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Well, good morning, Echoes Church. How are we doing? Man, it is always
good to get to be with you. If I'm honest, last weekend was was, like, weird not gathering together. You know? Like, it was it was nice in one sense to have a weekend off, but, man, I I missed being here. And so it's so good to see all your faces. Again, if I have not had the chance to meet you yet, my name's Daniel. I'm the lead pastor here, and I just am so excited for you guys to get to experience,
the best preaching you've ever had in here so far because it's not me today. And I I really do. This thing kind of happened randomly. My my friend Tyshawn was in town. He's, starting again some of these, like, Billy Graham type crusades and really bringing,
a much needed word of salvation to our nation again. So he was here doing an event on Friday,
and he'll talk to you more about it. He's starting this thing called Project Salvation, which if you can volunteer for, man, you should get involved in. I think God's gonna do a major move through it. But he was just here doing an event on Friday, and I just text him and said, hey. Any chance you'll still be here through the weekend?
And he said, yeah. And I said, man, I would love to have you come preach for us. And, again, I don't think it's coincidence that he's the first guest preacher to ever be here. I just, man, I love this guy's heart. I love what he carries, and I just believe that he has a timely word for us. So lean in this morning and give a huge round of applause for my friend, Tyshawn Roland, to come to the stage.
Can we thank God for his presence this morning? Isn't it just an honor to be here? Can we just thank God for him? Before I say anything, I just wanna give honor to your pastors. I've been listening to pastor Daniel actually for a few years now.
I'm a young evangelist and I study other preachers. I don't really do anything else outside of outside of loving my family. I play a lot of video games and I read a lot of Bible and watch a lot of sermons. That's it. Don't judge me. You have your things too. Some of you go to Target. Some of you watch games. I play Fortnite. Meet me in the lobby. Don't tell my wife. She's on the way. But
I watch a lot of preachers and I've been watching pastor Daniel for years and I love his communication style. I love that he's not just a great man on the pulpit. He's a great man off the pulpit. I love you know, the Bible has a story in chronicles where this woman named Queen Sheba who's known far far off in the land and she hears about Solomon's temple. He built the temple that started off with David's
heart. He built it in his hands. And queen Sheba shows up to this to this temple and she looks at everything. She looks at everything. And she comes back to Solomon after inspecting this entire man's temple in place. She says, oh, happy how your cup bearers. Oh, happy how those that even serve. What she was saying was,
I looked throughout this whole church. I looked throughout this whole temple and I'm telling you, what you've built is so great. Even the people that are a part of this are happy. Even the people that get serve this are happy. And I'll tell you what I felt this morning when I showed up to the church. I just walked around. I went he gave me the whole tour. I saw the whole thing. I got to talk to Jessica. I got to talk to different leaders and volunteers here. Let me just say this. This is one of the greatest churches I've ever seen. Well, we're only a few months old. Let me say this. This is one of the greatest churches I've ever seen. Oh, happy are those that go to Echoes Church. Oh, happy are those that serve. Oh, happy are those that get to call this place home. Can So, we just honor the leadership and those that serve and the staff and the volunteers
and the worship team? Thank you so much for showing up day in and day out. They came up, show up 05:30 this morning, I heard. I was sleeping but you guys were here. So, that's really cool. Someone had to do it and the second rate reason I want to celebrate and just honor this moment when I was a young man I was about 12 years old I got called to ministry thought the Lord was gonna call me to plant a church I remember being 13 or 14 years old writing this name of a church and I'm like that's gonna be the church and when everyone would go sleep in my room, I would in my house, I would in my room turn off the lights and I would do these practice sermons from my future church. I had I didn't have a pulpit. I'm not a I don't have a I didn't have a dad growing up. I didn't have a pastor giving me a church so I had to practice on my own and so but I would use the name. My sermons were horrible but my name, I love this name. This name was powerful. I would get up 14 years old and I would say, hey, I just want everyone, I want to welcome everyone to Echo's Church and isn't it crazy that at 14 years old,
the name of a church has resided in my heart for so long. Two years ago, the lord told me you are not to plant a church, you are to stay on the road and be an evangelist and I was so hurt.
I came here a month ago, month and a half ago for the grand opening. I was in the back. I went to go preach at another church in Arizona
and I pulled up with guy that works for me. I looked at the church. I said, hey, you know when I was a kid, I wanted to preach at a church. I wanted to start a church and call it Echoes Church. She was like, for real? Was like, yeah. Said, I never told anyone about it because it was gonna take a long time. I wanted to hold that dream in but then I met Daniel. He told me his church name. Was like, well, that's a great church name.
Phenomenal church name. I think that's one man that walks with the lord. That's what I knew.
I was in the back and I saw all of you guys on your grand opening and I got in the car and I drove back to preach for another church and I said this prayer. I said, god, it would so cool. I know this is crazy, probably weird. Lord, it would be so cool to preach at that church in a few years. It would be like a fulfillment of my lifetime. It really would and I had no idea that five and a half weeks later, I would stand up and say, welcome to Echo's
Church and we're so happy to have you. So happy that you're here. So happy that you get to call this church home. Listen, we got coffee in the back for you. Listen, I've been practicing for this thing for years. So, I just want to tell you this. It's a good church. If you're visiting for the first time, the better communicator is next week.
You gotta know that this is a great place and I just wanna invite you to get a part of this church, serve, volunteer, give. This is a fantastic ministry.
I only have two more things to say that we're gonna get into the word. It's the last service and honestly, I am milking every moment of this. This is a dream of a lifetime. I'm being like, you have no idea how happy I am. Every time someone walks by and says, hi, I'm like, hi. How you doing? This is like our church. We're here together. You got a black pastor now. Look at that. This is crazy. This is insane. Okay. So, two things. Number one, Project Salvation is ministry the that I'm starting like he said. It's like a Billy Graham type vibe. The lord put on my heart a year ago, a year ago. Never thought I would be doing anything like this but we are having the faith to believe that the vet, the Veteran Memorial Coliseum,
you know, in nineteen ninety three of February, Jimmy Swaggart went there and he preached three services and those three services, it was packed every night. Over 35,
zero people heard the gospel and over eight, seven, zero people got saved and a pastor from that church got inspired to start a church and that church is one of the partner churches that is helping me put this thing along and so I just want you to know that I really believe that god is doing something in this city. That's why he has this church. That's why we're to revival because something is coming.
I really do believe there's gonna be revival not just in the church building, in the four walls, in the corridors of a lobby, but I think in the corridors of our souls. I think within our families, I think that there's a lot of seats that god wants to fill not just in this room but in our rooms and beyond because something is coming and I would love for that crusade to be something that partners with those and so you can follow Project Salvation online and you can partner, you can volunteer, you can get behind the vision. I'm gonna be coming to Arizona a lot and I would love to see it. I I I met Billy Graham's assistant for forty years plus and I met him. Was like, bro, I'm trying to be a black Billy Graham. Let's make this thing happen and he prayed with me and I really believe that's what's gonna happen and so just wanna encourage for those that are praying and wanna be a part of it. The last thing is this is someone's book. You bought this book. I took it from the back because I didn't have mine so I stole from you.
I stole from you but I'm a give it so I'm a give it back to you when you're done. But thank you for supporting the ministry bro. That's awesome. But I wrote a book called Learn to Live Without and it's about those that grew up without a father. It's a simple read, perfect for those that really didn't have a dad. I didn't have a dad and statistically, I shouldn't be confident. Statistically, I shouldn't be faithful. Statistically, I shouldn't even be doing what I'm doing but because god is so good, he bridged the gap even of a lost father and I put some pen to paper and we were really able to capture some things in my life. So, if you wanna support the ministry or if you wanna get that book, I'll be right out in the lobby and I would love to meet you. Well, that is everything else that I have to say. Who is excited for the word of god? Are you guys pumped? I
am excited. I'm excited. Let us turn to Nehemiah chapter one verse four. As soon as I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days. I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Now, we're gonna turn to Nehemiah chapter 12 verse 43 which is one
year later and they offered great sacrifices that day and rejoice for god had made them rejoice with great joy and the women and the children also rejoice and the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away. I want to preach a message entitled from weeping to worship. From weeping
to worship. Let's pray. Heavenly father, I thank you for this opportunity to preach your message to your people. Lord, would you use us today this morning to communicate what needs to be said? I pray that everyone that leaves that does not know you knows you and I pray that everyone that knows you would give their pain to you today.
Lord, I'm so grateful that you fulfilled the dream of a 14 year old. Man, we thank you for that in the name of Jesus. Everybody said, amen and amen. Can we thank the band? Can we thank this incredible team?
Pastor Daniel opened up the series in the start, not just of the year, but in the start of this church to
rebuild revival, to return to revival. We've been in a series about Nehemiah, and he has done a phenomenal job explaining everything. You know, usually my preaching style usually demands for me for the first ten to fifteen minutes to really just explain the context. In the last fifteen minutes, I get to preach the the sermon because I know that we live in a world that the that even statistics say
that a lot of people don't know the bible. If I ask you what the book of Lamentations was, you wouldn't even know that was a book in the bible. If I ask you how to spell Deuteronomy, you probably wouldn't even know how to say it. You know, you probably don't know this, so we need to explain it. But your pastor is so brilliant at communicating the word of God that he does doesn't just give you good content. He gives you the context of the scripture. So I know that you know about what's going on. I want us to go to the beginning of how this all started if you could. If we could venture back to week one when we open this up, and Nehemiah
got the news that brought him to verse four that made him cry. He gets the news that the walls have not been built. These walls are not just simple walls like me and you when we think construction keeping people out. These walls in this day and age represented something.
It represented that god was with the people, represented that there was protection, it represented identity.
It had so much importance to have walls meant you had security. To have walls meant you had restoration. To have walls meant you had revival. He, Nehemiah, is a Jewish exile working as a cup bearer in the palace and he hears this news that the walls have not been built and when he feels that the walls have not been built, when he hears this news,
it causes him to weep. It causes him to weep for about four months.
He weeps, he's praying, he's fasting for about four months. How do we know this? Because when you open up chapter one, it says, in the month and it gives a name, and that name is a name in the Jewish calendar, which would be pretty much like our November. And then in the second chapter, it says, in this month, in that second month, it's representing in the Jewish calendar for me and you what would be February or March. So been about four months,
and that makes sense. You're probably listening to this and being like, okay. Well, isn't it urgent to build the walls? Isn't it important to build the walls? Shouldn't he have heard it and done it immediately? What made him wait? The same thing that makes you wait, the same thing that makes me wait, and it's weeping.
It's pain. It's sorrow. It's despair. It's discouragement. It's not that you don't have the know how, it's that you don't really feel like it because something happened that stole your joy and now you're weeping. He is reaping in this story because something that's happening with God's people.
But sometimes we weep because something that's going on with our people. Maybe you lost somebody. Maybe you lost a job. Maybe you're going through a disappointment.
Maybe you had an expectation of how you thought your life should be right now. When you were younger, you had a picture. When you were in college, you had an idea. When you started off in career, you thought you would be here. And now you look at your life and you feel like you've settled and sometimes it causes you to weep and you look at circumstance and maybe you got the diagnosis that you didn't expect. Maybe you had to bury somebody this week. Maybe you've had to find yourself in a circumstance where you were delivered bad news and it didn't work out. It's not like the resurrected story. It's not like it was three days of disappointment and then he came back. No. It was three years of hell, and then we got a divorce, and I'm still hurting, and it's still hard, and I'm still weeping, and I'm still scared.
A lot of people in this room, I know either you have gone through it, you are going through it, or you will go through something that will bring you to a place where you feel like you are in a season of weeping.
After service, was meeting a few people out in the lobby and a man, a gentleman approached me and when he talked to me, he said this week, he said just this week, I got the news that someone that I know died. And I don't even know if I have the strength to go and do all these things for the funeral and
it's a normal Sunday. A normal Sunday, he came to church because he got news on a normal day that something horrible happened. And I think all of us can go through a thing in our life that will bring us to a place of tears.
Bring us to a place where we don't wanna talk about it. We try to ignore it. That's why we drink so much. That's why we smoke so much. That's why we party so much. That's why we stay up all night, all night because we don't even wanna have time to think. So we exhaust ourselves and we exert energy all throughout the day just so we can sleep through the night and then we wake up and we do our best to ignore and numb just to get through it. And the reason that we're doing this is because something happened
that made you weep. Nehemiah is a cup bearer. He's a Jewish exile. He doesn't even know construction. God is about to ask him to do something that he doesn't even know how to do.
That should make everyone in this room feel comfortable that feels like god has positioned you for something and you have this family and the family you come from is broken and you're trying to figure out how to make this family home. You got this business and you never not been under anyone. You don't know how to lead a business. You come from this church. You don't even know how to do this thing called church, but you feel like God is asking you to do something and you don't have the qualifications.
But I want you to know that God does not call the qualified. What he does is that if you are willing, he will use you and he you will grow into the thing he's calling you to be. He's a cup bearer right now.
And God's putting a call on him and a conviction on him and he's crying and he's weeping because something is going on and something's plaguing his heart. He knows he has to move forward. He knows he has to rebuild these walls. God is gonna do it expeditiously. It's gonna happen so quick. It's gonna be less than sixty days. God is gonna be creative. People are gonna provide.
Opposition on the outside is gonna happen. Opposition on the inside is gonna happen. By the way, how these walls built is how our lives are built and these are the same things that happen. We experience opposition on the outside.
Life is going well. You're doing good. You got your group. You got your church. You got everything. And then you go to work and you see them. You know who I'm talking about, them. Or you have to go back to the reality of him
and you're loving the lord and you're here at church, but he's out at home and you're trying to sell this faith thing, but he doesn't believe it, and you gotta go back to reality and you're like, god, I need your help. We all have situations that we have to go back to and return to.
But for a season, I think we all do what Nehemiah does and we weep. We weep. I'll get to the work.
I'll get to rebuilding my family. I'll get to rebuilding this business. I'll get to rebuilding what I'm supposed to do, but I, right now, I'm just hurting. I don't wanna tell everyone, but it's hard right now. And I'm going through something, and this is a hard season to be in, but I need God's help.
For a second, thought that helicopter was a piano playing. No. I'm a be for real. I'm a tell you, I'm so sorry. I'm a come out of the summer for a second. But I knew no one was behind me and I was like, is this the angels? Do I got it like that? Like, is this happening right now?
It's like, wow. And Daniel, my wife's not even here to see this moment. Man, they missed it. She's on the way to church. Okay. Back to the sermon. He's weeping. He's weeping because he got news that made him want to weep. I think we've all gotten news out of nowhere that's made us weep. I know I have.
It's a story. I didn't even wanna preach this sermon. In fact, I had another version of this. I told pastor Daniel this this morning. I was like, really wasn't gonna preach it like this and I was gonna use David in chronicles but last night, the lord really, I was in the hotel lobby about to go up to the elevator and I was so tired. We just got done doing some services and I literally just was like, I only have one hour lord. I was like, you got one hour to do what only you can do, and I promise it was like, I became Jimmy Neutron in the spirit. We just figured it out.
And the Lord, I knew that I was supposed to share this, and it was a story about my brother. A lot of times when I preach, I just wanna stay focused on the word of God, and I don't wanna bring present my person, circumstances
in it, but but this happened to me. I lost my brother. I was, I was at a church and I was working and my mom called me on a Sunday night. I'll never forget it and she told me that my brother, Jordan, was murdered and other family members in a mass shooting. I got that news. I weeped.
I know Jesus. I weeped. I know scripture. I weeped. I know worship songs. I weeped. Why did I weep, you ask? Because it hurt. The same reason why you weep.
The same reason why even in the back of your mind, you're like, I don't even like this sermon because it's making me think about what I've been ignoring all my life. I I wanna laugh more, make another joke. I rather do this. I don't wanna think about the present pain because the present pain makes me wanna weep. And we've all been to places in our life that makes us weep.
Maybe you're not Nehemiah trying to build a wall for the people of Israel. Maybe maybe you're you're Joseph and you're just trying to build your life back because you lost some trust and you're trying to earn it back with your family. Maybe you're just trying to go through the day. Maybe you're just trying to build the business and you're weeping. Weeping can keep you in a season for a while, but the key that he had in this in this verse, verse four, is that he did not simply cry.
The bible says he wept and he fasted before the lord.
It's not just going through days and crying because you miss him or crying because it hurts or crying because you miss her or crying because they're gone or crying because it doesn't look the way that you expect. It's not about just experiencing emotion as much as it is. It's bringing your emotions and bringing your situation to the feet of Jesus.
When I weep, I don't weep the same as the world. When the world weeps, they just cry. When I weep, I weep to the lord. And when I weep, he's right there with me. And he's right there with you. If you're going through anything, I want you. If you can take anything out of this sermon, if you can take anything out of what I'm saying, I want you to invite Jesus in.
Just invite him in. You're getting a divorce? Invite him in. You're getting married? Invite them in. Your kids are being great? Invite them in. Your kids are acting like they got demons from the mama's side? Invite them in.
Invite them in. Double portion for those ones. Read the Old Testament. You may need some lamentations. You just may need to do that. Invite him in. Don't regulate him to a Sunday experience. Invite him in twenty four seven.
Invite him in to the temptation that comes when no one's around. Invite him in to the anxiety that you experience when everyone's around. Invite him into the frustrations of your soul. Invite him into the things that's calling you weep. Just invite him in. And when you invite him in, he'll do something in those four months. What happened in those four months before god ever did a revival through him? He did a revival in him.
For those four months of he was weeping, God was working.
I don't just mean that as some fancy alliteration that you can just post on your story. I actually do mean that. That as you have been weeping about the present circumstances in your life, whatever's been plaguing your soul, whatever you've been facing at home, whatever's been in your mind, whatever you've been wrestling with, you don't see it right now, but God is actively around you, within you, and for you. He is working. He's working your perspective.
He's working your patience. He's working your environment. You will look back at this season and say, oh my gosh, I didn't realize all the things God was doing. You know why he didn't realize he was working? Because you were weeping. But while you were weeping, he was carrying you.
And before God ever asks you to build a city, he'll build something within you.
See, the enemy and there is an enemy against your soul. That's why we actually experience what we experience in the world. It's not that just bad things happen because bad things happen. Bad things happen because god created the Earth with an intent. As the angels ruled in dominion in heaven, he intended for the humans on Earth to rule in dominion on Earth.
He wanted us to have authority. He wanted us to have experiences
here. He wanted us. In fact, everything you read in your Bible, when you go to Genesis, you'll see that god is so powerful. He just speaks stuff and it just happens. Light was spoken. Stars were spoken. All these things just were created by him speaking, but when it came to you and me and humanity as a whole, the bible says that's when he began to come down and actually begin to mold. Who did he mold us in his image? And he had an idea.
And his idea had nothing to do with sin, had nothing to do with divorce, had nothing to do with drugs, it had nothing to do with heartache, had nothing to do with heartbreak, it had nothing to do with any of those things.
But even in the beginning in the foundational part of the earth, the enemy, the serpent in the story that Moses writes to tell the people of Israel in the Exodus, how did we get here?
How did we get to this place of sin and pharaoh? And he was writing the story to let them know that even in the beginning, there was a temptation. Some people argue, why did you put the tree in there? Well, if the tree wasn't there, then people would argue, why is the tree not in there?
If the tree wasn't in there, now he's forcing us to love him. And now if the tree is there, then now he's just playing with us. This is a crazy god. No. He's trying to let you know to trust me in the beginning. Trust that everything I say that you need, you have. Don't eat that tree. But temptation came, got to Eve.
Eve got to Adam,
ate the apple, sent into the earth. Right after sent into the earth, God even talked about that the pregnancy pains even pushing a baby, that that pain that you experience is a byproduct of the fall. He didn't want that to hurt. I know it hurt. My wife just had a baby. Was like, oh, that looked like that hurt.
I was I was like, wow. Wow. They were like, do you wanna hold her hand? I said, no, do not. I do not. Said, it looked like she will kill me. It's crazy. But you know that it's a byproduct of the fall, the sweat of our brow. Getting tired, getting stressed out, that's a byproduct of the fall.
So that means that everything that comes with that is a byproduct of fall. So even when we find ourselves in weeping places and hurting places. Even if it wasn't the enemy exactly, it's a byproduct of the enemy because of what he did. It's all sin. So that's how we get here. That's why we weep.
That's why we hurt. That's why we need to return to revival, not just because of what happened before, but what happened in the beginning. So this whole story is god calling a cup bearer
who then you know how pastor Daniel has explained in week two and week three that he this cup bearer finally, four months later, goes to the king, asks permission, and the king grants his permission. Why? Because when god is really on it, it'll just work out.
I'm being serious. When God asks you to do something crazy, it'll just work out. When I first started, when the Lord was telling me, Tyshawn, I think crusades,
crusades. I didn't want a crusade. I was good. I said, we're crusaded out, God. We don't need those. We got TikTok now. You know what I'm saying? Like, we're good. And he was like, no. I wanna return to revival.
I was like, god. And this all happened with me being in the parking lot of Jimmy Swaggart's church, and I don't even know who Jimmy Swaggart was at the time. I'm sitting in his parking lot, and God's putting something in my heart the same way that Nehemiah
was getting something put in his heart, the same way God is putting something in your heart that right now it does not make sense the thing he's calling you to build and do and become. You're probably looking within yourself that all I am is a cup bearer, but then you're gonna go to the king and you're gonna get permission.
I didn't even know who Jimmy Swaggart was last year. And on his ninetieth birthday, I met him and he prayed for me. And I told him what I was doing, and he laid his hands on me. And he says, god is gonna do it in your generation. How did I meet this king? Because favor opens doors.
Told you how I got to sit down with Billy Graham's best one of his best friends. Why? Because that's the king making it happen. If he's calling you to build that business, it's just gonna work out. If he's calling you to be a part of this ministry, it's just gonna work out. If he's calling you to give above and beyond, it's just gonna work out because where he calls and where he guides, he provides, and you will have provision every step that you go. In Nehemiah, he's a cup bearer. He goes and he tells the king. He says, I need to rebuild this wall because god is asking me to do it.
I'm convicted. You know what another way to say convicted? I am strongly convinced. I cannot let this go. I am convicted to build this wall. It has to get done.
The people need to return to revival. We need the walls to be here. We need to be fortified again. We need to have identity again. We need to be protected again. No more shame here. It needs to happen. And the king says, you know what? Let's make it happen.
And then after he gets the permission to build, opposition comes. Opposition is either going to come or it's presently coming. And if you're going through opposition, that is not evidence to stop. It's not.
It's not evidence to stop. It's not evidence to wanna give up. Well, you know, it's getting really hard. Let me just give up on this business. No. It's supposed to be hard.
They say the first five years is the is hard. If you can get to those first five, you're in year three. Just keep going. Just stay faithful. It's supposed to be hard.
You got married and you're looking at your marriage and you were arguing right before and you got out of that car and you were cussing each other out. And as soon as you got out of car, you're like, hey. How are doing? Let's just don't let them know. Don't let them know that I wanna kill him. Okay?
And you wanna give up on the marriage. No. It's supposed to be hard. Just trust god. It's opposition from the enemy telling you to quit the thing that god is actually on. The opposition comes from outside and then the opposition came from the inside, his very own people.
People that you never knew and sometimes it hurts so much when the opposition comes from those that you love that love you and those that you love. And sometimes opposition
from within is not necessarily people actually being hurtful because right now you don't have anyone in this room that I know of. I don't know if you're actively trying to build some construction walls for the city of Arizona
for the benefit of the city. Maybe you are and maybe people are coming against you and they need to stop that. But usually, it's not opposition. Sometimes we feel opposition in silence.
My mom recently, she's 55 years old this year, and she was telling me I I've been talking to her a long time about her story. I said, mom, you should write a devotional. You should do something. And she felt for a long time. She's like, I can't. It's too long. I should've did that back in the day. And I and I pressure her. I really do. I'm a purpose pressure. That's what I do. I will pressure you into your purpose. Like, just do it, mom. Just do it. And eventually, you know what? This woman did it. So can we give it up for my mom who wrote her book? Love is a little devotional.
It's amazing.
And, she came over to my house a few weeks ago and she was sitting down and she was telling me she was like, son, I'm so happy that I did my book and all this I need I'm gonna post about it. All all the things about her book and she said, you know what's so hard is that a lot of people and a lot of friends I thought were gonna say something, they didn't say anything. Sometimes that's opposition.
Sometimes the silence of those that you thought would be loud when you win, it hurts when you're winning and they're quiet. And it makes you wanna stop winning, doesn't it? Makes you want, like, is there something wrong with winning? Is there something wrong with becoming all the things? Nehemiah had his opposition.
I have my opposition. You'll have your opposition. But despite the opposition, you stay faithful and God is gonna do what only he can do. Nehemiah in less than sixty days with the help of Holy Spirit and the help of God's people, he built those walls.
But after he built those walls, pastor Daniel talked about when Ezra got up and he spoke the law. You know, you would think that as soon as the walls got fortified, then that would means that they would start worshiping but that's not how it was.
Jesus didn't exist yet. You can walk boldly to the Throne Room Of grace whenever you want it just because something was built. There were still a lot of standards. There were things that must take place. So number one, we gotta get the walls up. They did that.
Number two, Ezra had to get up. The priest, the leader, the pastor, the preacher, he had to get up and he had to read the law and the people had to hear the law and they had to repent for the law. It wasn't enough that the walls got built less celebrated. It was the walls got built. Why? What do these wall represent?
About
law, law, the law, the leader gets up and he reads the law and as he's reading the law, people are hearing what he's reading. You ever come to church and you just get convicted? Like, you know, you're like, ouch, that hurts.
Ow, that hurts too. He's not gonna go there. Yeah, he went there too. Wow. That he even said it. I can't believe he said it. Ezra is reading the law and everyone
is feeling convicted. They're feeling incredibly convicted. Why? Because they realize how far they long they've left it. They've left god. They've left tradition. They left honor. They left his presence. They don't even acknowledge Yahweh and so what Ezra does is that he preaches and teaches the law so
that people can repent for their sins. What is repentance? It's turning. It's just turning. That's all it is. This is repentance. If you're not saved, you probably think repent is saying a fancy prayer out of the book of Psalms and you'll grow into that and you'll memorize the Psalms and they're necessary and they're needed but repentance is simply this, it's your life is going one way. You're headed down a dark path without god and destruction. You're chasing things like money. You're chasing things like sexual ideologies. You're chasing things like feelings. You're chasing things like goals but you have no one that your life is actually submitted to. Jesus does not just save you from your sin and he's your savior. He becomes the lord of your life. That means he's your leader.
So, without god, you do whatever you want. You go wherever you want and I'll tell you what that will lead you to a place of weeping, a place of sorrow, a place of hell. Does hell exist? I definitely believe it exist on this side of eternity because I've gone through things in my life and without god, it is hell.
When Jordan died, it was not hell because I prayed heaven to earth and I had my help being my helper being the holy spirit and I had god present. Doesn't mean I don't cry.
Doesn't mean I'm not sad. Right before the service, god does these little nudges. I don't know if I said this already but pastor Daniel gave me a pair of Jordans as a gift and I looked at those pairs of Jordans just as a reminder of like, I went through the greatest pain
and now I get up and I get to step into my greatest purpose. Oh, how great god is is to redeems our hurts, to put us to a place that we never thought would would repentance is literally saying, I don't wanna go down this path no more. So, god, I admit I was wrong.
I'm saved. I wanna be saved. I wanna put my faith in you, and then you just turn. You don't turn and run. That's weird. Don't run. You don't have to run.
No one told you to be that weird Christian that you saw online. No one's asking you to be with your TikTok algorithm. We're not gonna lock the doors and ask for $40,000. We don't do that this week. We're doing that next week. So, we're good. Okay? Good. He's just asking you to turn
and then every day take a step and then after a few steps, you will look back at your life and say, wow, how did I get here? Only by the grace of god. That's why Ezra had to preach. He had to get up in front of the people. He had to preach the law. They had to repent
and you would think now, they get to worship. No, they don't because their standards in those orders. Now, he's the governor. At some point, he became the governor. Why? Because god will promote you. Promotion follows those that stay in their purpose. If you wanna be promoted, just keep walking forward.
Even if you're scared, even if it makes no sense, even if you have more stressors than successes, you keep moving forward. And before you know it, you little cup bearer, you little cup bearer, look at you. Now you're a governor. You don't even know how to govern nothing. Amen. But god will make you something
if you believe in him, if you trust him. He'll put you in places and take you to spaces that you would never dream possible and he all does this by the help of god and so now he's the governor. So, he he has to do governor things, legislation things, bring people in from every tribe things.
He has to make sure that everything is organized, that everything proper, that everything is properly in order, that the traditions are there, that the people are there, that the tribes are there, that the people are in place, that the priests are in place, that the people now know and the walls are good. Are they good? Have they been dedicated? Is the choir to the left? They're to their left or the choir to the right or to the right? And that's how we get to
chapter 12 verse 43.
It's been one year. In one year, he went from weeping for four months. What if I told you that just one year from now, it'll all be different. And one year from now, what you used to cry about will now bring you joy. Oh, I still cry when Jordan is gone because he's still dead. He's still away.
But I smile because god is still good and I am still here and the enemy didn't get to win. So, I I I wanted you to know this. I didn't get a chance to tell this to the first and second service but for the third service, I I have a little bit more time and so I wanna tell you this that when I open up in Nehemiah chapter one verse four, it says that he was weeping, weeping unto the lord. We gotta weep into the lord. Right? So, you know, there's a lot of weeping for four months. For four months, there's weeping. I'm gonna say
something that you don't have to be a theologian means someone studying the Bible or a preacher like me or pastor Daniel to notice something very obvious in verse 43. They offer great sacrifices
that day and rejoice for god made them rejoice with the great joy and the women and children also rejoice and the joy of Jerusalem was heard far away. Five, in Hebrew writings is to bring emphasis.
It's to make sure that you don't miss the moment that is trying to communicate something to you. Five, also in the Bible represents grace because the thing that god is asking you to do will come with the grace that he will provide. Five,
is the writer making sure you know that a year ago, you were in a place of weeping but a year later, you're gonna be in a place where you're have joy in front of you.
Joy to the left of you. I know you don't feel it now. You're have joy to the right of you. You're gonna have joy behind you. You're look up but there's gonna be some joy there too. You are going to rejoice. The reason that it says women and children is because usually for these ceremonies,
this would be something regulated to the priest and only to men. So, usually for this, it would be only men
but because they understand that we all got our god back and he's not just the god of men. He's the god of men and women and children. He's the god for everyone. This is not just something for the men. This is something for the people. So, god brought Nehemiah from a place of weeping. Imagine,
in a year, you become a position in the city and you start off as a cup bearer and now a year later, you're a governor and you're just seeing a whole bunch of people rejoice so loud that you could hear it far away. Far away. How joyful does it need to be for people to hear the joy far away? That means it was loud.
That means it was real. That means that you know, if there's anyone who can scream, it's not a woman, it's a child. Ever just let a kid go crazy and just shout and you're like, you demonic creature, you. What is going on? That sound is not meant to make noise. That sound is meant to give praise.
I got up this morning and I was emotional because I thought about me sitting down in the sermon. I don't wanna be selfish but sometimes when I'm preaching, I'm thinking about a 30 year old black man with curly hair who has glasses. And I'm wondering, does it work for him if if his brother died last night?
Is this sermon more funny than helpful? Is it more about you than Jesus? Are people leaving knowing more about the scripture than your fancy stories, Tyshawn? Or do they know?
And so this morning, I had to correct my heart. I had to correct my perspective even though this gets to be a fulfillment of a dream to a young 14 year old boy. It's not my moment. This is god's moment
and I know that there's people in this room that maybe you're going through something that hurts so bad that you think because it hurts so bad, you don't have to shout and give god praise. No. He still deserves praise because our praise is not predicated based on our circumstance nor is it predicated on how we feel.
The reason that we praise our god is because he is worthy to be praised. Simply, the angels who are who are in heaven right now. There there's a group of them that there's job. It's a crazy job. I'm like, that's an insane job but their job is every day to talk about how holy he is.
Just to give him praise. He knows he's holy but when we're reminded of his holiness, when we praise him, praise does three things. Number one, it tells the enemy and there is an enemy against your soul that I was describing from the beginning of this world.
It tells the enemy that your life is not predicated by your present circumstance. No matter who died, no matter what money is not there, no matter who walked away, no matter how hard it is right now, no matter what it looks like, your praise is not dictated by your present circumstance.
When you lift up your voice, you are telling the enemy, I know I'm hurting but he's still worthy.
I know I'm I'm I'm hurting but he's still holy.
I know I'm hurting but he's still worthy of all of my praise. I don't care what circumstance I'm going through. I don't care what headache I have. I don't care how hard it is to get out the bed. If I can't get out the bed, Imma praise him in the bed. If I can't clap my hands, I'm just going to make some noise with my mouth. If I can't do anything but murmur, I'm a murmur unto the lord. Why? Because he is worthy of my praise and the enemy.
You know where I was the first week, the first weekend my brother died? I went to a church. I told the enemy, who do you think you're messing with?
I'm committed to this church thing whether I wanna be or not. Something is pulling me to it. Even if I wanna leave it, I can't leave it. I'm gonna go in the house of god. So, I lift up my hands and I worship. Why? Because he's worthy. So, it tells the enemy that my circumstance is not gonna dictate my praise. Number two, it tells your yourself and you need to hear this. It tells you, you, your mind, your body, your soul, all your emotions. Praise tells yourself, we're gonna get through this.
We're gonna get through this. We're gonna get through this.
This family thing is hard but we're gonna get through this. These bills are stacking but we're gonna get through this. This is hard. They're dead. They're gonna get through this. I don't know how to be a dad. He was gone. We're gonna get through this. I don't know how to be a mom. She's gone. We're gonna get through this. I'm gonna praise him. So, my praise tells the enemy,
you don't control me and it tells myself
because sometimes Tyshawn needs to know. Sometimes, you need to know. I don't know who you are, ma'am, but the whole sermon, I'm just kinda drawn to you and I feel like the lord is doing something in your life. I don't know what it is. If this sermon is only for you and you leave with a new found perspective knowing that one year from now, everything is different. I did my job and god did his job because a year from now, I don't know what you're believing for. I don't know how hard it is. I want you to play this moment back in your mind forever that one year from now that it will be different
and not just for her but everyone in this room. Praise tells the enemy, I'm not controlled by my circumstance. Praise tells yourself, we're gonna get through this and praise tells the lord. You are still worthy. So I'm gonna ask the men and the women and the children
because no one's except for praising god. You know there's a verse that says, if we don't cry out, the rocks will. I've never seen a rock with a lip. Never. But I never want to either. Because while I'm on this earth, someone's gonna praise him.
So I wanna invite some people into this room. What we're gonna do is I'm gonna do the salvation call right now and then we're gonna do the last part of the sermon because I want I want the new saints to be invited into this thing we're gonna do at the end.
If you're in this room and you do not know Jesus and you need to repent for your sin, you need to turn from your ways, you need to submit, you cannot follow this God and another God. There's only one way. There's only one way. This is Jesus.
This is the cross. There's only one way. It is much more important not just to have Jesus to get to heaven, but to have Jesus to endure Earth. You need him. He changes everything in your life.
I want you to accept him as your lord and savior or return back to him. This great story of Nehemiah building the walls is a returning back to him. So, maybe there's some people that need a return. Maybe there's some people that need to come first.
Whoever you are, I wanna pray with you. If you all could bow your heads and close your eyes. If you're in this room and you don't know Jesus, I wanna give you an opportunity to put your faith in him. We're gonna sing. We're gonna say a simple prayer but if you believe this prayer, if you confess with your tongue and believe in your heart that Jesus Christ is lord, you are going to experience salvation.
Salvation is not just the end of your story, it's the start of your story. Philippians says that in chapter two, we work out our salvation and fear and tripling. This is the start of a new beginning.
So, if you're in this room, when I count to three, want you to raise your hand and we're gonna celebrate you. One, you know who you are. Two, I want you to pray. Three, one, two, three. Lift your hands. Lift your hands. Oh, Scott is so good. Can we just celebrate all the hands that are lifted? Can we just thank god?
And if you guys could, I want everyone to repeat this prayer. You can put your hands down. I want everyone to repeat this prayer after me. I want you to say, Jesus, say it loudly. Say, Jesus, come into my life. Be my lord and be my savior. Today, I put my hope, my trust, and my faith in you.
Amen. Amen. Can we give it up for everybody who just got saved?
Just got saved. Just got saved. Such a, it's the best decision you'll make. Well, to conclude the sermon. So, for the new saint, you just got saved a minute ago but now I got some work to give you because you give something you have to do. I want everyone in this room to stand. I want everyone in this room to stand.
And we're going to praise and then we're going to pray. We're going to praise and pray. When I met Jimmy Swaggart, he prayed over me. He's old. He was 90 years old and he said something real quick. It was three Ps. You know, he's a preacher because he had alliterations. He says, pray, praise,
and proclaim. Proclaim the word of god. Praise what we're about to do and then prayer what we're also about to do. I'm gonna ask you to praise.
I'm gonna ask you to praise even if you have a funeral to go to next week. I'm gonna ask you to praise even if your life is not what you wanna be. I'm gonna ask you to praise even if it's not your personality preference. I'm gonna ask you to praise because praise is something that he asks us of us.
So, let us give him what he's worthy of. If everybody do it, it's not weird. It's only weird if like a few of you guys don't do it. You know what I mean? Like, if this section says no and then we say yes,
y'all are weird. You know what I mean? So, we don't want that to happen. So, I want everyone to praise him because he's still good and we're still here and you're still standing and I know he still hurts but he's still holy. So, let us praise him one time. One,
it's gonna be awkward. I know. I know. I know. It's not your personality. It's okay. I'm here with you. I am your black instructor today. Okay, we're gonna do this. One, two,
three. Give him a shout of praise. God, we thank you. God, we love you. God, we're we're on we honor you. We are grateful for you. Keep giving them a praise. Praise him broken. Praise him broke. Praise him frustrated. Praise him in pain. Praise him with the disease. Praise him after the miscarriage.
Praise him after the loss. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him. Praise him if you're tired in your body. Praise him if you're crazy in your mind. Praise him because he's worthy. He's worthy. He's worthy.
And we're gonna end it now as praying. I'm gonna ask pastor oh, wow. He's there. Okay. How long were you there? Ten minutes. Ten minutes. Yeah. I've been here. No. I'm just kidding. I just got here. Just got little. Just got here. Pussy back there. Okay. I just got Jeez.
Thank you. See? Give me some right there, man. Thank you. Thank you. That's what I'm talking about. Alright. So, I wanna do something.
Like I said before, this is a fulfillment of many things. One, before I became an evangelist, I was watching him when he was just a teaching pass, not just a teaching pastor. He was a fantastic teaching pastor and I was learning how to do what I do. If you were blessed at all, it's really because of him. It's me studying leaders like this that are so gifted. They can make it about everything but they choose to use their abilities to point it to the scripture and to the word of god. So, I learned it from him. So, to be able to preach for you is a is a genuine honor. He's so awkward to honor because he's so a humble man. And that's how you know sometimes when they don't say like, yeah, you better say it, but this is a fantastic church to see this in less than two months. Oh,
lord, to see what god is gonna do in this city is amazing. To be able to preach for echoes is just a privilege.
But I was praying that we would have a moment because, last year, I I was preaching overseas and this one man grabbed me. He was one of the last people that grabbed me before I left. And he said, as an evangelist, there's one thing that I think you need to do. And I was like, okay.
He's like, you need to pray for healing. He said, go back to The States. They're so used to everything that they don't even wanna believe a healing. Pray healings.
Believe healings. Yeah. And when I left, I wanted to but I'm be honest, I was afraid to, but then something's been happening. This last year, God's been doing a stirring in me. I've been praying this week for a lot of the families because he's made me aware. And Jared, I wanna pray for you. You know, second Kings,
believe it's second Kings 20 chapter chapter 20 verse five or first Kings, but one of them doesn't matter. There's a story in the Bible where this king receives the word. He receives the word, and the word concerned the ending of his life. The word came from the lord so it was taken as truth. He turns.
The man gives him this this news, this king. He turns and he walks away and the king prays. Just prays. It is powerful to pray. To close your eyes and just think really hard, that's not praying. That's thinking. And we need people to think. But we need to pray. God, I pray that that you change your mind
and I pray that you bring healing. God, I don't even know if this is a real thing but god, I pray that you heal my body, that you just, you change your mind. Lord, would you do it in the same man that gave the news? He stops and got a new word. Turns around and says, the Lord is adding fifteen years.
I want us to pray for Jared. I want us to believe for Jared. Jared's a good man. He's an anointed man. Plays the base. He serves the church. He loves the lord and even to be in the church right now.
Man, just shows you. I feel like me and Jared, you know, we're different color complexion but the same thing. We get news and we still know where to go. We know where to go and we know what to do. Can we extend our hands to Jared right now? And can we pray a supernatural prayer of healing over him? God,
I thank you for Jared. Yes. Lord, I thank you right now for your healing power. I thank you lord that healing is still what you do. By your stripes, we are healed. That's what Isaiah says. You're the god who heals. That's what Exodus says
and god, we are asking you right now to prove it to your people and prove it to your word. We believe in faith in the power of healing. So, god, as a people, we pray for our brother. The Bible says in Acts chapter 12, while while Peter was kept in prison, the church was praying for him. Lord, I thank you that Jared has a church that not just thinks about him and gets to thank god for the gift he is but we pray for him and we are praying healing over his body right now, lord. From the top of his head to the soles of his feet. Lord, we thank you for the power of healing for it to be an existing. We ask for it to manifest. Lord, right now, I ask that you would send your power of healing. May it be documented. May we see him a next Easter playing on this stage. Lord, we thank you for it. In the mighty name of Jesus.
Amen and amen. Let's thank God for what he did today.