"I've Got Loyalty and Royalty in My DNA" - Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes, III

1:04:11 One of our texts for this month as we focus on God's faithfulness and God's covenant with us is Deuteronomy chapter 7 verse 9. I want to go walk through verses 7, 8, and 9 of the seventh chapter of the book of Deuteronomy. I'm going to read in your hearing from the message translation by Eugene Peterson, Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 7, 8, and 9. And it reads, God wasn't attracted to you and didn't choose you because you were big and important. The fact is there was almost nothing to you. God did it out of sheer love keeping the promise God made to your ancestors God stepped in and mightily brought you back out of that world of slavery freed you from the iron grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt know this God, your God is God indeed a God you can depend upon God keeps his covenant of loyal love with those who love him And observe his commandments for a thousand generations You may be seated in God's presence For just a few moments with your prayers I want to talk about I've got loyalty and royalty in my DNA I've got loyalty and royalty in my DNA. What happened to you that causes you to sabotage you? Is there something you haven't gotten over that keeps pulling you under? I've discovered life will beat you down until it's hard to look up. Disappointment and delays can beat the dreams out of you. There's a passage of scripture that has always arrested my attention because it speaks so much to the human predicament.

1:06:22 It's there in Exodus chapter 6 verse 9 and in that passage the book lets us know leading up to verse 9 that Moses who had been called and commissioned by God to liberate and lift the people out of Egyptian enslavement and put them on a path toward promise has shared with them how God had come to him meeting him on the backside of a desert and while on the backside of that desert God had told Moses that God was going to use and infuse him with power liberating power that would set them free from Egyptian enslavement. But the book lets us know that as much as Moses was blessing them with what God had revealed to them through him, that the people watched this were so broken in spirit that they could not receive the words of Moses. I'll give it to you one more time.

1:07:32 The Bible lets us know that Moses was portraying their promised possibilities, but they were so broken in spirit, they could not see beyond where they were because of what had happened to them that had gotten in them. Already you know I am piggybacking on the brilliance of Howard Thurman who declared what happens to you cannot defeat you unless you allow it to get in you. The book lets us know that God was setting them up for liberation. God was about to extract and emancipate them from Egyptian enslavement. But the book lets us know they were so broken in spirit that they could not get over what had tried to take them under. I'm still not coming through.

1:08:28 I'm suggesting my sisters and brothers that if you're not careful that something that happened to you back then can undermine you right now and sabotage your not yet. It's something that happened in the past can jack with you in the present and hijack the hope you have for your future. I'm letting you know that it happened to them. It happened, I believe, my sisters and brothers too. The Cleveland Cavaliers during the Eastern Conference Finals, they were playing. Who is it? The New York Knicks. and you understand that Cleveland had almost won game one of the Eastern Conference Finals, but the Knicks somehow pulled it out at the last minute. The Cleveland Cavaliers lost that game by games three and four.

1:09:25 Though they were playing at home, they were routed on their own floor by the New York Knicks. It was almost embarrassing, but Charles Barkley insightfully interpreted that what had happened to the Cleveland Cavaliers is that they were so broken by what happened in game one, they were still messed up in game four. And then Barkley put it like this, they lost game four in game one. I'll back up and grab you because somebody's looking at me right now. I don't know you, but God has me in your Kool-Aid. I've just called out your flavor. All of us have a game one. All of us have something that happened back then where we either let ourselves down, we got hurt, we got broken. Somebody said something to us that took life out of us.

1:10:24 And in the process, it became our game one. And some of us are giving up now because of what happened in game one back then. I'm still not coming through. I'll come with you like this. One of the books I read years ago had in it an illustration that was wonderfully insightful, be dubbed. The book, watch this, is called Healing for Damaged Emotions. And it's by David Siemens. And Siemens shares a story in a chapter. Watch this entitled Satan's Deadliest Weapon in which he posits the point that Satan wields a weapon of low self-esteem where Satan wants to ensure that you think poorly of yourself. that you have low self-esteem because when you're locked up by low self-esteem and incarcerated by insecurity when you are sabotaged by self-doubt it's impossible to live into your own power a lot of folk come to church every single Sunday they love the Lord on high but they're locked up by low self-esteem. A lot of folk sing God's praises on Sunday. They believe powerfully in the God of heaven and yet because of what happened in game one, in game four, in church they are still losing.

1:11:58 Losing not because God is a loser but because of what happened back then that still haunts, handcuffs and harasses you right now. I'm still not coming through. Watch the story by David Seamans. He tells the story, watch this, of an Indian bazaar there in India and there were citizens who came to the bazaar to bring, sell, and trade their wares. And according to Seamans, one particular former had brought a covey of quail. Watch this. The covey of quail were walking in a circle. Why? Because each of the quail had tied around their legs a string that was attached to a ring surrounding a stick that was in the middle of them. See now on the screen of your anointed imagination these quail that have wings that have equipped them and empowered them to fly they've been divinely designed and cosmically created to soar up in the sky and yet the covey of quail are walking around a stick with a ring in the middle because of a string that is attached to their leg and so all they're doing is walking around in a circle as they come to this Indian bazaar. I hope you see them on the screen of your anointed imagination walking around in circles. They are a covey of quail. They are birds designed to fly but instead of flying the string has attached itself to their legs.

1:13:47 They're not soaring. They're grounded. All of a sudden, a Brahmin comes along with a love for all of God's creation, believing in the Hindu mantra that all of life is sacred. And as a consequence, this Brahmin said, how much for this covey of quail to the farmer? The farmer gave the asking price. sin the brahmin immediately gave him the money and said now set them free cut the strings and set them free and when he said that the farmer said are you serious yes I'm serious you heard me please set them free right now the farmer took out his knife and one by one cut the string from the legs of the covey of quail. And y'all, as soon as he did it, guess what the quail did? They kept walking in the same circle that they had been walking in when the string was attached to their leg. Y'all not getting this. The string had been cut, but they are still walking in the same circle.

1:14:58 I'm not even done because the farmer is now noticing the frustration, don't miss this, of the broadmen who said, I told you to set them free. And the former now tries to shoe the covey of quail. They fly about five feet. They then find their place in the circle and begin to walk in the same circle they had been walking in before the string had been detached, y'all. I had to talk to that covey of quail as I read the book. I said, yo, what's up with y'all? Why are y'all still walking in the same circle you've been paid for? Why are you walking in the same circle? You've been bought with the price. Why are you walking in the same circle? You've been set free.

1:15:50 And that's when the covey of quill hollered back at me. You don't understand. Some time ago in our past, the string was stronger than our ability to get away from it. and we tried to get away, it hurt us in the process. And what hurt us back then is now handcuffing us right now. What gave us pain back then has made us a prisoner right now. I think I'll stop right there because I ain't talking to quail. I'm talking to us and somebody's in the house or online. And the bottom line is if you're not careful, What caused you pain back then can make you a prison right now. What hurts you back then can handcuff you right now. I kept talking to the cubby of quail and the quail said, but wait, you've got to understand that even though the string had been severed from us physically, it was still attached to us mentally.

1:16:54 I think I'll park right there because if you're not careful, I guess I'm saying what I'll, who is it? Carter G. Woodson said when he said in the miseducation of a Negro, of the Negro, that you don't, when you control a person's thinking, you don't have to tell them to sit here or go yonder. They will find their own place. As a matter of fact, you ain't got to tell them to go to the back door because they will find the back door on their own. And if there is no back door, they will create a back door. Because when you have a back door mentality, the front door will never do. I'm simply trying to say, my sisters and brothers, that they were like the Hebrews or the Israelites in Exodus chapter 6 verse 9. These cubby of quail were broken in spirit instead of soaring in the sky.

1:17:55 They were grounded and not flying. and God had me talk to somebody today because where you are and where you could be ain't got nothing to do with the other because somehow you've sabotaged yourself from the inside out. You've gotten in your own way because you were locked up in self-doubt. You were struggling with low self-esteem and when you don't believe in you and the God above you who's got nothing but love for you, then you will end up getting in your own way, sabotaging your success, drowning your own dreams, and before you know it, you won't be what God intends for you to become. Well, I'm happy to say that if that is the case, that's why I had to preach this passage today, because the book lets us know that Moses, is the legendary lawgiver, leader, and liberator of the fledgling faith community now on the plains of Moab according to the brilliant sister Judy Fentress Williams overlooking Canaan and the promised land. I hope y'all get the picture. They're on the plains of Moab. Moses is standing before. The masses, the massive masses, and the book lets us know that they have in their sight the land that God had promised to them. They are right there. And Moses says, I don't want to mess this thing up because I was here 40 years ago. And 40 years ago, I sent 12 spies to check out the land. It's in Numbers chapter 13 and 14. I sent 12 spies to check out the land. And when they went to check out the land, the Bible lets us know they saw that everything that God promised was true. It was a land of prosperity flowing with possibility, milk and honey. And they saw

1:20:01 the possibility. They saw the prosperity. They saw the potential. But the book says that the majority of the 12, 10 of them by the way, they saw more than prosperity. They saw problems. They saw more watch this than grapes. They saw giants. And when they saw giants, the book says they began to compare themselves to the giants. I think I'll stop right there because if you're not careful, One symptom of low self-esteem is when you spend a lot of energy comparing yourself to somebody else. Because as long as you are comparing yourself to somebody else, that means you are competing with them. And guess what? You're only competing with what you see that is their best. If all you see is their best and you know you at your worst, there's no way you can win that competition.

1:21:01 You see them in their swagification and you see yourself in your waking up in the morning and not necessarily feeling your best self. And yet, my sisters and brothers, with that being the case, if you're not careful, you'll compare yourself to the point where you will diminish yourself. You are locked up in low self-esteem. Can I set somebody free right now? The only person you need to compare yourself to is the person you were yesterday. Because if you're better than you were yesterday, every day you're getting better. Every day you're stepping your game up. You ain't got to be better than your neighbor. You ain't got to be better than your brother. You ain't got to be better than your sister. Just be better than you were yesterday. Because if you're better than you were yesterday, then you become more and more.

1:21:58 You're not necessarily going to be better than them, but you're going to be your best self. And if you're your best self, then you've got power to become everything that God wants you to become. Preach for the hands. I'm just doing that thing. I love this I love this because because the book lets us know that they compared themselves to the giants and they became watch it as grasshoppers in their own sight watch it watch it and they said and we became as grasshoppers in their sight too oh my god so did y'all take a survey and ask them Do we look like grasshoppers, ants, or bees to you? No, they didn't take a survey, but they self-projected onto others what they were already feeling about themselves.

1:23:00 I think I'm preaching y'all just not getting this. Because if you're not careful what you think about yourself, you will end up projecting it onto other people around you. And then you will talk to them in a way that reflects what you feel about yourself. The problem ain't them. The problem is what you feel about yourself.

1:23:26 Okay, okay, okay. And so Moses recognizes what happened 40 years prior and says, So before y'all cross over, I'm going to pour into you. And that's what the book of Deuteronomy is. When you look at it, Deuteronomy, watch this. It comes from the Greek in the Septuagint that means second law. It's an extrapolation. It's an exegesis, an exposition of the law that had already been given in prior books. But then in the Hebrew, it really, according again to Judy Fentress Williams, in her amazing commentary on the whole Bible called Holy Imagination, and she says Deuteronomy in the Hebrew, it means words. And so when you look at it, Deuteronomy is a series of sermons.

1:24:25 It's like Moses calls for a revival, a series of revival services on the plains of Moab overlooking Canaan, the promised land. I hope y'all got the picture. The massive masses have gathered. Moses is standing up to preach and he preaches a series of sermons where he is pouring into the people words that will sustain and strengthen them. words that will build and bless them words that will empower and emancipate them words that will lift and liberate them words that will strengthen and sustain them you see I don't know about y'all but that's why for me Sunday morning is so important because I need some words that are going to get me through the hell of the week I need words from heaven to handle the hell on earth I need some words that will lift my spirit.

1:25:24 So I don't care who's wearing what, who's zooming who, who's sitting next to who. I just need to get me some words because I need strength from Sunday to handle the hellions on Monday. I need some words. And so Moses is pouring into them words. And y'all, Moses could preach. that's why I know he was a brother because the brother was preaching and it's like the stuff Moses was saying was black church ready so I could just hear the people when Moses is preaching saying say it yes sir don't you stop there stay right there you walking heavy press your claim let the Lord use you I mean they having church up in there I guess y'all didn't get it so let me show you some of the words Moses poured into them do y'all hear Moses pouring words into them as Moses says you the head and not the tail that's in Deuteronomy somebody had to say say it Moses said you gonna be a lender and not a borrower somebody said you preaching today Moses Moses then went on to say, you're on top and not beneath.

1:26:46 And they began to shout. Somebody cut a holy dance because Moses said, the Lord is going to be with you and carry you as a father carries his child. And somebody said, hallelujah, Moses. Moses kept on preaching. I hope y'all getting this because these are wilderness people except for Caleb and Joshua. Well, all of them had been born in the wilderness. All of them had been born. They had missed the movement, the liberation in Exodus. And so this is a wilderness generation. I got to stop right there because y'all, it dawned on me that the civil rights movement was from 54, May 17, 1954 to April of 1968 when King was assassinated. We had a brief time of liberation in power doing during the black power movement.

1:27:43 But a whole lot of us had not come of age during the movement for liberation. We are a wilderness generation. And here's the good news about the wilderness. In the wilderness, God takes care of you. In the wilderness, God protects you. In the wilderness, God provides for you. Why y'all playing holy like you've been making it through the wilderness all by yourself? There's somebody looking at me right now. Your testimony is you wouldn't have made it this far in the wilderness if it had not been for the Lord on your side. If it had not been for God making a way out of no way. If it had not been for God opening up doors for you. If it had not been for God raising you up while folk were trying to tear you down. Y'all, we are in the wilderness.

1:28:38 We in the wilderness. We in the wilderness. Rachel Maddow said we in the wilderness because Trump has declared war on black America. Roland Martin says we're in the wilderness because we are in the midst of economically the defunding of black America. We are in the wilderness. So you're in the wilderness and you weren't a part of the civil rights movement. How you going to handle the challenges before you? Because here's the deal. They're about to move into Canaan. But with Canaan comes challenges.

1:29:21 I just talked to those who can testify. with accomplishments come more adversaries and adversity. With blessings come burdens. With conquest come contest, challenges and crises. The old preacher would say with new levels come new devils. With triumphs come troubles and testing. No matter who you are, you may be on the edge of your promise, but you got to recognize with promise comes problems.

1:30:04 And so Moses pours into them and lets them know God has made, here it is, an oath, a promise. and the promise God made oh I'm about to shout the promise God made is a promise God will keep because God got hip hop culture all in God God says here it is word is bond

1:30:34 I see you. I see you. Word is bond. And because God's word is bond, I'll unpack it later. When God's word is bond, and here's your shout right here, it simply is letting each and every one of us know, and I'm about to run out of here, because God's word is bond, no matter where you've come from, what's been done to you, you can testify with Kendrick Lamar. You've got loyalty. You've got royalty in your DNA. Freddie Haynes, you preaching up in here? Okay, all right, all right, all right. So I got a mixed crowd. And so like y'all feel me. I'm glad about that, okay? They feel me. But my mama, she's looking at me real strange.

1:31:27 And so I got to help my moms right quick. So let me talk to my moms. And as I talk to her and Magruder, because Magruder's also old. So given that, I said, let me talk to my old people right quick. So Kendrick Lamar, Kendrick Lamar, Compton's Kendrick Lamar, Kendrick Lamar, hip-hop genius who, what, in the Super Bowl of 25, turned that thing out right in Trump's face. I'm talking about Kendrick Lamar. Kendrick Lamar has a song called DNA and in that song DNA he's talking watch this in this luminous line about the loyalty taught to him by his mother and the royalty that is in his DNA which is connected to Ethiopia and according to Lamar in his connection in Ethiopia there is royalty there is a lineage of kings, a lineage of queens, a lineage that is big balling and shot calling. And so utilizing his poetic lyrical genius, he then puts it as Manuel Scott used to say, a teaspoon of terms to convey a ton of truth and says, I've got loyalty. I've got royalty in my DNA. And y'all, it hit me. Kendrick you owned us something because God says to the Israelites about to go into the land of promise because I chose you. I know you were small. I know you were seen as insignificant but because I love you and I'm loyal to you and I'm the king of kings you can testify. You've got loyalty. You've got royalty in your DNA wherever you've come from.

1:33:17 Whatever your family background. Whatever you've been through. I gotta shout for you. If you know God for yourself. God says don't you let what happened back then get in the way of what I'm telling you right now. You've got loyalty. I'm loyal to you. You've got royalty in your DNA. Now live in it. How does it work? How does it work? I'm almost done. It works like this. When you got loyalty, royalty in your DNA, text says that, that I love this. It starts, it starts with your being esteemed because you've been emancipated and now you can live into the experience.

1:34:12 here's here here's the esteem those are my three points okay esteem here here's the esteem and it's really good i'm gonna say it slow when the spirit gave me i shouted so i can't shout now because i got two more points so so so here it is we're esteemed because okay whose we are informs who we are. No matter what other folk think about us, say about us, do to us, it's all about whose we are. Okay, here's your shout. Here's your shout. Once you know whose you are and it informs who you are, then all of a sudden, ah who you belong to is more important than what belongs to you because if you're not careful you will define your self-value by your belongings instead of who you belong to Freddie Haynes you preaching up in here that that was almost a Jay Z bar right there wasn't it I'm simply trying to say my sisters and brothers that the good news is that when you know who you belong to, you don't define yourself by the stuff you got.

1:35:41 Because you know it ain't about the car you drive, but what drives you. It's not about the clothes you wear. It's about the character in the clothes. It's not about the house you live in. It's about the heart you have as you live in that house. I'm trying to let you know it's about who you belong to. Okay. That's where your value comes from. That's where your value comes from. I was gifted by Robert Kennedy some years ago, something that I just treasure. It's a boxing glove. Watch this, a red boxing glove signed by, having been worn by the goat, Muhammad Ali. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Ali.

1:36:33 Float like a butterfly. Sting like a bee. Nobody could do it like Ali. Ali was cold. Ali was cold. And y'all, Coach Summers, I have a glove. And it's signed. His name is on the glove. Now, now, now. It's in a glass case. And that thing is beautiful. And so what I did, I went to whatever that store is out north where they have boxing gloves. So I went and I asked, how much are these boxing gloves? And they told me the price of the boxing gloves. I told the man, I said, I have a glove, just one, that was owned by Fault Inn by Muhammad Ali. his name is on it.

1:37:29 That man lost his mind. He said, are you serious? You have a glove that Ali wore, that Ali fought, Ali? You have all of that? I said, yeah, how much do you think it costs? He says, you can't put a price tag on it. I said, why can't you put a price tag on it? He said, because of whose name is on it, because of who owned it, because of who it belonged to. Come here and let me bless somebody. When God's name is on you, When you got the name of the Lord on you, God's name is a name that's above every name. And if God's name is on you, the good news is you've got value.

1:38:11 Hold your head up. Stick your shoulders back because God's name is on you. Prince of Peace is on you. Liberator is on you. Savior is on you. God's name is on you. So you hold your head up high because God's not. You belong to God. You belong to God. I got to give y'all this. I got to keep going. This is so good. The text talks about how we are esteemed. We're esteemed. I'm not making it up. I got to read to you verse 7 so you don't think I'm making this thing up. It is fly and fire. Verse 7, Moses is speaking to the people of God. And look what Moses says. He says God wasn't attracted to you and didn't choose you because you were big and important. The fact is there was almost nothing to you. God did it out of sheer love.

1:39:08 Keeping the promise God made to your ancestors. I hope y'all getting this thing. He said y'all didn't have nothing going for you. And yet God is passionately in love with you. God is turned on by you. That's the erotic language that is really used right here. That God loves us so much that God gets excited, turned on by God seeing us. God loves you. The Bible says God is love and God so loved the world that God gave God's only begotten son. God has a passionate love thing for you.

1:39:55 Gotta have you singing love on top. okay you didn't get that uh all right all right I got to keep on with this thing uh because once you get that once you get that here's the beautiful thing you start seeing yourself not through your own eyes but through God's eyes and when you see yourself through God's eyes your self-evaluation is based on what God thinks about you and not what on others think about you because as long as you don't appreciate your design then you question your designer and you don't like the way you were created you got issues with your creator but here's the shout When God made you, this is a Freddie Haynes remix of Genesis chapter 1.

1:40:54 God stepped back and patted God's self on God's Elohistic back. And God said, boom, that's good. No mistakes, nothing bad about this. That's good. When God made you, God said that's good. So anybody that relates to you, interacts with you, if they don't see the good that God made in you, then you keep on stepping because they don't see the good God made in them. And if they can't see the good God made in them, they're going to project onto you what's messed up about them. So you keep it stepping until someone else can see the good, ain't got no problem applauding you for your good, because when they're secure in their good, then they ain't got no problem rooting for your good. I think I'm preaching y'all just not getting this.

1:41:48 I don't want nobody in my life who don't want me to win. If you don't want me to win, it's because you are a loser. You're lame and you're taking L's. I need some winners around me. Do I have some winners in the house who don't mind me winning? Because you know God is blessing you to win. hey i love this i love this i love this uh uh deb during during my last road trip with my dad from san francisco to dallas years 1975 moms and we're riding from San Fran to Dallas and it's in June and uh as we're riding I share with my dad something and I've never really talked about this before because I was embarrassed at the time and so God has blessed me to grow so I share it with you now I just graduated from what we call back then junior high school now it's middle school and so I graduated and I was real upset that I was missing the graduation activities because there were some peeps I wanted to hang out with and so sorry I wasn't going to hang out with them and then I got word before I got ready to go that some people were talking about me for not going on the trip. They were saying he probably didn't graduate.

1:43:27 So they yapping. Freddie didn't graduate. That's why Freddie ain't going to, because we went to Disneyland from San Fran. He ain't going to Disneyland, but he didn't graduate. And y'all, it bothered me. It messed me up. And so my daddy said, so son, did you graduate? I said yeah I graduated he said so why is what they're saying about you that ain't true bothering you he said always remember it's not important what others say about you unless it determines what you say about you what you say about you should always overrule what other people say about you.

1:44:24 I think I'll stop and give y'all a moment to shout. Have you ever just stopped to quit tripping on what other folk got to say about you? Because other folk always got something to say. But here's the good news. As long as they got something to say about you, evidently you're relevant. As long as you live in their head rent free and you ain't paying the rent to be there, then evidently you the relevant one. And because you're the relevant one, they're going to always come up with something to say about you. But the shout right now is what they say about you ain't as important as what you say about you.

1:45:05 Okay. Okay. I got to give you this. I got to give you this. Now we'll go to the next point. So esteem and then emancipation. Emancipation is in the very next verse. because in the very next verse I love this right here the text lets us know God stepped in and mightily no he did it out of sheer love for you keeping the promise God made to your ancestors God stepped in and mightily brought you back bought you back out of that world of slavery freed you from the iron grip of Pharaoh king of Egypt ah I love that right there he is sharing with them that the faith that the dark past has taught us sets us up to live in the promise the future has for us. That's what I'm simply trying to say. The faith that the dark past has taught us. Please don't miss this. I think again I love the word that Magruder used earlier, Sankofa, because Deuteronomy is a Sankofa book where they're always looking back in order to move forward. Don't forget they are a wilderness people. They weren't around for the civil rights movement that got them out of Egypt. They weren't old enough to be there but now they had stories.

1:46:28 They were not allowing, watch this, ah the Department of Education to erase their history in the textbooks. Ah here's what Moses said. Moses said they may try to erase your history But here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to keep telling you your history. I'm going to keep reciting your story to you. You see, y'all, here it is. On the one hand, we ought to fight to make sure our kids get properly educated because black history is American history. We ought to fight to make sure that our kids know that before, to quote Martin Luther King Jr., before the pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock, We were here. We ought to be able to tell our children in the words of Malcolm X. We didn't land on Plymouth Rock.

1:47:21 Plymouth Rock landed on us. We ought to be able to tell our children that in the Declaration of Independence, we were not included in that declaration. So what to black people is your 250th anniversary on July 4th? I tell you what I said yesterday at the celebration of the centennial of Mother Opal Lee. I told them, thank God for Opal Lee having the sense to make our holiday first. Because you can't have July 4th unless you go through Juneteenth. And if you don't get Juneteenth right, you never will get July 4th right. Oh yeah. I love that. So Moses said, I'm going to tell you your history.

1:48:16 And y'all, I got to tell you this. We ought to fight to make sure our history is told in public schools because we pay taxes. But that shouldn't be the only place they learn history. They ought to learn their history at home. They ought to learn their history at church. They ought to learn their history in our fraternities and sororities. Thank God for Kappa Camp led by Mo West because Maurice and the Kappas, the brothers of Kappa Alpha Psi said we ain't going to wait for Trump to teach our kids. We going to mentor our kids. We going to raise up our kids. That's our responsibility. I got to quit. I've held y'all too long. Here's the last one. Esteem.

1:49:09 Emancipation. God set them free. But then here's the last thing. Oh my God, experience. It begins, verse 9 begins with know. And the word know is like an intimate knowledge. You really get to know. Know this. God. And here's my last point. And it's, man, it's good. So I'm going to say it slow. Another shout. God did God's big one so you do birthday. man all right okay so I got a mixed crowd I got a mixed crowd so so I understand I understand I understand God did God's big one I got that from Ivany uh Ivany said that when you say God did God's big one it's like God did what only God could do God God did something beyond special God did something reflecting the sovereign serendipities of God that show up at just the right time.

1:50:18 Surprising us with God doing what only God could do when we can't. God can. God did God's big one. That's what verse 9 says. And because God did God's big one, you the birthday. You the birthday. Now, now, now. Y'all know what it is. And I got to confess. I didn't know what it was until recently. Recently, I'm having a day where my self-doubt is getting the best of me. And Antonio, my bro right here. Antonio sent me a text out of nowhere. God is good like this. I'm having a day doubting me. I'm doubting myself. I'm not owning my power. I'm doubting me. And Antonio sends me a text out of nowhere. And this is what it said. You the birthday.

1:51:10 and I responded he'll tell you it's still there in the text I responded huh like what you talking about and then he said oh Ivany is not keeping you up to date on the latest I said she hadn't told me about this and then Antonio broke down you to birthday can I read to you what Antonio said to me about you to birthday because a lot of y'all sitting there y'all got it I know y'all got it but but the rest of this crowd I gotta work with them because they like me they didn't know what you the birthday is so let me find there's Antonio come up here Antonio out of nowhere says you the birthday what day was that Antonio you said you the birthday Antonio said you the birthday now that's happy anniversary that ain't it Antonio out of nowhere ain't got nothing to do with life and nothing oh here it is Saturday, May 16th, 4 42 p.m.

1:52:11 You the birthday. Huh? Come on. Come on, culture. Ask Albany. Basically, it means you are him. You that dude. So I kept doing some more research because that wasn't enough for me. That was good to know I'm that dude. I am him. But I need to get some more. And y'all, I did some more digging, did some research. I've talked to more folk in your amazing generation and y'all bless me real good. You to birthday means you are the center of attention. It's all about you. The spotlight is on you. The metaphor is birthday. When it's your birthday, everybody is showing you love and giving you love. And because God did God's big one, every day you to birthday. because God did God's big one. It means you in God's eyes are the central main attraction.

1:53:09 You are the center of attention. You the birthday. May I shout somebody right now because I'm not making this thing up. It's what Jesus said because y'all saying that ain't in the Bible. Oh, yes, it is. You the birthday. Jesus said you the light of the world. You the birthday. You the salt of the earth. You the birthday. You a child of God. You the birthday. You're a royal priesthood, a chosen generation, God's special treasure. You the birthday, so I'm done, y'all. But that's the word I give to everyone, and that is you the birthday. Because if God said it, God basically has a word for you. You can do all things through Christ who gives you strength. So tomorrow you go to work, go to school, wherever you got to go, and step off in there like you know you the birthday. Your boss may look down on you, but you hold your head up because you the birthday.

1:54:06 And if somebody wants to know where you got it from, just know God said word is bond. Word is bond. That's what covenant means. Covenant means God takes the initiative in love to do something for us, hoping we in love will respond. And when we respond, God says, I'm going to do what I said I'm going to do. because word is bond. Y'all didn't get that. God said, I said what I said. I said what I said. All things work together for good to those that love God and are called according to God's purposes. I said what I said. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? I said what I said. He prepares a table before me in the presence of Donald Trump. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.

1:55:07 And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. I said what I said. You the first day. I've got loyalty. I've got royalty in my DNA. Hey, hey, and I'm so glad Jesus lifted me singing glory. Hallelujah. Jesus lifted me. Satan had me down, but Jesus. lifted me singing glorious All glory. Hallelujah. Jesus.

1:56:01 Y'all know I don't normally do this, but look at your neighbor right quick. Give him a high five and say, you're the birthday. Hallelujah.