Don't Drop The Mic with Bishop T.D. Jakes

0:00:02.160 --> 0:00:04.720 Hey, this is Stephen Ferdick. I'm the pastor of Elevation 0:00:04.960 --> 0:00:07.200 Church and this is our podcast. I wanted to thank 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:10.560 you for joining us today. Hope this inspires you. Hope 0:00:10.560 --> 0:00:12.600 it builds your faith. Hope it gives your perspective to 0:00:12.600 --> 0:00:15.320 see God is moving in your life. Enjoy the message. 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:19.759 I thought what I wanted to ask you before we 0:00:19.800 --> 0:00:22.240 sit down. All right, I've been thinking about this for 0:00:22.239 --> 0:00:27.840 a month. No, I haven't lost. Yeah, about one pound. 0:00:28.240 --> 0:00:32.440 If you were going to preach right now, Let's say, 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:38.239 let's say a Sunday morning at the Potter's house and uh, 0:00:38.680 --> 0:00:42.839 Pastor Joel was scheduled to preach. Where's Pastor Joel? But 0:00:42.960 --> 0:00:47.160 he got he got injured doing five hundred pounds bench press. Yeah, 0:00:48.960 --> 0:00:52.760 and they say, Bishop, Pastor Joel's not preaching, and the 0:00:52.880 --> 0:00:55.320 praise team is finished and Marcus has dragged out the 0:00:55.400 --> 0:00:58.560 music as long as he can. And you've got to preach? 0:00:59.480 --> 0:01:02.000 What text you preach? I think I know, but I 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:04.280 want to see if I'm right. What Texa? You don't know? 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:12.720 You don't you know? For God said she had appointed 0:01:12.800 --> 0:01:17.919 me another seed in the stead of Cain, who Abele slew? 0:01:18.680 --> 0:01:25.440 My subject is he'll do it again. No, I didn't 0:01:25.440 --> 0:01:33.560 guess that one. Have a seat, Yeah, have a seat everybody. 0:01:34.800 --> 0:01:39.440 So that's in the Bible, that verse. How many you 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:41.679 have ever listened to Bishop Jake's preaching? You're like, does 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:45.160 he have the same Bible that I have? I never, Oh, 0:01:45.200 --> 0:01:47.640 I was going to tell you this. So my oldest 0:01:47.680 --> 0:01:51.080 Elijah the other day, can I tell him? We're on 0:01:51.160 --> 0:01:55.440 the porch, and I quoted Bishop quote to him and 0:01:55.480 --> 0:01:58.000 I said, you know, well, Bishop always says blah blah 0:01:58.000 --> 0:01:59.880 blah blah blah blah blah blah, h one of these 0:02:00.000 --> 0:02:02.640 little parables that you spit out like they're you know, 0:02:03.880 --> 0:02:10.280 just this beautiful, beautiful, beautifully crafted thing, right. And he goes, oh, 0:02:10.320 --> 0:02:13.480 that's Bishop. I always thought that was a Bible verse. 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.680 What I'm saying to you is you are so loved 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:24.280 in the Ferdic home that my kids think you wrote 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:29.519 parts of the Bible that aren't in the Bible. That's 0:02:29.560 --> 0:02:32.280 how much you mean to us. I've never been told 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:34.760 that before a boy life. I can't make that all. 0:02:35.720 --> 0:02:38.680 That's amazing. I love you all too. What does that 0:02:38.720 --> 0:02:42.280 feel like, though, to have the to be the most 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:47.560 imitated preacher in the last fifty years. I'm not sure 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:52.240 that's true, assuming that it is, because assuming that that 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:56.160 would be true, imitation is the highest form of flattery. 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:59.440 But if there is anything higher than that and more 0:02:59.480 --> 0:03:03.320 important and flattering itself, is to find the true power 0:03:03.320 --> 0:03:09.280 of being you. Yeah, yeah, why be a cheap copy 0:03:09.320 --> 0:03:11.560 of a great original when you have the option to 0:03:11.600 --> 0:03:19.160 do yourself. So when you're starting to preach, people say, 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:23.640 be yourself, be yourself. But when you're first starting to 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:28.200 preach yourself sucks, like not as a human being, but 0:03:28.320 --> 0:03:32.760 as a preacher. It's true. So then you hear, oh, 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.440 don't imitate anyone else. But like I wanted, I actually 0:03:36.520 --> 0:03:39.760 wanted to start the conversation tonight because this book is 0:03:39.800 --> 0:03:43.800 a gift, and thank you for taking the time at 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.560 this stage in your ministry to share this. I think 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:51.840 it's so relevant and I've I've been waiting for this, 0:03:52.520 --> 0:03:56.040 you know, I think a lot of people have. But 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:59.600 I wanted to start not just talking about communication in general, 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:09.600 but im okay, right, because imitation isn't always a bad thing, right, No, well, okay, 0:04:10.080 --> 0:04:14.400 you want me to go pass? No okay, no, Well 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.520 it's freach like it's a bad thing. It's the spiritual danger. 0:04:17.920 --> 0:04:22.040 Let me explain what mentorship really means. It means that 0:04:22.120 --> 0:04:26.000 when Samuel grew up and was brought by Hannah into 0:04:26.080 --> 0:04:30.320 the house of Eli, he was unable to discern the 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:37.080 distinctives between the sound of Eli's voice and God. That 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:41.719 is an initial stage, that God sounds like the person 0:04:41.839 --> 0:04:48.080 who mentored you. Gradually you come to a point that 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:52.280 the umbilical chord cuts and you have to go here 0:04:52.440 --> 0:04:56.840 to lay down. The third time before he recognized that 0:04:56.960 --> 0:05:00.479 it was God talking and not Eli, and he says. 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:05.039 Eli says, when you hear the voice again, go and 0:05:05.120 --> 0:05:08.240 lay down in the same place and say, speak Lord, 0:05:08.640 --> 0:05:11.840 that servant here. So it is my job to gradually 0:05:12.640 --> 0:05:16.479 lead you from God sounding like me until you can 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:22.400 hear that God sounds like God, and you see, you see. 0:05:22.920 --> 0:05:27.080 And so that weaning process starts with him being weaned 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:30.839 from Hannah, and now he is being weaned from Eli, 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:34.720 that he might draw the breast milk from the breasted 0:05:34.800 --> 0:05:39.320 one himself and thereby find the nutrition that he needs. 0:05:39.560 --> 0:05:43.920 The other thing that's important to realize is that we 0:05:43.960 --> 0:05:49.760 are looking at a generational passing of the mic from 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:58.520 Eli to Samuel, and for Samuel can hear God but 0:05:58.640 --> 0:06:03.920 cannot discern him. Eli has lost his ability to hear 0:06:03.960 --> 0:06:11.840 the voice but can discern him. So there is see Okay, okay, okay. Look, 0:06:12.720 --> 0:06:16.479 Eli couldn't hear the voice. He was sleeping. Okay. Samuel, 0:06:16.560 --> 0:06:19.839 being the young people, could hear the voice but didn't 0:06:19.880 --> 0:06:24.919 understand what to do with what they heard. Okay. We 0:06:25.120 --> 0:06:27.680 have a generation of people that can hear the voice, 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:30.760 but they like the wisdom to understand what to do 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:36.599 with what they hear. Eli, on the other hand, has 0:06:36.680 --> 0:06:43.279 lost his ability to hear his adventurous proclivity to step 0:06:43.320 --> 0:06:45.960 out into the unknown. He's playing it safe. His eyes 0:06:46.000 --> 0:06:52.480 are growing dim, his senses are decaying, but his discernment 0:06:52.680 --> 0:06:59.240 is still keen. So what Samuel needs from Eli is 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:05.000 wisdom and discernment. What Eli needs from Samuel is the 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:17.160 adventurous curiosity that allows him to hear the unhearable. This 0:07:17.200 --> 0:07:23.560 is all in the first seven minutes, and it's so 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:26.320 funny that you should bring it up because we are 0:07:26.360 --> 0:07:30.600 on the impetus of a transition now that is similar 0:07:30.640 --> 0:07:33.840 to the transition of days gone by. God said, I 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:37.640 am going to do something through Samuel that is going 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:39.960 to cause both the ears of them that hear it 0:07:40.040 --> 0:07:43.440 to begin to tingle. And he chooses to do it 0:07:43.480 --> 0:07:47.720 to a person who has yet to learn the confidence 0:07:48.560 --> 0:07:51.000 to hear the God that is going to do it 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:55.600 through him. So the promise of God is bigger than 0:07:55.600 --> 0:08:00.320 the reality of the individual, and he has to grow 0:08:00.400 --> 0:08:03.920 into it, just like he had to grow into his 0:08:04.080 --> 0:08:07.760 mother's coat she brought up every year, not knowing for 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:12.080 sure what size he would be. She makes the coat 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:16.320 big enough that he can grow into it, and greatness 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:24.840 must be grown into. Yeah. Okay, so when you're first 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:28.200 starting out and you're preaching or you're communicating, because this 0:08:28.240 --> 0:08:31.000 book isn't just for preachers, right, but we'll talk about 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.040 preaching because we love to talk about preaching. Let's do that. 0:08:36.360 --> 0:08:39.040 I want you to know that, by the way, my 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:43.360 whole goal for this experience is for you to get 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:46.920 a little bit of a taste of like this would 0:08:46.920 --> 0:08:49.840 be us on a Tuesday night in three hours have 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:54.440 gone by, and this is what I wanted to understand 0:08:54.440 --> 0:08:58.040 about growing into it. When you're inspired by somebody like 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.800 the way I've been inspired by you. First of all, 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.760 did you have somebody that you studied the way that 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:09.480 I have studied, you had several and I still do. 0:09:11.400 --> 0:09:16.839 I listen at every orator imaginable, whether I agree with 0:09:16.880 --> 0:09:21.280 the message or not. I watch for the delivery, the 0:09:21.360 --> 0:09:26.720 technique and the style. You can learn from litigators, you 0:09:26.760 --> 0:09:31.640 can learn from comedians. You can learn from preachers. I 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.480 know the content I want to deliver it, but the 0:09:34.640 --> 0:09:38.800 vehicle I want to drive at home. Man is a 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:44.160 conglomerate of all of these different styles and the propensity. 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:48.120 It's like asking a gospel artist, can you learn anything 0:09:48.160 --> 0:09:51.360 from a jazz artist? Can you learn anything from a 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:56.520 classical pianist? Absolutely? And incorporate all of those different modalities 0:09:56.559 --> 0:10:00.920 into your style. And the more diversed those modalities are, 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:05.600 the broader your stage becomes. So what are you listening for? 0:10:05.640 --> 0:10:11.600 When you're listening, I'm listening at how they connect with 0:10:11.720 --> 0:10:16.160 the audience audience. I'm looking at how they enter the room. 0:10:16.800 --> 0:10:23.079 I'm listening at the rhythm. See, great preaching is almost musical. 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:28.760 Great speaking has a rhythm. It has a cadence, It 0:10:28.800 --> 0:10:32.720 has a voice inflexion and a tone. It has the 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:36.200 ability to have a rhythm that is syncopated in such 0:10:36.200 --> 0:10:40.520 a way that the hearer can hear it in pace 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:43.360 and in rhythm, so much so that if you start 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:46.560 to speak and you draw the audience into the rhythm 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:48.960 of the pace of the speaking through which you are 0:10:49.000 --> 0:10:52.400 conveying information, and then in the middle of the pace 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:59.120 and the rhythm us pause. The pause is what I 0:10:59.200 --> 0:11:02.880 call the pregnant paulse It's what David calls see law 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:07.280 in the Psalms. It is a moment for them to ingest, 0:11:07.400 --> 0:11:12.599 digest and appropriate what has been spoken before. And sometimes 0:11:12.600 --> 0:11:16.960 the exclamation of the importance of the statement is the 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:23.320 silence that you let it ride in on. Does it 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:29.880 make sense? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And most young preachers 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:33.400 are afraid of the silence, so they've run to make 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:36.600 noise because they need the affirmation that the crowd is 0:11:36.679 --> 0:11:40.040 still there. But you have to have enough confidence in 0:11:40.080 --> 0:11:43.840 the material that God has given you that it will 0:11:43.960 --> 0:11:48.360 do what it was created to do. And the word 0:11:48.400 --> 0:11:51.640 of God does not need crutches. And to those that 0:11:51.679 --> 0:11:55.360 are litigators and prosecutors, and those are who are running 0:11:55.360 --> 0:11:58.040 for election and those who are applying for a job, 0:11:58.640 --> 0:12:03.959 truth needs no If it is true, it is true. 0:12:04.160 --> 0:12:10.079 And the human ability to sense truth is utterly amazing. 0:12:11.040 --> 0:12:15.400 It is not just the verbalization of paragraphs and the 0:12:15.440 --> 0:12:19.559 conglomerates of chapters. It is we hear with more than 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:23.400 our ears. We hear with our eyes. We hear through 0:12:23.440 --> 0:12:27.679 body language. We hear through voice inflection, we hear through 0:12:27.760 --> 0:12:31.360 pitch and tone. This is what's wrong with marriage, is 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:36.320 that sometimes your mouth is saying something, but your body 0:12:36.440 --> 0:12:41.000 language is saying something else. And women who are particularly 0:12:41.520 --> 0:12:46.240 intuitive are not just listening at what you said. They're 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.200 listening at your body language and the way your eyes 0:12:49.440 --> 0:12:51.720 flinched and the way you didn't look me in the 0:12:51.760 --> 0:12:54.360 eye when you were saying it, and all of that 0:12:54.440 --> 0:12:56.720 brings them to it. See how the women are clapping. 0:12:57.000 --> 0:13:03.840 Come on, sisters, Come on, sisters, talk to me, Holly. 0:13:05.800 --> 0:13:08.600 And this is how the man gets trapped because he 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:14.480 thinks I said the right thing, but they don't understand. 0:13:14.559 --> 0:13:19.520 She's hearing with her eyes. Yeah, she's hearing with your behavior. 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:22.320 She's hearing with how you dropped your pinchion, change your 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:24.839 tone and looked away and did not look her in 0:13:24.920 --> 0:13:27.719 the eye. And all of that says that you're avoiding 0:13:28.280 --> 0:13:31.920 the straight on gaze that comes when you are sure 0:13:32.280 --> 0:13:41.160 of who you are and what you said. Said I 0:13:41.240 --> 0:13:50.920 drop him, it's fun. That was a great moment to 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:56.800 understand that as an orator, and every one of us 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:02.120 in here are orators. Whether we get paid for it 0:14:02.200 --> 0:14:07.720 or not. We deliver messages to our children, to our wives, 0:14:07.760 --> 0:14:13.079 to our husbands and our family. Depends on how adept 0:14:13.240 --> 0:14:16.800 we are a communicating. And here's the challenge. It is 0:14:16.840 --> 0:14:20.640 one thing to communicate a fact to plus two us four. 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:27.040 Whatever goes up must come down to communicate the fact. 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:32.960 It is one thing to communicate a feeling. Some people 0:14:33.120 --> 0:14:37.840 do not have not made a connection between heart and mouth. 0:14:38.880 --> 0:14:42.560 The Bible teacher is with the heart man believeth unto salvation, 0:14:43.240 --> 0:14:48.480 but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. So 0:14:48.560 --> 0:14:53.320 to be able to articulate, I'm sad, you know, I'm 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:59.560 sad today. I am so sad today that it feels 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:03.920 as if I will never smile again. And I cannot 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:09.280 explain to you fully the source of the sadness. But 0:15:09.400 --> 0:15:12.240 it is as if all the color has been washed 0:15:12.240 --> 0:15:17.080 out of the earth, and water does not feel wet, 0:15:17.320 --> 0:15:21.960 and though the sudden rose, it did not shine. And 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:26.880 though I am breathing, I cannot get air. And my 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:32.720 soul is said to be able to describe a feeling 0:15:33.560 --> 0:15:36.440 to the point that it's depressed all of a sudden. 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:45.520 You know or or I love you. I love the 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:50.960 scent of your hair, I love the gleam in your eye. 0:15:51.440 --> 0:15:53.840 I love the way you lay your head on my shoulder, 0:15:55.040 --> 0:15:57.320 and I love the way you need me. And I'm 0:15:57.360 --> 0:16:01.600 not afraid to show me. Well, you know, what do 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.000 you love about me? I love you? That's fine. What 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:08.120 do you love? Some people do not have the They 0:16:08.200 --> 0:16:12.280 have not worked out in the gymnasium of communication enough 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:15.920 to express what they are feeling. It is not that 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:19.120 they're not feeling it, they haven't worked out to use 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:23.000 the skills that are necessary to communicate what is in 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:27.160 the heart. And so many marriages explode for the lack 0:16:27.240 --> 0:16:31.120 of something that both of them have, but they drop 0:16:31.200 --> 0:16:36.200 the mic. They don't communicate effectively one to another what 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.360 you need, And so you leave this woman who actually 0:16:40.560 --> 0:16:43.480 had what you needed but didn't know how to give 0:16:43.520 --> 0:16:47.600 it for some other woman who knows how to talk 0:16:47.680 --> 0:16:50.120 it but doesn't mean it like the woman you left. 0:16:52.440 --> 0:16:55.320 And that's also true with the man, irrespective a gender. 0:16:55.680 --> 0:16:58.400 This is what happens, and this is what happens in 0:16:58.480 --> 0:17:01.560 our country, and in our world, where we are talking 0:17:01.760 --> 0:17:07.760 at each other most of the time, couples don't really listen. 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.200 In the book, I talk about listening because I think 0:17:11.240 --> 0:17:13.120 that the art of being a great speaker is being 0:17:13.160 --> 0:17:17.919 a great listener. So I listen at you. I listen 0:17:17.960 --> 0:17:20.119 at you, I listen to other people. I listen at 0:17:20.119 --> 0:17:23.040 everybody speak. I listen at somebody when I'm counseling, and 0:17:23.440 --> 0:17:27.359 I'm a fierce counselor because I listen at you, and 0:17:27.400 --> 0:17:30.600 I remember what you said, and I draw a line 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:34.159 between everything that you shared with me, because listening is 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:38.960 more important than speaking. If I lose my ability to 0:17:39.040 --> 0:17:43.639 hear right now, gradually my ability to speak will begin 0:17:43.800 --> 0:17:50.400 to enroll because I can longer hear, so my ability 0:17:50.960 --> 0:17:57.440 speech begins to deteriorate. Because here is an association between 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:02.240 hearing and speaking. So the art of being a great 0:18:02.320 --> 0:18:06.720 speaker is also being a great listener. Listening at the text, 0:18:07.720 --> 0:18:12.840 Listening at the text. Now, Moses, my servant was dead, 0:18:13.960 --> 0:18:18.119 but as I was, was Moses. So shall I be 0:18:18.320 --> 0:18:23.560 with you? Listen at a God whom Moses dropped, And 0:18:23.640 --> 0:18:28.399 while Israel was still grieving, God turned his head and 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:34.480 continued talking to Joshua, as if nothing had happened at all. Now, Moses, 0:18:34.680 --> 0:18:38.680 my servant, is dead. But as I was was Moses, 0:18:39.600 --> 0:18:42.520 so shall I be with you? In other words, nothing 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:49.440 important has changed. I am still the same. Moses is dead, 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:55.720 but I am still the same. And I will continue 0:18:55.880 --> 0:19:01.119 my purpose irrespective of my vessel. And I am going 0:19:01.240 --> 0:19:03.439 to do it through you not Do you want me 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:05.560 to do it through you? Not? Would you like for 0:19:05.640 --> 0:19:11.120 me to do it through you as I was with Moses? Sosia. Oh, 0:19:11.160 --> 0:19:14.760 it's a boss move. The text is a boss move. 0:19:15.080 --> 0:19:18.639 There is a boss move, and so you But you 0:19:18.720 --> 0:19:22.240 can't read it and get that. You have to listen 0:19:22.359 --> 0:19:25.240 at it. You have to feel the intensity of it. 0:19:25.560 --> 0:19:28.520 You have to hear the sobbing in the background of 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:31.960 a nation of people who have lost the leader that 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:35.840 it has taken them forty years to love and it 0:19:35.840 --> 0:19:39.200 will take them four hundred to get over. And while 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:42.160 they are weeping at the bottom of the mountain, God, 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:47.160 shit's not one tear over Moses. He knows exactly where 0:19:47.200 --> 0:19:51.360 he is. He will have him escorted by his angels 0:19:51.960 --> 0:19:55.560 out of the situation where they last saw him. Rather 0:19:55.640 --> 0:20:00.400 than tweep, he turns his head and said, I will 0:20:00.440 --> 0:20:06.000 continue everything I was doing through you. That's what's happening now. 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:10.840 God is turning his head. Great leaders are passing, great 0:20:10.920 --> 0:20:14.639 leaders are retiring, Great leaders are expiring, and God is 0:20:14.720 --> 0:20:19.560 turning his head to the next generation and saying, as 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:27.120 I was with Moses, so shall I be with you. 0:20:28.160 --> 0:20:31.359 Can you imagine being Joshua being terrified because there's nothing 0:20:31.480 --> 0:20:37.120 worse than coming behind a great speaker. To come behind Moses, yeah, 0:20:37.119 --> 0:20:39.800 I've had to preach after you before that's fun comes stop. 0:20:40.800 --> 0:20:44.919 To come behind Moses and to have the responsibility. I 0:20:44.960 --> 0:20:47.480 wrote don't drop the mic to say to young people. 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:52.600 Number one, the mic is yours. It's not going to 0:20:52.640 --> 0:20:56.199 be yours, it's yours. We are still alive, but it 0:20:56.280 --> 0:20:59.760 is yours. It is your generation that must be reached 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:03.840 and touched and maintained relevance today. And I am just 0:21:03.920 --> 0:21:08.840 telling you that the mic is heavier than it looks. 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:11.800 Don't drop it when your feelings are hurt, don't drop 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:15.680 it when you're angry, and don't drop it. Can I 0:21:15.720 --> 0:21:19.280 ask you about that jump jump? And I think it 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:23.120 was nineteen ninety seven Michael Jordan played this game. It 0:21:23.200 --> 0:21:27.360 was game five in the NBA Championships, and he had 0:21:27.400 --> 0:21:31.400 the flu and he scored thirty eight points. I want 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:35.520 to hear that's Michael Jordan's flu game. I want to 0:21:35.560 --> 0:21:40.640 hear a Bishop Jake's flu game story, like a time 0:21:40.680 --> 0:21:46.080 where you stood. I can't think of a time that 0:21:46.119 --> 0:21:52.320 I didn't. I can't think of a time I can't. 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.359 I can't think of a time that I didn't. I 0:21:55.400 --> 0:21:58.560 had back surgery. They dug into my back four inches 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:04.520 four and l five when I came out of anesthesia 0:22:05.400 --> 0:22:09.080 in the hospital with a day's surgery. That they were 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:12.120 going to keep me over a couple of days. As 0:22:12.160 --> 0:22:16.560 soon as I woke up, I slid over to the 0:22:16.680 --> 0:22:20.840 side of the bed and threw my feet out and 0:22:20.920 --> 0:22:24.960 stood up on them and started walking. My wife wanted 0:22:25.000 --> 0:22:27.720 to kill me. The doctor thought I was on crack. 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:31.320 But I heard the doctor say that if I could 0:22:31.359 --> 0:22:33.840 work walk to the nursing station, they would let me 0:22:33.880 --> 0:22:38.000 go home. It hurts so bad that I started sweating, 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:42.360 but I wanted to go home, and the doctor said, 0:22:42.440 --> 0:22:44.760 let him go. He said, he's not the kind of 0:22:44.760 --> 0:22:47.040 guy you can keep and let him go. Let him 0:22:47.040 --> 0:22:50.640 go home. And I have always been a fighter. Now 0:22:50.680 --> 0:22:54.080 what's this with the pain that came. There's still a 0:22:54.080 --> 0:22:57.919 certain amount of anaesthesia, and you after the the anastesiologist 0:22:58.000 --> 0:23:00.120 is woking you up. You really don't know how fully 0:23:00.280 --> 0:23:02.719 how you feel. For a day when I came out 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:06.920 of complete anesthesia and the pain is riveting, and I 0:23:07.000 --> 0:23:09.679 had a chance to speak, maybe not that Sunday, but 0:23:09.760 --> 0:23:13.320 the following Sunday, I sat in a chair in front 0:23:13.320 --> 0:23:16.199 of the stage to prove to the devil that I 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:21.240 don't need my body. I don't need my body to 0:23:21.280 --> 0:23:24.320 be able to preach. There is something going on between 0:23:24.359 --> 0:23:27.560 my heart and my head and my mouth that requires 0:23:27.600 --> 0:23:30.480 nothing on my back. And I sat in the chair 0:23:30.600 --> 0:23:36.159 with my church packed, and I spoke irrespective of pain. 0:23:37.000 --> 0:23:41.399 This is the tenacity that I passed to you with 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:46.440 the mic. The tenacity says, I will override the way 0:23:46.480 --> 0:23:53.600 I feel and do what I was called to do. Yeah, yeah, 0:23:54.320 --> 0:23:58.719 So I prophesied as I was commanded. I did a 0:23:59.240 --> 0:24:03.720 reconciliation conference years ago while the million man March was 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:07.000 going on, and I was criticized and I was threatened, 0:24:07.000 --> 0:24:10.680 and I had death threats on my life and they 0:24:10.680 --> 0:24:12.600 were going to shoot me, and I put my boys 0:24:12.600 --> 0:24:15.600 in the background, because I didn't want their last sight 0:24:15.640 --> 0:24:21.440 of me to be bleeding. But I walked right down 0:24:21.480 --> 0:24:25.360 the streets of Atlanta with thousands of people fully prepared 0:24:25.400 --> 0:24:31.320 to die for what I believe. If you believe a 0:24:31.440 --> 0:24:38.560 thing that you are not willing to die over, it 0:24:38.680 --> 0:24:45.040 is not worthy of your faith. You know I said 0:24:45.080 --> 0:24:46.800 this before, and I shared with you, and I want 0:24:46.800 --> 0:24:48.000 to place this off you and you can tell me 0:24:48.040 --> 0:24:52.480 what you think about it. Thinking it's the final frontier 0:24:52.560 --> 0:25:01.520 of privacy we have left. Our technology had invaded every 0:25:01.680 --> 0:25:05.320 other idiom of communication we have with each other. That 0:25:05.440 --> 0:25:10.120 our texts aren't safe, our face times aren't safe, our 0:25:10.160 --> 0:25:14.320 phone calls are not safe. The only safe place where 0:25:14.400 --> 0:25:20.240 there are no drones, where there are no hackers, it's 0:25:20.280 --> 0:25:24.879 within the confines of my own mind. And with that 0:25:25.040 --> 0:25:29.679 being my final frontier, I refuse to allow you to 0:25:29.800 --> 0:25:39.160 tell me how to think. Yeah, because thinking is all 0:25:39.440 --> 0:25:44.919 I have left. And so once I open my mouth, 0:25:45.640 --> 0:25:49.960 my thoughts have become public. And once they have become public, 0:25:49.960 --> 0:25:53.880 they are going to be scrutinized and criticized and ostracized, 0:25:54.040 --> 0:25:56.320 and they're going to alienate me from this group or 0:25:56.359 --> 0:25:59.160 that group or the other. But that's why I must 0:25:59.200 --> 0:26:02.520 incubate him in the womb of my mind before I 0:26:02.640 --> 0:26:06.879 birthed them out of the canal of my mouth. Because 0:26:06.960 --> 0:26:13.320 once the thought is birthed, I'm sorry, doesn't always retract it. HM, 0:26:13.320 --> 0:26:16.320 when you're I think you said incubate them in the 0:26:16.359 --> 0:26:19.239 womb of my mind before I birthed them through the 0:26:19.240 --> 0:26:27.959 canal of my mouth. That's right. Yeah, no, no no, no, no, no, 0:26:28.040 --> 0:26:31.119 I want to say something. Is that gross? No? No, 0:26:31.240 --> 0:26:33.760 it's gross that you can do that without ever thinking 0:26:33.800 --> 0:26:37.840 about it. Just say stuff like that. Sickening is maddening. 0:26:38.600 --> 0:26:41.360 The word in Lagos in the beginning, what's the word? 0:26:41.359 --> 0:26:43.119 And the word was with God, and the word was God. 0:26:43.480 --> 0:26:47.840 Logos doesn't begin with speech. It begins with thought. That 0:26:47.920 --> 0:26:52.600 God is pregnant with thought, that he created what he thought. 0:26:52.720 --> 0:26:58.080 Everything we have on. Somebody thought it and then they 0:26:58.160 --> 0:27:01.240 drew it, and then they got a material and they 0:27:01.280 --> 0:27:04.320 sold it, and then they made it. But it started 0:27:04.359 --> 0:27:07.920 as a thought. The chair was a thought, the building 0:27:08.080 --> 0:27:11.520 was a thought, the pulpit was a thought. Everything star 0:27:11.560 --> 0:27:14.440 says a thought. In the beginning was the thoughts of God. 0:27:14.480 --> 0:27:17.240 And the thoughts of God was with God, and the 0:27:17.280 --> 0:27:20.600 thoughts of God were God. And out of the abundance 0:27:20.760 --> 0:27:25.359 of his thoughts he spoke, and it became whatever he thought. 0:27:25.680 --> 0:27:27.920 Let there be light. What is light? What I think 0:27:27.960 --> 0:27:33.800 it is? Let there be light. It wasn't even a word. 0:27:36.960 --> 0:27:40.520 It wasn't even a word. See what I'm saying, But 0:27:41.080 --> 0:27:43.280 it is what I think it is. Let there be light. 0:27:43.520 --> 0:27:45.800 And it became what he thought, and it became what 0:27:45.880 --> 0:27:48.399 he said. But in order to become what he said, 0:27:48.720 --> 0:27:51.199 it had to be what he thought. And so you 0:27:51.359 --> 0:27:55.480 become great in your mind before you become great on 0:27:55.600 --> 0:27:58.800 a stage. And whatever you think you are, you are, 0:27:58.960 --> 0:28:00.840 and I'll show you. I prove it to you. You 0:28:00.880 --> 0:28:03.720 can be a great preacher. And get in the car, 0:28:03.960 --> 0:28:06.800 and the enemy will fight you in your thoughts all 0:28:06.840 --> 0:28:10.400 the way home, because the enemy knows that the thoughts 0:28:10.440 --> 0:28:14.119 are the birth canal through which your preaching comes. And 0:28:14.240 --> 0:28:16.919 if he can convince you that you are not enough, 0:28:17.359 --> 0:28:21.040 he can terminate your ministry. Not because he couldn't shut 0:28:21.080 --> 0:28:24.080 your mouth, but he shuts down your thoughts. For as 0:28:24.119 --> 0:28:29.840 a man thinking in his art, so is he talk 0:28:29.920 --> 0:28:38.760 to me, somebody, look at somebody, say I can do this. 0:28:40.520 --> 0:28:44.920 You affirmation spoken over yourself, particularly if you're a person 0:28:44.960 --> 0:28:51.280 that wrestles with insufficiency complexes, it's the reason you have that. 0:28:51.800 --> 0:28:55.360 The reason you feel that way is because the way 0:28:55.400 --> 0:28:58.719 you talk to yourself. If you change the way you 0:28:58.840 --> 0:29:02.360 talk to yourself, you'll change how your story is. The 0:29:02.400 --> 0:29:04.960 Only thing the woman with the issue of blood did 0:29:05.040 --> 0:29:08.360 that saved her from dying was change how she talked 0:29:08.360 --> 0:29:15.240 to herself. She said, within herself, not to anybody else, 0:29:15.600 --> 0:29:19.200 if I may but touch the hem of his garment, 0:29:19.320 --> 0:29:24.960 I'll be made hole. So the greatest sermon starts within you. 0:29:26.440 --> 0:29:29.240 And so when you what you are saying to yourself 0:29:29.680 --> 0:29:32.280 will either make or break what you are doing with 0:29:32.440 --> 0:29:35.400 your life. So she said, if I may but touched. 0:29:35.440 --> 0:29:38.120 There was no scripture that said if you touch the 0:29:38.200 --> 0:29:40.880 him of his garment, you'll be made whole. But that 0:29:41.080 --> 0:29:43.680 was the way she thought about it, like there was 0:29:43.760 --> 0:29:47.240 no definition for light when God said, let there be light. 0:29:47.560 --> 0:29:50.000 But it became what he thought, And there was no 0:29:50.120 --> 0:29:52.800 definition for her to get healing by touching the hem 0:29:52.920 --> 0:29:55.600 of his garment. But she thought the thought, and she 0:29:55.800 --> 0:29:58.880 said it to herself until it became what she thought. 0:29:59.160 --> 0:30:01.560 If I may be touch for him of his garment, 0:30:01.800 --> 0:30:04.840 how'll be made whole as he falled through the crowd 0:30:05.160 --> 0:30:08.160 on our hands. Oh, I'm doing it again. I'm sorry, 0:30:09.560 --> 0:30:11.920 I'm doing it, I said, be just be cool. No, 0:30:13.080 --> 0:30:16.400 I'd love to hear this. I'd love to hear you know. 0:30:17.200 --> 0:30:19.280 We can have a hard time imagining that you would 0:30:19.280 --> 0:30:23.920 struggle with those insecurities. The first time I heard you 0:30:23.960 --> 0:30:26.560 talk about when you used to preach, you put the 0:30:26.600 --> 0:30:29.560 mic on a stand, yeah, because your hands would shake 0:30:29.640 --> 0:30:32.800 so much that you couldn't hold the mic. Yes. And 0:30:32.880 --> 0:30:36.960 I almost thought, I don't believe him. And I mean 0:30:36.960 --> 0:30:40.720 that with respect, just to see who you are, what 0:30:40.800 --> 0:30:43.360 you do. There was a part of me that thought, 0:30:43.720 --> 0:30:47.440 you know, he's saying I'm sweating through my clothes. I 0:30:47.480 --> 0:30:52.640 would stutter so bad. And I think I think it 0:30:52.680 --> 0:30:54.640 took me a minute to believe that, because I couldn't 0:30:54.640 --> 0:30:57.200 believe that that same voice that talks to me that 0:30:57.240 --> 0:31:01.440 way talks to you the same way. I guarantee you, 0:31:02.840 --> 0:31:06.040 I scrutinize, I will go home, I will go back 0:31:06.040 --> 0:31:10.560 to my hotel and scrutinize everything that we said still 0:31:11.240 --> 0:31:14.080 yes tonight, because that's the only way to get better. 0:31:14.520 --> 0:31:19.920 And when you stop getting better, you start dying. When 0:31:20.560 --> 0:31:24.560 a teacher ceases to be a student, they begin to 0:31:24.640 --> 0:31:31.280 be irrelevant. So to have the courage to critique yourself 0:31:31.480 --> 0:31:33.200 and say, I could have done this better, I could 0:31:33.240 --> 0:31:35.880 have done that better, I could have explained this. Wonder 0:31:35.880 --> 0:31:38.320 did they really get what I was saying? Are still 0:31:38.320 --> 0:31:40.880 the voices that live in my head, but they don't 0:31:40.960 --> 0:31:47.200 live too loud? See See, the art of it is 0:31:47.240 --> 0:31:50.400 not to kill the voice, is to cut the volume down. 0:31:54.400 --> 0:31:58.600 So instead of existing out a ten, maybe it exists 0:31:58.600 --> 0:32:00.960 at a three. I don't want to kill it because 0:32:01.000 --> 0:32:04.240 if I kill it, I'll become arrogant. And if I 0:32:04.320 --> 0:32:07.240 become arrogant, the Bible says, when you were small in 0:32:07.320 --> 0:32:10.360 your own eyes, I bless you, And if I become arrogant, 0:32:10.400 --> 0:32:12.920 I will lose my knowinging. So I don't want to 0:32:13.040 --> 0:32:18.440 kill that voice of dissension that balances my accomplishments. And 0:32:18.480 --> 0:32:22.320 so God balances my accomplishment with the throwing in my 0:32:22.440 --> 0:32:25.560 flesh that makes me question myself. So I don't want 0:32:25.800 --> 0:32:28.840 him to remove the throwing in my flesh because I 0:32:28.880 --> 0:32:31.480 need balance for the weight of the glory that he 0:32:31.560 --> 0:32:35.280 placed in my life. But I don't want that voice 0:32:35.280 --> 0:32:39.440 to become so loud that it cannibalizes what He has 0:32:39.560 --> 0:32:44.040 created in me. And so when I say don't drop 0:32:44.120 --> 0:32:52.920 the mic, I'm passing on to younger, newer, because everything 0:32:53.000 --> 0:32:56.960 new isn't young. There may be somebody who's forty or 0:32:57.080 --> 0:33:00.520 fifty who has spent their life doing one thing, and 0:33:00.600 --> 0:33:04.160 yet they're about to be new to doing something they've 0:33:04.160 --> 0:33:09.000 never done before. So this you understand, so new isn't 0:33:09.040 --> 0:33:11.400 about chronological agent. On the other hand, there may be 0:33:11.480 --> 0:33:16.240 somebody who's twenty five who's stuck on being fifteen and 0:33:16.280 --> 0:33:20.200 refuses to grow up, and they're not ready yet, and 0:33:20.200 --> 0:33:23.560 they're not precocious enough to evolve into the magnitude of 0:33:23.600 --> 0:33:26.560 what God has called them to do. So instead I'll 0:33:26.680 --> 0:33:29.160 just leave it a very neutral statement. To whoever's new 0:33:29.680 --> 0:33:33.520 and whoever's next, I want them to understand what's normal 0:33:35.200 --> 0:33:40.760 with communication and to respect communication, so that you don't 0:33:40.800 --> 0:33:43.800 just say us anything to anybody, and you don't become 0:33:43.840 --> 0:33:47.360 a troll on Twitter because you know that words have power, 0:33:47.760 --> 0:33:51.040 and you don't keep saying things to your wife that 0:33:51.160 --> 0:33:54.560 you have to apologize for because you let them incubate 0:33:54.640 --> 0:33:57.840 in your mind. Some of them are aborted and not 0:33:58.040 --> 0:34:00.800 birthed because you find out it was and as important 0:34:00.800 --> 0:34:03.960 as you thought it was. Because eventually she will get 0:34:04.000 --> 0:34:07.560 tired of I'm sorry, and you will lose somebody you 0:34:07.680 --> 0:34:12.040 need because you drove them away with the with the acrimonious, 0:34:12.280 --> 0:34:15.360 vicious tone in which you attack who you love, because 0:34:15.360 --> 0:34:18.920 we often attack who we love, and we're polite with 0:34:19.120 --> 0:34:22.960 people we don't love because of yeah, am I daughter. 0:34:24.320 --> 0:34:29.000 She this is a problem. Listen, men, listen women. A 0:34:29.040 --> 0:34:31.359 lot of times, when a man thinks you won't leave, 0:34:31.960 --> 0:34:37.480 he will. He will abuse you because he is frustrated 0:34:37.960 --> 0:34:41.680 by life and circumstances, and he has to be polite 0:34:42.160 --> 0:34:46.040 to whom he doesn't know, but he feels free to 0:34:46.440 --> 0:34:51.480 attack you because he is attacking him. You treat your 0:34:51.560 --> 0:34:56.239 woman like you treat yourself, and she gets caught up 0:34:56.280 --> 0:34:59.920 in the orbit of your reality. She treats you like 0:35:00.120 --> 0:35:04.560 she treats herself. And so we're two planets connecting, and 0:35:04.640 --> 0:35:09.040 those two orbits come together. And if you are cynical 0:35:09.360 --> 0:35:13.520 and doubtful and a fread, you have nobody else to 0:35:13.640 --> 0:35:16.439 vent that on, but somebody who you think won't leave. 0:35:18.280 --> 0:35:21.440 And so what we have to do is to be 0:35:21.640 --> 0:35:25.000 ride or die enough to stay with you, but not 0:35:25.239 --> 0:35:28.880 enough to allow my stain to give you license to 0:35:28.960 --> 0:35:34.560 abuse me. Okay, so we can talk about anything, but 0:35:34.640 --> 0:35:38.680 you can't vent on me because you're insecure about you. 0:35:39.320 --> 0:35:42.280 So when you said turn it down, I felt every 0:35:42.280 --> 0:35:45.360 one of us in the room kind of asking the question, 0:35:45.520 --> 0:35:47.560 how how to turn it? You know, it's not like 0:35:47.600 --> 0:35:50.880 a knob for the internal critic, for the shame for 0:35:50.960 --> 0:35:55.399 the and so you turn it down? How First of all, 0:35:55.760 --> 0:36:00.400 you have an inner circle of people that you trust 0:36:00.719 --> 0:36:06.160 to reaffirm you. We need each other. We need each 0:36:06.160 --> 0:36:07.960 other no matter who you are, A large or small, 0:36:08.320 --> 0:36:11.799 you need. You need a girlfriend. Every woman in here 0:36:12.080 --> 0:36:15.160 needs a girlfriend who can tell her that that dress 0:36:15.239 --> 0:36:22.680 is not for you. My wife says. My wife says, 0:36:23.120 --> 0:36:25.200 this is why my wife says it. She says she 0:36:25.320 --> 0:36:30.960 either needed a friend or a mirror. You need somebody 0:36:31.000 --> 0:36:34.680 who needs to tell you that purple lipstick is not 0:36:34.880 --> 0:36:39.439 your calling, okay, because you want to try different things, 0:36:39.440 --> 0:36:43.640 and you need somebody who is who has license to 0:36:43.680 --> 0:36:47.680 be honest with you and who can affirm you when 0:36:47.719 --> 0:36:50.000 you're just a friend and tell you you're not worried 0:36:50.040 --> 0:36:53.840 about nothing. You were awesome, You were incredible, and you 0:36:53.960 --> 0:36:56.600 need to let them reaffirm you. Now, here's the bigger 0:36:56.680 --> 0:37:01.320 problem with turning it down. Sometimes we won't let people 0:37:01.520 --> 0:37:07.000 encourage us because we will reject what they say by 0:37:07.160 --> 0:37:10.640 trivializing them. Or you're just saying that because you're my wife. 0:37:10.760 --> 0:37:13.480 You're just saying that because you're my mother, because you're 0:37:13.520 --> 0:37:21.560 addicted to pain. You refuse the physician because you're addicted 0:37:21.640 --> 0:37:25.960 to the pain, and so in order to recover from that, 0:37:26.360 --> 0:37:29.960 you have to let the physician come and bill you 0:37:30.160 --> 0:37:33.960 until you echo what they are saying about you. And 0:37:34.040 --> 0:37:37.040 little by little you come into a place where you think, 0:37:37.120 --> 0:37:39.680 not I can do all things, but I can do 0:37:39.719 --> 0:37:45.400 all things through Christ, which strengthens me. And whatever I 0:37:45.480 --> 0:37:48.359 did and whatever style I did it in as long 0:37:48.400 --> 0:37:52.200 as it accomplished His purpose, not mine, it was enough. 0:37:52.560 --> 0:37:54.160 I was nervous one day and I was going to 0:37:54.160 --> 0:37:56.200 speak in West Virginia. I was a young man, about 0:37:56.200 --> 0:37:59.600 twenty something, and I was real, real nervous, and it 0:37:59.680 --> 0:38:02.960 was in here, what's up, I gotta I got a 0:38:03.040 --> 0:38:07.400 hill billy up in here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, take me 0:38:07.560 --> 0:38:14.919 home country, roll to the place I belong, West Virginia. 0:38:15.640 --> 0:38:20.160 My mama when you know all the wordst of that, 0:38:20.480 --> 0:38:25.080 that's you horizinal I learned on acoustic guitar. Really, that's 0:38:25.160 --> 0:38:31.680 my jam boy. Okay, but but what you have to 0:38:34.880 --> 0:38:36.920 your pastor is crazy. I hate to tell you this, 0:38:37.640 --> 0:38:40.240 but your pastor is crazy. He's one of my favorite 0:38:40.239 --> 0:38:44.040 people in all the world. And talk to h He's incredible. 0:38:44.080 --> 0:38:49.440 He's inquisitive, he's intellectual, he's articulate, he's creative, he's annoying 0:38:49.520 --> 0:39:08.160 it he's amazing. And part of my call in his 0:39:08.360 --> 0:39:11.640 life is to turn down the tone of the other 0:39:11.719 --> 0:39:18.640 voices by saying that was amazing and fighting through the propensity. 0:39:20.160 --> 0:39:24.719 All great people have to be self critical. One of 0:39:24.719 --> 0:39:29.880 the signs of greatness is to be self critical because 0:39:29.960 --> 0:39:37.000 you're a perfectionist. And it's people who hang up a 0:39:37.040 --> 0:39:41.920 code any kind of way, who can leave a closet 0:39:41.960 --> 0:39:46.920 in any condition, who cannot spell check a statement before 0:39:46.920 --> 0:39:52.160 they release it are telling you that I won't be great, 0:39:52.280 --> 0:39:59.799 because greatness is in details, not platforms. So you don't 0:39:59.800 --> 0:40:01.640 have to be rich, you don't have to be famous. 0:40:02.000 --> 0:40:06.319 The more you care about details, the closer you get 0:40:06.400 --> 0:40:10.160 to greatness. You know, and when your details are wrong, 0:40:10.200 --> 0:40:13.799 you want to correct them immediately because it matters to 0:40:13.840 --> 0:40:18.120 you because the moment, the moment you open your mouth, 0:40:18.880 --> 0:40:22.759 you start to teach people who you are. If you 0:40:22.800 --> 0:40:25.600 and I sit down here and nobody knew us in 0:40:25.640 --> 0:40:28.200 the room, and we sat down in the chair, as 0:40:28.320 --> 0:40:31.000 long as we didn't open our mouths, they wouldn't know 0:40:31.000 --> 0:40:36.040 whether we were lawyers or doctors, or gangsters or drug dealers. 0:40:36.320 --> 0:40:39.840 They wouldn't know. They would make certain assessments by our clothing. 0:40:40.520 --> 0:40:44.480 But the moment we utter a word out of our mouths, 0:40:44.920 --> 0:40:49.239 immediately the computer of their brain begins to scan to 0:40:49.400 --> 0:40:54.040 learn about who we are. That's why language is important, 0:40:54.760 --> 0:40:58.560 because it teaches people who you are, and it teaches 0:40:58.640 --> 0:41:02.640 people what you need. A lot of times we're angry 0:41:02.680 --> 0:41:06.640 with people. I have let me confess, I have been 0:41:06.719 --> 0:41:14.200 angry with my wife, really angry, deeply hidden, and angry 0:41:14.840 --> 0:41:19.400 about something she wasn't giving me that I never asked 0:41:19.400 --> 0:41:26.879 her for. And it took me a while to realize 0:41:28.239 --> 0:41:34.600 that women don't read sign language, so men tend to 0:41:34.719 --> 0:41:38.560 talk in sign language. So when we want something, we 0:41:38.680 --> 0:41:41.640 give you a signal, and the signal is so clear 0:41:41.719 --> 0:41:46.120 to us that when you miss the signal, we get 0:41:46.239 --> 0:41:55.759 secretly mad that she that fellas that I write about it. 0:41:57.160 --> 0:42:01.600 You can't tell what that meant, that that I sent 0:42:01.760 --> 0:42:06.920 you the signal, that that is the signal, and you 0:42:07.200 --> 0:42:15.600 miss the signal. How could you miss the sea and 0:42:16.680 --> 0:42:20.960 not realizing that I had to learn how to talk 0:42:23.880 --> 0:42:27.600 because I was angry with her over something she was 0:42:27.680 --> 0:42:34.120 willing to give, but she couldn't read sign language. So 0:42:34.239 --> 0:42:37.000 don't drop the mic on your marriage, don't drop the 0:42:37.080 --> 0:42:41.040 mic on your ministry, don't drop the micael on your career, 0:42:41.840 --> 0:42:45.560 don't drop the Michael on your children, don't drop the 0:42:45.600 --> 0:42:51.280 Michael on the next generation. Just keep talking. If black 0:42:51.320 --> 0:43:02.280 folks and white folks keep talking, we will at least 0:43:04.480 --> 0:43:07.799 we will at least get to be as smart as 0:43:07.880 --> 0:43:15.160 great danes. You don't see brown great danes fighting with 0:43:15.360 --> 0:43:21.280 black great danes. You don't see a white Doberman pincher 0:43:21.600 --> 0:43:26.480 arguing with the brown Doberman pincher. We are the only 0:43:26.640 --> 0:43:32.560 species that allow the color of our exterior to deny 0:43:33.280 --> 0:43:47.840 our common experience. You don't if you know deep sea dibin, 0:43:47.960 --> 0:43:50.359 you don't see all the goldfish hanging out on one 0:43:50.480 --> 0:43:53.880 side and all the bluefish are on the other side, 0:43:54.120 --> 0:43:57.160 and the bluefish are snaring at the goldfish, talking about 0:43:57.480 --> 0:44:02.319 I'm better than you. What does the animal kingdom know 0:44:02.960 --> 0:44:07.800 about species that the human species has yet to learn. 0:44:09.440 --> 0:44:14.080 They know that we are the same species. They know 0:44:14.280 --> 0:44:17.280 that if you start bleeding and I have the same 0:44:17.360 --> 0:44:20.359 type of blood that you do, the difference in our 0:44:20.400 --> 0:44:25.279 skin will not stop the transfusion. They know that my 0:44:25.600 --> 0:44:30.640 kidney will replace your kidney, and your body will accept 0:44:30.680 --> 0:44:34.000 my kidney. Even though I'm a black man and you're 0:44:34.000 --> 0:44:40.720 a white man, we're still men. Why aren't we still 0:44:42.000 --> 0:44:50.640 having this stupid conversation about power when we need to 0:44:50.880 --> 0:44:56.600 allocate power equally and honestly and fairly, and killing me 0:44:56.800 --> 0:45:05.880 won't make you king. So so you're not any greater 0:45:06.560 --> 0:45:11.399 by looking down at somebody. You actually become greater by 0:45:11.440 --> 0:45:15.719 looking up at somebody, because the further you push me, 0:45:16.840 --> 0:45:21.200 the higher you go. You understand what I'm saying. So 0:45:21.200 --> 0:45:24.080 so so these types of things I thought, I thought, 0:45:24.160 --> 0:45:28.239 for can I talk about the von Trail for a minute? Yeah? Absolutely, 0:45:28.680 --> 0:45:32.200 I thought the Derk charvon Traill talk many things. I 0:45:32.800 --> 0:45:36.480 thought I talked many things. Uh, personally, I agreed with 0:45:36.280 --> 0:45:45.279 the verdict. I thought it was quite obvious you can 0:45:45.360 --> 0:45:48.000 tie my hands all day and lay me face down 0:45:48.080 --> 0:45:50.319 on concrete, and I will not die. And I have 0:45:50.440 --> 0:45:55.279 high blood pressure, I will not die. I might get 0:45:55.280 --> 0:45:57.919 a cramp, and I might get hungry, I might even 0:45:58.360 --> 0:46:02.560 I might even pass gas. But I will not die. Okay, 0:46:02.600 --> 0:46:06.640 I will not die. So offering that as an understanding 0:46:06.760 --> 0:46:09.680 for reasoning of why he is dead seems a little 0:46:09.680 --> 0:46:14.480 bit acidine to me. However, there are greater lessons to 0:46:14.520 --> 0:46:19.920 be learned. You had six white jurors, four African American jewors, 0:46:20.280 --> 0:46:25.400 and two biracial jurors who, when exposed to the same truth, 0:46:26.600 --> 0:46:34.600 drew the same conclusion unanimously. So think about this for 0:46:34.600 --> 0:46:37.920 a minute. That means that if we're not getting along, 0:46:38.640 --> 0:46:49.520 we're not being exposed to the same truth. The Chavin 0:46:49.880 --> 0:46:54.520 case is the greatest argument for democracy in the world. 0:46:55.320 --> 0:47:02.600 It proved that officers could testify against bad officers, and 0:47:02.640 --> 0:47:06.040 that speaking against a bad officer doesn't mean that you 0:47:06.120 --> 0:47:12.760 are disloyal to good officers. Is shut down every argument 0:47:12.960 --> 0:47:16.799 we had. What we are at war with is not 0:47:16.880 --> 0:47:19.600 the police, and we're not at war with each other. 0:47:20.080 --> 0:47:24.960 We are at war with abuse and wickedness and human 0:47:25.080 --> 0:47:30.920 depravity and the loss of dignity. We are at war 0:47:31.840 --> 0:47:36.280 with your son laying down in the street, bleeding out 0:47:36.320 --> 0:47:41.359 on a sidewalk, screaming for his mama. And yes he 0:47:41.480 --> 0:47:45.120 is flawed, and yes he has problems, and yes he 0:47:45.239 --> 0:47:48.520 has issues, and yes he may need to be arrested, 0:47:49.040 --> 0:47:53.839 but he does not need to be tried on the sidewalk. 0:47:54.760 --> 0:47:58.440 That's all we're saying. We're not saying he's sub virgin married. 0:48:00.520 --> 0:48:03.960 We're not saying to Guy's mother, Teresa. We are saying 0:48:03.960 --> 0:48:06.400 that when you find something wrong with us, treat us 0:48:06.520 --> 0:48:09.040 like you do when you find something wrong with your 0:48:09.080 --> 0:48:27.759 nephew and your niece. That's all. I'm gonna ask an 0:48:27.760 --> 0:48:31.239 honest question in here. Everybody who's ever been drunk at 0:48:31.320 --> 0:48:34.640 least once in your life, would you stand up for 0:48:34.640 --> 0:48:39.680 a minute if you've ever been drunk in your entire life. 0:48:39.920 --> 0:48:43.400 There are as many white folks standing as black drogs, 0:48:44.440 --> 0:48:50.799 There are as many women standing as men. Now let 0:48:50.840 --> 0:48:54.440 me ask your question, did you want to be choked 0:48:54.440 --> 0:49:04.600 to death for it? That's what we're saying. Bishop. We've 0:49:04.640 --> 0:49:10.440 lost them, found out the beginning to hit the souls 0:49:10.520 --> 0:49:17.799 at one point, God bless you, brother. I want I 0:49:17.840 --> 0:49:20.319 wanted to publicly thank you for your patience and and 0:49:20.400 --> 0:49:25.080 guidance on this. I called you when at Mother Emmanuel 0:49:25.280 --> 0:49:30.080 Amy in Charleston. I wanted to speak about it to 0:49:30.120 --> 0:49:33.480 my church, and you picked up the phone to guide 0:49:33.480 --> 0:49:35.239 me through it. You know, you could have you could 0:49:35.239 --> 0:49:39.120 have talked to me. Our church wasn't always diverse, and 0:49:39.160 --> 0:49:42.160 the more diverse our church became, the more I needed 0:49:42.160 --> 0:49:45.480 to learn and the more I needed to listen. And Uh, 0:49:45.560 --> 0:49:48.480 you were there for me, not with judgment or how 0:49:48.520 --> 0:49:50.200 could you be so stupid not to know how to 0:49:50.239 --> 0:49:53.320 speak to this or to not get it. But it 0:49:53.600 --> 0:49:57.920 took many conversations for you to help me even understand 0:49:58.000 --> 0:50:01.319 what I was speaking to and what my silence communicated. 0:50:01.840 --> 0:50:04.040 And I wouldn't have known that without you in my life. 0:50:05.360 --> 0:50:07.200 I wouldn't have known that without you in my life. 0:50:08.160 --> 0:50:10.560 I also think that a lot of people don't have 0:50:10.600 --> 0:50:13.840 that kind of relationship where they can admit their ignorance 0:50:14.040 --> 0:50:18.239 right without the fear of judgment. You're right, and so 0:50:18.280 --> 0:50:27.480 they practice on Facebook. It's true. Yeah, it's funny, but 0:50:27.520 --> 0:50:31.360 it's true. Yeah, where you can get slaughtered. My advice 0:50:31.400 --> 0:50:33.880 to all the white folks, black folks and brown folks 0:50:33.880 --> 0:50:36.239 in the row is if you have an idea about 0:50:36.239 --> 0:50:40.080 a racial issue, don't try it out on Twitter or Facebook. 0:50:41.320 --> 0:50:44.279 Find you a couple of people that you want to 0:50:44.360 --> 0:50:47.440 talk to about it and say, how does this sound 0:50:47.520 --> 0:50:50.880 to you? And it's not that I'm trying to change 0:50:50.880 --> 0:50:53.839 your opinion, but how do I need to word it 0:50:53.880 --> 0:50:59.319 where it can be heard? Because how you word it 0:50:59.400 --> 0:51:03.919 determines how the other person hears it. And you can 0:51:04.080 --> 0:51:07.400 have the opinion of your choice, but you need to 0:51:07.440 --> 0:51:11.280 be able to word it. It's like talking to your wife. 0:51:11.760 --> 0:51:16.759 It's how you worded you know, you know, does my 0:51:16.960 --> 0:51:21.040 behindling big and disease? Now? Is how you answer this 0:51:21.160 --> 0:51:26.400 question determines the next seven dinners that you're going to 0:51:26.440 --> 0:51:32.239 eat in this house. Evening activities, yes, every evening activities 0:51:32.239 --> 0:51:37.120 and everything are going to be deterred for a long 0:51:37.239 --> 0:51:42.080 time if you don't answer this question right. First of all, 0:51:42.120 --> 0:51:44.600 you have to know whether big is a compliment to 0:51:44.680 --> 0:51:58.480 her or not in one group of communities. Cut the 0:51:58.600 --> 0:52:02.399 camera and cut the camera. You've been on lockdown so long. Yeah, 0:52:02.520 --> 0:52:04.960 it's amazing you let me out of the house. You're 0:52:04.960 --> 0:52:09.799 gonna get it wrong. Here is the thing, though, it's 0:52:09.880 --> 0:52:15.239 a funny illustration, but it's a good one. Your cultural 0:52:15.400 --> 0:52:22.560 background controls what you think is good. So what is 0:52:22.840 --> 0:52:28.200 bad in one community is a compliment in another community. 0:52:28.920 --> 0:52:31.239 And so in the book I talk about studying your 0:52:31.320 --> 0:52:35.440 audience before you make your statement, because you will know 0:52:35.560 --> 0:52:40.400 whether you are insulting them by what you're saying or not. 0:52:41.000 --> 0:52:45.080 You know. And all of this is not just to 0:52:45.120 --> 0:52:50.920 make better orators. In the Manable, God used the most 0:52:51.000 --> 0:52:58.040 bilingual people to do the biggest assignments. Moses, who is 0:52:58.120 --> 0:53:03.640 born a slave on the hitless of Pharaoh, destined to 0:53:03.760 --> 0:53:10.799 die hidden in his mama's tent, built She built a 0:53:11.440 --> 0:53:14.680 art and put him in the bulrushes and selled him down. 0:53:14.760 --> 0:53:19.480 The noun Pharaoh's daughter picked him up and brought him 0:53:19.480 --> 0:53:23.840 in the palace. So he's a slave raised like a prince. 0:53:25.280 --> 0:53:29.360 He is educated like an Egyptian, but he is connected 0:53:29.400 --> 0:53:33.799 to the slaves. God can use him to go back 0:53:33.840 --> 0:53:38.719 and speak to Pharaoh because he knows the protocol of 0:53:38.760 --> 0:53:41.600 the house in a way that a slave would never know. 0:53:43.280 --> 0:53:48.919 The broader girth of your experiences, the more diversely God 0:53:49.080 --> 0:53:55.160 can use you. Now, Peter walked with Jesus the longest 0:53:55.200 --> 0:53:59.520 Paul was a Christian killer. But Paul spoke in five 0:53:59.600 --> 0:54:04.399 different languages, and Peter only spoke in one, and he 0:54:04.480 --> 0:54:08.800 was a fisherman, and it limited how God could use him. 0:54:09.400 --> 0:54:13.239 He couldn't send Peter to Mars Hill to speak to 0:54:13.320 --> 0:54:18.640 them at Athens because Peter couldn't speak Greek. But because 0:54:18.719 --> 0:54:23.839 Paul was bilingual, he is responsible for most of the 0:54:23.880 --> 0:54:28.600 epistles of the New Testament because of the broadness of 0:54:28.680 --> 0:54:33.719 his exposure, and so not all people get to be 0:54:33.880 --> 0:54:37.040 exposed to all the things that I have been exposed to. 0:54:40.600 --> 0:54:46.600 I went to President Lusevani. His wife hosted a breakfast 0:54:46.640 --> 0:54:51.920 for me and brought in all of the aristocracy of 0:54:52.120 --> 0:54:55.960 Uganda to attend a breakfast on my behalf. The King 0:54:56.000 --> 0:54:59.080 of Swaziland through a dinner party for me, and I 0:54:59.120 --> 0:55:02.080 was a guest of the King of Swaziland. I was 0:55:02.239 --> 0:55:07.400 entertained by Nelson Mandela's family. I have been in the 0:55:07.640 --> 0:55:12.880 oval office of three Democrat, Republican and then Democrat heads 0:55:12.920 --> 0:55:16.520 of state. I spoke on the National Day of Prayer. 0:55:17.200 --> 0:55:20.960 I have spoken many times with Larry King, to Oprah Winfrey, 0:55:21.480 --> 0:55:26.400 to Matt Crouch, to Paul Crouch. Today Star. I have 0:55:26.640 --> 0:55:31.600 spoken to Pat Robertson, I had spoken to Puffy. I 0:55:31.719 --> 0:55:35.839 just did an interview with jez and I just did 0:55:36.360 --> 0:55:42.440 just got off the phone texting Joel Ostein. From Jeezi 0:55:42.520 --> 0:55:49.359 to Joel, is I like that? Oh? Can I ask 0:55:49.360 --> 0:55:52.440 you one question? Sure, if Pastor Stephen Ferdick and Pastor 0:55:52.520 --> 0:55:54.520 Joel Ostein were both on a boat and you had 0:55:54.520 --> 0:56:00.719 to throw one overboard, who had left? Let me find 0:56:00.719 --> 0:56:03.200 out who can swim the best. And I'll answer the question. 0:56:04.480 --> 0:56:06.880 Because I can't afford to lose neither one of you. 0:56:08.800 --> 0:56:12.600 I would left it. See how you get out of it? 0:56:13.440 --> 0:56:15.879 Did you write that down? That's how you get out 0:56:15.880 --> 0:56:20.759 of it when he dress you up. My point is 0:56:21.480 --> 0:56:25.960 not everybody will get those opportunities. I was on death 0:56:26.080 --> 0:56:31.920 row with a girl named Erica, right before they were 0:56:31.920 --> 0:56:35.920 scheduled to execute her. I know what it is to 0:56:35.960 --> 0:56:41.719 say last rites over somebody before they're terminated. I have 0:56:41.960 --> 0:56:48.080 baptized mongoloid babies and talk with the family as they 0:56:48.160 --> 0:56:52.120 let them go off of life support. I spent three 0:56:52.200 --> 0:56:56.640 days in San Quentin mining the ministering the gospel where 0:56:56.640 --> 0:57:01.400 there are no offerings to inmate that have been forgotten 0:57:01.400 --> 0:57:06.880 about him forsaken. I've had thirty thousand formally incarcerated inmates 0:57:07.160 --> 0:57:10.680 to go through our Texas Offenders re Entry Initiative, and 0:57:10.719 --> 0:57:15.680 we were just invited to Canada to appear before Parliament 0:57:16.160 --> 0:57:20.440 to make a case for re entry programs in Canada. 0:57:25.160 --> 0:57:31.640 You can't amass that plethora of information and that exposure 0:57:31.760 --> 0:57:36.240 not effect how you think. I was in the dressing 0:57:36.320 --> 0:57:39.960 room many times with Aretha Franklin. Her number, her cell 0:57:40.000 --> 0:57:43.440 phone is still in my phone. I never erased it. 0:57:44.880 --> 0:57:47.520 You know. I was in behind the scenes with Anita 0:57:47.560 --> 0:57:51.040 Baker on her final tour and was a personal friend 0:57:51.080 --> 0:57:54.800 of mine. I have met gospel artist, jazz artist, hip 0:57:54.840 --> 0:57:57.520 hop artists, some of the greats. Some of them are dead, 0:57:57.600 --> 0:58:00.040 some of them have passed on. My mother went to 0:58:00.080 --> 0:58:04.880 school with Coretta Scott King. My mother went singing the 0:58:04.960 --> 0:58:09.520 choir with Corretta. I had the privilege of having dinner 0:58:09.560 --> 0:58:13.840 in her home on several occasions. She came to the 0:58:13.880 --> 0:58:18.480 dedication of our first church. I had Corretta Scott King 0:58:18.720 --> 0:58:22.520 in the same room with Pat Robinson, in the same 0:58:22.640 --> 0:58:26.960 room with Al Gore, in the same room with James Robinson. 0:58:29.160 --> 0:58:33.960 Now that's confusing that's as diverse and broad as you 0:58:34.040 --> 0:58:37.120 can go. At the end of the day, all of 0:58:37.160 --> 0:58:41.680 those experiences helped to inform me. The first thing I 0:58:41.720 --> 0:58:43.880 did to Dallas when I came to Dollars was not 0:58:44.000 --> 0:58:48.000 run a revival. I rented the Dallas Convention Center and 0:58:48.080 --> 0:58:51.960 threw a party for homeless people, and we fed them 0:58:52.040 --> 0:58:54.520 and we clothed them, and we had a job fare. 0:58:55.000 --> 0:59:01.880 That's how I introduced my ministry to Dallas. Twenty five 0:59:02.000 --> 0:59:05.480 years later, we are still doing that. We are still 0:59:05.880 --> 0:59:11.480 feeding and clothing and serving and giving and helping the 0:59:11.600 --> 0:59:15.760 disenfranchise and the marginalized. I don't say that to break 0:59:16.000 --> 0:59:21.920 I am saying not everybody will go to Buckingham Palace, 0:59:22.560 --> 0:59:26.000 not everybody will go to the Oval Office. But when 0:59:26.040 --> 0:59:31.000 you read what I share, you will gather my conclusions 0:59:31.440 --> 0:59:36.000 without making the trip, and should you go, you will 0:59:36.000 --> 0:59:41.320 have some preparation for understanding that the language you use 0:59:41.640 --> 0:59:46.200 in your circle is not the same language you use 0:59:47.520 --> 0:59:53.480 when you are doing an interview with a business journalist 0:59:54.080 --> 0:59:59.320 or a conservative talk show radio. It's different than doing 0:59:59.520 --> 1:00:04.760 a morning Did you learn that the hard way? I listened? 1:00:06.600 --> 1:00:14.760 I didn't. I listened. Everybody is your teacher my mother 1:00:14.880 --> 1:00:17.680 told me the world is a university, and everybody in 1:00:17.760 --> 1:00:20.120 it is a teacher. When you wake up in the morning, 1:00:20.240 --> 1:00:29.280 be sure you go to school. Everybody teaches you something. 1:00:29.600 --> 1:00:32.040 The people who do it wrong teach you as much 1:00:32.280 --> 1:00:35.520 as the people who do it right. They all teach 1:00:35.560 --> 1:00:41.760 you something. My material is best served to people who 1:00:41.800 --> 1:00:46.800 aren't finished with themselves yet, who still have mountains to conquer, 1:00:47.080 --> 1:00:51.440 who still have dreams to dream, who still have valleys 1:00:51.440 --> 1:00:55.520 to cross and rivers to ford. My material is not 1:00:55.640 --> 1:01:00.560 really good for people who are finished and satisfied and comfortable, 1:01:00.840 --> 1:01:03.280 and the only thing you want to do is lay 1:01:03.320 --> 1:01:05.640 on to be somewhere and count how much sand you 1:01:05.680 --> 1:01:11.800 can get on your thigh. I want to empower and 1:01:11.920 --> 1:01:18.760 empot and invest in whose next to lower your learning 1:01:18.880 --> 1:01:24.760 curve of becoming whatever it is you were created to become. 1:01:25.880 --> 1:01:31.720 That's what I want to do. And little, my little phrase, 1:01:31.800 --> 1:01:36.160 don't drop the mic. If. Yes, it's for preachers, but 1:01:36.280 --> 1:01:40.760 it's for dreamers and thinkers, and people who want to 1:01:40.800 --> 1:01:44.760 write scripts and films and do movies, and people who 1:01:44.800 --> 1:01:46.959 want to do more than one thing and you're trying 1:01:47.000 --> 1:01:50.320 to pick which thing to do, and people who have 1:01:50.480 --> 1:01:54.680 diverse talents and interests, but you haven't galvanized them into 1:01:54.720 --> 1:01:58.880 one setting. Because I can relate to that. I was 1:01:59.000 --> 1:02:02.880 called to preach the gospel. I live to preach the gospel. 1:02:03.080 --> 1:02:06.120 I'm never more alive than when I'm preaching the gospel. 1:02:06.560 --> 1:02:10.000 But I was also called to produce films. I just 1:02:10.080 --> 1:02:15.720 did two movies of Lifetime, Lust and Envy. Yeah, seven 1:02:15.800 --> 1:02:18.960 deadly sins, and I was able to share our faith 1:02:19.360 --> 1:02:30.960 on Lifetime's platform. That's an amazing opportunity, and it was. 1:02:31.120 --> 1:02:36.160 It was a powerful opportunity. You only get innovative opportunities 1:02:36.480 --> 1:02:41.600 when you give up on being traditional. That's a quotable 1:02:41.680 --> 1:02:45.600 right there. You only get innovative opportunities when you give 1:02:45.680 --> 1:02:47.960 up on being traditional. Now make it a sermon, put 1:02:48.000 --> 1:02:54.800 a scripture to it. Oh wow, that I haven't used yet. 1:02:56.880 --> 1:03:04.920 Ruth leaves, which is tradition, to follow Naomi into the unknown, 1:03:05.880 --> 1:03:08.480 not knowing what she will have to do or what 1:03:08.560 --> 1:03:12.400 she will have to become. And she travels on her 1:03:12.480 --> 1:03:17.320 donkey down the path into the unknown. She makes a 1:03:17.400 --> 1:03:21.320 commitment by God, shall be by people, my people. And 1:03:21.360 --> 1:03:23.800 whether I dwell as I will dwelling, whether I dies, 1:03:24.000 --> 1:03:27.960 I shall die but she had never seen bethela have. 1:03:29.360 --> 1:03:33.000 She was just courageous enough to walk into the unfamiliar 1:03:34.000 --> 1:03:37.840 and had the dexterity of thought and the nimbleness of 1:03:37.920 --> 1:03:41.720 mine to say to herself, I'll figure it out when 1:03:41.760 --> 1:03:53.600 I get there. Yeah. And so I feel excited. I 1:03:53.640 --> 1:03:57.760 feel excited like I'm feeding somebody. There's a feeling I 1:03:57.880 --> 1:04:01.560 get when I'm feeding somebody that is in this room 1:04:01.640 --> 1:04:05.360 right now. I'm feeding somebody. I don't know who it is, 1:04:05.440 --> 1:04:08.200 but I can tell I can feel it in my spirit. 1:04:08.560 --> 1:04:13.240 I can feel it in my belly. I am feeding 1:04:13.440 --> 1:04:16.959 somebody in this room. I can feel it in my soul. 1:04:17.640 --> 1:04:21.160 You don't fit the pattern. You broke the mole. You're 1:04:21.280 --> 1:04:24.680 out of the box. You think differently. You got ideas 1:04:24.720 --> 1:04:27.720 and concept that you're afraid to share with anybody because 1:04:27.760 --> 1:04:31.240 they don't get you. And God sent me here to 1:04:31.320 --> 1:04:37.040 tell you you're not crazy. That you can be this as, 1:04:37.400 --> 1:04:41.680 that you can produce film and preach the gospel and 1:04:41.800 --> 1:04:46.200 write books and write up as and do commentaries, and 1:04:46.280 --> 1:04:49.320 that you can do more than one thing. That you 1:04:49.400 --> 1:04:52.480 can be an architect and an accountant, that you can 1:04:52.520 --> 1:04:55.560 open up a donut shop and do hair, that you 1:04:55.640 --> 1:04:58.240 don't have to be locked into a prison of how 1:04:58.320 --> 1:05:02.960 people describe you. There is more inside of you than 1:05:03.080 --> 1:05:06.840 what you have discovered. Yet I don't know who I'm 1:05:06.880 --> 1:05:11.439 talking to. Maybe they're streaming online, maybe they're reaching from 1:05:11.440 --> 1:05:14.800 across the waters. But God sent me here to say, 1:05:15.280 --> 1:05:19.439 don't drop the mic. Keep on talking about it, keep 1:05:19.480 --> 1:05:23.240 on dreaming about it, keep on fighting for it, keep 1:05:23.280 --> 1:05:26.240 on saying it, even if you don't have nobody to hear. 1:05:26.360 --> 1:05:31.200 You walk around the house talking to yourself, talking to yourself, 1:05:31.520 --> 1:05:34.840 telling yourself, if I made a touch, if I may 1:05:34.960 --> 1:05:37.800 but touch, if I may but touch the him of 1:05:37.920 --> 1:05:45.480 his garment, I will be may hold. And if you 1:05:45.560 --> 1:05:47.880 have to crawl for it, and if you have to 1:05:47.920 --> 1:05:50.360 get money for it, and if you have to press 1:05:50.440 --> 1:05:53.320 through the crowds of people who don't think you deserve 1:05:53.440 --> 1:05:57.160 to be that close, then push on in there anyway 1:05:57.640 --> 1:06:12.680 and get your touch from God. Most people who have 1:06:12.880 --> 1:06:15.480 greatness inside of them are the last to know it. 1:06:16.560 --> 1:06:19.040 And when you talked earlier about the many times we've 1:06:19.040 --> 1:06:25.840 had conversation, it was oftentimes to help you see what 1:06:26.040 --> 1:06:31.080 is obvious to everybody but you if it were not 1:06:31.240 --> 1:06:35.960 obvious to everybody, else they wouldn't be in here. But 1:06:36.040 --> 1:06:38.960 what they don't realize is that you can see everybody 1:06:39.040 --> 1:06:42.880 but you. And that's what I tell people about me. 1:06:43.080 --> 1:06:47.720 I can see all of you, but I can't see me. 1:06:49.480 --> 1:06:52.080 So if my shirt isn't hand right or my collars up, 1:06:52.160 --> 1:06:56.240 when I see the picture, I hate myself. But the 1:06:56.360 --> 1:06:59.240 reason my collar is up in my pocket square may 1:06:59.280 --> 1:07:01.959 not be straight up, and and and maybe my softs 1:07:02.000 --> 1:07:07.920 will run down is because I cannot see myself. Now. 1:07:08.040 --> 1:07:12.720 Catch this the way that it's true about my appearance, 1:07:14.160 --> 1:07:22.400 it's also true about my gifting. When you are truly gifted, 1:07:23.480 --> 1:07:29.320 you often cannot see it. So you could be gifted 1:07:29.880 --> 1:07:35.720 and see everybody's gift but your own. Yeah, And and 1:07:36.240 --> 1:07:42.000 what I was telling you was being a mirror, so 1:07:42.120 --> 1:07:51.080 you could see that was great, that needs work, that 1:07:51.320 --> 1:07:57.560 was awesome, that was not your best sod That trust 1:07:58.920 --> 1:08:05.400 between us creates mentorship because I know you have a 1:08:05.440 --> 1:08:10.320 blind spot like I have a blind spot. Where you 1:08:10.400 --> 1:08:17.120 cannot see yourself like you have a blind spot. And 1:08:17.200 --> 1:08:20.120 if you're not careful, your blind spot will always leave 1:08:20.160 --> 1:08:25.200 you thinking that you are not enough, that you're not 1:08:25.400 --> 1:08:29.080 tall enough, or short enough, or thin enough, or handsome 1:08:29.200 --> 1:08:33.200 enough or cute enough, or smart enough, or bright enough, 1:08:33.320 --> 1:08:40.280 or gifted enough. But even the greats question themselves. I've 1:08:40.360 --> 1:08:44.920 met them. They have the little voice that ran home 1:08:45.120 --> 1:08:50.040 with them too. They double think themselves too. The difference 1:08:50.080 --> 1:08:52.840 between them and us is that they feel the fear 1:08:52.880 --> 1:08:59.920 and do it anyway. They feel the fear and do it. 1:09:00.360 --> 1:09:03.640 This is why I love coming to you, This is 1:09:03.680 --> 1:09:05.960 why I spend my opening night with you, because there 1:09:06.040 --> 1:09:12.200 is an energy in this place of transparency. Then you 1:09:12.320 --> 1:09:17.400 get to have the most intimate, intelligent conversations because you 1:09:17.560 --> 1:09:24.160 draw intelligent, thinking people. Not everybody who's spiritual is also intelligent. 1:09:32.600 --> 1:09:41.960 Crazy people love Jesus too. You could come that out. 1:09:42.000 --> 1:09:50.840 I probably should have said that you have something to 1:09:51.040 --> 1:09:58.840 live for, to go for, to evolve into. I don't 1:09:58.840 --> 1:10:02.640 care if you're seventy, if God was finished within you 1:10:02.840 --> 1:10:10.519 be dead. There's still something in you to contribute. And 1:10:10.600 --> 1:10:14.760 whether you are seven or seventy, don't drop the mic. 1:10:16.960 --> 1:10:22.040 Don't let the enemy talk you into dropping the mic, 1:10:23.840 --> 1:10:29.640 because all of us have a commission to do in 1:10:29.720 --> 1:10:33.479 the earth, and to do that thing that you were 1:10:33.560 --> 1:10:39.599 created to do is what makes your soul dance. It's 1:10:39.640 --> 1:10:45.200 what makes creativity spring up like flowers in springtime and 1:10:45.320 --> 1:10:49.400 decorate the canvas of a ground that has never been plowed. 1:10:51.240 --> 1:10:53.480 Have you ever noticed that some of the most beautiful 1:10:53.680 --> 1:11:00.280 flowers were never planted. They just grew up arbitrarily because 1:11:00.320 --> 1:11:04.559 the season was right. And I want to say to 1:11:04.600 --> 1:11:08.880 you that amissed all of the craziness and chaos and 1:11:08.960 --> 1:11:12.719 confusion in the world today, that it has just broken 1:11:12.800 --> 1:11:24.240 up the soil for the season to be right. And 1:11:24.960 --> 1:11:31.799 I think we have an obligation to tell what we learned, 1:11:34.320 --> 1:11:39.479 how it felt, what we know and what we do 1:11:39.640 --> 1:11:45.439 not know to you so you don't waste time taking 1:11:45.560 --> 1:11:50.160 my classes to jump start you to go to the 1:11:50.200 --> 1:11:54.439 next dimension. And for me, the book is a legacy piece. 1:11:56.120 --> 1:12:00.160 For me, the book is to say to you, I 1:12:00.200 --> 1:12:05.200 know you're scared. I know you overthink things, and I 1:12:05.240 --> 1:12:09.360 know sometimes you don't think you're enough and sometimes you 1:12:09.439 --> 1:12:11.960 feel like an impostor because you know all sides of 1:12:12.000 --> 1:12:20.880 you don't line up with the best of you. Work 1:12:20.920 --> 1:12:31.600 on yourself, improve yourself, repent, confess, cry, crawl, take classes, courses, 1:12:32.160 --> 1:12:37.240 do pilates, whatever you need to do, but do not 1:12:39.479 --> 1:12:47.080 drop the knight because it's your turn and it's your 1:12:47.120 --> 1:12:53.400 time and want I prayed when I was a young man, 1:12:54.160 --> 1:12:59.880 young man pre twenty, I said, Lord, if you ever 1:13:00.080 --> 1:13:05.000 bless me, don't ever let me be know any young 1:13:05.080 --> 1:13:15.200 man's soul. Let me live a life so fulfilled that 1:13:15.280 --> 1:13:21.360 when David comes, I can clap. I don't want to 1:13:21.360 --> 1:13:35.080 get old and get jealous, so that if I digress 1:13:35.640 --> 1:13:44.320 from playing the game, I can always coach and be 1:13:44.520 --> 1:13:50.280 just as fulfilled because I lived everything in its own season. 1:13:52.760 --> 1:13:55.200 You see, And this is the goal you want to 1:13:55.240 --> 1:13:59.760 set for yourself in life, is to live everything in 1:13:59.840 --> 1:14:04.280 it season, so that when the season changes, you're not 1:14:04.439 --> 1:14:10.000 living in the past trying to recreate what is gone, 1:14:11.920 --> 1:14:19.240 and to do you the way you do you and 1:14:19.479 --> 1:14:24.439 enhance that and grow that by your exposure every book 1:14:24.439 --> 1:14:29.360 I ever read, every movie I ever saw, every staff 1:14:29.479 --> 1:14:32.680 meeting I have ever been in. I have got to 1:14:32.720 --> 1:14:35.360 be in the staff meetings of some of the sharpest 1:14:35.400 --> 1:14:40.920 people in the nation. Not to brag. See, we get 1:14:40.920 --> 1:14:49.280 in the room and we do selfies. That's dumb. Get 1:14:49.320 --> 1:14:56.639 in the room, past the selfie. Get the experience. Show 1:14:56.720 --> 1:14:58.640 me you were in the room by what you do 1:14:58.760 --> 1:15:02.400 with your life, not by what your post with your picture. 1:15:11.160 --> 1:15:15.960 If you do that, If you do that, if you 1:15:16.120 --> 1:15:24.120 take more notes than you tweet, wow, then you won't 1:15:24.200 --> 1:15:29.000 feed the house and starve to death. Because when you tweet, 1:15:29.080 --> 1:15:34.200 you feed the house. When you take notes, you eat yourself. 1:15:35.920 --> 1:15:38.400 So be sure. I'm not saying don't tweet. I want 1:15:38.400 --> 1:15:40.800 you to tweet. Tweet tonight. Hashtag don't drop the bike. 1:15:44.840 --> 1:15:47.320 Back home, y'all hear me? Hashtag don't drop the mic, 1:15:48.360 --> 1:15:52.320 watch it on line? Hashtag don't drop the mic, hashtag, 1:15:52.400 --> 1:15:55.920 don't drop the monkey. What's that hashtag again? Hashtag don't 1:15:55.960 --> 1:16:01.599 drop the mike? Yeah, do all of that. There will 1:16:01.680 --> 1:16:07.840 come a day that this room will not be possible, 1:16:10.600 --> 1:16:19.360 But you were here. I sat with Maya Angelou and 1:16:19.479 --> 1:16:24.599 had her be a guest at Magifest. I was sitting 1:16:26.280 --> 1:16:30.080 not too far from her when she quoted her poem. 1:16:30.240 --> 1:16:35.760 At President Obama's inauguration, I was sitting right behind Aretha's 1:16:35.800 --> 1:16:41.680 hat and besides Colin Powell on the stage in the 1:16:41.680 --> 1:16:50.479 freezing cold and the inauguration, and I was there. That 1:16:50.680 --> 1:16:58.120 moment will never happen again. I rode over with Rick 1:16:58.200 --> 1:17:05.479 Warren that moment will never happen again because some of 1:17:05.520 --> 1:17:08.040 the people that it would take to recreate it. Are 1:17:08.120 --> 1:17:21.400 not even here so cherish every moment. I was just 1:17:21.439 --> 1:17:25.000 having a flashback Bishop the first time that we spoke 1:17:26.439 --> 1:17:29.960 at a meal, somebody came to the table and shared 1:17:30.000 --> 1:17:32.720 with me how the church had changed their life. And 1:17:32.800 --> 1:17:36.080 you you did this thing, because I think the greatest 1:17:36.080 --> 1:17:39.639 sermons that you have preached to me have been something 1:17:39.640 --> 1:17:42.599 that was never on YouTube. And I think that's something 1:17:42.600 --> 1:17:46.080 people should should understand about you, is that your best 1:17:46.120 --> 1:17:50.519 sermons usually aren't recorded. It's the way you live your 1:17:50.520 --> 1:17:53.559 life and minister to people. And I remember when the 1:17:53.600 --> 1:17:56.080 guy finished telling me, you know, this is where I 1:17:56.240 --> 1:17:58.160 was in the church changed my life. And you said, 1:17:59.680 --> 1:18:01.880 you did that thing, the thing that you do with 1:18:01.960 --> 1:18:04.760 your eyes where you look and passed my stern them 1:18:04.760 --> 1:18:09.840 into my guts and you go and you had I 1:18:09.840 --> 1:18:12.640 remember this. You had a steak knife and you were 1:18:12.680 --> 1:18:15.800 pointing the steak knife when you said this. So it's 1:18:15.960 --> 1:18:21.800 very very effective communication tool. And you said, that's an 1:18:21.840 --> 1:18:26.439 amazing moment. And I was like, yes, sir, and you 1:18:26.479 --> 1:18:29.719 said and you said, we had just been talking about 1:18:29.760 --> 1:18:35.840 critics and controversy, and you said, don't let them have 1:18:35.960 --> 1:18:39.800 your moment. That's your moment, and that's the knife that's 1:18:39.840 --> 1:18:42.599 still here. And you're saying, I'm just trying to recreate 1:18:42.600 --> 1:18:45.160 it for you, you said, and you you said it 1:18:45.200 --> 1:18:52.120 about about four or five times. What moments have you 1:18:52.160 --> 1:18:57.320 allowed to be stolen that you wish you could take back? 1:18:59.600 --> 1:19:07.240 I was invited to write op eds. Sally Quinn, who 1:19:07.320 --> 1:19:10.439 was with the Washington Post who ran the on Faith section, 1:19:11.200 --> 1:19:14.400 invited me to write op eds for the on Face 1:19:14.439 --> 1:19:19.479 section of the Washington Posts. And I wrote about three 1:19:19.520 --> 1:19:23.520 of them, and I got on and read the comments 1:19:23.600 --> 1:19:28.360 beneath them, and they so discouraged me that I gradually quit. 1:19:30.400 --> 1:19:32.680 And when I saw Sally again, she said, why have 1:19:32.840 --> 1:19:38.760 you stopped submitting your up eds? I said, well, I 1:19:38.800 --> 1:19:41.080 thought I wasn't very good at it because when I 1:19:41.160 --> 1:19:46.920 read the comments beneath them, I thought they don't like me. 1:19:49.360 --> 1:19:53.479 And she looked at me and burst out laughing, and 1:19:53.640 --> 1:19:58.200 she said to me, the average reader of the Washington 1:19:58.280 --> 1:20:03.519 Post has a master's and the average person in the 1:20:03.600 --> 1:20:17.479 comments can't spell. And I then realize that I had 1:20:17.520 --> 1:20:25.240 allowed people to talk me out of a platform who 1:20:25.280 --> 1:20:30.000 weren't even a part of the intention of the founder. 1:20:32.880 --> 1:20:37.000 The reason I stressed that to you is that if 1:20:37.040 --> 1:20:42.200 you're not careful, you'll let somebody who has never been 1:20:42.280 --> 1:20:48.160 in your seat talk you down from the place that 1:20:48.400 --> 1:20:56.519 God has given you. You'll let somebody who can't run 1:20:56.560 --> 1:20:59.719 a barber shop critique you on how you run the church, 1:21:02.280 --> 1:21:05.120 and you will go home and hurt and humiliate it 1:21:05.520 --> 1:21:08.160 because they insulted and tell you what you are to 1:21:08.200 --> 1:21:12.480 do with a platform that God never gave to them. 1:21:13.439 --> 1:21:17.719 They don't seem to realize that if God likes your plan, 1:21:17.960 --> 1:21:29.080 he would have given you the platform. But you have 1:21:29.160 --> 1:21:33.280 to know that, even if you don't say that, you 1:21:33.439 --> 1:21:38.160 have to know that so that you don't fool around 1:21:38.280 --> 1:21:45.519 and walk away from a master's level opportunity because of 1:21:45.560 --> 1:21:56.520 a mediocre comment. I lost that opportunity. I lost that opportunity, 1:21:57.080 --> 1:22:00.679 And I think about I texted you a few weeks 1:22:00.680 --> 1:22:03.559 ago about a sermon that you did on shame. Yes, 1:22:03.560 --> 1:22:07.880 he still wants you. Yeah, And when I watched you 1:22:07.960 --> 1:22:11.200 preach that sermon, I think I actually called you and 1:22:11.240 --> 1:22:16.200 said that was amazing. And then I said that sermon 1:22:16.320 --> 1:22:23.439 looked expensive. You said it was expensive. Yeah, Can you 1:22:24.560 --> 1:22:27.160 talk a little bit about the expense of that kind 1:22:27.160 --> 1:22:37.640 of ministry? I think that I invested at preaching texts 1:22:39.520 --> 1:22:47.680 that somehow resonate with the repertoire of my own experiences. 1:22:48.040 --> 1:22:53.559 I think that you cannot preach about my phibus chef 1:22:55.120 --> 1:22:58.160 if you have not been dropped by someone you trusted. 1:23:02.479 --> 1:23:05.040 I don't think that you can talk about him adequately 1:23:06.920 --> 1:23:13.360 into your cripple has a cause that was out of 1:23:13.400 --> 1:23:19.920 your control. I don't think just studying commentaries and Hebrew 1:23:20.000 --> 1:23:27.160 words will adequately enunciate what drives a prince to lodo 1:23:27.240 --> 1:23:35.439 bar and makes him be carried out and lay flat 1:23:35.520 --> 1:23:41.040 on the floor. And for a prince, the child, the 1:23:41.120 --> 1:23:46.639 grandchild of a king, to say I am a dead dog, 1:23:49.640 --> 1:23:57.880 that kind of depletion and loss a pedigree can only 1:23:58.000 --> 1:24:04.680 come within the gaze of someone who can relate to 1:24:04.880 --> 1:24:11.520 that kind of experience of a basement in your life. 1:24:12.680 --> 1:24:16.679 That is the part of preaching that cannot be taught, 1:24:19.080 --> 1:24:22.960 that must be caught, and it must be personal enough 1:24:23.000 --> 1:24:26.320 to you that you are talking about him, but you 1:24:26.439 --> 1:24:32.240 are drawing from you until you and he have become 1:24:32.439 --> 1:24:37.280 so fused together that getting him up off the floor 1:24:37.800 --> 1:24:45.760 is getting you up off the floor. I remember you 1:24:46.640 --> 1:24:51.040 do this to me, See you do this? Why do 1:24:51.080 --> 1:24:59.599 you do this day. I've preached this in London years 1:24:59.640 --> 1:25:02.240 ago my boys were little. One of my sons is 1:25:02.280 --> 1:25:06.280 here tonight. He was there, and I was crawling across 1:25:06.320 --> 1:25:09.800 the floor, trying to make it from the floor to 1:25:09.920 --> 1:25:16.160 the chair, and in dramatizing the approach of the fibers 1:25:16.280 --> 1:25:21.360 Chef who was laid on the floor like a thing 1:25:23.040 --> 1:25:28.400 but called to a chair like a king, and the 1:25:28.520 --> 1:25:33.799 space between the two realities in his life, I started 1:25:33.920 --> 1:25:38.240 crawling because in order to get yourself up off the 1:25:38.360 --> 1:25:43.360 floor to the chair, you have to crawl to get there. 1:25:44.960 --> 1:25:48.599 And as I was crawling and I was almost there, 1:25:50.760 --> 1:25:55.320 the crowd crumbled, and I was glad they crumbled so 1:25:55.360 --> 1:26:02.960 that they couldn't see me crying because I was preaching 1:26:03.040 --> 1:26:10.840 about him, but I was also talking about me, and 1:26:11.640 --> 1:26:16.559 I lost it, And I hope Pestor Matthew sees this tonight. 1:26:16.720 --> 1:26:22.200 I literally lost it myself in the message, because there's 1:26:22.240 --> 1:26:28.040 a point where you are the message, you become someone 1:26:28.240 --> 1:26:33.120 with the message until John one Pin fourteen materializes on 1:26:33.200 --> 1:26:37.439 that stage, and the Word was made flesh and dwelt 1:26:37.479 --> 1:26:42.479 among us, and we beheld the wonder of his glory, 1:26:43.160 --> 1:26:46.160 the only begotten of the Father full of truth and grace, 1:26:46.600 --> 1:26:49.439 until the word is made flesh and you are willing 1:26:49.479 --> 1:26:52.400 to pay the price of the kind of investment that 1:26:52.560 --> 1:26:57.200 personalizes the deliverance of the text, until you are really 1:26:57.479 --> 1:27:03.320 that that you are declaring you will always be impotent. 1:27:05.840 --> 1:27:13.519 Potency that penetrates the human soul is connectivity. And as 1:27:13.560 --> 1:27:16.280 you extrapolate from the text, the facts are nice to 1:27:16.400 --> 1:27:19.880 know that if you're not willing to invest your own pain, 1:27:22.280 --> 1:27:25.120 your own tears, and your own struggle, if you're not 1:27:25.240 --> 1:27:30.000 willing to re examine who dropped you and what you 1:27:30.080 --> 1:27:35.000 would have been had they not dropped you, and how 1:27:35.080 --> 1:27:37.960 you ended up in Lodobarrow when you should have been 1:27:38.320 --> 1:27:43.320 in the succession of Kings. And here comes a second 1:27:43.439 --> 1:27:48.280 chance that by bloodline you deserve, but by situation you 1:27:48.400 --> 1:27:55.320 can't imagine. And yet you start crawling. That crawl, brother, 1:27:55.760 --> 1:27:58.880 is what got you to this day. That crawl is 1:27:58.920 --> 1:28:02.080 what got me to this. That crawl is what gets 1:28:02.160 --> 1:28:06.680 everybody to wherever they're trying to go, crawling against the 1:28:06.800 --> 1:28:12.640 resistance of the adverse winds and the gravitational pool to mediocrity. 1:28:12.960 --> 1:28:14.679 Let me say this. I know we're running a town, 1:28:14.880 --> 1:28:19.120 but this is important for you to get Failing is easy. 1:28:19.520 --> 1:28:23.160 If we're climbing a rope, all you have to do 1:28:23.320 --> 1:28:28.639 to fall is let go. You don't have to study 1:28:28.680 --> 1:28:33.160 books on failing. Falling is simple. Just let go on 1:28:33.240 --> 1:28:38.040 a rope. The gravitational pool will always take you as 1:28:38.200 --> 1:28:41.720 low as it can until there is an obstruction. If 1:28:41.760 --> 1:28:44.680 the floor gives way, it'll take you lower, if the 1:28:44.720 --> 1:28:48.200 ground gives where to take you lower. The gravitational pool 1:28:48.280 --> 1:28:51.599 is never satisfied at how low it will take you. 1:28:52.400 --> 1:28:55.800 And the only thing standing between you and it it's 1:28:55.840 --> 1:29:07.880 the grip you have on the rope. And so though 1:29:08.000 --> 1:29:11.280 your body weight is heavy, maybe not as heavy as mind, 1:29:11.360 --> 1:29:14.840 but heavy, and it is hard to pull the weight 1:29:15.040 --> 1:29:20.160 up higher, and your arms are aching and your sweating, 1:29:20.200 --> 1:29:24.599 and you're tired of everything and everybody drawing off of you. 1:29:26.120 --> 1:29:29.280 All you have to do is look down and remember 1:29:31.120 --> 1:29:36.639 that if you let go of the rope, your fate 1:29:36.760 --> 1:29:44.439 is sealed. And that's what makes you keep climbing. That's 1:29:44.479 --> 1:29:48.760 what keeps you on the wall, and that's why you 1:29:48.960 --> 1:29:52.719 can't drop the mic. I want to say one other 1:29:52.840 --> 1:29:56.320 thing to you. You don't realize you have not met 1:29:56.360 --> 1:30:00.439 all the people that you were talking to. And the 1:30:00.439 --> 1:30:05.280 book talks about my ancestry and the antiquities of my 1:30:05.479 --> 1:30:10.920 faith and the ancestry of my bloodline. And my ancestors 1:30:10.960 --> 1:30:15.360 were what is now Nigerian, and they were from the 1:30:15.439 --> 1:30:18.840 tribe of Ebo, and they came as a couple and 1:30:19.000 --> 1:30:24.280 survived the tempestuous mental passage and did not throw themselves 1:30:24.360 --> 1:30:28.240 overboard in an attempt to drown themselves. Rather than to 1:30:28.280 --> 1:30:32.160 be penalized with the next four hundred years of slavery, 1:30:32.240 --> 1:30:37.480 they chose to withstand the atrocities of the times and continue. 1:30:37.520 --> 1:30:41.760 And that's why I am here, and all of them 1:30:42.000 --> 1:30:46.640 are sitting in this chair with me, my grandmother, my 1:30:46.720 --> 1:30:50.400 great grandmother, and Grandma Nancy Jakes, who was born a 1:30:50.479 --> 1:30:53.719 slave and died a free woman that I remember. She's 1:30:53.760 --> 1:31:00.720 sitting here tonight too, and her father and mother are 1:31:00.760 --> 1:31:05.720 sitting here too, And my great grandfather, Willie James Smiley, 1:31:06.800 --> 1:31:10.080 whose brothers who lived on the other side of the 1:31:10.120 --> 1:31:14.120 street were called Williams because you got the last name 1:31:14.439 --> 1:31:18.799 of who owned you. And though they were full blooded brothers, 1:31:19.240 --> 1:31:23.120 the street that separated them chains the name that defined them. 1:31:23.400 --> 1:31:27.759 And I cannot find them all, but they are all 1:31:28.080 --> 1:31:34.599 sitting in this chair with me today, I am saying 1:31:34.640 --> 1:31:37.880 that we are the sum total of everything that happened 1:31:37.920 --> 1:31:41.479 to all of those who came before us. That your 1:31:41.560 --> 1:31:45.280 grandmother is not dead. She's still living down inside of you. 1:31:45.680 --> 1:31:48.720 And your great grandmother, though you may not remember her, 1:31:49.160 --> 1:31:52.200 has some morsel of wisdom in the way you think 1:31:52.280 --> 1:31:55.599 and drink and process and move and live. And I 1:31:55.640 --> 1:31:58.920 am saying that, on the blood of all of those 1:31:58.960 --> 1:32:03.439 who went before you, you cannot be the generation that 1:32:03.640 --> 1:32:16.639 drops the mikes. You cannot, you cannot, you cannot set up. 1:32:18.280 --> 1:32:20.439 I want to say to you, if you're a white 1:32:20.479 --> 1:32:25.240 American and your people came over on aboute with much 1:32:25.240 --> 1:32:29.080 of nothing, running away from Great Britain and came to 1:32:29.120 --> 1:32:35.400 the possibility of another country, the wow foreboding tempestuous opportunity 1:32:35.720 --> 1:32:39.519 to break away from the domain and the dominion of 1:32:39.760 --> 1:32:45.880 Great Britain and dare to establish a different kind of 1:32:46.000 --> 1:32:50.320 republic that promised freedom and liberty and justice for all 1:32:51.000 --> 1:32:53.160 in spite of the fact that it didn't fully live 1:32:53.280 --> 1:32:56.320 up to the promise, it dared to make the assertion. 1:32:57.160 --> 1:33:01.840 And if they own wagons with pairs of depth and 1:33:02.000 --> 1:33:07.520 sickness and destruction, pressed their way into the inner fibers 1:33:07.560 --> 1:33:11.639 of this nation and took something and built something, and 1:33:11.680 --> 1:33:16.280 became something out of nothing, with no running water and 1:33:16.360 --> 1:33:20.920 no plumbing systems and no highways, no trains and no 1:33:21.080 --> 1:33:25.439 buses and no ovens and no microwaves and no Apple 1:33:25.520 --> 1:33:29.439 phones and no emojis and no twitters and nothing like 1:33:29.520 --> 1:33:32.240 that to help them, and with drawing water out of 1:33:32.320 --> 1:33:37.360 wales and walking for mouths and cooking over live rocks 1:33:37.360 --> 1:33:41.320 and stones that were placed on wood instead of ovens. 1:33:41.400 --> 1:33:50.320 If they survived, then how dare you sit here, with 1:33:50.520 --> 1:33:55.000 all the stuff you've got and let anybody make you 1:33:55.240 --> 1:34:04.599 fair that you cannot make it, that you cannot take it, 1:34:05.479 --> 1:34:09.240 that you cannot rise above the fray and be something 1:34:09.400 --> 1:34:16.320 bigger than yourself. If they survived cholera and disease and 1:34:16.479 --> 1:34:23.160 death and pneumonia and plague and freezing cold and bears 1:34:23.160 --> 1:34:30.000 and lions and prey, and build their houses out of logs, 1:34:32.800 --> 1:34:36.639 then how dare you sit in your nice brick house 1:34:38.320 --> 1:34:42.439 and your jacuzzi in the bags and say that life 1:34:42.520 --> 1:34:49.360 is not worth living. I stuck my hands in the 1:34:49.479 --> 1:34:54.839 claw marks of the Africans, whose claw marks are still 1:34:55.240 --> 1:34:59.280 on the walls of Elmina, where they were fighting not 1:34:59.439 --> 1:35:04.400 to come to America. I ran my fingers down their 1:35:04.520 --> 1:35:10.960 nail prints. I smelled the stench of their body fluids 1:35:11.000 --> 1:35:15.400 that are still existing in the Spanish castles where they 1:35:15.400 --> 1:35:18.880 were held hostage, waiting on the next ship to come. 1:35:19.920 --> 1:35:23.880 I stared at the church that was above it, then 1:35:24.080 --> 1:35:28.479 noticed that the missionaries were also masters, who raped their 1:35:28.600 --> 1:35:33.160 daughters while they sang Amazing Grace. And I listened against 1:35:33.240 --> 1:35:37.639 the waters beating against the rocks, and thought, what kind 1:35:37.720 --> 1:35:41.840 of stuff must my ancestors must have been made out 1:35:41.880 --> 1:35:47.599 of to withstand all the perils and injustices and steal 1:35:47.800 --> 1:35:56.519 insist on sobriety. If we got up at four and 1:35:56.640 --> 1:35:59.559 we were in the cotton fields by six, and we 1:35:59.680 --> 1:36:03.599 picked till the sun went down, with bleeding hands and 1:36:03.720 --> 1:36:09.080 aching feet for days and days until we died, and 1:36:09.320 --> 1:36:14.559 never knew what a paycheck was. Ever, we were the 1:36:14.600 --> 1:36:17.639 first people to come to America with the sign will 1:36:17.720 --> 1:36:21.519 work for food. And the food was the pot liquor 1:36:21.640 --> 1:36:24.880 that the master left. And we eat what we eat, 1:36:24.960 --> 1:36:27.880 because that was all we could have with the feet 1:36:27.920 --> 1:36:30.680 of the pig and the neck of the pig, and 1:36:30.760 --> 1:36:33.599 the chintlings of the pig, because all of the finer 1:36:33.680 --> 1:36:38.840 cuts went to the master. And still we lived, and 1:36:39.120 --> 1:36:45.200 still we lived. And not only did we live, we sang. 1:36:47.720 --> 1:36:52.759 We sang while our fathers were hung and our mothers 1:36:52.800 --> 1:36:57.920 were raped. We sang, having got long to stay here. 1:36:58.240 --> 1:37:03.320 We sang against oppression and death and destruction from the 1:37:03.400 --> 1:37:07.800 enormous Pettis Bridge, with dogs turned loose and water holes 1:37:07.840 --> 1:37:12.000 its beating us down. We sang. We sang as the 1:37:12.120 --> 1:37:15.840 charred bodies of dead little girls were brought out of 1:37:15.920 --> 1:37:20.160 burning churches. We kept singing when they shot the thirty 1:37:20.280 --> 1:37:24.000 nine year old doctor Martin Luther King Jr. In the head, 1:37:24.560 --> 1:37:28.720 We sang while we cried, and we made it. If 1:37:28.720 --> 1:37:34.960 we survived colored bathrooms and extra water fountains, and survived 1:37:35.000 --> 1:37:38.479 the separations of having to learn in the basement of 1:37:38.560 --> 1:37:42.280 the churches and they were burning down by the KKK. 1:37:43.000 --> 1:37:48.320 If Black Wall Street was burned down in Tulsa, if 1:37:48.360 --> 1:37:52.000 we had to endure Rosewood and we still made it. 1:37:52.320 --> 1:37:56.040 You cannot sit there with your apple watch and your 1:37:56.120 --> 1:38:00.400 black skin and tell me you can't make it. There 1:38:00.560 --> 1:38:05.479 ought to be enough fight cavern. There ought to be 1:38:05.560 --> 1:38:11.040 anough fire cover. There up to be enough drive govern 1:38:12.280 --> 1:38:17.760 the conrectis come Hell or our water. I'm on the 1:38:17.800 --> 1:38:22.600 blood of all of my ancestry. I will not be 1:38:22.800 --> 1:38:27.880 the one who drops the light. I will not in 1:38:27.960 --> 1:38:37.599 here and let it die. Will not drop this my sad. 1:38:38.040 --> 1:38:47.080 I will not drop this SI again. I will not 1:38:48.200 --> 1:38:55.280 drop this slike side of gin. Will lot drop this 1:38:55.760 --> 1:39:22.840 slike giming my frid. If you survived the Holocaust, if 1:39:22.840 --> 1:39:27.880 you survived diversity, if you survived the Great Depression, if 1:39:27.920 --> 1:39:31.640 they survived the plans of the past, and all of 1:39:31.680 --> 1:39:35.240 the pneumonias and all of the dephtherias and all of 1:39:35.280 --> 1:39:42.800 the polios and all of the diseases and COVID, will 1:39:42.800 --> 1:39:51.760 not take me out. I will do whatever I have 1:39:51.920 --> 1:39:55.559 to do, and I will fight whatever I have to fight. 1:39:56.280 --> 1:40:01.639 But I refuse to let it take me out, because 1:40:01.680 --> 1:40:06.840 I have too many ancestors who survive to get here 1:40:07.920 --> 1:40:12.160 and die without doing what I was created to do. 1:40:12.720 --> 1:40:18.599 I let nothing separate me from the love of God, 1:40:19.479 --> 1:40:26.000 neither height nor death, nor powers, nor principalities, nor things pasant, 1:40:26.439 --> 1:40:37.040 nor things to come. So this is my little down payment. 1:40:37.800 --> 1:40:41.200 Don't drop the mic. It's just my little way of saying, 1:40:42.040 --> 1:40:47.599 don't you let nobody turn you round. That's the way 1:40:47.640 --> 1:40:52.280 we were saying, don't you let nobody turn you around. 1:40:52.360 --> 1:40:54.760 That's why they were singing on the Norman Pettis brig 1:40:55.400 --> 1:41:02.360 Don't you let nobody turn you round, turn you around, 1:41:03.520 --> 1:41:09.920 turn you round, don't shoe let no bad turn you around. 1:41:11.080 --> 1:41:16.679 She poll walking up the Jeez Hollway. Don't you let 1:41:16.880 --> 1:41:25.880 no body turn you round, turn you around, turn you. 1:41:25.920 --> 1:41:31.920 Don't shoot yet, nobody turn you round. You got to 1:41:32.200 --> 1:41:39.519 keep on walking up the tee away. Don't shoot that nobody. 1:41:41.920 --> 1:41:47.200 Don't let him turn you round. Don't let them turn you. 1:41:47.240 --> 1:41:54.879 Don't you line, nobody turn you got the tiba walking 1:41:55.320 --> 1:41:59.599 up the cheese. They had the water holes on them, 1:42:00.080 --> 1:42:04.280 They had the dogs baiting them. They were bleeding and 1:42:04.400 --> 1:42:07.880 the hoses were cutting into their flesh. And all the 1:42:07.880 --> 1:42:11.439 while they were bleeding, they couple singing us on, I 1:42:11.479 --> 1:42:15.000 ain't gonna let you turn it around. Keep Paul walking 1:42:15.439 --> 1:42:22.559 up the key highway. Don't choo let it what. I 1:42:22.600 --> 1:42:31.439 can't hear you. I can't hear you. Don't to that nobody, 1:42:32.680 --> 1:42:40.439 You got your teeth, poll walks, don't chew that. Nobody 1:42:41.439 --> 1:42:49.560 turn you not author riders not hit replacement, not back sogery. 1:42:50.439 --> 1:42:54.280 Don't you lighting tat you lie? You got your teeth 1:42:54.360 --> 1:43:00.439 ball walking up the team. How don't you that? Nobody 1:43:01.760 --> 1:43:09.360 turn you more? Tell you ah time, don't do that. 1:43:09.920 --> 1:43:30.560 Nobody tied you. You got some kippoll walking. This is America, 1:43:30.960 --> 1:43:36.880 This is America, and we're doing one more time. You're 1:43:36.840 --> 1:43:44.120 gonna help me. Don't do that, no bad time. You 1:43:44.160 --> 1:43:49.240 don't love to turn you. Don't let her tell you. 1:43:49.280 --> 1:44:13.559 Don't do that? Nobody you got some kidpoll whoa whoa 1:44:15.320 --> 1:45:00.600 whoa Bishophidi DAGs everybody you got litening. It's over. It's ye, 1:45:01.479 --> 1:45:21.640 It's over. Thank you for joining us. Special thanks to 1:45:21.680 --> 1:45:24.559 those of you who give generously to this ministry. Is 1:45:24.600 --> 1:45:27.599 because of you that this ministry is possible. You can 1:45:27.640 --> 1:45:30.519 click the link in the description to give now, or 1:45:30.600 --> 1:45:34.920 visit Elevationchurch dot org slash podcast for more information and 1:45:34.960 --> 1:45:38.160 if you enjoyed the podcast, you can subscribe. You can 1:45:38.200 --> 1:45:40.639 share it with your friends. You can click the share button, 1:45:40.680 --> 1:45:43.120 take a screenshot and share it on your social stories 1:45:43.120 --> 1:45:45.880 and tag us at Elevation Church. Thanks again for listening. 1:45:45.920 --> 1:45:46.519 God bless you