Today I'm Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram without a doubt. Prejudice is one of the most diabolical things that has ever happened on the face of the earth. When we are prejudiced, it brings forth death. You want to know how to break out of the power of prejudice? Stay with me.
That's today on Living on the Edge. Peter crossed a threshold he couldn't uncross. He walked into a Gentile home, sat down with people his entire world called unclean, and watched the Holy Spirit fall on them before he even had finished his sermon. The revolution didn't spread through power or politics. It spread through one person willing to take one uncomfortable step.
Today, Chip Ingram closes out Acts chapter 10 with six specific practical principles for breaking the prejudice we all carry. I'm Dave Druy, and this is Living on the Edge continuing the series called The Jesus Revolution. Join the movement. Chip will have a word about our mid-year match after the message.
Now here's Chip with today's message called Perpetuate Prejudice. Principle number one from verses one through eight: God is working in places and among people, we assume He doesn't.
Okay? He's working in places and among people. If you would have asked Peter, do you think God is speaking to some of those Roman soldiers that are pressing your people? Peter would have said, no way. Don't you dare believe that some of the weirdest people that are different from you that God isn't working.
Assume He's working in everyone, everywhere, all the time, and He wants to use you. I'm this 28-year-old. Non-prejudiced person. And I find myself And my first pastorate in a little rural town in Texas. where people use the n-word and argue about the KJV versus the NIV translation in the same sentence.
It was a world that I'd never seen. John Deere hats. Gun in the back of the pickup. And for a year and a half, I just thought, how. narrow and bigoted and rednecked they were.
and how prejudiced I became toward them. for they're prejudiced. And how superior I was to them. And I remember God whispering about a year and a half into my journey as the young suburban pastor. You know, Chip, I love these people.
I sent you here to love them, but you're not doing very well. All you do is judge them. And I realized I was deeply prejudiced. Principle number two. Prayer is the prerequisite to seeing others differently than our cultural bias out of verses 9 through 16.
Good Jews prayed in the morning and they prayed at night. There was a three-hour prayer meeting as well. But Peter was just hungry. And he decided, I'm going to go on the roof. And he's talking with God.
Unless your mind gets renewed, And unless you're talking with God and being open and honest, He can't reveal things to you.
So you stay stuck in your little box of your group and your background. You have yours, I have mine, everyone has theirs. Prayer. Is there a prerequisite to seeing others different? than our cultural bias.
And so here's the practice: ask God. to let you see others. The way he does. I want to look people through the lens of eternity. Are they heaven bound?
or hell-bound. I'm going to look at it through the lens of need. How would Jesus look at them? What would he want? You don't have to agree with people's politics, their religion, their sexual orientation, but you can love them.
It's what Jesus did. That's why he got in so much trouble. The early church got in a lot of trouble. We're not getting in enough trouble. When you start loving people very different than us.
I I can't do that. Certain prejudices are ingrained in my mind for years.
So I ask, and God will answer that prayer. 3. Walls of prejudice often come down a few bricks at a time, from verses 17 to 23. Peter didn't go from this die-hard, prejudiced Jew with Gentiles. You know, first of all, it was like, you know, I'm kind of far away from.
From the home base there in Jerusalem. I'll just stay with this tanner. I mean, he's ceremonially unclean, but you know, it's a little baby step. And then, pretty soon, when Cornelius guys come, he let them in the house. Then he traveled with them.
He did a lot of baby steps that were absolutely forbidden. And I can only think that he knew, you know, like I love one translation, it says, it says, when he crossed the threshold. When he went inside that Gentile house, It was like, uh-oh, baby, there's no turning back. I have just violated everything that I have been taught all my life. I'm in the house of a dog.
But you know what? That's my opinion. That is my prejudice. No, I'm in the house of a God-fearing man that the Spirit of God is wooing and drawing, and actually sent an angel, and God cares about him.
So I need to care about him, and I need to put away my stuff and my prejudice and my background and what anybody else thinks. And I need to love him and share the love of Christ. And he did. And you're here today because he did. Fellow Gentile.
And so here's the practice. Your practice is take small steps. this week to connect with someone much different than you. And you know what? Just take some baby.
Let's start taking some bricks off the wall, okay?
So, for me, it was like I decided because that guy irritated me so much, I walked in and I said, Can I sit down? You know, there's like four or five guys drinking coffee every morning, John Deere hats, the whole thing. And I said, Can I sit down? And they looked at me like, You preacher boy? That's what they called me.
I did not like that. And I said, Hey, tell me a little bit about where do you get those hats?
So, like, do you have a ranch or something?
Well, yeah, we kind of. I just started asking questions. I just I mean, I thought John Deere was a lawnmower. I'm from the city. I don't know anything.
And I remember In Santa Cruz, when I would Find situations that were just so appalling to me. You know, they're protesting our church, and you know, we're bashing them. And so I called the mayor and said, Would you like to have lunch? He's a mayor of Santa Cruz. I mean, he graduated from Berkeley and he thinks they're too far right.
Super ultra ultra out there guy. And we had a two-hour lunch. And he came thinking, okay, I'm going to meet with this Bible-thumping, anti-intellectual bigot. Because that's what they think all Christians are. And I think here I am, the super, you know, guy who thinks alternative da-da-da-da.
And we had a two-hour lunch, and here's what I've got to tell you, two things. Number one, I liked him. It was almost disappointing. Oh. And you know, Sue, I respected him.
When I listened carefully to his intellectual presuppositions about how he viewed the world. What he did made sense. At least he was consistent with his vision and values and doing something. What we both agreed on is we wanted to help the poor. And so I left that with our church is going to help the poor, and he would help us help the poor.
And we both kind of went away smiling, going, you know what? We totally disagree on almost everything with regard to a worldview. But I think I just met a Christian that is not stupid, anti-intellectual, bigoted, Bible-thumping jerk. You seem like a real person. And I came away the same way.
And we begin to see God open some doors. Why?
Now, I'd like to tell you that in the middle of lunch, he bowed, prayed the prayer, is in the kingdom. But I took a few bricks off. And I didn't let in circles anymore, I didn't let people talk about him the same way. Hey, I know that guy.
Now I disagree with him, but he's really a nice guy. And he's really trying to do some good. And so you take steps, you take baby steps. 4. Obedience to God often alienates us from our group and is the price tag to take the good news across cultures.
It's verses 23 to 33. Peter violated hundreds of years of tradition, and he gets flack for it. If you do what God wants you to do, some fellow Christians are going to say, Why are you hanging out with them? You're going to make Christians feel uncomfortable. Here's the practice: choose to please God.
not men. Choose to please God, not men. I remember a crossroads. We, in a small rural town, there was a lot of prejudice. Two things happened.
Number one, I started bringing black kids and Hispanic kids to church. And I was called in downtown to a meeting. Of some leaders. Not all the leaders, just two or three, very powerful, very wealthy, who were part of Starting Church. And they basically said, you know what, this is not really the kind of church we're looking for, and you need to keep your focus over here.
And you know, we're just not really equipped. And I mean, they used all the sophisticated ways to say, look, we don't want black kids and Hispanic kids coming to church. And I don't know if you've ever been there, but I was at a crossroads and I felt like, you know something? You know, Galatians, memorizing scripture was very helpful then. Galatians 1:10 came to my mind, where the Apostle Paul said.
If I please people, I can't be a bondservant of Christ. And I remember looking at them and saying, you know, guys, I know you brought me here and you have a picture of a church, but Jesus has a picture of a church. And as long as I'm the pastor, I'll tell you what, this is what I'm going to do. Because I'm thinking his vision is probably way more important than yours. And maybe if that's not what you want to do, and see, I think I tell every pastor, you ought to have your resignation kind of written down somewhere in an envelope, keep it in your top desk drawer.
And if you're not willing to be fired, you'll never be willing to stand up for what's right. Yeah. And so I remember just saying, and you know something? It's amazing. The power of the gospel breaks through.
Some of those same guys three years later, when we remodeled the black high school that we bought. And remodeled? And begin to partner with the black church across the street. Those guys, I watched them in a shop helping small black kids learn about Christ and learn a trade. It just takes one person like you at your work, at your neighborhood, at your health club.
To break a barrier. And when you do, God opens doors. But you're going to have to please God, not please people. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. We'll have more in just a moment.
This month, Living on the Edge is participating in a special mid-year match. Every dollar given in June is being matched one for one by a group of generous partners who want to see this ministry go further. Your gift doesn't just help, it's doubled the moment it arrives. You can get all the details at livingonthege.org and stick around. Chip will share more about it before we're done today.
Right now, back to the message. Remember the the second time for us was uh where are we going to buy this? It was an abandoned, it was uh through three or four acres and it was the black high school and had just disrepair, but it was really inexpensive and we were going to buy it and remodel it. And we had you know one of those big church meetings. the the kind that aren't good.
where people stand up and argue with one another. And we can't do that. That's in the block section of town. And they'll break the windows and on and on and on. And it was, again, one of those moments of truth.
We never had any vandalism. People will use politics, power, intimidation, and manipulation to keep you from doing what's right. And by the way, when you do what's right, there's a price. No, it's not Hollywood. It doesn't mean, oh, everything goes great.
I remember we got, as a result of some of those moves, we got where if God didn't show up with some money on a certain day at a certain time, we were done. And guess what? On that day, At a certain day, on that certain time, exactly what we needed came in.
So, choose to please God. Practice number five is the good news of the gospel is for all people. of all backgrounds in all places. That's Peter's sermon, verses 34. To 43.
Peter said, wait. When we preached the gospel, Pentecost occurred and he included the Jews. I didn't even get done with my message. The exact same thing happened to the Gentiles. And Peter got new eyes.
All of a sudden, all those Old Testament passages that he was skipping over about the nations and the blessing through Abraham and what God wanted to do for all people of all time, all of a sudden they started to pop. See, you read your Bible, and I read my Bible through a lens. Try this. Read your Bible for 30 days. And just start looking for the poor, the poor, the poor, the poor, the poor, the poor, and see what the Bible says about the poor versus how you think about the poor.
Read the Psalms. Read the Proverbs and just look for the word the poor. And you realize, whoa. God really is He doesn't think they're all bums. He didn't think they all just if they work harder Is that true in some cases?
For sure. That's not what the scripture says. The practice here, share the difference Jesus had made in your life with someone this week.
Okay, I mean, we have to get out of: I'm trying to be a good person, and I come to church, and I'm trying to do what God wants me to do. Jesus is the answer to the world's needs, and when we Share what Jesus has done. And you don't have to share all the four laws. You don't have to become a flaming evangelist with the Bible this big in front of your desk or your cubicle or put up stickers everywhere. What you need to do is incarnate the life of Jesus and begin in normal ways where just in the passing and a conversation, and even maybe even a work situation.
And you know, we're so afraid of offending people. Get more afraid of them never hearing. And do it winsomely. You know, little statements like, oh, wow, I can't imagine what you're going through. You know, I went through a divorce.
Apart from Jesus, I don't know how I'd be here today. Your son's an ICU. Would you mind if I prayed to the Lord Jesus? Let's get out of just this God. It means anything in our day.
Can I pray for God? Yeah, God, you know, it can be anybody. Share Jesus. And just share it in normal, kind of. Ways.
Break through the barriers. And do it with someone different. I have a A new friend who uh where I play a little pickup basketball. Uh his name's Junior. Junior's a big guy, and so he had a number of tattoos.
And then I noticed he had some new ones that went up like this all the way up his neck and then curled around on his cheeks. And I said, Whoa, Junior, you got some new ones there. He goes, Yeah, man, they're really. And I said, Well, what, you know, he gave me a little background. And see, I can tell you 10 years ago, if I saw that, it'd be like, You know?
And then later, you know, like three weeks later, I said, you know, how about things like, does it hurt? Yeah, it hurts.
Well, so instead of why do you do it, or that looks weird, or so, so tell me, what's it mean to you? Tell me what, have you ever wondered why people do that? Why don't you ask them? You don't have to judge him.
So, what's going on?
Well, then he came back later, and he has a shaved head, and he has now this, it's sort of the hook cross that goes down like this, and the tattoo goes all the way around. If I saw Junior on the street, Man, I'd be terrified. I got to tell you, Junior is one of the nicest guys I know, and Junior is my friend. In fact, he's so kind, he runs the rec center. And so he said, you know, Chip, it's fun kind of having you around.
And he figured out what I did. And I just, in little ways, you know. He said, How are you doing? I said, Well, I can't play today, but I need to get worked out. I'm preaching a big message about Jesus this weekend.
Huh? Yeah, really? Good. He knows where I'm going. And so he says, Give me your phone number.
So when the rec center is closed, sometimes I open it up.
So a couple weeks ago, I get this text: Want to play ball. It's from Junior. You know, I don't know where Junior's at spiritually. But little by little, by little by little, if someone doesn't cross a barrier that's different and love Junior, how will he ever know? Who in your world is different from you that this week, this week, take a baby step, pull a brick down?
Finally, number six, God. refuses to allow himself or his ways to be put in a box. Verses 44 through 46. Acts chapter 10 is not a blueprint for the spiritual life, it's historical. It's a historical picture of how God includes people.
It's the picture of how this revolution of Jesus changed the world.
So in Acts 2, they speak in tongues because it's an external view of the Spirit has come upon the Jews. In Acts 8, it doesn't say tongues, but there's an outward manifestation. It probably is the Samaritans get in. But notice that it happens at the time here, it happens later here.
Now, the Gentiles, it happens simultaneously. This isn't a picture or a teaching about some second blessing. This is a picture of Acts 2, 8, 10, and later in 19, we have a group that were traveling somewhere. And they're not even heard of the Holy Spirit. There is no formula in the book of Acts.
How people and when they believe, and sometimes they're baptized before, sometimes they're baptized afterwards. Here's what we do. We unconsciously assume inside Christendom that the way God works with us is how He's going to work with everyone. Can I give you some real prejudice in the church? We got one group over here.
And you know why? Because it's how you were trained. It's God's Word, it's principles. We don't want to get too emotional. Those people that raise their hands and dance around, they make me nervous.
And then that one guy said he had a vision from God, or he had this prompting from God. And you know what? There's principles. We don't want that experiential emotionalism. We're going to be men and women of the word.
And this group is over here. Go on. Hello, I love you, Lord. I love you, Lord. I had a vision last night.
These people don't get the Spirit. They're just, you know, the frozen, chosen. Oh, they just work principles. They're just trying to work it out. They don't get the.
And there's prejudiced. You need to love people that are different. Could it be that the Spirit of God wants to take the Word of God with a group of people outside boxes and boundaries, inside clear scripture, and say, let's change the world? Instead of judge one another, why do we have all these denominations? Because basically, the arrogance and pride our way is better.
Everyone else is out to lunch. Here's the practice. Refuse to assume The God will work. in others. The same way he's worked In you.
Could I just ask you to please Go on a journey and answer these questions. The first question is pretty easy. I think you can answer why we're all prejudiced. It's just kind of my prayer for you and me is that our number goes down. You've got a number, and I've got one.
It's just that it goes down. I'd like you to think about how Predi prejudice has really negatively affected other people. You know, sometimes when you look at it out there, it kind of helps you realize how diabolical it is. And then third, which of these six principles Which one, as I was going through it, there was a little sort of a loving dagger that said, oh, you need to listen to this. Put a star by that one.
And then, who or what group of people do you find yourself judging? Just as I kind of threw stuff around. Is it an ethnic issue? Is it a wealth issue? Is it a background issue?
Is it people from different parts of the world issue? Is it a work issue? Is it an environment? I don't know. I've got it, you've got it.
Then what if you number five Could let the walls down. What if you started praying? For a specific person Tried to understand them, ask a question, shared a meal. Maybe if appropriate, ask him to forgive you. And finally, just I want to close with this.
You imagine. Would you please, can you imagine what God would do and what would happen if they intergenerational? That means young people admire old people instead of they don't know anything. And old people would look at young people and said, eh, they're always too loud and trying to do this, and would mentor them instead. intergenerational Interracial.
intergender, interpolitical. Where Jesus would be the center, and we would so move beyond our prejudice. and love each other here. What would God do? What would God do?
It's not some big thing that some important person An enlisted soldier and a blue-collar fisherman changed the world. You. are the answer to breaking down the walls. and so much life. You've been listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, in the conclusion of a message titled Perpetuate Prejudice.
We'll hear more from Chip in just a moment, so don't go anywhere.
Well, Chip told the story of sitting down with guys in John Deere hats in a Texas diner, just asking questions about their world, and lunch with the mayor of Santa Cruz, who expected a Bible thumping bigot and left thinking, I just met a real person. Walls come down a brick at a time. You don't have to fix centuries of prejudice this week. You just have to ask one question. Sit down with one person.
Pull one brick. Every message from the Jesus Revolution series is available to stream on the Living on the Edge podcast. Subscribe and share it with someone who needs to hear it. And you can find Chip's full-length sermons on the Chip Ingram Sermon Podcast wherever you listen. The Jesus Revolution moved through ordinary people willing to cross ordinary thresholds.
Well, here's a chip on what it looks like to keep that movement going right now. One of the most comforting and uncomfortable things about the book of Acts is this. The early church wasn't perfect, not even close. In Acts 6, there's already a conflict brewing over how the widows are being cared for. There's internal division, complaints, hurt feelings, people feeling overlooked.
Sound familiar.
Well here's what the early church did that made all the difference. They address the problem directly. They appointed godly leaders to handle it. The early church refused to let conflict become a casualty. The mission was too important.
And it still is today. And that's why when Millions of people in the course of a year listen to a podcast or a radio broadcast or do a small group resource. We're teaching marriages how to overcome conflict. We're teaching pastors how to work through difficulties and challenges that split churches. Because problems are always going to be there.
And your gift to the mid-year match this June is a vote for the mission over the mess. Every dollar matched. Empowering Living on the Edge to keep the main thing the main thing. Learning to live and to love like Jesus. Keep the main thing the main thing.
That's the calling. And right now, your gift makes it possible. Join the mid-year match before the month is out. Every dollar you contribute this June is matched in full. Give online at livingonthege.org or call us at 888-333-6003.
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Well, I'm Dave Druy, and that's a wrap on this week's program. More practical, life-changing Bible teaching from Chip Ingram is ahead on Living on the Edge. Today's program is produced and sponsored by Living on the Edge. Uh
