Series: We are Here!
Sermon 6: Multiethnic (or multicultural, or diversity)
Introduction:
Show pictures of our changing world in this area of South Chicago:
The Orland Mosque, the Lemont Hindu Temple, and the Chicago Buddhist Temple all represent how diverse our community is becoming.
Our society is changing all around us and America is the melting pot of the world. We have all kinds of religions, people groups, ethnicities, cultures, languages and diversity all around us today. If you don’t believe me just go walk through Orland Mall.
I really think this new cultural dimension is a great ministry opportunity to show the world that God loves diversity and uniqueness. Just look around this morning at our congregation or visit our school and you see diversity and individual uniqueness.
Movies like “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” highlight the differences within cultures in our society today.
Dr. Carl Johnsons writes, “The end of history revealed in the Book of Revelation includes a vision of people from every language, tribe and nation declaring the praise of God assembled around the throne. This reality was the celebration recorded in Acts 16 when a new congregation assembled in Philippi which included a woman, a slave and a Gentile as well as the Apostle Paul, a recovering Jewish Pharisee. The power of the Gospel breaks down the barriers and builds supernatural bridges of new relationship. Each believer has more in common with another believer than any former associations of family, race, language or color. Now adopted into the same family all can rejoice to call each other brother and sister through faith in Christ” (Page v-vi, The Technicolor Community).
It is obvious that Christian Hills is a different church – with a God focused agenda which has us being multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and very diverse. Let me ask a pointed question to you today - “Do you realize how unique this is?”
Research done in 1990 by George Barna revealed that 79% of churches in America were homogeneous-that is made up of just one racial or ethnic group. The truth is the majority of churches are homogeneous in America but we are not and we are becoming more diverse year by year and I love it – I actually am ecstatic about it. I believe this is happening because we are committed to being on God’s agenda – not ours! God loves diversity that is why we all look different, come from different cultures and have different hair colors, eyes and the like. God is into diversity – diversity by the way is creative. I am so glad we are not all carbon copies – or clones! I believe the Lord wants His church to reflect what Heaven will look like!
I have heard the following quote a few times in my life:
“Eleven o’clock on Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in America.” Have you ever heard that quote before?
This quote was said by two prominent ministers: Dr. Billy Graham and Dr. Martin Luther King (Both heroes of mine).
When we talk about being here in today’s world I feel our church is on a God given journey to be unique in this area of greater Chicago. We are to be a place that reflects what Heaven will be like. We are a place that is being a light to the world about the awesomeness of diversity – the strength of diversity and the power of love that is connected with the Gospel.
John 13:34, 35: 34“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
When we love each other like Jesus loved us then He receives the praise and people stop, look and listen. They become curious as to why a diverse church can be so unified and loving. Love –genuine love draws people in and to the Lord.
T.S. – This morning I want to share with you how God looks at diversity and reveal to you that we are all created in the image of God, we are all His sons and daughters of the Lord adopted into His heavenly family (But remember to be a part of this family requires you have accepted Jesus Christ as you Lord and Savior).
Scripture Texts:
Galatians 3:26-29:
26You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus,
27for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
28There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Acts 10:34-35:
34Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism 35but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.
T.S. - Just these two Scriptures reveal to us that God does not have favorites within His family unit. He loves us all the same and that is why He died for all of us on the cross. Therefore we too should never show favoritism toward others because of the skin tone, weight, height, language or culture.
Video Illustration: From wingclips.com Human Race.
This clip reveals the truth that we are all part of the human race! We all need to be reminded of that – don’t we!
Thesis: God is no respecter of persons and He desires His House (His Church) to be a place for all nations – all people. A church is to be a place where there is no favoritism and all are treated fairly and equally.
I. Share your personal journey of experiencing diversity and faith.
a. I grew up in Castle Shannon, a borough of Pittsburgh Pa. So for me diversity and ethnicity touched my life as a kid growing up. My dad worked in many supermarkets within the city of Pittsburgh and he always had a multiethnic, and or multicultural staff.
i. I can honestly say that I don’t think I have ever been prejudice in my life because I was always surrounded by so much diversity, it was normal part of life and it was enjoyable.
ii. Some of the biggest mentors in my life were not whites but from different ethnicities.
1. My first martial arts teacher was African America.
a. Arnell spoke into my life at that YMCA and helped me deal with my teen years of running wild. He was always there to point me in the right direction and correct me – he even protected me once in a Judo match were the opponent of mine was actually trying to hurt me.
2. My Akido teacher was Korean. I actually was a part of her wedding when she married a priest from Korea. A great cultural experience to be a part of. But once again she mentored me in the ways of self control when I really needed to learn this lesson.
3. My Judo teacher was Greek/Asian.
a. Nick Zafuto spoke into my life as well as mentored me in the art of Judo.
b. He too role modeled for me what it meant to be disciplined and kind to others. That strength came from within not from pounding someone into the pavement.
4. The person to get me started in weight lifting was John Leneer my dad’s Asst. Manger who played for the Steelers in the 70”s. He ended up shattering his shoulder in a playoff game and it ended his career in football so he became a asst. manager for my dad.
a. John was African American and I highly respected this man and his investment into my life.
b. He taught me the concepts of working out.
c. He loaned mean entire set of weights for over a year and encouraged me to develop my physical body.
5. As my journey through life continued God brought me too an African American church that I got saved at called Outreach Church. It was located on North side of Mpls right next to the projects. God moved me from Pittsburgh – got me out of the gang life I was involved in to open my eyes to His truth.
a. Pastor Nate and Gail the lead pastors who you all meet about a year ago discipled me in the faith.
i. They too were African American and adopted me as part of their family when my dad kicked me out of the house for getting saved.
1. He was convinced I was in a cult!
b. Pastor Bill and Jill Jackson also took me under their wings at Outreach Church and discipled me in my spiritual journey, building me up, loving me, being there for me and yes correcting me.
i. I ended up getting engaged to their daughter Violet but it only lasted a year because she backslide and walked away for the Lord Jesus.
ii. Yes, they too were African Americans.
iii. I discovered prejudice during this time in my life as I dated and became engaged to Violet – even from some of the others in the church. I had one guy come up to me and tell me that Violet and I were in sin because God wants us only marrying within our tribes. After he confronted me I went and talked to Pastor Nate who actually got mad and said this man was not speaking for the Lord and he dealt with the man’s prejudical heart.
iv. My experience working for Weather Coalition of Mpls. was even a great multi-cultural experience and once again I found myself being treated differently because I was white and not one of the minorities.
1. At this job I worked with Native Americans, African Americans, Hispanics, girl carpenters, Lesbians, whites from various cultures– Italian, Irish, Greek, Polish, German, English and even Gypsy Palm readers. New agers, drug addicts, alcoholics and need I say more? It was very diverse and very unique every day I worked there.
c. Pastor Diane and Rufus Thibedeaux also mentored me in the faith at Outreach Church and challenged me when I started to drift from the faith.
i. Yes they too were African Americans.
d. Bobby Jo and Josephine Jackson also mentored me – I actually was in his wedding down here at Cabreny Green – this wedding was my first experience to Chicago. I and one other person were the only white people in the wedding or who even attended the marriage ceremony.
i. Share the story.
1. Bills funny comment to me.
ii. Bobby Jo helped shape my spiritual character, my morals, and work on my temper.
e. John Otineo who was Kenya was the Best man in my wedding and a great friend. He and I hung out together all the time and grew spiritually together and I know God placed him in my life.
b. All these diverse people spoke into my life and heart and I really loved all them – they were and are my family. Sad to say more so than my natural family! I am closer with these people than with my own nuclear family unit.
i. I know God placed them in my life to help me to grow spiritually and help mentor a struggling angry man.
1. John 13:34, 35: 34“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
2. I lived this Scripture and these wonderful people showed me the love of Jesus!
c. I also had to deal with discrimination when I went to college at Bemidji State University by a Native American teacher in the Social work program.
i. Her comments: “You represent the worst of society.”
ii. Her comment: “Your race has discriminated against others and therefore you need to see what it is like.”
iii. Her stealing my A in her class.
iv. But God intervened using some of my fellow students and the head of the department.
d. When I received the call to ministry I had more than one person tell me
that Mike God has called you to pastor and he will one day place you in a position to pastor a multi-ethnic - multi-cultural church which will impact its area for the Kingdom of Heaven.
i. The prophetic word has come to pass.
ii. So I know this is one of God’s core values for Christian Hills Church/school.
T.S. – I have been surrounded by diversity my whole life and I see how valuable it is, there is strength in diversity and God is in the midst of diversity because he is not one dimensional but multi-dimensional.
II. The heartbeat of God loves diversity!
a. How do I know – I have experienced it – I have lived it and I have seen the power within it.
i. God wants and desires His church to reflect Him.
ii. There is power in diversity and unity which gives God glory in this world.
iii. Sermon central quote: “Our doctrine of equality and liberty and humanity comes from our belief in the brotherhood of man through the fatherhood of God.”
iv.
b. Acts 10:1-11:18: A case in point of God revealing His heart for diversity to the Apostle Peter and the other believers.
i. Chapter 10: 1At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion in what was known as the Italian Regiment.
2He and all his family were devout and God-fearing; he gave generously to those in need and prayed to God regularly.
3One day at about three in the afternoon he had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, “Cornelius!”
4Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked. The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.
5Now send men to Joppa to bring back a man named Simon who is called Peter.
6He is staying with Simon the tanner, whose house is by the sea.”
7When the angel who spoke to him had gone, Cornelius called two of his servants and a devout soldier who was one of his attendants.
8He told them everything that had happened and sent them to Joppa.
9About noon the following day as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the roof to pray.
10He became hungry and wanted something to eat, and while the meal was being prepared, he fell into a trance.
11He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners.
12It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air.
13Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.”
14“Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”
15The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”
16This happened three times, and immediately the sheet was taken back to heaven.
17While Peter was wondering about the meaning of the vision, the men sent by Cornelius found out where Simon’s house was and stopped at the gate.
18They called out, asking if Simon who was known as Peter was staying there.
19While Peter was still thinking about the vision, the Spirit said to him, “Simon, three men are looking for you.
20So get up and go downstairs. Do not hesitate to go with them, for I have sent them.”
21Peter went down and said to the men, “I’m the one you’re looking for. Why have you come?”
22The men replied, “We have come from Cornelius the centurion. He is a righteous and God-fearing man, who is respected by all the Jewish people. A holy angel told him to have you come to his house so that he could hear what you have to say.”
23Then Peter invited the men into the house to be his guests. The next day Peter started out with them, and some of the brothers from Joppa went along.
24The following day he arrived in Caesarea. Cornelius was expecting them and had called together his relatives and close friends.
25As Peter entered the house, Cornelius met him and fell at his feet in reverence.
26But Peter made him get up. “Stand up,” he said, “I am only a man myself.”
27Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people.
28He said to them: “You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean.
29So when I was sent for, I came without raising any objection. May I ask why you sent for me?”
30Cornelius answered: “Four days ago I was in my house praying at this hour, at three in the afternoon. Suddenly a man in shining clothes stood before me
31and said, ‘Cornelius, God has heard your prayer and remembered your gifts to the poor.
32Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. He is a guest in the home of Simon the tanner, who lives by the sea.’
33So 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.”
34Then Peter began to speak: “I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism
35but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.
36You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all.
37You know what has happened throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached—
38how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power, and how he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him.
39“We are witnesses of everything he did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree,
40but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen.
41He was not 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.
42He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead.
43All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
44While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit came on all who heard the message.
45The circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astonished that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.
46For they heard them speaking in tongues and praising God. Then Peter said,
47“Can anyone keep these people from being baptized with water? They have received the Holy Spirit just as we have.”
48So he ordered that they be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked Peter to stay with them for a few days.
1. Our story reveals how God does not show favoritism but welcomes and loves all who put their faith and trust in him.
2. Peter too had to learn the lesson not to call anything clean or unclean in opposition to the Lord Jesus.
c. Chapter 11:
i. 1The apostles and the brothers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.
2So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him
3and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
4Peter began and explained everything to them precisely as it had happened:
5“I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was.
6I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles, and birds of the air.
7Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’
8“I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
9“The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’
10This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
11“Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying.
12The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house.
13He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter.
14He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’
15“As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning.
16Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’
17So if God gave them the same gift as he gave us, who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could oppose God?”
18When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, God has granted even the Gentiles repentance unto life.”
1. This shows the power of the Holy Spirit to lead people into the truth about discrimination and favoritism in life. It’s not God’s will or His way. If you do this then you are in opposition to God himself and that is not a good place to be.
d. Instruction by James in 2:1-4: 1My brothers, as believers in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ, don’t show favoritism. 2Suppose a man comes into your meeting wearing a gold ring and fine clothes, and a poor man in shabby clothes also comes in. 3If you show special attention to the man wearing fine clothes and say, “Here’s a good seat for you,” but say to the poor man, “You stand there” or “Sit on the floor by my feet,” 4have you not discriminated among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?
i. God does not want His family discriminating against other family members!
ii. Not because of culture or race or even finances!
e. Instruction from Ephesians 6:9: 9And masters, treat your slaves in the same way. Do not threaten them, since you know that he who is both their Master and yours is in heaven, and there is no favoritism with him.
i. I could shift this to apply to working relationships today –like between the owner of a company and His employees.
ii. There is not class status with God all men are created men and women are created equal in God’s sight. No one has the right to put down another person because of their social status or occupation.
f. No Favorites! (show slide)
i. Race is not what God looks at – It’s your heart!
1. In the Bible we have the situation of Moses marrying a (Cushite) an Ethiopian women and the derogatory comments by Miriam and Aaron toward his inter-racial marriage. Notice what God did to Miriam – he struck her with leprosy – a disease that roots your body away – this is what happens to people’s hearts who are prejudice and who discriminate against other men and women of God.
a. Numbers 12:1-16:
i. 1Miriam and Aaron began to talk against Moses because of his Cushite wife, for he had married a Cushite.
2“Has the LORD spoken only through Moses?” they asked. “Hasn’t he also spoken through us?” And the LORD heard this.
3(Now Moses was a very humble man, more humble than anyone else on the face of the earth.)
4At once the LORD said to Moses, Aaron and Miriam, “Come out to the Tent of Meeting, all three of you.” So the three of them came out.
5Then the LORD came down in a pillar of cloud; he stood at the entrance to the Tent and summoned Aaron and Miriam. When both of them stepped forward,
6he said, “Listen to my words: “When a prophet of the LORD is among you, I reveal myself to him in visions, I speak to him in dreams.
7 But this is not true of my servant Moses; he is faithful in all my house.
8 With him I speak face to face, clearly and not in riddles; he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”
9The anger of the LORD burned against them, and he left them.
10When the cloud lifted from above the Tent, there stood Miriam—leprous, like snow. Aaron turned toward her and saw that she had leprosy;
11and he said to Moses, “Please, my lord, do not hold against us the sin we have so foolishly committed.
12Do not let her be like a stillborn infant coming from its mother’s womb with its flesh half eaten away.”
13So Moses cried out to the LORD, “O God, please heal her!”
14The LORD replied to Moses, “If her father had spit in her face, would she not have been in disgrace for seven days? Confine her outside the camp for seven days; after that she can be brought back.”
15So Miriam was confined outside the camp for seven days, and the people did not move on till she was brought back.
16After that, the people left Hazeroth and encamped in the Desert of Paran.
ii. Gender is not what God looks at – It’s your heart!
1. Sermon central Illustration:
a. Steve Auterburn reports how a Wycliffe Bible translator in a remote village in Papua New Guinea reported the power of God’s word. He wrote, “When the opening chapters of Genesis were first translated into the native language, the attitude toward women in the tribe changed overnight. They had not realized or understood that the woman had been specially formed out of the side of the man. Without even hearing this concept developed, these people immediately grasped the ideas of equality between the sexes and began adjusting their behavior. The people heard. They believed. They obeyed. They changed. Just like that.”
Steve Arterburn and Jack Felton, More Jesus, Less Religion (Sisters, Oregon: Waterbrook Press, 2000), p.116
2. Reference the paper you put together for the FCA and the importance of women in ministry.
a. Remember God is no respecter of person – all are equal in the sight of God.
b. If you want to know the Biblical reason for our women pastors please e-mail me and I will send you my 30 plus paper showing it’s biblical roots.
iii. Social status is not what God looks at – It’s your heart!
1. Like having a political position matters to God- having a position in politics does not give you the right to discriminate against others what matters is where you heart is at!
iv. Financial status is not what God looks at – It’s your heart!
1. The rich young ruler and Jesus in Matthew 19:16-30.
2. Jesus could care less about how much money you have – he cares about your willingness to give it away to follow Him.
3. There are many parables and teaching s from Jesus warning rich people about the trap of their finances it they control their heart.
v. Ethnicity is not what God looks at- It’s your heart!
vi. Age is not what God looks at- It’s your heart!
1. See 1 and 2 Timothy and Paul’s comments to him about his young age.
2. Did you see the point “It’s about your heart, not your appearance, it’s about your character not your skin color, eye color, hair color or size.”
Conclusion:
Revelation 7:9-10: 9After 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 in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands.
10And they cried out in a loud voice:
– “Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.”
T.S. - I have a dream speech by Martin Luther King reflects the heart beat of God when it comes to ethnicity and cultural diversity:
I have a Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr.
Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C.
August 28, 1963
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon of hope to millions of slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the colored America is still not free. One hundred years later, the life of the colored American is still sadly crippled by the manacle of segregation and the chains of discrimination.
One hundred years later, the colored American lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the colored American is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land So we have come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our great republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.
This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed to the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given its colored people a bad check, a check that has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. So we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice.
We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is not time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism.
Now is the time to make real the promise of democracy.
Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice.
Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksand of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.
Now is the time to make justice a reality to all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of it's colored citizens. This sweltering summer of the colored people's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hope that the colored Americans needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual.
There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the colored citizen is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.
We cannot be satisfied as long as the colored person's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one.
We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for white only."
We cannot be satisfied as long as a colored person in Mississippi cannot vote and a colored person in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of your trials and tribulations. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by storms of persecutions and staggered by the winds of police brutality.
You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our modern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you, my friends, we have the difficulties of today and tomorrow.
I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day out in the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; that one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be engulfed, every hill shall be exalted and every mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains and the crooked places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.
With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to climb up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California. But not only that, let freedom, ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi and every mountainside.
When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every tenement and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,
"Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last."
Altar call: Are you free – are you set free by the Spirit of the Lord – do you want to be set free? The Bible tells me were the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom!
If you need prayer because of the hurt from discrimination come forward and let us pray for you, if you need delivered from prejudice attitudes and high mindedness come forward and let us pray for you. God will set you free!
