Matters Of The Heart-5-Common Unity

This morning we continue with our Matters Of The Heart series. Pastor Brad teaches us about Common Unity. The text can be found in Acts 10:9-16.(NKJV)

Pastor's Notes:

Good morning, everyone!
I hope you’ve enjoyed this challenging series we’ve started this month. I have to admit, it’s been challenging! We’ve dealt with the affliction of offense, the cancer of bitterness, the lure of lust, and a heart to reach out to others.
Today, I also want to touch on a deal with a subject that affects people all around the globe: Racial differences.
This is certainly not a new problem. It has existed for years.
I’m glad that’s not a problem here in our church or faith community.
Woodward First Assembly is a church for all people!
So today, I want to continue in our series with a message I’ve entitled “Common Unity”.

I want to say “Thank You!” to my parents for raising me not to see color, but character. Being my family is from California originally, my family did not grow up with the racial stigmas that I found so prevalent in the deep woods of South Arkansas.
Let me explain:
ILLUSTRATION
My family left Los Angeles when I was five years old. We did so to follow my grandparents who had retired and were aging. Upon arriving, my parents were unable to find work that matched the previous income, let alone to match the bills that also decided to move to Arkansas with us! They filed bankruptcy and had to start life over.
Our town was very racially decided. As much as I hate to say it, the black people lived on one side of town, and the white people lived on the other.
I’m not talking about 1960 either!
Our house shared a property line with an African American family that my family grew to love. My mom and their mom were best friends, and we would spent time at their house often.
Their middle son and myself were about the same age, and we got saved around the same time. A local baptist church down the street from my house was having a vacation Bible school . I went on Monday and Tuesday and had a blast. The van would come by every day and pick me up. I was so excited, I invited my neighbor friend to come with me. His mother agreed, and on Wednesday, we both sat eagerly on my front porch at the allotted time waiting for the church van to come and pick us up.
As we saw it from a distance, our hearts began to get excited. Yet, as we got up to walk toward the street, the van got faster and left us standing my the road, with kids looking and pointing out of the back window.

At that point, I wasn’t sure what had happened. Was the the bus full? Did they have no more room?
On the next day, we received a knock at our front door.
It was the pastor of the Baptist church. My mom answered the door. She was shocked. The pastor answered “I’m here to pick Brad up for vacation Bible School”. My mom asked him about the blunder the day before. He replied “Your son is welcome, but the black boy is not. We don’t allow that kind at our church.”
My mom said “No thanks” and slammed the door in his face. She spoke to him in a tongue that needed no interpretation!
Talk about hurting two kids as children!Who are we to favor one race of people over another?
After all, we cant pick those things about ourselves. Look at what Paul said to the philosophers of Athens in Acts 17:26-27 NKJV
And He has made from one [a]blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings,27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us;
God is the one who picks these things about us.
TRANSITION
Yet, this is something that we even see in the early church.

BACKGROUND
In Acts 10, Jesus had to give Peter a vision of various types of animals that were unclean for Him to get the picture.

God was sending him to all nations!

This was difficult because up unto this point, the Jewish race was very prominent and to many were considered superior. Therefore, Peter couldn’t imagine dealing with a “lower” gentile.
However, thank God Peter had a change of heart. He went to Cornelius’ house and people were gloriously filled with the Holy Spirit. It was amazing. It was also a sign that God was indeed “pouring out His Spirit on all flesh”, just as Joel had prophesied.
Yet when the news was spread, the Jews got mad. Acts 11:3 records their vile attitude.Peter then had to “take them to school”.What does that tell me about racial attitudes?
They can be very hard to break, even among religious people.
I want to draw our application today from the words of Paul in Acts 17:26-27 NKJV, so please turn back over there for me.

APPLICATION
We all come from one blood
- We all come from Adam’s blood naturally.- We are united through Jesus’ blood spiritually. - We all bleed the same color blood!

God determines where we will be born
- People don’t chose to be white, black, Hispanic, etc. God chooses that for us.
- Therefore, to disregard someone due to race or color is to disregard the judgement of God and to destroy one made in His image.

He desires all mankind to seek Him
- God wants men to be saved. He wants us to seek after Him.
- That is something He put inside man when He created us.

There’s salvation for the entire human race
- He’s the God of all flesh.
- Revelation records a number of “every tribe, nation, kindred, and tongue”.



CONCLUSION
Since the common denominator for all of us is the blood of Jesus, let’s receive communion today!