wokeism that's our topic today it's super hot
if you want to go beyond wokeness then don't go away
[Music] what does it mean to be woke google's
dictionary defines a woke person as one who is alert to injustice in society
especially racism thus to be woke is to have a heart that
is awakened or woken up to the evils of being a racist
and let me just say right up front that i
Steve Wohlberg i despise racism wherever it is rears its ugly head i can't stand
it i don't want anything to do with it unfortunately we humans often only see
on the surface all too often the biggest issue
in our minds and in our hearts is just skin color
all too often it's just one skin color against another skin color
but the the holy bible has a much deeper perspective it presents a different kind
of awakening that we all need to experience
in ephesians chapter 5 verse 14 the bible says awake
you that sleep and arise from the dead
and christ shall give you light here god calls us to wake up we might
call this biblical wokeism to wake up from spiritual death by
letting the light of jesus christ shine on us
in matthew chapter 5 verses 43 to 45 jesus tells us
what it means to be biblically woke or awakened and verse 43 he starts
out by saying you have heard that it has been said you shall love your neighbor
and hate your enemy and all too often that's the way people
think these days that's the way worldly people think it's called groupthink
which means that they love one group and they hate another group or vice versa
and it's just it's a surface evaluation of of people
in verse 44 jesus continues continues and says but i say to you
love your enemies bless them that curse you
do good to them that hate you and pray for them which spitefully use
you and persecute you in other words jesus says that his own followers are to
be different from the rest of the world they there to love everybody
even those that are our enemies those that hate us
and in verse 45 he tells us the reason he says that you may be the children of
your father which is in heaven
god's true children see beyond surface color
uh they they look at other people from his heavenly perspective
verse 45 continues and jesus says for for god makes his son to rise upon the
evil and on the good we see that every day
and he sends rain on the just and on the unjust that happens every day all around
the world in other words god our creator he is kind
and merciful to everyone whether they're good or whether they're bad whether
they're white or black or vice versa you know whatever the color of our skin
god loves us all and then notice this in verse 46 and 47
jesus said for if you love them which love you
what reward have you do not even the publicans the same and
if you salute your brothers only what do you more than others do not even the
publicans or the tax collectors do the same thing in other words if we just
love one group or one skin color but not another group or skin color
jesus says really we're no better than the average normal unredeemed lost
sinner and if we aren't transformed by his love
and his grace unfortunately we are going to share
their fate and then in verse 48 here's his
punchline he says be be you therefore perfect
even as your father which is in heaven is perfect in other words true
perfection of character that's the standard is to be like god which means
to treat others the same way that he does
so let me ask you have you woken up to the true ways of god
are you truly a child of god if you are then when you look at other
people you're going to see beyond just skin color which is just a surface wave
of looking at others you won't love one group and then hate
the other group because that's what that's just what
lost sinners do so i appeal to you
and i'm speaking to myself as well let's follow
the council and experience what it says in ephesians chapter 5 14 which is where
we started the bible says awake
you that sleep and arise from the dead and christ shall
give you light
it is my hope and my prayer that his heavenly light through his word and
through his holy spirit will shine on us and then through us into this dark lost
unredeemed sinful world may god help us wait before you go and you know what i'm
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blessed day