ESSENTIALISM | DR. MIKE WOODS SR | 4 APRIL 2025

Hey, praise the Lord and God bless you everyone. This is Dr. Michael Lyris Woods. For those of you who are initiated, I wanted to share something really quick with you, so don't scroll, stay with me. And if you're joining us right now, do me a kind favor and share. I am here in Savannah. Felicia and I came down here on early Wednesday and, uh, just to get away and unplug for her birthday. We'll be celebrating her birthday all weekend. So for those of you that want to join us, reach out if you want to come to the dinner on Saturday, and then on Sunday at Rudder Church, we will have a great speaker. Apostle Asia Wheeler will be in the house, and we're super excited that she's going to be with us. Um, I know she's going to be bringing a word from the Lord, and we're going to honor God and our First Lady on Sunday. So please make, uh, plans to join us Sunday. It's going to be phenomenal. Now, I wanted to just kind of teach really quickly, uh, something that I believe will be a blessing to you. A lot of times when I'm teaching, I'm letting you in on conversations that God and I have been having. All right, and I want to talk about something that's, you know, again been in my heart. You know, it's life many a times can create distractions. It can create things that get you off looking into things and worrying and anxiety. You're under pressure to do this, to do that. And the reality is, you know, there's one central thing, family, that keeps us on lock, that keeps us rooted in the things of God. And this thing is what I like to call essentialism. Essentialism. Essentialism is a disciplined pursuit of God over everything else. Basically, it's two words: essential and ism. Ism is an action that is performed, whether it's professionalism, you know, whatever. It's— isms are actions that you take place. They're behaviors to achieve certain goals. So essentialism would be the pursuit or the behaviors or the disciplines that are aligned with what's most important, which— that which is most essential. And I think in particular, when you look at every, uh, sect of society— hear me— you know, most people, when they lock in on something they want, they create the behavior to get it, whether it's good or bad. Come on. Whether it's good behavior or bad behavior, if it's something they want. So let's say professionalism. Let's say if you want to be a legal professional, well, to become a person that operates as a professional in the legal field, you must now create a discipline and behavior around what matters, which means you got to go to school, you got to go to law school, You got to graduate, you got to pass the bar, and then you got to practice law. You have to have behaviors that align with what you're trying to pursue. And I think as believers, many times we start pursuing titles, we pursue positions, we pursue popularity. We want to be liked by everybody, especially in this social media age. And man, listen, it's just really not all you think it is. But we have to develop what I call an essentialism toward God, a disciplined pursuit of him. And I'm gonna put a scripture on the end of this that causes us to focus and zero in on him and him alone. So essentialism basically becomes a powerful anecdote for real, uh, to all the current craziness that plagues our society, our churches, our businesses, our marriages, our organizations, the world, you know. And I just want you to take a moment today with me as we journey through this, um, to understand how essentialism can eradicate so many things that we actually thought was necessary. Matter of fact, I hope that when we get through today— if you give about 20 minutes— you'll leave with a discipline to slow down, to think before you react, to walk through life putting God first and creating the results through that process, through this type of essentialism where you're putting God as the the only thing you pursue. And somebody said, 'What, you crazy? I got to do other things.' But I want you to see this, and we're going to take a quick look at it in scripture as well, to see that we must have disciplined pursuits of God. Again, we pursue platforms, stages, open doors. We want to be liked. You know, I, I, you know, I look at some people, man, and some of y'all, the only reason y'all comment on stuff on social media The only reason you do some of the things you do is because you take a picture, post it, because you just have this need to be accepted. And I get it, you know. But the reality is, if you put half of the time that you spend pursuing the approval of others pursuing God, man, the stuff that would change in your life would be absolutely and categorically phenomenal. So, so first of all, let's just look at— and I'm going to— again, I'm going to put the scripture on the end, the backdrop of essentialism and what an essentialist looks like, right? So I like to deem myself an essentialist. I'm going to— even before I came to this conclusion that— and realize the results I get when I only pursue God, As a person, I have been an essentialist most of my life because I will only pursue the things that were essential to my satisfaction. Now watch this. I have discovered that the only thing that is essential to my satisfaction is God. If I get him, I got everything else. So let's look at what an essentialist looks like. So what is the essence of an essentialist? What is the core mindset of an essentialist? Because watch this, Bible says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. So if you want to be an essentialist, there's a way you got to think, right? So number one, the essence and mindset of an essentialist is this: you got to recognize, guys, that you have the power Hear me, to choose. Good God, you got the power to choose. You got an invincible power of choice. God is never going to make you— watch this— choose him. He's never going to make you seek him. He's never going to make you worship. He's never going to make you pray. He's not going to make you study the Bible. Now, why is that? Because there is great reward for making the choice to choose him. And then watch this, there's great repercussion when you don't choose him. I will say this, every success I've ever had in my life has been a faith prayer success first. Every failure I've ever had was a faith prayer failure first. So I've learned to essentially ensure that God is first in every— hear me, family— single thing I do. And I'm telling you, you need to let that be your mindset. You need to let that be how you function. You need to be— you need to allow yourself to operate in this dimension where you use your power of choice to actually produce what you desire. Many of you are struggling. Many of us are challenged in so many areas because we prioritize our way of thinking, our way of doing before God. So you got the power of choice. Number 2, the essence of an essentialist, or the mindset of an essentialist, deals with his ability to discern. Now watch this. What do you need to discern? People? What do you need to discern? Uh, no, that's not what I'm talking about. No, you got to use your discernment that you've been given by God, and everybody has it. To watch this, discern the unimportance of practically everything. So when something shows up in your life, you got to have enough discernment to see how unimportant it is so you can prioritize it in how you operate and how you deal with it. Oh God, you got to stop making things, people, places, ideas important watch this, that God hasn't made important. And when you put him first, and when he is the essential essence, it's easy to see who doesn't fit, who doesn't belong. Lord, I love you. Thank you, Jesus. Glory to God. And you can see what class you ought not be taking, what school you ought not be going to. You can discern the unimportance of practically everything. Watch this. There are some people that you think ought to be important in your life. They are not. They should not be. Because at the end of the day, whether it's family, friend, or foe— I'll say it again— whether it's family, friend, or foe, if they do not align with assignment and purpose and destiny and where God is taking you, hear me, the reality is you have to deem them unimportant and you have to prioritize God first. And I'm not saying they're not valuable, they're not good people, and I'm not even saying that they don't— shouldn't have a place in your life, but they should never be over what God has told you to do. And watch this. Jesus was teaching, his family showed up because they should have been in the teaching, right? They should have been sitting at his feet. And, and his mama showed up and said, look, I need to speak to my son. Mary, Mary. Jesus teaching. Jesus, they came and said, hey, hey, Jesus, your mother's at the door. She wants to speak to you. Jesus said, who is my mama? Who is my father? Who's my sister? I know that's tough, that's hard. Who is my brother? But them that do the will of God. So you can't get distracted. That's the lesson Jesus is teaching here from what you're supposed to be doing. Here it is. Hear this, etan. Oh, brin sete boku ramba. I'm trying to stay calm, good God. Listen, you cannot get distracted from what God tells you to do to entertain people who ought to be where, in place with you anyway. Oh God, that's a whole nother message for another day. So again, the essence, the mindset is one, you gotta understand your invincible power to choose. You have that. God gave that to you. Matter of fact, even though he could make you choose him, he doesn't, because he— his greatest desire is to be desired. He wants you to want him. He wants you to— he, he's such a gentleman, he will not violate your free will. Hear me. And then thirdly, the mindset, essence, and core personality of an essentialist is this, is that they understand the trade-off. You know, they understand the trade-off. They understand the blessing, one, that comes with— here it is— making God essential, making the plan of God, the purpose of God, how you pursue that essential in your life. Oh God. And then secondly, you understand the trade-off of how you can choose the problems you want and the problems you don't want. What problem do you want? Do you want a problem with missing God and what that life looks like? Or do you want the problems that come with choosing the wrong people that create delays, waste your time, get you distracted, and possibly could destroy your authentic purpose? So what problem do you want? So that's the first piece. That's the first part. What, what do essentialists do. How do they think? They, they choose correctly, they discern correctly, and they understand the trade-off. They understand the sacrifice. Now, second part of this— watch this— of the essentialist— watch this— is you got to understand, hear me, is that the essentialist knows how to explore. So, so not only does he have an essence but he also understands how to explore. What do you mean, Michael Woods? I mean, the essentialist understands how to discern what's trivial, right? And what's vital. Okay. You got to know the difference between what's trivial, what's— ooh, what's the debates you don't need to even get into. You know what's trivial? Glory to God. The Oh my God, the drama and the tension that you don't even need to entertain. You have to understand what's trivial and what's vital. So in order to get to that place of discernment about unimportance and importance, you got to be able to weigh the balance between, you know, what's really going to add value to where you're going and what you are trying to accomplish. What's increasing Oh God, have mercy. What's increasing— good God Almighty— your place in God? What's making you better at your skill set? What's giving you impartation and revelation and development? And you understand, if, if it's not bringing value, it's bringing devalue. If something is not increasing you, it will ultimately decrease you. So how do we do that? How do we weigh the trivial from the vital? How do we essentially do this? This is how we do it. Number 1, we learn how to escape. Oh boy, oh boy, touch yourself and say, I gotta learn how to escape. For you Bible thumpers, okay, I feel it in my spirit. For you Bible thumpers, I'm gonna add Bible at the end, so stay with me with your religious tale. I'm gonna add the Bible. Trust me, this whole thing I'm talking is Bible. Everything I'm saying is scriptural. Glory to God. And I'm going to add it at the end. When I read the scripture, we're going to be through. Glory to God. So stay with me with your Bible thumping self. I love the word more than anybody. Stay with me. Stay with me. So you got to learn how to balance the trivial from the vital. You know, just some things you don't need to entertain. It may be making you feel a certain way and you want to fly to heaven. Listen, I used to be that guy, man. You know, you push the wrong button, I'm going to fly off. Glory to the name of God. Because I had a lot of issues. I needed to be healed. I needed deliverance. I had stuff that needed to be mentally adjusted, not by medication because I never took any medication, but by the power of God. And God did it because of trauma that I went through in my past. But the reality is I've learned now how to escape. I know the perks— watch this— of being unavailable. Can you help me? Woo! Ooh God, you gotta learn the perks of being unavailable. There are benefits, glory to God. There's peace, glory to God. There is a peace that surpasses all understanding that comes when you learn how to make yourself unavailable to trivial stuff. I'm not gonna take meetings with people over trivial stuff. I'm not gonna waste my time on the phone with people over trivial stuff. I'm going to be conveniently unavailable. I ain't got time for that meeting right there. I don't have time to sit and listen to that person right there. That's why I ain't going to every conference. I'm not going. I get invitations every day to go preach. I'm not accepting even every invitation to minister because it's not for me to be available to every situation. Because quite honestly, guess what? There are platforms and places that open up to me, and at the end of the day, some of those people are not even in the same arena mentally and intellectually and spiritually as me. And some of the things I can't even bring. So God says, no, they ain't ready yet. You can't take that. And some of the stuff I've been wanting to take, glory to God. And sometimes, watch this, sometimes I make myself unavailable because I'm not ready for certain things. Oh, so you have to look at that on both sides. So you have to learn how to escape. You got to learn the perks, the value. Oh my God, of being unavailable, people. You got to do it. You got— oh boy, you got to do it. Secondly, how do I do it? How do I balance trivial from vital? You got to look and see what really matters. You got to escape, you got to look. So now you got to inspect, look every day. You got to check your life, check your day, make sure you're being essential. What really matters? What aligns with what God has planned for my day? Who aligns with what God has planned for my day? Watch this. There are some people that don't belong in every day. Ooh, ooh. Because all they're going to do is waste your time. There are some people you don't need to converse with every day. There are some people that you— oh my God, you don't need to interact with and entertain their drama every day because they're going to cause delays in what you have to do concerning you. You're going to end up descending or condescending. Watch this to deal with their stuff. When your stuff is up here, their stuff is down here. You're trying to soar up here, their stuff is here. So you gotta look every day and find the people that's flying at this level, this altitude, because these people, they can't even, they don't even have the wings, the ability to get to this altitude yet. And if they're constantly pulling you in here, you're never gonna get where you need to go which requires this altitude, ooh, which requires this altitude here. Watch this, eagles can't run with chickens. Chickens live on the ground. Eagles soar high in the air. And in order for an eagle to deal with a chicken, he's gotta come down here. There's never a relationship. So you gotta look and identify the chickens and the eagles. And not just in people, but in situations, in ideas and concepts, in business dealings. What's the eagle idea? What's the chicken idea? You know, who has the chicken mindset? Who has the eagle mindset? And you got to fly with the people that want to fly with you. And that— watch this— cannot only glean from you, but other eagles you can gain from as well. Why is this? You need eagles to have the ability that if something happens to you in flight, they have the ability to come and get you and pull you up. But if you're down here with a chicken, something happens with you, they're going to start viewing you as food. Oh my God. Okay, I got to go. I got to go. I got to go. So how do you discern the trivial from the vital? I got to look. I got to escape. Secondly, I got to learn how to play. I got to. And so when I say play, I mean you got to learn how to vacation. You got to embrace the wisdom of unplugging from busyness, right? So that you get clarity. You need breaks so that you can have clarity on how to deal with your now. Oh my God. Thirdly, you got to sleep. That's called protecting the asset of you. You got to get enough sleep so, so that when you wake up, you can be deliberate in discerning what's vital and what's trivial. And then finally, you gotta select— you gotta, hallelujah, be willing and bold enough to make the decisions necessary that's going to catapult you into the arena God has planned. Man, this is so good. Oh my God, I pray y'all getting this. I'm almost done, I promise you. So the essence— we've covered that— of an essentialist. We, we, we have looked at what an essentialist has to explore. All right, glory to the name of God. How they have to discern what is trivial, what is vital. Now thirdly— oh boy, here we go— The essentialist has to learn the power of elimination. You gotta eliminate. How do you cut out what's trivial? How do you live? How do you actually eliminate what's trivial? Watch this. When, um, you don't want to hurt that person's feelings, you care about it, you want, you want them around, you want them in your life. Oh boy, you want to do a certain thing that you really shouldn't be doing. Right. You got to eliminate it because— eliminate it because it brings no value. It— listen, it carries no weight. Oh, I got to go, man. How do I do that? How do I— how do I cut out the trivial? Well, how do I eliminate? Your body is even designed to eliminate waste, right? It's going to either store or eliminate. So you have an inclination, which that's eating, that's what comes in, ingestion or inclination, because once you eat food, it is inclined to become one with your body. So, or ingestion, um, that ingestion has to be digested, which is digestion, which means now the food is broken down So now either you're going to have elimination or storage, and that's that. That, that is waste, needs to be eliminated. The reality is you got to clarify what you ingest, what you allow in, um, and you got to make a decision not to let people get in too deep with you who have not earned that space. Who can't be trusted with your heart, who can't be trusted— watch this— with your vulnerabilities, who can't be trusted with who you really are. You, you have to be careful allowing them into that space, because the moment you do, they'll use it to make them feel good about themselves. See, really, this kind of clarification is, is a decision. It's one decision that makes a thousand decisions. Cuz this one decision eliminates, cuts away a bunch of problems, a bunch of headaches down the line that will be introduced because you kept this thing around. Oh my God. So you eliminate through clarity, making the right decisions, clarifying decisions and deciding what you ingest and digest and that, and that what you allow to be stored and that which must. And some of you have allowed things to be stored in your life that you should have eliminated a long time ago. This teaching is a laxative. It's a spiritual laxative, okay, to get you moving because you're backed up, you're constipated, and you need to eliminate some things, some people, some ideas, some stuff you're doing that you just— it's just not who you are. Okay, here's the next thing. How do I again cut out the trivia? I got to— oh, this is a good one. I gotta dare. I gotta dare. I gotta understand the power of a graceful no. And that's daring sometimes because most people don't understand how to say no. They always say yes because they don't want to let people down. But part of the elimination process is the powerful, graceful no. The one— once you tell that person that expects you to say yes all the time no, it immediately changes their perception of how they approach you because they understand now you got a new strength. Something has shifted in you. You're different than you used to be. You ain't that person you used to be. You're something totally different. And I, I love that because, hear me, family, at the end of the day, at the end of the freaking day, hear me, I need you to understand, the reality is when you say no, either people are going to look at it as a form of rejection or they're going to look at it as a sign of strength. And for you it's, it's protection. For them it may be rejection, but that no for you is protection, and you got to discern the difference. Watch this. Thirdly, if you're going to cut off trivial things— y'all ready for this— you got to uncommit. See, some of you have been committed to things that God never told you to commit to, and you got to really take some time in prayer and really you know, make sure God told you to commit to some things. And I'm not giving you this to use as an excuse, uh, to uncommit to things you're supposed to be in. Don't get that twisted, because some of you, you know, you, you get in things you commit and it gets hard because you don't do what you're supposed to do. You don't do your part. You don't come up to par. So I'm not talking about that. I'm telling— I'm not— don't use this message as an excuse to run from your assignment. But those things that have no benefit and no value to you, you got to uncommit to them. Yeah. And guess what? You're going to win big by cutting your losses. Glory to God. And here's the next one. You eliminate the trivial by simply editing the trivia. You know, one of my favorite things in production is post-production, is editing. I love cinematography. It's part of what God has gifted me to do. It's an art. I love editing. It's part of what God has gifted me to do. Editing is beautiful because, you know, I could be creating something with a camera and make it so much better when I drop it in the editing suite to edit it. And it comes to life in a different way because you can add things, you can add transitions, you can add color, you can— you could do so many things, man. You could cut things out that that shouldn't be there. It's invisible art, right? It's art that is performed and then not seen most of the time. Um, we're working on a film now, Boys in the Wood, and, uh, and Uptown Comedy, the original story of Uptown Comedy Corner. Um, these documentaries are amazing. They're going to bless the world. But a lot— we've shot a lot of footage on both. But a lot of stuff is not going to end up being used. It's going to be on the floor of the editing suite. And at the end of the day, it's because we go through and we're picking the best parts that go with the script, that go with our thought and what we want to present. You know, that's how life is. You got to be able to look at the full picture of your life and what you want the end result to be and edit out what should not be there. Watch this. And the stuff that's not there Edit it in. Glory to God. Put the people in that needs to be there. Hallelujah. And then finally, and I'm gonna get out of here, I'm gonna get out of here, um, we have to limit. So we gotta— so we have to clarify, dare, uncommit, edit, limit. And this is setting boundaries, man. You got to learn how to set boundaries, right, so that people won't invade your space or your life. Now for you Bible thumpers, go to— go to, glory to God, Matthew 6. Glory to Jesus! And we're gonna read the Bible. Hallelujah! Glory to God! And I'm gonna be done, man. I'm gonna be done. I'll be done. Matthew 6. Matthew 6. We praise God. We praise Jesus. He's a good God. Hallelujah! Wonderful Savior. I pray y'all have gotten something out of this. I pray you were taking notes. That was good teaching. Matthew 6. I'm gonna start at verse 21— 24. The Bible says no man can serve Remember, we're talking about essentialism, the disciplined approach to God, to seeking God, to putting him first, to making sure he is priority. So watch this: no man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and man, period. So you can't do los, you can't be a bond servant or slave to two masters. Would suggest that when we come to God, we should have slaveship. Here's what's interesting in this text, right? The Bible says you cannot serve two masters. So there's a problem with mastership. So if I'm going to be an essentialist, where I'm going to operate in essentialism, where I'm pursuing God, I gotta become a master at pursuing God. Part of doing that— watch this— is eliminating any other masters, any other thing that has control. And I just unpacked that a lot in what I just said about the essence. Glory to the name of God. The elimination and the exploration of essentialist. Glory to God. You got, you got to make sure your homage, your heart is to the— because watch this, you can only love one of these. It's two extremes, love and hate. So either you love one or hate the other. So you can't put it in the middle and say, I'm going to do what this master say over here, the devil, my daddy here, but God's my daddy here. No, you can't do that. You either you're gonna follow what he says or you're not. Either you're gonna follow the word of God or you're not. See, y'all was ready for me to get the scripture. We here, stay with me, stay with me. Verse 25, watch this. He said, therefore I say unto you, take no thought for your life. Here's another problem. What you shall eat or what you shall drink, or yet for your body what you shall put on. Is not life more than meat and raiment? So watch this, verse 25 and 26. Behold, he said, the fowls of the air, For they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are you not much better than they? So God said you're better than the birds, you're better than, hallelujah, flowers. Glory to the name of God. He said, what, which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto your stature? And why, watch this, take thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow. They toil not, neither do they spin. And yet I say unto them, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them. Verse 30, wherefore if God so clothed the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, he shall not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith. Therefore take no thought, saying, what shall we eat, what shall we drink, how shall we be clothed? Verse 32, 'For all these things do the Gentiles seek, for your heavenly Father knoweth that you have need of these things.' Now, before we go to the last one, there are two things in those verses I just read. One, we just saw the problem of messiahship, but here's the second problem in verses 25 through 30. Second problem, watch this, is the problem of, oh my God, the problem of anxiety. He says, 'Take no thought for your life.' what you gonna eat, what you gonna drink, what you're gonna put on. He says stop worrying about it. So if you're operating in essentialism, where God is the essential focus— God's word, his way, his purpose, his plan— you're not going to be worried about what you eat, drink, and put on. You, you know that God's got you no matter what it looks like. Against all odds, you know God's got you. Oh my God. So this is a problem with anxiety. So you can't serve two masters and you can't operate in anxiety and doubt because notice he said, when you're operating like this, your faith is little. So faith, fear, and anxiety are all inept to each other. Faith, anxiety, and fear cannot be in the same room because faith every time overrides anxiety. Faith every time overrides fear. So you, you can't serve two masters. There's a pro— there's a problem again with mastership. And anytime you operate in essentialism, this disciplined pursuit of God and what's less. All right. And what doesn't matter. Oh, glory to God. You cannot take worry and anxiety with you because it's an enemy to essentialism. Glory to God. It's an enemy to faith. Essentialism says God, Jesus Christ, his word, his purpose, his destiny, his plan is the top priority in my life. Woo-wee! So there's a problem of mastership, a problem with anxiety. But watch this, here's the last one. Notice in verse 33 he said, why you worried about this? Because the heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things. Now I know sometimes you say, well God, you know if I need it, why don't you just give it to me? No, you, you have to prioritize him. And this, you have to make him the essential thing, not those things. That's what essentialism is. It's making God the essential essence of your life. Nothing else. Not money, not your spouse, not your children, not your church, not your ministry, not your business, not your fan base. Him being essential to life itself. Oh boy, oh boy, I got to go, y'all. Verse 33, Matthew 6:33, it says, but seek ye first the kingdom of God. The word seek in Greek is basileia, which means to pursue hard after with uninterrupted focus, which means you literally become an essentialist. You become disciplined in your pursuit of him. Watch this, the proof of desire is pursuit. You cannot tell me you want God and all you do is attend church on Sunday? No. If you really want him, you're going to pursue him daily. The proof of desire is pursuit. So every morning you roll out the bed, you're going to pursue. Throughout the day, you're going to be pursuing in worship, in prayer, in— in— oh my God— in study, in having godly conversations, in pursuing his purpose. All of this is seeking God. Watch this. He said, but seek ye first the kingdom of God. So the king and his domain, the kingdom. So I'm seeking the king, which is Jesus Christ, Basilia, Dom, which is his dominion, his authority, his rule. So I'm seeking to be controlled essentially by the system of God. Oh boy. I'm seeking to be controlled by what he said in his word. Huh. Not, not what man's opinion is. Not what people say or what people do. I am seeking to be controlled by what God says. The basilia, the authority, the rule, the God's way of doing things. He said, put this first because the proof of desire is pursuit. Glory to the name of God. If you want it, you got to go after it. Glory to God. The car you drive, you saw it, you desired it, you pursued it. You filled out application, went and got cash, however you bought it, and now you're driving that vehicle. The house you live in, the clothes you wear— watch this— the food you eat, you, you pursue what you desire. You got taste for a burger, you go get a burger, because the proof of desire is pursuit. Watch this, if you really desire God as vast and massive and amazing as he is, guess what you're going to do? You're going to pursue him. You're going to pursue him daily. Glory to God. You don't take days off. Glory to God. Because you know essentially he's all you need. Oh, that's why you got to dismiss what's trivial, like what you're going to eat, what you're going to drink. We just covered that trivial versus value. What you gonna put on, but I'm gonna seek the kingdom, his construct, his system. Not having good church, not bucking, shouting, speaking in tongues. Yeah, glory to God. And just worshiping all the time. No, the King is a real guy. Jesus is real. So you got to seek him and develop real encounters, real relationships with him. And watch this, lean on his system and live according to his system. I gotta go, man. He says, seek the kingdom— wait a minute— and his righteousness, diosyne, glory, which is his— whoo— ways, those things that are acceptable to him, his integrity, his virtue, his purity of life, his correctness in thinking and feeling and acting. Watch this, you seek the behavior of him. So wait a minute, so I'm gonna seek the King and his kingdom, his system, his structure, and I'm gonna also embrace his social norms, how he socialized when he was here, the righteousness he lived in when he was here. That's what I'm gonna embrace— his purity of life, his correctness of thinking, feeling, and acting. That's what I'm gonna go after. Lord have mercy, Jesus. That's what I'm gonna adhere to. Praise God. Oh my God, today, my God, my God. So two things I got to seek: the kingdom of God, which is a real kingdom with a real king, and we're his kids, his family. Glory to God. And I'm gonna seek His way of being right, his righteous lifestyle, how he lives, his wealth. Glory to God! His splendor, his glory. Hallelujah! His weight, his heaviness on my life, so that he is essentially the way I live. Now watch this. He said, if I do that, if I zeteio, zeto, seek, pursue hard after God, his kingdom, and the way he lives. And I seek to duplicate him. He says all the things, the trivial stuff that you're worried about— food, clothes, shelter, hallelujah— the trivial things that you feel like you need to be involved in, he says, no, I'm gonna give you something. I'm gonna add the things you need to you. All these things will be added, which means you ain't even got to ask for them. Are y'all hearing them? Here it is, uh, prostethemi in Greek, which means I'm gonna just put them, attach them to your pursuit. In other words, you seek me, you ain't got to worry about a spouse if you're single. I'm gonna slip you a husband, slip you a wife. I'm just gonna add it to your pursuit. You got to worry about a car, I'm just gonna add it to your pursuit. So don't— you ain't got to seek a house, I'm gonna add it to your pursuit. Oh boy, you ain't got to seek a successful business, I'mma add it to your pursuit. We need to get this and we need to lay this down, man, because a lot of times we're lacking and going through because we are not really seeking the King, his kingdom, and his righteousness. We're not aligned, we're out of order. And so God wants us to become essentialist, so we can have what we need and live for him. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you for this word today, and I thank you for every person that has joined us, that tuned in, whether by YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, however they tuned into this, whether through the podcast. God, in the name of Jesus, I decree and declare they'll never be the same. I thank I thank you, Lord, that even as I'm praying that you're, you're changing their pursuit and God, that they're learning to become essentialists and they're operating essentialism where they will value you in a disciplined way above everything else. And Father, they'll understand that your value is so great that they cannot take days off. They must seek you daily. They must come after you hard and pursue you as a drink offering daily, and we give you praise for it, Father, and we bless you, Lord, in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen and amen. Listen, family, I love y'all so very much. Thank you for tuning in. Please again share this, uh, put this word in somebody else's ear. Listen, if you desire to be a blessing to this ministry, there's ways to give in the caption of this video. Also The ways to give should be on the screen now. However you want to bless us, do it so we can continue to do what God has called us to do. We have facilities, we have cameras, we have a studio. Uh, it takes money. Glory to the name of God. We are, we are launching our own, uh, television streaming app that can be found on Apple, Roku, Prime. Uh, it is going to be wherever you got streaming TV, you'll be able to Download Radha TV and get all of our content. Even content we're creating through Radha Films is going to be streamed through Radha TV. So it's going to be a great, uh, entity. So, but your support helps us to do things like that, and it helps, it helps us to bring these things to you without cost. Glory to the name of God. So be a blessing. The ways to give are on the screen. We love you. And again, we Look to see you on this Sunday. The First Lady again is celebrating her birthday. We're going to celebrate and honor her. We got a great speaker in Apostle Asia Wheeler, uh, by way of Miami, Florida. She's going to bless us. The word of God is going to be powerful. It's going to be great. You need to be in the house. I love y'all. Y'all be blessed.