The following message is by pastor John Piper.

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Father in heaven, I ask for your help now for listeners and for me so that we would

understand your word as you intended it and that we would both understand and embrace its

implications for our lives and I ask Lord, that this morning there would happen a kind of harmony and a kind of

commitment to racial diversity and harmony and justice that would have reverberations

far beyond our church because our people are scattered beyond our church

gathered and because they touch thousands.

And so, Lord, I pray that the upshot would be powerful

for the glory of Christ in all the ways

that we've been celebrating now in these last 30 minutes together.

So common to that end, help us I pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

My main point this morning is this, that the more you understand and the more you cherish, the vision of God as free and gracious and sovereign the more you will love and live and labor for racial diversity and racial harmony.

Say it again.

The main point, the more you understand and the more you cherish or embrace a vision of God as free and gracious and sovereign in all things,

in all that he does, the more you will love and live and labor for racial harmony and racial diversity.

Now I have in mind this morning for various reasons mainly the racial divide

between black and white. Though I am fully aware and you could pick it up from the music that there are many other

ethnicities and many other racial issues to be dealt with, there are reasons for it. It is unique to our historical history

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