Still I Rise

Introduction

I can look back and see myself growing up and maturing into manhood. As I grew certain habits and wrong ideas would fall away and they would be replaced by new and more mature habits and ideas. This is the principal of resurrection. The old ways God while the new and better ways come into play.

As you look back over your life, and learning your way through school you will see that this is true. And this principle does not stop when we graduate from high school or college. It does not stop when we get a Masters or even a doctoral degree. We are constantly learning. Learning is adding to what we know, and sometimes putting aside or letting go of what we thought we knew, for a new way of living. We are constantly dying to the old and rising up...To the new!

Isaiah 53 speaks of the servant of God who was despised, rejected wounded, and killed. In verse 10 it is implied that he shall live on. Maya Angelou speaks of African-Americans even while being rejected even while being despised, and killed by hatred, We still rise. In spite of systemic racism and all we've been through we can kill off old habits, old dysfunctions, and rise up anyway.

Still I Rise

You may write me down in history

With your bitter, twisted lies.

You may tread me in the very dirt.

But still, like dust, I'll rise.

This my sassiness upset you?

Why are you beset with gloom?

Because I walk like I've got oil wells

Pumping in my living room.

Just like moons and like suns,

With the certainty of tides,

Just like hopes springing high,

Still I'll rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

Shoulders falling down like teardrops.

Weakened by my soulful cries.

Does my haughtiness offend you?

Don't you take it awful hard

'Cause I laugh like I got gold mines

Digging in my own backyard

You may shoot me with your words

You may cut me with your eyes

you may kill me with your hatefulness,

But still like eternal life

I'll rise

Does my intelligence upset you?

Does it come as a surprise

That I look at you like I've got diamonds

shining through my eyes?

Out of the huts of slavery shame

I rise

Up from a past is rooted in pain

I rise

I'm a black ocean leaping in wide,

Welling and swelling I bear the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear

I rise

into her daybreak this wondrously clear

I rise.

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave.

I am the dream and hope of the slave

I rise

I rise

I rise

we all rise!

We must rise against the sin that so easily entices us. We must rise against the hatred and the unloving attitudes that need to be killed off in us. If you want to see a Christian who had this kind of attitude look at the apostle Paul. Paul would never say, Well I'm just doing the best I can!" "I just can't stop this sin! I'm so weak it has such a hold on it I know that I'll never be free from it." Paul didn't have that kind of attitude. He had the kind of attitude that said this sin in me, this bad behavior, this evil thinking in me has to go! It has to die!" So that I can walk in the resurrected life! So that I can rise and keep on rise. I want to kill off the old man and rise in the Spirit of Christ daily!

Paul says that is what the Christ life is. To lose ones’ old life, to be resurrected in the NEW LIFE. Paul give us the formula for this in Philippians 3:4-6 “Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more: Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.”

Philippians 3:7-11 (NKJV) 7  But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8  Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9  and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11  if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

Calculate Your Losses

Do a personal assessment of your life. Paul actually had the background as student and scholar of the Old Testament and the Prophets. If anyone had a reason to hope they could make it based on the birth and religious background it was Paul. But he counted all of these things as loss. In other words Paul says they are damaged goods. My education my round are nothing compared to the excellency of my resurrected life in Jesus. They are actually liabilities. Because all those things work against us to prevent us from trusting God who is the source outside of ourselves that give us the the better way. The mo betta way that is found in Jesus. Beloved just because your mama took you to church, does not buy you a ticket to heaven. That does not give you a pass into the Kingdom of God. Because you said some words that you didn't really mean about Jesus coming into your heart when you were a child, doesn't mean you've actively cultivated the rule and reign of God in your heart and mind. You've got to die daily to your sin and self, that you may say daily and still I rise.

Nothing can be as important in our lives as being in personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Whatever hinders us must go. It must be counted is garbage, it must be counted as dead. If you decide you are going to live a physically healthier life, there are some things you are not going to each anymore! There are some disciplines you are going to acquire. Working out regularly. Laying aside certain things that are not good to go in your body. Thats dying Y'all! Picking up, or doing certain things that are good for your body. That's rising up. And Still I rise! So calculate your losses next...

Consecrate Your Life

Jesus lived a consecrated life. He lived a life that was set, focused, pointed, towards being "obedient to the will of God.This is the kingdom life. When Paul came to Jesus he counted all his assets as losses and this he continued to do day by day! This is speaking of a mindset that says, Jesus Christ is first in my life and I will allow nothing to come between me and him. Don't be distracted by things.