Core Value: Diversity
Notes
Transcript
I. Core Values: Sermon Series
I. Core Values: Sermon Series
ii. What is the vision of the Church?
ii. What is the vision of the Church?
1. “To create a multiethnic, multicultural movement that manifests the kingdom of God”
ii. What is the mission?
ii. What is the mission?
2. “Love God, Love People”
iii. What is the Corevalues?
iii. What is the Corevalues?
Diversity – Valuing, empowering & including people of different ethnic, economic and cultural background.
Belonging – Being a people of genuine love and authenticity who are living life together.
Transformation – We invest in change of lives, communities and cultures as a result of divine encounters with Jesus
Deployment – Intentional launching of equipped individuals to perpetuate kingdom advancement
Sacrifice – Servants outpouring of their time, gifts and resources into all those they encounter.
IV. Why Diversity
IV. Why Diversity
We believe that God values diversity.
In Genesis 12:2-3, God makes a promise to Abraham. Abraham is the physical forefather of all the Jewish nation, but he is also the Spiritual father of all those who believe. According to Romans 4:11.
What is the promise? Genesis 12:2-3
I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
2. How is that promise fulfilled? Galatians 3:8–9 .
And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.” For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed.
But Christ has rescued us from the curse pronounced by the law. When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. For it is written in the Scriptures, “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.” Through Christ Jesus, God has blessed the Gentiles with the same blessing he promised to Abraham, so that we who are believers might receive the promised Holy Spirit through faith.
We believe God encourages us to reach the nations and to have unity in that Diversity.
Matthew 28:19
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
b. Galatians 3:26-29
For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes. There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus. And now that you belong to Christ, you are the true children of Abraham. You are his heirs, and God’s promise to Abraham belongs to you.
To give an understanding of our view on diversity, I’ll do a couple of things here today. I’ll redefine & explains the impact it has on Advancing God’s kingdom.
V. Why must we redefine
a. If we don't have a complete understanding of these concepts from a biblical perspective, we can and do misuse terms, creating confusion in our lives and ministry. As citizens of God's Kingdom, we must allow God to shape how we understand culture & diversity. If we let the world define biblical concepts, we leave interpretation to sinful man instead of a good God. We see this with concepts on identity, mental health, love, justice, and so forth.
i. In the book of Job, when he goes through his hardship, his friends begin to distort God’s justice and character in their advice and teaching to Job. God rebukes his friends and says, Job 42:7
“My wrath is kindled against you and against your two friends; for you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.
He commands them to make sacrifices, pointing out that what they did was sinful. To misrepresent God’s word, his actions and character are sin against a Holy God.
Culture – is the characteristics and knowledge of a particular group of people, encompassing language, religion, food, social habits, music, and arts.
Simply put, they are learned practices we gain from the people we are around as we grow up.
Though the word culture is a modern word not found in the Bible, similar to the term “Trinity,” the concept is all throughout scripture.
God classifies people by language (Gen 10), region (Gen 14:12), and shared traditions (Matthew 15) (Titus 1:12)
2. Culture, in most applications, is more than just items or artifacts. It’s found in expression and interpretation. For instance, take three different families and tell them to prepare chicken. Though they’re using the same item, those meals will taste vastly different.
3. Most biblical Near Eastern (this includes Jewish history) scholars would agree that even things we see in the bible, such as the Hebrew language & alphabet, were interpretations by Abraham's descendants of pre-existing languages & symbols of surrounding nations.
ii. So culture is not a bad thing; it’s just the way we have become accustomed to doing things. It only becomes a bad thing if, like in Matthew 15, our cultures go against the timeless truths of God’s word.
2. Ethnicity - is a bit easier to define using only scripture or biblical literature.
In Revelation chapter 7 verse 9, the English word nations are from the Greek word 'ethnos' it is where we get the English word "ethnic" or "ethnicity," which means – It is the people attached to the culture. Nations/people groups are just describing a particular collection of people with commonality who have a long-standing history."
a. There is a distinction between ethnicity & culture. Two people can derive from the same people group & look nearly identical, but relocation could & would give them two different cultures, which could eventually give them their own people group.
i. For example, I was ignorant of my friends' Jamaican heritage. Though we shared physical traits and American experiences, our cultures were different. I later learned that Jamaicans were part of the transatlantic slave trade. So we had more in common than I thought, but less because our families had moved into a different people group.
b. Ethnicity and culture are similar but not the same.. When we say we are a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural church, we’re mean Matthew 28:18 and Acts 1:8: advancing the kingdom for every people group in our area. We don’t expect people to lose their language, food, and values, unlesss they conflict with God’s kingdom.
Race
1. Once again, this is another word that we see appear in scripture, or at least the biblical authors had a concept of it in their culture.
2. Race – means people who are believed to belong to the same genetic stock. In Genesis, God called all his creatures to produce after their own kind. “Kind” here is where we get the word for “species”. Interestingly, he never told humanity to produce after its own kind. He just says, “Be fruitful and multiply.
Acts 17:26 says,
From one man he made every nation of the human race to inhabit the entire earth, determining their set times and the fixed limits of the places where they would live,
So also it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living person”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
The word 'man' is where we get the term 'anthropology.' That is the study of humanity.
b. This is important because, according to scripture, humanity, all of humanity, is God's only creation made in the image of the creator. The image of God gives value, worth & purpose to us.
VI. Impact on the Kingdom
a. The Apostle Paul, in a letter to the Ephesus church, made a powerful statement after declaring that the gospel tears down the dividing wall of hostility separating people by gender and ethnicity.
Ephesians 3:10, he says, .
His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,
i. The word 'manifold' means multi-faced, varied, diverse. The Greeks used it to describe fabric or art filled with many colors, similar to the coat of many colors given to Joseph by his father, Jacob.
ii. We live in a diverse Kingdom with different perspectives, cultures, & even varying points of emphasis in theology. Our instinct is to often resist difference. But scripture shows that God embraces diversity.
1. There is an interesting little story in the Gospels, where the disciples tell Jesus of a time, they tried to stop a person from casting out demons simply because he wasn't a part of their group. Jesus replies, "Do not stop him," "for whoever is not against you is for you."
b. People in the bible faced cultural issues, discrimination issues & prejudicial behavior all the time, and they addressed them & didn't shrink.
i. The debate over eating meat sacrificed to idols in the church of Corinth is a cultural conflict that is resolved with God’s word that unifies the church, not divides it.
ii. To see color is a beautiful thing; John saw color when he looked up to heaven in Revelation 7 & he heard culture from everyone speaking in their tongue. Though acknowledging difference & seeing color is a good thing; it is not the goal; unity is. In John 17:21, Jesus prayed, "that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that world may believe that you have sent me."d
VII. To achieve unity within our churches & ministry, it takes humility, intentionality, and grace.
1. Humility – Philippians 2:3 says,
Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves.
An easy way to kill a relationship is through cultural superiority. Thinking how you do it, the way you have always been taught it is always the best method. That applies to the way we teach, worship, learn & pray.
2. Intentionality – In the same Corinthians that was extremely diverse, Paul says, "I become all things to all people." That speaks to intentionality; Paul was so committed to the Kingdom's mission, it impacted his approach to different people groups.
a. Intentionally building relationships with people who don't look like you, think like you, vote like you is probably one of the healthiest things believers can do in the kingdom of God.
i. On this subject, Jemar Tisby says in his book "The Color of Compromise," "A purposeful effort to develop relationships with people from diverse backgrounds will carry you to different restaurants, grocery stores, and hangouts. If you strategically organize your spatial habits, the mundane places where you enact your regular routines can become the richest sites to encounter those who are different from you." "You may have to engineer these opportunities, but they can lead to organic friendships that cross traditional lines of social division."
VIII. Impacting our World
a. Not only does having a kingdom view of diversity change how we operate within the Kingdom, it naturally changes the world around us.
i. It can begin the way we view justice, injustice, and many other situations plaguing our nations & communities.
In the book "Misreading Scripture With Western Eyes," the author challenges us to rethink our interpretations of passages after removing our cultural blinders. For instance, in Luke 21, we are famously taught that Jesus is commending the 'poor widow' for sacrificial giving. At a closer examination, we see at the end of chapter 20 Jesus warns against false religious teachers who extort poor widows, and directly after the story, the disciples acknowledge how the temple was adorned with precious stones that were paid for with gifts dedicated to God.
But through a different cultural lens, we begin to see that Jesus may not have only been commending the ‘poor window’ but calling wickedness & hypocrisy and, more aptly put, injustice by the corrupt religious leaders.
Our culture shapes how we see scripture, especially the points we emphasize over others.
A God-fearing biblical worldview does not pit scripture against scripture, or elevate cultural or ethnicity over the Kingdom of God.
Life on Life Break outs.
What are some reasons that local churches tend to segregate along ethnic and economic lines?
What fears or concerns might you have in building relationships with people who are different than you?
Name a few of the stereotypes that exist concerning your own racial (ethnic) group. do these reflct negative or positive views of your culture?
