Participants: Dwayne Lemon, Lance Wilbur
Series Code: TKS
Program Code: TKS000031A
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00:29 Hello, I'm Dwayne. And I'm Lance.
00:31 And we would like to welcome you 00:32 to another episode of TKS, 00:33 ''A True Knowledge of Self," 00:35 where we get to know ourselves from a biblical perspective. 00:39 Now, we're going to continue in this episode 00:42 talking about the eternal principle of love. 00:44 We saw in 1 John 4:8 that God is love. 00:48 But we then we looked at how that love applies 00:51 because we are also called to love our brothers, 00:56 to lay down our lives for the brethren. 01:00 So, how does one love? 01:01 How does one exhibit 01:03 that eternal characteristic of God? 01:05 It's something that we can't create 01:07 and manufacture ourselves, 01:09 it's something that only He can provide. 01:11 And we looked at a couple of different circumstances 01:14 in which love from one man was exhibited toward another, 01:18 and they had two completely different results. 01:20 For example, we looked at 2 Samuel and Nathan 01:24 confronting David the King, 01:27 and exposing a grave sin and scandal 01:32 that David had committed. 01:34 And when he confronted him, he was risking his life 01:37 because David could have executed him 01:40 for publicly confronting him with such an accusation. 01:44 But Nathan was willing to do that because he loved David. 01:49 And the result was a tremendous blessing. 01:52 David acknowledged his sin, he repented, 01:55 and there was no bloodshed and no further harm 01:57 aside from the judgment 01:59 and the consequences for David's actions. 02:03 But then we looked at an example 02:05 with the Prophet John, 02:09 John the Baptist. 02:10 And when he exposed the sin of a king publicly, 02:14 it actually resulted in his beheading. 02:16 He lost his life. 02:18 We have to be willing 02:19 if we are going to truly follow the biblical principle of love, 02:23 we have to be willing to correct, 02:27 and to give instruction, 02:29 and to call sin by its right name, 02:32 even if it means the loss of our life, 02:34 even if it means we have to lay down our lives 02:37 as Christ laid down His life for us. 02:40 And a lot of people are uncomfortable with that. 02:42 A lot of people in the Christian world 02:44 and the world in general are uncomfortable 02:48 with confrontation. 02:50 We scream that people are being judgmental 02:53 if they were to call somebody wrong, 02:56 or to criticize somebody's action, 02:57 or to question somebody's morality, 02:59 or to offer some counsel or correction. 03:01 And we have to accept the fact 03:04 that the Bible articulates a principle 03:07 that is to be exhibited 03:09 whether it's comfortable or not, 03:11 whether it's going to result in hardship for me 03:13 or persecution for me or not. 03:15 And we need to really stress that 03:17 because there is a disconnect. 03:18 Yeah. 03:20 There is a disconnect in modern society 03:22 particularly in hip-hop culture, 03:24 because we have a lot of issues, right? 03:26 There are a lot of social issues, 03:27 current events right now 03:29 that are getting people very animated, 03:34 to say the least. 03:35 We have open protests. 03:37 We have massive unrest, and marches, and violence, 03:42 and confrontations with the police and brutality, 03:45 and all kinds of things. 03:46 And yet we're not seeing 03:50 the type of love exhibited 03:54 that supposedly is one of the cornerstones 03:58 of the international hip-hop culture. 03:59 So, how is it that, number one, 04:03 we are called to apply the principle of love 04:07 that scripture outlines 04:09 whether it leads to our harm or not, 04:11 whether it leads to a broken relationship 04:13 or some kind of loss or not? 04:15 And are we seeing it 04:18 in some of these public figures 04:20 that are stepping forward to chime in 04:22 on the civil unrest 04:23 and to make demands and all this stuff? 04:25 What are we seeing here? What's going on? 04:27 Well, I mean, you know, 04:28 when you look at what's happening right now, 04:30 again, people are pursuing something 04:31 that ultimately is good. 04:33 They are trying to establish a better life, a happier life, 04:37 a more peaceful life etc. 04:39 The problem is, 04:41 you can't pick what you don't know. 04:43 And if you don't know what true love is, 04:45 then you don't know how to acquire it, 04:47 and you're not going to demonstrate it right, 04:49 and your humanity is going to come out sooner or later. 04:52 It's kind of like the story of the scorpion 04:54 riding on the frog's back, 04:55 I don't know if you ever heard it before. 04:57 But, you know, one day a scorpion 04:58 is communicating with a frog to say, 05:00 "Listen, I need to get across the river, 05:02 can you go ahead and just let me ride on your back?" 05:04 And then the frog says, 05:05 "Well, no, you're gonna sting me and kill me. 05:07 And scorpion said, "Don't worry, I won't do it. 05:08 I just, I just need to get across." 05:10 So, you know, the scorpion gets on the frog's back 05:12 and frog starts going, 05:13 he trusted the scorpion 05:15 and as soon as the frog gets her across 05:18 that bed of water and on to land, 05:20 immediately the scorpion stings him with his stinger. 05:24 And the frog is dying and the frog is saying, 05:26 "Why did you do that? 05:27 You said you weren't gonna to do that. 05:29 And the scorpion answers, 05:30 "I couldn't help it. It was my nature." 05:32 And, you know, of course 05:33 we know this is all very much allegorical. 05:35 You know, this is not literal. 05:37 But the point is very profound. 05:40 We are trying to pursue something 05:42 that in our nature we cannot accomplish 05:44 which is we're trying to establish love, 05:46 peace, unity and safely having fun. 05:49 But the problem is, is that sooner or later 05:51 our nature is going to take charge 05:53 of even the morals 05:54 that we might have been taught at some point or another. 05:56 And lo and behold the human nature takes over 05:58 and this is why we still see society 06:00 in the condition it's in right now. 06:03 This is why we have to give the right picture of love, 06:06 and we have to be willing 06:08 to demonstrate the attributes of love, 06:11 and part of that demonstration is calling wrong, 06:16 wrong, calling right, right. 06:18 And you've got to be willing to do it. 06:19 I mean, I really I can, I can dig a lot deeper in this, 06:22 but I'm just gonna make this point very briefly. 06:24 I think that when the hip-hop culture 06:28 and community sees and believes 06:32 that one in that community has been unjustly dealt with. 06:37 In the case of some of these issues right now, 06:39 with young black men being gunned down 06:40 by police officers 06:42 and looking upon them as victims and saying, 06:44 "Hey, this is wrong and there's marches, protests, 06:47 videos and twitters, 06:49 and all these things are going on right now. 06:51 And the issue is, 06:54 are you putting the same type of marches 06:56 and putting the same type of efforts 06:58 towards the consistent crimes 07:00 that are taking place in our communities 07:03 by individuals who have very much been influenced 07:05 by hip-hop culture. 07:06 That can't be denied. 07:08 And to deny it is to literally play deaf, dumb, and blind. 07:10 So, that it's not balanced but that's the problem 07:13 when it's human manufactured love. 07:15 It's the same thing with police officers. 07:17 You have a lot of police officers, 07:19 specifically in New York. 07:21 You know, a police officer does a bonafide, 07:24 documented illegal act, 07:26 doesn't get incriminated for it. 07:28 People protest against it which is their right. 07:30 They're saying, "Hey, this was wrong." 07:32 But then, unfortunately, 07:34 there are innocent men who were gunned down 07:36 as a result of retaliation, if you will. 07:38 And now the police officers are responding in a way 07:42 trying to make it almost look like 07:43 everything that happens 07:44 in the police force is legitimate. 07:46 We know it's always a tragedy 07:49 when innocent people lose their lives, 07:50 whether it is a police officer or a civilian. 07:54 But, again, our human nature 07:56 constantly shows for contradiction and failure 08:00 because the same way the individuals are acting 08:03 for one of their own, 08:04 they're not putting forth those same actions 08:06 towards their own 08:08 when it comes to them doing the wrong things. 08:10 So, there's massive inconsistency right now. 08:13 The gospel is the wonderful simplifier 08:15 of these problems. 08:16 The gospel levels everything. 08:18 Everything gets leveled at the cross. 08:20 And this is why Christ wants us to come to Calvary, 08:23 to behold it, take a look at it, 08:24 and understand what true love is 08:27 versus what these concepts of false love is. 08:29 And as opposed to self-exaltation 08:33 the cross teaches of self-sacrifice. 08:35 That's correct. 08:36 And really that's not what we're seeing going on. 08:37 Nobody's willing to sacrifice themselves 08:40 for the, you know, helping of another. 08:43 And one of the ways we see this happening 08:45 is not calling sin by its right name, 08:48 right name wherever it was found. 08:50 I can only imagine how uncomfortable 08:52 it was for Nathan to go to the man 08:54 that he himself serves the king 08:56 and to have to tell him, ''You are a sinner." 08:58 I can only imagine how uncomfortable 09:00 it was for John the Baptist, 09:02 to be under the jurisdiction of a king 09:04 and go to the king and say, ''You are a sinner." 09:07 It is not easy to do that 09:08 because we understand the paroles. 09:10 And this is one of the reasons why we don't find sin 09:12 being called out by its right name 09:14 as it should be. 09:16 Now, I remember one time I was preaching at a church 09:18 and I was preaching about repentance, 09:20 the turning away from sin 09:22 and our need to do that 09:23 because sin broke up the relationship 09:25 between man and God. 09:26 Isaiah 59:2, the Bible says, 09:28 "But your sins have separated between you and your God 09:31 and your iniquities have separated us 09:33 from Him that He will turn his face from us." 09:35 Well, here it is that if we want to have 09:37 face-to-face communion with God, 09:38 we have to get rid of the thing, 09:40 overcome the thing that caused the separation. 09:42 Right. Well, that was sin. 09:43 So, it is sensible that the child of God, 09:47 biblical Christianity 09:48 would have to put forth an effort 09:50 to call sin out by its right name. 09:52 When I was doing this someone said, 09:54 "Why can't you preach about love? 09:56 Why are you preaching about repentance 09:59 and turning away from sin? 10:00 That's not a message of love." 10:02 And I said, "Are you kidding me?" 10:03 I said, "That's an absolute message of love." 10:05 And they said, "No, it's not." 10:06 And, you know, kind of back and forth. 10:08 And I said, "Well, let me ask you a question. 10:10 ''Can you out love Jesus?" 10:12 And that person was humbled and said, 10:14 "Well, of course not, Jesus is the embodiment of love. 10:16 I said, "Well, I would agree 10:17 because his name is Emmanuel, God with us. 10:19 And God is love so Christ 10:20 when He was on this earth with us, 10:22 He was a human demonstration of love." 10:24 Well, here it is, I said, "How does Jesus love?" 10:26 So, I went to Revelation 3. All right. 10:28 And in Revelation 3, here's what the Bible says. 10:31 And in Revelation 3, 10:33 look at what it says right there in verse 19. 10:35 And the Bible is very clear. 10:36 The Bible says, 10:38 "As many," and these are in red letters 10:39 which we know would be Jesus speaking. 10:41 "As many as I hate," 10:44 That's not with the verse says. 10:46 It says, "As many as I love, 10:49 I rebuke and chasten: 10:52 be zealous therefore, and repent." 10:54 That's love. 10:55 The message of repentance, 10:57 a turning away from sin is actually a message of love. 11:01 It is not a message 11:02 where we are trying to judge individuals 11:04 in the context of reading their motives 11:06 or determining their fate. 11:08 These are things that is not in humanity to do. 11:10 I can't, I can tell a man, 11:11 "Listen, you stole the apple from the store. 11:13 I saw you do that." 11:14 What I can't do is say, 11:16 "You steal the apple from the store 11:17 and the reason you did it because you're a loser 11:18 and you've always been a loser 11:20 and you're always gonna be a loser." 11:21 Right. You know, I can't read motive. 11:22 So, what we do not have the right to do, 11:25 when you think of judge not lest to be judged, 11:27 is I cannot tell you why you did what you did. 11:31 I can't read your motive. 11:32 God hasn't given me that jurisdiction. 11:34 I also cannot tell you your fate. 11:36 I can't tell you, ''You are going to go to hell." 11:38 Because if there is a man who had a right to say 11:40 that it would be a man by the name of Steven. 11:42 Steven literally is being stoned 11:44 in the Book of Acts to death under the judgment of Saul, 11:48 who became the Apostle Paul. 11:50 So, Steven's last view of Saul 11:53 is that he is a persecutor of Christians. 11:55 He hates Christ. He hates Christianity. 11:57 And now I am literally dying because of his instructions. 12:00 So, Steven could have said, 12:02 woe be unto that sinner, he is going to hell. 12:04 But you can imagine how incredibly, 12:06 amazingly beautiful heaven will be 12:09 when Steven rises up in that resurrection morning, 12:11 and here it is that next to him or near him or wherever 12:14 as he's ascending up to meet the Lord in the air, 12:16 lo and behold, he's going to say, 12:17 "Wait a minute." 12:19 That's, you know, 12:20 he's gonna see Paul not Saul but Paul. 12:23 And he's gonna realize, 12:25 we cannot tell 12:26 who's gonna go to hell and who's gonna go to heaven. 12:28 It's not in our jurisdiction. 12:29 God can reach people even last minute. 12:31 But what we can do is we can call out an action 12:33 that we have seen. 12:35 The Bible tells us 12:36 that all scripture is given for correction. 12:39 So we can do that. 12:40 And there are things that need to be corrected. 12:42 And this is what we're dealing with 12:44 in hip-hop culture right now 12:45 and its effect and it's, you know, 12:48 proposing things that at the end of the day 12:50 are not even being demonstrated by some of its leaders. 12:53 That's right. 12:54 Now, we're gonna transition to a point here. 12:56 We're gonna play a video clip because I think it's now time, 13:00 after setting this foundation, that we need to show something, 13:03 because I am concerned when I think about, 13:07 you use the term thought leaders, 13:09 you know, in hip-hop culture today. 13:10 When I think of thought-leaders, 13:11 I think of people like, you know, KRS-One, 13:13 Afrika Bambaataa, you know, Russell Simmons, 13:16 you know a lot of people who have, 13:18 who have been there pretty much from the beginning, 13:20 all the way up until now. 13:22 These individual are looked up to. 13:23 They are considered father figures. 13:25 They're considered godfathers to many of those 13:28 who are in hip-hop, 13:30 as far as entertainment and culture. 13:31 Yeah, and many of them multimillionaires, 13:32 successful people. 13:34 Absolutely. 13:35 So when I think of these individuals, 13:36 I look at them as responsible ones towards those who follow. 13:41 In other words, "Hey, guys, you know, 13:43 that you have a following, 13:44 you know that people look up to you. 13:45 So, it is your job 13:48 to lead them in the right path, 13:50 " which I'm sure they believe they're doing. 13:51 And this is very important, man. 13:53 I am not convinced 13:56 that everybody who does hip-hop, 13:58 practices hip-hop, or advocates hip-hop culture 14:00 are evil people. 14:02 I don't, I'm not saying that. 14:03 There's some people who will but I'm not. 14:04 I believe many of them 14:06 may very well be recognized by God as His people. 14:09 Because the Bible says in Revelation 18 14:12 that there is a place called Babylon 14:13 which is the hold of every foul spirit 14:16 and the cage of every unclean and hateful bird. 14:18 But God says, "Come out of her my people." 14:21 So that I believe that there are people 14:23 who are genuine in what they are doing 14:25 as it relates to hip-hop culture 14:27 but you can be sincerely or genuinely wrong 14:30 and they and what's needed is correction. 14:32 Right. 14:33 So, we're not analyzing people's characters, 14:36 people's motives. 14:37 We're analyzing what's going on, 14:39 what is being said, the principles, 14:41 the thoughts, the ideas... 14:42 That's right. 14:43 ..that are being promoted 14:45 and that's what has to be questioned. 14:46 That's correct. 14:48 So, whenever we challenge something, 14:49 we're not challenging necessarily the person 14:50 but the ideology 14:52 that is being presented through that person. 14:53 And I believe that we should function 14:54 under Galatians 6:1 that tells us, 14:57 "If you see your brother in a fault, 14:59 you which are spiritual restore such a one." 15:02 You know what I'm saying? 15:03 It's like do your best to try to help build them up. 15:05 So, if I see Russell Simmons, if I see Afrika Bambaata, 15:09 KRS-One or any thought leader in hip-hop culture 15:12 that says something 15:13 that's trying to lead the people at large 15:16 and is incorrect, if I really loved them, 15:19 I got to love them enough not to say, "Amen", 15:21 'cause Amen means so let it be done. 15:23 I got to say, "Oh, no. 15:25 No, sorry brothers, you know, 15:27 this is not correct was being stated 15:29 thus saith the Lord." 15:30 So, this is what we're gonna do, 15:32 so we're gonna go ahead and look at a clip, 15:33 where there was a interview 15:35 between Russell Simmons and Don Lemon from C.N.N. 15:39 And they had a dialogue 15:41 about some of the things going on in hip-hop culture 15:44 and there was something stated 15:46 that I have to confess was a bit disturbing. 15:49 So, we're gonna go ahead and take a look at this 15:50 and then we'll come back and share some comments on it. 15:52 All right, let's go to the monitor. 15:53 My thing is, 15:55 is that kids are dying every single minute 15:59 and it's because, as you said, we had the responsibility. 16:03 Are there people are being educated in prison, 16:05 prison culture. 16:06 I think that helps perpetuate 16:08 that education in prison culture. 16:11 And I don't understand why you, why you can't see that? 16:15 I do see that, an expression of a reality, you know, 16:18 maybe reaffirmed it to some degree 16:20 but it is certainly important that artist tell our truth. 16:24 Do you think that hip-hop can be better? 16:26 Rap and hip-hop can be better? 16:29 I think each individual artist 16:31 have a responsibility to say what's on their hearts. 16:35 And some of it is not pretty. 16:37 So I think they're reflections of our reality, 16:39 in some cases, sad reality. 16:40 Oh! That's great. 16:41 But do those artists understand the influence 16:43 that they're having on the young people 16:45 or the people who are listening to their songs? 16:47 I think many a most artists understand. 16:50 And I don't believe that is anything 16:52 we can do to stop a poet from expressing the truth. 16:55 Only thing we can do is change that truth, 16:58 if it's, if it's uncomfortable to us. 17:00 Do you think, just the question, 17:02 do you think rap and hip-hop can be better? 17:04 Absolutely. 17:05 Okay, but how so? 17:08 Each individual can be better but as an overall culture 17:10 it has to express our sad reality. 17:13 It's, it's, the way young people 17:15 want to express themselves by bucking the system 17:17 is something that I support. 17:19 And some of the things they say 17:21 that may make the adults uncomfortable, 17:23 in most cases, I support it. 17:25 There are, and I quote ''Of course there are lines. 17:27 I'm not suggesting you, it is no line." 17:30 We hope that their expression can be one that uplifts people, 17:34 but we also want them to be truthful to their art 17:37 and say what's on their hearts. 17:38 And if what's on their hearts 17:40 sometimes is difficult to digest 17:42 then we have to look at that and see 17:43 if that's a roadmap or something we can fix... 17:45 Is there a way of doing that without calling someone a... 17:50 I think that some of the lyrics are very harsh, 17:52 and some of the things they say are very sexist, 17:54 some of the things they say are very difficult to digest. 17:56 And ignorant? And... And ignorant. 17:59 I still can't tell a poet, you know, I cannot tell a poet. 18:02 No, they are not my lyrics or my songs 18:04 but I can't tell a poet what to say. 18:06 And I will not. 18:08 Now as we consider what was just stated 18:11 which again depending on how meticulous a listener is, 18:15 they may think, "Well, that's sounds just fine. 18:17 He's basically saying, 18:19 "Hey, I can't control this type of situation. 18:21 You know, I'm not gonna stop anybody 18:23 from expressing their artwork and etc." 18:26 Yet he admits that some of the things 18:28 they're saying in their artwork is contributive to the problems 18:31 that are being addressed on the program. 18:33 What are some things that you see from this? 18:34 Well, you know, to be fair, the context of the interview 18:37 basically the interviewer wrote a open letter, 18:40 criticizing the culture 18:42 and saying that the culture is what breeds these situations 18:46 and creates an environment for the police brutality. 18:49 And, you know, so the problem is not the police 18:52 even though that's a problem, that's not the root. 18:54 The core is the degradation of the culture and society, 18:58 and it's constantly being pumped with negativity, 19:00 and it's producing the fruit, the natural fruit. 19:03 And so, in response to that Russell Simmons 19:06 critiqued the open letter 19:09 and it became like kind of a social media battle. 19:12 And then the interviewer invited him 19:14 for a face-to-face interview 19:16 and this is that, that's the interview. 19:17 So, there's a lot of discussion, 19:19 a lot of background to it. 19:20 So the bottom line is, what is being articulated 19:25 in this, in this segment of the interview 19:28 is that in other words the artists, 19:33 the MC's if you will, the dancers, 19:35 the various artists in hip-hop 19:37 are simply communicating 19:41 and expressing the reality. 19:44 He, at one point blames the reality. 19:48 He blames the problem on the prison, 19:51 you know, industrial complex, 19:53 meaning the fact that people are getting locked up 19:56 at such alarming numbers. 19:57 They're getting trained 19:58 in criminality in prison culture. 20:00 And they're bringing that back to the street. 20:02 So, their reality is simply this 20:04 and so they're just being artists 20:05 and expressing themselves, 20:06 and he is not going to tell an artist 20:09 not to express themselves. 20:11 He's not going to come and tell an artist, 20:13 ''You shouldn't say that or maybe you should try this," 20:15 he's not gonna tell an artist to, 20:17 to say something that's not reality. 20:19 Even though he clearly sees 20:21 that the things that some of these artists 20:22 are saying are negative, are derogatory, 20:26 and are demonstrations of ignorance. 20:28 That's right. 20:29 So, he knows they're part of the problem. 20:31 Right? 20:32 But he's saying I'm not willing to address that specifically. 20:34 What we need to do to fix the problem 20:36 is address and change their reality. 20:39 So, he's saying we're gonna improve education. 20:41 We're gonna, you know, try to find ways 20:43 to where we can create some criminal justice 20:45 so people aren't locked up, 20:46 you know, minorities aren't locked up 20:48 in such disparaging numbers and all these things. 20:50 So he's saying, we can change their reality 20:52 and that will change their art. 20:54 But, I mean, it's a use of illustration, 20:57 for example, if you have a pool of water 20:59 and you want to purify that water. 21:00 You want, you want that water to be, 21:02 you know, able to be drink, 21:04 you know, potable water, drinkable water. 21:07 So, if you want that pure water 21:10 but the problem is you have sewage 21:11 coming into that pond or that pool. 21:14 If the sewage is coming into the pool, 21:17 whatever purification system you want to go through, 21:19 whatever, if you do not eliminate 21:21 that stream of sewage pumping into that pool, 21:24 unless you've got some high-level massive, 21:27 you know, treatment plants 21:28 you're gonna always have dirty water. 21:30 So, the reality is that pool, 21:32 the reality is never gonna change, 21:34 if it's constantly being pumped 21:36 with this negativity and this error, 21:38 and this thing that's, that's degrading the society. 21:41 So it's circular reasoning. 21:43 You know, you can't have one without the other. 21:45 You can't address one and not address the other. 21:47 You have to address both. 21:49 And this is the problem in the reasoning. 21:51 I don't... 21:52 Again, we can't speculate as to why or the motive behind it. 21:55 But it appears to me that he is not, 22:00 he's committed 22:01 to not intervening on that level. 22:04 He's going to spend all, 22:06 you know, and do all these things on the outside 22:07 to try to change the reality, 22:09 but it's gonna be virtually impossible 22:10 if you don't change the stream that's pumping into it. 22:11 That's right. 22:13 Now, we're gonna take a real quick look at one more clip 22:15 'cause we're getting closer towards our close. 22:17 But we're gonna take a look at one more clip 22:19 of another very powerful thought leader 22:21 in hip-hop culture 22:23 which is none other than Afrika Bambaataa, 22:24 where he expresses some thoughts 22:26 along the same lines to this interview. 22:28 So let's go ahead 22:29 and let's take a look at this one very quickly. 22:30 Okay. All right. 22:32 And it's just that the media want to focus on 22:33 one little small part 22:35 which is the rappers still doing gangster rap. 22:38 We're not saying get rid of the gangster rap, 22:39 all we want is balance of the modern rap. 22:42 If you say you're hip-hop radio station, 22:44 Tupac was dealing with drug life, 22:47 but he's also talking to you about dear mama. 22:49 He's also talking about keep your head off. 22:50 So, people say, ''Oh, that's contradiction." 22:52 Well, we all are contradiction. 22:54 We all got the ying and the yang, 22:55 the agreeable and the disagreeable, 22:56 evil and good in us. 22:58 So let's get away from them. 22:59 It's like if you saw holier than thou. 23:01 Now, the thing that I heard from this clip is that, 23:04 number one, there's an emphasis on the fact that the media 23:09 though hip-hop or rap 23:11 is very, very wide and broad and has many ''Successes," 23:14 that media, according to Afrika Bambaataa, 23:17 is focusing on one small part which is the gangster rap. 23:22 Whether that'd be true or not, that caught my attention, 23:23 that wasn't really the emphasis 23:26 it was what he said after. 23:28 After acknowledging gangster rap, right? 23:31 Then he says, 23:32 not saying that we need to get rid of it 23:34 and I'm just thinking to myself. 23:36 Okay. 23:37 When I think of a godfather 23:39 then that means you can't be a godfather 23:40 without having God's Son. 23:42 So, you know, 23:43 you are looked upon as a father figure 23:46 and as a father figure, 23:49 you are seeing some of your children, 23:52 ''That are promoting, teaching and doing things 23:55 that at the end of the day are absolutely evil." 23:58 It's wrong in every sense of the word 24:00 which of course is this concept of gangster rap. 24:03 So, he makes it clear, you know, 24:04 not saying that we need to get rid of it 24:05 which I'm like why wouldn't you say that? 24:07 You know, that's a question. 24:09 Just why wouldn't you say that? Are you kidding me? 24:10 Look at the fruit. 24:12 But then after he states that the interviewer asked him, 24:15 well, doesn't it appear like a contradiction 24:18 and then basically he's like, well, yes, 24:22 you know, there's the ying and the yang, 24:24 the good and the evil, 24:25 don't try to act holier than thou. 24:27 And he just kind of went on this rant 24:29 which was now a justification of the evil, 24:33 you know, he associated the gangster rap with ''Evil". 24:37 Now, how can love 24:39 be a cornerstone of this culture? 24:43 And we have seen from the word of God 24:45 that love is willing to tell people things. 24:49 To tell them, what you're doing here is wrong 24:51 you need to turn away from this. 24:53 You need to repent. 24:54 Yet we're seeing hip-hop moguls like Russell Simmons, 24:57 we're seeing a godfather of hip-hop 24:59 like Afrika Bambaataa 25:00 and these individuals 25:02 are really not willing to tell them 25:04 and say this is wrong, this is wrong, 25:06 this needs to change and that's problematic 25:09 when we think about 25:11 a so-called teaching and promoting of love. 25:14 And this is why, again, love is being perverted. 25:18 When you look at Proverbs 13:24, the Bible says, 25:21 "He that spareth," 25:22 and I want you to think about the principle here, 25:24 "He that spareth his rod hates his son: 25:29 but he that loves him chasteneth him betimes, 25:34 many times." 25:35 What's the point? 25:36 The point is that if you really love 25:38 your god children, 25:39 if you really love 25:41 those who are looking up to you, 25:42 you've got to learn to sometimes 25:43 chasing them and say, ''Listen, you can't do this". 25:45 I understand that you can't force an individual, 25:49 but when you are put in the power position, 25:51 it's kind of like a parent, 25:52 I can't force my child to love God 25:53 but I can definitely endorse rules in my home 25:56 that says we're not going to allow 25:57 ungodly things to take place. 25:58 Yeah. And how about this? 26:00 We're going to look at another point 26:01 but they're making those same 26:04 and some of those same individuals are making demands. 26:06 They're meeting with the governor of New York 26:08 and demanding that the police do this, 26:09 and do that, and do this, 26:11 and do that and braining them in 26:12 because what they did was wrong. 26:14 Right. 26:15 But at the same point 26:16 they can't go to their own people 26:18 and do the same thing. 26:19 My brother, case in point. 26:21 Don Lemon with C.N.N. 26:23 wrote an article 26:24 expressing his thoughts on hip-hop culture 26:28 and he did it based on his art, 26:31 which is to be a journalist and to do what he did. 26:33 So he's expressing his art form, 26:35 Russell Simmons sees it, doesn't like it, 26:37 and he says, this is wrong. 26:40 He was able to do that to this individual 26:43 who was expressing his art form of what have you, 26:46 but then he says, but I can't tell them 26:48 to who's part of the very click 26:50 that supposedly I'm a oversee over 26:52 and trying to give guidance and instruction. 26:54 There's something wrong. This is what I'm saying. 26:57 There is inconsistency, there is a contradiction, 27:01 and one thing that is definitely clear 27:03 is this is not demonstrating the principle of love 27:06 from the biblical perspective. 27:07 And this is the reason 27:08 why this so-called cornerstone had to be addressed. 27:11 That's right. 27:12 Now there is something here that we're seeing 27:17 that is admitting the fact 27:20 that contradiction is inevitable. 27:21 In other words, it's part of the culture. 27:24 That's not what the Bible teaches. 27:26 The Bible teaches that the reality 27:28 that God dictates transcends all culture, 27:31 it establishes its own culture 27:32 which is superior and therefore contradiction does not exist. 27:36 They don't co-exist. 27:38 Contradiction and love can't co-exist. 27:40 So we're going to continue talking about this 27:42 because it's important 27:43 that we flesh it out even further. 27:45 We cannot have a situation 27:48 in which we allow individuals to misrepresent, 27:52 and when we do that we are living a contradiction, 27:56 and that's certainly not love or peace or unity. 27:59 So I want to invite you to return for our next episode, 28:02 and I want you to always remember Proverbs 2:6, 28:05 ''For it's the Lord that gives wisdom 28:07 and out of his mouth 28:09 comes knowledge and understanding." 28:11 God bless. |
Revised 2017-03-09