A (4:56)

Are y'all following me here?

B (4:59)

In other words, family love is actually the sign of our sanctification and our spiritual formation. It is a marker of spiritual maturity. Paul puts it this way in First Corinthians, chapter number 13, when he is speaking to individuals who are in an environment where there's a proliferation of all sorts of spiritual gifts to them. These are individuals who had amazing worship.

A (5:28)

Gatherings where there's prophetic gifts and glossalia.

B (5:32)

And words of knowledge. And he says to them in First Corinthians 13, which is couch between First Corinthians 12 and 14, which is a section where Paul is talking about gifts. And Paul is saying, listen, you have a proliferation of spiritual gifts, but you have the absence of spiritual maturity. He said, y'all have good church, but you're bad Christians. And he says, he says, he says, he calls them. He says, he says, you got all of these gifts, but you're carnal. And he says, the reason I know you're carnal is because of the struggles you're having with interpersonal relationships. Because he said, your spiritual maturity is not just going to show up personally. It's going to show up interpersonally. And he writes to them, and he says, I ain't even there, but I know you carnal, because there are too many divisions among you. You're petty, you're catty, you're cliquish, you're in schisms. And you speak in tongues to God, but you don't speak to each other. So he says, you're immature. So he says, you got all of these gifts. And he talks to them about them in First Corinthians 12 and talks to them about them in First Corinthians 14, where he's bringing order to the worship gathering. At First Corinthians 14, he was like, all y'all just wilding out, you got.

A (6:46)

A word, you got a word.

B (6:47)

You got a word, you got a word? He say, listen, we got to bring some order to this. So in First Corinthians 14, when he says, let all things be done decently and in order, he's talking about bringing order to the gifts in the worship gathering. And couch within the context of those two chapters is chapter 13 where he.

A (7:06)

Says to them, I know you got gifts. He says, but if I speak in.

B (7:09)

Tongues of men, that's different languages or angels, that's Glossilea. But I do not have love. I am just a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. He says, if I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but I.

A (7:30)

Don'T have love, I am nothing.

B (7:33)

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship, that I may boast, but I do not have love, I gain nothing. Are you hearing what I'm saying? And later, in First Corinthians, chapter 13, he makes a statement that suggests love is actually the evidence of spiritual maturity. Not the gift, but the fruit. Not the gift, but the fruit. Not the gift, but the fruit. At the end of the chapter on love, he says this. When I was a child, where is my church? I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things. In other words, he says, it doesn't take maturity to speak in a tongue, but it does take maturity to hold your tongue. It takes the Holy Ghost, let me go to this side, to exercise the fruit of temperance and to hold the tongue. And Paul is saying to believers that your love is actually what's evidence of your maturity. Did you hear what I just said? I said, did you hear what I just said it takes more love.

A (8:51)

Watch this. It takes more maturity to love God's people than it does to prophesy to them. It takes more maturity to give myself than to give my stuff.

B (9:02)

What's love got to do with it?

A (9:04)

Third way? Everything. It's one thing to embrace the priority of love, but it's another thing to embrace the practice of love. There's. There are disputes and debates about what does this actually look like? Does this mean toleration or endorsement or affirmation of all things? What.

B (9:27)

What does it mean to actually love? Is it an emotion?

A (9:31)

Is it a feeling?

B (9:33)

What does Paul mean when he says this? The text can never mean for us what it never meant for Paul. I gotta understand what it meant, what he meant to them, so I can.

A (9:44)

See what it means for me.

B (9:47)

So there are these debates and disputes on what love looks like. Does that make sense? Some people will leverage the word love as a weapon to get you to not hold them accountable for their dysfunction. That's what they mean. Am I making sense here? So what happens is Jesus settles this dispute and this debate in Luke chapter number 10 in terms of what he means when he says the Christian should be marked by love.

A (10:24)

Luke records an occasion where an expert.

B (10:28)

In the law, meaning a religious scholar, comes to Jesus and he says these words in verse 25. The first word he says is teacher. King James says, rabbi, see, I want.

A (10:43)

You to catch this family.

B (10:45)

This is shade. This is shade. Am I making sense? This is shade. He's calling, okay, teacher, Rabbi. Because Jesus was not a conventional rabbi. Jesus did not have conventional rabbinical training. Jesus was. Would not be considered by them a religious scholar. Jesus spoke a type of Greek called koine, which is the common man's language. He put it on the shelf where people could get it. The Bible says the common man heard him gladly. So they looking at Jesus crowds, and they think they got the credibility. So they coming to Jesus saying, teacher, oh, I don't have time. But some people's compliments are insults in disguise. He says, teacher, since you're such a sage, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

A (11:46)

This is a dialogue to discredit Jesus. This is an attempt to embarrass Jesus. This is a talk intended to trap Jesus. And Jesus, who's the master of getting out of traps, if I had time, that'll preach.

B (12:00)

He's the master of getting out of a trap.

A (12:03)

You can't trap him.

B (12:05)

And when you walk like Jesus, the.

A (12:07)

Devil can't trap you.

B (12:08)

Is there anybody in the room today? And your testimony is there's some stuff you out of that you should still be in. But somehow, some way, the grace of God got you out of a trap. Oh, is your testimony. I almost walked right into a trap. But when I wasn't smart enough to walk away, God was good enough to close the door. He got me out. If you've never been trapped or should have been trapped, be quiet. But if he got you out of one, take about 17 seconds. He got me out. Okay.

A (12:49)

So Jesus says, what is written in the law, what the Bible say? And then he says something else that's so important. It's not just what it says, it's how do you read it. Because most people confuse God's writing with their reading.

B (13:13)

We trust his writing.

A (13:15)

We don't trust your reading. I trust the Bible, not your interpretation.

B (13:22)

And some people confuse their reading with his writing. He says, it's not just what it says, it's how do you read.

A (13:32)

Says a woman shall not wear anything.

B (13:33)

That pertains to a man.

A (13:35)

But how do you read it?

B (13:38)

Because it's not just what it says, it's how do you read it?

A (13:42)

So he acts up and says, what does it say? How do you read it? And the man says, all right. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, with all your strength and all your mind. And love your neighbor as yourself. And Jesus said, you answer correctly, do this and you will live. Oh, gosh, if I had time.

B (14:03)

There's so much in this.

A (14:04)

If I had time. See, even in Jesus talking, he's teaching us because some of our problem is we over communicate. The cynics, your friends, won't require an over explanation, and your enemies won't ever accept one.

B (14:27)

There's nothing you can do to convince people who've already come to a conclusion about you. Arguments only work with people that are open.

A (14:42)

So he said, just go, do that, do that. Leave me alone, do that.

B (14:48)

You want to argue? I'm not about to argue with you.

A (14:58)

So notice what happens after exchange. The man replied because he wanted to justify himself. He says, and who is my neighbor? So Jesus proceeds to tell what's called a parable. He uses a story of something that happened naturally to help them understand something spiritually. He uses a fictitious story to paint a picture of a spiritual truth. And Jesus says, okay, you want to know what it means to love your neighbor? He says, there was a man who was going from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he gets attacked by thieves. The thieves strip him of his clothes, they beat him and they leave him half dead. They strip him of his clothes, they beat him, and they leave him half dead. They strip him of his clothes, they beat him, and they leave him half dead. When they strip him of his clothes, it's symbolic of stripping a person of dignity.

B (15:56)

When they beat him, it's symbolic of.

A (15:59)

Causing an injury to a person.

B (16:01)

And when they leave him, it's symbolic.

A (16:03)

Of them abandoning him to figure it out on his own. So you strip my dignity, you injure me, and then leave me and tell me to figure it out on my own.

B (16:19)

And as this man is laying there.

A (16:21)

Here'S what the text says. The text says a priest starts walking by, and the priest sees the man laying right there, and he walks past him. Then the Bible says a Levite. So every priest was a Levite, but every Levite wasn't a priest. So a Levite could be what the Bible calls a porter, a worshiper.

B (16:48)

They worked in the temple.

A (16:49)

So this is the equivalent of a pastor walking by and then somebody else on a pastoral staff. So the pastor walked by, offers no help. Then someone on a pastoral staff. Watch how petty he is. He see the man from a distance. He on this side, the sidewalk, Rick. He see the man. He go across the street and walk on the other side. You know how people try to act like they didn't see you and some of y'all petty.

B (17:18)

You make them speak.

A (17:19)

Hello.

B (17:21)

Hi.

A (17:29)

These are two religious leaders who walk right by someone who has been stripped of their dignity, beaten and abandoned. And the Bible says a Samaritan comes by. Now, it's interesting that Jesus uses a Samaritan as the hero of this story, because Samaritans had a complex and deeply fractured relationship with the Jews. Their conflict was ethnic, it was ethical, it was religious, it was historical. Ethnically, they were seen as impure because they were a mixed group. Descendants from the Israelites had intermarried with foreign settlers after the Assyrian exile. And because of this, Jews saw them as. As compromised and unclean.

B (18:18)

Doctrinally, they were seen as heretical because.

A (18:21)

Samaritans only accepted the first five books of Moses.

B (18:25)

They didn't accept any prophetic books, and they did not worship in Jerusalem.

A (18:30)

They worshiped at Mount Gerizim. Now, John 4 makes sense.

B (18:33)

When Jesus meets the woman at the well in Samaria, and the Bible says the disciples were surprised that he even talked to her. Now it makes sense when she was saying, hey, we don't worship at the same place. You Jews worship over here and we worship over there. And Jesus says, the hour is coming. And now is where we won't talk about where we worship, but how we worship that God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. So out of all people that you would expect to walk past this man, out of all people you would expect to go to the other side of.

A (19:17)

The street with this man. You would expect a Samaritan too, because the Samaritans and the Jews didn't rock with each other. But the text says this man stops his horse, gets down off his horse, walks over to the man, observes his wounds, bandages his wounds, puts the man on his horse, takes the man to a hotel, gives the innkeeper his money and say, let him stay here until he heals. And if he has to stay longer than the amount of money I paid you for, let him stay. And when I come back, I'll make you whole. And so Jesus, after he tells the story, he so he's Jesus.

B (20:07)

Such a boss.

A (20:08)

He's just a goat. He looked at the man and said, so which one was the neighbor? The man said, the Samaritan. He said, right, go and do likewise. I want you to learn from someone you call ethically, ethnically impure and and doctrinally heretical. Cuz you got the doctrine right, but you got love wrong. Are you following me here? I want you to see the significance of the Samaritan and what he did and the significance of the priest and the Levite walking past this man. Because the priest and the Levite walking past this man is a picture of second way Christianity. This is a form of the faith where one's video doesn't match their audio. It's a belief system that professes devotion to God but fails to demonstrate his love in action. It is a faith that prioritizes appearance over authenticity, doctrine over duty, and ritual over relationships. It's the kind of Christianity where people know what to say but fail to live what they claim to believe. And like the Levite and the priest, they walk past injustice and they walk past pain and they walk past need. And they excuse their inaction because it's inconvenient, it's uncomfortable and it's costly.

B (21:40)

Jesus exposes second way Christianity in the.

A (21:44)

Activity of the priest and the Levite. Theologically correct but relationally bankruptcy. Performative but not transformative. Checking religious boxes but ignoring the weightier.

B (22:00)

Matters of the law, mercy, justice and compassion. Talk like Jesus, but refuses to walk like Jesus. And if your theology stops you from loving people, you do not have real theology. You have hypocrisy.

A (22:19)

And just like the people in this text, there is an iteration and expression of Christianity, not exclusively, but that has been popularized in the Western part of the world that has normalized walking past those that have fell among thieves. I'm going to tell you what's scary. The text says the man was coming. The text says that the man was coming from Jerusalem to Jericho. So we don't know which way the priests were going. We don't know if they were coming from church or coming to church. Either way, that's cold. You just had all that church. What kind of church did you just have where it didn't prick your conscience at all? What kind of church did you just have where you could leave the church.

B (23:14)

See the broken, and go on the other side of the street?

A (23:18)

What kind of. And in the Western part of the world, I'm speaking not exclusively, but primarily.

B (23:24)

Europe and America, there is this historic.

A (23:27)

Iteration of Christianity that has made it okay to just walk past those who've been stripped of their dignity, injured, and now told, figure it out on your own. This iteration of Christianity is so theologically inept, it has a myopic and narrow view of righteousness that is limited to right relationship with God and not right relationship with people. And the Scriptures say that I am.

B (24:04)

Not just to love God with all.

A (24:07)

My heart and all my mind and.

B (24:08)

All my soul and all my strength. I am also to love my neighbor as myself. And Jesus takes this commandment so seriously. He says this love has to extend to people you don't even like, he said, even if you will call them your enemy, love them.

A (24:26)

But there is a historic expression of Christianity in the west that many people have been discipled into that has a theological blind spot when it comes not to the Great Commission, but to the Great Commandment. They think you can walk in biblical love and walk past the man who fell among thieves. And we must make sure that in our own way, we're not the priest and the Levite that walk among those and walk right past those that have fell among thieves. And there are three Western thieves in religious spaces. We need to make sure we're not just walking past number one, y'all. Okay? Number one is the thief of classism. Oh, it's in church. It's in church. I said it's in church. It's in church. I've seen it. It's in church. I've seen it. The most difficult kind of diversity is socioeconomic diversity. I don't want to be around them in church. Classism. This assumes that poverty is always a personal failure rather than a complex reality influenced by systems, circumstances and sociological realities.

B (26:17)

There are 70 something kids in Port au Prince, Haiti that will be eating today because of the ministry of Change Church. It's not their fault they are poor. Y'all aren't talking to me. They couldn't control who they were born to. They couldn't control whether or not their parents had some habit. They couldn't control whether or not they are an addict. And here's what can happen. What can happen in second wave Christianity is people do not feel responsible to be a solution for something they didn't contribute to the problem in and that is the ultimate expression of hypocrisy for a Christian for you to say, I didn't break it, so I'm not going to fix it when the only way you saved is Jesus came to fix something he didn't break.

A (27:17)

Classism. It sees the poor as invisible, unimportant and undeserving of attention. It is a way of seeing the world that is indifferent toward those that are paralyzed with poverty. It ignores Christ's clear commands regarding the poor. When Jesus said in Matthew 25:44, they also will answer, lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger needing clothes or sick in prison and did not help you?

B (27:41)

He will reply, truly, I tell you.

A (27:44)

Whatever you did not do for the.

B (27:46)

Least of one of these, you did not do for me. The Old Testament puts it this way in Proverbs. Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord and he will reward them for for what they have done. Man can pay you, but God will reward you. Come on.

A (28:16)

Tim Keller says it stands to reason that injustice is easier to perform against the poor. That injustice is easier to perform against people without money or the social status to defend themselves. There are over 30,000 verses in the Old Testament. Over 2,000 of them speak to how we handle the poor. Am I just walking past classism? That's not the only thief. There's a thief of classism. Then there's the thief of sexism. This is a thief that has objectified, exploited and abused women. I'm talking about in the church, robbing them of opportunities, dignity and full participation both in society and in the church. Come on here. It is a system that devalues women while benefiting from their gifts, treating them.

B (29:17)

As resources to be used rather than.

A (29:19)

Image bearers to be hon honored. And in many spaces, women are expected to serve. But we won't let you lead.

B (29:25)

Your competency is Questioned, your authority is undermined and your potential is restricted. Yet throughout Scripture, God used women powerfully. Like Deborah leading a nation, like Miriam, being a prophetess, like Huldah being a prophetess, like Philip's daughters, prophesying like Isaiah's daughters, prophesying, like Mary Magdalene, who was tried, trusted to deliver the message of the gospel to the disciples. And we have denominations and conventions.

A (30:01)

That.

B (30:01)

Have hid, coddled and enabled sexism in the name of submission.

A (30:15)

I'm standing on this.

B (30:19)

And women not only have to navigate through environments of exploitation where their labor is valued, but their voices are not. They're expected to give, to serve and support. So we want their time and their tithe, but not their opinions.

A (30:36)

My gosh.

B (30:39)

They speak up for, they step up for, they advocate for, they intercede for everybody else. But when it is time for us to speak up for, to advocate for, to intercede for them, it's silence of the Lamb in church. Not only do they have to navigate.

A (31:03)

Environments of exploitation, they gotta navigate environments of objectification. This reduces them to bodies rather than beings. Leading a culture where harassment, assault and silencing and abuse are tolerated and covered up. Women's purity is policed, but men's accountability.

B (31:33)

Is neglected, placing the burden on women to prevent men's sin rather than placing the burden on men to exercise self control. Your lust is your problem. I could see if somebody's wearing a bikini to church, but if her arm out got you lusting, you got a different kind of problem. A shoulder got you lusting. A shoulder got you lusting. The Bible says when you are drawn away into temptation, you are drawn away by your own lust. If a shoulder's got you lusting, the problem's not her shoulder. The problem problem is you.

A (32:28)

Tario. We done.

B (32:32)

In the church.

A (32:35)

We got conventions and denominations covering it up, coddling it. The abuse of women. But you want their time and you want their tithe. I want you to teach. But teach Sunday school. And the man up here can't conjugate a verb.

B (33:00)

But you teach, you teach Sunday. Who got the word? Whoever's got the word, get the mic. Who got the word, that's who. Get the mic.

A (33:20)

And second wave Christianity is so theologically inept. They have such a. They have such an absence of accurate information on the Great Commandment. Whenever you start talking about the horizontal implications of the gospel, they don't even have theological rebuttal. They throw around sociological labels. So if you say anything about taking care of the poor, the first thing out of their mouth is you're a Marxist, first of all, define it.

B (33:53)

I'm not bothering that. Define it. You throwing around stuff you heard somebody say define it.

A (34:01)

Christian wants Marxism.

B (34:03)

Nobody's advocating for Marxism.

A (34:05)

We didn't read Karl Marx.

B (34:07)

We read our Bible.

A (34:15)

Righteousness and justice are his throne. Classism, sexism, racism. This is conscious or unconscious sense of superiority based on one's race. It is a. This is important. It devalues the image of God in another person and results in the sin of ethnic partiality, which ultimately leads to injustice. So racism in and of itself is an injustice, but it leads to injustice. Racism is sin. It is the sin of partiality, but it manifests in injustice. When I have a biased belief and I hold a seat of power. See, what I think of you don't impact you. So when people. So when people think. When the church pushes back against racism, they think we're pushing back against what people think about us. I'm not losing no sleep over what somebody thinks about me. It is when that unconscious or conscious sense of superiority shows up in the way you manage and handle me. So now when you decide whether or not I get into a school, when.

B (35:36)

You deciding whether or not I get.

A (35:38)

A loan, when you decide in the kind of medical care and medical treatment.

B (35:42)

That I get now we just went.

A (35:44)

From racism to injustice. Tario. Oh, gosh, we gotta go. Okay, here it is. And Second Way Christianity. See, we can't fix what we won't face. This is so. It's so, so weird to me. Second Way Christianity in the Western part of the world has not only gave space for this, it's been complicit in it. I'm not going to call names, but there's one convention that had to issue a resolution repenting the denomination. Repenting because his entire existence wasn't based on a separation, based on theology. It was based on slavery. And so we have these.

B (36:34)

Am I making sense here?

A (36:38)

And so there is such space for this in Second Way Christianity. Listen to this prayer. O God, our heavenly God. Finite creatures of time, independence creatures of Thine. We acknowledge thee as our sovereign Lord. Permit freedom and the joys thereof to forever reign in our land. May we forever have the courage of our convictions that we may always stand for thee and our great nation. May the sweet cup of brotherly fraternity ever be ours and enjoy and build within us that kindred spirit that keeps us unified and strong. Engender within us that wisdom kindred to honor honorable decisions and godly work by the power of thy infinite spirit and the energizing Virtue therein ever keep before us our oaths of secrecy and pledges of righteousness. Bless us now in this assembly that we may honor thee in all things. We pray in the name of Christ, our Blessed Savior. Amen. This seems like adult prayer, don't it? Well, this prayer, according to Alan Hirsch, was prayed on June 7, 1964, the Boykin Methodist Church near Raleigh, Mississippi. And the prayer was offered by the grand chaplain of the Ku Klux Klan because there was something in the theology that is so intertwined bigotry and Bible that they would use a cross as a moniker for their move. Man, listen to this. First John 4:19 says, we love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God, yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. You don't love God. You love a God that you created that allows you to hate. You don't love the God of the Bible. For whoever does not love their brother or sister whom they have seen cannot love God whom they've not seen. Unfortunately, we just walked past the one that fell among classism, walked past on the way to church or from having good church. Women dealing with sexism walk past people dealing with racism. The second way. When the Good Samaritan models something for us, our love should manifest in action. See, people are so. They're so biblically illiterate when it comes to a theology of love, they can't even have this conversation without getting into politics because they hadn't even read enough of what the Bible has to say.

B (39:31)

We're talking about love.

A (39:36)

So the Good Samaritan here models what we should be doing. What do you do? First of all, there's engagement. He gets off his horse and go assesses the damage. This is how he's able to bandage the man. And here's the issue. Some people try to diagnose you and they still on their horse. How you trying to lecture women? You hadn't talked to them.

B (39:58)

How you trying to lecture people? Am I making sense? You're lecturing the poor and you hadn't.

A (40:03)

Talked to them about, well, how did you actually get here?

B (40:05)

And then maybe you found out that somebody had a medical issue that led to medical bankruptcy. Maybe they not lazy, maybe they not an addict, but if you don't get off your horse and get close enough, you won't be able to see. Don't lecture me about racism without talking to me first. Get off your horse.

A (40:26)

Say, Darius, you. Oh, Darius, you made it. You went to Princeton. Well, let me tell you what I went through, Darius, you made it. You Went to Mills House. Let me tell you what I went through. Let me tell you the first day on campus, walking on frat row, that there's a. There's a large group of us walking on frat row. Security guard walks right past.

B (40:39)

Everybody walks the me, Josh Johnson, Mark Smith.

A (40:42)

I'll never forget and say, show me your id. First day. That's what I went through. That's what I went through. That's what I went through my senior year when I left my backpack in the hallway taking my final exam, and somebody took my backpack and, like, threw it in the trash can in the bathroom. I never left the classroom taking my blue book test. The teacher calls me out of the room and says, say, hey, your backpack was found in the bathroom. There are some notes inside your backpack. And I believe that you must have went to the bathroom so you can study your notes. I said, well, I'm not gonna say her name. I said, but I. I said, I'm sitting right here. I've been sitting right here the whole time. And I say, miss such and such. I'm gonna be clear with you about one thing. There are a lot of things Derrick Daniels may have to do, but cheating in school ain't one of them. Know what she said? She said, well, I really don't believe you. So no matter what, I'm giving you a seat. That's what I went through. When we bought this building. There were people in this building, tenants in this building, and they didn't know we were the ones who had it under contract. So we came here one time to get video footage to announce at a change night, we had the building on a contract, and one of the tenants. Not the owner, one of the tenants walk out. Just spicy. What are y'all doing? I'm way on the other end. I say, what's happening? I walk up, I said, excuse me, sir. Is everything all right? I said, do you know this building's under contract? He said, yes. I say, that's us. And then I told Pastor Shamika, Chip Ingram and those ministries, they can stay. Them people right there, they got to.

B (42:27)

Go, we on this.

A (42:36)

So don't. Don't tell me what don't exist. You insult my intelligence to tell me what don't exist. You got to get off your horse. Engagement, empathy. And then there's got to be advocacy that we speak up for those that can't speak for themselves, that we say, we're not just going to pray for those kids in Haiti. We're going to feed them every day. That we're not. We're just not going to talk about food deserts. We're going to create a community garden in DeKalb where people can get Whole Foods.

B (43:22)

We're not just going to talk about getting kids off the street. We're going to run an above the.

A (43:27)

Rim basketball camp in our gym where.

B (43:31)

Kids can come for free advocacy.

A (43:35)

We're not just going to scream about people getting in school. We're going to give scholarships. And those of us who've been blessed with means. How many people are you helping that don't have your last name? I'm sorry, we Way over. Father, would you give us the courage to actually be a Christian that lives like Christ in Jesus name? If you're here today, you never give.