Don't Hate The Playa, Hate The Game

38:09 Geshem tells me it is true that you and the Jews are planning to rebel and that is why you were building the wall. According to his reports, you plan to be their king. He also reports that you have appointed prophets in Jerusalem to proclaim about you. Look, there is a king in Judah. You You can be very sure that this report will get back to the king, so I suggest that you come and talk it over with me. I replied, there is no truth in any part of your story. You were making up the whole thing. They were just trying to intimidate us, imagining that they could discourage us and stop the work. So I continued the work with even greater determination. I want to put a tag on this text and for a few moments with your prayers, I want to talk about don't hate the player, hate the game.

39:08 Don't hate the player, hate the game. A message to America. Don't hate the player, hate the game. Life can work your nerves. People will get on your last good nerve. I got that from a mother who on one occasion when my sister and I had made too much noise and created too much ruckus, declared to us, y'all are getting on my last black nerve. Has life ever gotten on your nerve? Have people ever gotten on your last good nerve, your last black nerve. Needless to say, I'm using the concept of getting on your nerves as a metaphor for how stressful life can be. Note with me that when my mother was upset with us and speaking of us getting on her last black nerve, she was speaking about the sad reality that The noise we were making, the ruckus we were creating was doing something to her by way of stress.

40:24 It was an all-out assault on her mental health, as it were. I'll make this real plain. I believe it was this past Friday. Yes, Friday, this past Friday, July the second that Transair flight 810 was flying from Honolulu to Maui there in Hawaii. And all of a sudden in the wee hours of the morning between one o'clock and two o'clock in the morning, watch this, the flight had just taken off. And as they were ascending, that's when one engine went out. And when the first engine went out, much to the consternation of the pilots, they looked and discovered that the second engine was overheating. And that is when one of the pilots remarked, while in communication with the control tower, this doesn't look good.

41:24 I park here parenthetically because note with me, metaphorically, they had just taken off and that's when everything fell apart. It dawned on me that someone has tuned in. I don't know you, but God has me in your Kool-Aid and I've already called out your flavor because isn't it just like life that the moment we are prepared to take off, we are in a scent. that's when life has a tendency to fall apart. Someone has tuned in and who you thought or what you thought you needed to get from where you were to where you plan on going all of a sudden is no longer with you. And that can work your nerves. That can stress you out and assault, as it were, your mental health.

42:17 Why? Because what you were looking forward to has fallen through. And note with me as we go back to what happened this past Friday, not only does the first engine go out, but note with me that this took place in the wee hours of the morning. This is dark pitch night. It's night. And the sad reality is they cannot see where they are going, but they know that they have lost an engine. A second engine is about to go out and all of this is going on while they are in contact and communication with the control tower. And yet their communication with the control tower does not change their insufferable and stressful circumstances.

43:11 I hang out right there because you can be in contact with the control tower of the cosmos. You can be communicating with the creator of our life. And yet in the midst of that communication, that's when everything seems to be falling apart. Please note with me that that has to be working their last nerve so much so that this again is what one pilot says to the control tower. This does not look good. And y'all, I'm hanging out here on the 4th of July because even though the fireworks will go off and many of you are prepared to fire up the grill, I hope that you are not unconscious about what's going on in these disunited states of America.

44:06 And I'm here to say it doesn't look good. You saw what happened this past Friday when the Supreme Court issued a ruling 6-3 in favor of, please don't miss this, the restrictive voting process there in the state of Arizona. And one attorney brilliantly pointed out, I believe his name is Miss Stahl, Ely Westall pointed out that there is a section or a sentence in the ruling that was handed down by Judge Alito that basically said, and I quote, he said that if there is a mere inconvenience, it's really okay. If there is a mere inconvenience to people of color, it's really okay. I hope you don't miss that because Ely Mistal said, and he's an attorney, that that opens up the floodgates to a system of apartheid-like abuse when it comes to voting. Our voting rights had already been gutted by the Supreme Court decision from a few years ago. And this basically right here opens up the floodgates to all that has been going on in states across this country that are determined to suppress the vote. It doesn't look good, y'all. It doesn't look good because in too many instances, you have some who are so obsessed or preoccupied with power, they will sabotage democratic values and you know who they are and then you have another party that is so determined to negotiate with people who don't want to negotiate with them that they lack a spine. They lack a backbone of convictions and as a consequence, we are witnessing the unraveling of the democratic experiment. Why?

46:08 Because the whole thing around critical race theory and patriotic education is not just a campaign of disinformation. It's a campaign that has been used for our distraction because we get distracted by what they are talking about as they wage war on wokeness, as they battle Black Lives Matter and they lie about critical race theory and all the while they are setting up structures and systems. Don't miss this, the irony of it because critical race theory is about systems and structures and they are setting up structures. Here it is that are built with the material of racism and injustice while we are distracted, distracted while we find ourselves giving energy over here. They are building up and entrenching themselves in power because there is a fragility that basically says there are too many of them. And by 2053, we are going to be a numerical minority. And could it be that what we have done to them is exactly what they are going to do to us. Y'all, this doesn't look good.

47:31 We are witnessing the unraveling of the American empire. It does not look good. And I don't know about you, it's getting on my last nerve, but hold on because that's exactly what's going on In the book of Nehemiah chapter 6, Nehemiah has discovered that to lead is to bleed. Nehemiah has discovered that the higher your visibility, the greater your attacks, your vicious attacks that will come at you. Nehemiah is experiencing all of this negativity. Chapter 5, the book lets us know it was an assault from within because of the economic exploitation and injustice that was going on. But now he corrects that.

48:24 And in chapter 6, the book lets us know something real strange. And that is that some old enemies with old issues have come up because they are upset at the progress that Nehemiah and the people have made. Because whenever there is progress, there will be a backlash. Whenever there is perceived progress, there will be pushback. That's what's been happening in this nation. And that is, it's the perceived progress that occurred last year as all over the world, millions rallied and affirmed that Black Lives Matter. It was declared that we were in a racial reckoning. What has been the response instead of a real reckoning we are experiencing? Don't miss this, a pushback to progress, a white lash.

49:20 I think that's Van Jones' term, a white lash to perceive black progress. And my sisters and brothers, that's exactly what's going on in the text. The text lets us know that Nehemiah gets word that Sambalat and Geshem and others, Tobiah and other enemies and adversaries had heard about the progress. And now they engage in a campaign of disinformation. They engage in a campaign of treachery and distractions. And it's all rooted in lies. It's rooted in a lie. The first lie is come meet me in Ono, the plains of Ono. Let's have a summit there, a peace summit, so we can work out an agreement where we live together. But Nehemiah discerned that they have set out to harm him.

50:17 He has a sixth sense and doesn't fall for what they are trying to set him up for. And the book lets us know. Then Sambalath sends an open letter. Don't miss the open letter concept because in biblical antiquity, when letters were sent from one official to the other, They were rolled and sealed because they were not to be read by the public. And yet this was an open letter. That meant that everyone could read what Sambalat was saying and surmising about the activity of Nehemiah. And you saw the contents of the letter. Listen to what Nehemiah says. Nehemiah says, y'all lying. You done made this stuff up in your own head. You just conjured up something.

51:10 You made up something. You can't handle truth. And so you're living by a lie. And you're lying on me. You're lying to me. You're lying about me. You are just a lie. And the truth ain't in you. Liar, liar, pants on fire. I think that's what we said when we were growing up as children. So hear me well. The book lets us know it's a campaign of disinformation and lying that's getting on the nerves of Nehemiah because they are coming for Nehemiah. They are attacking Nehemiah. It's a war of nerves and Nehemiah, my sisters and brothers in essence, saying, I know what's up with y'all. Y'all are upset because we're doing so well. Y'all can't handle this excellence in spite of the enemy attack on us. Y'all can't handle how well we are doing.

52:05 And I just got one word for you. Don't hate the player. You ought to hate the game. I like that. I think y'all know that's not original with me. I borrowed that from the culture because it simply means when someone is hating on you, they are hating on your accomplishments, your achievements. They are hating on how well you are doing. And when they hate on how well you are doing, The response is, don't hate the player, hate the game. And y'all, it has dawned on me as I have watched white evangelicals prop up white supremacy as I have watched this all-out attack, this war on truth going on in this country. Behind all of this is an unresolved hatred toward a people who were brought over here involuntarily on slave ships and have endured the worst of America and yet somehow have exhibited an excellence in the face of being executed. We've exhibited an excellence in spite of what's been happening against us. And y'all, all I can say to America, it's time, America, for you to stop hating us, play us, and learn to hate the game.

53:28 Hate the game. What is that game? It's a system that is built on lies, a system built on falsehoods. That's why James Baldwin put it like this brilliantly when he said when America was born, the founding fathers had a flaw that they had to reconcile. The flaw was they looked at black people and said, we know they are humans, but we cannot as Christians call them humans when we are treating them as subhumans. And so what we're going to do, we're going to call them subhuman, less than human. And of course, as I said last week, James Baldwin maintains that to this day, that lie has infected and informed interaction in this country. It has infected and informed systems and structures in this nation. And that's why they what hate the players, but they ought to hate the game because here's what we've been doing.

54:34 We've been excelling in a game that wasn't designed for us to excel. We've been excelling in a game and blowing up like roses out of concrete. You can't hate players like Frederick Douglas who was born enslaved and his family was broken and in spite of that he learned to read and write. How did he learn to read and write? After his master forbade his wife from teaching young Frederick to read and write. Frederick discerned that knowledge unfits one for enslavement and And that's what Frederick Douglass said. When you know the truth, you no longer can remain enslaved. Check out Frederick Douglass. As Frederick Douglass then would walk, watch this. He would walk his slave master's son to school every day. And then coming home from school, he would say to the slave master's son, if you think you're smart, I bet you, you can't teach me what's in that book right there.

55:37 and the slave master's son would take the bet. And when he took the bet, Frederick Douglass was learning how to read and learning how to write until he became the silver-tongued orator and prophet for freedom and abolition. I'm talking about don't hate that player. Don't hate the player, Nicole Hannah-Jones, because the University of North Carolina was pressured by their racist alumni who couldn't handle the truths of the 1619 project. I got to park here parenthetically because today is about celebrating 1776. But America, please hear me well, you can't celebrate 1776 until you get real about 1619 because 1619 undermines what you say in 1776.

56:36 1776, you talk about a democracy, but you didn't deal with 1619, and that reveals the hypocrisy of your democracy. And so don't think you can enjoy 1776 if you haven't been honest about 1619. Yes, my sisters and brothers, I'm just letting you know, They trying to hate the players when they need to hate the game. And that means we need to understand that we've got to change the game and create a nation of liberty and justice for all and do what Dr. King said in his last speech when he said, all we're saying is be true to what you said on paper. Be true to what you said on paper and we will have voting rights for all. Be true to what you said on paper and we will bridge the wicked, widening wealth gap.

57:34 Be true to what you said on paper. That's what this nation must do. We must not hate the player. We got to hate the game. How do we do that? Let's learn lessons from the players and then we will restructure this game. Oh, I'm about to preach this thing. Learn some lessons from the players. What lessons should we learn from the players? I love the text because the text says we ought to learn these lessons. We ought to learn the lesson of resolve. The lesson of not just resolve, but the lesson of rectitude. And after the lesson of rectitude, there's the lesson of reversal. That's where I'm going, and then we'll be done. Resolve. understand the resolve of Nehemiah because the text says, Samvelist says, meet me in Ono.

58:29 And Nehemiah says, oh no, I ain't meeting you in Ono. I'm not meeting you there because you may do harm to me. You're trying to distract me. I'm too resolved. How do I know he's resolved because of what Nehemiah says? He says, I cannot come down. I cannot come down because I'm doing a great work. I got to do that one more time. The Amaya says, I am doing a great work. I looked up the Hebrew word for I am doing. It's mind-blowing because the word in the original language speaks of working with a goal in view because whenever you have a goal in view, it gives you direction. Y'all, I used to run hurdles at Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco. I wasn't a track star. I was a track stir.

59:21 And I won't forget the first time I ran the high hurdles. I ran the high hurdles and hit every hurdle on my way to the finish line. Y'all know I lost that race big time. Came in dead last because I hit every hurdle. Now, understand my form was perfect. Oh, I had great form. As I would hit the hurdle, I had beautiful form. The leg would go up. The arm would go like that. And then, y'all, I would hit the hurdle. Once I reached the finish line, my coach met me, said, come here. I said, yes, sir. He said, what happened? I said, I hit every hurdle. He said, duh, I want to know why you hit every hurdle. I said, because I kept looking at the hurdle. He said, I thought I told you, notice the hurdle, but keep your eyes on the finish line. The hurdles ain't going nowhere.

1:00:14 You've got to keep your eyes ahead. Keep your eyes on where you're going. and not what's trying to hinder where you're going, y'all. I never have forgotten that because that's a metaphor for life. It dawned on me the hurdles are going to be there. The obstacles are going to come. The adversaries are going to attack. But here's what you do. You keep your eyes on the finish line. Remember the words of Paul who said, I'm forgetting the stuff that's behind me and pressing forth the mark for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. You ought to have some goals in front of you in spite of the hurdles trying to block you. Oh, I love that. I love that. I love that because here's Nehemiah. Nehemiah is encouraging us to have resolve.

1:01:11 When you have resolve, you have a point where you said, I am doing, therefore I cannot. Ooh, that's good stuff. Because of what I'm doing, my goal, there are some things I cannot do. There's power in saying no. Uh-oh. I'm going to mess with some folk right now. because have you thought about where your life would be if you had not said yes to every Tom, Dick, and Harry, Mary Sue, and Jane, Paul, Jamal, and them all? Have you thought about where would you be if you had not thought that life was about being nice instead of sometimes just saying no? Yeah, be nice, but also have backbone and say no. Yes, be nice, but make sure that you are not a doormat because I've discovered something about doormats and that is doormats get walked on.

1:02:10 They get left dirt. Dirt is left on them. And then once the person goes inside, the doormat stays outside. And I'm just praying that someone would get delivered from a doormat mentality where you think that to be Christian is to roll over and let folk do anything to you and say what they want about you. No, don't be anybody's doormat. Learn that you can say, because I am doing, I cannot. I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. I'm not coming through like I want to. I got a shout out. Thank you, Gwen Berry. Oh, Gwen Berry, I love you because you were saying no as they played during the Olympic trials, the national anthem, and they weren't supposed to be playing it when. persons received their medals. That was the understanding. And Gwen Berry upset all them folk watching Fox News because Gwen Berry decided, I'm going to stand in the tradition of, in the tradition of John Carlos, Tommy Smith, and Colin Kaepernick. Because as she said, and here is the shout right here, she says, I respect my people too much to stand up for that flag. And y'all, I got to stop right here because a lot of folk get upset about the flag and the national anthem. Let me just help you right quick. What to black people is the national anthem? Now y'all know I'm remixing Frederick Douglass because Frederick Douglass on July 5th, all those years ago, I think it's 1852, had a speech called, What to the Slave is your 4th of July? I want to ask America what to black people is your national anthem, a national anthem where you shout about the first verse, but you ignore what's in the third verse. In the third verse, Francis Scott Key, a notorious racist who saw black people as inferior. Francis Scott Key, the author of

1:04:20 the national anthem or the star-spangled banner, Francis Scott Key, talked about there was no freedom or escape, for the hireling or the slave. And y'all want us to salute the national anthem? Y'all want us to stand for the national anthem? What to black people is your national anthem when you're undermining voting rights? What to black people is your national anthem when you allow us to live in communities that are inundated with landfills and economic predators? What to black people is your national anthem when you're still, when you want us to shout about the first verse and ignore the realities we experience in the third verse. And so Gwen Berry, I salute you. Keep on saying no because you ought to have resolve and resolve says no.

1:05:19 Resolve, but then there's rectitude. I love the rectitude because Nehemiah gets word through an open letter. An open letter that says basically, listen to the open letter. Nehemiah, you're trying to start a revolution against the king. Now, get this. The king had given Nehemiah both papers and provision and permission to begin the project of rebuilding the wall. And now they're coming up with this lie that basically says Nehemiah is doing this with bad intentions. He has a hidden agenda. And so they're saying, we're going to tell the king on you, Nehemiah, and that will lead, of course, to death for Nehemiah. And look what Nehemiah basically says. He said, I am standing on truth so I can't fall for the okie-dokie.

1:06:14 I'm going to do that thing one more time. When you stand on truth, you don't fall for the okie-dokie. When you stand on truth, you don't fall for the lie. When you stand on truth, you recognize that Jesus is still right. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free. And the book lets us know that Nehemiah says you're making that up in your own head. I ain't falling for that nonsense. I ain't falling for that lie because it's a lie. And the book says once they tried to lie, Nehemiah went back to work. He didn't lose any sleep. He went back to work. He didn't trip on what they were saying about him. He went back to work. You can't chase down every lie being told about you. You can't run down every rumor being spread about you. You can't chase down what people say.

1:07:07 But if you do, at least have the anointing of our girl who was being attacked by Wendy Williams. And when Wendy Williams came for Letitia, guess what happened? Letitia said as Wendy Williams came for her, gossiping, talking smack because Letitia Brown, I think that's her name, had said about her husband, I'm going to retire you. You can stop working in that dangerous job as a police officer because we have done well. God has blessed us. And now you can pursue your dreams because that's exactly what you did for me all those years ago when you became a cop and you let me pursue my dream. And Wendy Williams had the nerve to project onto Letitia what Wendy Williams had gone through.

1:08:00 And look what my girl clapped back when she's talked in that sweet black mama voice and said, oh baby girl, what happened to you? Why are you hurting so? I'm praying for you. And began to basically say, I'm not going to fall for your okie doke. I'm not going to waste positive energy on negative people. And that's the word I want to give to somebody right now. Quit giving your positive energy to negative people who are trying to drag you down where they are. Stay up. Stay up. I got to quit. I've held you too long. Here's the last piece and I'm done. After, after what? Resolve and, and, and rectitude, which is rightness, your moral compass, regardless of the weather you find yourselves in. The text lets us know this and I'm done. Oh my God, there's a reversal. I'm going to read verse 9 because verse 9 just shouts me. Verse 9 says this. This is crazy.

1:09:02 Verse 9 says, they were just trying to intimidate us, imagining that they could discourage us and stop the work. Watch this. So, I continued the work with even greater determination. Okay, I read too fast, evidently. They were just trying to intimidate us, imagining that they could discourage us and stop the work. So I continued the work with even greater determination. Y'all still didn't shout? Okay, okay. They were trying to intimidate us so we'd stop. I continued with greater energy than I had before. Okay, okay. Bible help me. They meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. What they thought would happen had the opposite effect.

1:09:58 And y'all, that's how I quit. By simply saying that God is so good that when people come for you and try to undermine what you're doing, God will bless you with the opposite of the intended effect of what people plan. And that's why Joseph can testify. Joseph said to his brothers, y'all meant it for evil, but God worked this thing for good because when y'all sold me into enslavement, what you did not know is that God was using your selling to send me to Egypt. And once I got to Egypt, then God raised me up in the face of their very people who tried to tear me down. So you got to be very, very careful about intending negative stuff for black people because God will raise us up in the very face of those who tried to tear us down.

1:10:55 I got to bring Nicole Hannah-Jones one more time because guess what? Y'all saw what happened. The University of North Carolina denied her tenure while giving her a job. She said, y'all keep your job. and protests broke out, and now they're saying, please come accept this job. You have tenure now, and guess what Nicole Hannah-Jones said? I'll let y'all wait while I think about it for a second, because the good news is I have options now, and the options came because y'all gave me a bigger stage than I would have had had you not denied me tenure, and because of what you've done, I've got bigger options now. I've got a bigger platform now. I've got a bigger stage right now. And somebody is listening to me right now. I'm about to shout for you because you've been done dirty.

1:11:49 But the good news is when some folks throw dirt at you, the good news is you're about to blossom in a garden of blessings because God is going to have the last word. and all things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to God's purposes. God is so good that God can take bad, put it in the mix of your destiny, and before you know it, God uses the bad as a vehicle to get you to your good. Nehemiah said, ah, here's what happened. They thought they could intimidate us into stopping, and they ended up giving us strength and resolve and determination we didn't know we had. America, here's my word to you, and that is you've spent so much time hating on black players.

1:12:53 Why don't you go ahead and hate the game? Hate the game of systemic racism. Hate the game of structural injustice. Hate the game of anything that is anti-democratic. And once you hate the game and restructure the game, you can learn from the liberated players, the liberated players who exude black excellence. What is black excellence? I'm done. Black excellence is informed by truth, energized by the Spirit and activates a determination to be our best in spite of. That's us.

1:13:45 We've been our best in spite of. Hallelujah. And bless God's name. Shall we pray? God, thank you. Thank you so much that even in a game, we're not supposed to win. We keep on showing up. And when we show up, oh God, you bless us to show out. And when we show out, the nation is always better because of it. The world is better because of it. So God, right now, on this 4th of July, I stand against racism. I stand against ageism, sexism. I stand against all forms of hate. I stand against all forms, all phobias. I stand against transphobia. I stand against all of these hatreds that cause people to disvalue and dismiss and disrespect people because of how you made them.

1:14:51 God deliver us from that set this country free from the worst of herself set this nation free and as you set this nation free I pray oh God that you will not only change the game but keep on blessing the players who keep demonstrating excellence thank you now for what you're up to pray your blessings upon all who have tuned in please save the lost please bless them to come into connection with you anyone without a divine connection save them right now for those oh God who have no church connection bring them home to church even right now and then God I pray your special blessings upon those for whom life is just getting on their nerves.

1:15:53 This war of nerves is wearing them down. Give them in the name of Jesus. Resolve rectitude and let them see your reversals. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Listen, there's the number right there. I just prayed for you. You've tuned in and your thing is, yeah, I need to know this Jesus. I need to know this Jesus who is truth so the truth can set me free. I want to live in truth in spite of the lies that characterize so much of life. Call that number right now, 469-498-0210. Dial that number. Or, hey, I want to join this church. I feel like a connection with this church. Go ahead, dial that number right now, 469-498-0210. We got prayer warriors who are going to minister to you. Or your thing is this, Pastor, let me keep it real.

1:16:47 this life is working my last nerve, the stress of it all, assaulting my mental health. I need resolve. I need rectitude. I need reversal. Please pray for me. Dial that number right now. Dial that number right now. Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me. Jesus will give you rest. So do it right now. God bless you. and God keep you. All right, it's offering time. It's offering time. You know how good God has been to you? So it's time for God to be good through you. That's why God is good to you, so God can be good through you. So I encourage you right now to prepare your offering. You can give through the ways on the screen. You can text to give.

1:17:40 You can also, through Givelify, the app, download the Givelify app. Go to Friendship West, search it out. And once you do that, give through that vehicle, it's safe. Or you give online on our website on the Friendship West app. God is good to you because God wants to be good through you. And we all know that the beautiful thing about Friendship West is when you give to this ministry, you're ensuring that those who are houseless are fed, experience haircuts and grooming and clothing and safety. When you give to Friendship West you're ensuring that college students get scholarships. When you give to Friendship West you're ensuring that those who are food insecure get food. When you give to Friendship West. You give to a church engaged in social justice activism, making a difference in the world in the name of Jesus, our Lord and liberator. So go ahead. I want to thank you because you've been doing it. Thank you very much. I can't thank you enough for your generosity.

1:18:55 Please follow those instructions or if you want to mail it in, you know the address, 2020 West Wheatland Road here in Dallas, Texas, 75232. God bless you and God keep you. Now, we're getting ready to go, but we want to make sure that we give a shout out to all birthdays, birthdays in the month of July. It's your birthday. Happy birthday to you. I got a cousin, Ryan, his birthday. He just turned 21. Happy birthday, Ryan. sure he ain't up. But anyway, God bless you. All y'all in birthday, all y'all having a birthday this month, I pray you'll have just an amazing celebration that will propel you into the best year you have lived so far. That's my prayer for you. God bless you. Happy birthday to you. And then happy birthday, happy birthday. Yeah, where are you? There you are. Happy birthday to your LV. Happy birthday to LeVester. Happy birthday to I think my assistant.

1:19:59 Chief Strategist. Alicia Trustee. Happy birthday. Uncle Doug. Happy birthday. Happy birthday to all of y'all, okay? And then and then happy anniversary. You got married this month. It's your anniversary. May it be blessed. May you be blessed. God bless you. And God keep your marriage, your love. May it be characterized by light, love, freedom, and blessing in Jesus' name. Then, of course, don't forget next Sunday it starts. Rudy McKissick will be here. Yes, he will. We're going to have a, oh my God, I hope you're getting everybody ready because we're going to have a powerful time of revival.