Black 2 The Future Youth Revival (Day 3 Rev. Kea Westbrook)

25:03 Good evening. Welcome. I'm so glad to be here. Glad to be able to share with you doing this youth revival called Black to the Future. And I just want to say thank you. All praises unto God our Father. Shout out to Pastor Magruder, whom I love. that I am secretly a student of, love to hear and preach and study, marvelous leader, outstanding leader. So just glad to be here. So welcome, fam. And I'm just going to get to it, what God has called us to do as we celebrate this virtual youth revival. So I believe there's a word from the Lord. So if you don't mind, we're just going to jump right in. I want to look at a text in Mark chapter 5. Mark chapter 5, starting with verse 21, going to verse 23. I want to keep it simple. and let's just go. So I'm going to be reading from the New Living Translation and it goes like this starting in Mark chapter 5 at the 21st verse.

25:59 Jesus got into the boat again and went back to the other side of the lake where a large crowd gathered around him on the shore. Then a leader of the local synagogue whose name was Jairus arrived. When he saw Jesus, he fell at his feet, pleading fervently with him, my little daughter is dying. He said, please come and lay your hands on her. Heal her so she can live. I would on that thought, just for the next few moments, I want to talk about live. So if you don't mind, take a moment, watch this video, and when it's done, we'll go. I'm a young black man, doing all that I can to stand. Oh, but when I look around, and I see what's being done to my kind, Every day, I'm being hunted as prey.

27:07 My people don't want no trouble. We've had enough strong gold. I just want to live. God, protect me. I just want to live. I just want to live. So, part of the good news, if you can say that, of getting a diagnosis from your doctor when he discovers the reason why something has been causing you pain is to eventually hear him or her say that it's a common issue. And even if you have to have some type of procedure or surgery to hear them say it's a routine procedure. It's not good news that you've been diagnosed or that you even had to go to the doctor that you're feeling pain.

28:01 That's not what the good news is. The good news is that your physician is familiar with what has been ailing you. And as I was thinking about that, the video Kidron Bryant put me in that analogy that what he is crying about, what he is crying out about and singing about is not something that is unfamiliar, but rather it is familiar. His pain and suffering is one that's familiar, but not only are his symptoms familiar, but I want to suggest to you that his diagnosis is familiar. His diagnosis is one, if I would say, is what Howard Thurman would call hounds of hell, two of the hounds of hell of hatred and fear. Keedron Bryan's singing, I Just Want to Live, puts me in the mind of just what I said, the the analogy of the doctor letting you know that what you're going through is common and unfortunately far too familiar.

29:00 He's singing about being afraid. He's singing about wanting just to be able to live and not just to live, but he wants to be, he's doing all that he can to become all that he can and how wonderful that is. But he's painful because of the hounds of what, Howard Thurman would call the hounds of hell that are on his heel, one of hatred and one of fear that they are gripping him and keeping him from just standing and living. So I understand and it's familiar to me and his problem is familiar to many of you that are watching right now. And so, and that's unfortunate, but we're also, his symptoms are not familiar, but the diagnosis of what he's going through is familiar. The diagnosis of fear and hatred. And so that puts me in that analogy. And so here we are, that we find that Kidron Bryant is melodiously at the feet of Jesus, crying out and just saying, God, I just wanna live, protect me and save me.

30:01 And when I hear him cry out, I'm reminded then of our text, Mark chapter five, that not only are these familiar diagnoses of hatred and fear present in 2020, and not only are they familiar, but they are old And they run all the way back to the text that we're looking at today. That there in the text, I dare submit to you that Jairus is dealing with fear and with hatred. So here we are. We find both Kidron in 2020. And then we find Jairus in Mark chapter five at the feet of Jesus crying out, saying, I just want to live. Kidron just wants to live. And Jairus just wants his daughter to live. And I know that may seem strange, but why would you even cry out to want to live? What is the importance about wanting to live? I imagine that Kidron still has hopes and he has dreams And when he's crying and when he says I just want to live He's not saying let me live so that I can stay marginalized and oppressed He's not saying let me live so I can still have to deal with medical apartheid He's not saying let me live so that I don't understand how I can to get accepted to these um academic institutions He's not saying let me live just so that I can hold on with life and I believe that Jairus is not calling out to Jesus and saying let my daughter live help lay hands on her and heal her so she might live not so that she can stay oppressed not that she can remain in a vegetative state but I imagine Jairus and his wife are crying out to Jesus and want their daughter to live because they have dreamed for her so maybe they're looking far down they're looking at their daughter and they're seeing a madam CJ Walker or maybe they're seeing a Mae Jameson or maybe they are seeing an Ella Baker in their daughter we don't know what Kidron is hoping for him all for his for his self that he maybe wants to be a Kirk Franklin or maybe he wants to be a Kanye West a brilliant producer and creator we don't know what Kidron is is planning for himself and so here he is pregging and saying God let me live Jairus is saying let my daughter live if I can suggest to you what they're saying is

32:07 not just let me live but preserve my possibilities preserve the possibilities of my daughter is what they're asking for and so here they are and we find them at the seat of Jesus and so let's move as Jairus says let my daughter live and God and it says that Jesus begins to go with him they get interrupted but as they're moving along to his house to the house of Jairus it says the people from the house of Jairus run to him because Jesus was interrupted they said trouble the teacher no more because your daughter is dead and Jesus overhears the bad report the false negative that has been given to Jairus that his daughter is dead and Jesus turns to him and says don't even be afraid just have faith and eventually they make it to the house of Jairus here where it looks like possibilities are dead here where it looks like her purpose and all that the parents had hoped for her can no longer be a reality but I'm hearing the words of Jesus reverberate in my and my thought process in the ears of even Jairus to say don't be afraid and only believe and so what we I want to pause here and say is we don't know what it was that killed um we don't know what it was that killed potentially killed his daughter or has her sleeping far too long we don't know what it is that has the people on the outside mourning that brought her to this state now that everybody is so concerned about but I dare submit to you then when we do arrive at the house of Jairus that there are those hounds of hell still on the feet, the hatred and the fear.

33:36 Now it looks like that fear has the victory and their worst imagination, their worst fear has come alive that the daughter has now been declared dead. And then just when it looks like fear has victory, hatred is in the room. Whereas the hatred is in the mourners because the mourners are crying out and believing that the daughter is dead. They are even declaring that she is dead. And when jesus decides to open up his mouth and dare say that she is not dead that she is yet sleeping They began to laugh at him as if what he is saying is not true They don't want to accept the fact that what that um, what they have witnessed cannot be true and that jesus is offering a counter-narrative What we have to be careful with is all of the people that are acting a counter-narrative to what god has spoken in our lives Whatever Jesus has said you can become, whatever he has put in your heart to be and to do, don't allow the naysayers and the mourners in your life to tell you that it cannot be so, that it is dead, that you're too short, that you're too dark, that you don't have enough mind, that you don't have enough connections to make what is inside of you become a reality. Your dreams and your imaginations are not dead, but perhaps they are sleeping.

34:49 And I want to say this before we move on is that is that even some theologians would dare say that when Jesus says here that the daughter of Jairus is sleeping, that he knows that she's really dead, but he's just using the word sleep so that he can show them that he's able to resurrect them. But there you go again overthinking and being too smart I can't stand people that think that they are smarter than the doctor that they think they are smarter than the CIA That think they're smarter than the educators and the administrators I don't know who I could be talking about But you ever know anybody that thinks they're smarter than you are that they're smarter than a fifth grader It's some of them out there and here they are the mourners that think that that they are smarter than Jesus The whole purpose of Mark is that Mark is trying to show the deity of who God is, of who Jesus is, that he is God, that he is a Lord, that he has the possibility to even resurrect something dead. And the mourners would dare say that what he is saying, that she is yet sleeping, is not true, that she is yet dead.

35:53 And then the theologians want to say that she's really dead, that Jesus resurrected her, that she couldn't be asleep. how can we look at this text and say Jesus is trying to deceive us and confuse us about what's really going on with the daughter it's because we don't have understanding it's because we don't get it it's because of the hatred and that is allowing them not to accept that who Jesus is that yes she is sleep but then if she's sleep where is the miracle in that if she's sleep why is it important for us and all of these chapters leading up to this. Mark is showing miracle after miracle after miracle. Why is it important then if this child is just sleeping that Jesus would take the time and Mark would take the time to drop a sleeping narrative in the middle of a lot of miracles of resurrecting and casting out demons and healing.

36:46 Why is it a miracle to wake a sleeping little girl? I'm glad you asked because if you're willing to do just a little bit of homework just a little bit of study, what you would realize and find out and discover that sleeping too much is a real thing is called hypersomnia. Some of us have heard of insomnia when we don't get enough sleep, where we stay up too late and we get sick or we lose our minds and we might pass out and our health is declining. But did you know that hyposomnia is a real thing, that you can sleep too much and it It presents with the same consequences, the same symptoms as insomnia. So that if you sleep too much, that it can affect you physically, it can affect you cognitively, and it can even cause a high mortality rate in hypersomnia. It is a real thing. And I dare to suggest to you that Jesus resurrecting a little girl that's sleeping far too long is a miracle.

37:43 Because we need to understand that some of us are sleeping too long. we sleep too long we not only are is our physical bodies in danger so you know what Jesus did with the haters with the naysayers the ones that wanted to keep on mourning is that he put them out and the scripture says that he threw them out and that through through is with the force that you would cast out demons and I was like cast out demons they were just mourning they believed the little girl was dead but when I did a little more investigation what I found out that it was a common thing that you would hire mourners hire mourners and so in other words there were people that were making money over the fact that this little girl was dead that is so important in our day and time is that we got to throw out not only the people in our lives are not willing to believe that we're able to walk in the purpose that God has called us to but we also need to put out the ones that are profiting from our dead bodies that are profiting from our bodies being locked up that it's a real thing that people make money from when we die. When we kill one another, people are making money. When we get locked up, people are making money. When we don't vote, people are making money. When we don't show up and force policies to be changed that allow us to be locked up and thrown in jail for life sentences, for doing what somebody does in their houses and places of privilege every single day, that it is causing somebody to make money off of our debilitated, oppressed, marginalized, and yet I dare say dead bodies and we need to put them out send them home and change the policies or where people are profiting profiting off of our children and so Jesus took the mourners and he threw them out with the force that he would cast out demons and so then he only takes the believers he only takes the ones that have hope for the children he only had he takes the parents and he takes his disciples and he walks in because now I'm remembered of Jeremiah 29 11.

39:38 It's Jesus that knows the hope of this little girl. He knows the plans that God has for her, hope for a future and not to bring her harm, but of plans to prosper in the future, to do great things. Jesus knows that and her parents are hoping for that and the disciples are coming alongside Jesus and believing with the parents about that. And so everybody else has to go and if you're in a situation where there's somebody around you that is trying to even oppress your thoughts then it's time for them to go Jesus walks into the room with just the ones that are able to believe he puts his hands out and he then says to let the comb meaning little girl arise and it says that after they find out that the little girl arises that the people are astonished and Jesus says feed her and he in essence then walks away and y'all I think that's where most of us would stop and shout that oh my gosh we thought she was dead oh my gosh we thought that she couldn't live again and then here was a miracle that Jesus resurrected her but was it we got to ask the question remember Jesus said that she was just sleeping what is in the miracle of resurrecting a sleeping child how can we call that a miracle here we are at the beginning at a few chapters in of mark and we find that all of these miracles that have been happening resurrecting people from the dead and healing them and and restoring them to good health and yet it's a miracle that Jesus would wake a lying sleeping little girl well if we would do our history we would find that that hyposomnia is a thing hyposomnia means that when you can sleep far too long insomnia can cause physical mental and physical decline mental decline and even increase your mortality rate well I found that that hyposomnia can do the same thing we can sleep too long and so there really is a miracle in waking somebody that's been far too has been asleep far too long if we sleep too long then we don't realize that there's a something called medical apartheid and that we are having struggle about being even able to take care of our families and you think that the reason why that we're not able to get good health care is because maybe we're lazy and we don't want to go to

41:44 the doctor and you don't realize that there's a real work against you even being able to afford to take care of your family if we sleep too long if we sleep too long we'll believe that maybe Tamir's wife's mother shouldn't have bought him a toy. If we sleep too long maybe we'll think that Sandra Bland should have closed her mouth and she said too much. If we sleep too long we'll accept the narrative of our oppressor that our death is our own fault. That we are, that we become, that the victim is then criminalized. And if we sleep too long so we have to wake up because our memory is in danger about all of the people that died before us so that we can have the right to even lay down and sleep in a place of comfort if we sleep too long that we were a high mortality rate will continue to increase we've been sleep too long and now we're looking at over 200,000 people getting close to 200,000 people dying from a pandemic that could have been contained if we had not been sleep far too long if we keep on sleeping we'll miss the next election and not vote if we keep sleeping we'll believe that our voice has no power and we'll keep on sleeping and our children will keep on dying hyposomnia is a real thing and the fact that Jesus could resurrect us out of a dead sleep out of a sleep that's causing us to die is a miracle to me and so here we are this seeing a little girl that's sleeping far too long her possibilities are laying dormant and Jesus says Talitha kum will rise but I want to just say this before I end that that's not even the greatest thing about this text that the most exciting thing are the climax it's not the climax of the text that Jesus would say little girl rise but I suggest to you that the climax of the text is back when we entered in in mark chapter 5 in verse 22 when it says Jesus got up on that shore and Jairus saw him he saw Jesus and at the moment he saw Jesus he ran and fell at his feet that's the real miracle if I can just if I can bring it in and I'm thinking about an old song that my auntie used to sing that says when I see Jesus and in the

43:54 song it talks about when I see Jesus amen when I see the one that died for me amen when I see the one that set me free amen all of my heartaches all of my trials all of my struggles will be over when I see Jesus amen but I know this is a youth revival and you may not really understand it and I know my aunt was singing about one day when I get to see God for myself face to face hallelujah and amen but I can tell you that we don't have to wait just to see him face to face when we get to the by and by but when we just think about Jesus when we see him in the text when we see him moving in our own life circumstance and situation When I'm able to consider that of all the things that he's done for me and that what he will do for me and how he purposed me and that he has That he has a plan for me plans of a hope and a future when I see Jesus when I'm in the mind of Jesus All I want to do is say amen, but it's some young people out there Maybe you're not familiar with a man So can I put it in your language when I see Jesus facts when I see Jesus facts?

44:56 Amen. It's just an affirmation that everything that Jesus said he could do for me that he could do for you When I say amen, it's just me saying let it be so. I agree with you. I'm affirming it. I touch and agree. Let it happen. And you know, young people, we love to say when somebody says something that we agree with, that's the one thing we're going to jump and do and say in agreement and affirmation is facts. So can some young people out there that are listening to me right now say, has he ever healed you? Facts. Has he ever kept you from getting a beat down from your parents and them laying hands on you? Facts. Can he make a way out of no way? Facts. Did he help you get into college when you thought that you weren't going to get accepted facts? Did he help you pass the test facts? Did he help you keep from getting caught when you were sneaking in from the party facts? Did he save you from that boy that was maybe trying to day rape you facts? Is he a keeper? Even if you were offended, did he keep your troubling mind facts? Did he heal your traumatized mind, your traumatized body?

45:54 Do you believe that Jesus is able to do it when you see Jesus? Amen. when you see Jesus can you say facts about whatever it is that you're trusting him for and there Jairus is in chapter 5 on the on his feet saying I see Jesus and he gets excited because he knows getting in touch with Jesus being able to see him what it means for his daughter which is why we find Kidron in 2020 crying out saying God protect me because I just want to live and don't you know that's what Jesus wants I know the plans that I have for you to prosper you that we can have a life and not just life but have life and have it more abundantly I just want to live and so can we just say facts the idea and the real miracle of this text is that Jairus was even able just to see Jesus and even in our struggles in our situations even in a place of oppression even when we feel like we maybe want to commit suicide when we think we can't go on we don't know what tomorrow holds can you set your mind on Jesus and say facts that he's able to turn it all around, facts that he's able to heal you. And so I just want to tell you, like Jesus told the little girl, he said, Talitha kum, arise, little girl, arise. But in Aramaic, Ziora means young ones. And so I just want to say, Ziora kum, little ones, arise, young people, arise. It's time for you to wake up. We need more of you. Scientists are waiting, and cures are waiting for you and mathematicians are waiting for you and students are waiting for you. Healing is waiting on you. We need you. So Ziarra, Koum, little people arise. All of my black brothers and sisters, rise up. So rise. Dr. Shirley Jackson, rise. Louis Latimer, rise. Dr. Mary Van Britton Brown, rise. Fred Hampton, rise. Audre Lorde, rise. Ella Baker, rise. Rise Rise because science is waiting.

47:52 Rise because education is waiting. Rise because businesses are waiting. Rise because philanthropy needs you. Rise because social justice needs you and is waiting. Little children, brothers and sisters, arise. It is time to move black to the future.