Participants:
Series Code: AFH
Program Code: AFH000021A
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00:01 A good father takes time to play.
00:05 He has strong integrity. 00:08 He is someone that is truly dedicated. 00:12 He is not afraid to show his love. 00:15 He is a caring provider. 00:19 And he is a kind spiritual leader. 00:23 These are just a few ways to describe a father's heart. 00:31 Hi, welcome to A Father's Heart. 00:33 I'm your host, Xavier. 00:34 And today, we're gonna be discussing 00:36 how to save our young men from violence, 00:38 you know, in a society that we live in nowadays, 00:40 it seems like all our youth are out there 00:42 killing each other. 00:43 And you know, we need to find out as fathers 00:45 what we can do to help this to stop. 00:49 And with me to discuss that are my friends 00:52 Gordon and Paul. 00:53 How are you guys today? 00:54 We're doing good. Blessed, man. 00:56 Good to be here. Awesome. 00:57 So culturally, ethnically, 01:00 in every kind of aspect you look at it, 01:02 we have our young men just killing each other. 01:05 What can we do as fathers to prevent this? 01:08 You know, obviously it might not stop because of sin, 01:10 but at least what can we do to help? 01:13 I think it starts with observing our current culture. 01:17 My earlier years, '70s, '80s, '90s 01:20 when I was on the street, 01:22 it seemed more something related to the urban community, 01:25 and especially communities of poverty. 01:28 And there was, somewhat, an ethnic divide in a sense, 01:31 you know, for Afro-Americans, more Latinos, 01:36 people who are in communities of poverty. 01:38 Now it's far more pervasive. It's become a culture. 01:42 Its music, it's in many different forms of media. 01:45 And it's actually hip to be violent. 01:48 It's not just a group of people 01:50 that are reacting or being violent 01:52 because of a need of survival. 01:54 So we have to address the culture itself 01:58 even as it pertains to our home environment 02:01 with our children, especially our sons, 02:04 what they're seeing and what they're learning 02:06 from that cultural violence, 02:07 in terms of how it helps them to find themselves as men, 02:11 and how it reinforces their sense of security in society. 02:14 There's a lot that I can share about 02:16 where I fail as a teenager, and what I misunderstood, 02:20 that drew me more and more and more 02:22 into this lifestyle of violence. 02:25 I tell you, when I started pastoring in Chicago, 02:29 it was quite eye opener for me, talking about the music 02:33 which I believe contribute a lot to it. 02:37 Realizing that the music 02:38 that the young folks were listening to, 02:41 it was so toxic. 02:42 Basically, we had a huge... 02:44 One Sabbath afternoon, we did this program, 02:47 and we literally buried all of their stuff, 02:51 the CDs that they brought, the music that they brought. 02:55 I mean, what they were listening to was, 02:58 you know, this violent music, 03:00 it really pushes down my belief 03:02 to this attitude, this behavior of violence. 03:06 So I do believe that 03:08 the music plays a very important role in it. 03:11 I also believe at least for where... 03:14 In my demographics, in my community that I pastor, 03:17 it's a fact that they need food, 03:21 there's a lack in the home 03:23 where the parent is not parent, and the father is not there. 03:27 They've been raised by single mothers, 03:28 and the single mothers are working. 03:31 And so these young kids are home by themselves. 03:34 And then they get into the gangs 03:37 that are on the street. 03:39 And it's because there's a lack of parental guidance, 03:43 that's one of the big things that I find that is propelling 03:47 and it's pushing this violence from our young people. 03:51 Some of them, they economically, 03:53 there's no food in the home. 03:56 You know, so they go out and they steal and they rob. 03:59 There's a saying that says, you know, we just got to bite. 04:02 Simply meaning that they're gonna eat, 04:03 and they don't care what they have to do to eat. 04:06 I have, you know, been to a lot of funerals, 04:09 I funeralize a lot of them, 04:11 and I'm just really sick of what's happening 04:14 but the issue is parents, 04:17 the parents have lost control in the homes. 04:21 You know, that is a great point 04:23 'cause I see that in our churches, 04:25 it seems like nowadays, send our kids 04:29 or people send their kids to church or to school 04:32 to learn about God, 04:34 and the parents just kind of leave it up 04:36 to the pastors to do it, you know. 04:38 And I have a problem with that, 04:40 because the Bible doesn't say that. 04:42 The Bible doesn't say, 04:43 send your kids off to church and church school, 04:46 and go ahead, and they do all the work. 04:48 You got to do the work too, so I agree with that, you know. 04:51 But what are some of the other things 04:53 such as mentorship, you know? 04:54 For example, I've mentored a lot of kids. 04:57 I remember a group of kids 04:59 that I was talking to in a high school, 05:01 and just helping them with their homework. 05:03 And one young man, African-American said to me, 05:06 you know, "I don't want to do this college thing, 05:08 because I can go to jail in California, 05:12 and get three square meals a day, 05:14 and play hoops, and lift weights." 05:17 And all of us kind of looked at him. 05:19 I looked at him like, 05:21 "Well, you sound like you need a whipping. 05:23 You got no sense, none. 05:25 I'm gonna need you to go find that sense." 05:28 But obviously I didn't say that but internally I'm like, 05:31 I wonder what he's lacking at home. 05:34 You know, what can we do as men, 05:37 obviously at leadership roles, 05:38 but as well as lay members, as a church, man, as a church 05:43 'cause church is not a building, 05:45 it's a way of life. 05:47 What can we do to help our young men? 05:49 Sure. 05:51 It starts with ensuring that 05:54 you have a home environment that's structured. 05:56 So I think for those of us here, 05:58 and most of our religious peer, 06:02 we may not be facing the same exact challenge 06:04 because we are responsible and accountable fathers 06:07 in our home, 06:08 maintaining the type of structure 06:10 and the type of relationship 06:11 that will more than likely 06:12 provide the correct nurture for our sons or our daughters 06:16 so that they make the right choices. 06:18 And most of us have now been removed from that environment. 06:21 So for those of us that are still there 06:23 and for those of us that don't have that type of structure, 06:26 it helps for us to start with understanding scientifically 06:30 what we're dealing with. 06:31 So I'm gonna try to break this down for you 06:33 a little bit from even my own experience, 06:36 professionally as well as what I lived 06:38 as an at risk teen. 06:40 So it starts with status, it starts with status. 06:44 There are varied groups in the street 06:48 that subscribe to violence and that type of lifestyle. 06:51 The minority are those who are doing it 06:55 because they actually see no other choice. 06:58 And I had friends like that. 06:59 Say, within the particular group I was running with, 07:02 just say any number of five or six kids, right? 07:04 And there, we got a little gang, 07:06 and we're gang banging or whatever have you. 07:08 There may be one or two of us within the group who don't know 07:13 where they're sleeping the next night, 07:14 they're from house to house. 07:16 They don't know 07:17 what type of meal they're getting, 07:18 they didn't know 07:20 when they would get their next set of clothing. 07:22 So for them, it was an actual effort to survive. 07:28 And so when we ran out, or they ran out 07:30 and did bad things and rob people 07:32 and this kind of stuff, they were... 07:34 As far as they were considered, 07:35 doing it as a material necessity. 07:39 Then there are others, 07:40 who they were from a proper home environment, 07:43 so to speak or at least, 07:44 do have parent home environment. 07:46 But we're all living in Brooklyn, 07:47 we all live in East Flatbush. 07:49 They have the mother and the father, 07:50 they're both working. 07:51 Their parents have income, both parents have cars, 07:53 etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. 07:55 They're packing pistols, they're selling weed, 07:58 they're doing everything everybody else is doing. 08:00 And they're also getting into situations of violent conflict. 08:03 And then you have those like myself who... 08:08 My physical needs were being met as far as 08:11 food, clothing, and shelter. 08:13 But then, my challenge was like 08:16 Pastor Gordon said here a little earlier. 08:19 My mom when I got to the US, my mom had four jobs, four. 08:25 My mom was working three jobs during the week 08:28 and a job on the weekend. 08:30 And so I would see my mom or hear her at times. 08:33 I would hear her get into home maybe like, around 1:00 am, 08:37 and then before I would wake, 08:40 when I got up at 7 o'clock to get dressed to go to school, 08:43 my junior high school is just across the street. 08:46 Cereal and some milk will be on the table, 08:48 some toasted bread and something like that. 08:50 And my mom would not be there, she'd already left for work. 08:52 So we have this culture where they call, 08:54 you know, latchkey children, 08:57 you know, and so on and so forth. 08:58 But my challenge was being able to survive within the culture 09:04 of those who had the immediate need to survive 09:08 because they pray on everyone else. 09:12 So then you get into this cultural struggle 09:15 where it becomes a need to elevate status. 09:19 And if there's one word I could pull out of that drug culture, 09:22 that violent culture, that survival culture, 09:24 it's the word status. 09:26 For us, it was like being in the military. 09:29 And you've been in law enforcement, 09:31 you know how it is. 09:32 And there are different ranks. 09:34 You're able to meander your way through the community 09:36 and through the society in a safe manner 09:39 relative to your rank. 09:42 When you get there, you're a private, 09:43 you're a nobody, you're a peon. 09:45 You're like a civilian. 09:47 And you can victimized by anybody else of a higher rank. 09:51 And so as you run the streets, 09:53 you're basically working towards helping yourself 09:56 move up those ranks from a private to a sergeant 10:00 to a lieutenant to a general to a brigade 10:02 or whatever, you know, in the military language. 10:05 Here's what happened often. 10:07 Some kids will start off as civilians or private 10:10 and then one day, they just, 10:11 "Okay, you know what, I'm sick of this. 10:13 I want to be a general." 10:14 So then we had status symbols, we had symbols that identified 10:19 where we stood within that rankings. 10:20 So in my days, some of the clothings 10:24 were Puma shoes, you know, Adidas shoes, 10:27 shell toe Adidas, black and silver Puma, 10:29 British Walkers, Wallabies, 10:32 and Ballys and these types shoes. 10:34 Those were styles then. We got killed for them. 10:36 Lee jeans, Lee's jacket and leather coats, 10:38 leather bomber, sheep skin coats, 10:41 what's also called shearling coat, 10:43 last but not least, 10:44 jewelry of whatever form and type. 10:46 Now if you're a general, 10:47 you're stepping off with all of that, 10:49 your jewelry, your rings, your sheep skin coats, 10:51 your leather bomber, whatever. 10:53 And for sure, you have a gun, you have a firearm 10:56 'cause you got to protect yourself. 10:58 So a lot of these kids were not involved in drug trafficking 11:01 or anything like that. 11:02 But they just got caught up in the whole status symbol thing. 11:04 Then those of us who got there through 100 fights, 11:09 going to jail, getting arrested repeatedly, 11:12 getting your head busted open in a fight, 11:13 getting your teeth knocked out in a fight, 11:16 using whatever type drugs, 11:18 you know, you really ran the rock you rode, 11:21 and you paid a price for it. 11:23 Here you see someone that you knew were a private, 11:26 or you could just sense it. 11:28 And here they are presenting themselves to the general, 11:31 then we would go and hold them at gunpoint 11:32 and rob them. 11:34 And in some unfortunate cases, injure that person fatally 11:38 because we were offended that they have made 11:41 the wrong progress within the status. 11:43 It's still going on today. 11:44 A lot of the Chicago gang wars, Brooklyn gang wars, 11:48 they have the added component of drug trafficking 11:52 and that being the new status. 11:54 But it has a lot to do with that. 11:55 Then you hear in on news, oh, this kid got killed 11:58 and he got killed for five dollars. 12:00 And these people, how could they rob and murder 12:02 this kid for five dollars. 12:03 It had nothing to do with the five dollars. 12:05 Or you got killed for your sneakers, 12:06 or you killed for your coat. 12:07 It had less to do with that 12:09 than what it had to do with this sense of attaining status 12:12 so you can survive in the community. 12:14 And another component to that is, 12:16 even now, it's a little different in some ways 12:20 because along with the status, 12:23 you used to have the different gangs, 12:25 different block gangs. 12:27 Now what is happening is that if you're on the same block, 12:31 you have one gang member 12:34 and have an opposing gang member. 12:36 But once you on that block, they become one. 12:39 And so it is very much more complex now 12:43 for the law enforcement. 12:44 Because you know that on this block, 12:47 you got one gang member, you have another one, 12:49 you have another one from different gangs, 12:52 but once anyone come in on that block, 12:56 they come together and protect the block. 12:58 So there's no longer, you know, within this... 13:02 And what you're sharing here, what Gordon is sharing here is 13:06 there's a difference between... 13:07 We actually didn't have gangs. 13:09 I got to the US to Brooklyn in '77, 13:11 and the gangs were just dying out. 13:13 I saw the last of the Brooklyn gangs by 1978, 13:16 Cats, Pumas, Jolly Stompers, Warriors, all these groups, 13:20 I saw them walking around with their jackets and all that. 13:22 And then by '78, it was done. 13:25 The gang culture died off. 13:27 And what evolved in after that is something, 13:29 for us Caribbean street guys, the posse. 13:32 And a posse is quite different from a gang. 13:34 A gang was a close specific group of people 13:38 with allegiance in that sense. 13:39 A posse, you're not necessarily connected like that, 13:42 you're coming together for a common good. 13:44 The same way it was in the West. 13:46 So there would be some needs, some violence, 13:49 and then the posse would come together 13:50 and go hunt somebody down or whatever have you, 13:52 protect the village, whatever have you. 13:54 Same thing in the streets today. 13:55 And a posse is very loose. 13:57 So as I'm saying, they come together for a specific purpose 14:00 but they're not really a gang 14:02 in the sense of this tight knitted union and all of that. 14:04 And all of that being said, let's go back to the home. 14:08 And those of us who have sons especially, 14:11 and we are in the urban environment, 14:13 please, please, spend time devotionally with your child. 14:18 Yes. 14:19 And help to build and instill in your child a sense of value. 14:24 Teach your children the difference between 14:26 the value of esteem and the value of self worth. 14:31 See, if they are pursuing life 14:34 based on the objective of self esteem, 14:36 then they are far more vulnerable to that culture. 14:39 That's how it sucked me in because, then, 14:42 I basically used that same status symbol culture 14:47 to identify myself in value. 14:49 Because if I can wear a sheep skin coat, 14:52 wear a certain amount of jewelry, 14:53 and when I stepped on a city bus, 14:55 even though I was only like about 14:56 5'6" or something like that, 14:58 people just got out my way 14:59 because the status symbol said something. 15:02 One, it said that I was armed. 15:04 Two, it said that if I could go across town 15:07 from East Flatbush to Bushwick, 15:11 to Bed-Stuyvesant and back to Kings Plaza, 15:14 wherever, and I haven't been robbed. 15:16 I must be some bad dude. 15:18 Nobody would troll me 15:19 until I would get into an environment as I said 15:22 where there were a bunch of other generals 15:23 that didn't know me, 15:25 then they had to test my ranking. 15:26 And I had to do one of two things. 15:28 Defend myself, or be victimized. 15:31 But we have to take time to instill in our children 15:36 that sense of self worth, and that starts with 15:39 who we are in the eyes of God, 15:42 not who we are in the eyes of street. 15:44 Now he and I are perfect example. 15:47 So you heard the details of my home environment. 15:52 We grew up in the same neighborhood. 15:54 At one point, we went to the same church. 15:57 I left the church in about age 13. 16:00 And I fell deeply into street violence and gang violence 16:03 and this kind of stuff. 16:04 I would still visit Brooklyn Faith on occasion. 16:08 And people, you know, 16:10 pray for our youth, pray for our youth. 16:13 I cannot stress that with any greater passion 16:17 than I am here today is what helped me to be here today. 16:22 I was a charter member of Brooklyn Faith Church. 16:25 There is still a plaque somewhere in that church 16:27 with the original eight members, 16:29 started in the basement of 52nd street in Brooklyn, 16:33 my name and my sister's name are on that plaque. 16:36 So people in the church... 16:38 I get into the church now, 16:40 just come from South America of about age 10, 11, '76, '77, 16:45 people remembered me as a little kid. 16:47 And I went from that, once I reach about age 13. 16:51 One morning, I told my mom, "Look, I'm done." 16:53 And the reason why, 16:55 it was the pressures of the street were getting to me. 16:58 Only thing I could see through the portals of my eye was, 17:00 I'm going to die. 17:02 I've got to learn how to survive on my own. 17:04 I have no father, I got no big brother, 17:06 no cousin, no nothing, and I'm short, and I'm skinny. 17:09 And I see people getting victimized 17:11 in front of me daily. 17:12 I would stand up, oh, here comes two guys, 17:15 they put a gun on me, put a gun on my friend 17:17 before I got into the status symbols so but my friend was. 17:20 They take your sneakers off, 17:22 we got to walk home in the snow, bare footed, 17:24 you know, he's bleeding, blood all over his chest 17:27 and his chest from being pistol whipped 17:28 when the guys were robbing him of the sneakers. 17:31 I keep seeing stuff like that, and I decided, 17:33 "Look, kill or be killed. I'm not gonna be a victim." 17:36 So then I became a tough guy myself. 17:38 And I stared walking that road, I stopped going to church. 17:41 People from the church would see me at times or visit the 17:44 house, plead with me, 17:46 "Please come back to church. Please come back to church." 17:48 My mom tried. 17:49 I had conversations with my mom on weird occasions. 17:52 She's there, praying, crying. 17:53 Her candles, her little shrine in the corner, 17:55 praying for me every day. 17:57 And one morning, I went over to mother, 17:58 she was praying, 18:00 and I knelt down to pray with her. 18:01 And she said... 18:02 I said to her, "Ma, you just don't understand." 18:04 You know, my mom at that time even knew that 18:07 I was armed daily. 18:09 And she turned to me and she said, 18:10 "You're going out there with weapons, 18:11 I know you're carrying weapons." 18:13 I said, "Mom, if I don't..." 18:15 I mean, I come home one afternoon, you know. 18:17 And I pray with my mother 18:18 and I went to school as regular that day. 18:20 Yes, with a gun in my coat, you know. 18:24 So even to the point 18:26 where I would run into members of the church in one occasion, 18:30 and the husband grabbed his wife. 18:33 This was late, one evening 18:34 I was coming home from somewhere. 18:36 Grabbed his wife, I recognized him, 18:38 and I started to approach them to greet them. 18:40 When I got closer to them, I realized, 18:42 these people were so terror-struck. 18:45 The man before I could greet them, 18:47 he said, "We, we, we, we, we don't want any... 18:50 We don't have any money... Here, here, here." 18:52 And started going to his pocket to take out his wallet. 18:55 And I said, you know, making up in the air, 18:57 "Brother Brown, it's me Paul, 19:00 Sister Lowe's son from Brooklyn Faith," you know. 19:03 He said, "Paul, from where?" I said, "Yeah. 19:06 Well, I don't go there no more, 19:08 but I used to go, I remember ya'll." 19:09 "Oh, Lord Jesus! Thank you Jesus." 19:11 Because they thought I was coming to rob them. 19:13 So, you know, we have to do that work of prayer, 19:18 that church never stopped praying for me. 19:21 Through my arrests, and my court trials, 19:25 and being hospitalized for this or for that, whatever, 19:28 people would always come visit me in the hospital, 19:31 people would always pray with my mother before... 19:33 if I had a legal infraction and all this kind of stuff. 19:36 It makes a difference. 19:37 But as I said, it's that foundation 19:39 of building a healthy, not esteemed, 19:42 but self worth in your child. 19:44 If you victimize your child yourself in the home, 19:46 if you're the type of father that's a bully, 19:49 and you strip your son of all his self worth, 19:52 because you're constantly domineering him, 19:55 it's not gonna help. 19:57 You can lose him to the street that way 19:59 because he'll go find value somewhere else. 20:02 Or likewise, if that is absent, period, 20:04 because there is no father in the home, 20:06 we face that same challenge. 20:07 So those of us who are able, 20:09 you said the magic word, mentorship. 20:12 Let's ensure that we mentor 20:14 the youth of our church and our community, 20:16 those of us who are fathers 20:18 who can make that difference. 20:20 And even at Brooklyn Faith, same church, as a young person, 20:25 I was a Pathfinder director 20:26 leading a group of young people, 20:29 and that's probably what I was... 20:31 That's what I was doing, 20:32 just trying to mentor them the best way that I could. 20:35 You know, we see Paul come in and slip out. 20:39 But I was amazed to see the transformation 20:41 that happened later on in life 20:43 when we got connected back together. 20:45 But mentorship, praying for your kids, 20:48 covering your kids with prayer before they leave home, 20:51 when they come home and teach them 20:52 to actually have a life of prayer 20:56 as they're on the street 20:57 because amazing what's happening on the streets 20:59 with our young people. 21:00 I talk to some of them on a regular basis 21:04 'cause I still as a pastor, mentor some of them, 21:07 the things that they are doing is just... 21:10 I can't even begin to talk about some of the things 21:12 that they are doing. 21:13 It blows my mind, 21:14 but they keep me abreast of what's happening out there. 21:17 And because of that, I kind of help... 21:21 I can be of a help to some others by telling them, 21:25 "Listen, this is not the road you want to go down." 21:28 So mentorship is important, praying for kids is important, 21:31 building that self worth as Pastor Lowe said, 21:33 it's absolutely important 21:36 in just to building our kids up. 21:38 Right. 21:39 I think, you know, 21:41 both of you brought some key points, you know. 21:43 I heard the number, teenage years, 21:45 12, 13 years old, you know, 21:47 and that's seems to be a critical point 21:48 in a kid's life to make a choice for Christ. 21:51 And Christ is not just 21:52 so you can be walking around on a cloud and be holy, 21:55 it's to save you from yourself. 21:57 You know, God works to save His children from themselves. 22:02 And the other critical factor is that 22:03 it doesn't matter what type of home you have. 22:06 In the sense of, you can come from a single parent home 22:09 or you can come from a perfect, 22:11 you know, so to speak two parent home, 22:13 Christians and everything 22:14 because that's where I came from. 22:15 A two parent home, Christians, devotion, 22:17 ate all the vegetables, was super vegetarian 22:21 but I was never in a gang, 22:23 I was just a one man show 22:25 because I turned into a Satanist. 22:27 I didn't need a gang, I was my own gang. 22:29 Mercy, mercy. 22:31 You know, all I had to say was the word, 22:33 and I became as they say, 22:35 you know the Bible says, legion. 22:37 And it feels to good to have that power, right? 22:41 Mercy, mercy. 22:42 But, and that's what we got to teach our youth 22:44 that even though it feels good, 22:46 you have no idea what you're messing with. 22:49 You're going to die. 22:51 And it's not gonna be a temporal death, 22:53 it's gonna be an eternal death. 22:56 It's not worth it. Yeah. 22:58 It's not. 23:00 And the other aspect that 23:02 I kind of saw similarities at the fact that, 23:04 I think all of us has shared that 23:05 we've all been arrested at some point in time. 23:08 You know, we've all been to jail. 23:10 It's not like we... 23:11 Somebody gave us a Bible here, 23:13 you're pastor now, you're chaplain, 23:14 no we are all disciples, messed up individuals. 23:20 You know, Peter cut somebody's ear off, 23:23 Simon, you know, John and James were, you know, 23:28 so like sailors probably because they were fishermen. 23:31 You have Matthew the tax collector, 23:33 you know, every single person, every single follower of Christ 23:36 is not meant to be this perfect example. 23:38 And I think as fathers, with our kids 23:42 and with those that we see in need of that discipleship, 23:46 we need to show them our brokenness, 23:48 we need to show them that we are fathers 23:51 but we are in leadership 23:53 but we're not this holier than dove persona. 23:56 We've been there, we've done it, 23:57 we know what it's like, and we know. 23:59 And God only saved us from ourselves through His grace 24:03 so we can mentor others. 24:04 Amen. 24:05 That's one thing that I do with my son is, 24:08 he knows his father's journey. 24:11 And he knows the struggles of life. 24:15 But one thing that I want to point out, 24:17 and it's an economic thing also that plays into this, 24:22 a lot of fathers don't have jobs, 24:24 and so they can't provide as much as they would want to 24:27 for the young people. 24:29 And so when their sons grew up and they started having, 24:33 you know, little ones, 24:35 they themselves or find themselves in the economic fix. 24:38 As a church, what we have done is that we've created 24:42 something that's called I work Chicago, and thereby, 24:45 every year, we have applicants over 900 plus 24:49 looking for work and we have big jobs, huge job fairs 24:54 and resource center whereby 24:56 we point them and help them find work. 24:59 If you don't have a job and you're on the streets, 25:04 you're gonna stay in, 25:06 and you're gonna get yourself in trouble. 25:08 So we have to provide something for them. 25:12 And you know, we can't depend on the guy. 25:14 I think the church is a integral part of it, 25:16 we've got to come along side these families, we've got... 25:19 For me, I'm the pastor of my community, 25:22 I'm the pastor of the entire city of Chicago. 25:26 You should be able to come to my church, 25:28 and you'll be able to find resources 25:30 whereby you can be pointed to a job or something, 25:33 that's an important piece. 25:35 I know, we only have about a minute left, 25:37 but I wanted to share quickly also to keep in mind once again 25:42 what these new status symbols are, 25:44 because they are the distractions. 25:46 The old status symbols had to do with being respected, 25:49 dressing well, being esteemed in the street, 25:52 have a little bit of money in your pocket. 25:53 The new status symbol is wealth, 25:55 and I mean extreme wealth, extreme wealth. 25:58 And that's being fused and nurtured by the media, 26:02 by the culture especially, but many of us also. 26:05 So it's not just having money in your pockets, 26:08 but having great amount of money, right. 26:11 It's about reaching the level of PhD 26:14 or some multi skilled individuals, some CEO, 26:18 you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars. 26:20 And which way can you do that or accomplish that 26:22 if you live in an urban ghetto? 26:25 Drugs, murder for hire, prostitution, 26:28 or whatever other illicit practice, you know. 26:32 And God forbid, in the past, I did near all of those 26:37 but you get your hands on those things 26:39 and you're building up your status 26:41 and your income to be a high roller. 26:45 So once again, this is where the self worth 26:49 and not esteem is important for the nurture of our youth 26:52 and our church population. 26:53 And as Fraser said also being part of a solution 26:56 by providing education as paramount, 26:58 getting our kids through college, 27:00 helping them to be degreed, 27:01 but also helping them to engage occupations 27:05 that can provide them a successful form of living, 27:08 and teaching them the purpose that they're living for. 27:11 You're not living here to satisfy and make yourself rich, 27:14 you're living here to be a part of the kingdom of God. 27:17 And I appreciate that, guys. 27:18 And we got to pick this up again 27:20 'cause it's a deep topic. 27:21 And for you out there, fathers, it's time to step up. 27:25 We keep saying that over and over again because it is. 27:29 We in and of ourselves don't have the perfect answers. 27:32 We really don't, but it's time to step up 27:34 and be there for your children. 27:36 And if you don't have any kids, 27:38 be there for the kids of the community, you know. 27:41 Stop taking out your phones to video tape fights, you know. 27:45 Especially young people, stop taking a video, 27:48 you know, your cell phones out and taping fights, 27:50 it's not cool. 27:52 It doesn't help it, it just contributes to the violence. 27:54 And fathers, again, 27:56 God calls you to step up and step out, 27:59 it's time to do the right thing. 28:00 Thank you for watching. |
Revised 2018-10-18