Life.Church with Craig Groeschel - God, Help Us Unite: Racial Reconciliation Starts with the Church

Episode Date: June 7, 2020

REOPENINGSome Life.Church locations have resumed services. To ensure safety at our locations, our weekend services have been redesigned to create a sanitary, touchless environment that allows for physical distancing. To see if your location is open, please visit https://www.life.church/updatesWANT TO KNOW WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS ABOUT RACIAL RECONCILIATION?Check out these Bible plans:Tony Evans Explores Racial ReconciliationRev. Dr. Bernice A. King: Cultivating a Heart of MercyBe The Bridge: By Latasha MorrisonPatterns for PeaceSUPPORT COVID-19 RESPONSE AND DIGITAL MISSIONSYou can designate a gift to Life.Church to go to coronavirus relief or to Digital Missions like the Church Online Platform! Your gift above the tithe helps meet immediate needs in your community and around the world and helps other churches to spread the Good News of Christ to people everywhere: https://www.life.church/givingSTAY CONNECTEDStay updated with the latest news from Life.Church at https://www.life.church/stayconnected. You can also visit https://www.life.church/updates for the latest, or download the Life.Church app (https://www.life.church/app) and enable push notifications.NEXT STEPSHave you made a decision to follow Jesus? You may be wondering what’s next on your journey. We want to help! Let us guide you to your next steps in your walk with Christ: https://www.life.church/nextABOUT LIFE.CHURCHWherever you are in life, you have a purpose. Life.Church wants to help you find your next step. Our hope is that your journey will include joining us at a Life.Church location throughout the United States or globally online at https://www.live.life.church. Find locations, videos, and more info about us at https://www.life.church or download the Life.Church app at https://www.life.church/app. FIND US ON SOCIAL MEDIAFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/life.churchInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/life.churchTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/lifechurchCONNECT WITH PASTOR CRAIGYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIIdiIO-Y20hRW9niR0CA8AFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/craiggroeschelInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/craiggroeschelTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/craiggroeschel Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey, welcome Life Church family. Those of you, they're gathering in physical buildings. Welcome back. Those of you that are still at church online or YouTube live or wherever you're watching, we love you. We pray that you're very blessed in this season. If this environment looks different, it's because it is very different. Right now, I'm actually on vacation with my bride, taking a little bit of time off.

And we are recording this message from Steamboat Christian Center in beautiful, Steamboat Springs, Colorado. Big shout out to our friends at Steamboat Christian Center, Pastor Troy Lewis, and Pastor Jeff Sublett, our dear friends of ours, Pastor Jeff, and in fact invited my son Sam to preach his very first message when Sam was only 17 years of age at the hype at this amazing church. And Steamboat Christian Center is kind of like one of the,

honestly, hundreds of thousands of partner churches. They use a lot of the free resources that we have at Live Church. they sing a lot of the worship songs, and we're just so grateful for them and making this possible. To give you a little bit of context, what I did for this weekend is I had a pre-recorded message on stay positive.

It honestly was my favorite message on spiritual enthusiasm, but what I want to do is I want to put a pause on stay positive. With all of our growing cultural awareness of the ongoing problem of racism, I wanted to pause, stay positive, and speak to our whole church about our responsibility that we have as followers of Christ. I like what scripture says in the Old Testament in Micah 6-8.

Scripture says this, the Lord has told us to do what is right. God tells us this is what is right, and it's also what he demands, what is right and what is God demand. He says, see that justice is done, let mercy be your first concern and humbly obey your God. What I'm doing is I'm asking God to help us as a church family to act justly, to love mercy, to walk humbly and be united as one. So when the world looks on,

they will know that we're followers of Jesus by the way we truly love one another. In fact, Paul said this in 1st Corinthians chapter 12. he was describing the body of Christ and showing that every person is a part of the body, you're a part of the body of Christ, you're an indispensable part of the body of Christ, it's one body with many parts. And he said in 1st Corinthians 1226, if one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If there's one portion of the body of Christ that hurts, we all heard, if my arm hurts, my body hurts.

And honestly, as you know, there are so, many people that are suffering, grieving, and hurting beyond description. And so as the body of Christ, we hurt together. When one part hurts, we all hurts. In fact, Paul also told us in Romans 1215, he told us this. He said, to rejoice with those who rejoice and to mourn with those who mourn. The rejoicing comes easily. We do that well. It's second. nature to us. Like I made the announcement this week that our daughter Mandy, who has struggled with ongoing chronic illness, she and James had great news. They are expecting and we are celebrating beyond measure. And as the family of God, we rejoice together. But we also, according to scripture,

mourn with those that mourn. And what I want to do is I want to ask you as a church family just to pause and to grieve with those that are grieving. Then I'm going to ask you, ask you to do more and join me to make a difference because I know that you want to and some of you, even though you want to, you don't quite know how to. And so that's what I want to talk about today. Let's just do some straight talk for a minute if it's okay with you. If you're anything like me, whenever you read about or you hear about some injustice in another part of the world, it's really easy to be sad, you know, for a moment, and then to kind of go on with life. You hear about some injustice, you think, wow, that's really unfortunate for them,

and you're like, you're genuinely sad about it, but because of the way our human nature is, you can hate it for a moment, but because it's far away and not here, it might upset you a little bit and it might bother you, but it really doesn't move you to action. It's different, though, when you see an extended, video of horrific abuse that goes on and on and on. The first time I saw the short version of the video, I was speechless and I was broken like so many of you. When I watched the longer version of George Floyd begging for mercy and saying, I can't breathe, I can't breathe. I couldn't watch the whole video.

I could not finish it. I don't want to finish it. I don't ever want to see the longer version of that video. Like so many of you, I find it impossible to put words to the emotions that I felt. It's more than shock. It's deeper than grief. I found myself with this unusual,

combination of indescribable sadness, unexpected rage that I hadn't felt before, and then just this profound sense of helplessness. What do I do with what I just saw? Here's what I do know, and I'm sure this is completely true for you. If you see someone attacking someone that you love, what do you do? You speak up and you step in. You use your power to help the person who is suffering. You do what you can do to stop the injustice. And so when I saw that video, normally I would wait for more details and wouldn't wade into some things that I don't completely understand, but I did something that I rarely do, and I posted a video immediately, and I knew that I couldn't get my words just right. I mean, how can I, with my very limited perspective, but what I

wanted to do is I just wanted to try to communicate that I notice, I wanted to say what is true, that racism is wrong, it's evil, and I just wanted to say, I care and I want to help. I don't know how to help completely. I know it's way more than a post on social media, but I just want to acknowledge that it's wrong, and I want to do something about it. Pastor Charlie Dates, he said this, he said, believers of color want their brothers and sisters to call out the injustices around them. They want to stand in unity rebuking a wayward culture. And so I totally can understand that if someone's coming against me, I want someone else to step in. And so I made a small attempt to call out the injustice.

But what I want to do today is I want to say more and I want to say it louder and I want to invite you to join me in seeking justice and showing mercy and walking humbly before our God. I want to ask you to help me do this. What's interesting to me is whenever you start talking about justice, what I know is that there are some people that are going to say, man, the police officer are out of control is completely the police officer's fault. And what I want to say is this clearly. This is not about police officers.

This is about all of us. This is about me. This is about you. This is about all of us. Are there some bad police officers? Yes. Let's be clear, just like there's some very bad pastors. There's bad and evil people everywhere.

But when it comes to police officers, every police officer that I know personally and I love dearly, they went into their profession because they actually love justice, because they care, because they honestly want to make a difference. So I just want to kind of wade into what many would consider dangerous territory and say, you don't have to choose a side. You don't have to choose a side. You could be wholeheartedly against racial, injustices, and you can be four honorable police officers. You can do both. You don't have to choose

sides. What I know about most of you, because you're amazing church family, you love Jesus. What I know about most of you is that you care, and there are a lot of you that lean more kind of like me. You want to do something, but you don't know exactly what to do. So before I did speak, I did a lot of homework, hours and hours and hours and hours of phone calls with leaders that I trust to try to learn how we as a church can truly get in the middle of something that's complicated, but do it with love and do it in a way that makes a difference. So I've gotten a lot of advice on how we can help the healing and stop the injustices. And I just want to say these things to our church family and believe that by the help of the power of God, we actually can make a difference.

What can you do from where you are? I want to give you four things. The first thing that we can all do is we can admit that racism is real. We can admit that it's real. Just because you haven't seen racism doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. It does. It's all over the world today. Just because your perspective might be more limited and it hasn't hit your home doesn't mean that it's not real for so many people. And we have to acknowledge that racism is real. The bottom line is we can't be part of a solution to a problem that we don't acknowledge exists. We have to. We have to. acknowledge it. And what this is going to take for so many of us is cultural humility, where we recognize that we all have certain biases, we all have different perspectives. And one of the biggest

problems I've seen with my white brothers and sisters is so often we tend to think that our experience is the same as everyone else's, and we just kind of got to pull our heads out and say, that's just simply not true. Couldn't be further from the truth. We have to acknowledge that racism is very, very real today. Sure, in some places we've made progress, but there's so much more progress that needs to be made. It's a very, very real problem today. Now, when you know something is a problem and you're a parent, what do you do? You talk about it in your home. You discuss it. COVID-19. Wow. Where did this come from? It's a challenge. What do we do? We talk about it at our home. Here's how we're responsible. Here's how we're wise. Here's how we protect other people.

drugs as a problem so what do we do we talk about it at our home we educate our children racism is a problem so what do we do we talk about this in our home in fact we home educate all of our kids we've home educated all six of them guess what you do too you're all homeschooling now and one thing i love about amy is she's worked on the curriculum is she designs it to give our children a broad and a cultural breath to increase their understanding and empathy from people from different backgrounds. Then what we want to do is we would help our children to know that everyone is created in the image of God.

Everyone is created in the image of God. And as we do, we want to help our children to grow past in us and them language. It's just us and us. We're all God's children. When God looks at us, he doesn't see Jew or Gentile, male, a female, black, white, anything he sees his children. So once you do admit, yes, racism is still real, it's still a problem,

then you call it what it is. Yes, it's wrong, it's worse than wrong. It's evil. And it breaks the heart of God. What can you do to make a difference? Because you care and you want to. It starts with admitting that racism is real. The second thing that we can do is we can listen. We can ask questions and we can listen to someone who has a different story or a different background than us. For example, I'm really thankful that our staff is relatively diverse on all different fronts. And last week in particular, I just sat down with more staff members that I ever have before and just let some conversations breathe, ask questions, and just shut up, and I listened. I asked questions that were a little bit uncomfortable for me,

like, you know, tell me your story about your background. How has racism impacted? your life. And the more I heard, the more I learned that I had so much to learn. As I listened, my heart just broke and I realized your perspective is so different from mine and hearing your perspective gives me so much deeper love, empathy, compassion, and a sense to do what's right. Let me just tell you up front, you may hear some things that make you uncomfortable. You may go into some places in a conversation that you're like, oh my gosh, I don't know what to do with this, you may feel very uncomfortable. But some of your most powerful moments in life

happen outside your relational comfort zone. Just care enough to go there, care enough to ask, care enough to listen, care enough to feel someone else's pain. Admit that racism is real, call it what it is, it's evil, it's an abomination to God, then listen to someone who's hurting. then what you can do is you can pray you can pray some people say do way more than pray act yes act but yes pray prayer is powerful we gathered last week with um another pastor couple friend of mine and one of our own worship pastors and we tried to unite our church in prayer if you'd like to um participate in that

maybe you missed it you can go to youtube and you can just pray we'll we'll show you here's how we pray Here's what we do. Prayer matters. Scripture is very, very clear. Second Chronicles 714, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, God says, and turn from their wicked ways.

We repent. We got it wrong. We humble ourselves. We call on you. God says, I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. Bottom line is, we cannot do this alone.

We need help from heaven. And you can pray. Pray for George Floyd family. It's grieving. Pray for the people in Minneapolis. Pray for our leaders to hear from God to make wise decision. Pray for justice. Pray for compassion.

Pray for those who suffer unjustly and pray for those who protect us. pray for the victims and pray for those who serve. Pray for opportunities to use your voice and to act. Pray for unity in the body of Christ. Jesus prayed for it. Paul prayed for it. I love what Jesus prayed in John 17. He said, my prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who believe in me through their message, what? That all of them might be one. God, make them one, Father. Just, just, is you are in me and I am in you.

May they also be in us so that the world may believe you have sent me. Jesus prayed. And he said, then the world will know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. If Jesus prayed for unity and Paul prayed for unity, I want to pray for unity

and I want to be an answer to their prayers. What if in our generation, we could be one that starts to get it right. We battle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities of this dark world. Prayer, it's not like our last line of defense. It's our first line of offense. We are people of prayer, and we believe that prayer changes things. What else can you do?

You can call it wrong, admit that it's real. You can listen to someone. You can pray boldly in faith. And then number four, you can love you can love how do we love how do we do it

let me give you some adverbs you can love overtly you can love recklessly you can love boldly and generously and unconditionally and bravely if someone makes a racist joke

you can step and say no no no no no over the line no that's not right don't don't ever say that again, you can stand with others, wander into an area that might make you feel a little bit uncomfortable, but you say, you know what, I'm going to stand with you in unity, I'm going to stand by you, and I'm going to stand for you. It's a little bit like the whole Black Lives Matter statement. First of all, it's not a statement. It's a truth. And so many people will, you know, kind of push back and say, but yeah, all lives matter. All lives matter. All lives matter.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, and amen, and yes, all lives matter. Duh, the lives of the unborn matter. Yes, all lives matter. But sometimes you have to be very specific and very personal. I've got six children. If one of them is mistreated, forgotten, overlooked, abused, left hurting, I don't go up to that child and say, all six of my children matter. No. I look at him and say, you matter.

Because I love the individual as well as the whole. So sometimes you just have to say, black lives matter. All lives matter? Sure. But right now, there is someone who needs to hear it from me. You matter. Love. Love. Let's try to get outside of our own perspective.

and see it as someone else sees it, and speak directly into someone else's pain with the same love we receive from God. Love, what does Scripture say? Hatred stirs up conflict, but love covers all wrongs. What does love do? It's so powerful.

Love covers sin. love dispels anger love drives out all fear isn't there enough fear in this world today love cast out all fear love forgives and love heals how do you love like jesus loved you i've done so many things wrong so many things i regret and jesus forgives my sins and he freely loves me and that's how you love So church, what are we going to do? We're going to acknowledge that racism is wrong. It's evil. It breaks the heart of God.

We're going to listen to people. We're going to hear their stories. We're going to love. I would encourage you just to spend time with someone, listen to their story, look into their eyes long enough like I have, until you feel their pain, and then cry with them.

You don't have to feel like you need to say, I understand, because you don't. You don't have to understand to hurt with somebody. To say, I love you. You matter. I notice. I care. We're going to listen. We're going to care.

We're going to pray with bold faith to a God who says all things are possible. We're going to love. overtly and recklessly and boldly and generously and unconditionally and courageously. And then we're going to pause and recognize that what we just did might have made a little difference, but we have so much more to do. A social media post is a start, but it's not the finish. This message is a very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very. very, very, very small start,

but we have so much more to do. We will act justly. We will love mercy. We'll walk humbly with our God under the banner of the name that is above every name. The name of Jesus who was born of a virgin, died on a cross,

and rose again from the dead so that anyone who calls on the name of the Lord, will be saved. Sin is sin is sin is sin is sin and the only answer is Jesus. So Father, help us know Jesus, help us make him known. God, we pray that as a church family, you would empower us to make a difference in this world. Light shining into darkness, standing up for those who are unjustly abused, seeking justice, showing mercy, loving as we've been loved, and may the world look on and know that we are followers of Jesus by the way we love one another. If you want to be a part, and I know you do, why don't you stand up to your feet at all of our churches?

We're going to lift up the name of Jesus and praise, and we're going to do our best. to honor God and to love people. We continue in an attitude of prayer. I'm so moved right now because this is the story of the gospel. You know, what's happening all over the world is a result of sin. It's because of sin that we find people broken, divided, oppressed, and not free. But Jesus came so that we would experience true freedom. He knew that the only way to pay this price would be to give his own,

life and he was willing to die on a cross for you and for me so that we would experience this true freedom that we could be born again, new in him. I know that there are some of you right now that you can sense this tugging. You know that God's drawing you to him. That's the work of the Holy Spirit in your heart right now. And I want to invite you to receive him. Don't push him away. Maybe for years you've been saying, no, Jesus, I'm not ready for this. I'm not ready for it. Right now, this moment, God's calling your name. When he was dying on that cross, he had you on his mind. And all you have to do is say, yes, I receive you in my life.

So if that's you, and if you want to make that decision right now of receiving Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior for your life, I want you to let us know. And I want you to pray this prayer with me. Pray this, dear Jesus, I know that I'm a sinner. I need you. I cannot do this life without you. Come into my heart. Change my life.

Make me new. I want to be like you. I submit my life completely to you. It's in Jesus' name I pray. Amen. For those of you who just prayed this prayer, I want you to know as your church, we're celebrating this moment with you.

There is no greater decision that you can ever make than this by saying, yes, I want you to be the Lord and Savior of my life. And so as your church, I want you to know that we're here for you. And I've got a simple next step for you. For those of you that made this decision, let us know. Because we've got some free resources that we've created specifically for you as you start this new journey with Christ. And I also want you to know, come back to church next week.

Bring a friend because we know whoever finds God finds life.