June 22, 2025 • 40 mins
https://www.youtube.com/hashtag/messianicworship
Premiered Feb 1, 2025 #messianicworship #praiseandworship #worshipsong
🎵Listen to this song on:
Premiered Feb 1, 2025 #messianicworship #praiseandworship #worshipsong
🎵Listen to this song on: Support the show
THE DRIP LINE
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Dina LaFargue Augusti (00:00):
Greetings and welcome to another episode
of the Drip Line, where love andhealing will flow into your
soul.
Tune in and take a listen.
Come along this journey,allowing love and truth to
permeate your entire being.
Hopefully, the message sharedtoday will touch your heart,
(00:24):
bringing you closer to yourhealing, empowering you for your
daily life and helping you movethrough the process
successfully.
Today's message focuses on thefractured mind and the broken
spirit.
Over the weekend I watched TylerPerry's movie Straw and it was
(00:48):
quite mind-blowing, painful andsad.
It's a poignant film about asingle mother trying to navigate
the tragic dilemma of her life.
She had dreams for herself,dreams that remained unfulfilled
.
She wanted to become a nurse,yet she was a clerk or a cashier
(01:13):
in a grocery store.
Her living expenses were beyondher income.
She could barely meet herexpenses, in part due to her
daughter, who was very ill andwho was the love of her life.
(01:33):
It was not that she lived aboveher means.
She just couldn't afford tomeet the basic necessities of
life and her living conditionswere below standard.
(01:53):
I would say that some of thepeople in her life were very ill
themselves.
Her landlord I would quote as aslumlord who was rude and
condescending.
She had a boss that wielded hisauthority with cruelty,
(02:16):
arrogance and abusiveness.
She had to operate underpolicies and rules that existed
to protect and keep order butdid not serve her when needed.
She experienced abuse at thehand of law enforcement that
executed authority out of racism, anger and chauvinism.
(02:37):
And she experienced a communityof people that were, overall,
quick to judge, quick to condemn, who refused to see or hear her
.
And yes, there's more, but Idon't have enough time in this
podcast to really go deep, andmy point is not to really
(02:58):
analyze the movie or do a deepcharacter analysis of the movie,
but just to point out what canhappen when we are too weak to
pull ourselves up and too angryto the point where we bring
(03:19):
other people down.
What I saw in the majority ofthe characters was anger, and on
that day, Taraji, better knownin here as a character Janiyah,
was that she suffered at thehands of other people.
Her brokenness was in part dueto the anger that she
experienced, the brokenness inher own family and the
(03:56):
brokenness in her community.
I'm going to start by definingwhat the ego is.
Our egos, spelled E-G-O.
Our egos are components or partof our personality that help us
stay grounded, that helps usmake wise decisions, that helps
(04:20):
us manage our emotions.
And I'm mentioning this becausewe will observe the
personalities and the behaviorin the characters in this movie
and it's important to understandhow these characters, or what
(04:44):
these characters are operatingon, what moves them, what's
driving their behavior.
Now, the definition that I gaveyou is from the Cleveland
Clinic and it goes on to saywhen the ego is imbalanced, when
the ego is in balance you willfeel confident and in control.
(05:04):
But if you're imbalanced oryou're feeling off, you may
become overly critical, overlyreactive and you probably need
support.
You see, the ego is what helpsa person make these practical
and rational decisions in life.
It's the middle ground betweenwhat psychologists will call our
(05:29):
id that helps balance ourinstincts and desires.
That's what Id is, and with ourmorals and consciousness, is
where our super ego lies.
So in this movie, I think, withjust that basic understanding,
we can see where most of thesecharacters are imbalanced.
(05:52):
Anger was the emotion of the day.
Everyone had to be heard,everybody had to feel important,
everybody had to feed their ego.
Well, I would say the majorityof the characters.
The EGO says I have to be right, I must have value.
(06:13):
And in order to have value, Ihave to show myself approved, no
matter how it comes out, I haveto have it my way, no matter
what's going on.
We saw in the male charactersthe need to be right.
First, it was a male detectivewho was unwilling to listen to
(06:37):
his female partner.
We saw the white male policeofficer who exhibited excessive
rage, which was exhibited inroad rage, which should never,
never be exhibited in a lawenforcement officer.
He abused his position, heabused his power.
We saw how he communicated withthe female officer, how he
(07:05):
dealt with Janiyah the character.
Obviously, it wasn't her faultthat the accident took place.
We saw the anger and theimbalance in her boss at the
grocery store, who was arrogant,abusive and very judgmental,
very unyielding and verycritical.
(07:27):
We saw it in the FBI directorwho made premature demands when
he came onto the scene about howto handle the situation,
without even listening to theofficers that had already been
in position and on scene andmanaging the situation for 12
hours.
We saw it in the teller at thebank that kept mouthing off.
(07:56):
Albeit she was afraid, butlacked self-control and wisdom
to keep her emotions in checkand her thoughts in check; that
could have caused a lot ofdanger to everyone else that was
there.
Even the army vets seemedself-righteous.
I guess he felt that because hehad served in the military for
all the other black people thatneeded his heroism, that
(08:21):
everyone now should know how toact and know how to comport
themselves.
Nope, he didn't risk his lifefor someone like her.
No, he didn't risk his life forsomeone to rob a bank and to
embarrass him and be a badexample for his people.
He was utterly disgusted andhad no clue what she was going
(08:46):
through.
And I'm not justifying heractions at all, but I'm just
pointing out how we can be veryjudgmental because we've made
it; that we can be veryjudgmental because we think we
have more and that we got thereall by ourselves.
We never get anywhere byourselves.
So don't be the straw thatbreaks someone else's back and
(09:10):
by all means don't let your backbe broken by a straw that
somebody throws on your back,Hear me.
So, the focus of my message isthat sometimes we lose things
that are so dear to us that wedon't know how to cope when we
lose them.
(09:30):
Sometimes we can lose apartner, a parent, a sibling, a
friend, a dream job, a home, aspouse, finances.
Something that was near anddear is gone and we just don't
(09:55):
know how to move forward.
We grieve and grieve until thatgrief consumes us.
Or it's so shocking and sosudden that there's no way we
can live in that reality.
Because whatever it was wassuch delight to our souls and
(10:22):
brought such joy to our heartsthat without it we don't know
who we are and we don't have thedesire or means to move forward
.
The meaning of it all can be sodeep that when it's gone we
just don't know how to getaround it, that we just refuse.
Our grief consumes us to thepoint where we feel nothing is
left.
I can't face my new reality.
(10:44):
I refuse to accept my newreality.
I'm not going to deal with thisnew situation or these new
circumstances.
Your mind snaps.
You have a psychotic momentwhere another reality sets in,
(11:10):
the reality that will allow youto live somewhere else in your
mind.
We've got to learn how to copewhen we lose things that are so
dear to us.
We can't allow ourselves to godown that rabbit hole to no
return.
We can't slip into darknesswhere there's no light at the
end of the tunnel.
(11:31):
So what do you say to the personthat doesn't recognize who they
are anymore?
What we should do is say was Ipart of the problem?
Was I not kindly?
Was I not understanding?
Did I not empathize?
Could I have helped when Ididn't?
There's a saying that I'm notmy brother's keeper, but we are
(11:57):
here to care for one another.
We have to be cognizant of oneanother.
We should be willing to behelpful when we can be helpful,
because we're not our own.
We have to do some soulsearching.
We have to understand where doour motivations really lie in
(12:18):
this lifetime.
How do I respond to situations?
What's so important to me thatwould break me?
Am I so weak that I would break?
Am I so angry that I will lashout at anybody because I don't
have what I believe I shouldhave?
Am I so angry at other peoplebecause I haven't made it but
(12:39):
they have, and you think thatthere's really something wrong
with them or with you, thatthey're better than you or that
you should be better than them?
Do you make it known thatyou're so mad at the world
because you see the reflectionof yourself and you don't like
what you see in the mirror andthen you want to be someone else
(13:01):
?
We have to really do some soulsearching.
We don't want to be the personthat abuses our position.
We don't want to be that personthat becomes judgmental because
you've had a few successes.
You don't want to be judgmentalbecause you can't understand
(13:21):
their situation and how they gotthere and think, well, there's
no way they should be there.
We've got to stop judging andmeasuring by where we are.
We have to be mindful andcareful with our fellow brothers
(13:44):
and sisters.
We cannot live through lifebeing insensitive because we're
so busy caring for ourselves.
Yeah, I'll say I'm guilty.
Sometimes we do carry so muchthat we don't have time to care
about anybody else.
(14:04):
But we have to check ourselves.
We can't live out of control.
We can't allow our emotions tospill over into everyone else's
lives.
We have to override our angerand our fears.
(14:25):
Despite the rules andregulations and the things that
happen, we have to maintain asense of self.
We have to maintain a sense ofempathy and sympathy and
generosity and not let life ruleus.
And not let life rule us Wecan't allow the appearances of
(14:56):
the facades that we're supposedto hold up, to rule us or to
become us, that cause us todevelop attitudes that are
excessive and extreme andself-righteous.
Remember, Jesus stepped downfrom His throne, being God
Himself, being the Word of God.
(15:17):
He stepped down and becameflesh.
He became human.
He thought it nothing to becomehuman so he could experience
our lives, so he couldexperience life, so he could
experience the evils of thisworld as a mere human.
Yes, he created everything, buthe came to live in this world
(15:41):
and to set an example, to showus how to be compassionate, how
to be loving, how to be able toempathize and give of self and
share a heart of love withothers.
He was abused, he became angry,but he didn't act with
(16:10):
self-righteousness and arrogance.
He was humble.
He tells us He is humble inspirit and he was gentle.
He never said that he wasbetter than anybody.
He was never critical andcondescending.
He lived by example.
He was tender and he gave ofhimself.
(16:33):
He poured out love and he spenthis time in prayer, remembering
what he was a part of,remembering his father in heaven
, remembering his identity,knowing that he had access to
the God of all creation.
He knew the world was not fairand that's why he came in it.
(16:59):
He knew we became as filthyrags.
He knows the brutality of theenemy of our soul, but God is
just, God is loving and God isfaithful.
(17:21):
What I do like about this movieis that the humanity of God was
displayed in those people in thecrowd that came out to support
Janiyah or Taraji in her tragedy, and I'm sure many of those
people had suffered a lot, maybeas much as her.
(17:41):
There were probably many peoplethat were angry and fearful
like her, but they came out inunity to display their love for
her and their hope for her andtheir support for her.
And that's what we shouldalways do.
We should always have a heartof compassion.
We should never be too busy, ortoo egotistical, or too high
(18:07):
and mighty to reach someonewhere they're at, to lift
someone up where they're boweddown.
They cheered her on and gaveher hope.
No, the world is not fair, lifeis not fair, but God is just
and faithful.
(18:27):
See, those people wanted Tarajior Janiyah to win, and God
wants us to win.
He says we are victorious inhim and there is a crowd in
heaven cheering for us everytime we overcome.
(18:49):
There is a crowd cheering forus to live and to overcome and
to remember that we arevictorious through Christ Jesus.
Sometimes, many times, we don'tpull together and we don't
(19:10):
encourage because we're rushed.
We're living fast and hard.
We're trying to beat life.
W e're not operating in faith,we're not operating with the
(19:32):
hope that comes from God, we'removing in our own strength.
But God says be still and knowthat I am.
That's Psalm 46.
Be still and know that I am God.
There's no need to run to andfro and here and there.
I hear people say," but I don'thave time, I don't have time, I
don't have time.
Enough! You have to make timefor what is life-saving.
(19:55):
You have to spend the time atwhat is priceless and most
valuable.
The most valuable and pricelessthing that you could ever do is
to pray and to offer sincereand effective prayer for your
fellow man and for yourself.
You pull on the strength of theLord, God Almighty, your Father
(20:16):
in heaven, to make it throughthis world
.
.
There's so many times we'repushing and pulling and fretting
and fighting and doing thingsin our own might, and it's
fruitless and fighting and doingthings in our own might and
it's fruitless and it wasn'tmeant to be.
We can't fight, we can't winspiritual battles in a world
that is fraught with spiritualevil, with spiritual forces that
(20:43):
are feeding us day in and dayout.
No, god is to be our shield andour rear guard.
He says he is our ever-presenthelp in the time of trouble.
So here it is, Taraji, or Ishould say Janiyah, feeling she
had nothing left.
The battles of life beat her.
(21:09):
Her heart was so broken - itjust broke her and the daughter
that, and I'm giving away themovie, but her daughter, who was
most precious to her, who wasthe light of her life - that
loss destroyed her.
(21:29):
She felt there was nothing leftof value, it was too much for
her to bear and she had apsychotic episode.
She lost touch with reality andI'm sure a lot of us have met
people like that from time totime On the job and on the
(21:53):
street.
We know that there's justsomething off and it's those
people who broke who might havehad nervous breakdowns because
what they were suffering throughwas too much for them to bear,
and they lost contact With whothey were and lost contact with
(22:17):
their reality.
Their circumstances were toomuch for their consciousness to
to handle, to carry.
So they buried it and accepteda new reality and became
delusional, with psychoticepisodes that can lead to one
(22:40):
mental illness or another.
In the Bible, in Timothy,chapter 1, verse 7, it says the
Lord did not create us with aspirit of fear, but with power,
love and of a sound mind.
(23:02):
Again,.
(23:49):
.
.
he created us not with a spiritof fear, but of power, love and
a sound mind.
We are equipped.
We are made in God's image.
Thus we are equipped with hispower power to overcome, power
to exert authority, power torule over our lives.
His is the power we have.
His is the power that dwellswithin us when we accept Jesus
Christ as Lord.
We have the power to make itday to day, moment by moment,
second by second.
In Ephesians, chapter 3, verse20, it says now to him who is
able to do far more abundantlythan all we could ask or think,
according to the power at workwithin us.
Hear me, according to the powerat work within us.
There is power within to drawupon the power of God upon.
Peter, verse 1, chapter 1.
I'm sorry, verse 3.
It says His divine power hasgranted to us all things that
(24:16):
pertain to life and godliness.
Okay, he called us to his ownglory and excellence .
It means we have no lack.
It means we have the necessarypower to do all things that
pertain to life and by knowinghim, by knowing him, by
contemplating his godliness, weare able to go forward.
(24:38):
We are able to move forward, wecan move on.
It is the power of God at workin us.
It is our ability to accessthat power that will allow us to
trample upon the things of lifethat seek to destroy us.
We have the power to trample onthe things that want to
(25:02):
overcome us, that want toswallow us up.
You see, God says that we arealways victorious in Christ
Jesus, that when we are weak Heis strong.
We need not break.
I'm not judging anybody who hasgone there.
Not at all.
I've had my moments, mygoodness, my goodness.
(25:25):
We all stumble, we all fall,but it is in his word that we
overcome.
His is the medication that weneed for our various emotional
and mental circumstances to pullus through.
I'm not saying don't takemedication, but I'm saying the
(25:51):
word of God, praying to God,knowing God, accepting Jesus
Christ as Lord, is the power andthe medicine, because he is our
great physician.
I'm saying with God all thingsare possible, because God says,
in all things he is able to do,exceedingly and abundantly, that
nothing is impossible in him.
Read Jeremiah, chapter 17.
Read Jeremiah chapter 17,starting with verse 5.
(26:14):
It reads like this, the Lordsays cursed is the one who
trusts in men who draw strengthfrom mere flesh and whose heart
turns away from the Lord.
That person will be like a bushin the wasteland.
They will not see prosperitywhen it comes.
(26:34):
They will dwell in places ofthe desert, in parched places,
in a salt land where no onelives.
Let me stop there and do aquick analysis.
You see who was parched there,who did not know God there, who
(27:01):
was not pulling on the strengthof God?
I think you would be able toknow by seeing the demeanor of
(27:47):
the people, of the characters inthe movie.
So I urge you to watch themovie.
It may hurt a little bit.
It may make you angry, but Ithink its necessary, because too
many times we rely on man tosave us.
I think you would be able totell the bank manager had a
heart of God.
The female detective probablyhad a heart of God.
And a few others.
The old woman with diabetes inthe bank had a heart.
Compassion comes from God,loves comes from God because God
says he is love.
If we have no love for ourfellow man, we've rejected God.
Think about it.
I'm not going to tell you howthe movie ends.
I want you to watch it and payattention to the emotions that
(28:18):
you have and who provokes whatin you.
And we all make mistakes, weall have our moments and we all
have our weaknesses.
We've all taken things out onpeople from time to time and
many times we don't even hearthe other person who's talking
to us, who's crying out to us,who's sharing their heart with
us.
Many times we don't see them,we make them invisible because
we're too wrapped up inourselves because of our own
(28:39):
problems and we don't reach out.
We don't help.
God says what we don't do forour brothers, we're not doing
for him.
We can't depend on man.
We're supposed to depend on theLord.
We're supposed to depend on GodIn Jeremiah 17,.
(29:01):
It goes on to say in verse 6,again, that the person will be
like a bush in the waste land .
They will not see prosperitywhen it comes.
They will dwell in parchedplaces of the desert and the
salt land where no one can live.
So every angry person thatlives in their anger is living
(29:24):
in a parched land.
Everyone that is living outsideof Christ will not see
prosperity.
You will not prosper as a childof God.
You will not prosper as a human.
You may think you are, but youare not.
Your soul is depraved.
It's truth.
Now it goes on to say in verse 7, but blessed is the one who
(30:00):
trusts in the Lord whoseconfidence is in Him.
For they will be like a treeplanted by the waters, its
leaves are always green, it hasno worries in the year of
drought and never fails to bearfruit.
See, I heard one prophet sayyou have to know the Lord, God,
enough to be able to draw on hispresence and his power, His
(30:26):
love and His abundance in thetime of your own drought.
In the time of your mostdesperate need you have to be
able to draw on the tree of life, Jesus Christ, like the tree
(30:47):
whose roots are planted by thestream, whose roots run deep,
and it can pull that water upand be nurtured and nourished
and satisfied.
We have to be able to pull uponthe power, the love and the
truth of God so that in thesehard places we can thrive, we
can be like the tree whoseleaves will always be green.
We need to be the humans thatcan draw on the word of God, the
(31:09):
presence of God, so that oursouls are fed, that our spirit
men grow, that we can live inpower and with a sound mind in
God's love.
We need the word of God, thepower of God, the truth of God
and the love of God to live andprosper, to overcome.
We should not look or sounddepraved.
(31:34):
We shall operate in the powerof God, not with broken minds.
Yes, we can grieve and we canhurt, but there is a time when
we have to move forward, when wecan look back and say that was
then, but I have a future,because God says I've given you
(31:59):
hope and a future.
So we must be able to rise upagain and climb our way up out
of that dark hole that we'vefallen into, or come out of the
land of no return.
We need to be able to swimthrough the muddy waters and not
(32:19):
drown.
It's vital and it's essential.
You see, our hearts can be sodeceitful.
Above all, things we think wecan do on our own, devise on our
own, make our own way, but whenwe do that, we're outside of
God and he will not be theshelter in the storm, because we
(32:44):
created our own storms.
The universe does not have theanswer.
The universe is a place and alocation with living beings in
it.
The universe is not God, butGod created the universe.
Let's get it clear and stopfollowing the world but follow
(33:10):
the mind of Christ.
We have to check our emotionsand not let our own thoughts and
egos fool us and lead us in thewrong direction.
The Lord should be our hope.
We should cry out to him InJeremiah 17, verse 14,.
(33:32):
It says Heal me, o Lord, and Iwill be healed.
Save me and I will be saved,for you are the one I praise.
Lord.
God, I will not flee from you.
Do not flee from the Lord.
He will not run from you.
He will not turn away from youunless you turn from him.
(33:54):
But he was always there waitingfor you.
His word says I will neverleave you nor forsake you.
His love is from everlasting toeverlasting.
And if you have ever loved, youcan only love because he loved
you first.
He is the originator of loveand it never wanes.
His love and power are alwaysthere to draw on.
(34:17):
Draw on his love.
Let your roots run deep intohis truth that when the wind
blows, you will still stand likea palm tree, just waving back
and forth, but not breaking,because you're built for the
storm.
You can lose things, but not beripped apart.
(34:40):
Yes, things will rip at yourheartstrings and you will feel
broken, but you will not bebroken because you are relying
on the strength of God to healyou.
Sometimes we think we cannotmake it for another moment and
yes, it does feel like that.
We feel like the weight of theworld is on our shoulders,
(35:01):
crushing us.
But God says I will lift you up.
When you are bowed down, I willuphold you with the right hand
of my righteousness.
I will cause you to soar againabove the storms.
God is faithful and the moreyou rely on him, the more
faithful he is.
The more you depend on him, themore dependable he is.
The more you look for hisstrength, the stronger he is you
(35:26):
.
You can't go wrong with theLord.
He will hold you, he will bearyou up.
Yes, weary days come, yes, weget tired.
But read Isaiah, chapter 40.
Lord, God, ask us, do you notknow who I am?
(35:47):
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you fromthe beginning?
Have you not understood sincethe earth was founded?
He is the one who sitsenthroned above the circle of
the earth.
He is the one that can lookdown upon people like
grasshoppers.
He is the one who stretched outthe heavens like a canopy and
spread them out like a tent.
(36:08):
In verse 25 it says to whomwill you compare me?
He says who is my equal?
Says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes and look tothe heavens.
Who created all of these things?
Who brings out the starry hostsand who named them one by one?
(36:29):
He's called each starry host byname because of his great power
and mighty strength not one ofthem is missing.
And it goes on to say why do youcomplain, Jacob?
Why do you complain?
Why do you say Israel, my wayis hidden from the Lord?
Do you not know?
(36:53):
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the God everlasting,the creator of the ends of the
earth and he will not grow tiredor weary.
And His understanding no onecan fanthom.
He gives strength to the wearyand increases the power of the
weak.
Even young men grow tired andweary and stumble and fall.
(37:17):
But those who hope on the Lordwill renew their strength.
Again, Those who hope in theLord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings likeeagles.
They will run and not growweary.
They will walk and not be faint.
And I will leave it right here.
(37:39):
Get to know your Lord.
Get to know who your God is.
He is your creator and yourmaker.
And if you know him already,know him some more.
Do not doubt.
Do not doubt who he is and whathe can do.
(37:59):
Believe in him, because it saysit takes faith to please him.
Amen.
Never broken.
Never broken, but always wholein Christ Jesus.
Never broken, but always healedin Christ Jesus.
(38:21):
His is the peace beyond allunderstanding.
Triumph.
Until next time.
Be blessed, be at peace and bein love.
(38:41):
Truth drips.
Greetings and welcome to another episode
of the Drip Line, where love andhealing will flow into your
soul.
Tune in and take a listen.
Come along this journey,allowing love and truth to
permeate your entire being.
Hopefully, the message sharedtoday will touch your heart,
(00:24):
bringing you closer to yourhealing, empowering you for your
daily life and helping you movethrough the process
successfully.
Today's message focuses on thefractured mind and the broken
spirit.
Over the weekend I watched TylerPerry's movie Straw and it was
(00:48):
quite mind-blowing, painful andsad.
It's a poignant film about asingle mother trying to navigate
the tragic dilemma of her life.
She had dreams for herself,dreams that remained unfulfilled
.
She wanted to become a nurse,yet she was a clerk or a cashier
(01:13):
in a grocery store.
Her living expenses were beyondher income.
She could barely meet herexpenses, in part due to her
daughter, who was very ill andwho was the love of her life.
(01:33):
It was not that she lived aboveher means.
She just couldn't afford tomeet the basic necessities of
life and her living conditionswere below standard.
(01:53):
I would say that some of thepeople in her life were very ill
themselves.
Her landlord I would quote as aslumlord who was rude and
condescending.
She had a boss that wielded hisauthority with cruelty,
(02:16):
arrogance and abusiveness.
She had to operate underpolicies and rules that existed
to protect and keep order butdid not serve her when needed.
She experienced abuse at thehand of law enforcement that
executed authority out of racism, anger and chauvinism.
(02:37):
And she experienced a communityof people that were, overall,
quick to judge, quick to condemn, who refused to see or hear her
.
And yes, there's more, but Idon't have enough time in this
podcast to really go deep, andmy point is not to really
(02:58):
analyze the movie or do a deepcharacter analysis of the movie,
but just to point out what canhappen when we are too weak to
pull ourselves up and too angryto the point where we bring
(03:19):
other people down.
What I saw in the majority ofthe characters was anger, and on
that day, Taraji, better knownin here as a character Janiyah,
was that she suffered at thehands of other people.
Her brokenness was in part dueto the anger that she
experienced, the brokenness inher own family and the
(03:56):
brokenness in her community.
I'm going to start by definingwhat the ego is.
Our egos, spelled E-G-O.
Our egos are components or partof our personality that help us
stay grounded, that helps usmake wise decisions, that helps
(04:20):
us manage our emotions.
And I'm mentioning this becausewe will observe the
personalities and the behaviorin the characters in this movie
and it's important to understandhow these characters, or what
(04:44):
these characters are operatingon, what moves them, what's
driving their behavior.
Now, the definition that I gaveyou is from the Cleveland
Clinic and it goes on to saywhen the ego is imbalanced, when
the ego is in balance you willfeel confident and in control.
(05:04):
But if you're imbalanced oryou're feeling off, you may
become overly critical, overlyreactive and you probably need
support.
You see, the ego is what helpsa person make these practical
and rational decisions in life.
It's the middle ground betweenwhat psychologists will call our
(05:29):
id that helps balance ourinstincts and desires.
That's what Id is, and with ourmorals and consciousness, is
where our super ego lies.
So in this movie, I think, withjust that basic understanding,
we can see where most of thesecharacters are imbalanced.
(05:52):
Anger was the emotion of the day.
Everyone had to be heard,everybody had to feel important,
everybody had to feed their ego.
Well, I would say the majorityof the characters.
The EGO says I have to be right, I must have value.
(06:13):
And in order to have value, Ihave to show myself approved, no
matter how it comes out, I haveto have it my way, no matter
what's going on.
We saw in the male charactersthe need to be right.
First, it was a male detectivewho was unwilling to listen to
(06:37):
his female partner.
We saw the white male policeofficer who exhibited excessive
rage, which was exhibited inroad rage, which should never,
never be exhibited in a lawenforcement officer.
He abused his position, heabused his power.
We saw how he communicated withthe female officer, how he
(07:05):
dealt with Janiyah the character.
Obviously, it wasn't her faultthat the accident took place.
We saw the anger and theimbalance in her boss at the
grocery store, who was arrogant,abusive and very judgmental,
very unyielding and verycritical.
(07:27):
We saw it in the FBI directorwho made premature demands when
he came onto the scene about howto handle the situation,
without even listening to theofficers that had already been
in position and on scene andmanaging the situation for 12
hours.
We saw it in the teller at thebank that kept mouthing off.
(07:56):
Albeit she was afraid, butlacked self-control and wisdom
to keep her emotions in checkand her thoughts in check; that
could have caused a lot ofdanger to everyone else that was
there.
Even the army vets seemedself-righteous.
I guess he felt that because hehad served in the military for
all the other black people thatneeded his heroism, that
(08:21):
everyone now should know how toact and know how to comport
themselves.
Nope, he didn't risk his lifefor someone like her.
No, he didn't risk his life forsomeone to rob a bank and to
embarrass him and be a badexample for his people.
He was utterly disgusted andhad no clue what she was going
(08:46):
through.
And I'm not justifying heractions at all, but I'm just
pointing out how we can be veryjudgmental because we've made
it; that we can be veryjudgmental because we think we
have more and that we got thereall by ourselves.
We never get anywhere byourselves.
So don't be the straw thatbreaks someone else's back and
(09:10):
by all means don't let your backbe broken by a straw that
somebody throws on your back,Hear me.
So, the focus of my message isthat sometimes we lose things
that are so dear to us that wedon't know how to cope when we
lose them.
(09:30):
Sometimes we can lose apartner, a parent, a sibling, a
friend, a dream job, a home, aspouse, finances.
Something that was near anddear is gone and we just don't
(09:55):
know how to move forward.
We grieve and grieve until thatgrief consumes us.
Or it's so shocking and sosudden that there's no way we
can live in that reality.
Because whatever it was wassuch delight to our souls and
(10:22):
brought such joy to our heartsthat without it we don't know
who we are and we don't have thedesire or means to move forward
.
The meaning of it all can be sodeep that when it's gone we
just don't know how to getaround it, that we just refuse.
Our grief consumes us to thepoint where we feel nothing is
left.
I can't face my new reality.
(10:44):
I refuse to accept my newreality.
I'm not going to deal with thisnew situation or these new
circumstances.
Your mind snaps.
You have a psychotic momentwhere another reality sets in,
(11:10):
the reality that will allow youto live somewhere else in your
mind.
We've got to learn how to copewhen we lose things that are so
dear to us.
We can't allow ourselves to godown that rabbit hole to no
return.
We can't slip into darknesswhere there's no light at the
end of the tunnel.
(11:31):
So what do you say to the personthat doesn't recognize who they
are anymore?
What we should do is say was Ipart of the problem?
Was I not kindly?
Was I not understanding?
Did I not empathize?
Could I have helped when Ididn't?
There's a saying that I'm notmy brother's keeper, but we are
(11:57):
here to care for one another.
We have to be cognizant of oneanother.
We should be willing to behelpful when we can be helpful,
because we're not our own.
We have to do some soulsearching.
We have to understand where doour motivations really lie in
(12:18):
this lifetime.
How do I respond to situations?
What's so important to me thatwould break me?
Am I so weak that I would break?
Am I so angry that I will lashout at anybody because I don't
have what I believe I shouldhave?
Am I so angry at other peoplebecause I haven't made it but
(12:39):
they have, and you think thatthere's really something wrong
with them or with you, thatthey're better than you or that
you should be better than them?
Do you make it known thatyou're so mad at the world
because you see the reflectionof yourself and you don't like
what you see in the mirror andthen you want to be someone else
(13:01):
?
We have to really do some soulsearching.
We don't want to be the personthat abuses our position.
We don't want to be that personthat becomes judgmental because
you've had a few successes.
You don't want to be judgmentalbecause you can't understand
(13:21):
their situation and how they gotthere and think, well, there's
no way they should be there.
We've got to stop judging andmeasuring by where we are.
We have to be mindful andcareful with our fellow brothers
(13:44):
and sisters.
We cannot live through lifebeing insensitive because we're
so busy caring for ourselves.
Yeah, I'll say I'm guilty.
Sometimes we do carry so muchthat we don't have time to care
about anybody else.
(14:04):
But we have to check ourselves.
We can't live out of control.
We can't allow our emotions tospill over into everyone else's
lives.
We have to override our angerand our fears.
(14:25):
Despite the rules andregulations and the things that
happen, we have to maintain asense of self.
We have to maintain a sense ofempathy and sympathy and
generosity and not let life ruleus.
And not let life rule us Wecan't allow the appearances of
(14:56):
the facades that we're supposedto hold up, to rule us or to
become us, that cause us todevelop attitudes that are
excessive and extreme andself-righteous.
Remember, Jesus stepped downfrom His throne, being God
Himself, being the Word of God.
(15:17):
He stepped down and becameflesh.
He became human.
He thought it nothing to becomehuman so he could experience
our lives, so he couldexperience life, so he could
experience the evils of thisworld as a mere human.
Yes, he created everything, buthe came to live in this world
(15:41):
and to set an example, to showus how to be compassionate, how
to be loving, how to be able toempathize and give of self and
share a heart of love withothers.
He was abused, he became angry,but he didn't act with
(16:10):
self-righteousness and arrogance.
He was humble.
He tells us He is humble inspirit and he was gentle.
He never said that he wasbetter than anybody.
He was never critical andcondescending.
He lived by example.
He was tender and he gave ofhimself.
(16:33):
He poured out love and he spenthis time in prayer, remembering
what he was a part of,remembering his father in heaven
, remembering his identity,knowing that he had access to
the God of all creation.
He knew the world was not fairand that's why he came in it.
(16:59):
He knew we became as filthyrags.
He knows the brutality of theenemy of our soul, but God is
just, God is loving and God isfaithful.
(17:21):
What I do like about this movieis that the humanity of God was
displayed in those people in thecrowd that came out to support
Janiyah or Taraji in her tragedy, and I'm sure many of those
people had suffered a lot, maybeas much as her.
(17:41):
There were probably many peoplethat were angry and fearful
like her, but they came out inunity to display their love for
her and their hope for her andtheir support for her.
And that's what we shouldalways do.
We should always have a heartof compassion.
We should never be too busy, ortoo egotistical, or too high
(18:07):
and mighty to reach someonewhere they're at, to lift
someone up where they're boweddown.
They cheered her on and gaveher hope.
No, the world is not fair, lifeis not fair, but God is just
and faithful.
(18:27):
See, those people wanted Tarajior Janiyah to win, and God
wants us to win.
He says we are victorious inhim and there is a crowd in
heaven cheering for us everytime we overcome.
(18:49):
There is a crowd cheering forus to live and to overcome and
to remember that we arevictorious through Christ Jesus.
Sometimes, many times, we don'tpull together and we don't
(19:10):
encourage because we're rushed.
We're living fast and hard.
We're trying to beat life.
W e're not operating in faith,we're not operating with the
(19:32):
hope that comes from God, we'removing in our own strength.
But God says be still and knowthat I am.
That's Psalm 46.
Be still and know that I am God.
There's no need to run to andfro and here and there.
I hear people say," but I don'thave time, I don't have time, I
don't have time.
Enough! You have to make timefor what is life-saving.
(19:55):
You have to spend the time atwhat is priceless and most
valuable.
The most valuable and pricelessthing that you could ever do is
to pray and to offer sincereand effective prayer for your
fellow man and for yourself.
You pull on the strength of theLord, God Almighty, your Father
(20:16):
in heaven, to make it throughthis world
.
.
There's so many times we'repushing and pulling and fretting
and fighting and doing thingsin our own might, and it's
fruitless and fighting and doingthings in our own might and
it's fruitless and it wasn'tmeant to be.
We can't fight, we can't winspiritual battles in a world
that is fraught with spiritualevil, with spiritual forces that
(20:43):
are feeding us day in and dayout.
No, god is to be our shield andour rear guard.
He says he is our ever-presenthelp in the time of trouble.
So here it is, Taraji, or Ishould say Janiyah, feeling she
had nothing left.
The battles of life beat her.
(21:09):
Her heart was so broken - itjust broke her and the daughter
that, and I'm giving away themovie, but her daughter, who was
most precious to her, who wasthe light of her life - that
loss destroyed her.
(21:29):
She felt there was nothing leftof value, it was too much for
her to bear and she had apsychotic episode.
She lost touch with reality andI'm sure a lot of us have met
people like that from time totime On the job and on the
(21:53):
street.
We know that there's justsomething off and it's those
people who broke who might havehad nervous breakdowns because
what they were suffering throughwas too much for them to bear,
and they lost contact With whothey were and lost contact with
(22:17):
their reality.
Their circumstances were toomuch for their consciousness to
to handle, to carry.
So they buried it and accepteda new reality and became
delusional, with psychoticepisodes that can lead to one
(22:40):
mental illness or another.
In the Bible, in Timothy,chapter 1, verse 7, it says the
Lord did not create us with aspirit of fear, but with power,
love and of a sound mind.
(23:02):
Again,.
(23:49):
.
.
he created us not with a spiritof fear, but of power, love and
a sound mind.
We are equipped.
We are made in God's image.
Thus we are equipped with hispower power to overcome, power
to exert authority, power torule over our lives.
His is the power we have.
His is the power that dwellswithin us when we accept Jesus
Christ as Lord.
We have the power to make itday to day, moment by moment,
second by second.
In Ephesians, chapter 3, verse20, it says now to him who is
able to do far more abundantlythan all we could ask or think,
according to the power at workwithin us.
Hear me, according to the powerat work within us.
There is power within to drawupon the power of God upon.
Peter, verse 1, chapter 1.
I'm sorry, verse 3.
It says His divine power hasgranted to us all things that
(24:16):
pertain to life and godliness.
Okay, he called us to his ownglory and excellence .
It means we have no lack.
It means we have the necessarypower to do all things that
pertain to life and by knowinghim, by knowing him, by
contemplating his godliness, weare able to go forward.
(24:38):
We are able to move forward, wecan move on.
It is the power of God at workin us.
It is our ability to accessthat power that will allow us to
trample upon the things of lifethat seek to destroy us.
We have the power to trample onthe things that want to
(25:02):
overcome us, that want toswallow us up.
You see, God says that we arealways victorious in Christ
Jesus, that when we are weak Heis strong.
We need not break.
I'm not judging anybody who hasgone there.
Not at all.
I've had my moments, mygoodness, my goodness.
(25:25):
We all stumble, we all fall,but it is in his word that we
overcome.
His is the medication that weneed for our various emotional
and mental circumstances to pullus through.
I'm not saying don't takemedication, but I'm saying the
(25:51):
word of God, praying to God,knowing God, accepting Jesus
Christ as Lord, is the power andthe medicine, because he is our
great physician.
I'm saying with God all thingsare possible, because God says,
in all things he is able to do,exceedingly and abundantly, that
nothing is impossible in him.
Read Jeremiah, chapter 17.
Read Jeremiah chapter 17,starting with verse 5.
(26:14):
It reads like this, the Lordsays cursed is the one who
trusts in men who draw strengthfrom mere flesh and whose heart
turns away from the Lord.
That person will be like a bushin the wasteland.
They will not see prosperitywhen it comes.
(26:34):
They will dwell in places ofthe desert, in parched places,
in a salt land where no onelives.
Let me stop there and do aquick analysis.
You see who was parched there,who did not know God there, who
(27:01):
was not pulling on the strengthof God?
I think you would be able toknow by seeing the demeanor of
(27:47):
the people, of the characters inthe movie.
So I urge you to watch themovie.
It may hurt a little bit.
It may make you angry, but Ithink its necessary, because too
many times we rely on man tosave us.
I think you would be able totell the bank manager had a
heart of God.
The female detective probablyhad a heart of God.
And a few others.
The old woman with diabetes inthe bank had a heart.
Compassion comes from God,loves comes from God because God
says he is love.
If we have no love for ourfellow man, we've rejected God.
Think about it.
I'm not going to tell you howthe movie ends.
I want you to watch it and payattention to the emotions that
(28:18):
you have and who provokes whatin you.
And we all make mistakes, weall have our moments and we all
have our weaknesses.
We've all taken things out onpeople from time to time and
many times we don't even hearthe other person who's talking
to us, who's crying out to us,who's sharing their heart with
us.
Many times we don't see them,we make them invisible because
we're too wrapped up inourselves because of our own
(28:39):
problems and we don't reach out.
We don't help.
God says what we don't do forour brothers, we're not doing
for him.
We can't depend on man.
We're supposed to depend on theLord.
We're supposed to depend on GodIn Jeremiah 17,.
(29:01):
It goes on to say in verse 6,again, that the person will be
like a bush in the waste land .
They will not see prosperitywhen it comes.
They will dwell in parchedplaces of the desert and the
salt land where no one can live.
So every angry person thatlives in their anger is living
(29:24):
in a parched land.
Everyone that is living outsideof Christ will not see
prosperity.
You will not prosper as a childof God.
You will not prosper as a human.
You may think you are, but youare not.
Your soul is depraved.
It's truth.
Now it goes on to say in verse 7, but blessed is the one who
(30:00):
trusts in the Lord whoseconfidence is in Him.
For they will be like a treeplanted by the waters, its
leaves are always green, it hasno worries in the year of
drought and never fails to bearfruit.
See, I heard one prophet sayyou have to know the Lord, God,
enough to be able to draw on hispresence and his power, His
(30:26):
love and His abundance in thetime of your own drought.
In the time of your mostdesperate need you have to be
able to draw on the tree of life, Jesus Christ, like the tree
(30:47):
whose roots are planted by thestream, whose roots run deep,
and it can pull that water upand be nurtured and nourished
and satisfied.
We have to be able to pull uponthe power, the love and the
truth of God so that in thesehard places we can thrive, we
can be like the tree whoseleaves will always be green.
We need to be the humans thatcan draw on the word of God, the
(31:09):
presence of God, so that oursouls are fed, that our spirit
men grow, that we can live inpower and with a sound mind in
God's love.
We need the word of God, thepower of God, the truth of God
and the love of God to live andprosper, to overcome.
We should not look or sounddepraved.
(31:34):
We shall operate in the powerof God, not with broken minds.
Yes, we can grieve and we canhurt, but there is a time when
we have to move forward, when wecan look back and say that was
then, but I have a future,because God says I've given you
(31:59):
hope and a future.
So we must be able to rise upagain and climb our way up out
of that dark hole that we'vefallen into, or come out of the
land of no return.
We need to be able to swimthrough the muddy waters and not
(32:19):
drown.
It's vital and it's essential.
You see, our hearts can be sodeceitful.
Above all, things we think wecan do on our own, devise on our
own, make our own way, but whenwe do that, we're outside of
God and he will not be theshelter in the storm, because we
(32:44):
created our own storms.
The universe does not have theanswer.
The universe is a place and alocation with living beings in
it.
The universe is not God, butGod created the universe.
Let's get it clear and stopfollowing the world but follow
(33:10):
the mind of Christ.
We have to check our emotionsand not let our own thoughts and
egos fool us and lead us in thewrong direction.
The Lord should be our hope.
We should cry out to him InJeremiah 17, verse 14,.
(33:32):
It says Heal me, o Lord, and Iwill be healed.
Save me and I will be saved,for you are the one I praise.
Lord.
God, I will not flee from you.
Do not flee from the Lord.
He will not run from you.
He will not turn away from youunless you turn from him.
(33:54):
But he was always there waitingfor you.
His word says I will neverleave you nor forsake you.
His love is from everlasting toeverlasting.
And if you have ever loved, youcan only love because he loved
you first.
He is the originator of loveand it never wanes.
His love and power are alwaysthere to draw on.
(34:17):
Draw on his love.
Let your roots run deep intohis truth that when the wind
blows, you will still stand likea palm tree, just waving back
and forth, but not breaking,because you're built for the
storm.
You can lose things, but not beripped apart.
(34:40):
Yes, things will rip at yourheartstrings and you will feel
broken, but you will not bebroken because you are relying
on the strength of God to healyou.
Sometimes we think we cannotmake it for another moment and
yes, it does feel like that.
We feel like the weight of theworld is on our shoulders,
(35:01):
crushing us.
But God says I will lift you up.
When you are bowed down, I willuphold you with the right hand
of my righteousness.
I will cause you to soar againabove the storms.
God is faithful and the moreyou rely on him, the more
faithful he is.
The more you depend on him, themore dependable he is.
The more you look for hisstrength, the stronger he is you
(35:26):
.
You can't go wrong with theLord.
He will hold you, he will bearyou up.
Yes, weary days come, yes, weget tired.
But read Isaiah, chapter 40.
Lord, God, ask us, do you notknow who I am?
(35:47):
Have you not heard?
Has it not been told you fromthe beginning?
Have you not understood sincethe earth was founded?
He is the one who sitsenthroned above the circle of
the earth.
He is the one that can lookdown upon people like
grasshoppers.
He is the one who stretched outthe heavens like a canopy and
spread them out like a tent.
(36:08):
In verse 25 it says to whomwill you compare me?
He says who is my equal?
Says the Holy One.
Lift up your eyes and look tothe heavens.
Who created all of these things?
Who brings out the starry hostsand who named them one by one?
(36:29):
He's called each starry host byname because of his great power
and mighty strength not one ofthem is missing.
And it goes on to say why do youcomplain, Jacob?
Why do you complain?
Why do you say Israel, my wayis hidden from the Lord?
Do you not know?
(36:53):
Have you not heard?
The Lord is the God everlasting,the creator of the ends of the
earth and he will not grow tiredor weary.
And His understanding no onecan fanthom.
He gives strength to the wearyand increases the power of the
weak.
Even young men grow tired andweary and stumble and fall.
(37:17):
But those who hope on the Lordwill renew their strength.
Again, Those who hope in theLord will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings likeeagles.
They will run and not growweary.
They will walk and not be faint.
And I will leave it right here.
(37:39):
Get to know your Lord.
Get to know who your God is.
He is your creator and yourmaker.
And if you know him already,know him some more.
Do not doubt.
Do not doubt who he is and whathe can do.
(37:59):
Believe in him, because it saysit takes faith to please him.
Amen.
Never broken.
Never broken, but always wholein Christ Jesus.
Never broken, but always healedin Christ Jesus.
(38:21):
His is the peace beyond allunderstanding.
Triumph.
Until next time.
Be blessed, be at peace and bein love.
(38:41):
Truth drips.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
New Heights with Jason & Travis Kelce
Football’s funniest family duo — Jason Kelce of the Philadelphia Eagles and Travis Kelce of the Kansas City Chiefs — team up to provide next-level access to life in the league as it unfolds. The two brothers and Super Bowl champions drop weekly insights about the weekly slate of games and share their INSIDE perspectives on trending NFL news and sports headlines. They also endlessly rag on each other as brothers do, chat the latest in pop culture and welcome some very popular and well-known friends to chat with them. Check out new episodes every Wednesday. Follow New Heights on the Wondery App, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to new episodes early and ad-free, and get exclusive content on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And join our new membership for a unique fan experience by going to the New Heights YouTube channel now!