I am a 52 year old follower of Jesus Christ. I Received the Lord in my life when I was 16 years old. That’s right; it was early 1973 when the spirit of God took up residence with me. I am born and raised old school Baptist. I have to admit, I have had numerous discussions about the type of Gospel Music Kirk Franklin plays. I do not particularly care for ol school secular music being used with lyrics that praise God… and honestly, I have always struggled trying to understand the music of Tye Tribbett. All of that changed Saturday at the 2nd Annual Kansas City Gospel Joy fest. I was blessed to be in attendance and see these two men of God in performance, along with James Fortune and Crystal Aiken. Regardless of what you think of Kirk Franklin’s and Tye Tribbett’s music approach, there is no question that these young men know our LORD Jesus Christ, Love our Lord, and their music ministries serve our Lord. We had a praise party the likes I am ashamed to say I had never experienced before. I need to get out more to these kinds of events. James Fortune started things off. I love young people who know the Lord and know how to verbalize it. I had not heard any of his music, but when he sang “I Trust You” it spoke to my heart. I was instantly encouraged. He was followed by “Sunday’s Best” winner Crystal Aiken. Lord, can she sing. At one point, she let us sing with her as she led us acapella through the ol classic “Do not pass me by… Savior, hear my humble cry”. Just thinking about it now brings tears down my cheeks as it did that day. Oh what a time… after a short break, which by the way all the breaks were handled very nicely by a Christian comic known as Bone Hampton, but without any introduction, this young man whom I had come to see, came to the stage and simply set the spirit of God loose in Worlds of Fun. Kirk Franklin is electric and as he said himself “I’m a mess yall” just like me. He left it all on the stage, he praised the Lord so hard Tye Tribbett came out from the back and joined him on stage because Kirk just did not want to stop… and I didn’t want him to stop. Let me just say this one more time, I am so encouraged when God reveals himself working in young people, young people who get it. By the time Tye Tribbett came on, night had fallen, the lights were on and I wasn’t sure what to expect from this dreadlocked, backpack wearing young man, but he answered that right out the box. While we were sitting there waiting in anticipation, commotion could be heard down on the front row. I could see a young man who looked like Tye Tribbett going across the front row shaking hands; he came up the aisle and shook everyone’s hand he could reach. Like Kirk Franklin earlier, who got so excited while on stage, he jumped off the stage, walked half way up the middle of the crowd and just turned our praise party out and took it to another level. Tye was in the middle of the crowd, security was trying to get to him, but he was with God’s people and we was loving him. All of a sudden the music started, we looked to the stage, his band and all his singers were on the stage setting the spirit of God loose. Tye walked through the crowd, joined his band on stage and the praise party continued. There is no question, like Kirk, Tye knows the Lord, Loves the Lord, and is in the service of the Lord. Isn’t that what it is really all about? I wrote this because I know how spiritual we get; I know how set in our traditional ways we are… “Because there go I except for the grace of God”… but I want to encourage you… If you get an opportunity to experience these young people do not deprive yourself of the message that God is sending through them to you. Tye was joined on stage by Kirk Franklin for his final song, Victory… oh my Lord. This weekend in KC, at the Joy fest, we got the message, “If he did it before, he’ll do it again. Same God right now, Same God back then”. Ain’t that the truth?