Loving Different

Well hey everybody and welcome to Highlands Fellowship. I'm so glad that you're here today. My name is Tim and I want you to know that I love you. And I know that some of you are probably thinking "you love me? Well you don't even know me" and for some of you that might be true, but I do love you and I do care for you. I'm for you. I want the best for you. I desire God's best for you and I want you to find purpose. I want you to be fulfilled in this life and I want you to experience life with Jesus because the reality is it's just a better way to live.

So welcome today. Today we are in week three of a message series where we're just working our way through the New Testament book of Ephesians. And if you have your Bible with you or maybe a Bible app go ahead and open those up or turn them on and go to Ephesians chapter 3 - that's where we're going to be today. And if you don't have your Bible with you no worries, we'll have it on the screen for you. And by the way if you don't have a Bible and you need one just go to the welcome center right after the service today and tell them you need a Bible and we'll give you one no questions asked because we want you to have God's word in your hand able to read it at any point.

Now I don't know if you've noticed this or not but over the last 15 years especially there's been this shift in how people spend their time. In previous generations adults may have spent their time in the evenings maybe watching some TV together or by reading book or something productive maybe. Now what happens? Well it doesn't matter if you're young or you're old, it's totally cross-generational - social media is the number one way adults spend their time.

It's amazing. You know you put your kids to bed and within 5 to 10 minutes you've both got your phones out and maybe you've been on vacation at times and you've seen this where everybody's hanging out but they're not really talking to each other. They all have their phones out and they're all scrolling Instagram or scrolling Facebook or scrolling through X or whatever it is, maybe TikTok maybe not.

And I'm not hating on social media okay. I actually think social media has so much good going for it. I think it's revealed some things to us about ourselves, about humanity that we may have thought were true but now we know that they're true. For instance, I think that social media has revealed to us that as human beings we are inherently funny, like we have a sense of humor. Like you cannot get on social media and not see something new and hilarious that happens just every day. It's so funny. So whether it's a funny post or a video or a meme there's some funny stuff out there, maybe some inappropriate but it's funny too, right?

Social media has shown us that we're pretty funny people but it's also shown us some of the other things about ourselves that maybe are not so pleasant and not so fun because we don't just go to social media to get our dose of comic relief. We go to social media to get our news, we go to social media to express our views and to express our opinions and our perspectives and also to read other people's views and other people's opinions and other people's perspectives.

And what this has revealed to us is that as humans we have this natural tendency to surround ourselves with people who are mostly like us. When was the last time you saw somebody's post on something and maybe it's social media that you didn't agree with, you didn't agree with, you strongly disagreed with it and you know what happened in your heart? You were tempted to click that little button that says unfriend weren't you? Or maybe not unfriend - you can do what Facebook allows which is to snooze them. You can snooze them which means that you can still be friends and they still see that you're friends but you don't see anything that they do which is super crazy. I mean it's like man the complexities of social media relationships today, it's wild.

But this is what we do - we follow people and we share things that we agree with and that agree with our perspectives so we mostly surround ourselves with people who look, think, talk, act and see the world just the way we do. And this was true before social media because when you think about your friend groups, you think about the people that you love, you think about the people who are closest to you and they're mostly people who think, look, talk, act and are just like you.

They're maybe in the same age range. I mean all the same - you try to get people who are like you. It's just who we are, we surround ourselves with the same. But the problem with that, and is going to reveal it to us today, is that if we're going to follow God's plan for our lives, if we're actually going to live out what Jesus teaches us, if we're going to be able to make disciples, love our communities and change the world, it actually requires us to be different, to have different people around us and this is actually how God set it up from the very beginning.

So let's jump into Ephesians chapter 3 and we're going to start off with verses 6 and 7. So let's read it. It says this and this is God's plan: both Gentiles and Jews who believe the good news share equally in the riches inherited by God's children. Both are part of the same body and both enjoy the promise of blessings because they belong to Christ Jesus. By God's grace and mighty power I have been given the privilege of serving him by spreading this good news.

Now I want to pause there just for a second. So that first line that came out says this is God's plan - both gentiles and Jews who believe the good news share equally. Now that right there would have been a shocking statement for the people in the first century. The whole concept would have changed the spiritual landscape for the Jewish people in the first century.

And to really understand that verse and to understand its magnitude we actually have to back up and think about the Old Testament as a whole. Now if you're not familiar with the Old Testament it's okay, but when you go back and you read through the Old Testament you see that it's a story. It's the story of God's relationship with one country, with one nation and it was the nation of Israel.

So it Chronicles God's special relationship with Israel - that's what it does. And God leads them out of slavery, he puts them into a country of their own, he works through Kings and wars and famines and it's God's special relationship with the people of Israel.

So it's really no wonder that when you get to the New Testament and you start reading about the Jewish people they thought that they were God's chosen people - and they were because all they knew up to that point was God's special relationship with Israel.

I mean just think about this word for just a second - think about that word Gentile for just a second. That's not a word we use very often today, it's not in our normal vocabulary but when you read the Bible you see it all the time. The word Gentile - it was a word that Jews came up with to describe anyone who wasn't a Jew. So they didn't even bother to come up with words for different groups of people. It was like "well it's us and it's all y'all" okay? And if you ain't with us well then you're against us and this is how this is how the Jews felt. Okay there's us and there's all y'all.

And again this would have made sense to them because this was all they knew. And God's plan was always bigger - it was always bigger than one people group. God's plan was always bigger than just the nation of Israel. In fact if we go back to Genesis in Genesis 22:17 this is a promise that God made to Abraham. He said this: "I will certainly bless you. I will multiply your descendants beyond number." Man isn't that a cool promise? It says "like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashores your descendants will conquer the cities of their enemies." Again another wonderful promise.

And here's the real big part of it - Verse 18: "and through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed - all because you obeyed me." You see God's plan from the beginning, from the start and yes it started with the nation of Israel but it was always bigger, always from the very beginning in the Book of Genesis he says I'm going to bless the entire world through your descendants. It was always more than just them, it was always with the world in mind.

But you see the Jews when you get to the time of Jesus they saw this promise as a promise of political dominance. When they see "through your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed" what they thought was that's awesome - that means that Israel is actually going to be the superpower. That's what they believed. And we're going to be the ones who are distributing the food to people and we're going to be the ones who are blessing people and the whole world will be blessed because we're going to be in control. They saw that particular promise as political dominance which is why they struggled so much with Jesus.

When you read New Testament you say man it seems like the Jewish people are having a hard time getting on board with Jesus - well this is why because Jesus comes along and he starts leading and he starts doing his thing, he starts creating his movement of followers who have zero political power, zero political power, seemingly disinterested in the political game. He could have gotten all those followers on board and he could have turned that into a political movement if he desired but he didn't - zero political power.

This is why their jaws would have hit the floor when Paul says both Jews and Gentiles - Jews and all y'all - share equally in the riches and the blessings of following Jesus because I want you to get this: God's plan from the very beginning was to bring different people together through Jesus. God's plan from the very beginning was to bring different people together through Jesus. It was how he set it all up.

He set this whole thing up this way and this didn't take him by surprise. He knew he was going to work through Israel and then he knew he was going to get the rest of the world on board and that's how he wanted it to be because God's love does not discriminate. Okay it doesn't matter if you're white or black, Hispanic, Asian or any person of any color, if you're rich or you're poor, if you're young or you're old, if you're middle-aged, even if you don't know who you are.

It doesn't matter what team you like or what music you prefer or what culture that you've come from. It doesn't matter if you've got an awesome home or you're struggling with homelessness right now. It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done or where you've come from because God's love does not discriminate.

God's love does not discriminate. If you believe in Jesus he is for you and you have complete and total access to him. There's no more privilege, there's no more favoritism, there's no more preference shown - you are in. All right if you believe in and you follow Jesus you're in because God's plan from the very start was to bring different people together through Jesus.

So the Jews who started to understand this are like "okay okay, I okay so so he loves everybody all right" but when you read the book of Acts you see that the Jewish people still thought they all have to become Jewish though right? Like I know God loves them and that's great but they're all going to have to start doing our Traditions right? They're going to have to start listening to our music and pray our prayers and wear our clothes and they're going to have to conform they're going to have to become Jews aren't they?

And this was a hot button topic in the book of Acts - how Jewish do you have to be in order to follow Jesus Christ? And so the leaders get together and they pray and they pray and they're like "God what should we do about this? What should we do?" And in Acts chapter 15 you can read about this but they come back with this answer and they say you know what the Holy Spirit has told us that all you have to do that's Jewish is just don't eat food that's offered to idols, don't consume blood or eat meat from strangled animals and don't be sexually immoral. Outside of that you can keep your culture.

And the reason I share all of that with you is that you need to understand that the family of God was always always always meant to be multicultural. It was always meant to be different cultures and different backgrounds and different people all brought together underneath the one name of Jesus Christ.

It was never meant to be this idea of everyone can come to know Jesus if you're just like the Jews - no no, whoever you are and whatever your culture is you're welcome into the family of God because God's plan from the very start was always always always to bring different people together through Jesus.

Now there's a reason for this and the reason is maybe not what you think it is because the reason has nothing to do with being politically correct. It has nothing to do with with just checking off a box that you fend off the cultural pressures to be diverse. There's a practical reason and then there's a theological reason and we'll get to the theological reason here in a minute but there's a practical reason that God always wanted to bring different people together through Jesus and it's simply this: we are better together.

We're better together. Did you know that? Like we are actually better not just in this room but in every room when there are different kinds of people around. We are better when it's not just a bunch of the same people filling a room. We're actually better when there are different people coming together doing life together and science has actually caught up with this.

So there was a study that MIT did back in 2014 and they studied diverse workplaces versus homogeneous workplaces - these are places that are filled with the same types of people and here's what they found: the more homogeneous offices have higher levels of Social Capital meaning they get along better, they enjoy being around each other more, they have higher levels of Social Capital but the interesting twist is that higher levels of Social Capital are not important enough to cause those offices to perform better. The employees might be happier, they might be more comfortable, they might be cooperative places but they actually seem to perform less well.

Forbes Magazine released another study that was done back in 2017 where they found this: decisions made and executed by diverse teams delivered 60% better results. 60%! We actually work better together. We do a better job at just about everything where there are different people who come together.

And we've seen this in our lives - we know the value of different perspectives don't we? We know this is true that when we huddle up with the same type of people, when we huddle up with the same people who are just like us - same produces bias. Same produces bias and when you huddle up with people who are just like you - and you know this is true - you start to look at people who are slightly different than you are and you start to view them a little bit negatively. You might start to vilify them, you might start to say that their differences are actually bad and not just differences.

So the same produces bias and often times it's unintentional - it's just what we do when we huddle up with people who are just like us and are the same. We find people that are not like us or in any small way it just produces a bias against those other people.

But now when you have different in your life, when you have different people around you and different people that you're developing friendships with and different people that you're working with and different people that you're doing life with - different doesn't produce bias, different produces empathy. Different produces empathy, different produces an ability to care for someone and to feel what they feel, to at least see and somewhat understand life and what it's like in their shoes.

And man empathy is so very important and I think if there's one thing that could solve so many of our conflicts and so many of our world problems it would be empathy - just the ability to see why do you think that and why do you feel that way and why do you say things the way that you do. But you can't do that if you don't have different people in your life and I'm telling you this keeps your faith fresh. It really does.

Empathy gives you the ability to love people like Jesus loves them. Empathy gives you the ability to see people the way that God sees them. It's black, it's white, it's young, it's old, it's retired, it's students, it's parents, singles, newly weds, those who have been married for a long time - the church should be a place and the picture of every different perspective that you could possibly imagine doing life together.

And let me tell you it will keep our faith fresh. It will - working through the complexities of different will challenge us. The cross-generational conversations, people who experience certain things in their lives speaking into the lives of others who are going through it right now - this is happening right now in our church right? It's hard, it's hard but different is making us better because we're better together.

So because this is how God created it to work from the start, because this is God's plan we must pursue it. It's not going to happen by accident - like it may, you may stumble into it by accident but chances are you're going to have to pursue it. You and I are going to have to figure this thing out in our hearts somehow and in some way.

Every time we see someone different than us whether it's a different age or different skin color or different side of the aisle politically you know we see different and our hearts, our hearts tend to walk the other way. We walk away from different but if we're going to really pursue this and really be in the middle of God's plan we have to change our hearts and we have to start to pursue it.

Now you may not have a problem with anything I've said so far but the problem is when you start actually doing it. The problem is when you actually start bringing different people into your circles it's super hard, it's super challenging, it's very painful because different is uncomfortable. Different introduces tension into our lives, different isn't always pleasant. It's hard but it is a must for the church - like we have to be doing this.

Now if you go back to that study that MIT did that I referenced a bit ago one other quote was this and the study said this: it said that homogeneous teams - so same teams - they felt great during the process and yet they lost. They were all comfortable, they felt good but they lost while diverse teams felt miserable during the process until they finished and met their target. No one is telling us how hard it is but you have to embrace that because the ultimate outcome will be better.

It's hard and this was no shock to Paul. When Paul wrote Ephesians chapter 3 he knew how hard this was going to be. In fact look at what he says in Ephesians chapter 3 verses 14 and 15. He says this: "When I think of all this" - look what happens, what does he do? He jumps for joy and he just can't wait to do it? No, he says "When I think of all this" - bringing different people together in Jesus - he says "I fall to my knees and I pray."

He's like "I don't know what to do because this sounds impossible to bring different people together in Christ Jesus" so he says "the only thing I know to do is pray." "I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the creator of everything in heaven and on Earth." And Paul's prayer which is what we're getting ready to read is key. Paul's prayer is how and if you want to understand how to love people who are different than you and how we can become a church that seeks out different and doesn't walk away from different but walks toward different - his prayer is the key.

So let's look at Ephesians chapter 3:16-19. Paul says this: "I pray that from his glorious unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his spirit." Says you're going to need to be strong. Verse 17: "Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him." And then here's our memory verse for this week - it's Ephesians chapter 3 second part of verse 17 and verse 18 and it says this: "And I pray that you being rooted and established in love" because it's going to be tough and you're going to take shots over and over and over again and you're going to have to have those roots grow deep.

But then he gets to the heart of it right here. He continues Verse 18: "That you may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ and may you not just understand but may you experience the love of Christ though it's too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God."

He says if you want to love people who are different than you here's what you have to do - you have to understand with your mind the immeasurable immense love of Jesus Christ but you don't just understand it with your mind like you've got to experience it for yourself. You've got to experience it in your heart and when you understand the love of God and you experience it in your heart it will give you everything you need to love people who are different than you.

Because Jesus could not be more different than us - like you understand that right? Like there's no one who is more different from us than Jesus. Like we couldn't be farther apart. While he is all powerful we are weak and insufficient. While he is all knowing we are limited in our knowledge of the universe and limited in our knowledge of how things work. While he sees everything we only see things from our perspective.

While we are unable to live up to the standard of perfection that God requires, Jesus was able to live a perfect and sinless life. While we were stuck without a solution for the one thing that plagues us all this physical death, God through his son Jesus was able to provide a solution and conquered death once and for all by the power of the Holy Spirit.

There is no comparison - he is worthy, he is Holy, he is mighty, he is loving, he is caring, he's everything we've ever strive to be and so much more and he couldn't be more different than us and yet he loves us. He's entirely different and yet he loves us. He didn't walk away from us, he walked toward us and he said you can be part of my family.

See this is why you have to understand with your mind and experience this with your heart this love of Jesus because Jesus loved us and we are different. So if we want to love people who are different than us then we've got to love like Jesus loves and so you've got to experience that and you can't offer something to somebody else that you haven't experienced and received for yourself.

So we talked about a practical reason that God has a heart for diversity and for different but there's also a theological reason and it's because when we love people who are different than us it's this - it puts the love of God on display for the world to see. It communicates the gospel to a world that isn't quite sure what it is. It communicates God's love to a world that is dying without it.

When you love someone who's different than you you are putting his gospel on display for the world to see and Jesus said it like this in John 13:34-35 he said "So now I'm giving you a new commandment: love each other just as I have loved you you should love each other. Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples."

You see Paul knew, Jesus knew there's so much more on the line than just being politically correct. There's a world that is dying out there that needs to see the love of God and if you and I can start to embrace this and start to love people who are different than us and the world can see that well I think it's got the power to change the world.

That's why Paul would end Ephesians chapter 3 with these last two verses, verses 20 and 21 that say this: "Now all glory to God who is able" - and if you're wondering if you can do this you can because he is able - "He's able through his mighty power at work within us to accomplish" - I love these two words - "infinitely more." One translation says far more but "infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever amen."

It's like Paul's saying you know what? If you'll love different people Jesus can give you the love to be able to do that and if you'll do it he'll actually accomplish infinitely more right? Far more than you could ever ask for or ever think of. He'll change the world through it but it starts with us individually experiencing in our hearts and knowing in our minds how incredible and immense and immeasurable the love of Jesus actually is.

So let's do that today. Would you pray with me?