That gets me excited. I just want to jump right into the assignment that I have today. I'm so grateful for the prayers of a godly woman that would give me the strength to do what I feel like God's given me today. We are in a series called We Make Dreams Come True. If this is your first time joining us, last week, I did a message where I spoke and gave the entirety of Dr. Martin Luther King's, I Have a Dream speech, followed up by Embassy City's declaration that we make God's dreams come true. I'm in a series for the rest of this month called We Make Dreams Come True. If you're taking notes, the title of today's message is if I see something, I say something.

I'm going to say that again. If I see something, I say something. That's the title of this message. I want to give you the scriptural context that I'll be teaching from. It's found in Galatians 2. Galatians 2 starting at the 11th verse. Here is what it says. "But when Peter came to Antioch,--" Now, whenever there's a sentence that starts with but, you're probably thinking to yourself, "What was going on before the but? What was happening before this but arises?" Paul had gone back to Jerusalem. He had been with the Apostles in Jerusalem, and he was making sure that the gospel that he was preaching to the Gentiles wasn't opposed by the Jewish leaders in Jerusalem.

The gospel was received. The gospel was approved that Paul was preaching to the Gentiles. As he is describing this to the Galatians that he is writing to, he says this, "When Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face," that sounds strong doesn't it? "I had to oppose him to his face for what he did was very wrong." When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers who were not circumcised. Afterwards, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn't eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism. From these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision, not Peter ya'll. Not Peter. Peter though, Peter did this? Bold Peter, preach the first sermon, 3,000 people got saved Peter, cut off a man's ear Peter, not that Peter, being shaken by peer pressure. Interesting.

As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter's hypocrisy. Even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. Not Barnabas ya'll. Son of encouragement Barnabas, are you serious?When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, "Says you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile. Why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions? You and I are Jews by birth, not sinners like the Gentiles." Yet, we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law.

We have believed in Jesus Christ, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law. Again, if you're taking notes on this message, if I see something, I say something. I travel a lot. Since corona has hit, my travel has been limited to just the car, I haven't jumped on a plane yet. That ends soon, actually. Before, I used to travel a lot, and I would see these posters throughout the airports, in these international terminals that said if you see something, say something. If you see signs that someone might be in trouble, say something.

It was a campaign and an advertisement that was attempting to make people bolder about speaking up when they saw things that they thought were wrong. Sex trafficking and human trafficking had become such an international widespread problem that they wanted to make sure that they had the type of information up that gave regular people permission to speak up when they thought that there was something suspicious going on. It gave regular people permission to speak up when they thought something wrong was going on. They had deemed that the crisis of human trafficking have become so large that they could no longer try to keep the mainstream public out of the conversation.

They were literally soliciting unashamedly and unabashedly regular human beings, not people in places of authority, just the average person. If you see something, will you please say something? I submit to you ladies and gentlemen fellow ambassadors of the faith that with the smoke billowing around us in the nation right now as it relates to racism, and the flames of injustice so hot around us that it will literally singe your arm hair. If we're seeing some things, it's time that we say something about those things. I wanted you to have a scriptural context to understand that there was absolutely nothing new under the sun.

There is absolutely nothing new that is going on in the world right now that we cannot find a context to in Scripture. I want to take you out for a moment of the discussion of racial injustice in America. I want to take you out for a moment of discussion of police brutality in America. I want to take you out for a moment of the discussion as it relates to systemic racism in America. I'll take you through some Scripture. I want to take you out of the headlines for a moment and take you to the verses that we have in Scripture that talk about injustice. The book of Galatians Paul writes to those that are living in the territory of Galatia.

He writes this letter to believers in Galatia about how they should be living their life as believers in Galatia. Paul understood that based on where the believers in Jesus Christ were living, based on the territory that they found themselves in, whether it be the letters that he wrote to those that lived in Galatia or the letters that he wrote to those that were in Corinth, a letter that he might have written to those that were in Philippi, those that he ministered to in Colossae. Wherever they found themselves geographically and regionally, they were being presented with unique obstacles based on where they were living.

He writes to the Galatians. He says, "Hey, I want to tell you that there's a lot of people in my Jewish community right now, that are giving a very hard time to the Gentile believers in Jesus Christ. There are a lot of people in the Jewish community right now that are looking down on the Gentile believers in Jesus Christ to the point that they're actually starting to alienate them from the larger body that Christ died for. I'm seeing this hypocrisy, and I'm seeing this issue that's rising up. Because I see something, I have to say something. I can't stay silent on this subject. I'm looking at it. I'm observing it, and I realized that it's starting to put a group of people in a very bad position to not have somebody speak up on their behalf.

Just so you have context to what precipitated this confrontation between Paul and Peter. The Jewish people who were first given the faith through Abraham in Genesis 12. Had been told that they have been set aside for a covenant relationship with God. What made their covenant relationship what it was, is the oath and the promise that God gave to Abraham. What makes a person Jewish is the covenant that God made with their ancestor, Abraham. I want you to understand this for a moment. I think the history is important to understand that Abraham was a Gentile just like everybody else until he comes into a covenant relationship with God, and by choosing God and opposing idolatry, by having a singular fidelity to God as creator and as father of his faith.

A people come out of him that are unique from anybody else in the rest of the world. So much so that when Jesus came to redeem the entire world, he was assigned to the ones that God chose first. Centuries after this covenant, that Abraham would go into, down through 42 generations from David to the Messiah, Jesus, you have this connection that Jesus has as a Jewish man, to the Jewish people. He came to his own and his own received Him not. We find out in Acts 2, that when the baptism of the Holy Spirit came down, it came down on Jews first. I want to make sure that you understand this, Jews were not racists. against Gentiles. Jews were not struggling with racism against somebody that wasn't Jewish.

By the covenant that they made with God, they were separate from any other nationality in the entire world. It wasn't until Acts 10 when God gives Peter a vision to go to Cornelius' house who was a Gentile. The Jews had no idea that the fuller plan of Christ's death on the cross meant that Gentiles would be accepted as much as Jewish people. It wasn't that they were racist against Gentiles. They just didn't have a full revelation of what God wanted to do. The instructions of Jesus was from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, all Jewish territories, to the uttermost parts of the earth. They understood Jerusalem. They understood Judea. They understood Samaria, but they had not grasp what God meant by to the other parts of the earth.

In Acts 10, Peter goes to Cornelius' house, and as he is preaching the gospel message, the Holy Spirit falls on the Gentile people in the same way it fell on the Jewish people in Acts 2. You have to go back and read it. The Jews are astonished at this. They're like, "Oh my God. Yo. I think that God was really serious about this whole pour out my spirit upon all flesh thing because they have received the Holy Spirit in the same way that we have. They have received the power of the Holy Spirit in the same way that we receive it on Pentecost." What does this mean? This means that this family that we have just got bigger, this means that this faith that we have just got bigger.

Now, it wasn't just Jews. It was Jews and Gentiles. Paul would go on to write, and I'll cover this in a couple of weeks, that in Christ's broken body on the cross, He took Jews and Gentiles, not black and white, not Hispanic and Asian, not Russian and Bohemian, not Jamaican and Korean, He took Jews and Gentiles. Why? Because from heaven's perspective, all God has ever seen is those that I have a covenant with and everybody else. Those that I made my covenant with and everybody else. What makes me a Gentile? The fact that you're not a Jew? "I come from a Bible-believing family, and I'm part of God's promise." Yes, you are, but you've been ingrafted in.

If you cannot trace your bloodline back to Abraham, you a Gentile. He took Jews and Gentiles and in one body made a new group of people. Now, isn't that amazing? That from heaven's perspective, it's Jew and Gentile, from America's perspective, it's black and white, it's Hispanic and Asian. It's not, you're an American. You are Afro-American. You are a Russian-American. You are Caribbean-- How can we mess this up so much? Maybe it's because, as believers, when we have the improper context of God's ultimate goal, perhaps it's because we've been more influenced by America's narrative than we have the kingdom's narrative. I want to take my time and explain to you why when we see something, we have to say something.

Paul knew that Peter was sent to Cornelius' house. Paul knew that Peter's revelation had changed him from the inside out. God gave Peter a vision, and in this vision there was an open blanket with all this food that wouldn't be considered kosher, all this food that Jews were forbidden to eat. Peter said, "I cannot eat this." God said, "Do not call unclean what I have called clean." Then in an unprecedented move, Peter goes to Cornelius' house, a Gentile man, and his whole family gets saved. You know what Peter does after that? Wow, this is amazing. The family just got bigger. I'm going to hang out with these Gentiles for a little bit. Peter started hanging with the Gentiles. Peter started eating the food that was non-kosher with the Gentiles.

He was like, "Yo." Now, I don't know exactly what he was eating. I'm not going to try to embellish the text and say that he started eating some bacon, but I'm just saying. What I do know is he got comfortable understanding that, "Wow, God loves the Gentiles as much as he loves his chosen people, the Jews, and we need to hang out together more often. I love the fact that that I'm being exposed to another culture. I love the fact that I'm being exposed to some things that I didn't know just in my Jewish bubble." Peter was cool to hang out with the Gentiles, until some other Jews showed up.

Peter was cool to hang out with the Gentiles until some other Jewish people showed up who were like, "Why are you hanging with them? Peter, I don't understand why you're hanging with them. I don't understand why you're eating with them. They're not worshiping God in the exact same way we do. They're not holding on to the law in the exact same way we do. They haven't been circumcised like we have." Peter, who at first came back with this wonderful testimony that, "The Gentiles have been filled with the Holy Spirit, speaking in unknown tongues just like us." He was so excited about it.

The first set of Jews that opposed him, he spoke boldly and defended the Gentiles in the face of those Jewish people, and said, "Hey, listen, I don't care what you say. You're trying to oppose me, but I'm telling you right now, I know what I saw. The Holy Spirit has come into them in the same way He has come into us. I will not be moved off of what I saw. I'm defending my Gentile believers." He started off that way. He started off saying that, "It's wrong for there to be a division between us." He started off that way. He did a sermon to say, "Hey, it's not right what we're doing here." After a while, the peer pressure of people that looked like him, that were raised like him, that shared the same traditions as him, obviously started to wear him down.

Peter, instead of been a vocal supporter of the Gentiles, became a closet supporter of the Gentile believers. "I love you guys, but when I'm around my own, I'm going to have to just-- I really love you guys. I know it's wrong, what they're doing. You’re my people because God made you my people, but they're my people too. I just don't want to be caught in the middle, and this is uncomfortable. If I hang out with you, they get mad at me. If I'm over here with you, you get mad at me." Then he came to Antioch. Peter had kept his behavior up, but there was no one from his Jewish community that spoke against him. See, what’s interesting to me is that we all want to be publicly correct and politically correct when we are out amongst the people.

We're watching what we say and how we say it, because we don't want to be perceived in the wrong way. When we're in our private times with our families and our friends, we can relax. Our lips can get loose and we could start saying things about other ethnicities and other people groups that we would never say in public, but we feel comfortable enough to say it in private. The issue here is that Peter had no one to check him from his own community. He had no one that looked like him, that shared the same experience as him to speak up to him and tell him where he was wrong. Peter, as a Jew, did not have another Jew to speak to him about the hypocrisy that he had fallen into. Thank God for Paul. Oh, I love Paul. 

Don't ya'll love Paul? Paul, the same Paul that wanted to persecute Christians and have them murdered, I love that Paul. The same Paul that was so zealous after the law that he didn't want to hear the name Jesus or deal with anybody that was a follower of the way. Don't you love that Paul? The same Paul who held the coats of the elders as they stoned Stephen for simply believing different than them. Don't you love that Paul? Oh, no, we can't love that Paul. I know that he's a believer now, but did you check his criminal record? I know that he's a believer in Jesus now, but do you know what he did in his past? I know that he loves God now, but did you hear about him holding the coats of the elders that they stoned Stephen?

Isn't it amazing that right now, instead of focusing on the hatred that fueled the death of George Floyd, that we'd rather bring up the past of George Floyd as if his past had anything to do with his death. We don't do that with Peter. We don't do that with Moses. Moses, the murderer. He murdered somebody. We don't do that with Abraham. You know Abraham, the liar. We don't do that with King David. We don't do that with King David. You know King David, the adulterer, that had one of his best friends killed. We don't do that with you. We don't bring up your past. We don't bring up how sexually promiscuous you were in high school.

We don't bring up how much weed you used to smoke, how many lines of coke you used to use. We don't talk about the lies that you told to get to where you were in corporate America. We don't talk about the taxes you evaded. We don't talk about the adultery that no one caught on camera. We don't talk about the theft that no one saw in public. We don't do that with you. It's amazing that when we're trying to address hypocrisy, we want to deflect the narrative. I'm here to tell you today, when I see something, I say something. Paul saw Peter's hypocrisy. I love what the Scripture says. It says, "Yes--" He's writing this in the Letter, ya'll. He's literally writing this in Letters, so that we could all see it.

He's like, "When I saw Peter, I opposed him to his face in front of everybody. I didn't pull him to the side. Hey, dear brother in the Lord I want to bring you to the side because I don't want--" He checked him publicly. Why? His hypocrisy, it was public. Here's what you got to understand, Peter had such an influence in the early church that his hypocrisy was rubbing off on other people. Barnabas was starting to act like Peter. Other Jewish believers were starting to act like Peter. You don't understand, when we allow hypocrisy to stand in our church, it begins to start influencing the church from the inside out. This is why we call out sin. It's why we have to call a spade a spade when we see it. Why? Because if we let it rest and if it goes unchecked, it starts to influence others around us.

Paul said, "I had to oppose Peter to his face because what he was doing was wrong. He was eating with the Gentile believers until the Jews showed up. When those Judaizers showed up, he jumped up off the table. "Hey, are you doing? No I wasn't with him. I don't even know--" Paul decided to use his Jewish privilege to make sure that Gentile believers were going to have the same access as the Jews. Paul decided to use his Jewish influence to make sure Gentiles would be received just like the Jews. Paul decided to use his voice publicly to ensure that the Gentiles would have the same equality as the Jews. The same man that would go on to write that there is no Jew or Gentile.

That's equality right there. That's justice right there. Because when he saw something, he said something. I want to give you the three things that would have happened if Paul didn't say something. This is a two-part sermon. I'm going to do the rest of it next week, but I want to leave you today with the three things that would have happened if Paul doesn't confront Peter. I want to leave you with the three things that would have happened if Paul would have let Peter go unchecked. Point number one, please write this down. If Paul doesn't confront Peter, division happens. Write it down. If Paul doesn't confront Peter, division happens.

Division between the Jews and the Gentiles would have happened if Paul did not confront Peter. What he saw would have gotten worse. It wouldn't have just been Peter. He already started to rub off on Barnabas. Then it would have rubbed off on Barnabas and maybe he would have hit Apollos. Before you know it, you have this toxicity that would have been in the church that caused division between the Jews and the Gentiles, a division that Christ came to eradicate. If Paul doesn't confront Peter, division happens. Now, let me tell you something. I got two kids, and they both came out of the same womb, but sometimes they fight. They have never met each other in their life.

They sleep in the same room. They do the same curriculum. They're both homeschooling. They ain't got nowhere to go. They're the only real friend each other has. Sometimes they are disrespectful to each other. They talk a little reckless to each other. When I see something, and most of the time, hear something, I have to say something. I have to continue to bring them back together, so that there won't be division between them. It's amazing what happens when they bicker a little bit too loud, when they hear the voice of their father and they have to come in the same room in the presence of their father, they realize that they're brothers again. I'm going to let that marinate real quick.

In the presence of their father, they realize they're related again. Could it be the reason why there's so much segregation in America's churches is because no one's been in the presence of their father for a long time. I'm not saying you're not in the house. I'm saying you're not in the same room as your father. If you, as a white man, can't see me as a black man as your brother. I'm not saying you're not in the same house, I'm saying that we're not in the same room. If you, as a black man, hate white people. I'm not saying you're not in the house, I'm saying you're not in the same room. If you hold any prejudice, any discrimination, any hatred, it's because you haven't been in the presence of your daddy for a very long time.

Point number two. If Paul doesn't confront Peter, discrimination happens. Division always precedes discrimination. I'm going to say it again. Division always precedes discrimination. You have to separate people groups before you can start discriminating against people groups. You have to make sure that there's a wedge between them and then discrimination becomes easy because we can make up our own narrative. You can only hate from far away. It's hard to hate somebody up close. It usually takes a separation between them. Where there is division there is sure to be discrimination. If Paul doesn't check Peter, there would have been discrimination from Jews to Gentiles.

"We're better than them. We were the first ones to have the covenant. We're God's chosen people. They're in, but they're kind of second class citizens. They're in, but they're kind of three fits of a person. They're in, but the field kind of out because we were here first and we've been here so long that by the time you showed up, we just can't give you the same exact privilege that we've been enjoying for centuries. You're going to have to get at the end of the line and work your way up to what we've been enjoying for centuries." That's not Jesus' way. The first shall be last, and the last shall be first. If Paul doesn't check Peter discrimination happens. and there would be all of this talk about who is and who is not.

I want you to see how masterful the enemy is with his strategies when it comes to division, we can't even get the body of Christ to fully be the body of Christ because some people, Jesus only, in some people, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Some people believe in speaking in tongues, and some people don't believe in speaking in tongues. Some people believe in a word of prophecy, and some people think that there hasn't been a prophetic word since the Book of Acts. Some people baptize in Jesus' name, other people baptize in the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit. "I don't know if I can hang with you. You are Southern Baptists, you're deep in the South Baptist. You are Church of God in Christ. You are a Church of God and Prophecy. You are too COGIC. You are not COGIC enough, you are Assemblies of God. You are the assembly of the odd."

We start discriminating all for how we like to eat our food. "I can't believe you put salt on that piece of fish. I can't believe you like your fish blackened. I can't believe you squeeze lemon on salmon." I want you to think about how ridiculous the majority of the arguments in the body of Christ are. I'm not even talking about America right now. We can't get it together. Somebody asked me, "Hey, what's your criteria for a believer in Jesus?" "If they confess with their mouth that Jesus is Lord. If they believe in their heart that Jesus is Lord confess with their mouth that God raised Him from the dead, they're safe because according to Scripture, no man can say that Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Spirit.

All the rest of the stuff, I may agree with you, I may not. You in the family. Hello, brother. Hello, sister. Hello, brother. Hello, sister.

Point number three. If Paul doesn't confront Peter domination happens. Going slow on these today, I told you they're was super practical. I want you to have a context for what, we as a church, have been assigned to do. If Paul doesn't confront Peter, division happens. That's the first thing, the enemy comes in to divide because he knows a house divided against itself cannot stand. That's his first thing to do. Division happens first. Once you have people on the opposite side, it's easy to discriminate. Discrimination happens all over the place for reasons that boggle my mind. Then it's easy for number three to happen, domination. If Paul doesn't confront Peter, domination happens.

It would have been from the Jews against and over the Gentiles. They would've saw themselves as this powerful majority. Then literally, through domination, completely squashed the rights that Gentiles had to the covenant that was given to the Jews. Paul said, "I can't go out like that. I'm seeing something right now that's not right. I'm going to say something right now," and he said it publicly. Now, against that backdrop, let me say that the season that we're in now in America has caused a lot of people to speak up. A lot of people are speaking up on a lot of things. I'm grateful that the conversations are happening, but I'm talking to believers in Jesus Christ right now, not Americans of this country.

Believers of Jesus Christ that know that heaven is their home. Racism in America is real. Injustice in this country is real. While the focus right now is on police brutality and racism against black people, I need you to understand that that spirit is against all people. What I'm telling you today is that if we don't have heaven's perspective on the events that are going on in America, you will get trapped in an American cultural narrative that the Kkngdom not even trying to get rid of right now. I'm trying to talk to believers, blood wash believers in Jesus Christ of Nazareth, I had to call him by his name and his address, that we have a biblical obligation to speak on what we see.

We have a biblical mandate that if we see something, we have to say something. Because if we don't say it, no one will have the proper context to it. If we don't say it, no one will have scripture for it. If we don't say it, no one will see the light of Jesus Christ, and there will be division. There will be discrimination, and there will be domination. I speak as a lead pastor of Embassy City Church to every pastor in America knowing that you ain't going to all watch this. I'm still saying it publicly in the same way Paul would. I'm seeing some hypocrisy, so I'm saying something. You cannot be silent on this issue. You cannot act like this is not going on. You cannot against the backdrop of our cultural perspective try to talk about something that has nothing to do with this subject.

If you're intimidated because you don't know what to say, ask somebody, call me, I'll give you the context you need to have. I'm not just talking to white people. I'm talking to black people too. I'm talking to Hispanics, I'm talking to Asians, I'm talking to whoever you are. I'm seeing something right now. That we think that are 75 to 90 minutes in service is the same experience that people are having in America after service. I'm talking to people that think diversity is enough to have it on your worship team, but not in your executive team. I'm talking to people that only phone a friend when there's a fire, but you've never had that same person over for dinner.

I'm seeing something, so I'm saying something. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that eleven o'clock is the most segregated hour in America. That tells me one thing, there are more American churches, and there are kingdom churches. For our places and houses of worship to still be as segregated as they are in 2020, it's because you refuse to talk about this topic when your other Jewish friends come in the house. I'm seeing something, so I'm saying something. I love you. I know that together, we can literally rid racism from our congregations and our pews, but not without us listening, learning, and speaking up loudly. If this trend continues, there will be more division, more discrimination, and more domination of an American secular thought process than there is a kingdom thought process.

I'll end with this, I do not have more allegiance to America than I have the kingdom of heaven. America's a great country, but I fear that many of us have made an idol out of patriotism and nationalism. You care more about that flag than you do your faith. I see it so I said it. I said what I said the way I said, because the Bible said. Would you bow your heads and close your eyes? I wonder what the Holy Spirit is saying to you through this message? I hope and I pray that my tone, my boldness, and my force has not offended you. If it has, this would be a great opportunity not to think about how you're going to respond to what I've said, but how you will respond to what He said.

I am not angry, but I am frustrated. America has issues that America needs to solve, and it won't be done in the next week, next month, the next decade, unfortunately. The church of Jesus Christ, when we see stuff, we say stuff. We will not be silent on racism, not in America but in our pews. We will not be silent on injustice and inequality. not in America but in our houses of worship. Until there is no Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, when I see it and God gives me a burden, I'm going to say it. I believe that there are some people in this room that the Holy Spirit is dealing with right now.

No matter what you've been taking in the last two or three months, I want the presence of the Holy spirit to calibrate your thinking, so that you don't run out with America's narrative, but you run out with the kingdom's narrative. You may be watching, and you've never given your life to Jesus Christ. Perhaps, as an unbeliever, you thought that we were hypocrites. You had seen so much difference between what we've said and what we've done that you said, "Oh, they're not about nothing." I just want to tell you, I'm sorry, if you've seen some inconsistencies. The church is not perfect but Jesus is. As the Holy Spirit deals with our hearts, we are open to allowing Him to correct this.

If he's given you a revelation of Jesus and you understand now in a way that you never understood before that Jesus Christ is Lord, and God raised him from the dead. Then if you confess that with your mouth and believe it in your heart, you're saved right now. You're in a family, you're in a fraternity and a sorority that is the best in the entire world. Welcome home. For the rest of my faith-filled friends, the ambassadors of Embassy City near and abroad, we're seeing some stuff, so we're saying some. A lot of the stuff that we have to deal with over the next few weeks, opening up Scripture is going to be heavy.

I just want you to hang in there because God's trying to get to the root of some of these things. I believe that if he gets to the root of it, our lives will forever be changed. Holy Spirit, I thank You for drawing every person that did didn't have relationship with You before to have a relationship with You now. Thank You for bringing those that were far, close. God I pray for those that were already close to get closer. Take hatred out of our heart. Take prejudice out of our heart. Take racism out of our heart. Take bigotry out of our heart. Take discrimination out of our heart.

The need to dominate may it leave our hearts, anything that would cause division between me and my brothers and sisters. Save the unsaved, take it out of my heart. May we be the image-bearers of Christ's likeness in the earth until the whole world is upset with the message, love, and hope of Jesus.