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Open Door SDA Church

Dwayne Lemon

Unity in Diversity

Well let me go ahead and say happy Sabbath to everyone.

You don't get to see from where I'm standing, but I mean, just the beauty in such a wonderful display of diversity, not merely for who you all are, but also because of our cultural garments in which we are wearing, and then we have an opportunity to capture it all on photo.

So this afternoon or later on today, we're looking forward to taking that photo 1 with another, but I just want you to all, you all look amazing.

And it's not only because of colors of clothing and hair well done, et cetera, but it's because of the grace of God that is evidently shining upon your hearts.

And I am very thankful that today we're going to have an opportunity to go through the Word of God and we're going to consider some things that I believe are very important and I believe heaven believes are very important for us to hear at such a time as this in Earth's history.

And so as we prepare our hearts to receive the message, unity in diversity, I believe the best way to begin is with a word of prayer.

And so I'm going to be kneeling to do that, and I'd like to invite as much of you as are able to, to please kneel with me as we go ahead and have a moment of prayer together.

Our Father in heaven, the prayer of Jesus in John 17 will take place.

We will be 1 And we know that it will be only because of the power of your Holy Spirit.

And so, Father, we ask you for the forgiveness of our sins.

And we pray for his presence, not merely to come in the building, but to especially come within our hearts.

Teach us, Lord, how we may be 1, 1 with another.

This is our prayer that we do ask in the worthy and mighty name of Jesus, let everyone say amen.

I will tell you that, I want to let you in on a little bit about me that you probably never knew this, would have never known this, But in my earlier years, growing up in New York City, living the lifestyle that I lived, growing up in the home that I grew up in, Unfortunately, the seeds of bigotry was planted within my heart.

I don't believe a single child is born in this world a bigot.

A bigot is something that is made, and it's made unfortunately under foul teachings.

And I remember my brother joined a offshoot Islamic group.

And the Nuwabians were very attractive for many reasons.

They, you know, taught a lot of things that was, they felt was erroneous with the Bible.

And it was very attractive to my brother.

And He began to speak a little bit of this jargon, and before you know it, I began to embrace some of it as well.

I remember my brother asked me a question.

This is when he was trying to plant these seeds of bigotry because my father was a man from the South.

And so, you know, growing up in the South, Southern black community, almost everybody's Christian.

And so it is that, you know, Dad grew up with a Christian upbringing.

My mother was from the beautiful Virgin Islands, first from Anagata, moved over to St.

Thomas, and then eventually came over here to the US.

And I remember my mother was the daughter of a Methodist pastor.

And so they both had Christian upbringing.

So even though I didn't grow up in a Christian home, I ever so often would hear things about the Bible or a reference to God.

So when my brother joined, or started to talk with these guys in this movement, I remember he said, Duane, let me ask you a question.

He said, every picture of Jesus you've ever seen, what color is he?

He said, have you ever seen paintings with angels?

He said, you ever seen patriarchs and prophets and apostles and everybody?

And he said, that's why that book you're holding is a white man's book.

Because evidently you and our people are not in here.

And I remember being young and terribly ignorant, so I was just like, whoa, man, I never thought about that.

And before you know it, I bought into the lie, because I assure you, it's a lie.

And before you know it, I started to say, well, you know what?

Christianity is for them, but not for us.

And God was so good that he knew that I got to a place in my life that I was genuinely seeking him, genuinely seeking him.

And I was like a lot of young black kids growing up in the city, especially inner city or any of that.

Sadly today, young people of many groups and ages and cultures, they don't know who they are.

And that's why we often merge ourselves into the vision of our parents and others rather than in the vision that God has for us.

Well, here it is that as a young man trying to seek out myself and understand things, I started listening to a guy named Malcolm X.

And so I remember, I just want you to understand that God, our Father, your Father in heaven, he is such an amazing creator, such an amazing Father.

And he knows how to meet you where you're at.

I fell so deeply in love with this figure of Malcolm X that I wanted to be like him.

I remember that I would often see pictures where he would have his 2 fingers like this and he would rest it on his face when he would be thinking or sitting down.

And I remember I got to a point that I found myself doing this all the time.

It makes more sense if you're leaning on something to do, not when you're standing up.

But even when I'm walking around standing up, a brother just got his hands like this, right?

And I remember I got to this point where I just said, Lord, I need to know who you are.

I don't care if you're a head of lettuce.

And I remember that God did something special.

A friend of mine found a flyer on the street.

It had a picture of a man who looked just like Malcolm X and his hand was on his face just like this.

And the study that night in a tent meeting just moments away from me was called the African American and the pig.

And I was like, this is a Christian group.

And he began to show Afrocentricity in the Bible.

He began to show that not everybody was Caucasian.

And he began to impart all this education that was kind of like opening my mind piece by piece and point by point.

And as I began to go through all of this, I realized that I said, wait a minute, we have identity in the Bible too.

And as I began to accept Jesus and grow in his grace, it got to a point that I realized We're 1 race of many different colors.

And so the whole idea of racism and all these other things was built upon falsehood and lies.

And it's powerful how true education can help shift our gears and give us a greater understanding.

For as I became a Seventh-day Adventist Christian and got into the church, and granted I was following this minister who was very powerful, and I now saw some identity, I got to this other phase that I felt like, and please forgive me, again, I'm just testifying.

The man that I'm testifying about is dead.

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Unity in Diversity

Transcript

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