The Power and Necessity of Evangelism, Part 1 | Dr. Mike Woods, Sr. | 19 March 2025

Well, praise the Lord everybody and welcome today. I pray everybody is well. Uh, happy Wednesday! Glory to God! And I am really grateful to be here in the studio today and to start these series of teachings that we're going to share on today. It's going to be absolutely phenomenal. Uh, do me a favor, guys, if you're just joining us, um, I need you to like, I need you to share, and I need you to comment below and let us know you're here. We're always glad to have Uh, any person that will take the time to listen to the word— the word is so vitally important, hear me guys, to every aspect of your life. The moment we start deviating from the word, uh, that's when we start having real problems. But I have found over these— I, I'm not new to this, I'm actually true to this, guys, for real— I have found that the word of God, hear me, Hear me, the word of God is the most important and essential thing. It's more important than food, is more important than people liking me, is more important than money. It is the central, uh, focus of every aspect. It's a substratum of everything I am able to do. And anytime I'm not able to do something, it's because I backed up off the word and didn't trust it. So I want you guys to understand, it means a lot Says a lot about you, uh, that you're joining us, that you're here with us. So please comment below, let us know you're here. Glory to the name of God. Thank everyone for being here. Great afternoon to you. Glory to God that are here. Come in, guys, if you're watching live or by replay. Again, I really need you sincerely, guys, to, uh, share this experience. I believe it's going to be a tremendous blessing to someone that listens, to someone that hears. Glory to the name of God. Uh, God bless you, daughter Shariel. Good to see you, always good to see you. God bless you. Glory to God. God bless you, Dr. Felix. Good to see you, man of God. Always good to see all of our friends and family, uh, that join us. Thank you so much for being here. Listen, I'm gonna dive right into this. Like I said, uh, I know that You know, some of you are making sacrifices to be here at 12 noon, and so we're going to make sure we jump right in. Glory to God. Um, this is going to be great. I'm going to pray and, um, I'm going to talk about something that I believe is really lost in the body of Christ. I think, uh, for the most part, the church has become tremendously dysfunctional. And, uh, stay with me, stay with me. And I have to be very, uh careful in how I say that because again, I'm a part of the church, right? But the church has become extremely dysfunctional, no, to this end, because we have disregarded our mission. We've disregarded the desire and the plan of our Father. And we've gone off on this tangent where we're just trying to create these cultures and these atmospheres that really center around the person who is, uh, centric to leading an organization or group of people that we quote-unquote call the church, which creates dysfunction. Because now what is happening, people are connecting with leaders who are not, one, helping them to discover— helping them to discover their true purpose. Two, not developing them enough to operate effectively in that purpose. And here's the, here's the real tragedy. Leaders are not deploying those that connect to them to fulfill that purpose in excellence, because most leaders are trying to hoard people to themselves. Hear me. And the reality is, this is not the design, this is not the plan. Every believer was created, glory to the name of God, to be deployed into the world, to show up in the world effectively with full authority, uh, fulfilling their purpose. And ultimately, here's the bringing people to Jesus. And this is the dysfunction. We're doing everything else. We got great Facebook posts, we write great books, we have great crusades, we have great conferences and great meetings and great weekends. But the reality is people are not being saved in America, and this My friends, is a problem. This is not popular. People ain't gonna want to hear this. Glory to the name of God. But the reality is we are dysfunctional. Watch this. The Jehovah's Witnesses are outgrowing, uh, oh my God, the Kingdom Church 15 to 1. Muslims in America are outgrowing the Christian church 13 to 1. We have a problem. And what people are calling church growth, or watch this, even people with the online church, what they're calling church growth is an immigration of and a recycling into their move of people who are already saved. It's, it's called membership transfer. They come from one place, go to another one, and then yet the city or the region that we're called to serve is still suffering because all you're trying to do is gain popularity on television, on social media. Oh my God, here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go. And not really tied into the heart of God and suck in people from other places when honestly we got a real problem. Did you just hear what I said? The Muslims are outgrowing us 12 to 1. Jehovah's Witness, 15 to 1. I could keep going. I mean, when it comes to growth, we're literally at the bottom of the list when you consider of the religions of the world. It's because we're dysfunctional and we're disobedient. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for the boldness to teach this message. I thank you for a heart for evangelism. I pray, God, that you will connect the ears of your people with this message. And that they will experience not Michael Woods, but the light, the illumination, and the intelligence of the Holy Ghost. I, I declare today in the name of Jesus that none of us will leave this teaching the way we tap into it. And I decree and declare, God, that we will never be the same. I declare, God, that because as we teach this over these next 10 days Uh, during our fast for souls, during our fast for people to be born again and supernatural breakthroughs in the kingdom, God, I pray, God, that we will be ignited, that there will be a fire that will be ignited in us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature, uh, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, and understanding that these signs will follow them that believe. And Father, we thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Glory to God. All right, this afternoon I'm about to come— listen, stay with me. There's some things I may say during this teaching over the next 10 days, uh, you know, you may find it offensive because it's going to challenge, uh, the dysfunction of the church, is going to challenge the laziness of Christians. All right, and You know, my heart grieves, my heart burns as a shepherd, as a shepherd not only to, uh, congregants who gather to hear me, uh, as an apostle over the churches I planted, and as an apostle over— glory to the name of God— those that God has entrusted me with in leadership. My heart grieves, uh, when I look at the world because we're not getting it. We're in a rat race to be the most popular person on social media or television. And so we begin to manufacture things for popularity. So if you're looking for me to jump around and prance and dance and do a TikTok bit, this ain't the video. I'm sorry. Okay, this, this, this is not the video. If you're looking for a praise break, this ain't the video. You might as well scroll right now. Because this is not the video, okay? This video is going to call you to responsibility. Hear me, this video— oh my God, today, oh my God, Asha Mosi Kambotushia. God, I give you the glory. God, I give you the honor. This video is going to call you to the carpet because we've been singing, we've been teaching, we've been preaching, we've been having good church. And nobody's saved. Nobody's getting saved. As a matter of fact, let me just go here. Half of the folks that's up there preaching, teaching, singing, uh-oh, ain't really saved neither. Oh God, because they don't live it after they get through doing it. So let's stop playing games. Uh, yeah, I'm on another— I mean, every time I go to the mountains and come back, uh, I'm different. So I mean, I spent some time with God. We was up in the mountains since last Thursday. Working on our documentary. And, um, my God, just a lot of great things happen up there. Uh, I'm not going to take this time to talk about all of that right now, but I'm telling you, uh, I just kind of shifted to another burden. Uh, this is a burden for souls I've been carrying for 35 years. The reality is, uh, we, we venture off into these things that are not necessarily God, and we become dysfunctional. Let's get into this. Glory to God. Um, uh, sorry about 5 o'clock prayer this morning. Listen, I'll be bright and early tomorrow at 5. I had just got in, uh, yesterday, uh, went to bed, hadn't slept in my bed. Glory to God. Matter of fact, I was literally in the mountains in cabins, okay? So, uh, the mattress I was sleeping on was this thin all weekend. The, the reality is I was so glad to back in my bed. I did not want to get out of it when my alarm went off. So y'all, y'all forgive me, but I hope you prayed if you got up at 5. But I'll be in prayer with you in the morning at 5 AM. Let's jump into this, guys. I, I want to start talking over the next 10 days, and I hope, uh, my introduction here ain't scared you off. But again, I want to call you to responsibility over these next 10 days, and I pray that when we get through with this you'll have a mind to live— listen, to live this out, to walk. Somebody said, Apostle, well, where, where's the faith teachings? Where's the, the, the blessing and the prosperity? Yeah, this is how you're gonna get it, through this obedience right here. So stay with me, all right? Stay with me. Glory to God. So we're talking today about the power, glory to God, and the necessity. Of evangelism. It's, it's so very important, so very important, uh, because we indeed are agents of transformation. All right, so, and the doctrine— I just want to lay a foundation today of evangelism. Glory to God. It's not something that we should take lightly. Although we have, it has literally been dismissed. Listen to me, all right, from the church. The doctrine of evangelism and the winning of souls, hear me, has literally been diminished in the church. You don't even hear this word. Most of the people that will see the video topic, glory to God, when they see, oh my God, this thumbnail pop up They won't even be able to recognize what this is, what that word evangelism is. When they see this thumbnail pop up, when they see the power and necessity of evangelism on this thumbnail, they won't even know what that is because they haven't been taught what the word evangelism means. So over these next 10 days, I'm going to give you some, some meat to help you be clear about what evangelism is and why everything you do should be engaged and aligned with the spirit of evangelism. Listen, if you're doing anything in ministry and evangelism, soul winning— hear me— it's not at the core. I know, and some of you deep and wonderful spiritual folk, oh, I just want to see the fire. Listen, for you prophets, and apostles out here that feel like— listen to me, listen, listen to me, because I love y'all— that all you need to do is prophesy, uh, glory to God, and work miracles. If the root of what you're doing is just for clout, just for social influence, and you're not really concerned about people coming into the kingdom, those gifts— every anointing we have is for people being saved. So, so for you leaders who just— let me ask you a question, and I'm gonna teach this one of these one day on these one, on one of these 12 new lives in this series. When was the last time you actually got somebody saved? I'm not gonna get deep into that today, but for real, you're a preacher, you're a leader. When the last time— I want you to think about this— you led somebody to Christ? Mm-hmm. When the last time, preacher? Preacher, come on. Fivefold ministry gift. Apostle, well, that's not my call, that's for the evangelist. Lie. My God, Timothy was a pastor and he said, I made full proof of my ministry by doing the work of an evangelist. Come on. So come on, come on, prophet. Come on, apostle. Uh, yeah, if you— y'all like to type in the comments, type in the comments please. When the last time you got somebody saved? Oh my God, oh my God. Okay, someone said, well, Pastor, you asked me that when last time you got somebody saved? Uh, last Friday and Saturday and Sunday. Come on, come on, come on, I'm ready for you. Glory to God, because this is my daily quest. I'm on the golf course witnessing to people, even when I'm out at home, uh, in recreation, trying to bring people to the kingdom. When the last time, bro, For real, you got somebody saved, you led them to Jesus and they accepted him. I'll wait, I, okay, I'll wait. I'm gonna teach and I'm gonna wait for the comment, right? Yeah, okay, all right. So it thundered in my spirit for real, man, that the fires and the doctrine— yeah, this ain't gonna be popular, people ain't gonna stay on this because they want to scroll. Oh yeah, they want to scroll, glory to God. They want to post, they want to be popular. They want to be liked. But I want to be liked by heaven. I want to be liked by God. Glory to God. I want to— I know he loved me, but I want him to like me. Glory, because it's different. You can love people and not really like them. Glory to God. I want God to like me. I want him to be pleased with my behavior. Glory to God. And I don't want to be a dysfunctional man of God, and you should not want to be a dysfunctional believer. Oh my God, operating. Oh my God, I gotta go, I gotta go. So again, it thundered in my spirit. The Spirit of the Living God was speaking loudly. He said, son, the spirit of evangelism and its doctrine— he said it is— this is exactly how he said it to me. He said it has gone out of the 21st century church. Most, most churches feel like missions replaces evangelism. Okay, you gave some people food, but what's really your motive for passing out food and clothing? Uh-oh. Did you feed them, but did they get saved? Did they ever come back to Jesus? Did you, did you even give them the gospel with that plate? Come on, come on, man. Yeah, so, so It's, it's, it's not our works. We, we— because, and, and I'll get into this later, glory to God, because in Revelation the Bible talks about a church who had great works, but they had an appearance that they were alive, but they were yet dead. And, and that's not where we want to be. And the main thing there is, is because there was no transformation. We were meeting physical needs but not spiritual needs. So this is not— well, let's back here. Let's, let's start here. Let's start here. Let's start here. Slow down, Michael, because I'm telling— I want you to get this today. I'm still waiting on that comment. When last time you got someone saved? You should think about that, because what I'm about to show you today is going to put that in a whole nother category for you, okay? So I want you to think about that, and I want you to start thinking about actions you're gonna take okay, to help people get born again. Ooh-wee, ooh-wee, ooh-wee. All right, I want you to start thinking about that. I want you to start thinking about that, okay? Because people need what you carry, right? People need what's in you. Oh my God, are y'all hearing me? And you got to decide that you're going to obey God. Somebody say obey. Obey. Yeah, yeah. It's evangelism is an act of obedience when you're in it. Let's define it. Let's define it. So the word evangelism comes from the Greek word evangelizo. Yeah, evangelizo, which means to influence and present. Good news that causes, watch this, transformation. To influence with and present good news. Good news that transforms. Whoo, it transforms. So the good news about Jesus, evangelism is the sharing of the gospel of Jesus Christ influencing others. Hallelujah! Through this good news, through the testimony of Jesus Christ in your life, through his word as well, that causes others to be saved, to be transformed. Evangelism is the act of sharing the gospel. It's necessary. I'm not talking about just preaching a sermon to a room full of church folk. Yeah, man. Okay, so I see a lot of posts, people talk about, you know, how many people joined their church, you know, how many people came in, you know, all of that stuff. Here's reality, family. I hear you, I hear you, but how many of those people came to Jesus, right? So We got to shift our place because we've missed something. Let's go to Mark 16. We've missed something. I'm gonna slow down and teach this, man, because I— yeah, I don't wanna— I don't want you to feel like I'm just fussing at you but and not giving you no principle. So let's go to— let's go to, uh, Mark 16:15. I got my Bible here. Let's go to Mark 16:15 and, um We're gonna walk through this. I'm so excited about this fast. Uh, if you're joining us now, we, um, we started a fast— while you're going to Mark 16:15— on Monday. Glory to the name of God. The 17th, we'll fast through the 29th of this month, uh, 12 days of fasting for the salvation of souls and the synergy of the saints. Listen, you want to tap in, we're praying daily at 5 AM, we're teaching daily at 12 noon like we're doing right now. You want to make sure, glory to God, that you tap into this fast. I think the thumbnail is is coming up. Make sure you tap into the fast. Glory to the name of God. There is a fast guide. If you have not downloaded the fast guide, hear me, go and download it. It tells you how we're eating. Now listen, every— all the details are there. It tells you what scriptures we're reading every day on the fast and we're studying them. We gotta focus, we gotta reason. We're fasting because we realize this kind doesn't come forth but by fasting and prayer. So we're praying and we're fasting. Glory to the name of God. Hear me. Hallelujah, because we want to see some things break in the realm of the spirit, and we want to see tangible manifestations of that break. Hear me, guys, in the earth. Listen, so make sure you download the guide, rhodochurch.com/fast25, and you, you're not too late to join us. Glory to the name of God. Get involved. Glory to God. We're looking for souls to be saved. This is an important fast. Glory to God. Because we want to see the people we love born again, and people we don't even know. We want to see them born again and brought into the kingdom of God, right? All right, so let's, let's go. Mark 16, glory to God, and 15. I love y'all today, glory to God. That's why I preach so hard, because I love you. I'm— I speak the truth in love, glory to God. All right, so stay with us today. The Bible says here, and he said— who is he? Jesus. I want you to be clear right here. Jesus is speaking. And let me establish something right at this moment. Whenever— here we go, here we go. Whenever Jesus speaks, two things. Whatever Jesus says, number one, is truth. There's no ability in Jesus to lie. Whatever Christ says is truth. Do y'all get that? I'll say it again. Whatever Jesus says is true. I'm gonna say it one more time. Whatever Jesus says is true. Hear me, family. So if he speaks it, you could take it to the bank. Secondly, whenever Jesus speaks, it's law. Why? Because whenever a king opens his mouth, whatever he says and decrees is enacted as law. So Jesus is the King of Kings. So anytime Jesus is speaking, glory to God, through his word— well, watch this, for those of you that said Jesus is talking to you all the time. I understand why you think God's gonna spend all this time talking to you and you don't even obey what he told you to do in the book. But if perhaps he really is speaking to you as much as you say he's speaking to you, all right, then whenever he speaks, one, it's truth. He can't lie, so you need to follow the truth that he's saying to you. And secondly, hear me, it's law, so it's intended for you to obey. So there's no difference in what he's about to say here. It's truth and it's law. Say that with me. Say, whenever Jesus speaks, it's always truth and it's always law. Come on, say it again. Whenever Jesus speaks, it's always truth— hear me— and it's always law. Glory to God. So, and he said unto them, them, them, them, all right, he says, go ye into all the world. Good God. And preach the gospel. Oh boy, here we go. Evangelion, evangelize. Glory to God. The good message. Hallelujah. The, the glad tidings of the kingdom that influences and transforms, right? So take this message that influences the evangelism of the gospel to every creature. All right, verse 16: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Notice two things there for salvation: believe and baptized. All right, I need you to hear that. Did Jesus said it? It's truth, right? He says, but he that believeth not shall be damned. That's truth too, right? Verse 17: And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name they shall cast out devils. Glory to God. They shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. And they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. I want to go back really quick to the first verse. He said unto them, so I want you to touch yourself and say, I'm one of them. Said— say, I'm one of them. Glory to God. And if I would put a title on this first message of this 10-part series we're going to be teaching over the next 10 days, I will simply call it I Am One of Them. I want you to declare that, and we're going to be out of here really quickly. Say, I'm one of them. Again, you're not exempt. See, here's what we want. We want the signs that follow. We want to cast out devils, We want to speak with tongues. We— and we do, we do a lot of that in the church, right? Well, not in all churches, but it— yeah, because some churches don't even do that in their church. But that's a whole nother message for another day. But we cast out devils, we speak in tongues. So watch this, we don't take up physical serpents because that's not what this is. Uh, this is ophis in Greek, and it's figuratively talking about ancient systems. Ancient religious structures and worldly systems that we take up and uproot so that the truth of the gospel can get in. I ain't got time. Good, there's a whole nother message for another day. And if you drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt you. I, I'm trying— I'm— and with all the traveling I've done over the last 35 years And with all the evil people that have come in and out of my life, I'm almost certain that someone has tried to poison me. I'm certain, but I'm still here. And, and, and I can only imagine that they're looking, said, I tried to kill that dude, I tried to poison him, because, because it wasn't them, it was the enemy using them to stop what was in me. But the scripture here says if you drink any deadly thing, it won't hurt you. Yeah, you know why all of those people who followed— oh my God, oh, here we go, here we go— follow the cultists to Ghana and drunk the Kool-Aid died? Because they wasn't believers in Jesus, they believed in the cultists. Ah, but when you believe in Jesus, you can drink any deadly thing, they're gonna try to kill you and you won't die. I give you glory. I got to get through this. I'm the Holy Spirit, please just let me get through. I feel Jesus for real. Glory to God. But I got to get through this. Oh God. He says they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. So we want to lay hands on the sick, we want to see people heal, right? We want that part, but we don't want the part, the very substratum that says go because this is the prerequisite— into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. I'm gonna say this again: evangelism is not just for a few anointed people. But despite your gifting, your calling, your respective anointing, even if you don't have an office or if you don't have a certain gifting All you have to do to operate in evangelism is obey and believe. So if you're a believer, you're one of them. So say it again. Say, I'm one of them. I am created. I am called. I am commissioned to preach the gospel. To every creature. And as the traditional church, uh, would, would say, oh, I need a license, I need to be ordained. Listen, if you really want to preach and you're a believer, you'll preach. If you really love God and want people to know who he is, you'll preach without a license, without paper. You'll— oh my God, you'll preach. Every time you open up your mouth, you'll be sharing the gospel with somebody that needs it. But if you need a mic and if you need a pulpit— oh my God— to preach, I doubt very seriously if you're really a preacher. Because the best preaching ain't done in a church building. Matter of fact, my colleagues are probably going to get mad at me for this, which I really don't care. I honestly don't care. I love y'all, but I don't care because I'm just really I'm really up to here with the antics, the church as usual, the performances, the lack of oil. You're screaming, trying to mimic somebody else, when honestly the church should be a deployment zone. Okay, it should— two things should happen in your church. One, people should be being deployed into the world to preach. And when they go out from the church, they should bring others in. That's so the second thing could happen— people could get saved. People don't get saved in our churches because our members are lazy. Oh, y'all ain't got to talk to me here. Because our members prioritize every other aspect of their lives over people get born— oh boy, getting born again. Watch this. He add to the church daily, such as would be saying, how this gonna happen? We don't meet daily. Yeah, we don't have church daily because some of y'all— we, we could, but y'all wouldn't show up. So we don't have church daily. But if he's gonna add daily such as would be saved, that means the people who go to church should be daily witnessing for God. But y'all lazy, right? You're lazy. You're lazy. Okay, I called you lazy. All right, okay. Sunday I'll be at Fortier Santa Fe Trail, Ellenwood, Georgia. I'm there, man. So I called you lazy. Yeah, you got something, got a problem with it, come see me, all right? Because the reality is you need some prayer. You need to be dealt with because, watch this, you are in direct disobedience to a command, to the king's law. Uh-oh. Okay, but yeah, Apostle, I stopped fornicating, I stopped lying, I stopped cussing. Yeah, okay, I'm glad, but you're still operating in the realm of disobedience. Oh God, you're still operating in the realm of disobedience because you are not evangelizing. I'm still waiting on the comment. Yeah, for the last time you got somebody saved. I'm waiting, I'm, I'm waiting, man. Last time you witnessed to someone and they came to Jesus. Yeah, yeah, because we're so busy with our own life, we're so busy with our own stuff that we don't realize— hear me— the necessity and the importance of bringing others to Christ. We've missed it, man, and we're operating in so much disobedience. Watch this. The word sin comes from the Greek word harmitsia, which means to miss the mark, which means to come short. So yes, you stop cussing. Yes, you're not an adulterer anymore. Yes, you don't fornicate. Yes, you don't lie, you don't steal, you don't cheat, you don't drink, you don't smoke. But you don't even— but you don't evangelize which is something you should do. But, and because you don't evangelize, you're in sin. So now that you know you're responsible and you might want to repent— yeah, that part— because Jesus said go. When last time you went? Well, that's how you was in Walmart and stood next to someone and talked to them about Jesus, and with your gifted self picked up what they was going through and they ain't even say— and start prophesying to you, to them. Ask me when last time I did it. Last, last week. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday. Sitting on airplanes, picking up where people are, talking to them. Are y'all hearing me? Trying to get them in. When last time you did it? Okay. Oh boy, oh boy, I feel the tension, I feel the tension. Okay, yeah, but I'm talking directly to you. Yeah, I mean you. And listen, listen, y'all be, oh Dad, oh y'all be calling me for That's what dads do. Glory to God. Because I'm not— if I'm your father, I'm gonna tell you the truth, period. I do it my natural children, I'm gonna do it my spiritual children, period. Point blank, end of story. You're lazy and you need to— all that power, all that anointing you got, you need to use it in the marketplace, use it in the municipality, use it in the world, because there's a command over your life to go. All right, I know you can see all these prophetic classes, prophetic ministries. Who getting saved? How is this— okay, I get it. So what is going to be the end result of people coming to Christ? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But we want to get drunk, lay on the floor, prophesy. Nobody getting born again. And then the excuse some of these deep preachers will use Oh, we don't get people saved because we call it disciple. Dummy, you can't disciple people you ain't got saved yet. Yeah, we got to get them saved and then we disciple. Okay, yeah, yeah, all right, all right, yeah, yeah. I'm telling you, I'm back for real, okay? I'm, I'm back. Yeah, I ain't been on here in a few days, man. I'm back. And listen, Going forward, this way they're gonna be right here. I'm challenging your stuff. I'm gonna get you unstuck because I'm a, I'm a spiritual laxative. And I mean, you getting all this good spiritual teaching, going through all these motions, and you still stuck, and you ain't seeing no breakthroughs in your life. You're constipated spiritually because you're operating in disobedience. And this is a big area in the whole universal church. The church is— listen, okay, so we— you— let me use social media for example. When you post things, most of the time people in your circle, very few of them are going to see your post, and those are people that are already saved. So we spend the majority of our time speaking to people who already got what we got. We got to be different. We got to get in spaces where we could be heard and we can, with love, draw people to the kingdom and Jesus can transform them. See, guess what? If, if I get people to Jesus and he transforms them and their life change and they go into the world and do the same thing and we keep creating this multiplicity of ministry where people get born again and people are being changed— hear me, hear me, family— the world becomes different. Listen, if I reach my city for Jesus and then I teach the city how to reach their city, ultimately the city will reach the county, and the county will reach the state, and the state will really— oh my God— will impact the country. And if the country gets this it'll impact the world. We, we must understand that we can really create a fire of evangelism just by us getting started doing what we're supposed to do. I'm still waiting on the comment though, for real. When the last time you got somebody say glory to God? Good, Pastor Montgomery, good, very good. You're among the very few, sir. Glory to God, you're one of the very few. Thank you for your answer. You're among the very few because most preachers are lazy, sir. Yes, sir. They, they have no desire to see people born again. All they want to do is see their churches full and don't realize the way we're going to get our church full is adding to the church daily, such as would be saved. And we got to get back to this model. Glory to God. And we got to do what we got to do. Praise God. He says, go around the world, preach the gospel to every creature. So no one is exempt. Every person needs to hear this. Hallelujah. So I'm gonna give you these and I'm gonna be out of here. In order to— this foundational— accept your role as one of them. Say, I'm one of them. See, These signs shall follow them that believe. So watch this, when you believe you can cast out the devil. When you believe you should be able to speak in tongues. Are you hearing this? New tongues. Watch this, that's not just the spiritual gift that flows out of us inside of the church corporately and prophetic utterances to God. This new tongues deals with different languages. When you believe and you're really one of them tongue. God can anoint your tongue to speak a different language that you never learned. Oh boy, this is the ministry of the Holy Spirit, people. The Bible says on the day of Pentecost they spoke with new tongues. They were able to understand each other because there were 120 people from different regions who spoke different languages. When it's time to tell the truth to somebody that needs it, God can anoint your tongue. How do you know Michael, he's done it for me. Hear me, I was in California. I had just recently finished some training. I was in the Navy, so I just finished some training in San Diego. I went down to this mall, Balboa Mall, glory to God, and I'm shopping, walking around, and I encountered these Hispanic people, one man, one woman, and they're in tears, they're back and forth talking to each other in their language. One, I took Spanish in school, I, I can't tell you no Spanish right now, really, for real. But when I was listening to them, I heard English because I heard them in Spanish first, but then I would hear the interpretation in my ear what they were saying. So they were having some real turmoil in their family. So I went up— watch this— begin to speak to them in English and said, hey, listen, can I pray for you? Can I help? Because I mean, I was so on fire, and I didn't care. Glory to God. Who you are. I'm coming up to you and I'm going to tell you about God. And that's what I did. I walked up, started talking about God. The guy looks at me, said, no English, no English. And the Lord said, just keep talking, they're going to understand. I kept talking, and then I started speaking in tongues. I, I realized later that I was speaking Spanish. I was speaking in their language. They understood. I prayed for them. In my mind, I was talking English. They heard Spanish. Spanish. Glory to God, they received in Spanish. They accepted Jesus through the Spanish, a new tongue. See, it's all about what you believe. The Bible is right. You got to believe that he's able to do this. If the gospel needs to get out and you got a heart to get it to somebody, he'll give you a new tongue. I love him, I love him. And if you as a blood-bought believer. You should be casting out devils, speaking in tongues. You should be able to take up systems. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Shift systems in the name of Jesus. Serpents. You should be able to lay hands on the sick and they recover. So how do I do this, Michael? How do I get to this place? And I'm almost done. The 3 premises I want you to embrace, and I'm going to be finished. So in order to accept the fact that you are one of them because you believe The first thing that has to happen, because you can't think like you used to think, you have to have number one, a renewed mind. All right, a renewed mind. I'm not going to go there, but Romans 12 says, be ye transformed by the renewing or the redoing of your mind. So there has to be a paradigm shift in your mind where you begin to think differently about your role and purpose as the church. Hear me, hear me. As a believer, it's not just for you, for, for Jesus to become— literally, he is this for you— your, your own just personal therapist, your own personal help that you cry out to in prayer and you talk to. He, he's going to do that, but he wants you spiritually healthy. Hear me, family, hear me. Hear me, hear me good. Let me pull in a little bit. Hear me good. He wants you healthy. He wants to heal you so you could go out and heal others. So you gotta renew your mind to the fact that everything God does for you is for somebody else, that you might become an arm, an extension of Jesus Christ that brings people into him, not to you. Oh boy, this is a mistake a lot of leaders make. They, they pull people to them because they want people— because they, they're so insecure in themselves, they need to believe that they're important. So they'll allow people to build them up. Oh God, because they have such low self-esteem, they have such low self-confidence because they don't understand their identity in Christ. But none of what happens for us and through us is about us. Are we hearing this? Oh my God, it's about him. It's to draw people to him. That's right, Minister Talia, for real. Amen. That's what it's about. Glory to God. It's about drawing people through us to God, not about what we could do, how well we could do good, how good we look doing it. But most people are trying to stroke their own personal insecurities, so they want to be liked by the people, so they draw people in and they want to be built up. And listen, the devil is a liar. This thing is about God, so you got to renew your mind. The reason you're saved is so you can be a life jacket to somebody that's drowning. And, and listen, I want to urge you, go, go find the people you're assigned They're drowning waiting on you. You're the life jacket. They're going to overcome by the blood of Jesus and the word of your testimony. So you got to renew your mind that your testimony is for them. It's not— oh boy, it never was about you. It never was for you. Oh boy, I know this stuff is not popular at all because y'all want to be a prophet at church and want to— oh, I'm a prophet. Yeah, but who's getting saved? That— I'm going right back to that. Listen, I'm not knocking— I've been prophesying all my life, pretty much. I, I started prophesying as a little boy. I remember, uh, my mama telling me, my grandma would say, when I was 2 and 3, I would be laying my hands on folk's head and speaking into their life. I— listen, I've been prophesying as an itinerant minister for 36 years this year. I don't knock— I train prophets. I love it. What I'm saying to you is that what's the result after we edify and build up a person through prophecy? We should be creating a multiplicity of ministry where we're heeding to this command. These gifts are to bring people in. Do you realize when somebody— you lay hands on somebody, they get healed, they experience the kingdom immediately? What a great opportunity to bring them in. Oh God. Oh God, oh God, I need you to help me, Jesus. I need you to help me because people don't want this. This is a responsibility. And listen, if you're not evangelizing, I'm telling you, you're disobeying a command. You're in sin. You're in sin and you need to repent, period. All this running and bucking and going to Piccadilly out the church, the reality is What is it for if your life is not a light? We are the salt of the earth. Glory to God. We are the light of the world. A city, a situation on a hill that cannot be hid. Our situation should be on a hill where people can see Jesus as the head of our city, of our situation, of our life, and want what we got. Man, if God puts some of our lives on the hill, folks will run away from the church. Can you stand the light? Can you stand to come out of the salt shaker and flavor the world? Oh God, I got to get out of here, man. I gotta go. Yeah, I gotta go. Okay, so say I need to renew my— renew my— yeah. Number 2, if you're going to be one of them, you need a refined message. We're going to talk about these things through these next 10 days. A refined message. What do you mean? So preachers, believers, I need you to revisit what you're talking about. Is the motive of what you're saying really leading people to him, or is it to get people to engage with you? You need a refined message that Jesus is the center of. The moment you start exalting you over Christ, you have failed to be a minister of the gospel. You have failed as a believer, because again, none of this is about you. So you need to refine your messaging, your— oh my God, you need to refine how you post, how you communicate out of your mouth, because this thing is all about Jesus Christ. And getting people to him. Thirdly, and I'm going, I'm going because we're going to cover these things over the next few days. I got 10 days with you, praise God. Someone said, man, I ain't coming back for this tomorrow. Well, you should, because I want to make you a true evangelist, whether you walk— because there's a difference in operating, operating in the office of the evangelist, and we'll cover that, than actually being a believing evangelist. There are two different things. Uh, Billy Graham was in the office of the evangelist. Masses came to God as he preached. And guess what? He ain't do half of the stuff that most of us do at church. When nobody falling out, when nobody— but again, I'm not knocking that. I do it. I pray for people, they fall out. Listen, I don't have no control of that. Now if you don't, hey, that's— that— but if God slays you in the spirit, fine. But what I'm saying is people got born again through Billy Graham's office— and that's another mess for another day— without that, right? So which brings me to my third point: we need reformed methods. So we need a renewed mind, a refined message, and we need reformed methods. And so over the next 10 days, I'm going to talk to you about the power, necessity of evangelism, how to tap into being one of them, and I'm going to give you methods of how to be effective in Walmart, in the gas— at the gas station, at the pump, next to somebody, on an airplane, next to somebody. How to tap into who you are in God and use it to influence people who are influenced by a whole nother spirit. Glory to God! We need reform methods. Watch this. These methods must be taught. You got to take the position of a learner. If you think you know anything, you won't get this. So I'm done. I just want you to understand that evangelism is for the children of God. There's no way the Jehovah's Witness, the Muslim should be outgrowing us the way they are. Again, 15 to 1, 12 to 1. Jehovah's Witness, 15 to 1, and we got the power. Come on. We got the power to lay hands on the sick and they recover. We can speak with new tongues, which means we— if we tap into that belief system, we can witness to anybody in any culture in their language because we believe. Jehovah's and Muslims ain't got that power. Nothing. I'm not even bashing them, I'm just giving you stats. We got the truth, man. What are we going to do with it? How are we going to walk it out? How are we going to see it through, right? The world needs us. Let's pray. Father, in Jesus' name, I thank you for this teaching today. I thank you for every person under the sound of my voice. I thank you for these next 10 days of teaching, of sharing, of breakthrough. I thank you, God, that the lives of your people will be shifted to a dimension of obedience like never before. And Father, we repent of every missed opportunity for evangelism, when we had a chance to share and we didn't, when we didn't tap into the inner truth that was in us and share it with others. Father, I repent even for this generation and this, uh, dysfunctional church Yes, God, that only feels that they must use what you've given us inside of a church building. But God, make us believing evangelists, that the signs that follow us will no longer follow us, but they will catch up with us. Because when, when they're following is because we're moving and we're believing. But when we stop to actually perform in your will, they catch up and work through us. So God, work miracles through us. Let the signs come through us and let people come to you. I release this now in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Family, I love y'all, man. Y'all are so wonderful. You're so good. Thank you for joining me at 12 noon. Listen, don't forget tomorrow morning, please, uh, join me for 5 AM prayer. Hallelujah! I'll be there for sure with, uh, hallelujah, sleep probably in my eyes. Glory to God! Just like you probably will too. But at the end of the day, we're in 12 days of fasting and prayer. Glory to the name of God! And I want to challenge you to join me in the morning at 5 AM. Remember, once again, if you have not downloaded your fast guide, go to roddochurch.com/fast25. It should be on the screen now. Glory to God! And you will be able to Praise God. Uh, get your fast guide and you can join us. It's not too late. We started on Monday. You can jump in now. Glory to God. And fast with us. We're praying every day at 5. We're here every day at 12 noon. Glory to God. I'm going to challenge every person to— I'm not going to tell you what to do— to get seed in the ground today. Make a sacrificial offering during this fast as you offer yourself, offer your body, give up food. Glory to God. Also, I want to challenge you every day No matter what it is, make a sacrificial gift. I know that's going to be hard for some of y'all because giving is not a part of your culture. But when you're a giver and you understand the part of giving in your life and your finances, you will move in obedience. So Father, bless every person that obeys, that trusts you in their giving even through this fast. I thank you for daily sacrifice. As the song says, daily I will worship thee, God. So we'll sacrifice a seed of some kind on a day-to-day basis. And as your people obey this, release harvest in their life immediately, God, in Jesus' name. Amen. I was speaking to one of my sons, and, uh, he, uh, after— matter of fact, I— God spoke to me and said he had— it was— we had a special offering, and, uh, I didn't know what he had given in that offering. And I immediately reached out and said, hey, I don't know what you gave today, but there's a blessing attached to your giving today that's going to come quickly. I said, the Lord said, I think 4 times, give 4 times what you gave. I didn't know what he gave. Come to find out, that was a pretty high number. And, uh, so he obeyed immediately. He came back and testified to me that the very next day that came back to him through a check in the mail, just as he gave it and above. See, obedience, family, is better than sacrifice. And listen, I won't call his name, but if he wants to testify that to you, I'll make sure he'll do that. Glory to God. Hallelujah. But the reality is, when we obey, things happen. So get your seed in the ground. I love y'all, man. Yeah, we're coming off the fast at 5. Don't forget to study your meditation scriptures in the Fast Guide. Don't forget to pray at 5 in the afternoon on your own, and then eat your fruit, your vegetables. We're not drinking any sodas, we're not eating any sweets. All the starches have been removed from our diet. We are sacrificing for these next 10 days that we have left, and it's gonna be a blessing. I love y'all, man. Y'all be blessed. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. Peace.