1167. Color Me Love

Welcome to The Daily Platform. Our program features sermons from chapel services at Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Every day, students are blessed by the preaching and teaching of the Bible from the University Chapel Platform. Dr. Steve Pedditt, who serves at the College of Biblical Studies in Indianapolis, Indiana. BJU President Dr. Steve Pedditt will introduce him.

I'm so honored this morning to have with us speaking Dr. Charles Ware. Dr. Ware is the Executive Director of Grace Relations that is located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Before that, he served as the President of Crossroads Bible College.

He has been a church planter and served up in the Midwest. He is the founder of Grace Relations Network. He speaks in venues and serves as a consultant on racial reconciliation and leadership. His ministry is received well by audiences from various ethnic groups. He has authored, co-authored, and edited several books. One of them is the book where he co-authored with Dr. Ken Ham, One Race and One Blood.

He speaks for the BJU Press in various locations around the country. So we are so delighted to have him here today to speak and please give him a warm welcome as he comes to speak at Bob Jones University. Well, thank you indeed.

It is a privilege to be here with you. As I was thinking about this sermon this morning, I want you to take a good, good, good, good look at me. And I want you to answer the question, what color am I?

You got it? And then I'm going to preach to you on Color Me Love. Because on the exterior, some might just say black, you might say brown, some of you might be educated and say you just got a little bit more mellow than than somebody else. But I don't care what you say. You see, some people say I'm colorblind. No, you're not colorblind if you can see.

You can see color. But I want you to understand this. God's looking for character. And those of you who are students, you know that every professor has an outcome. They have a point that they're trying to get across. They're going to test you on it, whether you got that point. I want to say to you, the reason that I'm preaching on Color Me Love is because God has an ultimate outcome he wants to see in our lives as believers. And that is love.

We're going to be talking about that this morning. I had the privilege back in 2004 to be at a Lausanne's meeting in Thailand. In that particular year, Lausanne's broke the people who attended into study groups.

I was in a study group of about 48 people. What we were looking at was confronting racial, tribal and ethnic conflict within the Christian community seeking reconciliation and transformation. Underneath that was the question, is the gospel powerful enough to reconcile people from diverse groups? In my group, we had a black South African and a white South African. We had a Hutu and a Tutsi. We had a Palestinian and an Israeli.

You get the point. We were all like the 48 of us from these different groups that are known for division. And we spent a week together listening to the one another's testimonies, talking about one another's lives and wrestling with this question. Is the gospel powerful enough to save people from divisive groups and bring them together as one, as the scripture says? It was an interesting time while we were there, and at the end of our time, we came to this conclusion. It says, we believe that reconciliation is God's initiative. The church is called to be the one living sign of the one body of Christ. Reconciliation is at the heart of the gospel and the church life and mission, and it's integral to evangelism and justice. Reconciliation is a deep and costly process and requires humility, forgiveness, courage, and patience.

We're committed to pursuing God's reconciling mission in a world of broken relationships and destructive relation, destructive conflict, excuse me. In 2017, I was in South Africa. I was there participating in a conference called Racism When Color Divides. And while we were there speaking, it was interesting as we were coming towards the end of our conference, in their news was the fact that somebody high up in their government, a black individual had presidential aspirations, that he gave a call out to black South Africans to take their farms from white South Africans and to kill white South Africans. And some people were acting upon that, and there was a little disturbance in the country. Even with Christians, should we stay here or should we leave? At that same time, I got a report in the United States of the march in Charlottesville, Virginia, and the alt-right in that march, and it hit me at that particular time that racism is a global problem.

Divisions amongst people from different groups is a global problem, and I wrote an article that I won't pull up here, but I wrote the article that grace relations is an answer, the answer to the global problem of racism. I want to challenge you this morning. I want you to think about this, color me love. I want you to think about it because number one, I won't take time to read these scriptures, I'm going to spend my time on some other scriptures, but if Jesus said, you can build your house on a rock, you can build it on sand.

Built on sand when you take the ideas of the world and you try to build your life around that, and when the storm comes, it's going to fall apart. But Jesus said, he who hears my words and doeth them, he's building his house on the rock, and when the winds comes and the storms come, you will stand. So I want to challenge you and challenge myself about this concept, color me love.

Color me love. I want to say to you, first of all, as we think about this, Jesus was asked the question, what is the greatest commandment? And he answered, the greatest commandment is simply this, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, soul, and mind. And the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. If Jesus Christ says the greatest commandment is to love, I think as Christians, we ought to feel like one of the primary objectives that we're seeking for in our lives is to demonstrate the love of God to a society that does not know God.

I want to challenge you and challenge myself. We need to pursue this, and I want to say that it's easy for us to miss it. You've got your taglines, you want to learn, you want to love, and you want to lead.

Those are some good taglines. At the top of it is love. And I want to just hit you with this from 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians got every problem that we're having today. They got pride, they've got immaturity, they've got immorality, they've got divisions, they've got lack of teaching.

It's all there. And in 1 Corinthians, Paul says at the heart of the problem is your immaturity. That is, we need to be discipled, be a mature Christian. Then he gets to 1 Corinthians 12 and he talks about spiritual gifts.

And then he says here in verse 31 of chapter 12, he says, But covet earnestly the best gifts, and yet show I unto you a more excellent way. This way is higher, it is better. It's better than anything the world can put out. It's better than any law that you can pass. It's better than any pressure that you can put on people on social media or individual. This law is better than any secular education of what they can give you.

This law, this is better. This is the more excellent way. And you say, what is the more excellent way? Listen to him in verse 13. Do I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity? I am become as a sounding breast or a tinkling cymbal.

You can be a great orator, you can move crowds, you can cause people to be fascinated with your speech. But if you don't have love, you are like a sounding cymbal that says here, a tinkling cymbal right there. Verse 2 says, And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I can remove mountains and have not charity, I am nothing.

Paul is saying to these saints there, you can be educated, you can take Greek, you can take Hebrew, you can learn history well, you can learn your subject well, you can be an A student in this school. But if you come out of here and you don't have love, you are nothing. You can have faith, I mean real faith. Don't even say a mountain, be moved.

And a mountain moves because of your faith. But if you don't have love, you are nothing. He says down here in verse 3, And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my life to be burned and have not charity or love, it profits me nothing. Yeah, you can go out and feed the poor.

It's like, we ought to feed the poor. Yeah, you can do this and you can do that. In fact, you can give your life to be burned. But you don't have love.

Doesn't profit you anything. The reason I say color me love is because that's what God is looking for. That is a priority for God. You and I need to get into our minds. God, what do you want?

I can see the color of your skin, but the color of your skin doesn't tell me nothing about your character. You and I want to be known for our character above anything else. And as Christians, we want to be known by our love for God and our love for one another.

One of the interesting things to me about a younger generation, we can get excited about justice issues and we can protest and we can set everybody straight on social media, but at the same time, we're sleeping with somebody that's not our husband or our wife. That's not the love of God. You start off with loving God. If you love God, you will keep His commandments. Holiness is at the center of loving God. And you and I have got to get that down deep in our soul.

I'm a living sacrifice. God has control over my life. And so what does God want to do? Well, God wants to create in me the desire, that passion, and be transformed by the Word of God through the Spirit of God so that I become more like the Son of God and the apex of it. What He's looking for is love. You say, well, what are we talking about when we're talking about love? Who's an example of love?

I want to say to you right now that as a Christian, you and I need to understand that we need to bow to the Word of God and the God of the Word before we bow to any human being or any human system. John chapter 13. Jesus Christ with His disciples.

The Last Supper. He washes their feet as a symbol of humility. Now, by the way, He knew that Judas was in the crowd.

He knew that Judas would betray Him, sell Him out for 30 pieces of silver. And yet He washes their feet. I tell people, listen, if I'm having a meeting and I know that you're sitting out there and you're going to sell me out, I won't wash your feet.

I might knock your head off. But Jesus washes feet. Jesus identified them. And then Jesus says to His disciples, A new commandment I give unto you. Notice it's a commandment. It's a mandate. This new commandment that you love one another.

Get it in your head. A lack of love is as sinful as adultery or fornication or stealing. You are breaking the command of God.

This is not a suggestion. It is a commandment. It is the greatest commandment. Jesus said, this is it.

You love. I want to be known for my love, not the color of my skin. I see sin in people of every color. People talk about, you know, study my family tree. I say, how far you want to go back? If you go back far enough, we all came from Noah and his family. You keep digging in that family tree, you get back to Adam and Eve. You spending money for your ancestry.

Why don't you give me that money? I tell you where you came from. You came from Adam. I sometimes get intrigued with them, and I know where they're coming from. African Americans, they're, man, I studied my ancestry.

There were kings and queens and powerful people in the ancestry because they've been beat down so much by saying that blacks haven't accomplished anything. And I understand that, but I say, yeah, well, when I studied my ancestry, my biological father, I didn't know him until he was on his deathbed when my wife and I went to visit him. The biological, the father figure in my life from my elementary years to about seventh grade, he and my mom was never married, and they separated in middle school, and so I had my mom just raising me, and we were bouncing around from place to place. Then in high school, my mom married, and my senior year in high school, the guy that was the father figure in my elementary school year, he came up, took me out fishing, and he said to me, what do you think about me and your mom getting back together? Well, I'm 18 years old, and I'm saying to myself, my mom is married.

So I just said, that's between you and my mom. Then I came in at about midnight from a senior event, and I'm going to my house, yellow ribbons are all around my house, and police stopped me, wanted to know who I was. I told them who I was. I lived there. They said, well, there's been a shooting here tonight. The gentleman that was my father figure from my elementary school year got in a conflict with my stepfather.

My stepfather shot and killed him, and all three of them was what you call black. I don't need to go any farther than my ancestors right there. And it's disheartening. But you know what it tells me? We've all sinned and come show the glory of God. And I thank God they can say about what home you grew up in and what you're going to become, but I thank God when you get saved, it breaks the chain. I don't care what my mama was, what my papa was, what my great-granddaddy was.

I don't really care. When I got saved by the grace of God, I became a child of God. I've been transformed by the word of God, and I'm trying to be obedient to that word, and therefore I want to be known for my love for God and my love for people, and especially Christians.

It's a mandate that we love one another. The model, the model, who do we look to the model is? Well, it's Jesus Christ.

He's the model. Jesus is the model. I tell people from 1 John chapter 4, God loved us first. Here in His love, not that we first loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation, a satisfaction for our sins.

Wow. God loved me. He loved me when I was rebellious, when I had nothing to give Him, when I was opposed to Him, opposed to His word. He loved me.

He sent His Son to be a propitiation. He loved us first. Listen, when we're talking about reconciliation in our present culture, sometimes the question is that who makes the first move? In fact, I had a black individual say to me one time, how come we always got to be first? Let them be first.

I said, who do you want to be like? Jesus or them? You know, the reason why I reach out to other people from different ethnicities, so on and so forth, is because I have experienced the love of God. He sought me when I wasn't seeking Him. You might say, well, we put a little shangle on our church, and everybody's welcome to come.

We put it out there. Welcome to Hoochie Coochie Church. God doesn't tell unsaved people to go to church. God tells saved people to go to unsaved people.

That's what you're called to do. That's what Jesus did, right? Jesus loved us first. He made the first move. If I'm going to be colored love, I'm going to be seeking out reconciliation that brings honor to my Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Regardless of the color of your skin, regardless of weight, He's the model.

He loves us most. I mean, what are you afraid of? Somebody might call you a name. Somebody might say something bad about your family.

Oh, somebody might even attack you. I remember when I got saved in 1968 and all the racial things was going on and all the talking stuff was on the media, and I remember telling God, I'm saved. I'm going to Heaven. I'm glad, but I don't want to talk to these people.

These people are crazy. They don't want a reason, and I don't want to get into that. They might hurt me. And God led me to Acts 20-24 as a life verse when Paul was going to Jerusalem and the prophet told him that you go to Jerusalem, you're going to be persecuted and put in jail. And Paul said, but none of these things move me. Neither can I my life dear unto myself that I might finish my course with joy in the ministry that I received to testify of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And God said, you get a hold of that. And just don't you just do what I tell you to do.

Don't be moved by these things. Jesus Christ loved us most. He gave up Heaven for us. He became one of us that He might die for us, that He might save us. There's nothing you and I could ever, ever give up that would ever compare to what Jesus has already given up for us. And if God did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him free to give us all things? So when I'm looking at this love, I'm looking at Jesus.

He loved us most. Jesus paid back. So what is it? Is it a big thing for me to be called names and be rejected by human beings? Man, get a life. I had some white person ask me one time, you ever wish you were white?

I said, for what? You go down by the beach and get the suntan lotion and sit in the sun so you can look like me, baby. I'm the model. I'm good.

I'm good in my skin. I've been saved. Jesus Christ is satisfied with me. I don't care whether you are or not.

He was willing to give up, and we should be willing to give up because we're secure in the Savior's love. I know He loves me. He accepts me. He indwells me.

I'm not waiting for somebody, a so-called privilege of power to tell me that they're sorry so I can feel good about myself. I'm secure in the Savior's love. That enables me to selflessly love others. That's what Jesus did for us, is it not? He loved us most. He went to the cross for us. Not only did He love us first and love us most, but He loved us to eternal life.

He became a propitiation that we might know God, that we might have eternal life because that is eternal life. Jesus says, and this is eternal life that they might know the true God. You know, I'm so glad that God didn't save us and give us different parts of heaven. All the black folk go over there. All the white folk go over here.

All y'all are yellow, whatever. I don't know how you're dividing people. But no, no, no, that we might know Him, the true God. Beloved, if you are saved, you've got access to the Father.

Some people are scrambling. I want to get a meeting with this famous person. I want to get a meeting with this politician. Oh, maybe I can meet with the President of the United States. Oh, I got a meeting. I've got access to Almighty God. I don't stoop so low as to put an official above God.

If God can make Nebuchadnezzar drink, eat grass, He can take care of anybody in the White House. I'm good, y'all. I got life. I got fellowship with the living God. And I want to invite you to walk with me in that fellowship, red, yellow, black, or white, any way you want to put it, low melanin, high melanin, however you want to put it. If you're born again, we want to love one another. We want to be known by our love. That's what God's interested in.

Our character, not the color of our skin. And I want to encourage you to make that shit gold. That's what you want. One of the things that God used in my life to impact me with this idea of the body of Christ and His love, I was preaching all over the country. I was getting tired of preaching all over the country. I was complaining to God that God, I'm preaching all over the country and internationally, and I'm not getting to know anybody. I'm not getting close relationship. I'm running here, running there. Those people probably forgotten about me.

They don't care about me. And then in March or February 1998, I got a phone call. I was on the West Coast preaching, and I got a phone call from my executive vice president, and he says, one of your sons has been injured. They're taking him to the doctors right now. I said, oh. He said, you want the number of the hospital? I said, please. I called the hospital, and they answered on the other end, and I said, I hear my son has been admitted.

They said, yeah, he suffered a C4 fracture. Do you know what that means? I said, no, ma'am, I don't. She said, he's broken his neck. And she said, but your wife is coming down the corridor right now. Do you want to speak with her?

I said, yes. Sharon got on the phone. She's crying. She's weeping. She said, Matt's been hurt. It doesn't look good. And she said, I got to leave now.

They're taking him to another place. So I got off the phone. I told the president of the seminary where I was speaking that my son had broken his neck, and he called a prayer meeting. All the faculty was white. I didn't care what color they were. I just wanted to know could they get through to heaven. They prayed for me. That night, I got a 1 o'clock flight in the morning out of Seattle, and I went to the airport, and four pastors came there. They were all black.

I didn't care what color they were. I just wanted to know could they get through to heaven. They prayed for me. I got on a plane. I'm flying. I'm sitting there in my seat, and I'm crying to God.

And I'm saying to God, I gave him my life just to preach the gospel. My son's broken his neck. I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't have money. I can't take care of a paralyzed son.

I'm going to have to quit my job, get two jobs, second job, to take care of my family. And sitting there in that seat, God reminded me. He said, you gave me your life as a living sacrifice.

Romans 12, 1, and 2. He said, just leave it there. I got this. And there were tears in my eyes. I just went back trusting God. I landed. I went to the hospital the next morning. And as I'm going to the hospital to see my son, all these tubes and all these things in him, I see the Indianapolis newspaper in the star.

And on the front page of the star is a picture of my son. And there's a caption over the picture, young athlete injured but not his faith. And what it was about was they were practicing in basketball. He saved the ball from going out, hit his head into a wall.

His vertebrae fractured and severed his spinal cord. And when my wife got there, they had him on a stretcher and they were taking him to transport him. And as they were transporting, she ran and she was crying, weeping over her son, laying on his back, hurt. And he looked her in the eyes and he said, Mom, pull yourself together.

Remember, God's in control. A sports writer heard that. So he wrote that article. Matt was in the news for about a solid week. He was in even in Indiana's women's magazine. I don't know how he did that.

But he was in sports. And his story began to go all over the world. We began to do the emails and literally around the world his testimony went. And then the church that I was in, they said, we got to do something for Matt. Another business guy said, we got to do something for the Ware family. They created a trust fund. Our church on a Sunday night took up $167,000 for the Matt Ware trust fund.

Some Christian businessmen, they had a dinner. They took up $107,000. Kroger Food Store put a brand new van that was handicap adapted. They gave us that debt free. Some building people, they built us another home on 10 acres of land, throw it 3,000 square feet, handicap adapted. We were able to move into that debt free. And God told me, that's what I'm talking about when I say y'all love one another.

And people are coming together red, yellow, black, and white, some with physical disability. But they ratted around our family at that time. And I just praise God. I can never get over the grace of God.

I want to say to you and say to myself, color, mean, love, and may that be said of you too. God bless. You've been listening to a sermon preached by Dr. Charles Ware, who serves at the College of Biblical Studies in Indianapolis, Indiana. This was the final message from the series called Grace Relations. Thanks for listening and join us tomorrow for another sermon preached from the Bob Jones University Chapel Platform. .