1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,120 Like I do sometimes, I'm going to share with you something newsworthy that today, 2 00:00:10,120 --> 00:00:16,680 I believe, leaves a question or a thought that will then transition into our sermon. 3 00:00:16,680 --> 00:00:36,560 Online this week, it caused a little bit of a viral firestorm when a person by the name of Eli Erlich came onto the scene, 4 00:00:36,560 --> 00:00:41,560 not for reasons that most people would appreciate. 5 00:00:41,560 --> 00:00:52,120 Eli Erlich, and you'll have to forgive me, I actually don't know if it's a man or a woman because this person identifies as transgender. 6 00:00:52,120 --> 00:01:14,920 Eli Erlich, this person's online posts were discovered and then shared and then reposted and a huge debate came out because in response to some recent state laws, 7 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:28,920 such as this, where Alabama passed a law that forcibly does not allow minors to undergo transgendered transitioning procedures. 8 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:42,920 So if you are younger than 18 in the state of Alabama, you cannot get the medications or the surgeries or whatever the case may be that falls under the umbrella of transgendered care. 9 00:01:42,920 --> 00:01:51,920 There are other states that are following suit and Eli's response to this is something like this. 10 00:01:51,920 --> 00:02:16,720 If you live in any of the states that are banning trans health care, my trans friends and I are sending out prescribed testosterone and estradiol and another name of a medication I cannot pronounce to those who are now unable to get prescriptions, no questions asked, direct message me for details. 11 00:02:16,720 --> 00:02:38,120 Upon further investigation, they found that this individual in 2021 had listed 11 mantras of theirs that they were living by, number six of which says redistribute your extra hormones to people who cannot access or afford them. 12 00:02:38,120 --> 00:02:47,120 This individual has doubled down on it. 13 00:02:47,120 --> 00:03:09,720 Saying this, there are over 20 states trying to criminalize hormone therapy, particularly for trans youth. So my friends and I had an idea sending out our extra prescriptions around the country. If you need hormones, I'm working with a distribution network to get you access. Everything is free. No questions asked. 14 00:03:09,720 --> 00:03:24,120 We have hundreds of doses of testosterone, estradiol, and so on available right now. All are prescribed by doctors and unused. Each package comes with information on dosage, obtaining blood work, and etc. 15 00:03:24,120 --> 00:03:49,920 I realize this is only a band-aid solution. We need full access to affirmative medical care from professionals immediately. However, missing a dose of these hormones can be devastating. These laws are outrageous and I can't wait for them to be overturned. In the meantime, direct message me if you need these hormone replacement therapies or if you have over prescribed hormones you'd like to send out. 16 00:03:49,920 --> 00:04:18,120 Further posts of his make clear that he's not just simply talking about sharing with his close family or friends. He will put in the postal service these prescriptions, these unused pills, and mail them not just inside the United States, but even to Canada or to Mexico. He advertises to all over North America. 17 00:04:18,120 --> 00:04:47,520 This is concerning on a couple of levels and this is why I would encourage parents, soon to be parents, grandparents, we need to actually be very active in knowing what's going on in our youth lives because this is being done for at least a couple of years now, at least advertised, without parental knowledge or consent, without prescription, without a doctor's visit, without the necessary blood work. 18 00:04:47,520 --> 00:05:16,520 Someone just contacts this individual on a direct message and says I need this and they mail it to them. The prescriptions that he is offering to mail out are highly restricted in terms of their distribution on top of you are not allowed to just share prescribed medication, certainly not through the mail, certainly not over international borders. 19 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:31,520 There is all kinds of illegality that this individual is offering and promoting and trying to share and participate in and as of yesterday their account was still online. 20 00:05:31,520 --> 00:05:58,520 They had not been censored by our social media platforms even though, like I said, this has been a week long firestorm that's growing because it's very concerning. A lot of these medications, if you take them really at any point, but certainly if you are young and developing, you are almost certainly guaranteed irreversible kinds of effects on the body. 21 00:05:58,520 --> 00:06:15,520 Maybe the young child later in life changes their mind or comes to a different understanding of their identity and then it's too late. This is very risky, very dangerous behavior and I think we should know about it. 22 00:06:15,520 --> 00:06:36,520 I think it points out a couple of things, but what I want to highlight because this is the transition into our sermon, I think we would be naive to think that they have not been reached out to and asked for medications to be mailed out. 23 00:06:36,520 --> 00:07:03,520 I think we would be naive to think that they are offering something that has not been accepted or taken advantage of. I think that we would be coming up short in asking the questions, why do some youth feel the need or even some adults feel the need to reach out to someone in an openly illegal manner to get some medical care. 24 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:18,520 And I'm sure there are a couple of answers for it, but I believe that one reason is too often well-intended people are very unkind to those who are going through something. 25 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:34,520 I think we are. I think often youth are struggling with their identity or struggling with who they are or struggling with where they fit in the larger picture and adults are often dismissive. 26 00:07:34,520 --> 00:07:54,520 I believe that to be the case too often. I believe it to be the case when people or Christians or maybe you interact with a Christian and you say I'm really struggling with this, it's interrupting my sleep, I don't know how to relate, I'm bothered by it, I can't seem to get over it. 27 00:07:54,520 --> 00:08:08,520 And Christians, well-intended, are dismissive or they will say well let's just pray it away. Excuse me. 28 00:08:08,520 --> 00:08:35,520 I am a very strong proponent of the power of prayer. I am a very strong proponent of some ideas you work with the best that you can and maybe sometimes with my kids it's appropriate to be dismissive or to recognize it for what it is which is just the imaginations of a youth. 29 00:08:35,520 --> 00:08:45,520 Okay, now sometimes you make that. There are other circumstances when it's a deeper need and we come up short in our response. 30 00:08:45,520 --> 00:09:07,520 And when you habitually come up short in your response and boys and girls don't know where to turn, the world has many avenues for them to turn to. Some more harmful than others, most probably not the best solution if you know what I mean. 31 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:26,520 And I point this out again, one I think we should be aware of what our kids are going through and what is being offered out there. This is very dangerous kinds of stuff that's being offered online unchecked so far by legal means. 32 00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:44,520 But then I also think it raises the question are we responding appropriately to people who are struggling? Are we as Christ's ambassadors responding to boys and girls and men and women like Christ would? 33 00:09:44,520 --> 00:09:58,520 And so that leads us into today's message. Let us pray and let us jump in. Heavenly Father I pray that you would be with us today as we open up your word. 34 00:09:58,520 --> 00:10:08,520 I pray that you would be with me and let the words that come out of my mouth be a proper representative of what you would like spoken. 35 00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:16,520 Lord I pray these things in Jesus name, amen and amen. 36 00:10:16,520 --> 00:10:30,520 Last time I was here we looked at Matthew 21, specifically Jesus cleansing out the temple the second time, towards the end of his ministry, the shadow of the cross was looming before him. 37 00:10:30,520 --> 00:10:44,520 He turns over the tables again, chases out the money changers, he chases out everything and they run because Jesus was an imposing figure in that moment. 38 00:10:44,520 --> 00:10:53,520 His divinity as Ellen White says it flashed through his humanity and these sinful hypocrites couldn't stand in the presence of his holiness. 39 00:10:53,520 --> 00:11:06,520 And so they fled before him and who was left because they came back to see what was going on after we left and they saw people being healed, they saw the children crying out, 40 00:11:06,520 --> 00:11:11,520 Hosanna to the son of David and we walked through that. 41 00:11:11,520 --> 00:11:24,520 Today we turn our attention to Isaiah because it is the verse that Jesus mentions when he says it is written, my house shall be called a house of prayer but you make it a den of robbers. 42 00:11:24,520 --> 00:11:29,520 So we are going to look at Isaiah 56. 43 00:11:29,520 --> 00:11:35,520 While you are turning to Isaiah 56 we are going to talk about the Statue of Liberty. 44 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:43,520 I would like to go visit the Statue of Liberty, I don't know if it is reason enough to go to New York City, but I would like to see the Statue of Liberty. 45 00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:49,520 I think that would be neat. Get on the ferry, ride the boat out there, walk around the island, be a part of the groups that go up into the Statue. 46 00:11:49,520 --> 00:11:58,520 I think that would be neat. It is a definite historical landmark for our country and it means something important. 47 00:11:58,520 --> 00:12:07,520 The Statue of Liberty is a colossal, neoclassical sculpture on Liberty Island in New York Harbor in New York City. 48 00:12:07,520 --> 00:12:13,520 This copper statue was a gift from the people of France to the people of the United States. 49 00:12:13,520 --> 00:12:21,520 It was dedicated October 28, 1886 during a ceremony presided over by President Grover Cleveland. 50 00:12:21,520 --> 00:12:28,520 The statue is a figure of Libertas, which is a robed Roman Liberty goddess. 51 00:12:28,520 --> 00:12:31,520 She holds a torch above her hand, we know what she looks like. 52 00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:40,520 She holds in her left hand a tabula ansata, which is inscribed July 4, 1776, our Declaration of Independence date. 53 00:12:40,520 --> 00:12:50,520 A broken shackle and chain, I actually didn't know this until recently, a broken shackle and chain lie at her feet as she is walking forward. 54 00:12:50,520 --> 00:12:54,520 Apparently she's in motion in this statue. 55 00:12:54,520 --> 00:13:00,520 The broken shackle and chain commemorate the recent national abolition of slavery. 56 00:13:00,520 --> 00:13:05,520 I didn't know that until recently. That kind of makes sense given the timing of when it was gifted. 57 00:13:05,520 --> 00:13:10,520 I think that's a wonderful thing to permanently put on display. 58 00:13:10,520 --> 00:13:17,520 If you've got a Statue of Liberty, that needs to come with it given the timing of when it was gifted. 59 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:23,520 After its dedication, the statue became an icon of freedom and of the United States. 60 00:13:23,520 --> 00:13:28,520 It is seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea. 61 00:13:28,520 --> 00:13:34,520 The welcome to immigrants is because of its close relationship to Ellis Island. 62 00:13:34,520 --> 00:13:40,520 I believe, I have to remember, I believe the Statue of Liberty is just south of Ellis Island. 63 00:13:40,520 --> 00:13:45,520 Together the two islands make up a national park. 64 00:13:45,520 --> 00:13:50,520 Ellis Island is where we get the immigration thought. 65 00:13:50,520 --> 00:13:57,520 Prior to 1890, states, rather than the federal government, regulated immigration. 66 00:13:57,520 --> 00:14:07,520 And in New York State, Castle Garden, which is now Castle Clinton, was the immigration station from 1855 to 1890. 67 00:14:07,520 --> 00:14:14,520 Approximately 8 million immigrants passed through its doors, mostly from northern European countries. 68 00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:20,520 This constituted the first large wave of immigrants to settle and populate the U.S. 69 00:14:20,520 --> 00:14:28,520 In the 1800s, rising political instability, economic distress, and religious persecution plagued Europe, 70 00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:34,520 which fueled the largest mass human migration in the history of the world. 71 00:14:34,520 --> 00:14:40,520 Around 1890, they realized that Castle Garden wasn't equipped enough to handle everything, 72 00:14:40,520 --> 00:14:47,520 and so that led the federal government now to construct a new station on Ellis Island. 73 00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:52,520 They started receiving immigrants January 1, 1892. 74 00:14:52,520 --> 00:15:00,520 A teenage girl from Ireland, Annie Moore, accompanied by her two younger brothers, was the first immigrant to be processed there. 75 00:15:00,520 --> 00:15:07,520 And over the next 62 years, more than 12 million immigrants would arrive in the U.S. via Ellis Island. 76 00:15:07,520 --> 00:15:13,520 That's a lot of people, given the time of history that this was taking place in. 77 00:15:13,520 --> 00:15:15,520 That's a lot of people. 78 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:22,520 The U.S. to this day continues to be the number one country in the world with regards to immigration numbers, 79 00:15:22,520 --> 00:15:25,520 and that also includes taking in refugees. 80 00:15:25,520 --> 00:15:33,520 The United States takes in more refugees and immigrants than the next several handful of countries combined. 81 00:15:33,520 --> 00:15:39,520 There is something about the United States where people want to be here. 82 00:15:39,520 --> 00:15:41,520 I'm grateful for that. 83 00:15:41,520 --> 00:15:46,520 I think that's led us to be kind of this mixing of people that really is kind of enjoyable. 84 00:15:46,520 --> 00:15:51,520 You get to experience all these different cultures and even languages and so forth. 85 00:15:51,520 --> 00:16:00,520 If you just travel around enough, maybe one day I'll get to travel around enough, but I know it's out there. 86 00:16:00,520 --> 00:16:08,520 Jesus, God, had the same thing in mind for the Israelite nation. 87 00:16:08,520 --> 00:16:15,520 He intended his people to be where immigrants came to. 88 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:25,520 He intended the Israelite people to be that welcoming representation of liberty, of freedom, 89 00:16:25,520 --> 00:16:38,520 of a proper order, of being led by God and in a loving and kind and freeing way with justice and proper worship 90 00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:44,520 that didn't involve human sacrifices and degradation and debauchery. 91 00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:54,520 God intended the Israelite people to be welcoming to all. 92 00:16:54,520 --> 00:16:56,520 That was the intent. 93 00:16:56,520 --> 00:17:02,520 Unfortunately, the Israelite people understood that to mean we need to also look like them. 94 00:17:02,520 --> 00:17:09,520 And so rather than being the light in the world, they adopted the practices of the surrounding nations. 95 00:17:09,520 --> 00:17:14,520 If you join us on Wednesday, we're going through for our prayer meeting, we're going through Amos. 96 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:23,520 Amos deals a lot with God's judgment on his people in how they were worse than their surrounding countries. 97 00:17:23,520 --> 00:17:28,520 So they didn't only just bring it in, but they went a step further. 98 00:17:28,520 --> 00:17:36,520 Isaiah 56, though, this comes after a couple of chapters talking about the compassion of the Lord, 99 00:17:36,520 --> 00:17:43,520 talking about his forgiveness, talking about his plans for the nation. 100 00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:46,520 And he's talking about, I'm bringing you back from captivity. 101 00:17:46,520 --> 00:17:48,520 I'm bringing you back into my fold. 102 00:17:48,520 --> 00:17:53,520 I'm going to rebuild you again. And then here's an ideal for you. 103 00:17:53,520 --> 00:18:00,520 Isaiah 56 and verse one, Thus says the Lord, Keep justice and do righteousness, 104 00:18:00,520 --> 00:18:06,520 for soon my salvation will come and my righteousness be revealed. 105 00:18:06,520 --> 00:18:13,520 God had an expectation that his people would practice justice, not just claim justice or preach it. 106 00:18:13,520 --> 00:18:18,520 They had to put their words into action. Do righteousness. 107 00:18:18,520 --> 00:18:24,520 Don't just say fuzzy, warm things. Put it into practice. 108 00:18:24,520 --> 00:18:35,520 There's a lot of cries for that today. When we look around, I would say that the story I shared with you about Eli Erlich is not just. 109 00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:42,520 I would cry for justice in that we don't need to be grossly violating international laws. 110 00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:48,520 And national laws. I think we should have a cry for justice. People are going to get harmed. 111 00:18:48,520 --> 00:18:53,520 He goes on from there. Blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who holds it fast, 112 00:18:53,520 --> 00:18:57,520 who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, keeps his hand from doing any evil. 113 00:18:57,520 --> 00:19:07,520 And then here we go. Isaiah 56 and verse three, Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, 114 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:13,520 The Lord will surely separate me from his people. 115 00:19:13,520 --> 00:19:22,520 Traditionally, the foreigner that would be the non-Jew, the non-Israelite was excluded from certain religious practices. 116 00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:29,520 They couldn't go all the way into the inner borders of the sanctuary or the temple. 117 00:19:29,520 --> 00:19:35,520 They were not fully recognized in all the rights and honors of the Israelite people. 118 00:19:35,520 --> 00:19:39,520 And now God is is hearing them say these things. 119 00:19:39,520 --> 00:19:46,520 The Lord let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say these things. 120 00:19:46,520 --> 00:19:51,520 Once I come into his people, they'll kick me out. 121 00:19:51,520 --> 00:20:02,520 Now, we we often find ourselves in the trap of not listening to the foreigner, the people that are new to our church. 122 00:20:02,520 --> 00:20:05,520 And by new, we can mean that in a couple of different ways. 123 00:20:05,520 --> 00:20:08,520 Maybe they weren't Adventists and now they are Adventists. 124 00:20:08,520 --> 00:20:14,520 And then we think that they have to be Adventists for 15 years before we'll actually recognize them. 125 00:20:14,520 --> 00:20:21,520 Maybe they need to or the person new could just be for our local congregation. 126 00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:28,520 Maybe for Ringgold, they've come from another church in Chattanooga or Michigan or the West Coast or fill in the blank. 127 00:20:28,520 --> 00:20:31,520 And they moved here. Some circumstances brought them here. 128 00:20:31,520 --> 00:20:36,520 Now they are new. Now they would be a foreigner in this context. 129 00:20:36,520 --> 00:20:40,520 And we withhold certain things from them for far too long. 130 00:20:40,520 --> 00:20:45,520 They're not really us until they've been here for five years, seven years, ten years. 131 00:20:45,520 --> 00:20:59,520 Even if they faithfully attend, even if they faithfully tie, even if they faithfully participate in in our churches activities and they pray with us and they invite us to their homes and so on and so forth, we still say, 132 00:20:59,520 --> 00:21:10,520 Yeah, but you're not actually we've been here for 40 years and you've only been here for six. 133 00:21:10,520 --> 00:21:16,520 Have we ever heard that kind of mentality amongst God's people? 134 00:21:16,520 --> 00:21:21,520 Yes, unfortunately, so. 135 00:21:21,520 --> 00:21:27,520 I would encourage us to take the approach. 136 00:21:27,520 --> 00:21:40,520 That when the foreigner comes to us who has joined themselves to the Lord, joining yourself to the Lord, joining yourself to a body of believers, to the body of Christ isn't about. 137 00:21:40,520 --> 00:21:43,520 I'm going to change them to be like me. 138 00:21:43,520 --> 00:21:47,520 It's I am now becoming more like Christ. 139 00:21:47,520 --> 00:22:03,520 When they've joined themselves to the Lord, we should recognize that into them and not only affirm it, but then also allow the participation, allow the worship, allow their voice to be heard, allow. 140 00:22:03,520 --> 00:22:13,520 Allow them to well, maybe you didn't grow up here, but now you're a part of the Ringgold Church or now you're a part of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. 141 00:22:13,520 --> 00:22:24,520 I would say that when someone comes to us that rather than giving a reason for them to look elsewhere for belonging, maybe they find themselves struggling to belong. 142 00:22:24,520 --> 00:22:31,520 We actually pause long enough and say what's causing those thoughts? 143 00:22:31,520 --> 00:22:33,520 How can we help? 144 00:22:33,520 --> 00:22:44,520 How can we shift from not belonging to belonging so now we don't look at you as an invader who might take my seat in a pew? 145 00:22:44,520 --> 00:22:48,520 But now you are a part of our church family. 146 00:22:48,520 --> 00:22:51,520 Now you're one of us. 147 00:22:51,520 --> 00:23:04,520 Because like like the question I raised with those who who might be seeking other means of getting their medication, maybe they just haven't been given enough deeper attention. 148 00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:12,520 Maybe they've been dismissed too superficially, and maybe we do that with people who haven't been here for decades. 149 00:23:12,520 --> 00:23:17,520 Maybe. 150 00:23:17,520 --> 00:23:28,520 God in this clearly says the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister him to love the name of the Lord to be his servants. 151 00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:29,520 This is verse six. 152 00:23:29,520 --> 00:23:34,520 Everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane and holds fast my covenant. 153 00:23:34,520 --> 00:23:41,520 These I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. 154 00:23:41,520 --> 00:23:50,520 Their burnt offerings, their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples. 155 00:23:50,520 --> 00:23:54,520 God's holy mountain is Mount Zion, my friends. 156 00:23:54,520 --> 00:24:06,520 The foreigner that has joined themselves to God, either a non Christian or a non fill in the blank or just someone that's not a when God recognizes them, he is promising them a spot on his holy mountain. 157 00:24:06,520 --> 00:24:09,520 Who are we to get in the way? 158 00:24:09,520 --> 00:24:19,520 He recognizes their sacrifices, he recognizes their faith, and he recognizes their their yearning to be a part of his people. 159 00:24:19,520 --> 00:24:23,520 Who are we to get in the way? 160 00:24:23,520 --> 00:24:26,520 It's not only the foreigner, though. 161 00:24:26,520 --> 00:24:29,520 In verse four. 162 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:39,520 For thus says the Lord or I'm sorry at the end of verse three of the line that we didn't read and let not the eunuch say, behold, I am a dry tree. 163 00:24:39,520 --> 00:24:47,520 For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant. 164 00:24:47,520 --> 00:24:53,520 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. 165 00:24:53,520 --> 00:24:57,520 I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. 166 00:24:57,520 --> 00:25:08,520 Unix the physically maimed and it wasn't only in regards to what's special and specific to a eunuch. 167 00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:14,520 There were other physical maiming that you could experience either by choice. 168 00:25:14,520 --> 00:25:19,520 Believe it or not, the Bible references a eunuch by choice. 169 00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:29,520 I don't understand that, but a eunuch by choice or those forcefully made into a eunuch. 170 00:25:29,520 --> 00:25:45,520 Whether you are physically maimed by choice or otherwise in the Old Testament economy, you were considered ineligible, less than, not quite fully man. 171 00:25:45,520 --> 00:25:54,520 Even if it was forced upon you and you can include in these ranks, Daniel and the three Hebrews. 172 00:25:54,520 --> 00:25:59,520 The Bible tells us that they were a part of the eunuchs in Nebuchadnezzar's court. 173 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:04,520 I don't think we would look at Daniel and go, that's less of a man. 174 00:26:04,520 --> 00:26:09,520 I don't think we would look at the three Hebrews and question their faith. 175 00:26:09,520 --> 00:26:24,520 But at this time, the eunuchs, their physical, their emotional, their spiritual mutilation. 176 00:26:24,520 --> 00:26:30,520 Was counted as reason enough to cut them off from God's people. 177 00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:37,520 How do we deal with people that are physically struggling, emotionally stunted, 178 00:26:37,520 --> 00:26:46,520 psychologically confused or going through shadowy things? 179 00:26:46,520 --> 00:26:53,520 Do we unfairly and unkindly withhold participation or acknowledgement? 180 00:26:53,520 --> 00:26:56,520 Are they less than in our lives? 181 00:26:56,520 --> 00:27:04,520 Do we count them among the sons and daughters of God or yes, but only just? 182 00:27:04,520 --> 00:27:07,520 Not all the way. 183 00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:10,520 I wonder about this sometimes. 184 00:27:10,520 --> 00:27:18,520 When it comes to certain handicaps that's very personal to me, given my family dynamic 185 00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:27,520 and the exposure that I've had in my youth and my young adulthood. 186 00:27:27,520 --> 00:27:37,520 There are men and women, boys and girls who because of their maladies, often not of their own choosing, 187 00:27:37,520 --> 00:27:42,520 believe that they can't fully participate in a church service. 188 00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:51,520 I am thankful that when we put in our pews, the handicap cutouts were not all the way in the back corner. 189 00:27:51,520 --> 00:27:57,520 We put them in the middle on purpose because people who need perhaps a wheelchair spot, 190 00:27:57,520 --> 00:28:06,520 we want the idea that you're in the middle of us, you are right with us, tangible, not just words. 191 00:28:06,520 --> 00:28:08,520 We mean it. 192 00:28:08,520 --> 00:28:15,520 They are not others or less than or something where they're always up here or always back there, right there. 193 00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:21,520 We want that sense of belonging for those brothers and sisters. 194 00:28:21,520 --> 00:28:25,520 But why would the eunuch in this say, behold, I'm a dry tree? 195 00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:29,520 Well, a eunuch was not going to have any descendants. 196 00:28:29,520 --> 00:28:32,520 They were not going to have a name carried on after them. 197 00:28:32,520 --> 00:28:34,520 They were not going to have a legacy. 198 00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:39,520 They were not going to be a participant in the family tree of humanity. 199 00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:40,520 It was them. 200 00:28:40,520 --> 00:28:43,520 And that was the end of that branch. 201 00:28:43,520 --> 00:28:50,520 So when God is saying I will to the eunuchs, I will give in my house and within my walls, 202 00:28:50,520 --> 00:29:01,520 a monument and a name better than sons and daughters, he is taking the human level of status or definition of status. 203 00:29:01,520 --> 00:29:03,520 At that time, family progeny. 204 00:29:03,520 --> 00:29:09,520 He's taking the human definition of status and he's throwing it out the window and saying in me, 205 00:29:09,520 --> 00:29:15,520 I can elevate you beyond anything that human humanity offers you in me. 206 00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:18,520 You will and can have a legacy in me. 207 00:29:18,520 --> 00:29:29,520 Your name is not going to die out when you connect to me and you are a part of you are grafted into the Jesus Christ family tree. 208 00:29:29,520 --> 00:29:31,520 Your branch doesn't end with you. 209 00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:33,520 It carries on. 210 00:29:33,520 --> 00:29:37,520 I can grant you something higher and more noble. 211 00:29:37,520 --> 00:29:46,520 Do we offer that to the struggling in our society when they come through those doors 212 00:29:46,520 --> 00:29:53,520 and they want to find something bigger and better and grander and high and lifted up? 213 00:29:53,520 --> 00:30:04,520 Do we take the time to listen to them on a deeper level and introduce them to Jesus who can raise them to a higher level? 214 00:30:04,520 --> 00:30:07,520 Do we take the time to do that? 215 00:30:07,520 --> 00:30:16,520 Because I would propose to you that until we do, until we are welcoming to the foreigner and we know what I mean, 216 00:30:16,520 --> 00:30:24,520 and we're welcoming to the eunuch and we know what I mean, until we do that, this will not be a house of prayer. 217 00:30:24,520 --> 00:30:31,520 Until we do that, we cannot come into this house of prayer and be reverent. 218 00:30:31,520 --> 00:30:41,520 When Jesus is talking to the scribes and he's referencing this, he is bringing out this very point. 219 00:30:41,520 --> 00:30:50,520 The leaders, the lofty, the proud and the hypocritical thought that they understood reverence and belonging, 220 00:30:50,520 --> 00:30:57,520 and they thought that they had everything ready and really they were looking for a reason to exclude and not include. 221 00:30:57,520 --> 00:31:04,520 They thought they believed that reverence was X and Jesus is directing their mind to hear and saying, 222 00:31:04,520 --> 00:31:09,520 this is not a house of prayer until you are doing these things. 223 00:31:09,520 --> 00:31:11,520 Are you welcoming to the foreigner? 224 00:31:11,520 --> 00:31:19,520 Are you welcoming to the children who will sometimes say, praise God, a little louder than the elderly ears like? 225 00:31:19,520 --> 00:31:26,520 Are you welcoming to healing that takes place when sin-sick and broken people come here? 226 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:30,520 Or do you expect them mended out there and coming in perfect? 227 00:31:30,520 --> 00:31:33,520 That is not going to happen, my friends. 228 00:31:33,520 --> 00:31:35,520 The world cannot mend. 229 00:31:35,520 --> 00:31:40,520 Like my bandaged finger, out there it will always come up short. 230 00:31:40,520 --> 00:31:42,520 It's not a real band-aid. 231 00:31:42,520 --> 00:31:49,520 We need to be introducing people to he who can bind up the brokenhearted and heal those spiritual wounds. 232 00:31:49,520 --> 00:31:55,520 That needs to be this place if we ever want it to be a house of prayer. 233 00:31:55,520 --> 00:32:01,520 And before we continue this conversation of what is reverence in God's house of prayer, 234 00:32:01,520 --> 00:32:07,520 we need to be able to let this be God's house of prayer. 235 00:32:07,520 --> 00:32:09,520 I'd say open the doors and let the sin-sick in. 236 00:32:09,520 --> 00:32:15,520 I say open the doors and let those challenged boys and girls come in. 237 00:32:15,520 --> 00:32:23,520 Let the, and I understand what I mean by this, let the confused, let the struggling, 238 00:32:23,520 --> 00:32:33,520 let the saddened and the disheartened, let the ones who can't find a family in their own blood relatives find a family here. 239 00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:38,520 Let those who feel like they need to seek out illegal means to something, 240 00:32:38,520 --> 00:32:46,520 find a family that will pray and work and connect them to healthier resources. 241 00:32:46,520 --> 00:32:49,520 We can do that here, are we? 242 00:32:49,520 --> 00:32:52,520 I'd like to challenge us to be working towards that end. 243 00:32:52,520 --> 00:33:00,520 I'd like to challenge us to be working towards the biblical definitions of a house of prayer. 244 00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:07,520 I'd like to challenge us to welcoming the foreigner, to welcoming the eunuch. 245 00:33:07,520 --> 00:33:10,520 Because in verse eight, our scripture reading for today, 246 00:33:10,520 --> 00:33:16,520 the Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel declares, 247 00:33:16,520 --> 00:33:21,520 I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered. 248 00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:25,520 Are we declaring, come out of her, my people, 249 00:33:25,520 --> 00:33:29,520 and find your place here in the Ringled Seventh-day Adventist Church? 250 00:33:29,520 --> 00:33:34,520 We will welcome in the outcasts if you think you're an outcast somewhere else. 251 00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:36,520 We will welcome the outcasts. 252 00:33:36,520 --> 00:33:42,520 When we welcome the outcasts, we are moving in the direction of reverence towards God. 253 00:33:42,520 --> 00:33:53,520 When we welcome in the outcasts, we are recognizing the image of God imprinted on every person that walks this green earth. 254 00:33:53,520 --> 00:33:56,520 Coming back to the Statue of Liberty, 255 00:33:56,520 --> 00:34:01,520 it was not originally intended to be a symbol of welcome and liberty to immigrants. 256 00:34:01,520 --> 00:34:03,520 It was a gift. 257 00:34:03,520 --> 00:34:10,520 Just a fun fact, the thickness of the copper is, hold on, I know what to relate it to, 258 00:34:10,520 --> 00:34:15,520 the thickness of the copper is three thirty seconds of an inch. 259 00:34:15,520 --> 00:34:17,520 That's the thickness of the copper. 260 00:34:17,520 --> 00:34:21,520 Just so you know that it's two pennies thick. 261 00:34:21,520 --> 00:34:25,520 You can take two pennies, pinch them together, that's how thick the copper is. 262 00:34:25,520 --> 00:34:30,520 This statue was not originally that, it was a gift. 263 00:34:30,520 --> 00:34:36,520 It has now become a symbol of hope and welcome. 264 00:34:36,520 --> 00:34:42,520 A significant and notable help to the statue's identity and fame is a well-known poem 265 00:34:42,520 --> 00:34:46,520 that is now permanently featured on the island. 266 00:34:46,520 --> 00:34:51,520 And you're going to recognize at least the last portion of this poem. 267 00:34:51,520 --> 00:34:56,520 The New Colossus is a sonnet by American poet Emma Lazarus. 268 00:34:56,520 --> 00:35:03,520 She wrote the poem in 1883 to raise money for the construction of a pedestal for the Statue of Liberty. 269 00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:08,520 In 1903 the poem was cast onto a bronze plaque and mounted inside the pedestal's lower level. 270 00:35:08,520 --> 00:35:10,520 Here's the poem. 271 00:35:10,520 --> 00:35:11,520 Here's the poem. 272 00:35:11,520 --> 00:35:16,520 Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, that's the Old Colossus, 273 00:35:16,520 --> 00:35:20,520 with conquering limbs astride from land to land, 274 00:35:20,520 --> 00:35:26,520 here at our sea-washed sunset gates shall stand a mighty woman with a torch, 275 00:35:26,520 --> 00:35:32,520 whose flame is the imprisoned lightning, and her name, Mother of Exiles. 276 00:35:32,520 --> 00:35:38,520 Her beacon hand glows worldwide welcome, her mild eyes command, 277 00:35:38,520 --> 00:35:42,520 the air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame. 278 00:35:42,520 --> 00:35:49,520 Keep ancient lands your storied pomp, cries she, with silent lips. 279 00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:56,520 Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, 280 00:35:56,520 --> 00:36:00,520 the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. 281 00:36:00,520 --> 00:36:04,520 Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me. 282 00:36:04,520 --> 00:36:09,520 I lift my lamp beside the golden door. 283 00:36:09,520 --> 00:36:15,520 And I get that this is a plaque on a statue in a bay of a Greek goddess. 284 00:36:15,520 --> 00:36:19,520 I get that. 285 00:36:19,520 --> 00:36:22,520 I also don't know why God's people can't say, 286 00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:31,520 give me your tired, give me your poor, give me your sin-sick, give me your confused, 287 00:36:31,520 --> 00:36:35,520 give me your rejected, give me your outcast world. 288 00:36:35,520 --> 00:36:40,520 We will take them in, and we will lead them to Jesus Christ. 289 00:36:40,520 --> 00:36:49,520 And in so doing, in so doing, we will make this a house of prayer, 290 00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:52,520 and we will be reverent before the God of heaven. 291 00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:54,520 Let us pray. 292 00:36:54,520 --> 00:36:57,520 Heavenly Father, I want to thank you for your word. 293 00:36:57,520 --> 00:37:00,520 I want to thank you for your instruction and guidance. 294 00:37:00,520 --> 00:37:06,520 Lord, I pray that we not only become more intelligent by studying it, 295 00:37:06,520 --> 00:37:11,520 but I pray that you imprint it on our hearts and let it affect our outlook towards others. 296 00:37:11,520 --> 00:37:16,520 I pray that you would move among your people and that we might have eyes like Jesus, 297 00:37:16,520 --> 00:37:21,520 a heart like Jesus, and that we might make efforts towards others like Jesus, 298 00:37:21,520 --> 00:37:24,520 for he first made that effort towards us. 299 00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:26,520 And who are we? 300 00:37:26,520 --> 00:37:29,520 Lord, we thank you that you call us your sons and daughters, 301 00:37:29,520 --> 00:37:33,520 and I pray that we would serve others as you have served us. 302 00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:47,520 This we pray in Jesus' name, Amen.