Keith Battle - We Different

I know we trivialize and fuss about things that don’t matter, but we’re godly, we’re godly, we are godly. Somebody say, «You had the wrong house!» Yeah, yeah, yeah, don’t just run up on the godly. See, I want to serve notice on somebody who’s coming for you. Something is coming for you; you have to understand that someone you’re going to run up against is different. They’re just different. You say they’re not normal; you’re going to encounter someone who’s connected to God. And here’s the reason why you shouldn’t do it: in verse 16, it says the godly may trip seven times, but they will get up again. Oh, that’s a good word right there! I said, the godly may trip seven times. We might go down and down and down and down and down and down and down—that’s seven times! But one thing’s for sure: you can bank on it, we will be back. We are coming back up again! Yeah, and then conversely, the end of verse 16 says that when the wicked hit one disaster, they are overthrown. The wicked are one and done. The godly can go down seven times. The word seven perfectly means completion. That means we can completely go down. We can go down time after time after time after time and keep getting back up again. But the wicked go down one time and can’t get back up again. If somebody feels where I’m going right now, just yell out, «We different!» Say it again, «We different!» Yeah, in fact, before you take your seats wherever you are, I want you to give four people a pound nearby. Just go to four people and tell them, «We different.» Yeah, we different! Tell them like you mean it: «We different, we different!» I didn’t say we’re better than anyone, but we are different. I didn’t say we’re perfect, but we’re different. I didn’t say we have it all together, but we’re different. I didn’t say we don’t mess up and do some crazy stuff sometimes, but one thing’s for sure: we are different. Amen! Amen!

Now, before I get into this message, let me please clarify something right away for all my English teachers and all of my educators in the room. I want you to know that I am clearly aware that putting those two words together is a linguistic train wreck. I understand it is grammatically incorrect to say «we different.» I know how to say it properly, but bear with me today. It ain’t good English, but it’s good faith: we different, and we gonna be all right. Why is it okay in the song but not okay in class? We gonna be all right! In our culture, when someone says «we different,» they are referencing their superiority over someone they’re comparing themselves to. When a member of a football team says about his team, «we different,» that football player is communicating that there are qualities about our team that make us better than our opponents. When two fighters are about to fight and they’re weighing in or doing a press conference, one fighter might look the other in the face and say, «I’m different.» What that fighter is trying to communicate, even by way of intimidation, is that you haven’t seen anything like me before. You’ve never faced anyone like me before; I’m different. Even when we look up to the people we celebrate and honor—be they artists, communicators, entrepreneurs, or business leaders—sometimes we just sit back and say, «She’s different,» or «He’s different.» That’s a compliment in our culture, and what it’s saying is that their gifts and talents are on another level.

But I want you to be clear today: when I say «we different» and I’m using it as a tag for Proverbs 24:15–16, I am not saying that godly people are different because we are superior. I’m saying that what makes us different is how we respond to failure and trials. That’s what makes us different. What distinguishes us is not whether we go through things; not whether we go through the same struggles that wicked people endure, or those who don’t know God. We all go through the same stuff. The difference is, we just keep getting back up again. That’s something to thank God for right there! We just keep getting back up! That’s what distinguishes us. It’s not because we’re better, and I’m not trying to bash anyone who’s wicked. I’m trying to encourage those who are righteous and godly to let you know that the reason you keep getting back up after things you didn’t think you could come back from is because of who you are. God made you godly; you belong to Him. The reason you keep bouncing back, the reason you have buoyancy and resiliency and a 100% recovery rate, is because of who you are, whose you are, and who you are connected to. That’s good news right there! That’s what makes us different.

Now, when you walk through this passage, at its core, these two verses together really serve as a combination of things. One is—it is a warning from the proverb writer to wicked people: whatever you do in verse 15. What is interesting in verse 15, to me, is that the wicked are not told to not ambush people. It’s not…