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I grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, in Lafayette Projects. My mom went to jail, my daddy went to jail, my brothers went to jail. We moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, where I was introduced to the streets around 13 or 14 years old. After I finally graduated from high school, I was hanging around one of my best friends named Nitty. His mama was a correctional officer, and when she went to work, we would steal her car from the driveway. We'd go to the gas station every day, take turns running in to steal a case of beer, then go back to his house and set up his room as a studio. We wanted to be rappers—we thought we were Lil Wayne and Master P.
But then people introduced us to how to make money on the streets. We'd hang together every day, go to the neighborhood to hustle, and come back to his house. One night I stayed out really late and told Nitty I was tired and would catch up with him later. I got a phone call that when Nitty walked into that house, two people were standing there waiting on him. Nitty would fight his way through battles, so he was going to fight his way out of this one. But I got a phone call that Nitty was shot to death and laid in the streets.
It was at that moment I knew that I had a reason to praise God.
I did some stuff in life that I wasn't even saved, didn't even go to church, didn't even have a person—but I had a praying grandmama that was praying for me in the household. When I called her, she said, "No, baby, I was praying for you. I knew one day you would be somebody. I knew one day that you would come out of what you in. I just allowed you to go ahead and do what you doing." But my grandmama used to pray for me and used to say, "God's going to cover you in spite of that."
I don't know who I'm talking to—whether you're in the room, online, or in overflow—but I'm talking to somebody who would say like grandmama would say, "If it had not been for the Lord on my side, I don't know where I would be."
There's somebody in this crowded sanctuary who ain't ashamed to say, "I done done some stuff I never should have done. I been some places I never should have been. I sat down and skipped some bullets that was meant for me." Some of you had a good mama, good daddy, good cousin, good uncle, good grandmama, but you still managed to slip away. You went to school and hung around the wrong people, but just so happened you didn't get what they got. That's because of the prayers of your grandmama and your whole household.
David said in Psalm 34:1, "I will bless the Lord at all times and his praises shall continually be in my mouth." There are two commitments in this text that David had.
First, he said, "I will bless the Lord." In Hebrew, the word blessed is barak. It means to bend a knee, to posture yourself before God. It means to speak well of him. I got a lot of things to speak well of God about. He may not have did what I wanted him to do when I wanted him to do it, but he did something for me. And the reason why I bless him is because he did something for me.
Y'all be praising for the big stuff. God put food on my table. I got a house I can live in. I got a bed with some covers on it. I got some heat. I got a frying pan to put my food in. I got a car to drive. The gas is high, but I got a full tank of gas.
But thank you, God, for the little stuff. Thank you that I got breath in my body. I can still breathe. It's those little small thank yous that you speak well of God with. Don't nobody got to pump you in praise when you realize those little things count. I know you got a laundry list of problems, but he woke you up this morning. Somebody prayed for you when you couldn't even pray for yourself. You ought to thank God.
Praise is just not a sound I make—it's a position I take.
Then David says, "His praise shall continually" be in my mouth. Continually means a rhythm of worship. That means I worship him in rhythms. I might get up this morning and praise him. I might be sitting at my desk typing up something and a praise may hit me. I might get in my car at the red light and think of the goodness of Jesus. Some stuff just ought to get you stirred up. I might just think of the goodness of Jesus and all he's done for me, and my soul will cry out hallelujah.
When you have a rhythm of worship, you might be in the grocery store. You might walk in and see a big yellow sale sign and be like, "Ooh wee!" You might bust out in praise right there at the sale line. Praise be in you so much you can't help yourself but to praise God.
The lamp in the tabernacle, as described in Leviticus 24:2, was burning continuously. That's the same continuously we see in this verse. The lamp would burn continuously, meaning it never goes out. It always maintains, which means praise is not a moment—it's a fire that stays lit.
When you stay lit in praise, no matter what happened, because life going to life. And if you let the life that is life-ing bring your life down, you're going to mess around and miss when life start really happening for you. But if you get caught up in life that be life-ing, you're going to put your fire out and you ain't going to have time to praise God even in the midst of the storm.
I'm going to keep on praising God even though life is life-ing. It stays lit continuously—it's a praise on you that stays lit.
Praise is not an emotional reaction. It's a continuous decision. It's to honor God with your posture and proclaim his goodness with my mouth regardless of your circumstances. Yeah, it's not an emotional reaction. It's a decision that I make to praise God regardless of my circumstances.
I may not have enough, but I still praise him regardless of my circumstances. I may have been praying for a husband for a long time, but I'm still going to praise God regardless of my circumstances. Why? Because he could have been keeping me from something. He could be keeping me from damaging myself, from getting into something too fast. So I praise him even when I feel confused.
Praise is a posture before it's a sound. It's just not the posture that you give physically. Sometimes it's a posture that you give inwardly. I praise him because inwardly I know him. I have the heart for him. I didn't get the heart for him because somebody else told me to. I have a heart for God. I want to do right. I want to live for him. I want to be with him.
I don't go to church just because it's a ritual and we go to church on Sunday and we just got to be there. I go to church because I want God, and I want to get connected to people and community. Psalm 133 says how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. When everybody come with the right posture and heart, something start breaking out in the room.
I was sick, but suddenly I ain't sick no more. I was depressed, but suddenly it went away from me. I was stressed, but suddenly because people were in the room and the glory spread around, something happened. When you posture yourself to receive what God has for you, you open yourself up to what he wants to do in your life.
We're at Palm Sunday. It's Holy Week happening right now. Jesus told his disciples, "Go over there. I need you to get this donkey. And if anybody ask you what you doing with this donkey, tell them the Lord have need of it." They went and got a donkey and brought it back. He got on the donkey and they took off their clothes.
He could have came on a horse because the horse represents war—I'm in charge. But he came on a donkey to humble himself. Plus, it was a prophetic moment. In Ezekiel 9:9, it tells us that Jesus is going to come on this colt and he's going to be the king and everybody's going to proclaim he's the king. The prophecy is being fulfilled right here. Because he's coming in peace, he's not coming as a conqueror king—he's coming as a saving king.
When he starts riding, the people begin to shout, "Blessed is the king." But they didn't just shout praising for no reason. They shouted praising because they had history.
There's stuff in church that we got to teach you—when it's time to shout because many of you got history with God. I don't just shout because I see the king. I shout because I got history with the king. And when he shows up, I recognize him.
The problem with some of us is we don't have no discernment. When God show up, you don't know. And when the devil show up, you think it's him. But God says, "No, I got history with him. I know it's him when he show up. I know when God is in the room. I know when the enemy is in the room. I have discernment to know who is who."
They also saw miracles. They also heard his teaching. They knew it was God because they heard his teaching. They had some word in them. They knew he was coming. They knew the prophetic word. They knew he was healing people. They saw him raise up Lazarus. He was dead, and he came and raised him up. They saw all the miracle signs and wonders that he did. So when they saw him, they weren't guessing who he was. They were responding to what they had experienced.
My praise is a response to what I have experienced. I remember 2 years ago during the pandemic, I was depressed. People left me that I thought were holding me down. People I thought that I prayed for and we walked through their house and prayed for—they left me.
When they saw Jesus, they weren't guessing who he was. They were responding to what they had experienced. My praise is a response to what I have experienced.
I remember two years ago during the pandemic, I was depressed. People left me that I thought were holding me down. People I thought I prayed for, people we walked through their house and prayed for—they left me. I was depressed.
And God says, "Hold up. The only reason why you're depressed is because you think it's about you. But when you get you out the way..." We like blaming folk for the stuff we're going through. If folk never been your idol or your God, you would have never been depressed in the first place. I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to me. So he said, "You got to give me control of that action and I can get rid of your depression."
See, we want to be fake now. We want to just say every experience you had was so good with God. No. No. No. Some of my experience was a correction. Get up boy. You up there talking about who you love and how you got faith in God, and then you going to come down here and act like you're depressed like God can't do what he told you he can do?
He can do exactly what he said he can do. Just because you go through a rough moment, a rough time, and you got to fall down and get back up, you think right now it's time for you to get back up and be sad and be depressed. The devil is a liar. Get your butt back up.
I want to declare to five people in this room: that divorce you went through, you had to go through it. Get back up. Wipe your eyes. That broken season you had to go through—you had to go through it. Get back up. Wipe your eyes. Those people who walked out of your life that you thought was cool—get back up.
It was the experience that made me know who he was. It was the experience I had.
Now the Pharisees came to him and said, "Teacher, hold up. They too loud. They calling you a king. Hold up. That's too rough now. We the king over here. Make them shut up. Rebuke them, Jesus."
But they didn't have a problem with the noise. They had a problem with what the praise was saying. See, some people don't have a problem with the noise you making. They have a problem with you declaring.
Some people want you to be broke so you can need them. But the moment you get where God is and you know who is the provider for you, they're mad. Because now you're calling God your provider and not them. So some people are mad.
You don't need them no more. See, it wasn't you in the first place. You thought you helped me pay my bills. No, God told you to give me that money to pay my bill. You're mad because I don't look at it like you gave it to me. I look at it like God put it in you and made you come give it to me. You didn't rescue me. He did.
I don't care what they say about you. I don't care what they say to you. I don't care how much they throw it in your face. Look at somebody and say, "It was God and only God. He is the only man that can come and rescue me and pull me out."
They're calling you king, and they don't even think you're king because they think you're trying to come here and snatch their power. We had them people oppressed, and God came for the oppressed. The people who were oppressed—the people in slavery following their rules. So they're mad that the king is coming.
But check this out: They came and said, "Teacher." Teacher equals someone I can lean or learn from. Master, Lord, King equals someone I must submit to. They weren't mad that he taught them something. They were mad because they had to submit to what he taught them. It's easy to get teaching and walk out of here playing. But it's harder to say, "No, Lord, I'm gonna submit to that."
It's easy to say, "Hallelujah. That was for them." But it's hard to say, "Hallelujah. That was for me." Maybe I need to submit to something today. I've been playing games for too long.
Maybe the reason I haven't stepped into that business that I had a business plan for wasn't because I didn't have the money. Wasn't because I didn't have the stuff that I need. Maybe it was because I wasn't fully submitted to God and he knew if you got it, you would lose your everlasting mind and think you did it.
They were scared: "Hold up. If he turns into my king, that would mean I would have to submit." Don't be playing God like you just coming here to get your problem straight. God said your problem can't get straight till you submit to his will. And when you submit to his will, all things will work together for the good of them who love the Lord and are called according to his purpose.
The reason why things ain't working together is not a failure of his promise. It's because you're not keeping your promise. That's submission to his promise.
In their minds, the Messiah was coming to take over, overthrow Rome, flip the system, remove current leadership. And if he takes over, they lose position. That's why people don't want you to get saved. Because if you get saved, they lose the position in your life.
Don't go home and say the pastor told you to leave your boyfriend because you're just dating and not married. No, go home and say I submitted to God's will. And if we don't get married, we can't stay together. If you don't make a commitment, we can't be together.
Because the moment you fall in love with Jesus, you want everything in your life to shift. You know that if you do what Jesus says, there's some stuff you can accomplish that you couldn't do in your own will.
There were times in my life that I knew I could not accomplish in my own will. I was the first in my family to own my own home, to build my own home, to be married for twenty years. That's why I'm so happy that I'm married for twenty years. My mama didn't do it. My daddy didn't do it. My granddaddy didn't do it. Ain't nobody did it. But I couldn't have done that on my own. That was not something Kurt could do.
They used to call me Kurt Diggy. Some used to call me Killer D. None of that would have happened if I would have stayed those names. But now that I'm a new creation, old things have passed away. All things have become new.
I dare you to walk up on the path of your life and say, "I'm a new creation. Old things have passed away." Why you don't call me no more? I'm a new creation. Old things have passed away. Why you don't converse with me no more? I'm a new creation. I don't gossip no more. I'm not jealous no more. I don't get into wrong business. I ain't into your business. I'm into God's business. Yeah. I don't care nothing about you losing your position. I'm in position with him.
They weren't responding to who he was. They were reacting to what they thought he would do. Write this down: How you see Jesus determines how you respond to him.
If you just see him as a provider, that's how you're going to respond. Every time he provides, you're going to respond. If you see him as a healer, that's the only time you're going to go to him. And I'm not saying he's not all of that and some, but if you only see him one way, that's who he's going to be in your life. That's the only time you're going to respond in your life.
You're only going to praise him when he's giving you something because that's all you see him as. But when you see him as a king, you will get like the old people and say, "When I think of the goodness of Jesus and all he's done for me."
Yeah, because my response ain't based on what he does for me and when he heals me. My response is based on who he is to me in my life. My response is based on that I talk to him each and every day.
See, when I first got saved, I just had to talk to God on my knees. But now I'll be in the car like, "Yo, God, I done messed up that one, man. God, you going to have to come and get me out of this one right here, dog. Player, it's looking bad for me. I'm thinking crazy now, God. You know, I grew up in the streets. I smoked a whole lot, God. I drunk a whole lot. It's going to take one more move, God, for me to go back to who I used to be. And if they mess with me one more time, God, they going to get the old Kurt now."
I feel like cussing them out, God. See, y'all too holy for me. I know I'm spiritual, but no—I'm human and I'm spiritual. I need the altar. You think I'm on the prayer team just because I want to be on the prayer team? I'm on the prayer team because I need to be at the altar. Because I'm telling you right now, it's going to take one bad turn and it's going to be another turn. So I got to be at the altar. I'm not just on the prayer team because I'm the biggest spiritual person. I'm praying at seekers because I need it. I got to stay close to him.
He didn't come to take power. He came to give them authority. He came to give them authority. Somebody say "Authority."
Luke 10:19 says, "Look, I have given you authority over all the power of the enemy. All power of the enemy. And you can walk among snakes, scorpions, crush them, and nothing will injure you."
And you know why people so mad? Because you took a licking and kept on ticking. They thought you losing your job, you was going to lose your mind. No, baby, it hurt, but it didn't injure me. They thought you losing that man was going to lose your mind. No, baby, it hurt me and I'm human. I took a licking and I kept on ticking.
I bet about five people in here say, "I've done been through some stuff and I took a lick, but I kept on ticking." Yeah, yeah, yeah, it won't injure me. It won't—
You got to start telling stuff right now. "I may have took that, but it ain't going to injure me. I'll be all right tomorrow." See, sometimes you got to say, "Y'all, I'm going to just chill. I need to go home. I got to get in my prayer closet." Don't be getting mad at people because they don't answer their phone. They didn't answer their phone because they just need a moment. Be like, "Why you ain't answer your phone?" Because I needed a moment. And I knew talking to you wasn't going to get my moment. So I couldn't talk to nobody but God. It was me and him in my car, in my house. Just give me a moment because once I get with him, he'll remind me of who he is in my life and that he gave me authority.
Somebody say, "Authority."
When you get the right revelation of who Jesus is, praise stop being optional. It becomes inevitable. When you get the right revelation, this moment demanded response. When you really know who Jesus is, silence is not an option. Y'all can't be quiet.
I know you came here because you thought PMJ was here today. But there ain't no reason for you to be silent in here. The Lord is here.
See, y'all folk be making people idols. And the moment they don't live up to what you think they going to live up to, then you're mad and you done made somebody an idol. No, I love my pastor dearly. I thank him for praying for me. I thank him for covering me. I thank him for picking me up from places that I was in. But he ain't Jesus. And he won't mind me saying that. Because Jesus is in one spot. My pastor is in another spot. But Jesus is my God.
So I can't be the chosen frozen. I know what he done for me. I know how good he's been to me.
Write this down: Why you praise God so much? My praise isn't phony because I got the scars to prove it.
This is resurrection weekend. You know doubting Thomas—he said, "I got to see it. You got to bring it to me." And Jesus went back in the flesh and said, "Come here, boy. Touch my side. Feel the scars I have to prove that even in the midst of these scars, these nails, I got up. Now God has fulfilled his prophecy and I am who God says I am."
The reason why some people don't understand who you are is because they haven't seen your scars. They don't know that you got the scars to prove it.
Look at somebody and say, "You looking at a miracle." I dare somebody to type in the comment section and say, "I'm a miracle." You looking at a miracle. You want to see a miracle? You looking at one right now.
I've done been through some stuff. I've done had some stuff happen in my life. I got the scars to prove it. My praise ain't phony. Yeah, the reason I praise him like I do and it's so easy for me to praise him is because I got scars to prove what he's done for me.
I pray right now something shift in this room. You better than who you are. Do you think you are? Just because you had to go through that, you better than that. You got the scars to prove that God loved you. He's for you. I got the scars to prove it.
Number two: I praise him because I praise him for his grace and mercy. And whenever you see the word grace, some of you get in your mind that I can do whatever I want to and God's going to give me grace. But grace ain't that.
Grace is the door he opens that I didn't qualify for. It's favor I didn't earn. No, I didn't earn it, but he gave it to me anyway. Grace says God's going to open the door up that I never prayed for. That I didn't qualify for. But when I walk in the room, they going to point you out and say, "It's something on them that I want from you."
You didn't even fill out the application for what you wanted to get, but God going to pick you out of everybody else and say, "Yeah, I want them."
You've been faithful for a long time. You've been going to church when you didn't feel like it. You gave when you didn't have it. You paid your tithes when you didn't really have it. And you said, "God, I trust." That's grace. Grace is the favor that he gives you. It's something on you that he gives you.
And mercy. Somebody say "Mercy." Mercy is the love he's shown me in spite of me. I told y'all I be thinking crazy sometimes. But God be showing me mercy. God be giving me opportunity to still preach his word, talk to somebody about his word, serve. Do. And I know I don't deserve it. I know I got some issues.
See, we don't come to church to fake it, man. We come to church because we need a savior. I need him. And his mercy is the reason why. Somebody say, "Mercy."
His mercy is the love he's shown me in spite of me. It's God not giving me what I deserve.
Number three: I praise God because I want to be close to him. Yeah, praise is not just about what he's done. It's about where I want to be.
Those of you who know—I got twins. I got two little boys and they in the whine season right now. If you got kids, you know by the time they hit three, oh, they whining everything. CJ whining because DJ won't give him a toy. "Why you whining, boy? See, DJ said no to me. Well, go get another toy."
And you know, sometimes as parents, it irks you. "Why you whining all the time?" It got so bad that I give him a little soft hit in the chest. "Wait till you get a little older now. I'mma—it's going to get harder and harder. We got to toughen up, bro. Come on, bro. I'm taking them to Ensley to play football, y'all. I ain't playing. We going over there. We got to get rough. I'm from the hood. They got to get rough a little bit."
They cry. My wife, she sometimes she hard, sometimes I'm hard. But CJ will go to the room because my wife really hard when it's time to go to bed now. 9:30, the TV going off. I'm a little softer, you know. They know they can get it out of me. I don't want to turn the TV off. They ain't watching nothing bad. They like Numberblocks. They trying to learn.
She turned the TV off and here comes CJ. He know I'm coming. The moment he opened his mouth up, I'm—"What's wrong, buddy? What's wrong? Mommy turned the TV off. She in there asleep. Let's turn it back on, buddy." Thank you for calling me. I turn it right back on. We chilling. We watching TV. But he knew if I yell, so he got the hang of it.
I'm taking my kids to Ensley to play football. We need to get rough a little bit—they need to understand that we don't just cry about everything. My wife and I balance this differently. She's hard when it's bedtime; at 9:30 the TV goes off, no exceptions. I'm a little softer. The kids know they can get it out of me. They'll watch Numberblocks and learn, so I don't want to turn it off. But when my wife turns it off, here comes CJ. He yells, and I come running: "What's wrong, buddy? Mommy turned the TV off. Let's turn it back on." We chill and watch TV together.
But here's what I realized—he knew if I yelled, I would show up. So every night, he started doing it again. Every time she turned the TV off, he would yell because he knew Daddy was going to show up. He wasn't even shedding real tears. No liquid came down his eye.
That's why I tell the prayer team sometimes—we got to discern. Some people aren't crying because something is wrong. Some people are travailing, trying to get God's attention. CJ was just trying to get his daddy's attention to come turn on the TV. And every time he would yell, here I come. I'm the cool daddy.
My wife sends them to school with apples and oranges. I sneak an oatmeal cookie in the bag. They know it. They know they can get it from Daddy.
CJ got to the point where Friday night he's laying in bed with the TV on, and there's nothing on. So he tells me, "Daddy, turn on Numberblocks and I'mma just stay in here. I'mma stick with Dad because I know that if I stick with him, what I want is already here."
And that's the problem with us. We praise God in church, but when we get out there, we don't stick with Him. You got to have some stick-to-it-ness.
If you're going to praise Him in here, when you get in that car, at some point you got to say, "Hold up. If He showed up in there, He'll show up in my house. He'll show up in my car. He'll show up at my job. He'll show up where I'm at."
Some of us don't have no stick-to-it-ness. You just praise Him because somebody got a microphone telling you to praise Him. But I'm going to praise Him when don't nobody say nothing. I want to be close to God every chance that I get.
