Untitled Sermon (3)

Our House will look like Heaven

Ephesians 2:11–22 NASB95

Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. And He came and preached peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.

Ephesians 2:11-22

“Church Rules”

Our House will prioritize Unity

Our House will look like Heaven

·

VBS video -7I Am really really excited about our new sermon series that we will begin today. I feel it is very important to talk about what the non essentials are for us as a church every now and then. It is good if you are new to FBA to know a little bit more about who we are and what makes us us. When our kids were little we had “HOUSE RULES” if you will. Anyone else. Yea when they were little it was like no jumping on the furniture/ quite biting your brother (don’t want to call any names our for that one Kelsey). THEN as they got older it was be home by curfew / no lying (man this was a big one at our house. Not that my kids lied it was just one that I couldn’t take. I am like if you tell me the truth I promise we will get through it. So house rules change with the seasons. This season that FBA WE are in right now is an exciting one. The building is about to go up (speaking of that Bro Ken Birdsong next week is going to update us where we are. I now you see some movement over there so keep looking / keep watching a building will be up soon. God is good) so this season is one that we are going to have to be intentional about reminding ourselves of these rules. TODAY’s RULE IS :OUR HOUSE WILL PRIORITIZE UNTIYTalk about unity. This is one of those subjects that when you hear it you really don’t think that it is that important but it is tremendously important to a churches impact on reaching the community for Christ. If you study the book of ACTS you’ll find the first church that is birthed. The Holy spirit falls upon believers and many were saved and added to their number daily. tells us about the 1st church in Jerusalem. The first church said that they all gathered together and had everything in common. What was that everything? LIFE. They were unified in and through their relationship with each other BECAUSE of their relationship with Christ Jesus. It is our desire here at FBA that we be UNIFIED body of believers. Please understand this morning that all churches have conflict. Great churches follow a biblical model for handling it. In Acts chapter 6 there was a complaint/ conflict/ a dispute that arose within this New Testament church. (did not take long did it?) The Hellenistic Jewish woman and the Amaric Jewish women. The Hellenistic Jewish women felt as if they were being overlook in their daily distribution of food. (They thought it may have been on purpose) This is the first sense of DISUNITY in the church. Out of this GREAT CHURCH because they handle the conflict biblically we see through Simon Peter that the first deacon body was elected. Here is something that I want you to think about. Acts chapter 5 right before Acts chapter 6 the first disagreement that we just talked about, Acts chapter 5 we see the disciples preaching the Gospel and while they were doing so they were arrested. While they were in prison through a miracle they were release from prison through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit of God, and as soon as they are released they go out into the temple guard and began to preach the Gospel again. When the prison guard comes by and realizes that these men have escaped they began to freak out (Greek word) and all of the others tell them you do not have to go very far to find them they are right outside in the temple court preaching the gospel the same thing the were doing when they were arrested. So the prison guards run out to arrest these men again however when they arrive (all of this in chapter 5, good stuff) they don’t arrest them violently because they are afraid/ intimidated by the New Testament church. The church was unified/ one accord. Now Acts chapter 6 we see the first disunity the first bickering then (here is the point ) further along in we see the 1st martyr in the church by the name of Steven. Where was the church when Steven was being martyred? You with me. Some of you are saying now Pastor Brian that is a little bit of a stretch, maybe it is. Look at the facts. Church unified in chapter 5 Peter and John being arrested but they are not stoned because the church is right there and unified and powerful then in Stephen is stoned as a martyr because the church is now divided. Here is what I believe about the church. I believe that the church is the bride of Jesus Christ because that is what the word of God says. I BELIEVE THE CHURCH UNITED IS THE HOPE OF THIS WORLD. But I believe the church a church that is divided in disunity is a church that will see the enemy continue to take ground and while we (church) have been bickering and fight over the last several decades: the is no longer prayer in school / abortion is provided on demand in our country while we in the church have been arguing of the finer points of theology/ praise and worship songs verses hymns/ Sunday school verses life groups/ certain parts of theology that really don’t make a difference in eternity. While we have been divided we have lost ground in our culture and I believe that it is time for the church to unite under a common Savior named Jesus Christ and let’s do this thing the right way the way that our God intended us to do it the Gods word says that The Gates of hell shall not prevail against His bride. Unity is the desire of the Savior. Because Unity is the desire of our savior it is the dread of Satan. I think about this as a father I love it when my KIDS get along. It doesn’t happen a whole lot but when it does it is a sweet sweet thing in our house. When they are loving each other there is UNITY. That is the love of the Father for us His childrenLet’s take a moment to define unity. There are literally hundreds of definition to define unity but for today we will use this one. UNITY is a diverse people (different ages, different genders, different skin color, different parts of the country that we are from) that are indivisible in our pursuit for the Glory of God. That is what a church ought to be. A diverse group of people coming together indivisible meaning not able to divide in our pursuit of our Glory to God in our generation. Church that is unity. Listen to what Paul says in 0 I appeal to you, brothers,[a] by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment. You may ask is FBA a church that is united. I would say one of the reasons that our Heavenly Father has blessed his church called FBA in the last 10 years is because we have been a people united to share Christ name and make His name known. Now do we have little skirmishes every now and then that pop up yes, pockets of disunity yes sometimes. Let me just say this why we are here on this point: if you stay here for any length of time I promise you are probably going to disagree with me or someone around you. We are human beings. But I will say this here; we want to disagree the right way. speaks clearly to how? We don’t talk about people here at FBA we talk to them. Does that make sense? How do we do that? I don’t know of any other way than the word of God so here we go.STAND READ PRAYHow WILL WE BE A CHURCH THAT WILL PRIORITIZE UNITY? One truth we need to understand this morning is that you cannot create unity. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. I cannot create unity as I cannot make grass grow in my yard. It is a supernatural work that seed has to burst to make the grass grow. Now a few things need to happen to help it, water, nutrients, grass is for sure not going to grow. So all we can do is protect unity when the Holy Spirit has gone before us in people’s lives. So again we cannot create all we can do is protect and this passage is going to help us understand this truth. passageV1 Paul says he is a prisoner of the Lord. Paul is not using a metaphor here he is literally in prison writing this letter to the church of Ephesus from a Roman prison. Nero was the leader at this time and he was an incredibly evil man who hated Christians. This is how committed Paul is to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. V1 Paul writes “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” now part of that calling that we have to Jesus Christ is that we would die to our needs and come alive to what Jesus Christ would have us to do in our generation. The other calling that we have is to live in a body. Part of this series is to recap the vision and mission of the local OUR church. God has created you and I not to live in isolation but to live in a body among other believers. LISTEN this is hard. Because they think differently/ they act differently, and if we are not careful than disunity may begin to take place. “I urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called.” and then Paul list three virtues. If you want to have unity in your marriage/ in your workplace/ in your home/ or in any kind of relationship with your friends/ if you are going to have unity inside the church it will be these three virtues that have to be present every time. In fact I would go as far as to say if there is a relational problem in any arena of our life we could look back and see that somebody has violated one of these virtues. It will destroy relationships/ it will destroy churches. A coach wants his team to be unified. A CEO wants his business to be unified. Christ Jesus want his church to be unified. How does this happenVerse 2. Paul says to be humble/ gentle/ patient – then he illustrates that by saying “bearing with one another in love.” This means putting up with sometimes the weaknesses of others. Making allowances. LET ME INTRODUCE YOU TO THE HUMAN RACE: people are going to hurt you/ people are going to let you down/ people are going to say things and do things/ they are going to disappoint you. Is that true? Yes. The problem is that we hold others to a lot higher standard than we hold ourselves. How many times have you heard somebody say this: Well I am not perfect? Well that is a big shocker right. I thought you were J but as soon as one other person violates us or acts against us or contrary to the way we do things or like things then it creates a problem to that same person. That person is holding the other person to a higher standard than they are holding themselves. We need to be understanding and make some allowances (if you will) that God is at work in the other person’s life and He is going to change them. Bearing with one another in love/ keeping the unity of the spirit by keeping the bond of the spirit of peace – there is one body. What we are going to see here Paul is saying is God’s truth is foundational for unity. Here is what we need to focus on. There is one body – the church, the bride of Christ. The church is 3 in 1. I am the church as an individual – every time I go out on my own I am representing Jesus Christ/ I am involved in a local church - a local body of believers. I hear people say I don’t believe in the church or the body of believers I can do it on my own. If this is the case you must discount the vast majority of the New Testament because it was written to the local body of believers called the church. / then we are a part of a universal church. I as a pastor if I say something or believe something really stupid outside the will of God it doesn’t just affect our church it affects the universal church, the Christian faith. There is one body one spirit just as you were called to one hope. We were all called to this one hope. What is this hope? Jesus is coming back again for His people. We are going to spend eternity with Him. All of the difficult things that we are going through in this life God is going to redeem it. Finish reading through 5-7#1 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNITY by HUMILITY V2 Paul gives us 3 virtues in this text what is Humility? Putting another person’s needs ahead of yours. I love what one theologian said “we would like to be humbled but what if no one notices” FUNNY but true. They may not t notice humility but what they will notice is pride. Maybe you don’t notice pride but everybody else around you will. The opposite of humility is pride. Putting yourself before everyone else. In every relational problem 99.9% of the time it is because one person is not putting the other before themselves. Humility. When you leave the parking lot today there ought to be an incredibly long line of people being nice saying to one another no You go. No you go. You with me. Humility. I am putting your needs ahead of mine. If we lived like this in the church we would see the power of God fall. Here is a great definition of Humility by CS Lewis “ Humility is not thinking less of yourself, or making these self deprecating statements (putting yourself down) but thinking of yourself less.” Great word. Thinking of myself less and thinking of others more. 4 Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,[a] 6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,[b] being born in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. What is the cross about? The cross is about Jesus Christ putting your needs before His very own. Enduring the pain and agony so that you and I might have salvation in Him. Church it is the gospel. This is humility/ this is our savior and we ought to model this life! #2 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNTIY by GENTLENESS v2Now please understand that these virtues in a 1st century culture were laughable. To be humble was laughable. That is not a virtue that the Romans would possess at all, they made fun of people like this. What is Gentleness- Gentleness is not weakness. Some people say well he is a gentle guy and some people think well that is just a nice way of saying oh he is just a sissy. No that is not Gentleness. Gentleness in a biblical sense is one of power under control. It is in the language of a stallion horse that has been broken. Now after that stallion has been broken you can ride that stallion but he still has that same POWER it is just under control. What creates disunity in the church? When someone is out of control. How am I under control? You are under control when your under the Holy Spirit’s influence. There have been so many times in my life when I wish I had a do over. When I got angry/ when I acted in the flesh/ said things that I wish I would not have said. Spent tons of time having to clean that up and make it right. Not fun. Pray. Gentleness is going to the father when something has upset you, when someone thinks differently than you instead of lashing out or going behind their back would you just take that to the FATHER ? Could that just be one of our (FBA) goals? Stop and pray in that situation. I am Gentle. I am Power under control. #3 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNITY by PATIENCE. V2What is Patience? Patience is realizing that God is at work in everybody’s life. If you are a believer here today please understand what we are is a work in progress. We are under construction. Right? Patience says that I am going to bear with you in peace. I am going to encourage you because God is not through with you yet and He is not through with me yet. We are going to be patient with each other as God does His work of redeeming us and reconciling us. PATIENCE is trusting God with the EGR’s in your life. EXTRA GRACE REQUIRED. Code word for the difficult people in your life. You and I are always going to have extra Grace required people in our life. People who know how to push your buttons, people who know how to just drive you crazy in your flesh and patience is saying God you’re at work in their life and heart and I am going to be patient. When I act out in anger and I become impatient I am standing in the way of what God is up to in a person’s life. 1 timothy 1:16 16 But I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life. Good news for you this morning that God has shown PERFECT PATIENCE with you and with me. Because of this I ought to extend this perfect patience to others around me who need it. #4 Our HOUSE will prioritize UNITY by being ALL IN . ALL OF US. In the hallway today if you hear someone gossiping or talking about someone that you have the courage to be a person that is protecting and I think that is what God is called you to do. This morning if you are a follower of Jesus Christ you have a responsibility to be a person that is to protect the body of Jesus Christ to stand up and lead courageously for unity. When the body is not unified people get hurt. The spirit of God is removed in a culture that is not changed. This is a big deal. It takes courageous believers to stand in the gap and say hey listen have you talked to that person first. I love you and care about you and because I do after class not in the middle of class because I want to respect them, say hey have you gone to that person because I can’t listen to you talk about them that would be violating my biblical responsibility. WOW!! Unity would take place and revival would break out and we would be an incredible family. Let’s be a people who talk to people not about people. This is what it take to protect unity and to cultivate those virtues. Am I GROWING IN PATIENCE? AM I GROWING IN HUMILITY/ AM I GROWING IN GENTLENESS? I feel in our churches today that there are many people who just sit on the sidelines. Why is that? We hear people say I have been hurt in the past and I understand that. I know those stories. I jumped in and got involved and somehow got hurt, I found out that this person was not everything that I thought he was. The church is made of broken people. WE HAVE THE ONLY MESSAGE IN THE CULTURE THAT WILL MAKE PEOPLE WHOLE. It is worth it to be involved in the bride of Jesus Christ. I would say this: the first key to maintain unity in the church is to get involved. Be a part of the solution not a part of the problem. If you’re sitting on the sidelines I believe in essence that you are violating the scriptures. It is hard to belong to something that you’re not involved in. Does that make sense? I know that is a hard teaching, but here is the truth, Jesus is coming back for His bride some day and I think we are closer than ever. Do you believe that? When He Jesus comes back I want to be found giving my life as Paul would say a prisoner/ I want to be found protecting the bride of Jesus Christ. Spreading a message of reconciliation to the nations. Ill Most Americans can recall what they were doing on January 28, 1986. On that historic date, the space shuttle Challenger exploded just seventy-three seconds into flight. Seven families were robbed by death and an entire nation was racked with grief. All of this loss was ultimately blamed on one inexpensive O-ring. Records revealed that the space shuttle was comprised of one million components. In this sea of mechanical makeup, it took just one part to destroy the whole. One million parts did their job, but one failed and disaster occurred. Most people feel their role within the church is not only small and insignificant, but inconsequential as well. This mistaken doctrine of the church causes individuals to believe their behavior can’t hurt the church. But like that small and seemingly insignificant O-ring, one failed performance can produce catastrophic results.#4 A HOUSE of UNITY can spark REVIVAL. Listen to what Jesus said in “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, do you know who he is speaking about. That is everybody in this room that is a follower of Jesus Christ. It was through the foundation of the apostles that we are here today. SO Jesus is praying for us. He says I am praying that all of them are one just as you are in me and I am in you may they also be in us so that in the world they may believe that you have sent me, I have given them glory that you gave me that they may be one as we are one I in them you in me may they be brought to complete unity that they may let the world know that you have sent me and love me even as you have loved me. When a church is unified it declares a message of the supremacy of Jesus Christ to the nations. When a church is divided we look just like the culture. What was Jesus praying? We would be unified/ we would love each other/ we would encourage each other/ we would be humble/ we would be gentle/ we would be patient. We would make allowances for each other. Unity is what we share in common. Verses 4-6 read.Augustine said this “In essentials unity”Non Negotionables. In the non negotionables version of the bible/ style of music/ election vs free will. That is a secondary issue. It is destroying and dividing churches and it is keeping us from having the kingdom impact that God has called His church to. Paul says let’s be committed to these essentials. Doctrine/ truth matters. UnitySomeone sitting alone is 911Friends can waitIntroduce a guest to someone else

· So so good to see you this morning. We are honored that you chose to worship with us this morning. You have landed with us on our 3rd week of our sermon series we entitled HOUSE RULES. We are talking about what makes FBA FBA. We are walking through what makes us tick as a body of believers. We are talking about the essentials of our church.

· 1st week we said our church will prioritize UNITY. We looked at and said we will be unified when we are humble/ gentle/ patient.

· Last week we said that we will be a HOUSE that takes RISK. We looked at and exegetically walked through the text and saw the RISK that Caleb and Joshua took. We also saw the consequence that the children of Israel (20 years of age and older) had by not entering the promise land because of their lack of risk.

· This morning we have entitled the message “OUR HOUSE WILL LOOK LIKE HEAVEN” What does that mean we are perfect. Absolutely not. It means that we will be a DIVERSE CHURCH.

· I believe that this sermon series is a great reminder of who the LOCAL church is and what God has called us to be. My prayer is it will show us the Power, potential and Vision for the local church. I believe in our generation that we have lost excitement and understand of the local church and what God intended it to be and that is the hope of the nations. We want to be a church that is on mission for the Lord. Today I want to talk to you about one of the distinctive’s of this place, One of the things that we believe that God is calling us to and we believe that it is an area of growth for us and area that we have work to do but it is something that is so so super important. So today we are going to talk about what it means to be a church that CELEBRATES DIVERSITY. We live in a very diverse country / our country is divided/ our city is divided/ our city our country is segregated there is so much prejudice in many ways / there is political prejudice/ there is racial prejudice/ there is social economic prejudice that just exist everywhere.

· Ill Redneck capital of the world. Folks on cell phones don’t realize how loud they talk sometimes and he was obviously from somewhere else and he was telling someone where he was and he said I AM IN THE REDNECK CAPITAL OF THE WORLD. Memphis tn I am like bro what are you talking about/ what / man and he did even realize that. Little bit painful to hear all of that.

· I want to speak into this as well. When we think of diversity our minds automatically go to race when however we are divided with young VS old/ we are divided Rich vs poor. I would even say our families are divided. The saying around FBA is as goes the family as goes the ?? CHURCH. Right we have families today where moms and dads are divided/ parents and children are divided. Satan is having his way with the families today in our culture.

· What is the answer to all of this: I believe the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what we want our HOUSE to be. We want FBA our House to look like our community and today to be honest it doesn’t. we have a little work to do.

· So lets see how we can grow in this:

· – we will exegetically break this text down into small bite size chunks. We are going to see some keys in this passage that focuses on diversity. A lot to cover so here we go.

· V11 Paul is writing to Christians at a church in Ephesus and inside that church there were Gentiles and there were Jews. Now inside this 1st century culture there was no greater since of prejudice among any other group than between the Jews and the Gentiles. The Jews hated (understatement) the Gentiles and the Gentiles hated the Jews. In fact if you were a Jew an orthodox Jew and you were to marry a Gentile your family would not come to the wedding / because they would have another service going on at the same time/ it would have been your funeral/ that is the since of prejudice that existed there. Paul is reminding them in this first verse of where they come from in their background. I believe the principles that Paul is going to lay out between the Jews and the Gentiles are principles that can work in every arena of our life where prejudice exist.

· V12 CHRIST Meaning at one time you were separated from Christ we all were. You were/ I was separated/ we were excluded from citizenship. Another translation says you were ALIENATED. Basically, Paul is saying you all had one thing in common. You all were on the outside looking in. You were all of minority status if you will.

· V12 ALIENATED So the first Key to overcoming prejudice in our life according to this text is

· #1 Our HOUSE will NOT be a HOUSE of PREJUDICE. PREJUDICE kills DIVERSITY.

· If you are here today and you are a believer there was a time when you did not know Christ Jesus. There was a time when you WERE ON THE OUTSIDE LOOKING IN. Some of you today may have still not surrendered your life to Christ Jesus (we are super glad you are here today) One of the things that happen in our life is we get very prideful even as believers we get prideful about who we are. We take great pride in a lot of things we really didn’t have anything to do with. We have to remember that I was a sinner who had no hope no meaning in life apart from a relationship with Jesus Christ. That is the first thing we have to think about is to remember where we have come from.

· Fillings of superiority really bring about prejudice. This is really were prejudice starts. GUATAMALA. I had nothing to do with being born in America. I am blessed. This ultimately leans us to believe that we are better than someone else. Listen to what the bible has to say about this: Paul says in What then? Are we Jews[a] any better off?[b] No, not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin Nobody is better than anyone else. We have all been separated from God. We all have the same spiritual condition at birth. Paul was a Jew. He had risen to the top if you will in Judaism. If anyone could have a thought that he was better than someone else it was Paul but Paul understood where he had come from. He didn’t have that pridefullness that breeds prejudice.

· Labels fuel prejudice. This is what we do. Well he is a redneck. She is aa Yankee. He is a Muslim. He is a democrat/ she is a republican. We put labels on people. When you label a person it really keeps you from seeing I would say the secret to overcoming prejudice. Truth is the only label we all have is that we are all created in the image of God. It is easier to label someone and stay in hatred. Now there are generalizations about labels that we make. Ill BASKETBALL. KENO Silly thing but we have a generalization of labels. Labels tends to lead to prejudice and alienations among groups.

· I think about the 1st century world and still today IGNORANCE fuels prejudice. In a first century world the Romans were in power and the Romans believed this about the Jews/ the Romans believed that the Jews were lazy. You know why? Because the Jews didn’t work on Saturday/ Sabbath. Do you know why the Jews didn’t work on Saturday? Because it was the sabbath. It was a day that was HOLY unto the Lord. Gods word had all kind of restrictions about what they could not do on the sabbath. This is an example of Ignorance.

· Did you know that our ancestors / the first followers of Christ/ again the first century world / the first Christians were known by the Romans as #1 incestuous people. Why? Because each other brother and sister. That is just ignorance isn’t it. That ignorance breed prejudice. The next thing that they said about our ancestors / Christians/ that they were cannibals. Why? Because believers celebrated communion. The body of Christ Jesus. These are just examples of who ignorance breeds prejudice. This is happened in our world and is still happening in our world today. I think as a follower of Jesus Christ we are way better than that. I have a vision for OUR HOUSE that FBA would be a place where prejudice dies. We will never reach out community until we look like our community. Does that make sense? Did you know that you are sitting in the most SEGERATED HOUR of the week in the United States of America? Gods house. That should not be the way it is. Some of the reasons why it is that way is because of ignorance in our own mind. Things we believe that is not true. Like the guy ? everyone in Memphis tn is a redneck. I might be but most are not. Right.

· #2 Our HOUSE will NURTURE DIVERSITY. The CROSS is the CURE to PREJUDICE.

· I want to say this. I know I run the risk of offending some of you and I am ok with that because I love you. Did you know that I love you. I will stay here all day. I am always baited by folks to be drawn into arguments. There are folks that want me to take a stand why don’t you preach about who we should vote for/ why don’t you go on attack about which candidate we should vote for/ why don’t you take a stand about issues in the community/ why don’t you take a stand Pastor Brian. I AM TAKLING A STAND I AM TAKING A STAND ON THE ONLY THING THAT WILL WORK ON THESE ISSUES. THAT IS THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST. It is the hope that is found in the cross of Jesus Christ. Listen to what our text says this morning.

· V13-14 has made us both one. Who is that… the Jew and Gentile. They are now believers they are now one. They are not seen anymore of Jew and Gentile. They are seen as believers or one. They have a new identity that has come through the cross of Jesus Christ.

· V14 Man this is a great passage. In a first century culture would have understood it in a more clear context than we understand it today. If you worshipped in a first century world and you went to the temple there was a court of Gentiles. If you were not a Jew then you could only get into the first layer of the temple. Then there was a huge was with a sign that archeologicalist have unearthed the sign. That said IF YOU ARE NOT A JEW YOU GO PAST THIS WALL WITH THE THREAT OF YOUR LIFE. Meaning if you went in any further into the temple and you were not a Jew you would be killed. This created a little animosity right. This would be like us today saying if you weren’t born in ARLINGTON you cant worship in here. All of you who were born outside of Arlington we will have a tent set up in the parking lot that you can worship in. Don’t come in or we may shoot you. That creates a little division doesn’t it. You guys with me still.

· So when Paul says the dividing wall has been destroyed … that is what Jesus did. He broke down the diving wall. What caused this division. Sin caused this division. What did Jesus accomplish on the cross? Jesus obliterated sin. The consequences of sin. The debt that sin brought. The hostility that is a result of sin. Jesus did away with it all.

· Cody my youngest son. I know he gets sick of me using him in illustrations. I told him the other day man do you mind me using this for illustration. He said yes. I said well if you love Jesus you will let me tell it. By the way look how God is using you in great ways. Fight. Wouldn’t pick him up. Because that is the warrior I am. Fight. Temper. Hostility//// Hostility is a part of our nature apart form Christ. It is only the blood of Jesus Christ that makes us whole that completes us/ that gives us our identity. Apart from Christ we are always fearful/ we are always anxious/ we are always competing/ we are always hostile. Peace comes when we trust the completed work on the cross and understand who you are in Christ. Because the bible says sin separates us from Christ/ now the dividing wall has come down. Allow me to say this SIN ALSO SEPERATES YOU FROM OTHER HUMAN BEINGS. Jesus also obliterated that. Why so we can have fellowship known as the church. OUR HOUSE/ our FAMILY.

· V15-16 Jew and Gentile now are ONE NEW man through the Cross of Jesus Christ. Can we just say this today. OUR CULTURE STINKS AT RELATIONSHIPS. Can I say that to you this morning. There is so much prejudice in our country / ill say this it is worse in other countries. If you have traveled to Latin American countries you leave Mexico and go into other Latin American countries they don’t like each other. There is a ton of prejudice in other parts of the world. We lived in one of the most racially divided cities in the country. The only hope for prejudice to end is the completed work through Jesus Christ and the cross that can radically change one life at a time. This is why I believe with all of my heart that the church is the hope of the nations. This is the answer.

· What happened at the cross? The sin that brought about separation and hostility was defeated. Isn’t that good news. The sin that brought separation between me and the father was defeated. The sin that brought hostility between Auburn fans and Alabama fans has been defeated. I am a Tennessee fan so we don’t have much to cheer for. Republicans and Democrats hostility defeated at the cross. North and the South defeated. This Hostility has been defeated.

· This is controversial. The answer to segregation / we live in a segregated world today. Again you are sitting in the most segregated hour in the world. We have to change that. Please let that not be said of OUR HOUSE/ FBA. THE ANSWER TO SEGREGATION IS NOT INTERGREATION. Let me explain before you email me. I am not saying integration is bad. I think it is a good idea. The problem is it doesn’t work. Just because you bring 2 different people together doesn’t mean that they are going to get along. They can learn from each other I understand that. I believe that the true answer to SEGREGATION IS NOT INTERGATION BUT IT IS SALVATION. When a person comes to faith and trust in Jesus Christ they are a new creation / a new man or new woman. Today I am not a white man or a black man or a Hispanic man …….if you are in Christ you are God’s man. I shouldn’t see the difference… it is not a part of who we are now in Christ. Paul says Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.[a] The old has passed away; behold, the new has come let me say this to you today because we are running out of time. Prejudice is a part of the old man. The old creation. I am not saying that there will not be embers that we have of that that may want to pop up sometimes. I have heard this so much over the years to be honest it makes me sick at my stomach. LISTEN THIS IS THE WAY I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN // THIS IS THE WAY MY DADDY WAS// sometimes it is time to graduate isn’t it? At some point it is time to say I am growing up and I ma a new man or a new woman in Jesus Christ. That might have been my background but that is not my destiny. My identity has been radically changed though Christ Jesus. This is where prejudice ends AT THE CROSS.

· RESULTS OF THE CROSS.

· BECAUSE OF THE CROSS WE HAVE A COMMON SALVATION.

· BECAUSE OF THE CROSS WE HAVE A COMMON SPIRIT. If you are a believer here today you have the 3rd person of the trinity / the Holy Spirit of God that live within you. He gives you power/ direction. He makes you a new creation.

· BECAUSE OF THE CROSS WE ARE FAMILY TODAY. We are brothers and sister and at some point we begin to act like that.

· BECAUSE OF THE CROSS WE HAVE A NEW CITIZENSHIP. Our eternity is Heaven we are just passing through this earth.

· #3 Our HOUSE will DEMONSTRATE the power of the GOSPEL through DIVERSITY.

· Why is that? Because no other area of our culture is doing this well. A church who was to get this/ a church who was to embrace this/ a church that was to live out their identity as a new creation in Christ and was diverse in its gathering and going and mission and ministry would bring so much glory to God. Do you believe that? Man I do. I think a lost world looks in and say you are like everyone else in so many ways.

· V17-19 HE Jesus. HOUSEHOLD. Importance of church. If there is ever a picture of consumer Christianity boy that is it. What are you running on special this week for my kids. For me. God hasn’t called us to be consumers God has called us to be contributors. He has called us to come together as a FAMILY and bring God glory. We can say man I don’t have prejudice that is not a part of my life. Well how the culture see that. OH OH GOOD they will see that when we live that out as a family. How are we a family? When Membership matters and boy it matters to OUR HOUSE FBA.

· Illustration: Melinda cooks dinner/ see what my neighbor cooks / other neighbor cooks. See what I like best. Don’t do it at you house that is silly/// God doesn’t want us to do it in HIS.

· I have said this 10 times this morning. Sunday morning is still the most segregated hour of the week. The PEW STUDY did research on this over the years and here is a quote from the PEW CENTER RESEARCH. “every Sunday in the USA parishioners head off to their respective churches the vast majority are filled with worshipers predominately one race. 93% of the churches in the USA that are worshiping right now 93% are filled with one race of people.” And we wonder why we aren’t reaching our community. One of the reasons is we don’t look anything like our community. This is not how God has called us to do this thing called life.

· V19 we belong to a body of believers known as the church. OUR HOUSE.

· V20 I love this. Lets go back to our forefathers of the church / the bride of Christ / do you remember what happened when the church first came together in ? What was the contributing event that launched this thing called the church? It was the Day of Pentecost. What happened at Pentecost is we saw people with all different backgrounds now coming to the city of Jerusalem and they heard the Gospel in one voice. In fact what we see in is a reversal of what happened in which is the tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel brought separation the church is starting and bringing people in together. Dying to prejudice and worshiping the lord as one body. That is our background. That is our heritage. Oh that we could and would reclaim that in our generation.

· V21 -22 What is the point here. This idea of being a diverse church / this idea of dying to prejudice in our own life is a work of the Holy Spirit. It is what the Holy Spirit does when He comes to live in your heart and life. If you’re here today and you were to say Pastor Brian you just need to be quiet / you don’t understand/ infact it is people like you Pastor Brian that are so liberal in what your saying and you are causing all the problems in our culture. Let me just say something to you: as it relates to differences. There is one side of the argument that say we need to be accepting of everybody we just need to love everyone/// the other side of the argument is just kind of separate from them. This is the side that lives inside walls with prejudice. They protect themselves and isolates themselves. TWO SIDES OF THIS ARGUMENT. Here is what I will say to you this morning. Both are wrong. Can I say that to you? In fact, accepting someone who is I sin is not a loving thing. It is a hate filled thing. If I were to go to my DR. Dr Andrew Morgan if I were to go to you on Monday and Dr Andrew finds a massive tumor in my body and I come to him and say hey Doc how am I? He say Brian your fine!! Your great. Just the way you are you are perfect. That would be hatred wouldn’t it. He wouldn’t be sharing the truth with me. This is how we are about accepting all these things that don’t line up with the word of God. My buddy is having an affair on his wife/ that is just the way he is. I need to love him. YES AND NO!!!! the bible says we ought to be inspectors of a persons fruit. The bible say we ought to share the truth in LOVE. Here is where we get into the problem. We want to try to fix someone with our own words. This doesn’t work. It is the truth of Gods word that is applied to a person that we love and care about that is involved in sin that will bring change. WHY? Because this word of God is alive. It is active. It cuts right to the heart. See I don’t know your heart/ I don’t know your past. Listen I have met with people who may be living a alternative life style as our culture would put it. After you meet you find that in her past she had been abused by a family member over and over and over. Listen the last thing she needed was some preacher just to blast her about her sin. She needs the truth of the word of God that can bring about forgiveness and hope and love. This living word can bring about change in her life. Truth can do that but we have to be courageous enough to share it in love.

· Someone here today in a crowd this big needs to say this. God I am a work in progress and father I need to grow up in this area. There is prejudice in my life. I put on labels/ there is this guy at the office that I have just shut myself off too. God I want you to begin to renew this work in me so that I can be a person who bring you glory by the way I live my life.

· I am closing: diversity must be intentional. We must have a plan for it and engage it with some intentionality. Time to go and some of you look mad. 😊 here is what I believe about prejudice. If you are mad at me today please know I love you. I do. Have you thought that maybe that anger is coming from some place else. I don’t like you calling this out/ stick to scripture/ I did/ I promise/ I have this deep seeded hatred or animosity against this group and that is just the way it is going to be, You don’t know what they have done to me in the past.1 If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar;( I wish john would shoot straight) for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot[a] love God whom he has not seen. 21 And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother. Today as we close this hatred or animosity could be giving you a glimpse of a hostile heart you may have toward God. The only cure we have for that is let me introduce you to Christ.

· Maybe thought God is prejudice against me. I have made to many mistakes. Back in 1986 this happened and God cannot wait to punish me. Listen God is not a bigot he is benevolent. forever YES to Jesus Christ.

· My problem is not others it is me. Cant forgive myself. Cure is the same.