The End of Pride and Prejudice [Part 2]

Pastor Arthur and Bible teacher Alan Wright. Everybody has said everybody's fallen short of the glory of God. We will have the same predicament in the same separation from God. Without Christ is only one way and that is God. We can do and saves us by his grace Allen right another message of good view-old I'm Daniel excited for you to hear the teaching today.

In the series limited as presented at renewal. The church North Carolina are not able to stay with tire program to make sure you know how to get our special resource. Right now you can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright strings as you listen to today's message go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastoralan.org Pastor Alan.org or call 877-544-4860 that's 877-544-4860. More on this later in the program right now. Let's get started with today's teaching here is Alan Wright increased wars by dramatic 27 points. Only afterward did the researchers reveal the truth to the teachers. The alleged newfangled intelligence test was actually just the standard IQ test and the so-called bloomers were not actually poised to bloom. They were any smarter.

They were all chosen at random.

The only thing that it changed was that there was this one set of teachers that thought they had students who were likely to excel and those students who had teachers who thought that the students were going to excel those students IQ points or 27 points.

Rosenthal's research has been vigorously discussed in debated but Johnson's studies followed it. That proved the same point expectancy determines so much of behavior and others been proven for example from managers who have positive thoughts about employees potential. The workers do better military structure.

Studies have shown when they believe they have higher level recruits. The soldiers perform better. Even couples who have been told that they're a good match, interact more positively with one another and have better relationships.

We are primed is the psychological term and it causes expectancy fascinating Dutch research study some years ago gave a group of random students.

42.

Challenging questions from the well-known boardgame Trivial Pursuit so everybody can answer the same 42 questions.

Only difference was, according to instructions. Half of the participants spent five minutes before the quiz, writing down what they thought it would be like to be a professor. So one group as soon as I said we want to before you take the test. Spent five minutes and write down everything you can think of about what it would be like to be a smart professor, University the other group was told to spend five minutes writing down everything that they thought it would be like to be a rude sports fan.

The results were fascinating. The people who'd imagine being a professor got 55.6% of the questions correct, but the ones who had thought about being soccer hooligans they got 42.6%.

It's a huge difference enough in life to me the difference between passing and failing something only thing that a change was what they were thinking about before they took the test we give you something even more dramatic.

Malcolm Gladwell references this more extreme version. In his book blink and he tells of a study of black college students who were entering 20 questions from the GRE, the standardized test that undergraduates take as they are applying to graduate school. The students after American students were asked to identify their race when they were asked ahead of time to identify their race on a pretest questionnaire just a pretest questionnaire and one of the questions was yet to identify your race when they did that, as opposed to not having to identify their race beforehand. Just that alone indicating African-American with negative stereotypes that are associated with academic achievement for African-Americans somehow primed them and they performed much worse. In fact, in some the results half as well.

Shocking to go one step further, talking about the power expectancy talking about the dangers of prejudice Johns Hopkins study showed that among very low income black kids. If those kids could have just one black teacher in third, fourth or fifth grade just one African-American teacher. The chance that low income black it would drop out of school dropped 39% wise that the case I think is proven out by another study that showed that when a black-and-white teacher looked at the same black student the white teacher was about. On average shall not generalize about white people, but there was a ball on average the study was about 40% less likely to predict that the student would finish high school. We are shaped by others expectations and our own and what prejudice dies is it pre-judges what you will be who you can be. Prejudice is a box that we put mentally and spiritually around people and around ourselves and in short, God had to end Peter's prejudice against Gentiles because he needed a preacher who had Gentiles could be saved in the same way that he will.

There is nothing that God does except through faith. Hebrews 11 six without faith it is impossible to please him. Matthew 17 verse 19, the disciples came to Jesus and said, why can we not cast out this demon and he said to them in verse 20 because your little faith.

Truly I say to you have. If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you see this mountain move from here to there and will move and nothing will be impossible to you what God is saying is that he moves through faith and what faith is. It is an expectancy of positive and gracious growth and blessing that can come about in your life or in someone else's life, and when expectancy is negative when it is in the opposite, it tends to lead to that as well. In other words, God had was he had Peter get a vision in which first, he saw unclean animals, and Lord said rising heat. I'm changing your prejudice against the unclean animal and then he took him to Cornelius house marched right into the detestable Gentiles home assembled a nice Gentile congregation. For them there and they said tell us what you got to say he started talking about Jesus and as he was talking about Jesus. The thing that was happening was Peter had faith that these Gentiles could be saved.

Reason that God wants to get rid of pride says I'm better than others and prejudice says I've made a decision about the limits of your life. God hates that it breaks my heart to think of anyone black why Brown any ethnicity of any age of any person who never had somebody who had expectancy over his or her life and for us as Christians, we are the people of faith mountains can move into the heart's chance is there someone in your life right now. God is very day. Through this word is want to increase your expectancy of what is possible for that person is a very real chance that he wants to heal something in your own thought life about your own life as well. That's how things change, they change when someone gets a vision of what they expect to happen to Helen right will have more teaching moment from today's important series inspiration and practical help to grasp is that in conjunction with exciting really suppressed Allen's new book the power of last put together some tools to get you started on the journey of speaking life empowering the people you that the toolkit includes a message of Pastor Alan's recent sermon on the mysterious blessing from the gateway to understanding the power of all blessing also included in the kit is a booklet with a list of scriptures can be spoken directly as blessings blessing Scriptures and icing can easily access them for specific situations when you make your gift right ministries this month will happily send you the power to bless toolkit is our way of saying thanks for your partnership resources are available for immediate digital download or available in CD and a partner with and be inspired and equipped to bless someone's life to the gospel is shared when you get to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you get today. We will send you a special offer. We are happy to send this to you as I thanks from Alan Wright Ministries, seven 877-544-4860 877-544-4861 come to our website. Pastor, our work days teaching is discovered something about God that day that he shows no partiality and the word for this is just beautiful and I just feel like I could preach a sermon series on this word close Oakland case because it is a Greek word it it just say God shows no partiality barely even scratches the surface of what is meant by this because it comes from two different words on this word postpone it means face and it comes from this verbal on Bono which means to take or receive so literally this word of phrase you senior English translation showed no partiality. It literally means God doesn't give or take face doesn't give or take face with respect to a person's nationality or ethnicity or race. What is he talking about.

Well the whole idea comes from something that very well understood in eastern and Middle Eastern cultures now and throughout antiquity, but we don't use the phrase as much, but his idea of saving face or losing face when someone from more Eastern culture talks about saving face what they mean is avoiding humiliation culture that is built on shame and honor is built around the idea of we want to do a good job so we don't lose face.

We want to make amends, so we can save face. What what why is this idea of of losing face or saving face. What we what is this image come from only first to describe it this way when you are disappointed. What happens to your face.

It drops like I'm talking to you and then there's something greatly disappointed. I'll know it is your face drops so I no longer am looking at your face. So you've lost face with it means if I can golf you like a golf when I hit a bad shot.

That's honestly when I most need to keep my head up and follow that ball is going into the woods because I gotta go find it, but it's real hard to watch her own bad shot. When you get a bad one. Even the program offers a just a meal you lose face. Your face goes down. I can't believe I'm willing to even show it but last year we lost face the Carolina Tar Heels in guest do we were about 13 points with just a few minutes laugh by the whole thing and you see what .3 seconds. Let Trey Jones is a three pointer descendent over time and we box over time. Haven't had a lead and Trey Jones makes another buzzer beater and do and look at coach Roy Williams afterwards – Las Vegas right you. You can almost think of this like when you think of people been accused or convicted of a crime in their entering or leaving the courthouse where the delay ever walked out with her if they walk out with her head up like this is because they are passable logical and but but but do well then I will look up and here's another well-known one on this so you know the dispute. If their hands were in handcuffs. They hide their faces in that funny. It's like they're coming out a notorious criminal or some I've been in the news and in the coming out the courthouse and all the cameras are displaced by/what they're doing or grabbing anything to try to hide their face like what we know we can look at your face all week long in the newspaper. You can't hide your face, but the instinct is I don't want my face to be seen lose face but is also a reference to a regular occurrence in the presence of the king Oriental King would expect that subjects would come in and now in the face would be down your just walk right into the king and was having K just look right out of that's no way to do you go in your faces down is like I don't have the I'm not worthy to build with my face up at you. But if the king says lift up your face or the king goes and lifts up the face look at me, it means you found favor with the King or if the king doesn't look at you do not receive favor if you going to present the king and the king lifts up and smiles you have found favor lifts up his face. This goes far to explain the meaning of the high priestly blessing from numbers that I say over you every week. Speak to Aaron and his sons same thoughts you so bless the people of Israel. You shall say to them, the Lord bless you and keep you in the Lord make his face to shine upon and be gracious to you and then face occurs again. The Lord lift up his countenance. That's his face upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.

The blessing that was given to Israel was the shining face of God. And so when Peter said, I now realize I that the Lord shows no partiality what he literally said was I now realize that the Lord doesn't limit the lifting of his face to just one group of people in Christ all peoples, nations, ethnicities, colors of skin ages, gender, all people in Christ experienced the same thing God the father, the king of the cosmos lifts up his face and smile spot.

They realize that he was saying to the Gentiles in the Lord make his face shine upon Cornelius all the Gentiles. Everybody there because of this preachers expectancy and humility. They receive the gospel and they're going to be with us according to Romans seven they got to be there and will be there and all this beautiful diversity. All this wonderful, beautiful diversity will be there in heaven. This is what John Saul and his vision apartments I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands and crying out with a loud voice. Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne and to the Lamb. One of the things that I've learned from Soma after American pastor friends during these weeks study together growth is I have black friends. I just think such close friends that I feel like I don't even see color of skin anymore you ever had a friend like that. If I don't see answer will somehow say I don't see color and most of after American precedent that doesn't bed blessed me to hear that because I do have a picnic basket and there are different colors of skin and the diversity is something that we celebrate the F density is something to celebrate different cultures or something to celebrate God celebrate diversity of what he did was he came in one man, Jesus, to make one new spiritual race of people, so that we are diverse and yet were one and one day we got a circle around the throne of heaven in various languages and from our different cultures in a different way of expressing ourselves in a different way of singing and dancing in a different way of communicating and went all the praise, the son of God together. So in this world now for Christians, let there be no pride better than anybody else were on the same predicament we all sin will fall short of the glory of God and no prejudice.

The things that other people are limited God lifts up his face in Christ on every NASA gospel Helen Wright.

Today's good news is the end of probably it from our series, unlimited and pastor at his back with his in the studio, sharing our parting good news thought for the day. Just a moment of inspiration and practical help to grasp is that in conjunction with the exciting release of Pastor Alan's new book, the power to blast put together some tools to get you started on the journey of speaking life empowering the people you that the toolkit includes a message of Pastor Alan's recent sermon on the mysterious blessing from the gateway to understanding the power of all blessing also included in the kit is a booklet with a list of scriptures that can be spoken directly expressing blessing Scripture is seen can easily access them for specific situations when you make your gift right ministries this month will happily send you the power to bless toolkit as our way of saying thanks for your partnership resources are available for immediate digital download or available in CD and partner with us and be inspired and equipped to bless someone's life to the gospel is shared when you get to Alan Wright Ministries. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you get today. We will send you a special offer. We are happy to send this to you as I thanks from Alan Wright Ministries, seven 877-544-4860 877-544-4861 come to our website pastor and work. You notice your pastor out and sporting good news thought for the day on this the end of pride and prejudice and by the way this is recorded in the year 2020 and there was a lot that happened obviously we think back to pandemic but also a lot of racial unrest in our country and Pascarella know that your your heart here is to as the Scripture says we heard today there there is no partiality from God quality important to remember as we close out well. Just think this this this part of the book of acts computer because I now realize God doesn't show partiality is very very instructive to see in his Christians in our thirst to see the end of racial inequality and to ignite the love that we have for one another regardless of the color of her skin and you can have Holy Spirit sort of open your eyes to something you haven't seen before something is like when Peter start realizing this. It said more about a revelation that it is you know a program or something so it was during the season in which there was fruitful dialogue going on pastors in our own city and I thank God for the image of acts because here we see a church that is is being built on the on the unity of the spirit. How much division overcomes when you're one. Today's good news message is listener supported production Alan Wright Ministries