Mike Woods, a Black Atlanta pastor, calls for a spiritual-intellectual response to unrest in the city. He distinguishes between religion and a living relationship with Jesus, urging listeners to pause between stimulus and reaction and act with divine strategy rather than impulse. The sermon includes a salvation prayer and offers free discipleship materials.
Chapters
Grace and peace be multiplied to each one of you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For those of you who are uninitiated, my name is Mike Woods. I'm a native Atlantan and I'm a black man in America. You know, I really love this city behind me. I pray often for this city. I pray for the leaders, from the mayor, all church leaders. I pray for business people, entrepreneurs, because I believe that this is one of the vital cities in our nation and is necessary to be a model that can be imitated. Some of the things I saw last night were very heartbreaking. I know that everyone is angry. I'm angry. But as I rose this morning, I went out and began to drive in the streets of Atlanta and begin to cry out to God for our city. I begin to pray for peace. Shalom. Shalom in Hebrew is not the absence of confusion. It's the presence of assistance. I begin to pray that the Lord's glory, His weight, His authority would superimpose itself upon our city. I prayed that His Kingdom would come and that His will would be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. And as I wept for this city, the Holy Spirit began to speak to me and say, "Son, I need you to remind the people of the hope." Our only hope, guys, is in Jesus Christ. In this wicked and perverse generation, this perverse world, our only hope is the living God. I'm not talking about religion right now. Religion has messed a whole lot of people up. But what I am sharing with you today is an opportunity to have a real, working, productive, effective relationship with God so that we can respond to the woes of the world with supernatural divine strategy. That's what he wants us to do. He doesn't want us to respond in our flesh. I've been teaching for 30 years that there's a space that exists between stimulus and response. So when you're stimulated with something, instead of responding immediately, because if you respond immediately, most of the time it's going to be the wrong response. Like last night. I'm sorry, wrong response. Our protests should be productive. But if we had a gaze that sent us to the space where we could analyze before we respond, where we can align spirituality and intellect and create a response that brings about change. I'll say that again. We need to align spirituality and intellect so we can respond to the evil in our world adequately. What we're seeing around the country, what we saw in Atlanta last night, is an inadequate response. So here's what I want to do today. I'm here because the Lord said, "I need you to offer them the only hope." The scripture says in Psalms 107:20 that he sent his word, and it healed them and delivered them from their destructions. Well, what do you mean? I'm not talking about the Bible here. I'm talking about the word himself. He sent his word. He sent Jesus Christ. The Bible says, "In the beginning was the Word. The Word was God. The Word was with God." He is His Word, and I want to tell you something. That same Word is alive and well in the Earth today. It lives in you. It lives in me. We just got to activate it, and we got to use it effectively, and if you're listening to this video and you do not have a relationship with Jesus Christ, I'm not talking about you go to church. I'm not talking about you a member of your great-great-grandfather's I'm talking about a church that you ain't been to in 20 years. But what I'm talking about, having a fellowship with him, an intimacy with him where you can hear his voice. He's real. If God wasn't real, guys, I would have left him a long time ago. I've been walking with God over 35 years. I've been preaching the gospel for 30 years. And let me tell you something. Before I take it back, I'll add more to it. I've had so much hell in my life that I've seen God deliver me from. I've watched Him deliver others from situations that were impossible, and this situation we're in right now, it's not too hard for Him. He just wants us to align spirituality and intelligence and respond correctly. The first step to being spiritually intelligent is opening your heart and receiving Him, receiving forgiveness of your sins. It's simple. All you got to do is confess with your mouth, believe in your heart that Jesus Christ died and He rose again and that He is Lord. Let's pray that right now. I want you to repeat after me if you do not know Jesus. I offer Him to you right now. His love can heal the world. His love can bring about change. His love can reverse the destruction. I need you to receive Him because He's going to be our response And he's going to do it through us, his people. So open your heart right now and pray with me, would you please? Say this with me. Say, Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus. Say, I believe that you died and you rose again on the third day. Say, Lord, I open my heart and I invite you in. Come in and live in me. Say, I believe that you are God, that you You are Lord, and I trust you with my life. And say this, say, I declare today I am saved in Jesus' name. Amen. Listen, if you prayed that prayer, I want you to know you're born again right now. You were already born of the flesh with your mom and your dad, but now you've been born again of the Spirit, and you have an opportunity to invite the Holy Spirit now to live into your life and to take control and to to lead and guide you. Listen, if you prayed that prayer with me, I want right now to invite you to— oh my God, I want to invite you to a deeper walk with him. I want to teach you how to get to know him. I want to teach you how to go to that space before you respond inaccurately. I want to give you the tools you need. I'm not going to charge you for them. I'm going to give them to you. I want you to click the link in this video, and I want you to Fill out that contact form and say, I prayed with Michael Lyris Woods today. Please send me the materials I need so I can walk with God. I'm going to send you everything you need to take the next step in your journey. I love you guys, and let's keep our city looking beautiful like this behind me, y'all. And let's not tear up America. If you're watching this from another part of the world, let's walk with Jesus and let's respond in him because he, guys, is our only response. I love y'all. Peace.
