November 9, 2025 • 56 mins
What if the deepest divides in your world aren’t political or cultural, but spiritual—and what if they’re already defeated? In Built Together, part of the In Christ series, Mark Medley walks through Ephesians 2:13–22 to show how the gospel doesn’t just reconcile us to God; it kills the hostility between us. He traces Paul’s two-word pivot—“but now”—from the bleak reality of alienation to the bright certainty of peace in Christ. From a literal stone barrier in the Jerusalem temple to the stony barriers in our hearts, Mark reveals how pride, law-keeping, and long habits of suspicion separated Jews and Gentiles—and how the cross fulfilled the law, tore down the wall, and created one new humanity.
Mark makes the theology tangible. He describes the Temple inscription that warned outsiders under threat of death and then points to the deeper boundary of the “law of commandments” that became a badge of superiority. Against that backdrop, he declares Paul’s good news: Jesus himself is our peace. By his shed blood we’re brought near to God; by his broken body we are made one. Communion becomes more than a ritual; it’s common union, a table where the ground is level and no one stands taller than grace. With Christ as the cornerstone, the church rises as a living temple—fellow citizens, members of God’s household, being fitted together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.
He also names today’s termites—prejudice hiding in polite language, curated feeds that inflame contempt, snap judgments we baptize as wisdom. Laws and force can’t fix what is wrong in us; we need new hearts. Mark calls us to be born again into a different way of seeing, to invite the Spirit to search and free us. He offers practical steps for clearing the ground in our hearts: remember who you were and who you are now in Christ; confess prejudice as sin; starve the inputs that reward outrage; sit at diverse tables and listen long enough to love; honor the image of God in those you’ve counted as opponents; speak peace where your world trades in poison.
Unity isn’t a slogan. It’s a miracle secured at Calvary and stewarded with humility, repentance, and hope. If you’re hungry for a wider table and a stronger foundation, Mark’s message will help you live as a citizen of a kingdom that overrules every wall. Share it with someone who needs the courage to make peace.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Mark Medley (00:02):
I am really, really happy to open the word of the
Lord with you this morningbecause Jesus has done great
things in my life.
And I know that a lot of you,He's done great things in your
life too.
And one thing I know is thatthere's always more to Jesus.
There's always more than moreof who he is that I don't know
(00:23):
yet, more of what he's done thatI haven't become aware of yet.
And that's what happened thisweek as I'm studying this in
Ephesians 2.
So if you want to turn there,Ephesians chapter 2, 13 through
22.
Let's look and see what Jesusdid, okay?
But now, in Christ Jesus, youwho once were far off have been
(00:47):
brought near by the blood ofChrist.
For he himself is our peace,who has made us both one and
broken down in his flesh, thedividing wall of hostility, by
abolishing the law ofcommandments expressed in
ordinances, that he might createin himself one new man in place
(01:08):
of the two, so making peace andmight reconcile us both to God
in one body through the cross,thereby killing the hostility.
And he came and preached peaceto you who were afar off, and
peace to those who were near.
Through him we both have accessin one spirit to the Father.
(01:33):
So then you're no longerstrangers and aliens, but you
are fellow citizens with thesaints and members of the
household of God built on thefoundation of the apostles and
prophets, Christ Jesus Himselfbeing the cornerstone, in whom
the whole structure, beingjoined together, grows into a
(01:53):
holy temple in the Lord.
In him, you also are beingbuilt together into a dwelling
place for God by the Spirit.
Father, thank you for yourword.
We treasure it this morning.
We thank you that you're a Godwho speaks and you don't leave
(02:14):
us without knowing what to do orwithout revelation of yourself,
but you disclose yourselfthrough your scriptures.
And so this morning, Lord, wepray, show us more of who Jesus
is, more of what Jesus has done.
Lord, let your word divide theparts of our heart that it needs
(02:35):
to.
Soul and spirit, joints andmarrow, thoughts and intentions
of our hearts, Lord.
Come and do your work, we pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
So we're making our way throughPaul's letter to the church at
Ephesus and been doing it forquite a few weeks now.
And we're at this section wherePaul is reminding them that
(02:56):
they aren't who they were.
At one time you were this, butnow you are this.
And it starts out, this passagestarts out, but now, but now,
in Christ Jesus.
There's a difference that'sbeen made here.
And this is the good news ofthe gospel.
This is what was preceded bythe bad news of the fall of man.
(03:17):
So you understand God createdman in his image.
He made us able to fellowshipwith him, able to walk with him,
to hear his voice, to communewith him.
And sin changed all that.
So we were one thing, and thenbecause of sin, we're not what
(03:37):
we were.
Sin changed everything.
It affected our relationshipwith God.
We were friends and now we'reenemies.
We were near, now we'reseparated from God.
It even changed ourrelationship with other people
too.
Because it broke, it built thiswall between us and other
people.
(03:57):
This is what Paul's talkingabout here.
So we focus on ourselves andtherefore we're not able to play
well together.
We don't love very well.
And there's these jealousies,and there are these
insecurities.
So there's factions and there'srejection and there's war and
(04:20):
all of this.
And sin brought physical death,which never was part of the
plan.
And sin brought physical death,spiritual death, which was not
part of the plan either.
That separation from God.
And if you come to physicaldeath, being spiritually dead,
it means there's an eternaldeath.
It's the opposite of eternallife.
(04:41):
There's eternal separation fromGod.
We aren't who we were, who wewere when God created us.
But then Paul is saying, here,okay, that's who you were.
God created us this way.
We fell.
We aren't who we were.
But then we became this becauseof sin.
(05:01):
But now because of Christ,we're not that anymore.
We're not who we were with theeffect of sin.
There's a change here thatPaul's talking about.
Now in Christ Jesus, you aren'twho you used to be.
We were far off, but now we'rebrought near.
We're reconciled.
You were without hope in theworld, but now you have hope in
(05:22):
Christ.
You were strangers and aliens,but now you're fellow citizens
in this household of God hespeaks of.
So now, now in Christ Jesus, wearen't the broken people we
used to be.
This is where, this is the partof Ephesians, this is where
we're at.
This little part where he'ssaying, although you were dead
in your sins, but God has madeyou alive again.
(05:42):
You're not who you used to be.
So your relationship with Godhas been mended.
Your relationship betweenpeople, even your enemies, has
been mended.
And so live like that.
Paul is saying, live like that.
So he goes on from the in thefrom here in the rest of the
book, and he talks about how tolive like that.
Now, I've come to realize thatremembering is really important.
(06:06):
The scripture speaks aboutremembering who we were and who
we are.
That we were once dead in sinand now we're alive to God, that
we were once without hope andnow we have hope.
It's really important toremember that.
Because remembering stirs us tolove and gratitude.
Remembering makes us humble.
(06:28):
Remembering causes us to liveour lives with the right
perspective.
It changes everything when weremember who we were and who
we've been, who we've been made.
So, do you feel distant?
You feel like your love forChrist is growing cold?
And maybe you've forgotten.
(06:50):
And maybe you need to rememberwho he is and what he's done.
At one time you were this, butnow in Christ Jesus, you are
this.
This is the good news of thegospel, right?
And it's also a great way toshare your story with other
people.
It's really super simple.
So this is who I was, this iswho I am, and the difference is
(07:10):
Jesus.
And all of us who are in Christhave that story.
This is who I was, this is whoI am, and Jesus made the
difference.
Very simple.
So these are gospel truths weneed to remind ourselves daily.
But Paul is pointing somethingout that's much deeper.
He's teaching us through thisletter to the Ephesians.
(07:32):
And so, in order to understandwhat he's writing to them, we
have to kind of put ourselvesback in their shoes.
There's some things we need toknow about the early the church
of Ephesus and that culture.
So if we were to transportourselves back to the first
century in the Middle East, wewould see two groups of people
who had been separated bycenturies of hatred and
(07:54):
suspicion.
Actually, in the 21st century,we still see that.
We still see it, right?
And this, but this wasaffecting the church.
And Paul's point here, he'sspeaking to people.
He's speaking to people inChrist.
So he is actually making apoint.
In the church, this ishappening.
There's an effect in the churchbetween there's a problem
(08:18):
between Jews and Gentiles here.
So remember the very firstchurch was made up mostly of
Jews, who Jews who believed inJesus.
And therefore, uh, when theGentiles were added in, it was a
big deal.
They were like, what are wesupposed to do with this?
It wasn't even on their grid,and they had to deal with that.
They had a church council thattalked about that.
You can read about that in bothin Acts 11 and Acts 15.
(08:41):
You can read about that.
So it was a big issue whenGentiles were added to these
Jewish believers.
But now in Ephesus, it's kindof the other way around.
In Ephesus, which is notJerusalem, in Ephesus, it was
mostly Gentiles who were part ofthe church, and there were some
Jews added into that mix.
Okay, there's Jews, there'sGentiles.
There's a there's a separationthere.
(09:03):
There's two different peoplegroups.
And Paul writes that theseGentiles were at one time
outside of the covenant that Godmade with the Jews, and so they
had no way of getting to God.
They were aliens.
He uses the word aliens.
And many of us maybe canrelate, you've had relatives in
(09:25):
the past that came here fromanother country and they became
American citizens.
And it was, but it wasdifferent when they came here.
They were they were viewed asoutsiders, right?
You're not from around here.
And and maybe you felt that aswell.
If you moved to a new city or anew job or to a new school, you
you feel like, I don't know, Idon't feel like I'm a part of
this.
I'm I'm I'm not from here.
(09:46):
Well, from a Jewishperspective, those non-Jews were
aliens.
They were outside, they don'tbelong in the covenant of God.
Now, the Greek and Roman peoplein their big cities, impressive
cities, thought that peopleoutside those cities, and
especially Jewish people, werebelow them.
They thought themselvessuperior to them.
(10:07):
But the Jews did exactly thesame thing.
They saw themselves assuperior.
Because in the Old Testament,we see that God had a plan for
the Jews.
He chose a people, right?
And the whole idea was thatthey would serve God, they would
shine the light of God to thenations.
That's what the plan was.
Instead, though, they had theydeveloped this arrogant
(10:28):
attitude, this pride, thisnationalism, this racism in
their own hearts toward thepeople who were non-Jews.
They built walls.
They built walls that kept themfrom showing God to the world.
They built walls that kept themfrom showing God to the world.
(10:49):
And many of the Jews in Paul'sday had an immense hatred for
Gentiles.
In fact, I learned that it wasnot lawful for a Jew to assist a
Gentile woman in childbirth.
Because we don't want anotherGentile, do we?
If a Jew married a Gentile, thefuneral of that Jew would be
held because his familyconsidered him dead to the
(11:12):
family.
Even to enter a Gentile housemade a Jew unclean.
And even it was even said bysome that Gentiles were created
by God to be fuels for the fireof hell.
It's pretty hateful, isn't it?
So they were separated byhearts filled with hate and
(11:35):
racism and nationalism.
Of course, this doesn't applyto us at all today.
None of this happens today inour culture.
But this had been so deeplyreinforced by centuries of their
customs and their culture.
So what can penetrate this kindof hatred and this kind of
(11:55):
division?
You can't change it throughlaws, you can't force it from
the outside.
The problem's in the heart,there has to be a change in the
heart.
You must be born again.
So in our text today, Paul'stelling us that God provided the
solution for this hatred andthe division through the work of
(12:18):
his son.
The answer is the gospel.
This is what look what Jesushas done.
He's provided an answer.
He's broken down this wall.
It says, He himself is ourpeace.
And he who has made us bothone, both of them one, and has
broken down in his flesh thedividing wall of the hostility.
(12:40):
Okay, so the Jews wouldcertainly understand what he's
saying there, because inJerusalem, in the temple, there
was a wall between the templeproper and the outer court of
the Gentiles.
And you can kind of see it,maybe you can see it a little
bit.
There's a wall of separation.
You can go this far, but youcan't go any farther if you're a
(13:00):
Gentile.
There was a literal stone wallthere.
In 1871, they were excavatingthat uh temple area, and these
archaeologists found thistongue, this stone there.
The stone was written in Greekand in Latin, so you could make
sure everybody could understandit that wasn't Jewish.
And you can see it there.
(13:20):
You can't really read it, canyou?
But they say it says that noforeigner, it's a warning, no
foreigner should go into thesanctuary.
Anyone caught would beresponsible for his or her own
death.
That's what it says.
I don't know if it means by Godor by people.
I'm not sure what that means.
Don't go past the wall.
(13:40):
There's a wall here.
So there was a literal stonewall separating Jews and
Gentiles, people of God, peoplewho are not yet in covenant with
God, insiders and outsiders.
But that's not all.
There was other thingsseparating them too.
Paul was pointing out thatthere was another wall between
them, and it was the laws andthe man-made rules of clean and
(14:04):
unclean.
Not only a literal stone wall,but these laws, the the wall of
laws.
I mean, I think, I thinkprobably all of us can
understand that.
We've either ostracized peopleor been ostracized ourselves by
what we do or don't do.
We don't meet your, I don'tmeet your standard, and so I'm
(14:26):
judged by you.
But these are these were lawsof God or traditions of the
elders.
So these are not just man'sopinion.
This is God's opinion, andyou're not, and you're unclean.
You can't be the people of God.
You don't keep the law.
So the Jewish people call theGentiles the uncircumcision
because they didn't bear intheir body the mark of the
covenant of God, and we are thecircumcision.
(14:49):
And then that the problem withthat attitude, that pride
attitude that they had is thatthat was disqualifying them from
acting like the people of God.
He they weren't representingGod at all.
They were not representing hisnature or his purposes at all.
So here's the situation (15:10):
Jews and Gentiles, insiders,
outsiders, separated by aliteral stone wall and stony
hearts.
Which is more difficult to dealwith than a stony wall.
You can break a wall down, butwhat's going to break your stony
(15:32):
heart down?
Well, the answer is the gospelof Jesus Christ.
This is what Paul does.
So Paul helps him to see thatJesus demolished the wall in his
flesh.
He canceled the details of therules of the law so he could uh
(15:52):
create one new person out of thetwo.
He Jesus Himself said, I camenot to do away with the law, but
to fulfill it.
He fulfilled the law and hebroke that wall down so he could
bring the two together.
It's the power of the cross.
The power of cross is thepower, one of the powers of the
cross is to break down wallsthat separate us from other
(16:13):
people.
But these believers here inEphesus were either not aware of
this yet or they weren'twilling to live like that.
So Paul deals with thedivisions in the church by going
through an understanding ofwhat Jesus did on the cross.
He said, He said he tore downthat wall in his flesh.
(16:35):
So we're brought near to Godand to one another by the blood
of Christ, and we're, and hemade Jews and Gentiles into one
new man by the breaking of hisown body.
Now, I never saw this before.
I've read this so many timesuntil this week I never saw it.
But this is this is literally areference to the Lord's Supper.
(16:55):
This is communion.
Communion, which means commonunion.
It's like we're together.
Communion.
It's the Lord's Supper herethat Jesus, by his own shed
blood, brought us near to God.
By his own broken body, hebrought back together the two
into one.
(17:16):
He broke himself to bring themback together again and to make
one new man.
So that all those who believein Jesus by faith have access to
God.
All of them, Jews and Gentiles.
You and the people you hate.
You and the people you thinkdon't think are worthy.
(17:41):
Look what Jesus has done.
This is good news.
Between God and man, he brokedown the wall.
Between man and man, he brokedown the wall.
In fact, the Spirit continuedto lead the church.
If you read there in chapters,uh the chapters of Acts, the
middle chapters of Acts, as thegospel is going out, they're
dealing with these problems.
Acts 11, Acts 15.
(18:02):
You know, what do we do?
These Gentiles are coming.
Do they need to keep the law?
Do they not?
I don't know.
What are we gonna do?
I don't understand.
God's doing the same thing withthose people we don't like that
he's doing with us.
The same thing.
Apparently, God has a differentopinion than we do.
I know.
(18:23):
Surely that's not true.
Surely he thinks like us.
But now everyone, they findout, everyone has access to God
under the condition ofrepentance and faith.
And so Paul paints a picture.
He uses a picture here.
The picture he uses is apicture of a temple or a
building that God is building.
(18:44):
God is building a temple.
So he's using this imagery of atemple or of a house, and it's
a dwelling place he's buildingfor himself.
He's using Jews and Gentiles.
And this temple is beingcarefully constructed using
(19:06):
different kinds of people whoare united in their faith in
Christ.
So he says this.
Let's read this again, verses19 to 22.
You are fellow citizens.
Okay, this is a corporate you.
This is not you personally,this is you, like I'm speaking
to the church.
You guys.
You guys are fellow citizenswith the saints and members of
(19:26):
the household of God, built onthe foundation of the apostles
and the prophets, Christ JesusHimself being the cornerstone,
in whom the whole structurebeing joined together grows into
a holy temple in the Lord.
In him, you are being builttogether into a dwelling place
(19:47):
for God by the Spirit.
And we all say, Amen.
As long as it's the people welike, as long as they worship
the way we do.
It can't be the Baptists.
Can't be those old staunchypeople or those old crazy people
on the other side over there.
(20:08):
You know, Lord, oh God, thank Ithank thee that I'm not like
them, oh Lord.
For I know the true way ofworship.
Wow.
It's funny and it's tragic,isn't it?
So Paul's helping us see theheart of God and the eternal
(20:29):
plan of God is building thisbuilding.
He's emphasizing right here,starting in this point of the
letter, all the way through therest of the letter, he's
emphasizing unity.
It's a brand new thing, unity.
He talks about you all.
He talks about it in the pluralform.
He talks about keeping theunity of the faith.
(20:50):
There's one Lord, one hope, onebaptism, one God and Father of
all.
Strive to maintain the unitythat you've been given.
He's already given you unity.
Maintain it.
He gives fivefold gifts for theunity of the church.
He talks about one another isover and over and over and over.
Oh, one another, one another,one another.
(21:10):
All of us together.
Here we are.
And this church has Jews andGentiles.
Okay?
But they're worshipingtogether.
Do you see?
When they took communion, andPaul is brilliant because he's
talking about, he's talkingabout the body and the blood of
Jesus.
When they sat together, theytook communion regularly, and
they sat together with eachother in their differences, and
(21:33):
everything was level.
And the wall was broken downbecause the ground is level at
the foot of the cross.
And they all saw we have aneed.
And they all saw God givessalvation to all of us.
And they all saw that we allhave access to one God through
(21:56):
his son Jesus.
And Paul's reminding them, andhe's giving them a picture of
it, right?
Wow.
So the Holy Spirit, now, why isthis important for Paul to
write this right now?
This was written maybe around660 AD, something like that.
And Paul probably could nothave known what was going to
(22:18):
happen in 10 years.
But within 10 years, the templein Jerusalem would be a pile of
rubbles.
Just stones.
In fact, Jesus said, not onestone laid upon top of another.
And Roman armies came in underTitus and they leveled the
temple.
That little stone wall that wassaying, keep out, they
(22:42):
literally destroyed it.
Along with the whole temple.
Their place of worship, theiridentity as Jewish people, their
reference point for knowingGod, for following God, for
worshiping God.
It was all destroyed.
Ten years from this letter.
From the stone temple inJerusalem to the new temple that
(23:10):
Jesus was building.
Temple that wasn't made ofdead, inanimate stones, but
living stones.
As Peter said later in chapter2 of his first letter, as you
come to him, a living stonerejected by men, speaking of
Jesus, but in the sight of God,chosen and precious.
And then you yourselves, likeliving stones, are being built
(23:35):
up as a spiritual house to be aholy priesthood, to offer
spiritual sacrifices acceptableto God through Jesus Christ.
God is building something brandnew in a brand new way.
It's not like it was.
It's not in a certain place ata certain time, in a certain
way, it's in Christ for allnations.
(23:57):
So as I was studying that thisweek, I I remembered something
that I saw years ago.
It came to mind.
Is there any Lego enthusiastshere?
Oh, come on.
This is great.
I love it.
This is all for you, righthere.
Okay.
So there was a okay, so it wasa guy years ago, and he built
this.
I know you can build, you canget these um these kits and
(24:17):
build churches.
Lego churches are prettyimpressive, but this guy, this
guy was a computer programmer.
So we know he wasn't crazy.
He built, he built a Legochurch.
75,000 pieces.
Took about a year and a half toplan it and to build it.
It seats 1,372 Lego people.
(24:41):
It's big.
It's big.
Well, they're little people,but it's relatively big.
It has 3,976 window blocks.
You see that?
It has a foyer, a balcony,stairs up to the balcony,
restrooms, it has bathrooms,coat rooms, mosaics, a
(25:03):
baptistry, an altar, a crucifix,a pulpit, and it has an organ
that's made up of 2,500 pieces.
Man, what kind of person doesthis?
That's what I really want toknow.
He's a computer programmer, hecan't be crazy, but he's like
(25:23):
gotta be a little eccentric.
And for what purpose?
Why do you do that?
I don't know.
Well, so I read this reviewer,this uh tech reviewer, and he
said about the guy.
He said, This is one of thosepeople that I'm very happy to
have seen on the web, but aretoo scary to meet in real life.
Oh, you Lego enthusiasts, youknow what he's talking about.
(25:46):
Okay, it's impressive, right?
It's impressive, but it's notalive.
It can't grow on its own.
It's Legos, it's plasticpieces.
That's all it is.
Jesus said, I will build mychurch.
And it didn't take a year and ahalf.
(26:06):
He's been he's been working onit 2,000 years plus.
He's been working on it, right?
And he's using a far superiorbuilding material.
People like you and me, Jewsand Gentiles.
People with different gifts,every tongue and tribe and
(26:27):
nation.
It's an organic buildingcapable of growing together.
The scripture says it growstogether.
He fits you together, and yougrow together into a house where
God truly lives.
You understand the church isspecial?
This is not the Kowanas or theLions Club.
This is the church of theliving God.
(26:49):
We are the body of Jesus Christon earth.
And God dwells in our midst.
And it's built on, it's builtby God on the foundation of his
son through his torn body andhis shed blood, wholly set apart
by God for the purpose ofshowing him to the world.
(27:10):
And this church includesHispanics and Asians and
Africans, and Ukrainians andRussians, and Jews and
Palestinians, and even us.
God breaks the wall.
(27:30):
He breaks the wall in the fleshof his son.
He's broken the wall down.
Look what Jesus has done.
From the heart of the Father,who purposed to have us as sons
and daughters, through the workof his son, who justified and
redeemed and forgave andincluded and paid for us by the
(27:51):
activity of the Spirit whobaptizes us into one body and
gives us gifts for the commongood from all nationalities and
groups.
Jesus continues to build hischurch to this day.
Today he's building it, andwe're part of it.
But in Ephesus, something isthreatening to destroy what
(28:16):
Jesus is building.
There's these silent butindustrious little termites
eating away the foundation.
What's the danger Paul'swarning about?
(28:37):
It's prejudice.
Prejudice.
In the heart of people.
Can we do some business thismorning?
Can we allow the Holy Spirit todo some work?
(29:02):
I know we came we all came hereto to to be blessed, I know.
And here's somethingencouraging.
But maybe God wants to dosomething in our hearts to take
away the stuff that is hinderingus from being encouraged and
being blessed.
Maybe he's trying to rip somethings out so that he can build
(29:23):
something.
Can we allow the Holy Spirit todo business in our hearts?
Here in Ephesus, it was racialprejudice, it was ethnic
prejudice.
My race is superior to yours.
My nation, my nation issuperior to yours.
That's what he was dealingwith.
And prejudice divides and itsteals and it kills and it
(29:47):
destroys.
It is the happy continual workof the devil.
This is what he does.
Just build a wall.
Build a wall.
Literally, the definition ofprejudice is a Pre preconceived
and often negative opinion abouta person or a group that's
formed without knowledge orconsideration of facts.
It literally means prejudicemeans to judge before you know.
(30:12):
I don't have to know you and Ican judge you.
Because that's the nature ofthe old man.
It's the nature of the fallenman.
And we prejudge based on a lotof things, not just race or
nationality, uh social status,economic status, religion,
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gender, education, personalconvictions, weight or health
issues, age, spiritual maturity,and all of it is a way for
insecure, orphan-hearted peopleto say, I'm better, and so you
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are less.
I am more and you are less.
Thank you.
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It's that we're an abominationto the Lord.
He will not allow it.
And assuredly, it says He willit will not go unpunished.
And when we separate ourselvesfrom each other, we're
separating ourselves from Godtoo.
And I so I'm, you know, ofcourse, this week I'm I'm
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looking into this mirror of theword myself, and I'm seeing in
my, you know, in my life, itlooks like ultimately it comes
down to this.
I, in in very practical ways,every day, I judge everyone as
either worthy of my love or notworthy of my love.
And that's a little bitdevastating to me to realize
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that I still do that.
This person's worthy of mylove.
This person, but this person isnot worthy of my love.
And maybe you even say, Oh,yeah, but but he's talking about
people in the church here.
He's not talking about peopleoutside.
And I feel like, you know, it'slike that guy who came to Jesus
and said, I know, I know, loveyour neighbor, I know, but who
(32:26):
is my neighbor?
Who, okay, tell me exactly whoI have to love.
So I can love them.
So I can hate the other ones.
Wow.
Well, there's a Samaritan.
Oh.
Or fill in the blank, right?
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Scripture says really clearlythe judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous, right?
I am really keenly aware thatmy judgments are not true and
righteous.
I find myself judging a personsolely by their appearance.
They can walk into a coffeeshop or something, and I can,
you know what?
I can size them up like that.
(33:08):
What?
An antichrist spirit.
You know.
I mean, what a horriblethought.
God looks on the heart, manlooks on the outside.
I'm not thinking like God.
I'm not understanding, I'm notdiscerning the body of Christ
that was ripped so that we couldbe one.
He could tear down the walls.
(33:30):
I'm not discerning that.
I'm not I'm not thinkingcorrectly.
I'm easily blind to theprejudice that's working in me.
And my prayer is that God willconvert my heart more and more.
More and more.
And by thinking would be likeHis that I can see people
through His eyes.
The Holy Spirit searches ourhearts.
This is a good thing.
(33:51):
If you care, if you want to dowhat's right, your conscience
and the Holy Spirit are thegreatest gifts you have.
One of the greatest, some ofthe greatest gifts you have.
If you don't want to do what'sright, it's a plague.
Your conscience is a plaguebecause it's always bugging you.
And the Holy Spirit's a bother.
But if you want to do what'sright, the Spirit will convict.
(34:14):
He will show you what's right.
He will take you out of theways that are that lead to
destruction into the ways oflife.
So are we courageous enough toask the Holy Spirit to search
our hearts?
That's the question.
Could we be prejudiced?
(34:34):
Who are you better than?
What people are you superiorto?
What people do you hate becauseyou think that they think they
are superior to you?
And I find that withoutdiligence, I'll just be caught
up in the culture of my of thecurrent of my culture, right?
(34:56):
And there's racial prejudiceand national prejudice.
Alive and well in our culture,loud and long in our ears day by
day, in subtle ways and blatantways, and it runs on both
sides.
This is the thing, the persondoing the hating is often
equally hated by the people onthe other side.
Because hate begets hate.
(35:18):
And it has no place in a Christfollower's heart.
I can get my worldview from theright or from the left, and
both views are oftenshort-sighted, self-serving, and
sometimes just wicked.
But there's another worldview,and here Paul is giving it to
us.
We're translated into adifferent kingdom.
(35:40):
And there's a worldview herethat includes the gospel.
Our hearts have to be changedby the gospel.
Our minds have to betransformed by truth, and
through the lens of the gospel,we are able to love everybody as
God loves them, to think abouteverybody as God thinks about
them.
We can be transformed by therenewing of our mind.
(36:03):
Alexander Sotsunitsyn was aRussian author, and he spent a
lot of years suffering in aSoviet gulag for no real crime
at all.
And he understood some thingsabout hatred and suffering, and
he wrote brilliantly on thosesubjects.
But here's something he saidthat gets to the heart of it,
(36:23):
which is what Paul is gettingto.
He said the line separatinggood and evil passes not through
states, that means nations, norbetween classes, nor between
political parties, but rightthrough every human heart.
The line of good and evil, evilpasses right through your heart
and my heart.
(36:44):
Our hearts have to be changedby the gospel.
And God wants to build ustogether with people who are not
like us.
Brothers and sisters, this isimportant for us individually,
for our families, and for ourchurch.
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God's growing our church.
And we've got to deal withthis.
We've got to be like Christ inthis.
If we surround ourselves onlywith those people who are just
like us, we become poorer andpoorer people.
If we only have people who echoback our own opinion to us,
(37:27):
that's called inbreeding.
And inbreeding causes all kindsof defects.
But God gave the apostle Johnon the Isle of Patmos a glimpse
of what the kingdom of God lookslike.
Let's read this.
After these things I looked,and behold, a great multitude,
which no one could count, fromevery nation and all tribes and
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peoples and tongues standingbefore the throne and before the
Lamb, clothed in white robesand palm branches were in their
hands, and they cried out with aloud voice, saying, Salvation
to our God who sits on thethrone and to the Lamb.
It's a new kind of kingdom thatwe're brought into.
It's a new culture.
(38:11):
And it's a kingdom thatoverrules all kingdoms on earth,
all mindsets, all institutions,all cultures.
It's the kingdom of God.
And we're brought into thiskingdom.
And Jesus broke down the walls,and it's a finished work.
And when we rebuild these wallsin our hearts, we're nullifying
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the work of the cross.
If you hold on to yourprejudice, you either don't
understand the work of Christ oryou willingly turn your back on
it.
One of those is ignorance, oneof those is wickedness.
And God wants to fix it in myheart.
In our hearts.
(38:54):
One blood.
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One blood?
Me and my son-in-law fromGhana?
Me and my friends from Russia,me and my friends from that are
here from the Philippines.
One blood.
(39:41):
One blood.
So what causes divisions amongus?
Well, deception, lies,accusations, that's the enemy,
that's the devil.
That's part of it.
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Could be our culture, becausewe grew up thinking some things,
we've learned things a certainway, and we need to unlearn them
and relearn.
That's possible.
But can I say it one more time?
It might be your algorithm.
What's your algorithm feedingyou?
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If you're only hearing thefeedback of your own
preferences, which might bewrong, by the way.
Well, I mean, where where areyou going?
If I click and if I click on apost of someone who's mildly
prejudiced, my algorithm willfeed me more and more of that,
and even feed me people who aremore prejudiced.
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And it gets darker and darkerand darker.
And if I'm not careful, if I'mnot proactive, which means I
don't click and I don't evenlinger for literally half a
second.
Literally a half second.
If I don't, if I'm not careful,then I'm being preached to.
I'm being inundated.
I'm being brainwashed.
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My algorithm is teaching me.
But I already have a Lord.
And his name is Jesus.
It's not the algorithm.
There has to be a healthy fearof the Lord here, guys.
There has to be.
Will I stand before God withthe stain of racism in my heart?
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And if I do, what will happento me?
When he made of one blood allthe nations of the earth, when
he shed his son's blood to breakthe wall, what will happen to
me?
There has to be a healthy fearof God in this.
We have to get rid of this,guys.
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We have to.
And I believe people are sotired of this.
They're so weary of the hatred.
And they're looking for ananswer, and we've got it.
These are real problems.
And somebody needs to show theworld that it's possible to love
beyond these shallow and carnaljudgments.
(42:14):
And church, this is where weshine.
Because we've been given newhearts.
We understand that we neededthe mercy of Jesus, that Jesus
has given us all equally thismercy, that the ground is level
at the foot of the cross.
We understand it.
I'm not better than you.
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You're not better than me.
In Christ, we're infinitelyvaluable.
This is what it means to be inChrist.
This is what he started with.
But now, in Christ Jesus, herewe are.
One new man.
We're enabled by the gospel tolove all people.
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We can declare and we can liveout this truth.
Jesus killed the hostility.
Look what Jesus has done.
Jesus has killed the hostility.
So let it be killed in me.
Let it be killed in me.
God, take it out of me.
Let me live worthy of what yourson has done, Father.
I can't fix everything, but Ican ask God to put a governor on
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my heart and convict me and fixmy attitude.
And I can light a candle in thedark places where He's put me
in my sphere of influence.
Well, we've got to endsomewhere.
So how do we end?
Maybe we can ask a question.
How do you how do we make surethat we're clean of these
things?
You know?
And you know, when you'rebuilding, if you're doing
(43:48):
building a building or you'rebuilding a temple, which is the
metaphor here, right?
There's some things you have todo before you even start
building.
Part of building happens beforeyou literally start building.
You're building when you'redoing things to the foundation.
So you have to clear the groundfirst, you got to dig up the
roots, you got to level theground, you got to set your pins
(44:10):
of reference, your points thatyou refer back to so everything
stays straight and plum.
So how do you build correctly?
I've got three thoughts.
First of all, we clear out theroots and stumbling stones of
racial prejudice by the work ofthe gospel.
Okay.
What have I been taught that'snot biblical?
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What ideas have I held on tothat are not like Christ?
Who am I judging?
And what even makes me think Ihave a right to judge them?
What condition is my heart in?
How have I had a victimmentality that's hindered me
from loving everyone and movingforward in my life?
(44:52):
Clear out the roots.
Number two, we level theground.
We're all equal in thiskingdom.
One blood.
Ground is level.
The cross is leveled at all.
This is the promise of theprophets, the new covenant.
Every valley will be exalted,every mountain will be laid low.
(45:12):
This is a promise.
This is a new covenant.
So are there ways I need tohumble myself in terms of my
understanding of me versusothers?
My race, my nationalism, mydenomination, my political
party.
Oh Lord, some of you aretracked with me until just then.
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Yeah, I'll I'll accept somebodyfrom another nation.
I will not accept a fill in theblank political party.
Oh man.
Search our hearts, Lord.
Does it go that far?
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Yeah.
It does.
In what ways do I need to exaltthose that I've thought less
of?
Every valley will be exalted.
Oh, help us think like Jesus.
Last thing is, we need toacknowledge our strong
foundation, the person in thework of Jesus.
The gospel is an answer.
This is the gospel issue here.
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This whole thing we're talkingabout is a gospel issue.
It's answered by the work ofJesus.
Jesus died to reconcile me toGod.
Amen.
He dialed to reconcile me toothers.
Amen.
Okay, good, thank you.
We all have access to Godthrough his shed blood and his
broken body.
We all stand firm together onthe foundation that God has
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laid.
Jesus Christ.
And he is our reference.
He is our reference.
We set our reference pens onhim.
We build straight by referringto him.
He who, though in very natureGod, released his rights and
humbled himself.
(46:59):
So that he could give his life.
There's our standard.
There's our standard.
There's our reference point.
Well, I'll just end with astory.
Years ago, boy, it must havebeen over 20, maybe 25 years
(47:23):
ago.
I was a part of this church, ofcourse, and I was at this men's
men's breakfast, but it was ina house.
One of the brothers had openedup his house.
And so we went there and we hadpiles of bacon and piles of
biscuits and gravy.
And, you know, one thingthat'll unite people is biscuits
(47:44):
and gravy.
I know that.
So we're there, but I'm I was apretty I was a relatively young
Christian, but I was I waslooking around.
I learned something, and I andI still think back to that day.
I can still get a picture in mymind of the room I was sitting
in, and I was looking aroundthat room.
And we're all together in thisman's house, and there were
(48:07):
blacks and there were whites,and there were younger and there
were older, and they were uppermiddle class and lower class.
There were Germans and Jews inthat room.
There were even people fromAlabama and Tennessee in that
room.
I know.
(48:28):
You were tracking with me tillthen, too, weren't you?
Hey, I'm telling you, it works,okay?
I mean, I'm we we made it.
We we were married six monthsbefore the game, uh, between
Alabama and Tennessee, and wefigured if we make it through
this game, we'll probably be allright.
And we did.
Well, I think we're gonna makeit.
And if you're okay, if you'reif you'll track with me, there's
(48:51):
even people in that room fromPowell and Halls.
Okay, so some of you understandthat, right?
You know, Panthers and RedDevils.
What is a red devil?
Who wants to be a red devil?
I'm sorry.
Spoken like a true panther.
But I'm looking in this roomand I'm thinking, how big God
is, and how big his kingdom is.
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And all of us, we weren't justunited over the gravy.
We you we were united inChrist.
It wasn't big biscuits, it wasthe broken body.
The broken body.
How big is his kingdom, and howgood it is for brothers to
dwell together in unity.
And I never forgot that.
I thought, wow.
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He shed his blood for all ofus.
Can we live?
Can we pray that God will helpus to live worthy of the work of
Jesus?
Look what Jesus has done.
He he demolished, he killed thehostility, he broke the wall
down.
It's not if it's there in ourhearts, it's not there because
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of him or because of the gospel.
He did everything he could tobreak it.
God has done the work.
We gotta we gotta receive that.
We gotta let him change us.
Can you stand with me?
And let's pray.
I don't know how to apply thisexcept to let the Holy Spirit
(50:18):
apply it and do what he wants todo in our hearts.
But I want I do want to extendan invitation into a kingdom
today.
Whether I'm a religious personor a stony-hearted sinner, the
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only way to a relationship withGod is through Christ.
I can be a rule follower or a alawbreaker.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
We both need the cross.
And he has broken down the wallbetween us and God through his
(51:02):
shed blood.
And he's inviting you.
It says that we are citizens ina new kingdom.
We're citizens in the householdof God.
God has given us, he's givenyou, if you don't know the Lord,
he's given you a path tocitizenship.
There's a path.
The path is his son, the workof his son, the blood of Jesus.
(51:24):
The path is Jesus, he is theway.
And when you're a new citizen,you have rights.
And God will give you a newidentity this morning.
He'll give you a new passportto heaven and to the kingdom of
(51:47):
God on earth.
He'll give you one thing youget as a citizen is you get a
right to a fair trial.
You know what he does onebetter?
He justifies you through hisblood.
He calls you not guilty.
One thing you get as a citizenis you get freedom over, you get
(52:14):
new rights, you get freedom,freedom over sin he gives you.
This is in this new kingdom.
So, Father, I pray for anyonewho doesn't know you, that
you've made hungry this morning.
I pray, Lord, that they see thebeauty of Jesus, what you have
done to bring them to you.
That they by faith come to youand say, I long for you, God.
(52:37):
I want to know you.
I want to be in this kingdom.
I want to be part of thishousehold.
I don't want to be an outsider.
By the work of Jesus, acceptme, Lord.
Accept me.
If you pray that, he's faithfulto answer that.
But also he reconciles us byhis body to one another.
(53:03):
And he wants us not to justtolerate one another, he's made
us one.
He's made the two into one.
It's way beyond toleration.
It's understanding that we areone in Jesus, in his body.
And then he calls us to breakdown the wall of our prejudices.
(53:26):
And where we go to bring peaceand not poison.
This is this is who Jesus is,and this is the way of walking
with Jesus.
So, Father, thank you thismorning.
We just stand before you andask you, whatever it is that is
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causing us to walk unworthy ofwhat you've done through your
son.
Whatever it is that is causingus to see other people
differently than you do, Lord,would you forgive us?
Would you wash us clean withthat precious blood of Jesus?
Would you make the fullness ofwhat He died for become real in
(54:13):
our lives, Lord?
And would you break the chainsof prejudice?
Break the chains of racism andof nationalism and of elitism of
all kinds, and judging becauseof outward appearances, judging
(54:35):
because of laws and rules.
Lord, would you take the wall?
Would you would you bring intoreality in our lives what you've
already done, Lord?
Would you break the walls downso we can be free?
We thank you for that, Lord.
So just we could take maybejust a minute and just allow the
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Lord to speak to us, to pointthings out.
If there's something He bringsup, just confess it.
He's faithful and just toforgive us of our sins and to
cleanse us of allunrighteousness.
Thank you, Lord.
(55:31):
Oh Father, we just look at whatJesus has done and we marvel at
it this morning.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lord.
Bring us into that place offreedom, we pray in Jesus' name.
May the Lord bless you and keepyou.
May He make His face shine uponyou.
Be gracious to you.
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May the Lord lift hiscountenance upon you.
May He give you peace.
In the name of Jesus.
Amen.
I am really, really happy to open the word of the
Lord with you this morningbecause Jesus has done great
things in my life.
And I know that a lot of you,He's done great things in your
life too.
And one thing I know is thatthere's always more to Jesus.
There's always more than moreof who he is that I don't know
(00:23):
yet, more of what he's done thatI haven't become aware of yet.
And that's what happened thisweek as I'm studying this in
Ephesians 2.
So if you want to turn there,Ephesians chapter 2, 13 through
22.
Let's look and see what Jesusdid, okay?
But now, in Christ Jesus, youwho once were far off have been
(00:47):
brought near by the blood ofChrist.
For he himself is our peace,who has made us both one and
broken down in his flesh, thedividing wall of hostility, by
abolishing the law ofcommandments expressed in
ordinances, that he might createin himself one new man in place
(01:08):
of the two, so making peace andmight reconcile us both to God
in one body through the cross,thereby killing the hostility.
And he came and preached peaceto you who were afar off, and
peace to those who were near.
Through him we both have accessin one spirit to the Father.
(01:33):
So then you're no longerstrangers and aliens, but you
are fellow citizens with thesaints and members of the
household of God built on thefoundation of the apostles and
prophets, Christ Jesus Himselfbeing the cornerstone, in whom
the whole structure, beingjoined together, grows into a
(01:53):
holy temple in the Lord.
In him, you also are beingbuilt together into a dwelling
place for God by the Spirit.
Father, thank you for yourword.
We treasure it this morning.
We thank you that you're a Godwho speaks and you don't leave
(02:14):
us without knowing what to do orwithout revelation of yourself,
but you disclose yourselfthrough your scriptures.
And so this morning, Lord, wepray, show us more of who Jesus
is, more of what Jesus has done.
Lord, let your word divide theparts of our heart that it needs
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to.
Soul and spirit, joints andmarrow, thoughts and intentions
of our hearts, Lord.
Come and do your work, we pray.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
So we're making our way throughPaul's letter to the church at
Ephesus and been doing it forquite a few weeks now.
And we're at this section wherePaul is reminding them that
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they aren't who they were.
At one time you were this, butnow you are this.
And it starts out, this passagestarts out, but now, but now,
in Christ Jesus.
There's a difference that'sbeen made here.
And this is the good news ofthe gospel.
This is what was preceded bythe bad news of the fall of man.
(03:17):
So you understand God createdman in his image.
He made us able to fellowshipwith him, able to walk with him,
to hear his voice, to communewith him.
And sin changed all that.
So we were one thing, and thenbecause of sin, we're not what
(03:37):
we were.
Sin changed everything.
It affected our relationshipwith God.
We were friends and now we'reenemies.
We were near, now we'reseparated from God.
It even changed ourrelationship with other people
too.
Because it broke, it built thiswall between us and other
people.
(03:57):
This is what Paul's talkingabout here.
So we focus on ourselves andtherefore we're not able to play
well together.
We don't love very well.
And there's these jealousies,and there are these
insecurities.
So there's factions and there'srejection and there's war and
(04:20):
all of this.
And sin brought physical death,which never was part of the
plan.
And sin brought physical death,spiritual death, which was not
part of the plan either.
That separation from God.
And if you come to physicaldeath, being spiritually dead,
it means there's an eternaldeath.
It's the opposite of eternallife.
(04:41):
There's eternal separation fromGod.
We aren't who we were, who wewere when God created us.
But then Paul is saying, here,okay, that's who you were.
God created us this way.
We fell.
We aren't who we were.
But then we became this becauseof sin.
(05:01):
But now because of Christ,we're not that anymore.
We're not who we were with theeffect of sin.
There's a change here thatPaul's talking about.
Now in Christ Jesus, you aren'twho you used to be.
We were far off, but now we'rebrought near.
We're reconciled.
You were without hope in theworld, but now you have hope in
(05:22):
Christ.
You were strangers and aliens,but now you're fellow citizens
in this household of God hespeaks of.
So now, now in Christ Jesus, wearen't the broken people we
used to be.
This is where, this is the partof Ephesians, this is where
we're at.
This little part where he'ssaying, although you were dead
in your sins, but God has madeyou alive again.
(05:42):
You're not who you used to be.
So your relationship with Godhas been mended.
Your relationship betweenpeople, even your enemies, has
been mended.
And so live like that.
Paul is saying, live like that.
So he goes on from the in thefrom here in the rest of the
book, and he talks about how tolive like that.
Now, I've come to realize thatremembering is really important.
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The scripture speaks aboutremembering who we were and who
we are.
That we were once dead in sinand now we're alive to God, that
we were once without hope andnow we have hope.
It's really important toremember that.
Because remembering stirs us tolove and gratitude.
Remembering makes us humble.
(06:28):
Remembering causes us to liveour lives with the right
perspective.
It changes everything when weremember who we were and who
we've been, who we've been made.
So, do you feel distant?
You feel like your love forChrist is growing cold?
And maybe you've forgotten.
(06:50):
And maybe you need to rememberwho he is and what he's done.
At one time you were this, butnow in Christ Jesus, you are
this.
This is the good news of thegospel, right?
And it's also a great way toshare your story with other
people.
It's really super simple.
So this is who I was, this iswho I am, and the difference is
(07:10):
Jesus.
And all of us who are in Christhave that story.
This is who I was, this is whoI am, and Jesus made the
difference.
Very simple.
So these are gospel truths weneed to remind ourselves daily.
But Paul is pointing somethingout that's much deeper.
He's teaching us through thisletter to the Ephesians.
(07:32):
And so, in order to understandwhat he's writing to them, we
have to kind of put ourselvesback in their shoes.
There's some things we need toknow about the early the church
of Ephesus and that culture.
So if we were to transportourselves back to the first
century in the Middle East, wewould see two groups of people
who had been separated bycenturies of hatred and
(07:54):
suspicion.
Actually, in the 21st century,we still see that.
We still see it, right?
And this, but this wasaffecting the church.
And Paul's point here, he'sspeaking to people.
He's speaking to people inChrist.
So he is actually making apoint.
In the church, this ishappening.
There's an effect in the churchbetween there's a problem
(08:18):
between Jews and Gentiles here.
So remember the very firstchurch was made up mostly of
Jews, who Jews who believed inJesus.
And therefore, uh, when theGentiles were added in, it was a
big deal.
They were like, what are wesupposed to do with this?
It wasn't even on their grid,and they had to deal with that.
They had a church council thattalked about that.
You can read about that in bothin Acts 11 and Acts 15.
(08:41):
You can read about that.
So it was a big issue whenGentiles were added to these
Jewish believers.
But now in Ephesus, it's kindof the other way around.
In Ephesus, which is notJerusalem, in Ephesus, it was
mostly Gentiles who were part ofthe church, and there were some
Jews added into that mix.
Okay, there's Jews, there'sGentiles.
There's a there's a separationthere.
(09:03):
There's two different peoplegroups.
And Paul writes that theseGentiles were at one time
outside of the covenant that Godmade with the Jews, and so they
had no way of getting to God.
They were aliens.
He uses the word aliens.
And many of us maybe canrelate, you've had relatives in
(09:25):
the past that came here fromanother country and they became
American citizens.
And it was, but it wasdifferent when they came here.
They were they were viewed asoutsiders, right?
You're not from around here.
And and maybe you felt that aswell.
If you moved to a new city or anew job or to a new school, you
you feel like, I don't know, Idon't feel like I'm a part of
this.
I'm I'm I'm not from here.
(09:46):
Well, from a Jewishperspective, those non-Jews were
aliens.
They were outside, they don'tbelong in the covenant of God.
Now, the Greek and Roman peoplein their big cities, impressive
cities, thought that peopleoutside those cities, and
especially Jewish people, werebelow them.
They thought themselvessuperior to them.
(10:07):
But the Jews did exactly thesame thing.
They saw themselves assuperior.
Because in the Old Testament,we see that God had a plan for
the Jews.
He chose a people, right?
And the whole idea was thatthey would serve God, they would
shine the light of God to thenations.
That's what the plan was.
Instead, though, they had theydeveloped this arrogant
(10:28):
attitude, this pride, thisnationalism, this racism in
their own hearts toward thepeople who were non-Jews.
They built walls.
They built walls that kept themfrom showing God to the world.
They built walls that kept themfrom showing God to the world.
(10:49):
And many of the Jews in Paul'sday had an immense hatred for
Gentiles.
In fact, I learned that it wasnot lawful for a Jew to assist a
Gentile woman in childbirth.
Because we don't want anotherGentile, do we?
If a Jew married a Gentile, thefuneral of that Jew would be
held because his familyconsidered him dead to the
(11:12):
family.
Even to enter a Gentile housemade a Jew unclean.
And even it was even said bysome that Gentiles were created
by God to be fuels for the fireof hell.
It's pretty hateful, isn't it?
So they were separated byhearts filled with hate and
(11:35):
racism and nationalism.
Of course, this doesn't applyto us at all today.
None of this happens today inour culture.
But this had been so deeplyreinforced by centuries of their
customs and their culture.
So what can penetrate this kindof hatred and this kind of
(11:55):
division?
You can't change it throughlaws, you can't force it from
the outside.
The problem's in the heart,there has to be a change in the
heart.
You must be born again.
So in our text today, Paul'stelling us that God provided the
solution for this hatred andthe division through the work of
(12:18):
his son.
The answer is the gospel.
This is what look what Jesushas done.
He's provided an answer.
He's broken down this wall.
It says, He himself is ourpeace.
And he who has made us bothone, both of them one, and has
broken down in his flesh thedividing wall of the hostility.
(12:40):
Okay, so the Jews wouldcertainly understand what he's
saying there, because inJerusalem, in the temple, there
was a wall between the templeproper and the outer court of
the Gentiles.
And you can kind of see it,maybe you can see it a little
bit.
There's a wall of separation.
You can go this far, but youcan't go any farther if you're a
(13:00):
Gentile.
There was a literal stone wallthere.
In 1871, they were excavatingthat uh temple area, and these
archaeologists found thistongue, this stone there.
The stone was written in Greekand in Latin, so you could make
sure everybody could understandit that wasn't Jewish.
And you can see it there.
(13:20):
You can't really read it, canyou?
But they say it says that noforeigner, it's a warning, no
foreigner should go into thesanctuary.
Anyone caught would beresponsible for his or her own
death.
That's what it says.
I don't know if it means by Godor by people.
I'm not sure what that means.
Don't go past the wall.
(13:40):
There's a wall here.
So there was a literal stonewall separating Jews and
Gentiles, people of God, peoplewho are not yet in covenant with
God, insiders and outsiders.
But that's not all.
There was other thingsseparating them too.
Paul was pointing out thatthere was another wall between
them, and it was the laws andthe man-made rules of clean and
(14:04):
unclean.
Not only a literal stone wall,but these laws, the the wall of
laws.
I mean, I think, I thinkprobably all of us can
understand that.
We've either ostracized peopleor been ostracized ourselves by
what we do or don't do.
We don't meet your, I don'tmeet your standard, and so I'm
(14:26):
judged by you.
But these are these were lawsof God or traditions of the
elders.
So these are not just man'sopinion.
This is God's opinion, andyou're not, and you're unclean.
You can't be the people of God.
You don't keep the law.
So the Jewish people call theGentiles the uncircumcision
because they didn't bear intheir body the mark of the
covenant of God, and we are thecircumcision.
(14:49):
And then that the problem withthat attitude, that pride
attitude that they had is thatthat was disqualifying them from
acting like the people of God.
He they weren't representingGod at all.
They were not representing hisnature or his purposes at all.
So here's the situation (15:10):
Jews and Gentiles, insiders,
outsiders, separated by aliteral stone wall and stony
hearts.
Which is more difficult to dealwith than a stony wall.
You can break a wall down, butwhat's going to break your stony
(15:32):
heart down?
Well, the answer is the gospelof Jesus Christ.
This is what Paul does.
So Paul helps him to see thatJesus demolished the wall in his
flesh.
He canceled the details of therules of the law so he could uh
(15:52):
create one new person out of thetwo.
He Jesus Himself said, I camenot to do away with the law, but
to fulfill it.
He fulfilled the law and hebroke that wall down so he could
bring the two together.
It's the power of the cross.
The power of cross is thepower, one of the powers of the
cross is to break down wallsthat separate us from other
(16:13):
people.
But these believers here inEphesus were either not aware of
this yet or they weren'twilling to live like that.
So Paul deals with thedivisions in the church by going
through an understanding ofwhat Jesus did on the cross.
He said, He said he tore downthat wall in his flesh.
(16:35):
So we're brought near to Godand to one another by the blood
of Christ, and we're, and hemade Jews and Gentiles into one
new man by the breaking of hisown body.
Now, I never saw this before.
I've read this so many timesuntil this week I never saw it.
But this is this is literally areference to the Lord's Supper.
(16:55):
This is communion.
Communion, which means commonunion.
It's like we're together.
Communion.
It's the Lord's Supper herethat Jesus, by his own shed
blood, brought us near to God.
By his own broken body, hebrought back together the two
into one.
(17:16):
He broke himself to bring themback together again and to make
one new man.
So that all those who believein Jesus by faith have access to
God.
All of them, Jews and Gentiles.
You and the people you hate.
You and the people you thinkdon't think are worthy.
(17:41):
Look what Jesus has done.
This is good news.
Between God and man, he brokedown the wall.
Between man and man, he brokedown the wall.
In fact, the Spirit continuedto lead the church.
If you read there in chapters,uh the chapters of Acts, the
middle chapters of Acts, as thegospel is going out, they're
dealing with these problems.
Acts 11, Acts 15.
(18:02):
You know, what do we do?
These Gentiles are coming.
Do they need to keep the law?
Do they not?
I don't know.
What are we gonna do?
I don't understand.
God's doing the same thing withthose people we don't like that
he's doing with us.
The same thing.
Apparently, God has a differentopinion than we do.
I know.
(18:23):
Surely that's not true.
Surely he thinks like us.
But now everyone, they findout, everyone has access to God
under the condition ofrepentance and faith.
And so Paul paints a picture.
He uses a picture here.
The picture he uses is apicture of a temple or a
building that God is building.
(18:44):
God is building a temple.
So he's using this imagery of atemple or of a house, and it's
a dwelling place he's buildingfor himself.
He's using Jews and Gentiles.
And this temple is beingcarefully constructed using
(19:06):
different kinds of people whoare united in their faith in
Christ.
So he says this.
Let's read this again, verses19 to 22.
You are fellow citizens.
Okay, this is a corporate you.
This is not you personally,this is you, like I'm speaking
to the church.
You guys.
You guys are fellow citizenswith the saints and members of
(19:26):
the household of God, built onthe foundation of the apostles
and the prophets, Christ JesusHimself being the cornerstone,
in whom the whole structurebeing joined together grows into
a holy temple in the Lord.
In him, you are being builttogether into a dwelling place
(19:47):
for God by the Spirit.
And we all say, Amen.
As long as it's the people welike, as long as they worship
the way we do.
It can't be the Baptists.
Can't be those old staunchypeople or those old crazy people
on the other side over there.
(20:08):
You know, Lord, oh God, thank Ithank thee that I'm not like
them, oh Lord.
For I know the true way ofworship.
Wow.
It's funny and it's tragic,isn't it?
So Paul's helping us see theheart of God and the eternal
(20:29):
plan of God is building thisbuilding.
He's emphasizing right here,starting in this point of the
letter, all the way through therest of the letter, he's
emphasizing unity.
It's a brand new thing, unity.
He talks about you all.
He talks about it in the pluralform.
He talks about keeping theunity of the faith.
(20:50):
There's one Lord, one hope, onebaptism, one God and Father of
all.
Strive to maintain the unitythat you've been given.
He's already given you unity.
Maintain it.
He gives fivefold gifts for theunity of the church.
He talks about one another isover and over and over and over.
Oh, one another, one another,one another.
(21:10):
All of us together.
Here we are.
And this church has Jews andGentiles.
Okay?
But they're worshipingtogether.
Do you see?
When they took communion, andPaul is brilliant because he's
talking about, he's talkingabout the body and the blood of
Jesus.
When they sat together, theytook communion regularly, and
they sat together with eachother in their differences, and
(21:33):
everything was level.
And the wall was broken downbecause the ground is level at
the foot of the cross.
And they all saw we have aneed.
And they all saw God givessalvation to all of us.
And they all saw that we allhave access to one God through
(21:56):
his son Jesus.
And Paul's reminding them, andhe's giving them a picture of
it, right?
Wow.
So the Holy Spirit, now, why isthis important for Paul to
write this right now?
This was written maybe around660 AD, something like that.
And Paul probably could nothave known what was going to
(22:18):
happen in 10 years.
But within 10 years, the templein Jerusalem would be a pile of
rubbles.
Just stones.
In fact, Jesus said, not onestone laid upon top of another.
And Roman armies came in underTitus and they leveled the
temple.
That little stone wall that wassaying, keep out, they
(22:42):
literally destroyed it.
Along with the whole temple.
Their place of worship, theiridentity as Jewish people, their
reference point for knowingGod, for following God, for
worshiping God.
It was all destroyed.
Ten years from this letter.
From the stone temple inJerusalem to the new temple that
(23:10):
Jesus was building.
Temple that wasn't made ofdead, inanimate stones, but
living stones.
As Peter said later in chapter2 of his first letter, as you
come to him, a living stonerejected by men, speaking of
Jesus, but in the sight of God,chosen and precious.
And then you yourselves, likeliving stones, are being built
(23:35):
up as a spiritual house to be aholy priesthood, to offer
spiritual sacrifices acceptableto God through Jesus Christ.
God is building something brandnew in a brand new way.
It's not like it was.
It's not in a certain place ata certain time, in a certain
way, it's in Christ for allnations.
(23:57):
So as I was studying that thisweek, I I remembered something
that I saw years ago.
It came to mind.
Is there any Lego enthusiastshere?
Oh, come on.
This is great.
I love it.
This is all for you, righthere.
Okay.
So there was a okay, so it wasa guy years ago, and he built
this.
I know you can build, you canget these um these kits and
(24:17):
build churches.
Lego churches are prettyimpressive, but this guy, this
guy was a computer programmer.
So we know he wasn't crazy.
He built, he built a Legochurch.
75,000 pieces.
Took about a year and a half toplan it and to build it.
It seats 1,372 Lego people.
(24:41):
It's big.
It's big.
Well, they're little people,but it's relatively big.
It has 3,976 window blocks.
You see that?
It has a foyer, a balcony,stairs up to the balcony,
restrooms, it has bathrooms,coat rooms, mosaics, a
(25:03):
baptistry, an altar, a crucifix,a pulpit, and it has an organ
that's made up of 2,500 pieces.
Man, what kind of person doesthis?
That's what I really want toknow.
He's a computer programmer, hecan't be crazy, but he's like
(25:23):
gotta be a little eccentric.
And for what purpose?
Why do you do that?
I don't know.
Well, so I read this reviewer,this uh tech reviewer, and he
said about the guy.
He said, This is one of thosepeople that I'm very happy to
have seen on the web, but aretoo scary to meet in real life.
Oh, you Lego enthusiasts, youknow what he's talking about.
(25:46):
Okay, it's impressive, right?
It's impressive, but it's notalive.
It can't grow on its own.
It's Legos, it's plasticpieces.
That's all it is.
Jesus said, I will build mychurch.
And it didn't take a year and ahalf.
(26:06):
He's been he's been working onit 2,000 years plus.
He's been working on it, right?
And he's using a far superiorbuilding material.
People like you and me, Jewsand Gentiles.
People with different gifts,every tongue and tribe and
(26:27):
nation.
It's an organic buildingcapable of growing together.
The scripture says it growstogether.
He fits you together, and yougrow together into a house where
God truly lives.
You understand the church isspecial?
This is not the Kowanas or theLions Club.
This is the church of theliving God.
(26:49):
We are the body of Jesus Christon earth.
And God dwells in our midst.
And it's built on, it's builtby God on the foundation of his
son through his torn body andhis shed blood, wholly set apart
by God for the purpose ofshowing him to the world.
(27:10):
And this church includesHispanics and Asians and
Africans, and Ukrainians andRussians, and Jews and
Palestinians, and even us.
God breaks the wall.
(27:30):
He breaks the wall in the fleshof his son.
He's broken the wall down.
Look what Jesus has done.
From the heart of the Father,who purposed to have us as sons
and daughters, through the workof his son, who justified and
redeemed and forgave andincluded and paid for us by the
(27:51):
activity of the Spirit whobaptizes us into one body and
gives us gifts for the commongood from all nationalities and
groups.
Jesus continues to build hischurch to this day.
Today he's building it, andwe're part of it.
But in Ephesus, something isthreatening to destroy what
(28:16):
Jesus is building.
There's these silent butindustrious little termites
eating away the foundation.
What's the danger Paul'swarning about?
(28:37):
It's prejudice.
Prejudice.
In the heart of people.
Can we do some business thismorning?
Can we allow the Holy Spirit todo some work?
(29:02):
I know we came we all came hereto to to be blessed, I know.
And here's somethingencouraging.
But maybe God wants to dosomething in our hearts to take
away the stuff that is hinderingus from being encouraged and
being blessed.
Maybe he's trying to rip somethings out so that he can build
(29:23):
something.
Can we allow the Holy Spirit todo business in our hearts?
Here in Ephesus, it was racialprejudice, it was ethnic
prejudice.
My race is superior to yours.
My nation, my nation issuperior to yours.
That's what he was dealingwith.
And prejudice divides and itsteals and it kills and it
(29:47):
destroys.
It is the happy continual workof the devil.
This is what he does.
Just build a wall.
Build a wall.
Literally, the definition ofprejudice is a Pre preconceived
and often negative opinion abouta person or a group that's
formed without knowledge orconsideration of facts.
It literally means prejudicemeans to judge before you know.
(30:12):
I don't have to know you and Ican judge you.
Because that's the nature ofthe old man.
It's the nature of the fallenman.
And we prejudge based on a lotof things, not just race or
nationality, uh social status,economic status, religion,
(30:36):
gender, education, personalconvictions, weight or health
issues, age, spiritual maturity,and all of it is a way for
insecure, orphan-hearted peopleto say, I'm better, and so you
(30:57):
are less.
I am more and you are less.
Thank you.
(31:19):
It's that we're an abominationto the Lord.
He will not allow it.
And assuredly, it says He willit will not go unpunished.
And when we separate ourselvesfrom each other, we're
separating ourselves from Godtoo.
And I so I'm, you know, ofcourse, this week I'm I'm
(31:39):
looking into this mirror of theword myself, and I'm seeing in
my, you know, in my life, itlooks like ultimately it comes
down to this.
I, in in very practical ways,every day, I judge everyone as
either worthy of my love or notworthy of my love.
And that's a little bitdevastating to me to realize
(32:06):
that I still do that.
This person's worthy of mylove.
This person, but this person isnot worthy of my love.
And maybe you even say, Oh,yeah, but but he's talking about
people in the church here.
He's not talking about peopleoutside.
And I feel like, you know, it'slike that guy who came to Jesus
and said, I know, I know, loveyour neighbor, I know, but who
(32:26):
is my neighbor?
Who, okay, tell me exactly whoI have to love.
So I can love them.
So I can hate the other ones.
Wow.
Well, there's a Samaritan.
Oh.
Or fill in the blank, right?
(32:47):
Scripture says really clearlythe judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous, right?
I am really keenly aware thatmy judgments are not true and
righteous.
I find myself judging a personsolely by their appearance.
They can walk into a coffeeshop or something, and I can,
you know what?
I can size them up like that.
(33:08):
What?
An antichrist spirit.
You know.
I mean, what a horriblethought.
God looks on the heart, manlooks on the outside.
I'm not thinking like God.
I'm not understanding, I'm notdiscerning the body of Christ
that was ripped so that we couldbe one.
He could tear down the walls.
(33:30):
I'm not discerning that.
I'm not I'm not thinkingcorrectly.
I'm easily blind to theprejudice that's working in me.
And my prayer is that God willconvert my heart more and more.
More and more.
And by thinking would be likeHis that I can see people
through His eyes.
The Holy Spirit searches ourhearts.
This is a good thing.
(33:51):
If you care, if you want to dowhat's right, your conscience
and the Holy Spirit are thegreatest gifts you have.
One of the greatest, some ofthe greatest gifts you have.
If you don't want to do what'sright, it's a plague.
Your conscience is a plaguebecause it's always bugging you.
And the Holy Spirit's a bother.
But if you want to do what'sright, the Spirit will convict.
(34:14):
He will show you what's right.
He will take you out of theways that are that lead to
destruction into the ways oflife.
So are we courageous enough toask the Holy Spirit to search
our hearts?
That's the question.
Could we be prejudiced?
(34:34):
Who are you better than?
What people are you superiorto?
What people do you hate becauseyou think that they think they
are superior to you?
And I find that withoutdiligence, I'll just be caught
up in the culture of my of thecurrent of my culture, right?
(34:56):
And there's racial prejudiceand national prejudice.
Alive and well in our culture,loud and long in our ears day by
day, in subtle ways and blatantways, and it runs on both
sides.
This is the thing, the persondoing the hating is often
equally hated by the people onthe other side.
Because hate begets hate.
(35:18):
And it has no place in a Christfollower's heart.
I can get my worldview from theright or from the left, and
both views are oftenshort-sighted, self-serving, and
sometimes just wicked.
But there's another worldview,and here Paul is giving it to
us.
We're translated into adifferent kingdom.
(35:40):
And there's a worldview herethat includes the gospel.
Our hearts have to be changedby the gospel.
Our minds have to betransformed by truth, and
through the lens of the gospel,we are able to love everybody as
God loves them, to think abouteverybody as God thinks about
them.
We can be transformed by therenewing of our mind.
(36:03):
Alexander Sotsunitsyn was aRussian author, and he spent a
lot of years suffering in aSoviet gulag for no real crime
at all.
And he understood some thingsabout hatred and suffering, and
he wrote brilliantly on thosesubjects.
But here's something he saidthat gets to the heart of it,
(36:23):
which is what Paul is gettingto.
He said the line separatinggood and evil passes not through
states, that means nations, norbetween classes, nor between
political parties, but rightthrough every human heart.
The line of good and evil, evilpasses right through your heart
and my heart.
(36:44):
Our hearts have to be changedby the gospel.
And God wants to build ustogether with people who are not
like us.
Brothers and sisters, this isimportant for us individually,
for our families, and for ourchurch.
(37:04):
God's growing our church.
And we've got to deal withthis.
We've got to be like Christ inthis.
If we surround ourselves onlywith those people who are just
like us, we become poorer andpoorer people.
If we only have people who echoback our own opinion to us,
(37:27):
that's called inbreeding.
And inbreeding causes all kindsof defects.
But God gave the apostle Johnon the Isle of Patmos a glimpse
of what the kingdom of God lookslike.
Let's read this.
After these things I looked,and behold, a great multitude,
which no one could count, fromevery nation and all tribes and
(37:50):
peoples and tongues standingbefore the throne and before the
Lamb, clothed in white robesand palm branches were in their
hands, and they cried out with aloud voice, saying, Salvation
to our God who sits on thethrone and to the Lamb.
It's a new kind of kingdom thatwe're brought into.
It's a new culture.
(38:11):
And it's a kingdom thatoverrules all kingdoms on earth,
all mindsets, all institutions,all cultures.
It's the kingdom of God.
And we're brought into thiskingdom.
And Jesus broke down the walls,and it's a finished work.
And when we rebuild these wallsin our hearts, we're nullifying
(38:33):
the work of the cross.
If you hold on to yourprejudice, you either don't
understand the work of Christ oryou willingly turn your back on
it.
One of those is ignorance, oneof those is wickedness.
And God wants to fix it in myheart.
In our hearts.
(38:54):
One blood.
(39:21):
One blood?
Me and my son-in-law fromGhana?
Me and my friends from Russia,me and my friends from that are
here from the Philippines.
One blood.
(39:41):
One blood.
So what causes divisions amongus?
Well, deception, lies,accusations, that's the enemy,
that's the devil.
That's part of it.
(40:02):
Could be our culture, becausewe grew up thinking some things,
we've learned things a certainway, and we need to unlearn them
and relearn.
That's possible.
But can I say it one more time?
It might be your algorithm.
What's your algorithm feedingyou?
(40:22):
If you're only hearing thefeedback of your own
preferences, which might bewrong, by the way.
Well, I mean, where where areyou going?
If I click and if I click on apost of someone who's mildly
prejudiced, my algorithm willfeed me more and more of that,
and even feed me people who aremore prejudiced.
(40:44):
And it gets darker and darkerand darker.
And if I'm not careful, if I'mnot proactive, which means I
don't click and I don't evenlinger for literally half a
second.
Literally a half second.
If I don't, if I'm not careful,then I'm being preached to.
I'm being inundated.
I'm being brainwashed.
(41:05):
My algorithm is teaching me.
But I already have a Lord.
And his name is Jesus.
It's not the algorithm.
There has to be a healthy fearof the Lord here, guys.
There has to be.
Will I stand before God withthe stain of racism in my heart?
(41:31):
And if I do, what will happento me?
When he made of one blood allthe nations of the earth, when
he shed his son's blood to breakthe wall, what will happen to
me?
There has to be a healthy fearof God in this.
We have to get rid of this,guys.
(41:51):
We have to.
And I believe people are sotired of this.
They're so weary of the hatred.
And they're looking for ananswer, and we've got it.
These are real problems.
And somebody needs to show theworld that it's possible to love
beyond these shallow and carnaljudgments.
(42:14):
And church, this is where weshine.
Because we've been given newhearts.
We understand that we neededthe mercy of Jesus, that Jesus
has given us all equally thismercy, that the ground is level
at the foot of the cross.
We understand it.
I'm not better than you.
(42:36):
You're not better than me.
In Christ, we're infinitelyvaluable.
This is what it means to be inChrist.
This is what he started with.
But now, in Christ Jesus, herewe are.
One new man.
We're enabled by the gospel tolove all people.
(42:57):
We can declare and we can liveout this truth.
Jesus killed the hostility.
Look what Jesus has done.
Jesus has killed the hostility.
So let it be killed in me.
Let it be killed in me.
God, take it out of me.
Let me live worthy of what yourson has done, Father.
I can't fix everything, but Ican ask God to put a governor on
(43:26):
my heart and convict me and fixmy attitude.
And I can light a candle in thedark places where He's put me
in my sphere of influence.
Well, we've got to endsomewhere.
So how do we end?
Maybe we can ask a question.
How do you how do we make surethat we're clean of these
things?
You know?
And you know, when you'rebuilding, if you're doing
(43:48):
building a building or you'rebuilding a temple, which is the
metaphor here, right?
There's some things you have todo before you even start
building.
Part of building happens beforeyou literally start building.
You're building when you'redoing things to the foundation.
So you have to clear the groundfirst, you got to dig up the
roots, you got to level theground, you got to set your pins
(44:10):
of reference, your points thatyou refer back to so everything
stays straight and plum.
So how do you build correctly?
I've got three thoughts.
First of all, we clear out theroots and stumbling stones of
racial prejudice by the work ofthe gospel.
Okay.
What have I been taught that'snot biblical?
(44:32):
What ideas have I held on tothat are not like Christ?
Who am I judging?
And what even makes me think Ihave a right to judge them?
What condition is my heart in?
How have I had a victimmentality that's hindered me
from loving everyone and movingforward in my life?
(44:52):
Clear out the roots.
Number two, we level theground.
We're all equal in thiskingdom.
One blood.
Ground is level.
The cross is leveled at all.
This is the promise of theprophets, the new covenant.
Every valley will be exalted,every mountain will be laid low.
(45:12):
This is a promise.
This is a new covenant.
So are there ways I need tohumble myself in terms of my
understanding of me versusothers?
My race, my nationalism, mydenomination, my political
party.
Oh Lord, some of you aretracked with me until just then.
(45:34):
Yeah, I'll I'll accept somebodyfrom another nation.
I will not accept a fill in theblank political party.
Oh man.
Search our hearts, Lord.
Does it go that far?
(45:54):
Yeah.
It does.
In what ways do I need to exaltthose that I've thought less
of?
Every valley will be exalted.
Oh, help us think like Jesus.
Last thing is, we need toacknowledge our strong
foundation, the person in thework of Jesus.
The gospel is an answer.
This is the gospel issue here.
(46:15):
This whole thing we're talkingabout is a gospel issue.
It's answered by the work ofJesus.
Jesus died to reconcile me toGod.
Amen.
He dialed to reconcile me toothers.
Amen.
Okay, good, thank you.
We all have access to Godthrough his shed blood and his
broken body.
We all stand firm together onthe foundation that God has
(46:39):
laid.
Jesus Christ.
And he is our reference.
He is our reference.
We set our reference pens onhim.
We build straight by referringto him.
He who, though in very natureGod, released his rights and
humbled himself.
(46:59):
So that he could give his life.
There's our standard.
There's our standard.
There's our reference point.
Well, I'll just end with astory.
Years ago, boy, it must havebeen over 20, maybe 25 years
(47:23):
ago.
I was a part of this church, ofcourse, and I was at this men's
men's breakfast, but it was ina house.
One of the brothers had openedup his house.
And so we went there and we hadpiles of bacon and piles of
biscuits and gravy.
And, you know, one thingthat'll unite people is biscuits
(47:44):
and gravy.
I know that.
So we're there, but I'm I was apretty I was a relatively young
Christian, but I was I waslooking around.
I learned something, and I andI still think back to that day.
I can still get a picture in mymind of the room I was sitting
in, and I was looking aroundthat room.
And we're all together in thisman's house, and there were
(48:07):
blacks and there were whites,and there were younger and there
were older, and they were uppermiddle class and lower class.
There were Germans and Jews inthat room.
There were even people fromAlabama and Tennessee in that
room.
I know.
(48:28):
You were tracking with me tillthen, too, weren't you?
Hey, I'm telling you, it works,okay?
I mean, I'm we we made it.
We we were married six monthsbefore the game, uh, between
Alabama and Tennessee, and wefigured if we make it through
this game, we'll probably be allright.
And we did.
Well, I think we're gonna makeit.
And if you're okay, if you'reif you'll track with me, there's
(48:51):
even people in that room fromPowell and Halls.
Okay, so some of you understandthat, right?
You know, Panthers and RedDevils.
What is a red devil?
Who wants to be a red devil?
I'm sorry.
Spoken like a true panther.
But I'm looking in this roomand I'm thinking, how big God
is, and how big his kingdom is.
(49:12):
And all of us, we weren't justunited over the gravy.
We you we were united inChrist.
It wasn't big biscuits, it wasthe broken body.
The broken body.
How big is his kingdom, and howgood it is for brothers to
dwell together in unity.
And I never forgot that.
I thought, wow.
(49:32):
He shed his blood for all ofus.
Can we live?
Can we pray that God will helpus to live worthy of the work of
Jesus?
Look what Jesus has done.
He he demolished, he killed thehostility, he broke the wall
down.
It's not if it's there in ourhearts, it's not there because
(49:57):
of him or because of the gospel.
He did everything he could tobreak it.
God has done the work.
We gotta we gotta receive that.
We gotta let him change us.
Can you stand with me?
And let's pray.
I don't know how to apply thisexcept to let the Holy Spirit
(50:18):
apply it and do what he wants todo in our hearts.
But I want I do want to extendan invitation into a kingdom
today.
Whether I'm a religious personor a stony-hearted sinner, the
(50:40):
only way to a relationship withGod is through Christ.
I can be a rule follower or a alawbreaker.
It doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter.
We both need the cross.
And he has broken down the wallbetween us and God through his
(51:02):
shed blood.
And he's inviting you.
It says that we are citizens ina new kingdom.
We're citizens in the householdof God.
God has given us, he's givenyou, if you don't know the Lord,
he's given you a path tocitizenship.
There's a path.
The path is his son, the workof his son, the blood of Jesus.
(51:24):
The path is Jesus, he is theway.
And when you're a new citizen,you have rights.
And God will give you a newidentity this morning.
He'll give you a new passportto heaven and to the kingdom of
(51:47):
God on earth.
He'll give you one thing youget as a citizen is you get a
right to a fair trial.
You know what he does onebetter?
He justifies you through hisblood.
He calls you not guilty.
One thing you get as a citizenis you get freedom over, you get
(52:14):
new rights, you get freedom,freedom over sin he gives you.
This is in this new kingdom.
So, Father, I pray for anyonewho doesn't know you, that
you've made hungry this morning.
I pray, Lord, that they see thebeauty of Jesus, what you have
done to bring them to you.
That they by faith come to youand say, I long for you, God.
(52:37):
I want to know you.
I want to be in this kingdom.
I want to be part of thishousehold.
I don't want to be an outsider.
By the work of Jesus, acceptme, Lord.
Accept me.
If you pray that, he's faithfulto answer that.
But also he reconciles us byhis body to one another.
(53:03):
And he wants us not to justtolerate one another, he's made
us one.
He's made the two into one.
It's way beyond toleration.
It's understanding that we areone in Jesus, in his body.
And then he calls us to breakdown the wall of our prejudices.
(53:26):
And where we go to bring peaceand not poison.
This is this is who Jesus is,and this is the way of walking
with Jesus.
So, Father, thank you thismorning.
We just stand before you andask you, whatever it is that is
(53:50):
causing us to walk unworthy ofwhat you've done through your
son.
Whatever it is that is causingus to see other people
differently than you do, Lord,would you forgive us?
Would you wash us clean withthat precious blood of Jesus?
Would you make the fullness ofwhat He died for become real in
(54:13):
our lives, Lord?
And would you break the chainsof prejudice?
Break the chains of racism andof nationalism and of elitism of
all kinds, and judging becauseof outward appearances, judging
(54:35):
because of laws and rules.
Lord, would you take the wall?
Would you would you bring intoreality in our lives what you've
already done, Lord?
Would you break the walls downso we can be free?
We thank you for that, Lord.
So just we could take maybejust a minute and just allow the
(54:58):
Lord to speak to us, to pointthings out.
If there's something He bringsup, just confess it.
He's faithful and just toforgive us of our sins and to
cleanse us of allunrighteousness.
Thank you, Lord.
(55:31):
Oh Father, we just look at whatJesus has done and we marvel at
it this morning.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lord.
Bring us into that place offreedom, we pray in Jesus' name.
May the Lord bless you and keepyou.
May He make His face shine uponyou.
Be gracious to you.
(55:53):
May the Lord lift hiscountenance upon you.
May He give you peace.
In the name of Jesus.
Amen.
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