Diabolical - Agenda # 5 - Perpetuate Prejudice, Part 1

Have you ever been the recipient of prejudice? I mean, someone pre-judges you because of your race, or your sex, or how you're dressed, or kind of where you're coming from, or even your religion. What's it feel like when people judge you and they don't even know you? They put you in a box.

Worst yet, what happens when we do that in the church? That's today on Living on the Edge. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. Chip's our Bible teacher for this daily discipleship program, Motivating Christians to Live Like Christians. I'm Dave Gurley, and we're nearing the end of Chip's series, Diabolical, Satan's Agenda for Planet Earth, Including You. Before we hear his message, let me encourage you to use Chip's message notes while you listen. They include his brief outline and all the supporting scripture he references. To download these message notes, just go to livingontheedge.org under the broadcasts tab.

App listeners tap fill in notes. With that, here's Chip with his message from Acts Chapter 10. Of all the diabolical things that we've discussed that are subtle, this may be the most diabolical way that Satan brings death and destruction to people. I want to walk through a very clear explanation of what prejudice is, how it develops, and here's the thing.

You can kind of relax. This message is not about are you prejudiced or not. Please, no.

No, no, no, no. This message is only about how prejudiced you are. Everybody is prejudiced, okay?

Now let me show you why. First we're all born into a cultural bias. You grew up in a family, in a culture, in a language, with a religious orientation. You learned during that time there's a bias. You looked at life through a lens that came from parents and grandparents and where you came from in the part of the country or the part of the world. Second, apart from interaction outside our group, we grow up assuming our view accurately defines reality.

You're a little kid and you don't know any better. And they say, this is what's true about black people. This is what's true about those white people. This is what's true about people from the South. You know those people from California, what they're like. Well, here's how rich people are.

Well, you know those homeless people, what their real problem is, they need to. All those things are implanted into your mind. And you assume, unless you get outside your world, your group and your box, that your view really is in alignment with reality. Third, generations of socialization and indoctrination create barriers at best and hatred at worst with those that are different from ourselves. See, we always, out of our insecurities, when anyone is different from us, it creates a barrier.

I'll tell you why in just a second. There's barriers between tall people and short people. There's barriers between people from red states and blue states. There's barriers between people that believe that and don't believe that. There's all kind of barriers, you name a difference. There's barriers between, do you shop at Walmart or Nordstrom's? There's barriers between geography, religion, politics, gender, color of skin, race, religious orientation. The moment there's something different, at best it creates a barrier. At worst, it breeds hatred. There's people that grow up and they're taught from an early age.

Those people, and you can fill in who they are, they should be dead. One of our missionaries works in Beirut. He said, it's so hard for the Syrians that we're working for, they don't want to help Palestinians and they don't want to help people from Libya and they don't want to help some people from other places because they don't want them to become Christians. They're taught from little kids to hate other people and that's true. It's true all across the world.

Different tribes, different orientations, people from different religions. Notice four, internal inaccurate assessment. It's a nice way of saying pride. Internal inaccurate assessment. This is who you really think you are. An external inaccurate assessment, that's prejudiced, results in the fulfillment of Satan's agenda to kill and to steal and destroy. Now lest you just think of pride as people that are arrogant and have just a higher view of themselves, I put the definition pride is a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit or superiority.

And here's the part I wanted you to see. Whether as cherished in the mind or displayed in behavior. I think for most Christians it's often cherished in your mind. You have attitudes, you have labels. Those people are like that. Then you generalize to all those people. Notice prejudice, this external inaccurate view is a preconceived judgment or opinion. It's having an adverse opinion without learning or just grounds or sufficient knowledge. It's an irrational attitude of hostility directed toward an individual, a group, a race or their supposed characteristics. And you think maybe I'm overdoing this, just think of words like Rwanda, Bosnia, Sudan, Northern Ireland, South Africa, race in America.

Millions of people, millions of people have died because deeply rooted in the psyche of little boys and girls growing up was those people deserve to die. They're from that tribe. They're from that ethnic background. Historically they're from that religion. We need to kill them. This religion, we need to kill them. Satan has had a heyday with prejudice and it's rooted in we're okay and we're better and we're superior and those that are different we dehumanize them so that when we do terrible things we can justify it.

This is all nice and theoretical out there but it's not so nice and theoretical when it gets up close. I'm this 28 year old non-prejudice person and I find myself in 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, skull under the lip, gun in the back of the pickup and the public swimming pool purchased by a couple business people and filling it in in 1968 less black and white children swim together. And for a year and a half I just thought how narrow and bigoted and redneck they were and how prejudiced I became toward them for their prejudice 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 every time you see a gun in the back of a pickup or a John Deere hat or you generalize and you label and you think they're all the same and you don't see them the way I see them. And I went on a journey to learn how to love people that were very different than me and I realized I was deeply prejudiced. And so in God's great ironic humor he says well step one is there now I'm going to take you to Santa Cruz. And so you know highest per capita of lesbians and you know the government thinks that Berkeley's too far right and people are tattooed and pierced in places that it's unimaginable that you could actually tattoo and pierce yourself in those places and there's sort of the Santa Cruz mindset. And for at least a year and a half or two I remember sitting in different places watching people and just thinking this is nuts and there was an arrogance about it and we were alternative this and new age that and it's like God had to whisper a little louder hey Chip I love these people you don't even like them let alone love them and I went on a journey and went on a journey where I asked God and I begin to see I need to see people the way God sees people and you know what I learned after a couple years there I learned there's not a nickel's worth of difference between a guy in a John Deere hat who uses the n-word and argues about this type of the Bible and two lesbians in the corner being very affectionate in terms of my attitude towards both they may have some behavior that God absolutely says is not correct and will be painful and hurt them but he loves both of them and both of them have learned some of that behavior from the prejudice and the backgrounds and the only way they'll be liberated and love is if someone doesn't judge them but loves them and gets into their life and I realized I wasn't doing that I was an eight or a nine in prejudice not a two or three and there's only one thing on the face of the earth that has the power to break prejudice that you have in your heart and I have in mine the reason we don't feel like we're very prejudice is because we stay in our little group most of the time and most of in our Christian view we cherish in our mind and we look at people and we judge them in our mind and because we judge them in our mind look at the bottom of your notes here's what happens the problem is prejudice creates walls between individuals and groups so the gospel can't move from one person to another or from one group to another that's the problem when I see people that way there's a barrier I may not hate them but I so disapprove or I so I'm irritated or feel so superior that the gospel can't get beyond it Jews and Gentiles at this point in historic cultural history hate one another this is like the head of the NAACP and the KKK becoming friends that's what it's like and there's only one power there's only one thing that can break those kind of things down and here's the story it's in Acts chapter 10 and the story is the gospel smashes hundreds of years of prejudice and hatred and notice it's through an enlisted soldier and a fisherman it's not through powers it's not through legislation it's not through some elite group there's an enlisted soldier in the Roman army who's oppressing the Jews and there is a Jew who's a blue-collar worker who's been following in our tenor it preacher named Jesus and a transformation occurs where things that have been embedded in his soul and mind and thinking since he was a little boy and his father and his grandfather and his grandfather before him the Spirit of God and the gospel liberates him in ways that change the course of history I've divided it into a number of vignettes how did it happen let's look first at Cornelius vision at Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius and he was a centurion means he's over a hundred soldiers in what was known as the Italian regiment he and his family were devout and God-fearing he gave generously to those in need and he prayed to God regularly one day about three in the afternoon he had a vision he distinctly saw an angel of God who came to him and said Cornelius Cornelius stared at him in fear and said what is it Lord and the angel answered your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a remembrance before me now send to Joppa and to bring back a man named Simon who's called Peter he's staying with Simon the tanner whose house is by the sea when the angel who spoke to him had gone Cornelius called two of his servants and one of his soldiers who was a devout man and he told them everything that had happened and he sent them to Joppa he's a gentile we learned from chapter 11 he's not circumcised in the in the polytheism of the day that was just it just got so messy and so crazy a number of people honestly seeking after God would actually begin they wouldn't be necessarily even proselytes but they were called God fears and they knew there was one true God and they were reaching out and they would begin to often worship in the outer courts of the temple then yet number two Peter's been staying with this tanner and he's hungry and why he's hungry and they're fixing lunch something happens pick it up at verse nine about noon the following day as they were approaching the city Peter went up on the roof to pray he became hungry and wanted something to eat and while the meal was being prepared he fell into a trance he saw heaven open and something large like a sheet being let down to the earth by its four corners it contained all kinds of four-footed animals as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air and then the voice said to him get up Peter kill and eat Peter's response surely not Lord Peter replied I've never eaten anything impure or unclean in that sheet was a number of things that they were forbidden to eat you might jot your notes Leviticus chapter 11 gives very clear detail about these kind of animals you can eat these kind you can't and I mean it's in the law he's heard it from a little boy and now he's having a vision that is breaking with what he's learned all of his life the voice spoke to him a second time do not call anything impure that God has made clean this happened three times and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven while Peter was still wondering about the meaning of the vision the men sent by Cornelius had found out where Simon's house was and they stopped at the gate they called out if this Simon who's also known as Peter was staying there while Peter was still thinking about the vision the spirit he gets this inner nudge said to him Simon these three men are looking for you so get up and go downstairs do not hesitate to go with them for I have sent them so Peter went downstairs and he said I'm the one you're looking for why have you come the men said we come from Cornelius the centurion he's a righteous and God-fearing man who's respected by all the Jewish people a holy angel told him to have you come to his house so he could hear what you have to say then Peter invited the men to the house to be his guest mark that if you will this is a good Jew inviting Gentiles into the home offering hospitality and he actually because of this ate with them then yet number three Peter goes on a little journey to Cornelius his house the next day Peter started out with them along with some brothers so he's got we learned a little bit later five or six other Jewish people gum they'll be giving a testimony a little bit later and they go along with him to Joppa the following day he arrived in Caesarea Cornelius was expecting them and he called together his relatives and close friends as Peter entered the house Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence but Peter made him get up said stand up I'm only a man myself and talking with him Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people and he said to them now think about this ever since he's a little boy he has said they're dirty they're bad they're evil in fact the term for a Gentile among the Jews they're dogs so his first words are you are well aware that it's against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile and to visit him but but God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean so when I was sent for I came without raising any objection and this is so great may I ask why you sent for me there's not an agenda he's not like hey I'm gonna be the big evangelist he's like I've never done this before in my life I'm probably scared to death I'm thinking what are all my friends gonna think if anybody could see me here would someone tell me while I'm here Cornelius answered four days ago I was in my house praying at this hour at three in the afternoon and suddenly a man with shining clothes stood before me and said Cornelius God has heard your prayers remembered your gifts to the poor sent to Joppa for Simon who's called Peter he's a guest in the home of Simon the tanner who lives by the sea so I sent for you immediately and it was good of you to come now we are all here in the presence of God to listen to everything the Lord has commanded you to tell us and so this he's just a seeker he just wants to know more about God and as what the scripture says when people anytime they take honest steps toward God God's gonna reveal himself and so Peter's gonna come and now Peter's gonna realize next vignette I'm supposed to share the gospel with these people in Peter's mind this truth this gospel this Messiah is for our little group it's for the Jews he's our Messiah and God is gonna do an amazing thing then Peter began to speak he's gonna give we basically get the footnotes I mean just just the high points of his sermon I now realize how true it is that God doesn't show favoritism but he accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right and that word accepts doesn't mean they become Christians it means literally the Hebrew word is he lifts his face in favor in every nation when God sees people that are open and he says he lifts his face he favors them he goes on to say this is the message God sent to the people of Israel telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ who is Lord or sovereign over all you know what has happened throughout Judea beginning in Galilee after his baptism that he that John had preached how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power and how he went about doing good and healing all those that were under the power of the devil because God was with him we are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem and they killed him by hanging him on a tree but God raised him up from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen he wasn't seen by all the people but by witnesses whom God had already chosen by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead he commanded us then to preach to all the people and to testify that he's the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead and all the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name now this is an interesting time so basically he said you know let me just tell you the story of Jesus he was promised and he was the Messiah and he came and John preached and as he went preaching and he healed people and God authenticated and he is Lord he's the sovereign he's the one true God and as he did he demonstrated that by power over the works of the devil and he healed people and then he came back from the dead and it's not an image or a dream or another religion we ate with him and we walk with him and I bet the sermon was a little bit longer and he spoke very specifically because here's what you got to get God made him the judge over the living and the dead so this one true God who came and gave his life to give forgiveness to whosoever would believe those who respond there's life but he's also the judge and those who reject there's death but there's forgiveness for everyone who believes now this is one of those times where God doesn't allow the pastor or the preacher to figure out what he's gonna say he just acts he literally interrupts his sermon vignette number six while Peter was still speaking these words he's got no control he can't take credit and by the way later he's gonna say hey wasn't me guys he's gonna get a lot of trouble from his friends what were you doing hanging out with those Gentiles you mean you actually went in the house and Peter's gonna say you know I just did you know and while I was in bam it happened notice it while I was still speaking these words the Holy Spirit came on all those who heard the message the circumcised believers or the Jews who had come with Peter were astonished literally the word means they were struck in awe their jaw dropped their eyes got wide this can't be but it is because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been given to them even it adds to the Gentiles for they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God and then Peter said can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water they've received the Holy Spirit just the way we have in other words Acts chapter 2 I gave a message God did this Jews happened later on chapter 8 when the Samaritans came to Christ they believed and then I came and John came and we prayed for him same thing happened and now I didn't get to finish my message boom God has now included the Gentiles into his church so he ordered them to be baptized in the name of Jesus they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days and then just edging into chapter 11 the word got out and the apostles and the brothers throughout all of Judea heard that the Gentiles had received the word of God so we're thinking they're excited this is awesome they've come to Christ the Savior of the world all those Old Testament passages the blessings of Abraham to all nations it's going to be great right wrong so when Peter went to Jerusalem the circumcised believers the Jewish believers criticized him and said you went into the house of an uncircumcised men and you ate with them and Peter explained everything precisely as it happened God broke through prejudice prejudice keeps the love of God from moving from you to another person that's different in you because you have ingrained thinking about them and you perceive them and think of them in ways that make a wall between you and them when whole groups have prejudice against other whole groups the truth and the love of God and the gospel doesn't make it from one group to another I hope you get what happened here someone was willing to take all the abuse and rejection and get out of their comfort zone and say I'm going to begin to look at people through the lens of God and truth even if I get rejected by my friends in order to love people the way God loves them and what I want to suggest is very clearly in each of these vignettes there's a very specific application about how God wants to remove the walls that we've built and again this isn't a make you feel guilty this is subtle this is diabolical this is Satan's agenda I doubt I'm sure there's a few but I doubt if there's a number of people that you know when I said on a scale of one to ten how prejudice are you I mean I doubt there's a whole lot of people that are nine I like being a nine I'm just not thinking there's a lot of nines in the room at least by self-perception but what if you think you're a four or five and what if there's people that God is working in where you work in your neighborhood and where you work out and that you have just unconscious prejudice so you never cross a barrier of people that are different and therefore the gospel doesn't go forth Chippell join us here in studio with his application in just a minute you've been listening to his series diabolical Satan's agenda for planet earth including you Satan's mission for every Christ follower is simple total destruction unlike God's plans for you which are rooted in grace and love Satan wants to wreck your relationships isolate you from God and turn you into an ineffective Christian but with God's help we not only have the power to oppose Satan's tactics we can actually defeat him through this series Chippell teach us to recognize Satan's diabolical schemes and defend ourselves against his evil intentions this is such an important topic so we hope you'll make the time to be with us for this entire series for complete series information and resources discounts for diabolical just go to Living on the Edge dot org or call triple eight three three three six zero zero three app listeners tap special offers chip as July 4th is coming up soon you know a lot of people probably don't know about your passion to help people in the military I mean the fact of the matter is they've not only kept us safe but they have some very real unique needs what's Living on the Edge doing to help them Dave you've really hit on something I am passionate my dad was a World War II veteran my wife's dad was a World War II veteran and so we had these opportunities a number of times each year to get with military couples and I mean can you imagine getting married and then your wife gets transferred to Korea and you get transferred to Afghanistan and you're married and that's your married life believe me that happens in the military or what it's like when your husband goes off and is deployed for nine months or you know 18 months and then comes back and the baby that was born you know dad meets him when he's 18 months and walking they have issues and challenges like few and so we minister directly to the military we give them free resources we also minister to a group that has been injured it's called Operation Heal Our Patriots we partner with the Billy Graham Association with Samaritan's Purse and it's just one of the little slivers of life that God has put on my heart and Teresa's and the ministry's and whatever we can do every time we go we just give them whatever resource would help them and we can do that because people are so generous to Living on the Edge so fellow patriots and those that care about the military if you'd like to help us help them now's a great time because as you've heard Dave say over and over this month every gift you give this month gets doubled and thank you and on behalf of our military thank you they live in a very challenging world and it's a privilege to help them well if you're already praying and supporting the ministry of Living on the Edge thank you we couldn't do what we do without you and if you're ready to step up and join us or increase your commitment today would be a great day to do it thanks to a small group of financial partners every gift we receive between now and July 6th will be doubled if you've been looking for a way to make a difference this is your opportunity and right now your gift will have twice the impact to send a donation give us a call at 888-333-6003 or if you prefer donate online at Living on the Edge org app listeners just tap donate on behalf of chip and the team thank you in advance for your generosity chip as you taught today i can't think of a message that's more timely i mean this issue of prejudice there are so many applications it's interesting that the bible speaks so directly to this dave it really is it it reminds me that this is not a simply a racial issue or a class issue or a gender issue the root of prejudice is in the human heart it's not something out there it's something in here we just tend to see people who are different and we tend to internally be insecure and fearful and then we either make them the enemy or we never cross lines we never figure out how to get to know them in a way where we can love them and respect them in a way that god would want us to and i want to give you what i believe is something tucked in the scriptures that the early church used to break down prejudice and it's super practical because i don't know about you but we can just post forever and ever and we can hear dialogues and debates and at some point in time i want to say could everyone stop talking about racism or prejudice or this and that let's do something about it and if you would study the book of luke and especially what we have in this chapter in acts it's interesting to me where the prejudice gets broken down here's the two words hospitality proximity let me say that again if we want to break prejudice down of all kinds hospitality and proximity when you eat with people it changes your relationship if you would trace through the book of luke if you would study the whole book of luke and look at jesus life he is almost leaving where he was eating with someone going to eat with someone or it's a story while he's eating with someone i mean what he does whether it's tax collectors sinners Pharisees his disciples the very last night he eats hospitality if we would invite people to our home if we would meet people that are different than us in a restaurant if we would simply sit down and have a meal you can't break through prejudice unless you rub up next to them could i encourage you to pause think of a person or a group that in your private thoughts you realize you're uncomfortable with i'm not saying you're prejudiced but you're uncomfortable with could you take the initiative this week and get near them somehow proximity i mean face to face eyeball to eyeball and if there's any way could you break bread together that will do more to eliminate prejudice than all the posts and all the talk in the world as we wrap up today's program i want to say thank you to those who make this program possible through your generous giving if you've been blessed by chips teaching and you'd like to bless others in the same way there's never been a better time because thanks to some very generous friends of the ministry when you make a donation during the month of june it'll be matched dollar for dollar if today's your day to join the team just go to Living on the Edge dot org tap donate on the app or give us a call at triple 8-333-6003 on behalf of everyone here thanks in advance for your generosity well that's it for this program until next time this is dave druy saying thanks for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge