We Make Dreams Come True
Tim Ross | June 7, 2020
“I can’t do it by myself and you can’t do it by yourself, but together, we can upset the world, with the message, the love, and the hope of Jesus Christ.”
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Transcription
[Tim starts with Dr. King’s Speech]
I am happy to join with you today, and what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been seared in the flames of weathering injustice.
It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity but 100 years later, the Negro still is not free, 100 years later, the life of the Negro was still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination, 100 years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity, 100 years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself and eggs out in his own land.
We've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition. In a sense, we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men, as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, and so far as her citizens of color are concerned, instead of honoring the sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked, "Insufficient funds." We refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation, and so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.
We have also come to this hollow spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. There is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of this moment. This sweltering summer of the Negros legitimate discontent will not pass until there was an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. 1963 is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam, and it will now be contented having will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual, and there will be neither rest nor tranquillity in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.
The world wins over vote will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. There is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred, we must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline.
We must not allow our creative protests to degenerate into physical violence again and again. We must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people. For we know, by standing here today, that we have white people, many of our white brothers as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny.
They have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone and as we walk, we must make the plays that we shall always march ahead, we cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied, as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities.
We can not be satisfied as long as a Negros basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by sign stating for whites only. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote.
No, we are not satisfied. We will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations, some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering.
Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and the ghettos of our northern cities knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends. Even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed and we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal. I have a dream that one day on the Red Hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day, even the State of Mississippi, a state sweltering in the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day down in Alabama with this vicious racists, with this governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, one day right there in Alabama, little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day, every Valley shall be exalted and every Hill and Mountain will be made low. The rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be straight. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope and this is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith, we will be able to shoe out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.
With this faith, we would be able to work together to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. This will be the day. This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning.
My country, ' tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From every mountainside let freedom ring.
If America is to be a great nation, this must become true. Let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania. Let freedom ring from the snowcap Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California, but not only that, let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from lookout mountain of Tennessee. Let freedom ring from every Hill and molehill and Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring. When this happens and when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state in every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants, and Catholics will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual free at last, free at last, thank God almighty. We are free at last.
Ladies and gentlemen, these were the words spoken by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 57 years ago. We believe that here at Embassy City Church, God has called us to make dreams come true. Dr. King's dream wasn't birthed in the hopes of simply the American dream, Dr. King's dream was birthed in the heart of God. God created mankind. We are His children. Through our own rebellion against God, our father, this road has been unable to see themselves and each other as His sons and daughters.
This rebellion against creation and our creator leads us to a disdain of what He created, murder, racism, sex trafficking, robbery, and every crime against humanity is a result of this rebellion against God and that the stain of His creation. When the cement was poured out in the ink to write the constitution for the United States of America in 1787, racism was a part of the blueprint.
Today is not intended for me to listen to the atrocities that black people have suffered in this country at the hands of racist white men and women, no. Today is intended for me to tell you how we will make God's dream for this country come true. Embassy City is a church that makes God's dreams come true. We are not just a community of believers, we are a community of ambassadors.
As ambassadors, we make dreams come true with every person who commits their life to Jesus Christ and experiences the freedom only found in him. As ambassadors, we make dreams come true every time we upset the world with the message, love, and hope of Jesus Christ. As ambassadors, we make dreams come true by being a diverse expression of God's love and community multi-ethnically, and multi-generationally. As ambassadors, we make dreams come true with every hug we give, every show of kindness we express, and every gift of time, talent, and treasure we make.
As ambassadors, we will continue to make dreams come true by speaking out against injustice, in spaces, in places where our voices can be heard, and our influence can be felt.
As ambassadors, we will continue to make dreams come true by being mirrors to our families, friends, and communities that challenged them with the golden rule do unto others whatever you would like them to do to you.
As ambassadors, we will continue to make dreams come true by listening, learning, and living with each other as brothers and sisters in Christ, sons, and daughters of God. Embassy City was placed here by God, in Irving, Texas in one of the most racially diverse zip codes in the country, on purpose for a purpose. I have a dream, wasn't simply Dr. King's speech, it is our King's speech.
If you've made a commitment to Embassy City, then you've made a commitment to upset the world and make dreams come true. To all of the ambassadors of Embassy City and to all of our friends around the world, we make a commitment that the dream that God had through His prophet, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is a dream that we've made a commitment to fulfill.
I can't do it by myself and you can't do it by yourself, but together, we can upset the world, with the message, the love, and the hope of Jesus Christ. I would exhort you. Those that would call themselves believers in Jesus Christ, black and white, Asian, Southeast Asian 13% Croatian, 9% Russian, 22% Nigerian, whatever 23 in me has told you, whatever ancestry.com has revealed to you, if you call yourself a believer in Jesus Christ, I'm exhorting you today not to allow what is happening in America, to change your theology as a believer. Christ is the hope of the world, the more we have people that are reconciled to God, the more we would have people reconciled to us.
We stand together as Embassy City Church in solidarity, knowing that if we are going to advance the kingdom with His light, it shines its brightest in darkness. I just want to pray for you, black, white, Hispanic, whatever your nationality may be, whatever injustices you have endured, based on a country that is not facing God, I just want you to know that only in the presence of God, can your heart be transformed, forgiveness be led in, and transformation occur.
You may be watching, perhaps you've never given your life to Jesus Christ. Whether you're watching us from America or around the world, I want you to know that if you open up your heart to Jesus right now, He will come in and turn your entire life upside down. If you would just believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Renounce your sinful life. Repent and change your mind of the way that you've been living, and allow Jesus to come into your life, turn you upside down, and have you walk in a way that you've never walked before.
Also, I want to pray for my brothers and sisters of all ethnicities and nationalities, of all culture and creeds, who have endured injustice directly or indirectly, who have experienced the pain of hatred and prejudice, subtle or overt. Do not allow the toxicity in this country to swirl in your heart as a believer. God, I pray right now for every wounded soul, for every broken heart, for every embittered spirit that is justifiably angry, but on the verge of allowing that anger to cross the line into sin.
I pray right now in Jesus' name, Holy Spirit, you would come and comfort the heart of those that have been racially profiled, put over without reason, have a suspicious eye cast upon them for no other reason than the color of their skin, or the uniqueness of their accent, based on the way they are traditionally dressed, or by the way they choose to style their hair. God, whatever form it's come in, whatever pain they've experienced, I pray that in this moment, we can leave it at the alter. Whether that's in front of a laptop computer, or a kitchen table, at the foot of the bed or at the foot of the cross.
May we drop our anger, our hatred and our bitterness, and may we drink in your love, your peace and by the gallon, your joy until our hearts are upset, not by what's going on out there, but by what you're doing in here. God, I thank you that today marks a day for many of us as believers, we will never be the same. Thank you for those that have given their life to you, and I thank you for those that have dropped their burdens in front of you. May those that have come into the kingdom experience what it is to live in a country as truly free. For those that have dropped their burden, may they be reminded whose country they really represent. In the matchless name of Jesus, we pray.
