12 Noon Bible Study | 21 Days of Action, Day 9 | Dr. Mike Woods, Sr.

In a world filled with conflict and division, where strife threatens to tear us apart, we are called to a higher purpose, a greater destiny, to advance the kingdom of of God and superimpose heaven on earth. Together, we explore the wisdom of God, the wisdom of his word, and we discover a pathway to fulfillment, to peace, to harmony, and unity. Join us for our new teaching series, Taking Action Against Strife, as we seek to bring peace and understanding to our world and to our lives. Together we can make a difference. Well, grace and peace everyone. Good afternoon. This is the day that the Lord has made and we rejoice and we are glad in it. Listen, this is day 9 Do you guys realize we're almost halfway through the fast? And I don't know about you, I am just really being blessed, uh, in every way, you know, by this fast. I feel stronger, I feel lighter, I feel better even in my body. I mean, I'm— I listen, I'm, I'm clicking on all cylinders, and I'm just really grateful for that. So a pleasant good afternoon to everyone. Like I said, I pray that you're well. This is indeed the day the Lord has made, and we rejoice. Glory to God, and we are glad in it. Thank God for a great prayer this morning. Glory to God. See all of you here. God bless you, daughter Kiara. Good, good to know that you're feeling better too. Glory to God, that's a good thing. Praise God. God bless you, Pastor Jasper, Dr. Tam. Glory to God. God bless you, Shannon. God bless you. Glory to the name of God. Uh, Andano. I hope I'm saying that right. Andano Lashawn, glory to God. God bless you. Welcome. Thank you for being here with us. Glory to the name of God. Welcome to everyone. Good to see my wife again, and I just saw her in person. Glory to the name of God. So good to see, uh, all of you on today. It's such a blessing. Uh, do me a favor, family. Uh, you know, you know the drill. I'm gonna ask you again to share this. This is going to be a tremendous teaching today, and I want to make sure that, uh, we get this out into the hands of every person that needs it. Glory to the name of God! Because, um, believe it or not, today we're gonna close out the whole teaching on— glory to the name of God— taking action against strife. This is going to be the final lesson because really, I think I'm right, but I could be wrong, is like the last message in the series. We just have been breaking it down in like 3 different parts, and, uh, so we're on the last part of this. And so we want to make sure that we get this out, that people are blessed by it. Uh, listen, I hope to God that this, this truth that is being, uh, disseminated to you— you know, the Bible says that we speak the truth in love, and you know, that basically we speak the truth because we love. Glory to the name of God. And You know, sometimes I know it could appear hard, you know, but it really is not if you, if you open your heart and receive it and just apply it to you. Glory to God. And, and just work through it and work with the Father to really manifest and get done the things. Glory to the name of God that he wants to do in your life. Glory to God. And I promise you, uh, you'll be blessed. So please, guys, go ahead and share this. And, um, let's jump right into the heart of this teaching today. I'm going to pray. Father, we give you praise, we give you glory, we give you honor. We thank you, Father, for another opportunity to share your word today. And Father, we know we can do nothing without you, and we know that the Bible tells us that the grass withers, the flower fades. Glory to God. But your word, glory to God, shall stand forever. So Father, we decree and declare that your word is eternal. And God, we thank you today that even as we teach your word, we will be accurate. We will not miss it to the left nor to the right, God, and we'll be on point, and we will share exactly what you desire to say. God, crucify the flesh of Michael Woods and don't allow this flesh to be seen. Hide it behind the cross, God, in the name of Jesus, and let your glory be revealed in this teaching. Father, we thank you for where we're going. We thank you for what you're doing. And we thank you that no weapon formed against us can prosper, in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Glory to God. God bless your hearts again. And like I said, welcome, welcome, welcome. So here, here today, guys, um, yeah, I wanna, I wanna go ahead and jump in this because I want to make sure we get finished right. So, um, I want to just review some of the things that we have discussed, uh, in this series really quick, and then we're gonna, we're gonna teach on this end matter. And, um, because I just want us to be very clear that we got to take action against strife in a huge way, and we got to make up in our mind that we're going to defeat it. Glory to the name of God. So there's a few things. Good afternoon, Mia, good to see you. Glory to God. Listen, there's um, a trick of the enemy where he many times will try to lead us to believe that, oh my God, we're at peace, we're okay. And you know, again, those buttons are still deep embedded in us that can be pushed. It just takes the right one, the right thing to set us into conflict. And we just want to make sure we eradicate— we're free from strife in every way. And I just want to, um, go to— go through a few things. First of all, we have learned, glory to God, that strife, you know, it's a very dangerous thing, right? And, uh, what we've been trying to do is expose it, glory to God, and show you that, hey, walking in this can be, you know, detrimental to your blessings. You know, we've looked at some things that drive these spirits, so I want to kind of, um, just go over this again. So the spirit of strife, okay, this spirit, the strongman is strife, right? So this demon, he operates with a lot of friends though. And so we've kind of pointed out what they are, um, so throughout these teachings we've learned, one, that the sword of bitterness Uh, it's housed inside of strife. And I know we've been teaching this a while, that's why I want to go back through some of these things. So when you, you operate in unforgiveness or bitterness towards someone who has wronged you, um, that literally is a two-edged sword that's constantly cutting you and it's constantly cutting you away— watch this— from the ability, the aptitude to uh, trust God like you should, because you start believing everybody, including God, is against you. And that's what we was talking about, being at peace with yourself and with others and with God. Because at the end of the day, bitterness will cause you to be against yourself, God, and everybody else, because you think that— you always carry a sword of bitterness because you're on the defense all the time. You always think someone is against you And the reality is that's not the case. And, and when you like that, most of the time it's a root of bitterness that you need to identify and, my God, address and get free from. Okay, so we talked about that. We talked about, uh, deception. And so while the sword— I'm just trying to paint a picture of how this spirit would be dressed if you saw it in person. So it'll be carrying a sword, and it would be— the sword would be a sword of bitterness. Glory to the name of God. And then it will have on a cloak like a cape. I want you to visualize this in your mind. And this cloak would be a cloak of deception, where, you know, anybody that's operating in strife oftentimes is covered in deception. And deceived people— let me say something to you. If you're operating in deception, you really are worse than a liar. A liar is extremely clear. Hear me, that they are telling a lie. When they tell it, they know it. But a person that's deceived, they think they're okay, they think they're right. So they walk around in this cloak. So dismantling this spirit in people can be a lot. That's what I'm trying to show you. So you got a sword of Bimby, you got a cloak of deception where You just think you're right, and that's why you constantly are in contention or in conflict with other people, because you got this cloak on and you think you're okay. And I'm telling you, I could teach this, man, because I had to get delivered from the spirit. I mean, and being again going through seasons of abuse, uh, rejection, you know, going through seasons of my life of, of a massive failure, man. I, I became so bitter against God. I was bitter against people that— y'all ain't got to really say nothing today, but at the end of the day, this is just for real. Yeah, I was bitter against people that did absolutely nothing to me. I was always looking for a fight, and I needed deliverance, man. And there was a deception that believed I was entitled to go off. I was entitled you know, glory to God, to get upset and be angry with people because they were not abiding to what I felt like they needed to abide with. And really, that's crazy because really people have to answer to God. And at the end of the day, I have no control of that. So I'm thanking God today for deliverance so I could teach you about this, you know, because I have been there, I have done that. Glory to the name of God. And I'm liberated and I'm free in the name of Jesus. Why I could teach this message with such, uh, uh, enthusiasm. Glory to the name of God and victory, because at the end of the day, I've been here. So also, I'm just trying to show you what it looks— got a sword of bitterness, a cloak of deception, and then around the waist of this spirit was holding the pants of this demon up. Oh my God, is a, is a belt that's got a hammer on the end. This is just how I'm visualizing this. And this is the hammer of judgment, where any opportunity we get, we pull out this hammer and bam! Wanna, as my wife would say, browbeat people and beat them over the head with judgment and beat them down because we're in strife. The spirit is controlling us. Oh my God. Oh boy. Oh my God. Okay, let's go to the top of the head. Let's go to the top of here. Uh, so there's a helmet. I want you to see this. There's a helmet, there's a cloak, there's a sword, there's a belt. Glory to God that this demon wears, uh, and then there's a helmet of pride, which the, the regulation in the mind— again, I think I'm right, but I may be wrong— pride is controlling the, the whole activity. It's the, it's the control center of everything that happens, and we're going to talk about that in a moment. So there's a helmet of pride, glory to God. Out of the mouth of a person that is moving in strife, the mouth— and we've covered all of this in this, in this series— it speaketh forth lies. It doesn't tell the truth. It'll lie to be satisfied. Oh my God, it'll lie to appear right. The spirit of strife will lie to get what it wants, so it's constantly speaking forth lies. Okay, there's a breastplate that this spirit wears, glory to God, and it's the breastplate not of righteousness, it's the breastplate of unrighteousness, because all it wants to do is protect its right, so it thinks, to do wrong things and to do others wrong. That breastplate is constantly trying to protect that heart of being unrighteous with other people. Oh my God, today— hey, it is Pastor Jeffrey, you got it, sir. Glory to the name of God. This is a perverted, uh, identity of the full armor of God. We should be putting on the full armor of God. When walking in strife, we're actually putting on the full armor of strife. So listen, there's also a shield, and it's a shield of hate, you know, and that's a defensive weapon. You know, so at the end of the day, they're defending, you know, again, the idiosyncratic way of being and doing and trying to justify through hating people. I got a right to hate. I got a right to be mad because I'm a Black man in America. No, you're in conflict. You don't have a right to be angry just because you're a Black man in America. Truth, Black people have had it hard in this country, but at the end of the day, if I'm a believer, when I come to God, listen, my hardness is lifted. His burden is easy, his yoke is easy, his burden is light. I'm not a transgressor against the way of God anymore, so my way is easy. So I don't have, I don't have to hate people. Glory to God, glory to God. This is yet protecting the right— yeah, Pastor Jeffrey, to— glory to the name of God— feel like you can just continue in sin and continue to treat people bad and belittle people and downplay people, glory, because you're hurt, because you're upset, because the vestiges of your past have— oh boy— have dealt you a bad hand. And all of us have things we've gone through. Uh, listen, you— we've all been through things. There are tons of people that have been through sexual abuse, through molestation, through rape, through abuse, all these type of things in their childhood. Listen, at the end of the day, glory to God, we get saved, we get delivered, we get free, we find peace with God, and we don't have a right to continue just because we feel like something happened to us in the past. We feel like this gives us a right to be mean-spirited, hateful people, and it doesn't. Come on, guys, I'm just trying to help you so you don't get that shield. Hey, watch this. You also got something on your feet, and this is the last piece of this armor of this spirit of strife. I'm telling you, this is a strong man. It's the boots of anger. Everywhere you go If you're traveling, your feet run to mischief, it runs to anger. And at the end of the day, man, your feet should be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, not of anger. Are y'all hearing me? Glory to the name of God. I'm gonna get— I'm gonna, you know, I love AI, so I'm telling you what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna type these attributes in my AI software and I'm gonna get it to render a photo of what this would look like. And I'm going to share this with you guys because I can visualize it. I want you to see it because at the end of the day, when you get in strife, these are the things you're subjecting yourself to. And I just want to make sure that we really take action against this, this year, and that we rid ourselves of it so we can live a life in peace and joy and love and faith in the Holy Ghost, because really that's what he wants us to do. Glory to God. So let's, let's jump into this today. I just wanted to kind of really review that, man. Um, you know, we've learned some things. I talked to you about the couple because strife robs you of— I just want to remind you a few things, and once I start teaching, I won't be long. Um, I talked to you about the couple that had a, a Bible college, and they lost the whole college because they were warned prophetically to get the strife out of the college in the leadership, and they kept the strife in. Show you how dangerous this is, and the whole college was burned down by fire. My God. My God, my God. Listen, let me tell you something. You, you, you can destroy your life, your destiny. We talked about how it takes out businesses, uh, we talked about how, uh, there was one teenage believer I gave you an example of. I'm just going back through a few things that turned to drugs because she said she can't see God in her parents and all she saw was strife in them. She was saved and the parents were bickering all the time, so she left God because she saw strife in her house. I'm telling you, you got to understand that God will— things will be hindered when you walk in the spirit. So, so let's go, let's go today, let's go. Glory to God. Let's go, let's go, let's go, let's, let's jump in this. So I think I'm right, I may be wrong. This is the third, uh, installment of this. Glory to God. Hello to you, Iris. Welcome today. Glory to God. Well, glory to the name of God. Butterfly Talks with Tam. God bless you, Butterfly Talks with Pam. Welcome, Tam. Dr. Tam, I love that. God bless you. Glory to God. Welcome everybody. Listen, I need you to understand something today. Glory to God. That as we talked about yesterday Every human, you're in your own eyes, you're right, right? And you got to deal with that because you're not right all the time. And we talked about yesterday how there's only one right but God. And this starts with pride. And I told you that when you operate in pride or arrogance, arrogance leads to aloneness. I want you to keep this in your head. You probably heard me say this before. I said it yesterday and I probably have said it many times to you before, but I want you to get it in your head because this is true. Arrogance leads to aloneness. Nobody wants to be around a prideful, arrogant person. All right, aloneness leads to abortion because you cannot fulfill purpose in isolation. You end up aborting the original intent for you being here. You need people around you. You can't do purpose by yourself. You need help. So arrogance will cause you to run the people that are supposed to serve you in purpose and to work with you in your vision away. And instead of getting mad at them— hear me, hear me, hear me, hear me with all the love you possibly can, leaders— don't get mad at people when they leave you for your arrogance. That is going to happen if you're arrogant and you're not humble. And you're not— it's not their fault, it's you. You got to look at you. Glory to the name. If every time people gravitate to you, they leave, you need to think about that. You know, if, if you can't stand a relationship, you know, it— maybe it's not the other person, maybe it's your arrogance you bring to the table. And then you abort, you know, the purity of having sound relationships, having good solid people in your life. Oh my God, Jesus. Because you come to the table full of pride, glory to God, and full of arrogance. And that really ain't God's will. It's not his plan, ladies and gentlemen. So you got to humble it down. We talked about that in this teaching. You got to walk in humility. Arrogance leads to loneliness, and loneliness leads to abortion. Abortion leads to adventurism. You start taking these uncalculated, unaligned risks, which means the risks you're taking now are not risks of faith, and they're not aligned with God. They're things you're doing on your own— watch this— that God didn't ordain nor call you to do. Oh my God, today. Oh my God. You take it, you're an adventurer. You never find your way, you're a vagabond. We talked about that. And then finally, arrogance leads to aloneness. Aloneness leads to abortion. Abortion, adventurism. Adventurism leads to adultery. Adultery means to be satisfied by something that doesn't belong to you. So the connotation is not just sexual unfaithfulness to a married person, but— oh my God— but to be an adulterer It deals with the fact that you are satisfied with a purpose that God did not— oh my God— that God did not ordain. Ecclesiastes 3 says, to everything under the sun there is a time and there's a purpose and there's a season. So every one of us have a purpose. Many other plans in a man's heart, but it is the purpose that prevails. So when you're being satisfied in a life, on a job in a culture— oh my God— in a relationship that's not purpose, it's adultery. So it's not just sexual or faithfulness to a spouse, but when you're not doing what you should be doing, you're in adultery. So we want to make sure that our arrogance doesn't keep us there. So let's deal with it today. So let's talk about a little, in the end of this, knowledge and pride. A lot of times when knowledge comes into our life, we have to be careful, as we learned this morning, that the knowledge of God— we are God-inside-minded. Boy, I wish I could teach that again. I didn't realize, guys, that the music was so abundant this morning. Matter of fact, I thought I had— I actually cut it off, and then Felicia came in the studio and said, hey, the music's too loud. I saw, uh, Shannon's comment about the music, so I thought I turned it off. But then I— listen, if you can listen to that again, those scriptures are so solid about being God-inside-minded. Take notes, write those scriptures down. Just go through the comments. Uh, Pastor Jeffrey, Kierra, uh, you know, they are very good about putting the scriptures up. So make sure you go through, glory to the name of God, and scribe those scriptures, studying them so you can become God inside-minded. At the end of the day, we should be thinking through God's vantage point for our life, his vantage point for our destiny, his plan for us. It's one thing to have the lingo, all right? And we talked a little bit about this this morning. It's one thing to have the title, the position, you know, to, to study it and be able to rehearse it again to others. But it's another thing to take that same thing that you studied, rehearsed again to others, and live it and see the fruit of it in your own life. Charity starts at home, then it spreads abroad. I'm really not that impressed that you could preach it and teach it, you could pray about it, if you can't live it. If it's not manifest— I, I could talk about prosperity, I can talk about open doors, I could talk about opportunities, because I have seen those things, my God, manifest in my life because I'm God-inside-minded. But when you start operating in this realm of not living what you're articulating, what you're trying to tell others, it's a dimension of pride. And so when you get in this, I think, I think, I think, I think— and you ever heard, talk to somebody and they say, oh yeah, I think Every time you say something, well, well, I think— because they feel like what they think is always going to supersede what comes out of your mouth, and that's a dangerous place. Let's go to Corinthians 8. 1 Corinthians 8. 1 Corinthians 8:1. Glory to God, we love God, he's a good God. God bless you, Apostle Smith, good to see you. Glory to the name of God. Hallelujah. God bless you, Daughter Zion, love you, good to see you. God bless you, Dr. Cargill. God bless you, Apostle Andrea. Good to see you guys on here today. Glory to God. Uh, 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 1. The Bible says, now as touching things offered unto idols— listen to this— we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up— listen to this— but love edifies. Glory to the name of God. So here we go. The Bible said, now as touching things— let's, let's just break this down. This is a very important verse that, uh, the Apostle Paul is traveling through to introduce a concept about alignment with God to these people in Corinth. He starts out because they had some idol worship. They watched these— oh my God. Well, so let's, let's just break it down because the word here, touching, is peri, P-R-I, touching. Now this means it's where we get words like periscope, periodontal. The word peri means around, right? It means that, that it— so you talk about per— periodontal in your mouth, that's your gum area, that's around the donto, the dentics, the tooth. So periodontal, which means around, or, uh, what— listen, let me tell you something. Periscope, a round view. Glory to the name of God. Glory to the name of God, that, that takes things that is far and brings it near. So it means to— oh my God— become a part of what's around you. So it doesn't just mean to touch it with the hand, it means that you actually get involved in what's around you. And there are a lot of believers, guys, who are involved with systems and ways of living that are totally out of alignment with the word of God, and they have accepted it because pop culture has accepted it as right. And I want to submit to you this afternoon, just because pop culture says it's right does not make it right. Glory to God, there is only one authority for the believer, and it is the constitution of the kingdom. The constitution of the kingdom is the word of God. It is the final authority of how we live. We should not be touching systems that do not align with God's way of doing and being right. Glory to God! Are y'all getting this? So he says, you have touched— in the text— idols. Wait a minute, what's the idol, Michael? I'm glad you asked. It is, it is something exalted as a deity or giving priority to. Oh boy. Yeah, so it's not just that you got here and start worshiping a statue of Buddha That, that would be idolatry too. Uh, but when you start giving things priority before God, before his kingdom, before his way, before his plan, before his purpose, you have created an idol. And watch this, there are many believers in this thing called Christendom in the body of Christ that have created idols to men, that have created idols to organizations. And the reality is, because we are so iconolistic, we follow popularity, we follow clicks, likes, we follow— oh my God, oh yeah— views. And at the end of the day, we think because if it's hot, it's right. If everybody else likes it, it's right. And 9 times out of 10, I'm just gonna be totally honest with you, it's the direct opposite of that. Most of the time, if it's super popular, it's wrong. Most of the time. Because at the end of the day, things that are meaningful— whoo, God— things that challenge you and stretch you, things that call you to a different standard, they're not going to be very popular. But things that feed what you want to do, they become the popular order of the day, and people have idolized that. Glory to God. And at the end of the day, we got to be careful that we don't touch idols, because what it'll do— glory to God— we'll get that knowledge And the Bible says here that knowledge will puff us up. It'll make us arrogant. It'll feel that we can prioritize that over God, and we start justifying ways to make what God said null and void, what the word said. Listen, the word is the word, man. And you know, if somebody feels like they need to be gay Here's what I'm asking you, and I'm just— I'm asking you nicely, right? All I'm asking you is don't bring the word into that because that's what you want to do. But don't try to change the Bible to make it fit the fact that you want to live in homosexuality, or you want to be a lesbian, or for that— for that matter, you want to be a whoremonger. Glory to God. Listen, at the end of the day, we can't change the Bible to make it fit what we want. That's arrogant. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. We can't change this word, man. It says what it says. The Bible says not one jot nor one tittle of this word shall pass away. This word shall stand forever. You again, you got people out here talking about we need to write a new canon. The devil is a liar because they think they got an opinion about something that hasn't changed in ages. Oh my God, listen, we cannot change this. This is not just some archaic book. The Bible says in Hebrews that the word of God is quick It's alive and it's more powerful than any two-edged sword, piercing asunder that which is soul and spirit. It is life in this book. It's the only book I've ever— I've read a lot of books in my time, but this book is the only book I've ever read that, that I, that I feel something when I read it, that I am on shikate bamansa, that when I read it, I go off in tongues, that I read it, I feel like running, that Sometimes I read it and I can't do nothing but weep because this book is alive. And it is arrogant to think that we can reprioritize this book and declare because, you know, there's a feeling I have in my body, or when I look at someone that's the same sex as me, You know, come on, man. No, no, you can't. Don't change this. What, what you can do is embrace it and find truth in, in God being able to bring freedom for the areas you need freedom. Oh my God, God, I give you glory. We can't change this, people. It says what it says. Ah. It's the word of the living God. It's alive. Whoa, it's alive, it's alive, it's not dead, it's alive. And if you really fellowship with this book, you will discover just how alive it is. The truth will set you free, man. So this word says that knowledge, when not handled correctly, will puff you up. And cause you to try to reprioritize. But the Bible says, but love— watch this— it edifies, it builds up. So love will build up another person. Glory to God. When you love somebody, you don't seek to tear them down. You don't even use this book to tear them down. You speak truth in love, and love builds up. Oh my God, love builds you up. It builds you up. That's what edifies means. It encourages them. Listen, if I'm in your presence and you're carrying the love of God, even if we disagree, I shouldn't feel worse about myself. Than I felt when I came in your presence. I should feel good. Yeah, I didn't understand it growing up. I understand it now, you know, I guess a little bit. I understand it now a little bit. But before my mother would whoop me, she would always say these words, and I quote, this is going to hurt me more than it's going to hurt you. I love you. End quote. I'm standing there looking at this lady with a stick saying, her getting ready to hit me with that stick is gonna hurt her more than it's gonna hurt me, and she loves me. I can't connect the two. Help me. I'm 5, I'm 6, I'm 7. However, I got whoopings all the time. Glory to God. But at the end of the day, I never got How this hurting you more than it hurts me? Because I'm the one feeling the pain, I'm the one crying. But you know what was happening? She was not sparing the rod so she wouldn't spoil the child. She wanted to make sure that the problems she observed in my behavior were being adjusted And she was chastising me because she loved me. And I didn't understand that. I didn't understand that then, but I understand it again, like I said, a little bit now, a little bit now, why I got beat down the way I did. Glory to God. But she was edifying me. She was making me stronger. She was making me better. She was making me understand that there are consequences for wrong. So love, even in the process of building us, sometimes it chastises. You know, it's not to tear us down. You know, knowledge by itself will tear down, but knowledge coupled with love will build up. Glory to God. Knowledge is trying to tear down because knowledge is walking in pride to try to make itself look good. Oh boy. A lot of people browbeat you with that hammer, walking in pride with the helmet of pride. It makes them pull out that hammer to browbeat you, to make them look good to themselves, because you really don't look good to the person you're beating down with your words, with your actions. You think you're right, but you may be wrong. Yeah, that's pride, man. Go to 1 Corinthians 1:19. Let's go, let's go. Bashia, we give you glory. Same, same book, 1 verse 19. 1 Corinthians 1:19. Glory to God. Y'all ready? Hallelujah. God's got a remedy for our pride. He's got a remedy for our haughty ideas. Let's read it. For it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise. Yeah. And will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. In other words, God is saying, I'm gonna bring down the haughty ideas, the prideful ideas that come out of your flesh, that come out of your carnality, that are born out of the spirit of pride. He said, one way or another, I'm gonna bring this thing down. Matter of fact, he says, I'm going to destroy it because all it does is hurt people. And so God says— and we learned this yesterday— through humiliation, because you refuse to humble yourself, because there can be no humiliation, humility without humiliation. God says, I'm gonna humiliate you if you don't bring yourself down. So here's a suggestion, guys: bring yourself down. Right? Bring yourself down. Do what's right. Glory to God. Bring yourself down. Humble yourself. Stop operating this anger, this pride, that you think you have a legal right to be nasty. You have a legal right, glory to God, to treat people bad. You do not. And arrogant religious people are dangerous because they feel entitled to trying to control you with their nasty demeanor. And the reality is, that's not what this is about. This is about moving in love. Glory to God. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter number 2 and verse number 2. Uh, we're moving along. Glory to God. Are y'all with me today? Glory to God. 1 Corinthians 2. Shabandi kosorabaya. 2. Glory to God. 1 Corinthians 2:2. 2 and 2. Glory to God. Watch this. It says, for I determined to know anything among you save Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. And him crucified. Paul said, look here, I ain't trying to get in your business because there's another dimension of knowledge. He said, I'm not whispering around gossiping about you, trying to find out what's going on with you, trying to find out why you did this, why you did that, who you was with last night. Listen, he said, I don't want to know nothing among you. You got some preachers, because they don't know how to pray for people, glory to God, they, they become the Holy Ghost police, you know. And so they, they pull up, pull up on people, glory to the name of God. That's crazy. I'm not coming by nobody house. Listen, I'm gonna give you the truth and you work out your own soul salvation with fear and trembling. I'm too busy, I got too much to do than to be pulling up on you trying to see if you living right. No, that— once I give you the truth, it's your responsibility to live holy. You know, I've heard preachers said, Doc, Doc, man, I pulled up on her and somebody else was at their house other than their husband. This— I ain't got time. Listen, that's crazy. Why do you want to do that? If God wants to show you that, he'll show you that in prayer. If you feel that, pray and find out how to, in love and in wisdom— recent people, all I want to know is Jesus. All I want to know is him crucified, him resurrected. And that's where you ought to be. It's prideful to want to have knowledge of everybody else's business, being a busybody, want to be in everybody else's stuff. Listen, you got enough stuff on your own. I got enough stuff on my own. To worry about what you're doing and what you're not doing. What I'm gonna do is pray for you. What I'm gonna do is give you the word of God. What I'm gonna do is be here for you if you need me and not judge you. Are you hearing this? Glory, am I? I give you glory, God. But I feel Jesus. I feel Jesus. Glory to God. I'm trying to hold my peace because I want to get through this. Glory to God. But Paul said, look, I want to know nothing but Jesus, him crucified, him resurrected. I want, I want to, I want to be clear about the revelation of his death on the cross, and then, and, and the fact that I'm dying daily with him, and I want to experience the power of his resurrection. Glory to God. And I want to see that manifested in you, is what he said. Glory to God. That was his goal— nothing but Christ. Listen, that ought to be your goal. When God gives you knowledge, exalt Christ through that knowledge. When he gives you wisdom, exalt him through that wisdom. Let him get the glory, because again, you're God-inside-minded. Glory to God. My God, today Can I share something with you? You ready? You sure? I want you to type it in the comments when I say it. Being nosy, curiosity, and carnality, they all go together. Being nosy, curiosity, and carnality, they all go together. You— we can tell You are walking in your flesh when you're always curious about somebody else's business. Glory to the name of God. I'm gonna give you an innocent example of it because it's very innocent. My baby, my grandbaby, she's 5 years old, but because she loves me, she always wants to know my whereabouts. Glory to God. And I always tell her, I said, kill your nosy I'm not nosy. That's what she said. I'm not nosy. I just want to know where you are. She— so if I go out the door, where you going, Papa Mike? I come back home, where you been, Papa Mike? And if I don't answer quickly, did you hear me? Because she's curious. She wants to know, but she's operating out of an innocent, uh, tsuke, an innocent soul that wants to connect with where I've been. But that innocence— glory to the name of God— if not careful, if you use it wrong, it can grow into a deadly carnality. Glory to God. To be carnal-minded is death, where you're constantly more concerned about everybody else's business than your own. Oh, we— oh, we— yeah, yeah, yeah, being nosy, curiosity. And carnality, they all go together. So, you know, you always worry about what your neighbor's doing. You know, don't start worrying about that car that's in your neighbor driveway that ain't her husband's car. Stop worrying about it. Just pray for her. Come on, because you got to walk in the spirit so you don't fulfill the lust of the flesh, because you know what your next step is going to be? Tempted to talk about her. When really you don't know what's going on. Glory to God, you really don't. You just keep seeing this car there and you keep seeing this man get out. Well, maybe there's a plumbing job going on in the inside. Listen, you, you don't know what's going on. Glory to God, you just think you know, but at the end of the day, your job is not to be nosy. Glory to God. I sitting down in restaurants watching people, just being nosy. Glory to God. Talking about what you see. Come on, listen. At the end of the day, we need to be focused on Christ, his crucifixion, his resurrection being manifested in us so that people can be affected by our presence in a positive way. I'm almost done. God have mercy. I got to get through this, man. Go to Genesis 3:5. Genesis 3:5. We're going all the way back to the first book. Glory to God. Genesis 3:5. I pray y'all learning something today. Glory to God. This is day 9, y'all. Glory to God. Somebody said, I don't know what Apostle talking about. I'm not nosy, I'm just curious. But it's the same, they're in the same boat. Glory to God. I just want to know what I want to know. No, you, you nosy. Glory to God. And you need to deal with that because that's carnality. Glory to God. I'm working on you. I love it, I love it. Uh, Genesis 3:5, the Bible said, for God doesn't know that in the day you eat thereof— here we go— your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Watch this. The fall of man came from being nosy, from being curious, from being carnal, from the desire to know. God clearly says, this tree right here, don't touch it, don't eat the fruit thereof, and tells them what will happen if they do. If you do, you're gonna know good and evil. And then you're going to be in disobedience. You're going to be out of place. You're going to miss all of the great things I have for you as my creation. Hmm. Because God said no, it made them want it, right? Listen, you got to deal with that curiosity, man. Put it to bed. Put it to death. You know, glory to God. I mean, even when people start bringing up conversations like that, you need to dismiss yourself. When they start talking about what they curious about, even in their sexuality, get out of those conversations because you don't need that in your spirit. Listen, you— again, you need to be curious about the vastness of your God, the power and authority and the amazingness of You're God. Glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. Glory to God. That's good, Shannon. Not my circus, not my monkeys. That's the truth. Everybody's got their own circus. Glory to God. Everybody's got their own circus. Glory to God. Everybody's got their own circus. Deal with it. Deal with— tame that circus of your own. Glory to God. That's real good. Glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. I love the Lord. He's a good God. Here's what I know: when you are walking through life, there are going to be days— and I'm closing with this— where you get offended, where people will do things to you. Or perhaps you've already been through that. Someone's done something to you, past tense. You want revenge. You want to vindicate yourself. I'm closing, guys, but here's what I need you to do. Instead of vindicating yourself, instead of thinking you got a right to vindicate yourself and go off, fight, choke, kick, scratch, whatever you do, shoot, you don't have a right to do it. I need you to trust God. Come on, to be your vindicator. This is the final point. Trust. See, if you do learn this one right here, you'll master strife. Because most of this demon is driven to conflict because it's trying to victimize someone, and many a times it's trying to victimize or Oh my God, somebody commented on my post on Instagram yesterday and I liked it. God, it was— they said to me, saying the victim become the victimizer, they said that's weaponized victimization, which is the truth. Glory to God, you weaponize your victimization and you go around now because you're on this vindictive spree trying to take out everybody in your path so you can get back at the person that victimized you. And most of the time, the people you're victimizing, they ain't got nothing to do with what happened to you. So here's what you got to do. You got to trust God to be your vindicator. Good God, good God. You know why? Because God's a just God and God loves justice. He loves us, and he could do justice better than we ever can. Glory to God. That's why you got to fall in love with him and his way and become— again, we prayed about it this morning— God-inside-minded. Glory to God. So that we are— so that God is in the driver's seat, we're in the right car, God is driving us, taking us to the right next— the right destination. God loves justice. Isaiah 61:8, let me show it to you. Isaiah 61:8. The Bible, the Bible, the Bible is right and somebody is wrong. God, hallelujah! Isaiah 61:8. Say that with me. Say, God loves justice. Good God, God loves justice. God will fight for us. That's right, Dr. Tam. Glory to God, he'll fight for us. Glory to God. Isaiah 61:8, the Bible says this: For I the Lord— watch this— love judgment. I love judgment. I love judgment. Hear me, guys. God says, I love judgment. This is so good. Y'all ready? I love misphat. M-I-S-P-H-A-T. Misphat. Misphat. It means that I love justice, I love equity. I love paying you back. I love taking care of business for you. God says, I love that. So why in the ham sandwich would you go out here knowing this now? Okay, okay, let's forget about what happened in the past, but with the current knowledge acquired, why would you go out now another time and try to vindicate yourself for something someone has done to you. When God says, I love you and I love justice, I love misfat, I love to give you equity, I love to handle business for you, I love to fight on your behalf and make sure you're rewarded for what you went through. Oh my God. Oh my God, he's a just God. Wait a minute, wait a minute, he ain't through. He said, I hate robbery. I hate the fact that someone robbed you, took from you what they didn't rightfully deserve. They robbed you of your innocence through molestation. I've been there, I've been there, I've been there. I wasn't molested by a man, but I was sexually abused by a woman. I was too young. Glory to the name of God. I— glory to the name of God— 14 years old for a grown woman to sleep with me. Too, too young. Way too young. Way too young. Glory to God. I was robbed. I was robbed. There was— there's no way to be 14, but to be 14 and to be at home and— or to be at a friend's house in a space— glory to the name of God— where you think you're safe, you're robbed when that happens. And that happening to me, guys Jesus, it creates anger. It created anger in me. I realized today that that is the source, the root of a lot of the anger I experienced in my past, because I was robbed. I was helpless. Something was taken from me that I wasn't ready to give. And maybe perhaps it— maybe it wasn't a molestation or sexual abuse for you, Maybe it was another kind of abuse, but maybe you've been robbed. Maybe you were bullied. Maybe you're still a victim of being bullied by people and you were robbed by— there's no— listen, I want to say to you, it's not your fault. Hear me, hear me, guys, hear me. I'm talking to somebody today. It's not your fault. Stop beating yourself up. Glory to God. Stop beating yourself up about something some ignorant adult did to you. Oh God, it's not your fault. It's not your fault. Stop downplaying who you are. You were robbed. It was a thief, but God says, I love you and I'm gonna give you equity. I'm gonna give you justice. Glory to God. Glory to Jesus. Thank you, Father. Glory. Shatama siato. He says, I'm gonna give you justice for what they did to you, so you don't have to vindicate. He said, I hate robbery for burnt offering, and I will direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them. There's a covenant in place. Glory to God. That protects you from the vestiges of your past, that's going to redeem the vestiges of your past. So you don't have to fight, you have to defend yourself. You have a freedom to be who you are, to live your life in God, to be happy, to love, to trust. It's not your fault. It's not your fault. Y'all excuse me, I'm sorry. Isaiah 62. I'm, I'm almost done. Isaiah 62:2. Glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. Glory to God. Listen to this: And the Gentiles shall see the righteousness thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory. And thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Can I say unto you, God loves justice. Glory to God. Lekiska tababansoto korakaya. Lord, I love you. God says the Gentiles are sinners. The people that are not in this covenant, they're going to look at you and they're going to see the righteousness of God, the justice of God, the faithfulness of God to you. They're going to see with their own eyes, with the same eyes they watched you cry, with the same eyes they watched you struggle, with the same eyes they watched you go through your storm and your rain. They watched you lose everything. They watched you go through divorce. They watched you break. With the same eyes, they're gonna watch you come out. They're gonna watch the glory of God be revealed in your life. They're gonna watch you come up. They're gonna watch you walk in wealth. They're gonna watch you be successful. They're gonna watch the anointing flow through you. They're gonna watch the power and the fire of God ignite like an explosion in your life. They're gonna see the glory. Even kings, those who are in high authority, the rulers of the land. God said, I'll cause them to know who you are. I will call you by a new name. I will not hold where you've been against you. You don't have to vindicate that. Yes, that's right. Baby, watch me come out. You, you need to have that attitude, that disposition. I'm not trying to fight my past. I'm not trying to fight what happened to me yesterday, but watch me come out. Watch me rise. Glory to the name of God. Watch me come out anointed. I'm coming out blessed. I'm coming out healed. I'm coming out free. I'm coming out rich. I'm coming out delivered. I'm coming out whole. I'm coming out full of joy. I'm coming out full of love. Watch me come out. Oh my, somebody ought to type that on the screen. Watch me, watch me, watch me, watch me. I'm coming out, I'm coming out, and I'm gonna be better than I ever was. Oh glory! Thank you, God. I give you the praise, Lord. He said, I'm gonna call you by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. Whoo! You're not your past. You're not what they called you. You're not what you used to be. You are not your failure. This text indicates to us today that failure is not final. Yes, you may have made a mistake. But failure is not final. His grace is sufficient for you. Glory to God. Wait for God to vindicate you. You're coming out. Last verse, last verse. 1 Peter 2:23. Glory to God. My God, today, last verse. Glory to God. I bless you, Father. Listen to this. Who, when he was reviled— let's just, let's understand what that word ladero in Greek— reviled means that reproach, abused. When he was abused, when he was attacked, when reproach was brought against him, okay? When he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered, when he, he threatened not— watch this— so when he was attacked over and over again, abused over and over again, he suffered, went without, struggled at the hands of others. This is Peter now. He, the Bible says, he threatened not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. You're talking about being at peace with God and trusting God to take care of your enemies. I'm talking about abuse over and over again, suffering at the hand of other people, but was quiet, never said a word. You're talking about being like Jesus. Jesus, the Bible said he didn't utter one word when he went to the cross. He didn't complain, not one time. He suffered silently because he trusted his Father to vindicate and to do what he said he would do and raise him up on the third day. The question is, when people come at you, I know you think you're right, I know you think you, you feel justified, and they may be dead wrong. But maybe you're wrong for wanting to vindicate yourself. Let's learn to hold our peace. Let's learn to wait patiently on God to vindicate us. Obashie. Let's wait on him to do his bidding toward us. Glory to God. I'm telling you, he's coming to get you if you just trust him. Oh my God, he's coming to get you. He's coming to get you. If you just wait on him, he's coming to get you. He's going to redeem you. He's going to vindicate you. He's going to bring you out. I know you think you're right. But you may be wrong. Glory to God. Let's take action, guys, against strife. Glory to God. Let's pray. Glory to God. Father, I give you praise. Thank you for this teaching today. And Father, we give you praise that the spirit of pride is destroyed in our life. Matter of fact, we renounce the spirit of pride right now. We, we remove the helmet of pride, and we renounce it in the name of Jesus. And we decree and declare you're in control. And we thank you that the knowledge that we receive, it comes from heaven. And that— oh, and we're God-inside-minded, and we live from another dimension, God. And so we won't be puffed up. We'll balance our knowledge with love, and we'll disseminate what we know in love. Of. And Father, we give you praise, God, that we won't be curious, nosy, carnal. God, in the name of Jesus, I rebuke the spirit of curiosity and nosiness that comes in a negative connotation, that comes from a carnal nature. Oh my God, that has grown from an innocent curiosity to a dangerous, deadly carnality that can destroy our movement. That can destroy our ability— glory to the name of God— to be compassionate toward others. Father, I thank you today that we'll trust you to vindicate us. Our enemies, though they come against us, we trust you to bring us out. We trust you to vindicate us. We serve you and you alone. You're our desire. You're our only desire. You're our only desire. You're our only desire. All that we need is in you, God, and we trust you. In Jesus' name, amen, and thanks be to God. Listen, guys, I pray, dear God, that this message today has been a blessing to you. Glory to God. I want to pray for those that are not saved. Stay with me because I need every person that's saved to stay plugged in right here. Glory to God. I want to pray for those that are not saved. Maybe you're scrolling and you stopped right at this point. Maybe you didn't hear the whole message, and maybe you sat and listened to the word. And let me tell you something, the only way you're going to defeat pride, bitterness, and abuse from your past. Maybe you're watching this and you were abused, you were molested, you were raped, and you felt like, you know, you're mad at God because if, if God was really God, why would he let that happen to me? But let me tell you something, it was the ignorance of the victimizer. It wasn't God. But I tell you what God can do. He can make you new. I'm a witness. He could clean you up. He can make you whole. And he can vindicate you from your past. And I'm a witness, he'll do it. Glory to God. He'll take care of you. He'll cover you in his blood. Lord, we love you. So if you're listening right now, you say, Apostle, I want to be saved. I want God to vindicate for me. I want God to fight for me. I know my business is not straight and I want to go to heaven. I want to receive Jesus. I want this life of, of real relationship that you've been teaching about I want you to pray with me. The Bible says if you confess with your mouth, believe in your heart that Jesus died and he rose again, the scripture declares you shall be saved. Bottom line, point blank in the story, you shall be saved. Listen, I need you to trust God to save you today. So let's pray. Say this with me. Say, Heavenly Father, I confess I am a sinner. I need to be saved. Say, Father, I open my heart and invite you in. Save me. Say, Lord, I believe that you died and rose again. Say, Lord, fill me with the Holy Ghost. In Jesus' name. Amen. Listen, if you pray that prayer, I got good news. You're born again, and you just made the first step to a brand new life. The Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things are passed away, and behold, all things have become new. Glory to God. You're a new creature. Listen, if you said that prayer with me today, I need you to go to the website that's on the screen right now, roddachurch.com/contact, and say, hey Apostle, I prayed with you today, I just need the next steps. I want to help you find a good church in your city, or if you're in this city, I want to invite you to fellowship with us at Rodda Church, and I want to give you the next steps on how you can be baptized, receiving the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I want to teach you all of these amazing things you need to know about starting your journey with God. I got a special video, I got a special package of stuff I want to send to you if you gave your life to God today. So please reach out to me and let me know, and I want to personally walk you through the next steps. Is that okay? Is that a— is that a— is that a deal? Glory to the name of God! Do that for me. Listen, if you're still here We thank you for fasting with us. I, I haven't been challenging you guys to give since we've been fasting. I need to do it now, and because the Spirit of the Lord is prompting me to do so, because the reality is that when we give, we set ourselves up for blessing, and we have to sow into the word. And on this 9th day of this fast, which the number 9 is prophetically, it's a number of birth and spiritual things, I believe that God wants to birth out of you some things financially that you need to happen. So I need every person that's here right now under the sound of my voice, live or by replay, I need you to get a seed in the ground of $21. That's what God said, and I ain't taking it back. That's what he said in my spirit while I was praying at the end. So I'm going to tell you exactly what he said. I'm going to be the first to do it. Get your phone. Glory to the name of God. The, the ways to give on the screen or on your computer. Go to rhodochurch.com/donate, click the donate button, donate your $21 today. And I'm going to pray in a moment over that seed that God will give it back 1,000 times more than it is. I need every one of you to get that $21 seed in the ground. See, listen, anytime God talks to you about a seed specifically, he has a future on his mind. And someone said, well, you don't need to tell the amount. Yeah, read the Old Testament. Many times the prophet would say, bring me Purple, bring me gold, bring me silver. He will— the widow's mite. The prophet told the woman exactly what to give him. The reality is God can speak to us special seed faith offerings that we need to sow to unlock heaven. And there are people that have abused this, mind you. I get it. I'm not one of them. That's why I don't do this all the time. I only do it when I'm led. And when I'm led, I suggest you get involved because at the end of the day, it's not coming from me, it's coming from him. So I need every person— 21, 21, 21. Glory to the name of God. $21 seed. The ways to give are scrolling at the bottom of the screen. I believe something's going to be released, something's going to be born on this 9th day of this fast through your faithfulness in giving. Glory to the name of God. Listen, I love you guys so much. Y'all an amazing group of people. The Cash App is right up there. Pastor Jeffrey put it up there. Glory to the name of God. Uh, if you're not fasting with us, remember it's not too late. Go to rodditchurch.com/fast24, click the red button, download the fast guide, and you're in. Glory to God. Let's pray over this offering. Father, we give you praise for the obedient sowers. God, even those that don't have it and desire to do it, I pray that they will give their best. But Father, in the name of Jesus, I'm asking you now that the obedient sowers would get that $21 seed in the ground now, and that you will multiply for them 1,000 times more than it is. God, you said that we believe the word of the prophet, we will prosper. And so Father, I thank you as they move in action through belief, trusting in you, that you will prosper their way. And I thank you for it now, in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Glory to God. Thank you so much, guys. I love you. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. This is day 9. I see you tomorrow, guys, on Thursday for day 10. Listen, on tomorrow Thursday, uh, I'm going to share this with you now. We'll do 5 AM prayer and 12 noon teaching. There will be no Bible study in the evening tomorrow simply because— hear me— we're teaching twice because I'm basically teaching, also doing 5 AM prayer. So the 12 noon Bible study will serve as our Bible study for Thursday. Glory to the name of God. But I'll see you tomorrow at 5. I trust, glory to the name of God, that you will, hallelujah, follow after the things that please God and pursue your destiny with everything in you. In Jesus' name, amen. I love you guys. Y'all be blessed. Peace.