The Rainbow Community

[0:00] Welcome. Thank you for choosing to listen to another word-filled message by David Entry. Preaching is the means by which God manifests His Word and nourishes our spirits.

[0:12] May the life of God enter into you and you as you listen to this message. Be blessed. Praise God. Shout and believe in Hallelujah. I want to straight away go into the Word of God.

[0:26] Luke chapter 2. Interesting. Very powerful. And it's the early part of Luke chapter 2 is the most famous, as you say, story about Jesus in the world.

[0:42] Which is usually called the Nativity. I am inclined to give a title to tonight's message. Really, I want to focus on peace, but I am inclined to title it the Rainbow Culture.

[1:00] Rainbow. The Rainbow Community. The Rainbow Culture. Do you want me to tell you about the Rainbow Culture? Let's get into the text. In the book of Luke chapter 2, the Bible tells us about how there was a decree that everybody should go to his hometown.

[1:25] His place of birth to be for censorship, so to be numbered. And Joseph had to go because Joseph comes from the city of David.

[1:36] He is from the tribe of David. So he had to go to Bethlehem and he had to go with his betrothed wife. The Bible says she was heavy with child.

[1:48] Wow, that's a very nice King James English. Because she was heavy with child. So she was great with child. Yeah, she was great with child.

[1:59] They weren't even. And then in those days, she was in labor and she gave birth. And when she gave birth, she brought forth a man-child. And it's very interesting that the Bible didn't take too much.

[2:12] She brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in a swaddling cloth and laid him in a manger. Because there was no room in the inn for them.

[2:23] For them in the inn. So look at the next verse. That's very interesting contracts. Nothing was said so much about the labor was not dramatized at all.

[2:39] She was, look at verse 7 again. She brought forth the son. That's it too. She was, verse 6, look at verse 6. While they were there, the days were accomplished that she, so she was in labor.

[2:56] And she brought forth a son. They didn't tell us much about, Bible, they didn't say about the complications or what, how things went. No, no, no. She just was in labor and she brought forth a child.

[3:06] And then they left the story there. And then they took us to something very important. The Bible took us to something very important. Jesus has been born.

[3:17] The God man has arrived. Now, let's get on with business. That's very important. So the Bible says that whilst, and they were in the same country, shepherds abided in the fields, keeping over their flock by night.

[3:33] And see what? So you have to introduce who we are talking about. And the angel of the Lord came upon them. And the glory of the Lord shone around them, ran upon them.

[3:46] And they were so afraid. I'm terribly afraid. Because what is this? They've never seen anything like that before. And the angel said, don't be afraid. Don't fear. Don't fear. Why shouldn't you fear? For behold, I'm not coming to trouble you.

[3:57] Actually, he said, I bring. Fear not. Fear not. For behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy. I bring you good tidings.

[4:08] There's so much packed in from verse 1 to 10. But I just want to pull out something from it for you to know God is on your side. And the angels came.

[4:20] So you're talking about when we read in chapter 1, these two wonderful women, they all focused on both the godness of the son that was about to be born and the sonness of this God who is coming into us.

[4:37] So the humanness. So the humanness of God and the godness in one person. It's not like he was when Jesus was born. He wasn't like, you know, God the father, God the son, God the Holy Spirit.

[4:50] So God the son came. So 33.33% of God has come. No, no, no, no. No. He's the entirety of God who was rapt.

[5:01] That's very interesting. That's what makes it a mystery. Okay. That's what makes the Christian message a mystery, yet a good news. And God kept head, hit this mystery in himself from the foundation of the earth.

[5:12] According to Romans chapter 16 from verse 25 and 26, God hid it inside him. In Ephesians chapter 3, verse 5, 6, 7, the Bible says God hid it. So this is a mystery.

[5:24] Great is the mystery of godliness. In Ephesians chapter 3, verse 16, it says that without all controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. God himself, he chose to be like in the flesh.

[5:37] God was manifested in the flesh. God was justified in the flesh. Sin of angels preached unto the Gentiles. So back to Luke. It says that, and as I was saying, chapter 1, these two women focus on his humanity and his deity.

[5:54] They were only people who could tell he's the son of God and he's the son of man. Elizabeth said, whoa, the mother of my Lord. Oh, so human, that's a human being. He's going to give birth to another human being, yet he's your Lord.

[6:05] Yeah, it takes a certain insight. And Mary says that, I am blessed amongst women. All right. And then it says that for God, my savior should do this for me.

[6:21] All right. So he was carrying God, his savior. Jesus Christ is the savior. And at the same time, he was God. So these two women. And then we see how the God was born. What shows that is God.

[6:32] Because angels had to come down and make the announcement themselves. So God had been born amongst man, human, fully human, 100% human and 100% God. Wow.

[6:43] That's beautiful. So God was born amongst men. And then once he was born, he lived a human life. There are angels going to announce that an angel appeared to the shepherd's vest.

[6:54] And then, while shepherds were keeping their flocks, an angel of the Lord says, fear not. I bring you good tidings of great joy. We shall be to not the Jews. It shall be to all people.

[7:06] Somebody say all people. I bring you good tidings of great joy. We shall be to all people. So the angel came and made the announcement and said, what I have brought to you, it's changing.

[7:20] It affects all human beings. Every human being benefits from it. So I bring you good tidings of great joy. We shall be to all people.

[7:31] All of us. Everyone on earth. It's great. It shall be to all people. It's good news to all people. Are all people going to access that good news?

[7:41] It's subject to faith. It's subject to belief. All right. Now, verse 11. Born to you is born this day in the city of David a savior.

[7:53] Ah! See, that thing has appeared again. A savior has been born. Really? A savior? See what Mary said. The angel repeated.

[8:05] A savior has been born in the city of David. And this savior is Christ. He is the Lord. It's always talking about the humanity. And the divinity of Christ.

[8:16] He's so God and yet man. That is what confuses other religions. It confuses and it infuriates the devil. Satan hates it. When you say Jesus is God.

[8:27] And Jesus is man. And the Jews actually killed him. Because they said he being man makes himself equal with God. So, they crucified him for what he said about himself.

[8:42] That he was God. Anyway. So, the angel says. This is good news for all men. For in the city of David is born unto you a savior.

[8:56] Then look at the next verse. Verse 12. Verse 12. And he said. I showed them that when you go. Maybe there may be other children born. But this will be the sign. So, you don't miss. You don't miss him.

[9:08] God doesn't want you to miss Christ. Let's quickly go on. I want to show you something. You don't miss him. And then he said. Verse 13 please. And verse 13 says that.

[9:18] And suddenly. This is where the message is. Two points I want to make. Suddenly. There was with the angels. A multitude of heavenly who's singing.

[9:31] Sorry. Praising God. And saying. Okay. So, what they were saying. What. It's so significant. So, suddenly. Many angels. The choir of heaven came.

[9:44] Started singing. The only human beings. The only human being. Who was born. And angels had to come and sing. They came and partied. Because this is the day the Lord has made.

[9:56] Since that time. Every time you access Christ. In the. With faith. You provoke heavenly excitement. Because that's why he was born.

[10:09] And that. Their content. The lyrics of their song. Will tell you a lot about why they were singing. They were singing because. Glory to God. Oh. Thank you Lord.

[10:20] Glory to God in the highest. But not only God. So, this thing is about God and man. This thing is about God and man. Not only God. But man as well.

[10:31] Not only man. But God as well. So, he said. Glory to God in the highest. But not just in the highest. And on earth. Peace. Someone shall peace. Now, this is where I want to focus a little bit.

[10:44] On earth peace. Glory. Glory. Jesus came. And he was the expression of God's glory. Bible says Christ in you. The hope of glory.

[10:55] Christ. Every glory that we will see from God. You know. How I was teaching the other time. And the Bible says that. Galatians 1. 24. It says. They glorified Christ in me. Or they glorified God in me.

[11:06] Yes. The objective. God's plan. Is that we should bring him glory. They glorified God in me. God's plan. Is that we should bring him glory. We the people who he inhabits.

[11:17] So when God shows up on earth. He shows up for his glory. Listen. Anything in your life. That does not reflect the glory of God. That does not bring the glory of God. Bring glory to God.

[11:28] We crush it. We crush it. We crush it. We crush it in the name of Jesus Christ. First of all. It's about God's glory. It's not about a pastor's declaration. But it's about God's glory.

[11:39] It's about God's glory. It's not even about somebody's job. But it's about God's glory. It's not about somebody's healing. It's about God. First. Let's put first things first. The angels came. And that was the content of their song.

[11:51] Glory to God in the highest. This son who has been born. If you want to talk about the savior. It's all about glory to God in the highest. If you want to talk about salvation.

[12:03] It's all about glory being to God in the highest. If you want to talk about deliverance. About healing. About breakthrough. About supernatural turnaround. About salvation. What it is.

[12:14] Talk about it. It's all about the glory of God. That is why you can't be a believer. And not live for the glory of God. It's risky. And you are going to live below the standard of the goodness of God.

[12:29] God. The reason why God will bless you. Is not for you to spite your enemies. And those who don't like you. Or those who didn't believe you. Believe in you. The reason why God will bless you.

[12:40] Is for his glory. For his glory. Joseph said to his brothers. You meant it for evil. But God meant it for good. Genesis chapter 50. Verse 19 and 20.

[12:51] Don't. He said. I'm not in. Am I in the place of God? You meant it for evil. But God meant it for good. To bring. You meant it. But God meant it. It's unto good. To bring to pass.

[13:02] As it is this day. To save much people. Now. God does things. And means it for good. So. I can hold it against you. What you did against me. My promotion.

[13:12] Is not to spite you. Bro. Sister. Your promotion. Is not to spite your family members. Someone said. I pray that God. Will really make me very wealthy.

[13:23] And so they all see. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Glory to God. No. I don't want to say glory to Jesus.

[13:34] That is why those who are just looking for miracle money. Miracle money. Miracle money. Miracle money. And you are looking for miracle money because you want to lie in your pocket. No. It should be because you want God to be glorified.

[13:46] And however it costs you. Whatever it costs you for God to be glorified. You must be ready for that. Hallelujah. You want to be married. Because you are too old. No. That's not why God makes you married.

[13:59] No. If you are. Yeah. We want to marry. because you feel you need somebody. This corona lockdown, pandemic lockdown has made you feel how you can see you need somebody in your life.

[14:11] Is that why you want to marry? So God should give you a wife? God should give you a husband? It's not a bad idea. It's not a bad idea. It's also part of the whole package. But fundamentally, first of all, is the glory of God.

[14:23] God will bless you for his name to be glorified. That's what I'm talking about. God will, listen, it doesn't cost God anything to bless you. It doesn't cost God anything to heal you. It doesn't cost God anything to change your status.

[14:35] It doesn't cost God anything to show his power in your life. And that's exactly what he's about to do. So glory to God in the highest. But thank God. It's not just glory being to God.

[14:46] When you glorify God, it also invariably leads to the next. And on earth, peace, peace, peace. Someone say peace. That is where, that is where the rainbow culture comes in.

[15:00] Peace. Peace. Peace. That is where the rainbow community was born. Peace. That is where. So Christ came, so he can give back to a rainbow community.

[15:12] Hallelujah. The rainbow community are those who live primarily to the glory of God. But what makes us a rainbow community is very clear. In Ephesians chapter 2, chapter 2, verse 14, he said, Oh, I feel like standing up.

[15:30] Are you ready? For he, talking about Jesus, please give me a new king, James, so we can see the he in capital. Yes. For he himself is our peace. Let's all say that together. For he, Christ himself, it's he himself.

[15:46] When you have Christ, you have peace. What? Peace with God. So, Bible says that, therefore, having been justified, Romans chapter 5, verse 1, having been, therefore, justified by faith, we have peace with God.

[16:06] Okay? We have peace with God. So, the peace, three-fold peace, is what I want you to draw your attention to. Three-fold peace. Your marriage will see peace.

[16:17] Yes, yes, yes. Your marriage, because glory to God in the highest, it doesn't end there. Thank God the statement doesn't just end there. Because on earth, we live on earth, and some things must change on earth.

[16:27] Hey, I'm telling you, those people who say, oh, you don't have to be praying for money, you don't have to be praying for a good job, you don't have to pray, just live your life and wait for heaven. Whilst I'm here, I have to live. If coronavirus kills somebody, how can they preach their gospel?

[16:42] So, first peace. The first peace is our peace with God. Our peace with God. In other words, you don't have a problem with God. You can talk to Him. He can hear you. And that, we used to be estranged in our relationship with God because of sin.

[16:56] But now, because of Christ, there is peace with God. But that's not the only peace. The second peace, which I want to focus on, that is what gives birth to the rainbow community. It's Ephesians.

[17:08] Let's go back to Ephesians 2, verse 14. He himself is our peace, who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of separation.

[17:23] What does that mean? This both being one is where the peace is coming from. One. Now, when you read the context very well, you will find out that this both is talking about the Jews and the Gentiles.

[17:38] When Peter was told to go to the Gentiles' house to go and preach, when he went there to go and preach, the Jews, the Jerusalem church, got very upset with him. How can you go into the house of Gentiles?

[17:50] Because in our culture, in our community, we don't do that. We don't mix. It's only Jews. You went into uncircumcised men and ate with them.

[18:02] How could you do that, Peter? How could you have done that? Now that we are Christ as dead and we are keeping the church going, you now even do what basic Jews would not do.

[18:13] That's why when Peter saw the vision in Acts chapter 10, he said, no, I can't eat what is unclean. God said, hey, don't call anything unclean because what? I came to form a rainbow community. A rainbow community is the community that is made up of Jews and Gentiles, people from different races, different cultural backgrounds, different nationalities, different social standards, different genders, different male, female, Jew, Gentile, slave, free, different economic standards.

[18:46] We all come together. Watch this. Watch this. It's only in the church you can have a rainbow community. You can have a rainbow culture only in the church because human beings can create that.

[18:58] The peace. Because whatever you do, there will always be discrimination among people. There will always be segregation among people. There will always... That is why the worst thing that happened, one of the worst things that have happened in the history of the church is for racism or racial division to have found itself in the church because the church is supposed...

[19:17] The church was created by Jesus to be the rainbow community, to have the rainbow culture. The rainbow culture, I mean, all kinds of callers, all kinds of people with different backgrounds, young and old, young and old, employed and unemployed, male and female.

[19:35] talk about it. Whatever causes us to divide, divide us, white and black, Asia and Latino, whatever, whatever, whatever.

[19:51] Once we are in Christ, being in Christ means that color is dissolved and we are different colors. You may see us different colors, but we are glorious, even though we are heterogeneous.

[20:05] Heterogeneous means that different, different, different paths, different, different paths, but we have unity. So in Ephesians chapter 3, verse 4, he said, sorry, I'm sorry, the other way around.

[20:18] Chapter 4, verse 3, he said, endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Endeavor. You can create, is the unity that the Spirit does. The Spirit gives us, but he gave us this unity so we can have peace amongst ourselves.

[20:33] We can sit down. Your ex-boyfriend, your ex-girlfriend, your former husband, your former wife can be born again and come to church and sitting near to you and you are all singing they say, say hallelujah.

[20:44] You look at them and say hallelujah because you are flowing in Christ. It takes only Christ to have a rainbow community. It takes only Christ to have a rainbow culture. It takes only Christ. It takes only Christ because that unity, that peace that can exist between ex-enemies can only be generated by Christ and how did he do it?

[21:03] He did it on the cross. When he died on the cross, Bible says that he himself is at peace. He abolished the, verse 15, Ephesians chapter 2, he abolished the enmity contained in ordinances.

[21:16] He having abolished in his flesh the enmity, that is the law of commandment contained in ordinances. Everyone, every group of people have the way they do their things which excludes other people.

[21:27] We do our things. This is how we eat our food. When you go to Japan, the way they sit down to eat, the way they greet, when you go to Russia is different. Every group of people have their own way of doing things.

[21:38] It's called the ordinances, religious ordinances, social ordinances, academic, different, different things. Now, Christ comes and on his cross he crushes this enmity, that enmity, things that divide us.

[21:54] He crushes it. He crushed it on the cross. So when he was born, the angel said, peace, peace, and goodwill. And he said, glory to God in the highest end, end on earth, peace, our child, peace.

[22:11] It is this peace that gives us a force as the rainbow culture in the church. The rainbow culture can only exist in the church.

[22:21] When I say rainbow, different backgrounds, different personalities, different, many different, but we are all one, beautiful, and yet not divided. So, oh, but I know about churches that are fighting among themselves.

[22:33] That is the flesh. That is not a church. They might be in the church by walking in the flesh. You walk in the flesh when you say, I don't talk to this Christian. I don't like this Christian.

[22:44] I don't get off this Christian. It's just flesh. When you see some pastors blasting and attacking other pastors, you and fighting among themselves, other believers fighting among themselves, it's the flesh. It doesn't matter how the color is that I want to really speak the truth of God.

[22:58] I want to, no, no, no, no, no, no. We, we can disagree on the matters of doctrine that what this man is teaching, teaching that Jesus Christ is 50% man, 50% God.

[23:10] I disagree with him and it's wrong. It's not biblical. And we can disagree in love and not necessarily hate the person but the doctrine. So, we have to fight. Bible says that content for the faith.

[23:22] If you're a believer, you have to fight for the faith. Anything that wants to tell you that this is not true or what the Bible is not saying is not true, you can't live by it. Content for the faith. We are called to turn for the faith and keep the unity of the spirit.

[23:39] He said, endeavor to keep, endeavor to keep, endeavor to keep it. Don't make it, keep it. It's already been generated and that's, he's our peace.

[23:50] So, the first level of peace is peace with God. The second level of peace is peace amongst ourselves to generate the rainbow culture. And the third level of peace is peace in your life.

[24:04] Peace in your life. Everything Satan has put his hand on to destabilize your peace. We have the prince of peace. He said, come unto me, all you who live and I'll give you rest. And in the book of John chapter 14, verse 27, peace I live with you.

[24:19] When he was dying, when he was going, he didn't leave like houses, cars, but he left peace with us so that when you are living in your house, you will have the peace of God. In your marriage, peace.

[24:29] In your health, peace. That's what I'm prophesying. He said, glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace and goodwill to men, towards men. Peace. Peace. The angel sang that.

[24:42] And this is a day of joy. It's a day of glory because God has come on earth to make sure you have your peace. If you are a Christian, if you are born again, peace is part of your covenant redemption package.

[24:58] Redemption package. The covenant comes with peace. It comes with peace. Peace in your health. Peace in your finances. Peace in your marriage, in your family, in your career, in your studies.

[25:14] Sometimes people are studying and things are not working there. There's too much confusion in my mind. I'm studying, I can't absorb anything. Peace. So, both the rainbow peace that we have, peace with God, peace in our community, in the church, amongst ourselves, and then peace in your actual life, your life on earth, the way you are living.

[25:38] Things must work for you. Your family must not be in turmoil. I see you enjoying peace. Peace with God, born again. Peace with man, the house of God.

[25:49] Peace in your life, social living. You will do well. Peace in your life. Thank you for listening to this message by David Entry.

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[26:13] Be blessed.