
about Greek or Hebrew,

00:25:48.944 --> 00:25:54.100
well, that isn't the way you say it.

00:25:54.100 --> 00:25:58.434
We actually had a Hebrew Christian

00:25:58.434 --> 00:26:02.590
sit at our table before.

00:26:02.590 --> 00:26:06.649
Brethren, he said words 
from the Old Testament

00:26:06.649 --> 00:26:08.660
in ways you would not 
even recognize them.

00:26:08.660 --> 00:26:10.747
And you know, we're 
correcting one another.

00:26:10.747 --> 00:26:12.452
Well, this is the way you say it.

00:26:12.452 --> 00:26:15.658
But if you actually heard the way
that it was said in the original language,

00:26:15.658 --> 00:26:17.321
we'd probably all recognize

00:26:17.321 --> 00:26:19.224
that we're just doing good enough

00:26:19.224 --> 00:26:22.331
if we can communicate in our own

00:26:22.331 --> 00:26:24.173
Anglican pronunciation.

NOTE Paragraph

00:26:24.173 --> 00:26:27.917
But, you have "sun" - together with;

00:26:27.917 --> 00:26:32.730
"harmos" which means "joint."

00:26:32.730 --> 00:26:35.501
Joined together with.

00:26:35.501 --> 00:26:39.798
And then "logeo"

00:26:39.798 --> 00:26:42.723
which is the verb of "logos,"

00:26:42.723 --> 00:26:52.383
which has the idea to arrange in order.

00:26:52.383 --> 00:26:53.988
You know what happens?

00:26:53.988 --> 00:26:55.404
The King James Version

00:26:55.404 --> 00:26:57.846
actually comes the closest

00:26:57.846 --> 00:26:59.626
to striving to bring

00:26:59.626 --> 00:27:01.825
all three components out.

00:27:01.825 --> 00:27:04.207
They actually use three 
words in the English

00:27:04.207 --> 00:27:06.557
to parallel the three in the Greek.

00:27:06.557 --> 00:27:10.505
Fitly framed together.

00:27:10.505 --> 00:27:15.141
It's the idea of logeo is to arrange;

00:27:15.141 --> 00:27:17.596
like even an arrangement of music

00:27:17.596 --> 00:27:20.268
or an arrangement of a sentence.

00:27:20.268 --> 00:27:22.758
But it's to put something in order,

00:27:22.758 --> 00:27:24.216
and it's a picture -

00:27:24.216 --> 00:27:26.128
it's what God is doing to us.

00:27:26.128 --> 00:27:28.777
It's not something that 
we're doing to ourselves.

00:27:28.777 --> 00:27:33.398
God is placing in the church

00:27:33.398 --> 00:27:38.904
and joining together with

00:27:38.904 --> 00:27:40.367
and fitly framing.

00:27:40.367 --> 00:27:43.347
It's the idea of harmoniously

00:27:43.347 --> 00:27:46.504
fitting together.

00:27:46.504 --> 00:27:48.591
It is a tight cohesiveness.

NOTE Paragraph

00:27:48.591 --> 00:27:53.484
And Paul just invents this word

00:27:53.484 --> 00:27:56.542
and says to these Gentiles,

00:27:56.542 --> 00:28:02.168
do you really recognize how one you are?

00:28:02.168 --> 00:28:06.090
How closely fitted together?

00:28:06.090 --> 00:28:08.736
And obviously there's 
something profound in this.

00:28:08.736 --> 00:28:11.713
When Paul does this;

00:28:11.713 --> 00:28:15.584
when he invents this,

00:28:15.584 --> 00:28:18.340
brethren, this is the church.

00:28:18.340 --> 00:28:20.359
That's what we have going here.

00:28:20.359 --> 00:28:22.557
That's what we have a picture of here.

00:28:22.557 --> 00:28:24.065
He wants to try to explain

00:28:24.065 --> 00:28:25.779
to these Ephesian Gentiles

00:28:25.779 --> 00:28:28.253
to feel their close cohesion

00:28:28.253 --> 00:28:30.460
with these Jews and with everyone else

00:28:30.460 --> 00:28:31.441
who's a Christian.

00:28:31.441 --> 00:28:34.581
God takes each one of these living stones

00:28:34.581 --> 00:28:39.038
and carefully arranges them by design,

00:28:39.038 --> 00:28:41.845
and He puts them in here

00:28:41.845 --> 00:28:43.701
and fitly frames -

00:28:43.701 --> 00:28:45.388
you think about framing a window.

00:28:45.388 --> 00:28:46.398
And they're fitted.

00:28:46.398 --> 00:28:48.457
It's almost like there's one after another

00:28:48.457 --> 00:28:50.045
and they're fitly framed together

00:28:50.045 --> 00:28:52.875
and joined together in cohesion

00:28:52.875 --> 00:28:58.878
and a tightness.

00:28:58.878 --> 00:29:00.823
This is the church.

00:29:00.823 --> 00:29:03.107
And do you know what 
the building blocks are?

00:29:03.107 --> 00:29:04.734
They're living stones,

00:29:04.734 --> 00:29:07.566
and they've got every 
different shade of skin

00:29:07.566 --> 00:29:10.898
under the sun.

00:29:10.898 --> 00:29:13.329
That's the reality.

00:29:13.329 --> 00:29:14.649
Various nationalities,

00:29:14.649 --> 00:29:17.354
skin colors -

00:29:17.354 --> 00:29:20.680
they used to be separated,

00:29:20.680 --> 00:29:22.261
disjointed,

00:29:22.261 --> 00:29:26.809
unharmonious, conflicting, clashing...

NOTE Paragraph

00:29:26.809 --> 00:29:28.854
It's like as a child,

00:29:28.854 --> 00:29:35.128
I remember I got a battleship model.

00:29:35.128 --> 00:29:36.530
Remember the old models?

00:29:36.530 --> 00:29:37.634
You put them together.

00:29:37.634 --> 00:29:41.943
I don't if young people 
even do that anymore.

00:29:41.943 --> 00:29:43.767
And you pull the top off

00:29:43.767 --> 00:29:49.053
and you basically have 
these frames of plastic

00:29:49.053 --> 00:29:52.556
with all the individual 
parts across there.

00:29:52.556 --> 00:29:55.453
And you've got, typically, 
several sheets of these things,

00:29:55.453 --> 00:29:56.885
and you pull them out.

00:29:56.885 --> 00:29:58.340
And you've got the big pieces

00:29:58.340 --> 00:30:01.529
like the halves of the hull and whatever,

00:30:01.529 --> 00:30:03.858
and you begin to put 
all these pieces together.

00:30:03.858 --> 00:30:05.459
At first, they're all disjointed.

00:30:05.459 --> 00:30:08.496
They're disconnected.

00:30:08.496 --> 00:30:10.628
But then you take out that model glue

00:30:10.628 --> 00:30:12.507
and you begin to put them together,.

00:30:12.507 --> 00:30:15.584
And you know, some of 
the pieces are the same.

00:30:15.584 --> 00:30:17.014
Many of them are not the same.

00:30:17.014 --> 00:30:18.439
They're not like each other.

00:30:18.439 --> 00:30:20.160
It's not like a cookie cutter thing.

00:30:20.160 --> 00:30:21.646
If you just opened it up

00:30:21.646 --> 00:30:23.129
and you had a hundred pieces

00:30:23.129 --> 00:30:25.721
that all looked identical,
what do you create out of that?

NOTE Paragraph

00:30:25.721 --> 00:30:27.198
It's the same with the church.

00:30:27.198 --> 00:30:29.839
Paul uses other illustrations 
in 1 Corinthians 12,

00:30:29.839 --> 00:30:32.095
but where do you get a body

00:30:32.095 --> 00:30:33.501
if everybody's an eye?

00:30:33.501 --> 00:30:34.316
You don't.

00:30:34.316 --> 00:30:35.822
Where do you get a battleship

00:30:35.822 --> 00:30:38.117
if everything is a gun turret?

00:30:38.117 --> 00:30:38.818
You don't.

00:30:38.818 --> 00:30:41.257
You end up with some 
ugly horrendous thing.

00:30:41.257 --> 00:30:43.725
It doesn't even go together.

00:30:43.725 --> 00:30:45.242
You could glue it all together,

00:30:45.242 --> 00:30:50.379
but it's going to be a monster.

00:30:50.379 --> 00:30:52.764
But as a child, you put 
all those pieces together.

00:30:52.764 --> 00:30:56.405
This is what God is doing in the church.

00:30:56.405 --> 00:30:59.110
Fitly framing.

NOTE Paragraph

00:30:59.110 --> 00:31:02.068
And brethren, I'll tell you this.

00:31:02.068 --> 00:31:04.698
About 17 years ago,

00:31:04.698 --> 00:31:09.300
when we started this church,

00:31:09.300 --> 00:31:12.691
I was just naive enough to think

00:31:12.691 --> 00:31:14.155
and to actually believe

00:31:14.155 --> 00:31:16.786
that texts like this

00:31:16.786 --> 00:31:19.911
had real life implications.

00:31:19.911 --> 00:31:22.026
I believe that.

00:31:22.026 --> 00:31:25.754
I actually believed that if such 
radically different people

00:31:25.754 --> 00:31:28.348
as Jews and Gentiles

00:31:28.348 --> 00:31:34.546
could actually lose their 
own native identities

00:31:34.546 --> 00:31:37.332
and so identify with Christ,

00:31:37.332 --> 00:31:39.014
that they could come together

00:31:39.014 --> 00:31:40.120
in the same churches

00:31:40.120 --> 00:31:42.334
and function together and live together

00:31:42.334 --> 00:31:43.494
and love together

00:31:43.494 --> 00:31:45.129
and spread the Gospel together.

00:31:45.129 --> 00:31:47.107
I actually was naive enough to think

00:31:47.107 --> 00:31:49.447
blacks and whites could 
do that in San Antonio.

00:31:49.447 --> 00:31:52.658
Along with the majority population

00:31:52.658 --> 00:31:54.966
of the Hispanics.

00:31:54.966 --> 00:31:57.112
And thankfully, if God threw Asians

00:31:57.112 --> 00:31:59.858
into that mix as well.

00:31:59.858 --> 00:32:01.993
I thought it might be 
just reasonable enough

00:32:01.993 --> 00:32:04.383
to think that if we 
located our church meetings

00:32:04.383 --> 00:32:07.095
here on the east side of San Antonio,

00:32:07.095 --> 00:32:08.349
we might actually witness

00:32:08.349 --> 00:32:09.801
the same power

00:32:09.801 --> 00:32:11.859
that brought Jew and Gentile together

00:32:11.859 --> 00:32:16.904
bring all sorts of different 
people together here.

00:32:16.904 --> 00:32:20.449
That was my thinking.

00:32:20.449 --> 00:32:22.483
And you know what? Some might think

00:32:22.483 --> 00:32:24.677
that I'm reading too much into the passage

00:32:24.677 --> 00:32:30.239
in these last two verses of chapter 2.

00:32:30.239 --> 00:32:33.477
But the image produced in my mind,

00:32:33.477 --> 00:32:37.016
it wasn't just a theoretical image.

00:32:37.016 --> 00:32:40.718
It was an image that I saw

00:32:40.718 --> 00:32:46.847
came right down to local churches.

NOTE Paragraph

00:32:46.847 --> 00:32:50.172
See, I didn't really imagine the temple

00:32:50.172 --> 00:32:54.756
being built and all the stones over there

00:32:54.756 --> 00:32:56.662
are black;

00:32:56.662 --> 00:33:00.955
and all the stones right there are white;

00:33:00.955 --> 00:33:02.563
and all the stones right there

00:33:02.563 --> 00:33:04.018
may have a reddish hue

00:33:04.018 --> 00:33:05.686
or a yellowish hue.

00:33:05.686 --> 00:33:08.720
I didn't see it like that.

00:33:08.720 --> 00:33:11.261
I saw them fitly framed 
together in my mind.

00:33:11.261 --> 00:33:14.145
Maybe you think I'm 
reading too much into it,

00:33:14.145 --> 00:33:17.731
but like I say, I was just naive enough

00:33:17.731 --> 00:33:23.308
to think that a brother with dark skin

00:33:23.308 --> 00:33:27.448
could be placed in there.

00:33:27.448 --> 00:33:29.348
And then a Hispanic sister

00:33:29.348 --> 00:33:32.984
could be placed next to that.

00:33:32.984 --> 00:33:35.958
And then an Asian sister

00:33:35.958 --> 00:33:40.332
could be placed next to that.

00:33:40.332 --> 00:33:43.407
And I actually believed,

00:33:43.407 --> 00:33:45.332
well, if God could do that back then,

00:33:45.332 --> 00:33:47.865
God can do that now.

00:33:47.865 --> 00:33:50.291
I mean, if God is capable.

00:33:50.291 --> 00:33:51.472
And the thing is,

00:33:51.472 --> 00:33:52.752
I didn't just think,

00:33:52.752 --> 00:33:55.532
oh, that's for heaven.

00:33:55.532 --> 00:33:57.209
See, we have to wait for heaven

00:33:57.209 --> 00:34:00.172
because here everybody's going 
to be in their Korean church;

00:34:00.172 --> 00:34:02.303
everybody's going to be 
in their Indian church;

00:34:02.303 --> 00:34:03.676
everybody's going to be 
in their white church;

00:34:03.676 --> 00:34:05.607
in their Hispanic church, 
in their black church.

00:34:05.607 --> 00:34:07.087
And we wait for then.

00:34:07.087 --> 00:34:09.404
Then, of course, it's all 
going to mix together.

00:34:09.404 --> 00:34:11.899
You see, I just kind of thought

00:34:11.899 --> 00:34:14.396
that the fact that we're being built

00:34:14.396 --> 00:34:16.411
together this way actually has to do with

00:34:16.411 --> 00:34:17.479
the here and now

00:34:17.479 --> 00:34:19.842
and right in our generation.

00:34:19.842 --> 00:34:22.185
And I kind of thought that

00:34:22.185 --> 00:34:24.984
side by side we could work together

00:34:24.984 --> 00:34:31.032
for the sake of the Gospel.

NOTE Paragraph

00:34:31.032 --> 00:34:35.304
Brethren, I'll tell you this.

00:34:35.304 --> 00:34:39.890
I did not know exactly 
how it would happen,

00:34:39.890 --> 00:34:42.556
but in those first seven months

00:34:42.556 --> 00:34:45.674
of the life of this church,

00:34:45.674 --> 00:34:50.442
this was becoming more and more

00:34:50.442 --> 00:34:51.729
of a burden.

NOTE Paragraph

00:34:51.729 --> 00:34:53.060
Now, let me tell you,

00:34:53.060 --> 00:34:55.022
we started by meeting on

00:34:55.022 --> 00:34:59.111
the south side of the city.

00:34:59.111 --> 00:35:02.461
I'm not going to say it's all Hispanic,

00:35:02.461 --> 00:35:05.177
but heavily so.

00:35:05.177 --> 00:35:06.859
That's where we had a Bible study

00:35:06.859 --> 00:35:11.427
for a number of years.

00:35:11.427 --> 00:35:15.102
But you know, as time went on,

00:35:15.102 --> 00:35:17.989
I didn't want to stay there.

00:35:17.989 --> 00:35:20.360
I had my eye on this part of the city.

00:35:20.360 --> 00:35:22.071
And I know there were voices saying

00:35:22.071 --> 00:35:23.756
well, that's not right.

00:35:23.756 --> 00:35:26.154
If God called you to be on the south side,

00:35:26.154 --> 00:35:28.476
who are you to be moving away from it?

00:35:28.476 --> 00:35:30.821
Well, I'll tell you what 
God was doing inside me

00:35:30.821 --> 00:35:34.071
was trying to think strategically -

00:35:34.071 --> 00:35:35.605
if we're going to have a church

00:35:35.605 --> 00:35:38.277
where blacks and whites and Hispanics

00:35:38.277 --> 00:35:41.557
and other ethnicities are likely

00:35:41.557 --> 00:35:44.859
going to come together,

00:35:44.859 --> 00:35:47.612
what I felt like was

00:35:47.612 --> 00:35:50.029
if we could be close to downtown

00:35:50.029 --> 00:35:53.313
and maybe actually off into a more

00:35:53.313 --> 00:35:56.115
black part of the city,

00:35:56.115 --> 00:36:00.598
I thought that's the 
strategic location to be.

00:36:00.598 --> 00:36:02.351
Now, you may take issue with that.

00:36:02.351 --> 00:36:04.271
But that was my whole thinking.

00:36:04.271 --> 00:36:05.122
My thinking was,

00:36:05.122 --> 00:36:06.765
let's go to where the needs are;

00:36:06.765 --> 00:36:08.613
let's go to where the prostitutes are;

00:36:08.613 --> 00:36:10.721
let's go to where the drug problems are;

00:36:10.721 --> 00:36:12.598
let's go to where they need the Gospel;

00:36:12.598 --> 00:36:14.526
but let's also position this

00:36:14.526 --> 00:36:16.494
where we're close to downtown.

00:36:16.494 --> 00:36:18.180
You've got maybe what tends to be

00:36:18.180 --> 00:36:20.697
the more white areas to the north.

00:36:20.697 --> 00:36:22.894
You've got the more 
black areas to the east.

00:36:22.894 --> 00:36:25.947
West side is little Mexico.

00:36:25.947 --> 00:36:29.343
South side is going 
to be heavily Hispanic,

00:36:29.343 --> 00:36:32.548
but it felt central.

00:36:32.548 --> 00:36:35.799
That was my thinking: central.

00:36:35.799 --> 00:36:37.597
Because that was the desire.

00:36:37.597 --> 00:36:39.270
Now as I looked out at the church,

00:36:39.270 --> 00:36:41.668
it was all Hispanic in those first days

00:36:41.668 --> 00:36:43.616
except me.

00:36:43.616 --> 00:36:45.836
But I began to pray.

00:36:45.836 --> 00:36:47.549
I recognized, no matter

00:36:47.549 --> 00:36:49.309
where you are in this city,

00:36:49.309 --> 00:36:51.532
if God's working with us,

00:36:51.532 --> 00:36:54.069
Hispanics are going to be there.

00:36:54.069 --> 00:36:56.233
But it's going to take an extra effort

00:36:56.233 --> 00:36:59.272
to try to bring whites and blacks

00:36:59.272 --> 00:37:00.807
into the same church.

00:37:00.807 --> 00:37:02.691
So, strategically, where should we be?

00:37:02.691 --> 00:37:04.095
And I began to pray,

00:37:04.095 --> 00:37:05.119
Lord, please...

00:37:05.119 --> 00:37:07.090
And it wasn't just skin colors;

00:37:07.090 --> 00:37:08.723
I often prayed -

00:37:08.723 --> 00:37:10.742
those that were here in the early days,

00:37:10.742 --> 00:37:13.174
it was often that the converted lawyer

00:37:13.174 --> 00:37:15.261
would sit next to the 
converted prostitute,

00:37:15.261 --> 00:37:17.013
whatever their colors.

00:37:17.013 --> 00:37:20.061
But I wanted this different 
social strata as well.

00:37:20.061 --> 00:37:21.437
God saving from the rich.

00:37:21.437 --> 00:37:23.925
I know not many (1 Corinthians 1),

00:37:23.925 --> 00:37:27.124
but some and many of those

00:37:27.124 --> 00:37:28.720
in the poorer sections.

00:37:28.720 --> 00:37:30.350
Look, could we have moved

00:37:30.350 --> 00:37:31.385
up to the north side?

00:37:31.385 --> 00:37:32.879
Could we have moved 
up to Stone Oak?

00:37:32.879 --> 00:37:34.117
Yes, we could have.

00:37:34.117 --> 00:37:36.282
I mean, there was 
freedom there to do that.

00:37:36.282 --> 00:37:38.934
But that wasn't the agenda -

00:37:38.934 --> 00:37:40.299
not in my heart.

00:37:40.299 --> 00:37:42.181
Not based on texts like this.

00:37:42.181 --> 00:37:43.706
I had an image in my mind

00:37:43.706 --> 00:37:46.285
of this multi-colored

00:37:46.285 --> 00:37:50.204
fitly framed together,

00:37:50.204 --> 00:37:52.468
and I didn't want to 
wait to heaven for it.

00:37:52.468 --> 00:37:54.139
I wanted to see that cohesiveness

00:37:54.139 --> 00:37:55.203
worked out right now.

00:37:55.203 --> 00:37:56.924
Because brethren, I really believe

00:37:56.924 --> 00:37:58.032
that it's a testimony

00:37:58.032 --> 00:37:59.920
about the grace and the power of God.

00:37:59.920 --> 00:38:01.834
I believe that.

00:38:01.834 --> 00:38:03.576
I believe it says something about

00:38:03.576 --> 00:38:04.949
what the power of the cross

00:38:04.949 --> 00:38:08.203
is able to accomplish in people.

NOTE Paragraph

00:38:08.203 --> 00:38:10.448
And I knew what I saw 
up there in Michigan -

00:38:10.448 --> 00:38:11.751
that was not a testimony

00:38:11.751 --> 00:38:14.978
to any power of any cross.

00:38:14.978 --> 00:38:19.811
Not that kind of - was it racism?

00:38:19.811 --> 00:38:22.671
Or was it horrible ignorance?

00:38:22.671 --> 00:38:24.769
Definitely not a man qualified

00:38:24.769 --> 00:38:26.728
to be in the pulpit.

00:38:26.728 --> 00:38:28.795
But did Jesus say this?

00:38:28.795 --> 00:38:30.728
Did He say, well,

00:38:30.728 --> 00:38:35.191
people will know that you're My disciples

00:38:35.191 --> 00:38:37.020
by the fact that blacks need to stay

00:38:37.020 --> 00:38:38.190
in their churches,

00:38:38.190 --> 00:38:40.234
and whites need to stay in their churches,

00:38:40.234 --> 00:38:42.009
and there's Hipanics in theirs.

00:38:42.009 --> 00:38:43.640
Because we don't love one another

00:38:43.640 --> 00:38:45.562
enough to work through the differences.

00:38:45.562 --> 00:38:46.585
Is that what He said?

00:38:46.585 --> 00:38:49.407
Is that how the world's going 
to know that we belong to Him?

00:38:49.407 --> 00:38:51.224
That is not what He said.

00:38:51.224 --> 00:38:53.191
What He specifically said is that

00:38:53.191 --> 00:38:57.168
"by this all people will know

00:38:57.168 --> 00:38:58.974
that you are My disciples,

00:38:58.974 --> 00:39:02.117
if you have love for one another."

NOTE Paragraph

00:39:02.117 --> 00:39:03.711
Brethren, the truth is

00:39:03.711 --> 00:39:06.134
that this is the truth.

00:39:06.134 --> 00:39:08.665
And you know it.

00:39:08.665 --> 00:39:11.693
If we can't make it in the 
same church together,

00:39:11.693 --> 00:39:18.600
it's a lack of love on somebody's part.

00:39:18.600 --> 00:39:19.901
That's just a reality.

00:39:19.901 --> 00:39:21.834
Plain and simple.

NOTE Paragraph

00:39:21.834 --> 00:39:24.856
Do you remember the 
church there in Acts 6?

00:39:24.856 --> 00:39:26.068
Let me tell you about it.

00:39:26.068 --> 00:39:28.695
You don't feel this,

00:39:28.695 --> 00:39:33.193
but it's likely a difference of ethnicity

00:39:33.193 --> 00:39:34.957
stronger than blacks and whites

00:39:34.957 --> 00:39:36.395
in the same church.

00:39:36.395 --> 00:39:41.854
When you had Hebrews and Hellenist Jews

00:39:41.854 --> 00:39:43.142
in the same church.

00:39:43.142 --> 00:39:45.627
Did they have problems?

00:39:45.627 --> 00:39:51.299
Of course, they had problems!

00:39:51.299 --> 00:39:55.415
Brethren, some people walk around

00:39:55.415 --> 00:39:59.948
almost with this foreboding:

00:39:59.948 --> 00:40:05.952
"there are problems in this church."

00:40:05.952 --> 00:40:08.678
Of course there are!

00:40:08.678 --> 00:40:11.870
Were there racial problems in that church?

00:40:11.870 --> 00:40:13.912
Of course there were!

00:40:13.912 --> 00:40:17.969
Look, this issue isn't whether 
or not we have problems.

00:40:17.969 --> 00:40:21.169
The issue is that love works 
through those problems.

00:40:21.169 --> 00:40:23.532
You know what was happening?

00:40:23.532 --> 00:40:26.789
The widows - not any widow.

00:40:26.789 --> 00:40:32.036
Not widows indiscriminately.

00:40:32.036 --> 00:40:34.057
But the widows of a certain race

00:40:34.057 --> 00:40:36.306
in the church -

00:40:36.306 --> 00:40:43.125
the widows of the Hellenist Greeks.

00:40:43.125 --> 00:40:48.969
They were not being taken care of

00:40:48.969 --> 00:40:52.329
like the Hebrew widows were.

00:40:52.329 --> 00:40:56.086
That kind of a race thing. And it is.

00:40:56.086 --> 00:40:57.895
Somehow they were being neglected.

00:40:57.895 --> 00:40:59.711
Somehow they were being overlooked.

00:40:59.711 --> 00:41:01.878
You know what?

00:41:01.878 --> 00:41:03.511
Did the apostles say,

00:41:03.511 --> 00:41:07.885
Hellenist Greeks, this 
isn't going to work.

00:41:07.885 --> 00:41:09.158
The way to remedy this:

00:41:09.158 --> 00:41:10.910
pack your bags, go down the street,

00:41:10.910 --> 00:41:13.008
start a Hellenist Greek church.

00:41:13.008 --> 00:41:14.624
That's what we need to do.

00:41:14.624 --> 00:41:16.622
Because after all that's what

00:41:16.622 --> 00:41:19.539
just about everybody does today.

00:41:19.539 --> 00:41:21.756
That's not what they did.

00:41:21.756 --> 00:41:23.735
What they did was they looked at it

00:41:23.735 --> 00:41:27.285
and they said you know this is a reality.

00:41:27.285 --> 00:41:31.515
And they sought to meet the need.

00:41:31.515 --> 00:41:33.601
And what's interesting to me is

00:41:33.601 --> 00:41:36.341
that it has often been observed

00:41:36.341 --> 00:41:38.950
that the seven men that were chosen

00:41:38.950 --> 00:41:43.494
were actually Greeks.

00:41:43.494 --> 00:41:45.147
And I've thought about that.

00:41:45.147 --> 00:41:47.466
You know, that bothered me.

00:41:47.466 --> 00:41:48.990
That bothered me

00:41:48.990 --> 00:41:51.755
for a long time that they did that.

00:41:51.755 --> 00:41:53.877
Because I thought,

00:41:53.877 --> 00:41:56.478
shouldn't the Hebrews

00:41:56.478 --> 00:41:58.542
have been able to become deacons

00:41:58.542 --> 00:42:00.889
just as ably as the Greeks

00:42:00.889 --> 00:42:05.268
and minister to the Grecian widows?

00:42:05.268 --> 00:42:08.220
Why all Greeks?

00:42:08.220 --> 00:42:09.990
Well, it bothered me.

00:42:09.990 --> 00:42:12.002
Maybe it still does bother me a little bit

00:42:12.002 --> 00:42:14.128
that that happened that way,

00:42:14.128 --> 00:42:16.029
but maybe there's something to it.

00:42:16.029 --> 00:42:18.664
You don't have to pack up 
and move down the street

00:42:18.664 --> 00:42:20.120
and start your own church,

00:42:20.120 --> 00:42:21.650
but maybe there is something to

00:42:21.650 --> 00:42:23.712
Grecian men.

00:42:23.712 --> 00:42:25.148
Maybe they're more plugged in.

00:42:25.148 --> 00:42:26.642
Maybe they're more sensitive.

00:42:26.642 --> 00:42:27.942
Maybe they're more aware.

00:42:27.942 --> 00:42:32.664
Maybe they would be able to relate better.

00:42:32.664 --> 00:42:33.901
That's just a reality.

00:42:33.901 --> 00:42:35.662
We come from different backgrounds.

00:42:35.662 --> 00:42:38.426
Maybe it was better on a practical level.

00:42:38.426 --> 00:42:40.742
Well, that's what happened.

00:42:40.742 --> 00:42:42.477
Yeah, they had problems.

NOTE Paragraph

00:42:42.477 --> 00:42:44.795
And you know what?

00:42:44.795 --> 00:42:50.473
I know that if we try to have multiple

00:42:50.473 --> 00:42:54.966
various ethnicities and 
different backgrounds -

00:42:54.966 --> 00:42:59.354
brethren, I've heard it 
said before in this church.

00:42:59.354 --> 00:43:01.432
I've heard it said.

00:43:01.432 --> 00:43:03.621
I know it's true.

00:43:03.621 --> 00:43:06.530
People have said

00:43:06.530 --> 00:43:07.808
they are now friends with

00:43:07.808 --> 00:43:10.208
and they hang out with people
that in their lost state,

00:43:10.208 --> 00:43:12.262
they would have never hung out with;

00:43:12.262 --> 00:43:14.431
they would have never been friends with.

00:43:14.431 --> 00:43:17.276
Well, of course that's true.

00:43:17.276 --> 00:43:18.466
Of course it is.

00:43:18.466 --> 00:43:21.050
We ought to expect that 
that's going to be true.

00:43:21.050 --> 00:43:23.132
Because in our lost state,

00:43:23.132 --> 00:43:26.444
we were divided; we were disunified;

00:43:26.444 --> 00:43:27.853
we were unharmonious.

00:43:27.853 --> 00:43:28.960
There was clashing.

00:43:28.960 --> 00:43:32.252
There was no cohesion.

00:43:32.252 --> 00:43:35.260
We were hated by each other

00:43:35.260 --> 00:43:37.172
and we were hating one another.

00:43:37.172 --> 00:43:39.703
And that's fairly biblically descriptive

00:43:39.703 --> 00:43:44.465
of what lost people are like.

NOTE Paragraph

00:43:44.465 --> 00:43:47.310
But something's happened.

00:43:47.310 --> 00:43:49.678
And you know that church didn't remain

00:43:49.678 --> 00:43:54.077
just apathetic and indifferent

00:43:54.077 --> 00:43:59.820
to the needs - to the true needs

00:43:59.820 --> 00:44:06.437
of one of the ethnic groups in the church.

NOTE Paragraph

00:44:06.437 --> 00:44:09.833
Brethren, through the years,

00:44:09.833 --> 00:44:12.320
I remember we had when 
we were over at Fatty's,

00:44:12.320 --> 00:44:15.919
an Indian family came from Houston.

00:44:15.919 --> 00:44:18.036
I asked them where do you go to church?

00:44:18.036 --> 00:44:20.263
Oh, we go to an Indian church

00:44:20.263 --> 00:44:23.367
in Houston.

00:44:23.367 --> 00:44:24.924
I travel over to Romania

00:44:24.924 --> 00:44:26.748
and they've got the Romanian church

00:44:26.748 --> 00:44:28.447
and the Gypsy church.

NOTE Paragraph

00:44:28.447 --> 00:44:34.078
Now look, again, I'm 
reading Adoniram Judson.

00:44:34.078 --> 00:44:35.688
You know what, they saw converts

00:44:35.688 --> 00:44:37.843
among the British troops.

00:44:37.843 --> 00:44:39.325
He was an American missionary.

00:44:39.325 --> 00:44:42.091
But they saw converts 
among the British troops.

00:44:42.091 --> 00:44:45.034
They saw converts among the Burmese,

00:44:45.034 --> 00:44:48.275
among the Taling people 
and among the Karens.

00:44:48.275 --> 00:44:50.452
And they put them 
all in different churches,

00:44:50.452 --> 00:44:51.364
but you know what?

00:44:51.364 --> 00:44:53.752
They spoke different languages.

00:44:53.752 --> 00:44:55.459
I understand that.

00:44:55.459 --> 00:44:57.727
Look, we've got to be able to communicate

00:44:57.727 --> 00:44:59.774
to one another in a language
that we understand.

00:44:59.780 --> 00:45:02.182
Otherwise, we're not going to be 
able to preach to one another.

00:45:02.182 --> 00:45:04.238
We're not going to be able to communicate.

00:45:04.238 --> 00:45:06.930
You know, the whole Christian life
is involved in so much communication.

00:45:06.930 --> 00:45:08.790
If you can't speak the same language,

00:45:08.790 --> 00:45:10.497
there are real barriers.

00:45:10.497 --> 00:45:11.642
And I understand that.

00:45:11.642 --> 00:45:13.469
I understand that with the 
Spanish-speaking group

00:45:13.469 --> 00:45:14.589
that meets here.

00:45:14.589 --> 00:45:16.338
We're trying to have interpretation,

00:45:16.338 --> 00:45:19.183
hopefully put the music in Spanish

00:45:19.183 --> 00:45:20.287
up on the screen.

00:45:20.287 --> 00:45:26.126
I understand that when 
there's linguistic differences.

00:45:26.126 --> 00:45:27.463
But the reality is

00:45:27.463 --> 00:45:30.608
why the Romanians and the Gypsies

00:45:30.608 --> 00:45:33.967
have to be in different churches

00:45:33.967 --> 00:45:35.644
when they know the same language

00:45:35.644 --> 00:45:39.155
and they both speak 
Romanian very fluently.

NOTE Paragraph

00:45:39.155 --> 00:45:40.762
Do you know what happened

00:45:40.762 --> 00:45:48.184
when - the example I'm 
thinking of specifically,

00:45:48.184 --> 00:45:54.730
a bunch of Italians got converted

00:45:54.730 --> 00:46:00.413
in a revival situation in New York City.

00:46:00.413 --> 00:46:02.177
And I'm trying to think of the pastor

00:46:02.177 --> 00:46:04.963
who got so disgusted with the situation

00:46:04.963 --> 00:46:07.342
that he left.

00:46:07.342 --> 00:46:09.903
Was it Tozer?

00:46:09.903 --> 00:46:17.057
A well-known preacher saw

00:46:17.057 --> 00:46:23.413
where the white folks in New York City,

00:46:23.413 --> 00:46:25.103
they're preaching the Gospel.

00:46:25.103 --> 00:46:26.648
They were actually evangelistic,

00:46:26.648 --> 00:46:27.957
and you know what God did?

00:46:27.957 --> 00:46:29.975
Instead of saving a whole 
bunch of white people,

00:46:29.975 --> 00:46:31.704
He saved a whole bunch of Italians.

00:46:31.704 --> 00:46:34.623
Now, Italians might 
be considered Caucasian,

00:46:34.623 --> 00:46:37.943
but they were different.

00:46:37.943 --> 00:46:40.266
And you know what?

00:46:40.266 --> 00:46:42.221
The people in that church just felt like

00:46:42.221 --> 00:46:44.578
it just messed up their church too much.

00:46:44.578 --> 00:46:46.698
And so they shipped them all off

00:46:46.698 --> 00:46:48.823
and they started an Italian church.

00:46:48.823 --> 00:46:51.271
And whoever the preacher 
was there at the time

00:46:51.271 --> 00:46:54.901
said, uh uh, I don't like this.

00:46:54.901 --> 00:46:57.432
Was it A.B. Simpson?

00:46:57.432 --> 00:46:59.132
Anyway, I can't remember the name.

NOTE Paragraph

00:46:59.132 --> 00:47:01.007
But I feel the same way.

00:47:01.007 --> 00:47:03.270
When I see those kinds of things happen

00:47:03.270 --> 00:47:06.115
it's like wait. Isn't 
something broken here?

00:47:06.115 --> 00:47:08.407
What are we saying?

00:47:08.407 --> 00:47:10.216
Are we saying that those people

00:47:10.216 --> 00:47:13.656
are too poor for them to be among us?

00:47:13.656 --> 00:47:15.619
I recognize this:

00:47:15.619 --> 00:47:17.566
That if we had gone up to Stone Oak,

00:47:17.566 --> 00:47:19.289
we would not be attracting people

00:47:19.289 --> 00:47:21.283
off of Hackberry and Cherry

00:47:21.283 --> 00:47:24.995
to come to that church there.

00:47:24.995 --> 00:47:27.021
Somebody recently told me but

00:47:27.021 --> 00:47:28.796
I don't know when they visited

00:47:28.796 --> 00:47:30.908
Hagee's church, but 
they were talking about

00:47:30.908 --> 00:47:32.328
all the rich people up there.

00:47:32.328 --> 00:47:33.490
That's up in Stone Oak.

00:47:33.490 --> 00:47:34.360
I recognize this,

00:47:34.360 --> 00:47:36.580
some rich people might be willing

00:47:36.580 --> 00:47:38.704
to come here, but most of the people

00:47:38.704 --> 00:47:39.990
from the inner city are not

00:47:39.990 --> 00:47:41.732
willing to go there.

00:47:41.732 --> 00:47:43.802
Perhaps. Perhaps there are some.

NOTE Paragraph

00:47:43.802 --> 00:47:46.553
But I just felt like this 
was the most strategic

00:47:46.553 --> 00:47:48.043
if we're going to really seek

00:47:48.043 --> 00:47:49.115
to make this happen;

00:47:49.115 --> 00:47:51.156
see these parts come together.

NOTE Paragraph

00:47:51.156 --> 00:47:53.383
Brethren, from time to time,

00:47:53.383 --> 00:47:54.528
I was reminded of this -

00:47:54.528 --> 00:47:57.183
Ruby and I met with Jonathan and Letty

00:47:57.183 --> 00:47:58.243
on Friday,

00:47:58.243 --> 00:48:00.812
and Ruby brought up how

00:48:00.812 --> 00:48:02.940
many different times, people who have

00:48:02.940 --> 00:48:05.236
visited our church from the outside

00:48:05.236 --> 00:48:07.218
and they have commented

00:48:07.218 --> 00:48:09.389
on the racial diversity here.

00:48:09.389 --> 00:48:11.113
And I've heard that too.

00:48:11.113 --> 00:48:12.553
I've heard those comments.

00:48:12.553 --> 00:48:14.184
How that blesses people

00:48:14.184 --> 00:48:16.496
because they say things like

00:48:16.496 --> 00:48:19.379
I haven't seen that before.

NOTE Paragraph

00:48:19.379 --> 00:48:22.283
Brethren, let me tell you something.

00:48:22.283 --> 00:48:29.003
The racial diversity that we 
have at Grace is unique.

00:48:29.003 --> 00:48:32.449
I'm not saying we're the 
only place that has it.

00:48:32.449 --> 00:48:35.334
But it's unique and it's special.

00:48:35.334 --> 00:48:40.387
And look, it's not found 
in many other places.

NOTE Paragraph

00:48:40.387 --> 00:48:43.847
And if we're going to keep this diversity,

00:48:43.847 --> 00:48:47.808
we need to fight for it.

00:48:47.808 --> 00:48:50.094
But here's the thing, 
you'll never fight for it

00:48:50.094 --> 00:48:52.261
unless you value it.

00:48:52.261 --> 00:48:54.176
See, I value it.

00:48:54.176 --> 00:48:56.310
Because I look at Scripture and I believe

00:48:56.310 --> 00:48:58.521
it bears witness to these verses.

00:48:58.521 --> 00:49:00.604
And I believe it bears witness

00:49:00.604 --> 00:49:04.066
to the reconciling power of the cross

00:49:04.066 --> 00:49:06.885
and of the blood to remove the barriers.

00:49:06.885 --> 00:49:09.510
When I hear about barriers being removed,

00:49:09.510 --> 00:49:10.934
again, maybe you think I'm

00:49:10.934 --> 00:49:12.564
reading too much into the text.

00:49:12.564 --> 00:49:14.119
I recognize that there were

00:49:14.119 --> 00:49:16.114
Scriptural barriers between

00:49:16.114 --> 00:49:17.438
Jews and Gentiles.

00:49:17.438 --> 00:49:18.458
I recognize that.

00:49:18.458 --> 00:49:21.492
But when I hear about 
the barriers being removed,

00:49:21.492 --> 00:49:23.436
again, I'm naive enough to think

00:49:23.436 --> 00:49:25.712
that means every barrier that keeps

00:49:25.712 --> 00:49:27.260
any ethnicity apart.

00:49:27.260 --> 00:49:28.794
They have been broken down.

00:49:28.794 --> 00:49:31.976
And that our identities in the two old men

00:49:31.976 --> 00:49:33.005
that we used to be -

00:49:33.005 --> 00:49:35.587
us and whoever else you 
want to compare yourself to -

00:49:35.587 --> 00:49:37.547
have been dissolved if we're in Christ.

00:49:37.547 --> 00:49:42.407
And our new greatest identity

00:49:42.407 --> 00:49:46.758
is the new man.

NOTE Paragraph

00:49:46.758 --> 00:49:57.693
Brethren, just recently, 
somebody mentioned

00:49:57.693 --> 00:49:59.833
Hudson Taylor.

00:49:59.833 --> 00:50:03.782
And I love Hudson Taylor.

00:50:03.782 --> 00:50:06.796
I love his example.

00:50:06.796 --> 00:50:11.071
Just recently, there's been some dialogue

00:50:11.071 --> 00:50:14.846
among some in the church about music,

00:50:14.846 --> 00:50:18.977
and maybe even racial aspects

00:50:18.977 --> 00:50:22.471
that affect the music.

00:50:22.471 --> 00:50:29.045
And it was suggested that maybe

00:50:29.045 --> 00:50:32.709
the example of Hudson Taylor

00:50:32.709 --> 00:50:36.256
might be brought in and applied

00:50:36.256 --> 00:50:38.310
to this situation.

00:50:38.310 --> 00:50:39.512
And I would agree.

NOTE Paragraph

00:50:39.512 --> 00:50:41.404
What's the example of Hudson Taylor?

00:50:41.404 --> 00:50:43.419
I love it. I think there's something there

00:50:43.419 --> 00:50:46.104
for us to all glean from it.

00:50:46.104 --> 00:50:50.715
Hudson Taylor, unlike the others

00:50:50.715 --> 00:50:57.340
who went to China before him -

00:50:57.340 --> 00:51:01.684
Hudson Taylor and a man named Burns -

00:51:01.684 --> 00:51:05.629
he was used in a revival 
in McCheyne's church -

00:51:05.629 --> 00:51:10.125
they dressed like the Chinese.

00:51:10.125 --> 00:51:11.312
They wore their shoes -

00:51:11.312 --> 00:51:14.335
really uncomfortable horrible things.

00:51:14.335 --> 00:51:15.415
They grew their hair

00:51:15.415 --> 00:51:17.547
in that really weird 1800's way

00:51:17.547 --> 00:51:19.234
where they had the ponytail,

00:51:19.234 --> 00:51:21.519
but the front part was all shaved.

00:51:21.519 --> 00:51:23.878
So they had the hair 
that came off the back

00:51:23.878 --> 00:51:26.493
in a ponytail (incomplete thought).

00:51:26.493 --> 00:51:28.110
And you know, for a European,

00:51:28.110 --> 00:51:29.753
you're in that sun and that heat

00:51:29.753 --> 00:51:33.967
and it burns his head.

00:51:33.967 --> 00:51:36.286
He wore their clothes.

00:51:36.286 --> 00:51:37.441
So we look at that.

00:51:37.441 --> 00:51:39.636
And sometimes that can 
be brought up today.

00:51:39.636 --> 00:51:42.166
And it was suggested that

00:51:42.166 --> 00:51:50.588
if we want to reach east side blacks,

00:51:50.588 --> 00:51:54.914
shouldn't we be like Hudson Taylor?

00:51:54.914 --> 00:51:57.015
And I would say yes,

00:51:57.015 --> 00:51:59.534
we should be like Hudson Taylor.

00:51:59.534 --> 00:52:02.670
But here's the thing,

00:52:02.670 --> 00:52:05.407
Hudson Taylor went into China

00:52:05.407 --> 00:52:09.713
because he desired to 
see a Chinese church.

00:52:09.713 --> 00:52:11.722
You see, brethren,

00:52:11.722 --> 00:52:13.466
I don't want a black church.

00:52:13.466 --> 00:52:17.596
I don't want a white church.

00:52:17.596 --> 00:52:23.418
If you're going to use Hudson Taylor,

00:52:23.418 --> 00:52:25.430
what you want to think about

00:52:25.430 --> 00:52:29.075
is what would Hudson Taylor have done

00:52:29.075 --> 00:52:31.334
if instead of just reaching the Chinese,

00:52:31.334 --> 00:52:33.725
he wanted to reach blacks,

00:52:33.725 --> 00:52:38.422
Hispanics, Asians, and whites

00:52:38.422 --> 00:52:44.991
all at the same time?

00:52:44.991 --> 00:52:46.595
You might say, well, he probably

00:52:46.595 --> 00:52:56.999
would have dressed really funny.

00:52:56.999 --> 00:53:00.234
How do you do that?

00:53:00.234 --> 00:53:01.327
Well, you know what?

00:53:01.327 --> 00:53:02.973
When we came here 
to the east side,

00:53:02.973 --> 00:53:04.426
I didn't know.

00:53:04.426 --> 00:53:10.672
I remember we moved to Hackberry.

00:53:10.672 --> 00:53:11.731
And it was like,

00:53:11.731 --> 00:53:13.768
ok, we bought the place,

00:53:13.768 --> 00:53:17.138
and it had a glass front door.

00:53:17.138 --> 00:53:20.941
And I have this image in my mind

00:53:20.941 --> 00:53:23.892
of us kind of looking out that door.

00:53:23.892 --> 00:53:26.277
Ok, we're here.

00:53:26.277 --> 00:53:30.326
What do we do?

00:53:30.326 --> 00:53:32.890
I don't know.

00:53:32.890 --> 00:53:37.051
But I know this,

00:53:37.051 --> 00:53:42.142
our mandate is to preach the Gospel.

00:53:42.142 --> 00:53:45.971
I remember going down 
to that Salvation Army

00:53:45.971 --> 00:53:49.644
over there on Nolan.

00:53:49.644 --> 00:53:51.722
We're speaking to people about the Lord.

00:53:51.722 --> 00:53:52.965
We're handing out tracts,

00:53:52.965 --> 00:53:55.469
and this guy says,

00:53:55.469 --> 00:54:00.693
I don't know why you all 
came to the east side.

00:54:00.693 --> 00:54:04.403
He said you're never going 
to change the east side.

00:54:04.403 --> 00:54:10.063
I said you're right, but God will.

00:54:10.063 --> 00:54:13.449
That's my hope.

NOTE Paragraph

00:54:13.449 --> 00:54:17.663
Brethren, do you know what you find

00:54:17.663 --> 00:54:20.255
when you go to chapter 4 of Ephesians?

00:54:20.255 --> 00:54:23.282
You find that the same word is used:

00:54:23.282 --> 00:54:24.597
fitly framed together.

00:54:24.597 --> 00:54:26.084
Paul doesn't just use it once.

00:54:26.084 --> 00:54:27.162
He uses it twice.

00:54:27.162 --> 00:54:30.029
And he talks about us being joined

00:54:30.029 --> 00:54:31.282
and built together.

00:54:31.282 --> 00:54:34.347
Again, fitly framed together.

00:54:34.347 --> 00:54:36.462
And he specifically says this:

00:54:36.462 --> 00:54:43.416
"when each part is working properly."

00:54:43.416 --> 00:54:45.564
Don't you like that?

00:54:45.564 --> 00:54:47.058
You know what needs to happen

00:54:47.058 --> 00:54:49.475
if this thing is really going to work?

00:54:49.475 --> 00:54:54.811
Each part needs to work properly.

00:54:54.811 --> 00:54:56.621
You see what they did in Jerusalem?

00:54:56.621 --> 00:54:58.224
We've got seven guys over here

00:54:58.224 --> 00:55:01.251
who aren't yet exactly 
working just properly right.

00:55:01.251 --> 00:55:03.073
We need to put them in this position

00:55:03.073 --> 00:55:04.873
where they make sure that the widows

00:55:04.873 --> 00:55:06.203
are being fed over here.

00:55:06.203 --> 00:55:08.789
And once they were properly working

00:55:08.789 --> 00:55:11.088
up to their gift

00:55:11.088 --> 00:55:13.675
and the need in the church,

00:55:13.675 --> 00:55:19.299
then the thing was good.

NOTE Paragraph

00:55:19.299 --> 00:55:23.029
Let's be fair.

00:55:23.029 --> 00:55:25.524
The church came to the east side.

00:55:25.524 --> 00:55:28.746
It didn't go to the north side.

00:55:28.746 --> 00:55:34.814
Let's be fair in the 
evaluation of our ministries.

00:55:34.814 --> 00:55:37.422
Men of every ethnicity -

00:55:37.422 --> 00:55:39.791
not every nation in the world,

00:55:39.791 --> 00:55:41.181
but you think about the men

00:55:41.181 --> 00:55:43.552
who have stood in this 
pulpit and preached.

00:55:43.552 --> 00:55:45.193
It hasn't just been one color,

00:55:45.193 --> 00:55:47.846
one ethnicity.

00:55:47.846 --> 00:55:49.286
Think about our evangelism.

00:55:49.286 --> 00:55:51.025
Have we tried to each UTSA?

00:55:51.025 --> 00:55:52.528
Yes, we've tried to reach SAC.

00:55:52.528 --> 00:55:54.083
We actually have tried to reach

00:55:54.083 --> 00:55:57.044
every single college campus in the city.

00:55:57.044 --> 00:56:00.685
But we didn't bypass St. Phillips.

00:56:00.685 --> 00:56:03.035
When we've done nursing home ministries,

00:56:03.035 --> 00:56:05.723
we haven't gone up to Stone Oak

00:56:05.723 --> 00:56:09.570
or the Dominion.

00:56:09.570 --> 00:56:11.922
The vast majority of nursing home ministry

00:56:11.922 --> 00:56:13.879
that's been done out of this church

00:56:13.879 --> 00:56:16.345
has been right on Nolan Street.

00:56:16.345 --> 00:56:18.042
Anybody that's ever been there,

00:56:18.042 --> 00:56:23.486
they can tell you the ethnic 
makeup of that place.

NOTE Paragraph

00:56:23.486 --> 00:56:24.887
Do you know in our missions -

00:56:24.887 --> 00:56:27.156
the missionaries we've supported;

00:56:27.156 --> 00:56:28.860
the missionaries we've sent out -

00:56:28.860 --> 00:56:30.234
you're pretty hard pressed

00:56:30.234 --> 00:56:32.481
to find any kind of Caucasian people

00:56:32.481 --> 00:56:34.890
that we have sought to reach out to.

00:56:34.890 --> 00:56:36.570
There's been some perhaps.

00:56:36.570 --> 00:56:39.704
You've heard me talking more recently

00:56:39.704 --> 00:56:41.704
about Poland and Ireland.

00:56:41.704 --> 00:56:45.165
But that's after 17 years.

00:56:45.165 --> 00:56:47.096
Primarily our outreach has been what?

00:56:47.096 --> 00:56:49.496
Indians of India,

00:56:49.496 --> 00:56:54.801
The Nepalese of Nepal, or the Nepali,

00:56:54.801 --> 00:56:59.346
Mexicans, Nicaraguans,

00:56:59.346 --> 00:57:01.209
Indonesians;

00:57:01.209 --> 00:57:08.136
again Papua, Indonesians.

00:57:08.136 --> 00:57:11.634
To be fair, and I'm bringing that up

00:57:11.634 --> 00:57:15.133
because there have been comments made

00:57:15.133 --> 00:57:16.444
that have come to my ears

00:57:16.444 --> 00:57:18.607
about the fact that our church

00:57:18.607 --> 00:57:20.153
is not given sufficiently

00:57:20.153 --> 00:57:23.403
to certain social justice issues.

00:57:23.403 --> 00:57:28.235
Listen, you're not showing due justice

00:57:28.235 --> 00:57:30.463
to any race or ethnicity,

00:57:30.463 --> 00:57:33.635
unless you're willing to 
take the Gospel to them.

00:57:33.635 --> 00:57:36.688
And that has been the primary 
agenda of this church

00:57:36.688 --> 00:57:40.922
and will continue to 
be the primary agenda.

00:57:40.922 --> 00:57:43.818
The reality is our Grace Houses

00:57:43.818 --> 00:57:46.639
have housed Asians,

00:57:46.639 --> 00:57:50.296
Hispanic, black, and white.

00:57:50.296 --> 00:57:52.354
That's just a reality.

00:57:52.354 --> 00:57:57.194
The reality is that when 
we have had schools,

00:57:57.194 --> 00:57:59.622
children of different ethnicities

00:57:59.622 --> 00:58:00.981
have been in those schools.

00:58:00.981 --> 00:58:02.822
When we've had programs for helping

00:58:02.822 --> 00:58:04.950
husbandless mothers,

00:58:04.950 --> 00:58:07.003
that's primarily been blacks

00:58:07.003 --> 00:58:11.346
that have been helped.

00:58:11.346 --> 00:58:15.050
Brethren, here's the thing.

00:58:15.050 --> 00:58:18.186
This body, made up of all these

00:58:18.186 --> 00:58:20.587
different pieces and parts

00:58:20.587 --> 00:58:23.482
and different colors and ethnicities.

00:58:23.482 --> 00:58:25.705
It's not cookie cutter.

00:58:25.705 --> 00:58:27.141
God loves diversity.

00:58:27.141 --> 00:58:28.651
He loves to make us different.

00:58:28.651 --> 00:58:30.562
And you know what we should expect?

00:58:30.562 --> 00:58:32.118
Different people in the church

00:58:32.118 --> 00:58:34.376
are going to have different burdens?

00:58:34.376 --> 00:58:36.536
You know what my burden 
is for the new year?

00:58:36.536 --> 00:58:38.852
My burden is that the Word of God

00:58:38.852 --> 00:58:42.077
might have power in this church.

00:58:42.077 --> 00:58:43.637
I preach.

00:58:43.637 --> 00:58:45.345
I want that to happen.

00:58:45.345 --> 00:58:47.461
I desire God would use me in that.

00:58:47.461 --> 00:58:48.722
We start the APT.

00:58:48.722 --> 00:58:50.587
I desire that reality.

00:58:50.587 --> 00:58:52.443
I have a burden to see harmony

00:58:52.443 --> 00:58:54.143
over in Poland.

00:58:54.143 --> 00:58:56.196
I have a desire, yes, to see

00:58:56.196 --> 00:58:57.967
a church started over in Ireland.

00:58:57.967 --> 00:59:01.931
I desire to see Jinotega
protected and grow.

00:59:01.931 --> 00:59:05.253
I desire to see Monteray under Alberto

00:59:05.253 --> 00:59:08.146
really prosper. I desire that.

00:59:08.146 --> 00:59:10.999
I desire to see how God might use

00:59:10.999 --> 00:59:15.137
Diego and myself in Cuba or in Ecuador.

00:59:15.137 --> 00:59:17.056
I desire that. Those are my burdens.

00:59:17.056 --> 00:59:18.396
And you know what?

00:59:18.396 --> 00:59:22.176
You may have different burdens.

00:59:22.176 --> 00:59:23.792
And that's ok.

00:59:23.792 --> 00:59:26.841
And your burden does not 
have to be my burden.

00:59:26.841 --> 00:59:29.227
You say what about bearing 
one another's burdens?

00:59:29.227 --> 00:59:31.243
Well, yes, but you need to bear mine

00:59:31.243 --> 00:59:34.201
just as much as I need to bear yours.

00:59:34.201 --> 00:59:36.404
You see, the reality is

00:59:36.404 --> 00:59:38.303
that if you have a burden for something

00:59:38.303 --> 00:59:40.176
that you don't feel like our church is

00:59:40.176 --> 00:59:41.250
(incomplete thought).

00:59:41.250 --> 00:59:42.518
You know, I've noticed that

00:59:42.518 --> 00:59:44.258
there's basically two kinds of people.

00:59:44.258 --> 00:59:46.142
There are the people that come along

00:59:46.142 --> 00:59:49.005
and they see a need and they go after it.

00:59:49.005 --> 00:59:50.260
They say there's a need,

00:59:50.260 --> 00:59:51.735
and I can answer that.

00:59:51.735 --> 00:59:53.480
I love that.

00:59:53.480 --> 00:59:56.478
I remember like Alex Dufre, 
she comes into the church

00:59:56.478 --> 00:59:58.221
and she's got a burden for this,

00:59:58.221 --> 01:00:00.415
and let's start this women's Grace House.

01:00:00.415 --> 01:00:02.358
That's where James Jennings was.

01:00:02.358 --> 01:00:04.115
He comes to talk to me

01:00:04.115 --> 01:00:06.927
about a men's Grace House

01:00:06.927 --> 01:00:09.017
and I've already been praying about that.

01:00:09.017 --> 01:00:10.790
I saw the example of Keith Green,

01:00:10.790 --> 01:00:13.019
and I thought, Lord, we need to do that.

01:00:13.019 --> 01:00:14.231
And so I'm praying, Lord,

01:00:14.231 --> 01:00:15.753
give us a house;
give us a guy.

01:00:15.753 --> 01:00:16.996
And here comes James.

01:00:16.996 --> 01:00:19.041
You know, I've been burdened about this.

01:00:19.041 --> 01:00:21.001
Lay hold on the need.

01:00:21.001 --> 01:00:22.978
Then you have the second kind of people

01:00:22.978 --> 01:00:24.357
that come in and say,

01:00:24.357 --> 01:00:25.986
look what they're not doing

01:00:25.986 --> 01:00:28.517
and they want to find 
fault with everybody.

01:00:28.517 --> 01:00:29.650
Well, you know what,

01:00:29.650 --> 01:00:31.203
if you see that there's a need,

01:00:31.203 --> 01:00:33.849
don't expect that I need to be
burdened about the very same thing

01:00:33.849 --> 01:00:37.148
that you think there's such 
a dramatic need about.

01:00:37.148 --> 01:00:42.118
That's the diversity of the church.

NOTE Paragraph

01:00:42.118 --> 01:00:44.695
Brethren, we have a calling:

01:00:44.695 --> 01:00:48.449
The Great Commission.

01:00:48.449 --> 01:00:50.726
Let's take that Gospel out.

01:00:50.726 --> 01:00:52.968
We're on the eve of a new year.

01:00:52.968 --> 01:00:56.277
I'll tell you what turns 
the world upside down,

01:00:56.277 --> 01:00:57.686
what changes this world:

01:00:57.686 --> 01:01:00.365
it's preaching Christ.

01:01:00.365 --> 01:01:02.292
What turn the world upside down;

01:01:02.292 --> 01:01:03.820
what Satan fears:

01:01:03.820 --> 01:01:05.243
praying people,

01:01:05.243 --> 01:01:08.835
righteous people, holiness.

01:01:08.835 --> 01:01:10.615
You know what he fears?

01:01:10.615 --> 01:01:15.207
He fears holy, righteous, praying people

01:01:15.207 --> 01:01:16.882
who love one another

01:01:16.882 --> 01:01:18.137
and love the world enough

01:01:18.137 --> 01:01:19.717
to take the Gospel out to them.

01:01:19.717 --> 01:01:21.107
He fears that.

01:01:21.107 --> 01:01:23.523
Because that does turn 
the world upside down.

01:01:23.523 --> 01:01:25.367
People get saved when that happens.

01:01:25.367 --> 01:01:30.763
His kingdom is damaged when that happens.

01:01:30.763 --> 01:01:32.681
Brethren, I think, racial diversity

01:01:32.681 --> 01:01:34.651
in this church is something to fight for.

01:01:34.651 --> 01:01:35.931
I think it's a good thing.

01:01:35.931 --> 01:01:38.175
I think it's a testimony to the world.

01:01:38.175 --> 01:01:39.277
And you remember this:

01:01:39.277 --> 01:01:41.527
Jesus said they'll know that

01:01:41.527 --> 01:01:42.838
you're My disciples

01:01:42.838 --> 01:01:44.526
when you have love for one another.

01:01:44.526 --> 01:01:46.310
Do you know what that means?

01:01:46.310 --> 01:01:48.233
That means that Jesus really did expect

01:01:48.233 --> 01:01:50.511
the world to be watching us.

01:01:50.511 --> 01:01:52.578
Believe me, they're watching.

01:01:52.578 --> 01:01:53.912
Your lost family members,

01:01:53.912 --> 01:01:55.022
your lost friends,

01:01:55.022 --> 01:01:56.577
your lost co-workers,

01:01:56.577 --> 01:01:57.918
they're watching.

01:01:57.918 --> 01:02:03.113
The world is watching.

NOTE Paragraph

01:02:03.113 --> 01:02:04.858
Is this worth fighting for?

01:02:04.858 --> 01:02:06.645
To me, it is.

01:02:06.645 --> 01:02:12.413
To me, this construction,

01:02:12.413 --> 01:02:16.002
fitly framed together.

01:02:16.002 --> 01:02:18.267
Our truest identity:

01:02:18.267 --> 01:02:22.471
we are in the dwelling place of God.

01:02:22.471 --> 01:02:25.783
We are reconciled in one body

01:02:25.783 --> 01:02:27.569
through the cross.

01:02:27.569 --> 01:02:30.569
One new man in place of the two.

01:02:30.569 --> 01:02:33.779
I don't want a black church.
I don't want a white church.

01:02:33.779 --> 01:02:34.885
You know what I want?

01:02:34.885 --> 01:02:37.318
I want a new man church.

01:02:37.318 --> 01:02:38.968
That's what I desire.

01:02:38.968 --> 01:02:43.316
(incomplete thought)

NOTE Paragraph

01:02:43.316 --> 01:02:47.055
Have you ever noticed?

01:02:47.055 --> 01:02:50.473
You'll never see the same sunset twice.

01:02:50.473 --> 01:02:51.933
Ever.

01:02:51.933 --> 01:02:54.043
Now, you people that 
aren't from the north,

01:02:54.043 --> 01:02:55.655
you don't know this probably,

01:02:55.655 --> 01:02:58.396
unless you just heard it through 
the grapevine somewhere,

01:02:58.396 --> 01:03:00.281
there's never two snowflakes

01:03:00.281 --> 01:03:02.917
just exactly alike.

01:03:02.917 --> 01:03:04.325
They're always different.

01:03:04.325 --> 01:03:06.415
You think how different could they be?

01:03:06.415 --> 01:03:07.976
Oh, you just put your glove out

01:03:07.976 --> 01:03:09.262
and let them fall on there,

01:03:09.262 --> 01:03:11.101
and you begin to look at them.

01:03:11.101 --> 01:03:12.828
It's kind of like going out at night

01:03:12.828 --> 01:03:14.234
and looking up at the stars.

01:03:14.234 --> 01:03:16.370
Even Paul says there in 1 Corinthians 15

01:03:16.370 --> 01:03:19.286
no two stars have the same glory.

01:03:19.286 --> 01:03:22.064
There's a glory of this 
and a glory of that.

01:03:22.064 --> 01:03:24.206
It's the same way in the building together

01:03:24.206 --> 01:03:25.306
of the church.

01:03:25.306 --> 01:03:27.213
There's a glory about every one of us.

01:03:27.213 --> 01:03:29.137
There's a specific glory.

01:03:29.137 --> 01:03:33.446
There's a specific distinctness.

01:03:33.446 --> 01:03:38.774
And in all that variety and distinction,

01:03:38.774 --> 01:03:41.154
there's a unity.

01:03:41.154 --> 01:03:42.909
There's a oneness.

01:03:42.909 --> 01:03:47.460
One new man in place of the two.

01:03:47.460 --> 01:03:50.004
One body.

01:03:50.004 --> 01:03:52.177
One kingdom that we're citizens of.

01:03:52.177 --> 01:03:53.595
One family.

01:03:53.595 --> 01:03:56.321
One building.

01:03:56.321 --> 01:04:03.244
Fitly framed together.

01:04:03.244 --> 01:04:05.694
And I pull in that text from Philippians.

01:04:05.694 --> 01:04:07.626
Side by side

01:04:07.626 --> 01:04:11.852
for the sake of the Gospel.

NOTE Paragraph

01:04:11.852 --> 01:04:14.640
Look, I'll just tell you.

01:04:14.640 --> 01:04:17.074
I was here from day one.

01:04:17.074 --> 01:04:22.859
I was the first officer in the church.

01:04:22.859 --> 01:04:28.296
I think that God put a desire for this

01:04:28.296 --> 01:04:31.520
and a vision for this.

01:04:31.520 --> 01:04:34.835
It was a prayer that I have desired

01:04:34.835 --> 01:04:36.349
from the very beginning,

01:04:36.349 --> 01:04:37.899
that I think God to some degree

01:04:37.899 --> 01:04:39.651
has answered.

01:04:39.651 --> 01:04:42.007
I actually don't think it's naive

01:04:42.007 --> 01:04:44.972
to think that this should work

01:04:44.972 --> 01:04:48.266
here and now.

01:04:48.266 --> 01:04:52.027
And I hope that you will seek

01:04:52.027 --> 01:04:54.111
to fight for this

01:04:54.111 --> 01:04:57.718
as we go forward.

01:04:57.718 --> 01:04:59.826
Yeah, we're going to have problems.

01:04:59.826 --> 01:05:01.978
But we need to be thinking,

01:05:01.978 --> 01:05:04.378
how does love deal with this?

01:05:04.378 --> 01:05:08.032
For the sake of the Gospel,

01:05:08.032 --> 01:05:11.252
how do we move forward?

NOTE Paragraph

01:05:11.252 --> 01:05:15.758
Listen to me carefully.

01:05:15.758 --> 01:05:22.113
The world out there is full of racism.

01:05:22.113 --> 01:05:24.148
It's full of disharmony.

01:05:24.148 --> 01:05:26.917
It's full of hatred.

01:05:26.917 --> 01:05:29.114
And if you rub shoulders with it,

01:05:29.114 --> 01:05:33.041
and I was talking about this 
last week on the Internet -

01:05:33.041 --> 01:05:34.986
a lot of what purports itself

01:05:34.986 --> 01:05:37.140
to be Christian, is not Christian.

01:05:37.140 --> 01:05:39.471
It's ungodly. It's wicked.

01:05:39.471 --> 01:05:43.153
And it's divisive.

01:05:43.153 --> 01:05:46.290
And look, it's not going to work.

01:05:46.290 --> 01:05:48.464
If your greatest identity is being white;

01:05:48.464 --> 01:05:51.264
if your greatest identity 
is being Mexican;

01:05:51.264 --> 01:05:53.867
if your greatest identity is being black,

01:05:53.867 --> 01:05:57.739
before it is finding your 
identity in Christ,

01:05:57.739 --> 01:05:59.928
then you're going to have a problem.

01:05:59.928 --> 01:06:01.666
You're going to have a big problem.

01:06:01.666 --> 01:06:04.208
Brethren, this is an identity issue.

01:06:04.208 --> 01:06:06.353
Where is our identity

01:06:06.353 --> 01:06:09.364
at the deepest level?

01:06:09.364 --> 01:06:10.894
Identity.

01:06:10.894 --> 01:06:13.306
Brethren, I'm a Christian.

01:06:13.306 --> 01:06:15.584
If you're a Christian, you're my brother,

01:06:15.584 --> 01:06:17.657
you're my sister.

01:06:17.657 --> 01:06:21.393
We're being fitly framed together.

01:06:21.393 --> 01:06:23.688
If you lend an ear to the world,

01:06:23.688 --> 01:06:25.534
they will tell you this can't work.

01:06:25.534 --> 01:06:27.014
You ought to hate each other.

01:06:27.014 --> 01:06:30.431
You ought to stand up for your rights.

01:06:30.431 --> 01:06:34.270
That's not Jesus' message.

01:06:34.270 --> 01:06:37.891
That is not His message.

01:06:37.891 --> 01:06:42.702
So don't bring the world's trash in here

01:06:42.702 --> 01:06:44.936
in your minds, in your brains.

01:06:44.936 --> 01:06:46.878
Don't listen to it.

01:06:46.878 --> 01:06:47.883
You know what?

01:06:47.883 --> 01:06:50.374
Some people need to read their Bibles

01:06:50.374 --> 01:06:51.876
more than they need to listen

01:06:51.876 --> 01:06:58.579
to what's happening on Facebook.

NOTE Paragraph

01:06:58.579 --> 01:07:00.032
May God help us.

01:07:00.032 --> 01:07:06.484
Father, please, nothing 
starts ahead of You.

01:07:06.484 --> 01:07:08.883
Lord, I believe that any burden

01:07:08.883 --> 01:07:10.169
that was given to me

01:07:10.169 --> 01:07:11.784
and to the rest of the brethren

01:07:11.784 --> 01:07:13.565
back there 17 years ago -

01:07:13.565 --> 01:07:15.717
Lord, that was Your doing.

01:07:15.717 --> 01:07:22.059
The idea to try to be strategic

01:07:22.059 --> 01:07:23.981
in making this happen;

01:07:23.981 --> 01:07:26.703
to have a desire, to pray,

01:07:26.703 --> 01:07:30.027
Lord, it was because You burdened us.

01:07:30.027 --> 01:07:32.038
And Lord, when we prayed,

01:07:32.038 --> 01:07:36.095
we've seen answers to those prayers.

01:07:36.095 --> 01:07:40.035
Father, my prayer is that

01:07:40.035 --> 01:07:47.621
as we move forward,

01:07:47.621 --> 01:07:49.221
Lord, I pray that there would be

01:07:49.221 --> 01:07:51.714
such an ethnic makeup of this church

01:07:51.714 --> 01:07:54.407
as would indeed show

01:07:54.407 --> 01:07:57.545
the power of God, the power of the cross,

01:07:57.545 --> 01:08:01.099
the power of regeneration.

01:08:01.099 --> 01:08:02.780
Lord, may we see the beauty

01:08:02.780 --> 01:08:06.105
of this fitly framed together

01:08:06.105 --> 01:08:08.837
work out right in our own midst.

01:08:08.837 --> 01:08:10.791
And I pray, Lord,

01:08:10.791 --> 01:08:13.961
I pray that You would raise up laborers

01:08:13.961 --> 01:08:17.253
to lead this church

01:08:17.253 --> 01:08:20.872
who are Hispanic

01:08:20.872 --> 01:08:23.454
and black and white,

01:08:23.454 --> 01:08:26.363
Lord, give us a variety

01:08:26.363 --> 01:08:28.965
in the leadership level,

01:08:28.965 --> 01:08:31.389
in elders, in deacons, in missionaries,

01:08:31.389 --> 01:08:33.054
in evangelists.

01:08:33.054 --> 01:08:41.437
Lord, I pray, bring us depth.

01:08:41.437 --> 01:08:45.300
Lord, we see that the real agenda

01:08:45.300 --> 01:08:49.286
is that we all attain to the full measure

01:08:49.286 --> 01:08:51.892
of the stature of Christ

01:08:51.892 --> 01:08:54.022
and we're all being united together

01:08:54.022 --> 01:08:56.357
in the same faith

01:08:56.357 --> 01:08:58.189
and the same doctrine

01:08:58.189 --> 01:08:59.465
and the same knowledge

01:08:59.465 --> 01:09:00.745
of the Son of God,

01:09:00.745 --> 01:09:02.668
and I pray Lord, that that would happen,

01:09:02.668 --> 01:09:05.029
and that it would be 
a reality in this church.

01:09:05.029 --> 01:09:06.680
Every piece.

01:09:06.680 --> 01:09:10.235
Every part

01:09:10.235 --> 01:09:15.422
working as it should

01:09:15.422 --> 01:09:19.493
when every piece and every part

01:09:19.493 --> 01:09:22.075
is working properly.

01:09:22.075 --> 01:09:24.167
It makes the body to grow

01:09:24.167 --> 01:09:26.991
so that it builds itself up in love.

01:09:26.991 --> 01:09:34.458
Lord, may that rule the day.

01:09:34.458 --> 01:09:36.309
I pray in Christ's name,

01:09:36.309 --> 01:09:37.174
Amen.