Reconciliation: The Implications Of The Gospel

Today we have a very special guest, Josh Clemens.

Um, Josh, if you want to go ahead and make your way up, I don't know where Josh, where's Josh?

There he is, front and center.

Uh Josh is a friend of mine.

Josh is one of the leaders of this movement called One Race.

He's one of the people that helped get it off the ground.

And he's gonna speak with us this morning.

And so, Josh, we are grateful to have you and just tell us whatever whatever God told you to tell us, all right?

Such a warm welcome.

Thank you guys for having me.

Thank you, Justin.

You know, we're over here commenting to each other.

We're going, okay, we like this place.

We like these people.

These folks know how to worship.

You guys got excited about baptisms.

I'm gonna tell you that's something supernatural.

We just watch people be raised to life in Christ.

Amen.

There's something powerful about that.

And so I'm thrilled to be here with you guys this morning.

I'm even more thrilled to have friends on this part of the city who are partnering with us and believing God to break into this city with a reconciliation and revival movement that we'll see reach all throughout this region.

Amen.

Glad to be here.

Now, I need to give you guys just a forewarning here.

I am I am black.

This beard is not for show.

I didn't paste this on this morning.

I went to bed black last night, I woke up black this morning, I was black last year, I'm black next year, okay?

So I'm gonna tell you, we're gonna practice real quick.

Now, I come from black church, and you got to talk back to me as I preach because if you don't talk back to me, I might just have to wait on you.

So if it gets real good to you, I need you to say, Amen.

Can you can we practice that right now?

Amen.

And if it gets real good, you just go ahead and wave your hand and say, Ciao?

That's where we are.

That's where we are.

It's good.

Ciao.

Amen.

Well, before we get started, I want to introduce to you guys my family.

Uh, if we could get that up on the screen there.

This is my life right there.

That's my wonderful wife Lakeisha and my son Langston.

He turned one last week or a couple weeks ago, and he's walking around the house and he's following me around.

And I just love it.

And that's my wife Lakeisha.

We've been married for almost eight years, and she's still fine, y'all.

That's the baddest chocolate woman on the planet.

And I love me some her, and I hope she isn't too embarrassed right now.

Maybe I hope she is embarrassed.

That's probably the secret there.

Um, but as we said earlier, I'm a part of this amazing organization called One Race.

I remember One Race.

I remember my first conversation about One Race with my buddy Hazen.

You know, he began to share with me a vision that Billy Humphrey, who pastors at the International House of Prayer, began to share about concerning the city needing to move forward in reconciliation.

Now, we're in the South, and you know what?

This is the heartbeat of all of the racial tension that's existed in this country.

And so when we began to talk about it, this is about 2016, right?

We began to have conversations about this back then and to see how it's evolved today.

Now, the vision of this back when I came aboard in October 2017, officially, like I'm on paid staff officially.

At that point, I was a volunteer before that.

Um, we started with one pastor group.

So let me just tell you what we do here, and then I'm gonna get into my message because I really have a word for us.

What we do around the city is we have pastor groups.

We started with one in October, all right?

This is where senior pastors come together to pray into reconciliation.

Because as Justin said earlier, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they are mighty through God for the pulling down of strongholds.

You know, we watch CNN and we watch Fox News and we watch whatever you want to watch, and you find all of these racially charged things out there, but understand that what you're seeing is being influenced by what you're not seeing.

That's the problem.

That's where our fight is.

Our fight is not against Fox News, our fight is not against CNN, our fight is against the evil one, the Lord of the Air.

And that principality that wants to keep his people divided.

That's where the battle really lies.

And so we begin to have pastors come together to impact, to charge forward uh with the mission of reconciling the church and bringing about a unity movement.

And so we started with one group in October 2017.

I can stand here today and tell you we have more than 200 churches connected to this initiative throughout the city.

We've got 17, we've started 17 groups throughout the city of Atlanta where pastors are coming together and leaning into the issue.

If we ignore it, guys, it's only gonna get worse.

We can't ignore this thing away.

Everywhere you turn, you can turn on your TV right now and you can act spiritually if you want to, but child, I'm gonna tell you, it ain't going nowhere.

It's not.

We can't ignore it.

The best thing that we can do as believers is begin to partner with heaven and say what the Father says about people and about how we should live.

And so that's what these pastors have been doing since October 2017.

Additionally, these different groups, so Pastor Justin is a part of a group that meets out here or over in Ackworth, should I say, and they meet once a month, they come together and do all of these different things, and then ultimately they're gonna bring their church together, their churches together, to have a prayer meeting because it it means something that the pastors get together and pray about this thing, but it also means something that the people get to add their amen to what God is at work doing.

And so we've done north of 25 prayer meetings throughout the city of Atlanta.

We've had some with the upward of 1,500 folks, and we've had some prayer meetings with 100 folks in them.

And we've gathered people throughout this region for the cause of reconciliation and revival.

And so it's a powerful movement that's taking place here.

Uh I want to invite you guys out to a prayer meeting that'll take place here in Ackworth next Sunday evening, the 22nd, over at Victory Church Ackworth.

Pastor Jeff Hidden over there is a big friend of this thing.

If you have a heart for this kind of a conversation, if you have a heart to see the body of Christ reconciled, I just want to invite you out to be a part of that next Sunday at 6 p.m.

over there at Victory Church Ackworth.

And so all of these people, all these different groups are bringing the churches together for prayer meetings like this one.

And then ultimately, we're gonna bring the Church of Atlanta together on August 25th.

All right, zero in right here.

On August 25th, where we're gonna have an all-day worship and prayer gathering around the cause of racism and dead religion falling and a movement of reconciliation and revival rising.

All right.

Now let me give you a little history about Stone Mountain.

You're gonna cheer here in just a moment.

The history of Stone Mountain, if you're in Atlanton, you probably know it, but back in 1915, okay?

Back in 1915, a Methodist episcopal minister and a crew of guys went to the top of Snow Mountain and reignited the KKK there.

Yeah, right there in the heart of our city was reignited.

The first time that a cross had ever been burned publicly was on top of Snow Mountain, right in the heart of the city.

And then you fast forward to 1963, where you've got um you've got Dr.

King shouting, let freedom ring from the top of Snow Mountain in Georgia.

The truth is that Dr.

King knew about the racial tension around that mountain.

That the that that those guys had access to the top of the mountain for years, unfettered access to the top of the mountain.

And I believe that the that what we're seeing, stemming back to 1915, is the manifestation of what we have today.

It's the wound that exists here in the country.

It's the wound that exists between the people and the different races that exist here in this region.

We point to 1915 and we say, that's the wound, that's the ancient wound that needs to be healed here in this nation, that the church might come together and be one.

And so we're calling the church together around the place of wounding, and we're asking the Father to break in and heal our land.

And so the 200 plus pastors, we're gonna get to Stone Mountain on August 25th.

We're gonna kick the day off on top of Stone Mountain with those pastors alongside a few thousand millennials.

And if you're a young person in the room, we want you, okay?

As a part of this day, we're putting two or three thousand young people on top of Stone Mountain, right?

And we're gonna have the pastors get up there and covenant together that the curse over the land, that the curse of racism would be broken and that reconciliation would arise here in this region.

But it's not just enough to do that because the next generation matters.

They're gonna empower and bless the next generation to charge this mission forward.

And so we want you to be there.

We anticipate uh anywhere from 20 to 30,000 people to join us there on the line at Stone Mountain, and we want you guys to be a part of that.

And so thank you so much for partnering with us and for giving to us financially, but we want you to be a part of that, amen.

I believe that Jesus gave authority to his bride, the church, his ekklesia.

He says that all authority to bind and to loose has been given to you, and we're gonna exercise that authority on August 25th, amen.

Amen.

All right, so with that being said, I want to kick this thing off.

I want to chat just a little bit here with the time remaining.

All right, I just want to make sure that I didn't miss anything.

With the time remaining, and we've got, I'm gonna share a story, and then I'm gonna get right into Ephesians chapter two and share with you guys just a little bit from there because I believe it gives us the framework for how we are to proceed.

The first thing that I want to tell you is that is a story, actually.

It's an embarrassing story, but it's a good story.

I believe here in this story, it tells us where we are as a people, and it will help us to it'll help me to communicate to you where we must go.

You know, here at the top of the summer, my wife and I, bad to the bone woman on this front row.

You know, I I call myself saving money at the top of the season, right?

I'm gonna save money and I'm gonna treat the lawn myself.

I like a good lawn.

I've been paying, you know, 60, 70 bucks a month to have the weeds treated to keep them out, but I'm saving money this year, honey.

We I'm gonna save you some money so I can take you out on a date or something, you know what I'm saying?

And and well, it it all was good.

You know, I started the thing off, and you know, I'm treating it, the weeds are dying, the grass is turning green, you know, and I bought the chemicals and did all these things.

But April rolls around and I noticed that there were more weeds in my in my yard.

So I run out with Langston to the store quickly, and I grabbed some chemical to put on my lawn and I sprayed it, and this time I liberally put it on there.

I put it on there, you know.

If a little bit is good, then a lot's gotta be great, right?

That's that's the man philosophy.

You know, it's you know, it's the same as cologne.

If a little is good, a lot is great.

Um, and so I I liberally put it on the lawn.

And about a week later, I started noticing the lawn turned neon green, and I said, Oh, snap, we got something going here.

And then it turned yellow, and I was kind of scratching my head.

I said, Oh, oh.

And Lakeisha's like, Josh, what is going on?

I said, baby, be calm.

It's gonna be okay, it's gonna be okay.

Well, a week later the thing turned brown.

Well, and then about the time it turned brown, I said, you know, I should probably look into see what I put on this lawn.

Well, lo and behold, I put a weed and grass killer on my lawn.

This is April.

I've got a neighbor to my right, her yard, you know, it gets awards and all kinds of stuff.

It's beautiful.

My lawn is brown.

This is a sad day at the Clemens household, and Lakeisha's like, what bonehead thing have you done to my lawn?

And I was like, baby, I was trying to make you proud.

Well, you didn't, so she wasn't that mean.

Maybe she was, but I won't tell the truth here.

Um, but Milan turned brown, it died.

It looked like it had died anyway.

And so I called someone out to check on it.

The lawn people, the lawn care guys, they're like, Mr.

Clemens, how's it going?

This this looks great.

I was like, Yeah, you jerk.

Um anyway, and so so he he begins to assess it and to look at it.

And he said, You know, Mr.

Clemens, this is bad.

This is this is this is bad.

This is bad.

You know what?

It might be, and this is the statement that he said to me.

He said, you know, that lawn might be damaged, it might be devastated at the moment, but it's not hopeless.

I believe race relations in the church, race relations in America, it looks bad.

It seems damaged, it seems devastated, but it is not hopeless.

It's not hopeless.

And we have to begin to lean into the fact that it's not hopeless, that we have authority through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And you know what the gospel is light, you know, it's the good news.

So in dark situations, it goes in and it penetrates the darkness and it illuminates and casts the darkness off that we could see a path ahead.

And through the gospel, we have a path ahead, folks.

We are not lost.

It might seem damaged, it might seem devastated, but we have a hope in Christ.

Amen.

We have a hope in Christ.

We can look at a bleak situation, and we can have faith because Christ has given us a way forward.

Now I need to mention this here because we've got some real material problems here in America, in the church and in America concerning race.

You know, you think 400 years of history this country has, and you think about black people being enslaved for 250 of those years, okay?

And I'm talking black and white today, and please understand that I am not ignorant of there are other races represented in the room.

I am not ignorant of the tensions among other races, but the two dominant groups here in America, and the place we have the most marring, is between black and white relations, okay?

So that's why I'm zeroing in on that one, just to be clear on it.

But 250 years of slavery, and then the Emancipation Proclamation breaks out, right?

And then there is a hundred years of freedom.

No, no, no, it's not freedom.

A hundred years of Jim Crow of separate but equal, right?

Whatever that means.

No one can explain what exactly separate but equal means, and that's a rant for another day.

Separate but equal, where black people had to enter through the back door, where where where there were laws on the books that kept us separate.

And then you get around to the civil rights era where there are equal rights distributed, right?

Said to be anyway, and we've done some laws and some adjusting to make that possible, and we've lived under this era for about 50 years.

And there are so many people that want to say, you know, why why I don't understand why we have to keep having this conversation.

Civil rights have been given.

I don't understand why we have to keep on this trajectory and have these kind of conversations around race.

We we we've got equal rights.

You have access to everything that I have access to.

Beloved, our country is damaged and devastated by these 400 years.

You know, it took a gradual process for me to get my lawn back together at my house.

You know, it's only about 75% of the way green at this point.

Amen.

Hallelujah for breakthrough.

75%, and I've been at this for about three or four months.

Imagine years, 400 years of history, of ill-race relations.

How many years is it gonna take for us to walk this thing back that we could be one?

That that the news cycle isn't dominated with racially charged things.

Where, and and let me just say this the black and the white church exist in America primarily as an outgrowth of slavery.

We've seen these AME churches, right?

These African Methodist Episcopal churches, well, it's the first African uh uh denomination here in America, and the reason why we have that is because slaves weren't allowed in white churches.

You can go right down to Savannah and you'll find these churches, they exist there.

The reason why there's a black and a white church is a direct cause and effect of racism.

Guys, we're damaged.

We might look devastated, but we are not hopeless.

And I want to talk to us about our way forward here.

Though we have issues, and they are material issues, and let me say this too: we've got issues today.

This is not a done thing.

You know, we might be able to sit in a room together and be diversified, but there are real problems that affect people of color today, and that's that's class 201.

We're gonna keep it 101 today, all right?

Our the the common denominator here is not that we agree on all things, but that we approach this thing in love, right?

And so if it affects me, it should affect you.

And so we need the collective support of the body of Christ.

We need the collective support of all Americans, of all people on issues concerning race.

Damaged, but not devastated, damaged and devastated, but not hopeless.

I want to start with sin.

Sin is the root cause of everything that we see.

We can't pretend that sin is not the factor here, right?

When we get to the garden, it's self-exaltation, it's the idea that we know more, it's pride, it's all of these things because that's what racism is, right?

Racism is this idea that, well, let me just read you the definition.

It's the disparaging of a person or people group based on the belief that one group is superior.

And I like to say it's self-worship, right?

It's the idea that I'm greater, that I'm better than you are.

And if I were gonna go one step further on this definition, it is systems that affect and oppress different people, people that are different than the dominant group.

Okay?

Another time, another, another conversation that we will have.

But the disparaging of a person or people group based on the belief that one group is superior.

That's what racism is.

And so if we dial back to the garden, what do we see take place in the garden?

We want to be like God.

Though he's told us not to eat of this tree, or you'll surely die.

Right?

You don't need this knowledge, is what God was saying, but man in his great wisdom, kind of like how I mess my yard up, right?

Great wisdom, you know.

Um, we ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and suddenly sin has entered the world.

This is what racism is at its core.

It is the idea that that my I am worth more or I am greater than you are.

And you know what the truth is?

Is that God has made all people in his image and in his likeness.

The Imago Dei rests on the face of every woman and man, every boy and girl.

He has breathed his life, his spirit, into all people.

And so that's a fallacy from the get-go.

We were made equal.

There isn't one person that's ever existed that didn't bear the very image, the very likeness of God.

We all have that.

And so sin comes in and it seeks to divide, it seeks to, it seeks to separate, it seeks to know more, it seeks to be more.

The next problem that we encounter in the church specifically is one, the church has been historically silent on these issues, and then two, we have an incomplete or a misunderstanding of the implications of the gospel.

A misunderstanding of the implications of the gospel.

You know, it's a beautiful thing that we had baptisms today because I can point to this.

When you say yes to Christ, you are new, you were made brand new because of what Jesus did on Calvary for you.

Right?

Jesus comes into the world to pay the price for sin so that we don't have to die at the end of the age.

It's a glorious reality, it's a glorious miracle.

We are now alive in Christ and we have the promise of eternity forever.

That's the gospel.

But you know what also is the gospel?

That Jesus has destroyed the dividing wall of hostility, that we could be one new humanity.

Go with me over to Ephesians chapter 2.

Ephesians 2 · chapter mention

Let's just go ahead and have that conversation.

I'm just going to skip through my notes here.

I think we're going to be all right.

I think y'all are with me today, so it's good.

Ephesians chapter 2, verse 13.

Ephesians 2:13

We're going to pick up there.

Now, let me just give you a little bit of rundown on Ephesians.

I know you guys are talking about Ephesians here at the church, and I'm kind of giving a tee up to Pastor Justin's next message here.

Ephesians chapter 1 starts off with uh starts off with a poem, a prose of sorts, where it talks about the role of the Father in salvation.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

It talks about the role of the Holy Spirit in salvation.

It talks about the role of Jesus in salvation.

Right?

Ephesians chapter 1, that He has guaranteed that He's put the down payment on us to secure us until that day when Christ returns, is what that story or what Ephesians 1 culminates with.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

And then you jump over to Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10 are all about salvation.

Ephesians 2:1–10

The first three verses there.

It breaks out and it talks about the fallenness of man, that we've been given over to depravity, that we are broken people, that sin entered the world, right?

It's so appropriate for us to talk about sin there, right?

Because sin is the crux issue when we're talking about race relations.

Sin is the problem.

But thanks be to God, right?

Is where it goes.

But God, who is rich in mercy, has given us new life in Christ.

It is by grace that you have been saved.

That's Ephesians chapter 1, or Ephesians chapter 2, verses 1 through 10.

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention Ephesians 2:1–10

And then we begin to have a conversation in verse 11.

And it's Jew and Gentile.

How many of you guys know that racism existed in Scripture?

The woman at the well, the good Samaritan?

You know, someone said to me the other day, it is no wonder that the Jews wanted to hang Jesus.

They wanted to off him.

He's in their meetings and he's sitting with sinners.

Every time he tells them a story, he makes their enemies the person that they despise.

He makes them the victor.

He makes them the triumphant one in the story.

Right?

We find this replete throughout.

And then after the inception of the church, we find in Acts chapter 6 that there's a disparity happening between the Greek and the Hebrew widows, right?

Acts 6 · chapter mention

And this is where we get this office of deacon.

Okay?

So we've got a history here of cultural, ethnic, race, divide in Scripture.

And we have to begin to approach it the way that Scripture tells us to.

And I could point to a number of different stories.

We could point to Acts chapter 10 with the coming down of the unclean animals.

Acts 10 · chapter mention

We could point to Paul having to oppose Peter to his face in Galatians.

We could have a number of conversations about race directly from Scripture because it's there.

It's there.

But you know what?

The gospel gives us a solution.

So picking up in verse 11 there, let me explain something to you.

So you've got Jew and Gentile.

The Jews are God's chosen people, and these Gentiles are just unclean.

Right?

And so the Jews despise the Gentiles, and the Gentiles despised the Jews.

They were at odds with one another continually.

If you read through Paul's letters, most of them refer or have a reference to the Jew and Gentile relations there because it's so marred, it's so broken.

It's a historic division there.

And he begins to admonish them and to teach them about the work of the cross because we've just talked about salvation, and the gospel has reaches into our human relations.

It has reaches into how we relate one to another.

So let's pick up in verse 13.

Now that we've teed this thing up right.

But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

And this is speaking about the Jew at this point, because the Gentiles have always had a claim to salvation.

And now, because of the provision of the gospel, the Jews can now be saved because of the blood of Christ.

And I could give you some other.

I am a professor, by the way.

So every so often I get a little tangled up, and I want to tell you everything because it's my teaching gift, but I'm going to stop right there.

I could tell you all about that, but we're going to leave that alone.

Verse 14, for he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.

The dividing wall of hostility.

Now I need you to get this in your mind's eye that if we're at the temple, and this is what he's drawing on here, it's a temple motif.

There was a wall that would divide the Jews in the outer court that would divide the Jews and the Gentiles, because the Jews didn't want to be anywhere near these unclean people.

And then there was another court, and the women were allowed to be in that court, but only Jewish men were allowed in the inner court.

And so this wall of hostility that exists here kind of speaks about the division that exists culturally in their day.

It speaks to you were segmented over here, you were segmented over here.

It kind of looks a little bit like Jim Crow, if you're really wanting me to be honest about it.

That wall of hostility, what Paul is saying, the one that has separated women, the one that has separated Gentiles, the one that has separated the Jews, it has been destroyed because of the blood of Jesus.

That wall of hostility is no more.

It is no more.

Verse 14, for he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of the commandments expressed in ordinances that he might create in himself one new man where there have been two.

You know why?

Because division and hatred and those things that divide us are sin.

And Jesus made provision for us to be one through his blood and the cross, that the thing that divides us, the thing, uh the hostility that keeps us apart, might be destroyed, that we could be one.

And he goes one step further.

He wants there to be a supernatural working here, that there might be a new humanity, one new man where there have been two.

That's what he's calling for.

That's what the gospel is calling for.

And so when I say that we've been preaching an incomplete gospel, I understand that this is not the gospel.

Please don't hear me say that.

But we need to understand that there are implications of the gospel, which is the title of my message, by the way.

There are implications of the gospel.

It calls us to lay down the past.

It causes us to put down white guilt.

It causes us to put down collective shame.

It causes us to put down black pain, and it calls us to be one.

It calls us to be one.

John 17.

I would, and this is one of Jesus' priestly prayers, and it's effective today.

He's praying for all generation of people.

I want you to be one as me and the Father are one.

Jesus wants us to be one.

Let's fast forward to the end of the book, shall we?

Let's talk about the throne room of God, Revelation chapter 7, where at the throne of God there would be all tongues, all languages, all people group, all singing praise and glory to his name.

Revelation 7 · chapter mention

He would that all people would be saved, that the whosoever would say yes to Jesus would be in the family, and that we would be one.

You know, when I went to the altar and married my bride Lakeisha, it would have been an odd thing if she would have came up there and there would have been like three of her.

This is this is my black keisha, this is my white keisha, this is my Hispanic Keisha.

Hola Keisha.

It's weird.

I know it's weird.

It's weird.

It's weird.

It it would have been weird.

It would have been kind of cool because then I'd have been like, yo, senorita.

But it's weird to think that I don't want to come to the altar for a divided bride.

But we have divisions that exist in the church continually.

I wanted the affection of one woman.

I chased her down from the time I was 15 until we were 21.

It's like Steve Urkel said, I'm wearing you down, baby.

Wearing you down.

And on that day, I wasn't, I'm not gonna have a divided bride.

Just ain't gonna do it.

You ain't gonna give me half of you, you ain't gonna give me a third of you, you gonna give me all of you, child, because I want it all.

It's the same with Jesus.

He wants one bride.

One bride.

He wants one bride.

We need to get a revelation of this.

He wants one bride.

He doesn't want a black church, he doesn't want no white church.

Black church too loud, white church too soft.

He don't want that.

I like loud black church.

Come on, hallelujah in the room.

He wants one church, he wants us together with the flavoring of heaven, our our collective sound, our collective view.

He doesn't want to divide it bright, he wants one.

That's what he's calling for.

That's what he's calling for.

And so I'm gonna leave you with this because I didn't even get close to through my notes here, but it's cool.

We in here.

Let's talk about reconciliation just for a moment, okay?

I've got a short definition and I want you to get it.

And then I want to pray for us.

Alright?

Reconciliation because of the gospel.

What does it mean?

It means that we are uniting with Christ.

These folks who've been baptized have been united with Christ.

They've said yes to him.

And because you're in this room today, I'm gonna assume that most of you have said yes to Christ.

We've been united with Christ, plus intentionally uniting with each other.

Plus, intentionally uniting with each other.

Now, this is the how, this is the practical piece of it.

How do we move forward in this conversation of reconciliation?

It's intentionally uniting with each other.

Right?

You know, I've got I've got white friends, Hazen, who is my partner and doing all of this.

Um, he's a white brother, grew up at Love It High School$30 something, thousand dollars a year.

I always give him a hard time about being richy rich.

And um he grew up in a very different way of life than I grew up with.

Right?

I come from the hood.

I tell you some stories, all right.

Um very different way of life, and the work of reconciliation between us is that we get in there and we talk about the differences and we don't always agree.

We don't always agree, but we agree that we love each other, we agree that Christ is the central point, we agree around the gospel, we agree on those things.

That's what we agree on, and we let the tangential peripheral things fall by the wayside.

We've got to stop swapping the word out love with agreement, because it doesn't work.

It doesn't work, it never does.

The premium for love can't be agreement.

It's love.

It's love.

And then finally, as the part of that reconciliation piece, if you could put that back up there.

The reconciliation slide definition.

It's uniting with Christ, intentionally uniting with each other, and then finally persevering through it.

We've got to be people that are fixed on being one, that we're gonna represent the bride.

Let me challenge you with this, and why don't you guys stand up on your feet?

When was the last time you had someone that looks different than you come sit and put their feet under your table?

When was the last time that you had someone who has a different political view than you put their feet under your table?

When was the last time you went and sat under, sat at someone else's table?

This is low-hanging fruit.

This is the easy part right here.

When was the last time that's happened?

If it's been a while, if you can't think about it, then baby, you've got the work of reconciliation to do.

It's time to engage culture, it's time to engage people who look different than we do.

And that's one way that we can do it.

Let me pray.

Heavenly Father, your word is your word, and we take you at it.

The gospel makes provision for us to be one, and we trust you for that oneness.

We trust you for that new humanity.

Lord, there's a lot of pain in this country as it relates to race.

There are a lot of real material problems as it relates to race.

Institutional and systemic issues are prevalent in this day.

We don't deny that.

We don't deny that the church meets at the 11 o'clock hour and it's the most divided time in the nation.

We don't deny that.

But Lord, what we're asking you is for your help.

It's for your help so that we can manifest that one new humanity that you desire.

That one bride that you're returning for, that you would have worship on earth as it is in heaven, that you would have worship on earth as it is in heaven.

So, Father, I ask that you would break the back of racism in our day, break the back of classism in our day, break the back of every construct that keeps us separated.

Break it in Jesus' name.

You make provision for that breaking and that destroying when you broke it down in your flesh on Calvary.

And Lord, we want to be one as you and the Father are one.

We want to live out our unity.

And so, Father, I just ask right now, touch your people here in this room and begin to minister to them.

Those hurt places, those broken places, those places of hate, those places of racism, those places of bias, and whatever else it might be in their heart, the place of indifference.

Help us, God, that we would lean in and love each other well.

It's in the matchless name of Jesus I pray.

Amen.