Good morning, everybody, it is so good to be with you this morning from here in beautiful downtown Aurora. There has undoubtedly been an awakening in our nation that occurred after the murder of George Floyd by the Minneapolis police officers. Unfortunately, for our black and brown brothers and sisters, this is nothing new. You have told the rest of us that this has been your experience for a long time. And we want to say to you personally, that we hear you, we see you, and we believe you; more importantly, God hears you and He sees you too.
I believe that the Lord is inviting us to some deep soul level work today. That always starts with us as individuals, because racism is something that takes root in individual hearts, which then blossoms into systems that oppress people groups. And while there are important societal shifts that must take place, it starts with me and it starts with you.
To my black and brown brothers and sisters, I want to be abundantly clear, God sees your pain and oppression, and he calls your white brothers and sisters to actively stand against that oppression and to stand with you in your pain. So we lament with you and we also humbly ask God what it is he's calling us to do and to be a part of the solution with you. We must be clear, the gospel while it is personal to us, it is not enough to say, just preach the gospel. We must live the gospel out and the freedom that Jesus specifically stated that he came to bring. Luke 4:18-19, Jesus surprised the religious people when he said this,
18 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to set the oppressed free,
19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Since Jesus said that was his mission, he's called us to be about the same things. May our hearts be inclined to listen to the Lord today and to choose to live out this key part of the freedom that the gospel of Jesus Christ was meant to bring.
King David wrote a beautiful Psalm that I know speaks an important word to us today. Psalm 139:23-24, it says,
23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Today, as we begin this important and timely conversation, I hope that we will all individually ask God to do the most important work of searching us, searching our hearts. Personal introspection is a value to us, of course, but God knows us better than we know ourselves. So let's take a moment and invite God's gracious spotlight to search our hearts for racism or racial biases that we might have. Let's just take a moment and do that silently now.
I've invited my good friend, Jasmine, to join me this morning, to speak to these things. Jasmine has been a part of our community for about the same amount of time that my family has been a part of this community. As a matter of fact, we came at almost the exact same time, about three years ago. If you don't know Jasmine, you need to get to know her because her love for the Lord is powerful and it's tangible. You can't help but when you're around her fall in love with the Lord more. She's also a powerful advocate for the oppressed because she takes the Lord's call seriously to go to the marginalized in society. So, Jasmine, thank you so much. Thank you so much for being willing to have this conversation.
I want to start by sharing what I think a lot of average white people feel. I think a lot of average white people are not, I've heard it said, not the foaming-at-the-mouth racist types, but I think there are a lot of white people that feel basically this...
“I'm genuinely sorry for what happened to George Floyd and to so many other black people like him, but I'm not racist. I don't think less about my black brothers and sisters. I've never treated a person of color poorly. In light of that, it's kinda hard for me as an average white person to see myself as part of any problems.”
So can you take a moment and really just speak to those things?
Jasmine First, let me say good morning, brother. I'm so happy to be here with you. I think that this is layered. So for me, for instance, when people say, “I'm not racist, I haven't said, you know, racist things or, I'm not contributing to the problem.” For me, that's like a red flag when people say I'm not racist, because usually what I've found is that people that say that are usually the most racist. It's a defense mechanism, it's a way to shade and to not expose or highlight the real issue of the heart.
If we think about, for instance, what happened in Central Park recently, you have Amy Cooper who was a white woman who was in the park with her dog, her dog was not on a leash. And a black man, Christian Cooper (no relation, they both have the same last name) who is an avid birdwatcher asked her to put her dog on a leash and automatically she freaks out and she says she's going to call the police. And she repeats several times that there's an African American man that's threatening her. And so in response, just because of the social ills, what Christian naturally does just as a response is to film, to press record on his iPhone and to make these things known, just in case, you know, he gets arrested by the police or he gets shot or something, to have a record. But, you know, I bring that up to say that Amy doesn't see herself as being a racist or, you know, contributing to this narrative. She just simply said, “what I did was wrong.” But a lot of people who say these things usually help to promote racism in these ways, but they don't see themselves as part of the problem.
There are so many white supremacists who consider themselves not to be racist. So we can't just say, “I'm not racist.” That to me is a cop-out. That's not really taking a stance the way that Jesus would take a stance and say that these are things that we need to speak about as a body of Christ and we need to be advocates of the broken and the marginalized. The scripture often talks about looking out for the marginalized, looking out for the oppressed, looking out for the widow, these things are constantly highlighted, but, I think what sometimes we get caught up in is wanting to skirt around those issues and not really deal with how we're contributing to it.
So for me, we can't say that “I'm not racist.” We have to say “I'm anti-racist.” And that's what Ibram X. Kendi brings up in his book, How to Be an Antiracist. Because what he's saying is that saying that you're not racist is not a position, right? It’s not the opposite of racist, not racist, right? The opposite is anti-racist, meaning that you are using your life, your God-given, God-breathed, God-ordained life as a tool to bring forth the righteousness, the righteousness that comes from Christ. Bringing forth his heartbeat, bringing forth the matters of his heart, and being ministers of reconciliation within the earth. If we're not doing those things then we're part of the problem, whether we see ourselves as being part of the problem or not.
Neil So something I think is interesting that Dr. King spoke to, and this really resonated with me recently, is that it's not necessarily the obvious racists that are the most detrimental to the black community. It's the moderates, he said that it's the white moderates who aren't speaking against racism, that you have to be more than passively on the side of black brothers and sisters because passivity is not the friend of the black community, right? You don't feel supported when people say, “Well, I think that's wrong, but I don't want to put myself out there to state that it's wrong and be actively against it.” But to be an ally we have to be more than passive. Right?
Jasmine Right, and that's what Jesus did. You know, Jesus was willing to die for God's cause, he was willing to sacrifice. What we don't realize is black and brown people have to make sacrifices every day, that this is something that is part of our narrative in this country. Whether we like it or not, there are certain things that we have to suffer. There are certain things that we have to deal with and we don't get the option to opt-out. And so we need our white brothers and sisters to affirm that, to stand alongside us and bring forth the kingdom of God on this earth, because there's one body. There's not a black body or a white body, there’s one body, one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and father of all that is in all. So if we have one Lord, then we need to be positioned, for his causes and for what he wants us to do.
We can't afford to be in dissension with one another, that's the enemy's agenda. And if there's any way that he can allow us to not be on the same page, especially when it comes to issues like race, then it paints the picture that Jesus died in vain, that he didn't make us whole, he didn't make one new man and tear down the dividing wall of hostility, as it talks about in Ephesians 2, when it talks about the division between the Gentiles and the Jews. So in the same way, in issues of race and issues of white brothers and sisters and black brothers and sisters, we need to be on the same page.
It reminds me of 1 Corinthians 12:26 that says,
26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
So if the whole body isn't with me, then we're apart.
Neil And then we actually work against ourselves because we're brothers and sisters, because we're sons and daughters of the King. So shouldn't we go to the part of the body that is suffering and say, we are with you? We lament with you. We cry with you. We also, we get up and we stand against oppression with you. We're not just saying, “Hey, we support you as you go out and you fight oppression.” Because none of us is able to stand all by ourselves. And we weren't meant to, we are part of a body. So we're called to do these things together.
Jasmine And I think about where even Jesus talks about when he was called Beelzebub or associated with demons. And he said no kingdom divided against itself can stand. It's the same with the body of Christ. If the body is divided, if I'm clearly being oppressed and marginalized, and you as my brother say, “no, you're not being marginalized.” Where sin is debatable. Where is this really? What happened? Did you do something wrong? Is that why the cop stopped you? Is that why your application was denied? Instead of really allowing Jesus to open up the eyes of your heart so that you can see with your eyes, and you can hear with your ears, and see that these things are real, these things aren't missed, we aren't delusional, but as a black person, these are things that I've experienced time and time again. And this is not just a narrative that I know, but so many people that I'm connected with that are also African American. We share similar experiences where we talk and say, “Well, what happened to you this week?” It's something, that's a common thread. And it hurts when my brothers and sisters in the body try to deny that and ask whether or not it's reality when it's something we experienced all the time.
Neil I mean, that sounds like a spiritual gaslighting, right? It's almost as if people will bring things up and they might not even know they're doing it, but they bring something up that makes you feel like you have to question the narrative of your life. And it doesn't mean that we have a perfect view of everything, but shouldn't, we start by listening so that we can learn and empathize and understand each other? I've seen this over and over with different oppressed groups where someone says, “Hey, this is what's happening to me.” And people a lot of times will rush to say, “Are you sure that's what happened? Are you sure it was that bad? You know, I don't know, I'm not sure about that.” I know, it must be very discouraging when people say that. Are there moments where you just want to get quiet about it because you're tired of not being heard?
Jasmine Yes. There are moments, there are many moments of frustration. There are many tears and many days of just really crying out to God. Just like the Israelite state when they were oppressed in Egypt. It's something that my parents didn't have to talk to me about. It's something that I recognized very early in life that I was viewed as being different, that I wasn't accepted in certain circles or being called racial slurs. I recognized that early. For a lot of black people, that is something that we see all the time. It's like we have to try to keep our focus on Jesus, because that's the only way we can make it through anyway, but it's the trauma of what we deal with constantly and feeling alone in it.
So when people are constantly questioning, “Did this really happen? What did you do? Is all that is all the evidence out? Is there something else?” They don't really see that they don't really understand that this is a problem, a systemic problem within this country, where people of color, we live in a land where there was a system that was put in place specifically to oppress black people so that we would be seen as inferior. The nation, the whole nation, was built on this foundation. And so when people put that in question and they are not supportive, it especially hurts with the body of Christ because it's like the world, they don't know Jesus. There's nothing that they can really offer in the sense of camaraderie or really supporting and really standing with me because Christ is the unifier. He is the one that brings us together. So, when brothers and sisters just kind of push that to the side, dismiss it as if it's not real, or it's something that we're making up. Or we had a black president, so we just needed to change topics and they don't understand that this is an everyday experience. So when this happens, I do at times get silent because I'm tired of not being heard.
Neil I just keep having this visual come to my mind. And that's not a real common thing for me, but as you're saying this, I picture someone in the deep end of a pool that's drowning and calling for help, but they're actually being pushed down even more. There’s a feeling of silencing where you're drowning and you need a hand up, but you literally keep feeling shoved down further. It's so important that we listen. It's so important because not only is listening important for the sake of understanding each other and healthy relationships, more importantly than that, it's what God has called us to do. God has called because he's about that. It's the heart of God. He's given us the ministry of reconciliation. This is hugely important, obviously, it's first so that we can be made right with God, but you can never separate our relationship with God and our relationship with our brothers and sisters. The first and greatest commandment is actually two things. It's not one, it's two things. It's love God with everything in you...heart, mind, soul, and spirit. And then it's also to love your brothers and sisters as yourself.
And if you care about yourself (and most of us do, we care about ourselves a lot), we look out for ourselves. We say things like I’ve got to look out for Number one, we all know what that means, but if we're called to love our brothers and sisters as ourselves, they're also number one to us, right? So we need to look out. So it sounds beautiful, but there's going to be pain along the way, because here's something that I've realized. You can't be healed of anything, you can't be reconciled, unless you have hard conversations and you're willing to listen. You can't be, you can't skip over and say, “Well, slavery ended in 1865. So Jasmine, you oughta kind of get over this. Everything's been fine since 1865.”
Here's something else that I think is fascinating. Something that really blows me away is that the Israelites were in captivity for 400 years. I think it's fascinating that the first Africans were brought to Jamestown in Virginia in 1619. That's 401 years ago. I just have to believe that God in his sovereignty is bringing about a new level of freedom for the captivity of the oppressed 400 years later. I believe it, I think he's doing something powerful but we must listen and we must acknowledge the wrongs that we've done along the way, because to be made right with God, we have to acknowledge our wrongs. We have to say, “God, I have sinned against you,” to be made right with God. But we also have to acknowledge the sin that we've done against our brothers and sisters along the way.
Jasmine I think that's 100% on point. And the thing is that even in this time, as I converse with my white brothers and sisters that are part of this church, a few different people have asked me for their grace. And I say, “you have it.” I want to be on the side of reckoning. I wouldn't be at this church if I wasn't. I'm here because God has me here and I'm here like Dr. King said, “I just want to do his will.” And so that is why I want to be a minister of reconciliation, the way that God has called us to be because I really believe in what it says in Revelation about every tribe and every nation. I don't want to wait until heaven for us to unify.
God has already given us unity. All we have to do is abide in it and walk in and we don't have to figure it out. We don't have to come up with a solution for it. Jesus is the solution. If we would just simply humble ourselves, if we would just simply repent, if we would simply pray and acknowledge these things, we can be healed. The thing is that racism doesn't have to define you. Jesus defines you, he is your Lord. And so just like any other sin, if you were a liar or you were a murderer, you know, Paul, or, you know, Peter was racist. But look at what God spoke about Peter being a rock. God didn't see Peter for the things that he struggled with. He saw him in his own righteousness, as he was clothed in the righteousness of Christ, though he was still sinful and still made mistakes.
We still make mistakes too. But it doesn't have to be the end of the matter is not condemning, it's freeing actually. Because once you admit it, once you give it over to the Lord and you ask for forgiveness from your brothers and sisters, you can go and be healed and you can be reconciled. I think about Paul all the time. Paul is one of my favorite people in the Bible. When I think about Paul, I don't think about the fact that he was murdering Christians. I don't think about the fact that he was there applauding when Stephen was killed. I think about Paul as this amazing, amazing disciple of Jesus Christ that sacrificed it all for the good of the kingdom, for the good of the church and for the good of his Lord. And so once again these things can be amended. This does not define it, our sins don’t have to define us, Jesus does.
Neil Jesus defines it, but they always will. If we don't recognize them and confess them and then get up and do the work, because I think there's also the danger in over-spiritualizing things. Do you know what I mean? I think it's easy for us in the church to say, “Well, God did this work, so we don't have to do anything.” It's like, well, actually he's called us to do from who we are. Right. So, if he has saved us, he saved us for something and that's to be active participants for good works that he created for us from the foundation of the earth to do like, this is stuff that we have to get up and do. So I want to continue this conversation. I would love it if you would speak to what it's like being in a predominantly white church, that is what we are. We're not going to deny that we are a predominantly white church. What has it been like to be in a predominantly white church as a person of color?
Jasmine It's been two things. It's been really great and exhilarating to be with my brothers and sisters in Christ. I've experienced amazing love here at The Edge. But at the same time, I've experienced a lot of sin in the sense that people don't really recognize that the things that they say, stereotypes that they might have, that are displayed as microaggressions, which is basically verbal or nonverbal statements, or communications that place black people or people of color in certain stereotypes.
Neil Can you share some of those? I think that the idea of microaggressions is something that white America is starting to understand a little bit, but obviously black Americans have experienced this because this is not a white idea. So can you help us understand, can you give us even some, some terms that would be microaggressions or examples?
Jasmine A family member being called a thug for the way that he was dressed, or even as I get to know the extended family of my brothers and sisters at The Edge and how they talk down to me and see me as inferior, but yet claim to be Christians. And so these are just some examples of the way that I have experienced this sin in the church. And I think a lot of times people don't really realize it because a lot of it more so than not has been said directly to me. Where people don't recognize that this system, this belief system is something that is part of this racist narrative. They don't really understand how they're contributing to it.
They just think that making jokes about black hair or saying particular words or phrasing or terminology that's typically associated with black people is funny or cute, and it's offensive. So I think they don't really understand how they contribute to that. I think that they would probably say I'm not racist, or I don't see you as any different, but in actuality, I have to deal with those comments. So for me, whether it's intentional or unintentional, it still hurts. It still causes trauma. And I have to deal with that. So in some ways it makes me feel ostracized where I have to deal with these sayings. And I feel alone in them being a small percentage as far as being a person of color at The Edge.
And so it sounds like, honestly, I just get tired of explaining. I get tired of just having to deal with this. I deal with this already in the world. You know, I was racially profiled in Naperville a week before George Floyd was killed. This is not a new situation for me. So to deal with it in the church too, it just hurts. It just hurts. And so I have grace from my brothers and sisters, but it's a really painful traumatizing ordeal because I'm looking to Christ to see me through, I'm looking to Christ to get me over the hump to bring me out of the valley, but it's still extremely difficult.
Neil A podcast recently was done with Brené Brown and Ibram X. Kendi. It was fascinating because Brené Brown, who, I don't know what her religious beliefs are, but I haven't ever heard that she's a Christian, maybe maybe not. But I thought it was interesting that she pointed out the power of the words that we use. And she said something fascinating. She said that every single genocide around the world started out with careless words, careless words and how we spoke about other people. And the key was dehumanizing language. So language that makes other humans look less than human and how dangerous that is. Because if we can look at people as less than human then we can do less than human things to them.
Jasmine And that's in the way that this country was built, that we are inferior. That we don't have the ability to learn. We don't have the ability to be successful. We were created to be slaves and then even scripture being used as a way to make us docile to tame us. To make us see that this is how we were created, that we were descendants of Ham and that we were cursed. So scripture has been used to affirm this behavior within society and within the church. And these things are just not eradicated. These are things that are present-day evils that still exist. That must be uncovered by the church and talked about because like you said, we can't heal if we don't deal with the wound. If the wound is still open and it's still festering, there is no healing. And so the only way that we can heal is to go to God, acknowledge, repent, ask for forgiveness, and let's build. Let’s continue building that unity through the bond, the bond of the spirit, and just going forth in his love.
Neil It's fascinating to me, the apostle Paul in Ephesians 2, he speaks of Jesus and he says,
14 For he himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, 15 by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, 16 and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility. 17 He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.
When I read that, I feel frustrated. Why, why? I feel frustrated because I see what it says Jesus did, but I wonder when we're going to walk in all that and what that's going to look like. I don't know how he's going to do this. I believe that we live in this tension of, he says it's done, but he gives us the work to do, to walk it out in this life. So I've got this anxious anticipation for what that's gonna look like. I just want the church to step into this, this vitally important work to make all people equal. All people free under the cross of Jesus Christ. I want to see that happen.
Jasmine Let's talk about James 1:27,
27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
It talks about what's pure and what is religion that is pure and undefiled to God, is to care for the orphans and the widows in their distress, their distress, and to keep oneself unstained from being defiled by the world. Exactly, exactly. And that's the command, I think sometimes people don't really understand or are missing the point, even for us to say that black lives matter is offensive to some people because the automatic rebuttal that I've been hearing is that all lives matter. Well, it's no different than James highlighting that the orphan and the widow should be cared for. And if they're not being cared for, then something's wrong. Jesus always brought attention to the marginalized when Jesus used James to speak these words, what was he saying that the rich man is not important?
Was he saying that any other person is not important? We all have inherent value. That is God-given. The Imago Dei, the image of God, is within us all. It's just highlighting that this group is underexposed, has been consistently marginalized, oppressed, dehumanized. And that the command of the gospel, this is the whole gospel, this is not just some people would deny the social justice aspect of the gospel. I'm talking about the entire gospel is to be the hands and feet of Jesus is to reconcile what's broken, is to be change agents in this world, in this society. The church has to take lead because we have the only solution that there is. So when we say that black lives matter, it is not a diss to anyone, it's just saying that this system, this systematic and systemic oppression that has occurred within this country still has these adverse effects to this day and we are suffering. We have been suffering and we are still suffering. And the body has to respond and bring light to these matters instead of saying that they don't exist. So we're highlighting the group of people that are being held down, and we're saying, “God loves you. And we want to stand beside you as brothers and sisters, to bring about equality first in the church, and then in the world.”
Neil It has to be in the church, right? This was a great explanation to me because I remember back in Ferguson, I think in 2014, where people started posting and hashtagging Black Lives Matter. And it really got through a lot of people that got really riled up about that. And the response automatically, as you said, was people were posting all lives matter. And I think it's important. This was a great differentiation to help me understand it better, someone said all lives don't matter until black lives matter. And what it's saying is that of course, all lives matter and we're just pointing to our brothers and sisters that currently are experiencing the most oppression. So we need to go to the part of the body that is experiencing the pain and saying that we stand with you, we cry with you and we will fight for justice with you.
Jasmine Amen. And it's no different than standing alongside the widow, the orphan, the babies that are being aborted. It's that same heartbeat. These are not areas that are differentiated. This is the same page. This is the same Jesus, the same God of the universe. So, we're just talking about things that really matter. And we all matter. But if my brother or sister is hurting, then I need to focus on my brother or sister. One of my friends had this analogy, it's like me saying that my mother just died and you cutting me off and you saying but my father died, is not acknowledging my pain, my individual pain. It’s not acknowledging my individual pain or the pain that my people have been accustomed to. It’s denying it.
And it's saying, you know what, that's not really real. Or that's not really the situation. And you're failing to see that we're suffering. You're failing to see that we are being oppressed. And that this is an everyday pandemic that is not just with Coronavirus. That is not just with George Floyd, that this is something that we as black people experience all the time is something that I know all too well where my life is at stake. When I was racially profiled the week before George Floyd passed away, I was doing nothing wrong. I was happy, I was about to go get something to eat, and I left the house, not thinking in that moment, but again, being black, I've had to learn to think like this. I've had to make myself aware of every circumstance of my environment.
I get on a road and I'm driving close to my house. And I remember it was just very weird because I'm on the road, and then there's a car that is making a right turn onto the road that I'm on. But it was like, when I passed that particular car, I made eye contact with them. It was just the weirdest thing. And so I didn't think anything of it. I just kept going and before I know it, I realize that this is a Naperville Fire Department SUV. So this is someone associated with the Naperville Fire Department. And this white man gets behind me and he just starts basically aggressively harassing me where he's on my bumper to the point where I think he's just going to ram into me. That's how close it was. That's how aggressive this attack was.
And so I'm thinking, this might be it for me. I didn't do anything wrong. People will ask, “Well, were you going the speed limit? What were you doing?” I was looking ahead and I was just driving and this happened to me because he could see that I was a black woman. So, I'm continuing down and I'm just like, okay, God, is he going to get in the other lane? Maybe he’s just in a rush or something, but you can't excuse it. It's like God gives us this innate ability to be able to realize when something is wrong. And it happens so much that you become accustomed to this reality. But he doesn't change lanes. I'm going the speed limit, if he wants to go fast, there's two lanes.
He could get over. He doesn't get over. He just simply continues to follow me. So from there, I was going to make a left about a mile down the road. I didn't put my signal on until the last minute because I'm like, is he gonna continue to follow me or what? He's not a police officer? Why is he harassing me? So I wait to make a left. As soon as I make a left, he jumps right behind me. So then I am going to make another left once I pass the light. And so there was another car that was adjacent to me. And so what I did was I quickly got into the left lane after I made that other left, and then it was another car behind me. So he couldn't quickly get over to continue harassing me.
So then I watch him and he goes and makes a quick right, and then a u-turn back out. And so as this was happening, I was looking at him through my interior rearview mirror. Like, this is ridiculous. Like what are you trying to do? And what do you want to do? But for so many people of color for so many black people, these are things that we experienced. This is prior to George Floyd. And I have many more stories of these instances as they were perpetrated against me and my family members, all my life living in Naperville. So for people to excuse it, and brothers and sisters especially, that hurts the most because we have Christ and it makes it seem like we have a disjointed body. When we have one whole body.
Neil That's super, super alarming to me. We are kind of out of time today. Like we've had a lot with this. This is the start of a conversation. We have to have more conversation and we have to have more action. Don't we?
Jasmine Yes, we do, the conversation continues.
Neil It does. So I want to share this quickly. I want to paint a picture that Jesus paints through John in the book of Revelation 7:9-10, he says,
9 After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. 10 And they cried out in a loud voice:
“Salvation belongs to our God,
who sits on the throne,
and to the Lamb.”
That's a picture that we will be a part of whether we love the idea of that now or not. That is something that we will be a part of as believers in Jesus. It starts with being reconciled to God. It always starts there.
And to be reconciled to God, I love sharing this Acts 2:38. It says how we can do that. Because in order for us to do this work of reconciliation with brothers and sisters, we have to be reconciled to God. Otherwise we're not going to have permanent change. We're just going to have behavioral changes, and that's not deep-rooted heart change. We need to receive a new heart. Acts 2:38 tells us how to do that. It says,
38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
And I just want to say let's just take a moment to pray. I found this prayer that speaks, it's a prayer against racism. And to me, it's a powerful one. And I hope it is for you too. May this be our prayer today, as we end,
Wake me up Lord, so that the evil of racism finds no home within me. Keep watch over my heart, Lord, and remove from me any barriers to your grace that may oppress and offend my brothers and sisters. Fill my spirit Lord so that I may give services of justice and peace. Clear my mind, Lord, and use it for your glory. And finally remind us, Lord, that you said blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the children of God. Amen.
Let's close with worship today. Thank you, Jasmine.