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Bobby Stafford |
Prejudice
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Christian Living |
April 29, 2012 |
Sunday PM Sermon |
Prejudice
Introduction:
Prejudice is discrimination or persecution against a certain group
or class of people. Throughout history, many groups have been the
victims of prejudice. Several famous American documents address
this issue.
-
Declaration of
Independence
When in the
Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another
and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal
station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. We
hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal.
-
Preamble to the
Constitution
We the People of
the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish
Justice, Insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common
defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of
Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this
Constitution for the United States of America.
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Gettysburg Address
Four score and
seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new
nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that
all men are created equal.
In
the past 150 years many groups and peoples have been persecuted due
to a variety of prejudices.
1. Slavery in America
2. Darwin’s theory of
evolution
The full title of
his famous work: “The Origin of Species by Means
of Natural
Selection, or, The Preservation of Favoured Races in the
Struggle for Life”
3. Adolf Hitler killed
vast numbers of people who he believed were of
inferior races,
Jews, Slavs, Poles. This was his attempt to cleanse
the blond-haired
Aryan race of inferior “genetic traits.”
Body:
I. Prejudice Among
the Jews
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The Jews of the
Bible times showed strong racial prejudice. The Gentiles were
an abomination to them. They hated everyone but other Jews.
When a Jew came from the marketplace, he cleansed himself just
in case he had touched elbows with a Gentile.
-
No Old Testament
legislation forbade Jews from having normal social contact with
Gentiles. These regulations were made by the rabbis and became
tradition. See
John 4:7-9
II. Prejudice in
the Early Church
-
The apostles and
earliest members of the church were all Jews. They were raised
with this prejudice. For almost ten years after Pentecost, the
gospel was preached primarily to the Jews only. This changed
when Peter had his vision. (Acts
10:9-15, 34-35)
-
This began a great
evangelistic work among the Gentiles. (Acts
11:1, 18, 20)
-
Thought: What
would have been in your sheet? This is the sheet of prejudice
and is full of all that you despise. Would it hold people with
different political and social views; different educational
backgrounds; different occupations; different socioeconomic
status?
III. New Testament
Teaching about Prejudice
-
All races, colors,
and languages are the same in God’s eyes. (Galatians
3:28,
Colossians
3:11)
-
James 2:1-10
Faith in the Lord Jesus and showing favoritism are not
compatible.
Conclusion:
The cross of Christ was designed to break down racial barriers. (Ephesians
2:14-18)
Bobby Stafford
April 29, 2012
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