I’m going to say that one more time know who you are my brother know who you are my sister because when you know your roots you know what You’ been through and when you know what You’ been through you know what you can get through see and that’s why and that’s
Where the new Pharaoh messed up he didn’t understand who he was messing with and that’s where the devil messes up because he preaching power Exodus chap 1 verse 6 through verse 12 Exodus 1 verse 6 through verse2 I’ll be reading from the new revised Standard Version The nrsv Exodus
Chapter 1 verse 6 through verse 12 I pray that this word reaches exactly who it needs to exactly how it needs to have you found it is there a word there always a word God be the glory he always has a word for our life it reads accordingly then
Joseph died and all his brothers and that whole generation but the Israelites were fruitful and prolific they multiplied and grew exceedingly strong so that the land was filled with them and a new king Pharaoh arose over Egypt who did not know Joseph I can’t wait to get
There he said to his people look the Israelite people are more numerous and more powerful than we come let us deal truely with them or they will increase and in the event of War join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the land therefore they set task Masters
Slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor they built Supply cities pitham and ramsy for Pharaoh verse 12 but the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied and spread so that the Egyptians came to dread the Israelites but the more they oppressed them the more they multiplied and spread
But the more they oppressed them the more they grew today I want to speak using the subject and thought in our minds respect your roots respect your roots some of the greatest years of my life let me recognize my wife Savannah graduate of HBCU Winston Salem
State some of the best years of my life were the years I spent at the wonderfully prestigious North Carolina entt State University my sophomore year my sophomore year was pledging my fraternity cap alasi simultaneously one of my best friends and close friends to this day named Malcolm was pledging into another
Fraternity called Alpha F Alpha so we were simultaneously pledging and we stayed best friends to this day and stayed roommates all throughout all throughout college and it was an interesting Dynamic for this for this Kappa and this Alpha to be living together be roommates and there were many times
There there were many times where where we’ get into our little you know friendly ban of whose organization was the best when we be out at at parties and Gatherings yes I said parties we threw some good ones too you know how it is when the fraternities would be there the
Sororities would be there the fraternities would began to you know talk I talk about how we were the best fraternity and all of the other fraternities of course would talk their talk like they were the best ones there’ be the zoom goes and we ain’t going to
Get into we a going to say tooo much on that the sigmas would say their stuff and the qes would do their thing the alphas of course would do their thing and of all of the chance of all of the chance that that that we say
In those parties there is one that I remember in particular and it did not come from my fraternity it came from that fraternity of black and gold the alphas and I got to I got to admit I got to admit when they would say this one
Was a wasn’t a whole lot of come back to this one and I don’t remember all of the words that enumerated the chck but I do remember at the end of it the brothers of alpify alpha would say respect your rots standing firmly that since they were the first fraternity all other fraternities
Then had to show a level of respect and difference to them because they after all they were the first not the best but still the first but still the first and the reason that stands out to me so monumentally is because there is power in knowing your history and there is
Significance in knowing where you come from so today I say emphatically that all of us ought to respect Our Roots and know where we come from for there is power in knowing your own story y’all still walk with me today so let me tell the story of your
History the story of our history this this powerful and prolific story and I use the book of Exodus this first chapter beginning at this sixth verse in order for us to understand the significance of Our Roots in Exodus chapter 1 this is what happens y’all walk with me for a little
While y’all know I got to build my case cuz you can’t shout till you know what you’re shouting about in The Book of Exodus it opens up and what has already transpired is that the people of God have had to Journey outside of the lands that they were
Dwelling because a famine had hit the land and there was one Kingdom that was still doing well in the midst of of the famine and that kingdom is Egypt now this Egyptian Kingdom only welcomes these people of God because the second in command the second highest
Power and authority in the land is a man named Joseph Joseph is a Israelite and so when these Israelites these people of God need a place to go a refuge Joseph is in position to say y’all come on over here dwell in this land of Egypt and while you’re dwelling
In this land of Egypt it says that these people began to prosper to grow and to multiply that they began to prosper to grow and to multiply in verse eight is where it begins to get interesting because in verse eight we see what the significance is in respecting your roots
I’m just building my case here y’all so then what happens in verse 8 that giv significant sermonic moment this is what happens it tells us that there is a new king more specifically there is a new Pharaoh there is a new pharaoh in this new Pharaoh he’s going to help us
Understand as we respect Our Roots what ancestry affirms what ancestry affirms because Generations have passed by by the time this new Pharaoh Rises to power we understand that according to the Bible Joseph is gone Joseph brothers are gone Generations have passed by and now there is a new Pharaoh this is significant
Because this new Pharaoh didn’t understand who God’s people were he looks at them and said who are these people that dare to thrive in a Strange Land the Pharaoh is messing up because he doesn’t take the time to do a basic background check all right y’all ain’t walking with
Me how many of us would have saved ourselves some trouble if we took the time to do a basic background check where you come from who your mama them y’all not walk with me today the Pharaoh this new Pharaoh finds himself in trouble because he doesn’t
Even take the time to do a basic background check so he doesn’t understand the people that he is about to deal with he he doesn’t understand that these people are descendants of Joseph he doesn’t know who they are but the good news is they know who they
Are he doesn’t know who they are or where they come from but the good news is they know who they are and where they come from they know their Roots therefore they know what their ancestry affirms see it’s one thing when the enemy don’t know your history is another
Thing when you don’t know your own I’m I’m preaching in here the people of God in Exodus 1 understand that their story did not start in Egypt nor did it start in their enslavement I’m going to say that one more time the people of Exodus understand that their story did not
Start in Egypt therefore their story did not start in enslavement their Roots Run much deeper than that Abraham the father of the faith Abraham who founded the belief of the one true God He Who Shall Not Be Named because he is God all by himself Abraham had a son a son by the
Name of Isaac Isaac we learn from his story that when he was about to get sacrificed that God always has a ram I knew I had a few Bible readers in here in the bush which shows us that God will make a way out of nowh all right Isaac has a son named
Jacob Jacob wrestles with the angel all night long and tells the angel I will not let you go until you bless me Jacob’s name is changed to Israel Israel has a son named Joseph yeah see you got to understand the Bible Joseph was thrown in a pit left to
Die and God takes Joseph from a pit where he could have died to a palace where he rules now here come these people that have the nerve to thrive in a Strange Land but the Pharaoh does not know who their story is Con connected to I’m
Going say it one more time it’s one thing when the enemy don’t respect your history it’s another thing when you don’t respect your own okay all right their story is a story of strength in adversity it is a story of God being in the midst he is the author and the
Finisher of their story lean in Child of God your story didn’t start in America in enslavement our sons and our daughters must know that our history goes much deeper than enslavement know who you are my sister you are madam CJ Walker hot Combs that burn the burn that
Kitchen some of y’all still got a black mark right now mama and grandama doing the best they could yes you are madam CJ Walker yes you are from Harriet Tubman to the first black female Vice President of the United States you are all of those things but your roots go much deeper
Than that you come from the womb of where all life was created from warrior queens to healers and herbalists that were in tune with God and His creation your whole story is a story of strength in the ways it needs to be and yet beauty Beauty and delicateness in
The ways that it needs to be your your it is powerful to know your Ruth because your whole story is a Vibe and God is in his midst and he is the author and the finisher of your story my sisters know who you are my brother you are Martin and Malcolm and Newton
And Nat Turner and yeah maybe even a little Dr Umar you know he he I throw him in for I threw him in for honorable mention you are the Beats and The rhythms brothers that have made blues and jazz and and Funk and rock and roll
And R&B and mtown and go go shout out to my house music people and and neo soul and rap and and Hip Hop but your roots go deeper than that you come from the same place the richest king That Ever Walked the Earth named King mansam
Musa of the region and Kingdom of Mary I don’t know if y’all ever know this or not uh but y’all know uh Black Folk been been uh fancy a long time did you know that they just recently discovered in Egypt that they were wearing gold sandals y’all hey hey I know you ain’t
Surprised you know what else I found out they had gold tips that they would put on their toes y’all we we’ve been we’ve been doing fashion for a long time y’all gold sandals with gold toes Brothers you are Kingdom Builders you are culturally wealthy you are intellectually astute knowing your roots
Is powerful your story speaks to strength and God is in the midst of it he is the author and the finisher of your [Applause] story my sisters it is important for you to know this my brothers it is important for you to know this because when you
Know your roots you know what you’ve been through and when you know what you’ve been through you know what you can get through y’all y y y’all just miss that whole thing y’all just missed that whole thing I’m going say that one more time know
Who you are my brother know who you are my sister because when you know your roots you know what you’ve been through and when you know what you’ve been through you know what you can get through see and that’s why and that’s where a new Pharaoh messed up he didn’t
Understand who he was messing with and that’s where the devil messes up because he don’t understand who he’s messing with [Applause] you not only do you know how to call on God your mama knew how to call on God your daddy knew how to call on God your
Grandmama knew her had a call on God there is a legacy that we stand on of people that know how to call on the name of the Lord you know what that means that means that when life throws hell your way you don’t fall into pieces
Cuz this ain’t your first time having to face hell you faced it before and God brought you through it y’all ain’t walk with me today you think you think that some of the stuff that’s happening now is going to break you is going to make you not
Trust in God do you understand what our history is do you understand what we’ve had to go through do you understand what God has brought us out [Applause] of and when I remember what the Lord has done I wish I had a witness in here we I remember the ways he’s
Made we I remember how when we were down he picked us up turned us around I got to say like Grandmama would say I got to say like Grandmama would say because I know where I’ve come from I don’t feel no Ways Tired come too far from where we started
From nobody told me that the road would be easy but I come to Far Listen when you face your adversities I want you to understand that coursing through your veins is a legacy of standing on God it’s a legacy of trusting God it’s a legacy of knowing God will bring us through your ancestry affirms that not only does your ancestry affirm it but
Listen here’s what happens it says this new Pharaoh don’t understand who he’s messing with because the generations have pass that’s why y’all got to honor the older Generations because they will they will instill encouragement in you but this is what happens by the time you get to verse 12 the people of God
Are being severely treated they have been enslaved because they had the nerve to prosper and the King’s own insecurity the pharaoh’s own insecurity cannot take other people doing well now I want to observe the strategy of the this new Pharaoh that he thinks will work in order to stop God’s
People he says we will oppress them in Exodus 12 the Hebrew word for oppressed is Hanah somebody say Hanah Hanah this verb carries several related meanings such as to afflict to Humble to oppress or to mistreat it often describes a situation where someone is being put under pressure or Affliction typically by
Someone in position of power this can be this can involve both physical and psychological forms of distress the root for Hanah suggests being bowed down and burden being placed on you this word this word in in Hebrew suggests to be bowed over and burden placed on your back I want y’all to get
Get get the visual to be bowed over in order for a burden to be placed on your back and this is what we see this the second strategy here after what ancestry affirms we see what burdens try to break here’s the strategy I will burden them and when I burden them it will
Break them simple strategy I will burden them and after I burden them this burden will in result break them so he attempts to break them both physically and psychologically so he burdens them to try to break them because if he breaks them they won’t be able to keep
Growing and the end result is I don’t want them to grow anymore are y’all still walking with me he burdens them to break them so that they don’t grow anymore but the verse says and the more he burdened them the more he attempted to break them the more they grew how is it
Possible can I let me see if I can explain it this way in 1988 I don’t know if any of you have ever been to a Yellowstone Park yeah we ain’t really we ain’t really if we take a vacation ain’t to a park right it’s to
To a beach with some clear water to a to a place that got a casino right I right nobody going nobody going to lift holy heads on that one okay all 1988 Yellowstone Yellowstone Park had a massive wildfire the massive Wildfire burned down over 100 acres of trees massive destruction and uh conservationist
Environmentalists and people watching it on the news were devastated and they were saying that Yellowstone Park would never recover from such Devastation people were people were uh distraught and dismayed because of such massive destruction over 100 acres of trees burn to the ground specialist those at no Parks and
Wildlife they did not panic they understood that in this area of these one over 100 acres the trees that burned down were trees called large pole Pines large pole Pines now if you don’t know anything about large pole pin it’s all right cuz I didn’t either large pole Pine
Have big thick pine cones that fall to the ground and stay closed and they stay closed until something happens fire when it comes through a forest those pine cones stay on the ground closed up and do not open until the heat gets so hot that it causes it to open so
When the fire came through the fire came through and burned down the old so that the new could begin to grow [Applause] y’ and the large pole PES grow back stronger and taller every time they get burned down y the fire didn’t kill them the fire created a new chapter y’all y’all not
Walk with me today that’s what the devil does not understand to this day every time you try to kill me you don’t do anything but let me grow back stronger y’all I wish I had a witness in here somewhere that could say I’ve gone through the fire I’ve been through the flood don’t
Let the don’t let the the the the being put together on a Sunday fool you I’ve been through some stuff in life but I trusted God that every time I was down he’d build me back up again so this is what I want you to understand you don’t grow you don’t grow
In spite of your fires you grow because of your fires there’s somebody in here right now you learn how to pray because of your fires I wish I had a I wish I had a a witness in here somewhere you didn’t know you could call on God like that to Hell hit
Your life and then you discovered that you could call on God from the depths of your heart there’s somebody in here that can say I didn’t know how to trust in God until I had a son I couldn’t contact until I had a daughter I couldn’t get my
Hands on so I had to say God I’ll put them in your hand I wish I had a witness in here somewhere there’s somebody in here that didn’t know what faith looked like until you got sick and the medicine couldn’t do it and the doctors couldn’t figure it out
And yet you learn T so sweet to trust in Jesus is there anybody in here that can say I took my fire and I’ve been growing in my praise I’ve been growing in my prayer I’ve been growing growing in my sh I’ve been growing in my Hallelujah I’ve been
Growing listen listen listen don’t let it kill you don’t let it kill you trust in God and let him grow something inside of you yeah you ought to say right now I I will not die in the midst of my fire I will not die I
Will in the midst of my trouble I will not die in the midst of my storm because I serve a god who’s [Applause] able [Applause] [Applause] yeah I’m Not Bow because I’m burdened I’m bow cuz I’m thanking God for my blessings yeah yeah I’m Not Bow because I’m burdened I’m bow cuz I’m thanking God for my blessings can you do me a favor you just take a moment to count your blessings and name [Applause] them
Y’all y’all ain’t counting y’ can can you just take a moment to count your blessing you been counting your issues you’ve been counting your problem problems you been your burden can you take a moment that does count your [Applause] [Applause] Blessings you shall live and not die okay I got to I got to close here respect your roots I got to close here respect your roots Brothers I’m I’m trying to press my way through here when you respect your roots you understand what ancestrial firms what burdens can’t break and lastly what pressure
Produces I wish if I can be honest if I can be honest I wish when you were a child of God that exempt you from from the vicissitudes of life but it don’t I know I I I said a fancy word and I say but it don’t but it does not here’s the
Thing the descendants of Joseph are actually getting stronger they’re actually growing because their burdens can’t break them because their accessory has already affirmed it so we got to understand then how to handle the pressures cuz I hear you saying okay okay preacher you want me to
Grow you’re charging me to grow and how do I do that then see CU everybody like the results but not everybody likes the process to get to the results Danielle I’m going go ahead in I looked up a pearl yeah a oyster I did not know
This I looked up how oysters form pearls we got anybody got got some pearls on in here wonderful wonderful wonderful pearls are so beautiful let me let me tell you how a pearl is formed let me tell you how a pearl is formed as a clam is living mind of his own
Business eating and grooving and doing his thing when an irritant finds his way inside the oyster or a parasite a irritant or a a irritant like a grain of sand or a parasite finds his way inside an oyster it Act at something inside the oyster called M oop mother of
Pearl this mop begins to wrap itself all around the irritant and as it is wrapping itself all around the irritant it is also protecting itself from what came in it to try to kill it and the longer it wraps itself over the irritant the bigger and brighter it begins to
Look as it wraps itself around the parasite that would have killed it or the irritant that could have killed it it wraps itself in something called m o mother of pearl and when it is extracted from the oyster it comes out looking like the Pearl around your
Neck so the longer it had to deal with the IR and the longer it had to deal with the parasite the bigger and shinier the Pearl gets okay and the only reason it gets a pearl is because something called the mop kicked in it was activated when
Something came in to try to destroy it you didn’t know that the beauty around your neck wouldn’t exist if something didn’t try to kill it okay yeah you didn’t know that the beauty around your neck exists because a parasite tried to destroy it you didn’t know that the beauty
Around your neck only exist because a irritant tried to bring it down if it never got irritated the beauty of the Pearl couldn’t have been created all because something called mop got activated when irritant got involved well oysters have mop but my life got map I’m trying to close y’all I’m trying
Oers have mop that get activated I got something called map that got activated H I know y’all like all right what is map uh it is God’s majesty and power and when something tried to come in my life to irritate and Destroy what he didn’t realize is MP got
Activated and it began to work on the inside yeah yeah because M mop don’t work on the outside it works on the inside and I came to encourage somebody today that when hell hits your life and the storms of life start raging there is something on the inside that God begins to
Activate and it begins to build you stronger on the inside and is there anybody in here that can say I thank God Today that he activated something on the inside I thank God today that when I could have died when I could have given up when I could have given in when I could have thrown in the tow when I could have said I’ve had all I can take there was something on the
Inside that begin to move there was something on the inside that begin to be like a fire fire shut up in my bone I hear somebody say what is it that makes the M work it’s called the Holy Ghost it’s called the Holy Ghost and he
Moves on the inside and he lives on the inside and He blesses from the inside how do you know that happen how do you know that there’s something on the inside I’m glad you ask because the God I serve the God I serve has been mighty mighty mighty mighty mighty
Mighty good to me because the Lord will be a brid over trouble Waters and the Lord will make a way out of no way yes he will yes he will yes he will yes he will yes he will yes God will yes God will yes God
Come on somebody give him glory come on somebody give him Glory Everybody stand to your feet everybody stand to your feet door God’s shurt is open come on somebody tell God thank You W my brother and sister the door of God’s church is open my brother and sister door of God’s church is open I I pray sincerely if you are in this space are connected with us and you have not given your life to Christ that you don’t let anything in
This moment keep you from connecting with God and giving your life to Christ with him if your soul is save come on sister come on my brother come on my sister come on my brother on this day we respect and honor our Roots if your soul isn’t saved and
Listen only you know only you can search your heart and come to the conclusion whether you are saved or not and if you are in this space or connected with us and you are not saved Jesus knocks on the door of your heart he knocks on the door of your
Heart but one simple question will you let him in and if you will my brother if you will my sister if you will just trust him with with your heart with your soul with your life he’ll change your life for the better forever you will start a journey that will last you for
The rest of your life but let that journey start here let that journey start today let your salvation journey start on this Sunday don’t put off until tomorrow what God has blessed you to do today and I want you to understand that as you make up your heart cuz your mind
Will try to talk you out of it but as you make up your heart as you make up your heart know that the angels in heaven will rejoice the congregation down here will rejoice and we’ll be so glad the devil will be so mad because he lost the soul
He thought he had and we invite you my brother and my sister to give your life to Christ today this does not mean you’re coming down to be perfect it just means you’re coming down to follow a perfect Savior and who wouldn’t want to who wouldn’t want to give their life to
A loving savior come on and give God a hand we’re going to not only not only do we invite you today to give your life to Christ but we invite you today to join God’s church if you are here if you are here and God is moving on your heart to join Louis
Chapel Missionary Baptist Church One Church in three locations we welcome you with all the warmth and love of Jesus Christ but we want all of God’s children to know that you belong here we invite you to come we invite you come on and give God come on and give God a have
Praise we’re going to sing while you make your heart up come to come to Jesus as you are today don’t you worry worry about your past he will save he will save your soul let him make you sing come to come to Jesus as you are today don’t you worry about your past
He will save your soul let him make you give Jesus give Jesus Christ your life today don’t at this moment sleep away give Jesus Christ you’re life today don’t let moment simp my brother and sister
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