Mourning to Miracles | Tyshone Roland | Echoes Church

If you have your bible, want you to turn to Matthew 14. As you're turning there, I also wanna thank every person that gave and supported and showed up for our crusade last month. We had over 22 people show up. We had a hundred and twenty seven first time salvations. We had a few 100 rededications,

and we saw hundreds added to the church. It was so amazing, and that couldn't have happened without your generosity. So to every person that believed, to every person that gave, to every person that showed up and served, I just wanna say from the bottom of my heart, thank you so so much. And we're gonna continue to do this. We're gonna continue to believe God to open up cities, and we got five cities we're going to next year. And so also I got some merch, not merch. Wish I had some merch, but I don't got merch. If I did, it would be so ugly.

So instead, I'm a I I wrote,

some books. And if you want any of them, they go fully to supporting project salvation. I'll be in the lobby after if you want any of those, but I really do believe that the Lord has a word in store for us today. And so I want you to turn to Matthew chapter 14. Matthew chapter 14. I'm gonna read from verse one

to verse 14, and it reads like this. At that time, Herod

heard about the fame of Jesus and he said to his servants, this is John the Baptist. He has been raised from the dead. That's why these miraculous powers are at work in him. For Herod sees John bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. Because John's been saying it is not lawful for you to have her, and though

he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people because they held him to be a prophet. But when her Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company, and it pleased Herod.

So that he promised an oath to give her whatever she might ask prompted by her mother. She said, give me the head of John the Baptist here on the platter. And the king was sorry, but because of his oath of the guests, commanded it to be given.

He sent and had John beheaded in prison, and his head was brought on the platter given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. And the disciples came and took the body and buried, and they went and told Jesus. Now when Jesus heard, he withdrew from there to a desolate place by himself.

But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot. And when he went ashore, he saw a great crowd and had compassion on them, and he healed their sick. I'm gonna preach a simple message entitled, from mourning to miracles, from mourning to miracles. Could we bow our head and pray? Heavenly father, we thank you.

Lord, we thank you that you are a good God, and you only do good.

Lord, I ask that you would use these next few moments as we illuminate and turn to your word, God, that you would speak to us in such a profound way. God, I thank you for your presence. I thank you for this church. Lord, we thank you for the leadership of this house, for the volunteers of this house, for all the miracles that you've been doing. Lord, would you use us today in the mighty name of Jesus? And everybody said, everybody

said, amen and amen. After weeks like this, we all can agree that there are some weeks that are just heavy. There are some weeks that you open up your phone and you say, again, another horrendous event. Again, another shooting, another stabbing, another situation.

And you probably came to church thinking, okay, what did I hope that they preach something positive and something holy, and here I am talking about John the Baptist being beheaded. So you're probably like, what's going on?

And the reason that I open up with this story is to really just show you something. I've been hearing people say this a lot, especially this week. They've been saying, man, the world is getting evil. No. The world's been evil.

We have this idea that because we're not aware that it hasn't happened, just because you're not aware of it doesn't mean it's not taking place. We can all turn a blind eye if we want to. We can all look to our left and assume that what's going on to the right doesn't matter, or look to our right and assume what's going on in the left doesn't matter. But I'll just tell you this, it doesn't matter where you believe. We are all struggling. We are in an hour that is dark.

I know that this story is probably a hard one, and you probably don't even want me to preach on it specifically, but I know this may sound insane. But out of all the stories, if I, for some apparent reason, if I was told that, Ty, you only have one story that you can preach on, you only have one story that you can read, there's only one story that in the scriptures that you can tell people about, it would be unequivocally

Matthew chapter 14.

Matthew chapter 14 is the chapter that really helped me understand something about Jesus, that Jesus is empathetic to what we go through, meaning Jesus knows what it's like to be human. You know, he is a 100% God and a 100% man. What does that mean? That he is fully divine, and we see the 100% God parts.

In him calling Lazarus back to life, in the woman with the issue of blood touching the hem of his garment with him walking on water. He does a lot of things that require divine power, and seldomly can you look through the scripture and see the stories that really display his humanity. But this one this one displays his humanity. And the reason that I wanted to teach on it and preach on it this morning is specifically because we see a story where Jesus

lost a family member.

Now John the Baptist to other people was a prophet. To other people, he was a rabbi. To other people, he was a leader. To other people, he was weird because he ate insects. You know? We all got that weird cousin. You know what I mean? And for those that didn't laugh, you're that weird cousin. That's why he didn't laugh because you're like, what are talking about? I don't have a weird cousin. Hey, weirdo. How are doing? You're that weird cousin.

But to John the Baptist but to Jesus, John the Baptist was his cousin. And what's so interesting in verse 13, we see Jesus get the news, and the Bible says he withdrew to be in a desolate place. That's the most human response

to me. This is humanity on display. We all can agree that when something takes place in our life, whether that is a tragic situation, whether that is disappointing news, whether that is hope that you had that got deferred or delayed, we can all agree that when you are going through a hard situation,

sometimes the remedy that we believe is to withdraw. Don't bother me. Don't talk to me. Don't text me. I just wanna be by myself. When I think of Jesus, I think of Jesus around people. I think of him surrounded

by different leaders that are in need, children, different prophets, different disciples. When I picture Jesus, naturally, picture people. So this story does not fit the picture of the Jesus that I know in my mind. But the reason why I would say I would choose this story is because I went through a situation in 2017

that this story is why I stand here today.

Because I saw something in that text and this scripture that I needed.

I was 23 years old living in Charlotte, North Carolina working at a church, and I remember this day vividly, so vividly. I can tell you how the morning was. I can tell you what I did in between services. I can tell you what I did after the service. I remember the time I get out of the shower. I'm looking at my phone. My phone has 17 missed calls from my mom. I got a black mom, so I was very scared when I missed 17 phone calls. You know what I mean? Like, they they move differently. And

the phones keeps ringing, starts ringing. And I don't know if this ever happened to you, but you just know that if I pick up this phone call, my life's different.

Once I answer, it's gonna be news that I don't wanna hear, and it's gonna change the way that I see myself. It's gonna change the way that I see this life. It may even change the way I see Jesus.

And on the other side of the phone call was my mother giving me the tragic news that my brother and seven other of my family members were murdered in a mass shooting. I remember that moment. This week when everything was taking place, I go back to that moment

because I know what it feels like for a few days to have my brother as a poster child as a in a shooting and just trying to rationale and reconcile what is going on in this world. It was a horrible situation. It was a situation that honestly when it first took place, didn't even like talking about it.

It was evil who did it. It was evil how it took place. And even as I look back at it, I often even to this day wonder, someone asked me a question, a very powerful question. They asked me, they said, if you can ask God anything, what would you ask him? And I said,

I would ask him, does that have to happen for me to become this? Is it hell that creates this heavenly perspective sometimes? Because that situation tore me, it tormented me, it affects me to this day. But I also saw God glorified in such a magnificent way in my life

that I have to give God the glory. We were gonna I know that we're in a series right now talking about David, but when everything took place this week, we felt that it would be the best to pivot to see what the Lord wanted to say. And I was talking to pastor Daniel and the team, and I just felt that the Lord really wanted me to share this word. In fact, this word, when I became an evangelist, you know, when you're first starting, you you don't wanna preach a whole bunch of messages. You wanna have a few in your pocket. And the message that I would travel with was this one.

And a part of me would love to preach it because when I preach it, it just comes out of me, but a lot of times I don't like preaching it because it requires me to go back to that dark place. And sometimes, we don't wanna go to that dark place. That's why we withdraw. I was working at a church when my brother died,

and I had to withdraw. I felt it. I would come to church and I became cynical. The preacher would begin to preach and I would just question him. Is it really real or you're just trying to get people excited? It's emotional manipulation.

I would listen to some worship songs and I would lift my hand. I would talk about the goodness of God. And as I would lift my hands, I would put my hand down because I didn't feel like he was good. And sometimes when we look around in our world, we don't know if he if he's good sometimes.

This story is such a unique story in Matthew chapter 14. You got John the Baptist who only was just a preacher of truth.

He knew there was a law that talked about that king Herod cannot take Philip's wife to be his, but Herod didn't care. He did whatever he wanted. But John the Baptist being a preacher of truth, John the Baptist knowing the law, John the Baptist understanding things and not being afraid what people say. He stood on truth,

and he condemned what he saw. And because Herod did not like being condemned you never call somebody out and they don't like being called out? We've all done it.

It could be something big or it can be something small. It could be an attitude. It's like, man, you got an attitude problem. At least that's what my wife be telling me. I'm like, I rebuke you in the name of Jesus. I don't got no attitude problem. You got an attitude problem. You ain't grateful. I'm just joking.

Herod didn't wanna be called out and like a lot of us, we push people that call us out out of our life because we don't wanna be called out. But being called out is the biggest blessing because being called out means you're being called up.

But he didn't wanna be called out. He didn't wanna be called up, so he put John the Baptist in prison.

It was his birthday, and there was a celebration. And the daughter of Herodias was dancing, and the king gets up, and he says, you know, I will give you anything you want. And prompted by her mother, this young lady is between the ages of 12 and 16. We actually don't know her age, but we know that what she's about to request was not a request that she made. It was actually a request of her mother.

And right before she's about to answer the king's question, the mother goes over to her and says, ask him for the head of John the Baptist, which is so wrong, so evil. I don't care if John the Baptist is a Jew or a Gentile, a head on a platter is wrong. I don't care if John the Baptist is black or white,

A head on a platter is wrong.

I don't care the reason behind it. We all can look at something with our logic and in our heart. The Bible says that he writes the law on our heart. What is that law? You can feel it even though you don't know it. You may not be able to quote all the commandments, but you can feel all the commandments. There is something about sin that you can just feel it, and you look at it, and you can agree this is wrong.

There are things that have been taking place in our nations. There are things that took place week that all of us got sick to our stomach because we can all agree that's wrong. That's wrong. That's not right. That's wrong. That's evil.

And what do you do from there? Where do you go from there? I remember what happened to me. I withdrew.

There are some people in this room that maybe you've gone through a situation that's not as hellish as a mass murder. I hope that you haven't, and I pray that you never go through that. But maybe what you're going through your marriage right now is the hardest thing you've ever gone through, and you're withdrawing a little bit.

Maybe you're going through some shame from some past decisions that are coming back in your mind, and you've been withdrawing a little bit. Maybe because you have some disappointments, you had something you were hoping, expecting, believing, anticipating that this was gonna work out, and it didn't.

And you thought God said it was gonna happen. And because of the disappointment and the erosion of the passion of your heart, you just withdraw. A lot of people have no problem believing sometimes that Jesus Christ is God, but sometimes it's hard to believe that he could be God and man.

But I think this story shows his humanity because Jesus being fully God knows what's gonna happen, but because he's also fully man, he still feels it in the present, which shows me something. We all believe this. Well, if I saw it coming, it wouldn't hurt. No, it would still hurt.

Whether you know I'm gonna punch you in the face or whether you don't know I'm gonna punch you in the face, a punch is still a punch. Whether you can anticipate the betrayal or you don't know about the betrayal, betrayal is still betrayal. Whether you saw it coming or you didn't anticipate it coming,

when it comes, it's the most heart wrenching situation that causes each and every one of us in our humanity to just say leave me alone for a second.

It's the reason why we'll numb out on TV shows. It's the reasons why we can numb out on substances. It's the reasons why we can just get up and we can just walk around and we can drive around because we don't wanna slow down enough, and we just wanna be by ourselves. Don't talk to me. Don't text me. Don't call me. Don't look me up. Just let me have this a few weeks because I'm going through the worst situation of my life. When I picture Jesus, I picture him surrounded, but this is a story where he doesn't wanna be around people.

Maybe there's some people today that as I'm preaching, you didn't even wanna come to church today because you don't even wanna be around people. You're here because out of obedience to God, and I applaud that, but maybe you're not here emotionally because of what took place.

Maybe you're not here mentally because of what took place. Maybe subconsciously you're trying to figure out how do I forget, how do I let go, how do I move forward, how can I just remove the stain of what took place in my life, and if we don't know how, we just withdraw?

So we'll be there in our physical body, but we won't be presently where we are. There was a pastor in my life named pastor Henry Sneed. He's gone on to be with Jesus, but he would have this incredible statement. He would tell this to me all the time. He would give me advice that I wasn't asking for. Y'all one of those people just start pastoring me? I was like, I hadn't asked for that for Henry. But he told me this one time. He said, Tyshawn, he told this to everyone. He said, wherever you are, be fully there.

Wherever your feet are, be fully there. So when I'm in a conversation with someone, I try to be in the conversation. When I'm preaching in a moment like this, I try to stay focused on the word. When no matter what I'm doing, I try to be fully there. But sometimes, there is so hard to be that we just withdraw.

We just don't understand. Like John the Baptist did nothing to deserve what took place. My brother did nothing to deserve what took place.

18 years old, 17 d one scholarships. Believe me, athletics does not run-in the family. It ran in him and him alone. Believe me. You give me a basketball and a kick it. I don't know what to do. I don't care. I know there's a game today. Believe me, I am not bothered by it at all. I'm just not into that at all, but my brother

was incredible. My brother, it was very evident that he was going to do something influential in this life. I always felt that is that he was just gonna be significant, and now he is because I go around the world talking about him and telling people that even as he died, he did not die a coward. He died actually standing in front of my cousin who's still alive today because my brother decided to step in front of him and take and take the bullets so my cousin can live. And so I preach his story today to say, have the coolest brother in the world. The fact that he would do that on his last day, he coulda ran. He coulda removed himself, but instead, he saw his family, and he stood for his family, and he protected his family. And now I have a living cousin that did not die because I had a brother that gave his life. You know what the Bible says about love? Love, no greater love than a man to lay down his life.

But when this took place, I didn't feel what I just said just now. This happened eight years ago. Eight years ago, I felt pain. I felt cynicism. You ever come to church and judge the preacher? He says, is good. And he's like, if he's so good, why did my husband cheat on me?

If he's so good, why are my children going to the things that they're going to? If he's so good, why am I going through this financial disparity? If he's so good, why am I emotionally troubled? If he's so good, why cancer? If he's so good, why killings? If he's so good,

why am I going through what I'm going through? But let me tell you this, the goodness of God is not predicated on situations.

God is good all the time, and all the time, God is good. God is a good God. He's a faithful God, and he is good to all people. It doesn't matter what you feel, he's good. It doesn't matter what the culture says, he's good. It doesn't doesn't even matter what you define good being. God is good.

And sometimes you don't feel that. I didn't feel that at 23. I felt like God was laughing at me. I had this idea. I don't know where it came from, but I thought when I was a kid, you know, Tashan, if you give your life to Jesus

and you just preach the Bible and memorize all these scriptures and watch all these sermons, horrible things wouldn't happen to you. I just had this belief that if I sow volunteer hours, I won't be a victim of some mass shooting, but it just shows me the bible says this, it rains on the just and the unjust.

What does that mean? That it doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, or what your family status is, or what your financial status is. Pain comes in all forms, and pain has no prejudice. It wants everybody. And we felt that this week. We see this in this story. Jesus does something. I remember Monday morning

after I found out the news.

I went to work. I I worked at a church and that I didn't have to go, but I didn't have family in the city of Charlotte. So I just went to work, and I remember going into the pastor's green room and grabbing the bible and just going through the scriptures. And I I know Matthew 14 because Matthew 14,

this is the precursor to him feeding five feeding 5,000, five to 10,000 with five loaves and two fish. But I never knew that the morning that he did that, he lost someone in his life. I remember sitting down reading this story, and I was like, Jesus, you know what it feels like.

You know what it feels like to lose a family member in a horrible, despicable way. When people say Jesus is not enough, no. Jesus is enough.

Prayer is a very powerful thing. I posted something this week, and I was surprised to see the comments of different people. And one of the things that I saw consistently more than anything else, not just the hate, not just all these things, it was people saying prayer isn't powerful. I'll tell you this. Prayer is one of the most powerful things you could do.

Even to this day when people text me on his on his death anniversary, they'll text me and say, hey. I'm praying for you today. And every time I get that text, I grab my heart and say, thank you Jesus because I need it. And when I lost my brother, the first place I went to was church.

That's why when life gets hard, don't run away from community. The Bible says in Hebrews, let us not forsake the gathering of the saints. There's something powerful about coming to church, especially on weeks like this. Because when you get together in a room like this, you look around and you realize something. God is good. God is faithful, and I'm glad that I'm around a great group of people that will worship Jesus, that will love Jesus, and that will follow Jesus even in the midst of tragedy.

I saw that God was good even though I didn't feel it. I remember reading this story, and I looked at the verse where the Bible says Jesus withdrew himself because I felt myself withdrawing. This is how you know you're withdrawing. You used to be full of faith, now you're full of cynicism.

You this is how you know you're withdrawing. Instead of believing for God, you don't believe at all. You just believe him at a minimum. You believe he rose again, but you won't believe him for anything else because of what took place.

We all can go through a situation that makes our heart sick. Proverbs says, hope deferred makes the heart sick. And if not medicated on, that sick heart will divide you, and it will envelop you in such a way that you will have a sick perspective.

You'll never be positive. If you ever meet these people, Say, man, today's a good day. They're like, no, it's not. You're like, what's wrong with you?

They just find things to be upset about. I used to be frustrated, and I used to get mad at these people. I used to make fun of these people, and then my brother died, and I became those people. I would come to church, and if a preacher said something that rhyme, I would lose my mind.

I would I don't know why the rhymes get to me. Even to this day, I'm like, stop rhyming. You ain't Drake. Stop it.

Because when we come to church, we're not coming to hear your opinion or just to make us laugh or just to make us giddy. We're coming to hear the word of God preach. And I remember being in the room, someone told me, asked me a few weeks ago, they're like, Tyshawn, how how many how long do you work on your sermons? And I told them, said, I put I put hours in. And they and they laughed and they said, hey, you don't need to do that because they won't remember them anyway. I was like, hey, they're not gonna remember your sermons, buddy. Don't don't come at me with my sermons because

you remember the sermons that matter.

I remember the sermon I heard after my brother died. I remember what seat I sat in. I remember what the preacher was wearing. I remember what he preached on. I remember the title, and I was hanging on to every word as if it was giving me substance to believe in because I needed it that day.

I needed to know that God still had a plan even though we were going through a horrible situation as a family. I withdrew just like Jesus withdrew. Jesus, the son of God says, I need to be alone. Don't bother me. Don't talk to me.

You don't know what I'm facing. Leave me alone. I can't be around people today. I can't go out and hang out today. I can't go be with you today. I just need to be by myself. That's a normal response. That's a human response. If you're in this room and you've been withdrawing for life, you are not hearing condemnation

from me because I was withdrawing for a long time. I would be in conversations and not pay attention. I would talk to people but not invest emotionally. I would be in the room, but I really wouldn't be focused on the conversations I was having because I was withdrawing in in a desolate place. Jesus Christ withdrew

and went to a desolate place. Maybe you're in this room and you're like Jesus, and you have withdrawn. And you find yourself in a desolate place, desperate for the hope, desperate for the grace, desperate for this thing that us preachers preach about, the peace of God that surpasses all understanding,

that will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. Maybe you're in a desolate place today, and you need something. What do you need? I'll tell you what you actually need.

You think you need a break and you need to walk away. I don't know if you need a break and a walk away. Maybe you do for a moment. When Jordan died, I didn't just act like it was okay. I took a break, but more than a break, you know what I needed? A breakthrough. I needed something deeper. I needed God to use me.

I remember I remember reading that story and looking at the verse and being like, I feel like this right now. I don't wanna be a preacher anymore. I don't wanna do this stuff anymore because this is unfair. This is wrong, and I'm not the only one. In the last ten years alone, we've had 17,684 mass shootings. Last ten years.

When I see these things that happen online and I see the horrible news, I'll tell you what I don't do. I don't just immediately assume and throw a prayer. I like to do some research. I'm an enneagram five ring four, which means I'm a nerd, and I do a lot of investigating.

And what I like to do is I like to go do research, and I find out who died, and I go to their Facebook, and I find out their mom. I find out their dad. I see if they have siblings. I write their names down on my notepad and my phone, and I pray for them by name.

Because their life is different forever. You just want to talk about the person that died. What about the people that got to keep living? What about the people that now have to live with this tragedy? What is our hope for them? And I remember looking at this verse saying, I wanna live here, but let me say this.

You cannot live in a desolate place. You can visit it, but you can't live there. You can't stay there. You can't reside there. At some point, you're going to have to move past it, and I'll tell you what will move you. It will not be charisma.

I'll tell you what will move you. It's not just gonna be passion. What will move you is the same thing that moved Jesus. The Bible says he was moved by what? By compassion. The

Jewish picture would be that he felt it. That's why we fast because after a few days, if you fast and you ask the Lord about something, you can feel it on the inside what to do. He was moved, meaning he saw a group of people,

and God compelled him and moved him. Compassion is the most powerful things on this side of eternity. And what's happened in our culture is something that psychologists will call compassion fatigue. It's what you feel like when you don't have enough care to go around.

Because just when you got done praying about the stabbing, there was a shooting. And just when you got done praying about the shooting, there was an assassination.

And just when you got done praying for the assassination, there was another killing. And just when you get to the point you just decide, I can't do it. I am carried out. I have no more, but God will grace you with compassion. And what compassion does is allow you to see people instead of just seeing yourself.

I can stand here and say that every time a mass shooting happens, I think about my brother. I do, but that compassion stirs me up to pray for the people. That compassion stirs me up to do something. Compassion will move you. The Bible says that Jesus goes, and he's alone by himself in a desolate place just, I'm done.

And then the people see him because Jesus is still Jesus to the people. By the way, believers are still believers even when we go through hell. Christians still need to be Christians even when we're on trial. Tragedy really proves who you really are, by the way.

And when tragedy happens, you can't not allow your flesh to win. You gotta crucify that thing. Galatians two twenty says, it's no longer I who live, but it's Christ who lives in me. I've been crucified.

And what that means is that in situations when you just wanna let your flesh lead you to a substance, lead you to a drug, lead you to sin, you don't allow your flesh to control you, and you turn to God. And instead of choosing flesh, you choose compassion, and compassion will stir you. You know what it stirred Jesus to do? To heal people.

They all stood in line asking Jesus to heal them.

I don't remember anyone in that verse walking up to Jesus saying, do you need anything? And there are some people in this room when you're going through hell, you get mad because people don't talk to you enough or catch up on on you enough. And I know that can be a painful thing, but we don't exist for things to be happening for us. We exist to serve other people.

And Jesus starts healing people. So many people show up. So many people show up that the disciples who were hungry say, hey, Jesus. You gotta send these people away.

They they gotta eat Jesus, and the reality is the disciples wanted to eat just like y'all. Y'all like how much time I gotta eat and the Steelers game is coming on. Okay. I get it.

I don't know. It's just someone told me that's why they go to the 08:00. So if you wanna watch football, you come to the first service. It's your fault. He starts healing all the people, and he tells the disciples, go find what they have.

In the book of John, they find five loaves and two fish from a little boy, and they take the five loaves and the two fish, and they put it in front of Jesus. Jesus breaks it, blesses it, and multiplies it. The Bible records 10,000 men, but it was probably closer to 20,000 if you include the women and the children in that story. The story of him feeding 5,000

is in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All of the gospels. It's almost as if the writers wanna make sure that you see this powerful story, but they also want you to know that the powerful story, the precursor to that was not a platform, it was pain. And pain usually is a setup for the greatest miracles in our life. Morning

is a setup for more miracles. You think your mourning is to ruin you. Your mourning is not to ruin you. Your mourning is to let you know what your ministry is. If you've given if you're in this room and you've gone through divorce and that was your mourning, that's also your ministry.

If you're in this room and if you've gone through pain that people don't understand, maybe it's something with cancer, maybe it's something situational, that same thing is the mourning, is the ministry that God will have on your life. Mourning, a mass shooting, that was what I mourned about.

So on weeks like this, I have no trouble knowing what to say because I feel like when you mourn through something, God gives you a mantle in it. He gives you authority for it. The situation that was supposed to crush you, now it doesn't crush you. You get to stand up and say, I know what you feel like,

but God's still good. The best person to talk to someone who's divorced is someone who's been divorced. The best person to talk to someone who's gone through pain is a person going through pain. And I wanna say this for every person in this room that what you have gone through

is a setup for a miracle for God to use you mightily. Maybe there's 20,000 people that can be impacted by your story. He wants to use your mourning, and he wants to turn that mourning into a miracle. See, when Jordan died, it was my mourning, but that death went like a seed into a ground.

That as I spent more time with God, it bloomed now into a ministry that now I can speak on, and now I can speak with authority. And I know that there's people in this room that you are going through trial and tragedy,

and you're wondering what to do, and you think what the drawing isn't is the answer. It's not. It's a temporary fix. Hear me and hear me clearly. Drugs, alcohol,

sex, all these things are temporary fixes to work on the main thing. Work on the main thing. Give that pain to God. Oftentimes, we don't give the pain to him because it happened to us. We believe it belonged to us, but it doesn't. Give that pain to God and say, God, I need you.

Even before the service, I texted my dad, and I said, I'm so sorry that you lost your son. I'm a get up, and I'm a preach.

And he immediately texted me back and said, I just got done preaching too, son. I just want you to know you get up and you tell the story. And when you get up and tell those people, don't tell them I'm hurting because God is good. Don't tell them that I've given up because I have not given up. You tell them that I preach Jesus, that I'm following Jesus, that I'm loving Jesus with all that I have.

So if you're in this room and you're going through a morning, I want you to know that your miracle is right around the corner. Could you bow your heads and close your eyes? My

first assignment is to salvation before I pray for situations. So if you're in this room and you don't know Jesus, if there's anything that we learned this week, is that time is short, that we don't know the hour, we don't know the minute, we don't even know the way by which we will leave this Earth.

So if you're in this room and you don't know Jesus, it would be my immense honor to lead you in a prayer. So if you want to, when I count to three, I want you to lift your hands. One, you know who you are. Two,

three. Lift your hands. Lift your hands. Lift your hands. Lift your hands. See you. I see you. I see you. I want us to repeat this prayer for those that are coming to Christ for the first time. Everyone say, Jesus, come into my life. Be my lord and be my savior. Today, I put my hope, I put my faith in you.

If you're in this room and you're going through a morning, you're going through a situation, there is something that happened that has made you withdraw from this life,

and you want God to turn your morning into miracles. With heads still bowed, if that's you, I want you to lift your hands. When I count to three, and I'm a pray for you. One, two, three. I see you. I see all the hands. I see all the hands. I invite the prayer team just to come up right now.

And what I want us to do is I'm gonna pray a general prayer. But if you need prayer,

I don't want you to just leave and say, man, that was a good talk. I'm a get through it. I would love for us to actually stand with you and pray with you. So if you could, I want everyone just to stand in this moment as we are dismissing. And as you stand, I just want you to lift your hands,

and I'm gonna pray over everybody in this room. Again, I'll be in the lobby. I'll have some some resources if you wanna purchase and invest in project salvation, but I wanna pray for every person in this room. Heavenly father, I thank you. God, you know the trials. You know the tragedies.

You know what's going on in their marriage. You know what's going on in their life. You know what's going on in their body. You know about the shame that they're facing. God, you know, and it's so easy for us to just withdraw and give up and turn to everything else except you. But, Lord, we repent from our ways, and we just return

the attention to you. So, God, give them the strength to keep going. Give them the strength to minister out of the pain. Give them the strength to minister out of the drought. Give them the strength to keep going, and, God, give them the faith to know that you will turn their mourning into miracles. Lord, we love you. Lord, we thank you, and, God, we worship you. And if God has just been good, can we just give him a shout of praise right where we are? Let's just thank him. Lord, we thank you so much. We

love you, Lord. Our praise is an indication that we're more focused on you than our situation. And if you need prayer, I want