STILL WE RISE

Ex 1:8-16 NLT - Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done. 9 He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. 10 We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. If we don’t, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country.” 11 So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king. 12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became. 13 So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. 14 They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands. 15 Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: 16 “When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver. If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.”

Matt 2:16 - NLT - Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance.

The title of our message today is, “Still We Rise”.

Today, on this last day of the month dubbed Black History Month, we must change our mindset to celebrate being Black 365 days of the year, 366 when there’s a leap year; there is so much going on around us. Things that threaten to disenfranchise us as a people, things that threaten the rights we’ve been guaranteed and policies introduced to limit the freedoms our ancestors fought for, not so long ago. Still, we rise.

In the United States of America, a country touted as being one of the most advanced in the world, we have reached over a 1/2 million deaths from the COVID-19 virus. Over 63.5 million doses of COVID vaccines have been delivered and still Blacks are disproportionately being affected. We are constantly disproportionately affected by what goes on around us.

• Blacks are arrested more often,

• convicted more often,

• receive longer sentences,

• pulled over by police more often.

Things such as

• jaywalking,

• falling asleep in a drive thru,

• changing lanes without signaling,

• walking down the street on a cold day with our hands in our pockets,

• waiting in the mall for our children to come out of the movies,

• playing with a toy gun in the park,

• and sleeping in our own beds,

come with arrests, harassment and even a death sentence for Black men and some women. Even the joy of childbirth for a Black woman comes with a higher risk of death.

The medical community’s conducting of experimental treatments and unequal care for Black people has created a lack of trust and fanned fears, that while some may think irrational, yet they’re very real and warranted about the COVID vaccine. The only way to overcome this fear, is to get as much information, from reputable sources and become as knowledgeable as possible about the vaccine. We must rise.

Black Americans are beginning to recognize their power, so it’s growing, as evidenced by the most recent GA elections. This scares some and intimidates others. So much so, rather than trying to get their own constituents out to vote, they attempt to create barriers through gerrymandering and voter suppression to impede us from getting to the polls. There are those attempting to put things in place to block everything that proved to work and benefit us casting our vote.

As our sons and daughters, aunts and uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews, mothers and fathers are systematically targeted, what we must recognize is, it’s not the first time a group of people have been singled out, out of fear. And unfortunately, it will not be the last as long as one group of people believe they are superior to another based solely on their race.

It doesn’t stop there, not only do they believe it, but they will also do whatever they can to gain, keep or exert their perceived power, privilege and advantage.

Our texts today talk about this very thing. Our first Old Testament Scripture highlights the fact, that when people forget the history of how they got to where they are, they will view those that helped them get there as a threat.

It begins by saying, “Eventually, a new king came to power in Egypt who knew nothing about Joseph or what he had done.” There were no history books to relay the story of Joseph and how he had saved the country from starvation during a famine that could’ve wiped them all out. There was no one to tell the king of Joseph’s integrity and wisdom in getting them through one of the worst times in their history.

The only thing worse than not having history recorded is having it recorded inaccurately, leaving things, people, and events out of the history books. Failing to properly record it without bias or slant. Lauding one group of people as the hero and another as the villain. Failing to report just the facts as they truly happened, to include the brutal, barbaric and inhumane treatment delivered and received by certain groups of people, all for the sake of power.

You see, what will always happen, had happened, a new king, a new leader had come into power. Leadership will always change, no one stays in power forever. Change is good for a company, for a city, for a nation. It’s good even for a church. It’s good because with new leadership comes new ideas, a fresh perspective and, change. While there are many who don’t like change, change is always happening.

• Day turns into night, then back to day,

• Spring turns to summer, which turns to fall, then winter and each has their purpose.

• Our bodies go through constant changes as we grow, mature and by the grace of God reach old age.

But, when a leader fails to know the history, they make decisions out of fear and this king in our text makes a decision, 9 He said to his people, “Look, the people of Israel now outnumber us and are stronger than we are. 10 We must make a plan to keep them from growing even more. If we don’t, and if war breaks out, they will join our enemies and fight against us. Then they will escape from the country.”

So let me bring this to today and right here to our own front yard, the Blacks have discovered when they vote they can change the country, so the GA legislature has said, we must make a plan to make it harder for them to register and vote, if we don’t, we will lose our power and they will take what’s ours. There are election officials, who boldly and loudly proclaim, “They don’t have to change all of them, [speaking about voting rules] but they’ve got to change the major parts of them so that we at least have a shot at winning” while others say their party will never win ‘another national election again’ if mail-in balloting persists.

“11 So the Egyptians made the Israelites their slaves. They appointed brutal slave drivers over them, hoping to wear them down with crushing labor. They forced them to build the cities of Pithom and Rameses as supply centers for the king.”

So now, 27 states have introduced laws to suppress our vote and here, our GA legislators:

• Want to ban automatic voter registration.

• Limit the use of drop boxes for returning absentee ballots.

• Do away with a state law that allows voters to cast absentee ballots without an excuse for doing so, limiting this right to those 75 and older.

• Limit voting hours to times when most people are working and completely stopping voting on Sundays, since they discovered we were encouraging our people to vote after church on Sundays with the “Souls to Polls” initiative.

• Decreasing the number of days for early voting and

• Requiring two forms of state ID

Let us not forget, this is a system those in charge set up to benefit themselves, but when we used the system they put in place, they want to cry foul and fraud and change the rules, even though there was not one, not two, but three recounts and no fraud found.

12 But the more the Egyptians oppressed them, the more the Israelites multiplied and spread, and the more alarmed the Egyptians became.

And what should our response be to the GA legislators? The more they attempt to suppress our vote, the more intentional we must be in getting out to vote; the more educated we must be about the proposed laws and when it’s obvious they are attempting to unfairly exclude, suppress, and invalidate us, we must be ready to push back. We must be ready to march. We must be ready to take them to court and fight for our rights, the rights our ancestors fought and died for us to have. Still, we rise.

Knowing and fighting for proposals such as HR 1 which among other things

• Promotes internet voter registration and updating

• Allows automatic voter registration

• Same day voter registration

• And putting steps in place so the state can’t so easily purge voters from the rolls and it can’t be done within six months of an election.

We must know what we’re fighting for and engage, knowing they will not stop trying to make things difficult for us. History says…

13 So the Egyptians worked the people of Israel without mercy. 14 They made their lives bitter, forcing them to mix mortar and make bricks and do all the work in the fields. They were ruthless in all their demands.

We’re finding more and more, those in power don’t want to give up that power. They forget they’re there at the will of the people to do what’s best for the people, all the people, whether they voted for them, or not, the people they have sworn to serve.

Some have forgotten they’re not there for their own benefit. And so they put things in place in an attempt to limit, control and repress the people they see as a, threat. Things that make it hard for them to exercise their right to vote, obstacles they believe will discourage them from getting to the polls.

You see they believe the more narrow the window for voting, the less likely we are to get there. This in turn will keep them in power, not because they’re doing such a great job, only because, in a word they cheated.

And when that didn’t work, “15 Then Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, gave this order to the Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah: 16 “When you help the Hebrew women as they give birth, watch as they deliver. If the baby is a boy, kill him; if it is a girl, let her live.”

So you see taking out the males of a race is not new. There’s another Scripture which says, “...no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his property without first tying up the strong man.” And so our Black men are taken out of the home and incarcerated at a rate of twice that of Hispanic men and five times that of White men.

Our Black men are arrested at a rate of five times that of White men. With our men taken out of the home, it leaves our Black boys without a strong male presence, making them more likely to not graduate high school, and to end up in prison, sometimes with their fathers and sadly, their grandfathers. Making them more susceptible to gang influence. Leaving Black women to become the head of the household doing what she can and what she must to provide for her children. The fear of our oppressors sets in motion a generational curse that only prayer, education and information can break. Still we rise.

But we can do it, because my Bible tells me, I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Our God is bigger and stronger and mightier than the fear of those who would try to be our oppressors and suppressors.

When we don’t learn from history we are doomed to repeat it, because once again fear of losing power causes a king to kill baby boys. Our New Testament text says, Matt 2:16 “Herod was furious when he realized that the wise men had outwitted him. He sent soldiers to kill all the boys in and around Bethlehem who were two years old and under, based on the wise men’s report of the star’s first appearance.”

When people are afraid of losing positions they perceive as being theirs, when they feel like they’re losing power, they will do whatever it takes, be it irrational, immoral or illegal to keep their position and power. They will say whatever they think will turn people against those they have deemed their opponents, they will find and use trigger words to incite emotions and riots and…insurrections.

Those who desire leadership positions, must do so with the knowledge they will not be there always. That their position, especially when it’s an elected one, is not meant to be a till death do you part position. They must understand and work that position with the goal of leaving things better than they were when they came into office. Not trying to stay in office to cover up their failures and shortcomings, digging a deeper hole for the next person. They must know the position they hold is a position of service, not a position of lordship.

It’s 2021 and we still find ourselves marching in the streets, peacefully protesting for the right to not be killed, harassed and unfairly treated by the people who have been hired and sworn to serve and protect us. We’re not asking for special treatment, we’re asking to be treated the same way in the inner city they would treat the people in the suburbs. We’re asking that the color of our skin not be automatically thought to be a weapon.

We’re asking that when we employ the rights and privileges given to us by law, those in power don’t yell FOUL, FRAUD and begin changing laws to attempt to put us back in the hole they have dug for us, that they don’t attempt to relegate us to the neighborhood they have set aside for us.

And when they try, still we rise, rise out of the muck and mire, to the heights God has called us to. We are the children of the King. I’m not talking about earthly kings I’m talking about the King of kings and the Lord of lords. You see Jesus came and died for us so that we could call God our Father, so He would call us sons and daughters and no one, I don’t care what law, policy, or bill you put in place, can change that. Still we rise.

Jesus came so we would bow only to God our Father. We bow to no man, no matter what his position, his color or how much power he thinks he has. And when we bow to our heavenly Father, it’s in reverence, it’s in gratefulness for all He’s done for us, it’s in appreciation for all He’s brought us through, it’s in humility that the God of the universe would consider us, would love us so much that he would sacrifice his only son for us.

Jesus gave his life

• for sinners

• for those who hated him

• for those who would reject him

• for those who would mock him

• for those who would despise him

• and for those who were yet to be

• he gave his life for you and for me

Jesus knew who we were, and he did it anyway, he gave his life anyway. As he proclaimed to the people about his death, he told them, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, I’ll draw all men unto me.” They put him to death, but he rose, he rose with all power in his hands, he rose with the keys to death, hell, and the grave. He rose up, then ascended back to the Father where he now sits, interceding on our behalf, praying for us, covering us and protecting us.

So we too must rise,

• rise out of the position our oppressors try to put us in and aspire to the heights God has set for us. We must remember God said, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

• We must rise out of the belief we can’t and know that we can do all things through Christ who gives us strength.

• We must rise out of the mindset that we are defeated and know that we are more than conquerors through Christ Jesus.

• We must rise out of the mindset that we don’t deserve anything and know that when we, delight ourselves in the Lord: he shall give us the desires of our hearts.

• We must rise out of the spirit of rejection that says we’re less than and know that we are chosen by God not only were we chosen, we were chosen before we were born.

• We rise because we are light

• We rise because we are overcomers

• We rise because we are free

• We rise because we are the salt of the earth

• We rise because we are consecrated

• We rise because we are sanctified, we’re set apart for His service

• We rise because we are victorious

• We rise because everything God says about us is true, we believe it and we walk in that truth.

RISE UP CHURCH, RISE UP!

RISE UP SAINTS, RISE UP!

RISE UP PEOPLE OF GOD, RISE UP!

To rise up in the power of Christ is to first acknowledge him as your Lord and Savior, if you’ve never accepted Jesus, if you’ve never asked him to come into your heart and be Lord of your life; today is a good day to pray,

Father God, I know I’m a sinner, please forgive me. I believe Jesus is Your Son and that he died for my sins. Jesus, I invite you now to come into my heart and be Lord of my life. Amen

If you prayed that prayer for the first time, congratulations and welcome to the family, now find a Bible preaching, Bible teaching church where you can learn more about the awesome choice you just made.

You are welcome to continue joining us online and as plans progress to begin in person worship, if you are in the Douglasville, GA area we invite to come join us.

You can see what we’re doing and how to connect with us via zoom, our service times and days and if you are so led, how to financially support this ministry by going to our website at www.lovechristianctr.org.

Please share this message and remember, despite everything that is happening around us or to us, Still We Rise.