Christ Wesleyan Church
Join us for our primary worship service each weekend.
Acts 17:26 ESV
A. Let’s begin with these foundational understandings…
1 Corinthians 3:11 NLT
1. We are all created by God.
Genesis 2:7 NLT
2. We are all made in God’s image.
Genesis 1:26 NLT
3. We are all one family.
Acts of the Apostles 17:26 NLT
4. We are all loved by God.
John 3:16 NLT
B. Racism in our world…
Racism: “Attributing to one race intrinsic superiority or valuing it above one another and then treating others as undesirable or evil. Racism is about making quick judgments on the characteristics of a race, to rate them as inferior or superior – demonstrating partiality or bias.”
1. Racism is sin. Racism is favoritism.
“It is a massive, global, history-long, devastating, bloody, murderous problem. For example, the Armenian Genocide in Turkey in 1915 — a million slaughtered Armenians. Holocaust in Germany: six million. Who knows how many tens of millions in the Soviet Gulags under Stalin? The massacres in Rwanda in 1994, the Japanese slaughter of six million Chinese, Indonesians, Koreans, Filipinos and Indo-Chinese — a litany of history-long bloodletting all in the name of ethnicity or race. That is because humans are in rebellion against God.”
2. Racism comes from a fractured worldview, rather than a godly worldview.
When we reject God’s view of life, we run the risk of devaluing all life…valuing some lives over others. Treating some with greater or lesser value.
3. Racism is taught.
“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.” -Nelson Mandela
4. Racism divides.
God’s purpose is for us to have unity. We are called to be a model for the world, not for the world to be telling us about how to act or react. Billy Graham modeled that in the turbulent ‘60s.
5. Racism continues to exist.
“Our salvation certainly changes the way we relate to God, and our new identity should impact the way we relate to believers and to the unsaved.
On August 28, 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of the most inspiring speeches ever given on American soil. From the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C., King preached about freedom for all men and denounced the chains of segregation and discrimination that crippled so many of our nation's citizens. His closing exhortation ‘ … for all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentile, Protestants and Catholics to join hands and sing the old Negro spiritual, “Free at last! Free at last! Thank God almighty, we are free at Last,”’ remains an ongoing struggle in the United States.
As followers of Christ, we must take the challenge of Martin Luther King Jr. one step further. While he dreamed of a society where ‘children would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,’ Christians have a higher calling that directs our relationships with others. We are called to go beyond the content of character and to relate to individuals on the basis of God's grace.”
6. Racism isn’t a new issue in our world.
It existed among Jews, between Jews and Gentiles, and among all people groups. Culture was more a problem than color. Moses’ wife was black, Joseph took Mary and Jesus to live in Africa, Simon of Cyrene carried the cross, and Philip baptized the Ethiopian eunuch. Acts 2, Acts 10, and Acts 19 all brought unity.
C. God created us to be one…
1. God cares about all people.
Deuteronomy 10:17-19 NLT
2. God does not show favoritism,
Acts of the Apostles 10:34-35 NLT
James 2:9 NLT
3. God removes hostility and introduces harmony.
Ephesians 2:13-14 NLT
4. God desires a heavenly picture of unity!
Revelation 7:9-10 NLT
D. God calls us to “grace relations”…
1. God calls all of us to grow spiritually.
Acts of the Apostles 10:28-29 NLT
“You can’t go with God and stay where you are.” -Henry Blackaby
2. God calls all of us to go faithfully.
Acts of the Apostles 10:23 NLT
3. God calls all of us to show mercy.
Acts of the Apostles 10:34-35 NLT
4. God calls all of us to unity!
Acts of the Apostles 10:43 NLT