I spoke at a church this past weekend, here's manuscript so you can read if you want.

[Shawn "Riff-Raff" Broadnax]

Opening: “Ain’t Nothing Changed”

Let me first say, that I genuinely dislike the part of the service where the preacher comes up. I used to like it a lot when I
wasn’t the one that was preaching. Now as I
have come to understand the culture and the repetition of our
religion, I have come to understand the format or formula in which
most church services work. Which is as follows; you come in get
your greeting, maybe a prayer, then you go straight in to praise
and worship. After several songs depending on your denomination,
you may do a scripture reading, special presentation or selection,
you’ll most definitely take offering, you’ll do a sermonic
selection and then you’ll go in to the sermon, the preacher or the
word for the day. On top of all of that, embedded inside of every
sermon is another formula. 2 scriptures, 3 points, a closing
statement or argument and an alter call.

Why is it that we go to church every Sunday and nothing has changed? Simple… Because you already knew what was going to
happen.

I drive a Mercedes cl500 coupe, I get in the car every day, turn it on and go to my destination. It doesn’t excite me, it’s nothing
special. It’s nothing special because I know what to expect when I
get into my car, because I’ve gotten into my car so many times.
It’s repetition. It’s nothing like when I first bought my car. When
I first bought my car I had no idea that when I got on the highway
and tapped that gas ever so slightly it was going to go 90! I had
no idea that when I went to the mall I was going to get so much
female attention. “Mm mmm mmm look at him right thuurrr…” Call my
man Dominic on the phone and say let’s go to the club man. We never
go in, we just go to the front, stop, look around, give everybody
the nod then roll out! Its exciting! Yes it is!!! It’s new, it’s
exciting, we have no idea what to expect!

Then after a couple of months or a little while it becomes nothing but a car. You get in it and the sound of turning it on (vroom)
doesn’t excite you anymore, how pretty the car is doesn’t excite
you anymore, how much attention you get from the ladies actually
gets rather old. You know what to expect so now the ride from point
a to point b is monotony, repetition.

The reason that we can go to church every week and not be changed is because we are so used to the repetition. However,
the church can’t change for you every week. They can’t put on a
clown suit and do hand stands to make it interesting. So you got to
come to church every week understand there’s going to be
repetition, understand there’s going to be monotony, but you got to
come here and expect something new.

I said all that because I want the words that I’m saying to you to be affective, because if they have no affect then I’m wasting my
time. And really??? Have you googled me? I’m not really in to
wasting time…

Listen, I’m not here to talk about heaven, I’m not here to talk about hell, I’m not here to talk about the apocalypse, the anti-christ, or the second coming of Christ. Those subjects are all
good but that’s not why I’m here. I’m here to talk about how
important your life is right, stinking now!

In Baltimore, MD if you’re an African American and between the ages of 17-25 there is a 50% chance that you will be a victim of the HIV or AIDS viruses. On top of that 25% of all African
Americans in the Baltimore area are gay or lesbians, not to mention
gun and gang violence. Why am I giving you these facts? Well it’s
definitely not to scare you because as young people we aren’t
scared by too much, we think we’re invincible. I told you this to
show you that statistically in less than 1 century (100 years) the
entire African American race is expected to be extinct on the basis
of sexual choices. Now if by some miraculous chance the doctors and
scientists of the world come up with a cure for aids then we might
have a chance, but they still haven’t figured out a way to cure the
common cold, so I wouldn’t bet on that.

Now homosexuality doesn’t kill, but by human nature a homosexual couple can’t reproduce which means that we aren’t producing as many
offspring as we once were.

One thing that we have to understand is that the virus is not aids, the problem is not homosexuality, the
killer of our people is not the guns and the violence.
People always tell us that the music we listen to is destroying our
minds, the tv shows that we watch are destroying our minds, the
video games that we play are destroying our minds. Look, in reality
music and tv and video games are just a result of being a human
seeking entertainment. What our real problem is: our inability
to point out evil. Most of you wouldn’t know evil if it kicked
your behind! You know why you don’t know evil? Because most of
you are too darned weak!

It’s not your fault though, you’ve been tricked. See society has tricked you in to believing that the weakest part of your
humanity is the very thing that should be running your life.
Now that’s just stupid. That’s like having a heavyweight bout and
sending a featherweight boxer out on your behalf.

See the weakest part of humanity is your flesh. Your flesh is the part of your body that you can see, that you
can feel, and touch. Your flesh is the part of you that
has instincts. If you allow your flesh to run your life
you are nothing more or better than a wild dog. A dog will go
around humping every female that he comes in contact with, a dog
will go around battling till the death over territory, or a
bone.

The beautiful ability we have as human beings is the ability to force our flesh to submit to a higher authority. That
authority which is the strength embedded in us though Jesus
Christ our savior. No other being on this planet has this
ability, every other being must bow to its instincts.

Romans 8
1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit.
2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me
free from the law of sin and death.
3For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending his own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh:
4That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit.
5For they that are after the flesh do
mind the things of the flesh; but they
that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

Ladies and gentleman you are free to walk after whatever you want. God gave you free will, you’re a free person, living in
a free country.

I got something for you that will blow your mind…
This is not about church. Church can actually become very
instinctual in itself. That’s why so many people go just because it
makes you feel good. Well if I’m only going to church to feel good
I’m actually ok with staying home. As a matter of fact, sometimes I
do that anyway.

This is what I understand, if you allow yourself to only be controlled by your flesh you are missing out on 75% of what God has
for you, to live in the 25% that you can
understand. Is it hard to suppress your flesh? Heck yea! It’s
kind of like asking a dog to willingly not pee on a fire hydrant by
telling him that he doesn’t have to mark his territory because all
of the territory is his. If he can keep himself under submission….
Imagine that!

I stand before you as probably the most non judgmental person you’ll ever meet. I am this way because I’m not afraid to tell you
that it’s hard man. It’s hard to suppress your urges, its hard to
bring them under submission to a God that you don’t understand now,
nor will you ever fully understand. It’s hard to do this when the
church people around you are pretending like its easy and only
faking like they’re perfect. All the while, they’re judging you the
whole time.

But no one said it would be easy or simple to understand. I only say that it’s possible.