Pure Choices

Hip Hop and Sexuality

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Timothy Lawson (Host), Xavier Morales, Brittany-Hill Morales, Myesha Lawson, Jacques LaGuerre

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Series Code: PC

Program Code: PC000091A


00:01 The following program discusses sensitive issues.
00:04 Parents are cautioned that some material
00:06 may be too candid for younger children.
00:42 Welcome to the Pure Choices,
00:44 and I am your host Timothy Lawson.
00:46 And I have some friends with me here today.
00:48 I am going to get right into introducing them.
00:51 We have right here on my right Brittany Morales,
00:54 and this is her husband Xavier Morales,
00:57 this is Jacques LaGuerre,
00:59 and this is my lovely wife beautiful Myesha Lawson.
01:02 Now before we go any further, this is a spiritual show,
01:05 so we want to ask God to be with us in prayer
01:09 so if you bow your heads with me.
01:11 Dear Heavenly Father, we thank You again
01:14 for bringing us again here today
01:16 and blessing us and keeping us, in Jesus' name, amen.
01:20 Amen.
01:21 All right, the topic of today's program
01:23 is an interesting one.
01:25 We're going to talk about hip-hop and sexuality.
01:28 Does hip-hop affect your sexuality?
01:30 Does it teach you about sexuality?
01:33 And are those effects negative or positive?
01:36 But before we get into that, let's...
01:38 Once again I love definitions.
01:40 Defining what we are talking about.
01:42 What is hip-hop?
01:45 Or just what do you guys think hip-hop is?
01:48 I think hip-hop, it's a culture.
01:52 Hip-hop, it's a way of thinking,
01:54 it tells you how to dress, it tells you how to act,
01:57 it tells you how to talk, it tells you how to walk.
01:59 I think hip-hop is a package.
02:01 It's a whole package deal.
02:02 Yes. Okay.
02:04 I like to say that it's a religion,
02:05 their religion.
02:07 They want to push what they believe that you...
02:11 How you should be, how you should live.
02:14 So it's a spiritual kind of movement,
02:16 and it affects your spirituality.
02:18 Yes, most definitely. Okay.
02:19 Yes. Okay.
02:20 Anybody else?
02:22 Was it... Go ahead.
02:23 When I think of hip-hop,
02:25 well, my first thought is the John Wayne music,
02:29 the different beats,
02:31 probably, the different rappers.
02:32 That's the first thing that comes to my mind
02:33 when I think of hip-hop.
02:35 Well, I was listening to one of the, you know,
02:39 main voices in hip-hop describe what it was,
02:43 and I like the way he put it,
02:45 and it ties into what all of you guys said.
02:47 The rappers, the cultural movement,
02:50 and how it affects your spirituality.
02:52 He said the word hip, it means to know something.
02:55 If you're hipped to something,
02:56 then you have knowledge of that event.
02:58 And if you hop, that means you are in movement,
03:00 and so it's an intellectual movement.
03:03 And so what it's for is, like you said,
03:05 to teach you a certain culture
03:07 and that is done through music,
03:09 and the people that use it,
03:11 and this also affects your spirituality.
03:13 And so that's what hip-hop is,
03:16 even though, some of you watch it,
03:18 may listen to it, and enjoy it,
03:20 its purpose is also to teach you something.
03:23 And so what is sexuality?
03:25 Just what is that, human sexuality?
03:28 It's trying to just be in a, you know,
03:30 it's about sex, you know, like sexuality in the sense of,
03:33 you know, who you are.
03:35 It can go anywhere though,
03:37 it could be a gender, it could be lifestyle,
03:39 you know, it's a very broad term to define.
03:43 I like to think of another word as being desirable.
03:48 It's another form of sexuality,
03:51 you know, you want to look the par,
03:53 you want to be looked at, you want to be lust after.
03:58 Lust after, sexuality. Yeah.
04:00 Well, there's good and bad sexuality.
04:03 So some of it's used to lust,
04:05 and I think some of it is just the attraction
04:10 from one person to another person.
04:13 Okay, now I know in hip-hop, there is a lot of pride.
04:16 You know, battle rap is popular,
04:18 everybody's trying to be the best as it were,
04:20 that's one of the main tenets.
04:22 So if you listen to hip-hop, and it's teaching you things,
04:25 how does the pride that it instilled,
04:27 how can that affect your sexuality?
04:31 How can something that's teaching you pride
04:34 be used, you know,
04:36 and how you view your sexuality?
04:39 Well, part of the thing with sexuality
04:43 is just that it's supposed to be an expression of love
04:46 because it's supposed to bring us closer to God.
04:49 It's supposed to be an act of worship.
04:50 But when you feel pride in the mix
04:52 which was the first sin,
04:54 then that bleeds into your sexual life,
04:58 and instead of your sexual expression
05:01 being holy and pure,
05:02 it's all about conquests,
05:04 and how many girls, or how many guys,
05:08 or how many looks, or how many likes,
05:11 or how many, you know, followers that I have.
05:15 And it stops being about worship
05:17 and it starts being about self,
05:19 and that could be because of the pride you're receiving
05:21 in hip-hop,
05:22 you know, you have all the women dancing on stage
05:25 and all these different things,
05:27 and a man feels like he's more of a man
05:29 because he has all these women around him
05:32 and that is one of the core tenets of hip-hop
05:35 is having a lot of women.
05:37 Right. Having a lot of women and...
05:39 I want to say the same thing about...
05:40 For women, I mean, it's the same thing, you know,
05:44 women, we want to be, like I said, looked at,
05:48 we want to be lust after, we consider ourselves sexy,
05:52 you know?
05:54 And that is exactly what hip-hop teaches women nowadays
05:58 that you can be sexy, that you can be...
06:02 Basically, you can be nasty, it's okay.
06:05 I mean, I grew up hearing about if men can do it, so can women.
06:10 And so yeah, that's what I get from it.
06:14 Now does hip-hop have any...
06:18 has it had any negative effects on the majority of culture
06:22 that people that listen to it?
06:24 And I know there's a broad culture
06:25 now out there in the world
06:26 and a lot of people listen to hip-hops,
06:28 but I want to hear some of the negative effects,
06:30 as it relates to sexuality
06:32 that it's had on inner city communities.
06:35 It's pretty much incarcerated or enslaved them.
06:38 You know, the very slavery there,
06:40 you know, we talk about
06:41 they're in it
06:43 because it enslaves you to an agenda,
06:46 an underground agenda, you know,
06:48 you have to be rich even if you go bankrupt,
06:52 at least you got to look the par.
06:54 You know, like Jacques was saying,
06:56 you got to have the girls, you know?
06:58 Even if you're messed up, you know,
07:00 and a lot of times we see that,
07:01 we see them smiling and dancing and everything,
07:04 but behind the scenes, we don't see what's going on,
07:06 that depression, you know, the self-worth.
07:09 You know, hip-hop, in its essence,
07:11 has destroyed the inner city,
07:14 you know, ethnic inner city communities,
07:16 the lifestyle because we talk about MLK,
07:20 but yeah, we follow other people
07:22 that are not from that persuasion
07:25 that are not good leaders, you know,
07:26 and essentially it's from the hip-hop community
07:29 that teaches us, you know,
07:30 we need to have the bling-bling,
07:32 we need to have the jewelry, the cars, the money,
07:35 the women, the power,
07:36 when essentially we're nothing, we don't have anything
07:39 but at least if we look like we do,
07:41 then we fit in, then we look good,
07:43 then we act the par.
07:44 So do you think... Go ahead, Jacques.
07:46 And I know you're asking about how does it affect
07:48 the inner city,
07:50 but I feel like with hip-hop,
07:52 the devil has been able to take that culture
07:56 that Xavier was just talking about
07:58 and transport it anywhere.
08:00 And so a lot of parents, they might leave the cities
08:05 and go to a more rural setting to raise their child
08:07 in a more healthy environment,
08:10 but yet that child is now being exposed
08:12 to all the filth of hip-hop.
08:14 And so in essence,
08:16 you have a prodigal who's living at home.
08:19 And so you thought that
08:20 you could bring them out of the city
08:22 but then the city kind of crept into the back door,
08:25 and then all the vice and crime...
08:27 And I speak from personal experience
08:29 'cause I lived in the suburbs
08:31 but then I love listening to rap,
08:32 and I loved hip-hop,
08:34 and I loved doing all these things,
08:35 and my clothes were four sizes too big,
08:38 my parents were sagging, I was cursing, I was swearing.
08:41 And I didn't learn that at home,
08:42 and I didn't learn that from the people around me,
08:44 but I learned that from hip-hop.
08:45 Learned that from the music. I learned it from the music.
08:47 I like what you said about
08:48 something that the devil is trying to use.
08:50 Now we know in anything,
08:53 nothing is "hundred percent bad"
08:56 or there's some good in everything.
08:58 You can listen to some songs, I guess,
08:59 and they can be positive
09:01 'cause I know some of you viewers
09:02 might be thinking out there,
09:04 "But there's some songs I listen to,
09:05 and they don't tell me to do these bad things
09:07 or say these bad things, they're positive."
09:09 But the overall message you guys are saying
09:12 or at least what's being promoted
09:13 from the overall message is having a negative effect.
09:17 Do you think that's by design?
09:18 Do you think that's on purpose? And if so, why?
09:23 That what mostly you see is negative
09:26 and not the positive.
09:28 I think it is intentional.
09:30 And why do you think so?
09:32 I think because the devil's trying to keep us down.
09:35 He's trying to get us to reflect his image.
09:38 He's trying to mar the image of God in us.
09:41 And if you could use music to do that,
09:44 then I believe that it's very intentional,
09:47 that he knows exactly what he's doing,
09:49 and he's very familiar with music,
09:51 and so that's the medium he chooses
09:53 to get through our subconscious
09:54 and to influence us
09:56 without us even really consenting a hundred percent.
10:00 Now that's beautiful
10:01 because music is one of the greatest teaching tools
10:04 you can use.
10:05 I have whole...
10:07 I haven't listened to that kind of music in a long time
10:09 and I have still whole albums in my head, that's memorized,
10:12 they're just still there.
10:13 You know, you can recite a verse,
10:15 but it seems like you are saying
10:17 that this music focus on a lot of that outward display
10:21 and outward show,
10:22 and inwardly it just wants you to do
10:24 what you want for yourself.
10:25 And so how does this music genre
10:29 affect the self-worth of so many people
10:32 all across the world?
10:34 Now I don't want everybody to chime on in on this.
10:36 So how does seeing a person up there,
10:38 with all this money, with all these cars,
10:40 saying he's important,
10:42 what do you think that does
10:43 to the person who doesn't have it
10:44 in seeing these women up there that are "desirable,"
10:48 what does that do to young ladies
10:49 who don't look like that?
10:50 How does it affect the self-worth?
10:53 Well, for one,
10:55 that person don't know who they are
10:57 because they're not with Christ,
10:59 they don't know their self-worth.
11:00 So when they're looking at these people
11:02 that have, you know, all the glitz and glam,
11:06 you know, they want that,
11:08 they're like, "Oh, I want to be just like them,"
11:10 'cause everything looks good out on the surface, you know,
11:13 but like you said we don't know what's going on in the inside
11:17 or behind the scenes.
11:19 So like I said, it has to start with
11:22 do you know yourself, who are you,
11:24 you know, you have to just ask yourself that.
11:26 Okay. Anybody else? Jacques, what do you think?
11:30 I would say it does affect someone's self-worth
11:32 because if you're seeing all these people with money,
11:34 and cars, and girls, and jewelry,
11:37 and then you look in the mirror and you don't have all that,
11:40 then you might feel like you're less of a person,
11:43 and then the devil will then try to tempt you
11:45 to try to go and get that stuff.
11:47 And whether you have the money or not,
11:49 you might resort to petty crime,
11:52 you might resort to selling drugs
11:54 or you might resort to any measures
11:57 so that you can get that so you can "be somebody."
12:02 What do you think, Xavier?
12:03 I think we forget that the devil was, originally,
12:06 the one who directed the music in heaven.
12:08 Oh, all right. You know what I mean?
12:10 And coming from that kind of background myself,
12:14 I understand, you know,
12:16 I lived that lifestyle like that.
12:17 I had brand new car,
12:18 I had a house on an acre of land,
12:20 it was wow.
12:22 You know, I had the money, I had money in my pocket
12:24 and everything like that,
12:25 I had the girls, I had the women.
12:27 But at the end of the day,
12:29 my self-value was placed on that.
12:32 And when I would look in the mirror,
12:34 I wouldn't know who I am, I don't know who I was,
12:36 I just couldn't even look in the mirror for too long
12:39 because you had to find the next habit, you know,
12:41 you've got to find the next, you know,
12:43 that will makes you feel good.
12:44 So, you know, you look in the mirror
12:46 you have to face reality
12:47 but then when that doesn't feel good
12:50 then you go out and try to do, you know, get the money,
12:52 and go ahead and get those girls,
12:53 and get those numbers, and, you know,
12:55 live the life that you see on TV,
12:57 which looks so good.
12:59 Live that lifestyle because you want to feel good.
13:02 And it wasn't until I find out value in Christ that...
13:05 Not only that I started feeling better
13:07 but I got even better stuff than I had before, so...
13:12 Mrs. Morales?
13:13 I was just sitting down and thinking
13:16 'cause every time I've heard hip hop music,
13:17 like the first thing that has always come to my mind
13:20 is who's better at it?
13:24 As in
13:26 when it comes to performing sex,
13:28 you hear the guy is saying, "Okay, I do this with the girl
13:30 and I make her go crazy."
13:32 Or you would hear a girl say,
13:35 "I'm the best versus the other girls,
13:36 I know what..." kind of like, "I know what I'm doing."
13:39 So it's like you hear these little songs,
13:41 little tenets of competition of what it means
13:44 to that you've actually accomplished,
13:46 quality sex in their minds.
13:49 If the neighbors down the street don't hear her,
13:51 that means, it's not good
13:53 or if the guy is not doing crazy stuff with his feet,
13:58 then it's not good.
13:59 Like these different ideas and concepts of this
14:01 this is what it means to have quality sex
14:06 in your relationship
14:07 whether you're married or not,
14:09 these sounds are called like babymaking music.
14:11 This is what it is, or you should probably, dance,
14:14 and be up on the corner somewhere,
14:15 and that's what it is to have that full pleasure
14:18 when it comes to sexuality.
14:20 I know from personal experience,
14:23 especially not growing up without a father,
14:25 and growing up...
14:27 And so what you do is
14:29 things that you don't get taught
14:31 that a father is supposed to teach you,
14:33 you listen to him, and try to hear from anywhere.
14:36 And so what I thought
14:37 a man's self-worth was supposed to be
14:39 is just what was in the music, you pose to be tough,
14:42 you pose to be successful in some kind of way,
14:46 and success means that you have money.
14:48 You know, not necessarily how you look at yourself
14:51 or how you treat others but that you have money.
14:54 If you don't have it,
14:56 you need to either go take it
14:58 or create some kind of atmosphere
15:00 where you can make it.
15:01 And I know at an early age that got me into,
15:03 you know, selling drugs, and marijuana, and cocaine,
15:07 and these things looked acceptable
15:09 because it was all in the music I was listening to,
15:11 and coming to find out
15:12 that half of the guys I was listening to
15:14 never did that in the first place.
15:16 You know, when I was listening to something that was fake,
15:20 but not...
15:21 I'm thinking I'm listening to the music
15:23 because I like it, because I enjoy it,
15:25 but actually it was teaching me about manhood
15:29 and never taught me about anything inner,
15:32 about what I was worth in Christ,
15:33 about being kind to people,
15:37 it just only taught me about,
15:39 you know, maybe taking care of my family
15:40 but never being self-sacrificing.
15:43 And this is really important
15:44 because I think that the devil
15:47 is going to use sexuality and perverting in the last days
15:51 to really confuse people.
15:55 Now if you think that,
15:57 tell me exactly
15:59 what the devil's purpose for sexuality
16:01 in these last days right before Jesus comes back,
16:03 how does he want to use it
16:05 against people who are Christians
16:07 and people who aren't Christians.
16:08 I think to have that now you see it,
16:10 and don't get married, just go have sex.
16:13 You know, getting married is now an anomaly, it's taboo.
16:17 You don't get married anymore,
16:18 you're supposed to just go out there and get it,
16:20 and that's it.
16:21 And, you know, 'cause people say, you know,
16:23 "Why get divorced if you just don't get married?"
16:26 And that has to lots to do with our society, you know,
16:29 if you see hip-hop the way it was
16:31 to the way it is now, it's more over sexualized,
16:34 there's more and more sex in the media,
16:36 more and more sex in hip-hop
16:38 because sex sells.
16:41 That is what it's about.
16:42 And with the sexuality and hip hop,
16:44 you know, it teaches you, that's what it teaches you,
16:47 you know, to what moves are supposed to be the right ones.
16:51 What are the "right words" to say?
16:52 And I used this right here because obviously we know
16:55 what God says is different.
16:56 But, you know, it feeds,
16:59 it just feeds that pleasure center
17:01 of your brain
17:02 so you can never get enough and that's the issue.
17:05 It's not that issue is utterly wrong,
17:08 it's also that you will never get enough,
17:09 so where is your limit?
17:11 You know, if the limitation going to be like
17:13 the rest of a lot of those hip-hop artists in jail,
17:17 is that going to be your limit?
17:18 You know, like what is it?
17:19 What are you trying to seek out of it?
17:21 I like to say that the devil is using music
17:24 to insult God's character.
17:29 I mean, what's that scripture "By you behold..."
17:34 "By beholding you will become changed."
17:35 become changed, yeah.
17:37 So what we're also listening to,
17:38 we're also seeing on these videos.
17:42 It's totally opposite from God's character
17:44 and how we should be, you know.
17:47 So I think that's what the devil is using,
17:48 he's trying, you know, he's using the music
17:53 to, basically, for us to act like him
17:57 and to be what he want us to be,
17:59 which is totally opposite from God.
18:01 Go ahead.
18:02 I was going to say, well, if you go to the story,
18:04 the children of Israel, you know,
18:06 they were on the borders of Canaan,
18:07 they had wandered in the wilderness for 40 years,
18:11 and they were finally about to go in,
18:15 and the devil used music
18:18 and used women
18:20 to get them to commit the apostasy Baal-Peor.
18:22 Wow.
18:24 And I think, as long as we can be sidetracked
18:27 with music
18:29 and a false expression sexually,
18:33 then we won't be ready to go into Canaan,
18:36 and we won't go into Canaan.
18:38 Myesha and Brittany,
18:39 how do you feel women are mostly portrayed
18:42 in hip-hop?
18:43 Like do you watch hip hop video
18:45 and you see like a lady who's a lawyer,
18:47 and she's got a lawyer job,
18:48 and you see a lady who's a doctor,
18:50 or do you see a girl studying hard for her exams?
18:52 What kind of women do you naturally see?
18:55 And is that reality
18:57 and how does it make, you know, like a woman who feels,
18:59 especially is a black woman that you see in it?
19:01 Well, for one,
19:03 we see a woman whose image is totally fake
19:07 because she is,
19:09 well, nowadays, we know that
19:11 they're getting surgery nowadays,
19:12 so don't know how real,
19:14 they're getting hair extensions.
19:15 And no, we don't see lawyers and doctors on these videos
19:20 or on these televisions.
19:21 We're saying women who are for, one, exotic dancers.
19:26 We also see women who are degrading themselves
19:29 by shaking their behinds in front of the camera
19:35 and think that is okay.
19:36 We're seeing women,
19:38 who are allowing men to touch and feel on them
19:41 and even grab on them or abuse them.
19:44 We're seeing all these things
19:46 and it's just... it's not right.
19:48 And it's put it in a woman's mind
19:50 that it's okay for her to act like this,
19:53 to accept these things from a man, from one,
19:56 to even degrade her ownself.
19:58 Call herself out her, you know, out of her own name, you know,
20:02 something that is totally not good.
20:04 You know, I am guilty for that, you know,
20:07 I used to call myself, what, a female dog,
20:11 and thought it was okay.
20:13 I am the baddest, you know, female dog.
20:15 And I would...
20:16 My friend's nickname was "My female dog,"
20:19 like, you know, it's just totally wrong,
20:22 and that's just not how it should be.
20:27 I would add that...
20:29 For me, it has been in some videos
20:31 but not all... Right.
20:33 Hip-hop videos.
20:34 The most of them and, unfortunate as well,
20:37 most young people gravitate to
20:39 is the ones where they have the girls,
20:42 as she said, it's dancing all crazy,
20:44 and, you know, provocative clothes,
20:47 but they do have some songs which really do have,
20:50 you know, good messages.
20:52 Relationship songs, I guess, you saying?
20:54 You can kind of say relationships songs
20:55 where I remember one artist,
20:57 he was telling young girls to value your body and to wait,
21:03 but that's like one song
21:04 compared to like all the other songs
21:06 that you're always hearing.
21:07 Or you see in some videos where you have...
21:10 And there are artists that don't really make it
21:12 into hip-hop culture,
21:14 the artists that talk about strong women
21:16 and how they're attracted to her
21:18 and how she walks and how she's handling business,
21:21 but unfortunately, those are not the individuals
21:24 that make the most income.
21:26 They're not the ones that are touring all over
21:28 and, as they say, making money,
21:31 it's those who are talking about,
21:32 "Just shake, just shake it," and all that different stuff.
21:35 They're the ones who are giving out this idea
21:38 that this is what a woman's sexuality is,
21:41 this is how she's supposed to be portrayed.
21:44 And I think if I didn't have some of my values
21:46 that I had growing up as a child,
21:48 I probably wouldn't even have known about those,
21:51 you know, little underground,
21:53 people who try to use the culture
21:55 for something good
21:56 but can't thrive in it.
22:00 So what about me, as a Christian,
22:03 can hip-hop be used as a vehicle
22:06 to get me closer to Christ,
22:09 to teach me about the culture
22:12 'cause there's people who are Christian hip-hop artists
22:14 as well,
22:16 so can it be used to teach me positive things
22:18 about my sexuality and my relationship for Christ?
22:22 What do you guys think?
22:23 Now you're shaking your head.
22:24 I don't think so. No. No.
22:27 Why?
22:28 Well, for one,
22:30 you can't serve two masters, okay?
22:33 So you need to...
22:36 There has to be a separation.
22:37 I mean if I'm going to listen to rap music out in the world
22:41 and I'm listening to all these beads
22:43 and all these catchy verses and choruses
22:48 and all that thing,
22:49 it has to be different from, you know, God's music.
22:54 You know, I feel that, you know, it has to be pure.
22:58 You know, it shouldn't have, you know, I can listen to words
23:01 but, you know, again,
23:04 it's the beat too that goes with it.
23:06 And, you know, you can nod your head,
23:09 and you can...
23:10 I mean it's no different
23:11 from the music you will hear in a club,
23:13 and I think there should be a difference.
23:14 Right. Okay.
23:16 You were going to say something?
23:17 I'd probably say the same thing as well,
23:20 like the actual music, the actual bed,
23:26 the actual, like, the beat,
23:28 and the rhythms, and everything that comes in,
23:32 it is highly sexual in and of itself.
23:35 And it's meant to inspire us to do sexual acts.
23:39 And if you'd go to any city institution,
23:43 even if the music doesn't have words,
23:45 it's going to have a certain beat
23:47 and a certain rhythm
23:49 to try to help encourage sexual behavior.
23:52 And so to take that music
23:53 and just to throw Jesus' lyrics on top of it,
23:56 I think you're mixing the holy with the profane.
24:00 I would have to actually disagree.
24:02 Okay.
24:03 Because I mean, I guess, I'm biased
24:05 because one of my best friends,
24:06 he's a Christian hip-hop artist.
24:07 And I believe it depends on where your stumbling block is
24:11 in discernment
24:13 because, for example,
24:14 there's people that I know that listen to Christian rock.
24:17 I don't because that was my stumbling block
24:19 before that was what I fed off of
24:22 because I can't say everything Christian
24:24 is inherently good
24:26 just as everything secular is inherently bad,
24:28 you know, in the sense of
24:29 you have to really use that discernment
24:31 to really understand what the message is
24:33 being portrayed.
24:34 Yes, the beat has to do a lot with it
24:36 but also the lyrics have to do a lot with it
24:38 to the message that's being portrayed.
24:40 That is beautiful.
24:41 I love what you said
24:42 'cause I know I got another question.
24:44 All right, I've been listening to this.
24:45 I don't really see anything wrong with it
24:47 but I kind of see what you're saying
24:49 about, you know, it teaches me about sexuality
24:51 and the images I see.
24:53 And like, Brittany, you mentioned,
24:54 you had a lot of training when you were younger
24:56 that helped you see some of those things.
24:58 I don't have that, you know, I agree with you.
25:02 So how do now I begin to regain my sexuality,
25:05 regain my self-worth now?
25:09 What are some steps I can take?
25:11 As it relates to I stop listening to the music,
25:14 do I listen to better music, do I...
25:17 How do I do that?
25:19 Well, I'd say the best way to combat error
25:21 is with truth.
25:23 And so as Christians,
25:26 our worth can be found at the cross
25:30 because Jesus literally paid for us
25:33 with His own life at the cross.
25:35 And so in order to repair your self-esteem,
25:39 you have to go where Jesus paid it all,
25:42 and so you have to get into the Word,
25:44 you have to study the Bible.
25:46 You know, if you're a beginner
25:47 and you have a lot of questions,
25:48 I suggest the amazing little book
25:51 called Steps to Christ.
25:53 And when you read books like Steps to Christ,
25:55 when you go to the gospels
25:57 and you read about the sacrifice
25:58 that Jesus made for you,
26:01 then slowly but surely,
26:02 it will start to make yourself...
26:05 It will start to make you
26:07 a little bit more self-confident.
26:09 About who you are. About who you are.
26:11 Now you said you had been in this
26:13 with all the money and the cars
26:14 and the things like that, Xavier,
26:16 is the steps you talking about,
26:17 are these some of the steps you used?
26:19 Was it a gradual process?
26:20 Was it just night and day
26:22 or did it take, you know, a process for this to happen?
26:24 God knows His creation. It depends on the person.
26:28 But He pinpointed right there, I did read Steps to Christ.
26:31 I did read Steps to Christ, you know, I did.
26:33 It's a little book, you know,
26:35 nobody wants to read all these other books I got.
26:36 You pick up that little book, it does, it's not magic,
26:40 God's not magic, but it works to reveal your character
26:43 and what, you know, there's nothing wrong with you,
26:45 like you're not a bad person,
26:47 you just got to make some changes.
26:48 And I prayed, and I just asked God,
26:50 you know, "Help me to...
26:51 Whatever music I have and movies and games,
26:54 whatever might be blocking me from getting to you,
26:57 help me to remove it."
26:58 I ended up with pretty much nothing in my collection
27:01 and selling my gaming systems and everything because of it.
27:04 So what he said was true,
27:05 you know, that little book, Steps to Christ,
27:08 you know, does change your life.
27:09 And praying, you know, asking God, "Help me,"
27:13 you know, 'cause it's easier said than done,
27:15 just asking for help.
27:16 So you prayed to God, you read the Bible,
27:19 and almost it's like
27:22 you went on a fast from that thing for a while.
27:25 You changed some things
27:26 and didn't have anything for a while,
27:28 and then God taught you the right way
27:30 and the right way to go.
27:32 Well, friends, we just want you to know that,
27:36 just like our friends mentioned earlier,
27:38 Christ is the right way to go.
27:40 And it doesn't matter what you've done,
27:42 before you watched this program,
27:44 we want you to know now that God can come to change you,
27:47 He can come to restore you,
27:48 and that what God has for you, what He thinks about you,
27:52 and how He wants your sexuality to be is not filled with pride,
27:56 it's not filled with who is better,
27:58 it's not filled with any competition
28:00 for anybody else
28:02 because Jesus made you unique.
28:03 And He wants you to live out your unique life in Him,
28:07 dedicated to Him, serving Him.
28:10 And so we implore you,
28:11 when you make your music choices,
28:13 as always, we want you to make pure choices.
28:17 I'm your host Timothy Lawson.


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Revised 2018-05-02