Aug 17, 2026 · 40 min · 7 segments
In this week’s episode, Pastor Willy Rice teaches from Ephesians 2:11–18, unpacking the radical truth of how Christ tore down the dividing wall of hostility to unite us—reconciling both Jew and…
Willy RiceHost[laughs]
Oh.
[laughs]
Maybe you've heard that phrase about people who are born on one side of town than another side of town, but the reality is all of us are born on the other side of a divide that not only separates us from other people, it separates us from God.
And it doesn't matter what your background is or who your father is, the Bible says we're born on the wrong side.
Some of you, if you're old enough, will remember the Berlin Wall that cut through the heart of that great German city, separating the communist side of East Berlin from the free western side of West Berlin.
It arose almost overnight on August 13, 1961, when the people of Berlin awakened to find out miles of barbed wire had been rolled down the heart of the city, tearing apart families, neighborhoods, and an entire nation.
And for 30 years, a generation, the Berlin Wall became a s- powerful symbol of division.
It was guarded by spikes, attack dogs, and soldiers who were ordered to shoot anyone who tried to cross.
It was designed to keep people trapped, to keep people separated from one another.
After all, the political realities that caused it to be built looked insurmountable, and the wall itself looked formidable.
John Kennedy gave a speech in June of 1963, and famously said, "I am a Berliner," identifying with the suffering of the people in that city.
And it was Ronald Reagan on June the 12th, 1987, late in his presidency, when he gave a speech that would come to define his presidency.
They kept taking it out, the State Department did, saying it would be too offensive, and Reagan kept writing it back in.
[laughs]
But that day, standing in front of the Berlin Wall, President Reagan said, "Tear down this wall." And a f- two years later, that's exactly what happened.
They danced, they cheered, and with sledgehammers and bare hands, they chipped away at the concrete until the massive barrier crumbled into dust.
We look at history and we marvel at the fall of the Berlin Wall, but if we are honest, many of us are living behind walls of our own making today.
We build walls of guilt and walls of bitterness and walls of fear and walls of isolation.
There are walls in marriages and walls between, uh, relationships and in our own hearts and walls even that separate us from God.
But the good news of the gospel is this: there is a God who specializes in tearing down walls.
And if you have your Bibles, we're turning to Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2, where today we wanna learn about how God tears down walls.
And some of us are on the wrong side of a wall today, this morning, right now, and we need to understand that God, by his power, can tear down those walls.
We've been walking through Ephesians chapter 2 over the last several weeks, and thus we come today to verse 11.
As you turn your attention to Ephesians 2:11, I invite you, if you're able to and willing to, to stand with us.
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[laughs]
Oh.
[laughs]
Maybe you've heard that phrase about people who are born on one side of town than another side of town, but the reality is all of us are born on the other side of a divide that not only separates us from other people, it separates us from God.
And it doesn't matter what your background is or who your father is, the Bible says we're born on the wrong side.
Some of you, if you're old enough, will remember the Berlin Wall that cut through the heart of that great German city, separating the communist side of East Berlin from the free western side of West Berlin.
It arose almost overnight on August 13, 1961, when the people of Berlin awakened to find out miles of barbed wire had been rolled down the heart of the city, tearing apart families, neighborhoods, and an entire nation.
And for 30 years, a generation, the Berlin Wall became a s- powerful symbol of division.
It was guarded by spikes, attack dogs, and soldiers who were ordered to shoot anyone who tried to cross.
It was designed to keep people trapped, to keep people separated from one another.
After all, the political realities that caused it to be built looked insurmountable, and the wall itself looked formidable.
John Kennedy gave a speech in June of 1963, and famously said, "I am a Berliner," identifying with the suffering of the people in that city.
And it was Ronald Reagan on June the 12th, 1987, late in his presidency, when he gave a speech that would come to define his presidency.
They kept taking it out, the State Department did, saying it would be too offensive, and Reagan kept writing it back in.
[laughs]
But that day, standing in front of the Berlin Wall, President Reagan said, "Tear down this wall." And a f- two years later, that's exactly what happened.
They danced, they cheered, and with sledgehammers and bare hands, they chipped away at the concrete until the massive barrier crumbled into dust.
We look at history and we marvel at the fall of the Berlin Wall, but if we are honest, many of us are living behind walls of our own making today.
We build walls of guilt and walls of bitterness and walls of fear and walls of isolation.
There are walls in marriages and walls between, uh, relationships and in our own hearts and walls even that separate us from God.
But the good news of the gospel is this: there is a God who specializes in tearing down walls.
And if you have your Bibles, we're turning to Ephesians chapter 2, Ephesians chapter 2, where today we wanna learn about how God tears down walls.
And some of us are on the wrong side of a wall today, this morning, right now, and we need to understand that God, by his power, can tear down those walls.
We've been walking through Ephesians chapter 2 over the last several weeks, and thus we come today to verse 11.
As you turn your attention to Ephesians 2:11, I invite you, if you're able to and willing to, to stand with us.
