Radah Church _ Sunday 11-29-2020 | The Danger of Discord and Strife | Dr Mike Woods Sr

Welcome to the Apostle's Table, where lions roar and lives are changed. The Apostle's Table is a part of the worldwide outreach ministry of Dr. Michael Lyris Woods Senior. You will encounter supernatural wisdom and revelation that will help you discern God's purpose for your life, develop your potential, and your gifts effectively into the earth. We decree your life will never be the same again. Thanks for joining us and welcome to the Apostle—

Well, praise the Lord and grace and peace be multiplied to you from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is Apostle Michael Lyris Woods and welcome to our Sunday edition of the Apostle's Table. I'm super excited that you're here and what we decided to do is to begin streaming a replay live of our Sunday morning service on Sunday evenings at 6 o'clock. This way it gives you an opportunity to experience what we experience at Roddell Church on Sunday mornings in person. So I'm super excited about tonight's service. It's going to be superb. Listen, do me a favor, as you're coming in, I want you right now to please share this live stream because I promise you it's going to be a blessing to you and all of your family and friends. Listen, I have been teaching a series entitled The Danger of Discord. And we've discovered how discord leads to strife. So this morning I began unpacking what strife really looks like, and we went through the scripture and talked about how important it is in order to be anointed, in order to be blessed, that we move in unity and harmony. It was a phenomenal word, not just because I preached it, but it really came from heaven. And I promise you, in times like these, we need to thoroughly understand what it means to be on the same page. It's too much discord. It's too many preachers who are building kingdoms to themselves, who refuse to have a camaraderie with other men and women of God in the kingdom who have like DNA and like passion. And you know, the world is watching that. So I want to read our scripture reading that we read this morning at the church, and then we're going to go right into praise and worship as we experienced it at Rhoda Church with Harry, Chelsea, and Lady Woods. I'm telling you, we were blessed this morning in worship. And then right after worship, I'm going to begin teaching the word of God, part 5, the danger dangers of discord. So let's read the text and we're going to go right into worship. Uh, I want to read, praise God, from Psalms 40, and I'm gonna begin at verse number 1. The Bible says, I waited patiently for the Lord, and he turned to me and heard my cry for help. I'm gonna tell you something right now, I don't care what you're in, the Lord hears your cry for help. He brought me up from a desolate pit, out of the muddy clay, and set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song— hallelujah— in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and they will trust in the Lord. And you know what? Ultimately, that's what it's all about, so that our life and our worship experience can be a testimony to those who don't know him. So listen, let's go into this worship Listen, let your hair down, get ready to lift your hands as Chelsea and Lady Woods and Harry King lead us in praise and worship tonight. I promise you, you're going to be blessed. And then right after the worship, I'm going to be teaching the word, the dangers of discord. Don't you go anywhere. Matter of fact, stay here, share it, and be blessed. I'll be back after the message to speak more with you. God bless you.

I do for you. Whatsoever, whatsoever, whatsoever, whatsoever.

Hallelujah! You have won, you have won. Hallelujah! I'm glad 'cause you have won. You have won. Watch this. Won it all for me. Won it all for me.

You won it all for me. Won it all for me. You want it all for me!

You want it all from me! Come on, can you claim that right now?

You want it all for me! For me! For me! You want it all for me! For me! Me!

Yeah!

You want it all for me! For me!

Me!

Want it all for me!

For me! For me!

Hallelujah! You have won the victory. I'm so glad about it. Hallelujah! You have won it all just for me. Death could not hold you down. You are the risen King. Yes, you are. And you're high and lifted up, seated in majesty. You are the risen King. even until the end of time. Oh, I love you forever. I love you forever. I love you forever. Oh, I love you forever. I love you forever. I love you Forever, Lord. I love you forever. I love you forever. I love you forever.

That's it.

I love you, Father, forever. I love you forever. For the rest of my days, Lord. I love you forever. I love I love you forever. I love you forever. I love you because you make me want to fall in love with you each and every day. I love you with all my heart.

I praise you.

I praise you forever. I praise you. I praise you forever.

We give glory to God.

Glory to God, we give glory to God forever. Glory to God, we give glory to God, we give you glory forever. Forever. Hey, glory to God, we lift you higher. We lift you higher, Lord.

We lift your —name of glory to God.

Glory, glory to God. We give glory, we give God forever. Hey, hey, hey, glory to God. We lift you high, we put you in the first place in our lives. Forever. We give glory to God. We give you glory, God. We give you glory, God.

Forever.

We reverence you God!

We give you honor!

We give glory to God! We give glory to God! We give glory forever.

We lift your name up. Glory, glory to God. We give glory to God forever. I love you forever. I love you forever. I love you forever. Oh Lord, I rejoice in you forever. I rejoice in you forever. I can rejoice in you forever. Oh Lord, you make me happy forever. You put a smile on my face forever. You restore unto me my joy. Oh. So I give you glory forever! I get glory wherever— I'll keep going forever more! Forever love you for evermore! Love you forevermore! Lord, I love you forev-orever-more! Oh God... That's it, I love. That's it, let him hear you.

I love you forever! I praise— I praise you forever! Praise God! I praise you forever!

Lord, I pray for everyone who's watching this video right now that they're going to be blessed by it because we know what Jesus did on Calvary Cross.

And so let us continue praying together.

Father, thank You for Your word today.

Thank You for all of our brothers and sisters around the world. We lift them up before You. Let me just say something real quick about my I praise you forever! I praise— One more time.

I praise you. I praise you forever.

I praise you for evermore. I praise you Forever, Lord. Say it again. I'll praise you forever. I'll praise you forever. I'll praise you, Lord. I'mma move to the side so you can do exactly what you just got through singing. Is that all right? I'm going to move out the way so you can do what you just got through again. Okay, I'm going to move to the side so that you can give him the praise, so that you can give him your worship, so that you can lift up the glory, so that you can magnify his name, so that you can glorify his name.

Hallelujah! So glad to be in the house. Praise God. Glad all of you are here. Those of you that are watching us live, do me a kind favor, I want you to share this video as I trust is going to be a blessing to all that will have an opportunity to hear it. Praise God. Uh, today, glory to God, we're going to continue our teaching on the danger of discord. And what we've discovered is that discord— I want you to stay with me today— it often leads to strife.

It causes us to start walking in the spirit of strife.

And we discovered through previous teachings that strife is bickering, it's arguing, It's heated disagreements. It's an angry undercurrent. A person that walks in the spirit of strife, they're always angry. They're always looking for opportunity to stir up discord, to cause division, to frustrate the purpose of God. And we've discovered through other teachings as well that discord often leads to being discontent. Unsatisfied. Most people who walk in the spirit, they are discontented. They're not satisfied with nothing. Glory to God. You can't please them in no way. Glory to God.

And at the end of the day, that discontentment often leads to distraction.

The person who is discontented usually gets distracted, and they get off focus. They don't serve God, they don't serve his plan, they get out of alignment with the things they're supposed to be doing.

And then that distraction causes a delay, and that delay creates a detour, and ultimately the authentic assignment and purpose is destroyed.

It never is attained because we allow discord to get in. So today I wanna just go deeper into exposing this spirit of strife, and I wanna talk a little bit about, again, how dangerous it is. And I want to discuss off the top today how we can recognize and deal with it, but we can't really look at that until I lay a backdrop and talk about how important it is for us to move in unity and harmony. Somebody say unity. Come on, say harmony. We can do more together than apart. Say we're better together.

And some of the things that are happening even on—

in our nation, even right now, it is a massive attempt to create a discord and a division between humans.

Not just Blacks and whites, or not just Blacks as a race, but really as a human race.

A lot of the things that are happening in the world have caused division. It has broke harmony.

Of the systematic racism that we see. Those things happen to bring forth a spirit of strife, to create division. And at the end of the day, it's not the will of God.

He is not pleased at all when we walk divided. It is his divine will that his people, that his creation, walk in unity. Somebody said, we better together. Hallelujah. So let's go, uh, to Philippians. We're gonna start right here today. We're gonna give you quite a bit of scripture today. Praise God. Let's go to Philippians. Oh, praise the name of Jesus. And we're going to look at Philippians 2, and let's just kind of see, because, uh, we want to fulfill the joy of the Lord. Right? How many of you want God to be at joy about what we do? When he looks at us, we want God to have joy, right? One thing we don't want is him to have wrath toward us and anger toward us.

So the text here says, fulfill ye my joy. So now he's going to tell us, how do we fulfill that joy?

That you be like-minded. Come on. Having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. So he says, let's back up.

He says, fulfill my joy. Fulfill my joy.

That word joy in the Greek is chara, C-H-A-R-A, and it means fulfill that that delights me.

In other words, make me become delighted about what you're doing. It also takes on the connotation, let me live in a state of calm. Shalom means to be calm. So joy means delight and calm. So we want God to be calm.

We don't want him to be agitated where he feels a need, because the God of the Old Testament can get angry in wrath. Amen.

And we saw where he destroyed whole groups of people behind his wrath. We don't want to ever get him to those kind of connotations. We want him to be at joy so that he can bless us. Praise the name of God.

So that he can be kind to us.

Glory. Matter of fact, touch yourself and say, Lord, be kind to me. Come on, you ought to say that. Say, be kind to me, Lord.

That's what we want.

We want the Lord to be kind to us.

Glory to God. So he says in verse 3, let nothing be done through strife strife or vain glory. Oh my God. So don't do nothing out of strife. Don't do nothing to prove a point to somebody or to bring glory to yourself. And vain glory is simply glory that doesn't go to God, it goes to you.

It's vain. It doesn't profit you anything. Even at the moment, if you feel like it's glorifying you, it's really not.

It's vain It's giving no one glory but yourself at that moment, and it's not going to profit anything past that moment, actually. He said, so don't do anything in vain glory.

He said, but in lowliness of mind, be humble.

Glory to God. Let each esteem others better than themselves. What a world we would live in if everybody esteemed the other person better than themselves. If we built everybody up, found the good in everybody.

But you know what we tend to do?

Because we live in strife, most people live in insecurity, they live in hatred, they're not satisfied with themselves.

So instead of rejoicing when they see someone else prospering or doing well, what they do is they tear them down. They find a way to find the bad. Oh well, they're doing that now, but let me tell you what they did 5 years ago.

Let me tell you what they did 10 years ago.

And you know, when people do that, it's not— the onus is never on you. Because a lot of times people can feel like you need to be— make you feel like you need to be a part of what they're saying. You need to understand there's something weak and insecure in that person that has a need to bring up history that God—

watch this— forgot.

Because they're trying to take the focus off the progression of somebody that we should be celebrating with. Are you hearing me?

Listen, so he says don't do that.

He says let's, let's be humble, let's esteem other people better than ourselves.

He said, look not every man to his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Man, that's powerful peace and unity and harmony. I mean, I'm talking about—

you talking about being detached from strife when you're minding—

you're making sure everybody else is okay. God says as a family, we need to always be mindful of each other and not just what we have.

If, if you should never go hungry if I'm eating—

y'all not talking to me here—

you should never be without lights if I got lights.

We should be helpers one to another. But most people in this day and time, all they do is think about themselves. That's right.

Everybody's in for they for and no more.

As long as they for good, they don't care about nobody else. But the world will be a better place if we would take concern in what other people had and making sure everybody in humanity was okay. Hallelujah!

I think every Christian ought to be a humanitarian. We ought to be concerned about the humanity of others, and we should not want people to live in inhumane ways. Oh boy, but you got the church now that has become so iconoclastic.

It's built around a man, it's built around a figure. That people follow.

And most people mind the needs of the man standing up with the mic, and the man standing up with the mic never thinks about the needs of those minding his needs. That's a dangerous place because now we build a kingdom to ourselves and people become subjects and stockholders and shareholders to keep the business of the church going.

And that's not what God called us to do. God called us to serve each other in unity and in harmony. Watch this, verse 5, say, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. He makes that statement profoundly in reference to the verses that will follow.

I'm not going to read them, and the reference that the verses I just read.

Christ's mind was a humble mind. It was a harmonious mind. Christ thought of others before he thought of himself. Hallelujah.

And watch this, verse 6 says, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal to God.

He said, let that mind be in you.

He said, listen, I'm in the form of God and it's not robbery that God and I are one. We're unified.

Let me tell you something, it's not robbery for us to be in alignment with God. Doing what he wants us to do, thinking what he wants us to think.

Somebody say unity and harmony. Come on, say it again. Unity and harmony.

So we complete his joy by getting along, right? We— by living in harmony, by moving in humility. So another way to do this is we got to put aside our own agendas, right? We just read that. We gotta really pray and find God's plan, his way, his plan for our life. So many people in this hour are moving in their own agenda. They doing what they want to do, they living how they want to live, they're calling themselves to offices that they ain't called to, that they're working jobs that they're really not in the alignment of God.

I think every aspect of our life needs to be in total alignment with the Father. What does the Father desire?

What does the Father want? Who shall I? Glory to God. Go to Acts 4:24. Let's, let's look at some examples of this real quick, because again, I just want to lay a backdrop to where I'm going today. Glory to God. Acts 4:24. Hallelujah!

The Bible says, and when they heard that, they lifted up their voice to God with one accord. In other words, they were saying the same thing.

The word accord there is symphonia, which means they were a symphony. It made a harmonious sound. They were different in color, they were different in— this was post-Pentecost.

There were all races of people here.

There were different languages, but in symphonia, in accord, They spoke to God with oneness because they wanted the attention of the Father and said, Lord, thou art God which made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them. So watch this, they—

the one accord was centered around God's creatorial power. They had no dispute among them that the God Yahweh, Father of all, was God of all creation. Hallelujah. Listen, if we can't agree on anything else, we need to agree that God is God.

See, in the house of God and in the church, if the church starts moving in the massive disagreements and in inharmonious ways, the world looks at the church and says, I don't want to be a part of that. They can't even be one.

They can't even get along. But at the end of the day, we need to be able to agree that the God of heaven created everything, that he's the true and living God, that Jesus is Lord.

We need to be able to agree on those terms. But do you know you got some people in the church that really don't believe that?

They'll go to church religiously and really do not believe.

They're still in limbo. As to whether God is God or not. That's a problem, y'all. And we should know for sure that the God that we serve is God. They had one purpose in this text, one voice, one voice, one purpose was that God would endow them with his presence. Hallelujah. Go to Acts 13:22. Because I want to show you that God is looking for people who align with him and carry out his desire, his program fully. This is not the season, this is not the hour, this is not the day to be half-stepping. God needs some people that's fully committed, that's going to go all the way. That's going to get in. Loyal.

Loyalty is hard to find these days. I don't talk about to the church or ministry, I'm talking about loyalty to God.

Because you come to church and be one way, and when you're not at church, you can be another way. How are we when nobody is looking? That's right. What are we doing when no eyes are on us? Are we loyal to God then? Hallelujah. Watch this.

Acts 13:22 says, and when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have found David the son of Jesse.

Watch this, a man— hear me— after my own heart, which shall fulfill— hear me— all my will.

I just told you, God is looking for the people that will go all the way, that will fulfill all of his will.

Now, some of it—

so we got to be so aligned with God, so connected, so plugged in that we say, God, listen, I'm gonna go out. David— this is why they move Saul, put David in place, because David was gonna go all the way.

David was not gonna let anything stop him because he had the heart of God from finishing the purpose, the assignment he had been anointed for. And I'm telling you right now, if we are going to win and really show the devil up We got to make up in our mind we're going to be committed to the end. Amen.

That we're not going to quit because it got hard. We're not going to quit because it got tough. We're not going to give up because we didn't have the attendance we desired. We're going to keep going. Glory to the name of God. Because we're going to carry it full term.

Amen. We cannot have no premature births.

We cannot abort God's plan prematurely. We must carry it full term.

Yes, somebody shout full turn!

Good God, oh my God, he needs somebody that'll go all the way.

Come on, say it, say all the way! Hallelujah! Glory to God. Go to 1 Corinthians 3:3. I'm just—

again, I'm just laying a backdrop to where I'm going.

1 Corinthians 3:3. Glory to God.

Praise the name of God. It says, for ye are yet carnal.

For whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? So here, here's a strong comparison between who's carnal and who's spiritual.

Listen, according to this, I don't care how many tongues you speak in, how much you prophesy.

You could come to church floating 3 inches off the ground and glide through the sanctuary. Glory to God.

Just as spiritual as you want to be. But if you cause division—

my Lord, say this The Bible says you're carnal. You can wear the title of an apostle, the title of a prophet, an evangelist, a pastor, a teacher, but if you cause division and strife and you move in envy and jealousy, the Bible says you are carnal.

Oh boy, I'm telling you, we got a whole lot of carnal folk that appear deep.

Yeah, but yet carnal, because all they do is cause division.

All they do is stir up trouble. So my question this morning: who is spiritual? Who is spiritual that will move in harmony?

Yeah, that will keep the unity, that will keep things locked down together. Glory to God. Hallelujah!

Go to Galatians— I'm sorry, go to Ephesians 4.

Let's go, we're gonna go through this today. Ephesians 4, wonderful Savior. Ephesians 4, uh, let's start at verse 1. I love this text because I want to show you how to avoid strife. Okay, how to avoid strife through oneness and unity. This text shows us how to do that. Let's read it. The Bible says, verse 1, I therefore the prisoner of the Lord— that's the first thing that's got to happen. You got to become a prisoner. Nobody wants to be a prisoner in the natural, because when you become a prisoner in the natural, they take your freedom. Unfortunately, I have the testimony that I have been a prisoner in the natural before. Praise God. Hallelujah. I, I just believe no apostle worth his salt can avoid jail. Y'all not talking to me.

Every apostle I read about in the Bible has been to jail.

Y'all ain't saying to read the scripture.

Glory to God. There's not one. Glory to God.

There's something that happens as a prisoner Prison.

It doesn't happen nowhere else. Glory to God.

Because it forces you to pray. Yes, it forces you to be broken and spend time with God.

Glory to the— it forces you to see life from different vantage points because you're surrounded by other people. But also, it forces you into unity.

Yes, it does.

Regardless to whether you want to be unified or not, as a prisoner The first thing they do when you come in the door, you could be dressed in a tailor-made suit with alligator shoes.

Y'all not talking to me here.

But as soon as you go through the door, the gators coming off, suit coming off, you're going into orange. Glory to the name of God. And everybody in the camp, guess what they wearing?

Orange.

Because they want to make sure everybody is equal.

No matter what walk of life you came from, you can have 3 degrees, but you're gonna be equal with that joker that have no education. Amen. When you're a prisoner.

So if you want to really— hallelujah— avoid strife, you got to become a prisoner of the Lord and decide you're going to do what he tells you to do. Every prisoner has to answer to the rules of the ward.

And when you don't answer to the rules of the warden, there are repercussions that are brought down. You're moved out of the population and put in isolation to be by yourself and think about your actions.

So when you go back— y'all are helping me—

you can now be in unity. Yeah, glory to God.

God says, I need some people that will obey my rules. Amen.

That will go by what I say and become a prisoner handcuffed to my will.

Y'all not talking to me here. Handcuffed to the Bible. Listen, there's no room for moving to the left or to the right. Glory to the name of God. I can't, I can't, I can't even in the political season unhandcuff myself to the Bible. I gotta handcuff myself to what is right. Abortion is wrong, so I'm handcuffed to the Bible when it comes to my vote. Y'all not talking to me. Here. Homosexuality is wrong. So I'm handcuffed to the Bible when it comes to my vote.

Amen. Are y'all hearing this? And then I found out just last week, just blew my mind, that it was— it's a Black woman who's an independent candidate running for president. I was blown away. Wow. And the sister saved.

Wow, the media— y'all not helping me here— have blackballed her. Wow. I posted it on my Instagram, it's— it, it trended in the feed for like 2 minutes and Instagram didn't let it be seen anymore. Wow. Because they don't want us to know, hallelujah, that she was out there.

Listen, let me tell you something, I don't care what the situation is, we got to stick with the Bible. We can't afford to miss it to the left or to the right.

We're prisoners.

Yes, we gotta look like God wants us to look.

And I know I don't preach against clothes, but at the end of the day, there's a way. There's a way to holiness. Yes. Hallelujah. When I'm saved, glory to the name of God, I can't wear pants so tight that you can see my private parts through the pants.

Amen. Glory. Y'all not talking to me.

See, there are men that will preach in Yes, they're not prisoners.

I wonder what prison they at.

They're at the prison where you get to wear what you want to wear. What prison they go to? Glory to God. Listen, wearing yoga pants with a short top with stomach out to the church, that's not—

you're not a prisoner because that invokes lust, right? That's right. Okay, cool.

All right, all right, so we got to be prisoners.

When you're a prisoner, you talk like God talks. Yes, hallelujah! Prisoners don't cuss. Amen.

Yeah, now in the regular prisons, a lot of cussing going on, but in our robot, we don't cuss. That's not our language.

In this prison, we love. Yes, we're in unity. We're for one another. We help one another out. Glory to God.

So that's the first thing you want to avoid. You got to be a prisoner.

He said, he said, pray, pray the Lord, beseech you that you are worthy of the vocation wherewith you are called. So here's the first, here's the second thing that you got to treat with value.

You got to walk worthy of the vocation wherewith God has called you.

Amen.

Which means now you know, so vocation, your assignment, your purpose, That's what vocation means.

God's plan for your life. You understand that it's a privilege to be called.

Kletos in Greek, called.

Kletos means an individual call that God specifically chose you for your vocation.

He didn't choose anybody else for it.

Only you can do your vocation. You're authentic for your purpose. Yeah. And God says you got to treat that with value. And you gotta understand how valuable you are.

So, so you avoid strife. You say, look, this is valuable. I can't let no strife get into this.

I gotta treat this right.

He said, with all lowliness and meekness— there it is again. You want to be humble, you want to be meek.

With long suffering.

God knows when you're walking with God, you got to learn how to go through some long stuff. You gotta learn how to deal with some stuff. Glory to the name of God.

That sometimes you want to retaliate to. How does—

sometimes you have— sometimes long suffering is being quiet when you want to speak. All right, because you never want to be accused of being the source of strife.

Yes, sometimes you got to suffer along with a thing and let God handle it. Some fights are not our fights. God never intended for us to get in every fight.

Amen. He said, forbearing one another in love.

So in other words, the approach to every situation as a prisoner of the Lord is love. Yes. Oh God, not hate. Although we know things are wrong, we, we teach against it in love. We raise a standard in love. Hallelujah! We should never make a person feel bad about being human. Amen. That's a dangerous thing because everybody is God's creation. So we should never make a person feel like they're less than.

It should never come across the pulpit, across or through ministry, where somebody feels like they're less less than human.

Yes, because we're beating them up with scripture and they feel like they can't exist because they're so condemned. Yes, that's, that's a dangerous thing. Yes.

Verse 3: Endeavoring to keep the unity.

See, this is how you avoid strife and keep unity. You gotta endeavor. Endeavor is a hard word, which means you got to work at it. That word is a strong, strong word.

You gotta endeavor, which means you gotta deliberately try to keep things unified.

When everybody else going crazy, you gotta try to find the unity in it.

He said the unity of the Spirit.

That word endeavoring is spoudazo in Greek. Spoudazo. Spoudazo. Watch this.

It means to act with passion. To keep the unity of the Spirit.

Watch this. To keep the unity of the Spirit among each other and keep yourself unified with the Spirit of God. Yes, yes. You got to be passionate about that thing. Watch this.

And very prompt in it.

The moment you see yourself drifting, you got to be prompt and say, hey, I cannot drift.

I gotta stay in line with what the Spirit wants out of my life.

Are y'all here? He said, in the bond of peace, for there is one body and one Spirit, even as you are called in the hope of your calling. Say one body. One body. I don't care what somebody tries to do, there's only one body of Christ.

I'm gonna say it again, there's only one body of Christ.

Glory to the name of God.

People can try to set up something outside of this body and say, okay, we are an addition to, we're an extension.

No, there's only one body. Yes, there's one Spirit. Now there are many spirits, lowercase s. Yes, but there's one capital Spirit. Yes. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. And we're called into one hope.

And you know what that hope is?

That's Jesus Christ. Hallelujah. He's our hope. Yes. The Holy Spirit is that spirit that rules, and we're that body that carries out his purpose. And guess what?

As the body, everything needs to be unified. Everything needs to be clicking on all cylinders.

Amen. Hallelujah. Go to John 17 real quick. Because this is— see, this unity and harmony is the Father's desire for us. Yes, he wants us to be one, working together, operating together. Yes, he wants us to move like a well-polished army marching toward the battle, in sync, in step, not missing a beat. John 17, we'll find these words. And 20, I guess I read 20 and 21. The Bible says, neither— this is Jesus praying, he said, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word. So in other words, God's saying, I'm not just praying for those that are already saved and believe. He said, I'm praying for those who have not even come to me yet, that they will believe on the word. Yes, hallelujah!

We should be consistently praying for those that are not born again.

Amen.

This is the model of Jesus, that they will come in alignment—

watch this— get arrested and become a prisoner of the word. Amen. Hallelujah!

That's what we want.

We want some arrests in the spirit. We want God to arrest some people. So in order to have them, we got to pray and send some angels, some deputies to arrest those that need to be born again and lock them up in the word, because that's what we want. Hallelujah! Verse 21, he said that they all may be one. This will— man, this will of the Father, that all of us be one, saints and sinners. That's— and that the sinner would see the light on us. As thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that they also—

watch this—

may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The greatest testimony we can give to the world is our unity. It's our ability to get along. It's our ability to lift up the name of Jesus together. And exalt him. Watch this, as one. So let's take a look into this strife piece. I just need to lay that, uh, backdrop. So let's look at the spirit of strife. First of all, let me say this: peace and strife— hear me— peace and strife are both spirits. And watch this, the atmosphere can be affected by both. Amen. Somebody walking in strife walks in a room, the rest of the room tenses up, puts up their defenses, because this person now is bringing strife to the table, bringing strife to the culture, bringing strife to the atmosphere. But if you're walking in peace, the spirit of peace sets the atmosphere. Attitudes are affected by both of these.

People immediately get an attitude if they see you got one. Y'all ain't got to say nothing. All right, you know, that's just how humans are. Okay, you got attitude, I got one. Say what you gonna say, I'm gonna say what I'm gonna say. That's just how people are.

But that's just how it can be felt. Yeah, you can feel it.

Yeah.

So, and we talked about how this bickering, angry undercurrent, this argumentative demon, it's a, it's a demon that loves to go back and forth. It's a demon that's not gonna agree with anything.

It's not gonna agree with one thing. You're never gonna win with this demon. Hallelujah.

But it's dangerous, y'all. Listen, I always say this, that women set the tone even in their house because women are very emotional. If they're carrying a certain spirit, that spirit's gonna flow through the house. If they're moved— and you have to be be able to, as family, to kind of deal with that flow in a wise way, or else it could be dangerous. Because even if it's strife, again, a soft answer— I need you to hear this— turns away wrath. You can't argue by yourself. Are you hearing me? Hallelujah.

There have been times even in my own house I wanted to argue.

Yeah, y'all not hearing me. I had something I needed to say. I wanted to argue. Yeah, but my wife refused to let it go there. Yeah, you understand?

So you just sitting there looking crazy because you can't really do it alone, and then that just kind of makes you even more upset. Yeah, but you just kind of have to go somewhere and deal with it.

What I'm saying is strife, if you let it get out of control, if it ignites, if that spark sparks, it's like a fire and it'll burn everything down. A little spark will burn this whole building down.

Are y'all hearing me?

So let's go to 1 Corinthians 9— 1, verse 9, I'm sorry.

I'm almost through.

I just sound long. Glory to God. Somebody said, no sir, you are long. Glory to God. Hallelujah. 9 through 11, that's what we're gonna read. God is faithful. Y'all agree with that? Yeah.

By whom you were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ. Hello.

Wait a minute, let me stop right there for a minute because I just want to deal with that because some people don't really understand that we're really called to fellowship. Yeah, with God.

So let's break it down. The word fellowship is koinonia in Greek.

It means to have communion, intimacy, to commune, communicate. Communication is two-way.

So fellowship means that I am exchanging something with God.

Fellowship means I give God my worship.

We worship this morning, we were singing the song, God, you can have my Yes, and we pour our heart out to him. And at the end of the day, we give God our heart, he comes in and he sits on us.

Yes, he rewards us with his presence. Yes, we're called to fellowship. Yes, people want to be called to preach, but before you preach, you need to fellowship. People want to be called to prophesy, but before you prophesy, you need to fellowship.

Glory to God. The worst thing in the world is have a prophet that don't have a fellowship.

Hallelujah. They don't have relationship with the Father where they can really hear God's voice. Amen. That's what fellowship is.

Fellowship means you come to my table and eat.

Yes. When we share food together. So when I'm fellowshipping with God, yeah, which is my calling.

And the word called there is different from the one we read before, which is klētos. This is kaleo in Greek, which means an outcall, which means he's called everybody to this. Nobody's exempt.

Amen. God says, I want every person in the earth to have the privilege of fellowshipping with me. Anything other than that, oh, it's going to open up the door for strife. Amen.

It's going to open up the door for frustration because religion always frustrates.

It never empowers. Religion will take you through the religious motions of praying, reading the scripture, and never touching God.

Because when you don't see results, you get frustrated.

Yeah, because your prayers were rooted in religiosity and not fellowship.

Oh God, that was good. I don't want my prayer life to ever be found guilty of religiosity. It needs to be found in fellowship, koinonia, communion, oneness, time with God.

Hallelujah. Verse 10, he said, now I beseech you, I urge you— that word beseech is urge, beg in Greek.

He said, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you, but you be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. In other words, Paul said, I'm begging y'all, yeah, get on the same page.

No division among you. It still works for us today. God says, I don't want any division among you, but we need to be perfectly— watch this— perfect, teleios in Greek. It means maturely. Yeah, I want you to be mature. I want you to be complete. See, it takes maturity to join together, to work together. You can't expect babies to get on one accord. People who are immature, they'll never pursue oneness, they'll never pursue unity. But people who are mature They almost— my God, they'll chase unity down because they understand purpose cannot be fulfilled alone. Purpose has to be fulfilled with others. You need others to help you.

So he said, I want you perfectly joined together with the same mind.

Watch this, the same judgment.

What does that mean?

So that means when God looks at us as a group, he can judge us collectively the same way. 'Cause we're walking in wonders, we're according to his plan. There is no disobedience among us. That's heavy, man. He said, for it happened declared unto me of you by God, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. He said, listen, there's some contention, there's some strife down there with you.

I want to bless you, but you got to get along.

Yeah, that's just the bottom line of them 3 verses. God wants to bless you, but we got to get along. Not just in here— I think we get along pretty good in here. I'm saying out there, the whole world needs to get along. In the words of Rodney King, can't we all just get along? End quote. Glory to God. He did say that, and he was the one got beat down. They go to looting because he got beat down. I took the beating. I ain't out there looting. Can we all just get along? I mean, I'm serious. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what's happening in Pennsylvania right now. with shootings and all this racial tension.

People will justify that because of what's happening. But at the end of the day, that's not the answer.

Tearing up a legitimate business that had nothing to do with it is not the answer. Killing another police officer is not the answer.

Being an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, that's not the answer. They're talking about we're going to have civil unrest, a civil war.

Wow. I rebuke it in the name of Jesus.

That's not the will of the Father.

God never called non-military people to go to war. The wars are to be fought by armies. Yes, we have natural militaries.

And we have a heavenly army that if there needs to be a war fought, there are people purposed for that.

Yes, amen. There are people out there now saying take up arms, get your license to carry.

I see people on Instagram all with their guns dressed up in gear marching, talking about we're going to take over this Capitol, take over this building.

Listen, it's going to be a whole lot of unnecessary dead folk. Yeah, because the moment they call in the real military I'm just saying, man, the real military, National Guard, and then if the National Guard don't work, they got the Army, they got Marines, they got everybody.

What you gonna do against that?

I mean, let's just be realistic. I mean, you, you really ask the Black Panthers, they had purpose, but the Black Panthers didn't prevail like they was talking. No, they talked a better game than they performed. Yes, they made a statement that Blacks, we need to unify, we need to retaliate, but they didn't do nothing because they were up against something far bigger.

And it's better to put these things in the hand of the Lord and to be in contention.

I'm just saying, man. Glory to God. All right, go to Psalm 133. Let's go.

See, cause when there's—

this is some of the dangers of this strife and discord.

So God want to bless us, but we got to get along so we can't get the blessing of God.

Now watch this: when there's unity, there's blessing and anointing present. Yes, the anointing cannot flow when there's tension and strife.

It's a hard thing.

I've been in a church where there was tension. Couldn't break through.

I've been in a church where there was one person in the church always stirring up strife.

As a matter of fact, that church wasn't even that big, and every time the church would grow, there was one individual in this church that would stir up strife and run everybody off that were coming in. Nobody wanted to stay there.

I would talk to people that left and they say, y'all could stay there because of They always stirring up stuff.

Listen, you can't expect the anointing to flow freely and heavily in the midst of strife.

That's why we got to stay on one accord, yo, because we need the anointing. The anointing leave this church, I'm leaving.

Amen. I'm going with the anointing.

Glory to God. Because we need the anointing. No need to show up here and the anointing's not here.

Amen. Because you— the anointing destroys yokes. The anointing removes burdens. Yes, can't do nothing without the anointing of God. Go to Psalm 133:1. Glory to God, let's go. I'm sorry, I should have been there. Y'all wait. Psalm 133:1, the Bible says, A Song of Degrees of David. Behold, how good and pleasant is it for brethren to dwell together in unity. Let's break that down. The word good, tov in Hebrew, that word means profit or profitable. Ask a businessman to define profit. He'll tell you what's left after the expenses have been paid.

That's profit. So God says, I want to give you some profit. I want to give you something left over after you pay the price to worship, after you pay the price in prayer, after you pay the price in study. He said, I want to give you some prophets, something left over that you can carry into the nations where they can see my glory on your life.

Watch this.

Pleasant. Oh my God. He said, how good and pleasant. How good and pleasant. Pleasant. This word is power. Naim in Greek— in the Hebrew, I'm sorry.

How sweet, how delightful, how beautiful. God says it's a beautiful thing profitable and beautiful.

So when people look at our unity, it's beauty to them. Yeah, when he looks down from heaven and sees our unity, it's beauty to him.

Oh God, hallelujah! He takes great delight in seeing it. Watch this.

It is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the the skirt of his garment. Watch this, the anointing flows from the head down. Aaron was the high priest, he was being anointed and it flowed down through his beard, down to the bottom of his feet. Let me tell you something, leaders have to be anointed.

Yes.

If you in leadership, you need to be anointed and have a grace for that area you're called to lead in. I don't want to do nothing I'm not anointed to do.

Glory to God.

And one of the things that keeps that oil flowing is when I'm in unity with the Father. Hallelujah. What keeps the oil flowing in our life? When we're in unity through worship and we spend private time with God. And listen, you can't be anointed publicly if you're not anointed privately. Okay, can I tell you something? God wants you to spend a enough private time with him that you're anointed in private, so that when you come out of that private place— glory to God, hallelujah— the anointing will flow publicly and it will begin to destroy yokes and remove burdens from the lives of people. I dare you lift up your voice and say, anoint me again, oh God. Hallelujah. I don't know about— but we need the anointing. We need the anointing to cast out devils. We— oh my God, I just gotta preach out of this. I'm not gonna finish it. Glory to the name of God. But I'm telling you right now, the devil will know that you are anointed. Glory to the name of God. I'm telling you, the world will know that you're anointed when you spend enough time in private saying, God, anoint. That's why we gotta kick the strife out. We gotta kick the discord out. Nothing will keep me from prayer. Nothing will keep me from worship. Nothing will keep me from studying my Bible because I need the anointing to exist. We need the anointing to heal COVID-19. We need the anointing to deal with systematic racism. We need the anointing to destroy yokes. We need the anointing to remove burdens. We need the anointing to prosper. We need the anointing— glory to God! Hallelujah! To to do miracles. I wish somebody shouting, Lord, give me the anointing! God, I'm preaching better, y'all saying amen.

Hallelujah!

Well, praise God. Yes indeed. I know we cut it off short a little, but you need the anointing of God in your life to win. We can't make it without the anointing, guys. Listen, I want to pray with you. Praise God. I promise you that if you will choose to align yourself and come in harmony and agreement and in accord with God. Oh my God, I promise you, there will be nothing you can ask of him that he will not do. And the anointing of God that destroys yokes and removes burdens will be with you always. And that's what you want.

Glory to God.

So let's pray. Let's pray that the anointing of God will rest heavy upon you, that it will destroy yokes, it will remove burdens, and that the power of the living God will precede you in every situation, that the knowledge and intellect and mind of God will go with you everywhere you go. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, we thank you for this word today. And Father, I decree and declare that every person under the sound of my voice, they live in the spirit of accord and not discord. I decree and declare that there is no discord in their life at all. And I thank you, God, that they move in the spirit of sinfínio, the spirit of peace, the spirit of accordness. I thank you that they are, hallelujah, people of peace. They pursue peace deliberately. They endeavor to keep unity. And when they do this, they keep strife out of their life. And so I thank you, God, that when we remove strife, that the blessing of the Lord, as we learned today, and the anointing of God it flows freely without hesitation or hindrance in our lives. And so we thank you, God, for harmony and peace in our world. We thank you for peace in our families, with our children. We give you praise for it now. We bind up strife in our lives, in our families, in our churches, in our homes. And we thank you, Lord. We have the victory now, in Jesus' name. Amen. And thanks be to God. Hallelujah! Well, praise God! Listen, let me tell you something. You do not have to live in strife at all. It's the will of God that you win, and that you win big. Listen, maybe you were watching us and you're not saved. What does that— what does that mean? That means you haven't repented of your sins and invited Jesus Christ to be Lord over your life. Listen, if you watched us today and you're not born again— glory to God— or maybe you're born again and you got sin in your life, I want to pray with you that you will receive Jesus Christ and forgiveness of sin, and that from this day forward you will begin to live a life that's pleasing to the King. Hallelujah! All it takes is repentance. Repentance and belief. I just want you to repeat this prayer after me. Say this with me.

Say, Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, I repent of my sins.

I open my heart.

I invite you in. Live in me, Jesus.

Say, Father, I believe that Jesus died and rose again.

Say, Father, I thank You for living in me right now. I declare I am saved in Jesus' name.

Listen, if you said those words, you today, my friends, are born again. Hallelujah! Listen, there is an email address on the screen. I want you to write me, glory to the name of God, and say, hey Apostle, I prayed be with you today. So many watch us, and when we pray this little prayer at the end, they give their lives to the Lord from all around the world. Listen, if that was you today, write me. I have a special package I want to send you that's going to help you in your next steps in your salvation walk. Listen, my time is gone, but I want to challenge you to be a blessing to ministry. You know, the Bible says it's more blessed to give than is to receive. So I want to challenge you today to plant your seed. And if you're a member of this church, for sure we expect you to bring your tithe— glory to the name of God— into the storehouse, that there may be meat in your house. Glory to the name of God. God says, prove him with it. Praise the name of God, that he will not open the windows of heaven and pour you out of blessing. You will not have room enough to receive. Listen, today I want to give liberally and be a blessing to the kingdom of God. I promise you, your giving, your seed will not go in vain. There are two ways you can give to Rhoda Church. One, Cash App. You can go to your Cash App on your phone, your tablet, or even on your computer and simply give to Rhoda Church. That's the Cash App handle. The other way, you can go to our website, rhodachurch.org. Www.baptistchurch.com/donate. Either way, the seed comes straight to our church, goes straight into our church account, and you have sown your seed in good ground. And I'm grateful in advance for all of you that will sow liberal seed into this ministry. Let's really think before we give today. I want you to pray. The Bible says, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons sons of God. Matter of fact, let me pray with you. Father, in Jesus' name, bless your people as they prepare their hearts to give. Let them be obedient and be led of you as they sow seed in good ground. And we praise you for it. We thank you that as they give, their seed is already returning to them a thousand times more than they released it. And we praise you for it now, in Jesus' name. Amen and thank Thanks be to God. Well, God bless your hearts. Listen, I want to just announce to you, we're at Raleigh Church every Thursday night at 7 o'clock in person, every Sunday morning at 10 o'clock in person, and then you can watch our live stream every Sunday night at 6 o'clock PM. We have some special services coming up next weekend, the first— this first coming up weekend in November. Glory to the name of God. I think I want to say, matter of fact, let me just look at the calendar so I can make sure I'm telling you the right dates. Glory to God. Yes, November 7th and 8th, we're having our— we're having a weekend, we're calling it Compel. The Bible says go into the hedges and highways and compel them to come in. The word, uh, compel means to skillfully influence. So we have to become skilled at influencing people that do not know God to come come into the kingdom. Well, this weekend, listen, leaders, if you have people in your church that you want to be trained— glory to the name of God— to win souls, listen, it's enough souls in the region called Georgia for all of us to go and begin to reach the lost. We're going to host a special class on Saturday morning at 10:30 AM. We want you to be there. Bring your leadership, bring your ministry teams. Listen, people want to preach prophesy within the church, but they don't want to win souls. Listen, I remember I first got saved, my first charge was to make full proof of my ministry and do the work of an evangelist. Glory to God! And let me tell you something, I did it pretty, pretty heavily. I went out, I got souls, and then I started traveling the country of— I mean, 15,000 miles a month on an average, traveling, doing meetings, and people getting saved. Can I tell you something? That's where is at, that's where the heart of God is. This weekend, November 7th and 8th— the 7th, 10:30 AM— 10 o'clock AM in the morning, I'm sorry, we're going to be training those that want to receive the training on power evangelism. And then on Sunday morning and Sunday night, 10 AM, 6 o'clock, we're making our church a harvest field. Listen, if you know someone that needs to be saved, that does not know know Jesus. Those two services are going to be designed to bring them into the kingdom of God. Listen, you want to get them there. It's going to be phenomenal. The worship is going to be off the chain. The word is going to be great. And moreover, it's going to be an opportunity for many to come to Jesus. Glory to God. So I want to invite you to join us at Roddell Church. The address to the church is on the screen. Compelled, hallelujah, our Super Souls it's gonna be absolutely phenomenal. I hope to see you there. Listen, my time is very gone. I look forward to seeing you guys again real soon. Remember, share the word with a friend, and remember this: your decisions determine your destiny. God bless you.