Beyond the Suffering:



Celebrating the Heroes of Black Church History: Hebrews 12:1-3

The Big Idea: Heroes of the Faith Leave Us a Legacy of Looking to Jesus

The Big Picture: God’s Story Guiding Our Story

➢ Our Story/Our Calling: God Has Not Placed Us Here by Accident!

When I was growing up in NW Indiana, Ridge Road (Rt. 6), which is about 5 miles north of here, was the “invisible racial dividing line” in Lake County. We don’t like to admit that, but in the 60s and 70s, north of Ridge Road was predominantly African American and south of Ridge Road was predominantly Caucasian. We also don’t like to admit that in 2014, Rt. 30, which sits 200 yards south of us, can sometimes be the new “invisible racial dividing line” in Lake County. If you travel very far north of Rt. 30, the population is predominantly African American. If you travel very far south of Rt. 30, the population is predominantly Caucasian.

However, God planted Cornerstone Community Church exactly in the one location in Lake and Porter County where we find a wonderful diversity. Merrillville and Hobart offer a rich multi-ethnic diversity that is rare, just about anywhere in our two-county area, and, frankly, rare just about anywhere in the US.

God has not placed Cornerstone Community Church at the intersection of Rt. 30 and Rt. 51 by accident! As our church Mission-Vision-Value-Culture Statement says:

• According to the Bible, the mission of Cornerstone Community Church is to worship Christ and express our love for God and one another by welcoming all people into our diverse family.

• Cornerstone Community Church desires to be a vibrant outpost of the Kingdom of God where all people are welcomed in Christ.

• Cornerstone Community Church pursues the unique biblical value of being a multi-cultural community of believers.

Our time today celebrating the heroes of Black Church History is the heart and core of our mission, vision, value, and culture at Cornerstone Community Church. It is our story and our calling as a diverse congregation to learn from one another how to look to Jesus.

➢ My Story/My Calling: Co-Authors and Co-Editors

When I preach and teach on the legacy of the Black Church, people sometimes ask me, “Why are you, a white guy, talking about Black Church History?” That’s a fair question, so you deserve to know that what we’re sharing today is also part of my story and my calling. I’m going to picture that for you in just a moment, but first you have to promise not to laugh when the next slide comes up. Promise? Ready?

There you see me—little Bobby at age 5 and age 10. I was born in downtown Gary and lived at 11th and Hovey on the west side of Gary as a youngster. When I was born in Gary in the late 50s and lived there in the early 60s, Gary was a multi-ethnic city with a wonderful diversity of cultures.

It was no accident that God placed me in Gary and it was no accident that God placed within my DNA a passion for what we now call “multi-cultural ministry.” I was nine-years-old when Richard Hatcher was elected mayor of Gary. He was the first African American mayor of an American city with a population over 100,000. I remember saying to some adults that it would be awesome if Mayor Hatcher someday became President Hatcher. Those adults informed me that an African American would never become a US President in my lifetime. So much for their prediction…

I remember a couple of years later as a sixth-grader writing a poem about Neil Anderson’s first footsteps on the moon. I called the poem, “The Sea of Tranquility,” and it was about racial harmony. This was before I was even a believer in Christ. God has hardwired into my DNA the desire for diversity.

God then placed me as a Professor at Capital Bible Seminary near Washington, DC for seventeen years. Our school had no majority culture: we were about 40% Caucasian, 40% African American, and 20% Hispanic, Asian, and International Students. The picture on the PowerPoint is from our student body and captures beautifully our diversity. It was no accident that God placed a kid from Gary at one of the few multi-cultural Evangelical seminaries in the world.

It was while I was at the seminary that I co-authored the book, Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction. On the slide, you see my co-author, Karole Edwards, who is an African American graduate of the program I chaired. So, what I’m sharing today about the Black Church comes not only through my eyes, but through the eyes of an African American sister, Karole Edwards.

Karole and I saw ourselves not just as co-authors, but even more so as co-editors. The three books on this slide simply represent 100s of primary source documents that we researched. So, what I’m sharing today about the legacy of the Black Church comes also through the eyes, the pens, and the experiences of 100s of African American Christians who lived this legacy.

➢ The Bible Story/The Black Church History Story: Learning from Our Great Cloud of Witnesses—Hebrews 12:1-3

Whenever I reflect on the legacy of Black Church history, my mind also reflects on Hebrews 12:1-3. In this passage, God instructs us to listen to the stories of believers who have gone before us—to learn from the stories of the great cloud of witnesses. Here’s how the author of Hebrews says it in 12:1-3:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders us and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart” (Hebrews 12:1-3).

❑ Surrounded by a Great Cloud of World-Class Spiritual Witnesses

When we read these verses, we might think that when the author is talking about witnesses, he is speaking of fans in the stands watching a sporting event and cheering on the Olympic athletes. That would be a mistake, because Hebrews 12 is not referring to a bunch of out-of-shape, couch-potato fans. It’s not like us watching the Super Bowl last Sunday munching on all the junk food while world class athletes were competing. It’s not like many of us may do today as we watch the 2014 Winter Olympics.

Those are not the witnesses in Hebrews 12. Hebrews 12 is not talking about out-of-shape fans watching athletes. Hebrews 12 is talking about world class spiritual athletes watching us. Verse 1 starts with “therefore” which refers us back to Hebrews 11 and the great Hall of Faith—heroes from the Old Testament like Noah, Abraham, and Daniel.

These world class spiritual athletes surround us, watch us, and cheer us on as we run the Christian life. And they say to us, “When the Christian race gets hard, do what we did. Look to Jesus!”

When life gets hard, and we get weary, and we’re tempted to lose heart, the Bible says, “Remember the great heroes of the faith who faced horrible suffering and great temptation to sin, yet they persevered spiritually because they looked to Jesus.

❑ Learning from the Legacy of World-Class Spiritual Witnesses: Look to Jesus!

Today, we want to surround ourselves with world-class African American spiritual athletes from the halls of Black Church history. Like the great cloud of witnesses from Hebrews 11 and 12, the saints from Black Church history leave us a legacy of looking to Jesus. If anyone knows what it is like to suffer horribly, and then to face suffering face-to-face with Christ, it is our African American brothers and sisters from Black Church history. They teach us today that we endure suffering and resist temptation only by fixing our eyes on Jesus.

I. Encouraged to Leave a Lasting Family Legacy: Christian Family Life

The first area where we can learn so much from Black Church history relates to Christian family life. We think the world today makes it hard for the Christian family—and it does. But can we even begin to imagine the difficulties faced by the African American family during slavery? Many times mothers and fathers were sold away from children, and children were sold away from their parents. Many times women were raped and abused. Men were abused and horribly demeaned. Yet, letter after letter and story after story that Karole and I researched gave testimony to the lasting Christian family legacy of the Black Church. Today we share four samplers.

A. Honoring the African American Family: Hardships Do Not Make It Too Hard to Love

When he was a young boy, the Rev. Thomas Jones was sold away from his family, a few years later he was reunited with his family, only to be sold away from his parents and siblings once again. The slavers attempted to justify this horrific treatment by claiming that the Black family did not have the same sense of closeness as the white family—which was a bold-face lie. Listen to Rev. Jones’ testimony, that in spite of being separated repeatedly, the Black family retained their love and unity.

“I can testify, from my own painful experience, to the deep and fond affection which the slave cherishes in his heart for his home and its dear ones. We have no other tie to link us to the human family, but our fervent love for those who are with us and of us in relations of sympathy and devotedness, in wrongs and wretchedness” (Rev. Thomas Jones).

We learn from Rev. Thomas Jones that:

Hardships do not make it too hard to love.

What about us and our families? When tough times come and tensions mount, do we excuse our inexcusable behaviors toward one another because it’s just too hard to love? Faced with unimaginable troubles, trials, and tribulations, the Black family maintained its affection, love, sympathy, and devotion. Their Christian legacy teaches us that hardships do not make it too hard to love.

B. Honoring the African American Marriage: Pulling the Rope in Unison

We can also learn from the legacy of the African American Christian marriage. Venture Smith was born in Guinea in 1729. Kidnapped at age eight and taken to America, he was enslaved to Robertson Mumford. At age twenty-two, Venture married Meg, who was sixteen. Despite so many obstacles stacked against them, they remained married for forty-seven years—until Venture’s death. Their Christian marriage was a testimony to many. Venture Smith described in an interview the secret behind their godly marriage.

On their wedding night, he and his young bride, Meg, walked up to the tiny cabin that was to be their home. Before they entered the door, Venture took a rope and tossed it over the cabin roof. He then asked Meg to go to the other side of the cabin and pull on the rope while he pulled on it from his side. After they both had tugged at it in vain, he called Meg back to the front of the house where they pulled the rope together and it came to them with ease.

Venture then shared the meaning of this object lesson to his young bride:

“If we pull in life against each other we shall fail, but if we pull together we shall succeed.”

What about our marriages, our families, our churches, our workplaces? Are we playing a game of tug-of-war, working against each other? Or, are we pulling the rope in unison? How would our marriages, families, churches, and places of work be different if we heeded Venture Smith’s advice?

“If we pull in life against each other we shall fail, but if we pull together we shall succeed”

C. Honoring the African American Father: Finding Spiritual Freedom in Christ

There is also much to be learned from the African American Christian father in Black Church history. Though beaten, he was not beaten down by life because he looked to Christ. Though enslaved physically, he was not enslaved spiritually because he was free in Christ.

Listen to the following testimony of a son concerning his Christian father’s Christlike character.

“I loved my father. He was such a good and godly Christian man. He was a good carpenter and could do anything. My mother just rejoiced in him. I sometimes think I learned more in my early childhood about how to live than I have learned since.”

All he ever needed to learn, he learned in his enslaved home from a father whose spirit was never enslaved because his spirit was free in Christ! What about us? What enslaves us? What mistreatment eats us alive so that we can never get beyond our bitterness? Does a cruel boss at work lead us to be cruel to our family at home? We can learn from our African American cloud of spiritual witnesses that our spirits never have to be enslaved, because we are free in Christ!

D. Honoring the African American Mother: Wisdom about the Father of the Fatherless

We’ve learned already from the legacy of the African American family, the African American marriage, and the African American father. Now let’s learn from the legacy of the African American Christian mother. The Rev. Peter Randolph shared this testimony about how his mother pointed him to the Father of the fatherless.

“When I was a child, my mother used to tell me to look to Jesus, and that He who protected the widow and the fatherless would take care of me also” (Rev. Peter Randolph).

His mother’s wisdom reminds me so much of what we have been learning from the psalmists. Every psalm we’ve explored has talked to us about where we turn our gaze. Do we look to Jesus and His view of God, or do we believe Satan’s lies about God? When beaten down by life, the psalmists chose to look up.

That’s the same message that Randolph’s mother shared with him and with us. I summarize that message like this:

Enslaved African Americans Christians survived by painting pictures of God onto the palettes of their life portraits. They viewed God as the Father of the fatherless, the God who collects their tears in His bottle, and as God the Just Judge.

The most important fact about us is our view of God. The African American Christian family leaves with us the lasting legacy of looking to Jesus for our view of God the Father.

II. Encouraged to Leave a Lasting Male Legacy: Christlike Founding Fathers

There is also much that we can learn from the founding fathers of Black Church history. In American culture, we tend to learn much about the white founding fathers of our government. And I’m glad we do. However, we tend to learn much less about the founding fathers of the Black Church. And I’m sad we don’t learn much more. Today we learn from three men who were each instrumental in the founding of the free Black Church.

A. Reverend Lemuel Haynes: An Epitaph Worth Living For—Hebrews 12:2-3

We begin our American history lesson with the Reverend Lemuel Haynes. Rev. Haynes offers a remarkable example of African American ministerial modeling. Born at West Hartford, Connecticut, in 1753, of a white mother and a black father, Haynes lived his entire eighty years in Congregationalist New England. He completed his indenture in time to serve in the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War. Privately tutored, Haynes became the first African American to be ordained by any religious denomination. Upon ordination, Haynes then served white congregations for more than thirty years.

Among other accomplishments, he achieved notoriety for a sermon entitled Universal Salvation that defended orthodox Christianity against the threat of Universalism. For this work, he happily accepted the title “Black Puritan,” indicating his depth of biblical theology.

Before his death, Rev. Haynes wrote his own epitaph—the wording he wanted on his tombstone. His personal epitaph tells us much about how he lived his life and where he placed his focus.

“Here lies the dust of a poor hell-deserving sinner, who ventured into eternity trusting wholly on the merits of Christ for salvation. In the full belief of the great doctrines he preached while on earth, he invites his children and all who read this, to trust their eternal interest on the same foundation.”

The Rev. Lemuel Haynes pointed not to himself, but to Christ. He understood the song we sing here at Cornerstone Community Church—In Christ Alone—because he understood that in Christ alone his eternal hope was found.

Haynes epitaph is yet another reminder of the theme for today’s message: Look to Jesus! Haynes points us back to the message of Hebrews 12:2-3:

“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.”

We can summarize that message like this:

The great cloud of past Christian witnesses ultimately points to the greatest Witness and the greatest reason for enduring suffering—Jesus Christ! The result of earthly witness is to point to the Heavenly Witness so that together we will not grow weary and lose heart. Jesus is the Faithful Witness (Revelation 1:5).

B. Reverend Absalom Jones: God Sees and Saves—Exodus 3:7-8

The Rev. Absalom Jones provides another example of a founding father of the Black Church who points us to God the Father—the God who sees and saves. Absalom Jones was born in slavery on November 6, 1746, in Delaware. At age sixteen he moved to Philadelphia, and by age thirty-eight he was able to purchase his freedom. Along with the Rev. Richard Allen, Jones was the founding father of the first free black church in America.

On January 1, 1808, Rev. Jones preached a sermon entitled “A Thanksgiving Sermon on Account of the Abolition of the African Slave Trade.” His sermon parallels American slavery, the bondage of the Jews in Egypt, and God’s personal and powerful Exodus rescue of His people.

In this sermon, Jones communicates the same message we highlighted last week in Psalm 13—God invites us to pray that He would see with compassion and act with power on our behalf. In fact, Jones repeated thirteen times in this one sermon the phrase:

“He has seen!” “He has seen!” “He has seen!”

Thirteen times. Can you hear it? Feel it? Imagine it? For a people in bondage for 400 years—the Jews in Egypt and African Americans in America, it is a sustaining and comforting reminder that God has not forgotten. “He has seen!” Here’s one example from Rev. Jones.

“Our text tells us that He has seen their afflictions, and heard their cry: his eye and his ear were constantly open to their complaint: every tear they shed was preserved, and every groan they uttered was recorded, in order to testify at a future day, against the authors of their oppressions.”

When life’s a mess, we need to know that God sees and cares. But we also need to know that God acts and is in control. So, four times Pastor Jones repeats the phrase:

“He came down!” “He came down!” “He came down!” “He came down!”

Here’s one example from Rev Jones’ sermon.

“But our text goes further: it describes the Judge of the world to be so much moved with what he saw and what he heard, that he rises from his throne and he comes down from heaven in his own person, in order to deliver them out of the hands of the Egyptians. Glory to God for this precious record of his power and goodness.”

Once again, Jones’ words are just like what we learned last week from David in Psalm 13. God encourages us to ask and beg—“Please see and save, please look and answer.”

Are you feeling enslaved to something physically, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually right now? Believe that God has seen and that God will come down. Ask God to see and come down—to look on your trial and tribulation and to act mightily to set you free indeed!

C. Reverend Daniel Alexander Payne: A Manly Man of God—Daniel 1

When we worship a God who sees and saves, we then find His empowerment to live courageous lives. The Rev. Daniel Alexander Payne is an example of just such a life—the life of a manly man of God.

Rev. Payne was a remarkable man—and incredibly productive. He was the first historian of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a pastor, bishop, educator, author, and evangelist. In his 70s, in the Jim Crow south of the 1870s, he traveled the south mentoring younger pastors.

On one particular trip, the white train conductor insisted that Payne go to the back of the train where he would have been seated in Jim Crow conditions. Standing his ground and confronting the white authorities on the train, Rev. Payne said to them:

“Before I’ll dishonor my manhood by going into that car, stop your train and put me off.”

Payne notes that after he left the train:

“The guilty conductor looked out and said, ‘Old man, you can get on the platform at the back of the car.’ I replied only by contemptuous silence.” Payne then carried his own luggage, walking a great distance over “a heavy bed of sand” to his next speaking engagement in the deep south.

Payne literally walked the talk.

Payne was the Rosa Parks of his day. In fact, Rosa Parks worshipped at an AME church. During youth Sunday School she learned the history of the AME Church, including the history of one Daniel Alexander Payne. And it was Rosa Park’s refusal to move to the back of the bus that helped to motivate Martin Luther King, Jr. Thus we can trace the Civil Rights movement from Daniel Alexander Payne, to Rosa Parks, to Martin Luther King, Jr.

How did such Christian manhood develop in Rev. Payne? Payne credits his father who started him on his purposeful life.

“I was the child of many prayers. My father dedicated me to the service of God before I was born, declaring that if the Lord would give him a son that son should be consecrated to him, and named after the Prophet Daniel.”

So, let’s take it a step further, we can trace the Civil Rights movement from the prophet Daniel, to Daniel Alexander Payne’s father, to Daniel Alexander Payne, to Rosa Parks, to Martin Luther King, Jr. And now you know, the rest of the story.

III. Encouraged to Leave a Lasting Female Legacy: Christlike Sisters of the Spirit

There’s more to the story. We’ve learned from the legacy of the African American Christian family, we’ve learned from the legacy of African American Christian founding fathers, and now we learn from the legacy of African American Christian sisters of the Spirit.

These African American sisters of the Spirit often described their external situation as being in a “double bind.” That is, they were black, in a day and age where that was disrespected. And they were female, in a day and age when that, too, was disrespected. Regardless of their external situation, internally they clung to Christ and they ministered Christ to one another.

A. Sister Octavia Albert: Sharing Christ in Suffering—Jesus with Skin On!

We see this in and through the life of Octavia Rogers Albert. Before the Civil War, Sister Octavia and her husband were enslaved in Virginia. After the war, when their freedom was won, they moved to Louisiana. There, both she and her husband earned their college degrees—which was particularly rare for an African American woman in the deep south in the 1870s. Octavia’s husband became the pastor of a prominent African American church, where Octavia was known, as was common with many black pastor’s wives, as “The First Lady” of the church.

Octavia was also an author— you see the cover of her book, The House of Bondage. For this book, Sister Octavia spent hours interviewing formerly enslaved African Americans. Prominent among those interviewed was Charlotte Brooks. Sister Octavia introduces us to Aunt Charlotte.

“It was in the fall of 1879 that I met Charlotte Brooks. I have spent hours with her listening to her telling of her sad life of bondage in the cane-fields of Louisiana.”

Let’s think about this and put ourselves in Aunt Charlotte’s shoes. No one had ever listened to or cared about Charlotte. Now we have this college-educated, First Lady, author spending hours listening to her telling of her sad life of bondage. If you and I learned nothing else today other than the need to listen well to our hurting brothers and sisters, then we have learned a great lesson about one-another ministry in the Body of Christ.

But there are more lessons. We not only listen well, we feel deeply, as Sister Octavia does.

“Aunt Charlotte my heart throbs with sympathy, and my eyes are filled with tears, whenever I hear you tell of the trials of yourself and others.”

Sister Octavia teaches us that shared sorrow is endurable sorrow. We were never meant to suffer alone. God calls us, in the Body of Christ, like Sister Octavia models, to enter deeply into the suffering of our brothers and sisters.

Let’s see what impact this had on Aunt Charlotte:

“I never thought anybody but Jesus would care enough for me to tell of my trials and sorrows in this world. I thought none but Jesus could know what I have passed through” (Charlotte Brooks).

Aunt Charlotte had assumed that only Jesus cared. But now Charlotte knew that at least one other human being—Sister Octavia—cared for her and shared in her pain. Sister Octavia teaches us to be Jesus with skin on for our brothers and sisters.

B. Sister Charlotte Brooks: Finding Christ in Suffering—Filled with the Love of Jesus

Charlotte not only learned from Sister Octavia. Sister Octavia learned from Charlotte, as we can. Aunt Charlotte had had all of her children sold away from her. Just ponder that as a mother, as a parent. So when she talks about suffering and finding Christ, we need to listen.

First, she teaches that trials make us God-dependent:

“You see, my child, God will take care of his people. He will hear us when we cry. True, we can’t get

anything to eat sometimes, but trials make us pray more. I sometimes think my people don’t pray like they used to in slavery. You know when any child of God gets trouble that’s the time to try their faith. Since freedom it seems my people don’t trust the Lord as they used to. ‘Sin is growing bold,

and religion is growing cold.’”

We don’t want trials; we don’t pray for trials, but we all know that Aunt Charlotte is right: trials motivate us to pray more. And we pray more when we remember that God will take care of His people. That God is good even when life is bad. He’s good all the time.

Aunt Charlotte, like so many of our African American sisters of the Spirit, also teaches us that we find our joy not in our circumstances, but in our Christ.

“I tell you, child, Christianity is good anywhere—at the plow-handle, at the hoe-handle, anywhere. If you are filled with the love of my Jesus you are happy.”

Aunt Charlotte said this not as a woman who had the best of this world, but as a woman who had almost nothing in this world. Yet she still clung to Christ and was filled with the love of Jesus.

C. Sister Maria Stewart: Clinging to Our Identity in Christ—In the Image of God

Our final sister of the Spirit is Maria Stewart. Of every person whose life I learned from in Beyond the Suffering, I think Maria Stewart is my number one hero of the faith. Maria was born enslaved in 1803 to a Connecticut clergy couple (let that sink in…). She married at twenty-three, was widowed at twenty-six, was saved by Christ at twenty-seven, and challenged a nation at twenty-eight.

We talked earlier about African American women being in a double bind. Maria Stewart was in a quadruple bind—she had four strikes against her in the culture of her day. She was black in a day and age where that was disrespected. She was a woman in a day and age when that was disrespected. She was young in a day and age when that was disrespected. And she was widowed/single in a day and age when that was disrespected. She easily could have given up on God and on life. But through Christ, she did the opposite.

At age twenty-eight, in 1831, she marched into the offices of William Lloyd Garrison, the abolitionist publisher of the newspaper, The Liberator. She insisted that he publish a series of letters that she had written to her fellow sisters of the Spirit. And he did. Here’s just a small excerpt of her powerful words that impacted a nation for Christ.

“Many think, because your skins are tinged with a sable hue, that you are an inferior race of beings; but God does not consider you as such. He hath formed and fashioned you in his own glorious image, and hath bestowed upon you reason and strong powers of intellect. He hath made you to have dominion over the beasts of the field, the fowls of the air, and the fish of the sea (Genesis 1:26). He hath crowned you with glory and honor; hath made you but a little lower than the angels (Psalms 8:5).”

Let’s ponder this. No one in 1831 was telling young black women that they were formed and fashioned in God’s glorious image. Except Maria Stewart. No one was telling young black in 1831 that God had bestowed on them reason and strong powers of intellect. Except Maria Stewart. No one was telling young black women in 1831 that they had dominion over anything. Except Maria Stewart.

Sister Maria could do this because she understood and applied God’s Word to her life, to her times, and to her sisters of the Spirit. She teaches us that no matter how many strikes we have against us, we can do all things in Christ. She teaches us that no matter how the world treats us or how the world sees us, we must see ourselves in Christ; we must cling to our identity in Christ.

Like every quote we’ve read, like every African American Christian we’ve heard from in Black Church history, Sister Maria Stewart reminds us to “Look to Jesus!”

➢ The Final Picture: Healing Hope Is Future Hope—Revelation 7:9-10

How did African American Christians not only survive during the horrors of slavery, but thrive? How did they move beyond the suffering? They looked to Jesus with a healing hope that is a future hope. We read of that healing, future hope in Revelation 7:9-10.

“After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: ‘Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.’”

What an amazing future it is. Do you see what type of future we will share? We will enjoy a multi-cultural future—every nation, tribe, people, and language worshipping Christ together.

Eternal worship will not be segregated because in eternity our race relationships will be grace relationships.

In eternity everything will be healed—all suffering and all sin—including the suffering and sin of racism. In Christ, we are all one new people united by Christ’s grace to worship the Lamb together forever.

Let’s look to Jesus!

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