"When Pops is 'On Point' " - Rev. Dr. Frederick D. Haynes, III

3:41 want to put a tag on this text and for a few moments with your prayers, I want to talk about when pops is on point. When pops is on point. Have you thought about why it is you were here when you had every intention to be there, only to be misdirected by distractions. In a word, it was your desire to do this, but instead you ended up doing that. Not because you plan on it, but because you were set up to be set back by distractions. distractions we live in an age of relentless distractions and I've discovered that distractions start out as attractions that will mislead you so that when you set out to think about and accomplish this. Instead you end up thinking about that and as a consequence you don't get done what you planned on doing. This is the age of relentless distractions and again distractions often start out as attractions. They look good enough to arrest your attention and once they get your attention you forget what it was you had set out to do. All of us know something about being distracted by something that appeared to be attractive. Ah I see why you're looking at me strange because now you've discovered that the date that you went on really was an attraction that became a distraction.

5:40 And as a consequence, where you planned on being and where you actually are have a lot to do with how you got distracted by someone you were attracted to. Yes, my sisters and brothers, that which is attractive can soon become a distraction that will cause you to end up thrown off. One of my wonderful mentors, the late great Manuel Scott Sr., had a series of sermons on dealing with the devil. And one of those sermons was entitled, The Diversionary Tactics of the Devil. In which Dr. Scott sagaciously suggested that the devil does not watch this simply come at us in our face. But every now and then the devil wants to throw us off in order to cause us to miss out on what God is up to. I didn't say it like I wanted to.

6:41 I'll give it to you like Doc said it. Doc in a real sense threw down with the truth. And here it is that the devil is good at diverting us. The devil is great at distracting us. The devil, watch this, will cause you, watch this diversion, according to Dr. Scott, to settle for something good, but you miss out on what's best. It's what he called a diversionary tactic. Y'all still didn't get it. In a real sense, the devil sets you up by throwing you off. And before you know it, you've been set back by a diversionary tactic of the devil. No wonder I believe it was the amazing Toni Morrison who said it is the very real function of racism to serve as a distraction. And then one writer piggybacking on or interpreting what Toni Morrison was referring to said that whenever you find yourself hit by racism, you get distracted because you end up as a writer or thinker having to defend who you are as a black person.

8:00 or you are always called upon to speak up for black people everywhere because you are their designated black person for understanding black people. And so instead of doing your work as a writer, you end up having to defend who you are and what you are doing. And not only that, but serve as an apologist, no, a clarifier for what it means to be black. And so Toni Morrison said, you've got to watch racism because it will distract you from doing the work you are destined to do. No wonder, my sisters and brothers, we find ourselves in an age where distraction hits us all the time. As you know, I had surgery last year, And one of the things I enjoyed doing was watching Ratchet television.

8:58 And one of my favorite Ratchet movies to watch is entitled Kingdom Come. Now, Kingdom Come is really my wife's favorite movie. So blame her for this movie. But I got a word from Kingdom Come. Kingdom Come, watch this, opens up. And really, it's a movie starring LL Cool J and Jada Pinkett Smith and Anthony Anderson. I mean, it's a whole lot of stars in this movie, Kingdom Come. But it's ratchet and it is hilarious. And it opens up with one particular scene. And in this scene, Anthony Anderson is driving his car. Jada Pinkett Smith is his wife. In the back are the kids. The kids are playing. The father, the patriarch of the family, Bud Slocum, has died.

9:55 They are the Slocums. And the Slocums are one dysfunctional family. They are a hot mess of a family. Please, when you get a chance, watch the movie Kingdom Come. Because the Slocums are a hot mess. And so Anthony Anderson is Junior Slocum and Junior is driving and Sharice is his wife played by Jada Pinkett Smith. The kids are in the back seat. They are having a good time. And Jada Pinkett Smith, Sharice is talking all kind of smack to her husband Junior about how trifling and sorry he is. I've discovered ain't no drama like family drama because family drama just don't stop. And so while Anthony Anderson Jr. Slocum is driving, his wife is talking about how trifling and sorry he is. And the stupid mistake that he had made investing his money in something that was destined not to work.

11:00 It's a hot mess. And then all of a sudden they yell at the kids in the back seat. Sharice turns around and sees an earring that does not belong to her. When she sees this earring, she grabs it and says, whose earring is this? And that's when Junior looks at her. His face changes because now guilt is written all over his face. He doesn't have to say a word and that sends her over the edge. She begins to jump on him while he's driving. And before you know it, they become the embodiment of what they call distracted driving. Y'all going to catch this in just a moment. As he is distracted, the next thing you know, he's run off the road. He's run off the road because he had been distracted.

11:56 And I'm simply trying to say that no matter who you are, all of us have some people in our families who are crazy. People in our families who are a hot mess. And if you're not careful, it's those who are closest to you that will cause you to run off the road because of the distractions they bring in your life. Preach, Freddie Haynes, I already am. But wait, my sisters and brothers, distractions, distractions. It's what happens Dr. Scott the diversionary tactics of the devil Distractions It's what happens Junior Slocum gets run off the road But wait we are in a distracted age Do you not know that because of your algorithms You can be minding your business Trying to handle business And before you know it A notification will pop up on your phone And that notification will entice and seduce you to get off of what you were doing and get on to that which is a part of an attractive algorithm. And then you will get behind on what you were doing because you have been distracted, distracted by AI because artificial intelligence, my sisters and brothers, will call you to believe that a shortcut will get you there quicker.

13:21 But before you know it, you discover that every advancement ain't necessarily a step forward but can set you back. We're in the age of distractions. Wait, I'm not even done because really think about the political environment we find ourselves in as we every day are victimized by the politics, watch this, of distraction. It's called, according to Steve Bannon, the brain behind a lot of what's happening right now. It's called, here it is, flooding the zone with all kinds of feces. Now, of course, he doesn't say feces. He uses the word that came into your mind. And watch this, my sisters and brothers. Flooding the zone simply means that everything that happens every day by way of a crisis or a scandal or a lie or something that shouldn't be done that ends up getting done, a war that we find ourselves in, executive orders that create disorder, all of that is happening.

14:34 Can you believe it's only been 18 months since this political era started? Why? It feels like it's been much longer because of the politics of distraction. The politics of distraction that calls us to feel overwhelmed because so much is happening at one time that we finally reached the point where we become numb to it and start to act like it's normal. when there's nothing normal about the era in which we find ourselves in. We are in an age of relentless distractions. That's why this text is so important because Joshua has been used and infused by God to lead the people of promise into the promised land. And now the book lets us know they are in that liminal space where they are not quite, watch this, the full inhabitants of the real estate in Canaan, but they are no longer in the wilderness.

15:42 They are no longer enslaved. They're in the liminal space. Liminal, I'm showing off my education. It means that time of transition. It means the in-between. You're not where you were, but you're not where you're going. It's that liminal space. and somebody is looking at me right now. I'm in your Kool-Aid. I just called out your flavor because you're not where you're going, but you're not where you used to be. You're in that liminal space. You're in transition between where you're going and where you've been. And that is a vulnerable time. It's a time where there will be many attractions that can become distractions. I'm blown away by the fact that he refers to the gods of the Amorites. Now, I got to help you with this because you know that I got my PhD last year, not bragging, just testifying.

16:42 And one of the things they teach us in the program is that you oftentimes, while reading, will go down rabbit holes. And when you go down rabbit holes, you start chasing ideas and chasing thoughts and chasing things and topics. And y'all, the word Amorite, it grabbed me like it's never grabbed me before. And here's what blew my mind. The Amorites literally had an echo political system of gods that ran the area where they were as what was called a mountain dwelling people. They are a mountain dwelling people who dwell high up and they have fertility gods to ensure pregnancy and the perpetuation of families. They have, watch this, not just fertility gods, but they also have the gods of the weather. They have the gods of the rains.

17:41 They eventually began to worship the gods of Baal. And so they have an eco-political system of gods. And Joshua recognizes you are in an area where you're going to be surrounded by a political ecosystem that is going to distract you. And the sad thing is some of it will be in the name of religion. And that's why we've got to be careful about white Christian nationalism because it's more white than it is Christian. And as a consequence, it will distract you with white Jesus who becomes hell for black people. Because white Jesus, my sisters and brothers, will watch this, cause you to become obsessed with individual piety. And you have no sense of social responsibility.

18:36 and so you will read the Bible through the eyes of empire, not from the bottom up or the margins in, but from the top down and from the inside out. As a consequence of that, my sisters and brothers, you read the Bible and you see God only when it comes to your individual personal piety and you don't understand that God is not just the God of you as an individual, But God is the God of the whole world. The old folk used to sing, he's got the whole world in his hands. He's got you and me in his hands. The Bible says the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The world and they that dwell therein, it all belongs to God. And so surrounded by this system. And that's why I want to hang out for just a moment because the system will distract you.

19:35 And you will make statements rooted in ignorance about what happens and not understand systems. It happened last Sunday in a church here in Dallas and I won't call the name or the pastor. But they made a statement about what happened with Carmelo Anthony. And it broke my heart because I've been there. and when preachers who ain't been there got something to say about what happens there it bothers me when you baptize it in the name of Jesus I've been there I know Andrew Anthony I've had the privilege last year they came to us at the onset of this horrific heartbreaking tragedy I hurt for both families because one father today won't have a son to share with.

20:42 Another father today has a son in prison for 35 years. But I also recognize the country I live in, a country of systems that have been set up so that it has been determined that black males always are going to have longer sentences than white males, even for the same crime. Marie Daniel Favors, brilliant attorney activist. She broke it down like this. She said that in 1649, there were three, count them, three indentured servants. And these three indentured servants had run away from their enslaver. And when they ran away, they were eventually caught.

21:36 when they were brought back. The three were then given their sentences. Two of them were white. One of them was black. The one black indentured servant received a life sentence, a life sentence of servitude. The others were given 30 days and then they were let off. Lurie Daniel Fabers makes the insight for 400 years we've been surrounded by a system that has been designed to use racism to distract us y'all still didn't get this so what I'm gonna do is help you because I don't want y'all to think I am making any of this up I'm telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth So help me God, I'll show you how sad this thing is, how bad this system is. Carson Allison was charged with murder in another school stabbing.

22:37 And Carson Allison was convicted of criminally negligent homicide. He got 10 years. Jesus San Miguel was found guilty of criminally negligent homicide. And he got 10 years probation and 30 years in jail. The U.S. Sentencing Commission says black males get longer sentences than white males. Dr. Allison Witts noted black people are 7.5 times more likely to wrongfully get convicted of murder than whites. And the risk is even higher when the victim is right. And then I got to help y'all because I told you I've been there. I was there the first day when they selected jury. jury. I was there the last day when they gave closing arguments at the invitation of the family and y'all I sat in that courtroom disgusted because of the fact that the defense did not defend Carmelo Anthony. I sat there disgusted because the prosecuting attorney then had the nerve to paint Carmelo Anthony as a monster of a man.

23:49 And then he closed out with this, and y'all reach your own conclusions. He told that jury of all non-blacks, he said, you have an opportunity here in Collin County to determine the kind of community that you want to live in. As he pointed at that little boy who suffers from seizures, what do you think he was saying to that all non-black jury and you're going to talk about self. You're going to talk about de-escalation. You're going to talk about telling our kids to calm down. No, you tell the kids to calm down who I went out to that Collin County Courthouse and they came up to me. They said, thank you for being here, Pastor. But my question to you is we can't defend ourselves because George Zimmerman can hunt down Trayvon Martin and he can get off for stand your ground but this boy our friend can't even defend himself we are not safe

24:57 There's a system that's been working against us for 400 years. It can distract you. And Joshua says, I know the system is going to distract you. But here it is. And he begins to recite what God has done in a covenant renewal ceremony. and then he closes by testifying y'all got a choice to make but as for me in my house we're gonna serve God he says watch this in the midst of these distractions I'm about to do a remix I got my mind on my maker and my maker on my mind that's my thesis because when your mind is on your maker and your maker is on your mind then you can be like pops on point I got to give y'all what that means on point on point y'all know that straight culture because in the culture whenever someone is on point it means they are operating in excellence when they are on point they were doing the doggone thing when they are on point. They are moving and grooving in a powerful way whenever they are on point. Y'all, the Knicks beat the San Antonio Spurs because Jalen Brunson was on point. And I've discovered when you're on point and you're playing a game, I'm about to shout you. They said about Jalen Brunson, either he would approach the game by deciding on the one hand, I'm going to set my teammates up first and then I'm going to decide when to take over the game. It's Father's Day.

26:46 And I came to say to every daddy, you ought to have a Jalen Brunson anointing. And that is we have a responsibility in this age, especially to make sure we set our families up, set our children up, make sure they're in position to win and experience victory. Set them up. But every now with Vienna, you got to take over and say, I'm going to pray right now. I'm going to talk to God right now. Every now and then, we've got to step up and we're going to be on point.

27:23 So how does it work, Freddie Haynes? I'm almost done. Text shouts me because the text says this. It says when your mind is on your maker and your maker's on your mind, it means you've got to discard, I love this, discard what shouldn't be so you can grab what needs to be. Oh my God. Discard some stuff. It says there in verse 14 that you need to be faithful to the God who's been good to you. And here it is, get rid of the gods that your ancestors worship beyond the river. Now, let me just do this right quick. Father's Day, me and my colleagues agree, like Mother's Day, real hard day to preach. It's hard to preach because so many stories are in the sanctuary about daddy.

28:21 They ain't all good. Some, some, some are privileged like me. I love being a daddy. Ain't nothing like it. I love being a father. I get hyped about the privilege of being a father. Oh, ain't nothing like being a father. I got to share with you a lyric I came across just recently. I didn't have enough time to memorize the lyrics, so I'll just give it to you right quick. I think it's Dave East who says, ain't nothing, ain't nothing cooler than being your dad. I could be mad at the world soon as I see you. I'm glad for you. I go hard. Can't tell me, Dave, you need to relax. I'm loving that right there. Some of us got that testimony. Ain't nothing cooler than being your dad. I'm loving that. But also there are those who can say, nah, that ain't my testimony, son, because I got a father in my life. No, that's the problem. He ain't in my life. Or I got a father in my life. I wish he had never been in my life because he hurt me because he was hurt himself and as a consequence he didn't know how to relate to me somebody else your testimony is like my testimony and that is your dad was good but your dad didn't live that long my dad died when I was 14 years old so today is a complicated kind of day, but I'm simply letting you know that God is so good that this message is going to hit all of us because the good news is there is some stuff we need to discard. There's some stuff we've come here to let go of. There's some stuff that we ain't got to go back to watch what my man is saying. Joshua is saying, don't be going back to worship the gods beyond the river. After all, Those are the gods who couldn't handle the God who delivered you and set you free.

30:24 Why would you go back to the God you got delivered from? Jeffrey Johnson, that great preacher, tells the story about some kids in a home. For those who were mentally challenged, a fire breaks out. When the fire broke out, they were able to rescue the kids. Once the kids got outside on the sidewalk, do you know that some of them turned around? and ran back into the home, ran back into the fire. They went back to what they had been set free from. I got to stop right there because some of us, if we're not careful, God sets us free. God delivers us and then we make the mistake of going back to what we had been delivered from. But no, here's what Joshua says. Don't go back to those gods. You've got to discard what was.

31:17 Albany helped me out right here. Albany, bless her heart, she flew in to Dallas, I guess, earlier this past week. And when she flew in, she was hyped with excitement because she had watched again Finding Nemo. Finding Nemo. Now, now y'all too young to know about Finding Nemo. So I'll give it to you. Nemo has, Nemo is a kid fish. What kind of fish? Angel fish? Real cute fish. And Nemo, watch this, is the only son of his dad and his mom, but his mom had been killed by a predator. And as a consequence, the dad is hyper protective of Nemo. The dad is allowing trauma to inform his parenting. I got to talk to every dad right now.

32:13 Be careful about allowing the trauma you've been through to inform your parenting with the child God has gifted you. And so that's what happened. Trauma is informing how this dad is parenting. And Nemo rebels against the overprotection of the dad. And before you know it, Nemo gets lost, caught up. and Nemo is now in Sydney, Australia, according to intelligence. And so dad begins, Marlon begins to go and find Nemo along with Dory. Dory is a trip. I can't tell you all about Dory because I'd be preaching the rest of the day on Dory. But Dory and dad, Marlon go in search of Nemo and finally a whale grabs them and they're in this whale. And while in the whale, watch your shout, the water begins to go down. And according to Albany and the movie, here's what happened. Dory is talking to the whale that they are caught up in. Dory is talking whale.

33:26 And Marlon says, what are you doing? You can't talk whale. And Dory keeps talking and says, The whale just told us that the water is going down and for us to go to the back of the throat. And that's when Marlon says, of course he wants us to go to the back of the throat to devour us. And she says, no, not to devour us, but to deliver us. And before you know it, the water has gone down. And that's when, watch this, the whale tells Dory, tell him to let go, let go. And he said, but what if something goes wrong? Just let go. Let go. How do you know it will work? I don't know if it will work. And y'all, he let go. And when he let go, they ended up in Sydney where they were trying to get. God used a whale that was bigger than them to get them where it is they were trying to go.

34:26 But he couldn't get there until he learned to let go. I'm not going to shout yet, but somebody needs that word right now. There's some stuff you're going to have to let go. If you're going to get over distraction, you got to let go of what he did to you. Let go of how they misuse you. Let go of what went wrong. Let go, because if you let go, Jesus says, come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Learn when to let go. discard but after you discard you got to decide discard what ain't helpful so you can grab on to what's helpful but then after you discard it you got to make a decision he said oh I got to read this to you because it is so fire it's right there I think in verse 15 or maybe it's verse 14 but but it's real good. It says, here it is, and don't shout yet, but here it is. It says, verse 14, therefore, Right.

35:41 Right. Right. Right. All right. All right. The way y'all sing, y'all should be shout ready, okay? So here it is. Therefore is a conjunction. I didn't always know what a conjunction was. But one day back in the day, I'm watching cartoons. And on Schoolhouse Rock, a song comes on and the song is Conjunction Junction. Y'all saw it. And the function of a conjunction is to connect what's before with what's after. The word therefore means you've got to read what's before therefore so you can know what therefore is therefore. And so when you read what's before therefore, the first 13 verses tell the story of what God did in the history of that nation. It literally is a Sankofa scripture where God says, I want you to experience what Professor Gray Carr calls the momentum of memory.

36:49 But you've got to look back if you're going to move forward. And so he has them look back. And when they look back, what does he tell them? He says, first of all, you've got to recognize that you came from nothing. but somehow God is good enough to know how to start with nothing and make somebody out of it. And y'all can look holy on me all you want to, but all of you ain't always been middle class. All of you ain't always had your degree, but somehow God said, though mama may not have had an education, she's going to make sure you get your education. God had a way when fathers failed you that you were blessed with the right men in your life who stepped in and opened up doors for you that you didn't even knock on I'm just trying to say if you start at nothing God says I specialize in starting at nothing how you think the universe came to be I started with nothing and I can take your nothing and make you somebody from your nothing.

37:58 Wait, not only can I start with nothing and make you something, but wait, I'm good enough so that my power can start with the impossible and make something possible out of it. Abraham and Sarah were real old, too old to have kids. And that's when I asked, is there anything too hard for God? That's a rhetorical question. And that's my word to everyone right now. Regardless of your situation, ain't nothing too hard for God. Wait, I got to keep it moving. God showed up as liberator and set him free from Pharaoh. God can put an expiration date on Pharaoh and tell Pharaoh, you may be in power right now, but you let God show up. And when God shows up, freedom will take place. Wait, I'm not done.

38:51 And then God took care of them in the wilderness and fought for them in the wilderness. And God gave them victory in the promised land. God said, I did all of that to let you know I'm still God. And since I'm still God, all of that was to set you up for where you are right now. That's the shout of the day. And that is everything you've been through has been a setup for where God has you right now. I read this. I read this, Deb. Blew my mind. Book is called King the Seminarian. You saw that, huh? It's a powerful book. King, Martin Luther King Jr. in seminary. The author shares a story about King I never knew. Really King's daddy.

39:46 Martin Luther King Sr. Martin Luther King Sr. was a civil rights prophetic activist in his own right. So you wonder where King Jr. got it. He was on the shoulders of King Sr. And Penny, watch this. Martin King Sr. I'm going to shout y'all with two. Martin King Sr. There was an office downtown Atlanta. And the office downtown Atlanta, it had, watch this. an elevator that said whites only and you know what he did he would go into that office building he would put a towel over the elevator sign that said whites only and board the elevator and dare white folk to tell him to get off of that because he wasn't quite into non-violence like his son was And so he would get on the elevator and he would dare somebody to pull him off that elevator and go where he was going.

40:50 And y'all, there was another time when King Sr. was driving. King Jr. is in the front seat and the police stopped him. And when they stopped him to harass him, the police say to King Sr., boy, why are you driving so fast? At that moment, he said, that boy right there is a boy. You're talking to a man. So unless you recognize who you're talking to, if you're going to say boy, you talk to my son. But if you're going to say man, then you talk to me. All I'm trying to say is that all of that was setting Martin Jr. up for whom Martin Jr. was going to become. And I'm just trying to let somebody know, don't you let anybody degrade you because of your history, because of your past, because God is so good. God can use all of that to set you up for where God is trying to take you.

41:51 Because there's some lessons you learn that you wouldn't have learned had you not been through that mess. There's some strength you have that you would not have had you not been beaten down the way life beat you down. God can use what they thought was messing you up to bless you up. I'm done. Here's the last one. Discard. Decide. Oh, please decide. I shall be telling this with the size somewhere ages and ages hence. Two roads diverge in a wood and I, I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference. To every man there openeth the way ways in a way. The high soul climbs the highway. The low soul gropes the low.

42:43 And in between on the misty flats, the rest drift to and fro. Every man must decide the way. His soul must go. Your decisions will determine your destiny. Your decisions have consequences. Your decisions will reap dividends. He says, choose you this day. Who are you going to serve? As for me, my house. we're gonna serve the Lord and all I'm trying to say in the final analysis this is good divine connections have domestic consequences meaning when you connect with God yourself the blessings don't stop with you when you connect with God yourself. You know why you need to get with God? Because God is so amazing that when God blesses you, God doesn't stop the blessings at you, but God allows the blessings to flow over into the lives of your children. God allows the blessings to flow over in the life of your spouse.

43:54 God is a good God, and y'all can look holy on me all you want to, but some of us are here in church not because we always made the best decisions, but because God blessed us because of the prayers of those who went before us. God blessed us because of the love of those who prayed us in to where we are right now. All right, let me close with this. Basically, it's my testimony. I've been thinking about sharing this. I can't tell you for how many years, and I just never did because as I was typing it out, I would get emotional. This is the first time I typed it out, and I didn't get too emotional. So I give it to you, and I'm done. Here it is. I graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School, and then that fall, I went to now defunct, but never did Bishop College.

44:48 I told Deb the other day when I showed up at Bishop, I showed up as a broken boy. I was broken. My daddy died. I showed up for college broken. Yet God used Bishop to reset me. God used Bishop. I'm like a broken bone. and Bishop College put me back in place. It reset me because my dad who was my hero, my dad who was like everything to me, my dad was my best friend, dies at the age of 46. I'm only 14. When my dad died, I'd go to college at 17. I walked on that campus a broken kid. And when I walked on that campus a broken kid, I had no idea where life was going to take me, but God reset me and set me on a trajectory where I am, where I am today.

45:50 But it all happened because it goes back to what happened at Bishop College. After my first year as a freshman, I go home, and once I go home, I'm wrestling with what I'm going to do with my life. I meet Howard Thurman because of Reverend Noah Osborne and life starts to line up for me. But I get a summer job working at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. It tripped me out because I applied for there. I applied to work there and I got a job the next day after the application had gone through. A week into working at Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, a man comes in the area where I'm working, who I do not know. And the man says, please tell me that you are the son of Frederick D. Haynes, Jr., Reverend F. D. Haynes, Jr., who died a few years ago. And I said, yes, I am. He said, I'm so glad because when I saw your application, I knew I had to meet you because I owe your dad. And because I owe your dad, that's why you got the job so fast. You didn't have to, you applied, You didn't get interviewed.

47:02 I just saw your name. And when I saw your name, I associated your name with your father. And because I associated your name with your father, I made sure you were hired without an interview. I made sure you were hired without a background check. You just got hired because of who your daddy is. He said, I owe your pops. And y'all, that's what he kept on saying to me. I owe your pops. And that's why you got this job. The next day, he came to check on me and said, I owe your pops. That's why you got this job. And then a week later, he takes me to lunch and says, do you want to know what I mean? When I say I owe your pops, I said, yes, tell me. Here it is. And I'm done. He said, I owe your pops because your pops prayed me into getting my life back together. I owe your pops because my pops was in jail at Vacaville in prison.

48:04 And your dad was the first black preacher to preach behind prison walls at Vacaville prison. And when your dad preached, he accepted Jesus as his Lord and Savior. When he accepted Jesus, all of a sudden, when the letters came to me, They came sounding different because he had met Jesus through the preaching of your pops. I owe your pops because your pops preached my daddy into knowing Jesus. And when he knew Jesus, he'd walk, he'd talk to me different. He began to send me letters where he was praying for me. I never had that experience with my pops. But your pops preached my pops into knowing Jesus. And then your pops prayed for me because I didn't know how to deal with the change my pops had made. And when my pops made that change, I wasn't ready to receive it because I was used to him being the way he was and would not accept and renegotiate our relationship.

49:11 Can I stop right there? Give folk room to change. Give folk room to grow up. You ain't always been the way you are. You got to give people room to make a change. I owe your pops because your pops prayed for me. And because he prayed for me, I got back with my wife because he prayed for me. I became a better father to my kids. I owe your pops. I said, well, God bless you. Thank you. And I'm feeling good about that, but don't know what to do with it. And then y'all at the end of the summer, at the end of the summer, I got to go back to school. He takes me to lunch and gives me a check for $200. He says, I owe your pops. So I ain't giving this to you. I'm giving it to you in honor of your pops. I owe your pops. And then, y'all, I got on the plane, came to Dallas from San Francisco.

50:07 When I landed, I knew I owed, watch this, $1,000 that I had to pay to get into school and register. I go to the business office and ask, may I please get a loan? And they say, you're only 18. Your parents have to take out a loan for you. I didn't want to bother my mother. I said, well, what am I supposed to do if I can't get a loan? And that's when all of a sudden a woman who's the secretary came running down the hall and said to the business manager, listen, go ahead and let him in because he just got a scholarship from Metropolitan Life Insurance Company in San Francisco. I said, what? I didn't apply for no scholarship. She said, well, here it is. Here's what was on that letter. This is in honor of Reverend F.D. Haynes Jr.

51:05 And then at the bottom he says, oh, you're pops, y'all, I'm done. I got him schooled that semester not because of what I did, but because of what my daddy did. And all I'm trying to say, God is so good. God will bless you and then be a blessing through you to somebody else in your family who is here right now that can testify. You didn't earn every blessing, but God blessed you because somebody prayed for you. But I can't stop right there. I got to let y'all know I got it because of my daddy. I got it because of my name that's under his name. And y'all, I got another name for you. Just in case you're saying, but my name ain't Frederick Douglas Haynes. My name ain't Frederick Douglas Haynes Jr.

52:00 I got another name for you. I hope you don't mind if I say his name. Can I say his name? I'm about to say his name. Yahweh. Elohim. El Elyon. El Shaddai. Jehovah Jireh. Jehovah Nisi. Jehovah Shalom. Jehovah Shalom. I'm just trying to say his name. Do you know his name? Heart fixer. Mind regulator. Burden bearer. Heavy load chair. Bridge over troubled waters. Mother to the motherless Father To the fatherless Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. I'm trying to let you know his name. He'll be your daddy.

52:53 He'll be your father. He'll take care of you. He'll watch over you.