The Third Option

What's up, Gateway Church?

Please stay standing just for one minute because I like when people stand in class for me.

Keep going now.

Please stay standing for one minute.

I do want to pray for you, but I do want to say thank you to Pastor Robert.

I don't know where he is, if he's getting reception, but God bless you.

Good brother.

That's a brother from another mother.

His mother, his wife's name is Debbie.

My wife is here.

Her name is Debbie.

God bless you for being here.

And I want to say hello to all the campuses and all the prison campuses, the three prison campuses.

God bless all of y'all out there.

Amen.

Before you sit down, I do want to pray for you.

I'm so excited about today, but I want to get our hearts ready because when we come to church, we come for something we didn't have when we came in here.

Can I get amen?

I was, I was, I did play in the NFL, but uh I was playing golf a couple years ago, and I hit the ball and I didn't see where it went.

Uh, you know, it went so high.

Uh it was just went so far.

And uh the sun was in my eyes, and and and I said, I said, I didn't know where it went.

The guy was playing with me, he said, I got some good news, I got some bad news.

I said, Well, give me, give me the bad news.

He says, It went in the water.

So I'm like, What's the good news?

He said, It went right where you were aiming.

So uh as we as we prepare for the message, because my my prayer is that God's gonna speak to you, that we direct and aim our hearts and minds to what God wants to say.

And that we do this.

We come to church saying, Lord, I am positioning my body, my thoughts, my mind for you to do a miracle in me.

Then you're not gonna give me good information, you're gonna give me revelation.

There's a difference.

And so we want to we want to direct our heart saying, Lord, give me revelation, change me.

So when I walk out the door, when I walk out whatever campus, I'm a different person.

Lord, we just thank you that you are here.

We don't have to pray for you to fill this place, you're here.

We have to pray to submit to you.

We acknowledge your presence, we acknowledge your majesty, we acknowledge that you are the Lord of Lords, King of Kings.

None of us are God, and thank God we are not.

So we submit ourselves to you, we submit our hearts, our minds in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Turn to the person next to you and say, You better get ready.

If you have a Bible, please turn to Joshua chapter 5.

Joshua 5 · chapter mention

And if you missed it because I was talking too fast, my name is Miles.

I'm pastor of the Rock Church in San Diego.

Uh, I am honored to be here.

I have um two brothers and two sisters.

I played in NFL, I have another brother that played in the NFL, another brother who was uh eighth-ranked boxer, and I had two sisters, they didn't play any sports.

And about 10 years ago or so, my brothers and sisters and I were with our parents, who are now both past, and we were standing in a circle getting ready to pray for the food, and my mom starts crying.

And as my mom is crying through her tears, she says, This is all I ever wanted was that we would be together.

Because we, you know, I I moved from I grew up in New York, moved to California, we moved all over the place, and it was very rare that all seven of us would be together.

And for all the moms in the house, you know how important it is.

Can I get amen, ladies?

And so my mom's claiming, I wish, I wish we could all, this is all I ever wanted.

And when God looks at the earth, especially in the United States, because that's where we live, he says, I made all of y'all to get along.

Why can't you get along?

Why is there so much division in our culture?

Say, amen, if you notice the division in our culture.

Amen.

You're it's you the devil has given you one or two options.

And by the way, the division in our culture, the political division, the racial division, the social economic division, is a spiritual battle.

The devil is the enemy.

Say the devils are the enemy.

You need to know it's not the black man, the white man, the Hispanic, the immigrant, the Democrats, the Republicans.

It is a spiritual battle.

And we live in a us first them culture, and we have to learn what is our role as citizens of heaven.

You're either watching Fox or CNN.

You're either a Republican or Democrat, you're either four against the police or whatever, or whatever it is, and the devil gives you one of two options.

And you feel forced in culture to have to pick one of two options.

Everyone say us.

Everyone say us.

Say them.

Those are your two options.

You're either on my side or you're against my side.

You're either watching Fox or you're watching CNN.

You're either Republican or a Democrat.

You're either for or against the Republican or the president, you're for or for against the police.

And the devil's always pushing you to decide.

And once you choose one side, you're somewhat automatically against the other side.

And not only that, once you choose one side, if you agree with the other side, you become a sellout.

Even if the other side is right.

And so the devil says you got to pick one or two sides.

And we feel because we live in the United States, that we are citizens of the United States, but the Bible says we're citizens of another land.

And there's another land that has a whole different set of rules.

And so instead of the us versus them options, one of those two options, I'm going to talk to you about the third option.

The third option, instead of us versus them, the third option is that we honor what we have in common.

Because all of us have more similarities than differences.

So I want to talk to you about the third option.

That's what this book is about.

It's on all the campuses.

You can get it on Amazon, etc.

I want to talk to you about.

So what I want to talk to you about today is one, not only how we got divided, but several ways of how we can come together, which is what we need, is a solution.

Amen.

Little background.

I have four grandparents from Jamaica, West Indies.

I have one grandmother who's half black and Chinese, a Chinaman from China.

Named Wong Kim Fong.

That's his name, Wong Kim Fong, but his English name was Charlie.

True story.

His tombstone says Charlie.

Charlie came to Jamaica West Indies and got jungle fever, which means he had something for the black women there.

Are you following what I'm saying?

Yeah, my grandma.

Have another uh uh grandmother who was white.

She grew uh was in Jamaica and her parents sent her to Jamaica Queens, New York, so she wouldn't marry a black Jamaican.

Have you ever been to Jamaica Queens?

She should have sent them to Montana, sent them to Montana or something.

I don't know what she's gonna do.

She meets my grandfather, a black Jamaican from Jamaica, who happened to move to Jamaica Queens, so he was double chocolate.

They meet, and they they date, but he can't go in the front door of the house.

He has to go around the back door of the house.

When they got married, they disowned her, so we never met her family.

It was Grandma Dorothy and all us brown people, and they lived 15 minutes away.

Never knew who, never knew they lived there, didn't know about them, they cut her off.

I grew up in a very diverse family.

I grew up in a black neighborhood, went to school in a white neighborhood to go to Catholic school.

I got harassed in a white neighborhood because I wasn't white.

I got harassed in a black neighborhood because I wasn't black enough.

But then I would go to my house and I had the United Nations.

I would go to football practice and we all got along.

But culture was divided.

When I was eight years old, Martin Luther King got killed, and I remember feeling, what do we do?

I want to talk about what we can do.

Joshua chapter 5, very interesting story to us first them third option story.

Joshua 5 · chapter mention

Joshua's leading Israelites into the promised land.

And he's getting ready to go into the promised land, and he's confronted by the commander of the Lord's army, big strong brother, light-skinned like me, kind of ripped up, and he's got this.

It's in the Bible.

It's in the original Greek.

Y'all need to understand if you don't know that, just too bad.

But uh he's standing with this sword in his hand, and Joshua is gonna ask him a us first damn question.

He's gonna say, Are you for us or our adversaries?

If you're not on our side, you are our enemy.

This is the spirit of the devil spirit of the culture.

If you're not on my side, you're my enemy.

If you don't like what I like, you are my enemy.

Look what it says.

Joshua chapter 5, verse 13.

Joshua 5:13

It says, It came to pass when Joshua was by Jericho that he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, a man stood opposite him with a sword joined in his hand.

And Joshua went to him and said, Are you for us?

Everyone say us.

All the campuses say us.

Or say them.

He says, Are you for us or adversaries?

And the commander of the Lord's army says, No.

That's not an answer to that question.

You know what I'm saying?

If you go to your kids and say, Do you want ice cream or do you do you want an ice cream or do you want cake?

And they go, No.

Right?

Or my house, that means you're getting nothing.

Okay?

You got to be clear.

But but either he said, Are you for us or adversaries?

And he says, No.

Hold on, hold on, hold on.

You're not answering my question.

You you didn't give me all the options because I'm not on either one of your side.

Now watch this.

God's not on either one of that side.

You're like, well, wasn't he on the Jew's side?

No.

Let's keep reading.

Verse 14.

He says, No, but as commander of the army of the Lord, I have now come.

And Joshua fell on his face and said, Oh, my bad, and worshiped and said, What does my the Lord of my his servant, what does the Lord say to my servant?

And the commander of the Lord's army says, Take off your sandal, for you are in heaven right now.

You're not, this is this is holy ground.

In other words, you if you go to if you we live in Dallas, uh United States, if you go to Israel and you go on to the property of the embassy in Israel, you're no longer in Israel, you're now in America.

Do you know that, right?

So if you go anywhere in the world and you go in the embassy property, you have just left that nation and you've gone on to the property of your own nation.

It's just like you flew back to America, but you just went through a fence.

And he says, he said, Joshua, this is not this whole promised land thing, this ain't your idea.

It's my idea.

It's gonna be done my way.

Matter of fact, the first battle, we're not gonna throw rocks and catapults, you're gonna walk around and shout.

It's gonna it's gonna be according to some rules that are that you know not of.

This whole unity thing that we're trying to fix in America, it ain't gonna be fixed by politics.

Never.

It's not gonna be fixed by money, never, it's not gonna be fixed by education.

It's gotta be fixed by God and it's gonna rechange the hearts.

And that has to start right here in the church.

That has to start right here in the church.

So, how do we get divided?

So uh sociologists uh call how we divide ourselves, they they name it grouping, they call it grouping.

We are all in multiple groups.

All matter of fact, all you ladies are in a group.

So women is a group.

All the ladies in the house say hi.

That's a group.

I'm not in that group, but I think it's a wonderful group.

But that's not that's not my group.

If you're a mom, say hi.

That's a tired group.

No, someone's like, eh.

That's a whole nother group.

So you got women as a group, moms are a group.

If you're a grandma, say hi.

That's a happier group because those kids are gone.

Men are group, pastors are group, uh, senior pastors are a group, you know.

We're all in multiple groups, and whatever group you're in, the people that are in that particular group are your in-group.

Those are the people like me.

We that we identify with people who are as people as who are like me.

Anybody not in one of those groups is someone in an out group.

So all of us, we recognize the groups that we're in, and we recognize the groups that we're not in.

Now, once you identify the group that you're in, you apply in-group bias.

Now, by the way, when you when you when you identify your group, whatever group you're in, you understand the variations of the people in your group.

For example, I was in the gym once, I was in uh on a vacation, my wife and I on vacation, and this guy was working out in the gym, and I could tell he was an athlete, not just someone who worked out.

Because as an athlete, you can tell other athletes and you could distinguish between people who are athletes and people who just work out.

So if you just work out and you think you're an athlete, we know that you're not.

But don't let that bother you, it doesn't matter.

So this guy was in the gym and and he had shorts on, and I'm like, this dude's an athlete, but he's not a football player because he doesn't have football legs.

Because I've never seen those legs in a locker room.

I went to him and said, Yo, man, what do you do?

He said, Oh yeah, I play professional hockey.

That's why he okay.

Hockey players don't run, they skate.

And because they skate, they build up the front of the thighs and not the back because they don't run.

That's why he had legs I had never seen.

So now I understand football players.

I don't understand hockey players, but because we were broke pro athletes, we had that in common.

And so what we did is we shared stories about the things we had in common.

We shared stories about the things we didn't understand about each other because we were in different groups.

All of us are in different groups.

So whoever's in your in group, you understand the idiosyncrasies and variations of the people in that group.

But the opposite is true.

If it's not your group, you don't understand.

So whenever you find yourself talking about people whose group you are not in, just understand you don't know what you're talking about.

Now, you may have a little bit of information from the media, you may have your mama told you something, your friend told you something, you had two or three experiences somewhere, and therefore you have 10, 20, 30 bits of information that you can now group, apply to all those people.

Don't do that.

Because by just by definition, it is your outgroup.

And by definition, you do not understand who they are.

We'll talk more about that in a minute.

Now, once you identify your, does that make sense to you?

Say amen if it makes sense to you.

Amen.

So just know, I don't know.

So be careful what you say.

So here's the thing when you identify your in-group, you apply in-group bias, which means because you are more comfortable with them, you give them preferential treatment and maybe not even realize it.

Maybe.

I walk into a room, they're baseball players.

Let me say it this way, because I know Pastor Robert mentioned the Dallas Cowboys.

I walk into the room and the Dallas Cowboys over there and the San Diego Chargers over here.

I'm gonna go over here and give in-group bias and preferential treatment to the superior uh San Diego Chargers.

You do the same thing.

If you had the the Dallas Cowboys and the Redskins, you are automatically a cowboy, right?

Because that's your in-group.

You know nothing about those guys.

You know nothing about you just because they got that the the the star on the helmet, boom.

That's your that's your people because it's just by that's your group.

Now, here's in-group bias.

This is all in the book, or you can take a picture on the screen.

Number one, I am more comfortable with those who are like me, my in-group.

I am more inclined to spend time socially with those who are like me.

I am more patient with those who are like me.

I give the benefit of the doubt quicker to those who are like me.

I express more grace when mistakes are made by those who are like me.

It's easier to communicate to those who are like me.

I assume, assume, assume I will get along better with those who are like me.

I am more willing to go out of my way to help those who are like me, and I possess more positive assumptions about those who are like me.

We do this whatever your group is, and if your group is ethnicity and your outgroup is ethnicity, and you do that, that's what racism feels like when you feel someone give preferential treatment to someone who looks different than you.

The opposite's true.

Outgroup discrimination, people who are not in your group.

I am less comfortable with those who are not like me.

I am less inclined to spend time socially with those who are not like me.

I am less patient with those who are not like me.

I get the benefit of the doubt slower to those who are not like me.

I express less grace when mistakes are made by those who are not like me.

It is more difficult to communicate with those who are not like me.

I don't assume that I will get along with people who are not like me, so I avoid them.

I am less willing to go out of my way to help those who are not like me, and I possess less positive assumptions about those who are not like me.

In other words, I will more readily receive negative as fact to people who are not like me.

This is what we do.

Now, you may say, Well, I'm not a racist, but it doesn't matter.

That's what it feels like.

I can tell you firsthand, that's what it feels like.

So, what do we do?

Six things.

Number one, acknowledge that you have blind spots.

Everyone say blind spot.

A blind spot is being blind to something is not knowing what you don't know.

Um the revelations that God gave me in writing this book is that people can be racially offensive without necessarily being a racist.

Here's why this is important.

I've had thousands of conversations, literally, about this since I was a little kid.

Because it's just it was always in my face, and I just like to argue with people and discuss people.

And if someone doesn't believe that they're racist, whether they are or not, they also won't accept that something they say or do is racially offensive because they equate those two things to be the same.

And you may think if someone said, Hey, you you said this, so therefore you're racist.

Now that doesn't necessarily be true, but because you've heard that so many times, you feel like, well, if I admit that I said something offensive or did something offensive, does that mean I'm a racist?

Not necessarily.

You could just be ignorant.

Now you may say, I'd rather be a racist than ignorant.

Please don't say that.

You may be trying to be funny and it ain't funny.

And you've said it or heard it over and over, and everyone just, heh, heh, heh, and no one ever said anything to you, so you think it's okay.

It's called the blind spot.

There was a guy, um, a leadership coach, a friend of mine, he wrote an article called The Right Hand of Privilege.

How many of y'all are right-handed?

Raise your hand if you're right-handed.

Really high.

Just really how we do in our church is we take our elbow and put it above our ear.

Okay, just so I can see your hands very good.

Right-handed people.

Look now, keep your hand just one second, please.

Look around the room.

Look at all these right-handed people.

Okay, keep your hand just one second.

Just one second.

Just one second.

Um, the world was made by you for you.

You can put your hands down.

What does that mean?

That means that when y'all made desks for school, you made it for you.

I'm left-handed.

How many of y'all left-handed people?

How many special people?

Yeah, come on now.

Here, that's my group right there.

These are all the intelligent people in the room.

Come on now, come on now, come on now.

All the left-handed people, we're rebels, right?

But when you were in class, all you writes, when you were in class, you were writing here.

You could put your elbow on the desk, write your name, and talk to the girl next to you.

How you doing, girl?

And you can keep track of where your hand was because your elbow was braced.

You had an advantage.

If I want to talk to that girl, I was like, hold on, girl, I gotta write, I gotta pay attention because I'm out here in space trying to draw my name.

If you're right-handed, you can go to any golf shop and get your golf clubs the first time.

If you're left-handed, you gotta order on Amazon.

When I was a kid, there was no Amazon.

Only Amazon we had was in Brazil.

You couldn't get the golf clubs.

If you're right-handed, you can get a catches mitt the first time at any sporting good store.

If you're left-handed, you will drive around for weeks looking for a catchesmit.

And the person who got the catchesmit the first time won't believe that you can't find yours.

Because they found theirs.

And they will actually think you're making it up.

Because you're right-handed and the culture is made for you by you.

Does it mean that you hate left-handed people?

No, but it doesn't take away the disadvantage of the left-handed person.

It's a blind spot.

It's called right privilege.

Now I know some of y'all are going, should I be mad right now?

I don't know.

I don't know.

I never you you never had to think about it.

That's that's one of the privileges.

So you don't have to think about it.

But now, the problem is that if you're if you're right-handed and you realize that the world was made for right-handed people by right-handed people, now, okay, God, how can I make sure the left-handed people can get the same opportunities that the right-handed people get?

It's really that simple.

It's a blind spot.

Your social narrative is a story that shaped how you see the world.

And what you were taught when you were a kid in your household, in your neighborhood, in your school, you were taught who to trust, who not to trust, how to interpret the news, who worked hard, who didn't work hard, who was smart, who wasn't smart.

That's what you were told about people who you don't know.

And so that's the only information you have.

The problem is that your social narrative, your story, is just one of seven billion.

It's a blind spot.

And if you can acknowledge that, then you can say, Lord, teach me.

Remember, we talked about in the beginning, Lord, teach me.

Help me understand what I don't understand.

Can I get amen?

Number two, rename those people, brother, sister, or neighbor.

Those people.

The greatest commandment in the Bible is you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and soul.

And the second is just like it you shall love your neighbor as yourself.

Everyone say neighbor.

Say neighbor.

This is what Jesus said.

This whole Bible, this whole thing called Christianity, it boils down to two things.

Love God, which means do what he says, and love your neighbor, which means help them do what he says.

In a way he would want them to do it.

Are you off what I'm saying?

Everything else, everything else is subservient to that.

It's subordinate to that.

Love God, love your neighbor as yourself.

So as believers, why is there so much drama in the church?

Because we got a loophole to that commandment.

What's a loophole?

Well, a loophole is that if you rename someone less than neighbor, you don't have to love them.

You can call them a black this, a white this, an immigrant, a legal, a colonel.

When I was a kid, I was watching Cowboys and Indians.

I love the Indians.

But they were savages, they weren't even people.

And so when you rename somebody and you dehumanize them, they don't qualify for that verse.

So therefore you can permit them to be mistreated in a way you would never be mistreated, and you say it's okay because they're not my neighbor.

We have to rename people.

Matter of fact, I think about a picture.

Uh um, Jeremy, if you have the picture of Oscar and Angie.

Imagine if you can rename people that you were told were bad to be like you.

Uh, you you remember this picture?

They were uh coming across the river into the United States, and you could say, Well, they were immigrants, they were doing something illegal, whatever, whatever you want to call them.

How about if you just name them your neighbor?

How about if you give them a label, um, father and daughter?

Because that's what they are.

Forget your politics.

Don't don't don't let your politics inform your Christianity.

So forget your politics, bro.

I'm just telling you.

A human question, a Bible question, a spiritual question.

Can you pray for people who have labels that were given to you about them?

Can you give them God's labels?

Because when you give someone a label, you can't love them above that label.

If you call someone stupid, you can never see them smart.

If you call someone dumb, you'll never see them pretty.

If you call someone something less than neighbor, you can never see them as your neighbor.

That's why the labels that God gives us have unlimited potential.

He calls you his son, his daughter, loved, forgiven, anointed, blessed in favor.

And those labels have unlimited favor.

And that's the labels we need to give every single person.

Why?

Because what are the things that we all have in common, which by the way, have we have more things in common and more similarities and differences?

We are 99.5% genetically identical.

You are 99.5% genetically identical to those people laying in that river.

I was in a prison doing ministry and I had just spoken, and the guys were in the yard.

It was outside in the yard, and these three white supremacists were walking around the yard.

It's a big grass area with an asphalt track.

Just imagine that.

And I God said, Go talk to him.

So I went up to the track where he was.

It was a sidewalk that went around the yard where the guys walked.

And as he came by, he had no shirt on.

He had two guys with him.

And I called him over and he got like right here.

And everybody, you know, I had just finished speaking.

There's like a couple hundred guys out there, and I just finished, and they're like, What's what's what's Rev gonna do?

He's gonna fight?

I mean, you know, what's what's up?

So I said, yo, man.

And and I said a couple things to him, and I said, and and and I noticed that he had so much ink on his body that he was black.

I said, brother, I thought you were a white supremacist, you're kind of defeating the purpose.

But that wasn't the subject of my conversation.

That guy is 99.5% genetically identical with me.

And that guy is my neighbor, and that guy was made in the image of God, and the image of God in him was not inferior or superior to me.

To the image of God of me.

That's how we have to see people.

They are our neighbor.

Number three, acknowledge, give in-group love to your outgroup.

Can you acknowledge the favor you give people who are like you, the comfortability you give people who are like you?

And when you walk into a Starbucks and notice that there's one person in there that is an outgroup, your outgroup, your ethnic outgroup, your gender outgroup, your socioeconomic outgroup, not from your neighborhood.

Can you be the person?

Can you be the person in the name of Jesus Christ to say, you know what?

I'm gonna go over and make sure that person feels included.

This is the gospel, by the way.

This is the gospel in action.

Can I can you go looking for stuff?

Now I'm a people person, I like to talk to people.

I engage.

I know some of y'all, some people aren't like that.

My wife's the opposite.

She don't want to talk to nobody.

Sometimes she don't want to talk to me.

You know what I'm saying?

I'm just trying to keep it real, right?

However, sometimes God's gonna say to you, You God does not want you.

There's a there's a discipline, uh, uh discipline, it was something that the banks used to do years ago.

They don't do it as much as today.

It's called redlining.

They would take a red marker and put it around minority neighborhoods and not lend in those neighborhoods.

Or they would hike the rates up in those neighborhoods.

Had nothing to do with qualification, it had to do with race.

You could look it up, I don't need to go into the history of it, but it's called redlining.

Some people, churches, redline.

We don't go over there.

Or I don't go over there, or I don't talk to those people.

No, no, no.

There's no such thing as redlining the kingdom.

The kingdom is everywhere.

Are you fine?

I'm saying number four, acknowledge your brother, sister's color.

Acknowledge your brother, sister's color.

I know it's politically correct to say you don't see color, but it's a lie, so stop saying it.

Because you only say it when you see it.

I had someone say to me, this this couple said to me, Why don't you see colors?

First time I was like 20 something years old, they said, I don't see your color.

I I didn't know what that meant.

I thought they had eye as stigmatism.

I was like, that's jacked up.

You don't see red, blue.

I mean, it's just life is bland.

No, no, no, no.

We see red, blue, yellow.

I just don't see your color.

I was like, well, if you don't see my color, how do you know I have a color you just shouldn't see if you can see all the other colors?

I don't get it.

You know, I'm I'm don't don't get to see by the face.

I'm not stupid.

So I'm just help me understand.

Don't say you don't see color, because the only time you say you see it, you don't see it is when you see it.

Um there was a young lady, a friend of mine, she was a white lady, and she got a tan.

She was trying to get a tan because she had this guy she was trying to attract.

So she was trying to get brown.

You should ask some of the if your wife, all the people who are white watching, ask some of the black people what they think about white people getting tans.

Just it'll be an interesting conversation, okay?

Hell, it's kind of help with culture, you know, help cultural.

Um, but it is, you know, it's an interesting phenomenon to us, okay?

So so so this lady's getting a tan, right?

So she's getting a tan, she comes back, she goes to work seven days, she's got a little spaghetti strap, she's throwing her tan up in this guy's face, boop, boop, boop, boop.

He's not biting, he's not calling her, he's not, you know, oh, you look good or whatever.

And she's like, I went, I went and laid out seven days, and I was out there for hours every day, getting a tan, like I'm all brown, and he don't even notice it.

I'm like, it's so amazing how people celebrate a tan you get in Hawaii.

But when you get a tan in the womb, you invalidate it like it's not there.

It's like, it's just it's God.

It's God made that brownness.

I was listening to, I was listening to the the the historic philosopher and theologian Fred G.

Sanford.

Anyone know Fred G.

Sanford?

Fred.

He got robbed in his show.

And by the way, if you're young, you don't know Fred G.

Sanford.

He's a comedian, he's passed away, he's an African-American comedian, and he had a show called Sanford and Sunway owned the junkyard and in in in South Central Los Angeles.

And uh uh these two cops would always come to the house, a white cop and a black cop, and the white cop always had to have the conversation interpreted because he wasn't from that area.

And he comes and asks Fred G, Fred G, you know, he got he got Fred Fred Sanford, his junkyard got robbed.

Do you know how low you, how bad off you gotta be to rob a junkyard?

I'm just saying, just saying, just a little observation.

And and he goes, was the perpetrator colored?

In other words, was the was the per person who robbed you, was he colored?

And Fred G goes, yeah, he was colored white.

The devil's the enemy.

Watch this.

The devil says there's white people and people of color.

You know what God says?

Y'all are colored.

You're just different shade of brown.

Let me tell you something.

If you look in the dictionary, there's a color called white.

Matter of fact, here's I believe that white people are more colored than anybody.

Here's why.

In the springtime, you're white.

You know where I'm going with this.

July, August, some of y'all get brown and some of y'all get red.

Some of y'all swell up.

When you get cold, you turn blue.

So that's four colors right there.

I'm just saying, so I'm a little more colored.

I get brown and burgundy.

I got two options.

Y'all got a whole kind of option.

Here's the other thing.

Your eyes, your brain processes like 10 billion million bits of information per second, your brain.

You're the only visible part of your brain outside your body are your eyes.

Your eyes are direct extensions of your brain that pop out of your head.

Your eyes are responsible for 90% of your brain activity.

Shape, movement, texture, and color.

You can't not see color if you wanted to.

Even if you close your eyes, you will see black.

Try it.

Yep, it's true.

Number five, view every conversation as a race consultation.

View every conversation as a race consultation.

A race consultation is where you allow someone to self-disclose to you who they are instead of imposing your assumptions on them.

When you see someone, you see color, you hear accent, you see hair texture, you see swag or lack thereof, and you make assumptions.

It's not that those things happen so fast you can't prevent a lot of times.

And that's fine.

The question is, do you uh impose that as fact?

I was at a golf shop and a golf club once, and this white kid rode up on me, uh, he's 25 years old, and I said, Where are you from?

He's from Iowa.

Okay, so I want you to imagine a 25-year-old kid working at a golf uh club, picked me up in the cart, got his little shirt and his little shorts, and he's from Iowa, you know, healthy, in-shape dude.

I said, Okay, you're from Iowa, white kid.

I said, What's your name?

He said, uh DeAndre.

Now I'm expecting like Billy Bob or Jim, Lee, not DeAndre.

And then he said it like, yo, DeAndre, like that.

I was like, I had imposed on him what I assumed his name would be.

And then when he told me DeAndre, I had to pull back and say, I need you to explain some things to me.

Please self-disclose where your parents got their name.

Did your mom have a friend?

I mean, what is this?

What's going on here?

I needed information to get the facts.

Oh, you follow what I'm saying?

When you see someone, you do not know the facts.

When you watch television, you do not know the facts.

Your outgroup.

Matter of fact, every person you meet, even if they look just like you, you do not know the facts.

You have to allow them to self-disclose to you, give them the honor of explaining to you who they are.

Lastly, give your heart to those who are not like you.

Give your heart to your outgroup.

Rod Carew was a baseball player, Panamanian baseball player, about my complexion, black Panamanian, when he was uh 328 batting average, 18-year all-star, MVP, rookie of the year.

He's 74 now, give or take.

When he was 71, he had a heart condition, needed a heart and transplant and a kidney transplant.

At the same time, there was a 27-year-old white football player, NFL, best sport in the world.

We all agree to that.

Can we at least say that?

Okay, got you.

Thank you.

I don't need to explain, I'm gonna have time.

So he here's a football player, 27-year-old.

He has a brain aneurysm, goes into a coma, and dies.

27 years old.

He signed his organs over to be donated.

Rod Carew, a 71-year-old black Panamanian, gets his heart and kidney from this 27-year-old white football player.

Conrad, the football player's mom, calls up Rod Carew and says, I think you have my son's heart and kidney.

I don't know how she got that information, but that's not my business.

He says, Would you like to come here, your son's heart and kidney?

When Conrad was 11 years old, he met Rock Carew, came home and said, I met my hero.

I'm gonna be a pro-athlete just like my hero, Rockaroo, and now Rock Crew has his heart and kidney.

Can I get amen?

Amen.

Story's not over, please don't clap yet.

I only have a minute and a half, so let me just finish this and then we'll and then we'll let you go.

I gotta land this plane real quick.

If we are so different, if we are so different, like culture says, like the devil says, how is it that this 27-year-old white kid can give his heart and kidney to this black pandemania and save his life?

Give your heart to what God says is the number one commandment that we love our neighbor as ourself for real.

For real.

I'm gonna ask all y'all in all the campuses, all the prisons, bitch bow your heads and close your eyes.

Lord, we need a new heart.

We need a heart that would love our neighbor as ourself.

That would give every person we see the label neighbor.

That we would give them opportunity and space to disclose who they are without us imposing our biases on them.

Lord, we need a heart that would allow you to show us our blind spots, admit to them, confess them, and move on.

If you would like that heart, I just want you to pray this prayer with me in the privacy of your heart.

Just say, dear Jesus, I want to love like you.

I want to be part of the solution.

Fill me with your love, the Spirit of God, the mind of Christ.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.